The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 14, 1926, Page 5

SECOND PRIZE WINNER, LOGGING CAMP. WORKERS FAGE MANY DANGERS Lives Menaced by Vicious Speed-Up By a Worker Correspondent, RONALD, Wash., Aug. 12.—Workers in the logging camps of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California are in constant danger of losing their lives because of the speed-up system. The rigging crew, which is made up of four chokermen and two men to each of the chokermen, do the most dangerous work in the camps. They must fight with steél cables that are two inches thick. When these lines are in motion they are exposed to very great danger, E The rigging slinger gets about $1.50 more than the chockerman. On him depends the lives of many of his fel- low-workers. He spots the lines and gives the signals to the signal boy when the logs are hooked. Oftentimes in his desire to be quick and show the bosses what a good worker he is he gives the signal too quick. As a result some worker is caught in the brush and is crushed to death or crippled for life, The“bull of the crew” or the “hook- tender” sits on a stump all day long watching every move that is made by the chokers and their helpers. If a worker is not fast enough he soon hears the “bull” shout: “Hey! Slim get a move on you.” No man in the woods is sure of his job. The “bull” and the employment shark co-operate in fleecing the log- ging workers. The employment shark and the “bull” see to it that there are three crews always on the way. One is at work, one on the road towards the town’ and the other on the road towards the camp. The workers are kept but a short time. By frequent hiring and firing the employment shark and the “bull” are able to line their pockets nicely with the dollars of the workers, Trees ate felled and bucked by con- tract. Every two fellers and four buckers have a scaler. The scaler is instructed to steal as much as,he can from the bush buckers.. Under most satisfactory conditions they are not able to make more than $7 to $8. I heard one of the buckers. that had been working every. day in,the week remark once: “If I quit tonight I will have 50 cents coming; if not I will be broke in the morning.” The Shafer Brothers camp is near Aberdeen, Washington. Here the workers. get a bonus if they are able to stick it out three months. This bonus, which is held up before the eyes of the workers to make them speed up, hardly ever reaches the workers’ pockets. Before the three months’ period is up there is an en- tirely new crew with the exception of the hooktenders and the rigging sling- ers. These two groups co-operate with each other in running the other. work- ers out of the camp so that when the bonus is divided up they will get a bigger sum, Kathleen Mine at Dowell Gives Coal Loaders Dirty Deal By BERT GROVER. (Worker Correspondent) DOWELL, Ill, Aug. 12—The Kath- leen Mine at Dowell, five miles south of DuQuoin, is giving the loadens a dirty deal. The Kathleen mine sinée re-opening has installed loading machines. All workers are getting $8.04 for 8 hours’ work. Those that run the mechani- cal loaders get $10.07 a shift. The loading machines cannot clean up a place, so as to be ready to have it undercut and shot down, therefore, miners must clean up the places which fis hard work. They get from 7 to 8 cars a double shift for the sum of $3.04, 4 Dolsen. Subscribe! orker Corres sent Im this week to appear In the —“OlL IMPERIALISM,” by Louis Fischer. A new book on the story of Oil and the part America plays in this struggle. bound edition, yd ee OSSIP," Stories of New Russia. Unusual stories by the most significant of the new Russian writers, ‘AWAKENING OF CHINA,” by Jas, A. addition to every workers’ library. To the American Worker Correspondent to nm learn what and how year. Published monthlye 8 2" Ci = “1000 WORKER. CORRESPONDENTS t | The Worker Correspondent on Guard By Abe Stolar, Student Correspondent. FIRST PRIZE WINNER, INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL SEEKS TO BREAK SOLIDARITY OF NEW YORK STRIKING CLOAKMAKERS By a Worker Correspondent. NEW YORK, Aug. 12.—A few weeks ago all the cloakmakers on strike here received a letter from the industrial council. In these letters the strikers are told that their leaders have misinformed them about existing conditions in the shops in order to get them to go out on strike. It urges the workers to desert the strike and go back to work. The industrial council asserts in its letter that the general conditions in the cloak industry are very good and that nearly all the shops worked all Dee ae nenren ic nannsen Re Nn Sa Ane year around and most of the workers made excellent wages and were liv- ing nicely. The letter then ends with an appeal for the strikers to desert the strike and return to work as they ‘ate not fighting for a worthwhile cause. The industrial letters do not tell the truth. If the statements of that “worthy” body of the Protective As- sociation are true, how can