The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 27, 1926, Page 5

hae recommen News,and Comment is. WITH THE LABOR PRESS Labor Education - ‘$More than 600 trade union papers—official organs of national and Labor and fmternational unions, state federations of labor, district councils, central Tabor bodies and local unions—advocate correct, partially correct, or in- correct policies, voice poorly or well, represent or misrepresent, the | opinions of the rank and file of the trade union movement, This is the | ! field in which our party must conduct most of its work and it is a field of activity about which we must of necessity have the most detailed and accurate information, The publivation in this department of editorial omment from the trade union press does not mean necessarily that We are in agreement International Takes Up Unity Question ‘with it, We publish this material to inform our readers of the trend of thought expressed in the labor press and when necessary such editorial expressions will be accompanied by our own comment,—Editor’s Note.) By Federated Prese, NEW YORK, Aug. 25.—Considera- d tion of the New York locals’ plea for Mexico Entitled to State Its Case. reafiiliation of the three bakery locals American newspapers are filled with news about the controversy over church conduct in Mexico. Much of the news is so written as to arouse hos- tility toward the government of President Calles, It is made to appear that the Mexican government is making war on religion itself and making the practice of religion impossible. There are a great many facts about the religious situation in Mexico which have for a long time been in existence and available to any seeker after information. Had they been sought before the present “crisis” they could have been fairly weighed. In the present which built up the Amalgamated Food | sftuation there is not likely to be much fair weighing. The wise course for Workers’ independent union was one | Americans to pursue is to forbear until there can be calm judgment. Mexico pihagl nace cea: Legrand me is entitled to that. A government based upon a ten-year fight for freedom Oont Sobaty WOT ny ise from slavery and oppression is entitled to that forbearance. A government bread trust fight and unton label agi- that has from the start given its first thought to the welfare of the great tation, the amalgamation issue became |™&as of wage earners and tillers of the soil is entitled to state its casa and & most discussed one. to have fts case heard at a time when it can be heard fairly, The Mexican Charters were withdrawn by the i- | Federation of Labor is solidly back of the government in the present situa- ternational from three New York lo-| tion and that must be kept in mind. The Mexican Federation of Labor is as cals in 1918 in a quarrel mainly juris- | sy1eq with religious feeling as is any other portion of the population—and eager jcaod Ui lopeudet the population of Mexico is probably religious to as high a percentage as any tel and restaurant workers to form |°ther population tm the world. The government of Mexico is based upon the the Amalgamated Food Workers. The | Suffrage of the people, It is constitutional. It is obeying its constitution. “independent group has always been | Its procedure fs orderly. Those are facts which must count among all demo- strongest in German and other non- |jcratic peoples. There can be no fair or proper appraisal of the present situ- vr pees the international in | ation unless the background, going back even to the days of Hernander Cor Ops, 5 Jurisdictional Fight. The jurisdictional fight still stands hetween the two groups and unity. The trouble arises chiefly where Amal- gamated bakers have suddenly found Trade Union Politica tez, is taken into account. Of course the masses of the American people are not doing that just now, American people who form hasty judgment on the basis of present news): »er dispatches ara extremely unlikely to form judg- ments that will stan¢ I:ter in the light of a full survey. Newspaper dis- patches from Mexico have never been any too good. Why should they be considered angelic on the spur of the moment? Americans will do well to bear in mind the fact that the religious history of Mexico is no more like the religious history of the United States than its industrial history, or the history of its land tenure. Land and church in Mexico have been very inti- mately related thruout the decades, The great struggle of the Calles govern- ment, with labor ever at the council table, has been for freedom, for eco- nomio and social justice, for human betterment, for the organization of the workers in trade unions, for the, intelligent tilling of soil and the proper re- warding of those who till it, for the education of children and for the en- couragement of the arts of ‘peace and productivity. Such a government in this world at this time is entitled to something more considerate than off- hand condemnation, more friendly than blanket criticism. It has its story to tell and it is entitled to have tts story heard and weighed at its full value. If that ig not done, surely the great exploiting interests of the realm of oll and finance will rejoice—and probably plot new rebellions, »~-Montana Labor News, Butte, Mont, PRIVATE DETECTIVES PROVIDED AMERICAN OVEN CO. IN STRIKE BY METAL TRADES ASSOCIATION The American Oven and Machine Co. against which the machinists are striking is tryimg to argue that they have no “labor trouble.” They even go 80 far ae to forego the usual procedure of nailing their injunction against Picketing to their factory door. | nae This tactic was exposed by J. W. | ganization work, but there is a special Daly, district business agent of Dis- | organization committee now function- trict No. 8 (Chicago) of the. Interna- |ing, made up of delegates elected from tional Association of Machinists, in an |each of the fourteen local lodges in interview with a representative of The |Chicago. Its next meeting is on Thurs- DAILY WORKER, day night, and further plans will be Association Has Army. elaborated and work assigned for the “The non-union workers in Chicago | continuance of the drive to organize are mostly brought in by the Illinois |the tens of thousands of machinists Metal Trades Association, a branch of | working under adverse, open shop con- the National Metal Trades Associa-|ditions in this city. Daly reports a tion,” said Daly. “This employers’ or- |continued increase in membership in ganization maintains an agency for |the union, but the rate is expected to placing non-union labor at much lower | be faster in the near future. wages than those demanded by union labor, of course. It also provides guards, private detectives, or company police,” Daly stated that at. first the com- pany guards at the American Oven and Machine Co, were thoroly supported by the Chicago police, but after union officials had gone down and com- plained to the sergeant and explained the case of the strikers, there was less tendency on the part of the police to do the dirty work, and most of it was left to the private detectives who were being paid for it, Guards Cause Trouble. The Ilinois Metal, Trades Associa- tion guards do not wear uniforms, In all strikes they circulate among the pickets and around inside of the shops, watching to see that the etrikebreak- ers do their work well, and trying to cause arguments among or with the pickets, They act as agents provoca- teurs to cause trouble, and give a color of reason to the company’s application for an injunction, paca deat, In the case of the American and Machine Co. they were unable to provoke any violence, and the injunc- tion could not be obtained on those grounds. It should not have been ob- tained at all, but since it came up before Judge Dennis Sullivan (“Injunc- tion Denny”) it could hardly be re- fused. It is a straight injunction, against picketing. Injuries Concealed, ‘The union is unable to get the ex- act facts on accidents in struck shops, but there are certainly many, espe- cially in the American Oven and Ma- chine Co, The elaborate measures -}taken by the company to prevent facts about the injuries received by strike- sion and persistent selling of bread |yreakers in the American Oven shops and milk seals are the program map- fare im themselves justification for be- ped ont for St, Louis by the local eom- }iiof that life and dmb are not safe mittee for reliet of Passale textile }ihere, the district organizer stated, ae Brother Daly is supervising the or- i a te i es re | talltime employment work, that most | o¢them are alternating with three of i days’ work a week, and The inde- . lent bakers fear that reaffiliation with the international will mean the ~\4eas of jobs where they are doing Jewish baking, Other points-of difference have-been ifioult. The independents want resto- ration of their old charters, with full , Tights and privileges; the same. con- |, awed terms and rating of member- in the international as‘in the in- ent, especially as to beneficiary members; a real effort to organize all rkers in greater New York. amated bakers have a sick death benefit fund of about $32,000 they will turn over to the inter- national upon re-affiliation, providing