The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 28, 1927, Page 5

| | “YNDERSTANDING” BY SIGMAN AND BOSS A BAD-ONE. But No Dressmakers at His Meeting Anyway As reported by eye-witnesses of the event, Mr. Sigman’s little meeting at Cooper Union on Wednesday night was ‘a pleasant enough affair for those who took nart, and although the gathering had been called to dis- cuss the terms of the dressmakers’ agreement, no one seemed to notice that there was no agreement present. Maybe A “Misunderstanding.” True enough, Mr. Julius Hochman outlined a set of terms which com- prised the “understanding” which the International had reached with the bosses, but as one of the contractors’ | lawyers, Mr. Reuben Tally states, | “much depends on the wording of the written agreement to be worked out next week.” And No Dressmakers, | “There ‘is no agreement,” as Louis Hyman, general manager of the Joint Board, said when asked to comment on the meeting. “And there was no meeting of dressmakers.” Just as Hyman prophesied, there were almost no women at Mr. Sig- man’s meeting. It was supposed to be a meeting of dressmakers ,and the majority of the dressmakers are wo- men, But the majority at Mr. Sig- man’s meeting were husky men; some of them looked like cutters, some of them looked like sluggers. There were not enough to fill the hall even after a committee had gone out at six- thirty and rounded up a delegation. No Respect For Sig.? Manager Antonini of Local 89 kid- ded Sigman about the size of the meet- ing saying, “you have to hand it to the Communists; they can certainly get a meeting when they call one, and we can’t.” But Mr. Sigman said he was not worried; all he needed was to register a few more shops and all would be well. It was Hochman who announced the terms of the “understanding,” and Antonini says he made a pretty poor speech. But since there was really no agreement to present, his talk was only of importance as an indication of what may be expected if the In- ternational does put its name to an agreement. Can You “Understand”? In the “understanding,” (1) the schedule for operators is abandoned; 2) it is stated that the minimum e is $44, but that scale is not guaranteed! (8) A worker’s trial pe- riod: is' stated to be one week, which may be extended to two weeks “by mutual consent of employer and em- ployee’—whatever that means. Ap- parently it actualy means a two Sy JOSEPH ZACK 1% in the heart of New York’s Fifth Avenue and further on near Riverside Drive on vup-town Broadway, conveniently located near the residence and palatial hotels of the upper 5,000, are the couturier es- tablishments that produce the wom- en's, men’s, and children’s wear of | Wall Street's millionaire households. Princely “establishments those are, lenry Bendell’s eighteen stories high, Hickson’s, Inc., fourteen storics high, and many others of similar rank, tueked away in the side streets of this aristocratic Fifth Avenue dis- trict. Within this area are located nearly 20,000 needlé workers of various trades—costume dressmakers, ladies’ « tailors, furriers, millinery, men’s cus- tom tailors, fine children’s clothing, fine lingerie and whitegoods, theatri- cal costumes, ete, Of all these, only Loeal 38, with its 1800 members, and few hundred furriers organized since the left wing assumed office in the Furriers’ union, have any ofgani-< zation with shop control. Otherwise, this is an unorgnized open-shop terri- tory. Replacing Hand Workers, About fifteen years ago these same trades located in this territory em- ployed a much larger. nomber of needle workers, of ladies’ tailors alone there were about 6,000, while now there are only about 15€0, In- dustrial evolution has brought about many changes, The wholesale trade‘ downtown, which at first produced only popular- priced garments, due to the changes of style and simplification of high. NEW YORK LOGAL FUR WORKERS sTaTE CASE MINERS VOTE IN JEWEL WORKERS REFUSE RED HUNT * 7s Delegated Right Wing * Starts Riot Last night’s meeting of Local 1, In- ternational Jewelry Workers’ union where Samuel DB. Beardsley, secre tary-organizer of the local and ally of Morris Sigman, attempted to put the organization on record in favor of ved baiting, broke up in disorder after the socialist clique saw that the majority of the members were not in favor of that policy. The right wing group found out during a test vote taken earlier in the meeting that they would not be able to pass the resoltition indorsed by the. executive board which called for the indorsement of the December 21 meeting of the so-called “confer-| ence for the preservation of trade} unions.” The