The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 21, 1926, Page 5

JIM BARRY’S Girls Must Work in Un- sanitary Room By a Worker Correspondent, PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 19.—After getting a test as to speed and accu- racy on the typewriter I was given work at Jim Barry’s.. I asked for the measly sum of $15 a week, but was told that they only pay $12. Being very much in need of a job, for I had been out of work for quite a long time, I accepted the job, Twenty-five girls work in a small room. There are two windows in the room, which are very seldom opened. They are opposite the entrance door, thru which people go in and out nearly every minute of the day, and if a window is open it causes a draft. There is practically no air coming into the room. The room is dirty and dusty.: Some of the girls go out for lunch, but most of them bring it from home. They sit in that filthy place and gob- ble down their couple of dry sand- wiches as quickly as they are’ able; for they want to hurry down and take a walk in the fresh air before they set to work again. I heard one girl say: “Gee, I wish I was getting more money and could afford to eat my lunch out, instead of having to lug it with me every morning.” It is no cinch working in a place like that. You have to keep the type- writer running every minute of the day, and you are not even allowed to speak to the gir) beside you. Even tho the girls are supposed to get the miserable wage of $12, when pay day comes around very few re- ceive that amount. They are docked a cent for every minute they are late, regardless of the fact that they must work. more than two minutes to earn that cent. When a girl is fired she is only made aware of that fact when she receives her pay Saturday. at quitting time, She finds a yellow slip in her envelope, “Your services are no longer required.” “Therefore,” one of the girls said to me, “when I leave I won't give them any notice either.” Now, if we. were. organized we wouldn’t have to put up with such outrageous conditions. We could bring forth our demands for better wages, shorter hours and sanitary con- ditions and win them, LOW WAGES AT \ “Say it with your pen in the worker correspondent page of The DAILY WORKER.” R co WORKER CORRESPONDENCE PRIZES FOR NEWS STORIES SENT IN NEXT WEEK TO BE ANNOUNCED IN THE ISSUE OF AUGUST 27 —One year’s subscription to the COMMUN- IST INTERNATIONAL, organ of the lead- Ing body of the world Communist movement. y Abed ek WING, UNIONISM,” by D. Js Saposs. A book that Wm, Z. Foster advises, “should be read by every trade union militant.” seen AND SHADOWS,’ by Ralph Chap- lin, Beautiful poems written in Leaven- worth Penitentiary’ by the noted proletarian poet, the! To .the American Worker Correspondent to Subscribe! learn what and how to write. 50 cents a year. Published monthly. FIRST PRIZE WINNER. UNION BUSINESS AGENT SEEKS TO PUT OVER SPEED-UP SYSTEM IN HART, SCHAFFNER AND MARX By a Worker Correspondent, THE bait Hart, Schaffner & Marx, Franklin and Monroe, has installed new machin- ery in their sponging department and have increased wages but $3 a week for all spongers and helpers reported Business Agent Maurice MacBllegett at a meeting of Local 271, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, The business agent of the union $———————_______ pleaded that the workers in that shop speed-up and increase their production and warned those who might object to speeding-up that if they failed to measure up to the standard of produc- tion that would be set by him for the shop they would be brot before the local executive board. As a rule in test cases that are made before the’ executive board, the business agent stands in back of the workers and watches every move. If the worker measures up to the stand- ard of production that the business agent and the boss have agreed upon then the worker stays on. If the worker fails he loses his job, is kept out of work for some time and néver allowed to return to the shop in which the test case was staged. The test is carried on for a week, some time long- er, After the worker has lost his job in a test case and goes to. another shop he is closely watched in the new shop to see whether he maintains, the standard of production. The shop chairmen are supposed, to represent the workers and the union in the shop, They seldom fulfill their duty to the membership of the union. More often the shop chairmen are found working for the interests of the boss. They are forever on guard that the standard of production is main- tained. To maintain the standard of