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

T i HE DAFEY WORKER ea Page Five * JANUARY 13 1927 STEEL WORKERS ON THE JOB TALK OF ORGANIZATION Realize Need of Labor in the Mills By HERMAN GORDON (Worker Correspondent) PITTSBURGH, Pa., June 30. — At the last meeting of the Central La- bor Union, the president—a member of the United Mine Workers, ruled out of order a communication from the International Labor Defense for a conference to save Sacco and Van- zetti, on the ground that the I. L. D. was not a “bona fide labor organiza- tion.” After this quibble to prevent labor union aid being given to save the lives of frame-up workers, the body passed on to reports. Delegate Cush of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers reported as follows: “Our organization has been exist- ing for many years. Today, out of 600,000 workers in the steel industry it has.a little less than 12,000 and is going down continually instead of up. “Why? .Because we need to organ- ize the unorganized. The men in the plants are continually talking about organization, ‘because the hardest work there, puddling, brings them in for a twelve-hour day the miserable sum of $7. “Even in the union shops the stecl workers work 10 and 12 hours, so you can imagine what conditions there are in the unorganized plants. The day when we were told that the time ‘is not ripe’ for organization is past. It we will not resist, the open shop we will be wiped out altogether and Mr. Schwab will be well-pleased.” The delegate appealed for help in organization, but his plea went in one ear and out the other. A delegate from another local of the steel workers reported that a man had been fired for union activities. But David J. Davis, general secretary of the union was quickly on his feet saying that the member had dropped the case. Such is the situation in the steel industry. —_ “The pen is mightier than the sword,” provided you know how to use it, Come down and_learn how in the worker correspondent's classes. WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! Gary Workers! The DAILY WORKER is on sale at the Workers’ Co- operative Restaurant, 1733 Broadway, 1637 Washing- ton and 21 East 16th Ave. Step .over for a copy— you'll find YOUR paper there every day. ‘ GET A COPY! Turn in a subscription and be sure of getting it always, Only 1 More Week for Prizes! § RATES: — % Fer e2us Barsints Cael \ A Year's Sub to ‘The Daily Worker mpaign wholesale prices. ‘wets Speed-Up in Pacific Mill a Trick to Cut Wages and Cut Staff (By a Pacific Mill Worker.) LAWRENCE, Mass., June 30, — In the Pacific Mill No, 10 the weavers are being urged to run 20 large looms, which is double the number that they are using at present. The greedy bosses are promising a forty dollar wage to the one agreeing to accept the 20 looms, and also two helpers. How kind the bosses are, They are willing to pay the helpers $17 each and the weavers $40. The three wages combined seems to amount to more than the pay of two weavers now running 10 looms each, Workers’ Look Out, Can’t You See the Trap? As soon as the twenty looms will be accepted by everybody, the first thing the helpers will get lost. Ag for the pay, we know«that with every addi- tion of speed up the pay envelope gets smaller. The next thing that follows is more weayers thrown out of work. The greedy -bosses blame the bad times for the great unemployment at present in this city. It is their greed for profits, their speed-ups, that cause unemployment and misery to the workers, The workers must not ac- cept the bosses’ bluff. Let the bosses run the 20 looms themselves, Merchant Steel Mill Workers Have, Miserable Conditions By a Worker Correspondent GARY, Ind., June 30.—Workers in the 10-3 Merchants Steel mills here work under the most miserable con- ditions. After working several days many workers are forced to lay off. After a hard day’s work the workers must wash themselves in cold water. As their bodies are overheated they catch colds and are forced to lay off to cure them. Three men were forced to lay off on account of this condition last week, The workers in this plant are con- stantly called on to contribute to one cause or another, .Jf a worker fails to buy a $1 ticket,the boss gets angry and fires the worker. No excuses are accepted. Ht is.a case of buy or get out. ft Wages in this mill are 44 cents an hour on the 10-hour-shift and 60 cents an hour on the 8-hour shift. In order ‘to take a day off orto take a week off for any purpose whatever the boss grills the workers ‘to find out what he is going to do in that time. The company seeks to” know ‘what the worker is going to do outside of the mill as well as in the mill. E, W. RIECK LUNCH ROOMS Six Places 118 S. Clark 66 W. Washington | 167 N, State 42 W. Harrison 234 S. Halsted PHONES, HARRISON jo 169 N, Clark Commiceary and Bakery: ATTENTION, WORKERS OF NEW YORK! Just opened a new bargain stdre by the name “Popular” Men’s, Women’s and Children’s Wear, Will sell below Still further special reductions for work- ers presenting this advertisement. REMEMBER: 236 E. 23RD ST. 1612 Fulton ct. Phone West 2549 ‘A BUST OF LENE. In Chicago — Counts For One Ber honcho A Hundred Points Closes July 6 WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE CONVENTION ON Rap Class Nature of Public ‘Schools By JOHN MIHELIC. (Worker Correspondent) KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 30.—The National Women’s Trade Union League convention opened its sessions at the Hotel Baltimore yesterday, The discussions on the, problems of wo- men and the trade unions have been very lively and are far above the level of debate at A. F. of L. conventions. Today's session’ opened with Rose Schneiderman of New York in the chair for the morning session and Agnes Nestor of Chicago presiding in the afternoon. Lillian Herstein of Chicago made the principal report to- day on methods of trade union organ- ization. Discussion Topics. The following subjects were dis- cussed: What are the problems fn organiz- ing women workers? Do the public schools teach the im- portance of group action? Other problems before the conven- tion were, women in unskilled trades, the organization of young girls, older and married women, The discussion on public schools was particularly interesting. The con- clusion was drawn that schools teach group action for capital and not labor. Rose Schneiderman said all school boards are hostile to organized labor, especially the New York board of edu- cation, Class Nature of Schools, Lillian Herstein struck the high note in the debate by a detailed argu- ment showing the class nature of the Public school system. She gave as a concrese example the attempt of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce to or- ganize a “Junior Chamber of Com- merce” in the schools by exerting pres- sure on the board of education, The convention will likely conclude its work on Saturday according: to schedule. FUR WORKERS’ CHICAGO UNION FACES STRIKE Progressives Will Be in Thick of Battle By a Worker Correspondent. The following letter was sent to the officials of the Chicago Fur Workers’ Union: The Fur Workers’ Union of Chicago, Local 45, is going into a struggle with the employers. The principal demands of the union are the 40-hour week, 10 per cent increase in wages, equal dis- tribution of work, full recognition of the union and no discrimination or ar- bitrary discharge against union work- ers, The introduction of these im- provements in’ the industry are of vital concern to every fur worker, Boss Attack. ‘The bosses are using every means to destroy the organization. \ Hence in the approaching strike the netessity to stand firmly united. In going into this struggle we must be resolved to fight as a unit until the bosses have D What About Political Prisoners? On August $1 the California primaries will be held. Senator Hiram Johnson, center above, is out to regain control of California state politics. He is putting up hig own candidate to contest the re-election of Senator Short- ridge and has picked Robt. N. Clark of Los Angeles to run for governor. Below ig Ex-Senator Phelan, probably a democratic candidate. All of these old line politicians, whoge election funds are supplied by the Southern Pacific rail- way, the traction and light and power interests, the cannery and lumber com- panies, suppress mention of the political prisoners that rot away in San Quentin and Folsom prisons. California labor must challenge these politicians to declare themselves on this question. SAN FRANCISCO POORHOUSE "INMATES ARE BADLY TREATED 4 re! By AN INMATE SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 30. — The San Francisco Relief Home is one of the’ Yirgest poorhouses in California, housing about 1400 inmates, about one-third of whom are women. Every man no matter how old (pro- vided he has a0 influential friends) if he is able to do anything is com- pelled to work+-often very long hours, There are about forty or fifty men employed. as waiters, who must work from 5 in the morning to 6 at night every day in fhe year. The waitéty’never get any day off. Some of these’men are eighty years old. For this ‘York the city of San Francisco—considered one of the richest in the country>;pays them $5 a month.