The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 21, 1925, Page 3

TEXTILE LORDS NOW CUT PAY IN WOOL MILLS Workers Held Down by Reactionary Leaders (Continued from page 1) a strike quick as lighteneing; and the cotton mills will follow the woolen mills out.” Apparently the textile barons have understood this idea and have based their strategy upon it. For, while cutting the’ cotton mills one by one, cautiously isolating and defeating one group of cotton textile workers at a time, the wage*cutting noise has been carefully kept out of the woolen mills, Open, frank ‘announcements of “ten per cent” wage cuts (often amounting to 15 and 22 per cent in fact, but called 10! per cent) have been posted on the walls of cotton mills. But nothing of the sort in the woolen mills. . Violation of Promise. All of the frictions that have been found in the woolen mills in the pre- sent period—the past few weeks— have come out of something else than announcements of wage cuts. For in- stance, the Middleboro strike arose out of the attempt to slip in two kinds of filling on a two-loom job in vio- lation of a promise made more than a year ago, when a big wage cut was accepted on the promise. Now comes the trouble in the big Atlantic Mills, known popularly in the Olneyville section of Providence as “the Delaine mill.” “There has been no cut in the At- lantic Mills’—as far as you could prove it. It’s Like CrossWord Puzzle. who were making $35 a week are now only getting about $20 a week for 50 per cent more of labor. And the superintendents can prove that there has been no cut. : That is the riddle that is agitating the working class community of Ol- neyville: How is it that weavers’ wages are 43 per cent lower, altho there has not ‘been any cut, and there couldn’t have Deen a cut because if there had been a cut there would have been a strike? No strike—no cut. No cut—no strike. But 43 per cent less wages. This queer business began six months ago, when the superintendent came around to show the weavers “how they could make more money.” It was at that time that the campaign ‘was begun which has since been de- scribed by an organ of the mill own- ers with the words: “Who ought tc be the labor. leaders in the textile in- dustry? The mill agents, superintend- ents and overseers.” At that time, all of a sudden, all over New England and the South as well, the mill bosses began taking a deep personal interest in the welfare of every mill worker, both cotton and wool, “to see that they got more money.” In the Atlantic mill in Providence the superintendent began being the “labor leader” by showing the weavers that in shop No. 5 on fine worsted dress goods, they could run thrée looms “with no more exertion than two,” and thereby make more money. How Trick Worked. Then, when the weavers got broken in to three looms, the superintendent gave them what is called a different style of goods to make. It looked the same as the former goods, and took a similar material, same kind of filling, but it had a different name—and the piece-work pay was different. While DOCTOR TELLS HOW FLOYD COLLINS DIED IN KENTUCKY GAVE “Floyd Collins died of exhaustion, thirst, starvation and cold.” This was the opinion Dr. Willlam H. Hazlett, the only medical man to view the body of the Sand Cave explorer after it had been found gave today on his return to Chi- cago. “Coflins was doomed after the original cave-in of the natural pae- sageway,” Dr. Hazlett said. “Even if it had been possible for me or another surgeon to have reached him, it would not have been pos- sible to save him, in my opinion. “Collins was held in such a way that even when I did get down into the passage, | could reach only his face and chest, it would have been impossible to have freed him’ by amputation.” Dr. Hazlett’s trip to the cave was financed by Mrs. Emmons Blaine for'whom Collins once had acted as a guide. speed. “But wages have not been cut in the woolen mills, for if wages were cut there’d be a strike.” The weavers and loom fixers in th Atlantic Mills belong to the Unite Textile Workers. Under its auspice the weavers and the loom fixers ar jholding meetings in order to solve the riddle of the 43 per cent less pay with speed-up system. Looked Bewildered. I