Production means to maintain the speed-up system. The present business agent put in the same scheme at Kuppenheimer’s. The examiners were told to increase their production and they would re- ceive a wage increase. Before the in- crease in wages was made the work- ers had to increase their production for several weeks by 7 per cent. The examiners turned out 34 pieces of cloth a day, Each piece of cloth examined was fifty yards, This made a total of 1700 yards a day. Now the examiners must turn out 42 pieces of 50 yards long—making a total of 2100 yards, Previously the workers in this department received about $34 a week now they receive from $38 to $40 a week, They must examine 288 yards of cloth for every dollar they earn. Before they examined but 234 yards ifor every dollar. Nine workers were employed previously, today there are but six, These six are not able to get in full weeks at all times. There are many weeks in the years when they work but three or four days, The plan that he now brings forth to increase wages for the Hart, Schaff- ner and Marx spongers will have the same effect on those employed there that it had on the examiners at Kup- penheimer’s shop, Carpenter Shows How Jensen Held His Job (Continued from page 1) authorized to take the ballots to the office of the district council. The sec- retary states that he called up the district office on the following morn- ing and talked to a person he believed to be Charles Sand, secretary-treas- urer of the council. The person at the other end of the Phone said the ballots reached the of- fice. This was denied afterwards and the secretary of the local got confused about who was talking to him, Had the votes cast in the Local 1786 election been counted by the tabulat- ing committee, Fred: Bobzin would have been elected. The count would be: Harry Jensen, 8,931 votes; Fred Bobzin, 9,027 votes, giving the latter a majority of 96 votes. Refused an Appeal. Harry Jensen, president of the coun- cil, refused to entertain an appeal from the tabulating committee’s count, The findings of the investigating com-. mittee elected by the council to probe alleged irregularity submitted a re- port that in their opinion the ballots of Local Union 1786 failed to reach the council because of irregularities and corrupt practices, Secretary Was Suspicious, When Joseph Badrova, secretary of ocal 1786, was questioned by the in- estigating committee elected By the istrict council to probe the loss of that Ipcal’s ballots he admitted that somebody who stood to gain by the stolen lots was probably respon- sible for the theft. Here are some of the questions and answers: \ What, to your opinion, would be the motive of stealing your local union ballots, and who, to your opin- jon, is back of it? A.—Somebody who got something to do with the election—somebody at the top, “Jensen or Something.” Q.—What do you mean by “some- body at the top’? A.—Jensen or something, Telling how he gave away the local’s lots, Bedrova testified that he “was on ing on couch in basement” hen’ his son informed him that a {ranger wished to speak to him, The ony continues: Rt the man want? “Is this” Q.—What did the man say? Asked for Credentials. A—I talk with him for half an hour. I thought something was crooked. 1 asked him for credentials and his union book, Q.—Did he show either? A—Did not show any. Man said, do you take me for a crook? Q.—What did you say? A.—I did not want to give it to him. Q.—How is it that you gave it to him? A.—He gave me correct address of president of our local union, Q.—Then you gave him everything, ballots, official poll lists, talley sheets and official returns? AYes. Q.—Did he show you a note of any kind? A.—No. Q—Are you in favor of corruption in your local? ' A—tlo, that's why | make a mis- take this time. Q—tThen why did you give away your election matter, disfranchising your local votes, and that of 30,000 carpenters of thig distrtiet? _ Ballots No Good! > A—Well, McCormack said, “Don’t be afraid, ballots are not worth any- thing and | can’t get anything for them.” : Q.—What did you do then? A-—The man said he is from the tabulating committee’ from district council and they want to start to count the ballots Monday morning. He gave President Novak’s address—he said Novak sent him here. Q.—What did you do then? AI gave him the ballots and he gave me a receipt, and his address, 5317 West Chicago avenue. I became suspicious and went after the nan, He walked south, Had Bottle of Booze. Q.—During election did you get any drink of whisky? A.