The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 23, 1924, Page 5

i] Thursday, October 23, 1924 "STANDARD OIL |F ighting f for Jobs at Czar Gary’s Steel Mills TYRANNY RULES AT WHITING, IND. Labor Slaves for JohnD. at Pauper Wages By JACOB RUSAK, (Special to The Daily Worker) GARY, Ind., Oct. 22.—The Standard Oil company, with its huge refinery in Whiting, is tak- Ing drastic measures to exploit the workers to the limit and get the most work out of the young girls who slave there at paup- er's wages. * I talked to many male and female workers at the plant, and they all have hard luck stories to tell: Partners of “John 0D.” The average wage of the male ‘workers is 50 cents and of the female 25 cents an hour. The bosses are spreading propaganda that the work- ers should “become a partner of John D. Rockefeller and buy a share of stock in the Standard Oil. “This Keops them satisfied with their low wages, until they get wise, and keeps them working their heads off to get & “share of the profits.” The Standard Oil company makes the workers join a “union” but it is the company union, | organized .and controlled by the officials of the com- yany. The workers have nothing to say as to what their hours and wages. shall be, or what working conditions shall be like. The company does the dictating and not the workers. Some of the girls told me they work so hard and fast for their measly. thirty-five cents an hour, that when they come home from work they drop fnto bed without eating any supper; One girl said, “We've got to work on @ schedule and every girl must pro- duce a certain number candles per : By KARL R REEVE. (Staff Writer, Daily Worker.) GARY, Ind., Oct. 22—Every morning at 7 o’clock, from one to three thousand unemployed workers gather in the chilly dawn before the gates of the United States Steel corporation and try to sell themselves in re- turn for food. Inside the employment office sits a tall, beefy man with a baggy gray coat, and slouchy pants, reading a newspaper. This is Mr. Egeberg, terrorizing employment agent, who holds destiny of thousands of workers in his uncouth paw. The God of the Mills. Many are the terrible tales whis- pered. from one. worker to another about this god of the, mills, as they cower in the icy air. ‘‘He’s in there now, warming himself, He wants to wait until we get the guts frozen out of us, then. we'll be willing. to work for his lousy forty-four cents an hour,” whispers a Spanish I. W. W. member to his companion. “You can’t put. anything over on Egeberg,” whispers another steel worker, spitting tobacco juice. “He looks you thru and thru.. Do you know why he has that job, with its fat salary? Hgeberg never forgets a face. If a worker {8 fired from the mills for talking unionism or belong- ing to a radical party, he never gets re-hired.., All-new employes pass thru Egeberg’s .hands, and-he weeds out the rebels.” schedule of work, mapped out by the boss. “They allow us 3 minutes every three hours to go to wash rooms, and if we stay away any longer we are given a red card which means a bad mark against us,” another young girl told me. “When a girl receives three of these red eads-she is fired. I would rather. go to prisoh than slave here, but ‘what can I Go? There”are no Standard O11.” .” Fill Library With Trash The largé library maintained at day, in the candle making . depart-| Other factories {p Whiting besides the ment, or she is fired. The foreladies| Whiting by the Standard Oi! company fare on a constant watch over us and|is filled with capitalist magazines and ‘awe aren’t ever allowed to talk to each| trashy middle class books, Only those gee during working hours, altho we|books that poison the minds of the ind only a foot apai “Worle” | workers:“are” perntited rar this library; The girl who told me this has been in| There is not one book dealing with the employ of the company four years.|the everyday problems of the work- Never Got An Increase ers.. Each.employe of the company is No matter how long a girl works forced to give $5 to $10 of his wages for the Standard Oil company she|to the upkeep of the commiinity house never gets an advance “When we are hired they tell us there in wages.|run by the company. Altho the workers have already is always a chance for advancement,”| paid for this beautiful house several this candle maker said.” “They tell us| times over, they are. not permited to ‘we can become foreladies or super-jrun any affairs of their own there. wisors if we only work hard enough,| The company rins all and comply] entertainments, and makes sure that and behave ourselves, dances and with the rules and regulations of the|the profits go to feeding more poison- company. I've worked here for four|ous propaganda’ about the Standard years and every time it was my turn|QOil to the employes. If anyone re- to be advanced I was transfered to. an-| fuses to contribute his five or ten dol- other department with; the excuse) lars, he is immediately’ discharged. that the previous ‘Blackening down. department was I am so tired of No Aid for Injured I talked