test vote was 54 to 47) against the red baiting group. | When the meeting was drawing to | a close and Beardsley was speaking, | he made statements. attacking Local 17, a cutter local claiming that the | last strike was leading Communistts } who made agreements’ that- demoral- ized the local worse. I. Cohen, secretary of Local 17. and a member of the district council who | was present asked for the floor to} answer the charges made against his | local, Leon Williams, president, demand-| ed that Cohen leave the hall. Cohen | went to get his coat when Joseph} Smith, ‘vice-president, stepped on his | foot and attempted to treat him! roughly when prevented from doing) so by other members of the local. | Fights then broke’ out in different | parts of the hall and President Wil- liams declated the meeting closed thus saving the right wing from a defeat | by a real expression of the member- ship who had up to that time shown their opposition to policies ef Beards-| Jey, Williams and Company. | Roll in the Subs For The DAILY WORKER. weeks’ trial period throughout the in- dustry. (4) Extra pay for a Satur- day holiday is not mentioned, and therefore is evidently abandoned. All. of these points were discussed last night at a meeting of the Eng- lish-speaking branch of the dressmak- ers local which met. in the local’s audi- torium after work. The members present denounced this betrayal of the workers’ interests, and repudiated any such agreement as well as the International officials who are try- ing to negotiate it. Rum-Running Judge Faces Impeachment WASHINGTON, Jan. 26. — Im- peachment of Federal District Judge Cooper of New York was proposed in a resolution introduced in the hee today by Rep. Celler (D) of New York. Charges against Cooper were based upon the report submitted to the sen- ate by General L. ©. Andrews, dry chief, regarding ‘“under-cover” ac- tivities of the dry unit. Judge Cooper approved rum running by government agents from Canada as a means of entrapping law violators, Celler as- serted. priced garments has adapted itself and. is producing many of the high- priced garments whieh the millionaire Isdies are made to believe have been | hand-made in the uptown couturier establishments, Cheating Customers. In millinéry and costume dresses even, parts of the product that are measure made and fitted on the premises are thade in factories and only the adornments, finishings, and tight fittings are handmade. Even inside the workrooms of these aris tocratic establishments the produc tion methods have changed consider- ably, As against the former meth- ods, where a worker had to be a chanie capable of producing a high garment in its entirety, we now a in seme of the big shops, opera- | tors, finishers, cutters, and in dress shops highly divided section work of | such a nature that girls from the 1x Wi, A., orphan asylums, ete., }ean be inducted into the shops, and the down-town dressmaker, draper, operator, ete., can also find a place. Industry Siekens. It is a sick industry, one that is go-| ing thru a profound transformation in the course of which the number! ef workers employed in som: of the trades has been reduced to “@s than half and is being reduced still more. | This transformation has a double ef- fect upon the composition of the human material employed in the \trade. ‘There is a large influx and exchange of young semi-skilled and unskilled female workers into the un- organized trades where the boss can pire and fire at will. (Continued From Page 1) Laure strike, and because of their | slanderous and malicious attacks | upon the Joint Board since the con- vention. The latest action of the |General Executive Board, expelling Vice-President Gross, of local 5, and | supporting the Greek company union, “The Brotherhood,” against the Joint Board, has greatly agitated our mem- | bers.” | “In addition to this, the collabo- ‘ration of our International officers with Brother Mathew Woll in his re- feent frame-up against the Joint Board, and the refusal of the sub- committee (of the G. E. B.) to fur- nish the necessary supplies to the | Joint Board hag created a serious | state of affairs in New York.” | the Joint Board, that all the locals Postpone Inquiry In Fur Strike Police Bribe Charge (FP).—Several weeks’ delay in the hearing of A. F, of L. data on charges of polie ebribery during the 1926 fur strike has been asked by Mayor James Walker. The mayor intends to make a preliminary inquiry into the evi- | dence on his return from a vacation in Cuba. transcript from Green of testimony taken by the in- vestigating committee. The mayor He has requested a full intends to sit as a committee magis- trate if he thinks the evidence war- rants. jury action any fur strikers or police whom he may find guilty of felony. Mexico, Subject of Lecture Tonight At Bronx English Branch On Friday, Jan, 28, at 8:80 p. m., at No. 611 Bast 140th St. Com. ‘Youkouleff will lecture on the “Sit- uation in Mexico,” under the auspices of Bronx English Branch 1, Workers |Party. All are welcome. Admission free. Come and bring your friends and sympathizers along. Give all you can! 799 BROADWAY Strikers’ Children. PASSAIG STRIKE STILL ON! WE'VE WON IN FOUR MILLS: HELP US BEAT THE REST! GIVE MONEY PLEASE! For Coal for the Strikers’ Homes! - For Bread for their families! They have made a hard fight! Now they are winning! Now you must help more than ever! MAKE VICTORY COMPLETE! Make all contributions by check or money order to Room 225 Get 10¢ Coupons and sell them TO HELP US FEED the NEW YORK CITY It was announced at the office of) which constitute that body, will act on the question of holding a eon-/ vention at their meetings next week. Yearof Left Wing Among Fifth A Petty Bourgeois Ambitions. In organized shops manned by} highly skilled mechanics, where th | staffs must be reduced, the union! either loses the shop in the course of | struggle against the bosses, as at | Milgrom Bros., or there is only short- season employment, and usually the younger element drops out or the! union yields to a reduction of forces} and changes in production methods! in ong form or another. | Thus there remain in the old or-| ganized shops the old-time mechanics,| ach grown into old habits and tradi- | tions, fearful that he may be the next| jone to be thrown out of employment! {as a result of these changes in in-} dustry, and having some savings, not caring for the future of the union} |as long as his immediate job is not! ‘endangered. Another few years and} he may have enough saved to go into! some small business, some have in vestments in various kinds of b’ |ness even now. This is the predom-| jinant type amongst the organized! |mechanics, the old-timers in the | trade. | About Three-Quarters Lost. There are only about 800. of them) in the trade out of about 3,000 once) in the tailors’ union, and out of these! there are about 300 that work in modernized shops. Itewas for years the habit of this union, whose mem- bers work in establishments full of unorganized needle workers of the) same trade, working on wraps, gowns, dresses, to get conditions for} themselves at the expense of these! unorganized highly exploited female} workers, on the promise that they would not attempt to organize them. | MASS AGAINST _ LEWIS TAX PLAN | | Majority Turns Lewis Down; Vote Miscounted INDIANAPOLIS, ‘Jan, The miners’ convention’ shook its fist in the fate of the Lewis machine today and defeated it on the issue of giving the International Executive Board/ unrestrained power to levy ‘special! national assessments at will. The} anthracite rose in solid opposition,| | arguing that if the check off, prom-! ised in the 1925 agreement were put) into effect, the. organization would have all the money it needed. | Suspicion that‘the present Lewis) ;crowd cannot be’ trusted with the millions it now spends, much $s | | Vv YORK, FRIDAY, JA |in the combined local, the | RY 28, 1927 e. In the last few to the extraordinary simplificdtion of tyles, the female workers at $20 per eek became strong competitors, and were used by the employers to do the} very work the proud: ladies’ tailors| thought could only be done by them} at $55 per week. This went so far that several firms practically cut out their tailoring departments or cut} them down to cnly a few tailors. | 2 i ded the win- ter season of the ladies’ tailors by the change in Styles towards rich fur| coats instead of winter coats made| of cloth, Left Wing Arrives, This is the situation the left wing found when it started to work among} these fashionable Arment work The first step was to bring the re- maining locals of ladies tailors and costume dressmakers together, which was done through the team-work of the T, U. E. L. groups in both locals.} The two local amated, having} a combined membership of about one thousand. In the ensuing elections ing! won out by about 50 votes supported by the majority of the Italians who are organized in a separate secti The program on the basis of whic! the left slate went into office 1. Aggressive drive to organize the| trade, particulariy the costume dress- makers, 2. Affiliation with the joint board on the basis of recognition of sep-| arate agreement for couturiers’ trade.! 3. Forty-hour week, increase in and other left wing demand seon as we went, int d that our I years, however, due offic Ladies Garment Worker T.U.E.L. Members Meet Saturday In New York! A meeting of all members of the Needle Trades Section, T. U. BE. L. who belong to the International Ladies Garment Workers’ union will | be held Saturday, J: 9 at Man- hattan Lyceum, 66 East 4th St. The meeting has been arranged by the National Committee of the Needle Trades Section, T. U. E. L. and all members of the I. L. W. U. must present as matters of great im portance will be discussed. It will be held in the big hall, FUR WORKERS’ NEWARK LOCAL RAIDED BY COPS + on, lies not support this pr They obstructed the engagement women organizer to start the organi- zation drive among the dressmakers, and insisted on having an Italian or ganizer for their 300 Italian members instead, at the expense of the com-| bined local, which meant at the ex- pense of the dressmakers, thousands} of whom were unorganized. We } st considerable time haggling over this} question, which involved our entire| program, am, a Finally our allies went to Ninfo, their “enemy”, and got his support! in the name of the G. E. B., for their} proposition. thoroly incompetent} and la; of ours became the Italian From that time the le of the Italian, our former allies, began to work in the sneakiest fashion, ala Antonini, with| ‘ the right wing. This delayed our or- gan ion program considerably, Finally, about six weeks before the| expiration of the agreement, having red Juliet Stuart Poyntz as or- gan started a smashing or-} ganization drive, open air meetings, new leaflets every three or four days, “boring from within” by rank and! file organizers in the unorganized] hops, special publicity, shop meet- ngs of the unorganized, etc. It was a drive with the punch tha only a left wing leadership could give. There never was such a thing in this} territory. The drive was conducted in the name of three big needle} trades unions a: a joint drive, and Itho these tunions only lent their names, we gave it an appearance of | reat struggle. | (To be Continued To-morrow) WALKER T0 SIT IN BOX STRIKE NEGOTIATIONS Citizens’ Committee Is | Arranging Conference r, we t | jn Page Five Needle Workers Sik ‘LOONEY Ghs VICTIMS TO GET $350,000 BALM Standard Oil Settles After Long Fight NEWARK, months of litiga a Company of New Jersey has agree to settle out of court for $350,000 six of the damage suits brought by form- er employ who were poisoned: in October, 1925 by tetraethyl gas, Charles W. Brown, attorney for the men, announced today. Five men died and thirty-five oth- r ned by the so-called as” at the Baywater, N. J. f Standard Oil more than ago. When a new refining was installed, the Standard s of any regard velfare of their 2 no attempt to find em that would dis- After process Oil offic for the empl a v pose of mous it gener- ated. This ne nce on the part of the notorious. cc of over forty v dignation w aimed a toll ms until public in- ised and the com- dd to employ chemical engineers to remedy the condition. Six of the men filed suits last sum Y and the case was fought until new, when the settlement came. The men have been unable to work since the poisoning, and in most eases it completely ruined their health, mak- ing chances for recovery remote. The yas derived its name from the fact that the victims were temporarily driven ravingly insane from its ef- fects. Health Bureau Active. The agitation was largely organ lized by the Workers Health Bureau, a co-operative labor health enterprise |of many labor unions. Its consulting scientists from Yale and Harvard medical schools exposed the hazards of this new fuel compound not only jto the manufacturing workers whose jnumbers are relatively few but to the hundreds of tho nds of garage me- chanics and chauffeurs who must breathe its leaded fumes as it came A hearing on the paperbox makers strike is to be held next Tuesday, noon, before Mayor Walker at th City Hall, to investigate the eontrov- ersy between the manufacturers and the union. This action as reached through efforts of the Citizens’ Committee who appointed Mr. R. Fulton Cutting and Mr. Louis Marshal in their last meet- jing to interview the mayor, and try te arrange for such a hearing. Mayor Walker hag invited both the manufacturers and the union to send into general use. The American Fed- eration of Labor officially entered in- |to the fight. And at last the Sur- veon General of the United States led a conference of medical scien- tists to consider what must be done. At the § ence the rgeon General's confer- hyl Gasoline Corporat on the defensi | : | found its |corporation is made up of the Stand- ard Oil of New Jersey, the Genera! Motors and Du Pont interests and it was able to bring a number of its s to argue that the haz- ards were slight, in comparison to the benefits to be gained. But the own scient President William | He will then hold for grand with a blank check drawn, by the s Bie . \Reaction Uses Police membership, added to the revelt. On voice vote, the noes rolled through Tomlinson Hall in unmistak-| To Save Grafters able victory, on showing of hands,| the opposition clearly hold the major- NEWARK, Jan. 28,—A committee | ity, but when the administration tel-| Tepresenting the general executive | lers got through counting the~votes,| beard of the Furriers union, consist- | it was. diseovered that the Lewis|ivg of Sorkin Harris and Lucci, to-| gang was given 983 votes to 544 gether with representatives of the against, at least 500 were stolen at Newark police :force, yesterday en- | Secretary Kennedy's table. tered the office of Local! located Y , * | 194° Prince stre N k 1 Demand for a roll call, accom-, 4. 1° Fonte Sieet, EWEEK, Ene panied by a mass demonstration,| demanded that Business Agent M. «| Langer, turn over the keys and all jrecords of the local to them, This demand was refused by Langer. forced the machine to grant thi measure, but the tellers this time] counted only 444 votes, or less than) Conds Ceacilal 20 percent required. Orbe’ ‘onvicted. “Robbery”, “An honest roll call”,, Several months ago former business \“Throw out the teliers”, rang through) agent Milton Corbett, an Interna-} ithe hall but acting president Murray) tional vice-president was brought be- | ruthlessly overrode all demands and, fore sf en ry Meg ton of mis- declared the session adjourned. using the funds of the organization. | The machine, eaek Lee’ Hall he was proven gd had used the Harry Fishwick, Van Bittner and) ocal’s money for his one personal | to stick their hands at will into the | the Kaa of Vingae 7 ieee pockets of the membership. Anthra- of cite delegates, angered at Lewis's! f treachery in failing to secure the) promised check off for them, led the | opposition, | He was found guilty and removed | rom office, the local now having to face a debt of over $5,000 left over} from his administration. At this | time due to the indignation of the | workers, the G. E, B. suspended him | from their committee. j Progressive Elected. | Roll in the Subs For The DAILY WORKER. ‘a committee to this meeting, and has lalso asked for representatives from | {L. It is | the the Central Trades & Labor Council and the local office of the A. F. of so expected that the Cit zen’s Committee will be present. ot Judge. The mayor’ , inviting the employers, was addressed to “Mr. Harry Engel, President and Members of the Greater New York Paperbox Manufacturers’ Assoc 621 | Broadway, and is as fol) “The paperbox makers ike has !now continued for approximately seventeen weeks. [ am not in a po- sition to judge the respective merits of. the controversy, but I a msure struggle should terminate by some concilliatory action for the good ef the community as a whole. I have | been approached by certain disinter- \ested citizens, who stand high in busi- ness, civics and religious circles, and jwho are deeply concerned over the situation. Would Reconcile. “Il am writing to you to Kk that |you send official representatives to! enter into conference with represen- tatives of the employes, whom I am also inviting, and ‘in the presence of leading citizens representing the so- cial, religious and civie force of the community I intend to make an hon- est effort to find a way to reconcile the present controversy and to restore industrial peace. | Langer, a left winger was elected | LABOR DEFENSE BAZAAR CALLS FOR HELP ‘Work for the international labor defense bazaar is being taken up ser- iously by many workers. However, slowly recovering from the position | ‘wing, using the police department as | its ally, tried to regain control by} that method, knowing that by an ap-| still nore help “ie: nevdéd © You are| peal to the membership it would not | | be successful, ‘ | Hdmi Peseta es | The recent session of the G. E. B.} defense. ‘held in Montreal, white-washed Cor- Class war prisoners and their de-| ett and brought charges against pendents look to you for help. Are Langer and the left wing executive they going to look in vain? board claiming that they had éland- Meetings of the bazaar committee ¢ted Corbett. They also suspended are being held every Sunday at 2 p.| Langer for writing an article in the m., in Manhattan Lyceum, 66 East|/Jewish Daily Freiheit, in which he 4th Street, New York. ‘There are| hed exposed the dishonesty of the| only six more weeks till the bazaar,| Corbett Mdministration, and how it Those organizations who have not|W% shielded by the G. EB. B. yet sent delegates should do so im- mediately. No time can he lost. Make the bazaar the greatest ex- pression of class solidarity New York has ever, seen. All workers must join in the work no matter to what organization they give support. The I. L. D. is an international or- ganization and its membership is all embracing. All together workers, We must raise $10,000. ; It can be done with your help. ' | Stolberg Tonight at Workers’ School. Benjamin Stolberg, writer on eco- nomic subjects, opponent of the pro: gram of the left wing in the trade unions, who believes that the devel- opment of trade union capitalism has robbed the left wing program of all realistic basis, will speak tonight at the Workers School, 108 E. 14 St.,| at 8 p. m. on the subject of “Vested Interests in the Labor Movement.” | Next Friday night, February 4, Theresa Wolfson will speak on “The Roll in the Subs For The DAILY | Woman Worker and the Trade Un- a) ER. i preside over the council, which has at 12 o'clock noon. “Very truly yours, “James J, Walker, Mayor of New| York.” * Policemen’s Wives Seab. It came to light yesterday that two of the women scabs in the World| Paper Box Co. shop at 103 Green | street are the wives of members of | the police force of this city, Officer No, 1496 of Precinct No. 1, and .an- other cop apparently are not satisfied | that the New York police force has | been used for the past seventeen weeks | to beat up and scab it on the strug- | glin gpaper box strikers, but find it | necessary to show their devotion to the interests of their masers by send- ing their own wives in to scab‘on the | striking paper box girls. Whether other cops are also doing likewise has not yet been ascertained. New School Buildings Authorized by Board The Board of Education in to- day's meeting authorized the con- struction of five new school. build- ‘ings, three for Brooklyn and one each for the Bronx and Queens. om s “In my absence, the honorable Jo- | t 0 y as the new business agent of the lo-| seph V. McKee, as acting mayor of | Other Standard -Oil survivors ‘are jcal and under his leadership it was the city of New York, has accepted to bringing suits totalling nearly a mil- | lion. | Corbett had left it in, when the right |been called for Tuesday, Jan. Sist,| thing more—but how about the gar- age mechanics who breathe the gas? l people’s case as presented by Secre- itary Be of the Metal Trades de- !partment, the directors of the Work- ‘ers Health Bureau and associated and triendly scientists carvied the day for | the ‘time. What's A Few Deaths? The company, backed to the wall, pleaded that the deaths of a few workers were a small price to pay for the advantages of an “anti-knock” compound that meant more miles to the gallon and conservation of oil resources. But at the end of the dis- cussion the company agreed that | manuf: re would not be resumed ° until a report of seven scientists to j be appointed by the Surgeon General should be made public. Labor had won the first round, but tnot the-second. The report permitted the manufacture and distribution of the new fuel compound if certain re- strictions’ should be followed. And there was one of the jokers in the deck. The restrictions in the use of | the fuel are not being observed, Poison Everywhere. And tetraethyl lead treated gaso- line is coming into general use. It is the People versus the Ethyl ) Gasolil Corporation—that is the Peopl rsus Standard Oil, General | Motors and Du Ponts. And all the people have gotten out | of it so far is the $350,000 settled on six health-ruined laboratory workets. Perhaps they will get some- Jersey Judge Lets Passaic Strikers Go On Bail of $15,000 (Special To The Daily Worker.) PASSAIC, N. J., Jan. 27.—Thomas Reegan and Joseph Toth, two of the Passaic strikers who have been held in jail for the last few months charged with bombing the homes of seabs, were released on $15,000 bail each today in the Hackensack court. It is expected to obtain the re- lease on bail of the other strikers within a few days. New York Federation _ Tries for State Fund With the support of the New York Federation of Labor, democrats have introduced a bill in the upper and lower houses of the state legis- lature at Albany, calling for the cre- ation of a state workmen’s ‘eompen- sation fund and the elimination of private insurance companies from the industrial casualty field. ‘