+ These waiters Are given a little better jurors come they admire the well-kept grounds and the shining doornobs, rl taste the well-cooked meal and have i@ women get a little}, wig feed themselves in the super- fed according to their | intendent’s house and then they re- ‘The cripples, the hat everything is first cl: id men too feeble to wah Lf et athens haat Fear “Last Chance.” rest grub. Very lit- all of the good things The inmates whom the management ,oorhouse ever reaches | does not like or who are physically so yegetebles and butter |feeble or mentally so deranged that ‘Two oranges and two | they are not able to take care of them- ll they get. These are} Selves without aid or who are help- Christmas and Easter, |lessly bedridden are kept in a sepa- . Sugar never reach-|Tate building called the “Last es their table. Chance.” This is the most dreaded Caretaers Rob Poor. part of the institution. To be put into High salaried@civil service employes | the “Last Chance” is feared more than take automobil@ loads of stuff to their |death. This tear keeps the inmates Saturdays the stew-|from complaining regardless of how | wretchedly they are treated. Peddle# Sells Food. What make the “Last Chance” a A peddler vigits the place three Place of horrors, is that halfwitted times a week, selling to the inmates— drug-addicts, ex-saloon bums, imbeciles who are fortunate enough to have and even insane inmates are employed money—bread, butter, sugar and other as attendants and orderlies because vegetables. There is quite an up-to- they are cheap. They receive from $5 date store in the bull-pen of the poor- to $15 a month. These demented men, house. Formerly, this store carried | who for the first time in their lives only tobacco and candy and belonged | have any authority, often torture the to the blind men, Its meager profits |helpless inmates entrusted to their were used by the blind men to provide | care. themselves with tobacco,.fresh fruit,| Last year a crippled old man was butter, sugar and other comforts. A/80 brutally beaten that he died. Two few years ago it was taken away from visitors, who happened to be in the them. It was ,then furnished with | “Last Chance” during the beating, re- work get the tle or nothing. bought for the. their tables. are a luxury. eggs a year is given them on Pie, twice a y conceded all our demands. We must be prepared to stand solid thru thick and thin, Discrimination. The progressives in the Fur Work- ers’ Union will support this strike 100 per cent. They will be found ‘at their posts in the very front line of the battle from first to last. On the very eve of the strike the administration has shown deplorable lack of judg- ment by discriminating against many progressives thru refusing to put them on the various committees connected with the strike and in numerous other ways, But they will not permit this narrow discrimination to effect their stand in the strike. They will support the strike fin every way. Signed: J. Sorenschein, chairman, and others, Buffalo Will Hold Passaic Relief Meet Wednesday, July 14 BUFFALO, N. Y., June 30.—The General Relief Committee of Passaic Textile Strikers is calling a conference of all unions, workers’ fraternal or- ganizations and sympathetic associa- tions for Wednesday evening, July 14, at Engineers’ Hall, 36 W. Huron street, New York to Hold Concert at Coney Island for Passaic Strikers NEW YORK, June 30.—An open air concert will be held at the Coney Island Stadium August 28, The sta- counters, showcages and cash register. ported it to the grand jury. There A clerk was hired and put in charge.] was an “investigation.” Everything Since then a “society pillar” is making | was whitewashed. The management a few extra shekels selling food to the | of the poorhouse was not even censor- inmates at a high price. ed for the man’s death. On the con- Poorhouse Meals. trary it was praised. For there was To give you an idea why the in-}one pauper less to feed. mates must buy, their own food. For Sunday “dinner'}—which is supposed to be the best meal—meat is served trom which all juices have been boiled on Saturday morning, This