to one worker whose son waiting to be promoted, that I have/fell down and broke his back, costing given up all hope.” the Standard Oil employe $6.000 in The female employes are not per-| doctors bills and expenses to send the mitted to go to the wash rooms dur-|lad away to a better climate. they' worker was forced to bring his boy ing working hours, because el get behind in “their regular HAMMOND INDIANA HARBOR GARY SOUTH BEND SOUTH BEND Election Campaign Meetings “Mother” Bloor Sunday Evening, -October 26 K. of P. Hall, Homan and Ogden Ave. 7:30 P. M. Saturday, October 25, 7 Roumanian Penn Ave. and Mitcasiponess! m Sunday, October 26, 2 P. M. Publi Uilvury Acsiibosions -» Sth and ‘Adams Sts." y, October 27, 8 P. M. “315 So. Michigan St. NN Max. Bedacht Tumeday, October 31,8P/M. =, The back for lack of funds. As soon as P.M. Union |. WE DELIVER ——— Aateatinwes THE: DATUY ht hath A a aS ‘Special Indiana Communist Election Campaign Page “They say he is backed by the Ku Klux Klan,” says a Negro worker in awed ‘tones. “And he always carries two guns with him wherever he goes.” “Yes, I had a job here two years ago,” chimes in an Italian laborer. “Egeberg took me into his office, pulled out a gun from his hip-pocket, laid it on his desk, and started to swear at me, ‘Son of a bitch’ was the mildest he called me. I couldn't say a word. I hadn’t had a square meal in two days and needed that job. Egeberg told me if he ever caught me at a radical meeting, or heard me talking unionism, I could collect my time next day. I said ‘yes sir.’ I wanted that job.” Scene Not Imaginary. This is not an imaginary scene, but the real thing, in which the DAILY WORKER reporter took part, and all you have to do to hear awe-stricken whispers about Egeberg is to talk to the workers in the Gary steel mills. Egeberg visits all the Communist and radical public meetings, putting his phenomenal, memory to the test, and separating the goats from the sheep, finding out who are the docile slaves of the steel trust and who still have their manhood left in them. And here is another true scene in which the snarling watch dog of the steel trust took part. Two unemploy- ed Spansh wobblies were standing in front of the employment office gates reading a Spanish I. W. W. newspa- per. Egeberg rushed out, tore .the paper from the hands of one of the wobblies, kicked the other one, and yelled, “Get to hell out of here, with your I. W. W. literature. Go back to Page Five want to. You fellows are nothing but dam scoundrels and the Communists are still worse.. Do you know what I do with men that belong to the I. W. ‘W. and the Workers Party? I take them by the ear and kick them to hell out of here, and they'd better not come back again if they don't want to serve time.” Asked About Their Membership. Every clerk in the employment of- ice is instructed to ask the applicant for a job if he belongs to a union, to the I. W. W. or the Workers Party, and if he does, the unemployed worker is kicked into the street. This Egeberg has able assistants inside the mills. A worker who was seen by his foreman, Matt McCor- mick, readng a DAILY WORKER in the 10’ I” merchant mills, was im- mediately discharged, this week. The cn go back to where you came from if you want a revolution. This country is for Americans only, but if the for- eigners and Negroes behaved them- selves we'd let them stay here,” I have snooped around the steel mills quite a bit in the last few weeks After several failures I succeeded’ in eluding tle chief watchgog, Egeberg, and his 189 snarling, private police as- sistants, and went into the steel mills. I, watched the steel workers, thru an entire afternoon, standing a few inches from the molten metal, undergoing the tortures of hell anfl the constant danger of horrible. death, for forty-four cents an hour. I was drawn to the steel mills be- cause I had read a lot about the “Ro- mance of Steel,” a phrase popularized by the biographer of Andrew Car- negie, and by Arundel Cotter who worker, who asked that his name be,wrote an “Authentic History of ‘the kept secret owing to fear of the black- list, bought the paper on the way to his work. McCormick, the roller bogs, after discharging the worker, warned the rest of the crew that any- jone bringing the’ DAILY WORKER into the mills would be fired at once. McCormick then went into a bitter tirade, and praised the Gary Post- Tribune, which is controlied by the steel trust. McCormick, under the heat of the moment, admitted he is a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and de- clared himself opposed to any radical paper. “I'll not have any of you damn Bol- shevike bringing a paper into the mills which is against the Ku Klux Klan,” , McCormick. bellowed, as the discharged worker started for his pay. Spain and start a revolution if you GOLDEN CALF IS THE GOD TODAY AND ONLY HATE FOR COMMUNISTS (Special to The DAILY WORKER.) KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 22-~ The heathen have descended on K. C. literally! years ago a christian mob in Alex- andria dragged Hypatia, a girl