There has just been in to see me a committee representing a local labor union composed of the employees of the Ozark and Avon Mills at Gastonia. The committee was composed of Mr. C. R. Dixon¹ of the von Mill, and Mr. E. W. Griffin of the Modenia Mill, who was asked as a matter of courtesy to accompany Mr. Dixon. The committee complains that C. R. Dixon, John F. Beach, R. L. Edwards, Z. P. Melton, and David Meacham have been discharged by the management of the Avon mill for no other reason than that they belonged to a labor union.

The committee further complains that it is the announced policy of the management of the Avon mill to get rid of all persons who belong to a labor union as fast as possible.

In addition to these specific complaints I have had letters and telegrams from sundry other individuals which indicate a great deal of unrest among the cotton mill operatives of Gaston county. I deeply deplore this. The cotton mill of Gaston county is the pride of the whole state. Its growth has been something miraculous, and certainly all good men desire to foster and protect this great industry in every possible way.

I have a profound conviction that the management of any industry in North Carolina is making a grave mistake when it attempts to use compulsion of any kind to keep men from joining a labor union. I am profoundly satisfied that it is the part of wisdom to recognize that the organization of these unions is a natural evolution and take steps to utilize the unions themselves or to substitute some form of industrial democracy that will do more for the labor people than the unions can hope to do.

I cannot go into a discussion of the fundamental principles involved in a letter. I can only give the barest outline of these principles, but for the sake of the industrial peace in Gaston county, and in North Carolina, I want to urge you to take these men back into your employ. I know that Mr. Dixon wants to be your friend. He did not say a vicious word about anything or anybody while he was talking to me, and it would be a grievous blunder for which, in my opinion, your community and your industry would have some day to pay a big price to shut the gates of honest employment in the face of men of this type because they and their associates desire to pool their brains and their brawn just as you and your associates desire to pool your brains and your money.

I want to emphasize that at this distance I can feel the slumbering fires of revolt in Gaston county, and I earnestly hope that you will take steps to put out this small flame which has in it the possibilities of a conflagration.

I do not want to come to Gaston county if it can be avoided. I have been urged to do so, but I think it infinitely better for employer and employees to get together without the intervention of an outsider.