The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 10, 1926, Page 5

1000 WORKER. CORRESPONDENTS BY JANUARY 13 5 1927 PRIZES FOR THIS WEEK. Three very fine books are offered as prizes for worker correspondence stories this week, They include: 1—Selected Es' 's by Karl Marx. A new book, and an unusual one of unpublished work of the great leader, 2—Red Cartoons. A collection of the work of 17 proletarian artists. 3—Education in Soviet Russia, by Scott Nearing. A new book and a splendid addition for your IIbrary. Write that story, workers! INSULL AND NEW ENGLAND BANKERS IN WAR TO GET CONTROL OF POWER COMPANIES; MERGERS AFFECTED By SIDNEY BLOOMFIELD (Worker Correspondent) WORCHESTER, Mass., Dec. 8, Keen competition between the Samuel Insull interests of Chicago and the powerful investment banking public utilities group of Boston, now rages for the control of electric light, power and gas companies in the New Eng- land states. Local mergers have been taking place here recently, and the latest move is the almost completed negotiations for the merging of The ‘Worcester Gas Light Co., with the Worcester Electric Light Co. on a lo- cal scale, thus making it a paying proposition for the Insull interests or the Boston financiers—whichever of the two make the first haul, During the last year and a half as @ result of buying up various com- panies, the Insull interests have se- ‘cured control of light, gas and power companies in Manchester, Nashua, Keene, Milford, Hillsboro and Ash- land, New Hampshire. Insull Gets Rights After much lobbying at the state house, the Insull interests have se- cured permission from the public utili- ties commission of New Hampshire to Put these local companies together in one holding company known as the Public Service companies of New Hampshire. As a result of the compe- tition to gain control of the shares as well as the increaséd profits of the companies, the Insull interests, it is reported, paid a price for their stock which was much above the market quotations for the past two years. However much was paid for the com- panies as well as incidental expenses for greasing the paims of the New Hampshire politicians, ete., it may be considered cheap as this deal puts the Ingull interests on the Merrimac River ‘which supplies the bulk of the textile @enters of New England with light @nd_ power, Insull will now be in a position to hook up with his upper New York etate and Canadian interests, thus placing himself in a most strategic Position to fight the Boston group that must eventually surrender to the mighty Sam Insull, However, the merger of the two ‘Worcester companies will, in all pro- bability, result in ifs control going ‘over to the New England Power Co., which is part of the Boston group, known as the New England Power Association, a holding company which controls also the Connecticut River Power Co., and the Rhode Island Power Transmission Co, Not to be outdone by the Insull group, the New England Power Asso- ciation has already effected an arrange- ment for the purchase of the Law- rence (Mass.) Gas and Electric Co., which supplies gas and electricity to the city of Lawrence and the neigh- boring towns of Andover, North An- . dover, Methuen and Boxford, Mass. The territory is contiguous to territory centering in Ayer, Massachusetts, where Camp Devens is situated. The control of Lawrence, which is also on the Merrimac River, will enable the Boston group to checkmate the —~ fonward sweep of the Insull group. The New England Power system operates over an area of 8,000 square miles in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, its chief sources of power being the great hydraulic stations on the Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers, The New England Power Co., is also hooked up with the St. Lawrence River. Thus the complete elimination of the small lo- cal light and power companies have been eliminated either thru mergings or sale, and going into the control of either the Insull or the New England power interests, Now that the process of elimination of the small fry is about complete, and the Insull group having planted its feet on New England territory, the main bout will now be fought to a finish between the two heavyweight champions for the control of New England’s light and power. Hither it will be a draw by a merging of the two giants or the insull interests will lick and take over the control of the New England Power interests. In any event the monopoly of the natural re- sources of New England will be com- pletely in the hands of the financial lords of America. See Attempt to Quash Proceedings Against Aimee and Her Cohorts By L. P. RINDAL. (Worker Corresponden' LOS. ANGELES, Dec. 8.—Because District Attorney Asa Keyes was not ready the conspiracy and perjury case against. Aimee Semple McPherson, Mrs, Minnie Kennedy, her mother, and Mrs. Lorraine Wiseman-Seilaff, con- fessed “Carmel hoax” woman, was Postponed until Jan. 10..-In some quarters, this is called a “victory” for the evangelist. In the opinion of many, the case will not be tried before February or March, 1927. On the other hand, strong forces are at work trying to stop the prose- cution altogether. Aimee does not ap peal to the K. K. K. for nothing. Fire- men and policemen of this city are on her side, and go is the case with the Los Angeles Record, an “independ- ent” capitalist sheet, Prolet-Tribune Will Be Out Dec. 18. The next number of Prolet-Tribune, the Russian living newspaper pub- lished by the worker correspondents of Novy Mir, will be out Saturday, Dec. 18, at 8 p. m., at the Workers’ House, 1902 W. Division St. A picture of the audience will be taken at the request of the worker correspondents of the Soviet Union. The picture will be sent to Soviet Russia. Every Worker should read The American Worker Correspondent. The latest issue is off the press. Send in your subscription now. 50 cepts a year Do You Know the Facts About Child Labor Militarism Conditions of Young Workers Who Owns the U.S. Youth in Soviet Russia Read the New Pamphlet THE CHALLENGE OF YOUTH By SAM DARCY to Learn About These Important Questions 15¢ a Copy — 10c in Bundles ——— — — — — USE THIS BLANK — — — — — — — The Young Workers (Communist) League of America, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Ill. Enclosed find $. of Youth” to Name cojies of “The Challenge snsenanvensnnssonmeomnoesnnecenssssonden AGETOOS | arininmnerinaminiomninnins nnn eisihne inner FILTH IN KODAK PLANT IS HARD EVEN TO RELATE Gelatine Plant Rivals Stockyards By a Worker Correspondent, ROCHESTER, N, Y., Dec, 8.—Ift Up- ton Sinclair ever visits this “Flower City” of ours I shall petition the of- ficials of the Eastman Kodak Co. to show him thru the gelatine depart- ment of the Kodak Park plant, com- monly referred to by the workers as the “gut factory.” I have concluded, after reading his description of the filthy conditions under which the slaves of the packing industry toil, especially during the strike, in his “The Jungle,” that no other person could describe the plight of these gela- tine workers in the same realistic manner as could Sinclair, Until such a time, however, ag Sin- clair finds it convenient to visit this city I shall offer my insufficient de- scription of the plight of these work- ers. Rotten Hides, To begin with, all gelatine, edible as well as industrial, is derived from hides, principally cowhides. These the Eastman Kodak Co, buys in car- load lots from various sources, While some of these hides are dry when re- ceived, a goodly portion of them are “green,” excepting in the summertime, when they are white with maggots. One good feature of this is that in the process of unloading the car some of these hides crawl into the wheelbar- fow, thus saving the worker the job of shoveling them in. 9n the whole, tho, this job is not the kind to stimulate a good appetite. The Vat Gang. The. next step in the manufacture of gelatine is the soaking of these hides in lime and water to loosen the hair. When they have been in the vats a sufficiently long time the “vat gang” crawls into the vats and pro- ceeds to shovel the hides into a truck. After about ten minutes’ work in one of these vats the men appear eligible for membership in the K. K. K., plas- tered with lime from head to foot. Next, these hides go into the washer to clean them off, the loose hair being washed into the sewer. These hairs and stray hides quite often plug the sewer up and it becomes necessary for the sewer gang to force the ob- struction thru with the help of a fire hose. Occasionally the fire hose bursts, drenching the sewer “rats” with this lime, hair and rotten hides mixture. Stockyards Smell! Mild. “But that’s not the half of it.” After the jell is cooked from these hides there remains an indescribable sub- stance, compared with which the worst smell around a slaughterhouse is mild. I speak from experience, for I have worked around both. This substance is saved in open cans for several weeks, sometimes months, until it is taken away by some farmer to be used as fertilizer. During the time that it stands around the flies swarm on it as thick as bees on a hive and from this they fly into the room where the men eat their lunch. I sometimes lose faith in the germ theory of dis- ease, for certainly if files carry dis- ease germs most of these men should be stricken with horrible diseases, Get Low Pay. For working under thes¢ conditions these workers receive from $29 to $35 per week, depending upon ther agility, for they, too, are afflicted with “Be- daux-itis.” The writer knows of one case, that of a sewer rat, where the worker was “rewarded” with 3 cents for two weeks’ efforts, in the form of a bonus. The following week he received no- tice from the payroll department that there had been an error in his pay and he was compelled to return the 3 cents. About two weeks after that the workers in this same department, as well as many others, were intimidated into giving ten hours’ wages to char- ity thru capitalist channels, ‘This is typical of how the company which takes such a serious interest in the welfare of ita workers uses these workers, It seems to the writer that aside from this professed interest, the workers would “have nothing to lose but their chains and the whole world to gain” were they to organize them- selves into a union, Get @ copy of tne American Worker Correspondent, |i nly 6 cents, : __GINSBERGS py ANGELES, CAL. IN PHILADELPHIA Th Pape |e =e cpeadamand (HC ME AND AT Hasbei? s Restaurant 610 Spring Garden St. Home ~ Open from 6. a, m. vec ees) THE DAILY WORKER Page Five Using dynamite, rescuers try to reach ten men entombed In Claremont a cofferdam. The meh were trapped seventy-five feet below the surface. tunnel, California, flooded when the swollen waters of San Pablo creek broke Photo shows a wall of earth scores of feet thick separating the rescuers from the bodies. On the left is portal closed by the flood. HUDSON MOTORS COMPETES WITH ‘ FORD SLAVE-DRIVING SYSTEMS Men, .materiajs and machines scien- tifically handled..are pouring millions of dollars in profits into the coffers of the Hudson Motor Car Co. How this is accomplished, is described in six articles prepared for the Wall Street Journal by its,.Detroit bureau. The pride of the management, according to this survey, ig.the gang system, by which the workers are induced to act as speed bosses.over each other, The first series of labor-displacing devices affects;the handling of mate- rials. Today, two,men with a 10-ton truck unload q 40-ton car of steel in one hour,- where the-job formerly re- quired 32 man-hours, The saving of 80-hours per carload means $57,600 a year to the stockholders, The adop- tion of standardized containers and the warning tag-system of providing an automatic flow of materials dis- Placed about 160 stock chasers, but saved more than $250,000 a year for the company. The frame castor meth- od of handling the body output re- duced the men required from 118 to 49, saving $145,000 a year, NewMachinery, The development and arrangement of automatic machinery is responsible for further money-saving changes. A new geat-cutting. machine saves one minute per gear, but that means $60,- 000 a year to the company. A new milling machine enables one man to displace five and saves the company $72,800 a year. .A new lathe for ma- chining crankshaft bearings displaces six engine lathes operated by six work- ers, saving about $78,000 a year, The new bolt drivers enable the same number of men to tighten all the body bolts on 1,200 cars a day as for- merly tightened bolts on 300 cars a day. Similar tools have reduced the force for attaching springs, axles and brake shafts from twelve to eight. Righteen men now paint 1,200 chassis a day, where f. rly 20 painted only 275. For assembling fenders six men and 14 women are handling the larger output, where under the old system 28 men were required, Gang System. In assembling radiators the daily output has increased from about 75 per assembler to 105, In the assembly of dashboard instruments female op- erators now turn out 90 a day, where formerly men workers averaged 40 a day, A power Instrument, enables a girl operator to turn out terminals for 350 cars a day im place of 100 cars under the old system) The gang system, by which groups of men are paid’ ® lump sum for a given output, in place of the old indi- vidual plecework system, is the crown- ing achievement of the motor indus- try. It is described as breaking down the resistance of the men to changes that moan lower ¢ésts, and as securing their co-operation in establishing la- | WCEFL Radio Program Chicago Fedération of Labor radio broadcasting station WOF'L is on the air with regular programs. It is broadcasting on a 491.5 wave length from the Municipal Pier. TONIGHT. ' Hae me—Chicago Federation of La- ute Anna sae Ba: Kin, o00—~Alamo vara ae 11:00-—Alamo Use amas te ha, ANd your pen to aid |,jvenkel’s defense bor-displacing methods. journal: Sweat Each Other. “Summed up, the gang system ac- complishes the following: 1, Super- vision is automatically accomplished by the men themselves. 2. Inventory of materials in process is automati- controlled amd production of parts is harmoniously balanced with car output schedules. 3. Economical administration is attained. 4, Wages can be adjusted without changing car costs. 6, Company obtains. average labor costs while providing efficient workers with higher than average wages.” Under this system the pay of all the workers may be adversely affected if one man or one group falls behind the production schedule. Hence the men are induced to sweat each other. The man who fails to keep the pace is forced out by his fellows. Similarly, if a gang feels that it could turn out the work with fewer men and so increase Says the its average pay it “quickly insists that | the surplus manpower be laid off.” The slave-driver type of foreman, says the journal, is not needed. Time- keepers and checkers are obsolete. | Overhead is cut. The Hudson concern says the system “works to the satis- faction of the men and cuts down costs, at the same time securing high- grade workmanship.” Large Retail Tobacco Corporations Join in Pooling of Holdings (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, Dee. 8—The poolings of the assets of the United Cigar Stores and the Schulte Retail Stores corporation, the two largest tobacco products organizations in the United States, became known today with the announcement of the formation of a huge holding company known as the Union and United Tobacco company. The organization of the holding company does not constitute a mer- ger of the United and the Schulte companies, officers of the two con- cerns said. The new company will only direct the affairs of the two old- er coponents, they said. Commerce Commission Orders Railroads to Fix Rates to South (Special to The Dally Worker) WASHINGTON, Dec. 8.— Sweeping changes in freight rates on cotton and hogs in carloads from various western cities to points in the south were or- dered today by the Interstate Com- merce Commission, After extensive investigation, the commission held that the rates from Chicago and Bast St. Louis, I1.,.St, Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph, Mo., Omaha, Forth Worth, and Oklahoma City to Atlan- ta and Moultrie, Ga., and from Chica- go to Birmingham, Jacksonville, Chat- tanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville were unreasonable, Gets Life and One Day. MADISON, Neb., Dec. 8.—John We- henkel was sentenced to life impris- onment and one day for the murder of Arthur arrico “Tilden last June. ba ‘The district court ed the unusual verdict after hearing We- a ia Beam You know him. everywhere—the names glibly. server he is a super expert. masses he is a Th Bolshevik, zero. to every-day life of the upon such allies, masses, with them. Literature “phrase revolutionists” an attitude ment. The Manager’s Corner ABOUT the movement for hours. He can tell you how wonderful the movement used to be and the prominent part he once played in it. point out to you the inferior quality of the present-day revo- lutionists, as compared to those of the past. critic and can detect a deviation at long range. As a connecting link an variety has been known by various names “the spittoon philosopher”- rade who has separated himself entirely from the masses, and who tries to carry on the movement in a vacuum of his oton. The revolutionary movement is too real at this time, workers, The real revolutionist must be a man of the and must maintain at all times an intimate contact sales and distribution an activity to be looked down upon and to be scoffed at, something to be left to “ must be fought and exterminated from our Every comrade should devote a part of his time to this necessary and most important phase of our movement. on our part to do this will result in the rapid deterioration of the revolutionary movement into sectarianism and impotence. Let us all put the shoulder to the wheeb and become, by active contact work, LINKS TO THE MASSES. errr ccc) Bolshevism by Absent Treatment. He is found in the ranks of the movement absent-treatment Bolshevist. He can talk He can reel off dates and He cam He is a wonderful As an ob the “the parlor -in other words the com- too close and too fast moving to rely has become with these inferior elements.” Such move Failure BERT MILLER. FARMERS’ DRIFT TC PEASANTRY IS DANGER IN U.S, Farts Meet is Told ot Tenancy Increase CHICAGO, Dec, 8—The American farmer must bend all his efforts to stem the present drift toward peas- antry, Prof. Macy Campbell, head of the rural education department, Iowa State Teacher's College, told'delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federa- tion today. Farm Tenancy Increased. “The percentage of farm tenancy in- creased from 26 per cent in 1880 to 38 per cent in 1920, according to census records,” said Campbell. “Already the bargaining power of agriguiture is be- low par. It is up to the farmer to make use of every aid at his com- mand to check this drift.” Campbell said farming today were like “fished out” ponds. communities fish Farm Exodus. “The intelligent and ‘enterprising farm boys,” said Campbell, “quit the farms when they get an education be- cause they find better opportunities in other lines. “This exodus leaves. the. poorer stock behind, and we have an increas- jing number of communities from |which the capable young. folks have | been drawn.” Send 500 to Europe. The federation decided. to send @ delegation of approximately 500 farm- Jers next July 30 on a trip ‘to study farming conditions in England, Scot- land, France, Germany, Holland and Denmark, Jail Warden Becomes Witness Against Pals jail warden, became a government wit- ness today when Terry Druggan @ Frankie Lake, dapper beer barons, Sheriff Peter M. Hoffman and others were placed on trial for conspiracy to obstruct justice The move came when Westbrook, accused as a party to the granting of unusual jail liberties to the million- aire beer runners, asked for a sever ance, which was granted. Love Me, Love My Dog, Says General Nobile, Leaving Chicago Hotel General Umberto Nobile, designer of the Italian dirigible Norge, which flew over the North Pole last sum- mer, was comfortably esconsed today in a hotel where dogs are persona grata. Titano, General Nobile’s pet fox terrier, must go Wherever his mas ter goes, even to the North Pole in a dirigible and when a “no dogs allow- ed” sign barred the way in one hotel, a quick move was made to another. Important Conference on Public Utilities A joint session of the Illinois mu- nicipal conference and the Illinois Municipal League will be held in Ohi- 5 eae | ies? cago on Dec, 16 and 17. Among the speakers will be Newton D, Baker, former secretary of war; Brand Whitlock and Samuel M, (Golden Rule) Jones, formerly mayors of Toledo, and former Mayor Tom L, Johnson of Cleveland, all supporters of municipal ownership of public utill- ties. The joint meeting in Chicago will formulate a program on utility regu- lation to be presented to 55th gon- fort ona in Beer Conspiracy | Wesley Westbrook, former county | TWO YOUNG WORKERS DIE OF ETHYL POISON IN BEACON OIL PLANT (Special to The Daily Worker) EVERETT, Mass., Dec. 8.—Two young workers are dead and another may die from tetra ethy! lead poi- soning at the Beacon Oli! Co. plant. The workers were measuring the contents of a large tank used in making ethy! gasoline, the company officials say. The two dead were first overcomé@ on the job and the third, who came up to rescue them, was likewise knocked out by the pol- sonous fumes, All three had to be carried down from the tank top, 40 feet above ground. It took an hour and a half to revive the one who Is still dangerously near death. Can Sell $30,000,000 Stock, SPRINGFIELD, ll., Dec. 8. The Illinois Bell Telephone Co. was au thorized in an order issued by the Illinois Commerce Commission to sel! a part of its capital stock to net the company $30,000,000. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” provided you know how to use lt. Come down and learn how in the worker correspondent’s classes. SS MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 60th Street and 8th Avenue NEW YORK The Largest Hall in the World Saturday Evening, ‘December 18th The famous ALBERTINA RASCH BALLET will appear in selected numbers, Tickets at The ddan "4 30 Union Sq fi New smhe opi tween ge te rae rer scl in OL LOC A