that body account for the fact that so. many strikers are in need of relief at present? Surely, if these workers had worked the time the industrial claims they have and made the wages they are charged with receiving they should have been able to save many a penny for such a day as this. Part of my duties as the clerk in Webster Hall is to write at least fifty letters every day to the relief commit- tee for members of the union that need relief, A few of them that ask for this relief may not need it, but the great majority really need this aid and are telling the truth when they declare that they have nothing to live on after striking but a short time, People come into strike headquar- ters with dispossess notices for non- payment of rent. They bring their unpaid gas bills, electric bills and even grocers’ bills. The union is taking care of its members, It is doing all it can to aid every one of its members, These are cold facts. In the face of these too evident truths ¢an the indus- trial council of the Protective Associa- tion still insist that-the-workers have no reason for demanding higher wages and an improvemént'in their condi- tions? Can they still persist in stating that conditions of’ the’ workers are so perfect that they cannot be improved? The industrial councfl is trying in many ways to undermine the morale ndence jue of Friday, August 20 Cloth- A new book that makes a splendid to write. 50 cents a theses of the strike. So far all their efforts have been futile. The strikers are firm in their determination to win the Strike. They are as firm and deter- mined as they were on July 1 when they went on strike. Tho it has been unusually hot and picketing is a much harder job than before the strikers have not relaxed their efforts. Strike- breakers are hunted down and con- vinced that they should join the strike. Shops that have been able to get a few workers to scab are closed alto- gether. Work that is being sent to outside shops in diligently and con- scientiously traced and the workers in those outside shops acquainted with the fact that they are doing struck work, The strikers have great faith in their leaders. In a meeting of shop chairmen at Webster Hall, Louis Hy- man and Boruchowitz were wildly cheered by the strikers after they had made short speeches, Several agents of the bosses in the union that sought to discredit the spirit of the strikers and the strike were hooted and hissed by the chairmen. These chairmen left the meeting determined to stay on strike until every demand is granted. Show Company Badges Sign of Servitude By a Worker Correspondent Oftimes it is merely a tiny piece ot metal with some inscription on it. At times it has a glass or celluloid cover on its face; it invariably has a ‘ew words on it. Whatever letters the words contain spell a sentence of (loom for the wearer. Altho a small thing it is a thing of great importance and significance, Itmeans that you have sold your ind@pendence for a pittance; that you whose chest it adorns have renoumeed your man- hood and bade farewell to free thought and personal liberty, It signifies that you have mortgaged your future for the benefit of jaceoterie of capitalists. The group that forces you to wear it realizes its full importance, They will not let you enter their work-houses without it. They will not acknowledge the slightest relationship to you unless you wear it on your body “in a con- spicuous position.” Like cattle on @ ranch that must be branded as a token of ownership they know that the wearing of it makes you their's, They know to whom you belong when they recognize their mark, The law no longer permits human slaves to be branded on the forehead but when those in whose interest you are labelled can make you feel proud of their brand ou, why, that makes branding un: ry. A great philoso- pher put it tly whet he said: “The greatest enemy of mankind is not tho it but tho contented | in o/ i / _)_ BY JANUARY 13 192 THE DAILY WORKER pn THIRD PRIZE WINNER. B. & M. SHOE C0. WORKERS ARE STILL OUT Strike Is Now Eight Months Old By a Worker Correspondent. TORONTO, Can., Aug. 12.—The shoe workers at the B, & M. Shoe and Slip- per Co., Portland and Niagara streets, are still out. These workers have been out since December 25, 1925. Every attempt has been made by the bosses to defeat these workers and force them back into the shops. Strikebreakers were brought into Toronto from the little towns in the province of Ontario where there are shoe manufacturing shops. These workers are unorganized and work ten to twelve hours a day for wages that range from 25 cents to 35 cents an hour, Not only have the members of Local 238 of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union here to fight against the police brutality, the use of strikebreakers, but they have also come into conflict with their international union. Inter- national Organizer Edward O'Dell is everywhere but where he should be. Twelve open-air meetings were held before the shops here, at which 21 different speakers spoke. Brother O'Dell was invited to speak there many times. Not once has he deigned to answer the invitation of the strik- ers, In the first few weeks of the strike, when there were mounted police be- fore the shops harassing the picket line, you couldn’t get this union of- ficial out on the picket line. The international union in Boston is paying but $5:a week in strike bene- fits. The members of the union here find that the $5 does not go very far. On a number of occasions when work- ers in the factory were pulled out who did not know that a strike was on the union members here had to pay their fare out of town and also feed and house them while in the town, News of the«strike does not appear in the union journal. Several times the Toronto local has protested against the silence maintained about thé strike. The Toronto local pointed out that ads are being run in the big dai- lies in which the company advertises for scabs. .Some.of the workers, see- ing these ads,do not know there is a strike on. They come to Toronto. The local urged the Journal to print news of the:strike because of this situation. General Secretary Baine answered that it was the policy of the Journal and the international union not to advertise a strike, as scabs would then flock into that city. This argu- ment sounds very childish. Despite these! handicaps, the local union is carrying on its struggle and will continue to carry it on until it wins its demands. The picket lines are determined to picket the mills until the strike is completely won. These actions on the part of some of} the international officials has made them more determined to win and to work towards their defeat in coming elections, >2 RAIL WORKERS ASK INCREASE OF NEW BOARD Cal’s Mediators Get the First Request (Special to The Dally Worker) NEW YORK, Aug. 12.—Representa- tives of 175,000 railroad workers placed demands for increased pay and shorter hours before the new United States board of mediation set up by the Watson-Parker act. Conductors, firemen and trainmen on Eastern rail- roads were those involved and their demands range from $1.00 to $1.25 per day increases. The total will ag- gregate $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 a year. 15 Labor Delegates, The rail brotherhood unions were represented hefore the board by 15 delegates with W. G. Lee, president of the Brotherhood of Trainmen and L. E. Sheppard, president of the Or- der of Railroad Conductors leading the negotiations. The bosses’ commit- tee was represented by vice-president Walbar of the New York Central rail- road, Prevents Strikes, Under the act which brought the board into existence, it can make awards to neither side. All it can do is to attempt to affect a settlement between the belligerents in a dis- pute. If no agreement can be reach- ed by the contending parties, Presi- dent Coolidge is authorized to appoint a special board to go into the case and make a report “to the public.” As a further clamp to prevent the workers from declaring a strike, it is provided that “neither side” can take any action until thirty days after the president's board has reported. This is the finst case to be pre- sented to the Coolidge appointed board upon which sits only one man. Carl Williams of Oklahoma, who can be remotely suspected of sympathy for the workers. Motor Bus Seen as Railway Auxiliary WASHINGTON, Aug. 12.—In their war to capture the bulk of passenger traffic in the territory between New York and Washington, the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania rail- road systems have seized upon the motor bus as a defensive weapon. The Baltimore and Ohio, forced to stop using the Pennsylvania tunnel under the Hudson River and the Penn- sylvania station in New York on Sep- tember 1, has announced that a big fleet of motor busses will carry its outbound passengers to Jersey City from all the principal hotels in New York, and will distribute the arriving passengers in the same way. The Pennsylvania has declared that it will run motor busses on all of its suburban lines near New York and Philadelphia, where passenger train schedules are not sufficiently conve- nient to commuters, Officers of the International Asso- ciation of Machinists view this devel- opment as proof that motor bus trans- portation is soon to become an ad- junct to all the main railroad lines, thereby expanding the motor industry in a new degree. WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! FIFTH ISSUE OF FORD WORKER IS DISTRIBUTED IN DETROIT The fifth issue of the Ford Worker, issued by the shop nucleus of the Workers (Communist) Party in the Detroit plant, is already out and is being distributed to the workers in the Ford factory. The leading article in this issue entitled, “Sixth Day’s Pay Arrives?” is an exposure of the manner in which Henry Ford, the flivver magnate, is keeping his promise of six day’s pay for five day’s work, It tells how the workers were