The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 25, 1924, Page 5

wie eR SURRARANT cotoneSnaanieian Friday, July 25, 1924 CHARGE OFFICIAL FAKED FIGURES ON EMPLOYMENT Exaggerates Job Data to Depress Wages By MILT WHITTINGTON (Federated Press Staff Correspondent.) LITTLE ROCK, Ark., July 24.—U. S. employment service figures sent in from Texarkana, are heavily padded to make it appear that there are plenty of jobs, says the assistant man- ager of the combined state and fed- eral office at Little Rock. He accuses the Texerkana official of working in the interests of the U. S. chamber of commerce, The Texerkana manager is J. J. Kress. His method is stated by his superior office to multiply the actual notices of jobs by six. “If Kress has a call for 25 men on Monday,” the Little Rock official said, “he puts this number down every day for the rest of the week, making 150 openings in- stead of 25. His office is the only one in the state showing more jobs than men. All the rest show more men than jobs. His methods make our Arkansas report, which we have to send to Washington, misleading and inaccurate. “Kress falsifies to force wages down by causing a rush of men into the state to compete for the few jobs that turn up.” The appointment of Kress was on the recommendation of H. L. Remmell, state republican leader, who gave it to him as a consolation prize. Kress had wanted to be postmaster of Arka- delphia but another deserving poli- ticlan came first so the Texarkana em- ployment bureau was shoved his way. Ritsia Sends | Co-op Stores on Freight Cars into Country MOSCOW, July 24.—“Rolling co- operatives” is the title given by the Russian central co-operative organiza- tion to the experiment of placing a compact co-operative store in a big railroad box car and moving it to remote “country points in “order to serve the rural population. The first of these “rolling co-operatives” has met with tremendous success. Prac- --tically all the goods were sold out before the car completed its itin- erary. In consequence, these co-oper- ative stores on wheels now serving the Moscow-Leningrad line and the Finland branch line are to be ex tended on a large scale to the other railway routes of European Russia. Send in that Subscription Today! iinuinididiens HALF MILLION RAILWAY WORKERS CAN BLAME ESCH-CUMMINS ACT FOR WAGE CUTS BELOW LIVING STANDARD By LELAND OLDS (Federated Press More than 600,000 railroad running under $100 for the month bear witness to the gigantic fraud put over on organized railroad workers by the enactment of the labor provisions in the Esch-Cummins transportation act. Approximately 320,000 of these workers received $75 or less during the month according to interstate commerce commission figures. When the law was passed labor was assured that it con- tained no anti-strike provision and that a railroad labor board would maintain such just and reasonable wages as would render OO strike action unnecessary. In- stead the board appointed un- der the act has received gov- ernment backing in maintain- ing wages on a par with those in the openshop labor market where workers are unprotected by organization. Less than $1,000 Yearly. Maintenance of way labor accounted for approximately 275,000 of these low paid workers. In April the average earnings of work train and section! labor were under $74 for the month) with overtime pay included. On a straight-time basis the average month- ly pay envelope did not exceed $70.) At this rate annual earnings would run considerably under $900 if full employment were available thruout the year. The following figures from the April report of the commission show for selected occupations the number em- ployed, average straight-time month- Industrial Editor) employes with April pay checks ANY LAWYER WOULD BE PROUD OF THESE CLIENTS, SAID DAVIS WASHINGTON, July 24.