McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, July 22, 1937, Image 3
McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1937
STRIKES DON’T BOTHER THE SOUTH
Not As Much As the North and East, at Any Rate—Dixie Begins to
Enjoy Results of Campaign to Attract Industries.
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
S PECTACULAR strikes of re
cent months in the North and
East, with their accompanying
publicity, have. largely ob
scured from the public con
sciousness the industrial awak
ening that is taking place in the
South. Yet southern industrial
leaders feel that labor troubles
outside Dixie will soon be re
flected in increased southern
migrations as industry spreads
out to avoid the difficulties root
ed in over-concentration.
Fortunately for the South, which
in the last 18 months has pressed a
determined campaign to attract new
manufacturing plants, its compara
tively quiet labor conditions have
stood out in serene contrast to the
hectic scenes which have filled the
northern stage.
Department of Labor reports show
that the number of woricers involved
in strikes steadily increased in both
the North and South during the last
six months of 1936, the latest period
for which official records are avail
able. But the totals are heavily
against the North, which suffered
894 strikes, involving 372,495 work
ers, as compared with 105 strikes,
involving 29,134 workers in Dixie.
The North had its greatest num
ber of strikes in August and Sep
tember, with 187 in each month, but
163 strikes in October involved the
most workers—95,172. The South
had 24 strikes in August, keeping 4,-
563 from employment, but 11,596
were kept out by 16 strikes in Oc
tober.
South Is Non-Union.
During the six-month period 40 to
60 per cent of all new strikes oc
curred in four states—New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and California—
with Illinois and Michigan account
ing for a sizeable portion of the re
mainder. During the same six
months only two important strikes
took place in the South—one in the
Chevrolet and Fisher bodies plants
at Atlanta, and one in the plant of
the Celanese Corporation of Amer
ica at Cumberland, Md. Both were
settled amicably.
Scarcity of strikes of either “sit-
down'* or “walkout” variety in the
South is easily explained. The South
is relatively non-union. With indus
try less concentrated than in eastern
or middle western regions, it is less
susceptible v to strike epidemics.
Some industrialists deem it prob
able that public opinion will have
outlawed the “sit-down” before the
South can be effectively unionized;
if “sit-downs” should appear, state
and local governments should profit
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Contented workers, these! They are enjoying themselves in a recrea
tion hall built by a large paper manufacturer with plants in several
southern cities.
more difficult to carry out and might
end in a workers’ revolt.
Southern states are now making
it easier than ever before for indus*
tries to migrate to points within
their borders. The first year of
Dixie’s industrial promotion drive—
1936—brought $322,000,000 in new
plants and equipment, the greatest
one-year development in history.
Leading the pack were paper com
panies with investments totaling
$60,000,000 in new plants; petro
leum refining, with $50,000,000 in
new distributing plants and pipe
lines, and iron and steel manufac
turers with a $53,000,000 expansion
program. During the first quar
ter of 1937 the pace was main
tained, with $92,964,000 in industrial
and engineering construction con
tracts awarded.
Prominent among the reasons for
this sudden metamorphosis of a civ
ilization that seemed destined to re
main permanently agricultural, has
been the extension of hydro-electric
power to the most remote regions,
resulting in an abundance of cheap
energy in places which had been
without it owing to lack of coal
for generating or lack of distribu
tion lines from hydro-electric
plants. In addition, the South pro
vided a ready market, lower con
struction and maintenance costs,
and plentiful raw materials. Of it,
Arthur D. Little, the noted indus
trial engineer, said,, “Nowhere is
there likely to be a greater exten
sion of industrial activity.”
Now the South has “gone out after
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Louisiana is offering manufacturers a new field of industry with re
cent chemical discoveries of the possibilities of converting sugar cane
tops into industrial alcohol. Inset: Gov. Richard W. Leche signing con
tract to give a container manufacturer ten years tax exemption on ad
dition to plant, to cost $400,000.
by the experience of their eastern
and middle western neighbors in
handling them.
Wages and employment in the
South have increased more rapidly
than in other sections, while hours
have not increased as much, and
this undoubtedly has some bearing
©n the absence of strikes. The wage
differential between the South and
other sections was approximately
33.5 per cent in 1933; by December,
1936, it had narrowed down to 21.9
per cent. Since the southern work
er, according to economists, can
maintain the same standard of liv
ing as his northern counterpart at
20 per cent less cost, the South may
now claim virtual parity as far as
real wages are concerned.
, Dixie Woos Industry.
It is not hard to see why industry
is attracted by the opportunity the
South affords for decentralization.
For instance, Detroit and Akron
could be paralyzed in their produc
tion of automobiles and rubber if a
single plant gets into difficulties
with a vertical unionyTt wnjld then
be within the pow*<r of union
ers to call out workers in all plan
in a “sympathy^’ strike. Sympathy
strikes, while still possible under de
centralized industry, would be much
the business.” States have conduct
ed active publicity and “selling”
campaigns, making generous offers.
These included exemption from tax
ation for new industries and outright
subsidies in the form of free factory
sites, free buildings and state-
trained labor.
Leche Revives Louisiana.
Louisiana was one of those which
took the lead, capitalizing on under
developed natural resources and on
new, man-made ones. It stressed
the fact that “nowhere in the world
is there a greater opportunity for
the development of a chemical in
dustry than Louisiana, where salt,
sulphur and gas occur in close prox
imity.” It advertised and “sold”
its 4,700 miles of inland waterways,
its 14,000-mile highway system, its
10 trunk-line railroads, its large per
centage of native American white
population. It aggressively promot
ed its mineral and timber wealths
and its great basic crops of rice,
cotton and sugar, supplemented by
sweet potatoes, strawberries, soy-
ins and truck vegetables. Its port
__ "ew Orleans was touted as the
seconSla^ 681 ki the United States,
with unriV$!® d facilities.
Political interference with indus-
tiy in the red® 1 P ast > coupled with i
heavy industrial taxes, had prevent
ed much industrial growth in the
last decade. But when the new gov
ernor, Richard W. Leche, was elect
ed he outlined a plan to revive the
state industrially.
The plan, which was adopted, re
pealed the objectionable license tax
on manufacturing establishments;
effected a more equitable tax on oil
refining; encouraged establishment
of a livestock industry by removing
the tax on cattle, sheep and hogs;
created a board of commerce and
industry to court industry; appro
priated $100,000 for promotion, and
proposed a constitutional amend
ment giving the governor permis
sion to grant tax exemptions for ten
years to new plants and additions to
existing plants.
Effects were not long in coming
to notice. Building permits soared;
so did department store sales, elec
tric power consumption, manufac
turing sales, post office receipts,
wholesale grocery sales and other
indices. Problems of state finance
and legislative problems kept Gov
ernor Leche from starting his in
dustrial program with the full gusto
he would have liked, but his own
personal efforts brought into the
state 15 new industries ranging in
value from $100,000 to $3,000,000,
employing 3,000 in their construc
tion and giving permanent employ
ment to nearly 8,000.
Mississippi Follows Lead.
Florida is wooing industry with a
tax exemption law and is granting
municipalities permission to > erect
buildings for manufacturers. Cities
are vying with each other to attract
new factories, although insisting
that they must be engaged in light
manufacturing, such as garn/Tents,
small housewares, etc.—no plant
which emits objectionable fumes
need apply.
Agricultural Mississippi, eager to
replace the lumber mills that have
left “ghost towns” along the rail
roads, has adopted a plan to “bal
ance agriculture with industry,”
which was sponsored by Gov. Hugh
White. In addition to tax exemption
for five years, it offers free facto
ries and free factory sites which, if
the manufacturer maintains a speci
fied payroll for a stated period of
years, become his property in most
cases. The factories are built by
the municipalities in which they are
situated, the cities issuing bonds to
cover the cost.
Other states are proceeding along
the same lines. Alabama offers ten
years of freedom from taxes. Mary
land’s countries may grant perma
nent tax exemption on manufactur
ing machinery. Arkansas, with a
population 70 per cent rural, has
thrown its working cap in the in
dustrial ring with a large fund to
advertise the state’s natural re
sources and manufacturing advan
tages. North Carolina has just ap
propriated $250,000 to herald its at
traction as a field for industrial ex
pansion. Texas is now considering
an appropriation of $1,000,000 a year
for the next five years to advertise
the state’s resources.
Southern Markets Grow.
To date efforts have been concen
trated upon attracting industries
which could process the raw mate
rials of the various regions. Louisi
ana, with its thousands of acres of
rolling pine land, now leads the
South in the securing of paper and
pulp factories—largely a new south
ern activity. The textile industry
has moved almost en masse to the
Carolinas; the South now produces
52 per cent of the nation’s textiles,
while New England, for more than
a century the seat of this industry,
now produces only 38 per cent.
As industrial payrolls provide a
constant stream of wealth for south
ern workers, the markets below the
Mason and Dixon line are constant
ly gaining in importance.
Advised opinion of many indus
trialists and economists is that the
North and East, as well as the
South, will benefit from the greater
prosperity of Dixie, with each sec
tion of the country supplying the
products it can best produce.
© Western Newspaper Union.
★★★★★★★★★*★★★★★**★★
I STAR I
j DUST j
★ jMLovie • Radio *
★ ★
★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★
F ANS had to wait two lonfe
years for the Marx Brothers’
new picture, “A Day at the
Races,” but it was well worth
waiting for. It is almost too
funny, the laughs coming in
such quick succession that you
are still shouting over one comic
s»cene when the next hits you.
This picture tops their previous
masterpieces of hilarity by several
lengths. Groucho is, as usual, the
wise guy but when he goes to the
race track he is a gullible custom
er for Chico’s sales talk on tips
on the races. Chico performs one
of those piano solos that makes
enough tough little boys want to
become piano virtuosos so they can
copy his tricks.
And Harpo is even greater than
usual. He talks—in pantomime only
—at great length, and it is a toss-
up whether his pantomime or Chi
co’s efforts to translate it into words
is funnier.
—*—
Planned for fall is a household
hints program starring Zasu Pitts,
if she can ever stop
making pictures
long enough to ap
pear on an air pro-
g r a m regularly.
Putting this pro
gram together is a
job for a magician,
for while Zasu is al
ways a comedienne
to her public, at
home she is just the
w o r 1 d’s greatest
housekeeper and
cook. Nobody could
write funny lines about Zasu’s cook
ing if they had ever sampled it,
and her new kitchen which she de
signed herself is a model of inge
nuity, beauty, and efficiency. As
you may have read, Zasu has be$n
working on a cook book for the last
year or two.
Lily Pons* last broadcast of the
season before leaving for Hollywood
to make “The Girl in the Cage** for
RKO was a big night for her. She
was elected the best-dressed star
of the radio studios, an honor for
merly divided between Helen Jep-
son and Gladys Swarthout. Most
singers take such honors in their
stride, but not the volcanic and ap
preciative Lily.
—-fc—
Motion picture producers have
just about given up hope of interest
ing their public in Shakespeare, but
broadcasting companies have decid
ed the bard’s stirring lines are just
what the public wants. John Barry
more’s NBC program has proved
a tremendous success since the first
Monday night a few weeks ago
when he presented a foreshortened
version of “Hamlet.” For its com
peting hour, Columbia has signed
up an impressive array of talent.
—+—
Everybody would like to have an
employer like Walter Wanger. He
thinks that every workman ought to
have three months a year in which
to get away from his job. His
hired help are supposed to relax
and seek new impressions but Joan
Bennett, Sylvia Sidney, and Henry
Fonda are all going on the stage
daring their vacations, Madeleine
Carroll is going yachting off the
coast of Great Britain, Charles
Boyer and Pat Patterson are going
to France to make a picture.
Any time Henry Fonda and Gary
Cooper want to stop acting and open
a traveling art ex
hibit, they have
plenty of lucrative
offers. Both are can
did camera fans,
and when they have
a few minutes lei
sure between scenes
they stroll around
whatever studio
they are working in
and snap pictures of
players off guard.
They have some fine
snaps of stars snooz
ing in chairs, of directors watching
scenes with obvious disgust, of ro
mantic co-stars glaring at each
other between scenes. But they
won’t sell them!
—K—
ODDS AND ENDS—Shirley Temple is
learning to yodel for her next picture,
"Heidi* . . . Dick Powell and Franchot
Tone are just tivo of the many players
who long to make fPesterns . . . Carole
Lombard has tampered with the color of
her hair to the extent of making it a
deep, golden blond. The new color shows
up better in Technicolor . . . John Gam
bling, who for twelve years has roused
the radio audience at six forty-five and
bullied them into doing morning- exer
cises, sits in an easy chair while he bel
lows at his audience and never takes any
exercise . . . Connie Boswell has her first
big screen role in Columbia’s “It’s All
Yours.” J. C. Nugent, stage veteran, is
also in it, which leads to a lot of friendly
arguments, since the picture is being di
rected by his son, Elliot, who learned his
stagecraft acting in his father’s com
panies . . . Deanna Durbin’s director has
rigged up an old-fashioned auto horn to
call her from the schoolroom to the mo
tion-picture set when lights and cameras
are all ready to go.
C Western Newspaper Union.
Gary Cooper
Zasu Pitts
Fashion Is in Mood for All-White
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
A FTER all when it comes to look-
ing your sweetest and prettiest
is there anything in the way of a
lovely party frock more flattering
to endearing feminine charms than
all-white? Really now, is there?
Evidently fashion feels the same
way about it for with all the excit
ing, the glamorous, the esthetic, the
hectic, the eye-appealing delectable
tones and tints on the color card
this season, comes all-white on the
scene and the contest is on, written
all over the style program and in
big headlines—white versus color!
