The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 1, 1925, Page 5

STRIKING METAL POLISHERS SEE VICTORY AHEAD Long Struggle Marked by Many Arrests By OWEN STIRLING. (Special to The Dally Worker.) DETROIT, Mich., April 30—Admir- ation Is growing among workers thru- out the Detroit Industrial district for the courage and solidarity of the strik- ing metal polishers. The metal polishers are striking at the C. B. Shepard Co. plant here, one of the largest metal pollshing shops In the district. Against their ranks injunctions have been brought, wholesale prosecu- tions on groundless charges of assault and battery, brass knuckles, clubs, knives and in at least one instance, Distol fire. The company has suc- ceeded in taking nine metal pol- ishers off the picket line into the recorder’s court for trial for what the company’s hired thugs said was assault and battery. But the ranks were immediately closed with other strikers. And in each of the nine cases the company’s strikebreak- ers and guards failed to show the Judge an assault had been committed. Thugs Found Gulity, Against that record is a record of three convictions against guards for assault and battery. They were the only three company men against whom the strikers made charges in court. Every charge stuck. Charles Oman, company employ- ment officer, and William Burke, a strike breaker, are now awaiting trial on charges of felonious assault, They led a gang of thugs in an attack upon an automobile carrying union men. Oman used a pistol. Strikers said one bullet shattered the wind shield of the union men’s car, Strikebreakers Assaulted Pickets. Trial for felonious assault also fac- es Edward Moss, another strikbreak- er, one of a gang of 25 thugs who at- tacked Luther Buckmaster and Presi- dent Debates as they were peacefully walking the picket line. Buckmaster fled to a near-by railroad watchman’s shed. Altho the watchman forbade them to enter, the gangsters pushed him aside and cut Buckmaster in the face and he had to be taken to a hos- pital. The three charged with felonious assault were released for trial later on $500 bail. aoe The metal polishers are ‘striking against a second 10 per cent wage cut. They had taken one cut and were determined not to take another. The strike is now in its third month, Company Loses Heavily. Strikebreakers have been marshall- ed at the plant in a desperate effort to continue operation, but the com- pany has lost heavily both in orders. and in spoiled goods. The strikers have recently been cheered with au- thentic information that the company in a short time will have to capitulate to the workers or go bankrupt. Victory is Ahead. The outlook for the strikers has not always been so encouraging. But in the face of violence, wholesale trials and dwindling purses they have gone back each day to the picket line. A circuit court judge in the early days of the strike issued individual Injunctions against six of the strikers. But the company has failed in its ef- forts to obtain a blanket injuction. Organized labor thruout the district is following the strike daily with high interest. “The men are demonstrating solid- arity. Fighting as they are for a de- cent standard of living for themselves and their families they are fighting also not only for organized labor in the district, but for the entire work- ing class,” Edgar Owens, district or- anizer of the Workers Party, sald. Detroit Packing Workers Organize. DETROIT,.Mich—A mass meeting will be held here early in May as the beginning“ of an organisation cam- paign among the packing house work- ers. First Great Feature Film from Russia! The. Truth About the Ford Plant (Continued from page. 1.) men” of the nation. The quotation above is from Sinclair's interview with Ford. It was read (perhaps believed) by millions. Ford, as the advance guard of the working class knows, has become a myth. The following account shows typically what is going on ‘at the Ford Motor Company shops today with reference to the wages that have “something sacred” about them, Like Going to Jail There is a large daily labor turnover at the Ford Motor Company. The line at the employment office is long. Ap- plying for a job means not only a physical examination. Applicants have their finger prints taken too. It is like voluntarily going to’ jail. There is nevertheless a great de- mand for Ford jobs. This is largely on account of conditions several years ago at the Ford plants. They existed long enough for propaganda to be broadcast. Then the shops were mili- tarized. Social workers or investiga- tors were replaced by spies and thugs. Henry Ford still looks whimsically out of the office window and tells John F, Sinclair there is “something sacred about wages.” But it doesn’t mean anything. A Side Line Graft Out of the wage system and the demand for Ford jobs there has risen a sideline business in which Ford em- ploye identification cards are. bought and sold for large profits. Call them brokers, agents, business men, ticket scalpers, or whatnot, these speculators in Ford identification cards are doing a thriving business, An able-bodied man goes down the employment line at Ford’s and applies for a job. He takes the examination, answers all the questions and has his finger prints taken. He fs given an identification card and told when to report for work, or to wait until he is notified. The able-bodied man sells his identication card to a speculator for $10, -he specuiatcr resells it to an immigrant for from $50 to $100, altering the name on the card. Some- times the able-bodied man goes down the employment life three times in one ‘day, each time under a different name, That makes $30 a day for him, as long as he can get away ‘with it. It makes from $120-to $260 a-day for the speculator. ‘Wednesday, April 22, a Ford Motor company detective named Thomas Maloney arrested Ahmed Abbass, 101 Victor avenue, Highland Park. Abbass was kept in jail all night and taken before Fred L, Keller, Highland Park justice of the peace, the following day. The charge against him was fraud. He was ened with attempt- ing to. enter. canes to. go to. Werk ila Bia identification card. The fact that wages, or money, were | involved, apparently, made the alleged attempt a criminal offense— in the eyes of Henry Ford and the justice of the peace, who sits all day in a court room in the shadow of the great Ford stacks. The Ford Motor com- pany pays about three-fourths of the taxes in Highland Park, Dick Covers Up His Own Crime Private Detective Maloney told Jus- tice of the Peace Keller the Ford de- tectives were trying to break up the speculation in fake identification cards, He intimated that severe pun- ishment in a case such as the Abbass case would ald them materially. Be- hind Maloney in the court room sat two Ford employment office white- collar boys looking severe. Abbass is not a large and brawny Syrian with an evil scar across one cheek and wicked gleam in his eye. He is a boy and an orphan. He said he was 17 years old. He came to the United States in 1920 and has been going earnestly to night school. The identification card which he present- ed at the Ford gates when he went knocking submissively and hopefully there gave his age as 21. But he looked like 17. If he actually bought the card he was probably made to believe it was his only means of get- ting a Ford job—$6 a day, $36 a week, until the next layoff. “| Had to Eat” “I had to eat,” he said. have a job.” The finger prints on his identifica- tion card did not correspond to his own, it appeared. Abbass insisted he had not bought the card but had ob- tained it himself. He thought there must have been some mistake at the Ford Motor company employment of- fice. And Abbass had exactly $1.24 in his pocket. “IT had to eat,” he repeated. He can not be blamed for appear- ing somewhat forlorn, But he was not cringing. He was a bright lad. It should be borne in mind that the speculators themselves have never been arrested. Their names are not known. Abass, perhaps their victim, perhaps the victim of a Ford detec- tive bureau frameup, was taken away to jail. A few days previously .an- other man was arrested under simi- lar circumstances and fined $50. Justice Keller sentenced Abbass to pay a $100 fine and $5 costs or serve 30 days in jail. “T have only $1.24. I guess I'll have to serve the time,” Abbass said, Couldn't Tell This Story The court officers took him away. John F. Sinclair could have obtained and written a story like this if he had wanted to.. If he had waited a few days he could have obtained and written this story about Abbass. But he could not have sold it to the North American Newspaper Alliance, “T had to Soviet Union Speeds Introduction of Use of the Metric System (Special to The Dally Worker) MOSCOW, (By Rosta).—In connec- tion with ‘the introduction into the Union of Soviet Soc. Republics of the metric system, a demand has natural- ly arisen for very large quantities of metric rules, scaleg, and weights. The practical materialization of a complete change to the metric system cannot be effected until 1927. Never- theless, not a few of the measures under such a system have already been put into operation. Thus, for instance, all railway loads are now calculated in the metric sys- tem, and in those places where the requisite scales do not as yet exist, measurements are effected with the old measures, but are subsequently re- duced to the metric denomination. From April 1, all Moscow trade and manufacturing establishments are tirely to adopt the metric system. The control over the accuracy of weights and measures rests. with the princi- pal weights and measures department at Leningrad, founded in 1896 under the direction of the eminent chemist D. A. Mendeleyey, who has always been a warm supporter of the metric system, and is the author of many important articles regarding the nec- essity of its introduction. GET A SUB AND GIVE ONE! Farmers’ Council Demands Probe of Tariff Schedules WASHINGTON, D. C., Apri) 30.