The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1926, Page 3

eR ET ET I NORE Re NIE THE DAILY WORKER Page Three Passaic Textile Strike Is Historic Labor Fight BOSSES EMPLOY SPY SYSTEM IN TEXTILE MILLS Company “Stools Must Make Lengthy Report /By MARGUERITE LARKIN. Terrorization by the bosses!, Ter- rorization carried on by means of a spy system in which every smallest ‘word!antl'act-of a tired textile worker may. /be}reported; The Passaic, N. J./Oouncil.of ‘Wool Manufacturers has done. its part) with its employment Dbureat and. its,:undercover spies to put féar into the heart of every worker who needs a job. A set of instructfons issued by the wool council to.a worker who needed money*badly and who consented to “help the mills” has been discovered by Robett W. Dunn, and is available :for publication for the first time now. it tells the spy how to report every wdetail.of a worker’s day, every con: versation on the way to the mills, every evidence of dissatisfaction. Spy on Workers in Shop. “State whether employes work steadily thru the day. If not give the particulars. If they prepare to leave the department before the whistle blows, give the facts. #If there fs ill feeling among the employes toward the company state why. Give the names, machine number or check numbers and the reasons why they are dissatisfied.” This is the first instruction on the Hist of ten. The second is more dan- gerous to the worker. By its pro- visions the mill bosses are to be in- formed of the private beliefs and views of the workers, with what re- sults may be imagined. Seek Out “Agitators.” “If there are any employes in your department who are cranks.or agita- tors on the labor question, Bolshe- vism, socialism or any other ‘ism, write up what they have to say, men- tion their grievances and give details so that we will know as much about it as you do.” This is the provision that has halted more than one first-hand investiga- tien-of the workers’ conditions in the mills. Justine Wise, daughter of Rabbi Stephen L. Wise of New York City, who worked in the Passaic tex- tile mills for several months, was fired from one mill and blacklisted in others when a spy like this one re- ported that she was a “crank,” an “agitator,” and a college woman work- ing in the mill to better the lot of the workers, The warning against “cranks” and “agitators” is linked with a paragraph on ‘Americanization,” for the spy was expected to act as propagandist for the bosses as well as informer. Spies “Americanization” Experts. “An Americanization movement is going thruout the United States. Americanization, when brewed down, is nothing more than the ability to speak some English and use common, ordinary, everyday horse sense,” says the bosses’ instruction sheet. “When a fellow worker spouts a lot of silly propaganda you should put up g sen- sible argument based on facts that will make a monkey of the would-be trouble-maker. Eventually he or she will see his or her fault and become sensibly American.” A “sensible American,” as is made plain by the tone of the document, is an: American who is willing to bow down to the tyranny of his boss. “Sen- sible Americans” are those that work long hours for low wages, and see their women forced to slavery on the night shift, in the opinion of the bosses. The spy is urged to be “sen- sible.” A blank is furnished him for his report, “Whom did you meet on way to work (names, checks or machine numbers)? What did he, she or they say? What did you sdy (always talk sensibly)?” These questions and oth- ers like them are to be answered in great detail for every conversation of the day. «Must Report Meetings. “Attend meetings. Say where they are held. Give names of speakers and write up what they say. Mention number of *men and women present. Furnish complete particulars and de- tails concerning all meetings.” These are the instructions by which the spy kept his bosses informed of any little movement that might mean the dread- ed union, Any speaker who was not “sensible” would have his words quot- ed to the bosses. Any worker who agreed with the speaker would be re- ported by “name, check, or machine number.” No detail was to be safe from the spy. No common, human activity of a worker was to be carried on in private. The labor spy was everywhere, mingling with the crowd of men and women going to the mill, listening to what they said when they snatched their hasty lunch, reporting to the bosses if they got so tired that any calamity seemed preferable to the i lent watch on any and everythi e ner? Spy was both yon of the Pag babe. The Clifton police brutally attacked Clifton police and imported gunmen, now wearing the uniform of the forces of “law: and order,” bar the Passalc strike pickets,from marching down Randolph Ave. police with nightsticks ready to descend on