The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1926, Page 5

NON-UNION CANDY WORKERS ABUSED BY FORELADIES Low Wages, Bad Sani- tary Conditions Prevail (By a Worker Correspondent) BALTIMORE, Md., Jan, 31.—Low wages and bad sanitary conditions are what the girls in the Chocolate Prod- ucts company plant in Baltimore have to suffer while making “Happiness” candy, The place is not unionized and the boss does as he pelases to the girls that are working in the shop. During one of the busy seasons this company advertised heavily for a number of girls. In a week’s time they had 200 new girls at work in the plant work- ing from 8 in the morning until 5 in the evening for $12 a week. After they had been there one week, the boss lengthened the work hours from 7:30 in the morning to 5:30 in the eve- ning. Some of these girls stayed on after the busy season,. Most of them were laid off. $14 Highest Wage. In the shop there are but few girls who have worked many years for this company. One girl who has been with the company a number of years is earning $14 while another who has worked there ten years is receiving the same. This is their highest wage. Conditions are the worst in the packing room. Here the girls must stand on their feet thruout the entire working day. .If they sit down for a few moments, the forelady bellows: “Don't fall asleep there!” The girls were not allowed to speak to each other. If any of the girls started to whisper or talk to each other the fore- lady would shout: “Cut out your talk- ing! You are paid to work not talk.” Abuse Beginner. One girl who had started to work in this plant tieing packages was not performing the work as quickly and as skillfully as the assistant: forelady wanted her to. Instead of showing the girl how to do the work the assis- tant forelady began to call her “dumbell,” “horse,” “clumsy fool” and a number of vile names. One of the girls took a few pieces of candy and put them into her poek- etbook. She was going to eat the candy when she left the plant. As she was punching the timeclock ‘her purse opened and the candy dropped out to the floor. The forelady saw this and began to call the girl a thief. Every one of the girls were searched as they punched the clock that day to see if they were carrying paney. home with thém. Eat Lunch Near Toilet. During the half hour the girls get for lunch, they sit in a small room next to the toilet. Disagreeable odors of all kinds assail the girls as they eat their noonday meal. The boss in order to show he is “alright” gives the girls a cup of coffee every noon hour free. The coffee is black and is served out of a dirty tin can into tin cups the sight of which makes one’s stomach feel sick. The girls need a union organization badly to clean up some of the filthy conditions that are prevalent in the shop. Undercover Men Are Plentiful at Briggs Auto Body Mfg. Co. By A Worker Correspondent. DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 31.—At the Briggs Manufacturing company, auto body making contract sweat shop for the Ford Motor company and Hud- son cars, six times a day a clerk makes the rounds to see that all the men are at their jobs. In addition to that private thugs are employed by the company as spotters to report anyone caught not hustling. His badge number is taken and he is fired, These spotters are stationed at every doorway and around the plant, Such is the slave driving system employed at this plant. A VISIT TO A RUSSIAN FACTOR ‘OSCOW, U. 3.8 8. R. Jan. 10— Near the old Chinese Wall not fay from the “Glubyanskli Plostche” is the dormitory and workers’ club of the Comintern Clothing factory, This factory is the one which many Amer- ican clothing workers, members of the Amalgamated Clothing ‘Workers’ Union, helped to found. We visited the club with a comrade who had been assigned to the factory nucleus for two years. As we entered, a meeting of the factory workers was just end- ing. The workers closed in on us, crowding around in a dense throng, firing one question after another. First they established that we were from America, and displayed a hungry eagerness to know what the workers of the United States are doing and thinking, “Are there any Communists in the army in America,” one young worker asked. “What about the Clothing Workers’ Union in America,” was an- other question. “Is the coal strike over yét: what do the American work- ers think of Russia?” ‘With the help of our host’s transla tion and some atrocious German, wo i: ra arate mere 1000 Page Five The Importance of Worker Correspondence By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL,. Worker correspondence is develop- ing into an ever-more important part of the activities not only of our Com- munist press, but also of the Com- munist movement as a whole. The duties of workér correspond- ents are not only confined to writing for our Communist