asked a weaver whether there would be a strike. “Under McMahon?” “no, no; McMahon.” He looked sad and be wildered when he said it. the old Gompers school of trade union officials. His idea of labor unionism is to “get an adjustment” in each iso- avoid a fight. He expresses his pol- icy as “fighting only. at the weakest point.” What this means was well exemplified about three weeks ago up at Woonsocket in the Manville-Jen- ckes Mill when 150 weavers struck for four days for “fewer looms and more pay.” One of McMahon’s representa- tives was sent to “get an adjustment.” was—not to call out thé three thous- and other workers to support the weavers, but to order the 150 weavers back to work “so as to keep'the 3,000 from losing time,” and‘ when ‘a-youne weaver demanded of McMahon's ag- ant, “Won't you-call on the loom fix- rs not to fix looms foriseabs?” Mc- Mahon’s agent yelled at him, “No! You are an I. W. W.!” United Front Committee. Under this policy it is evident that the cutting of the wages and the speed- ing up of production per worker, which is evidently now well launched in the woolen mills, will be put’ thru with the same maneuvering tactics that were used to cut the cotton mills, without any strike or any sort of tni- fied resistance, if the mill superin- tendents who aspire to “be the labor leaders” assisted by the McMahon type of labor official, can prevent uni- fied opposition on the part of the work- ers. But the feeling of the textile work- ers here is running high with the real- ization that not only the cotton mills but also the woolen mills are slated by the textile combine for the general reduction of living standards to little more than half of what they were. Several weavers in the Atlantic out a wage cut and the back-breaking he answered. |, there'll be no strike under William T. McMahon, president of The only trouble is that weavers! the United Textile Workers, is one of lated instance of discontent, by any compromise that may be necessary to The McMahon policy as’then applied THE DAILY WORKER $514.00 STRIKES SPIKE I Home! Rome was not built ina day... the former goods paid the weaver $12] mills, members of the United Textile | ®¥* 't burned down over-night. per “cut” (that is, per roll of cloth,) the new goods paid the weaver $8 per cut. After about six months of this the weavers suddenly woke up to the fact that in simple arithmetic $8 is two-thirds of $12, and two looms is two-thirds of three looms, and that they were weaving the same kind of goods with a changed name. ‘There- fore, they had had their amount of production increased. 50 per cent, in theory—50 per cent more work for (theoretically) the same pay. And the work had become vastly more compli- cated. “Seventeen-harness” work had been put in on three-loom jobs. The} ong urged Gov. former 100-yard cuts had increased to nea po bei 110-yard cuts. Make Less Money. Workers, have connected themselves with the united front committee here union into the united front in spite of McMahon. nion Card Owner Is Capitalist Politician And Helps Open Shop JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Another perfectly good union cdrd owner has gone wrong and a mass meeting of union labor held here denounced W. M. Turbett, chief clerk of the house Baker not to reappoint once was a “Missouri Pacific machinist and held office in his union, But when there was a Then the weavers began comparing | large house printing contract to be pay envelopes and disclosed that |let this week, he sent to the Con P. where they had been making $35 a'] Currant company of St. Louis, a notor- week, they were now lucky to get $20| {ously anti-union concern and leader out of a week’s work, They are mak-|f an unsuccessful drive to destroy ing less money running three looms|the St. Louis printing trades’ union than they formerly made running two. |4Uring the 44-hour fight. But the “pay has not bee cut.” For if the pay had been cut in the woolen Dawes Will Loaf mills there would have been a strike. Then look at the loom-fixers. Loom axers are highly skilled experts, prac- tleally always they are workers who first learend weaving from A to Z, and, having gained thoro mastery of the loom, graduated into fixers. Loom fix. ers’ pay is about $40 to $42 a week. More Loome Per Man. with the 48 hour week; but long ago} the board of the Central Trust com- oi Thru Summer After Giving Up Bank Job| Vice-president Elect Charles 4G. |; Dawes will leave on Feb. 28 for |W Washington to attend the inaugura- | * tion ceremonies, but before that date, And it was not insured! It has taken years to build the with the intention to try to bring the| OPAILY WORKER. Not only dur- ing the one year of its existence, have its builders toiled. Their work started at the beginning of the labor vement in America, with the ce of the first labor pamph' the first union hand-bill. THE DAILY WORKER is the living embodiment of all past struggles for a labor ideology as separate from the capitalist press. YET THE DAILY WORKER MIGHT BE SWEPT OUT OF EXISTENCE OVER-NIGHT! Not by a fire,—with a capitali Nero to enjoy it: but by a sha ful acle,—by nothing more ti the | overwhelming accumula. tion of petty debts. AND THE DAILY WORKER IS NOT INSURED! Not $20,000 has yet been raised he insurance policy drive! At i of the 988 party branches have not bought a single policy! Many branches close at home haven't yet hammered the spike. We need them to help sink it deep into the timbers of 1925, and branches of Dist. 8, ke! Here is the ham- mer! Where are YOU? ARMEN- AN—Granite sity, Ij Chicago, BULGARIAN—4ndianapolis, CZECHO OVAK k in ro, thy Gry, Livingston, ville, Hh jon, it was understood here today, he will | Sh They used to aspire to $1 an hour| pho forced to resign as chairman of they got bluffed out of trying for it.| pany, More than that. The theoretical stand- ard is that there shall be one loom-|ington only long enough to familiar- F Dawes expects to remain in Wash- fixer to every twenty looms in a shop. | ize himself with the duties of his of- But long ago the bosses crept up on/ fice and then return to Evanston for the fixers, so that now it runs about | tl summer. He does not expect to 27 looms. to every loom fixer, and the| take up residence in Washington un- fixers are crowded to a break-neck| til next Fall. West Frankfort, bor, Ind.; Sout! sas City, Kansa: cages, SOUTH SLAVIC—indi- ana Harbor, Ind; East Chicago, Ill; UKRAINIAN — Chicago 2; West Hammond, tnd, 4; Kan ANISH—Chi- WATCH IT SINK! America’s Comintern Anniversary : Greeting: “The Daily Worker Safe for 1925” Hands to the Hammer! Drive Home the Spike! $32,000 Before March 5! Each Reader His Dollar! ORE icons eccenisiencicts y dollar to HAMMER I’am with you for insuring the DAILY WORKER WN Bilis Bie caiskicincnastonc se TO THE LAST SPIKE. Here is m: * IT HOME! dreds of thou HANDLE OF THE HAMMER THE DAILY WORKER has the print- ing machinery. It has six up-to-date linotype machin- es operating fifteen hours a day. Its newspaper press prints not only THE DAILY WORKER and II Lavora- tore, the Italian paper, but also THE YOUNG WORKER, and The Greek and Swedish weeklies. Its cylinder pri prints the WORKERS MONTHLY and all the party pamphlets and books, But printing pres: Communists, nor do ist part Nor do Communist news- papers and magazines and books, Not they alone, In addition to the printing plant, there must be HUMAN machinery to make pos- sible the growth of the Communist move- ment and the continuance of its publica- tions. Today we are calling for MEN to take their turn at the hammer. This hammer made for USE. Like the printing pre it must be operated 15 hours a day for the next 15 days to DRIVE HOME THE DOLLARS. In some respects, printing presses are like human ngs- They must (and paper cost more than ham and eggs) and they must drink (ink’s ex- alone do not make y build Commun. pensive). They live in a house, and it needs coal and Th t tention of a inds a day ¢t bundled quickly out into the worl 10 the homes of workers. The circulation and transportation system of the DAILY WORKER |; if th atti m It is the do! dollar that MUST. DRIVEN, Whei re the MEN and where are the WORKERS PARTY branches to hit the a the head and drive home the ‘s the DAILY WORKER goes, 'y men should be found. at yourselves at the handle have FINISHED TRE JOB st ue ineuring the DAILY WORKER for 1025/ t Page Three | Your Union Meeting | THIRD FRIDAY, FEB. 20, 1925. 287 Bakers and Conf., 3420 W. Roose- velt. 8 Bookbinders, 175 W. Washington St., Pp. m. 29 Broom Makers, 810 W. Harrison St, Building Trades Council, 180 W. Washington. 1 Carpenters, 175 W. Washington, 70 Carpenters, 2705 W. 36th St. Carpenters’ Dist. Council, 180 W. Washington St. Carpenters, 4339 S. Halsted St. Electricians, 2901 W. Monroe St. Electricians, 4141 W. Lake St R._R., 5824 S. Halsted Electricia Firemen ited and Enginemen, 5438 S. St. id. Hod Carriers, Monroe and Peoria Garment Workers, Joint 328 W. Van Buren St. its, 113 S. Ashland Blvd. 113 S. Ashland Blvd. 345 So. Kedzie Ave. School and Shefield Ave. Painters, Painters, 3140 Indiana Ave. Painters, 3140 Indiana Ave. Pattern Makers, 119 S. Throop St. Plumbers, 9251 S. Chicago Ave. Railway Carmen, Village Hall, Kol- zie, Wl. Rail nf Carmen, Village Hall, Kol- zie, fil. Railway Carmen, 5445 S. Ashland ve. e. Railway Clerks, 20 W. Randolph St. Railway Clerks, 9 S. Clinton St. Railway Clerks, Ft. Dearborn Hotel. Railroad Trainmen, eee 64th St. 9 Railroad = Trainmen, North ad Trainmen, 9120 Commer- ve. Workers, Ashland and ne South Chica Assembly, io Trades and Labor 139 Commercial Ave. 2 Stage Hands, 412 Capito! Bidg. 12 Stove Mounters, 3609 Wolfram Ave. & Teachers (Women), Women’s City Club Rooms, 4:30 p.m. Telegraphers (Com.) 312°S. Clark it. 19 W. Adams Street, 3 P.M. Women’s Union Label League 220 S. Ashland Bivd. (Note--Uniless otherwise meetings are at 8 >. m.) GENERAL STRIKE IS PLANNED BY SWEDISH LABOR Capital and Labor Not Pals Despite Fakers MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Feb. 19.— News from Sweden to workers here shows that a general strike of all workers in Sweden is contemplated. The reason for the strike is the threat of. the Swedish Employers’ Associa- tion to lock out 130,000 workers if they do not accept wage reductions and poor working conditions. The Swedish employers’ association is re- peating the method that was used in 1909 which culminated in a general strike at that time when the organ- ized labor movement was practically destroyed. The Swedish Faker. Herman Linquist, the Swedish Gompers, as one of the delegates t the disarmament conference held ir Washington, D. C., year 1921, spoke in different parts of this country from the same platform as Mr. Bigelow, then president of the employers’ as- sociation of Sweden. In Minneapolis Linquist stated that the labor question had been solved and. that capital and labor were friends and that no fight would take Place in the future. He bragged about the fact that he was the president of the Swedish riksdag when the eight- hour law was made and passed. Since that time this law has been violated by the employers at every turn and Mr, Linguist has been sitting idly by without putting up a struggle against the employers’ attack upon labor. As & consequence, the workers of Swed- en will very likely be called upon to engage in a general strike at a time when conditions for such a strike are against the workers. stated all Produce Company Wrecked by Bomb PITTSBURGH, Pa., Feb. 19.—In- cendiary dynamite explosions blast- ed terror into the center of the whole- sale produce district and demolished three buildings here today with a loss of $130,000, according to fire de- partment officials. Firemen are dig- ging into tons of debris following re- Ports that five men might have been trapped, but owners of the buildings are certain no one was caught in the explosions. Police believe the bombings may have been the work of a blackhand gang or by business rivals of the Lan- dolina Bros., produce company whose buildings were destroyed. CLEVELAND, Minn., Feb, 19.—At the annual meeting of the farmers’ co- operative store here, it was decided to expand the business to twice its present capacity, Stock to the amount of $4,500 will. be sold. WANTED Lady to share small apartment; stu- dent, or one studiously inclined. $25.00 per month, Call Lawndale 2475, Sunday. e’mon ov for fun, c’mon over! | Workers, Emily and Marsh-| C’mon Over! If you have a day, an hour, or a minute to spare—why, There is so much work piled up on the small force in our office that we need your help so very badly, to insert letters, addre Ff and ever so many other little jobs that have us swamped. If you volunteer your services that’s a fine way to the DAILY WORKER. We'll be glad to ‘SUNMAID RAISIN RAIDERS TURNED LOOSE IN CALIF. \ \ Company Has Romantic © Way of Plundering (Special to The Daily Worker) FRESNO, Cal., Feb. 19.—Leaving behind in their. wake wholesale de- struction and terror, over 400 raiders, belonging to the Sun Maid Raisin cor- poration, transported in 150 autome biles swept over Fresno and Madera counties 1¢ night, destroying vine! ds and threatening raisin growers with death if they refused to line up with the Sun Maid Raisin corporation, is the st told to District Attorney George K. Lovejoy, by K. Arakelian, one of the biggest grape growers of Madera county; Godfrey Jensen, of Sanger; K. Yagi and K. Mitsano of Fresno county. Use “Iron” Tactic. These are not isolated cases, there are hundreds more but the .grape growers have been terrorized into submission not daring to face the wrath of the Sun Maid Raisin corpor- ation—the raisin trust of California. Arakelian had previously refused to sign up when over three hundred acres of his vineyards were ravaged, so he had to sign. Yagi was visited one night and ask: ed to sign a similar contract. He refused, so they threw a rope around his neck. With the rope around his neck he was easily “persuaded” to sign up. Jensen declares that his ranch waa visited, four acres destroyed and the windows in his house were all brok- en. This was done in his absence as Jensen comes from the land of the Vikings and is a fairly good sized specimen of his race. The district attorney declares he has no jurisdiction in the matter, yet he has jurisdiction when it comes to framing up and railroading a member of the I. W. W. Nearly one hun- dred members of the I. W. W. are ly- ing in the penitentiary for merely be- longing to an organization that is al- leged to do these things. The raid- ers of the Sun Maid Raisin corpora- tion do not advocate force and vio- lence, they engage in it and the dis- trict attorney declares he has no juris- diction in the matter. Raisin Growers Give Up. The raisin growers around Fresne had a rough time during 1924. It is estimated that fully 95 per cent have gone bankrupt. Many of them are leaving their land without even taking the trouble to be sued for back tax- es. They just walk off and make for *he cities of Oakland and San Fran- isco with the hope of finding a job s an unskilled laborer. The Sun Maid Raisin corporation wants to create a monopoly so that he raisin growers would be forced to sell to them. The raisin growers ob- ject to the prices paid by this cor- poration. They are paying from: 4% to 2 cents per pound for raisins. It must be understood that these raisins are cleaned the bad ones sorted from the good. It depends upon the rep- resentative of the corporation as to whether the raisings are classified as good or medium, if the latter, the farmer gets % cent per pound, if they are good he gets 2 cents. These rai- sins retail in San Francisco for ten to twelve and one-half cents per pound. Growers Get Low Prices, A raisin grower averages around 2,000 pounds per acre. This means that a man with four or five acres, such as Jensen works all the year round and produces 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of raisins. At the end of the year he receives for his labors, raw materials used, etc., any sum ranging from $45 to $180. This may seem incredible, but it is the statement of a raisin grower who has joined the Workers Party. His friends were for Coolidge. They still hope that some thing might be done. The Sun Maid Raisin corporation is fast destroying such hopes. One raisin grower is going to stick it out. He thinks that he will make another try and maybe “this year will be better than the last.” “What are you going to do if the Sun Maid Ral- sin gang get after you?” we asked. “T’'ll keep my own counsel,” he replied with a seriousness that bodes ill for the raiders of the Sun Maid Raisin © corporation. The president of the Sun Maid Rai- sin corporation. Ralph Merritt, has been suggested as the next secretary of agriculture. PITTSBURGH, PA. To those who work hard for their money, | will save 50 per cent on all their dental work. DR. RASNICK DENTIST 645 Smithfield Street. 1 an stamp envelopes elp © yOu—so just