The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 22, 1926, Page 5

_.) PROLET-TRIBUNE TORE “REPEATED FRIDAY AT DOUGLAS PARK SCHOOL By A Worker Correspondent The fourth issue of Prolet- Tri- bune, the Russian living newspaper of the Novy Mir workér correspond- ents will be repeated at the Douglas Park Russian Children’s School, 2734 W. 18th St., this Friday, Jan. 22, at 8 p. m. Admission will be 25 cents, Correspondents’ Class Meets Tonight at Eight The Chicago class in worker cor- respondents meets tonight at 8 p. m. in the editorial room of The DAILY WORKER. If you have been assigned by your shop or street nucleus to at- tend this class be sure to be on hand. Students sare urged to be on time Prompt at eight o'clock, i Workers Write Ab THE DAILYiCWORKER HIRE PRIESTS AT PLANTS TO . KEEP THE WORKERS UNORGANIZED By C. E., Worker Correspondent It is in the Pettibone, Mulligan & Co. Swedish penitentiary) that the writer is employed. (known to most of us as the This large steel plant located on the west side of Chicago, Cicero Ave. and West Division St., where 900 to 1,000 men are employed. We find it a hard task to organize the workers. We work from nine to switches and frogs, most of which is + on a piece work basis. The machin- ists, altho all are not members of the union, are given an eight-hour day, but when one is found out to be a member of a union hetis told his serv- ices are no longer required. To help the bosses keep the men working under these conditions, a “sky pilot” by the name of-Rev. John E. Melin comes thru the shop, talking religion and holding meetings»during lunch and after working hours, which we of course, are asked to attend. We are told what fine conditions we have and that workers are walking the streets “because they don’t want to work.” Us poor stiffs are! slaving . This Week’s Prizes! Every week The DAILY WORKER offers prizes for the three best contributions sent in by worker correspondents. Last week's prizes were won by a stockyard worker, a garment worker and a domestic worker. mill or mine. You may win one of First Prize: Second Prize: plains the development of society civilization. It was acclaimed as Send in your stories about the conditions in your factory, these valuable prizes. “Capital,” by Karl Marx, first volume, “Ancient Society,” by Morgan. This book ex- from savagery thru barbarism to a masterpiece by both Marx and Engels at the time of its publication. Third Prize: framed. A DAILY WORKER cartoon, original drawing. ten hours a day turning out railroad away for the sum of fifty cents an hour, and average about fifty-five cents when on piece work. He is not telling us where he gets his and how much he gets. He also acts as an efficiency expert for the company. He tells us that we should work hard and do the best that is in us, for life is short and that we will be rewarded in “heaven” if we save our money and attend his church on Sundays which this creature conducts a few blocks away from this “jail.” I am not a member of your party, but The DAILY WORKER which I buy from the news stand at North avenue and Cicero, helps my partner and I put over some organization pro- paganda among my fellow shop mates. I will look for this article in the paper within the next couple of days, so don’t fail us. The clipping we will paste on the wall, Yours for a work- ing class organization. Firemen Overcome at Fire, PHILADELPHIA, Penn., Jan. 20— Between 20 and 25 firemen were over- come today by gas on the third floor of a burning building when a gas pipe in the basement of the building broke and the gas exploded. Six of the men were knocked unconscious but were soon revived. Mine Strikers Battle Teamsters Who Haul Coal Without Permit By PAT TOOHEY. (Worker Correspondent) SCRANTON, Pa., Jan. 20.—For the second time in a week union miners and their sympathizers engaged in a street battle with teamsters who were | said to be hauling coal from various washeries without the permission of the United Mine Workers of America, thru the local office. non-union teamsters, who were haul- ing coal from a “wWashery in North Scranton, were asked by a committee of union miners té’show their written permission to remiove the coal. The teamsters could show no authority. By this time a crowd of several hun- dred miners and their wives had as- sembled. The atgiment that follow- ed brot on a real*healthy scrap, in which the miners and their wives were the unquestidned victors. Pick handles, brooms, clubs, bricks and other favorite weapons to be found in a hurry were used. In the fight one union striker was badly injured and had ‘to be taken to the Scranton hospital’ where nine stitches were sewed in his head. Nine union miners and two of their wives were arrested and locked up by the police. A riot call was turned in and when the police arrived and attempted to club the miners they were fought back. The police department is “in- vestigating” the trouble