The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 16, 1926, Page 15

ee HE great Pullman Car shops have introduced the Ford system of pro- duction, The cars are strung out in line, The workers are driven to work at top speed. There is no waste of time any more by the workers mov- ing from one job to the other as they finish their work. Once a day the cars are pulled forward. The old sys- tem of contracting out the work at definite rates is done away with. We in the Pullman shops, are not told any more in advance at what rates we are going to be paid for our work. But no matter how we rush, and try hard, and sweat,—at the end of the week we find out that under the new system we can make at the most only six or seven dollars per day, while before, working much easier, we were able to make eight and nine dollars. This means that while our produc- tion increases, our wages are cut down about 25 per cent. The new system is certainly profit- able for lousy Lowden and other par- asites, who own the Pullman plant, but it is hell for the workers. How does it happen that the work- ers accepted the change of the old system of production for the new one! Well, first of all, when the change was made, no one asked us whether we would agree to it or not. And, secondly, even now, after the change is made, the bosses never ask us how we like it. They simply forced their new system on us. Here is how the game was played by the bosses: During September of last year they began to cut down work and dis- charged workers in the freight car and passenger car departments. Then they stopped all work in both of these departments. The workers were thrown into the street. Only the fore- men remained in the shops. They still kept on the roll about 500 work- ers of the passenger steel erection department. The discharge of all workers opened the way for the in- troduction of the new system. There was nobody in the shops to fight against it. The Pullman management did not set a definite day for the opening of the shops, and for weeks the hundreds of jobless workers who were still on the rolls would come to the gates asking for work.—‘Nothing doi#® today”—was the answer to them for weeks. These jobless men were used as a whip over the heads of the eS MK! —_ Ya-Siado= +> SA sp age (tg afte. he. Se All of the petty bosses and a few of the workers were put together into the passenger car department, and here the work was started at the top notch speed. Any worker who did not prove himself. fast enough to satisfy the bosses was fired and a new one taken in his place. There were enough men at the gates. The bosses compelled he. work- ers to do ten hours Sole” in. eight hours, and they succeeded. “The chief slave driver, whom the Pullman management put in charge of introducing the new system is a fel- low by the name of Harry Reed. But the rest of the petty bosses are also competing with one another as to who can squeeze out more profit from the sweat of the toiling workers. For the time being the exploiters /“ few workers, who were hired back to} succeeded im licking: the workers. The help the foreman in trying out the| workers are full of hatred against the new system. exploiters, but with a jobless army Capitalist imperialism depends upon using the trade unions and the “socialist” parties as its best supports. All socialist parties everywhere have become a crutch of decaying capitalism. The trade unions, however, can and will be won away from the support of capitalism. Coolidge, the “Farmer’s Son.” no 8 enter es Ford System Comes to Pullman Car Shops. ‘t the gate they dare not yet offer ‘esistance. We must recognize that we our- selves helped the exploiters to defeat us, and we must learn the lesson. In 1924 we had a good chance to organize the Pullman shops. The Rail- way Carmen’s Union came to our as- sistance in the strikes we had at the time. ~But the mass of the workers did. not respond to the call for organi- zation. And now the Parasites do with us as they please. They reduced our wages and make us work harder. What can we do, what must we do now? We must build our union, we must strengthen our organization. Every Pullman worker must join the union now, today Don’t wait for tomorrow to do it. There are several locals of the Railway Carmen's Union. Join one of them Don’t lose courage ganization, to fight for better wages, against the speed-up system, against ruthless dis- Build your or- And when the time comes charges, we will be in a better posi- tion to fight. A Group of Pullman Workers. “New York City Opens Its Heart to Poor and Needy.” Py PAULINE SCHULMAN. OLIDAY cheer for the poor, Santa “made his rounds in a city that glowed with the spirit of Christmas. Turkey and chicken dinners were served free. Down in dark rooms in dismal houses joy swept in on the wings of laughter. Three thousand bags (there was a demand for five thousand tho) were distributed, each containing a sweater, a coat, a dress or a suit, two pairs of stockings, can- dies, and cakes. “The gift of the elks to the Bowery mission at 227 Bowery added to the big stock of good things which the officials had already assembled there. More of the Bowery habitues are in evidence this year than in any of recent times according to officials, and the demand on the holiday was corre- spondingly larger. Four hundred and fifty men, of:whom about 80 percent were homeless and jobless, sat down to turkey et al,—-it was an unusual feast. The homeless were stunned by the fact that the waiters were tuxe- doed, and one of these homeless said he. was particularly pleased with what he ealled the atmosphere.” (Of course, he was in a warm house-—P. S.) Thus the New York Times eulogizes the rich for bringing cheer to a fringe of the uhemployed on.one day in the year. That the Times cannot bother every day to tell us of the poverty and suffering of the most miserable victims of the capitalist system, is quite natural. It has more important items to speak of, such as divorce cases, love affairs of the rich parasites and such like, It is not for the Times to enter upon an analysis of the rea- son why thousands of men and women who have lost the privilege of toil- ing in the factories must come and beg for the coats and sweaters which they themselves produced in hundreds of. thousands. forget about the bread which, every day of the year and not only on Christmas, these hungry ones are in need of. The*dark rooms continue to exist in dismal houses the day after Christmas is over—shadowed by the resplendant lights of Broadway. It was only one. week after Christ- mas the same Times told us how the New Year was greeted by joyous crowds. According to the money spent on New Year’s Eve “the coun- try was prosperous.” Evidently the poor unemployed did not exist any longer for the Times, And we surely cannot expect that the Times the World the New York, American, or any other of these news: papers, shall pay any attention to them. This certainly is left to no other newspaper to do but The” re ta | WORKER—the paper which ed bea. entire energy to the working and demands bread and a lot Sore for the unemployed every day in the year—not only on Christmas. Yes! It is The DAILY WORKER, the only Communist paper in the English lan- guage in this country which stands up, speaks for these exploited, depriv- ed and downtrodden’ workers for whose condition nothing else but cap- italism is responsible, What does The DAILY WORKER mean to workers? It serves as the compass on a war cruiser, pointing out the line of danger and directing: the course to successful battle and finally to the harbor of safety. The DAILY WORKER is the beacon light in the darkness for the workers in the United States. It directs the daily struggle to free the workers from the boundage of such “hearts” as the bourgeois city “has opened for them on Christmas day.” The Times certainly