press, not only to the spreading of our DAILY WORK- ER and other Communist publications. among the workers. It also consists of co-ordinating this work with other party activities. “+ The class of worker correspondents in Chicago, for instance, in setting’ an example for similar classes in other parts of the country, is not an isolated educational activity, but seeks to co-operate with classes teach- ing other subjects. There are today three classes in worker correspondence in Chicago, in the English, the Russian and the Po- lish languages. Of- course, the ambi- tion of every worker should be to learn to express himself, in speaking and writing, in the English language, but the fundamentals of worker cor- respondence can be taught in all lan- guages. The English class, that will now meet every Monday night, instead of on Thursday nights, beginning to- night, Feb. 1, enters upon a new phase of its acttivities. During its first few months the basis for future work was laid thru the drilling given its members in what constitutes worker corresponden¢é, This was very im- portant in a country where the workers, in all the history of the so- cialist movement, have never been taught to write for their own press. oe * It may now be said that large num- bers of workegs.in the United States, for the first,time, comprehend the meaning and.the importance of work- er correspondence. The next step is the development of our writers go that they will be able to put thgit thoughts clearly and accurately on er. It is not enough to recognize news of interest, but the worker correspondent must also be able to write it, down. ¥ ee The classeé nh English, which are 1a part of our .¥ ‘orkers’ School, do not attempt to teach writing. Neverthe- less, these classes do furnish good elementary instruction to prospective worker correspondents. Every stu- dent in an English class should gradu- ate into the class in worker corre- spondence, se More intensive study of “What Is Worker Corresponde thru the actual review and criticism of the material that pours continually into the office of The DAILY WORKER will continue to be one of the. tasks of the worker correspondence class in the days ahead. But not only what to write, but “How to write” will also be a subject of inereasing study. But the worker correspondent cannot con- sider perfection in these directions as the goal of his: ambitions. The next step ahead of the prepar- BOSSES TRY TO CHASE DAILY WORKER NEWSIES OFF STREET, BUT WORKERS WANT THE PAPER By a Worker Correspondent. SOUTH BEND, Ind., Jan, 31,—When The DAILY WORKER newsboys distributed the paper in front of the Studebaker Motor.company, which con- tained a worker correspondent’s article exposing the cut in wages after a long layoff for inventory, the company’s fat bellied watchers tried to chase them off the sidewalks, DAILY WORKER Wins Friend, But the workers were very anxious indeed to read the story about the cut and not a single copy of The DAILY WORKER that the newsboys brought was wasted. ever workers of that shop were found the article and The DAILY WORKER were talked about. Never was there so much excitement and talk among the men in the shop as on that day. And no wonder. Last week in De- partment 384 without any notice whatever the men got another wage cut. That makes the third cut ina short time. When pay day came and the workers received their envelopes the following conversations were heard. “I am short $11.00,” “I am short $15.00,” “I am short $10.00,” and so on, Every one on the job was short on his pay without being told that there would be a cut in wages,_i The orinigal price for the job, piece work, was 97 cents: They: gave us'a big cut some time last fall and we refused to work with the result that they gave us 85 cents. Since then there. was another cut to 79 cents,| B° And this last cut brot it down to 601 5 cents. Speed Up to the Limit, Since this is piecework the men speed themselves to the point of col; lapse to make up some of the money stolen from their wages by the bosse: The men say they can stand this speed-up system no longer. The worker in department 384 who re- lated these conditions to me was so desperate he said he did not care whether his name was used or not. He said he is so worn out he doesn’t care what happens to him. At the end of the day he is ready to sink to the floor with exhaustion. He is sure he will not be able to stand it even one week longer. Of course that does not mean any- thing to the boss. When these men are worn out they will be replaced by new men. What if the men did strain until they have burst? What if their families will die of starvation? What if they will lose their homes? Workers in the Studebaker. Motor company shop of South Bend, Indi- ana: Organization is the only solu- tion to our present troubles. Shop Nucleus No. 1 is calling to you. Join us and work