the international recognizes their , Olatms in its own fund. Many of the original 1,100 bakers had been mem: ‘bers of the international for years ! when they were ejected. They want ; recognition of the amounts they paid ‘into the international benefit fund, Responsibility for Others, The Amalgamated bakers feel some igense of responsibility toward the ‘butcher locals, fruit stand workers’ | locals, and hotel and restaurant work- rs, which they have helped organize , and hold together in the independent industrial union, The Amalgamated ‘has been considered somewhat more ‘radical than the international, altho the latter has always boasted of its socialism. Whether the two groups will join depends largely on the work ‘of the \New York locals’ committee which is to work with an international representative toward settlement of ‘the jurisdictional question. The convention approved the union Jabe] agitation and bread trust fight, the help of the People’s Legislative | service in showing up Ward trickery, ‘not only in bread production but in ‘squeaking out of the federal suit ‘against his food trust, while hanging /@n to his bread trust. It protested against Jersey justice the Passaic textile strike and urged relief, It protested against the actions Governor Alvan Fuller of Massa- 1 Assessment for Convention, DETROIT, Aug. 25.—The metal pol- ishers’ local of Detroit has agreed to pay a 25-cent special assessment on the mefsership to help provide funds for the American Federation of Labor convention which opens in Detroit October 4. The money will be raised thru an entertainment, cl \prevaat Sacco and Vanzetti from go- ing tothe electric chair. Demisnd Release of Prisoners, itself for the release of es labor eng 4 Fore Mooney, etc., recognition of Rus- sla said her “political prisoners are ‘ released.” It approved the Massachu- setts State Federation of Labor re- port that the Great Atlantic & Pacific \stores are unfair because the firm op- | poses the unionization of its employes, Pay for the three international secre- taries was raised from $5,000 a year to $6,000, Organizers get $14 per ‘day and expenses. The next conven- tion, three years hence, to be in St, Louis. The union has 31,800 mem- ybers. ‘ Passaic Rellef St, Louis Plans, A tag day in September, an excur- General Admission $1.00 a ceaenceegmnneinneamannnanatnateti NEW YORK, MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE AND ~ SYMPHONY CONCERT Proceeds go to buy MILK AND BREAD for the children _ Of the Passaic textile strikers, “Wagner-Tchaikowsky Program David: Mendoza, of Capitol Theatre, Conductor, Famous Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakoff Directed by Alexis Kosloff of the Metropolitan Opera. CHORUS OF 250 VOICES led by Jacob Schaefer. SATURDAY EVENING, AUG. 28, 8 P. M. at , CONEY ISLAND STADIUM Surf Ave. and W. 6th St. Tickets for sale at the Dafly Worker Office and 799 Broadway, Room 612, THE DAILY WORKER 1d Labor—Trade Union Activities Policies and Programs The Trade Union Press Strikes—Injunctions Labor and Imperialism Amalgamated Clothing Workers to Build New Home on Ashland Blvd. Ashland boulevard, which became famous as thé Bolshevik boulevard of Chicago immediately after the war when the socialist party, the then radical machinists and many other unions bought up old-time mansions on the street, will add the long await- ed building of the Amalgamated Cloth- PASSAIC BARONS ATTEST TO LOW WAGES IN MILLS Starvation Pay Proven by Own Figures (Special to The Daily Worker) PASSAIC, N, J., Aug, 25.—By their own admission Passaic woolen mill owners attest to the low wages paid in their factories. In another desper- ate attempt to break the seven-month strike of the’ 15,000 wool textile work- ers they are falling into line with an- nouncements that they will not deal with any organization of the strikers, United Front Committee, Lauck com- mittee, or “United Textile Workers. Botany and’ Garfield mills led off, Forstmann-Huffmann followed, all pro- ing Workers to its labor temples, On an $85,000 site directly opposite the streetcar men’s auditorium, a new building is planned for four stories on a lot 77x149. The first floor will con- tain stores and the others offices, halls and committee rooms, a gymnasium and library, The present dingy offices of the joint board at Halsted and Van Buren will be moved when the $750,000 structure of the union is completed in 1927, New York Marine Co. Strike Now Has 800 Men Out for a Raise NEW YORK, Aug. 25. —(FP)—Two hundred more freight handlers, most of them checkers and spotters, have joined the strike on against