The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 26, 1924, Page 2

Page Two HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MARCH TO LENIN’S TOMB ON MAY DAY MOSCOW, April 25.—Soviet Russia has met the gesture of Roumania, in purchasing four hundred airplanes from France by directing the Russian workers to prepare themselves to defend the workers and peasants govern ment against any possible attack on their country. The entire population of Red Russia will celebrate May Day by march- ing to the great shrine to Lenin’s memory in Red Square. Hundreds of thou- sands of workers and their entire families will flock to pay homage to their dead leader. POLIGE OBEY THE ORDERS OF HEAD OF PULLMAN CO. (Continued From Page One) class paper and that it would back the-strike to the limit. Reeve showed the striking workers how the DAILY WORKER had helped the garment workers’ strike in Chicago. He said that the paper kept the issue alive before its many readers each day. Adolph Werner, general vice presi- dent of the Brotherhood of Railw Carmen, the union in which the strik- ers are organizing, spoke to the men yesterday morning. He spoke in both Polish and English and was much ap- plauded by the workers. Meetings are held every morning at 10 o’clock at Stancik’s Hall, 205 East 115th street. Mr. F. L. Simmons, supervisor of industrial relations of the Pullman Company, could make no statement about the strike, he said. He claims to have been out of town for several days with a “sick daughter” and that he doesn’t know what conditions are im the shops. Company Official “Stalls.” After considerable “stalling” and “passing the buck,” one of the man- agers at the Pullman car works said excitedly of the strike: “There’s nothing to it. Forget about it. Every car works, all the big places have these troubles. You see the work is piece work and the men are always dissatisfied. It isn’t worth the printer’s ink to write about it. Nothing to it.” Not Calm, However. The Pullman bosses aren’t exactly calm about the situation in the car works in spite of the aid of the police and’ of the capitalist dailies in keep- ing “mum” on the strike and publish- ing ads for workers without adding “strike conditions,” as required. A Strike Without Deserters. Not ‘a striking Pullman car worker has gone back to work. Agoinst the shop} now in the hospital, according to a man who works in one of the other departments. The strikers tell the DAILY WORKER that they are not afraid of the few scabs who will stay in the plant after they learn there is a strike. “There will only be a few who will be willing to act as strike- breakers,” one striker said. “And this work is very different from ordinary jriveting jobs. Only a _ trained car {shop man can do this sort of work, jand no car shop man will be low |enough to scab.” . Many of the strikers from the Pull- }man Car shops are expected to at- tend the May Day meeting to be held in Stancik’s Hall, 205 Hast 115th st., Thursday, on May First, at 8 p. m. Max Salzman, the organizer of the Young Worker’s League will speak. A fine program of entertainment has been arranged, including “eats.” May Day in Pullman this year has a special significance because the workers in the Pullman Car shops are tired of be- ing hired slaves of the Pullman Com- pany. A local connected with the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen has been organized by the striking rivet- ers, reamers, buckers and heaters. Many men in other departments declare they are not going to work on May First. They are going to take the day off not only in celebration of the regular holiday of the organized work- ers, but as a sign to the Pullman Com- pany that they are sympathetic with the Pullman strikers in their efforts to organize a union and maintain a decent ving wage. Max Salzman is a peppy speaker, and will have something worth while to say to the Pullman workers. NIGHT IN CELL IS LOT OF ANOTHER MILITANT WORKER (Continued From Page One) Place at 225 S. Market street, and is evidence of the fact that sometimes the imspiration the bosses furnish wholesale importation of incompetent] their “sluggers” has too much kick. scabs, against the rifle squads, plain/Just enough liquor primes up the Slot oy Epes: Pullman Company bive-} “slugger” to knocking out a striker but hie age et Rersuasions att threats|too much knocks him out. ‘ of ti... _ angsters who have been vis-| There is reason to believe from iting the homes of the strikers—THE ) what policemen have whispered in con- PULLMAN STRIKERS HAVE/fidential moments that it isn’t the BROUGHT PRODUCTION TO PRAC-|quantity so much as the villanious TICALLY A COMPLETE STAND-} quality of the liquor furnished