— Members of the Farmers’ National Council have asked President Cool- idge to instruct the federal tariff com- mission to investigate and report on the metal and cotton tariff schedules, and especially to look into the duty on table, household, kitchen and hos- pital utensils, made chiefly of alu- minum. Their appeal direct to the tariff commission has been rejected. They suggest that Gary and Schwab be summoned as witnesses, on metal scheduies, and that Sen. Butler be called to testify on cotton goods, of which he is a big manufacturer. Secretary Mellon, head of the alu- minum trust, whose extortions from consumers were denounced by the federal trade commission before Cool- idge scrapped that body, is for some unknown reason not suggested as a witness on aluminum tariff rates. Soviet Allows Chinese Trade Free. MOSCOW, (By Rosta).— With a view to promoting trade with western China, the Soviet government has al- lowed the import from the Sinkiang province free of the usual trade li- censes of agricultural produce such as rice, cattle, lard, hides, furs, cot- ton, wool, silk cocoons, carpets, etc., as well as the export free of licenses from the U. 8. 8S. R. into western China of all goods of Soviet Union ori- gin that are not included in special “contingents.” Worker Killed tn Pullman. Frank Lans of Rockford was killed THE DAILY WORKER _Page Five MICHIGAN GIVES 7,037 RED VOTES FOR COMMUNISM Startling Results in Off- B UILDE E ERS A 7 Year Election (Continued from page 1). and poor farmers of.the state to go to the polls and write in the names of Foster and Gitlow. Ran Under Hammer and Sickle. How many took this advice it was quite impossible to learn, yet there must have been several thousand who did so, in view of the returns, only now available, of the general election which was held on April 6, when 7,087 voters cast their ballots for the Work- ers Party candidates, who ran-under the symbolic hammer and sickle. The Workers Party was the only party entering the spring elections to make a working class appeal. The socialist party has finally recognized that it is dead. The socialist labor party, for reasons best known to it- self, fafled to make the grade. The proletarian party’s educational activi- ties do not include participation in the election campaigns. Distribute 100,000 Leaflets. More than 100,000 leaflets were dis- tributed stating the party’s position on the issues confronting the elector- ate. Lack of funds with which to conduct a strenuous campaign, and lack of effective organization, raised serious difficulties. Yet in spite of these. difficulties a most remarkable response was forthcoming. In Wayne county (Detroit) Comrade Herman Richter, running for county auditor, received 1,539 votes, while our candidates for state offices ranged from 1,120 to 1,196. Out of a total Wayne county registration of more than 350,000 only 54,970 votes were cast. Genessee county (Flint) was second with 578 out of a total vote of 25,208. .Marquette county in the upper peninsula came third with 347 out of a total vote of 7,841. The counties. in the upper peninsula all Save very respectable votes for the Communist candidates. It is signifi- cant that only three counties of the 83 in Michigan failed to register any votes for our ticket. Saginaw, head- quarters of the ku kluxers in Michi- gan, voted 228 for the Communists; Jackson, location of the prison in which Comrade Ruthenberg was in- carcerated before his release pending his appeal to the United States su- preme court, delivered 98 votes, while Berrien county, wherein the Commun- ist trials.are pending, came across with 132. One county gave 1,500 plus, one nearly 600, one 347, six voted from 217 to 283, six from 127 to 194, while the others ranged down from 95 to 2 (Oscoda county), Distinct Achievement for Party. In view of the fact that the April 6th elections occurred in an off year, that mo sharpr issues were up to rouse a mass interest, and the further fact that the Workers Party lacked both funds and effective organization with which to wage a strenuous cam- paign, the polling of 7,037 votes is a distinct achievement. The returns indicate that Michigan is seething with discontent against things as they are, a discontent that effects rural communities as well as industrial centers. They indicate fur- ther that present conditions are forc- ing the workers and poor farmers to crash thru the wall of prejudice that capitalist institutions have sought to erect around anything that savors of Communism, Confronted with mort- gage foreclosures, falling prices for farm products, and increasing prices for farm equipment; with wage cuts, open shop drives, and the menace of unemployment, the poor farmers and industrial workers are learning that the spectre of Communism is merely @ nursery tale which the apologists of the present order use to frighten them into continued subjection to their system of ruthless exploitation. Indicates Big Vote in 1926, April, 1925, presented the first op- portunity in. Michigan for the Work ers (Communist) Party to participate in an election under its own name. Seven thousand votes in an off-year election! What will it be in the congressional elections in 1926? Soviets Subsidize NEW YORK CALLS ON CHICAGO And He Never Dreamed It Was So Easy! Still they come—challenges from Communists in one city to Communists in another. Here’s the latest one: Builders Column, The Daily Worker, Chicago, Ill. Dear Comrades:- In a half an hour I visited six workers and ob- tained three subs for the DAILY WORKER. One other promised to subscribe in two weeks from now! I did not think it was so easy, to get them. | challenge Comrade Ida Dai les of Chicago to obtain AT LEAST three subscriptions. Fraternally yours, Sylvan A, Pollack. That puts it-up to Comrade Ida Dailes who already promises action and warns that when she gets three subs AT LEAST—three other Communists are going to be called on. Well.and good. NOW—WHO'S NEXT? The Latest List of Communist BUILDERS having sent in new subs on April 29, with Dan Stevens of Minneapolis in the lead for the day: MINNEAPOLIS, MINN—Dan W. Stevens (8); J. Balod. CLEVELAND, O.—J. A. Hamilton (3); A. ‘Weissberg. CHICAGO, ILL.—A. Carmon, Anna Block, W. Albright. TORONTO, CANADA,—The Worker (4). OMAHA, NEB.—J. E. Snyder (2). ST. LOUIS, MO.—Hugo Oehler. NEW HAVEN, CONN.—Otto Bruening. PONTIAC, MICH.—B. Mircheff. WILMINGTON, DEL.—Norman Bursier. DILLES BOTTOM, O.—Mike Stanovich. JAMESTOWN, N. Y.—W. Little. WASHINGTON, D. C.—S. R. Pearlman. MAY DAY FAREWELL T0 FIFTH GROUP OF RED RAY COMMUNE, SATURDAY Your Union Meeting First Friday, May 1, 1925. 237 Bakers and Conf., 3420 W. Roose- veit. 8 Bookbin » 178 W. Washington 3 m. A May Day celebration and fare- 29 Broom ers, 810 W. Harrison St. well party will be held this Satur- bag ts Bhs, e Council, 180 W. day, May 2, at 7:30 p. m., at the 1 Carpenters, 175 W. Washington. Workers’ Home, 1902 W. Division | 7° Garpenters, 2708 W. mth So ow. St., in honor of the fifth group of the Washington St. agricultural commune Red Ray that ese Sarpenter, et S. Ugg ore Page is leaving for Soviet Russia In a od ns, hs Lak adic few days. The group is taking along | f44 ‘and’ Enginemen, 640% atractor, a lathe and tools for the sted St. sum of about $3,000. ry Workers, Emily and Mareh- indi ecpirtcis, P.xge Praiedmdiaindll BP rriers, Monroe and Peoria commune some time before are writ- ing enthusiastic letters. In the last letter they tell that out of the 19 83 cows of the commune 12 had little | 73 ones. About 50 pigs were born on the grounds of the commune lately, and there are 500 eggs in the in- cubator. we Workers, Joint . Van Buren St. ini . Painters, "2345 So. Kedzie Ave. Pointers, School and Shefield Ave. 3140 Indiana Ave. 3140 Indiana Ave. Pattern Makers, 119 8. Throop St. Plumbers, 9251 8. Chicago Ave. Railwa zie, I. wai ‘Carmen, Village Hall, Kol- ie, fit ¢armen, Vilinae Hall Kel. Unemployment in Detroit Increases Over Last Year (Special to The Daily Worker) DETROIT, Mich.—An increase of 4,449 over the preceding week in the number employed in the member 0 rte q tat shops is shown in the last weekly re- 2 Peg TH, yl Capit Bida. ad port or “labor barometer” of the em-| 12 Sto 3609 W. ployers’ association of Detroit. The| *% 7 total is now 232,068, which is 3,390 less than a year ago. The association membership com- prises two-thirds of the employers in the Detroit district. narone Trainmen, $349 North ve. Railroad Trainmen, 9120 Commer- cial Ave Sheet Metal Workers, Ashland and Van Buren. South Chicago Trades and Labor raphers (com.)” ‘siz 8. Clark Waitresses, 19 W. Adame Street, e Unlet tad League 220 otherwise stated all 8». m? tings are Soviets Fight Drought. MOSCOW, (By Mail).— The Gos- plan (state planning commission) has decided to call a conference in Mos- cow at the end of April or early in May of departments thruout the Sov- jet Union engaged in geophysical and | f°" }©w wages. meteorological work. The object of the conference will be to work out scientific practical measures for fore- casting the occurrence of drought. Saboucte/ THE ROMANCE OF Work Ten Years—Get Watch. DETROIT, Mich.