The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 15, 1927, Page 5

‘predominantly black, > ueneidieutiininensensinearengsegeenianees f. THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, DA » MARCH 15, 1927 Page Five Variety of Bad Conditions| BOSSES’ WEAPON YOUNG HELPERS’ MakeManhattantheMost| AGAIN USED BY CosmopolitanofBoroughs| THE RIGHT WING Negroes Gouged By White Landlords Who Exploit Race Prejudice; Upper Classes - Pay Least Percent - The wages and rentals in Manhattan are compared in today’s article by Will de Kalb, housing investigator for The DAILY WORKER. Tomorrow’s summary will review conditions in the Bronx, By WILL DE KALB. Manhattan is the most cosmopoli- tan of the five boroughs that com- prise-Greater New York, and it is here we find the greatest number of housing evils. In the community survey, con- ditions were analyzed in ten districts. It is important to note that each one of the ten districts had a situation peculiar to itself, It 1s also impor- tant to note that in the ten sections, which include the filthiest slums in the city as well as the finest residen- | tial centers, the percent of wages| spent for rent range from 25 per) cent. to 41 per cent—and that in| most cases, the largest figure applies | to the poorer sections, and the small-| est, to the richer. | Manhattan Workers Most Gouged. The average weekly wage in Man- hattan is $37. The average rental) is $47, ten. dollars more, which is 31] per cent of the wage. This is the/ largest figure in the city, with Queens a very close second. | The statistical table of wages and; rentals in Manhattan, which follows, | proves very conclusively that the| rent-gouging landlord not only raises | the rents to the highest possible fig- ure as.a matter of economic principle, but in settlements where people of one race or nation gather to overcome racial prejudice, he raises the rents beyond that limit as an extra pre- mium. | Wage and Rental Table, East Side ..... $24 $32 30 West Harlem .. 40 55 40 Wage Rent Per cent | Watleng. «03:0: «'s 35 50 35 North Harlem . 30 50 41 East Harlem .. 28 57 24 Yorkville ..... 34 45 384 Washington Hts. 60 26 Inwod 60 26 Lower West Side oss eis 39 30 West Side 42 29 Manhattan TORRE Poo o oia's:o hia $37 $47 31 Forty-one per cent-of the North Harlemites’ wages are paid out for rent! Fifty dollars a month is the average rental! What are the un- derlying causes that result in this tremendously large figure? Negroes Pay for Isolation. | North Harlem is the largest Negro community in the north, All the Negroes that were forced, by eco- nomie depression, to migrate north from the south, are isolated by racial prejudice in this section. Before the section changed from a predominantly white status to one the average rental was thirty seven dollars. The! moment apartments came into de- mand by the inflowing horde of col- ored people, rents began to climb, white tenants were forced to leave by thé rent-greedy landlords, and the fifty dollars rental came into vogue. | * Measures were taken by North Harlem landlords, who are for the, most part white people, to keep the | colored man isolated above 125th| Street. The section was too small to accomodate the large number. of Negroes coming to New York, so apartments became scarce. When the Negro tenant desired repairs or im- provements, he was told to “get out if he didn’t like it.” Colored agents were employed by the white landlords, and given in- structions to mise the rents up to : DENTISTS Tel, Orchard 3783 Strictly by Appointment DR. L. KESSLER SURGEON DENTIST 48-50 DELANCEY STREET Cor, Eldridge St. New York Tel, Lehigh 6022. Dr. ABRAHAM MARKOFF SURGEON DENTIST Office Hours: 9:30-12 A, M. 2-8 P. M, Daily Except Fri and Sunday, |! 249 BAST 115th STREET. (Yor. Second Ave. New York. . Mindel Dr. L. Hendin rgeon Dentists 1 UNION SQUARE Room 803 Phone Stuyv. 10119 Dr. TO OUR MUTUAL INTEREST Have your teeth cared for by a fellow union man, a member of I, T, U. No, 4 for the past 10 years, card No, 91634, EXAMINATION FREW, Special Consideration on» showing ) union card, D. Dressler Dr. SURGEON DENTIST Oth St. cor, Bed Ave, New York Entrance 4 Stuyvesant St. Tel, Orchard 4559. fis highly |thus far been attempted-by the league, | thereafter every Friday evening at its the limit fixed by *the emergency rent laws, He «was instructed to| browbeat the members of his own| race, in ignorance by his oppressors | of the southern cotton aristocracy. He succeeded, and conditions in the Black Belt became intolerable, as they have continued until this day. | Fifty dollars a month! Don’t for! one moment think that the rooms| there are worth half that amount. I! described, to a limited extent, the slums that are prevalent -in the sec- tion. The report of the State House Commission, made recently, verifies that description, and even adds to it. Race Prejudice Lowers Wages. And the average wage of thirty dol- lars is another illustration of the black man’s burden. Racial prejudice has made jobs scarce for the colored | man, foreing him to do menial work. | Even when he does that work, he is| paid less than his white brother, Har- lemites are only able to pay their exorbitant rents by crowing into a few rooms and renting -the remaining ones to boarders. And everyone in the family, father, mother, brother and sister, must work. On the east side, where the average wage is $24, the avérage rental is $32. Unemployment if included, would make the average wage much lower. And all, the workers are not em- ployed the whole year, round. Yet every month the landlord or his agent is on the job, his itching palm upturned on.a level-with his pockets, | and he gets his rent. If he doesn’t, he | gets a warrant,“and the family is put | on the sidewalk. Expenditures for re-| pairs and improvements are unknown | to him. One renting agent showed me how a landlord doubled the price of his in-| vestment in six years on a four story | shack. This is being done throughout | the section. | Rich Man Not Hit by Shortage. | The fact that .in Washington! |Heights and Inwood, the strongholds | of the bouregoisie, only 26 per cent} of the monthly rent is spent for rent, | significant. Here apart- ments are leased by. the year, not} rented by the month. The figures | show that it is the poor man, not the| one who is well off, who is hit by the housing shortage. This is the story of Manhattan, told} ‘not on the platitudinous terms of a Rotarian after-dinner speech, but in| the plain, concrete and startling fig-| ures of wages and rentals, Every visitor to these shores characterizes | New York as the city of “Hustle and Hurry.” I wonder if they realize that New York workers are forced to hustle and hurry, in order to make enough money to exist on. Workers Drama League To Produce Toller’s The Machine Wreckers The Workers’ Drama League, which recently produced Carl. Wittfogel’s “The Biggest Boob in the World,” | and before that, Michael Gold’s “Money,” has begun working with | “The Machine Wreckers,” by Ernst Toller, This is the biggest thing that has and in order to carry the production through successfully, the cooperation of newcomers as well as that of the old members must be gotten. Com- vades who can act, paint settings or posters, or do other work in connec- tion with the play are invited to join the league, which will meet on Wed- nesday, March 16, at 8 p. m,, and| headquarters, 64 Washington Square South, LOS ANGELES, Calif.—After an intensive organization campaign among the studio workers of Los An- geles, who embrace 75 per cent of all the workers in the motion picture in- dustry, plans for a strike were sud- denly called off by the New York headquarters of the international unions involved with the announce- ment of an agreement made with the Tellez On Way Back To U. S; Not True He Has Been Fired MEXICO CITY, Match 14.—Man- uel C. Tellez, Mexican ambassador to the United States was on his way back to his post at Washington to- day, following his week’s sojourn here, during which time he con- ferred with President Calles and Foreign Secretary Saenz repeatedly, presumably concerning aden: American relations. When Ambas- sador Tellez first left Weihlakion for here it was freely reported in the United States that he had been recalled. Oi if vsale of Irish Republic bonds, Italian Workers Served With Injunction Pursuing their police: workers in their efforts to gain con- trol of the union, the, fdrces of Sig- }manism have resorted, to another in-| ladies served. The chairladies of the two largest Italian shops have been served with injunctions, obtained by Luigi An- tonini, czar of the Italian Local 89, restraining them from collecting the dues of the workers. Ida Isacoff and Maria Costa of the H. Rentner shop at 49 Seventh Avenue and Jenni Grassi of the Sheer Fanton shop at 229 West 36th street were the chair- laidies served. Injunction Habit Growing. These injunctions follow closely upon another action in which Antoini attempted to restrain all officers and business agents of the Joint Board from calling meetings, issuing leaf- lets, collecting dues, or in any way assisting workers