—Jensen give to Novak a bottle. Give to us behind the table, ¥ Q—When you called up district council in reference to your local bal- lots what was said? A.—Radcliffe said ballots were there, and nothing the matter with them, I went to Novak on Monday after elec- ‘tion }to my house. to find out if he sent MeCormack Vee OR CER Schaffner and Marx.” Her story shows that not only are Get Worse, End of Briggs’ Speed-Up,’ workers, THIRD PRIZE WINNER. WORKERS GET WORSE END OF BRIGG'S SPEED-UP Increase Production and Get Laid Off By a Worker Correspondent. DETROIT, ‘Mich, Aug. 19, — The speed-up in the Briggs plant here has reached an intolerable rate. The plant that made the Essex cars moved from the Harper plant to the Mildrum plant. Many men working in the assembly line were transferred. Seventy-three cars an hour was considered sufficient. But since the company changed men so frequently, production dropped about about 25 cars for two hours. To make up for lost time they made the men speed up on the line and turned out 98 cars an hour for two hours, The men were forced to work so hard that after this strenuous work many were too tired to stand in the line. Two hours, before quitting time the boss told them that the day’s work had been completed and they could go home. They were not paid for these two hours. | WCFL Radio Program | Chicago Federation 6f Labor radio broadcasting station WCFL is on the air with regular programs. It is broadcasting on a 491.5 wave length from the Municipal Pier. FONIGHT. 6:00 to 7:00—Chicago Federation of La- bor talks and bulletins; Instrumental solos, 7:00 to 7:30—The Florentine String Trio, dinner music. 7:30 to 8:30—Little Joe Wa acter songs; Vella Cook, cont: B to 10:00—WCFL Scott's Trio; Cook Sisters, WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! they were there. Brother answered on phone. a Bedrova told the committee that when he called at the home address given by the man who called for the ballots he found a police station there. Campaign on Whisky. President Novak of Local 1786 was questioned: Q.—Did Jensen come to your house four years ago and offer you whisky and want your support because he thought you were a big man in your local? A.—Jensen came in our local about four years ago and offered us whisky. He was never In my ho I was sore at him at that time, and | com- plained to all the members he is try- ing to make a campaign on whisky. Q.—What did you do in reference to recover the ballots that were stolen? A.—I told Bedrova to go to the dis- trict council, but this fool did not go. Q. (to Bedrova)—Were you told to go to district council before you went to work? A—No. Q. (to Novak)—Were you in corner with Jensen in a saloon on 67th and Elizabeth street talking with him? And immediately afterwards you went to the bar placed $10 bill upon it and said: “Let's have a drink on the boy from Cicero?” A—Yes, but it was my money I was spending, because I had $40 with me when I werit over 'to Local 1922, Would Elect Bobzin, Q.—Would: result of votes in your local change election? A—Yes, | understand Jensen is id by 109 votes. Our local Bobzin 351 votes and only gave Jensen 156, Q, (Committee before President Jen- sen)—Were you at saloon on 67th and Elizabeth street Wednesday night, pre- vious to election, and came from Local 1922 meeting. A.—Not that I remember, I don’t remember of saying ten words to the man in my life, Q.—Didn’t Novak to you in the presence of the members at that place that he would deliver the votes of Local 1786 to the present administra- tion? A—No, | saloon the night after 1922 meeting? A—Yes, | took him to Cicero, be- cause | was going north. Brought him right home. Q. (to Jack Conelly)—Did you ever make this statement, or was it ever heard by you, in the hour of 12 and 1, in the carpenters’ district council? Jensen made the statement that he had 1922 lined up and that he was out with Novak and that he (Novak) was his friend? A—Yes, I heard Jensen make that statement. Struggle Against Jensen. The struggle of the progressive ele- ments in the carpenters’ union locally dates back about five years. At times they have acted individually, then united under the title of the Pro- gressive Caucus. The reactionary of- ficialdom under the leadership of Harry Jensen and Charles Sand have always stood in the way of progressive policies, Efforts to frame new by- laws for the council have been frus- trated by Jensen and Sand. Last spring the progressives and the general opposition to the present ad- ministration organized for the purpose of defeating the Jensen administration rather than sponsoring progressive policies, The experience