The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 24, 1925, Page 3

—S , . Sem or even three men. boss comes snooping around with his 'GARRIE FURNACE CORRESPONDENCE BIG SUIT HOUSE SPEEDS WORKERS, DOCKS THEM FOR FALLING BELOW OUTPUT, PAYS STARVATION WAGES By THEODORE MORANCE (Worker Correspondent). NEW YORK, Sept. 22.—Ours, “the largest mail order house in the East,” employs at least three thousand people in its two plants in New York City. The main plant on Seventh avenue easily overtops, by its sixteen stories, the other buildings of New York’s factory district. As the workers troop out at six o’clock—dispirited and disheartened after the day’s heavy work it seems as if all of the working population of the Hast Side and a good slice of Brooklyn is here made busy in supply- + ing the East’s mail orders. The National Cloak and Suit com- pany maintains a large employment office with a sleek employment man- ager and a staff of clerks hiring twelve dollar a week boys and girls. Since the labor turnover is great one can find almost every day dozens of applicants in the large and well ap- pointed office waiting for an “inter- view.” This is usually the process of exam- ining the faces of the job seekers to eee if they have sufficient intelligence to be able to distinguish and protest against the appalling conditions to be found inside the building. Whereup- on they are rejected. If one presents a high school diploma, one-is honor- ed with the munificent renumeration of $14 per week. Thus the “economic advantage” of a high school education would seem) to be two dollars, Thrown on Streets. The time cards show workers who have been with the firm ten and fif- teen years. And yét, if there were an efficiagcy campaign, as usually happens when business is not so brisk, thousands of these broken old horses would be thrown om the streets with the worst possible prospects. They surely could not count upon their ex- perience in the National as the work done here is highly sub-divided, al- “Jowing several hundred hands to per- form the same two or three opera- tions day in and day out. The pack- ers have several sizes of boxes and paper and wrap up their output with- out knowing the least thing about the postage or customs regulations or re- quirements, while the ones who at- tend to those details could not tie a knot or wrap a package to save their lives. Hundreds of items are packed every day by the same packer, but he could not distinguish between cotton and silk goods. They are merely requir- ed to plug away at the same mono- tonous task every tortuous minute of the age-long day. The output of or- ders picked or packed is the limit and any deviation therefrom is sure to spell discharge. All the positions occupied by the relatives or friends of the stockholders are not subject to work outputs. All. others must see that their hourly piles of work ap- proach the output mark. Straw Bosses Snap Whip. All of the floors with their differ- ent departments are managed by de- partment heads who are there to see that the section bosses are constantly busy driving the slaves on. These section bosses are usually chosen from the ranks, after having been tested by the department heads and proving that they are able to bring the expense account under the budget estimate—that is they must force the ie worker to do the work of two If the boss took ity on the workers and added more elp” he was deemed inefficient and oted. He was expected to earn salary and ten times that for the agement.” A Such a despicable creature could get twenty or twenty-two dollars per week, The department heads by the same analogy were also expected to earn their fifty a week by making “the section bosses” work the employees every minute of the nine hours a day ~—thoiigh a ten minute rest period is allowed the workers. At three o'clock the whistle gives the workers still dizzy from the grind the chance to realize how weary and knocked out they all are. The amount of rest that one gets is equal to the number of ang on the point of a needle. At twelve-fifteen every one “knocks- off” for fourty-five minut as one o'clock blows +— as if he were addressing so many cat- tle instead of human beings. Time clocks are stationed in every depart- ment, each section has one, At all hours can be heard the punching of time cards as part time workers come ping departments in which the writer works, All part/timers are paid 34c for each hour of work put in. As a result many high school and college students are “putting in time” either'mornings or afternoons while some ‘work all day while some even put in:entire days on this basis. They can bg Jaid off for weeks even, They are; not paid for