The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 8, 1926, Page 1

Special Ford Factory Number The DAILY WORKER Ra the Standard for a Wor’ 9" » v and Farmers’ Gover “<),’ In Chicago, by mail, $8.00 per year, Outside Chicago, by mail, $6.00 per year, Vol. Il. No. 227, Sx > ates: AUBURN AUTOMOBILE: . COMPANY TAKES OVER DUESENBERG MOTORS | INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Oct, 6.— Automobile circles buzzed with in- terest today over the announce- ment of E. L. Cord, president of the Auburn Automobile company, that they had purchased the entire | plant, equipment and assets of the | Dues8nberg Motors company for a consideration said to involve $500,- 000, | Cord, acting as the head of a syn- dicate, said that the incorporation | of a new company capitalized about | $1,000,000 and which will be known as the Duesenberg, Incorporated. FORD KEARNEY WORKERS FEEL RETRENCHMENT (Special to The Daily Worker) JERSEY CITY, N. J. Oct. 6—In the Ford Kearney branch we are begin-| ning to feel the effect of retrench-| ment and reduction in wages. Five. FIVEDAY WEEK IN FORD PLANT ‘ONLY FLIM FLAN Practically a Wage Cut, Say Workers By CARL HAESSLER, Federated Press. DETROIT, Oct. 6.—(FP)— Wage juggling is as vicious an element in the Detrolt automobile labor situa- tion as is direct wage cutting, labor men in the motor capital of the world declare. When an. employer like Henry Ford makes ‘his exhausted workers produce in five days what they were hitherto putting out in five and one-half, and pays them. for five days instead of five and one-half, it ig pretty tough to: have half-baked nit- wits all over the country nail this jatest sweating device as another step to the social millenium. At least that is what Ford's’ sweatshop victims think. Of course there is a “merit bonus.” Unfortunately the meritor- ious worker is a rare animal. ach Demand Below Supply. “The trouble in the trade at the present time,” says Arthur Rohan, in- coming executive secretary of the United Automobile Workers, “is that the demand is falling below the sup- ply and considerably below the nor- mal productive capacity of the plants.” ‘ Favors Industrial Unionism. Rohan’s organization, which used to be in the American Federation of La- bor but was suspended in 1917 for enrolling within its industrial hospital- «ity workers claimed by other interna- Z Ford factory. near Detroit. Lizzles at 2,000,000 a year. lumber forests, glass works and on the established fact according to the bul- letin board. Yes—some increases are to be given out, but only on merit! One department had its force cut down one-third and the rest were told to keep up production in anticipation of a raise. This information filtered down from plant -manager Mr. Hus- sey and Supt. Gartha to all foremen. This department got its reward with only a few pacesetters receiving five cents increase per hour. Thus the average man was held at $30.00 a noee and the star pipe e By J. M,, a Ford Worker, DETROIT, Mich., Oct. 6.—Working on the assembly line in the Highland Park plant of the Ford Motor Co., one finds working men from all parts of the United States. Most of these men just came to Detroit to work for Ford because they heard that he was a good guy to work for. So they threw, up their jobs in their home towns in came to work for. the “best be the head States,” ein oy Fort's eight hour day. It had a special appeal to them) but it didn’t last long. For they learned soon that in eight hours, Ford can take more out of you than farm work would, even in 24 hours. Altho the work is all-day work, the speed these men have to work at is amazing. And when they find that the men take things a little easier, they immediately speed up the line. Working on these taking into consideration the number of men discharged, the seale of pro- duction kept at the sagne level and similar methods applied to thirty- three branches, he does save a pretty penny. ‘ According to an article covering a personal interview, he now intends to drop the policy of a minimum wage and pay according to one’s merit. The final blow is when he bursts with gen- erosity and hands us five days a week. Ford forgets he exceeded that |- record. We in “Kearney” worked three and four days a week in the past year—why keep his “improve- ment” in the hours of labor under his hat so long? There is a general discontent thru- out the plant. No amount of publicity in the Hearst sheets will change the fact of a shrinking pay envelope. et omen 6 take up the question of how the union can rejoin the mother body. Industrial unionism has become a more fav- ored Solution for organizing auto workers in recent years than when the 1917 Buffalo convention ousted the United, Other Plants Doing It. Other shops are doing the same or similar things. Packard recently fired 26 men covering decks or roofs on elosed cars who were getting , 70 cents an hour—not a princely wage for speeded work. Packard then took on 26 new men and is paying them 56 cents an hour for the same work. This maker of high-class, high-price cars pays his men partly in bunk, giv- ing them a merit button after five years of service and a watch after 15 years. The Chrysler people promise a bonus, but in reality their inspectors meke so many deductions for alleged imperfect work that the bonus is searcer in the Chrysler plant than a millionaire in Ruséia. The Budd Wheel company juggles its piece and day rates so frequently that few workers know whether they have money coming or going with the company at the end of the week, Fisher Body Cuts Wages, The Fisher Body concern, . which makes bodies for over 80 per cent of ..the autos outside of Ford, is paying ‘lis Detroit workers far below the 1920 rate. Woodworkers getting. $1 to $1.10 an hour in 1920 are getting 70 cents to 85 cents now, Woodworkers on specialties, earning $1.25 an hour at plecework then can’t make more than $1 now. The same is true of 4 Date Factory Workers Spurn Compromise of Employers on Strike Begged by the bosses of the Maras and company date factory to return to work at the present scale of wag- es, the 125 Negro women who went on strike S#turday after a reguction notice was posted, voted Wednesday morning unanimously to refuse the offer of the bosses and to remain on strike. ‘Phe virtual submission of the boss- e8 spurred the women to proceed with their plans to form a union organiza- tion, They are determined to do this before the strike is settled. 4 John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, was scheduled to address a meeting of the strikers Wednesday afternoon, They have asked the federation for aid in forming @ union, dustrial Monarchy — By THURBER LEWIS. ENRY FORD is agaitist trade unions, The reason he is against them is, as he puts it, that they are “limitations” upon a business. He claims that he pays his men higher wages than trade unions could ever get for them..Trade unions would be a hindrance to him. Such are Ford's main arguments against the organiza- tion of his industry. He would not permit it. He would fight hard to prevent unionization even to the smallest degree. Trade Union Leaders’ Praise, ‘OW that he thinks he has startled the World with the announcement of the “five-day week,” he presumes that he has added one more blow to the possibility of unionizing his plants, Shop Forced to to Fine Fiom DETROIT, rr any 6.—(FP) — Federal bpd Arthur J. Tuttle, bitter enemy ized labor, has been compel- soi re railwey shop employes’ strike in 1922, The interstate commerce commis- sion charged Koenig, president of the ‘The shop nuclei of the Workers (Communist) Party in the Koenlg | Ford factories of Detroit are showing a splendid example in rally- ing to KEEP THE DAILY WORKER. If every other unit of the party and if every friend of The DAILY WORKER will follow up the good results gotten by these workers in the Ford factories, The DAILY WORKER will wind up its campaign in a few weeks. THE DAILY WORKER, 1118 W. WASHINGTON BLVD, CHICAGO, ILL, Dear Comrades: _ Enclosed find money order for $69.00 and check for $100.00, totalling _ $169.00, $69.00 is donated by comrades of Shop Nucleus No, 1, and $100.00 by the central bureau of the Ford Nuclei, which prints The pes Werke: Thin. te ur reapense towente KEEPING, THE, DAILY Detroit, Mich., Oct. 4, 1926. ments had shipments, \ WHY DOES HENRY FORD FEAR TRADE UNIONS? His Fake Argument About Management — Thinks He Has Established In- Workers Have A Right To Organize — Ford Workers Will Have Union Too — When They Fight For It. |an industrial monarch, Ford personal- ep” PUBLISHING CO., Entered at Second-class matter September 21, 1928, at bead Post Office at Chicago, Ulimois, undef the Act of March 3, 1879. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1926 Published Dally except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER Washington Bivd., Chicago, lil. 1113 W. NEW YORK | EDITION Price 3 Cents WORKERS a tl Above is an airplane panorama of the Highland Park of the Ford Motor Company. This was the first big In the meantime another much larger Works has been built called the Fordson,‘on the River Rouge, In such plants as the above, 115,000 or so slaves are engaged directly in the work of turning out There is hardly a large center in the country that has not its big Ford assembling plant with automaténs working just as in Detroit. In addition to this there are other helots working in coal mines, Ford railroad—all under the crushing Ford speed-up system, Fifteen Minutes for Lunch days pay for six days work is now an{ THE ASSEMBLY LINE SPEED-UP—CALL A NUMBER TO GET TO THE LAVATORY—FALL ASLEEP ON CAR STRAPS—PRY INTO PRIVATE LIFE OF WORKERS allowed to eat lunch in, Fifteen min- utes does not allow time enough for washing the grease off one’s hands. So we have to eat grease and oil along with our meals. And still Hen- Ford writes about keeping your assembly lines is the closest thing to what hell is described to be by a baptist preacher. Can't Stand Gaff. On thisine, when there is no let up the whole day through, where you are forcedéto Work at full speed for the whole eight hours under those damnable blue lights, where to go even to a lava you have. to call wait until you can only fifteen min- ry health by chewing food slowly. a person! You" boss—makes all those fellows that come to Detroit'to work for the “best boss: in the United-States” last not So long. They cannot stand the gaff. Hence the bigilabor turn-over. The foreman expressed ‘himself. by saying that he has