The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 22, 1924, Page 11

Youth Views By HARRY GANNES History Shows U. S. Child and Youth Exploiter. The present tumult over child labor brings out the fact that the United States very early in its his- tory sweated little children in its mines, mills and on plantations. While telling the school children the wonderful opportunities they have, the teachers entirely over- look informing the future wage workers.that this country has one of the vilest child and youth exploit- ing records yet written. In the early English factory sys- tem the youth had a most miserable place; but hard and bitter as was the life of the early English youth proletariat, that of the American Negro slave youth was far worse. Charles Dickens need not have lived in England to have written Oliver Twist, the story of an orphan boy in the dawn of the modern sys- tem of production. The early ap- prenticeship laws of the United States permitted parents to bind out their own children, and the or- phan asylums shipped out great numbers of children for long per- iods of servitude. American industry was virtually built up on the labor of children, youth and women. Under the technicality of the rights of the individual. states to pass whatever laws pleased the mill ownexs regarding the conditions of labor, most of the state governments protected the bosses in their use of children and immature — youths for profit-making. In spite of the high development of American industry and agricul- ture, American factory and farm owners do not want to part with what is now considered even by many who are in favor of the cap- italist system of society as a worn- ~ out and harmful practice. Child labor was _ planted on American soil very early and it has spread its roots with the growth of industry. All attempts hereto- fore to do away with it have been useless. The number of child and youth workers constantly grows. — At its beginning child labor did not compete so directly with adult labor as it does today. The men worked on the farm or in the for ests. The children worked in the textile mills. Today children and young workers are used—in indus- tries that ordinarily could employ men and women but which resort to younger workers because of their low standard of living, which means for the boss he can pay smaller wages. Instead of pointing out to the youth that America has a perni- cious and loathsome child labor his- tory and that child labor on a large scale is distinctly a 100 per cent patriotic institution, such bodies as Sammy Gompers and the National Child Labor Commitee in their pro- paganda try to glorify America and its treatment of the youth. For information concerning the Young Workers League of Amer- ica, address Y. W. L., 1009 N. State St., Chicago, Ill. Fai Gléctinlnaling Poche SUPERIOR LUNCH Expert Cooking 753 W. NORTH AVENUE CHICAGO HOW JOHNNY RED/MADE A SPEECH By BILLY SAYLES “Honest, daddy, I made a good speech,” Johnny Red was telling his father. “It was good, pop, but Holy Cats—I was nervous.” “But how did you go to speak there, Johnny?” “Well, pop, we were helping to do some mailing at the office of the Friends of Soviet Russia and Work- ers’ Germany and the speaker who was supposed to talk at the German Club got sick, and they didn’t have anyone to speak there. And some- body said ‘send Johnny Red’ and they all thought it was a good idea, “And Gee whillikens, pop, I didn’t want to go, but ‘Dutchy’—that’s Mrs. Schmidt’s boy that just joined our Junior Group—said he would go with me, so I went.” “All right, Comrade speaker,” his — teased. “But what did you say ” “Well, daddy, I was supposed to ask for money for the starving chil- dren in Germany. I read the letter ‘we were mailing at the office so I told the people what was in it. And honest, daddy, it was awful. “In Berlin—that’s the biggest city in Germany, isn’t it, pop ” “Yes,” his daddy answered, “but what about it?” “Well, in the part of Berlin called Wedding, over half the people, six- teen thousand of them, had no food and the city had ‘to feed them. “And somebody in the crowd said they didn’t believe it and I showed them the letter. “And Gee, daddy, everybody laughed at the man, And then I read from that letter that these were facts from the mayor. He showed that out of eight thousand babies six thousand of them didn’t even have clothes. And that two thou- sand didn’t even have a bed. That’s a lot, isn’t it, daddy And I said, Gee, that’s awful, now isn’t it? “And I said the Friends of Soviet Russia and Workers’ Germany were sending money and food