to the STILL. The vicinity of the Pullman plant is like an armed camp today. Uni- formed policemen are patrolling the city by twos and threes. Automobiles filled with rifles camped at the gates in the morning. DAILY WORKER on Job The DAILY WORKER reporters discovered late yesterday that many workers were coming to the employ- ment office of the Pullman oCmpany, answering “ads” in the captalist pa- pers for heaters, riveters, buckers and reamers. The DAILY WORKER re- porters told the men lined up for jobs to “Beat it, there is a strike on.” Practically the entire line left the vi- cinity. Many good union men were in the crowd. They promised to show up-at the strike meeting today to help the strikers. Werner Addresses Strikers. Adolph Werner, vice president of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, spoke to the strikers at yesterday's strike meeting. “Many of you are ex-soldiers,” said ‘Werner, “and some of you have prob- ably been in Russia after the arm- istice was signed. You know why you Were sent to kill the Bolsheviks and Japanese. It was because the Czarist government owed the Pullman Com- pany millions of dollars. The Bolshe- viki would not pay the debt incurred by an imperialist regime. So you were sent over to butcher workers and be * butchered, so that the Pullman Car Company could bring in a few more million dollars. War on Slave Driving. scab herders that lays them low. Bulls Were Getting Theirs. No policemen were on the pavement at the time. They had just gone up stairs for confidential tete-a-tete with the boss. All this happened just before the evening picketing hour which begins about 4:50 p. m. Getting the guaru‘ ians of property ready for their eve- ning work is a regular ceremony along S. Market street. Tom Tippett, of the Federated Press, thrilled the strikers at their noon meeting with a vivid account of gunmen, state police and the unsub- dued courage of the West Virginia miners. Tippett, a union miner him- self, has just returned from the land of “yellow dog” contracts, injunctions, tent colonies and class war with rifles. “I understand that your strike has gone on for eight weeks,” said Tip- pett. “That’s the time when enthu- siasm begins to fall, sometimes, but you should really only begin to fight now. Down in Cabin Creek, West Virginia I visited the tent colony where the miners and their wives and children have been striking for two years. “Down there the strikers have to live in tents. A strike means that they are put out of their home—own- ed by the operators. Then they live In tents, whole families, and live on $3.50 a week strike benefits for single men, with $1.50 extra for the wife and 50 cents for each kid. “They fight on, half starved. I asked them how they could stand such terrible suffering, how they “This strike is not only a protest] cond stay on strike. against the reduction of your wages. Tippett went on to tell of what the THE DAILY WORKER ¥ Saturday, April 26, 1924 “The Home” is not sacred in Pullman. The Pullman Company has seen to that. * * * * Elbert H. Gary, head of the United States Steel Corpora- tion, had “Gary, Indiana,” named after him. George M. Pullman, first head of the Pullman Palace Car Company, thought to dedicate his name and memory to all posterity, by having the little industrial czardom of “Pullman, Illinois,” bear his name. * * These two “company-owned” towns are pretty much the same, and just like every other “company-owned” town. Homes are considered only adjuncts, necessary annexes to the job. The Pullman Company has only considered “the home” as another excuse for squeezing more money out of the pay envelope of its workers. And the Pullman Company doesn’t care how inconsistent it is in doing it, _* * * The men now on strike are fighting a decrease in wages. The Pullman Company insists the wages should be reduced. Yet what is the situation out in the south end of Pull- man, Ill., where the Pullman Company still owns most of the houses. There the Pullman Company is trying to impose an increase in rents to go into effect on May ‘1st. As The DAILY WORKER reported in its Thursday issue, three-room flats occupied by Pullman workers have been raised $6, $7 and $11 per month in their rentals. * * * * This has always been the policy of the Pullman Com- pany: Cut the wages and increase the price of everything the workers need. That is the policy of the steel trust at Gary, of the Steger Piano Company, at Steger, Ind., and of the bosses in every company-owned town, y CJ * The Pullman Company was organized in 1867 to build sleeping cars. But the building of sleeping cars was only an excuse for making money on anything it could get its hands on. * * “In 1880 the Pullman Company” | bought 500 acres of land near Chi- cago,” writes Gustavus ‘Myers, in his ‘History of the Great Ameri- can Fortunes.’ “Upon 300 of these it built. its plant, and proceeded, with much show and advertisement of benevolence, to build what it called a model town for the benefit of its workers. ‘ “Brick tenements, churches, a li- brary and athletic grounds were the main features, with sundry miscel- laneous accessories. This project was heralded far and wide as a not- able achievement, a conspicuous ex- ample of the ‘growing altruism of business. > 2, ¢ ¥ “But time soon revealed the inner nature of the enterprise. The model town proved to be a cunning device with two barbs. It militated to hold the workers to their jobs in a state of quasi-serfdom, and it gave the company additional avenues of ex- ploiting its workers beyond the or- dinary and usual limits of wages and profits. In reality it was one of the forerunners of an incoming feudalistic sway, without the advan- tages to the wage worker that the lowly possessed under medieval feudalism. It was also an apparent polished improvement, but nothing more, over the processes at the coal mines in Pennsylvania, IIli- nois, and other states, where the miners were paid the most meager wages, and were compelled to re- turn those wages to the coal com- panies and to bear an incubus of * * * * debt besides, by being forced to buy all of their goods and merchandise at extortionate rates. But where the coal companies did the thing boldly and crudely, the Pullman Company surrounded the exploita- tion with deceptive embellishments. “The mechanism, altho indirect was simple. While, for instance, the cost of gas to the Pullman Com- pany was only 33 cents for 1,000 feet, every worker living in the town of Pullman had to pay at the rate of $2.25 per 1,000 feet. If he desired to retain his job he could not avoid payment; the company owned the exclusive supply of gas and was the exclusive landlord. “The company had the worker in a clamp from which he could not well escape. The workers were housed in ugly little pens, called cottages, bullt in tight rows, each having five rooms ees ‘cpnven- iences.’ For each of se cottages $18 rent a month was charged. The city of Chicago, the officials of which were but the mannikins or hirelings of the industrial magnates, generously supplied the Pullman Company with water at four cents per thousand gallons. For this same water the Pullman Company charg- ed Its employes ten cents a thous- and gallons, or about 71 cents a month. By this plan the company, in addition, obtained its water supply for practically nothing. Even for having shutters on the houses the workers were taxed 50 cents per month.” Now be careful and follow this closely. As the average yearly pay of at least 4,497 of the com- pany’s wage workers was little more than $600—or to be exact $613.86—this reduction, back in 1893, in a large num- ber of cases, was ns matgecorai to forcing these workers to yield up their labors ‘or substantially nothing. NUMEROUS WITNESSES TESTIFIED BEFORE THE SPECIAL COMMISSION APPOINTED LATER BY PRESI- DENT CLEVELAND, THAT AT TIMES THEIR BI-WEEKLY CHECK RAN VARIOUSLY FROM FOUR CENTS TO $1. The company could not produce evidence to disprove this. These sums represented the company’s indebtedness to them for their labor, after the ¢ompany had deducted rent and other charges. It was these manifold robberies on the ricious Pullman Company that aroused the art of the ava- itterest resent- ment among the cOmpany’s employes. Then .as_ now the Pullman Company was making enormous profits, even according to its own reports. At one time in 1893, the Pullman workers were in arrears to the Company for $70,000 for rent alone. 1893 came. Then the strike of These facts alone shatter any pretensions that the Pull- man Company might make to interest in the welfare of its workers, “The Home” tn Pullman|| The Workers Party REYNOLDS SAYS DETROIT HOPES UNTIL WINTER Sees Slackening in the Automobile Industry By WILLIAM REYNOLQS. (Special to The Daily Worker) DETROIT, Mich., April 25.—The au- tomobile industry, which centers in lower Michigan, is showing a very per- ceptible slackening up since January 1. In former years, production has been at peak during April, but this year there has been a steady decrease in employment, as is indicated by the employment figures given out by the Employers’ Association of Detroit, which are as follows: February 26—241,134, March 25-—-240,586. April 16—236,976. These figures do not exactly reflect employment conditions, as many plants are running part time (three, four or five days per week), which two months ago were working overtime. Small cities in central Michigan which produce auto bodies and acces- sories are in many cases severely pinched by unemployment at present. The Mines of Michigan, which supply domestic industry, are in many cases idle. Tho the building industry of Detroit shows more activity than in most years, with spring construction well under way, there is very decided un- employment in the building trades. It is generally remarked by building tradesmen that buildings go up with less labor each year in Detroit, which but reflects the speed-up system that is becoming more and more the rule. Unless unemployment becomes very acute in the factories, it is to be ex- pected that building, road making, ag- riculture, navigation and other fair weather industries will keep employ- ment at a fair level until next winter. HIT DOCKING MINE FINES FROM WAGES By THOMAS MYERSCOUGH, Secretary, Progressive Miners’ Committee. AUBURN, Ill, April 25.—A bitter battle over the “Docking” of fines from the earnings of the miners, took up the entire morning session of the conven- tion of Springfield, No. 4, sub- district miners’ meeting here. “Joker” Young, the Board Member for this group of min- ers, who is supposed to be a staunch Farrington supporter, was “pulled over the coals” be- cause of unfair decisions to which he has agreed, and which benefit the operator at the ex- pense of the miner. Board Member Shown Up. Charges and counter-charges flew fast and much documentary evidence was presented, but this brought from Young the threat that he would re- TALLENTIRE SEES LABOR IN THE NORTHWEST FACE TO FACE WITH BIG BATTLE MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., April 25.— According to District Organizer Nor- man Tallentire of the Workers Par- ty, the condition of organized labor In Minneapolis and St. Paul is cha- otic, The movement has never fully recovered from the open shop drive of two years ago. The building trades and the metal trades were particularly set back in that drive. Reports in the Twin Cities Cen- tral Labor bodies show that thruout the state units of organized labor are ceasing to function, Councils seldom meet in some places and a guorum is unusual. Most of the workers are unemployed or eke out a meager living with part-time work, Organizer Tallentire has received data during the last month that the condition of the Minnesota farmers is as bad as ever. Like their fellow- workers in North and South Dakota, many farmers are going bankrupt and are compelled to leave their farms. Where one sees a neat farm- house and perhaps a modest array of stock about, it is almost certain to be mortgaged to the point of strangling the farm owner or ten- ant. The depression thruout this state makes more evident the inability of the two old national parties to ac- complish any real or lasting good for the farmers and workers. More than ever the need for a class Farm- er-Labor party is pressed home, and in spite of all difficulties and the burden of unemployment the work- ers and farmers of Minnesota are rallying to the cry for a new order. RIP ENE Ste Ac sort to the courts of the organization. He said he was being slandered. This brought the retort from Watt, the secretary-treasurer, that Young was a fourflusher, and that if he thought he was being slandered by having his tricks brought to the attention of the men who pay him, then he would call his bluff and challenged him to prefer his charges. Among the delegates are some who are unaware of doings in the miners’ union, and their position was ex- pressed by Delegate Knudtson when he said: “There are so many of us who know nothing’ of the things being discussed here, and I am glad that such manip- ulations are being shown up.” The documents used by Young were ordered made part of the record, much to the chagrin of that indi- vidual. Attack Foreign Born Bills. The various forms of attempts to enslave the foreign born workers were all subjected to attack by J. J. Watt, secretary-treasurer. The foreign born Secretary of Labor Davis was roundly scored by Watt, who read the Welshman’s pedigree to the delegates assembled. The Congressional Rec- ord and clippings from many papers, including the DALLY WORKER, were read to show Just what Davis really is. It was shown that Davis and his illiterate father would be excluded from this country under the provisions of these foreign born bills. The speech of Secretary Watt brought forth tremendous applause, and served also to bring forth a flow of sentiment from a delegate named Williams. JOBLESS ARMY GROWS IN WISCONSIN By G. S. SHKLAR District Organizer, Workers Party. MILWAUKEE, WIS., April 25.