and “expect” to make additional arrests, The team- sters state they had permission to haul the coal which was for schools and public institutions. They could not prove this, At the Stockyards in Chicago By a Worker Correspondent. Men, men, men, little, old wizened men, middle-aged men, some heavy- built, others not, many young men, and boys, too, these mostly Negroes. Some women. Each street car brings e@ load. Off the cars, into “the yards,” walking, half running, a parade of rushing feet. Chicago at that hour is nota beauti- ful sight. It is dirty, it is muddy, it is foggy. The men of the stockyards seem to cut a path for themselves thru this fhickness"of Clouds ava"mud’ into “the yards.” “Buy a copy of The DAILY WORK- ER,” greets them on this morning. But large numbers do not buy. The Make One Worker Do the THE CATTLE PENS AT ARMO (Continued from page 1) that he is not able to stick the hog and some slip by without being stuck. Hot Water Finishes Hog. The hog then goes into a vat of boil- ing water. Here the live hog strug- gles and splashes in this boiling foam until one of the men with pole notices it; runs to the-spot, lifts it up and calls for a knife to finish what the hot water has three-quarters accom- plished. Some days the chains are so speeded-up that the men do not no- tice the struggles. of the hog and the hog goes thru the scraping machine and when it is stuck by the men on the floor the blood is thick and black. The toe-puller on the chain at Ar- mour’s has a miserable life. The toes must be well-scalded and if they are not the machine that is supposed to pull off the toes does not do so and that hog goes on. When the chain is speeded-up so that it is impossible to scald the toes enough for the ma- chine to pull them off, an extra man or two are put on to help the toe- puller. The job is too hard for one man and there should be two or three men here at all times. Today there are but two leg scrap- ers on the chain where there should ‘be four, These workers get about 45 cents an hour, Two Men Replace Four. At one time in the hog kill they had two men shaving the hams and two men shaving the shanks, On top of speeding-up the workers and mak- ing them do much more work than they did a year or so ago, two men must shave both the hams an@ the shanks now. The Armour company has also made the two sideshavers shave the back of the hog as well as the sides thus throwing out one man at this point. The flank scraper besides scraping out the hair and bristles on the flanks of the hogs must also stamp a num- ber onto the hogs. The stamping used to be done by another man. To- day one man must do the work of Where there were three or four shoulder shavers today there are but two, At first in order to keep the men pacified and get them to “break their necks” to turn out the work they gave them a §7 per week bonus now they get but $3 to $4 bonus pe’ ‘week. Two snout shavers and one hea shaver must do the work that was newsboy at the booth selling the sen- sational capitalist steets also does not sell many papers. These men, they seem too intent on just one thing, get- ting into the shop. “Why don’t more of them buy the paper?” asks one of The DAILY WORKER newsies. A tall, well-fed monster, surely sevent feet tall, surely weighing 250 pounds, perhaps more, stands at the door—an inspector, a sort offstraw boss, maybe a dick. He walks up to a “Daily” newsie, “Whatcha gelling there, girl?”’“The DAILY WORKER.” “How much?” “Three cents,” “Give nme nate Later a Negro youth, about 17, steps up with’ outstretched hand. “Gimme one of them, lady?” “Sure.” He does not make a move to pay. Another comes up. “I can’t buy one, but can you give me one, too?” ‘Yes, here you are,” Then, as if in a twinkling, hands surround the newsie, and she presses a copy of The DAILY WORK- ER into each one of them. The stampede is on. They are mostly Negroes, young boys. Some pay for it. Others just take it. But they all want it! Curiosity makes the “Daily” newsie turn her eyes toward the yards. “What are they doing with the copies of The DAILY WORKER?” In the glare from the stream of a searchlight (it is still dark) papers are seen to disappear into coat pockets. “Well, they are not throwing them away, anyway.” By this time another group of work- ers has gathered around the newsie. at 5 a. m. ; She proceeds to rapidly. press a paper into each outstretched hand. One worker gives her.a glance of sym- pathy. It is encouraging. “Buy them on the newsstands every day for three cents. You'll like this paper, once you get to know it. Because it’s a workers’ paper. Get it every morning on the newsstand; There is a story in it today about the stockyards. There are stories,about workers in other trades, too,.Workers themselves write for this paper. Buy it on the newsstands every morning for three cents. Read it every day.” With. the aid f these short sen- tences the story’ is told as each worker enters