and clothes and everything to these poor Ger- Pop, | up— Gee, he’s got sR 3 Be yop he said that all of us kids in the Jun- jor Groups of the “Young Workers ¢ were collecting money and how we got fifty dollars already by holding a show. And he dtartjed passing his hat around and Gee, pop there was a big crowd and we got a peach of a collection.” “Did any refuse to give?” his daddy asked. “Oh gosh darn it,’I nearly forgot, daddy. That man who said he didn’t believe me when I was talking, told Dutchy he ‘wouldn’t give a penny until he got proof of what I was saying. “But ‘Dutchy’ was smart, daddy. He had the magazine Soviet Russia Pictorial—you know the one you get with all those pictures—and showed the man those pictures of the poor skinny kids all starved, And the man looked and looked and looked. “And then, pop, honestly, he had tears in his eyes. And he got up and he made a speech and he asked ‘Dutchy’ to go around again with the hat, pop, and we got more money. And daddy, he gave a whole ten dollar bill.” “Well, well,” his daddy answered, UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRICKS he | 00ze, composed of oil, booze. JOIN THE JUNIOR SECTION For Information 1009 N. State St., Rm. 214 Chicago, Il. “and then what?” “Gee, it was late already, so the man took-us home and even carried the money for us. Gosh, it was swell, daddy! And on tne way he told him about the twenty-five thou- sand school kids that nad no clothes And just in.that one part of Berlin. You see, pop, I knew that but I for- got to say it in my speech, I was so nervous. “And the man said ft must be awful for the: kiddies there. And pop, on the way home he bought . and me an ice cream soda. And, oh boy! it was good!” “Well, Johnny,” his daddy said, “keep it up. Read a lot and study and some day you'll be a speaker, And then you can help not only German children—but the children all over the world.” P And Johnny Red said “Holy Cats!”—but he was as pleased as anything. True Today More Than Ever. “Each state of, Europe is ruined after a war of seven or eight years; each one has done more than its ordinary forces can accomplish. The states do the same as individuals; each one wants to go beyond his power. It has been often asked what becomes of these prodigfus treasures during the war and the answer has keen that they are bur- ied in the coffers of two or three thousand individuals who have prof- ited by the public misfortune. These two or three thousand persons en- joy their immense_fortunes calmly at a time when the rest of the people must groan under new taxes, to pay POLIKUSHKA A wonderfilm based on the stery ‘by LEO TOLSTOL. Produced by the MOSCOW ART THEATRE Will be shown in CLEVELAND, QO. March 22 and 23, Engineers’ Auditorium KANSAS CITY, MO. March 23, Empress Theatre DETROIT, MICH. March 28-29 WASHINGTON, D. C. March 30, Shubert’s Garrick Theatre Reem errr nee Presented by RUSSIAN ARTFILMS, Room 701, 32 So. Wabash Avenue Chicago, Ill. How many of your shop-mates read a part of the national debts.”—.|THE DAILY WORKER. Get one of Voltaire. them to subscribe today. (( last. The Reds can nail that to the mast. There’s Daugherty, the ehief red killer, who uuw is sorrily the filler of front page news from Washington about the crooked things he done. Some senators we sure should thank that Daugherty has walked the plank, and fell into the Scandal Sea, where he can drown for all of me, or suffocate in slimy fight-films, and The Reds can rise and say: “Well, well! How has our roaring’ fat. friend fell.” From chasing Reds, he’s todk to heels and is emitting doleful squeals about his honor and his name, while they is showing up his game. Red- hunting musta bin his mask, while it appears that his real task was ‘feathering Jess Smith’s nest and his by wholesale dealing in graft P ail Epics biz. This Mutt and Jess Smith game is dead; Jess Smith he took a dose of lead. Now Wheeler’s pick- ing Harry’s bones, while Henry Cabot Lodge he groans. With spotlight turned on Harry’s sins, you can't ask Reds to quash their grins. You must excuse them if they gloat, for Roxie Stinson’s got his goat. And Calvin, who is awful canny, must watch or they will get his nanny. Seeing the wreck, I sure am vexed to know whose number they'll get next. ie the B coe out of school, did sur ili his party’s mule, Now under Wheeler’s awful roast, the G. O. P. gives up the ghost. And while the public holds its nose, this Wheeler ‘ows it to the crows. Keep hist’ry straight. It must be sed: ’taint Reds but Daugherty that’s dead. A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN