The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 4, 1924, Page 5

170,000 WORKERS HUNTING JOBS IN MASSACHUSETTS Only 28 Pet. of Plants Working Full Time BOSTON, Sept. 3.—More than 170, 000 wage earners employed in Massa- chusetts factories at the peak of the 1923 boom are out of a job today, ac- cording to the employment report of the state department of labor for July. The, report shows that em-+ ployment has fallen 25.6 per cent in 16 months. Down It Goes. The decrease in employment in the single month June to July amounted to 4.3 per cent, following a decline of 2,9 per cent between May and June. Average weekly earnings, however, showed a slight gain, rising from $22.80 in June to $22.88 in July. In July, as compared with June, there were decreases in 22 of the 36 industries covered by the report while compared with July, 1923, every one of the 9 major groups of industries showed a material reduction in force. Decreases by industries were: cotton goods 37 per cent, boots and shoes 25 per cent, woolen and worsted goods 15% per cent, foundries and machine shops 28’per cent, rubber products 24 per cent, dyeing and finishing textiles 2h per cent, electrical apparatus 31 per cent, printing and publishing 5 per cent and paper manufacture 16 per cent. 28 per cent Operate Full Time. Of the 854 establishments reporting to the department only 28 per cent Were operating full time and full ca- pacity. A total of 37 establishments were reported idle, 11 of which were in the cotton industry and 6 in the boot and shoe industry, In the boot and shoe industry"17 out of 121 plants were operating full time and full ca- pacity, in cotton goods 7 out of 48, in men’s clothing 8 out of 30, in wo- men’s clothing 4 out of 21, in foundry work 5 out of 27, in machine shops 11 out-of 37, and-in woolen mills 6 out of 38. The report shows the average earn- ings of male workers as $27.21 a week and of female employes “at $15.33. SAN FRANCISCO TYPOS RECEIVE 9 DOLLAR RAISE Double Time Pay is Provided For (By Federated Press.) SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 3.—Effec- tive August 1, 1924, San Francisco members of Typographical union No. 21 have been receiving an increase of $5 a week over the old job scale. Sitting as impartfal chairman of an arbitration board, Judge Frank R. Devlin increased the basic wage scale for compositors in the commercial shops from $46 to $51 a week. This brings the pay of the San Francisco compositor to practically the level of the Chicago wage scale, and $2 less than New York. 47 Weeks of Work, Among the points stressed in the opinion was the fact that because of holidays, vacations, unemployment end sickness, 47 weeks pay represents ® fair estimate of the average earning wapacity of a printer in job shops. The facts presented before the board of arbitration showed excessive overtime in some of the shops, and it was there- fore ordered that after three hours of overtime, double time be paid, instead of time and a half as hitherto, H. P. Melnikow, director of the La- bor Bureau, Inc., presented the ‘case for the San Francisco union. Vote Communist This Time! New Hampshire Soil . Tillers Make $293 A Year | for Toiling (By Federated Press.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 3.—Fifty- seven farmers in New Hampshire kept an accurate account of their expenses and income in the year ending April 1, 1922, for the State College, and they averaged an income of $700 on an vestment of $8,140, after paying e: penses. Deducting interest on the in- vestment at 5 per cent, they recived $293 each that year for their labor. Their average taxes, deducted as ex-' pense, were $150, or 34 per cent of the labor income and taxes combined, Compare this with the federal tax on other incomes, or with the Massa- chusetts tax of 6 per cent on income from intangible property. Subscribe for “Your Daily,” the poy WORKER. Low WAGES AND LONG HOURS IN SOUTHERN TEXTILE PLANTS ARE MENACE TO WORKERS IN NORTH By LELAND OLDS. (Federated Press dustries made by the Women’s of labor. of the health and strength of women to the limit of endurance. More than half the women covered by the investigation, were working 10 hours or more a day, while only a scant one-twelfth worked a regular day of eight hours or less. More than 60 percent of these women were scheduled to work 55 hours or more a week with 13.2 percent working in exeess of 60 hours. On the other hand only one-eighth worked 48 hours or less per week. $8.80 a Week The typical weekly wage was $8.80. This represents the price at which Alabama employers value wage earn- ing women in the state, the price for which they expect to purchase all the energy that a woman can put into 55 hours or more of work. It means in the neighborhood of 16c an hour. This situation appears to be typical of the textile industry in the south for by far the largest group of women studied were employed either in cot- ton’ mills, yarn factories or in the manufacture of knit goods. 