called together in the H. H. Building by the foreman and told that if they turned out more and better work they would get a raise. up would be made of production. If the check-up revealed that there had been no increase in production then there would be no raise. The “sixth day’s pay” is to be handed to the workers in installments. The first in- stallment will be a 40 cents a day in- crease, If they prove that they can turn out more work they will get 40 cents more a day, This 40 cents more a day will be given them if production is increased so that the company nets 80 cents more each day on each worker, ‘The workers are urged to join the machinists and auto workers’ unions. They are told that the machinists’ un- ion meets every first and and third Friday night at 274 East High St. and the Auto Workers Union every Friday night at 55 Adelaide St. Shop news takes up the bigger part of the bulletin, This news tells of the conditions in the shop and also points They were told a check- 4 WORKER CORRESPONDENTS’ PRIZES AWARDED FOR WEEK’S BEST STORIES out the treatment accorded to in- dividual workers by the bosses. The Ford Worker is a four page, multigraphed paper, sold at one cent a copy. The address of the Ford Worker is 1967 Grand River Ave., De- troit, Mich, First prize, “Literature and Revolution,” by Leon Trotsky, Is awarded to the striking New York cloakmaker that wrote the story entitled, “In- dustrial Council Seeks to Break Solidarity of New York Striking Cloak- makers.” Second prize, a year’s subscription to the Workera Monthly, is awarded to the logging camp worker that wrote the story, “Logging Camp Workers Face Many Dangers.” Third pri: Government Strike! r" by Jay. Lovestone, Is awarded to a lan shoe workes who sends in the story, “B, & M. Ss 2 Meena Ba of MEE Ee ns BOL ehh Pht: CEOS cc (hc SIAN Hi i are A EE = 5 SCE i Glen Sinclair ‘ (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinciair) WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. J. Arnold Ross, oll operator, formerly Jim Ross, teamster, Is unsuccessful In signing a tease with property holders at Beach City, Cal., because of intgues of other operators and quarrels among the holders. While he is at Beach City, Bunny, his thirteen-year-old son, meets Paul Watkins, slightly older. Paul has run away fron home. His father is a poor rancher in the San Elido Valley who is a “Holy Roller.” Paul goes away to make his living on the road and Bunny goes about learning the oil business from his Dad who is bringing in a well at Prospect Hill. Dad was working hard and Bunny suggests a quail hunting trip to the San Elido Valley. Dad agrees and shortly they arrive at the Watkins ranch and pitch thair camp. In hunting for quail they find oi! oozing out of the ground and Dad wheedies the sale of the ranch out of old Watkins and also arranges to secretly purchase adjacent lands. Paul's little sister, Ruth, and Bunny become friends. Bunny starts to high school at Beach City. With’ plenty of money and-social standing he enters into the life of the school. He falls in love with another student, Rose Taintor. In the meantime Dad’s i iness'grows rapidly. The World War begins and Dad, along with other capitalists, benefits by selling oi! to both bellig Bunny arranges for Paul to come and live with Ruth on a nearby ranch. Paul had been living with a lawyer who took a liking to him and bequeathed his library to Paul when he died. Paul “has it out” with his “holy roller’ father who scorns him as unfaithful. His brother Eli is a hopeless religious fanatic, subject to fits. Eli is now going around the country acting a prophet and “‘healing” people. Bunny, anxious to get back to the ranch, suggests to Dad that the two go there and bulld‘a shack near the house that Paul and Ruth stop in. While they are there they hear that a rival company is about to drill nearby. Dad makes preparations to ‘sink a well on the Watkins ranch, But he needs a road. first goes to the county commissioner and greases his palm, then searche: the county republican bos: tho Dad’s a democrat, and agrees to pay several thousand if he can have a road to the ranch in sixty days oe #8 @ He t ae is Bunny went back to school; and each day when he got through, he either drove to his father’s office, or else he called up as soon as he got home, to ask the news from Paradise. At less than two hundred feet they struck the oil sands which accounted for Bunny’s “earthquake oil”; there proved to be two feet of them, « and Dad said it would give them enough oil to run their car a year! They were going deeper, still with an eighteen inch bit, through hard stone formation; they were working in’an open hole, with no casing, because the ground was so firm, Paul was working as @ general utility man, mainly carpentry. “Dad, we’re going to make Paul our manager some day,” Bunny had said; but Paul had smiled and said that he was going to be a scientist, and he would not fool himself with the idea that the jobs