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Show Ex-Senator's Wife Sees Plant Become Law Test KANSAS CITY, Mo, NovT l (UP) A .dressmaking business founded 21 year ago m the home of Mrs. James A. Reed, wife of the former United Bute senator, was involved today In an Intricate labor union dispute that provided the first test for a new act of congress. Mrs. Reed sat in the courtroom whi I hf. arrnrnev read her IS 00ft- I MRS. JAMES A. REED Denies labor trouble prord affidavit, describing the history his-tory of her company, to three fed- era! judges. She is seeking an injunction in-junction against the International Ladies' Garment Workers' union. a Commute fur Industrial Organi- " sation unit, to prohibit picketing or interfering with the operation of her plant, which now has (70 workers. Dispute Long Standing Mrs. Reed'a ' dispute with the union Is of long standing. David Dubinsky, president of the union, raised a $100,000 fund several month ago for the express purpose of organising workers in Mrs. Reed's plant. Dubinsky was quoted aa saying that Senator Reed had supported Alf M. Landon for president presi-dent and that the union "would give Jim Reed a break" by putting union organizer to work In Kansas Kan-sas City. ' " The industry that Mrs. Reed operates oper-ates is the Donnelly Garment company.. com-pany.. Before Ilex marriage to Seju. . ator Reed, she was Mrs. Nell Donnelly. Don-nelly. The company originally obtained a federal district court injunction to prevent the union from picketing the plant. The injunction is still in force. But last August 27 congress con-gress passed an act providing that when the constitutionality of a federal fed-eral law was challenged, the case must be decided before a three-judge three-judge federal court The federal labor act was challenged by an intervening in-tervening petition in this case, so the jurisdiction was transferred to the three-judge court Arguments began yesterday and continued1 this morning. Denies Labor Trouble Mrs. Reed's affidavit accused the union of representing that there was a labor dispute in her plant "when in fact there was no labor dispute whatever." "The actual wage scale was so fixed that experienced and efficient effi-cient operators could and did earn from $20 to $35 and more a week. A $15-a-week minimum was maintained main-tained for the benefit of slower and less efficient operators, but at no time was the $15 minimum considered con-sidered a scale of wages." She told how her original enterprise enter-prise of producing wash frocks and aprons at home had grown until in 1919. three years after she started it, the Donnelly company was incorporated. It continued to expand, and then, a year ago, the union troubles started. Union Intervene An unattached union of Donnelly plant workers, which Mrs. Reed said originally included all but three employes, ha Intervened in the case in behalf of the management. The plant union informed Mrs. Reed that its members were "happy with the positions which they held." Three questions were before the court: 1. The company's petition for an injunction against the CIO union. 2. An intervening petition by the plant union demanding an injunction injunc-tion against interference from the CIO union and also an injunction prohibiting the company from dealing deal-ing with the CIO union. 3. A petition by Frank P. Walsh, attorney for the CIO union, asking to have the proceeding dismissed. New Law Invoked It was Walsh who Invoked the new law requiring the three-judge hearing. He acted after the plant union had challenged the constitutionality constitu-tionality of the Norria-LaGuardia labor act The government has not entered the case yet. It may not do so until the three judges decide whether the -Norris-LaGuardia act is applicable to the Donnelly case. The presiding judges are Albert L. Reeve and Merrill E. Otis of the district court and Judge Arba S. Van Valkenberg of the circuit court of appeals. |