The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 2, 1924, Page 5

Tuesday, December 2, 1924 THE DAILY WORKER Page Five BRICKLAYERS IN UNIONS PROVE BEST WORKERS Do Better Work Than Non-Unionists By LELAND OLDs. (Federated Press Industrial Editor) You get more bricks laid per hour and your work will cost you less if you demand a straight union job in Chicago. This conclusion, which is a body blow to the pet argument of the open shoppers, is based on figures on labor productivity and costs in certain building trades gathered and published by the U. S. bureau of labor statistics, In Chicago this investigation covered 24 jobs involving the laying of nearly 400,000 bricks in straight- away wall construction. Of these bricks 150,149 were laid under strict union conditions, 130,500 on nonunion | jobs and 117,833 under Landis award; which is treated by the bureau as mix- ed union and nonunion. The number of bricks laid, the num- ber of hours paid for and the rate per hour on the job are shown {for each of the 24 jobs in the table: Job No. of Brick Hours Rate Union 13,680 91 $1.50) yi 12,960 104 1.50 | 2. 4,320 B2 1.50 zt 1,120 8 1.50 Ne 73,800 356 1.58 i 1,720 12 1.65 bey 2,412 10 1.65 mi 2,592 26 1.63 | ba 31,400 228 1.65, 8,375 17 1.50 . 3,040 15 1.50 Nonunion 5,500 86 1.50 ifs % 8,000 80 1.50 - 117,000 873 1.55) Landis award 4,156 24 1.50 i sd 4,563 37 1.60 ie ip 10,800 72 1.65 * es 4,125 16 1.50 } “ “ 3,240. 28 1.60 1d s 6,125 32 1.68 si = 4,300 30 1.60 * * 42,750 288 1.63 ay & 9,274 75 1.70 ‘ a 28,000 201 1.50 Scabs Make Poor Showing From these figures it appears that in 1923, when the investigation was made, bricklayers on union jobs laid 150,149 bricks in 898 hours for a total wage of $1,416.97. They averaged 167 bricks per hour with a wage cost $8.92 per 1000. In sharp contrast on nonunion jobs averaged 132 bricks per hour, laying 103,500 in 989 hours for a total of $1,526.88 in wages. The wage cost of nonunion jobs averaged $11.70 per 1000 brick or nearly $3 a 1000 more than union jobs. Similarly under the Landis committee bricklayers aver- aged 148 per hour at an average cost of $10.80 per 1,000, Ready important contributions as: “The Significance of the lections” By WM. Z. FOSTER, By BERTRA knecht, Harry Pollitt, Tom Mann, Subscription: $2.00 a Year 1113 W. Washington Bivd. For the enclosed $....ss MAA IE IN cin nae tnieniditedcineeieds The December Issue of The Workers Monthly Edited by Earl R. Browder, The second number of the greater magazine combining the Liberator, Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial includes such “Latin-America Prepares for Gompers” Other articles by C. E. Ruthenbe: SPLENDID LABOR CARTOONS by ELLIS, BALES, FANNING. the December Issue on the News Stands or Subscribe! Single Copy 25 Cents USE THIS BLANK THE WORKERS MONTHLY MONTHLY 08 sossssesesssssoeeeeeeees ONths, TAX REPORT REVEALS TERRIFIC EXPLOITATION OF LABOR IN WILLIAM MORGAN BUTLER’S TEXTILE MILLS By LELAND OLDs (Federated Press Who prospered under the brand of prosperity dispensed in the Harding- Coolidge regime? Corporation income tax returns uncovered in Massachusetts show that William Morgan Butler, head of the republican national machine and Cal’s political godfather, was among the chief beneficiaries. Butler’s New Bedford textile mills appear to have accumulated profits $25.20 and+ during 1923 at rates of $16.68 a share of common stock. Publication of income tax returns has given the public a glimpse of the profits being made by a number of textile companies whose financial re- ports have been studiously withheld. These are companies owned by a few wealthy families who probably are not anxious to have the contrast be- tween their christian professions and their cottonmill exploitation brought too glaringly to public notice. The profits of 9 of these concerns together with the income tax returns from which they are estimated are shown in the table: Textile Tax 1923 Per Company paid profits share American Felt $104,415 $800,000. $36.25 Sagamore Mfg. Co. 100,483 750,000 25.00 Soule Mills 65,.98 442,386 35.11 Quisset Mills 50,317 352,219 16.68 Boston Mfg. Co. 54,321 380,247 36.98 New Bedford Cotton Mills Corp. 44,229 309,603 25.20 Neild Mfg. Co. 31,399 219,793 18.31 Pierce Mfg. Corp. 24,301 170,128 28.35 Booth Mfg. Co. 21,108 147,756 11,20 The two Butler enterprises in this list are the Quisset Mills and the New Bedford Cotton Mills corporation. Without running down the profits of other Butler concerns it is apparent that the new senator from Massachus- etts was well supplied with cash with which to back his protective tariff can- didate for president. Women Supplant Men in Cigarmaking NEW YORK.