—Sixty-eight em- have been given gold watches in rec- ognition of ten years’ faithful service ployes of the Packard Motor Car Co. Workers WOMEN TOIL IN SAWMILLS OF PORTLAND, ORE, ‘Rose City’4s Filled with Jobless (Continued from page 1) agent of the women’s empolymen( bureau admittéd to the writer that only two jobs’ Hdve ‘come to her of. fice in five weeks, Hungry Women Seek For Work. T visit this office*myself, in fact 1 visit alf of the’ émployment agencies daily. They aré fulf of women work- ers ‘all the ‘timé who} for the most part, canont afford a noontime lunch, and ‘who’ sit there hungry all day long waiting for the Job that does not come. Women of ‘all*Ages snd from nearly all races are there. Some with small children. At the samie'time, the north end of the city ‘fs overcrowded with idle men, who walk about aimlessly or stand and stare at the ‘polished biack- boards whére’6née upon a time jobs were displayed for sale. Women Sawmill, Workers. * Some of the sawmills operate part time. But in these the major part of the workers are women. Naturally, such conditions drive women to work for a pittance, Crime of all sorta. and indescribable misery stalk side by side in the “Golden West.” The ocost of lving soars. While the price to the farmer is six or eight certs. « pound for beef, at the retail market, prices range from 18 to 40 cents. For this reason, lack of market and high taxes, together with other burdens, the farmers leave the land and fleck to the cities, welcomed by erime; starvation and high rent. The Curve’ of Utepion Theory. ‘While these conditions obtain and the struggle for existence is intensi- fied daily, while the capitalists perfect more powerful combinations of capital and suppressivé’ governmental force, the workers can think of nothing bet- ter than to talk of “decentralization, rank and file rule, local autonomy” and other such bunk. The I. W. W. sleeps, and im a dreamy nightmare raves about “po- liticians” having “carried off” their organization, while the ttmber trust, ‘ thru its centralized power forces down wages and lengthens the hours, The A. F. of L. is very busy expell- *|ing Communists from its ranks while the masters are conducting an open shop drive to land the A. F. of L. on the scrap heap. Clamor for Graft Job. WALKERVILLE, Ont.—There must be something about the job besides the salary. The local police commit- tee has received. 52 applications for the job of chief-of police from men in Toronto, Kitchener, London, Wind- sor, Walkerville and. other cities. The salary is $2,000 a year. Perhaps it’s the badge. PITTSBURGH, PA. To those who work hard for thely ” money, | will save 50 per cont en all their dental work, R. RASNICK ; DENTIST 645 Smithfield Street. Dr S. ZIMMERMAN 2232 N.CALIFOE ANIA AVE. Phon sone ARMITA G MY NEW LOCATION . 7h ESTABLISHED 12 YEARS, > My Examination ts Free My Prices, Arg Reasonable My Work Is Guarantees » ., Extracting Specialist DELAY. MEANS DECAY wt Magdeleine’ Marx while at work at the plant of the Author of “Women” Grifin Wheel company, East 116th St., and Cottage Grove Ave. when a smokestack which he and other work- ers were engaged in dismantling, col- lapsed and crushed him, Minneapolis Daily Worker Agency DAN W. STEVENS, Agt. 617 ‘o ne South THE BEAUTY AND THE BOLSHEVIK at CO-OPERATIVE CENTER : 2706 Brooklyn Ave. (take B car) LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Sunday, May 3 Wednesday, May 6 Monday, May 4 Thursday, May 7 Tuesday, May 5 Friday, May 8 Starts at 7:30 P. M. NEW RUSSIA A book aglow with the color, light and life of Russia. A picture of the many people the writer has met—working men and women, offi- cials—people of all classes. We have received but a limited new stock from the publishers. Work of Explorer Kozloff in Siberia MOSCOW,—(By Ror Rosta.)—The fam- ous explorer Kozloff, chief of the Tibet expedition, left for Mongolia today, to direct further works of his expedition in Mongolia, in particular the excava- tions in the tombs discovered near Urga. Kozloff is accompanied by Przjeval- sky, the grandson of the well-known Russian traveler, who explored Tur- kestan. The Soviet government has supplied the expedition with funds for two years more, Detroit “Movies” Sign with Union, DETROIT—Five motion picture theaters formerly operated on a non- union basis have signed with the Mo- tion Picture Operators’ Union. They are the Warfield, Grosse Pointe, Ar- thur, Virginian and Davison theaters. In the Preface the author says: You arrive in Russia. Though you know that whatthas been writ- ten about it is pure invention, that the truth has deliberately been falsified, besmirched,and bespat- tered with. gore, still you get a sort of shock of surprise. You find a totally new relation- ship between man and things, with the majority of people benefiting by the new order,’ Everywhere not only the signs of resurrection, but resurrection dtself., Yet the rest of the world still believes the absurd legends of oppression and disorder that are told about Rus- bia. Admission 35c. Children 20c, Friday May 8th Children Free pi Sente ++ ike care Bundle my | owe stand sles THE aay: WORKER WORKERS MONTHLY and All Communist Publications Latest iesues of all publications alwaye at hand, ian 8 The Safety Razor that AutoStrop Sharpens Its Own Blades COMPLETE OUTFITS $1.00 & 96.00 In For Bale at Ail Stores Selling Raxore and Blades From any authorized Agent or by mail direct from the Daily Worker Price $2.00