The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 21, 1926, Page 2

THE DAILY YWORKER WCE COMCIPCU IED, 1000 WORKER CORRESPONDENTS BY JANUARY 13 GIRL OFFIGE WORKERS GET | BAD TREATMENT Los Angeles Girl Tells| iC 1927 HOW PAINTERS ARE SPEEDED UP By DAVE RAPO (Worker Correspondent Student L. A. Class) One of the greatest evils of the building trades workers is the speed- up system. Especially is this true of |the painters. He who has most chance to stay on the job is the one who is the most speedy. You come up on of Conditions > | By EDITH BERKMAN, | (Worker Correspondent.) LOS ANGELDS, Oct. 19.—4A girl, | speaking to me about conditions in} Los Angeles, told me how the work: | ers are mistreated in the shop in/ which she works on an addressograph | machine. | When thay first begin they are paid | 12 a week. fter working 6 months they get a raise of $2-and sometimes $4 when it is very busy, which makes even then only the minimum wage as | | laid down by the state of sunshine and open shop. ’ The girls are allowed one-half hour for funch and if they are 15 minutes late thre times in one week they are docked $1 from their wages. Daring working hours none of the girls except the secretary, who hap- pens to be on friendly terms with the big boss, is permitted to go to the! rest room evan when most necessary. On account of this rule most of the girls suffer from all kinds of stomach trouble, The place is small and full of dust from the paper but if the worker can stand it all for one year she gets paid $20 per week. The only trouble is that the management seldom keeps a girl for more than a year and a half. They are alwaye training new girls and when they learn the work, the old ones who are getting $20 are ex- changed for girls getting $12 or $14 a week. | The girl who told this story to me was fired from tle place last week. When she asked why she was told because ‘she went to the rest room| twice that day. But the real reason was because she was getting $20 and | some of the new girls who had learn-| ed the work fairly well under her su- | pervision were willing to work for less | and did not go to the rest room even once a day. Such are the conditions in most Los | Angeles shops today. | Worker Tells of a Subdivision Graft Deal in Washington By CHAS. MILLWARD (Worker Correspondent.) BAYVIEW, Wash., Oct. 19.—My last letter told of the loss of Mfe and in- jury to employes of the English Logg- ing Co, They are tearing out the rot- ten bridges. To save life? No, to save their $30,000 locomotives, This time my letter is about the smal] farmers and would-be farmers. A short distance from the City of Anacortes is Padilla Bay, four miles across, east and west, and about 9 or 10 miles north and south. High tide im this bay is 12 feet 6 inches except when a gale blows down the Georgia straits when it is 3 to 6 feet higher. This bay is called tide flats for the tide runs out of a part of it at low tide, except several deep sloughs. A few years ago some exploiters got this bay from the state and then com- meneed a campaign of misrepresenta- tion, such as, “Get you a small home and be independent.” Bven the Union Record of Seattle, a socalled labor paper, aided by @ full page ad. Well, it sold all right and after several years, work started a year ago. The dyke was to be from 260 to 800 feet on the bottom, 16 feet igh and 25 feet or more on the top. I talked with several poor men and women who invested their savings and they said it had cost them more than they can buy improved land for on the LeConnor flats. Anyway for a month or so the two dredges have been idle. The mon working on them quit, as they were back two payments @ building and you see how the paint- drive themselves like automatons, paint chemicals and the lead The |Smell terrible in the room and poison the air, Pile on Work. The painter in his dirty overalls, with a heavy brush in his hand is seeking to throw ‘quicker and start another room. He is sweating, the air is hard to breathe and he is rushing. A few years ago, if a painter painted two kitchens in a day it was a fairly good days’ work. Now he paints three and four kitchens in a day and sometimes even more, Hire a Hustler. The bosses hire one hustler, who receives fifty cents or a dollar a day more than the union scale, and he is rushing and the other