3 industries the women received re- specively $8.70, $7.60 and $6.85 a week. These wages represents the situation in Dec., 1922, when the last industrial boom was getting under way and are fairly representative of the present situation. No Hours Limit The report emphasizes the lack of legislative protection which makes this exploitation of women possible as follows: “Alabama is one of 5 states in which there is no limit to the hours which women may work either in one day or in a week; it is one of 32 states in which there is no re- gulation of night work; there is no provision for setting a minimum amount below which wages for a full week's work may not fall; there are practically no regulations in regard to plant working conditions, and it is one of 6 states in which there is no law providing for the pensioning of mothers.” These legislative provisions for the protection of women have been secured only where organized labor has been powerful enough to exert pressure. Legislatures completely dominated by the employing class do not provide any such restrictions on the right of the boss to the last ounce of the wage earner’s strength. And today in the textile industry there is great danger that the conditions won by organized ‘labor in the north will be undermined by the competition of the south. The cotton mill interests appear to be moving their productive equipment from New England to states where they can work women long hours for low wages, leaving work- ers in the north without employment. It is just another phase of the open shop drive which aims at creating a class of submissive industrial serfs of the industrial barons. Movie Operators of New York Win Demand For 5 Pct. Increase NEW YORK, Sept. 2.—Five percent increase in wages and the two-shift day have been won by the Moving Picture Operators’ Union, Local 306, on the eve of their threatened strike. A two-year agreement was signed with the Vaudeville Managers’ Asso- ciation, which controls many of the big movie houses, providing for an- other five percent increase Sept. 1, 1925. The two shifts between 11 a. m. and 11 p. m.-are six hours each, les- soning considerably the danger to op- erators from continued confinement in small projection roams where gas, particularly the deadly carbon monox- ide, is generated. Vote Communist This Time! New Ambassador to Mexico Will be a Good Papa to Oil (By The Federated Press) NEW YORK, September 3.—James R. Sheffield, rich corporation lawyer, just appointed ambassador to Mexico says, in effect, that he will regard him- self there as special agent for the big American oil concerns. He does not say this in so many words. He merely announces that he will continue the policies of formér ambassador Warren. Sheffield will not sever his connec- tions with the law firm of Betts, Bent- ley, Sheffield and Betts, while he is ee eed ert Bl ae absence.” Vote Communist This Time! In these |; Industrial Editor) The bitter cry of exploited women wage earners in the south rises from the pages of a report on Women in Alabama in- bureau of the U. S. department The report shows that the employing class when un- checked by the power of organized labor will grind profits out Perovic wine Tarot cae ta Resins WIE EN Your Union Meeting FIRST THURSDAY, SEPT. 4, 1924, Name of Local and Place of Meeting vo Printing bao yeaa 59 E. Van Buren St., 6 Amal. Clothing Work Ae * 408 s. Halsted St. Boiler Makers, 2040 w. North Ave. Boot and Shoe, 1939 Milwaukee AY Boat and Shoe Wkrs., 10258 Michi- No. Bek’ and Clay, Soman im. Brick and He lenview, 12's Ashland Blvd. 6416 S. Halsted St. 1440 Emma — Chicago 11037 Ogden and Kedzie. w. ly h Carpent “4 Michig Ave. * 4507 Ogden Ave. 7475 Dante Ave. 9223 Houston Ave. ors, Victoria Hotel. 429 Firemen and Enginemen, 38th and Campbell Sts., 7:45 8; m. 269 Hod Carriers, South Chicago, 3101 E. 92nd St. 25 59 E. Van Buren St. 60 s, City Hall, Hearing 18 Garment Workers, 328 W. Buren St, 54 La Garment Workers, 1214 N. land Ave. 100 La " Garment Workers, 328 W. Van Buren Si 12 bay ron Workers, 810 W\ Harrison Str Moulders, 119 $. Throop St. Painters District Council, 1446 W. Adams St. Painters, Dutt’s Hall, Chicago He: Piano and Organ Workers, 180 W. Washington. @ Plumbers, Monroe and Peoria Sts. ), Monroe and Peo Railway Carmeu, 1259 Cornell St. pay oor Carmen, 75th and Drexel venu Railway Carmen, 1900 W. 17th St. maliway Clerks, 549 W. Washing- 281 515 724 1082 Railway Clerks, 8i one: ign Hangers, gh ge! 8138 Commercial 810 W. Harrison Signalmen, 6236 Princeton Ave. bite Tile Roofers, 1224 Mily stage Employes, Masonic Temple, utters, 1 180 W. Saree fcoypile », 80'S eq Raita ig ig hag 5 rs, 180 W. VWeshiagtan je Emp., 166 W. Washing- (Note—Unless otherwise stated all meetings are at 8 p. m.) Miner, Too Old to Work, Kills Self When Penniless HERRIN, IIL, Sept. 2—Too old to work, in debt and penniless, forced to live on the charity of his fellow min- ers themselves out of work, Stanley Lucas, of 916 South 16 Street, has killed himself by taking ether. Joseph Gestautas, with whom Lucas lived, said, “Lucas and I have been batching together for two years. Stan- ley is a Lithuanian. He was 64 years old. I gave him money most every pay day. I found Lucas laying on the ground outside the house. Near the body I found a can which had con- tained ether. “In Stanley’s trunk I found a letter telling me to pay his store bill and some other debts.” Lucas is survived by a wife, four girls and two boys, who live in East St. Louis. Not a Single New York Union Stands For Cal or Davis (By Federated Press.) NEW YORK, Sept. 3.—Asrthe polit: ical campaign turns into September not a single local union of the .multi- tude of labor organizations represent: ing the 700,000 organized workers of Greater New York has given its in- dorsement to Calvin Coolidge, who says he broke the Boston police strike, nor John W. Davis, who prosecuted the United Mine Workers in the fa- mous Coronado case and represents the House of Morgan. If Coolidge and Davis consider themselves friends of labor, the friendship seems to be pure- ly one sided in this metropolis. onteeenitntinininptaain Ex-Labor Head Dies. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29.—John O. Walsh, past president San Fran- cisco Moulde: union, and for the last few months head of the labor bu- reau, Federal Board for Vocational Training, died suddenly of heart dis- ease, at the age of 68. Walsh was at one time president of the San Fran- cisco Board of Supervisors, and had been active in labor circles for many years, —~ ARE YOU OBTAINING YOUR BUN- DLE OF THE DAILY WORKER and CAMPAIGN LEAFLETS to distribute when you are out getting signatures to petitions? Order campaign leaflets from the Campaign Manager thru your branch. ’. i CANADIAN STEEL WORKERS MOVING AGAINST ‘BESCO' Toilers on Verge of Starvation SYDNEY, Nova Scotia, Sept. 3.—} The steelworkers of Sydney are again stirring with rebellion against Besco, The British Empire Steel Corporation. A year ago this corporation bitterly fought the Sydney steel workers when they made an effort to raise their liv- ing standards by going on strike. Lewis Betrayed Workers. Besco broke the steel workers’ strike by violence, bringing in troops and provincial police, inflaming them with rum and anti-red propaganda, and sending them out to ride down and bludgeon unarmed men and Help- less women and children. It was then the coal miners of this province came to the aid of the steel workers, call- ing out @ the miners, who are also employees of Besco. Then John L. Lewis, president United Mine Work- ers of America, ordered the miners back to work, deposed their district officers, and established a temporary organization of District 26 of the U. M. W. of A. After the miners went back the steel workers’ struggle was hopeless and those who stayed out until it was seen that the strike was broken were brutally blacklisted and hounded, hun- dreds of the most active being forced to leave the country. Held Together. The intimidation praticed against those who remained was terrible but in spite of it a few held together their +|union organization. Last winter these workers seceded from the American Federation of Labor and held togeth- er as an independent organization. Now Besco has itself struck. The corporation has shut down the steel plant for three months and left the Sydney workers to sturve, as the steel Plant is practically the only industry in this city, Sydney is already in the first stage of starvation. The little business people who last year sided with Besco against the strikers are feeling the pinch that comes when those workers have no wages to spend. Scabs Repent. The workers who slunk back into the plant while the strike was on last year are now repenting of their folly and the town has been stirred with more agitation than it has known since the strike time a year ago. Besco is giving evidence of being much worried by the revival of organ- ization in Sydney and the two cor- poration controlled daily papers here are fuming in their attacks. It is being charged that the steel plant lockout is only part of a con- spiracy to cut the wages of the Nova Scotia coal miners and altho the min- ers are handicapped by the control of their district organization by the pro- visional officers of John L. Lewis there are signs of an awakening among them. Steel Tract in Australia Same as in America (By Federated Press.) SYDNEY, New South Wales, Sept. 3.—The steel trust is trying to intro- duce the 12-hour shift system in their mills at Newcastle, New South Wales. The unionists refuse to work the long- er shifts and a big industrial fight is pending. The Labor Council of New South Wales, at Sydney, and the Industrial council at Newcastle have entered the fight, supporting the unionists and calling upon all workers at the mills to fight the 12-hour shift principle and stand fast for the 8-hour day. Lithuanian Workers Buy Home. CHICAGO, Sept. 2—The Lithuani- an Workers’ Educational society is re- modeling a $20,000 Chicago home for its activities. The home will house Vilnis, the Lithuanian workers’ semi- weekly published in Chicago, with a job printing plant, a reading room and library, a workers’ education enter- prise and the other labor activities of the society. SENATOR FLETCHER OF FLORIDA USED TO BE A LIBERAL ONCE; NOW RIDES THE BIG MONEY TIDE By LAURENCE TODD. (Federated Press Staff Correspondent) WASHINGTON, Sept. 3.—How perfect is the defensive har- mony existing between Coolidge presidential campaign year, whenever the economic involved, is illustrated by Senator Fletcher, of Florida, a liberal democrat but recently and Davis reactiona , in this nerve is formerly fight conspicuous for his bitter against the child labor amendment. Fletcher issued from his office, “for immediate release” to the press on Aug. 22, a statement rejoicing in the fact that the North Carolina legislature had, in its senate, refused to ratify the child labor proposal. He called attention to the fact that the North Carolina legislature had then amended the state law “so that it will be hereafter impossible for anyone under 14 years of age to engage in gainful occupation.” He as- serted that this showed “the determi- nation of the state to free itself from all accusations regarding the exploit- ation of child labor.” Denies Child Labor. Then he proceeds to quote the au- thor of this state law as saying that only 66 boys under 14 years are now working, under certificates, in the cot- ton mills in North Carolina, and he states that this new law “makes pos- session by the employe of a working certificate from the state commission prima facie evidence of compliance with the law on the part of the em- ployer.” He denies that. any large number of children under 14 years are employed in the cotton mills of the south, and he quotes as his chief authority Sen. Wadsworth of New York, who is the northern champion of reaction on this issue. Fletcher used to be friendly to la- bor legislation in Congress. Then Miami and Palm Beach and St. Peters- burg and Orlando and a few other Florida towns were discovered by mil- lionaires from the north. Money be- gan to pour into his poverty-stricken state. It came faster and faster. The winter sun became Florida’s fortune. Fletcher discovered the millionaires and they discovered him. Fletcher became conservative. Business must be safeguarded against radical pro- posals. ~ Recall Tabert Murder, When the barbarous murder of a North Dakota war veteran by a coun- ty convict whipping boss in Florida aroused a storm all over the coun- try, last year, the impression was giy- en that Florida would take this.occa- sion to prove herself willing to en- force constitutional rights. Here was a boy arrested on a fake charge, vir- tually kidnapped and sold into slavery in a Florida camp, and flogged until he died. The whipping boss was con- victed of second-degree murder, but now the state supreme court has giv- en him a new trial. Nobody expects to see him given a long sentence, even if he is again convicted. And not a word from Fletcher or Sen. Trammell or any Florida congressman who has fought the child labor amendment in the name of state rights. So with this North Carolina legisla- tion, towhich the Florida senator points with so much pride. He knows that it is fake legislation, since it does not make the employer responsible, once the child gets a working certificate by any means. He knows the state offi- cial machinery will not enforce this law, because the mill interests that control the state government do not want it enforced. He knows that fed- eral inspectors, operating under a fed- eral law, would get enforcement. And he knows that his figures on the num- ber of child workers in cotton mills in North Carolina is utterly out of keeping with federal reports on that subject. Fletcher On New Tide. But Fletcher is riding the new poli- tical tide of Big Money in Florida. He thinks it good politics to be as pitiless as Jim Wadsworth, on child labor. Later on, he will assail other “ex- treme” measures put forward by the progressives in the senate, and will find the support of the Floriga win- ter colony more and more congenial. Applaud Attacks on Klan. SCHENECTADY, N. Y., Sept. 3.