—Women ‘are doing {most of the work in the cigar and cigarette plants of the United States, the committee on regional planning of New York and its environs, declares. Fifty-eight percent of the cigar and cigarette workers &re ‘women and girls compared to 19.6 per cent in other industries—that is, proportion- ately, three times as many women and girls as in other industries. The drift of the industry, ‘the*report shows, 1s away from the big cities to the small- er industrial communities where men are employed at other work—as in the coal towns—and their wives and daughters can be bought cheaply by the tobacco concerns. Ibanez Is Small Potatoes NEW YORK.—Experts from Alfon- so Unmasked, V. Blasco Ibanez’ new book against the Spanish monarch, which are being made public here do not indicate any wide sociaT conscious: ness in Ibanez’ rebelliousness. He sets out to prove that Alfonso was partial to the Germans during the war, not that he is hostile to the work- ers and tillers of the soil. Radical Spanish groups in New York point to the criticism he has made of wage earner’s revolts. What Ibanez wants is merely capitalist republicanism, Now! “Struggle for Unity in the World Labor Movement” By A. LOSOVSKY. D. WOLFE. Jack Lee, Alfred Wagen- Harrison George and others, and $1.25 Six Months Chicago, Illinois wwe Bend me THE WORKERS Industrial Editor) CLOTHING WORKERS IN CHICAGO COLLECT FUNDS FOR PATERSON STRIKERS Hyman Schneid of the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers of America turned in $22.50 for the benefit of the strikers in Paterson, New Jer- sey. He said the clothing workers of Chicago showed fine feeling of solidarity when they willingly made donations to assist the silk strikers. N. Botento turned in $13.30 for the strike fund and said that more would be coming next week. Workers everywhere are urged to make contributions to the Paterson Silk Workers’ strike. Send the money in to Room 303, 166 W. Washington St. Brindell, Building Trades Czar, on Eve Of Leaving Prison SING SING PRISON, New York, Dec. 1.—Robert P. Brindell, prize la- bor faker of the New York City build- ing trades and one of the pillars of Tammany Hall, is not finding it so hard as political prisoners do to get ‘out of the penitentiary. He will leave prisot the day after Christmas “on parole.” 7 Brindell was known as a “czar” in the building trades. The contractors did not mind having such crooks as Brindell controll the unions, as long as he controlled them for the con- tractors, but when he used his con- trol to gouge graft from contractors for. himself, they had him put away for three years as a lesson in deport- ment. * He is estimated to have cleaned up a million dollar fortune while in con- trol of the building trades unions, and now that he has learned his lesson of how to treat contractors, the state has released him with the understand- ing that hereafter he graft off the unions and not from the contractors. Labor Must Fight State Cossack Bill ~ in Next Legislature Another attempt of the employers| to push thru “military police bills” in the Illinois house and senate, pro- viding a constabulary which will be used as a strikebreaking agency in time of strikes is expected to be made state legislature, Henry\M. Dunlap, senator from Champaign who has already intro- duced three constabulary bills in the senate, all of which were defeated, and representative Howard P. Castle of Cook county, are expected to spon- sor the bill in the senate and house respectively. The previous bills introduced prov- ide for a military police force en- tirely free of local responsibility, under the control of a “commanding officer” known as “superintendent of the Illinois state police,” who is to be appointed for life. Members of the state constabulary, the proposed bill provides, are to have absolute power to make arrests, and to search, even without warrants. Overgaard to Speak At Detroit T. U. E. L. Meeting Sat., Dec. 6 DETROIT, Mich., Dec. 1—The De- triot Trade Union Educational League will hold its regular monthly meeting Saturday evening, Dec. 6, at 7 p. m. in the House of the Masses. Andrew Overgaard, who is in De- triot to assist in the establishment of the industrial policies of the party, will address the meeting on the “Les- sons of the El Paso A. F. of L, Convention.” Reports will be made on the activi- ties of the Metal Trades, Building Trades, and Auto Worker sections of the T, U. B. L. and further plans out- lined for broadening these activities This meeting should take prefer: ence over all other activities, Heave the Brick Back! PITTSBURGH, PA, DR. NICK DENTIST at the next session of the Illinois}; COAL COMPANY HEADS IGNORE CONSTITUTION Suits Their Needs NEW YORK, Dec. 1.