(4) Amendment of the laws so as to permit the Federal Government to seek from the civil courts preventive relief in civil rights cases.

If civil rights supporters in the House are successful in getting an early rule for floor consideration of such a bill, the House will pass the bill and get it to the Senate at an early date, and if your subcommittee will favorably report the same bill you and other Members of the 85th Congress who support this legislation will have done a great work in the cause of civil rights. You will have put the responsibility upon the Senate early enough in the session to provide the best possible set of circumstances for early and successful efforts to run the obstacle course erected by bitter enemies of civil rights in the Senate, both in committee and on the floor.

Only final action by both Houses, transmission to the President, and his signature on a real civil rights bill along the lines of H. R. 627 will have genuine meaning in the daily lives of the many millions of Negroes and members of other minority groups who continue to suffer daily the discriminations based on race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry.

Ten long years ago, President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights published its findings in a report entitled "To Secure These Rights." That report concluded with a challenge: "The time for action is now."

This challenge is still unmet by Congress.

We believe the American people expect the 85th Congress to meet that challenge now, early in 1957, with civil rights legislation at least as meaningful as the stripped-down bill passed by the House and killed by Senate filibuster last year and now supported by bipartisan forces within and outside the Congress. The cost of another failure would be incalculably worse, economically and politically, both within our country and in its effect upon our standing among the nations of the world. The reward for success will be vast, inside and outside our country.

The time for action is now.

STATEMENT BY FRANCIS C. SHANE, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS, UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA

The speedy consideration which the 85th Congress has given to civil rights legislation has made possible the early enactment of legislation in this area for the first time in over 80 years.

Bipartisan action by the members of both House and Senate Judiciary Committees has made the current hearings possible and it is conclusive proof that the members of the legislative branch of the Federal Government are fully aware of the intense public feeling which has developed in support of the enactment of legislative guaranties which will protect the civil rights of all the people who live within the boundaries of our country.

The United Steelworkers of America takes this opportunity to add its testimony to that of other groups and individuals who are genuinely concerned with the protection of our constitutional rights and the strengthening of the democratic processes which have carried us to our position of leadership among the free nations of the world.

We believe that it is the immediate business of the 85th Congress to enact civil rights legislation which will make meaningful not only the decisions of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation but all of the basic rights which are guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

There is no justification for further delay. Both great political parties pledged themselves in the 1956 campaign to work for the elimination and discrimination of all kinds and to provide for the fair and equal treatment of all regardless of their race, color, religion, or nationality.

The President of the United States has reaffirmed his campaign pledges by urging Congress to enact a four-part civil rights program, which at best represents only a minimum of what is actually needed.

While we fully endorse each part of the President's program, our endorsement is not to be construed as accepting this "minimum program" as a substitute for the comprehensive civil rights program which we believe must be enacted if all our preachments about democracy and freedom are to become meaningful to all Americans.

But, the passage of this program, inadequate though it is, will clear the way for the consideration of other measures which will extend our basic civil rights.

We therefore respectfully urge your committee to immediately take affirmative action to report this program to the full Senate with the recommendation for adoption.

In so doing, the Congress will have taken a long delayed step forward toward strengthening the priceless heritage of freedom and equality which all Americans have fought to preserve since the birth of our country.

"ALL RIGHTS DENIED"

Citations of some of the killings, beatings, kidnapings, and other outrages and attacks suffered by representatives and members of the Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, in recent months and years; plus typical and frequent violations of civil liberties such as refusal of places to meet and denials of free speech, which are almost a commonplace fact of life in the daily operations of a legitimate labor union seeking to assist workers to form unions of their own choosing.

Testimony on civil-rights legislation presented to the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary by Benjamin Wyle, general counsel; Max Zimny, assistant general counsel; and John W. Edelman, Washington representative for Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO

INTRODUCTORY

The Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, explicitly and earnestly associates itself with the earlier statement in support of long overdue civil-rights legislation made to this committee on behalf of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations by Andrew J. Biemiller.