men have to run after him, Sometimes we discuss this speed-up problem of.the trade’at the local union meetings, but nothing de- finite has been done yet, What we need is to establish by the union a scale of production, and this is the only way that we can do away with the most inhuman evil in the trade: the speed-up system—which drives the workers out of the jobs into the hospitals. Another evil in the trade is the poisonous chemicals, which can be done away with and the sprayer; but of this another time. Deport Eight from Russian Colony in Angeles After Raid By L. P.. RINDAL (Worker Correspondent.) LOS ANGELES, Calif, Oct. 19-— The local Russian colony, “Littlé Rus sia,” was gripped with terror the jother day. A squad of uniformed im- migration inspectors, le@ by. Alfred Dick and Frank Ellis, swooped down on the unsuspecting workers from Sovietland, surrounded the colony in military style and took eight prison- ers. Everybody and everything came in for inspection. legal entrants” was on in, earnest, Those who escaped the raiders—and many didygare now on their way back to the Russian co-operative . colony near Guadalupe, Mexico, a check at |the port of entry revealed today. John Kurbutoff, a colonizer of his people, who entered the United States legally in 1920, is the most colorful of the prisoners, Later on he went to Canada, South America and Buropean countries with his colonization work, Then back to his homeland, Soviet Russia, where he met his present wife, Anna “Popoff. After a trip to Turkey and France, the pair entered Mexico in April, 1923. Two. years later, 1925, they were granted a per- mit to “visit” America, god’s country. Now the government's dicks. claim jthat the couple has “overstayed the ;permit by three years,” That “over- sight will cause their deportation,” in- Spectors says °°" ~ Coolldge Clock “Cracked.” It is hard to figure out, however, how there can be three years “over- stay” in one year. -Time on Coolidge’s Political clock is running too fast. The apparatus is due for @ complete breakdown—soon. Their kick over these* workers’ form of marriage is also a “fishy” affair. What about the style of Aimee, the evahgelist, in this respect? The government of Coolidge does not even care to take actien con- cerning her two fake ransom letters. Why not deport her? A few days ago, the federal grand jury indicted 16 foreigners for viola- tion of immigration laws, so the work- ers from “Little Russia” will have pleasant company when they leave the jand of the frée, Tones Farmers in . California Suffer From Cotton Prices (Special te The Dally Worker) RIPLEY, Cal, Oct. 19.—The low price of cotton is bankrupting many tenant-farmers and share-croppers in the cotton-belts of California, Dune to high taxation and the high cost of irrigation water, together with exces- sive rentals demanded by the land barons, make it impossible for the working farmer to earn a living for himself and family after the state and landlords get their shares in taxes and rents. California cotton, which usually on wages, but they have just started [Ses to local buyers at about one cent up again, Must have found more suckers for “Barnum was right.” But with less than one-sixth of the work done the small investor (even if it ts ever finished) will be froze out and * their savings gone forever, The book of the year— alle. Including the work of seventeen leading American artists. Over seventy cartoons size 9x12—-bouhd in attractive brown board covers $ 1.60 above New York market quotations, is now selling for about 12.60 to 13.50 points. This low price, of necessity, precludes the possibility of the tenant making other than @ bare living since the contracts usually gecure the owner one-third of the erop absolutely free of expenses. ‘This means that the tenant must pay for the picking and ginning of the owners’ share, These factors are mitigating to re- duce the wages of the pickers to the starvation point. Many ranchers, backed up by local chambers of com- merce and bankers, are forcing. agri- cultural workers to pick for $1.25 in the field. In many instances the pick- ers are forced to accept gin weights, which further reduces their meager earnings. Whole familtes, father, mother, and two or three children, pick from gunup to sundown, and to- gether earn the princely sum of $18 to $26 for a full week's work. eameeanrenn ag tas The search for “il-| out of his vatation. DULUTH LABOR’S LOT CALLS FOR MASS ACTIVITY Discontent Grows Lake Port By a Worker Correspondent. DULUTH, Minn., Oct. 19.—Condi- tions in this city are far from ideal, despite claims to the contrary by. the local press. Were all the vacant busi- ness places in a row, it would re- semble.a deserted boom town. During the past six months changes took place in all lines, with the eliminating of many and bankrupting more, Workers Bear Burden. The workers are bearing the burden, of course. There is a strong under- current of discontent growing, Wages are low and unions not near strong enough to put up a fight. The state railroad and warehouse commission granted the local traction company an increase in its fares from six to eight cents. For years the people of Duluth defeated this greedy cor- poration by voting down their raise in fares.“The Brooks-Coleman law | was passed in the legislature and it jleft the local voters high and dry as far as the street car fares are con- cerned. These‘experiences certainly ought to drive home to the workers_of, this city the necessity oftheir taking»polit- ical action. Local farmer-laborites and members of the Trades and Labor Assembly are calling a mass meeting to protest this brazen act of the trac- tion trust and state railroad and ware- house commission, All workers should attend this meeting and see to it that the movement doesn’t die being born. If the sponsors are sincere and skil- ful they can create a weapon that will endanger the coupon-clippers. But it must be @ mass movement and aim to get results, not a stepping stone for a few ambitious politicians. College Student, Son of Poor Worker, Forced to Slave in the Summer in By M. PERLIN (Worker Correspondent.) Angela is a clever boy. He is not 18 yet and is already a student of the Northwestern University. Angela’s parents are very poor and he has one brother and two sisters younger than him. His father is a tailor, and most of the time he is out of work, Therefore, the young stu- dent is forced to help out his father. No one can tell Angela that he should give up school. Loves School. ‘When some times he starts a con- versation with his father and mother, and the parents start to tell him how hard it ds for them to make a living, Angela answers them that he does make as much as he can in his spare time. Then his parents answer him that it doesn’t amount to much, but, if ryou would quit school and get a steady job, you would surely bring in about $20 a week, and that would help us very much. When Angela hears his parents tell him to quit school, he becomes veay sad, and he gets up as if from a ter- rible dream, He takes around his mother and father and with tears in his eyes he begs of his mother and father, not to force him to give up hig education, because education means more than the world to him, As an lee-Holper. + When vacation came, he began to look for a job. He couldn't find any- thing better, then a job as a helper on an ice-wagon, He received three dollars a day and he worked from 7 a.m, to 7 p. m, He carried pieces of ioe, ranging from 50 to 100 pounds, to the houses, In hot days he carried to the build- ings from 10 to 12 cakes of ice per day, A cake of ice weighs 400 Ibs, Once on q very hot when it was 96 derrees in the shade, 1 stood and watched how this poor boy carried the ice on his back. The water was dripping from him as much as it was from the ice,amd I thought to myself, what little pleasure this poor boy got CAL RELIEVED AT NEW QUIET OF KLAN HEAD Stephenson’s Mumness Causes Conjectures WASHINGTON, Oct, 19.—(FP) — White House spokesmen are very mum indeed when the Klan-Stephen- |* son scandal affecting the republican state administration in Indiana is mentioned. To a well-known spokesman of the White House this,question was put: “Will the president inquire into the reason for the visit of an agent of the Department of Justice to D. C, Stephenson in the Indiana state pris- on just before Stéphe@nson appeared j before the grand jury? This question is asked in view of the seeming sug- gestion by the Washington Post that ‘national politics’ was responsible for the’ visit and Stephenson’s silence thereafter.” ’ Sargent Is Ignorant, There was no sign from the spokes- man that he could even read the ques- tion, Attorney General Sargent had previously professed that he knew nothing of the activity of his subor- dinate. He did not offer to make an inguiry. Speculation was rife as to whether the “national politics” in this prison interview was to ‘be found in the send- ing of the agent of the Department of Justice by Senator Jim Watson or by the republican senatorial campaign committee, and whether the detective carried a message to Stephenson from Governor Jackson regarding possible parole or pardon, ‘ In afy case, Stephenson’s sudden decision to refuse to talk gave great relief to the national administration's fear that it would lose two senators in Indiana, PLOT TO DEPORT SORMENTI; HELD AT ELLIS ISLAND Arrested at Anti-F ascist Meeting in N. Y. (Speciat to The Daily Worker) ‘NEW YORK, Oct. 19—Rnea Sor- menti, secretary of the Italian bureau of the Workers (Communist) Party, and one of the moat active fighters against fascism in this country, was today arrested at an antifascist meet- ing in Tammany Hall. He is being detained at Ellis Island on a charge of having illegally entered the country. Bail is set at $1,000, « Attempt to Deport. An attempt will undoubtedly be made to deport Sormenti with dis- patch, before sufficient protest can be organized against sending him back to Italy to be murdered or imprisoned by the bloody fascist regime, A test case recently, with Another noted anti-fascist, Vincenzo Vacirca, resulted in the labor department being forced to permit him to remain in this country as a political refugee, , Test Case Inéonctusive, That this case was not conclusive is shown by the arrest of Sormenti, The right of political asylum in this coun- try is being prostituted to the blood- thirsty demands of Mussolini's agents in the United States, U.S. Naval Dictator | of Samoa in Trouble for Ousting Civilian NEW YORK, Oct. 19,—United States naval administration of Samoa will come into court with the hearing of a suit for $50,000 damages brought by Samuel Ripley of Richmond, Cal. against Captain Waldo Evans, com- mandant Great Lakes Naval Training Station, The Chicago federal district court is the scene, states the American Civil Liberties Union, which is supporting the case, Ripley charges he’ was “practically shanghaied” trom Samoa in 1921 on Captain Evans’ order—Evans then naval commandant at Pago Pago. Ripley helped Samoan chiefs draw up a statement oftheir grievances against the U. S, naval administra. tion for presentation at Washington, Upon his second visit to’Samoa, he charges, Evans prevented him from landing, which he declares no ngval commander has authority to do. A subscription yto ~The DAILY WORKER for one month to the mem- bers of your union is a good way. Try it. 4 COMMULIST PARTY OF SOVIET UNION HOLDS CONFERENCE OCT. 25 MOBCOW, Oct, 12,—(By Mail) — According to a decision of the cen- tral committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the 16th Party Conference ‘Which was ar- ranged to commence on the 16th of October, has been ‘postponed untli tho 28th of io ‘VERY move made by the defense in the fight to secure @ new’ trial for Sacco and Vanzetti, has been -counter-moved by the forces of the prosecution, that now have these tw6 Italian workers within the sha- dow of death in the electric chair. Every effort to save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti confronts some counter-move of the would-be cap italist assassins, This is best shown by the strenu- ous efforts made to break down the testimony of Celestino Madeiros, | who absolves Sacco and Vanzettt from any part in the South Brain- tree robbery and murder. But all these efforts have failed miserably. “8 © Thus we find Dr. Albert C. Thompson, superintendent of the state hospital for the insane at Fox- boro, made an affidavit as to his examination of Madeiros on April 8, 1926, in company with Dr. Elish H, Cohoon, Madeiros was asked why he had made his confession. He said he would rather not talk about it, BUT IT WAS TRUE; that he had not known until shortly before his con- fession thatSacco and Vanzetti had been convicted of the crime that he had committed, “4 Madeiros told the doctor that he got no money, that he did no shoot- ing, that shortly after the South Braintree crime he was arrested himself. Dr. Cohoon made an affi- davit in