the New York Marine Co., at piers 20 and 21 Hudson River, H. J, Chapman, representative of the Brotherhood of Railway & Steam- ship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employes, says 800 men are now striking for 75 cents an hour pay, time and a half for overtime and other improvements. The men were em- ployed unloading freight, mostly fruit, from Erie Railroad cars, Uncle Sam is Niggard Writer of Paychecks WASHINGTON—(FP) — Wages of charwomen in federal buildings now range from $660 to $720 a year, ac- cording to a tabulation of the custo- dial wage schedule, published by the Federal Employee, organ of the Natl. Federation of Federal Employes, ‘Wages of other classifications in the custodial service include: Laborer $1,140 to $1,260; coalpasser, $1,140 to to $1,500; marble polisher, $1,140 to $1,500; watchman and elevator con- ductor, $1,260 to $1,380; skilled la- borer, $1,320 to $1,500; fireman with- out plant, oiler with power plant and oiler without power plant, $1,320 to 31,500; helpers of carpenter, plumber and steamfitter, $1,320 to $1,500; fire- man with plant, $1,500 to $1,620; jani- tor, $1,680 to $1,800; clerk, $1,740 to $1,860; carpenter, steamfitter, plumber, electrician, painter, machin- ist, fronworker, $1,680 to $1,860; fore- man of carpenters and plumbers, $1,860 to $2,100; chief engineman with- out plant, $2,400 to $2,800; chief en- gineman with plant, $2,600 to $3,000; assistant engineman without plant, $1,140 to $1,500; assistant engineman with plant, $2,000 to $2,200; drafts- man, $2,400 to $3,000; assistant custo- dian, $2,400 to $3,000 a year. Woll Re-elected on Anti-Strike Program PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 26. —(FP)— Strikes should be the last resort in in- dustrial disputes, Matthew Woll told the International Photo Engravers’ Union convention. Get results with- out strikes wherever possible Woll warned the unionists, whose president he is. The 600 delegates re-elected him for the twenty-first successive time, WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! ATTENTION! Reserved Seats $2.00 posing to deal only with their com- pany unions, Fake Figures. Forstmann-Huffman promises to pay as good wages as those prevailing in the industry. Botany Mills spokes- man, Col, C, F. R, Johnson, said that the average hourly wage for workers in his mills has been 49, cents. Mul- tiplying this rate by 48 hours, he gets $22.71 for weekly earnings. But, as Furstmann-Huffmann admit, they are not able to give full time employment, The mills were on part time for months before the strike, halving the workers’ earnings often, Forstmann-Huffmann offers $18 min- imum weekly to the least skilled work- ers and their company union, “indus- trial democracy” form, In figuring the average hourly wage, the mill owners do not say how many grades of straw bosses are included. Pay Envelopes Are Proof, Pay envelopes collected from strik- ers by the United Front Committee earlier in the strike show actual earn- ings of the workers. Seldom, even in full weeks, were earnings for men $20 or more. Women earned still Tess. The strikers are lining up on the United Textile Workers’ applications and have no intention of abandoning their fight because of this fresh at- tack by the mill owners, They are confident that their chosen committee, W. Jett Lauck, Henry Huht and Helen Todd, will have something to tell Senator Borah about the Pas- saic mill owners and their property during the war. Strikers’ Playground a Success. PASSAIC, N. J., Ag. 25—That the opening of Victory Playground by thé‘ textile strikers for their children will have an important effect upon’ this’ community as a whole now begins’ to | appear likely. it Quick Change. m In their panic lest the equipment and organized play at Victory Pldy- ground would show up the miserable playgrounds maintained by the city, the Passaic authorities rushed to ‘put in a wading pool and showers at the First Ward Playground. Prior to thé opening of Victory Playground none of the local politicians had ever thought it worth while to give the chil- dren such hot weather comforts as’ a wading pool and showers. Even now they don’t think it is nec- essary to give the children a dressing room, but leave them to change their clothes in a clump of bushes. Of course this isn’t so bad as at the other municipal playgrounds, where there are neither showers nor wading pool. And certainly not as bad as the Wilson school playground at Louise and Mon- roe streets, where there is no comfort station, Organize Playground Sples, That the city authorities are in a panic over the existence of