The Augusta Courier

Local Labor Unions 1 Members Pay Cost Of Strikes

Out-Of-Town Heads Plan And Direct Lawlessness Many Miles From Scene

It is the local people who pay the cost of strikes.

It is not the union officials who come into town and plan the throwing of brick-bats, tear gas, bullets and dynamite who go to jail. When the violence begins, the union officials are hundreds of miles away.

The poor dupes who do the violence go to jail. It is they who destroy property and human life and it is they who must pay the price for the union officials.

In Rock Hill, South Carolina seventeen local men went to prison to serve terms ranging from one to five years.

But when the trial came off and the local people went to the penitentiary, the CIO officials were sitting in an air conditioned office in a distant city.

Allston Calhoun, in a recent radio speech, pictured graphically the happenings at Rock Hill and here they are:

"In last week's broadcast I told you of an incident which is typical of the many absurd as well as sometimes tragic matters which befall a community where the people have been so unwise as to fall for the blandishments of the labor union racketeers who will promise any and everything to mislead the people into their control. But once having gotten the people of a community into their power, they soon set up a system of far reaching regimentation which is, in reality, nothing more than the beginning of Socialism and eventual Communism in this country.

"And, as in the case of both Socialism and Communism, which terms are nothing more than different names for the same brand of human slavery, it is the average run of the people and members of these unions who have to pay the heavy costs of their misfortune in being under the control of these union racketeers.

"Last week I told you of the tragic and yet absurd case in which the union leaders had actually come to the point of forcing paid pall-bearers on the people of a community where the unions had taken over. You remember, I told you about the body of the young Marine being sent home from the Pacific, where he had been killed in battle, and where, quite naturally, his family wanted his body to be borne on the shoulders of his comrades to his grave in his home town cemetery. It was here that the Funeral Chauffeurs and Helpers Union intruded with orders that the buddies of the dead Marine could not act as pall-bearers and that instead, members of their Funeral Chauffeurs and Helpers Union should be employed for this purpose. And as this community, which happened to be in New Jersey, had gone 'labor union,' so to speak, there was simply nothing at all that the family of the dead Marine could do about it. The Mother of the young hero made the remark, 'If a boy gives his life fighting for his country, I think the least the union could do would be to permit him to be borne on the shoulders of his comrades.'

"Now, folks, this might seem all too absurd to you people in this community where the labor unions do not have control of the people as they do in this unfortunate New Jersey community. But, believe me, it was a tragic matter indeed up there in New Jersey where the family of the dead boy could do nothing but bow to the cold, relentless will of the labor union racketeers, even as the people in Russia have to bow to the Communist dictators in that land.

"Now let's bring this union question closer to home and review the facts of how one of these big national unions, with its headquarters in the north, has brought a taste of real tragedy to one of our own Southern communities where the union has a few of the people under its jurisdiction. AND I WANT YOU TO NOTE IN PARTICULAR THAT, AS USUAL, IT WAS THE PEOPLE AND UNION MEMBERS. IN OTHER WORDS, THE LOCAL PEOPLE. WHO HAD TO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AGITATIONS. DISRUPTIONS AND VIOLENCE WHICH INVARIABLY GO HAND IN HAND WITH THESE UNION STRIKES. As usual, in this tragic incident, the beginnings of which I am about to tell you, the union leaders sat back and denied all responsibility, some of them even skipping town, leaving the poor local people and union members to suffer the consequences of the union violence which, in this case, amounted to a total of 20 years in the penitentiary for certain of the union members found guilty in the dynamiting and bombing of the homes and properties of some of their fellow union members, whose only sin was that they had found it necessary to go back to work and earn some bread and meat money for themselves and their families after being held out on strike by this union for a period of over four months. For their audacity in so daring 'to disobey union orders they got their homes and properties dynamited. One of the union members convicted in the dynamiting testified in a sworn affidavit that the homes of the workers who had gone back to work had been dynamited in order to make them afraid.

"Headlines from THE EVENING HERALD of Rock Hill, South Carolina, dated August 9, 1951 read and I quote:

" TEN UNION MEN ARRESTED IN DYNAMITING,' and the newspaper account reads as follows:

" 'Police announced today that ten men had been arrested in connection with the dynamiting of property belonging to textile employees in this area. All are members of the Textile Workers Union of America, CIO, which is on strike. One of those arrested is Vice-President of the striking local union and another is on the Executive Board. The dynamitings occurred Monday night. Property damaged or destroyed in the blasts included the home of one Rock Hill resident, an automobile belonging to another, and a barn belonging to still another.'

"The article goes on to say that the CIO had been on strike at the particular plant for a period of fifteen weeks but that nearly one half of the workers had returned to their jobs at the plant after this nearly four months of unemployment and prior to the dynamiting of the properties of several of them.

"This article in THE ROCK HILL HERALD goes on to recount how all but one of the men so arrested for these atrocities perpetrated on their fellow citizens had confessed to the matter, outlining just how the dynamitings and blastings were done. It relates also how one Ray Berthiaume, area TWUA-CIO director, could not be reached for comment.

"Now, folks, let's skip to THE ROCK HILL HERALD of January 12, 1952, which reads, and I quote:

'66 A total of 20 years in prison was faced today by nine Rock Hill men sentenced yesterday in York County General Sessions Criminal Court to charges growing out of the dynamiting of property of mill workers during the strike last summer.

Actually the total amount of sentences was far greater than that, but Circuit Judge Bruce Littlejohn suspended part of the sentence of each man, with one exception, who stood trial. This man was given a straight five-year sentence after being found guilty on a charge of conspiracy to bomb.

" 'The other eight men all pleaded guilty to conspiracy and malicious injury to property.

They received five-year sentences on each count. Seven of these were ordered to serve two years and one to serve one year.

" 'Judge Littlejohn said that each of the defendants was extremely fortunate that no one was killed or they would be facing a far more serious charge. Each of the men, except one, was placed under $10,000 bond for a period of ten days in which they will be permitted to get their personal affairs in order before they begin their sentences. After the sentencing women relatives and friends of the men began crying.

"One of the ten arrested was acquitted. But, as stated before, of the other nine, one went to jail for one year, seven for two years and one for a period of five years, all because they were so unfortunate as to participate in the violence of a CIO strike.

"Undoubtedly, these unfortunate textile workers who found themselves sentenced to jail, with their women and children weeping, were just like the textile workers whose homes and property they dynamited, that is—before the union came into Rock Hill and got them into its control. But this sorry spectacle of worker being incited against worker, class against class, and employee against employer, is only one of the well known misfortunes that can happen to a community once the CIO gets in with its Red revolutionary fingers.

"Before the CIO gets the workers of a community under its control, its propagandists and spokesmen literally fill the air with psalms and hymns, loud claims of self-righteousness and kinship to the Church and promises of any and everything, if only the workers join their so-called 'labor' union. Everyone within the hearing range of this microphone has, no doubt, either heard or read some of this pious, self-praise of the CIO spokesmen which is modeled exactly on the lines of Communist propaganda.

"In a broadcast delivered here in the South not so long ago, the labor union radio spokesmen devoted his entire time to claiming how much his union was just like the Church and to eulogizing several well known leaders of his union as great Church men. It so happens that every single one of these men mentioned by the union spokesman is known to have had close association with known Communist operators in this country. One of these mentioned who was in the primary key position of the entire union is known for a long time to have been under the control of Communist operators in this country, who took their cue direct from Communist Russia. This particular party has even been described by other labor unions in this country as a captive of these chief operators.

"Yes, indeed, these union operatives will promise any and everything before they take over a community, but after they have a community under their control, they drop all shams and pretenses and throw their power around with such results as these nine textile mill workers in Rock Hill being sentenced to a total of 20 years for the bombings of the homes and properties of their fellow mill workers.

"Now, just why and how did these unfortunate workers get themselves in such a fix—headed for the jail, with their women crying on their heels? The answer is to be found in the two releases from THE ROCK HILL HERALD just quoted. Certain textile workers in Rock Hill who are members of the Textile Workers Union, CIO, had been held off their jobs on a strike for a period of nearly four months by the CIO leaders, themselves, headed by one Rene Berthiaume, a French-Canadian, sent into the Rock Hill area by the CIO for the purpose of promoting the revolutionary policies of the CIO among the workers of that community.

"Then, it is reported that between a third and a half of them returned to their jobs to earn some badly needed money, and, evidently, against the wishes and orders of the CIO leaders. This was when the violence and bombings of the workers' property began. Their nine fellow workers and fellow union members were convicted in the bombings.

"And how about this French-Canadian import of the CIO when the striking CIO union members bombed the properties of their fellow workers? Quoting again from THE ROCK HILL HERALD, RAY BERTHIAUME, AREA TWUA-CIO DIRECTOR, COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT!

"SO LONG, FOLKS Just remember it has always been the poor union members who are required to 'pay the freight,' both in the way of dues, fees and assessments in order to maintain the union leaders in the style to which they have become accustomed, and in suffering the consequence of the violence which invariably seems to come in with the unions."