which he corroborates everything that Dr. Thompson testi- fied to. - deh AAR. Even ‘the keeper of the Provi- dence, R. L., county jail, Charles B. Linscott, is orced to help give strength to the affidavit of Madei- ros, He showed from his records that Joseph Morelli, Pasquale Mo- relli, Paul Rossi, Joseph Imundi, Raymond McDevitt and Frank Mo- erlli were none of them in jail on April 15, 1920. This is the date of the South ‘Braintree crime, which the Morelli gang is charged with ‘having committed. Many affidavits introduced, sign- ed by Mary Splaine, Frank J. Burke, Lewis L, Wade and five other wit- nesses, reveal that all thése indi- viduals picked out the picture of Joe Morelli as the man seen doing the shooting. * @.8 Then there {s another affidavit of Officer Oliver J. Curtis, deputy she- rift of Norfolk County and deputy master of Dedham jail. He says that on Nov, 16, 1925, two days be- fore Madeiros made his confession to Sgcco, that the runner, Edward Miller, came with the request that Madeiros be allowed to read the financial report of the Sacco-Van- zetti Defense Committee; that Ma- deiros kept the pamphlet 30 or 40 minutes, and then sent it back with a statement duplicating his confes- sion of two days later, addressed to the news editor of the Boston Amer- ican. eee Not only Winfield M. Wilber, dis- trict attorney of Norfolk County, but also his assistant, Dudley P._ Ranney, told how they made a trip to the Rhode Island metropolis and talked to members of the Morelli CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION AGAIN STRUCK BY CAPITALIST COURTS; DECLARE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL NEW YORK, Oct. 19. Labor Committee, of New York, , The first decision holds unconstitu- tional the law which prohibits em- ployment of children under 16 years of age in any occupation that is de- clared by the state industrial com- missioner to be dangerous to health and morals, ‘ The Excuse, The ground given by the attorney general for his decision ts that the legislature has no power to delegate to @ state officer the right go say what occupations are injurious or dan- serous. This is in direct feng or to the present trend of Jlegi lon regulating employment of minors in dangerous trades, states Swift. Twenty-three states now have laws which, in addition to specifying cer- tain occupations as dangerous to health or morals, give to some state authority—labor or health—the power to extend the list of such occupations and to prohibit employment of miners titerein. Many Children tnjured, One of the most serious indictments of child labor is its heavy accidént toll. From two to three times as many children as adults in proportion to the number employed are killed or injured in industry, A recent study ‘alae in Wisconain, Massachusetts vow wii ts . ” “ |and New Jeréey by the’ U, 8. Ohik HR depends on you. Send / : Net of Guilt Is Holding Strong Against Efforts of New England Gang By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL, 'P)—State child labor legislation is given two most serious setbacks by the decisions rendered by Attorney General Gen- try of Missouri holding unconstitutional certain features of the Misrouri Child try of Missouri holding unconstitutional certain features of the Missouri Child gang, including Frank Morelli, Pas- Quale Morelli and Fred Morelli, at the Providence, R. I., police head- quarters, Police inspectors and counsel for the Morelli brothers were present. It can easily be surmised just what the Morelli brothers would have to say to the Massachusetts prosecutors. They resorted to the usual refuge of criminals, denying everything. The Morellis said that no one of the five brothers ever lived on North or South Main Street, in Providence, but that their home in 1920 was at 62 Marietta Street; that they did not know, nor had ever known, Celestino Madeiros, Bach one, in monotonous repetition, declared he had never seen a person who re- sembled in any way the person pic tured, Frank and Pasquale went a little further, They declared that they were in Providence during the en- tire month of April, 1920; that they did not come to South Braintree on any day of April; that they did not know where South Braintree was located, and that they had never at any time gone to South Braintree. Frank and Pasquale thus confess