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Show THE SEARCHLIGHT What's Back of Gus (Continued from preceding Labor Tanagement~ (Continued page) But, it is more than significant that the attorney who prosecuted the suit received fees that year aggregating $1,212.60, paid by Utah Power & Light Company—of which Mr. Bennett is a director. The Power Company paid the same lawyer a retainer of $500 the previous year when the case was being worked up. That lawyer has not received any other kilowatt fees. Utah Power & Light Company has seven other Ogden lawyers who handle its legitimate business as well as its under-cover wire-pulling— its efforts to control public opinion in that city. Those lawyers received fees aggregating $46,016.33 in the last eight years. the legitimate business of the Power Company in Weber County probably did not warrant the expenditure of more than one-fourth of that amount in the period referred to. A substantial proportion of political payoffs and other forms of corruption used by dominating corporations in Utah is financed through attorney “fees”. Slush funds and bribes when handled by attorneys as “fees” become wholly sacred, and apparently imniuie to investigation. Courts seem to frown on any questioning of attorney “fees”. One Salt Lake lawyer was well-known in political circles as a pay-off man for the Power Company. In the seven-year period ending in 1941 he received $47,861.71 in “legal fees’. Political parties kicked up a fuss because he was alleged to have short-changed them, giving them less than was promised in the Kearns Building. Utah Power & Light Company is a Subsidiary of Electric Bond & Share Company, an Eastern corporation. The Power Company is only one of a large number of absentee-owned corporations comprising the Inner Ring of the Chamber of Commerce. Utah Copper Company is a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper Company, also owned and dominated outside of Utah. The Gas Company, the Telephone Company, Utah Oil Refining Company are among other absentee-owned concerns Sitting in the Chamber’s Inner Circle. The Smelters and Railroads participate as Inner Ring stalwarts. The list is long and impressive. Obviously then, a group of unscrupulous corporations, owned largely in New York, New England, and other Eastern states, manipulate the Chamber and its subordinate clubs and associations aS a means of controlling public opinion in Utah. They are allied with daily newspapers. They do ict hesitate to buy up legislators on an investment basis. Nor do they hesitate to break down the processes of democratic government whenever it suits their nefarious purposes. R. B. Cullen of from page the Blaw-Knox 3) Co., a bomb- finishing plant in Columbus, declared: “We depend on the production committee to settle troubles before they develop. When difficulties threaten I call the committee and let them do the work. We are fast overcoming the suspicion which formerly existed between men and management.” reported by Unspecific improvements The ion representatives were mostly of a technical nature, but Jules Kaslow, Local 2443, USA, said from suggestions 30,000 that shows the record three weeks and 20,000 in man-hours were saved of this number were saved on tank production | alone.—Steel Labor. A Union Soldier John J. Schulter, Private, United States Army, brought workers in Utah industry a stirring appeal Tuesday night—a plea to “Hold the Line” for democracy at home while our fighting men are winning the victory abroad. Private Schulter, on furlough, was a guest of the Remington Arms Plant Union. “Democracy”, said the earnest young soldier, “isn’t merely the right to vote—the right to go to church, or not to go. Democracy in our country must include the right of all workers to have a voice in the determination of employment Standards; of wages; and of the economic factors that govern people in a modern society. “Four days ago’, continued Private Schulter, “I slept in a fox hole. The water was four inches deep. ButI didn’t mind. It was part of my job of getting ready to fight for democratic institutions. “But while union men in the armed forces are heeding their country’s call*, they are depending on their brothers and sisters in industry to keep the organized labor movement strong and effective. If industrial democracy is to prevail in America after the war is ended—and it is going to prevail—labor unions must remain strong, vibrant organizations.”’ Private Schulter was enroute to his home in Birmingham, Alabama, where he expects to aid in negotiating a contract for one of the organizations with which he is identified. Before entering the military service he was executive vicepresident of the United Retail & Wholesale Employees of America. “The United Steelworkers of America—ClIO, host to Private Schulter, have more than 167,000 members serving with the armed forces and more than three-quarters of a million members serving in war industries. |