Victory Playground is further indicated by the recent swearing in of twenty boys from the city playgrounds as “play- ground police” for the remainder of the season, which, by the way, is al- most over now, While the city authorities declare that these boys are organized as play leaders, the union officers maintain that the purpose of this move is to have a corp of youthful spies at the municipal playgrounds in order to dis- courage strike games and the singing of strike songs, which are very popu- lar even among the children of non- textile workers, most of whose parents are in sympathy with the strikers. oe 8 Huffmann Threatens Also. NEW YORK, Aug. 25, — Following the lead of Col, Johnson of the Botany Mill, Julius ‘Forstmann, president of the Forstmann & Huffmann Co, an- nounced that his firm also would deal only with the employes now work- ing for the company and that those on strike are considered off the pay-roll. This is taken to mean that the mill owners have agreed among themselves to refuse to accord recognition to the American Federation of Labor com- mittee headed by W. Jett Lauck and commissioned by the executive council of that body to organize the textile strikers into the United Textile Work- ers’ Union. This announcement was made by Huffmann while speaking to the com- pany union in his plant, composed of the scab workers who have been hired to take the place of the strikers, The Botany and Forstmann mills employ 76 per cont of the workers in the Passaic textile industry, The threats! of the mill owners against the new committee, which is being organized with the consent of the United Front Committee which it is to displace, are for the purpose of weakening the morale of the néW leaders and the workers against the time when nego- P* ANEW j NOVEL Goa Sinclair (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinciair) WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE, When “Bunny” Ross, son of J. Arnold Ross, California oil 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 is learning the oil business with his Dad who, along with other oil operators ls profiting by the war that had broken out in Europe. Bunny persuades his Dad fo go for a quail hunting trip to San Elido Valley. There they meet the Watkins family and Bunny becomes acquainted with Paui’s sister, Ruth, whom he likes. While hunting, they locate oil 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 a 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 near 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 Soon 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. He returns and the blast is quickly gotten ready. When the charge is set off, the blaze is snuffed out and the well saved. Bunny is a millionaire ten times over. The boy. is Now eighteen years old and begins to worry about the administration of his field, now grown to 14 derricks. He begins also to wonder about the relations be. tween capital and labor and asks his Dad some embarrassing questions con- cerning his relationship to his workers. In the meantim r with Germany looms and at the the same time the men in the oil field under the inspiration of an organizer for the Oil Workers’ Union, named Tom Axton, prepare to strike for an eight-hour day and a raise in wages. oo @¢ 'f« Tom Axton made a speech, in which he set forth the griev- ances of the men, and told them, out of his previous experience, how a strike must be conducted. One thing above all others, they must keep public sympathy with them, by obeying the law and avoiding every suggestion of disorder; this would not be easy, because the Employers’ Federation knew this, as well as the strike leaders, and would do everything possible to provoke the men to violence; that was the purpose for which the “guards” * were coming, and their main difficulty would be to resist the ef- forts of these “guards” to provoke them. They must understand, and the people of the community must understand, they were dealing with men of a low type, hired by the big detective agencies out of the city’s underworld, and supplied with a gun on their hip-pocket. Whether the whiskey-bottle on the other hip-pocket was supplied by the employers, or got by the men themselves, was something Tom Axton did not know. Anyhow, they were brought here by the truck-load, and on the way they stopped at the sher- iff’s office in San Elido—kept open day and night for the purpose —and were sworn in. wholesale as “deputy-sheriffs,” and supplied with a silver shield to wear on their coat-lapels, and after that, anything they did was according to law. A few of these deputies | were