Summit County Labor News

Honor Oldsters Of "Big Six"

More than 200 "real old timers" in the AFL International Typographical Union's Local No. 6 were honored in ceremonies in New York City for 50 and 60-year membership in the union.

One of those honored--Julius Gottlieb--has been a member for 75 years.

The grand total membership represented in the group receiving emblems amounts to some 12,000 years, "Big 6" President Laurence H. Victory said. Fifty-year emblems were awarded to 109 members and 108 others received 60-year emblems.

According to Assistant Secretary of Labor Ralph Wright, who participated in the ceremonies, "This represents a lot of experience, a lot of devotion, a lot of sacrifice."

Roll it back over the years, he said, and it extends beyond the period of recorded history.

"Add up the monuments built over that period to warriors and rulers-- the pyramids, the statues, the cities and the palaces-- and they are nothing compared to the edifice erected by these our elder brothers.

"You 50 and 60-year men have builded not in stone or metal. You have molded a living organization by which we today, and generations yet to come, may seek and gain an ever-increasing measure of material plenty and economic freedom and justice."

Wright, himself a member of the ITU's New York local, expressed his gratitude to the older members for their "warm devotion, high courage, selfless sacrifice, and steadfast adherence to the cause of brotherhood and justice."