—John W. Davis’ letter of March 31, 1924, to a friend who asked him his attitude toward the combination of presidential politics and big-business legal services, in thus quoted among his lawyer asso- ciates in Washington: “I have a fine list of clients. What lawyer wouldn’t want them? I have J. P, Morgan., the Erie railroad, the |Guaranty Trust Co., the Standard Oil Co., and other foremost companies on | my list, I am ‘proud of them. “They are big institutions, and so long as they ask for my services for honest work I am pleased to work for them. Big business has made this |country what it is. We want big busi- jness, but it must be honest; and a THE DAILY WORKER WORKERS ON KNIT GOODS TO START BIG NEW UNION Philadelphia Workers to Meet August 1 By ABRAM JAKIRA. (Special to The Daily Worker.) PHILADELPHIA, Pa., July 24— Serious steps are at last being taken to organize the knit goods workers of this city, Thru the initiative of sev- eral more conscious workers several preliminary meetings were held and an organization committee formed. A general mass meeting of all knit goods workers of the city will be held Friday, 8 p. m., August Ist, at the Amalgamated Center, 431 Pine St. La Brie, secretary of the Federated Tex- tile Trades, and Vance of the Carpet Weavers Union of Philadelphia will be the main speakers and will help put the new union on the proper or- ganization basis. A representative of the Knit Goods Workers of N. Y. will also address the meeting. Carpet Weavers Help. The Carpet Weavers Union, of which Vance and La Brie are active members, is one of the best organized and most efficient unions in the Tex- tile industry. Both La Brie and Vance have shown a keen interest in the new organization of the knit goods workers and are giving it all possible assistance. The hall for the mass meeting was given by the Amalga- ly earnings and average earnings with jawyer can be proud to tackle big pro-|mated Clothing Workers Union free overtime included: No. With MONTHLY WAGES ployed time time Janitors and cleaners 7,731 $78 $77 Maint. of way help’s 10,271 94 98 Pump equip’t operat’s 6,001 80 83 Work train labor 56,009 68 74 Track section labor 209,740 70 73 Ofher Maint. labor 7,682 71 ‘74 Shop and engine- house labor 47,0009 87 9. Common shop labor 60,271 78 8 Baggage rm. attend’ts 9,594 94 99 Freight handlers 39,444 89 9} Other station labor 4,068 81 8 Crossing flagmen and gatemen 22,890 73 75. Need More For Living. The National (Employers’) Indus- trial Conference board minimum sub- sistence budget for workers in Cin- cinnati brought up-to-date figures at $1,350. The minimum budget pre- pared by W. P. Ogburn of Columbia university would cost $1,375. Accord- ing to the Philadelphia bureau of municipal research at least $1,875 is necessary to support a family in mini- mum health and decency. The wages of half a million men on the railroads OUR DAILY PATTERNS A PRETTY APRON. 4807. This model is very practival od protective. It may be developed 1 sateen, gingham or percale, with finish of binding, stitching or wash raid. The Pattern is cut in 4 Sizes: Small 1-36, Medium 38-40, Large 42-44, ad Extra Large 46-48 inches bust easure, A Medium size requires 3% ards of 86-inch material. The width + the foot is 1% yard. Pattern mailed to any address on seeipt of 12c in silver or stamps. Send 12c in silver or stamps for our P-TO-DATE. SPRING & SUMMER 324 BOOK OF FASHIONS. Brazil Still Fights. \ [INOS AIRHS, July 24.—Rebel ~\wnes have bombed the Brazilian > Minas Geraes in the harbor tos, according to a dispatch to- A DAINTY SUMMER FROCK ay 4748. This is nice for crepe de chine or batiste,’ with trimming of lace or embroidery. The new printed voiles, organdy and linen may also be used for this pretty frock. The Pattern is cut in 4 sizes: 14, 16, 18 and 20 years. A 16 year size re- quires 4% yards of 32 inch material. The width at the foot is about 1% yard. Pattern mailed to any address on receipt of 12c in silver or stamps. Send 12c in silver or stamps for our UP-TO-DATE SPRING & SUMMER 1924 BOOK OF FASHIONS. Address: W. Washington Bivd., Chic NOTICE TO PATTERN PUrERE e 5 i Ry © fur- nished by sy lew York firm of pattern manufacturers. Or forwarded b; The DAILY WORKER: every’ ay" an ree Selves. and they are mailed by the man. pioctures OSS to the custony otaal AILY WORKER does not keep 7 |. Delivery of =: will take at least 10 xe is of patterns on hand, ry ord is ordinarily the ler. oi pets the date of mai! 2ot beeen impede em- Straight Over- * \blems for big business when all inten- tions are right and honest.” fall from $200 to $500 short of the) lowest of these standards. These low paid employes who could | least afford any cut in their pay have | been particularly hit by the rail) labor board’s wage reduction orders. ;Changes sanctioned by the board since 1920 in the case of 250,000 main-| tenance of way workers mean a total | cut of about 25 per cent. In the case of more than 100,000 shop and engine- house workers the cuts total more than 25 per cent. Wage cuts ordered \for train and engine service employes jin nO case exceed 12% per cent, in the telegrapher group 