The chic and the charm and the
immaculate nicety with which the
all white costume dresses you up
during the daytime hours is exceed
ed only by the magic and the
irresistible loveliness of the dine-
and-dance and the formal party
frocks that designers are creating
of frothy white silk sheers this sum
mer such as mousseline de soies,
silk organdies, finest dainty silk
nets and soft “drapy” filmy chif
fons that sway and flutter and dance
to the strains of rapturous music.
Then there are the stiff silks that
are such favorites and which re
quire such queenly styling to do
them justice. Their vogue in all
white is outstanding with particular
emphasis on gleaming white satin
which this summer is more than
ever holding sway in ballroom and
at formal night functions. A most
fascinating white silk satin gown is
shown centered in the illustration.
Its stately princess lines are de
lightfully in keeping with the exqui
siteness of the fabric itself. The
Jenny Lind shoulder line adds in
describable charm and the square*
inclined neckline and the majestia
sweep of the skirt so expertly styled
so as to slenderize at the same time
that it achieves a full hemline, are
all details that glorify. The sophis
ticated simplicity of this gown
and the elegance of the all-silk satin
is its big appeal. ,
An interesting feature about pres
ent party dresses is that their sil
houettes go to such extremes. Some
are sheathlike to the knees with
flaring hemlines and slenderized fit
ted waistlines, while others are that
bouffant it requires yards and yards
of material to make -them. For the
airy-fairy types that are so en
trancing and so beloved this sea
son by the younger set, vaporous
filmy chiffons and billowy tulles and
nets are the logical answer. (
Beautifully draped in classic lines
is the dress pictured to the left. It
required yards and yards of white
silk chiffon for its fashioning. The
girdled straps of narrow ribbon re
flect Greek influence.
To the right a most exquisite silk
chiffon evening ensemble is shown.
The girlish simplicity of this dainty
gown and cape commends this cos
tume to the young debutante. This
lovely creation naively informs you
that not all the honors are going to
all-white for in this instance the
chiffon is in the new exquisite desert
dawn tint, which is a delicate pink
shade that is too lovely for words.
The gown has a halter neck which
is most becoming to the wearer. 1
The cape is grace itself. By the
way, you really should have a cape
of chiffon or of net or of some type
of silk sheer to wear with lingerie
dresses, for the transparent cape is
one of fashion’s pet vanities this
summer.
® Western Newspaper Union.
RIBBONS TAKE ON
ADDED IMPORTANCE
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
Ribbons have not been so impor
tant for a long time as they now
are. They are used for sashes, for
girdles, shoulder straps that are
part of the design of the dress, for
bandings and for entire jackets and
toques.
Many of the better styled frocks
and tailored suits have their edges
finished with grosgrain ribbon bind
ings. The new idea of these bind
ings is carried out both in mono
tone and in contrasting effects.
Beige finished with black or brown
ribbon bindings is a favorite theme,
also black bound with white gros
grain.
Perky velvet ribbon bows trim
print frocks while many dress fronts
are fastened with narrow tied rib
bons. Ribbon trims on hats are
widely advocated and there is con
siderable use of broad belting rib
bon to artfully band high crowns.
Use of All Kinds of Lace
Revived for Summer Wear
The use of all kinds of lace has
been revived for summer wear.
Helene Yrande uses pure white
lace for a fitted deshabille which has
enormously full, puffed sleeves to
the elbow. The low cut front decol-
lette is filled with doubled bands of
chiffon in pale yellow and pale
green.
These two colors are repeated in
the chiffon sash which is twisted
about the bodice Grecian fashion,
and tied in back with the floating
chiffon streamers hanging in back
and forming a suggestion of a train.
Use Pink Chiffon Roses
to Trim Evening Jacket
Pale pink roses of shaded chiffon
are applied cleverly as trimming on
an evening jacket of sheer, white
chiffon in the new Schiaparelli col
lection. The same type roses are
used as a back shoulder yoke on
a blue satin evening cape.
Pale yellow and green chiffon is
used effectively to make sprays of
mimosa applied on a white organdie
evening gown.
NET OVER PRINT
Bt CHERIE NICHOLAS
Broad brimmed hats which fash
ion has decreed for summer wear
combine well with this type of af
ternoon dress which is of black
cable net worn over an underslip
of gay print on dark background.
It is made with puff sleeves and
sailor collar. Catalin costume jew
elry including a bow clip-brooch
and bangle bracelets in the new
“pepper and salt” design by Schia
parelli add chic to this costume.
The hat is of black baku with a
large white poppy