— Speeches attacking the Ku Klux Klan drew unrestrained applause from the delegates to the New York State Fed. eration of Labor convention. UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRICKS “+ COAL MERGER I$ SEEN AS ATTEMPT TO BREAK UNION invade Ulincis Field for Wage Cutting HUNTINGTON, W. Va., Sept. 2.- Two hundred and fifty mines in the Tug River, Windy Gulf, and Rainy River regions of West Virginia, with an aggregate capacity of 1,189,000 tons of coal a month, are about to consoli- date into a huge coal combine, hav- ing applied for the necessary docu- ments here. The purpose of the merger is an- nounced “the initiation of a drive for business thruout the organized Illi- nois coal mining districts and a drive | , to take over the business of the un- ion competitive coal fields.” Salesmen have already invaded coal camps in Christopher, Marion and other Southern Illinois coal towns and are offering to sell coal, delivered | to business men in these towns more; cheaply than it can be bought from the mines working in these towns. Backed By Wall Street. This new merger is thought to be another attempt of the coal trust, con- trolled by Wall Street bankers, to re- duce wages in Southern Illinois. The, men announceg as inspiring the merg- er are Samuel A. Scott, general man- ager of the New River and Pocahon- tas Coal company, with headquarters at McDonald, W. Va., and Van H. Manning, former director of the bu- reau of mines, and H. F. Randolph mining engineer. 250 properties are included in the consolidation, which has established headquarters in Pitts- burgh, Pa. The seeming leaders of the merger claim Wall Street bankers are not in- terested, but it is rumored the hand of J. P. Morgan effected the consoli- dation. St. Louis Charity Reports 47,000 in Jobless Condition ST™“LOUIS, Mo., Sept. 2—Homeless and jobless men are increasing in this city by leaps and bounds, In the last six months over 47,000 homeless and jobless workers have been forced to eat supper and sleep at Amity #Hall, 310 Market St., the director, Joshua P, Solven reports. The charitable institution is unable to do much for the penniless men of | St. Louis. The work of the institution |is carried on at a cost of only five cents @ person, according to the di- rector. Over 200 persons are taken care of every night whom the unem- streets, Defense Day in Indiana. WARSAW, Ind., Sept. 3.—Hundreds of young fellows in Warsaw and Kos ciusko counties are enrolling as De- fense Day Volunteers on enlistment blanks on file at Warsaw stores and other business places. Volunteers be- tween the ages of 18 and 31 are being enrolled as “potential soldiers,” Hatmakers’ Strike Won. ORANGE, N. J., Sept. 3.—The Hat- makers’ Union of Orange has won its Strike against a group of manufactur: ers who promise not to send'any more work out of town hereafter. Four hundred workers were affected. ‘The strike lasted two weeks. Join the Workers Party! ployment crisis has forced out on the | USE IMMIGRANTS TO SLICE WAGES OF CANADALABOR Bosses in Dastardly Scheme By SYDNEY WARREN (Staff Correspondent of The Fed, Press) VANCOUVER, B. C., Sept, 3.—The wholesale dumping of immigrants from all quarters of Europe, but more especially the British Isles, is serious- ly undermining the labor movement of western Canada and trades union- ists and others are trying to prevent the cheap immigration schemes now being promoted by the big business interests of Canada. Letters and news- paper articles setting forth the truth about Canadian working conditions and the chances of an immigrant without capital making good on the land are being sent to English news- papers. Three Men—One Job, Due to the shortage of the wheat crop on the prairies this year, very few harvesters will be required, yet the employment offices of eastern Canada and the Pacific coast are call- ing for thousands of men to go to the prairies to work the harvest. These men are required to pay their own fare and often when arriving at the harvest find that there are three men for one job and as a result they are left stranded to shift for themselves as best they are able. Many of these men finally drift back to the coast for the winter and their | presence in numbers is used to further reduce wages in the unskilled indus- tries of the province such as mill {and construction work. Last winter the stranded British immigrants were the means of breaking the strike of the longshoremen, who held out for some eight weeks and finally were forced to disband their organization and be hired thru the shipping bosses’ employment bureau. Fooling Immigrants. At the present time the Canadian Pacific railway has immigration agents thruout Europe trying to induce im- migrants to spend their savings with the steamships and railways of the company in the hope of seeking their | fortunes in Canada, ED. 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