holidays nor are they. paid for illness, just for the hours they put in. As a result part timers compete with each other in order to secure the lousy few hours for the day:’!' "1 They do not get any $Wacation no matter how many years they» work, though they get frequent lay-offs at their own expense. All ‘work that re- mains from the morripg cis finished in the afternoon, when the,schoolboys come in, m Discriminate Against Women The regulars are almost as bad off as the part timers, They have to make outputs and put in nine hours of toil per day, for the same salary that they had been getting for years. The maximum salary paid is nineteen or twenty to those who, have worked more than five years. Then if the worker wants a further increase he is fired. The ingenuity of the depart- ment head is constantly being exert- ed to put off raises month after month. The girls are even more poorly paid than the boys. Their max- imum is sixteen dollars per week or seventeen to veterans. Penalized for “Errors” Then there is a system of error markings whereby all possible errors are listed and checked off by auditors against the work of the employees whenever they come around to audit it. Each error means a bawling out from the department head and the error slip is forwarded with your out- put record to general headquarters. There if they decide that the National is not making more than 100 per cent profit on you, out you go. The department heads are men who have purchased stock andere drawing a salary to exploit their help to the last dollar of profit. Middle classers with houses and automobiles, com- muting from the suburbs to come in and further enslave us in the morn- ings. While most of the section bosses. are drawn from the ranks the soft jobs go to those with pull, There is no advancement at all without that desideratum, In general the lot of the worker is arduous, ill-paid and monotonous. The National's system of bosses and sub- bosses over-awes the workers of which a large proportion are either foreign or students, two groups who cannot be aroused. Were the DAILY WORKER to start a campaign it would greatly help to alleviate the rotton conditions of work under which thousands labor every day, in. Especially in this true of the ship- }, CARRIES DEATH FOR WORKERS Capitalist Hellhole Breeds: Revolt By THOMAS, Worker Correspondent. PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 22 — The Carrie Furnace of Rankin, Pa. is a part of the United States Steel corpo- ration in which Garyism is maintain- ed 100 per cent, long hours, speed up, small pay and no organization per- mitted. Born a Welsh coal miner even for me the strain was too much, After two weeks I had to quit, The labor gang are suffering all the abuses of hard work. One man has to carry cement and brick to keep three bricklayers busy on certain days when they are repairing the furnaces, On other days they are wheeling waste away from the furnaces under terrible heat while the dust almost chokes them. There is a straw boss for every six men besides assistant fore- men and foremen, If you stand up for a moment to stretch your back or take a rest they are all on your neck within two sec- onds, and if you-give them any back talk you will be fired right off the bat. Carrying at the Carrie Furnace, I spoke to a laborer who had been employed there for about two years, though few workers stay so long in that place except those having a staff job. He said conditions had been the same ever since he started. He said, “the name of this place is ‘carry,’ al- right, I have .been ‘carrying’ ever since two years ago. If it isn’t one thing it is another.” And for that work you are paid the large sum of 44c an hour for a 10-hour day. The much boasted eight-hour day does not exist in this plant. The workers are beginning to realize that an eight-hour day can be won only thru an organized fight. I have seen still worse example: The men who work around the fur- maces, cleaning gas tubes and clean- ing waste from the ore, receive the royal sum of 45c an hour for risking their lives in the cloud of dust and ILY WORKER scnahi with Govern more, The Pinchot-Lewis-Englis meeting and that is arbitration, interference by the government. Lewis, shouting to the housetops that the miners will not submit to arbitra- tion, have, nothing to do with it, really is in favor of, arbitration. Lewis is held in check by the mem- bership not to fool so much with ar- bitration, ‘especially since the mem- bership bitterly remembers the Wil- son “impartial” arbitration board of the 1920 strike, the strike the miners lost everything they fought for. That Lewis really favors arbitra- tion and,government interference ir- respective of,his loud anti-arbitration shouting gan be proved by the records of his speech at the tri-district con- vention in July of this year, Speaking on what might happen if the operators, and “great Americans” continued to scrap the Jacksonville agreement ‘he said, “and if this situa- tion continues it may be necessary later on, to authorize a national shut- down of the mines of this country while the government and the coal operators. and the representatives of the mine workers discuss the question of whether the Jacksonville agree- ment is going to be carried out.” Lewis Once Opposed Arbitration We should remember it “may” be necessary to declare a national strike. We should also remember the govern- ment is to have a hand in the pro- ceedings. The great mass of the rank and file are categorically opposed to arbitration in every form. Many local unions have adopted stern resolutions and have circularized the entire union membership: of the anthracite fields asking them to adopt the resolutions. Arbitration will not be tolerated, arbitration or conciliation with an im- partial “mediator” the whole works. Local Union 1483, with a membership of nearly 1,000 adopted an anti-arbi- tration resolution as early as August gas coming from the furnaces. I worked in that plant for two weeks. When it got too hot I beat it but I shall never forget what happened to a dozen men during that period, Workers Who Vanish. One man who was sent up to re- pair a runway fell down about 150 feet and was killed instantly. One man fell down into the cumberdown (red hot ashes from the furnace) he was burhed to death. ‘Both of these accidents were indisputably the fault of the company for not supplying safety belts. A few days later gas tubes were to be cleaned out, Men were forced to go into these tubes before the gas was properly cleaned with the result that seven men were gassed, some be- yond resurrection. They were taken to the hospitaland nothing could be heard of them since, where they were, or whether dead or alive. All such accidents are being hushed up by the officials of the com- pany, It is a sight to see the sick parade, when every other morning those who have suffered injuries but are still able to somehow crawl back to work must do so. If they cannot walk they are brot in ambulances. This is done to keep the record of the list of ac- cidents at the lowest possible mini- mum, This company now boasts of the best record of this kind in the dis- trict. However, the cause of the large part of all accidents can be traced back directly to the slave driving con- ditions under which the workers are employed, driven to a point of com- plete exhaustion and the lack of safe- ty appliances, Safety All in the Speeches. Nothing is done to protect the liv of the workers except safety speeches, in reality given for the purpose of boosting the company and praising the existing conditions. Only the strongest men are accepted for jobs in this plant. Plenty of applications but only the most husky are selec! the same as a butcher picks his cattle. The growing line of unemployed, however, is beginning to teach the workers another lesson that the bosses have no interests in common with the workers of the mills; that their institutions, political and other- wise are created to help keep them in exploitation and that some way must be found to stop competition for jobs amongst themselves, The next thing they will learn will be how to organ- ine, Build the DAILY WORKER. NAME: ... ADDRESS: AMOUNT OF DONATION HELP THE STRIKING SEAMEN! Send All Name of Newspaper. MARINE TRANSPORT WORKERS’ UNION No, 510, I. W. W. 105 Broad Street, New York City. soeeqneveaysscagees te: Funds to hours a 1st and demanded a shutdown of the anthracite mines in case no agree- ment was reached, the operators con- ducting an advertising campaign thru the capitalist press urging the miners to remain at work pending a new agreemen’ Notified of this action of Local 1483, Lewis in a letter’'to the writer, as secretary of the above local union, said among other things: “I am in complete, with the action taken by Local*Union 1483 with regard to the arbitration offer of the operators.” Pinchot Playing Politics It has been expected for a long time Pinchot would inject himself in the strike, not.for any “humanitarian” motive, ag he states, but as a political trick on the. part of this fellow who is at odds with the state republican ma- chine, Pinchot and Pepper both wait- ed for the most favorable opportunity of meddling, Pinchot with the idea of swamping Pepper next year for the senatorial nomination, which is the prize he is after, It is enerally accepted fact that Pinchot {will oppose Pepper