The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 1, 1926, Page 5

THE SECOND PRIZE WINNER TOBACCO BARONS SEEK ARMY OF NEGRO WORKERS To Flood Connecticut with Cheap Labor By a Worker Correspondent. WINDSOR, Conn., June 29. — The American Tobacco company which has large tobacco plantations in the Connecticut valley has sent a number of its agents thru the south to recruit Negro workers for their plantations in this state. Low Pay, Long Hours. Shipment after shipment are sent in. The American Tobacco company is known for the low pay that it pays its workers. The workers are forced to work out in the blazing sun ten and twelve hours a day. No provisions are made for washing one’s self, The men working on the plantations are housed in barracks. No Sanitary Provisions. At one end of the barracks is usu- ally 4m open cesspool. At the other end is the kitchen. There is no such thing as sanitary fixtures in these bar- racks. Formerly the tobacco com- pany would hire only Polish and Lith- uanian workers. As soon as these workers began to demand more, the company started to import Mexicans and Spaniards. These two groups are now demanding more. Seek Negro Workers, The company is seeking to import Negro workers. The work in the to- bacco fields is hard. The pay low. The average wage is about $4 or $5 a day. The work is seasonal. It lasts but two or three months. The plantation owners in the Con- necticut valley promise transportation to and from the job. When the work- ers get here they find conditions ‘so bad that they leave. The company then deducts the transportation to the job from the pay due the worker. The company is making its efforts to recruit large groups of Negro workers in Tennessee and Georgia, This Week’s Winners to Goldie Chibka, author of the story “When the Slack Time Be- gins,” ‘ The second prize, the book “So- cial Forces in American History,” » by A. M. Simons, goes to the author of the story “Tobacco Barons Seek Army of Negro Workers.” The third prize, “My Flight from Siberia,” by Leon Trotsky, goes to the author of “Buda Motor Co, Furnishes Bad Drinking Water.” Watch for the announcement of next week's prizes, Peoria Regular Low Wage Town; Children Slave; Unions Sleep (By MAX COHEN, (Worker Correspondent) PEORIA, Il, June 29.—An increase in the number of boys and girls ap- plying for work during school “vaca- tion” is noted here. Last year there were 177 working permits issued, while 202 have been granted so far. It is revealed that most of these applications are for factory work. The employers are glad to take in these prospective wage slaves because the bosses can get them to work for al- most nothing and in most cases get out as much work as from the adult worker. Peoria is well known to the warking ‘ class as a cheap (wage) town. Of course it costs as much to live here as in any town in the 100,000 class. There are many instances of weekly wages as low as $14 to $18 for workers with families to support. With vacation at hand the bosses let the “highly paid” worker go and put in school chil dren who will work for less, The fact that so many more children must. work in order to help provide for the family substantiates the report that Peoria wage workers are very much underpaid, The local trades and labor assembly has taken no action in a good many years toward organizing the unorgan- ized, Meanwhile the labor situation, with low wagés and the replacement of adults by child workers the order of the day, is getting more aggravated. CHINESE MOT TMM _ FIRST IN CHICAGO EIGHTH STREET THEATRE, Wabash Ave. and Eighth St. “THE LOVER'S DREAM,” acted und produced entirely by Chinese, Titles in English and Chinese, American and Chinese music and THE DAILY WORKER ‘ AR ‘ THE FIRST PRIZE WINNER. | When the Slack Time Begins By GOLDIE CHIBKA (Worker Correspondent) 'Y¥ friend Mary works in a garment shop. Her boss, like all other bosses, urges the workers to produce more /because he is losing money, He always preaches to the workers of his shop to be thrifty. Mary’s boss, Mr. Smith, considérs himself an intellec- ‘tual and a good speaker.’ Not long ago he announced that after work he wanted to address the workers and, of course, the workers were all curious as to what news he had to tell them. So they waited after five o'clock and Mr, Smith began his speech by saying: “Listen, if you workers are not go- ing to do any better, if you are not going to produce more, I will have to go out of business because I can- not meet competition. “You. know what that will mean to you. You will then have to look for other jobs and they are not so easy to find now, As for me, I can go into any other business. I can go into the real estate business ‘which is much more profitable.” Mary knew that since she began working in that shop eight years ago, Mr. Smith had increased his business immensely. Yet at the beginning of every season he had told the work- ers’ the same story about josing money. So she could not resist asking him: “How is ‘it, Mr, Smith, that every year you lose money and yet you have made enough to go into the real estate business? What about us workers? Do we even make enough to live?” The boss became very angry. “What,” he said, “you do not make enough to live? Do you know that you earn just as much as a public school teacher, while public school teachers have to go to college for many years TOPEKA LABOR MOVEMENT NOT IN GOOD ORDER Too Much Association with Labor’s Enemies By HUGO OEHLER (Worker Correspondent) TOPEKA Kan., June 27.—Last year the Topeka trade unions could be proud of their Labor Temple, a nice building conveniently located on Kan- sas avenue near the railroads, with ample ‘space for the workers at rea- sonable prices. The trade union move- ment paid $60 a month for their build- ing. de But since the first of the year, when new officers were elected, things have changed and the laboring movement is changing with it, less active and more friendly to the enemies of labor. The trade unions are now meeting in a few r is at $60 a month in the same building where the chamber of com- merce meets. Something Wrong. In this same building the knights of the ku klux klan meets. The trades unions, the ku klux klan and the chamber of commerce—the combina- tion is enough to convince any level- headed worker that there is something wrong with the labor movement. The secretary of the Trade and La- bor Assembly is Dr. C. V. Hope, presi- dent of the machinist local and a prac- ticing dentist, one who has. been a socialist and, like the rest of his com- rades, has long ago forgotten the struggle of the workers. In his rest room connected to his dentist office he has a picture of Sammy Gompers, the largest I have seen, No Time for Organizing. Dr. Hope igs also one of the state examiners of the dental profession and last week found time to run down to Wichita to examine some applicants and, as we came in his office, he had time to examine some of the appli- cants’ papers, but he has’ very, very little time for the trade unions or the unorganized workers of Topeka. Unorganized laundry workers in Topeka are working 11 hours a day, contrary to the state laws, However, this does not seem to ‘bother most of the leaders of the Topeka labor move- ment. The membership is falling off and new blood, young blood is not coming in. Will share apartment, Modern. $15. 18 Forest E. Apt. C. 6, Detroit, Mich. ION PICTURE A oeeele nes So aanemiatcmaag 40' and you did not even go to a public school?” “How about college professors?” Mary asked. “Can they go to Europe twice a year and have three different expensive cars and live in rich apart- ‘ments in the finest hotels?” Mr. Smith became furious shouted: “Yoh ame talking just like those Bolsheviks! You'd better find your- self another job.” But Mary &miled, She knew he could not discharge her because this shop was a well organized union shop. All the other workers of the shop were quiet, but their faces expressed ap- Proval of Mary’s remarks and they cheered her silently for her courage, Several weeks have passed since that evening and the boss has not an- noyed his workers with any more speeches. In order to cut expenses, and he discharged one of his bookkeepers and one shipping clerk as they con- sider themselves “too good’ 'to join a uuion. Mr, Smith had a splendid chance to show how thrifty he is him- self. The other clerks will have to work a little longer and speed up more. As has been his. custom for the last }- few years, Mr, Smith will soon be sail- ing with his wife for Europe. Of course, he is used to it, and spring is lovely in France. Mary, like the rest of the workers of ‘the shop is already worrying as to how she is going to get along for many weeks without work during the slack time. “It is funny,” says Mary. “Mr. Smith is so used to his trips to Europe, yet we workers can’t get used to starving. Every year when slack time begins we begin to worry. Per- haps he is right when he says that the workers are ‘Bolsheviks.’” THE THIRD PRIZE WINNER. | BUDA MGTOR CO, FURNISHES BAD DRINKING WATER Workers On Hot Metal Gag, But Must Drink By a Worker Correspondent HARVEY, Ill, June 29.