of the pre- vious year proved that two opposition tickets would kill the chances of both. The new anti-Jensen caucus and the old progressive caucus joined forces and hammered out a joint program, the progressives agreeing to eliminate their planks for amalgamation and for a labor party in the interests of a united campaign. Progressives Suspicious, They agreed on a forty-hour five-day week, closed shop and no renewal of the present agreement, The progre: ive caucus was suspicious of the sin- cerity of some of their allies and their suspicions were justified. When some of those members failed to get nomi- nated by the unified caucus they sud- denly lost all interest in getting rid of Jensen ag president of the council. The campaign then went ahead under the name of the United Progressive Caucus, Over $1,000 was collected for cam- paign purposes and 100,000 pieces of literature distributed among the 30,000 members of the union. ploited but also those that do. mental work. “Typists Get Low Wages In Jim Barry’s.” Third ‘prize, “Awakening of China,” by James A. Dolsen, is awarded to the Detroit automobile worker, who in the article entitled, “Workers ”” shows how the bosses speed up the det more production and then when the necessary number of cars fas been assembled lay them off. WORKER CORRESPONDENTS GET PRIZES FOR WEEK’S BEST STORIES First prize, “Oil Imperialism,” by Louis Fisher, goes to the Chicago garment worker that exposes an attempt made by the business agent of an Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America local to get more produc- tion out of the workers at a lower cost to the boss. “Union Business Agent Seeks to Put Over Speed-Up System in Hart, The story is entitled, Second prize, “Flying Ossip,” Stories of New Russia, goes to a Phila- delphla typist who exposes conditions in one of the offices she worked in. the workers doing manual labor ex- Her story is entitled, Unorganized Freight Handlers Stand Firm for a Wage Increase By a Worker Correspondent. NEW YORK, Aug. 19.—Half a mil- lion dollars’ worth of fruit for New York City consumption remained un- moved on. Erie Railroad piers while unorganized freight handlers struck for an increase in wages. About 600 men stopped work in sup- port of their demand for 75 cents an hour, time and a half for overtime and Sundays, and no work fractions of hours without pay. The union rate is 85 cents an hour. The non-union men had been getting 50 and 52 cents an hour, straight time for overtime and Page Five ne ec eee reer meer sergeant emernne netemenaanurnamamnn enna tn 7 Seen By Upton Sinclair (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinciair) WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE, When “Bunny” Ross, son of J. Arnold Ross, California ol! operator, is thir teen years old,.he goes with Dad to Beach City to sign an oil lease. There he meets Paul Watkins, near his own age who had run away from his father’s Poor ranch in the San Elido Valley because the family were “holy rollers.” His brother Eli is a cripple who has fits and “heals” people. From time to time Bunny hears from Paul and sends money to his family. In the meantime Bunny isdearning the oil business with his Dad who, along with other oil operators ie profiting by the war that had broken out in Europe. Bunny persuades his Dad to go for a quail hunting trip to San Elido Valley. There they meet the Watkins family and Bunny becomes acquainted with Paul's sister, Ruth, whom he likes. While hunting, they locate oi! on the ranch and Dad wheedles it out of old Watkins and also buys adjacent property secretly. In the meantime Bunny starts to high school at Beach City and falls in love with a fellow student, Rose Taintor. When they are ready to drill Bunny and Dad go back to the ranch to direct the work. They persuade Paul to come to live with them and work as @ carpenter. Paul had been living with a lawyer who took an interest in him and left him a legacy of books when died. Paul and Ruth live in a shack nea> the well sight. Eventually the well-is begun and Eli, now turned prophet and the pet of wealthy adherents to the faith, makes a blessing as the drilling be- gins. Bunny goes back to school and finds himself tiring of Rose Taintor. But foan the glad news comes that Bunny’s well in the San Elido Valley has struck oil lands. A new field is started. As Bunny and Dad watch the drilling the oil suddenly pours out in a great jet—and it catches fire. Everyone runs for their lives, Dad drives in great haste to town—for dynamite biast is quickly gotten ready. out and the well saved. He returns and the When the charge is set off, the biaze is snuffed Bunny is a millionaire ten times over. ° e . © Bunny was now almost eighteen, slender, but well built, and He was brown as ever, and his hair was something of a runner, still wavy and his lips red and pretty like a girl’s; he was merry on the surface, but serious underneath, trying most conscientious- ly to prepare for the task of administering some millions of dollars of capital, and directing the lives of some thousands of working- {injured here today as a result of a vote more attention to organization and see that delegates get elected to in time. trols the council delegates they will see to it that an honest tabulation is not made, order to make sure that irregularities will not occur in the future as in the 1786 testified that he gave the ballots }to a man calling McCormack, tho he never saw him before, and did not know who he was. no credentials, ballots because he could tell the sec- retary the addre: vak! This man panion of Jensei Intter’s testimony before the investi- gating committee. tion the progressives elected only Frank Larson of Local 181 as warden, men. If the people who wrote books about these matters, and taught them in school, had any useful suggestions, Bunny wanted to get them; so he listened and read what he was told to read, and then he would come home and ask Dad about it, and when he visited the field, he would ask Paul. The teachers and the text books said there was no real disharmony between capital and labor; both were necessary to industry, they were partners, and must learn to get along together. And Dad said that was all right, only, like everything else, it was theory, and didn’t always work out. Dad said that the workingmen were ignorant and, wanted the things industry couldn’t afford to give; it was from this the quarrels grew. But Dad didn’t know what to do about it, and apparently wasn’t trying to find out; he was always too busy getting some new tract developed; and Bunny wasn’t the one to complain—having got Dad into this latest pile of work! It seemed a shame when you came to realize it. This ranch had been a place where Dad could come to rest and shoot quail; but now that they had struck oil, it was the last place in the world where he could rest. There were new wells to be planned and drilled, and pipe lines to be run; and oil to be marketed, and financing to be seen to, and houses and roads and a gas-plant, and more water—there was something new every day. The books showed that nearly three million dollars had gone into the place so far, and now Dad was talking about the absolute necessity of having his own refinery; his mind was full of a thousand technical details along this line. There was a group of men—really big capitalists—who wanted to go in with him, and turn thig into one of the monster oil fields, with a company capitalized at sixty million dollars; there would be a “tank-farm,” and several dis- tributing stations. Should Dad follow this course or should he Save the business for Bunny? The boy would have to decide pretty soon, did he want to shoulder an enormous burden like this, or to let other people carry it for him? Did he want to study all kinds of things, like Paul, or set to work and master the process of cracking distillation,and understand the use of deplegmators in connection with tower stills? Sundays, Strikers Parade, Scabs Quiet. Officials of the New York Marine Co., which employed the strikers, im- mediately commandeered taxicabs and rounded up proposed strikebreakers in the Bowery district. Many of the strikebreakers quit when they learned what was expected of them. Strikers paraded up and down the waterfront, led by Thomas Riley, Michael Drenyo and a few other ac- tive workers. W. J. Hayes, superin- tendent of piers, tried to get the strik- ers to go on working while the wage matter was taken up by the company, but the strikers answered that their demands had been put off too often before, The Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers and Station Employes has jurisdiction over the men. This union was ousted by the American Federation of Labor at the beginning of December, 1925, when the A. F. of L. sustained the teamsters’ side of a jurisdictional fight. Five Negroes Die in Ark. Hurricane WILSON, Ark., Aug. 19.—Five Ne- groes are dead and twenty persons tornado that swept a section north- west of here last night. Property damage is estimated at $50,000 to $75,000 most of which was confined to farmhouses and crops. 