The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 2, 1925, Page 5

—aeee: STRIKING METAL POLISHERS SEE VICTORY AHEAD Long Struggle Marked by Many Arrests By OWEN STIRLING. (Special to The Daily 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 polishing 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, pistol fire. The company has suc- ceeded in taking nine metal pol- ishers off the picket line into the recorder’s court for tridl 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 Guilty. 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. 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 heayily 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- ganizer of the Workers Party, said. Detroit Packing Workers Organize. DETROIT, Mich.—A mass meeting will be held here early in May as the beginning of an organization cam- paign among the packing house work- ers. First Cieat Featare Film from Reweiel THE BEAUTY AND THE BOLSHEVIK at CO-OPERATIVE CENTER The Trath About the’ Ford Plant ee See (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 géing-to jail. There is nevertiieless 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... Them 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 wagés.” 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 {dentification 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 is given an identification card and told when to report for work, or to wait until he is notified. The able-bodiéd man sells his identication card to a speculator for $10. he speculator 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 line 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 charged with attempt- ing to-enter the Ford gates to go to work with a fake identification card, The fact that wages, or money, were J involved, apparently, made the alleged attempt a. cHminal 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 aid 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 oft 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 nevér 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 |. |Farmers’ Council Introduction of Use of the Metric System (Special to The Daily 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, scales, 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 en- 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. Mendeleyev, 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! 2706 Brooklyn Ave. (take B car) | LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Sunday, May 3 Monday, May 4 Tuesday, May 5 Admission 35c. Friday May 8th Children Free Sharpens Ite Autostvop Blad n les —Sharpens Itself _ForSale at Ail Stores Selling Raxors and Blades Wednesday, May 6 Thursday, May 7 Friday, May 8 Starts at 7:30 P. M. Children 20c. that 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 schedules, 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 In Pullman. Frank Lans of Rockford was killed while at work at the plant of the Griffin 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 4th Ave. South Mut pate care of all your for subscriptions, bundle orders spe news stand sales be od THE DAILY WORKER ‘ WORKERS MONTHLY and All Communist Publications Latest issues, of all publications always at hand, MICHIGAN GIVES 7,037 BED VOTES FOR COMMUNISM Startling Results in Off- 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 oh’ April 6, when 7,037 voters cast thelP ballots for the Work- ers Party candidates, who ran under the symbolic hammer and sickle. The Workers Party was the only party entering he Spring elections to. make a working class appeal. The socialist party.has finally recognized that it is dead. The socialist labor party, for reagons best known to it- self, failed to make the grade. The proletarian party’s educational activi- ties do not inelude 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 ¢onfronting the elector- ate. Lack of*funds with which to conduct a strenuous campaign, and lack of effective organization, raised serious difficultfes. Yet in spite of these difficulties a most remarkable response was forthcoming. In Wayne county (Detroit) Comrade Herman Richtér, 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 ofily 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 pe teed peninsula all gave very respectable votes for the Communist candidates. It is signifi- eant 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, 1 of the prison in which Comri Ruthenberg was in- carcerated be’ his release pending his appeal tg; the United States su- preme court, delivered. 98-votes, while Berrien county, Wherein the-Commun- ist trials arg, Bending, came across with 132. .One.county gave 1,500 plus, one nearly 600;-0ne 347;'six voted from 217 to 283, sixdrom 127 to 194, while the others ramged-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, 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 achieyement. 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- Bage 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 a@ 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! iad ‘What will it he,in the congressional elections in 19267. . Work of Explorer Kozloft in Siberia MOSCOW.—(BY Rosta.)—The tam- 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. ‘ee The Soviet povernment has supplied the expedition with funds for two years more. ) Detroit “Moviea "Sign with Union, DETROIT—Five: motion picture theaters formerly,operated on a non- union basis have gigned with the Mo- tion Picture Opegators’ Union. They are the Warf Pointe, Ar- thur, Virginian Davison theaters. * + THE DAttheY¥Y WORKER _ Page rive Oe — ILDERS AT WORK 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 | visited six workers and ob- tained: three subs for the DAILY WORKER. One other-"promised to subscribe in two weeks from now! '’did not think it was so easy, to get them. | challenge Comrade obtain AT LEAST three Ida Dailes of Chicago to 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); CLEVELAND, O.