- Transcription
MARVIN L. RITCH
ATTORNEY AT LAW
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
June 10th., 1919.
Hon. T. W. Bickett,
Governor of North Carolina.
Raleigh, N.C.
My dear Governor:-
Nothing but the very important work of endeavoring to bring about just as great a degree of reconciliation as possible between my clients, the textile employees of this section, and the Mills has prevented my writing you at length and thanking you for your splendid proclamation which was the "Mud Sill" upon which the entire controversy was settled.
The origin of the entire controversy started over a curtailment of time as to Friday and Saturday in each week, amounting to sixteen of the sixty hours the people had been forced to work. You will notice the total time per week the people could therefore work was reduced one hour more than a fourth of the total working time. In addition 35 ¢ of every $1.60 a person could make was cut off also, and this reduction amounts to 7/32 of the total wage. You will notice that the reduction in wages therefore only lacks 1/32 of being one fourth. If you reduce the time in which a man has to work to make his living 1/4 and his wages on the remainder of the time in which he has to work 1/4 you have just about cut his earning capacity half in two. That is what brought about the strike at Mill No. 3, of the chain of mills owned and operated by the Highland Park Manufacturing Co.
The situation started at the above named Mill, located in North Charlotte, N.C., and at the time you issued your proclamation twenty-five mills were standing dead still. Everything in Charlotte has been settled upon the "Open Shop" plan, and I might say that we never contended for any thing else. However, the Cabarrus County Manufacturers are acting stubborn and hard headed, and have been doing so for two weeks, and as a result instead of getting everything in Concord, N.C. to a settlement, they are wrecking it, and unless they made an amicable settlement of some kind over night last night Kannapolis is liable to be "Called Out" during today.
In a letter I receive from Hon. R. N. Page this morning he says: "By the way the message of Governor Bickett the other day was fine, I think he has done nothing during his term of Office that so nearly meets the approval of every body." I desire to say to you that I more than concur in what he has to say, and I also want to inform you that all the railroad men in the State are tickeled to death. You can easily be elected to the U. S. Senate, either East or West, if you care to be --
Your friend,