denourish- ed meat is warmed up and served as “roast beef.” Jt tastes like shoe leather and sometimes it is so bad that it causes dysentery. There are too few sanitary fixtures in this poor- ho} WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! Ue Herd Inmates Together. Most of the inmates are old people who have worked hard all their lives piling up wealth for others. There are a few drug addicts, ex-saloon bums, imbeciles, degenerates, and insane, These are herded together with those who have worked all their lives, Numerous fights, bloodshed, sometimes even death results from the herding of the ‘decent inmates with these elements. There are sixty or seventy drug addicts in the insti- tution, Nothing is done to cure them. On the contrary, dope is sold quite openly. It is id that the peddlers pay a “rake-off” to a prominent politi- clan for this privilege. This politician is considered a 100 per center and is quite high in the city and county ad- ministration, Once a year the county grand jury comes here to investigate the poor- how Everything shined up for this investigation—the date of, which is known many days in advance. There is a well-cddked meal that day —the only good meal during the year The latest and a most in- teresting book on Russia— A MOSCOW DIARY By ANNA PORTER, A record of vivid impres- sions of the first workers’ republic gathered on a re- cent visit. Clothbound to make a splendid addition to a workers’ library. A NEW NOVEL Goa Ginelair (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair) WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. J. Arnold Ross, oil operator, formerly Jim Ross, teamster, drives with his 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 Ross is anxious to get because it contains oil. Skutts enters with Ross and the boy when the discord is at the highest point. He attempts te 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 to see @ local official. He makes arrangements for the roads to be quickly re« paired and slips a rel bills into Mr. Benziger’s hand. As they gc ou 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. Groarty, Paul’s aunt. She said she received a letter from San Paulo enclosing 25 cents in stamps for the food he took and saying that he was hitch-hiking and not to 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 firat drill begins “spudding in” on Mr. Bankside’s leased land. “All aboard for China,” the foreman says, and as the owners drink a sip of champaigne in honor of “Ross-Bankside No. 1,” the drill ia already a half dozen feet under ground, Dad spends busy days in his little office directing oil operations in his m fields. The third evening he guessed he would have to go over to Lobos Ri: He agrees to take Bunny. Bunny’s poetry and history education could walt. Hi was learning about oil now. Bertie condescended to drive out to the field, and see the new derricks that were going up. They went for a walk, and whom should they meet but Mrs, Groarty, getting out of her el- derly Ford car in front of her home. Bunny was naively glad to see her, and insisted upon introducing Bertie, who displayed her easiest manner, and, as they went on, scolded Bunny because of his horrid vulgar taste, he might pick up acquaintance with every sort of riff-raff if he chose, but certainly he need not make his sister shake hands with them! Bunny could not understand— he never did succeed in understand, all his life long, how people could fail to be interested in other people. He told Bertie about Paul, and what a wonderful fellow he was, but Bertie said just what Dad had said, that Paul was “crazy.” More than that, she became angry, she thought that Paul was a “horrid fellow,” she was glad Bunny hadn’t been able to find him again. That was an attitude which Bertie was to show to Paul all through Paul’s life; she showed it at the very first instant, and poor Bunny was utterly bewildered. But in truth, it was hardly reasonable to expect that Bertie, who was going to school in order to learn to admire money—to find out by intuition exactly how much money everybody had, and to rate them accordingly—should be moved to admiration by a man who insisted that you had no right to money unless you had earned it! Bertie was following her nature, and Bunny followed his. The anger of his sister had the effect of setting Paul upon a lonely eminence in Bunny’s imagination; a strange, half-legendary fig- ure, the only person who had ever had a chance to get some of Dad’s money, and had refused it! Every now and then Bunny would stop by and sit on a rabbit-hutch, and ask Mrs. Groarty for news about her nephew. One time the stout lady showed him a badly scrawled note from Ruth Watkins—Paul’s sister, whom he loved—saying that the family had had no Wert alao that they were having a hard time keeping alive, they were hav- ing to kill a goat now and then—and Mrs. Groarty said that was literally eating up their capital. Later on there was another let- ter from Ruth, saying that Paul had written to her; he was up north, and still on the move, so no one could get hold of him: he sent a five-dollar bill in a registered letter, and specified that it was to go for food, and not for missions. It wasn’t easy to save money when you were only getting a boy’s pay, Paul said; and again Bunny was moved to secret awe. He went off and did a strange secret thing—he took a five-dollar bill, and folded it care- fully in a sheet of paper, and sealed it up in a plain envelope, and addressed it to “Miss Ruth Watkins, Paradise, California,” and dropped it into a mail box. Mrs. Groarty was always glad to see Bunny, and Bunny, alas, knew why—she wanted to use him for an oil-well! He would politely pay her with a certain amount of information. He asked Dad about Sliper and Wilkins, and Dad said they were “four-flushers”; Bunny passed this information on, but the “medium lots” went ahead and signed up with this pair—and very soon wished they hadn’t For Sliper and Wilkins proceeded to sell the lease to a syndicate, and so there was a tent on the lot next to the Groarty home, and free lunches being served to crowds of people gathered up in the streets of Beach City by a “pallyhoo” man. “Bonanza Syndicate No. 1,” it was called: and they hustled up a derrick, and duly “spudded in,” and drilled a hundred feet or so; and Mrs, Groarty was in heaven, and spent her thousand dollars of bonus money for a hundred units of an- other syndicate, the “Co-operative No. 3.” The crowds trampled her lawn, but she didn’t care—the company would move her home when they drilled the second well, and she was going ino a neighborhood that was ‘“‘n uch sweller’—so she told Bunny. But then, on his next vis\t, he saw trouble in the stout lady’s features. The drilling had sta »ped; the papers said the crew was “fishing,” but the men said txey were “fishing for their pay.” The selling of “units” slowed down, the “bailyhoo” sto; , and then the syndicate was sold to what was called a “holding com- pany.” The drilling was not résumed, however, and poor Mrs. Groarty tried pitifully to get Bunny to find out from his father what was happening to them. But Dad didn’t know, ala nobody knew—until six months or so later, long after Dad had brought in his Ross-Bankside No. 1 with triumphant success. Then the newspapers appeared with scare headlines to the effect that the grand jury was about to indict D. Buckett Kyber and his asso- ciates of the Bonanza Syndicate for fraudulent sales of oil stock. Dad remarked to Bunny that this was probably a “shake down”; some of the officials, and maybe some of the newspaper men, de- sired to be “seen” by Mr. Kyber. Presumably they were “seen,” for nothing more was heard of the prosecution. Meantime, the owners of the lease could not get anyone to continue the drilling for the block next to them had brought in a two hundred barrel well, which was practically nothing; the newspapers now said that the south slope looked decidedly “edgy. ‘So Bunny, in the midst of his father’s glory, would pass down the street and encounter poor Mr. Dumpery, coming home from the trolley with dragging steps, after having driven some thou- sands of shingle-nails into a roof; or Mr. Sahm, the plasterer, tending his little garden, with its rows of corn and beans that were irrigated with a hose. Bunny would see Mrs, Groarty, feed- ing her chickens and cleaning out her rabbit-hutches—but never again did he see the fancy evening-gown of yellow satin! He would go inside, and sit down and chat, in order not to seem “stuck-up”; and there was the stairway that led to nowhere, fand the copy of “The Ladies Guide: A Practical Handbook of Gentility,” still resting on the center table, its blue silk now fin- ger-soiled, and its gold letters tarnished. Bunny's eyes took in these things, and he realized what Dad meant when he compared the oil-game to heaven, where many are called and few are chosen, (To be continued.)