—The Buda Motor Company in Harvey, Illinois, employs a large number of workers, but the bosses deny the workers even si¢h an ordinary comfort as drinking water. In the smith shop of the Buda plant the workers toil under high tempera- ture by the furnaces, anvils and steam hammers, and in the molding room, where the air is polluted by the dust of the molds and cores, the heat from the molten steel dries the throat and makes every pore of the body sweat. And They Never Complain! Under such conditions it is only natural for a person to drink much water. But the water they have in those places is so rotten, smelling of oil and grease, that you want to vomit every time you take a swallow of it. And the funny part of it is that no- body ever says anything about it. Some workers were asked as to the reason of that criminal neglect, and they said they used to have decent drinking water last year, but for the last 10 months it is unhealthy, yet nobody pays any attention to that fact. An Open Shop. The Buda plant is an open shop and there is no labor organization of any kind in it. The work is piece rate. The bosses are careless of the work- ers’ health and comfort. All the workers know that, if the company wants to, it can give them a supply of pure, fresh drinking water for the price of a few dollars, but it is not done because the fat dividends might be diminished a wee bit. The DAILY WORKER will expose all the rotten conditions it the work- ers from different departments will write about them, because it is the only daily ‘in the English language which will fight for their interests un- der any and all circumstances, Uswoco Mill Worker Has Wage Complaint (By a Uswoco Mill Worker.) LAWRENCE, Mass., June 29.—Us- woco Mill in Lawrence is very busy at the present weaving samples, but it seems that the new weavers that were put on lately can exist on smaller wages than the old timers, altho the new help has to be just as efficient as the older ones, They are requested to weave samples for $21.84 a week, whereas those weaving samples all thru the year are getting $24.50. This is nothing new for the Uswoco, This kind of thing has been going on for years, and the only reason the workers can find, is that when the company puts extra sample weavers on it is always. during slack periods, and that is their ly excuse, When rs conditions the busy seasons? LAWRENCE, MASS, ORGANIZES FREE SPEECH FIGHT Hold Open Air Meeting on July 4 LAWRENCE, Mass., June 29.—The Lawrence United Front Committee of Textile Workers in a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union call on that organization to co-operate with the Lawrence textile workers’ organization in staging a free speech fight. , Free Speech Meeting, A free speech meeting has been ar- ranged in Lawrence for July 4. This meeting will take place at 3 o’clock on the corner of: Common and Broad- way. The letter to the American Civil Li- berties Union follows: Trample} Workers’ Right. “American i yerie Union, “100 Fifth Ave, . “New York City, “Gentlemen: a “Public authorities are again trampling cae civil liberties of the people of (awrence. The united front committee of Lawrence is an organization of various textile work- ers’ clubs and committees of work- ers from mills;banded together for the purpose of organizing the workers whose conditions. are miserable. “They are subject to an unprecs- dented speed up system. Wages are extremely low. Women and children are forced to labor long hours for a miserable pittance, while the greed of the mill owners is so great that a large number of workers have no lunch hour; but are obliged to snatch a bite while tending the machine, Authorities With Bosses. “The public authorities and local press are working hand in hand with the mill owners. They are determin- ed to stifle the united front commit- tee because the workers are sympa- thetic and are, eager for our message. Two months; ago City Marshall O’Brien and Director of Public Safety Peter Carr prohibited us from speak- ing at the mill gates. Now they re- fused us permits to hold open air meetings in the public streets. “We, of the united front committee feel that we must defend the right of a union to talk to the workers and have the use of the streets. Especial- ly when we see numerous organiza- tions like the Salvation Army, pan- handlers, fakers, and patent medicine vendors using the public streets regu- larly without’ molestation. Refuse Meeting Permits. “City Marshal O’Brien refused to give any reason for withholding the permit. We are sending you a copy of the city ordinance re open air meet- ings. The Jaw is on our side, and we intend to call the police to order and to test in court if necessary whether the will of the mill owners is supreme law in Lawrence, Mass. Seek Co-operation. “We naturally turn to you for ad- vice, co-operation and aid. This ar- bitrary action of the police is a blow oT mee at the elementary rights of the work- ers to organize themselves and to educate other workers to join them. We are confident that we can defeat this police tyranny with your unstint- ed aid. “We expect to hear from you be- fore we make any definite plans for the conduct of a free speech fight We shall then advise further. “Fraternally yours, “United Front Committee of Law- rence Textile Workers.” Bill Seeks to Make * et Hindus Eligible to eae eR, Citizenship in U. S. WASHINGTON, June 29.—(FP)— Under a bill introduced in the senate by Copeland of New York, Hindus would be made bligible to American citizenship under a definition of the term “white person” as including members of the Aryan race. Sen, Copeland's bill would define “white persons” as they were defined in the report of the Dillingham Immi- gration Commission, in its dictionary of races and people. This document hel that among the members of the white race belong “the dark Hindus and other peoples of India still more emphatically because of their pos- sessing an Aryan speech relating them still more closely to the white race, as well as because of their phy- sical type.” " There are 3,000 Hindus in the United States, Another “Impartial” Arbiter on the Job SALEMN, Salem hodcarriers, affiliated with the North Shore Building Trades Alliance, have put their claim for a wage in- crease of 10 cents an hour to arbitra- tion. The union is to choose its rep- resentative, the employers theirs, and the two chosen are to select the third, The men get 90 cents an hour and have returned to Work at the old rate pending settlement: They struck May Ist. : —_—— That worker next door to you ve enough sense | may not have apiting to do to- “gtintios to better: their night. Hand him this copy of the DAILY WORKER. Hell in New Jersey Starts Proof That Hell Really Exists PASSAIC, N. J., June 29.—(FP)— Police ire here has been aroused by the pictorial presentation of textile strike conditions in the brochure, “Hell in New Jersey,” issued by the General Relief Committee of the strikers, While Anthony Gallo was selling copies of the brochure for the benefit of the relief, he was struck by Officer 74 of the Passaic police, the United Front Committee charges, and his stock of copies was confiscated, Councilman Joseph Dvorschak of Wallington, in voting against an in- crease of police in that town, express- ed his belief that the bringing of spe- cial police into the strike zone was {responsible for the reign of terror here, PASSAIC POLICE BRUTALLY CLUB PICKET CAPTAIN Use Rubber Hose on Strike Worker PASSAIC, N, J., June 29.—Jack Rubenstein, picket captain and strike leader, was arrested for the tenth time and was “given his medicine” in the Garfield police station cell. Jack was walking alone on Jewell street when he was passed by an of- ficer in the patrol wagon. “What are you walking that way for? What are you doing here any- way?” the officer shouted. Jack did not reply. Arrest Picket Captain. When he came up to the patrol wagon which had stopped, Officer Number Two continued to abuse him and finally told him to get into the wagon, “Am I arrested?” asked Jack. “Yes, you are,” said the officer, and Jack wag hustled off to a cell in the |station, On the way he received much “fatherly advice,” a local alias for threatening, about getting out of Garfield if he knew what was good for him. Club Striker. In his cell, Rubenstein was attacked by Officer Number Two and “Whitey Adamchesky,”.who has been a party to nearly all the beatings handed out in Garfield, and who brutally beat Jack with a rubber hose so that he was sent to a hospital at the time of his last arrest. “As soon as I saw them come in I lay down on my bench, for I could see in their eyes what was coming” he said after his rélease on bail. “I knew if I even tried to defend my- self there were fifty more waiting to jump in on me, and if I was standing up they would only knock me down. I cuddled up on the bench and pro- tected my face, but they got me plenty.” A doctor's certificate, signed by Dr. D. H. Tellman, shows,that he has “a large area of echymosis (bruises), a sWelling and tenderness over right posterior chest, abrasion and contu- sion of the right thigh, and contusion of the right eye.” He was charged with being disorderly. HELP WIN THE PASSAIC STRIKE, IS LABOR’S CRY New York Relief Meet Friday Night PASSAIC, N. J., June 29.—The Gen- ;eral Relief Committee of the Passaic strikers is sending out appeals to un- ions and fraternal organizations ask- ing them to take care of some of the children of the Passaic strikers dur- ing the coming vacation period, In the appeal of the Passaic strik- ers it also points out that attempts are being made to create a $100,000 Feed the Children Fund. With this fund a number of vacation camps are to be opened and good wholesome food provided the children, “It seems strange that after nine bombs have been thrown that the po- lice have been without a clue to the perpetrators of the deeds and have apprehended nobody,” commented Weisbord on the bomb explosion un- doubtedly perpetrated by agents of the bosses and which will be used in the near future to frame-up active unionists. “In 1912 similar conditions prevailed in Lawrence, Mass., during the textile strike in that city. Bombs were thrown, and then outside police Mass., June 29. — The/authority was called in They Do Everything That Way in Jersey ORANGE, N, J, June 29.—(FP)— Patrolmen ‘here are being paint traffic guide lines on the A protest against thig has been sent to the director of public safety by John Nilan, secretary, of Local 242 of the Painters, Decoratots and Paperhang- ers’ Union, Nik lares patrolmen ould be confit Police duties ile painters here are looking for work, < Page Five “4 ANEW NOVEL ae Gphon Ginclair “ (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair) i 4 WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. ' J. Arnold Ross, oil operator, formerly Jim Ross, teamster, drives with hie young son, “Bunny,” to Beach City. In the hotel they meet Ross's lease-hound, Ben Skutt, who has arranged for Ross to meet a group of property owners, whose land Rogs is anxious to get because it contains oil. Skutts enters with Ross and the boy wh.= the discord is at the highest point. He attempts to get them to sign a lease with Ross. Bunny is sitting near the window taking it all in. A boy appears at the window. He tells Bunny he is Paul Watkins and the lady of the house his aunt. He ran away from home, but he is afraid his aunt will send him back. Bunny sneaks Paul into the kitchen and Paul eats his fill, The two become fast friends. In the house, however, things go wrong. The meeting breaks up in a row and Dad and Ben Skutt come out disgusted. How- ever, Dad is drilling in nearby Prospect/Hill. The roads are bad. Dad goes te see a local official. He makes arrangements for the roads to be quickly ree paired and slips a roll of bills into Mr. Benziger’s hand. As they ge out, Bunny tells Dad about Paul, the run-away son of a family of “Holy Rollers.” Several days later Bunny is playing in the “field” when he meets Mrs. Groartys Paul’s aunt. She said she received a letter from San Paulo enclosing 25 cente in stamps for the food he took and saying that he was hitch-hiking and not te look for him. The roads were fixed and Ross works his men night and day te get his derricks up in the new field. After three weeks of fast work the first drill begins “spudding in” on Mr. Bankside’s leased land. ‘All aboard for Ci * the foreman says, and as the owners drink a sip of champaigne in honor Bankside No, 1,” the drill is already a half dozen feet under ground. ends busy days in his little office directing oil operations in his many The third evening he guessed he would have to go over to Lobos River. ‘ees to take Bunny. Bunny's poetry and history education could wait. He was learning about oil now. VIL Well, they made the trip back to the old field; and Bunny remembered all the adventures of the last ride, the place where they had had lunch, and what the waitress had said, and the place where they had stopped for gas, and what the man had said, and the place where they had run into the “speed-cop.” It was like fishing—I mean, for real fish, like you catch in water, not in oil-wells; you remember where you got the big fish, and you expect another bite there. But the big fish always come at a new place, said Dad, and it was the same with “speed-cops.” A cop picked them up just outside Beach City, passing a speed-trap at forty-seven miles; and Dad grinned and chaffed the cop, and said he was glad he hadn’t been really going fast. They got to Lobos River that evening; and there was the rig, fishing away—screwing the stands of pipe together and working down into the hole with some kind of grabbing device on the end, and then hauling up and unscrewing—stand after stand, fifty or sixty of them, one after another—until at last you got to the bottom one, only to find that you had missed your “fish!” Well, Dad said his say, in tones that nobody could help hear- ing. If he couldn’t find men who would take care of their own bones, it was doubtless too much to hope they would take care of his property. They stood there, looking like a lot of school- boys getting a birching—though of course the “rough-neck” who was wholly to blame had been turned loose on the road long ago. There was a salesman from a supply house there with a patent device which he guaranteed would bring up the obstacle the first run; so they tried it, and left the device in the hole— it had held on too tight! Evidently there was a pocket down there, and the crowbar had got wedged crossways; so they’d have to try a small chunk of dynamite, said Dad. Ever listen to an explosion four thousand feet under the ground? Well, that was how they got the crowbar loose; and then they had a job of cleaning out, and drilling some more, and setting a casing to cover the damaged place in the hole. Thus, day by day, Bunny got his oil lessons. He wandered about the field with Dad and the geologist and the boss driller, while they laid out the sites for future wells; and Dad took an envelope and pencil, and explained to Bunny why you place your wells on the four corners of a diamond, and not on the four cor- ners of a square. You may try that out for yourself, drawing a circle about each well, to indicate the territory from which the oil is drained; you will see hat the diamond shape covers the ground with less overlapping. Wherever you overlap, you are drilling two holes to get the same barrel of oil; and only a dub would do that. They drove back to Beach City, and found that Bertie had come home. Bertie was Bunny’s sister, two years his senior, and she had been visiting the terribly fashionable Woodbridge Rileys, up north. Bunny tried to tell her about the fishing-job, and how things were going at Lobos River, but she was most cruelly cutting—described him as a “little oil gnome,” and said that his fingernails were a “dead give-away.” It appeared that Bertie had become ashamed of oil; and this was something new, for of old she had been a good pal, interested in the business, and arguing with Bunny and bossing him as any older sister should. Bunny didn’t know what to make of it, but gradually he came to understand that this was a part of the fashionable edu- cation Bertie was getting at Miss Castle’s school. Aunt Emma was to blame for this. She had granted Jim’s right to confine Bunny’s training to the making of money, but Bertie at least should be a young lady—meaning that she should learn how to spend the money which Dad and Bunny were going to make. So Aunt Emma got the name of the most expensive school for young female money-spenders, and from that time on the family saw little of Bertie; after school she went to visit her new rich friends. She couldn’t bring them to her home, because they had no butler—Rudolph was a “farm-hand,” she declared. She had picked up some wonderful new slang; if she didn’t like what you said, she would tell you that you were “full of prunes” —this was away back in history, you understand. She would give a pirouette and show off her fancy lingerie, with violet-col- order ribbons in it; she would laugh gleefully: “Aren’t I a speedy young thing?”—and other phrases which caused grandmother to stare and Dad to grin. She would be pained by her father’s grammar. ‘Oh, Dad, don’t say ‘jist’!’’ And Dad would grin again, and reply: “I been saying it jist fifty-nine years.” But all the same, he began saying it less frequently; and that is how civilization progresses. s hE v (To be continued.) Only 1 More Week for Prizes! ‘ RATES: ——- . | A Year's Sub to Outside of Chengs In Chie Counts For One Por year $6.) 60 Six mon 2.00 Three months The Daily Worker er phen Hundred Points ‘Three mont Sub Campaign Closes July 6