Our purpose in offering the following carefully considered supplementary testimony is not to reiterate what has already been adequately argued. This presentation deals with one phase of the civil-rights testimony which has not been dealt with by other witnesses and which is vitally important to the trade-union movement of this country, as well as to the general public. The particular problem with which the testimony of the Textile Workers Union of America is concerned concerns the consistent and flagrant denial of elementary civil rights to tradeunion members, and especially to union organizers and officers in many sections of this country and particularly in the South.

Almost completely ignored by the press and public is the fact that as of the year 1957, perfectly orderly and peaceful union spokesmen are regularly beaten up or subjected to other forms of violence, forcibly ejected or made the victims of planned and instigated mob terror or violence in many, if not most, textile communities in the United States. In addition, union members are frequently denied places in which to meet, to rent offices, and are effectively refused the right of free speech by dozens of different tactics of intimidation, economic discrimination, or plain brute force.

These violations of constitutional rights took place for years before the United States Supreme Court decision on the integration of schools and have continued unabated in recent months and weeks. We make this point to remove any suspicion that the instances we describe have any direct connection with controversies regarding race relations; nor can the inhibitions on legitimate tradeunion operations be brushed aside on the ground that this is a passing phase related to current incidents concerned with struggles over enforced segregation of Negroes.

To forestall the frequently advanced excuse that these outrages against labor organizations are of no concern to legislative bodies, we must stress the fact that in practically every instance which we shall cite in this brief, either positive action or deliberate and purposeful inaction on the part of local public or police officials is involved. Moreover, on the basis of long experience, the Textile Workers Union of America can confidently assert that wherever and whenever the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other enforcement agencies of similar stature have concerned themselves, even in the most discreet or a positively apologetic manner, in one of these situations the deterrent effect is immediate and palpable.

Nor is this testimony merely a complaint or a recitation of wrongdoing. We offer specific and carefully thought out proposals for amendments to the present

statutes which we believe would have the effect of substantially limiting or lessening the illegal and immoral suppressions to those seeking merely to effectuate their right to form unions of their own choosing.

NECESSARY BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, is a labor organization representing about 285,000 employees in all branches of the textile industry. About 1 million workers are employed in this industry. Roughly one-third of the industry is organized.

The major subdivision of the textile industry is cotton spinning and weaving. More than 80 percent of this subdivision is located in the South. Roughly 15 percent of southern cotton textiles are members of this or other unions. The organization of the southern textile worker has been and continues to be the primary organizational target of the Textile Workers Union of America.

In 1950, a Subcommittee on Labor Management Relations of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the 81st Congress, pursuant to Senate Resolution No. 140, conducted an investigation of labor-management relations in the southern textile industry. It issued its report in 1951. A majority of the committee concluded that there existed in the textile industry, primarily in the South, a widespread conspiracy to prevent union organization and to destroy those unions which now exist. The report of the majority found that:

"The extent and effectiveness of the opposition in the southern textile industry is almost unbelievable.

"In stopping a union organizing campaign, the employer will use some or all of the following methods: surveillance of organizers and union adherents; propaganda through rumors, letters, news stories, advertisements, speeches to the employees; denial of free speech and assembly to the union; organizing of the whole community for antiunion activity; labor espionage; discharges of union sympathizers; violence and gunplay; injunctions; the closing or moving of the mill; endless litigation before the NLRB and the courts, etc. After all these fail, the employer will try to stall in slow succession, first the election, then the certification of the union, and finally the negotiations of a contract. Few organizing campaigns survive this type of onslaught."

The evidence presented to the 1950 Senate subcommittee is in no way outdated. In the 6 years since that investigation was made, a series of similar outrages have occurred-many of which have been called to the attention of the United States Department of Justice or other Government agencies. The fact that we continue to be subject to violence and are denied free speech and assembly in our organizing efforts, without effective recourse to a Federal, State, or local agency, we believe requires and warrants the attention of this committee.

The cases, or situations, which we enumerate in summary form herewith are all typical and could be duplicated if the time and the patience of the committee permitted. What we describe are not isolated outrages; these are the day-to-day experiences of the men and women who represent the Textile Workers Union of America and of the thousands of simple mill workers whose economic and social problems cause them to constantly strive to build a union which can ultimately afford some protection against injustice and deprivation.

