Jake Gray and Charlie Wetzell Interviews

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Alright.

JAKE GREY: (inaudible) somebody pay me a salary.

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses the mills that he owned, and his grandfather's mills.

Keywords: mill owners

Subjects: Textile manufacturers

Partial Transcript: JAKE GRAY: They had, they had put soliders, machine guns put 'em on top of the mill.

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses his grandfather who was a textile mill owner in Gastonia.

Keywords: mill owners; stretch-out; union organizing

Subjects: Gaston County (N.C.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile manufacturers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: And that mill you were working in 1934?

JAKE GREY: Yeah?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses his memories of the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: Belmont murders; mill owners; violence during the strike

Subjects: Gaston County (N.C.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile manufacturers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now did your, did your grandpa, did you have a mill village for all the mills?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses the mill villages for his mills and the Parkdale Mill.

Keywords: Parkdale Mill; mill villages

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So tell me, for the benefit of this tape, these pictures are great, why don't you tell me your full name, and we'll start with, like we've been talking your relationship to the textile business.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses his grandfather and his role in the textile industry in Gastonia.

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Great Depression; Textile industry

Partial Transcript: CHARLIE WETZELL: But I just remember particularly that strike they had out at what they called the Loray Mills.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses growing up as a mill owner's son and his impressions of the textile mills from his time working in one.

Keywords: Loray Mill strike; mill owners

Subjects: Textile manufacturers; Textile workers; Wages

Partial Transcript: CHARLIE WETZELL: But our mills here, after we went through that strike, which by the way was instigated by a communist, I can't remember his name.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses the Loray Mill Strike, its impact, and his opinion on why the textile industry in the South for the most part stayed non-union.

Keywords: Loray Mill strike; union organizing

Subjects: Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now, but back to the '30s. So your father was working in the office?

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses the impact of the Great Depression on his family, the impact of the Great Depression on the textile industry, and the Loray Mill.

Keywords: Loray Mill strike; union organizing

Subjects: Great Depression; Textile manufacturers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: In '34 there was a general strike.

CHARLIE WETZELL: Okay. I don't remember it that well.

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses the importance of the textile industry to Gastonia and his impressions of the mill village from when he was a superintendent.

Keywords: mill owners; mill villages

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you think people here really respected cotton mill workers?

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses how people perceived cotton mill workers.

Keywords: lintheads

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What was the feeling among the community about them organ-- of organized labor

Segment Synopsis: Charlie Wetzell discusses ideas about organized labor, mill villages and wraps up the interview,

Keywords: mill villages; union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions