there is nothing. I see fellow workers that worked with me for years, and they are in the same category I am. Some are worse off than I am, because some are a lot older than I am.

Senator PASTORE. How many people lost their jobs, do you know? Mr. McENTEE. 250, at Franklin Process.

Senator PASTORE. Thank you, sir.

The next witness is George E. Carignan.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE E. CARIGNAN, NEW BEDFORD JOINT BOARD, TWUA-AFL-CIO

Mr. CARIGNAN. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is George E. Carignan, 386 Union Street, New Bedford, Mass., and I am the director and financial secretary of the New Bedford Joint Board of the Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, in New Bedford, Mass.

I have been employed by the union in New Bedford since May 1, 1948. During the 10 years that I have been working in New Bedford the textile mill situation has gone from bad to worse. Thousands of textile jobs have disappeared resulting in many business failures and much suffering among unemployed workers.

In May of 1948 in our organization we had 14,251 members. In May of 1958 our membership stood at 4,014. This indicates a loss of 10,237 textile jobs in our organization over a period of 10 years. An additional 1,000 textile jobs have been liquidated in New Bedford plants where we did not have the collective bargaining rights.

A total of 11,237 textile jobs liquidated in the city of New Bedford from 1948 to 1958. Within the past few weeks the Wamsutta Mills has announced plans to close its New Bedford plant. This will mean an additional 1,200 jobs lost making the total 13,237 textile jobs lost in New Bedford during a 10-year period.

You can well imagine the impact of this kind of a situation on the city of New Bedford. At present the total of unemployed workers in the area is over 10,000 or about 13 percent of the labor force in the

area.

The large plants that have closed in the past 10 years and their employment figures are as follows:

In all of these plants that have closed the workers were approached, before closing, and they were requested to agree to increase their workloads in all departments in the plant. In an effort to keep the plant in operation, increased workloads were put into effect. Spinners

whose workload for years had been 12 sides or less took upon themselves the operation of from 22 to 24 sides. Weavers assignments were doubled. The textile workers definitely by their willingness to take on more work have shown their full sense of cooperation. However, it was to no avail because the plants finally went out of existence. Senator PASTORE. Was this all satisfactory to management? Mr. CARIGNAN. It was in negotiation with management.

Senator PASTORE. They agreed to it?

Mr. CARIGNAN. In the first instance, management proposed the increased workload.

Senator PASTORE. And through the process of collective bargaining they reached agreement?

Mr. CARIGNAN. The people agreed to these conditions in negotiation, and they went into effect.

Now, looking back before 1948 we find the same procession of cotton mill liquidations that are almost unbelievable. The period from 1925 to 1948 witnessed the closing of more than 20 large mills in New Bedford. A list of those plants is attached hereto as appendix No. 1. In 1954 our organization made a survey of what had happened to the workers in a plant that had closed in 1952. The plant studied was the Nashawena Mills. We found that of a total employment of 1,181 workers 314 workers had found employment in other plants that we represent. It was estimated that an equal number had found other jobs in other plants in the city. Five hundred and fifty-three workers were either unemployed or had left the city to find work. There was no record of this 500. This is only a sample of one mill. It is safe to say that today in the New Bedford area, because of age or other reasons, liquidation and what have you, thousands of textile workers have been unemployed since their plant closed down, some as far back as 1948.

Wages in the cotton-rayon division of the textile industry have been practically at a standstill since the end of World War II. Again in the spirit of keeping the mills in operation the textile workers have refrained from making any great demands for wages.

In 1948 the textile workers wage scale and fringe benefits compared favorably with workers in other industries. Today with an average wage of $1.40 in cotton-rayon, we are close to the bottom of the industry wage scale in the country.

The distressing aspect of this entire textile situation is the fact that with the great number of cotton-rayon mills that have closed down operations, the few that remain here seem to be in greater difficulty than they were 10 years ago.

This is the problem that your committee has been appointed or instructed to study. It is my opinion that if no relief is granted to the textile industry soon it is only a matter of a relatively short period of time before the textile industry in this country is destroyed and the textile goods that we need will be produced by underpaid foreign

workers.