the heads of the strikers can be seen. are becoming commonplace in the Passaic strike district. This photo shows a number of Passaic textile workers on the picket lil fighting against a ten per cent cut in wages and for more sanitary conditions, These pickets have had to don gas masks and steel helmets due to the polige brutality In this strike. Union workers can take a good look at this picture: as strike lines of the future will look something like this. When a unio decides to go on strike, it may have to consider the purchase of gas Lijeeru) to protect its members from deadly and harmful gas umber of mass picketing demonstrations at the een ee Clifton Police and Imported Thugs Block March of Strikers threatening to use riot. guns on the strikers when they attempt their march on the National the P. A double line of | Silk Dyeing company to convince the workers in that plant of the need for them to joln the hese scenes | strike and fight for an improvement of their conditions. The East Paterson police are now | promised the strikers to co-operate in every way possible to organize the dye workers. The Associated Silk Workers have ———— This picture shows the police blocking the mass picket demonstration of the Passaic’strikers at the Ackerman Ave. bridge. have beaten and slugged striking textile workers at every opportunity making These police thugs aic strike one that will not be soon forgotten. These police sluggers are threatening to fire on the strikers if they dare to cross the bridge. low. When workers attempt to picket textile plants in the Passa’ Passaic strikers are mdrohing towards the Forstmann-Huffmann milis in Clifton, led by @ mother and her |sticks, tear gas bombs and riot guns are placed in thelr way. PASSAIC WOMEN MUST TOIL 20 HOURS EACH DAY Work at Hone and in Textile Mills Twenty hours a day, a one-hundred- and-twenty-hour week. These are the working hours of hundreds of women in Passaic, N. J. They are the young mothers who work ail night in the mills and all day taking care of their families, and who never get more than four hours of sleep a day. They ar with the men for a li workers, 80 that men can me put food mothers y for the nean enough to little m ing to wo ‘a dollars th into Young Mothers Toil at Night, It is the young m at night heir children durin 100 women who w investigator for the sumers’ Lea over half th years of age, Thirty had more than 4 c “The mothers ers who work beca such mothers ldren driven to night of their hus- al report of the work in order to be ‘ren by day, and the: to 20 hours of 4 no mother with can secure much rest condemned for clearly or 6 children ay. Not one of the hundred women visited re- ported getting 8 ho of sleep. Most of them slept not more than 4. Altho the practi of allowing women to work at night is repudiated the entire civilized world, the fferent to e it or they wool council told the investigator, Work Cripples Health, But the wom “Working nig is woman. All the time I work at night I can’t eat anythi ays one Polish widow who has to girls, “Night time in mill drag so Jong, so long; day time in home go 80 quick,” says a Hungarian mother with five. “When I get home at six in the morning I fall on the bed, I’m 80 tired.” Her husband prepares coffee or himself and the children, and the ‘ider ones go to school. Even the »vaby of four is on a diet of coffee, Vhen the investigator suggests that upport three little nilk would be better, the mother tells ner that since the wage cut milk costs too much, even for t baby. After the childre go to school mother tries to sleep again, but the baby bothers her. “He pulls the bed clothes.” She must get up in time to clean house, to sh, to iron, mend and sew, and prepare the dinner. Perhaps she rests in the afternoon; often there is too much to do. By o'clock supper must be ready, for she must be at the mill at seven. Life of Slave. This mother never has time to go anywhere. She never goes to see friends, or to a picture show. “Just to the mill and then home he says. But on the ‘holidays she can go to the cemetery. “I got some children up there,” she says, “and the same time I can get some air. This is the slavery that mothers endure, and will have to endure again if the Passaic strike for living wages and a protective union should fail, This is the heart-breaking, health- breaking kind of a double job that starvation wages paid by rich mills are imposing on helpless women, These women see only one hope of release for themselves, and that is the success of the strike. YOU help the strike to win! ie district all of the available police with night This scene shows some of the police thugs bite nn-Huffmatin ing to fire on the first worker that dares to attempt to xeanase to a mill that the United Front Committee ' AWorkers is trying to pull oa : ieee hat Ae be