0 =o Bunny’s speculations upon the problem of capital and laber were not destined to remain academic. Spending his Christmas holidays at Paradise, he found Paul looking very serious, and asking what would be Dad’s attitude towards the matter of unions in this field. There was an organizer for the carpenters here, and Paul had talked with him, and decided that it was his duty to join. Some of the men had joined sscretly, but Paul wouldn’t have any concealment in his relations with Mr. Ross. Bunny answered that his father didn’t think much of unions, but he certainly wouldn’t object to Paul’s joining, if Paul thought it was right; anyhow they'd talk it out. So that evening they had a session, which wasn’t quite the same as a class at high school. Dad believed in organization; he always said that, and his formula would apply to workingmen—at least in theory, But in practice Dad had observed that a labor union enabled a lot of officials to live off the work of the real workers; these officials became a class by themselves, a sort of vested interest, and they looked out for themselves, and not for labor. They naturally had to make some excuses for their own existence, and so were apt to stir up the workers to discontent which otherwise the workers wouldn’t feel, deflection of the fake militants and their friends, who deserted when they discovered they were not wanted as candidates. Had they stood true to their agreement not only would Jensen be defeated but the majority of his reactionary machine would be run out of office. The carpenters will remem- ber their conduct, Violations of the election laws were observed in many locals, but instead of ordering a recount the tabulating committee called in the yfolators, questioned them and then dropped the matter. All the sworn affidavits were ignored, which is a clear viola- tion of the union law, By-Laws Violated, Section 16, paragraph 2, of the dis- trict council by-laws reads: “The tab- ulating committee shall recount all voted ballots where a protest is made of violating the election laws of the united brotherhood only upon a sworn affidavit setting forth the violation.” But what is the law between friends, particularly when the friends are takers? Next year the progressives must de- Paul said that was one way to look at it; but as a matter of fact, it was just as apt to work the other way—the men would be discontented, and officials would be. trying to smooth them down. ‘The officials made bargains with the employers and nat- urally wanted the workers’ to fall into line. Didn’t it seem more reasonable to account for disputes in industry by the fundamental fact. that one group was selling labor, and the other was buying it? . Nobody was ever surprised that a man who was buying a forse: didn’t value it so high as the owner. You could see Dad didn’t like that, because it was a view that made: his business more difficult. He said that what troubled him about unions was, they deprived a man of his personal lib- erty; he was no longer a free American citizen, he was jist a part of a machine, run by politicians, and often by grafters. What had made this country great was individual enterprise, and we ought to protect that. And Paul said yes, but the employers had set the men a bad example; they had joined a “Petroleum Em- ployers’ Federation,” which ruled the industry very strictly. Paul had been told that in his early days Mr. Ross had paid his men a dollar a day more than regular scale, so as to get the best labor; but when he had got into the Prospect Hill field, he had had to join the Federation, and now wasn’t allowed to pay more than the regular scale, . That was true, Dad admitted, but he hastened to explain, he hadn’t reduced anybody’s wages; his business’ had grown so fast he had put his men into higher classifications, and when he engaged new men for the old jobs, they had got the regular But when Paul pinned him down, Dad admitted that it really was a union he belonged to, and he had sacrificed his personal to that ‘extent. It was clear enough, there had to be some o among the employers, to keep them from cutting o1 ni throats; and Dad was fair enough to admit that a laborer, he'd see the same ‘ dune Deve o> 2 the district council who will insure that a proper count of the vote is made, and that the votes are sent in As long as Jensen or any other reactionary administration con- Must Be Organized. The progressives must organize in past. Secretary Bedrova of Local The stranger had Yet he was given the of President No- ak is a boon com- » according to the Because of their lack of organiza- liberty packet eReSEeE ee: te tener case eeees