It is difficult for us to understand the announced closing of the Wamsutta Mills. This plant is owned and controlled by the M. Lowenstein & Sons, a textile company that operates several plants. The Lowenstein Co. acquired the control of the Wamsutta Mills in 1954. At that time the Lowenstein Co. assured the Wamsutta employees and

29350-59-pt. 2- -8

the people of New Bedford that they were buying the mill to keep it in operation. They stated that they were not mill liquidators and had never liquidated a plant in the history of the company.

However, with all of these assurances from the Lowenstein Co. we now find that the company has announced that they will close the Wamsutta Mills. This announcement comes regardless of the fact that the operations of the Wamsutta Mills over the past 4 years has been profitable.

According to the figures on earnings per share of the above company released by the treasurer of M. Lowenstein & Sons, Inc., on June 19, 1958, Wamsutta earned $0.56 per share after taxes in 1955, $0.14 in 1956 and $0.67 in 1957. Multiplying these figures by the number of shares outstanding as of October 2, 1954, reveals that Wamsutta's profits after taxes amounted to approximately $521,000 in the past 3 years. There is appendix No. 2 attached on this subject.

In 1957, Wamsutta's earnings, after taxes, were at the rate of 7.1 cents per dollar of investment, which was substantially higher than the rate of return on net worth for the Lowenstein chain as a whole (3.7 cents).

The rate of return on the value of Lowenstein's investment in Wamsutta was higher than the average return of net worth for all textile corporations in 2 of the last 3 years: In 1955, Wamsutta earned 5.9 cents per dollar of investment, after taxes, compared to an average of 5.6 cents for the industry; in 1957, the Wamsutta return was 7.1 cents per dollar of investment compared to the industry's average of 4.2 cents.

Another indication of the value of the Wamsutta's operation is furnished by the following record of prices for Wamsutta Mills stock:

1. In August 1954, Wamsutta stock was reported to have been quoted at $914 on the over-the-counter market.

2. M. Lowenstein & Sons, Inc., bought a majority of the Wamsutta stock from the Axelrod interests for $9.50 on August 27, 1954. As of January 1956, Lowenstein owned 94.4 percent of the outstanding stock. 3. In the latter part of 1957, transactions were consummated in this stock at an average price of about $12,625.

4. In December 1957 and again in June 1958, Lowenstein offered holders of Wamsutta stock $15 per share.

It is amazing to us that in the face of the profitable operations of this plant that the Lowenstein Co. is closing its operations. This should be of great interest to your committee. Why should a plant that has been profitable, a plant that has produced a premium quality product for generations, a plant where there is an abundance of skilled workers-why should a plant of this type be closed?

There must be reasons and in my opinion this Senate subcommittee should investigate these reasons. The investigation could disclose some of the problems of the textile industry, and some of the facts that you are looking for. It may well be that the Wamsutta is being closed because the M. Lowenstein Co. will derive some tax savings inducement. Within recent years many important textile mills have been closed with consequent losses of thousands of jobs because financial speculators have been able to make quick profits at the expense of the Federal Government.

The impact of textile mill closings on the city of New Bedford has been terrific. The number of small business failures (stores, etc.) has

been great. However, the deep anxiety suffered by the workers in the textile industry is the most disturbing element in this entire deplorable situation.

I have here a couple of workers that come from the plant, and if there is no objection on your part, Mr. Chairman, I would like to have them give a brief statement.

Senator PASTORE. Before they do, Mr. Carignan, did Wamsutta management give any reason for that?

Mr. CARIGNAN. There were several reasons quoted in the newspaper and the press. One was the importation of Japanese goods, and that is another thing that is somewhat surprising to us. The M. Lowenstein Co., it has been publicly reported, have bought Japanese fabrics and brought them into this country and finished them at their finishing plant in Rock Hill, S. C. That is a report that has been made in some quarters, so that it seems to us surprising that they use that as one of their reasons.

Senator PASTORE. Are there any questions?

Dr. MIERNYK. No questions.

Senator PASTORE. We will hear your witnesses.

Mr. CARIGNAN. The first I would like to have you hear is Mr. John Gonsalves, who has worked in textile mills nearly all of his life.

STATEMENT OF JOHN GONSALVES, TEXTILE WORKER,
NEW BEDFORD

Mr. GONSALVES. I live at 315 Tinkham Street, New Bedford, Mass. Now, for two specific reasons I am starting with a date. Now, when I started to work in No. 2. Manomet Mill in 1917, which was a peak year in the number of plants in the textile that was operating in New Bedford, and the number of persons employed, at that time there was about 30 plants, and there was approximately 35,000 persons employed

at that time.

I worked there from 1917 to 1923, and the plant liquidated. Now, that plant employed roughly, for the 2 shifts, about 1,200 persons. In 1923, we were thrown out cold. Then I went a year and a couple of months on odd jobs. I got a spare job with Fisk Tire in 1924 and 1925 and part of 1926. Then in 1926 I went to work at the Nashawena plant "B", the one that closed in 1923 that the Nashawena Corp. took over. Now, I was at the Manomet plant 7 years. When the Nashawena took over the Manomet plant in 1926, that went along for practically 7 years, and in 1933 they folded up. That plant, I believe, had 750 to 800 persons employed at the time they were thrown out of work.

Now, in most of these textile plants, the average age runs between 45 and 56, so you see that the majority of these people, when they were thrown out like that, they had a tough time getting a job.

Then for the next 6 years I did like a lot of others, went on WPA, and what have you. Then I started working at the Nonquitt Mill in 1939. That mill employed at one time over 1,500 persons, but was liquidated in 1949, so you see that from 1926 to 1949 was where the mills of New Bedford took a slide down the plank, and from 35,000 employees in 1917-well, in textiles, if you say 2,300, you are going about the limit, now.

Then I had to take what I could get in the next 2 or 3 years. I got called into the Nashawena "A" plant, into the weave room. Now, that is a department I never worked in before. I went in the weave room there, and I worked until the early part of 1953.

I believe Nashawena threw out about 900 persons at that time, by liquidating.

From that time on, any person that was out of a textile job, over 40, they had a tough time getting a job.

Senator PASTORE. When were you laid off last?

Mr. GONSALVES. Early in 1953, at the Nashawena.
Senator PASTORE. And have you worked since?
Mr. GONSALVES. No.

Senator PASTORE. How old are you, Mr. Gonsalves? Do you mind telling us?

Mr. GONSALVES. You won't fall out of the chair, will you?

Senator PASTORE. I hope not.

Mr. GONSALVES. I am 70, but I am willing to go on a job tomorrow, if you have one for me. Have you?

Senator PASTORE. No; but if I had one, you could have it. I like your spirit.

Mr. CARIGNAN. Mr. Simas.

STATEMENT OF MANUEL C. SIMAS, TEXTILE WORKER,

NEW BEDFORD

Mr. SIMAS. Mr. Senator, my name is Manuel C. Simas. I live at 102 Jarry Street, New Bedford. I am president of Local 593, Textile Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Local 593 is composed of about 11,000 workers who are employed at the Wamsutta Mills. I am appearing before you today to try to give you some information that will help you in your study of the problems of the textile industry in this country.

Some of these problems must be involved in the closing of the plant by the Lowenstein Co. Here is a plant which throughout the past years the workers have fully cooperated in an effort to make the Wamsutta Mills a moneymaking plant, and according to the financial report it seems that the workers succeeded in their efforts. We took on increased workloads, we refrained from making requests for substantial wage increases, all this at a time when the cost of living was. increasing by leaps and bounds.

On the other hand, we read in the reports of the Lowenstein Co. that in 1955 the company paid $692,000 in salaries and bonuses to 9 of the executives. We also find that in the Wamsutta plant, bonuses were paid to the supervisors each year.

I, for one, sincerely hope that your committee will quickly find some way in which relief shall come about. It is our sincere hope that some program can be developed to keep the Wamsutta in operation in New Bedford.

In 1954, Lowenstein bought Wamsutta. We called a meeting of all the workers. At this meeting we were told that Lowensteins were in business for 50 years or more, and never in their history had they liquidated a mill, and he said as long as the mill made a profit. he would never close the plant or move it elsewhere.