themselves just as absent-minded as Joe, now confined at the Leaven- worth Federal Prison. Joe had de clared that he, too, was ignorant of South Braintree, especially of the Rice and Hutchings shoe company at that place, until he was reminded that one of the counts in the indict- ment under which he was convicted charged that he was guilty of thefts of the goods of this company in interstate commerce. eee The prosecutor's forces even went so far as to send one of its staff, Assistant District Attorney William P, Kelley, for the southeastern dis- trict of Massachusetts, to visit James F, Weeks in his cell in an ef- fort to get Weeks to repudiate his testimony. It will be remembered that Weeks, who was involved in the Wrentham Nattonal Bank rob- bery, gave testimony supporting much that-Madeiros had admitted concerning the South Braintree af- fair. Kelley denies that Weeks ever ‘said''to him, “You have ~ offered. me this cigarette, and not so much as this cigarette has been offered to me by anyone concerned in the Sacco-Vanzetti defense.” It is, of course, the word of Weeks against Kelly. Since the govern- ‘ment forces have admitted that any methods are justifiable in their struggle to get their victims, the Teader can easily reject Kelley's Piece of fiction, and believe the original story as told by Weeks, himself, who has nothing to gain by giving aid to the Sacco-Vanzetti defense, Thus the New England gang meets with little success in resist- ing the net of guilt that the ex- posures in the Sacco-Vanzettt case @re weaving about canitalist justice as it is dispensed by the United States government. ‘ Tomorrow:—A member of the Massachusetts state police visits Joe Morelli at the Leavenworth Pri- son, and of course Joe denies every- thing. . dren's Bureau reveals that in one year there were 7,478 accidents to minors of which 38 were fatal, 920 re- sulted in permanent disabilities and 6,529 in temporary disablement, There are certain industries and Processes’ of work hazardous to adults, doubly go for children who are naturally irresponsible and cannot be depended upon to recognize industrial dangers says the Child Labor Com- mittee head, r Second Constitutional Quibble. tutional the provision that no child under 14 years of age shall be em- ployed except under a permit from the board of education and then only upon certificate of a reputable physi- clan and an affidavit of parent or guardian, The ground given here-js that it ts jan attempt upon the part of the leg- islature to vest in other persons a dis-, cretionary power which is vested alone in the legislature. This is even more out of line with modern state sislation, child labor I>, declares Switt, The sie of The DAILY WORK- @ aud. ee ane KAISER IN AIR ABOUT GOING TO HIS "FATHERLAND Law Banishing Him to Expire Soon (Special to The Dally Worker) BERLIN, Oct. 19.—While rumor ts rife that the ex-kaiser intends to re- turn to Germany when the law banieh- ing him expires next June, the former emperor is not ready to definitely com- mit himself on the matter, In response to a telegram inquiring about the ex-kaiser’s réturn to Ger- many the following telegram was re ceived from Doorn: “Regarding an event which. his majesty the kaiser has placed in the hands of providence, it is, of course, tmpossible to give any information. _ Signed at the all highest orders, Count von Schmettow.” ‘Holland Worrled, Amsterdam reports received here state that Dr, Kan, minister of the in- terior for the Netherlands, has con- ferred with the ex-katser and discussed his plans for the future. One report states the Dutch officials have noti- fled the ex-kaiser they cannot counten- ance a return to Germany, lest it be construed as a violation of their agree ment with the allies. SSSEEEESESEESSESSSEESES” THIS PLAY Has Never Been Shown Before in Chicago! “The Adding Machine” Adventures of a White-Collar Slave on Earth—In Heaven—in Hell! STUDIO PLAYERS AT The DAILY WORKER THEATRE : PERFORMANCE BANQUET tiie: DANCE™ See aeeeeeeaaebabbbbbaddaad SUNDAY OCTOBER 24th, 1926 DOUGLAS PARK AUDITORIUM — 3202 S. Ogden Ave. (At Kedzie) S eeaeeaaaeaeeaanrcaces cen “The Adding Machine” At 4 P.M. — Admission 50 CENTS BANQUET at7 P.M. DANCE = «= » at9P.M. Tickets at The DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd, Workers’ Bookstore 19 S, Lincoln St. —> \