—The industrial outlook in this locality is rather gloomy. The International Har- ‘o, Minneapolis & St. Paul R. R. Co. vester Company, Chic: and several large machine shops are laying off considerable number of men. Work in building trades is also;very dull. The wages are also very low. For instance at times you will find an advertisement for an experienced machinist to work at 55c an hour. One of the department stores has recently laid off over 100 girls. The unemployment here is on the increase. It is a declaration of war against the| t1inois miners had gained by organi- slave driving and anti-union policy}zation. In his childhood in a coal of the Pullman Car Company. miners’ cabin conditions were just as John Holmgren told the ‘strikers| bad in West Virginia. But the that the activity of the thugs and cops} miners struck again and again, struck and officials of the Pullman Company] for two years at a time, struck and in trying to get something on the men, | lived on such fish as they could catch and in trying to get them to return to} from the streams and finally won the work showed that they are winning}eight hour day and wages sufficient the strike. He told how the big com-}to live at least as well as most other panies always use these methods to| workers. discourage and divide the strikers and Praises Negro Unionists try to induce them to return to work.| “I see some members of the Negro “They come to your home and prom-| Race,” said the speaker. “I want to ise you better conditions if you will/tell you all that Negroes are part of return,” said Holmgren. “Or else|the backbone of the West Virginia they try to set one nationality against} miners’ union. There are three Neg- the other. They tell the Poles that|/roes on the executive board and in the Ukranians are no good and they|every tent colony you see Negroes tell the Ukranians that the Poles are|side by side with the whites. No race no good. They are trying by this/division in the miners union, ethod to divide the strikers, but} Cheers greeted his reference to the t have not succeeded.” Kansas miners successful fight against injunctions and the industrial Of the few scabs who went to work|court and cheers again followed his in the yards, in one day 14 injured|cry that these illegal must ives with rivet guns and are|be defled, Pre When the workers protest today, instead of granting just demands, instead of allowing the workers wages that would permit them to have “Homes,” the Pullman Company calls out the police, * * * The police, the strike-breaking police of Chicago, under the thumb and at the command of the Pullman Company, invade “The Home” in Pullman and try to threaten the workers into going back to their jobs at the bosses’ terms. ‘ That is what the Pullman Company thinks of “The jome.” Just a place for the worker to sleep in and rest up for the next day's toil. — a place that can be used for the coining of greater rofits, . Just a place for the police to invade and violate when the tenant-worker shows indications of wanting a real “Home,” and all that that means. x * Pullman workers will never have real homes until the final victory has been won over the Pullman Company. THAT IS WHAT THE PULLMAN WORKERS ARE REALIZING MORE THAN EVER IN THIS STRIKE, AND THAT IS WHY THE STRIKE IS SPREADING. Workers Party Greets Filipino The Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party has adopted the following resolution of greetings to the workers and farmers of the Philippine Islands on the occasion of the celebration of May Day which is labor's holiday in the Philippines: ‘The Workers Party of America takes this occasion of celebration of labor's international holiday, May 1st, to proclaim its solidarity with the working and farming masses of the Philippines. " “We, speaking for the exploited workers and farmers of the United States, have anxiously watched your struggle for complete national freedom from the clutches of the same capitalist class that exploits and oppresses us. “We greet with joy your growing determination to enter into the fight against the continuation of American military and naval occupation of the country, against the plundering of your natural resources by the American and other capitalist imperialist groups and we feel certain that you will develop this struggle into a struggle against the hated exploiters of the workers and farmers as well. “As Communists, as followers of the Communist International that is today leading the fight against the imperialist oppressors of all weaker nations, we assure you that we will not stand idly by and allow our own capitalist class, the enemy of the Filipino and American workingmen and poor farmers, to continue exploiting and oppressing the brave Filipino people. “On this day of international class solidarity, the Workers Party of America pledges itself to fight side by side with you in the common struggle against our common enemy and assure you of our fullest possible support to bring to a successful conclusion your great struggle for genuine national independence and ” f at in Action JOBLESS ARMY KEEPS GROWING ~ ATKANSAS CITY Even Building Trades Boom Punctured By JOHN MIHELIC. (Special to The Daily Worker) KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 25.