phil- osopher, to the temple of their god, United States Steel Corporation,” on steel trust money supplied to glorify the name of Elbert Gary. But what romance did I find in these mills? The sweat of tortured bodies, the noise of steam hammers’ whacking down the molten steel, and with it the lives of the workers, into profits for the steel trust. I found the “open hearths” which take the virgin fron ore, dug by workers out of. the ranges of Minnesota and transported across the lakes by other workers, into a flood of liquid gold for the steel barons. What is this “romance of steel,” which the capitalist prostitute writers glorify? Cotter’s history is supposed to be authentic. Let us hear him damn the steel trust with his, own “You damned hunkeys and Niggers | words. Indiana--A Nest of Corruption By JOSEPH M MANLEY. Campaign Manager, Workers Party. NDIANA, the hoosier state, is the embodiment of corruption in Ameri- can social and political life. It con- tains a plethora of incidents and in- Fifteen hundred | dividuals typifying the struggles of the workers against their masters, the capitalists, The senior, sgpator from Indiana, stripped her and tore her to pieces | Tom Watson, is the mouthpiece of the with their finger nails before the altar, “rls "Week we are having pag: | bor and the National Manufacturers’. Association. He is a.bitter enemy of organized la- generally. He is eants, parades and big balls staged | generally recognized as the senatorial by the Priests of Pallas and Pallas | voice in the senate of the otherwise Athene herself, In person. Christians propose to mob and out- Do the |dumb and silent Coolidge. Tom Taggart, Indiana’s democratic rage her as their fathers would? | boss, has made an enormous fortune Do they even protest? They do not. jout of his management of the demo- Their God Is the golden calf--and |cratic party in the state. the blasphemers they hate are the tial resort, Communists. His pala- French Lick Springs, where “prohibition never enters, has been the scene of many gabfests be the boy returned to ‘Whiting he grew| ‘tween its owner, the late Roger Sul- worse. This worker, who has for several years loyally given his fiv dollars every pay day to the upkeep of the community house, appealed to the committee in charge of it for aid. They bluntly refused, on the ground that all money collected must go to livan, George Brennan, Charlie Mur- e phy and the inner circle that bosses the democratic show, selling the votes of misguided workers to the highest bidder. A sample of political corruption in Indiana can be cited in the case of “ »|Governor McCray, now serving five “the welfare of the community house. Nor could the worker get any help|¥®#" at Atlanta penitentiary, for mis- from the Standard Oil company for which he had slaved so long. One of the officials of the company |... told this father it would be useless to send the boy away as he probably ful would not recover anyhow. Savings Stolen From Them. appropriation of funds and using the mails to defraud the bankers. Had he been guilty of defrauding the work- he might not be in Atlanta, but would perhaps have been a success: senatorial candidate. His crime was, that he cheated on his own class. Indiana’s largest city, Indianapolis Three bankers in Whiting, Schroll,| houses the national headquarters of Smith, and Davis, own practically all|the largest trade unions in the coun- the land in Whiting, and if is rumored /try. Millions of dollars from these that these bankers have connections | workers’ organizations pass thru the with the Standard Ofl company. Tlie | banks of this leading open shop town. only way a worker can build a house/It was an Indianapolis judge, Ander- is to see one of these three bankers. |son, who sent the McNamara brothers First they are exploited and plun-/and the other officials of the Structur- dered of their energy by the Standard | al Iron Workers’ Union to the pomiten- \jimtitiittiititiuitiititintintsntunrntinnsveniisnintep {uranic Oil barons, then their savings are robbed from them by the land shark- bankers, and by the combined force of the Chamber of commerce of Whit- ing. Open Forum, Sunday Night, Lodge Room, Ashiand Auditorium. Vote Communist This Time! The Workers’ Friend |, MITTERMAYER DEALER IN°MEATS AND GROCERIES 902 W. INDIANA AVENUE SOUTH BEND, IND. Main 5482 Davidenas & Janalis 5006 BARING AVENUE EAST CHICAGO, IND, Fancy Grocery and Meat Market It’s a Pleasure to Deal With PASKIN” Dry Goods, Shoes, Ladies’ and Gents’ . tons of ingots and ten million tons of | He tells of the romance in the founding of Gary in 1906. “In 1906 |the U. §. Steel corporation’s fur- jnaces,” Cotter writés, “poured out |11,267,377 tons of pigiron while its| |steel plants produced over 13,000,000 | finished material the year amounted to $69 the net profits $156,624, “The. corporation’s capital is $1 404,000,000, The interest on this sum | jwould keep 35,000 American familie: in comfort without touching the capi tal.” The J. P. Morgan interests; the Car- negie interests; the Rockefeller inter- ests; Elbert H. Gary and his satellites jare the ones who, bathing their hands in ‘the gold pieces poured out of th steel mills fo them ‘by the life bloo of the workers, find romance in stee! “The majority of the steel worker: collapsed early under strain and were thrown on the human scrap pile, their vitality sapped and their youth gone, writes Cotter of’ the time of the found- The gross sales of | 56,962 and SUUOUANASANANATUACUOOM HAASAN SAM RODIN Cut Rate GROCERY STORE We invite everyone to visit our store and compare our prices with others, e ling of the steel trust. “Under the ‘most. .favorable conditons the steel |mill is far from being a drawing room.” |..Amd Bgeberg, backed by the col- }losal fortune of the steel trust, backed |by the thugs, the newspapers, the |chamber of commerce and the control of the workers’ job, browbeats, fires, slugs-and beats the rebel worker. izing thes his is. the historically rising | when the workers will take over the industries, and Egeberg and his mas- ters are themselves thrown on the hu- man refuse heap. tiary. It was the same Judge Ander. son from this noble state, who granted the famous injunction against the min- ers, who, have their headquarters in Indianapolis, tying up their funds and abridging their rights to strike. Indiana is the home of Eugene V. Debs. The same Debs who formerly fought for the workers and who now) finds himself in the camp of LaFol-| lette and his kind, whom Debs, in his Chinese Appreciate Sympathy of Soviet. . ‘Rule in Red Russi: (By Rosta News Agency) MOSCOW, Oct. 22. — In an inter- view granted to a correspondent of the Nesta News Agency regsrding the in uadaiion in Chita, Mr. Li Chia-no #ated that he was most thankful to the Soviet government for he sym vathy expressed and its willingness to come to the relief of the Chinese people; “My gevernment”—said the Chinese presentative—“has charged me. to vonvey its - gtatitude to the -Soviet government for the latter’s sympathy. which is a token of the deep teel- ing of love of the governments end peoples of the Union of Soviet Re publics for the Chinese nation.” Ce TUTTI LIL TL THE STAR TAILOR Gent’s Furnishing Store 1080 COLUMBIA AVENUE HAMMOND, IND. Phone 753 early militant days so vigorously de- nounced. Into the midst of Indiana's politi- cally corrupt struggle.is projected the candidacy of the Communist standard bearers, William Z. Foster, and Ben. jamin Gitlow. Republican, democrat- ic and LaPFolletté politicians can well be alarmed by the first Commmnist election campaign and its program now being spréad broadcast by the Workers Party. The Workers Party and its candidates, Foster and Gitlow, appeal to the workers in the steel mills,.coal. mines, and factories of In- jana to recognize their real class in- terests and ignore the glib phrases of the Indianapolis labor leaders, Lewis, Hutcheson and their kind.| The Work- ers Party is laying the foundation for & mass Communist movement in In- diana that will be a complete answer to the corruption of the parties that Protect the interests of the Indiana Capitalists. Thousands of workers in the hoosier state have their first op- portunity to vote Communist. DAVID RYMER Grocery and Market 226 CLEVELAND STREET MISHAWAKA, IND. oo! Tel. Mish. 281 STII ILO LT Demand the Union. Label on All Your PRINTING, and Patronize *GARMAN’S East Chicago Printery 521 Chicago Ave., East Chicago, Ind. And the rebel worker, dumbly real-| class, bides his time, awaiting the day | 416 Howard Street SOUTH BEND, IND. STITT CUEASEEUGUE NNEC H HT FREE EXAMINATION AND CONSULTATION We Specialize in Nervous Disor- ders, Acute and Chronic Venereal Diseases. Call today. Drs. Porter & Doolittle SPECIALISTS 108 South Michigan SfPeet South Bend, Ind. Office Hours: 9 A. M. to 8 P, M. Sundays and Holidays: 9 to 12 M. Volga Restaurant 1585 BROADWAY Gary, Ind. 5, WOLVOSKY MEN’S AND BOYS’ CLOTHING GENT’S FURNISHINGS AND SHOES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY 428 S. Chapin Street SOUTH BEND, IND. Phone Main 5086 Serer Compliments of C. P. GROCERY AND MEAT MARKET | 1402 LINCOLN WAY Phone: Mis. 361-J MISHAWAKA, IND. the DAILY WORKER. Subscribe for “Your Daily,” THE CAMPAIGN FUND CAMPAIGN! \ Ten dollars collected by each member Galtecting campaign funds m: SAM BOORDA The West Side Leading Merchant again offers to the public of South Bend these amazing bar gains which cannot be duplicated in any other store. We have a complete stock for the entire family Men’s $2.50 ribbed Union pte good weight, now Men’s work Sox, special, 9c pair. now Men’s $2.50 work Pants, now $1.48, Men's dress Shoes, val- ues up to $6.00, now $2.98. Men’s “Buster Brown” work Shoes, $3.50 value, now $1.98. Men’s $3.50 value wool Union Suits, now $1.88, $5.00 8; sr Sweater, spe- cial, $2. Men’s chambray work Shirts, $1.00 value, at 69c. Men’s $13.50 value Sheep- skin Coats, belt and four pockets, special now, $8.75, $5.00 Comforters, $2.98. Men’s $1.25 value Over- alls, at 79c, now 50c value, leather-faced Canvas Gloves, now 29¢ pair. 413 S. Chapin St. 1-2 Block South of Division St, uN RARE ED + i a