8% per cent and in the shop craft group 16% per cent. With the cost of living about the board in 1920 it appears that the lowest paid workers have been made to suffer the most material reduction in the purchasing power of their wages. of charge. In its appeal issued both in the Jewish and English languages the committee points out the appalling | conditions under which the knit goods workers are compelled to labor due to the fact that they are not organ- ized. The appeal follows: 10pt—Workers in the Knitting Trade! Several years have passed since we lost our Union in Philadelphia. Our Bosses have the upper hand be- cause the organization that has de- fended our interests and kept us united exists no longer. We knitters can hardly make a living qven tho we work hard and long kore: ‘Our bosses are amassing riches and living in luxury, while we toil harder every day and our wages can- 15 per cent below the base used by| not pay for the necessary things of life. Many knitters who have lost their health at the machines, now walk thé streets in idleness with families starving at home, and those who still work in the shops cannot German Communists at Workers’ Meeting (By The Federated Press) > EISENACH, Germany, July 24.— Some 400 Communist delegates to a national workers’ congress parading under the name of Friends of Nature at Eisenach, to discuss tactics, were arrested thru a stool pigeon. Among those arrested were most of the Com- munist members of the reichstag. The Daily Worker, 1113|1 They were released. The Communists had twice tried to call a national workers’ congress dur- ing June. Both times the minister of the interior prohibited the meeting. Your Union Meeting Fourth Friday, July. 25, 1924, Name of Local and Place No. of Meeting 122 64th and S. Ashland 429 105th and Avenue 434 55th and Halsted. 62nd and Halste jakers, 533 182 19 W. Adam: 683 «Ei , B45 674 45 jadison cramento. 180 W. Washington and nginemel rth Avenue, » 1850 Sherman Ave., St. 5428 Council, 180 W. rect. ict Couricil, 505 S. 1 ngtee St. 2200 St. 16 ry » 912 m. 3 176 W,. Washington 35 Cutters, 180 W. Washing 199 113.5. Ashland Ave. 492 55th and Halsted 746 E. cor, Lexington 1225 6 73 63. provide a decent living for their de- pendents. Low Wages, Long Hours. You know that winders receiva Arrested; Released | wses as low as $8, and $10, per week, pressers and operators also receive low wages. Any one who dares to complain is told to leave his work or keep quiet. At a time when other organized workers are fighting for the 40 hour week, we the knitters are working from 48 to 52 hours. At this time when all needle workers have im- proved their working conditions and increased their wages to a decent living standard thru their powerful unions, we, the knitters are still divided and suffering under out- rageous working conditions and piti- fully small wages. And while the bosses fear and respect the organ- Page Five (Continued from page 1.) ers come to a close. That is the meaning of the so called co-opera- tion schemes proposed by Wm. H. Johnston after the failure of the railroad strike. Mr. Johnson proposes (and he evidently speaks for most of the of- ficials of the shop unions) that the unions shall become efficiency in- struments for the companies, prom- ising the railroad corporations greater profits from union labor than what they can squeeze from non-union labor, Thus it is hoped to gain the favor of capital so that the unions, in- | stead of being broken up by, the | bosses, will be invited into the par- | lor and served with ice cream and cake. Efficiency For the Bose. The new scheme is being tried out on the Baltimore & Ohio rail- road. The officials of the unions are hiring efficiency experts to show the bosses how to get more work out of their members. “The idea underlying our service to the Baltimore & Ohio Railway,” says Mr. Johnston, “may be compared to the idea which underlies the en- gineering services extended to rail- roads by large supply corporations which have contracts with these railroads to furnish, let us say, arch-brick, superheaters, stokers, or lubricating ofl.” The union, in short, is to become a supply corpo- ration to the railroad companies, en- gaged in the business of selling la- bor just as another corporation may sell lubricants. It will compete in the market, like any other com- modity selling organization, and en- gages to deliver more work for less cost than non-union labor can de- liver. That is the essence of the scheme. Amalgamation Only Remedy. This is the only remedy these railroad union officials have to of- fer as a solution for the present | situation. The only effective means to strengthen the unions on the railroads would be to amalgamate them into one powerful industrial union which was proposed at the convention of Railway Employes’ Department Convention before the strike was called: But, of course, the officials would hear of nothing which might endanger their posi- tions, and the same Mr. Johnston, in spite of the fact that the machin- ists’ organization is on record in fa- vor of amalgamation, fought most bitterly against it. The effect of Johnston’s substitute for amalgama- tion, the B. & O. plan, if established throughout the railroad industry will be to eliminate unionism alto- gether. Using Union For Employes. It is a method for the railroad employers to capture the unions and turn them to profit-making pur- poses. It is a direct competitor of the company unions, promising the bosses that it will be more effective than even such organizations formed by their paid agents. John- ston says on this point: “I want to emphasize as strongly as I know how the fact that in the task of posi- tive co-operation in the railroad in- dustry there can be no substitute for the genuine unions of the rail- road employes.” And later: “I main- tain that such a management would never again, as long as it retains its good sense, desire to see the affill- ized workers they have nothing but: ated: shop crafts effaced from the contempt for us. This is because we are not or- ganized. This is because we have no union to defend us. Knit Goods Workers! The time has come to organize. The time has come when we can improve our wages and conditions and live like human beings and in that way gain the respect of the organized work- ers of this city. All workers engaged in the various branches of the Knitting Trade are in- rited to come to the mass meeting and join the union. Admission is free. New Greek Premier. \ ATHENS, July 23.—Former Preniier Kaphandaris today had undertaken to form a new cabinet to succeed that which resigned yesterday after a parliamentary defeat. scheme of things on the railroads.” DETROIT, MICH. Mikel Sherman, N. D. Naturopath & Chiropractor When other methods fail try Nature's road to health. Hours; 11 to 4 and 6 to 8 P. M 4863 VAN DYKE AVENUE, betw. Forest and Gratiot PITTSBURGH, PA. DR. RASNICK. DENTIST Rendering ©: wart Dental Service 45,8307 ritLp, ‘ER rons catty th Age. ASHER. Bpaulding ¢ 7 PORTNOY & CO. eg thitttent? P SLWAUIK) 1d Decorators SUPPLIES. w and Old Wo UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRICKS B. & 0. PLAN DESERTS UNIONISM The “open shop” drive is to be stop- ped, in other words, by eliminating everything from the unions that the bosses don’t like. Make the unions just the kind of organizations that the employers want, says Johnston; make the unions profitable to the capitalist class rather than to the workers, and then “it follows as night follows day” that there will be no conflict with the employers. It is all so simple! Damnable Poison. What is the reason that such damnable poison and intellectual rot can be peddied to the labor movement by so-called responsible leaders? If such proposals had been made before the shopmen’s strike there is no doubt they would have been scorned by the rank and file. But now the shop unions have had a long and unsuccessful strug- gle; the unions have been wiped out on many lines, and seriously weakened everywhere. Pessimism and hopelessness is prevalent, The disastrous tendency of leaving the union has been affecting large num- bers. It is under such circum- stances as these, suffering from the sickness of its bad leadership, that the shop unions are thought ready to take a new dose of medicine from the same doctors. Officials Sabotaged Strike. The prime motive for action of the reactionary officialdom of the shop unions, is the desire to remain “leaders” with secure and comfort- able positions. They were afraid to put up a real fight against the rail- roads, but were forced by a mili- tant rank and file to go along with the strike. They sabotaged the struggle, however, ‘by complete fail- ure to have any centralized plan of battle, an entire absence of com- missary or relief organization, and not the slightest mové for unity of the railroad men generally for the struggle. After the faflure of the strike they became panic stricken at the result of their