for an organized demand to end these wage cuts that are the source of all our present misery. Thru organization we will better our conditions. When we complain they the convention of the Garment Work- ers in Philadelphia, the movement for Soviet recognition and the beating up of the militant Amalgamated workers by Hillman’s thugs. Then we had to remind them that we were there to learn about the lives of the Russian workers, and asked a few questions in.our turn, f beewlpciodlaser cultural life of the Russian worker, as is well known, is centered around the factory, In the factory clubs which are supported from a percentage of the factories’ earnings, the workers educate, enter- tain, and inform themselves, We saw the library, the reading room, the Lenin corner, the Young Pioneers’ room, the class rooms, the dormitor- fes and the dining hall. Hach is run by a soviet of the workers themselves, There are 1,000 workers in this fac- tory and in addition thelr wives and children also participate in the life of the club, Comrade Feinstein, an American, who has. been in Russia for three years, has been placed by the soviet in charge of the brary, He showed db thelr collection of boo! The po- ae pau tf ber the fic and tat- tered from constant use, “We have in the flotion most of the works of The next day where-4¢—————______ can tell us to get out if we don’t like it but when we organize our com- plaint we can force them to listen. + Read The DAILY WORKER, the only workers’ paper in the English lan- guage in the United States. In it you will learn about the struggles of other workers and you will receive encour- agement in your struggle. Workers with Large Family Must Toil For $20 Per Week By M, PERLIN, (Worker Correspondent.) The other day, while I was in the employment office of one of the large laundries in Chicago, I noticed two burley, . well-dressed men~ sitting in oe able rockers smoking cigars. looked well-fed. One could easily it they were men of wealth and mts to burn, these two were sitting in their easy chairs a thin, pale, underfed worker walked in and stood near the railing, waiting for someone to come to ask him what he wanted. His clothes were shabby. Hesitatingly, with tears in his eyes, he pleaded with one of the fat bo: es. for a job. “I am a married man, with, three small children, I will work loyally and honestly for you; give me twenty-five dollars a week.” The boss seeing the condition of this worker, smiled and said, “We have an opening. Twenty dollars a week. You can start immediately. It is an easy job. All you have to do is to sit near the engine from nine in the evening till six in the morn- ing, put some coal in the engine when necessary, and see that everything in the plant is in order—and that’s all.” The worker then told the boss that he could take care of the engine and that he could satisfy the boss with his work, but that he could not live on the twenty dollars a week and that he needed more, The other boss then declared, “Well if you don’t want to work say so, There are other men who will.” The worker looked around saw about ten standing in the office wait- ing for the chance and accepted the Job. Jack London and Upton Sinclair” gaid Comrade Finestein, “The workers un- derstand that a part of Sinclair's writ- ings contain confusing economic theo- ries. We have a few such American books as ‘Comrade Yetta’ not because they are valuable for their ideas but to give an insight into the lives of the American workers.” HE political books are many, in- cluding, of course, the works of the leading Russian Communists, as well as Marx and Engels, Recent Ppamphiets are kept in a large rack, made by the workers, which is shaped into a red star. Pamphlets are dis- played here which are of immediate interest. During the celebration of the 1905 revolution, pamphlets on that subject were provided, and now works by and about Lenin are put up to observe the anniversary of his death. Along one wall are hung artis- tically executed covers, also made by the factory workers, in which are pasted typewritten comments which the workers'wish to express, One worker wrote of his part in the 1905 revolution, anothér of his impressions of @ revolitionaty book, oorte ine “We are ‘careful In selecting at a m anja tho Ubrarian, “We Conditions Go From Bad to Worse in Many Pennsylvania Mines By Worker Correspondent. MCDONALD, Pa., Jan. 31 —This place is an old coal mining town with no other industries. There are but two mines working—with less than 100 workers ifiteach mine. One of these mines is tRe McDonald mine of the Carnegie Goal company. This mine is operated/with almost no day crew. TIS oti The mine foreman or one of his substitutes herehauls all of the coal without any trip rider or snapper on the motor thovthe state mining law requires trip ritters. If a miner wants timbers or posts, he must walk around