at the top were easy, —he’d not exchange his eight hour job for Dad’s eighteen hour job. This was a subtle kind of flattery, and gave Dad a tremen- dously high opinion of Paul! Thanksgiving Day was coming; and Bunny’s soul was torn in half. It was a great occasion at the school, the annual football; battle with a rival institution known as “Polly High,” located in, Angel City. And what was Bunny, a real boy or an oil gnome?,| He fought it out within himself, and announced his decision, to the dismany-of Rosie Taintor and of Aunt Hmma—he was going to Paradise with Dad! It was a quail season, and Dad needed a change, the boy told his aunt; but the sharp old lady said he could fool himself, but he couldn’t fool her. They didn’t have to take any camping things now, for they, had their cabin on the Rascum place, with a telephone in the bungalow, and all they had to do was to call up Ruth, and there would be a jolly fire in the cabin, and a supper on the table at the bungalow, with all kinds of home-made good things, the eat- ing of which would make it necessary for Dad to walk miles and miles over the hills next day! ..First, of course, they would stop at the well, and inspect things and have a talk with the foreman. There were traces of oil again, and Dad had told them to take a core, and he had asked Mr, Banning to come up next day and study it with him. They came in sight of the derrick. The drill-stem was out of the hole, they could see the.mass of “stands” setting in place, When they got nearer, they saw that the crew had a cable down in the hole; and when Dave Murgins, the foreman, saw them, he came out to the car and it was plain that something was wrong. >> “We've had an accident, Mr. Ross.” “What's the matter?” “There’s a man fell in the hole.” “Oh, my God!” cried Dad. “Who?” And Bunny’s heart was in his throat, for of course his first thought was Paul. “A roughneck,” said the foreman. “Fellow by the name of of Joe Gundha. You don’t know him.” “How did that happen?” “Nobody knows. went down into the cellar for some reason—he had no business there that we know of. Nobody thought about him for a while,” “You sure he went down?” “We been fishing with a hook, and we got 4 bit of his shirt.” Bunny was white about the lips. “Oh, Dad, will he be alive?’4 -- “How long has he been down?” “We've been fishing half an hour,” said Murgins. “And you haven’t heard a sound?” “Not one.” “Well then, he’s drowned in the mud. How far down is he?” “About fifty feet. The mud sinks that far when we take out the drill-stem. He must have went down head first, or he’d have been able to keep his head above the mud and make a noise.” “My God! My God!” exclaimed Dad. to quit this business! What can you do to help men that won't help themselves?” Bunny had heard that cry a thousand times before. They had a cover for the hole, and any man who went down into the cellar was supposed to slip it into place. Of necessity the dirt caved in about the edges, so that the top of the hole was a kind of funnel, its edges slippery with mud, and in this case with traces of oil; yet men would take chances, sliding around on the edge of that yawning pit! What could you do for them? “Has he got any family?” asked Dad. “He told Paul Watkins he’d got a wife and some children in Oklahoma; he worked in the oil fields there,” Dad sat motionless, staring in front of him; and nobody said a word, They knew he really was interested in his men, taking care of them was a matter of personal pride to him. Bunny had turned sort of sick inside; gee, what a shame—in his well, of all places, his first one, that was to start off the new field! It was all spoiled for him; he wouldn’t be able to enjoy his oil if he got it! “Well,” said Dad, at last, “what are you doin’? Jigglin’a ~ hook up and down in there? You'll never get him up that way. | You'll have to put down a three-pronged grab.” 4 “I thought that would tear him so—” explained Dave Mur- gins, hesitatingly. * “I know,” said Dad; “but you've got it to do. It ain’t as if . he might have any life in him. Bend the prongs so they fit the ~ hole and force them past the body. Go ahead and get it over + with, and let’s hope it'll teach the rest of you something.” , Dad got out of the car, and told Bunny to take their things down to the Rascum place, and break the news to Ruth; she'd be upset, especially if she knew the fellow. Bunny understood that Dad didn’t want him around when that torn body came out of the hole; and since he couldn’t do any good, he turned the + — car in silence, and drove away. In his mind he saw the men screwing. the ‘grab’ onto the drill-stem—a tool which was ei, to go over obstacles that fell into the hole an to catch hold 4 them with sharp hooks. They might get Joe Gundha by the legs © and they might get him by the face—ugh, the less you thougl about a thing like that, the better for-your enjoyment of ; game! : _.- (Tq be continued.) We was changing the bit, and this fellow » “It makes me want «: