The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 16, 1926, Page 5

| “THE DAILY WORKER Page Five. News and Comment Labor Education Labor and Government Trade Union Politica DISSENSION IN JEWELRY BOSSES’ RANKS REPORTED - Many Shops Settle with Union NEW YORK, Noy, 14. — About héir the workers in the*hovelty jewelry in- dustry are now back at work under union agreement. Fourteen shops in- volving’ 450 workers have settled with the union. The rest of the workers are on strike anfl the union is picketing the ufsettled shops dally. Dissension Among Bosses. ‘Theré is dissension in the manufac- turers, ranks already, according. to Anthony Capraro, manager of the union, Some of the manufacturers wre sorry that they ever joined the Novelty Jewelers Association which is now out to prolong the strike and break the union. The employers are using the same strikebreaking agency to assist in breaking the strike that the paper box manufacturers association has been using in their situation. A few days ago they sent a man from this agency to negotiate with the union, altho the real purpose was to find eut as many of the union’s plans as possible, This agent provo- cateur even suggested certain tactics to the workers’ representatives, which were not accepted, Come Back to Work, Yesterday the association distribu- ted a circular among the striking workers asking them to disregard the counsel of the union “agitators” and return to work, j “Call up your boss, tell him you are coming back to work,” read the state- ment, “and the association will sed that you will not be molested by these agitators.” None of the strikers acceded to the call, however, ‘Tough on Strikers ; in New York City NEW YORK, Nov. 14.—Police Com- missioner McLaughlin’s announcement that the gangsters’ squad and indus- trial squad of the New York police department have been merged is hard news for striking trades unionists. Police have interfered in the current cloakmakers’ strike, paper box makers and novelty jewelry workers’ strikes and in the fur workers’ fight earlier in the year. Detective Sergeant John Broderick, about 27 and sometimes called a “beau brummel,” is head of the combined squad, which keeps the best members—from a police view “best”—in its ranks. The gangsters’ squad was specially chosen of big burly men who could handle the rough- est sorts of criminals. It came into existence when Mayor Gaynor ruled against uniformed police hitting citi- zens with night sticks. The gangsters’ squad has previously aided the indus- trial squ.d in strike-breaking ac- itivities. Save Two From River, JOLAET, Tll., Nov, 14.—Two Chica- go men and a boy were rescued from. the Illinois river today, when their motorboat, enroute to New Orleans, struck a submerged cofferdam and sank in midstream. They were Frank Klein, 24, Grant Wands and his son Leroy, /6. |WORKERS’ TESTIMONY GIVES LIFE TO DRY STATISTICS BEFORE MEET ON NEW WAGES FOR RAILROADERS By ESTHER LOWELL, Federated Press, NEW YORK, Nov. 14.—Stacks of statistics and tabulations are making the case of eastern raflroads physically bulky in.the arbitration board hear- ings on conductor’s and trainmen’s demands for average 20% wage increases. W. G. Lee, president Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, and L. H. Sheppard, president Order of Railway Conductors, occasionally attack the figures pre- sented but mostly are content to wait their turn tn rebuttal. The main contentions of the railroads against the workers’ demands are:' that while the roads’ profits grow from year to year they still do not reach the 5%% earnings allowed by the In-+ - terstate Commerce Commission; that|the worker, often doing serious in- the roads have invested’ heayily in new property and equipment; that passenger traffic is . declining; that freight traffic.is increasingly manu- factured goods which are expensive to haul; that stockholders are not get- ting a proper proportion to bondhold- ers from the roads’ earnings and can- not if wage demands are granted; that conductors’ and trainers’ wages are “favorable proportions” of rail- roads’ earnings. New High Earnings. Meanwhile financial reports indi- cate that 1926 railroad earnings will set a new high record. J. G, Walber, New York Central vice-president’ con- ducting the roads’ case, submits to- tal earnings of workers which are challenged by workers’ testimony and their claim that basic rates and earn- ings should be the ones considered, not totals. $4.84 Per Day. One good witness for the rail work- ers was Eugene Badger, head freight brakeman on the Big Four. He work- ed six years as an extra and inter- mittently for another four years be fore getting regular assignment. His basic pay is $4,84 per eight hour day. He has to make 150 miles or 12 hours a day and his job works eight out of nine days. He told that one yard- master would not allow the crew. to]. line up its freight train in his ter- minal while the yardmaster to whose terminal they went required that the train be classified by arrival. The switching of cars had to be done en- route at the men’s delay. Badger said he had to work “practically all the time” to earn enough for his wife and three children and that he would not have a chance to enjoy an auto even if he could afford one. He said he had to be familiar with four or five rule books and had no pay for preparatory time reading them and special orders. Can't Save. Local freight conductor J. H. Seidel on the Baltimore & Ohio told that he has been in service 24 years of his 41. He said: “I'd certainly like ,to have a wage on which I could save. Can’t on this, that's sure.” He is away from home two-thirds of the time. He said that the monthly pay guarantee for regularly assigned en is 26 days a month but doesn’t count if the workers lay off volun- tarily for sickness or other reasons and doesn’t cover holidays voluntari- ly taken off. Dangerous Work. William J. Heyworth, New York Central brakeman, told how his monthly wage of $204 was reduced to $181.50 by his away-from-home ex- penses. He said special rates in com- Pany restaurants were no lower than outside. He told of deadheading on his own time when assigned from a terminal other than home. Ernest W. Burch, B. & O. hump conductor in Brunswick yards, gave detailed data on his work. He said he considered it particularly dangerous work be- cause the car riders had to jump on and off freight cars as they “cut” up the trains that came in and assigned cars to respective classifications. Brakes had to be put on quickly and sometimes the bar flew off and struck jury. The men complain of sore feet and broken arches from work, Burch said. With speeders now in use the work- ers tush from delivering a cut of cars to* begin work on a_ waiting train. The few minutes formerly spent in walking to the next train are reduced to almost none so that the workers have scarcely a breath- ing spell. The network of tracks in- creases the hazards. Men with long Standing in service choose seven-day assignments because they need the higher rate of pay. H, O. Barr, Nickel Plate brakeman, told of the workers’ grievance on that line over the “pick up and drop” rule. Thru freight trains are given up to four stops each, increasing the work- ers’ work without higher pay, as the local freight rate does fot begin to apply until five stops.are made, STILL PRESSING WRIT ISSUED IN SUBWAY STRIKE Interborough Does Not Like Union Work NEW YORK, Nov. 14. — Echoing from the July subway strike in New York city is the attempt of Interbo- rough Rapid Transit Co. to secure an injunction against the former strike leaders and the organization they started at the time—Consolidated Railroad Workers. Judge Francis Delehanty reserved decision in. the suit, which had been thot dismissed. Nathan D. Perlman, counsel for the strikers, argued that the Interborough brotherhood — company union — was not a voluntary organization and that no contracts existed between the workers and the company. The agreements were made between the company and company paid agents in the brotherhood’s offictal po- sitions, Perlman said. An injunction against the strike leaders—now no longer employed by Interborough— could not be obtained on the grounds that the men violated any voluntary contract with the company. The only thing the men are now do- ing is to solicit members for the Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employes among subway workers. The court could not grant an injunction against peaceful persuasion, counsel hel Edward P. Lavin, ‘arry Bark, Joseph Phelan and James Walsh were the strike leaders named. Their be- ginnings of an independent Consoli- dated Railroad Workers’ Union have been merged in the Amalgamated As- sociation, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Domestics Organized in Argentina, BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 14.—Among the many labor organizations that have joined the new national federation of labor affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions is the Do- mestic Servants’ Union in Buenos Aires. s ae Policies and Programs The Trade Union Press Strikes—Injunctions Labor and Imperialism MADISON SQUARE SCENE OF GREAT SACCO PROTEST Nov. 17th Date for Big Defense Rally NEW YORK;'Nov, 14.—The work- ers of New York City are planning lo come by thousands to Madison Square Garden on Noypmber 17th to show that they ,are solidly behind the de- mand for a newStbial and freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti. Bartolomeo Vanretti himself writes in the October Bulletin of the De- fense a denunelation of the capitalist press and its. qonspiracy of silence during the years:they have been fighi ing for their lives,;and it must be the workers and thei papers now, as ii has always been during the past six years, who will raise the cry for jus tice and a fair trial. Unions Aid. Unions in New York City are plan. ning to come to Madison Square on the 17th in delegations, with banners and slogans which will decorate the huge auditorlum. 4 Preparations for making these banners, and all other arrangements in connection with the demonstration were completed Thurs day evening, the 11th, at a meeting in Manhattan Lyceum at which Eliza beth Gurley Flynn.spoke. The Defense Ogmmittee Bulletin says, “Will the .working people ot America allow these two fellow-work- ers to burn in the chair in Charles- town jail? There's not much time. By January the state Supreme court will have given its, slecision. Remem ber this may hap; en to you. Sacco and Vanzetti stand for your right to live. If enuf people of this countr: want them saved, THEY WILL BE SAVED!” a Workers, remember Madison Square Garden on November 17th. Passaic Picture to Be Shown ih Detroit on Wednesday, Dec. 1 DETROIT, Nov. 14. — The motion picture “The Pass#i¢e Textile Strike” will be shown im°this city at the Majestic Theatre!#Woodward and Willis avenues, on Wednesday, De- cember 1, at 8 p. m2 This 7-reel pictifé is a vivid por- trayal of the herdi® struggle of the textile workers fof living conditions and the right to organize into a union, All sympathetic organizations are requested to hold open this date and come to see the movie that has been acclaimed with approval and interest by the workers ofjChicago, New York and many other cities. First Victim of Hunt Season, DANVILLE, Ill, Noy. 14. — The first victim of the quail and rabbit shooting period which began Wednes- day morning, was Lawrence E. Lem- mons, a machinist at the C. & E, I. Ry. shops who today had the thumb and forefinger of his right hand shot away. CHICAGO, Nov. 14, — Ten thousand | dollars reward was offered by the gov- ernment today for the arrest of Dave Berman, William ‘Kanner, Charles P. Clouse and Reuben D, Lilly, indicted for the $75,000 Shperior, Wis, post- office robbery. ** STRIKE STRATEGY By WILLIAM Z. ARTICLE XV Tue Fient Against Hunerr The most powerful of all the weapons employed by the capitalists in’ ordinary strikes seek to starve the workers, their women and their children; to shut off their supply of life necessities until their cour- age is broken and they come back to work upon the employers’ terms, defeated. It is a cold and brutal business, but it is one of the many barbaric ways the employers use to maintain their power to rob and exploit the workers. Starvation in all its forms in strikes is a morale breaker, a scab breeder. : '. There are many kinds of scabs, each of which has to be combatted in its own way. There are professional scabs, there are good-job scabs who fear the loss of their preferred positions, and there are weakling scabs who simply have not the courage or intelligence to fight. menacing and terrible scabs are hunger scabs, those sin- cere workers who are driven back to work because-they lack the physical necessities of life to continue the fight. It is this form of seabbery that loses strikes, especially FOSTER is that of hunger. They Both But the most militancy (as the Tue Question or Funps The ultra-leftists, typified by the I. W. W., give a — answer, They scorn the power of the workers to finan! funds or regular benefits. these policies are wrong. * i ae Ample experience,’ teaches us that by depending on money alone we cannot win, except in the case of a few highly skilled and thorol¥ organized trades, especially in these days of an enormously enriched and strengthened capitalism. 1t is altogether impossible to win in such a manner when great masses of the unorganized are on strike. Take for example, the strike of 400,000 steel workers. What chance was’ there to pay benefits in such a situation? Millions would have had to be poured into the strike weekly. Or, consider a national stbike of coal miners or rairoad workers. Manifestly such strikes must depend for winning chiefly upon their ‘shattering effects on the industrial system and upon their profound political consequences. Nevertheless, the ultra- leftist I. W. W.’s, by . altogether and by generally minimizing the importance of money in the fight, make a mistake in the other extrem? _ The issue is not money (as the right wing proposes) |cases with “ ultra-leftists advocate), The solu: the problem comes froth a correct combination of militancy and money, Extra high dues, such | tion of the unorganized, and spread a general spirit of This problem raises the general question of the rolé}¢onservatism through the unions. é and defeat them? The right wing leaders’ policy constitutes | Specific protection in far-reaching struggles against the practically an affirmative answer to this. ‘Phey place great |¢mployers. “|reliance on huge strike funds and large strike benefits. f put thus: ANTI-FASCIST T0 SPEAK HERE FOR SACCO-VANZETTI Chicago Conference to Meet Monday Vincenzo Vacirca, widely known Italian anti-fascist, publicist and lec- turer, will be one of the speakers at the huge.mass meeting here Friday, Noy, 26, arranged by the Chicago Sac- co-Vanzetti conference to demand a new trial for the two Massachusetts frame-up victims, Vacirca, who edits an anti-fascist paper in New York, is a former work- ers’ deputy in ie Italian parliament and was forced into political exile be- cause of his opposition to Mussolini. He is a member of the executive board of the Anti-Fascist Alliance and of the League of Political Refugees. He 1s rated as one of the best Italian speakers fn America, Try to Get Morrison. Attempts are being made to have Rey, Charles Clayton Morrison, editor of the Christian Century, liberal re- ligious magazine of Chicago, to also address the meeting, it is announced by officials of the conference. It is believed that Dr. Morrison will atcept the invitation. Fitzpatrick to Talk. Other speakers at the mass meeting will include John Fitzpatrick, presi- dent of the Chicago Federation of La- bor, Anton Johanpsen, vice-president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, widely known lecturer and member ofthe Sacco-Vanzetti emergency committee. The Chicago Federation of Labor is co-operating with the conference in tae work to secure freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti, and will broadcast the mass meeting announcements over the federation radio station, WCFL. Conference Meets Monday. On Monday night, Nov, 15, the dele- gate body of the conference will meet at Redifer Hall, 30 North Wells St., to lay plans for the intensive cam- paign to be undertaken by Chicago workers in behalf of the two workers. Every labor body, workers’ society, and workers’ political organization is urged to send delegates to this meet- ing. Many union locals of Chicago have already sent strong messages to Gov- ernor Fuller of Massachusetts pro- testing the denial of a new trial to Sacco and Vanzetti, as part of the campaign. Pseudo-Economist, Babson, Predicts Decrease in Wages WASHINGTON, Noy. 14. — An- nouncement by Roger Babson, profes- sional economic adviser to employers, that the upward wage movement has definitely stopped is contradicted by Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor. Babson’s suggestion that the next general movement will be “down- ward,” and that employers who want to cut wages with the least expense should “establish a sense of confidence on the part of labor,” made Morrison laugh. He said he would like to see the employer who could now cut wages and make his workers like it. Reports reaching the A. F. of L. from all corners of the continent show that wages are being forced up by local movements in most of the indus- tries, from time to time, while wage cuts are not reported from any in- dustry. Lahor officials do not believe any wage cut can be forced by the employers over any considerable field, because living costs have more than kept pace with wages. There has been no halt in the rise of living costs. Send in a sub today! Besides, they On the other hand, the low dues and cheap financial systems of the I. W. W. and other radical independent unions keep these organizations so impoverished that they their own strikes. They will have nothing to do with striké|4re virtually helpless. Militancy “alone is not sufficient to meet all the needs of a labor movement under capitalism. The left'wing must stand for relatively high dues, based on the ability of the various categories to pay it. It must also make provision for strike funds in established ynions, especially by strike assessments levied in the months prior to an expected strike. . Practica Financina Financing of strikes of long organized workers pre- sents considerably different problems from» those in the financing of unorganized workers’ strikes. strikes are not too large, in all probability some form of regular benefits must be paid, particularly if the groups of workers have been accustomed to such a benefit system. Failure to do this may result in the collapse of the strikes, On the.other hand, when large masses 6f unskilled are on strike they cannot be paid benefits, nor are they accustomed to look very hard for them. The policy must be to take care of the most needy h and to establish commissary systems to furnish food supplies to the rest. Where the workers are strong enough they should enforce the “pay-no-rent” {of the workers’ funds in atrikes. The question has often, Can the workers win strikes with money? ‘Mex pit dein poonien If the former By Upton Sinclair (Copyrigat, 1926, by Uptom Siaciair) “Ready! Set!” she called sharply—and then, to his great surprise, pulled a little revolver from under her jacket and fired it into the air. It was to be a real race! He started at the rate of twenty miles an hour, or 4 little better, and heard the horse loping on the sand behind him. He did not know how long, the race was to last, so presently he settled down to a long distance gait. _He was warm again, and willing to investigate being a Greek. The sky was blue, and the coulds white, and the sea green, and the sand sparkling cold; truly,.as the girl had said, it was the morning ofthe world! They came to a place where wagomtracks came down to the beach, and there were fishermen’s boats, and three men had just shoved out through the breakers. They. rested on their oars, to stare at this amazing spectacle, an entirely naked youth running a race on the beach with a woman on horse-back.. ‘Their swarthy Italian or Portuguese faces wore broad grins, with white teeth showing. They knew abofit the Monastery, and this: was the latest freak of the idle rich! But then came a place where the highway came near to the beach. Theré were tents ahead, and automobiles parked, with canvas covers to protect them from the sun. There were people on the beach; and these, Bunny knew, would not be primitive foreigners, but ranchmen from the interior, having brought their families to spend Sunday away from the baking heat. They would have no toleration for the freaks of the idle rich, neither would they know about the customs of the ancient Greeks; they were sober, church-going people, the sort who formed the Ku Klux Klan, and punished fornications and adulteries by tar- ring and feathering and riding on a rail. But Vee had challenged Bunny, and he said to himself that it was up to her. Did she really want to be pagan and take the conseqvences? He ran on and on. The tents came near, and he saw women stare, and then dive into shelter; he saw the men, not running away, or turning their heads, but glaring menace in their faces. What would they do? Seize the obscene intruder, and wrap him perforce in a blanket, and deliver him over to the police? Bunny’s quick mind leaped to the outcome—a streamer-head across the front page of the “Angel City Evening Howler”— STAR RACES NUDE OIL RED! Then suddenly he heard a voice behind him: “I give up! I’m going black!’ So he whirled and the horse whirled and away they went, even faster than they had come, and both of them shaking with laughter in the morning of the world! XII The Greeks had never worn either trousers or shirts, and the process of getting into these garments didn’t lend itself to romantic or esthetic interpretations. Therefore Vee Tracy rode down the beach while Bunny dressed; and when he rejoined her, she was no longer Greek, but an American young lady upon her dignity, and it would have been bad taste to have referred to her crazy prank. é She was leading the horse, with the bridle. over its head, and Bunny walked by her side. “Did you notice that night- mare?” she said, as they passed the thirty-two Loreleis in their grave-clothes. “That was one of the dreams, of old Hank Thatcher. You’ve heard of ‘Happy Hank,’ the California Grape- king?” é “Se that’s his place!” exclaimed Bunny. . “He dreamed of orgies, and kept half a dozen harems; his wife refused him a divorce to punish him, and when he died she covered up his dream as a kind of public penance.” “Nobody seems to see it but the seals.” “Oh, the papers were‘ full of it; they would never pass up any news about the Thatchers. They send out a reporter once in a while. One time they had a scream of a story—the reporter had worn a suit of chain mail ynder his‘trousers, and’ the dogs had torn at him in vain!” “She sets dogs on them?” “That’s why nobody dares go uf#there to peek at the statues.” “Good Lord!” of them.” “Well, you were lucky. That’s why I carried this revolver along; they sometimes come onto the beach, and the neighbors make war 01, them,” “Why doesn’t she put up a fence?” “She’s in a dispute with the county. She chims to own the beach, and every now and then she puts a barrier across it, and the county sends men at night to tear it down. Th been fighting it put for the past ten years. Also the state.is trying to put a highway through the tract—it would save several miles of the coast route—but she has spent a fortune fighting them; she lives in that castle like a beleaguered princess in. the old days-—all the shades drawn, and she steals about from room to room’ with a gun in-her hand, looking for burglars and spies. Ask Harve about it—he knows her.” (Continued Tomorrow.) exclaimed Bunny. “Ispeeked at half a dozen rule until the strike ends. Skilled workers and others who have been long organized do not take kindly to the com- missary system under present conditions, unless they are driven against, the wall by a desperately fought strike, such as those that often take place among the miners, The skilled nearly always demand and insist upon cash. Always we should fight for the pooling of funds and benefits where rseveral unions are engaged in a joint struggle against the employers. Nothing is so demoralizing to a strike as to have certain eategories of workers regeive regular and large strike benefits while others get few or none: In any event, whether a given left wing strike be of organized or unorganized workers, it is certain that there will be a most urgent need oof money in large quantities. Hence, the strike strategy must.develop the most effective ways and means of mobilizing the financial reserves of the workers in support of strikes. This involves problems of publicity, of dramatizing the strike, of spreading a network of relief committees throughout the local and national labor movement, of insisting that other unions regularly assess themselves for the strike. This relief work, which offers a splendid means for the left. wing to establish its organization and prestige in the unions, must be accompanied by a penetrating propaganda carefully calculated to drive home to the workers the real economic and political signifleance of the struggle and to awaken their class consciousness. Ordinarily these strike relief committees can best be organized under the auspices of either the strikers’ unions or of the section of the labor movement being appealed to. In several strike situations in this copnt*y the International Workers’ Aid had done good service. are’ D®