Abstract

Around The U.S.A. Pulpit for Unionism

Dalton, a town in the north-west corner of Georgia, is the "tufted-textile capital of the world." It is also the capital of the Church of God of the Union Assembly. The Church of God of the Union Assembly is unique and significant in that it is strongly pro-labor. Early last year the church started a monthly newspaper edited by Donald West, well known in the South as a poet. West christened the new paper "The Southerner" and dedicated it to the interests of the South's poor whites and Negroes. Dalton's chenille mills are all unorganized, paying the legal minimum of 75 cents an hour. By midsummer last year sentiment for organization among the area's 12,000 chenille workers was so widespread that the Textile Workers Union sent in a crew of organizers.