in their fight against the corrupt influences of Sig- manism. “As the revolt within. the Italian locals against the mal-administra- tors in office grows greater, they re- | sort to such means as an injunction. | to attempt to check it,” said Louis Hyman, manager of the Joint Board, | and one of those enjoined. + * # Pickets Arrested. Louis Rosenthal and Esther Kush- [ner were arrested at 336 West 36th | | street during picketing early Monday | morning and charged with disorderly conduct. They paid a $5 fine in Jef- |ferson Market Court. Rosenthal, who! was resisting attack when ‘arrested was beaten by his assailants, gecord- ing to eye gvitnesses. Gangsters were noticably «absent from the cloak and dress centér at the Monday morning picketing. -In the fur district, however, they threatened workers, and C. Yanowitz was attacked at 29th street and Sixth avenue and was later arrested, He was fined $10 in Jefferson Market Court. ¥ ’ Irish Factions Quarrel Over Mohey Raised For The Republican Cause Trial of the suit brought by the Irish Free State government against Eamon De Valera, and against var- ious banking and safe deposit com- panies, to recover $2,500,000 in cash and securities alleged to have been raised in this country by De Valera and his supporters, was begun in su- preme court today. The fund in dispute is the residue of about $6,000,000 realized from, the The Free State contends that it is en- titled to the money and securities as the legitimate successor of De Val- era’s government. The Irish leader and his supporters refuse to honor | the claim, however, some of them con- tending that the money should be |returned to the subscribers, and others insisting that it should remain on déposit pending final- ‘settlement of the Irish question. st @ Renew Wage Slashes in Paterson, N, J. Mill PATERSON, N. J., March 14. — Wage slashes have begun anew in the Garfinkle and Ritter underwear factory in Paterson., This policy comes within a week | of the return of the girls to work af- ter five weeks strike in protest to former wages cuts. The girls re- turned to work without an agreement and without membership cards in thé LL.G.W.U., with nothing more as a working basis than vague proniises of the boss that wages would be raised and conditions improved. Since the strike leaders have been subjected to petty persecution of all kinds, various improvements in con- ditions which were promised have not been made, and now to crown’ it all the wage slashing ‘campaign. against which the girls struck, has been resumed, The girls are anxiously awaiting their membership cards which the LL.G.W.U, promised them about four weeks ago. Some of them are ‘get- ting restive under the delay and won- dering why actual organization is being continually postponed. The news reports in the “New Leader” of Jan, 29, that the shop was entirely organized, are false, since not one girl in the entire shop is .a member of the union, Flora Anna Skin Ointment for PIMPLES, BLACKHEADS, LARGE PORES freckles, rash, itehing skin, eczema or stubborn. ‘skin trouble’ of any Kind wiil be banished by use. of FLORA ANNA SKIN OINTMENT, back guar- $1.00, Sold on money antes, : NEW WAY LABORATORIES 276 Went 48rd St. New York Cit 25% of all sales are donated to The DAILY ORKER. Always The DAILY WORKER on icy of using the | methods of the employ YS against the |, ‘REPORT A BLOW AT SHIPLAGOFF But His Machine Keeps | It Off Floor | (By Worker Correspondent). At a meeting of the Helpers Section | of the International Pocketbook Work- | ers’ Union called for the purpose of | jelecting new officers to the section, | Shiplacoff and his “boys” staged a re- | markably dramatic showing of how to railroad and “capture” a meeting. The business agents and organizers and the “klan” together with shop chairmen who do the klan’s bidding, stationed themselves in strategic po- | sitions throughout the hall, constantly | bulldozing and in most instances fore- | ing the workers to vote their way. | Before the meeting opened, the | strong-arm gang succeeded in throw- ing out one of the most capable and militant workers who would have giv- | en them plenty of “trouble.” Wouldn’t Listen. It is common procedure that when- ever’ a committee or administration goes out of office that it give an ac- counting of its work thru a report jand make its recommendations to the membership. This the whole right wing machine, including “holy” Ship- lacoff prevented, by starting a bar- rage of objections to the reading of | the report ofghe Helpers Committee. . Criti@izes Officials. The