I. USE OF VIOLENCE TO SUPPRESS CIVIL LIBERTIES

In March and April of 1956, organizers and officers of this union were brutally assaulted and beaten by a group of thugs led by two ex-convicts outside the Limestone Mills of M. Lowenstein & Sons, Inc., in Gaffney, S. C., when they attempted to distribute union literature. The assaults were inspired and supported by company officials who used company-owned equipment in executing the assaults. A recent intermediate report of a National Labor Relations Board trial examiner found the company responsible for certain of these assaults. (Limestone Mfg. Co., case No. 11-CA-1000, IR-983.) This case is still pending, no final disposition

yet having been made.

We use the phrase "certain of these assaults" because the National Labor Relations Board on technical grounds refused to entertain an unfair labor practice charge in respect to what were the most brutal of two sets of attacks on union spokesmen. In the case which was the subject of an official National Labor Relations Board investigation, a top company official was present when union members were knocked down by having the fire hose turned on them and directed this whole attack. Further, the rowdies who participated in this violence were handed baseball bats out of the plant official's automobile.

In a previous case in which union men were slugged by company hired thugs no top plant official was physically present; hence the fact that the National Labor Relations Board rejected an unfair labor practice charge.

The local sheriff not only refused to arrest the assailants in this situation but cooperated with them by informing them when the union organizers would arrive. Textile Workers Union of America had informed the sheriff when the leaflet distribution would take place. After the attack the sheriff refused to act against the assailants upon the complaint of the unionists and, instead, threatened to arrest the victims for inciting a riot unless they left town.

Both this union and AFL-CIO President George Meany complained to the Department of Justice about the behavior of the sheriff as well as about the actual assaults. The Justice Department declined to intervene in any way on the grounds that the assailants were not public officials and that the law does not apply to the actions of private persons and that the sheriff was guilty not of action but inaction and is, therefore, technically in the clear as the law now stands.

Avondale Mills, Sylacauga, Ala.

In the summer of 1955, three of our organizers who were conducting an organizing campaign at Avondale Mills in Sylacauga, Ala., were attacked by a mob of 20 employees just as they were preparing to distribute leaflets outside the plant gates. The attack was incited, if not squarely directed, by Donald Comer, chairman of the board of directors of Avondale Mills. At a captive audience meeting of the workers, Mr. Comer characterized the organizers as "black cats" and told the story of how he had once crawled from a sickbed to strangle a black cat he had seen stalking a mockingbird. "There are a lot of black cats outside the mill and something should be done to get rid of them," Comer shouted.

TWUA organizers who were the victims of these beatings have testified to the fact that Mr. Craig Smith, the top executive officer of this corporation and chairman of the American Association of Cotton Manufacturers, stood in the mill yard giving orders to the men who a few minutes later were beaten up and "stomped" as they were attempting to give out handbills on a public thoroughfare. We complained to the Department of Justice and asked that it intervene and investigate. The Department of Justice declined.

Chief of police directs campaign against union

Perhaps the most sensational case in which a textile union organizer was maltreated occurred during our attempt to organize the Russell Manufacturing Co. in Alexander City, Ala. In that instance the local police force openly and brazenly acted as the agent of the employer.

In January 1945, one of our organizers came to Alexander City to visit his father who was a long-time resident of the city and favorably regarded in the community. The organizer himself had been born and raised in that part of the State Although he came to town to see his family, the union representative was quickly made aware that there was a great deal of discontent among the cotton millworkers there. After consulting his superior in Birmingham, the organizer came back to Alexander City, registered openly at the hotel, and invited some of his friends who were working in the Russell Mills to discuss the formation of a union.

Before he could actually get started on this unionizing campaign, the TWUA representative was called to city hall by the chief of police, G. Mack Horton, and told to get out of town or he would be mobbed. The chief further intimated that he would use his influence to have the organizer drafted into the Army. This organizer was, at the time, beyond the age limit for military service and was in fact on leave from the Merchant Marine after serving in combat areas. Our representative told the chief he would stay and continue his lawful efforts to organize the workers.

