McLaughlin Glass Company - Mould Shop

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

By J. M. Price

Trade news here is not very encouraging as I am writing this, but we hope by the time this is being read by our members that things will be better. The Crystalite at Glendale is closed and the committee could not say when they would start. This factory under the able management of Brother Fred Glassen has been operating fairly good for some time so I guess our members employed there will welcome a little vacation as we have been having quite a hot spell which of course is so unusual. Our members employed at the Technical Glass Company on 48th St., Los Angeles have been working pretty good with the exception of the mould makers at the McLaughlin plant. Things are looking a little brighter. The Forger plant is operating again after being closed for a couple of weeks and the members working there report doing fairly good. The Brock Company of Santa Ana has been closed for some time and the members have not been notified as yet when they will start. All our mould making members employed at the bottle factories report working steady so that covers the working conditions of our members at present.

Our last regular meeting was very disappointing as to attendance. Of course I can excuse our members this time as it was pretty warm and the fishing is pretty good just now. Now brothers you have been attending meetings so good don't get back into that old habit for I sure have been proud of you the way you have turned out in the past and say don't forget that get together picnic that we are going to have on Labor Day and give the committee on arrangements all the help you can. We want to put it over big. Any suggestions you have to offer bring them right along.

I believe Local Union No. 141 is the only local union that can boast of having an ex-president of the A. F. G. W. U. as a member, Sir Thomas Irwin, and by the way, I just wish to call it to the attention of some of our members who always have so much business to attend to on meeting day that Brother Irwin is always present at roll call.

Say Brother Bloomgreen you sure will have a lot of explaining to do when you show up. Two meetings in succession is two too many and you cannot blame them both on the black cat. Our able secretary, Cree Daly informed me he is expecting to make a trip back East this month on business and of course will combine a little pleasure with the trip so give him the glad hand as he is one of our loyal members and always on the job.

I would like to give the trade some news of the members employed in the mould making department out here but they are a darn bashful bunch and I cannot get anything out of them. The only Joe Sweeney dropped in the other day after making a tour of the Eastern states. Anyone expecting to drive back East should get in touch with Joe for he should be full of information after all the round trips he has made. Joe did not give a very encouraging report on conditions in the East. F. Cornell and family made a trip to Big Bear Lake and reported having a fine time and catching lots of fish. I did not see any of the fish so I cannot vouch for that part of it. Harry Meyers of the McLaughlin mould shop surely must be some fisherman. Everytime I stick my head in the door he and Rex Aldridge are talking about fish. In guess we don't have any hunters in our local as I never hear any rabbit, duck or quail stories so we have that to be thankful for.

This here Moratorium (boy there's a word for you) plan sounds pretty good. That ought to be a good thing right here in the good old U. S. A. Suppose we all stop paying for a year on that radio, the family car, the washing machine and that suit of clothes that looked so easy to pay for on the installment plan and when we did get it paid for it was worn out. My vote goes that we try it.

Lets hope that our delegates to Morgantown created an impression on the minds of the business people of that town that may bring some good results for the coal miners of that state. The Red Cross says "No, we cannot help the starving women and children of the striking coal miners of Western Pennsylvania, we can only help where something occurs by an act of God." Well, now suppose it was an act of God to give those men courage to ask for a rightful wage so they could feed and clothe their families and keep a healthful body so they could do an honest day's work. I am just supposing. Anyone that has ever visited a mining district I believe, will find the living standards quite a little below what we are told is the living standard of the American wage earner.

The Kansas Independent Oil Companies decide to close until they can get a certain price for their oil. Thirty thousand employees are to be laid off. Suppose the thirty thousand employees said to the oil companies "We cannot exist on the wage you pay. We will have to have more," result, strikes, lockouts, federal injunctions and plenty of trouble. The men in the oil business with their cut-throat policy being about the conditions and as usual the worker has to suffer. Well brothers, get a cow, chickens, a pig and an acre of ground, a pair of overalls and live like a king.

Hope to tell you what a wonderful time we had on Labor Day. If the committee does a good job, they get the cut glass egg beater. Hope by this time everybody is back on the job and looking for an excuse to knock off once in a while. A quotation of Mark Twain's: "Truth is precious, so be sparing in the use thereof." Happy days are here again.