—if a private citizen is set upon in a closed com- pany mining town and assaulted and | thrown into jail he can claim no dam- ages from the coal company which employs these thugs, a verdict in the Supreme Court of New York finds. Even though the lawlessness of the} assault were established by the con-| viction of the assailants in a court| of law and the unwarranted character | of the arrest of the thugs’ victim| proved by the local records showing | that he had been prompty discharged | it makes no difference to the New York Supreme Court. The coal com- pany is exonerated from blame and Payment of damages. Absolves Coal Company The decision in question absolves | the Vinton Colleries company, incor-| porated in New York, for responsib- | ilitysfor the assault and arrest of Ar-| thur Garfield Hays, prominent New York attorney, who made a test of the right of free speech in the gunman ruled town of Vintondale, Pennsyl- vania, May 27, 1922, during the big coal strike. 5, Hays went there representing the United Mine Workers that organ- izers were being unlawfully kept out of the town and union men beaten up. Seized By Gunmen Hays, other attorneys and news-| papermen visited the town and nar- rowly escaped being ridden down by! the dozen mounted coal and iron| police there,. On insisting on remain-| ing in the town fill.a justice of the peace had been seen relative to the! laws relating to free speech Hays and \ the writer, who represented the Fed-| erated Press were seized by the gun-; mem at the direction of Lloyd I. Ar- bogast. Coal Baron’s Judge After two and a half years Hays’ suit for $35,000 damages came before Judge William Harmon Black of the New York Supreme Court. The judge would not allow records of the gun- men’s conviction to be presented nor evidence as to the barring of visitors from the closed town. Black ruled also’ that; Hays; could claim no dam- age for the indignity of the arrest. The verdict means that this illegal- ly closed town—one of many—can continue.to fester as far as the court is coneerned. The case may be ap- New York and London Bankers Extend Credit ~ to.\German Railroads (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW. YORK, Dec. 1—Banking houses.idn New) York and London are credit amounting to 15 mil- to the German state rail- way company,a private company or- ganized in accordance with the Dawes plan to operate the railroads. ‘The money advanced is to be used for temporary working capital in or- i | Facts For Workers By JAY LOVESTONE. STANDARDS OF LIVING—UNITED STATES. Author of Buldget Wm. F, Ogburn, for Seattle-Takoma St. Ry. Arbitration Jessica B. Piexotto Wm. F. Ogburn, for the National War Labor Board Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research ........ Wm. F. Ogburn, for the United Mine Workers .... aaoes U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. High?” sums up the present condition of which they possessed in 1900. demands.” LETTER OF AN OLD port of his German comrades who suf- fer behind pfison walls. Nothing can deprive this ‘old fighter of his belief in victory and future. Let him be a shining example of devotion and solid- arity to all workers, men and women, |and-partieularly to the working clags}}, youth! Paris, Aug. 31, 1924. My dear Comrades:—I want to: say a few words to you to win your con- fidence,, I. arhj an old man of 68 years. During the war of 1870 I was 15 years old and since that time I live in France because I am an Elsacian. I have seen and experienced much in my youth d have learned and un- derstood, ii wi all human beings are equal aud ‘that all poor people are op- pressed whether they speak French, German or any other language. Communist Sun Shines Everywhere My confidence’ im, the future is great. -S0“years ago there was still a terriblé darkness in the world and today the Communist’ sun shines everywhere and its beams reach the most remote. ee. _ Byerywhere is struggle+-@ven in far off China. In England and France the Communist parties are growing. In the factory where I work many workers, join the Red Relief and col- lect money for the German children. On every pay day I take 50 to 60 der that the German railroads may be placed on a money-making basis. Three-quarters of the proceeds will go to the | 0 that is, to the bank- ers of the Allied countries, in whose control over this field of German in- ceeds goes to the German government. The financing of a private German railway company assures greater pro- fits and speedier payment of repara- tions for the Allied bourgeoisie, which is now in a position to lengthen the the right to maintain the proper or- der in the country—or, in other words, there must be no revolution of the working class since that might impair efficiency on the roads, Datane Ce Gast; Werhas fa 5 hands has been placed the complete ficult. But once the stone has fal- dustry, The remainder of the Pro-l brogress is slow in the beginning but workday and lower the wages of the/ in. horrible war was. an immense workers on these railroads. Moreover, | ,,, under the terms of the Dawes plan,| oo, people and which told them that the directors of German industry have the capitalists have deceived us all jfrancs to the Red Relief. The Red | Relief is international. We want to support the oppressed and inspire them. with hope, The beginning of all things is dif- len, it falls more and more quickly. gets quicker and quicker later on, In the last war the eyes of many people have been opened. The im- mense slaughter has made clear to the oppressed what» Karl Marx taught. Many poor devils cannot read, but ik which was understood by all the time. Thus have become brothers. Moscow the Capital of the World All states have so many debts that they cannot pay them, We will have still much to fight and to suffer, but whatever may come, we will be vic- torious. Moscow is the capital of the world. Recently the fifth world con- we UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRICKS seem San Francisco, Cal U. &. Bureau of Statistics (Quantity bugdet priced by Labor Research, Inc.).:Chicago. Ill, masses in the United States as follows: “With the exception of a few isolated, occupations that. were miserably underpaid in 1900, no class or group of workers. has succeeded in maintaining unimpaired the real value of their wages as measured by the buying power He gives his last penny for the sup-+—— ence! ilies. Minimum Annual Place & Date Budget Necessary Seattle, Wash. October, 1947 ........ss-er- 1,505.60 October, 1917 .... . 1,476.40 wu New York, July, 1918 . . 1,760.60 Philadelphia, October, 1918 ..... « 1,636.79 Washington, D. C., August, 1919 . 2,262.47 Bituminous Mining Towns, 1919 -» 2,248.94 November, 1921 - 2,445.65 Basil Manly, the noted statistician, in his pamphlet, “Are Wages Too the standard of living of the working “With the exception of a few isolated and exceptionally skilled trades, the wages of.American workers are insufficient, without supplement from other sources, to provide for the subsistence of a family consisting of hus- band, wife, and three minor children, much less maintain them in that condi- tion of ‘health and reasonable comfort’ which every humane consideration FRENCH WORKER TO THE RED RELIEF We publish the following letter of an old Freneh: worker to the inter- national Red Relief as a wonderful document of labor solidarity. worker regrets that he is too old and too poor to take a child of a German fellow worker, of an “enemy” as the bourgeois school and press would say. The old FEEDS PRISONERS GARBAGE; SHERIFF POCKETS $33,000 CLEVELAND, Dec. 1.—“I'd rather be sheriff of Cuyahoga county than president of the Union Trust Co,,” a Cleveland politician. remarked during the recent campaign. Why the sheriff's. office is such a | tasty. morsel.in \the politician’s mouth \is revenJed:by a suit brought by a tax- payer against Sheriff C. B. Stannard, asking» that. worthy to pay back to the ‘county $33,000. . That is the amount, accordingto’ the taxpayer, that Stannard has placed in his own | pocket by overcharging the county for | {eeding prisoners. Hires Belly-Robber graft wor this way: The allows 75c a day for feeding prisoner. The sheriff hires a cook {known in the prisoners’ par- latice as- a “belly-robber) who ham- mers down the cost per day to a few pennies. The rest goes into the sheriff's pocket. The Ohio supreme court has decid- “1 that the taxpayer has a right to force Stannard to return his “profit” of $33,000, the result of one year’s activities in starving county prison ers. The sheriff himself hurriedly paid a visit to his confederate, the county prosecutor, offering to return $5,000 to the county treasurer, Sheriff's Job a Joicy Plum Those innocents who have gazed in astonishment at the frenzied efforts made by aspiring politicians to grab the sheriff's job, and have wondered at the huge amounts spent by can- didates to attain this plum, have the key in the prison food bill. The sys- tem is worked not only in Cleveland, but in nearly every city of the coun- try and is considered legitimate graft for the sheriff's office, N. Y. Herald-Tribune . The | county j each WANT AND STARVATION STALK THRU THE SOUTH AS.JOBS FAIL WORKERS CHARLESTON, S. C.—Want and starvation is stalking abroad in the south. Work is not to be had. Banks'in many places fave closed their doors. Several bankers in South Carolina are held by the courts for illegal banking. One banker, upon conviction, killed him- self) : ‘ A headline in a Charleston paper reads: Family Here in Dire Need, Man Appeals for Work. Wife ITl~ Children Hungry. The Associated Charities is making an earnest ap- peal for help. for a young man who is very anxious to secure work. He is willing to do any kind of honest work. This. man, bas. a. family in desperate need, A visit to the home revealed the fact that the family was without food. His wife is ill, and there are two little children, the charity worker reported. The case is typical. gress took’place. The Communists of all countries have gathered there. Russia {s very powerful, heart of the world. Thus, my dear comrades, be pati- Patience and good hope! We shall not abandon you! We have taken | German children to France and the, Red Relief gives money to~your fam- I ‘would have been so glad to take a German child, but I am too poor and old. What we suffer in our struggle is for our dear children. Life will be better for them. A peace and for themselves und no more for the ‘capitalists; no more war, but equality, liberty and fraternal love. This is our aim. For this future we suffer and die, My comrades send you with me their best greetings. . Your good friend, Joseph Mehl. For further information regarding the work of this organization get in touch with the International Red Aid in Chicago, at 19 So. Lincoln Street. A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDRE! it is the life in Is Sudden Convert to Freedom of Press (By The Fe d Press) NEW YORK.—It all depends whose ox is gored. When hundreds of work- ingmen were jailed during the war for exercising their rights of free speech; when since the war workingmen were sent to Sing Sing for exercising their rights of free speech and free press the New York Tribune said Amen! It gave assent, too, to the persecution of papers which exercised the rights of free press. But now the leading editorial of the Herald-Tribune Nov. 26 is The Free- dom of the Press and the feature of the editorial is the text of the first amendment to the federal constitu- tion: Congress shall make no law re- Specting an establishment of relig- ion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to as- semble, and to petition the govern- ment for a redress of grievances. The Herald-Tribune is calling on the constitution of the United States to protect it from Attorney General Stone who has had it indicted, charg- ed with unlawful printing and publish- ing of income tax réturns. Ogden Reid, president New York Tribune, inc.,, which owns the Herald-Tribune said his defence will raise two con- tentions: (1) that the act of congress on which the indictments were based did not-prohibit the publication of in- come taxes’ paid; (2) that that statute is unconstitutional, because it violates the freedom of the press clause of the constitution. Scientists Inherit Church Position NEW YORK.—“Why has the moral supremacy of the church passed to the: scientist?” asked Dr. Stuart L. Tyson, of an audience at Grace church. “You know that it has. It is because the scientist seeks truth with- out prejudice. He changes his views on the acquisition of denowledge, while the Cliristian church defends old (ings.” WHEN YOU BUY GET AN “AD”