standing about, listening to Axton’s speech, and needless ~ to say, they did not appreciate it. The president of the union, who had come to the field to conduct the strike, also made a speech; and the secretary of the union, and the organizer of the carpenters’ union—there could not be too many speeches, for the men were full of enthusiasm, and their minds were open to ideas; it was an education in the meaning of solidarity. They signed up by hundreds and paid their assessments out of their scanty savings. Committees were appointed, and these got down to work in an old barn which had been hired for headquarters, the only vacant place of any size to be found in the midst of this oil boom. The place was Growded with men coming and going, and there was not a little confusion, o..cials and volunteer helpers working as if such things as rest and sleep were unknown to the human organism. There were temporary lodgings to be found—for no other oil operator was being so generous as to provide shelter for strikers! The union had ordered a lot of tents, and would need more yet, when leases expired on shacks which had been rented on company property. > Fortunately, not many of the men had families in this field; your « oil worker is a migratory bird—he moves to a new field, and has to work quite a while before he gets enough money to bring his - wife and children from the last field. pi: Bunny drove up on Saturday morning; by which time the first flush of excitement had passed. It was a rainy day, and the men had no meeting place, and you saw bunches of them crowded into doorways, or under awnings, wherever there was free shel- - ter; they looked rather melancholy, as if they found being on strike less romantic than they had expected. In front of the oil properties, especially those of the big companies, you saw men pacing up and down, wearing rubber coats and hats, from under which they eyed you suspiciously; some of them carried rifles on their shoulders, like military sentries. Bunny drove up to his father’s tract, and there he saw the same sight, and it eut him to the heart—the very personification of that hatred which so pained him in the industrial world, and which he had fondly dreamed he might exclude from the “Ross Junior” field. But the truth was, the “Junior” aspects of the business were fading temporarily; “Senior” was in control, and giving the impress to events. Sitting in the office on the tract, Bunny pinned his father down on the matter of guards; did they really have to have guards against their own men? “But surely, son,” protested Dad, “you can’t be serious! Leave three million dollars worth of property unprotected?” “Where did we hire these guards, Dad?” ica aaia 2 an ieee soe “We didn’t hire them, son; the Federation is handling that.” “But couldn’t we have got guards of our own?” “I don’t know any guards, or where to get them, had to go to some agency, jist the same.” “And we couldn’t have used our own men, that we know?” “Turn strikers into guards? Why, son, you must know that wouldn’t do!” “Why not?” - “Well, for one thing, the insurance companies—imagine how quick they'd jump to cancel my fire insurance! And then, suppose I was to have a fire, I'd be ruined, Don’t you see that?” ~ : Yes, Bunny saw; it appeared as if the whole world was one elaborate system, opposed to justice and kindness, and set to making cruelty and pain. And he and his father were part of that system, and must help to maintain it in spite of themselves! “Do we pay for these guards, Dad?” “We're assessed for it, of course.” “Then what it comes to, is this: we have to put up the money _ for Fred Naumann to break the strike; and even though we may | not want the strike broken!” To this Dad remarked, it was My devilish inconvenient to have all those paying wells shut off all of a sudden. He turned to some papers on his desk, and Bunny sat in silence for a while, thinking his father’s thoughts. They — were elemental thoughts, not requiring any subtlety to interpret, — There were eleven producing wells on the tract which on lagt— Thursday morning had been flowing at a total rate of thirty-sevey thousand barrels of oil per day. That meant, at present boom prices, a gross income of close to two million dollars a mont] Dad's mind had been full of all the things he was going to do wil that money; and now his mind was full of problems of how fe get along without it. His face was still grey and lined with ca and Bunny’s heart smote him, He, Bunny, wanted the men { win; ‘= did he want it at the cost of having his father carry tl extra bu ‘ I'd have (Mations are entered inta "iT fh