the yard with a copy of The DAILYWORKER securely tucked away out®6f the bosses’ sight and to be read wh€n time permits. Into these cattle pens every morning are driven large droves of cattle that are sent thru the Armour lant and turned into meat. The workers in the beef killing department tho getting a little higher wages than those in the hog kill, suffer from sanitary conditions thatiare just as bad. After working on the floor here for a number of years the workers become “musclebound” and get rheumatism. The speed of the workers, formerly done by three snoyt. shav- ers and two head shavers. The.company has a leg shaver plac- ed on here who has to shave off the bristles and hair that the speed- up leg scraper could not get off. The leg shaver must work hard. as some- times the hogs are very dirty and the company wants to get them all past the government inspector .as quickly as possible, This worker must do his best to clean the legs as this is about the only spot on the hog that the government inspector notices be- cause of the rate the chain is travel- ing. -up Must Shave Hogs Clean, If the hogs are not shaved clean enough the government inspector that is stationed here is supposed to throw them off to one side into the “dirty” oom where there are two men to clean he hogs. Sometimes three are put on, but there is always enough work 1 this department for three and “ometimes four men, — ‘ ‘Then the hogs that are free of hair system which is practiced here and bristles go to the headers, Two headers must do the work that it took four formerly. The headers must cut the head so that it hangs down by a slender piece of skin. This work is very hard, as they must also break the joint where the head and the body are joined, They must do this from 600 to 800 times an hour. The hog then goes to a government in- spector where the glands are looked at. . The bunggutter then gets the hog. There should be two men here but most of the time the company has but one man here, Then the hog goes to the snatcher, who must hold the intestines of the hog in one hand and cut them out with a knife in the other, The in- testines weigh anywhere from 60 to 90 pounds and this is a terrible strain on the workers. Two men must do the work here that was formerly done by four. Condemned Meat for Workers, After the intestines ard cut out they makes nervous wrecks of many pass a government inspector and then they go to a sorter. The speed-up system carries the intestines past the inspector so fast that he is not able to put on the five or six stamps that are necessary to condemn the intes- t and the sorter mistakes it for the intestines that must be sterilized, which are supposed to have but one stamp, and many pieces of diseased meat that should be condemned are sent to be sterilized and then out for human consumption. All of the good intestines have no stamps. After the snatcher is thru with the hog it goes to the splitter.. This work requires great skill. The splitter must know how much force he must put behind his cleaver to split the hog. The small, young hogs have ten- der bones and care must be taken that these bones are not shattered. The older hogs have tougher bones and it requires much more force to split these hogs. There are but three men doing this work where at one time they had from)four to five work- © Several teamsters; accused of being ! ee out the Workers’ :Life Sore Plight of Store Department Workers in Merchant Marine By ARMINIUS GEORGE J. FORIES. (Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK, Jan, 20.—With wages pending on the fluctuation of the la- bor market and working conditions getting ever worse, the store depart- ment workers of the merchant marine toil like galley slaves for the benefit of their masters, Wages are as various as there are steamship companies and so are the working conditions. But with this variety the steamship owners are in a mad race to enslave the workers skill more. At present the wages range from $40.00 to $60.00 a month for a first- ss cook to $30.00 and $35.00 for a s s messman, At sea and in port the store de partment workers must work till fin- j ished. No over time is paid. If a man for some reason or another fails to work one day, the captain will finc | nim two days for one. If any one dares to protest agains‘ these abuses he is fired and his nam placed on the blacklist of the com pany roll of slavi Page Five MM IN PHILADELPHIA! LENIN MEMORIAL MEETING Saturday, January 23, 8. P. M. at Lulu Temple, Broad and Spring Garden Sts. SPEAKERS: Jay Lovestone, Member Central Executive Committee Workers Party Benjamin Gitiow, recently released from jail M, J. Olgin, prominent Communist journalist Norman H. Tallentire, District Organizer Workers Party Morris Yusem, District Organizer Young Workers League Chairman: R. Baker Large International Orchestra Freiheit Singing Society Pantomime of Lenin's Funeral by Workers’ Theater Alliance Young Pioneer Chorus ADMISSION 25 C Auspices, Workers Party District Three and Young Workers Li Class Collaborating Union Officials Break Bread with McAndrew) | By a Teacher Correspondent. | The most disgraceful display of| class collaboration was witnessed at the annual banquet given by the In- ternational Union of Steam and Op- erating Engineers of this city, Will- iam McAndrew, the labor union bust- ing and open shop public school super- intendent, imported by the business interests of Chicago to kill the Teachers’ Federation, was given an honorary place at the table as one of the guests and speakers. In addition there were Mrs. W. 8. Hefferan and Mrs. Johanna Gregg, trustees on the school board who have helped Mc- Andrew rob the teachers of their coun- cils and who are supporters of his fake salary increase schedule, Mayor Dever was also one of the guests. Among other things in his speech he promised the teachers “a living wage” (whatever that means) in 1927. e said that the finances made that impossible now but next year he would get after the big Property tax dodgers—next year, but not now. Pittsburgh, Pa. Class. PITTSBURGH, Pa, Jan 20—The first class of Worker Correspondents in Pittsburgh will be held Thursday night with a large enrollment of stu- dents promised. All those who have not enrolled as yet should do so. The class meets at the party headquarters, 805 James street, N. S. at 8 p. m. He will like it! Give your union brother a sub to The DAILY WORKER. ers. They get about 59 to 64 cents an hour with about $3 to $4 bonus @ week, Then the hog is looked at by a gov- ernment inspector who takes those that have ulcers, bruises and damages and throws them on a separate rail and then cuts off the damaged parts. The hog is then used for sausages, or else is sold to the workers in the We build, repair and remodel radio sets of all kinds at reasonable rates. JOHN VARGA All Work Guaranteed. 1327 W. 18th St., Chicago, Ill. Call or phone your jobs. Two Years After On the second anniversary of the death of our leader Lenin— We can at least do this FOR LENINISM: Get one subscription for The Daily Worker to reach one worker day after day with the principles of LENIN— With the message of LENINISM. Tet = LENIN DRIVE or Fue Thousand Mew die to THE DAI WORKER Is to promote these principles. To add 5,000 new readers to add 5,000 more workers to the growing ranks of revolu- tionary labor. LENIN SAYS: “Without a polit- ical organ a move- “yards” as it is impossible to sell these “damaged goods” elsewhere. Packers Exploit Women. The hog then comes before a stamp- er, A woman stands on a small plat- form about four feet from the floor and stamps the hog at 6 or 6 places. She must stamp 600 to 800 hogs an hour or a total of about 3,000 to 4,500 stamps an hour, She has to stand for five hours at a time with only a fifteen minute relief period in the morning. For this work she gets 37% cents an hour. The lard pullers then get the hog. They must pull as much of the leaf lard out of the hog as they can with their bare hands, There should be at least four men to do the work here, but now there are but three, The lard scrapers must scrape out the leaf lard that the lard pullers were unable to pull out. There is only one man here where there should be .wo or three, This man gets but 47% sents an hour, The lard trimmer then takes out ‘s much of the lard as she can with her knife, This work is mostly done by women who get 42% cents an hour. The men that did this work before received 47% cents an hour. There are but two women doing the work now that was done by four men two years ago. There are four of five women em- ployed to do odd jobs on the floor such as scraping of extra fat and the remaining hair and bristles off the hogs. These women receive 37% cents an hour for the same work that men did for 47% cents an hour, Company Robs Workers, From the time the hog was stuck tc the time the hog reaches the cooler it takes but 25 to 30 minutes. Tho th workers on the first end of the chair start work about seven o'clock anc those on the last end of the chal Start about half past seven, all mus punch their time cards before seve: and lose a half hour every day. Th: company does not pay them a cen for this time spent on the floor wait ing for the hog to reach the worke: and pays them for what is known as “gang” time, i pe es ment deserving the name of a political movement thinkable.” is un- The American movement has its polit- ical organ— The Daily Worker How much it can do for the movement depends on its growth. The growth of The Daily Worker depends on YOU. | On the second anniversary of the death of LENIN—contribute to the spread of LENINISM— With at Least One Sub! | mos. subscription to The Daily | Enclosed $. wove LOM RATES In Chicago: Per year $8.00 Worker, Six months - 4.50 Three months .... 2.60 Outside of Chicago: Per year ... Six months Three months searprene sesthay Raa gine ooo