Chief of Polica Horton and two assistants, Alfonso Alford and Floyd Mann, thereupon undertook a deliberate campaign to drive our organizer out of town. For months Alford and Mann followed the representative literally night and day. When the union man would drive out to the mill village, a police car would follow. Alford sat in the hotel restaurant whenever the organizer ate a mal; it was not possible to talk to anyone in town without being observed by either A'ford or Mann. Despite this open intimidation, some employees of the Russell Manufacturing Co. signed union application forms and urged others to do so. Apparently this made some drastic measure such as an assault necessary.

The beating of the union organizer took place right in the center of town. It was carefully staged. At the National Labor Relations Board hearing in the éase (10-C-1803), one of the Russell employees testified supervisors in the mill boasted that the beating had been planned in the company office and would take place later that day. The beatings were administered by two workers who were given time off from their jobs in the plant. Without preliminaries or provocation, these two workers set upon the organizer, slugged him with their fists until his face was bleeding profusely, then knocked his head against the pavement and kicked him in the ribs as he lay on the ground. A uniformed policeman stood within 10 feet of where the assault occurred and abused the organizer as the workers beat him. While the TWUA organizer lay bleeding in the gutter, Alford shouted to the crowd which stood around watching the beating, that he would "make cash bond for anyone who beat up a union organizer."

The TWUA man staggered to his feet as Chief of Police Horton came upon the scene. Horton took the organizer and the assailants to city hall. He ordered the two workers back to the mill. In the presence of Horton, the workers threatened they would beat the organizer again if he did not leave town. Although not charged with any offense, the organizer was arrested and jailed. He was subsequently released on bail. The organizer secured an attorney who attempted to have warrants issued against the assailants. The attorney was informed that one of the assailants had already been tried and fined $25. The other had been "turned loose."

Kidnaping at Tallapoosa, Ga.

The crude resort to violence in this mill town was fully developed at the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on August 21, 1950, when union witnesses reenacted the kidnaping of a woman organizer by armed antiunion employees at midnight and the assaults upon union members who were distributing leaflets at the gates of the American Thread Co. in Tallapoosa, Ga.

The kidnaping victim was a cotton-mill worker, on strike at the time at another plant in the same State, who went to Tallapoosa as a volunteer organizer, Mrs. Edna Martin, a widow with 6 children, 1 of whom at the time of her abduction was in combat with the United States Army in Germany. In addition to the physical injuries which Mrs. Martin suffered, the mob which rode her out of town stole a prized watch which had been given her by this son with money saved out of a private's pay.

Edna Martin, clad only in nightgown was dragged out of bed at around midnight by a group of local people armed with shotguns who broke into the house in which she had rented a room prior to making visits upon employees of the American Thread Co. With her hands tied, gagged and blindfolded, Mrs. Martin was driven some miles out of town and dumped badly bruised on a dirt road miles from any habitation in near-freezing temperature.

The Civil Rights Section of the United States Department of Justice did make an investigation of this affair and of other related outrages in Tallapoosa. Despite the fact that a police officer with his own eyes saw the beating of a union man and his wife in front of the mill, no action was ever taken by these officials against the town officials or against the ruffians who carried out these attacks. Some years after this particular affair in Tallapoosa occurred, the men who did the actual slugging of the union members in a public thoroughfare were fired by the American Thread Co. These individuals then had a change of heart and related the whole story to local lawyers representing the Textile Workers Union of America. All of this lurid and completely incriminating data was brought to the attention of the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Justice with absolutely no result.

The murder of Lowell Simmons

During a strike in Bemis, Tenn., a TWUA official, on Christmas Eve, 1951, called at the home of one of the employees, accompanied by three strikers. The union committee stood on the porch outside the screened door while the employee remained inside the house on the other side of the door. According to the three strikers, Lowell Simmons, the union officials, asked the employee if he was circulating a back-to-work petition and, if so, he would like to see it so that he could call on the signers and seek to induce them to continue to stay out on strike. Whereupon the employee shouted "I've told you before that if you ever cross my path again, I would kill you" pulled out a pistol and killed Simmons with a shot through the screened door.

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