and find them himself., If theyydo not do that they must work un @ great danger. If a part is filledjgpith water, the min- er must make, the place dry. For fleet work <aMMlows, the tiner ts paid whatever tlie boss wants to pay him, which is ‘iiighty small. Unemployment Great Among Lumberworkers By CARL GIEBE, (Worker Correspondent.) SAN DEIGO, (al., Jan. 31—In the midst of wealth,and abundance the workers here are in desperate need of food, clothing and shelter. Un- employment increases daily» with no outlook ter conditions to improve. Workers are forced to apply to the Police station. for. food and shelter from which they are sent across the street to the Salvation Army, where the unmarried men are given short jobs to do in return for a meal. The lot of the married unemployed worker is of course, even harder, He has to cope with high rents in addi- tion to the cost of the necessities of life. With butter selling at 60 cents a pound @hd eggs at 50 cents a dozen it is needless to state they are be- yond the reach of the unemployed worker’s family.: Oranges, the prod- uct this state boasts of, is considered a luxury even by the employed: work- er and clothing comes so high that the worker's small wages cannot be stretched to take; them in. The Salvation Army here does a big business from (@ollecting clothing, household goods; and junk of all kinds and selling them: to the poor. must make the ave of our appropria- tion, and we only secure what is fun- damental, We tld use an almost unlimited numberof political books. The lbrary ‘comitilittee members each make a list of thé books which they think are needed,’then the commit- tee meets and {ieome each book, in order to select, the ones most valu- able to the workers,” In the reading room is the Lenin corner, Each theater, club factory and school has its Lenin corner. This Lenin corner takes up one side of the reading room, In the middle of the wall is a large bust of Lenin, placed on a stand draped in red, Inside the stand, made by the factory's carpent- ers, are shelves on which the books of Lenin and stories of his life are placed. In each corner, at the sides of the’ bust, are suspended lighted pictures of Lenin's activities and some of his books, are colored, and are given the effect of lantern slides by placing electric light bulbs be- hind the thin colored paper, an effec- tive method of propaganda which is extensively used in Russia, bed wall newspaper, “The ation of short news stories for The} DAILY WORKER is the actual re- search that unearths large masses of material that may be woven into series of articles, or be used in de- veloping campaigns for the party, either in the economic struggles, or in its parliamentary activities. The worker correspondent, ahead, sees that dey when he will become a valuable member of a class in research work, that co-operates closely with the agitprop departments jof the party, in all of its units... Upon the shoulders of the worker corre- spondent falls the important task of carrying the message of the party to the masses, in helping to build a ;Mass party and a mass press. It is jimpossible to overestimate the im- portance of worker correspondence to the party and its press. Prizes for Contributions Every week valuable books are offered as prizes for the best worker correspondents’ contributions. These prizes go to the worker whose work shows an effort to produce an article that will interest other workers. The article should of labor in factory, mill or mine. The winners’ articles appear Read them. They will give you preferably point out the conditions in the Friday issue every week. ideas as well as show you what splendid articles are written by workers. * This Week’s Prizes! FIRST PRIZE: by Nikolai Bukharin, “Historical Materialism—A System of Sociology” In this valuable book all the social sciences are closely scrutinized and interpreted from the materialist viewpoint, SECOND PRIZE: THIRD PRIZE: Union Delegation. “Capital,” by Karl Marx, ist volume. “Russia Today,” Report of the British Trade All three are valuable books for every worker's library. Lewis and the Miners’ Fight By B. K., Worker Correspondent. The whole tactic of Lewis in this great battle of the miners against the anthracite operators has been confined to conferences with the bosses. He does not pay attention to the. actual battle front but to the conference table. Of course, it is more pleasant to sit around a table with the bosses than it is to stand on the picket! line directing the fight of the :miners. Lewis is not the type of leader to lead the miners in a fight to victory. He helps the bosses to defeat the miners by his actions. Let us examine the situation and see what Lewis is doing. The. mass demand of the striking miners.to call the maintenance men on strike he flatly rejected. Why? He explains that there is an agreement between him