The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 12, 1925, Page 9

— Christmas Dinner oes" “Picture by 4 fig What Are the Conditions of Labor in America? By EARL R. BROWDER, BJECTION is sometimes raised against the statistical material gathered by the research department of the Workers Party; material which shows the increasing rate of exploita- tion of labor and the absolute decline in the standard of living; the objec- . tions being on the ground that the fig- ures are incomplete and therefore . prove nothing, and that the actual con- ditions of the workers, as disclosed by direct investigation, are on the whole improving. To what extent are these objections valid? Admitting that the statistical inves- tigation is far from complete, it must still be insisted upon, that almost all figures, compiled by many independent institutions (all of them either hostile to labor or “neutral”’), disclose the same tendency of increase in rate of exploitation and an absolute de- cline in the standard of living, the spread-eagle claims of Hoover and Coolidge to the contrary notwithstand- ing. The only way in which improve- ment of labor standards can be shown is to compare present conditions with the period of peak prices righc «fter the war, when labor was at its lowest point. The true tendency is disclosed by a longer-range comparison (as in Paul H. Douglas’ “Wages in 1890- 1923”) and by the current development in the present period of “prosperity.” For the moment, however, let us ask what are the actual living condi- tions of labor as disclosed by empiri- cal investigation? A sample case may be taken from very meager existence. Yet I am hold- ing one of the highest rated jobs in the freight accounting department. During my forty years of railroad ser- vice I have never received more than enough to maintain a very restricted standard of living. Yet I have been more fortunate than most of my fel- low workers. There are just myself and my wife. We are both econom- ical. We are careful with our house- hold expenses. We wear inexpensive clothes,~and wear them longer than we like to. We live in a modest apart- ment, yet one-fourth of my wages go to the landlord each month. My gas and electric bills have doubled in the jlast three years, “I have lost more in wage reductions since wages were at their peak than I have gained in reduced living costa, statistics to the contrary notwith- |Standing. My wife and I are deprived of amusement; we both like music and the drama but seldom get to-see a good show, and never an opera. An occasional picture show is about all we can afford. , “I have saved less during the last year and a half than during any simt- lar period in the last eight years. Af- ter forty years of service I have been unable to save anything like enough to provide against the time when I shall probably have reached tlie age when my earning power ceases. “The company in whose service I have given the better part of my life— @ company which has enjoyed unin- terrupted prosperity for years, partic- ularly the last four, and can well af- the “aristocracy of labor,” the rail- ford to increase our wages, refuses to road workers. In the “Railway Clerk” for Decem- ber, 1925, page 479, may be found the do so, but expects me to be loyal and watchful of the companies interests and render efficient service, I have following letter from a railway em-! been loyal and I have been a hard ploye, It says; “After nearly forty years spent in railroad service I am today receiving @ wage barely sufficient to provide a worker; but what has it gotten mo? ']and my class deserve a wage increase jand 1 am willing to take whatever ac- ‘tion is necessary to get it.” The union to which this worker be- longs is not red, has not the faintest | pink tinge. It is 100 per cent Ameri- can in the true Gompersian sense. But its official organ comments upon the jletter, saying: “This man-voiced the | protest of two hundred thousand rail- road and express clerks and station service employes. Literally that many workers of our classes are today re- ceiving wages that mean a restricted life, privation, and in thousands of cases actual want.” It is true of railroaders (and out of the 1,800,000 employes on the railroads it is true of at least 1,500,000—while the more privileged receive only 20 per cent to 50 per cent more wages) jthen it is even more true of the steel workers, the miners, the textile work- ers, the rubber workers, etc. The building trades seem to be an excep tion, but this is largely an illusion,and jto the extent that it is true, is very temporary. Even the printers, with their “mighty union,” the Interna- tional Typographical Union, have been steadily losing ground. The automo- bile workers are being constantly driv- en down to the lev6l of other indus- tries, in spite of the tremendous ex- pansion of that production. Our rail- way clerk, quoted above, spoke not only for two hundred thousand clerks, he spoke for ten million workers in America who are living on the ragged edge of poverty. What is to be done about it? The Official leaders of American labor are exerting all their powers to completely reorientate the unions away from strikes and struggle, towards class collaboration, towards “B, & QO. plans,” towards company uaions, towards in- surance and labor banking. This class |collaboration movement fs growing |more menacing every day. It is \gnawing at the very heart of unionism. | The Trade Union Educational ‘League, and the Communists, have | been for years pointing out the only jroad of progress for labor. This is ; the road of greater solidarity of labor, | stronger organizations, and militant }class struggle. And even the most |conservative workers are being pushed jin our direction, even against their ;conscious desires. It is an important symptom of what |is brewing in the ranks of labor, when ;such a Conservative organ as “The Railway Clerk” can say: “The workers are sick and tired of this buck-passing. They have been | trying the conference table method of |adjusting their wage questions for five years now. They prefer the con- ference table“to the picket line, but | their experience with this method has shaken their faith in its efficiency. They have presented, first to the car- riers and then to the Labor Roard, masses of data on wages, living costs, jand what-not, but their statistics didn’t |stick, Not because their statistics did not prove their case, but because gen- tlemen who are accustomed to analyz- ing statistics with an eye only to pro- |fit and loss are not much impressed with the story they tell of cramped and half-starved lives. An elegantly | phrased wage-submission is more pleasant to contemplate than an ulti- }matum; but the workers haye Jearned | that it hasn’t the effect of the latter on wage boards and railroad prési- | dents.” | This argument from one of the very unions which has been most active in the labor banking, insurance, and B. & O, plan movement, is the declara- tion in bankruptcy of their present tactics, And it is a sign that the masses of workers are beginnig to Put severe pressure upon their lead- ers. Further, it is the final proof that we are correct when we point out the increasing exploitations of the whole working class by American capitalism.