The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 11, 1926, Page 5

eae ceell (SECOND PRIZE WINNER) WHAT EFFICIENCY IN PLANING MILL MEANS TO TOILER Washington Camp Den of Exploitation By a Worker Correspondent. BREMERTON, Wash., Dec, 9. — I have just completed a six months session of industrfal slavery in one of the most efficient planing mills in the country, and I should like to re- cord here some of the things that I | have seen, and heard. This mill was constructed with the express purpose of working into finished material—fiooring, ceiling, and mouldings, car siding and flooring, ete.—by-product lumber that was to be cut from logs, for which there was no market, Saw Big Profits. The company that owned the mill was also a big logging concern. Some- tlme previous a lumber salesman had bought some dimension lumber from them, sold it to a conversion plant the next day, and made ten thousand on the deal, So reasoned the babbits of the firm: Let us erect a conversion plant and make that money ourselves, for somehow they had heard of the enormous sum the salesman had made, The plant was erected in no time, a big square wooden structure having a saw-tooth roof. Labor was plentiful, and the construction ma- terial was there on the ground. A battery of three moulding ma- whines, a matcher, planker, rip, band, and cross-cut saws were installed, with carrier chains, and belts arrang- ed to eliminate as much handling Sabor as possible, dry kilns, trucks ‘and carrier trucks were installed, and the place started with a bang—fifty- ‘two carloads of finished stuff were ‘shipped the second month of opera- ‘tion, Low Wages. Wages averaged $3.40 per day, and ‘the men sure had to travel some to hold their jobs, for at the gate every morning, were a gang of idle men ‘waiting to be put to work, and the (minute a fellow slowed up—out he ‘went. The boss was one of these wide- Mmecked, horse-headed, pace-setters, who kept up a foot walk from one end of the factory to the other, spur- ring on the men to work their hard- est. Watch Workers. The office was overhead in the cen- ter of the building, and walled with windows, thru which the foreman, and time-keeper kept a constant watch of the men’s movements. Everybody worked like mad, and if a worker should have been caught emiling, or laughing, he probably would have gotten fired, for this in- creasing production here in our U, S. is one serious business. The men working on and around the machines were paid by the day, ‘but the fellows handling the lumber —loading on dry-kilIn cars and into the box-cars—were contract workers, and they were paid about five dollars, for every forty tons of lumber that they handled. Oftimes the superintendent would let a contract to a man, who by work- fng at a supreme endurance pace, would make a little more than the average wage, but it wouldn't be long until the worker would be forced to @ccept a new contract under which fhe would receive less money. Scared of Boss. Most of them seemed satisfied with their jobs—not a criticism, or com- plaint about working conditions could be heard—they were all intensely in- terested in holding down the job, and I have seen some men who worked there become so paralyzed with fear when the boss talked to them that they couldn't talk to him, but would jump around like some trained ani- mal trying to please the master. Men Sickly. One hardly ever met a healthy man amongst this bunch. Flat-feet, crook- ed spines, fingers cut off, consump- ‘tion, “T. B.” of syphilis wero the pre- dominant ailments, and then besides there seemed to be a young army of cripples—arm gone, toe gone, eye gone, hand gone—men who had been injured in the company logging camps, and saw mills and who were given life time jobs at starvation ‘wages, in store-rooms, as time-keep- ers, and the like. About the latter part of the fourth month of operations, a cry come forth 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 the worker correspondents of the Soviet Union. The picture will be sent to Soviet Russia, | a “—— ’ a oe) abe 4 THIS WEEK’S PRIZE WINNERS The Chicago worker correspondent, S. M., is awarded the first prize thie week for the story exposing conditions In Chicago department stores. He Is awarded the book of Selected Essays by Karl Marx, an unusual collection of works of the great leader, ‘ Second prize, the book of Red Cartoons, is awarded to the worker correspondent of Bremerton, Washington, who tells of almost unbearable conditions in a planing mill in that place, Third prize goes to H. Zalkin, New York, who recalls for the work- ers the strike of the paper box workers In 1916, and shows that “history repea Let every worker correspondent send in a story for next week! Workers everywhere are anxious to read these stories of conditions in factory, mine, mill and shop. Send in your story today, workers—and get one of these books for your library. . THE PRIZES FOR NEXT WEEK Again, three very splendid bocks are offered as prizes for the best worker correspondent stories to be sent in next week. Every worker should have one of these books in his library. Send in that story today! Here are the prizes: gia Heresy,” by Bishop Brown, a book destined for as great a popularity as the author's first peeve weranine of China,” by Jas. H. Dolsen. by every worker. one. Cloth-bound. A book to be read TODAY 1 et Flight From Siberia,” Leon Trotsky’s famous story. FIRST PRIZE WINNER. EMPLOYES OF CHICAGO DEPARTMENT STORE VICTIMS OF LOW WAGES AND ARE HELD DOWN BY SPYING SYSTEM By S. M., Worker Correspondent. Working conditions at Hillman’s department store, at State and Madi- son streets, are most unbearable, according to the story told to the writer by a young girl employe of that store. “We are being paid the most miserable wages. The majority of us are being paid from ten to fourteen dollars a week—six full days of hard labor. The store is flooded with supervisors and spies who are constantly and diligently watching every one of our+ ae moves,” my informant said. “Even in our minutes of rest we are not allowed to \talk to each other.” Must Dress Well—How? “We are constantly being reminded that we must come down to work dressed neatly and becomingly. How- ever, we can hardly afford to buy a new dress or pair of shoes every month or so, receiving low wages.” “Most of our employes, young girls and young boys, come from poor parents who cannot afford to keep them at high school or college, and their meager earnings go to mak up the most substantial part of their parent’s living budget. Afraid to Talk, “We are afraid to discuss the in- tolerable working conditions amongst ourselves, lest the manager learn about it thru the medium of a spy, with the consequent result of being fired, “The other day, one of our girl employes was badly scalded by an exploded coffee container. The suf- ferer writhed in great pain, and the management was compelled to take her’ immediately to a hospital, To save the victim’s life the doctor or- dered a skin transplantation. Some of our employes dared to express the view that our employers ought to compensate the victim as she will probably be crippled for the whole of her life, The critics were imme- diately discharged.” “Who pays the hospital bills?” asked my informant. “The employe: she answered. “The company has a sick fund, made up from half dollars deducted from our weekly pay.” from the office—the company was losing money; wages had to be cut. Lay Off Workers. While men who were getting from $3.20 to $3.80 a day were laid off, Filipinos were put in their places at $2.50 a day. Filipinos Strike, This change operated for a month. One noon the Filipinos walked out, about fifty of them. This gummed the works for a while, but news of the strike and the vacant jobs spread, and high school boys, and a flock of kids from god knows where, came flocking in for the vacated jobs, in whose rear arrived a young army of unemployed, Needless to say, the strike was lost, and in a very few days the Filipinos could be seen every morning standing at the gate, in the rain, waiting to be put back to. work, When a worker was huft, he was taken up town, maybe he would get Prompt treatment, and maybe he wouldn't for the doctors who did the company work were also hop-heads, and seldom were found in their of- fices, or in a condition to do respons- {ble work, yet a dollar a month was taken from the workers’ pay for medical treatment, and taken even if a man worked only a day. The company paid but once a month and held back ten days’ pay; however, a worker could draw on the twenty-fifth, providing his application was in by the twentieth, Filthy Conditions, I have too much respect for the English language to describe the un- sanitary conditions to which the men were exposed, and I have often wond- ered that it must have been an act of providence that a typhoid fever epidemic escaped and did not con- DON'T FORGET CLASS IN WORKER CORRESPONDENCE TONIGHT AT DAILY OFFICE Don’t forget the class in worker correspondence that meets Friday night at 6:30 o’clock in the edi- torial offices of The DAILY WORK- ER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd, Any workers who have not joined ‘the class are urged to do so tonight in order that they will not miss im- portant sessions, All members are urged to be on time In order that the evening’s ‘work can be completed according to schedule. WORK OVERTIME OR YOU HAVE NO JOB, SAYS BOSS Workers Call. This Shop “Siberian Prison” By a Worker Correspondent. WILKINSBURG, Pa., ‘Dec. 9.—The Wm. J, Miller Machine Co, is located in Swissvale, Pa. This is the work- ’ schedule: Start at 7 a. m.; quit at 5:30 p, m.; half hour for lunch; start overtime 5:30 p. m.; quit for the day 9:30 p.m. Overtime paid for at straight time, Siberian Prison, A “fine” place to work. It is called “Siberian prison,” because the only warm spot in the building is the boss’ office, beside the furnace. One must speed like hell to keep warm, and one, out of the total of workers that work there does not/cough and sneeze; the rest of them have bad colds. Some quit on account of the cold. Some got fired for getting sick, and Jay Kay was fired for refusing to work overtime, A “Good” Boss. The boss had asked him to work overtime on Monday. He had refused. On Tuesday, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Jay Kay said, “9,” The boss, being a “good” boss, gave Jay Kay a chance for three more days, every evening asking him to work over. One Wednesday evening the boss asked, “Why don’t you want to work over? Don't you want to make money?” “IT can't work 14 hours per day, boss. Ido not want to dle in a year. Ten hours per day is too much, as it is, Please don’t make it any worse,” answered the worker. And that was the end of it—the job was cursed good-bye. , Jay Kay had his tool box and his last pay before he left the plant that night. “You don’t want to work, eh? You get the hell out. We want good men that like to work,” was the boss’ farewell, “I wonder how long workers would submit to these inhuman conditions when they get organized? I wonder?” sald Jay Kay, “The pen is mightier than the oword,” provided you know how to use it. Come down and learn how in the worker we clases, THE DAILY Lee eae =. THIRD PRIZE WINNER. PAPER STRIKER RECALLS BATTLE OF UNION IN 1916, Methods of Bosses Have Not Changed By (H,/ZALKIN (Worker Gorrespondent) NEW YORK, Dee. 9.—‘Hin khodosh takhas hashemeshe—“There is nothing new under the:sun!” This ancient Hebrew saying’ could certainly be ap- propriately used?When it comes to the treatment of strikers. The Paper Box Workers in the pres- so struggle against their greedy ex- ploiters, which is; in the tenth week, are treated by the whole capitalistic paraphernalia—the police, the courts, etc.—as brutally inhuman as ever be- fore, Recalls1916 Strike. The following ‘is ‘a characteristic in- stance of the strike of the Paper Box Workers in 1916: The Paper Box Workers’ Union was in its infancy ‘at that time, and only a few box makers—the more enlight- ened ones—belonged to it. The work- ers in the paper box trade were the most underpaid, the most overworked, the most mistreated, and they worked in the filthiest and very dangerous fire traps. The union was trying hard to bring the box makers together and to organize them. So meetings were frequently held, untjl finally it was decided to call a general strike as the only and better way to organize the unorganized, and at the same time to improve by it, as much as possible, the horrible conditions in the trade. The call to the general strike was answered by Many, but still many more had. to bejtaken down by special strike committees. However, it was not an easy task! In some places this could not be accomplished very smoothly and peacefully, as some bosses, foremen and specially hired strong men (gorillas) for protection, were not a bit ciyil with the commit- tees. Police, Swarm In. One day, soon after tWé strike broke out, we were péatefully picketing on Green street, Marcer St. and Wooster St., where the main box-making trade is situated. Tho§e streets were actual- ly covered by @ théertul mass of strik- ing girls and ‘boys! Women and men. But all of a sudden, at every corner of the above mentioned streets squads of policemen, with clubs ready for work, made thelr-appearance. At first they did not interfere, and picketing continued peacefully, However, a little while later a captain of the police was seen passing fromm one squad to the other, apparently giving orders, be- cause soon after we were told to keep on moving, and were not too gently pushed by the cops; they used their clubs quite freely while doing the pushing. No one was allowed to stop even for a second, The pickets would be shoved to a side street, and those who would try to return would be severely clubbed and arrested. Lasted Long. The struggle lasted quite a while, as the peacefully picketing strikers were reluctant to give in to the brutal force of the keepers of “law and order,” but at last they realized the fact that it was useless as it Was an uneven fight. Only the triumphant heroes—the po- lice—now remained on the battle field! But even later on it could be seen now and then how one or two of the “law and order” men would run after and chase off a fellow or girl who sneaked by the “watch dogs.” Gurley Flynn Takes Message efense to Denver Workers and their friends, at Waiters’ Hall here on the subject ‘of the arrested and persecuted Passaic strikers and on labor defense in’ general. In her address $he gave a review of various outstanding cases in which labor leaders were persecuted, dating | from the Moyer-Haywood case down to the Sacco-V: how in each cag@ labor wi in an effort for defending the per- secuted labor leaders, but, that up until | the past year no permanent defense ; organization has existed, but now the I, L, D, is organized and is arousing the working class to the necessity of defending their fellow workers. She told of the various sedition laws en- acted during the past decade and urged the audience to do all in their power to have them repealed, The meeting was held under the auspices of the I. L. D. and after the audience had paid an admission of 25 cents, they donated Uberally for the arrested Passaic strikers, On Monday evening she spoke on the subject of “The Feminist Move- ment” at the Rewver Lyceum under the auspices of theLadies’ Educational Club, which gave @ tea in her honor. e.tns »Aige *” i? JUNIOR ATHEIST ORGANIZATION IS CAUSING ‘UPROAR Rochester Newspapers Are Wailing By a Worker Correspondent. ROCHESTER, N. Y., Dec. 9. — Re- ligious beliefs of Rochester school children stood in jeopardy following the discovery that the Améfican As- sociation for the Advancement of Atheism is assisting Rochester stu- dents to organize a junior section of the organization, thus wails the local press, That there is no choice between present day religions, tha one is as asinine as the other, and that’ the present day cfturch and religious customs ate ‘merely survivals of pagan worship with all its accom- panying superstitions and fears; fur- ther, that the idea of creation is illo- gical, as the study of anthropology refutes it, that the theoty of heaven and hell, the bad going to hell while the good go to heaven to watch the damned roast, is only a means of compelling the practice of morality thru fear, ete., such were the opinions expressed by Franklin Inglis, 17, and Harold Glidden, 16, students at West High School, and officers of the new- ly formed society, to be known as the “Devils Angels Society.” Altho concerned about the possible reaction of their parents and the of- ficials of the West High School, these youths are making preparations for the further dissemination of liter- ature, including an open letter to the student body setting forth the prin- cipals of the society. The following quotation from Mark Twain is a sample of the nature of their propaganda: “As God who could make good, children as easily as bad, yet prefers to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy yet never made a single one happy; who made them prize their bitter lives yet stingily cut them short; who gave his angels eternal happiness, unearned, yet requires his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives yet cursed his other children with biting mis- eries of body and'mind; who mouths justice and invented hell—who mouths golden rules and forgiveness multiplied seventy-seven times and invented hell; who mouths morals to other ‘people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibilities for man’s acts upon man himself, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon him- self; and finally with divine obtuse- ness invites this poor abused slave to worship him, In discu8sing the possible attitude that the faculty of the school will take in relation to them they express- ed the opinion that they will receive sympathy if not actual support from the professors. Experience, however, has proven that the capitalists will not pay professors for supporting atheism, and consequently, if the pro- fessors prize their jobs these youths will quickly become disillusioned in this respect. Fundamentalists in No. Carolina Would Ban Darwin in School By a Worker Correspondent. CHARLOTTE, N. C., Dec. 9.—The call has gone forth for fundamentalists to meet here December 9, to reconsti- tute the committee of 100 and lay plans for fighting the teaching of the theory of evolution in the public schools of North Carolina. Definite plans will be made for the influencing of the state legislature, which meets in January to pass laws to curb the teaching of evolution in schools and other publid institutions. 500 workers are sending news of their lives, the job, and their unions to Tue DAILY WORKER. These workers are organized in many cities—and they issue a small newspaper of their own! FAEBICAN WoRKER. CORRESPONDENT ARG 1 at re = We Fen, Re, Sime Pens 6 tome The American Worker Correspondent 1113 W. Washington || Chicagoy i. ; teq ‘Te i Wai ik oh dein Sie The Manager’s Corner An Ocean of Words. More than 11,000,000 words have been sent from Somer- ville, N. J., to the various newspapers in connection with the Hall-Mills murder trial, according to reports received from the Western Union Telegraph company. This does not include the thousands of words sent by press associations over THEIR OWN LEASED WIRES. We have 2,293 dailies and 13,383 weeklies which are con stantly turning out this stuff. The circulation of the American dailies was 33,777,327 in 1921. In New York City the circula- tion of the daily newspapers was 2,597,914 in the morning and 2,384,571 in the evening in 1923. In Chicago the daily circula- tion wag 1,219,417 in the morning and 1,155,595 in the evening for the same year. Who pays for the 11,000,000 words in the Hall-Mills case? Who pays for this tremendous circulation? The purchase price of the average newspaper will not pay to cover the cost of the paper, let alone the labor involved. The question is answered by examining the books of the newspaper publishing houses, which show that out of about $800,000,000 received by these or- ganizations in 19 $580,937,741 was received for adpertising, NEARLY THREE-QUARTERS OF THE ENTIRE SUM. In other words, THREE-QUARTERS OF THE COST OF PUB- LISHING THE AVERAGE NEWSPAPER IS BORN BY BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS, by direct. support from the capitalists themselves. And what is the message which they bring home along with the Hall-Mills murder cases and the like? WORK HARDER! BUY MORE! WORK HARDER! BUY MORE! The average worker is literally drowned in this ocean of words. Only the most intelligent and clear-headed worker is able to keep his balance under this avalanche of type. Such @ worker realizes the tremendous power of the forces working to confuse and mislead him, and he realizes further the vital neces- sity of a labor organ. He gives his time, energy and money, to the support of such a paper. Are you one of these? BERT MILLER, —— A Chicago CONCERT AND DANCE to KEEP THE DAILY WORKER / Step over to enjoy the Russian Buffet with samovar, chai and other good thinge. HEAR I. Dobkin, baritone Zina Skvirskaya, pianist Ivan Polkov, baritone SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11 WORKERS' HOUSE, ~~ - Manya Maller, soprano Lyda Berline, violinist Mennie Marschak, pianist 1902 W. Division Street Admission 50 Cents Debate of the Century! “Is Capitalism a Menace to Democracy” SCOTT NEARING Enough Said! J. E. LEROSSIGNOL Professor of Economics in University of Nebraska; well-known author of anti- socialist books. CHICAGO FORUM Sunday Afternoon, December 19, at 3 o’clock ORCHESTRA HALL (For This Debate Only) All Seats Reserved—$1.00, 75c and 50c Tickets on sale at Box Office and at Workers’ Book Store, 19 So, Lincoln St. ie oh “NO!” WHAT ARE YOU—SLOVAK OR AN AMERICAN? Att you are American read the fighting labor daily paper—The DAILY WORKER, If you cannot read English, subseribe to the only Czecho- slovak workingclass daily paper in the United States and Cana THE DAILY ROVNOST LUDU 1610 W. 18th Street, Chicago, Ill. Subscription rates: By mail $6 a year; for Chicago $8 a year, GINSBERG’S Vegetarian Restaurant 2324-26 Brooklyn Avenue, LOS ANGELES, CAL. ETHEL AND JOS. VAVAK Teachers of Violin and Piano IN PHILADELPHIA ee There are only two places to coledaied Oe ae: SUNNYSIDE 8472 Hartung’s Restaurant salva 610 Spring Garden St. 1146 MONTROSE AVE,, Home Open from 6. a. m. CHICAGO Cooking. eT pm bigae