handiwork—be- cause it threatened to lose them their positions. The one measure that could save the situation—amal- gamation of ‘the railroad unions— they would have nothing of. They tried to reorganize the un- ions with the “selling talks” of in- surance salesmen, boosting the in- surance and fraternal features of the unions. This, of course, failed. The officialdom, bankrupt because afraid of every really progressive measure, had but one place to go— to the employers. And there they went. “Co-operation” is the result. Workers Will Be Wakened. The rapacity of the railroad com- panies will soon wake the workers from any sweet dreams of class col- laboration with the bosses and force them to resume the struggle from which there is no escape. Collabo- ration is bound to fail, but in the failure it can do terrible damage to the railroad shop unions. The task of the class conscious and revolutionary workers in the railroad unions is to fight against this bosses’ propaganda with all their energy, pointing out to the rank and file the disastrous defeat that this plan will lead them into. The spirit of true unionism must be kept alive despite all of the John- stons and all the collaboration schemes and the day prepared for the coming renaissance of the rail- road unions generally. Give me that shirt! $ All it needs, Wiggy, is buttons!" ll | balled Martinez was that NICARAGUANS CRAVE HUGHES' 0, K. ON RULER Independence of Nation is Mere Sham By LAURENCE TODD (Federated Press Staff Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, July 24.—President Martinez of Nicaragua, who was |recently warned by Secretary Hughes that he would not be recognized by the United States if he were elected to the next constitutional term | of office, has put up to the state de- partment the issue as to whether Nicaragua is to run its own political affairs without interference from Washington. The point on which Hughes black- Martinez, having become president thru the death of the elected president Diego Manuel Chamorro, was barred from another term by, the constitution, which forbids any president to suc- ceed himself in office. The Bankers’ Choice. Gen. Emiliano Chamorro, a former president by grace of American bank- ers and American marines has an- nounced his candidacy—for the next four-year term. He is claimed to be the choice of the American state de- partment. Against him the Martinez progres- sive alliance has been organized. On July 16 Foreign Minister Urtocho cabled to Hughes: “Under the president’s instructions I beg to say to Your Excellency: Prominent consegvatives and liberals earnestly desiring international con- cord agree on ticket, Carlos Solozano, conservative, for president for the next term, and Juan Batista Sacasa, liberal, for vice-president, and ask me to re- ceive and forward their wishes to know whether the state department would look with favor on the alliance for the organization of the national government.” Hughes’ Bunk. Hughes replied thm his represen- tative: “My government supports no candidate and is hostile to no candi- date; it desires only that free and fair elections may be held in order that the will of the people may be expressed without hindrance at the polls. My government feels that the transference of the center of political activity of Nicaragua to Washington would be detrimental to that govern- ment’s interests, and this government cannot therefore express its views re- garding any ticket.” Martinez Alone Barred. He adds that no candidate for the presidency “not prohibited from hold- ing such office by Article II of the treaty of peace and amity signed at | Washington on Feb. 7, 1923,” should be impeded from presenting his case to the electors. That is to say, no man but Martinez is barred. In spite of this the Nicaraguans re- member that bad luck has followed all leaders in their country, in the past 12 years, who were not the servants of the American bankers. Polish Foreign Minister Resigns. WARSAW, July 24.—Count Zamoy- ski resigned today from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Stanis- CLEVELAND, OHIO -MASS MEETING AT PUBLIC SQUARE SUNDAY, JULY 27, 1924, at 3 P. M. Speaker C. E. RUTHENBERG On Presidential Campaign Tour for the Workers Party SUBJECT: IMPERIALISM, WAR AND AMERICAN JUNKERISM War Against Capitalism is War Against War A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN law Thugutt, the leader of the Polish radical peasant party, “Wyzwolenie,” has been appointed in his place,