in the cna rors ean next year, with other rumors gaining headway he will use the senate, if he wins, as a spring- board from which to project himself into the 1928 presidential contest. Especially when we consider Pinchot made a very detailed tour of the an- thracite fields just prior to the strike, ostensibly to place his “giant power Program before the people” but in reality to attempt bolster his power prior to the primaries next year. Another trip will be made, this time “inspecting state institutions.” Giff is getting some good advertising these days, to which he does, not object to in the least. His interest in not the miserable lot of the anthracite mine workers, his interference is not for their interests, Interference Coming Anothersfactor which must be taken into consideration with the expecta- tion Pinchot will interfere, as he did two years ago, in his recent appoint- ment of a “commission” of the state department of labor, under Lands- burgh the» secretary, to “determine what effect the strike has had on em- ployment in industries other than mining, but affected by the tie-up.” This move on the part of Pinchot is Baggage Handlers Win Raise on Compromise of Strike; Fought Cut (From a Worker Correspondent). NEW YORK, Sept. 22.—New York baggage men who move the trunks and suitcases of passengers from rail- road stations have won wage in- cre of one dollar a week with the signing of a 3-year agreement that terminates the strike called last month against the Westcott Express and New York Transfer companies. The walkout started when the com- panies cut wages # dollar a week and the men are thus two dollars a week better off than if they had submitted. Other démands are compromised, the baggage men’s union waiving the 8-hour and’ double time for Sunday work dematids and going back on nine and time and a half for LEWIS WORKING SECRETLY WITH INCHOT FOR ARBITRATION AND 1] INTERFERENCE IN ANTHRACITE By PAT TOOHEY (Worker Correspondent) , Pa., Sept. 22 —Today, after the much heralded conference ‘inchot, John L, Lewis and Major Inglis, moth issue statements to the effect that the conference was “very interestin,” that, and nothing when Lewis and Inglis rushed to accept the governor's suggestion to “caucus” All points to + can mean but one thing, especially o have all coal strike data available yrior to intervening, Rinaldo Cappellini, speaking at Old Forge recently stated “It was but a/ question of time until Coolidge would | interfere.” All are looking for a chance to solidify their positions, Pepper, Pinchot and Coolidge. Gov- ernment interference in the past has been detrimental to the mine workers. It will take a lot of explaining on the part of Lewis to the membership to arbitrate again as he has done in the past, Operators In No Hurry This strike in one aspect is very beneficial to the operators and for the present they are not so very much interested in its settlement. Now they have an opportunity of heaping on the market millions of tons of storage coal of a size and grade which other- wise would be unmarketable. At the begining of the strike it was esti- mated there was 10,000,000 tons re- serve of which only 1,000,000 was of a marketable domestic grade. The stor- age yards of the anthracite field have depleted very much of late, and in some cases are entirely empty. The Workers Party and the progres- sive miners are holding many mass meetings among the strikers. They are presenting to the miners the only practical solution to their many pro- blem. They will raise with more in- tensity the slogan of “No Arbitration” “No Government Interference.” Build the DAILY WORKER with subs. TWO U, S. SAILORS WASHED OVERBOARD AND DIE IN STORM MANILA, Sept. 21.—Two sailors were washed overboard and drown- ed when the forty-third and forty- fifth destroyer divisions struck a terrific storm last Wednesday én- route to Manila, it was learned here today. The dead are: More Prize Winners More Good News for Worker Correspondents §S announced in yesterday's is- sue of the DAILY WORKER, the standard of worker correspond- ence sent in for the special Inter. national Press Day issue, and the amount of stories sent, made the task of choosing winners most diffi- cult, and also made it impossible to print all. the stories. However, in view of the good work done, it has been decided to award three additional prizes to worker correspodnents whose stor les arrived for that issue, Of these prizes, the first—a copy of RUSSIA TODAY—is awarded to Irwin, a Pittsburgh worker corre- spondent for his story in Tuesday's issue: “Fakers’ Fight on Reds Only Aids Employers.” The sec- ond prize, a copy of Magdeleine Marx’s “ROMANCE OF NEW RUS- SIA,” is given to John Perrides of Chicago for his story also in Tues day’s issue, on conditions among Greek restaurant worekrs. Third prize—a copy of Trotsky’s MY FLIGHT FROM SIBERIA— was won by Regina Myroski, with a story of the West Virginia coal strike, in Monday's issue. All three stories were of real merit. They were from the job and the field of struggle against both the bosses and reactionary trade union officialdom. The success of the contest has been so satisfactory, the interest so marked, that more contests will be held in the near future. In the meantime, as often as possible, spe- cial pages of Worker Correspond- ence will be printed, as in today’s issue on page three. Passengers Injured in Wreck. HAINES CITY, Fla., Sept. 22. Eight white passengers were slightly injured and one Negro was believed fatally hurt, when two coaches, a baggage car and the tender of the engine of Atlantic coast line passenger train No. 86, Tampa to New York, was derailed two miles north of M, J. Sullivan, of the U. 8. 'S. Perry and Claude Stewart, of the U. S. S. Ford, Haines City today. Members of the train crew said the wreck was due to a spread rail. MELLON PLACES HIS HUGE WHISKEY HOLDINGS IN HANDS OF OVERHOLT; PROFITS FROM DISTILLERY BIG CONNELLSVILLE, Pa., Sept: 22. ferred his immense holdings in wh other hands. law, he placed: his whiskey holdings pany in December, 1920. Now Mellon's stock is in the keep- ing of the Overholt Distilling Co, Ac- cording to the papers filed in Connells- ville, Mellon’s stock is to be sold, but it was announced “His stock is so ex- tensive it will require seven years to sell it.” By that time Mellon will have ample time to change his mind and decide to stay in the profitable distilling busi- The Mellon holdings include “all the whiskey now in stock,” according to the papers filed here. (Special to The Daily Worker) .—Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who is head of federal prohibition enforcement, has again® trans- iskey distilleres into the keeping of When Mellon took over his present job of enforcing the prohibition in the hands of the Union Trust com- Provengeneen Page Three LABOR PROTESTS EXCLUSION OF HINDU RADICAL Chicago Labor Body In- vited to Attend The Chicago Federation of Labor has been asked to co-operate with the Workers (Communist) Party and other workers’ and liberal organiza- tions in the mass protest meeting against the barring of Shapurji Sak- latvala from the United States by Secretary of State Kellogg on Mon- day, Sept. 28, at Northwest Hall, North and Western Aves. A _ letter asking support and requesting a speaker from the Chicago Federation of Labor was addrssed to John Fitz- patrick, president of the Chicago Fed- eration of Labor, by Martin Abern, district organizer of the Workers (Communist) Party. In addition to the Federation of La- bor, invitations have also been ex- j tended to the University of Chicago Liberal Club, the local Kuomintang organization, representing the Chinese independent national movement, the Hindu Club, and other bodies. It is expected that speakers will appear from these organizations. The exclusion of Saklatvala from America, because he is a Communist, and especially because of his open, strong attacks against British im- perialism and his defense of the op- pressed colonial peoples of India, China, Africa and elsewhere, is arousing widespread protest thruout the ranks of labor and among the liberal elements, and also among con- servatives who regard the action of Kellogg and Coolidge as stupid po- litical judgment, which only brings forth more strongly the views which Saklatvala holds. Senator Borah is amcyg the leading figures protesting at this further violation of so-called American traditions of free speech and liberty of action. At the protest meeting Monday, Sept. 28, William F. Dunne, editor of the DAILY WORKER, Manuel Gomez, secretary of the All-America Anti-Im- perialist League, are among the speak- ers thus far listed. Many other prom- inent speakers will be on hand. Admission to the protest meeting at Northwest Hall, North and Western Aves., is free and a large crowd is ex- pected to turn out to listen to the fashion in which the American and British governments operate and co- operate in order that the thought and organization of the awakening work- | ing masses may be curbed, Soldier Prisoners Escape. Two prisoners held for court mar- tial overpowered and disarmed a guard at Fort Sheridan and fled. One, Elmer Behnke, 35, returned, The other, Angelo Caggiano, 25, armed with a revolver taken from the guard, escaped, The pair got out of the guardhouse by throwing a canvas bag over the head of Private William Schaffer, 14th cavalry, the guard, gag- ging him and tieing him hand and foot. ~ BRITISH UNIONS FACE TO LEFT! The British labor movement is “turning to the left.” What makes it turn? You will not know unless you read the article the British trade unions. Don't By MAX BEDACHT. SIDE from the organization of the party itself, the press is the most ‘ffective instrument of a Commun- .st Party in leading the proletarian masses in their struggles and in help- ing them to assimilate their experi- ences from these struggles. The Bol- shevization of our press is that pro- cess which establishes the highest degree of usefulness of our press as such an’ instrument. The task of our press determines its character. A Communist paper must be the voice, the leader and the teacher of the working and struggling masses. To be the voice of the workers, it is necessary that the workers speak thru it. The Communist paper must not merely write about the workers, but the workers must write in it about themselves. Thru the Commun- ist paper workers must speak to workers. HE institution of workers’ corre- spondents must take care of this feature. The development and sys- tematic organization of workers’ cor- respondents and their work is a most important task of Bolshevization, In- struction on the work of workers’ correspondents must be made part of the ciriculum of all educational pro- grams, Every party unit must help in the selection, of new workers’ cor- respondents. Every shop nucleus must develop workers’ correspond: ents by instructing the ablest com- ir write about ness, after he leaves public office. |by Carl Brannin in Friday’s DAILY WORKER. Brannin’s article gives you a close up on the National Minority Movement within miss Friday’s DAILY WORKER. their shop or factory, about the do- ing of some obnoxious slave driving foreman or boss, about problems and difficulties arising in the relation of the workers and the bosses or the management of the shop. It is clear that the reorganization of the party on the basis of shop nuclei will materially advance the chances of developing workers’ correspond- ents. 10 be the leader of the workers it is absolutely necessary to estab- lish the closest connection between the party and the press. The politi- cal line of the party must find ex- pression in every line in the paper. The editorials of our press must not only talk about the workers’ prob- lems and struggles. They must make the solution of these problems and the victorious conclusions of these struggles their own major task. In this endeavor the Communist press must be the mouthpiece of the party. The party, as a party of revolution- ary action, must correct the tendency of its press to philosophize in its editorials about the workers’ strug- gles but wade in and fight them in- stead. Only when the workers can look for more than sympathy, when they can look for guidance and ad- vice to our press, will our papers suc- ceed in leading the workers. To be the teacher of the working masses the Communist press must breath Marxist and Leninist theory in every line, Not only must the Com- munist papers give ample space to theoretical articles, but Marxian and ist methods of analysis and con- | Comm The Bolshevization of Our Press clusions must guide every editorial worker on the Communist paper. In the capitalist papers every item, in- cluding news items, is designed to strengthen confidence in the capital- ist system. Under the guise of pure hews capitalist propaganda is being diseminated in millions of capitalist news sheets daily. In a Communist paper every item, including news items, must be designed to create an- tagonism and hatred against capital- ism. It must be designed to produce a feeling of solidarity in the worker for his class. And this result must not be achieved by doing violence to the facts contained in the items, but by a Marxian analysis and a Leninist presentation and conclusion, when a worker drops off a scaffold no chance must be left for any thot to creep in- to the mind of the reader that it was carelessness on the part of the work- er but it st be clear that capital- ism’s hunger for profit prevents the use of safe scaffolds which would pro- tect the lives of the workers, HAT a Bolshevik paper must teach is an understanding of the character of capitalism, a knowledge that only the workers can defeat capi- talism, a determination on the side of the workers to defeat it, and a knowledge of the conditions and me- thods of such a defeat. The Bolshevization of our press means the adaption of our press to the purpose of being the best possible instrument of our party in guiding the working class and in establish: ing confidence of the workers im the unist Paw