—The winter months in and around Kansas City have been marked by a steady increase in the number of unemployed. Altho the time worn hope (that indus- trial and business conditions would improve with the coming of spring) was frequently expressed by pious in- dividuals, this hope has not material- ized and shows no signs of doing so. During the past three years Kansas City has experienced something of a building boom, but now the building industry is noticeably on the decline. Altho the weather the past few months has been ideal for building, there is a large number of building trades men without work. Packing Industry Idle. The packing industry, another large industry in Kansas City, is also very slow. The local Armour and Morris plants are now completely consolidat- ed. This is a part of the nation-wide consolidation scheme of the Armour and Morris companies. The result is that the Morris plant was stripped of all machinery and fixtures and is now being used as a storage plant only. This put several thousand people out of work, aad Many of the railroad shopmen who came out on strike here in the nation- wide shopmen’s strike, are still with- out steady employment and are forced to accept casual jobs to keep the wolf from the door. Needless to say that railroads are not in need of additional help. Wait in Slave Market, be Kansas City has always been a ship- ping center of the floating element of workers for out-of-town jobs. There are large numbers of employment shipping agencies, but almost no out- of-town jobs to be had thru. them. Any day of the week large numbers of workers are to be seen on the streets in the shipping district waiting in vain for something to turn up. The farmers in and around Kansas City are not generally as hard hit as the farmers of the Northwest, due to the fact that the farms are smaller and generally owned by the farmers and there is variation of crops. Nev- ertheless, nowhere else in the coun- try can a better comparson be made between the prices paid to the farm- ers for their produce and the prices paid by city workers for food. The cost of freight on cattle and hogs from these nearby farms to Kan- sas City stockyards is insignificant. Yet the difference in price paid to the farmer for live stock and the price paid by city workers for meat is al- most unbelievable. Bumper Crop No Help. In the state of Kansas there is great prospect for a bumper wheat crop this year, but the farmers are showing no enthusiasm, as they say that they will not benefit by it. Owing to unemployment and gener- ally bad conditions here, the bosses are very arrogant. A sample of this attitude was shown at a dinner given by the local employers’ association, when the main speaker of the evening, in an appeal for the open shop, advo- cated that all labor papers of any kind be boycotted and no member of the association, under any circumstances, should advertise in it. The one helpful sign here is the general sentiment among the rank and file of both organized and unorganized workers for a labor party in the com- ing national election. What is needed most of all is organization and crystal- lization of this sentiment, The great- est obstacle is the insufficient number of good leaders to carry out the work. The autocratic trade union leaders in control of the local labor movement are \mnusually bad. An example of this type can be gathered from obsery- ing their opposition to a labor party and all progressive movements, If conditions continue thru the sum- mer as they have been during the Past year, the discontent by election time should be strong enough to pile upa large vote here for a labor - dent. ie ahi: Better Steer Shy of Alluring Publicity - from Puget Sound SEATTLE, Wash., April 25.—The Chamber gf Commerce has appropri- ated $135,Q00 to advertise the Paci- fic Northwest in the eastern United States, They want more people with billtined pockets, but not to give the First Avenue and Occidental Street excess workers a chance to enjoy the surpassingly fine out-doors of Puget Sound country, ‘There are already too many slaves for each job offered in this territory; so workers, at least, had better disregard the alluring ads of the local Chamber of Commerce,