—J. A. Hamilton (3); J. Balod. A. Weissberg. . y CHICAGO, ILL.—A. Carmon, Anna Block, W. Allbrigh}. 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 Bursler. 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 || = A May Day celebration and fare- well party will be held this Satur- day, May 2, at 7:30 p. m., at the Workers’ Homey 1902 W. Division St., in honor of the fifth group of the |. agricultural commune Red Ray that/ is leaving for Soviet Russia ina few days. The group is taking along atractor, a Jathe and tools for the sum. of about $3,000. The comrades that left for the commune some time before are writ- ing enthusiastic letters. In the last letter they tell that out of the 19 cows of the commune 12 had little ones. About 50 pigs were born on the grounds of the commune lately, and there are 500 eggs in the in- cubator. Unemployment in Detroit Increases Over Last Year a (Special to The Daily Worker) DETROIT, Mich—An increase of 4,449 over the preceding week in the number employed in the member shops is shown in the last weekly re- port or “labor barometer” of the em- pPloyers’ association. of Detroit. The total is now 232,068, which is 3,390 less than a year ago. The association membership com- prises two-thirds of the employers in the Detroit district. Pb hemenntipmeeni | Soviets Fight Drought. MOSCOW, (By Mail).— The Gos- plan (state planning commission) has decided to call a conference in Mos- cow at the end of April or early in May of departments thruout the Sov- iet Union engaged in geophysical and meteorological work. The object of the conference will be to work out scientific practical measures for fore- casting the. occurrence of drought. Your Union Meeting First Friday, May 1, 1925. Bakers and Conf., 3420 W. Roose- veit. Bookbinders, 175 W. Washington St. 6 p. m. ‘ 29 Broom Makers, 810 W. Harrison St. Building Trades Council, 180 W. Washington. 1 Carpenters, 175 W. Washington. 70 Carpenters, 2705 W. 35th St. Carpenters’ Dist. Council, 180 W. Washington St. 2200 Carpenters, 4339 S. Halsted St. ans, 2001 W. Monroe St. 4141 W. Li ake S$ Hi St. a4 one, Workers, Emily and Marsh. jeld. Hod Carriers, Monroe and Peoria ts. S' Ladies’ Garment Workers, Joint 328 W. Van Buren St. Magi 113 S. Ashland Bivd. Machinists, 113 S. Ashland Blvd. 273 Painters, 2345 So. Kedzie Ave. id Shefield Ave. na Ave. 'S. Throop St. 92! Chicago Ave. ‘men, Village Hall, Kol armen, Village Hall, Kol- “Carmen, 6445 S$. Ashland y Clerks, 20 W. Randolph St. y Clerks, 9 S. Clinton St. \y Clerks, Ft. Dearborn Hotel. id Trainmen, 1536 E. 64th St. Trainmen, 3349 North Ave. Railroad Trainmen, 9120 Commer- cial Av Sheet Mi Workers, Ashiand and Van 8 5 South Chicago Trades and Labor Pee 139 somemereet Ave. ta % Hands, 412 Capitol 3609 Wi Glub Rooms, 4:30 p. m. Telegraphe (Com.) 3212'S, Clark jt. 19 W. Adams Street, Waitre: 3P. Wom S$. Ashiand Bivd. (Note--Unless — otherwise meetings are at 8 9. m.) M. n’s Union Label League 220 stated all Work Ten Years—Get Watch. DETROIT, Mich.—Sixty-eight em- ployes of the Packard Motor Car Co, have been given gold watches in réc- ognition of ten years’ faithful service for low wages. THE ROMANCE OF 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. J WOMEN TOIL IN SAWMILLS OF . PORTLAND, ORE, ‘Rose City’ Is Filled with Jobless (Continued from page 1) agent of the women’s empolyment bureau admitted to the writer that only two. jobs have come to her. of- fice in five weeks. Hungry Women Seek For Work. I visit this office myself, in fact 1 visit all of the employment agencies daily. They are, full of women work- ers all the, time¢who, for the most part, canont*afford)ia:moontime lunch, and who sit there hungry all day long waiting for the.job that does not come. Women of, all ages and from nearly all races are,there, Some with small children, sam At the same, time, the north end ot the city is,,overcrowded with idle: men, who: walk: about aimlessly or stand and stare at the polished black boards where once, upon a time jobs were displayed for, gale, Women ‘Sawmill: Workers. Some of the sdwmills operate part time. But fn thésé’the major part of the workers are “women. Naturally, such conditions drive women to work for a pittance. Crime of afl S6rts and indescribable misery stalk sidé’ By side in the “Golden West.” The cost of living soars. While the ‘price to the farmer is six or eight cents a 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 flock to the cities, welcomed by crime, starvation and high rent, i The Curse of Utopion Theory. While these conditions obtain and the struggle for existence is intensi- fied daily, while the capitalists perfect more powerful combinations of capital and suppressive 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 in a dreamy nightmare raves about “po- liticians” having “carrie@ 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 aré conducting an open shop drive to Iand 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 thels money, | will save 50 per cent on all their dental work, DR. RASNICK DENTIST 645 Smithfield Street. Dr. S. ZIMMERMAN 22352.N. CALIFORNIA AVE. Pi ARMITA MY NEW LOCATION Special X-Ray Prices pa to Gas Workers Given ESTABLISHED 12 YEARS. My Examination Is, Free My Prices Are Reasonable My Work Is Guarantees © Extracting. Specialist DELAY MEANS DECAY MagdeJéines Marx Authed lof, “Women” ney In the. Preface the author says: You arrive in. Russia. Though you know that what has been writ- ten about it is pure invention, that the truth has deliberately been falsified, besmirched, tered with gore, still you get a sort of shock of surprise, and bespat- You find a totally new relation- dis sla. From any,authorized Agent or by mail direct from ship between matr and things, with’ the majority of. people benefiting by not only the signs of resurrection, but resurrection rest of the world stfil believes the absurd legends of Oppression and order that: are told about Rus- the new .order. Everywhere itself. Yet the Price $2.00 Pent ee —