Helpers’ Section Committee re: port which Shiplacoff presented from | being read recites that thru pressure by the helpers’ section, wages have beén fixed at around $30, and some | sort of recognition gained. It con- démns the union officials for not ren- | dering aid in the hard fight of the young workers in the union, and rec- | | »mmends that they take a real inter- | est in the general helpers and packers. | It recommends regulations as to the | number of learneis admitted, and the | terms of apprenticeship, and al8o de- | mands the right to have a sub-com | mittee of helpers meet with the pock- | |atbook makers committee and consult with it over the change of helpers’ books and pocketbook makers’ books. Officials Lax. The helpers’ section of this union Is composed of young workers. Des- nite the fact that these young work- | | ers pay pretty near as much dues as ‘he adult workers and are supposed to enjoy all the rights of the union, they are terribly exploited. Throughout the year the administra- tion of the union completely ignores the complaints and the needs of the young workers and does nothing to 'DO THEATRE-GOERS APPROVE OF MISS FONTANNE’S EXPOSURE OF LEGS IN “PYGMALION”? A SCENE FROM “PYGMALION” Lynn Fontanne as the center of duction of “Pygmalion”. On the left is J. W. Austi the gentleman on the right. . 8 People who have 1 George Bernard Shaw’s satir: 'ygmalion” in book form, and those who intend to view it at the Guild Theatre during the week March 21 to 27, for the henefit of THE DAILY WORKER, will observe that the famous Irish playwright has described Eliza Doo- little as a bashful, prudish girl, who hangs a towel over the. mirror in Pro- fessor Higgin’s bathroom because he thinks even the most private ex- posure of her figure was wrong and indecent. And yet, as a critic has remarked, Miss Lynn Fentanne who portrays the part of the flower-girl, plays with shameless bare legs in the second act. Eliza, aceording to Shaw, shrunk from nudit: f vays and even had a mind to break the look- ing glass that reflected her ankles and calves, Nevertheless, without sanction from stage directions, Miss | Fontanne undresses Eliza from the iknees up and downward cavorts her- self about in the brazen revelations of a long, loose kimona. Little doubt is expressed in the thought that if haw saw his carefully moulded pro- duct, Eliza, showing her modest shanks to Broadway under the au- spices of the Theatre Guild, he might severe his relations with that institu- tion and form a new alliance with a more conventional producer. Readers of The DAILY WORKER, who will®see “Pygmalion” during the benefit week will have ample oppor- tunity of forming their personal im- pressions as to whether the Guild has stepped off the beaten. track by better their conditions. Ben Gold to Address Hungarians; to Rally Forces for Struggle Hungarian needle trades workers | will review the situation in their in- | dustries and make plans for the con-| tinuation of the struggle against right wing labor fakers Thursday evening at the Hungarian Home, 370 Fast 8ist Street. Ben Gold, furrier representative of the joint board, will address the meeting. Hungarian workers, who constitute one of the most militant elements in the left wing movement, will reor- ganize their forees for the fight for} the preservation of their unions. leader, and a) cloakmakers’ | Last of Famous Boats) Saved in Quick Rescue WOODS HOLE, Mass., March 14.—| The four-masted schooner Alice Pen- dleton, last of the once famous fleet} of Pendleton sthooners, had close call early today to joining those that have | gone to Davy Jones locker, when she | grounded off Naushon Island, below Tarpaulin Cove light during a heavy | fog. | Coastguardsmen from the Woods} Hole station pulled her off at high water,” No damage to the vessel was reported, Aimee Finds An Angel. TAMPA, Fla., March 14,—“If the amusement of humanity is important enough to bring into existence an im- | mense system like Keith circuits, the salvation of humanity should be im- portant enough to warrant a plan! such as I suggest,” said E. Howard | Cadle here today in diseugsing a pro- | ject of sponsoring a $100,000,000 re- vival circuit with Aimee Semple Me| Pherson, noted Los Angeles evan- | gelist, as head. Sic MEETING HALLS Booth Phones, Dry Dock #012, 7845, Office Phone, Orchard 9319, Patroniae MANHATTAN LYCEUM Large ings, a Halls With Stage for Moet- Entertainments, Balls, Wed- nd Banquets; Cafetetia. th St. New York, N. ¥, Small Meeting Rooms Always Available. I. KITZIS, Prop. THE ASTORIA