and the bosses that no scabs will be brought in and that the main- tenance men will not be withdrawn from the mines. In other words, the miners will protect the property of the operators while starvation weakens the spirit of the miners and reduces them to a state where they are will- ing to give in to the demands of the operators, Such a policy is simply a betrayal of the miners. Pinchot Aids Operators. Anybody who knows even a little about the spirit of the miners in the anthracite will know it is impossible for the bosses to ship in scabs. Be- sides that the state law prohibiting the employment of miners with less than two years’ experience stands in the way of the bosses using scabs to defeat the miners. The operators are working night and day to secure the abolition of this law thru Governor Pinchot and the legislature. The present session was called by Pinchot for nothing else than the abolition of the safety law in the mines. Y CLUB room. It has a beautifully designed “headline,” with factory chimneys showing from the background of the letters forming the paper's name, The date of the paper is changed every few weeks, when a new “issue” is posted. The workers write their stor- jes, which are then typewritten in the office, Then the workers take their typewritten pages and decorate them with colored designs and lettering. Bits of colored wood are used to form some of the designs, While we were there, a group of workers were reading a drama at one end of the large assembly hall, “The workers take part in whatever inter- ests them most,” our guide told us. “The drama group reads plays, and discusses whether they will be worth waile acting or not. If they decide to act the play, then they discuss the parts, staging, and costumes, and take care of the entire production them- selves. But in addition to these cul- tural activities, we have classes in political economy, which all the work- ers must attend. Marxian economics is as essential in a Russian factory as are the A. B, C.’s, And the plays all have educational values,” en we entered the toom of the Yopng Pioneers, they were busy cut- " to alao in the reading | ting out on thin wood « sign to bang While the operators are straining every nerve to defeat the miners and destroy the union, Lewis finds time to take up the cause of the ‘oppressed” judges. These capitalist agents are only getting $7,500 a year and Lewis demands that they be given $10,000, Regarding the miners’ demand for a mere 10 per cent raise in wages Lewis has shown no anxiety to enforce it. As a matter of fact he was willing to accept a 5 per cent increase for the miners. Lewis has more in common with the judges who issue injunctions against the workers sfruggling for better. living conditions than he has with the workers. A Real Policy. The miners are more and more real- izing that Lewis is not fighting their battle. They are now more inclined to listen to the policy of the progres- sive miners’* committee which has is- sued the slogan of a 100% strike by withdrawing the maintenance men, and alliance with the railroad men, no compromise on the demands drawn up at the tri-district conventio , and no arbitration. The separation between Lewis and the miners is becoming wider every day. Lewis does not do all in his power to secure the defeat of the op- erators. He is trying to agree to the demands of the operators and at the Same time prevent the miners seeing thru his trickery, Between these two stools Lewis will fall. Lewis Hinders Fight. The miners’ fight is made more dif- ficult by them having at the head of their union a man who defends the op- erators against the miners, and who continually schemes to aid the oper- ators to lower the living standards of the miners, The miners can win this struggle by putting into effect a real policy of struggle against the operators in spite of Lewis. looking | PARKE DAVIS CLERKS GET SMALL WAGES Union Is Badly Needed in Drug Company (By a Worker Correspondent) KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 31—The Parke Davis and company, manufac- turing chemists, with branches and depots in all parts of the world is one of the most skilled corporations in the exploitation of the wage workers. The Kansas City branch, one of its largest depots, serves the southwest in medi- cines and biological products and its average daily receipts for sales is $5,000. After being employed with the firm for one year you receive a $1,000 ingur- ance policy that will bé paid until you leave their employment and then it is dropped. A two weeks’ vacation with pay is given each year but the workers are employed by the month, pay every two weeks which makes their pay check two weeks short in a year, and this they give you in vacation. If a worker lasts until he is 65. years of age or has 20 years’ employment with the firm he is pensioned. These are the outstanding