three gangs working for him, one coming, one going and one working. Can't Wash Hands. As I said, oniy fifteen minutes are straps sleeping—all fagged out. Pry Into Private Affairs. employes. what he is doing with his pay, saving any money? Continue. Cv page 2.) And how hard is the eight hours on Well—I get home from work and the only thing I feel like doing is to lay down and go to sleep. Get on any of the cars that carry where | ox workers home from) work and ea id mén who work only eight pitt a day, hanging on to the But one df the most objectionable things about Ford is that he is al- ways prying into the private life of hig Every employe is made to report to the educational office as to Is he Does he buy | ORD FIVE-DAY WEEK MANEUVER IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH FIGHT OF WORKERS AND A. F. OF L. MEET workers mt of the New York furriers for a ation of Labor. Worker.” conscious workers in the Ford Industrial Army. When the Ford Motor Co, first en- tered into major quantity production several years ago it,was a newcomer in the automotive ta. To carry out the Ford idea of popularizing the auto- mobile meant building more automo- biles than had even been imagined up o that time. It meant employing more men than had ever before been »mployed in one factory in the auto- nobile industry. Henry Ford and his circle had the engine, chassis and vody. They had capital and confil- dence. What they needed was a suit- able organization, that is, an indus- trial army corps for mass production, built around a mere nucleus of skilled men, In those days the automotive indus- try was a boom industry.. It was a field of high adventure for a new kind of “captain of industry.” And, as in wl boom! “Industries, the Tabor turh- | over, or replacement, was excessive and costly. The Ford circle believed that to succeed with their plan they must reduce in their own shops the prevalent rgte of labor turnover. And they believed they must and could do angther thing. They believed they must and could avoid the penetration of their shops by union organizers. They solved both problems by a method never before or since sor dar- ingly or shrewdly attempted. To use To a certain extent this is true, be-yparts of the world. cause the first ones to sing his praises were trade union leaders whose busi- ness it is to organize just such open shop plants as Ford runs. But the five-day. week is not going down so well with the worker in the plant. He knows; that he ig producing as much and will later be called upon to pro- duce more in five days than he for- merly did in five and a half. There is just. as much, if not more, reason for the Ford plants to be organized from roof.to cellar as any other open shop industry in the land., RD doesn’t want unions because he wants to maintain his status as At least tions. human beings. works, books, articles, etc, agents), Ford pamphlets, thought is for the men in his plants. posite. They demonstrate ly rules the destiny of some million persons who are directly or indirectly dependent upon ‘his industry in all (Continued on page 2) Ford Shop Nuclei Show Workers the Way members were ‘present, but we came across strong, collected $69.00 and $45.00 in pledges which will be paid at the next meeting. One comrade ‘nearing the age of 70 has pledged $25.00. The comrades in taking the floor have shown the necessity of supporting this drive more than ever before, In the past, we have always gone over the top with our quota, and this time we will double the amount. Yes! tf mecessary, we will triple it. We know what it means to lose our only English Daily, the , revolutionary expression of the working cl in its bitter class struggle. We are in the front ranks to fight to the last man before we will let the banner of The DAILY WORKER fall. Comrades, fall into ranks and rally to our forces to break the chains which bind The DAILY WORKER. Let's free it once and for all, 80 as to enable It to do its work properly. Comrades, we challenge you to outbid us in this drive! Yours in KEEPING THE DAILY WORKER, ORGANIZER, FORD NUCLEI! OF DETROIT. ‘tactories. 4 t the Fi HiW DAILY WOR i oneriaty ep a two hundred thousand strong and able men are directly in the employ of the Ford Motor company or auxiliary institu- These men are automatons. More so in the Ford industry than in any other in the world. Ford claims that he thinks of his men always as In all of his publicity magazine (written by skilled press delivers himself of a great deal of humanitarism, trying to create the impression that his first ORD’S plants prove just the op- that Ford thinks éver so much more of @ penny or a minute saved here and an auctioneer’s phrase, they out-bid both their competitors and the estab- lighed trade unions, Trade Unions. They offered wages gnd hours not ynly far in advance of the prevailing vage but in advance of wages and »ours unions in other places were de- nanding or striking for. Pavement and sidewalk outside the Ford Motor Jo. employment office became a pa- sade ground for automobile workers from other automobile factories, who were looking for work at the Ford scale. ThesFord Motor Co. took its pick. In a short time men asking for jobs found themselves on a waiting list thousands of names long. To get a Ford job inside of two weeks meant adroit politics. If a man was in the good graces of a woman+who was in- imate with a Ford executive or a Ford physician he could “arrange” to have his application card advanced on jthe list. These arrangements were isually made over beer’or whisky. It was supposed to be worth it. Men didn’t get $5 a day for the first six months on the payréll. . Unsta- bilized workers usually left in a few weeks, The expense’? the layy turnover to the Ford Motor Co, was thus at a much lower rate*than $5 a day. The Ford Motor Co, eventually stabilized the .automobile worker. Men married and contracted to buy homes to have preference over single men when a lay-off came. Those were the days of Ford's “sociological in- vestigators. sa And’ the Ford Motor Co. was not troubled by union organizers, By out- bidding the established unions and all competitors in wages and conditions the Ford Motor Co., unmolested, re- cruited a picked force for mass pro- duction, feared no shortage of any class of labor and made money at it, at $56 a day, minimum. Ford Policy. Those tactics in general were per- manently incorporated in the Ford Motor Co, policy. When railroad shop- «| men struck in 1922 the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad, owned ahd op- erated by the Ford Motor Co., was immune. The strike demands fell far short of the wages and conditions pre- vailing on the D,, T, &, 1. And now, to return to October 7, 1926, what are the new facts? What Keep up the splendid pace set by the Communists and the other | are thé eventa of the present and, re hiatal emplorenand the Fe debt past that explain further the five- _ (Continued /on-fage. 4) (Special to The Daily Worker) DETROIT, Oct. 6.—The For ‘d Motor company’s five-day week maneuver is the outstanding act of strategy on the part of a ‘vapitalist organization in the class struggle thus far in 1926. To realize the nature and significance of this maneuver consider other events. One is the successful strike 40-hour or five-day week. An- other event is the annual convention here of the Amefican Feder- The furriers’ victory preceded by a few weeks the Ford Motor company’s five-day week proclamation. And the proclamation immediately preceded the A. F. of L. convetion. It is not a coincidence that these three events are in this order in this summer and fall—this summer and fall that have brought also the Passaic strike, the British miners’ strike and the “Ford The “Ford Worker” is a shop bulletin issued by class shops. MAY ACCEPT OPEN SHOP'S CHALLENGE Charches Obeys C apital and Shut Labor Out (BULLETIN) (Special to The Daily Werker) DETROIT, Oct. 6—The loeue of Tntonization of Detroit labor reached the floor ofthe A. F. of 1. conven- tion today with the fntroduction of a resolution proposing the Inaugura- tion of a general organization cam- palgn In the automobile industry, 80 per cent of whioh le centered around Detroit. It was offered by James O’oCnneli of the Metal Trades De- partment of the A. F. of L. It would authorize the federation officers to launch this drive “at the earliest possible date,” calling a con- ference of all national and interna- tional unions to work out the plan of campaign. It was referred to thé, resolution committee for report. re ce Churches Support Open Shop, DETROIT, Oct. 6—With the Pro- testant churches and the ¥. M. C. A. as the storm center, capital and la- bor were at grips today in their fight to determine whether this great in- dustrial city shall continne as an open shop or become a unionized la- bor center. This, the first storm to break the tranquility of the forty-sixth annual convention of the American Federa- tion of Labor which convened here Monday, broke in its full fury last night when President William Green of the A. F. of L., openly charged that the churches of Detroit were dominated by the manufacturing in- terests of the community. Close Door to Labor. The storm has been brewing for three months or longer. It came to a head with the sudden closing of the church doors to spokesmen for or- ganized labor, after they had been formally invited to occupy pulpits here next Sunday, and the calling off f a “progressive mass meeting for |men” at which President Green was to speak under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. Sunday afternoon This action came close on the heels of President Green’s opening con- vention address. Green's attack was inspired by pub- ished reports in Detroit earlier in the day that the invitations for the Sunday meetings had been recalled overnight. There had been no formal notification to labor leaders of this action. The invitation to Green to address the Y. M. C. A. meeting was extended last July by L. M. Terrill, executive secretary of the local “Y" and reiter- ated within the last ten days, The assignments of speakers for the churches were mate by the federa- tion of churches through the Detroit ministerial association, “Peaceful” Open Shoppers. But thrnout the summer and early fall the Detroit board of commerce, thru its official organ, “The De trotter,” has carried on a persistent campaign of publicity deprecating the coming of the labor convention \ to De- troit as a or alee ful relations” Maas oer