Mill Superintendent Shows Up at Labor Meeting; Won't Allow Workers to Speak, July 7, 1923

Superintendent Walters Laughs As Rowdies Break Up Labor Meeting

No more disgraceful scene was ever enacted in the state of North Carolina than that staged at Hoskins Thursday night, when organizers for the United Textile Workers of America appeared there to speak, in response to an invitation extended by a delegation of workers from the Hoskins mills. The meeting was advertised to be held near the Hoskins Drug Store, and when the organizers went there Thursday evening many officials and petty bosses were on the ground. About 25 boys armed themselves with tin cans, tin pans, and other noise-making devices, and when the organizers endeavored to speak their voices were drowned by the din and racket.

Mill Officials Gave Gleeful Approval

The Herald has no way of proving, of course, that the mill officials prompted the little boys to do their dirty work, but it is significant that many of the officials were present, and some of them joined in the racket-making program by blowing an automobile horn on the machine in which Superintendent Walters, with other officials, were seated. It was significant that Superintendent Walters and his associates seemed to be greatly enjoying the heathenish conduct of the boys. Let us state right here that there is no hard feelings toward the little boys. They are but the product of that kind of cotton mill system which would employ such tactics, and are in no wise to blame. The potential criminals among the band of boys are also the product of that same cotton mill system, and some day, in some way or other, those responsible for such conduct among the boys of today will have to pay the penalty.

Many Workers Afraid to Attend Meeting

There were comparatively few of the mill workers present, information coming to The Herald late Thursday evening that the workers had learned earlier in the day of the plan to break the meeting up and they remained away. As one delegate stated, the workers knew if they showed the least sympathy for the organizers, their jobs would be gone, and they would have to move from the mill village.

Bosses and Boot-Lickers Galore

Such is life in the Hoskins mill community. The little boys, having been coached by the 2v4 bosses and boot-lickers, made many “cute” remarks to the organizers, among them being statements about the workers supporting the organizers. The poor, ignorant, uninformed lads had never been told about their labor supporting their bosses and their mill owners in luxury, while those same bosses and owners are unwilling for the fathers and mothers of these boys to make more than a bare living. I tis no wonder there is seldom a boy or a girl from the homes of the textile workers who ever graduate at the High School.

Physical and Moral Cowards

The most conspicuous thing in the whole proceeding was the cowardice displayed by the officials and those grown men who seem to have assumed the leadership of the community. They are both moral and physical cowards. If the mill officials of the Chadwick-Hoskins company are fair with their employes, they need have no fear of labor organizers speaking to their employes. If they want to break the meetings up by force, they show a most despicable cowardly spirit in allowing little boys to do the “breaking up.”

No Respect for Lady

Miss Mary Kelleher, organizer, in beginning her speech, appealed to the boys that if they had any respect for their own mothers, their own sisters, they would most certainly show respect to another lady. The organizers knew what was being planned, for some of the mill officials were seen talking to the little boys on the railroad track, and after a very earnest conversation, they broke away to the rear of the drug store and began getting their tin pans together. It was because of the knowledge of what was being planned that Miss Kelleher pleaded with the boys to show the respect they would show to their own mothers. Evidently the little fellows have never been taught to have respect for ladies and it is no wonder, because the men in the crowd were of the same stripe, or most of them were. Anyone of the mill officials, had he had any respect for a lady or for decency, could have stopped the disgraceful scene. They not only made no effort to stop it, but encouraged the boys either by “egging” them on, or laughing at their disgraceful conduct.

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From the front page of the Charlotte Herald, July 6, 1923. I don’t know what “2v4 bosses” were and the paper did say the boys were “no wise” to blame.