Palatial Ballrooms & Dining Rooms CATERING A SPECIALTY | 62-64 E. 4th St New York City, | | Tel, Dry Dock 8306, 8045, 2691, | ‘Paul Raasch, his sister, Mrs. making Eliza’s legs bare in the second act or not. 2 Towans Dead, 9 Ill From Trichina Poison After Eating Sausage BRIDGEWATER, Towa, March 14. —Two farmers im this vicinity are dead and) nine other persons are seri- | ously, ill with trichina poison, con- tracted from eating summer sausage. The dead are Ed. Raasch and Dal- las McDermott. Those ill are Raasch’s brother, Peart Schultz, her husband and their three childen, and Raasch’s uncle, Herman Raasch and his wife. Wilbur Gerlach of Cumberland also is a victim of the | poison. All are reported by physicians to be in a critical condition with the exception of Gerlach, AT THE NEWSSTAND THE CENSOR SAYS: The skirts (if any) must reach half way to the knees at the— NEW MASSES Anti - Ohscenity Cistume Ball WEBSTER HALL 119 E. 11th Street Friday, March 18 at 9:30 Tickets $1.50 Now. At the Door $3.00, By mail from NEW MASSES, Dept. W. 89 Union Square Stuyvesant 4445 or at Jimmie Higgins Book Store 127 University Place. SILK WORKERS OF EASTERN RESIST 23% WAGE SLASH EASTERN, Pa., March 14.—Deter- mined to resist the policy of whole- sale wage slashes instituted in De- cember, employes of the Stewart Silk Company haye gone out on strike. The outcome of their struggle will ‘affect the six or seven thousand workers employed in the silk mills here who have all suffered wage cuts ranging from 13 to 23 per cent since December. Misguided by the propaganda of the employers, the Silk workers have consistently refused to affiliate themselves with the. silk workers’ union, The Associat Silk Work- ers of America, however, is conduct- ing a strenuous campaign to organ- ize the strikers. Company papers have carried: stories about “foreign- jers and red agitators” and have thus far suceeded in keeping the silk attraction in the The: ruild’s = ‘ Prsars : | the Theatte ‘Guild's Pro! ters feom joining the union, in, and Re®inald Mason is CLEVELAND, March 14, — The movie, “Breaking Chains”, which gives the story of the revolution of 1917, and the reconstruction period following, will again be shown in |-— veneers “ Work to Free McCray. WASHINGTON, March 14. — A | Petition bearing the names of 142 of the 150 members of the Indiana leg* islature was presented to President | Coolidge ‘today, requesting a pardon for Ex-Governor Warren T. McCray of Indiana, now in Atlanta federal! Ave, at prison. Gov. Ed. Jackson concurs, scheduled. We Want the “lowdown” | on this | Theatre Guild ——— —Let’s see the ritzy foyer— —Let’s meet the girl with the affected voice —Let’s smoke some of those free cigarettes— Harbor Allen, Daily Worker Dramatic Critic, Writes: Nobody before in the theatre has sold the buncombe of “art” and “European drama” to bourgeois school teachers, clubwomen, culture hounds, and dilletantes on such a grand scale. Almost everything the Guild produces is either “so artistic,” or “so Russian,” or “so German,” or “so French,” that there is nothing you can do but praise it. Unless, of course, you want to show how crude you are, how poor your taste. The Guild shrewdly knows that above all its dilletante audience and its New York sophisticates shudder at the bogey of “poor taste.” From,its ritzy foyer to its free ciga- rettes and the girl with the affected voice who peddles subseriptions during the intermission, the Gulid is,working “good taste” overtime. It brings in the mazuma. | Cleveland on Thursday, March 17, at the Duchess Theatre, it 5708 Euclid originally which was After reading that we feel as we do, after hearing an evangelist describe Hell—we want to go there! Here’s a Wonderful Chance ATTEND THE THEATRE GUILD'S PRODUCTION George Bernard Shaw’s PYGMALION uring THE DAILY WORKER BENEFIT WEEK March 21 to Maych 27 (inclusive) The play may provoke you. The luxury of the theatre nay drive you to tears. You may get mad at Shaw. You nay tear your hair—but anyway, you'll spend a lively evening and have something to discuss when you get home. MOST IMPORTANT: (f you want this benefit week to bring in the mazuma to The DAILY WORKER, and also if you want choice seats, it is absolutely necessary for you to buy your tickets at least three days in advance at The DAILY WORKER of- fice, 108 East 14th Street (Stuyvesant 6584). The DAILY WORKER will not derive one cent benefit from tickets purchased less than three days in advance, or from tickets purchased at the theatre, : BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY