"They Act Alike"

North Carolina's labor troubles were by no means confined to the Communist-led strike at Gastonia and its aftermath, the Charlotte murder trial (see above). At the Blue Ridge foothill town of Marion, an-other textile strike, directed by the conservative United Textile Workers of America, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor, "went rough" last week, led to the summoning of National Guardsmen.

Two months ago workers were organized by A. F. of L. agents in the cotton mill of Marion Manufacturing Co., owned by Spinster Sallie Baldwin of Baltimore. When the union hands struck, the mill closed down. Unionization spread to the mills of the Clinchfield Co. which also shut down temporarily. When Clinchfield tried to reopen, strikers massed before the gates, manhandled the superintendent. Guardsmen were sent in to restore order. Mill owners commenced to eject union strikers from company houses.

Last week when a non-union worker attempted to move into one of these shanties, strikers blocked his way. County Sheriff Oscar Adkins and his deputies rushed the strikers. Stones flew. Pates were cracked. Noses bled. Sheriff Adkins swore out 148 warrants for "riot, insurrection and rebellion against the constituted authority of the State of North Carolina." After 74 strikers and their leaders had been arrested, the county jail was filled. More troopers came to town. Minor dynamitings occurred in the mills. A Labor Day parade was banned by the county commissioners and the mill owners moved to evict 230 families of strikers from company homes.

Declared President B. M. Hart of the Clinchfield Mill: "I will meet only with my own employes. I cannot see that there is any difference between this so-called conservative union and the Communist union at Gastonia. They act alike."