reform measures taken by these farsighted capitalists who hope to keep the workers in sub- jection. The Kansas City branch employs about 112 salaried and wage workers. Thirty-one are salesmen, five detailists, making approximately one-third as or- der takers. These are fast being put on the commission basis as the firm finds it more profitable, In the past five years profits have been on the increase and the number of workers employed has decreased, bringing in a higher degree of exploi- tation. Promotion mostly depends on pull and there is little to promote one to. A salesman must be a registered pharmacist. The wages of the workers average about $18 a week. When the cost of living was going upward and wages downward this firm was not so rude as to awaken the sleeping workers. The firm employs a dozen boys and girls—grammar school education was disqualified and one had to be a high school graduate to gain employment at work that anyone oan do, starting at $55 to $60 a month, Small raises can be had once a year up to so many years when they stop as the average wage is $18, which is paid to men and women who have been with the firm for ten to twenty years. When an in- créasé Of pay is received you are told to keep quiet and those who do not lose their jobs. Such is the condi- tions of these unorganized clerks. Hart, Schaffner, Marx Shows Big Earnings; But Not for Workers By a Worker Correspondent. Announcements of nearly $2,000,000 net profit made by. Hart, Schaffner, Marx in 1925, have come at a time when totals of the year’s earnings are being given employes for making out their income tax reports, and have forced the workers to make enlighten- ing comparisons. Altho unemployment has been par- ticularly severe in the clothing indus- try during the past year, profits still continue rolling in. Cutters, among the highest paid and most steadily em- |Ployed, have averaged about $1,400 a |year, bringing their earnings to $27 a week, showing an employment of only 22 to 24 weeks in the year or less than half time employment. The fact that net profits of the firm were well over $1,800,000 despite the heavy unemployment, has proved a striking lesson to the workers who are discussing it thruout the shops of the firm, with more than a little sus- picion that they have been “trimmed again.” As one of the workers put it; “Whether times are good or times are bad it looks like heads the boss wins and tails we lose.” _ <ertniemaiini ip icp ME aN ft Moscow Letter by Karl Reeve ese before their door, during the Lenin anniversary. They gave us the Pio- neer’s salute, which is used instead of a handshake, and after a little conver- sation, went on with their work, One of the girls began to saw the wood, and the other Pioneers crowded around her, all singing, with the back- ward and forward movement of the Saw beating out the rhythm of the song: “American children don't sing like that,” our guide told us, The most interesting of the class rooms is the one where the wives and relatives of the clothing workers are taught how to sew and make gar- ments. “Everyone should know least a trade,” it was explained to w “But the most important thing is that the relatives of the workers are brot in touch with the Ife of the factory, They are drawn into the educational work, and in this way, many of them wet their first schooling.” i ips the assembly hall the workers have their meetings, plays, concerts and “Kino's.” They were very proud that they were able to secure the film of the Moscow to Tokyo airplane flight which we are going to see tonight. The workers here are not only in- tensely interested In the aotivities of the workers of foreign lands, They are keenly alive to the boonomis, po- litical and social growth of the Soviet Union, in which they are taking an active part. “At first we thot we had to have foreign loans,” one worker said, “But now we are prepared to build up the country ourselves, Plans have been completed for a subway in Moscow, and within a few years it will be completed.” Another worker showed how the Chinese wall is being restored for its historical interest. Another showed us a large clock near the club, and told us that in the last few weeks 68 such clocks had been put up in Moscow, 4 he lives of the Russian workers seem happy and complete, They are very busy, studying, acting in plays, reading, carrying on their pro- letarian art, going to the best thea ters, the tickets for which, as in all the factories, they obtain at half price, and above all, consciously building up the workers’ and peasants’ state, They are looking forward to the time when the workers of foreign countries will understand their endeavors and rally to their support against the common foe of capitalism, In a few days I will visit pr intern clothing factory itself, and write about that, Later I will about @ large textile biked a wear ad