The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 4, 1927, Page 8

Review of Conditions of Working Women in the U.S. A. (Ending of 1926 and the beginning of 1927.) IN THE DOLL INDUSTRY employing about 5,000 women in New York City, the employers have de- vised a new scheme for cutting down wages. Every worker is required to sign an agreement that ‘she will not join a trade union and will not strike. As a@ guarantee that she will live up to the agreement 5 per cent of her wages is deducted each week for one year. TOBACCO FACTORY, Perth Amboy, N. J. more , than 200 girls were discharged beca troduction of new mz wv remaining girls were reduced; many ischarged girls were re-employed (in same town) by a men’s shirt factory at $6.00 per week. ASSABET COTTON MILLS in Maynard, Mass. About 600 workers jobless; 200 children in need of relief; Mrs. Crotty, a mill worker, stated that in- stead of 4 quarts of milk per day, the family has to have only one quart. The Crotty baby is 16 months old. use of the in- Drawings by CHAMBERLAIN. SWIFT MEAT TRUST. Since 1921 wages were lowered and hours lengthened. The Company report- ed $15,379,152 profit for 1925. The Swift Meat Packing Company has established a company union. FRUIT & VEGETABLE CANNERIES.” In the State of Pennsylvania, according to the report of the State Department of Labor, practice peonage. Whole families are employed. Actual slavery exists among the workers in these canneries. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY in Schenec- tady, N. Y., reduced wages of its employees since 1918, GOODYEAR RUBBER COMPANY. In the first half of 1926 the workers lost a demand for an in- erease of 12% per cent in wages. The Goodyear profits for 1926 were $26,284,672. A company union exists here. -“ UNDERWEAR. On January 17th, 1927, 350 girls employed by the Garfinkel and Ritter Underwear Company in Patterson, N. J., struck against wage reductions. Most of the strikers are girls between 15 and 17, Many of them showed pay envelopes of less than $5.00 for a week’s work after the new wage reduction took effect. To set the prices for piece work, the employer would select. the speediest worker. Slow workers were placed on Piece basis. Deductions were made from the girls’ wages for the time lost in repairing broken machinery and the girls had to pay a fine when they reported late for work, TEXTILE WORKERS in Passaic. About 12,000 workers (60 per cent women) out on strike against 10 per cent reduction in wages. The average wage before reduction was ~for male workers $18.00 per week and for women $14.75. Average work week 54 to 60 hours. Thousands of mothers doing night work. Grutal police attacks against men, women and children, attempting to force the workers back to work. Courageous activities of women in picket work, THE FARMER’S WIFE. According to Frank 0. Lowden, a member of the Republican Party: “Their earnings (farmers of middle west.—M. C.) including management and family labor, have shrunk from $1570 as an average to $648 a year.” MINER’S WIFE. To keep the family from starva- tion, thousands cf miners’ wives have recently been forced into the Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Pittston, Old Forge, ete., candy, silk, textile mills to work at from $18.00 to $15.00 per week. They must walk two to four miles to and from work every day. BILL FOR 48-HOUR WEEK for women was defeat- ed in New York State. For 12 years organized labor attempted to put thru a 48 hour week bill for women workers. Every year it was defeated. This yezr the 48-hour bill was modified to 4914 hours with 78 hours additional for overtime in busy seasons, and was thus enacted into law. A ecording to the Graphic Survey, “Its various exceptions, inodifications make it hard to apply and complicated to enforce.” The new law effects less than half of the working wo- men in New York State. The Women’s Party op- posed the passage of the bill. This is how the employers got rid of the 48-hour bill. The 48-hour kill in Mlinois has been contin wy ueteated for a number of years. In all other “ses in the U. S. a 48 hour law for women we-s rs exists mostly with exceptions and modifications similiar to the New York law. SOME OF THE 1926-1997 STRIKES. In many of these strikes the workers were bitterly fighting injunctions issued against them, prohibiting them to rightful picketing. Paper Box Makers; Willamantic American Thread Co. workers; Shoe workers; Cloakmakers; Furriers; White Goods workers; Passaic Textile workers; Laun- dry workers; Auto wor ers; and these where no wo- men are employed: Interboro Rapid Transit Com- pany workers; Cap workers; Barbers; Miners, The above are conditions effecting only some of ~ sections of the working women in the United States, CHIED BRIDES. Up to 1926 the lowest age at which a girl was allowed to marry by law, in New York State was 12 years of age. The 1926 Legisla- By MARGARET COWL ture raised this age to 14. Now there is a bill ine troduced -to raise the age to 16, According to the 1920 census, 343,000 girls in the United States married at the ages of from 11 to 15 years. Each year since, the number of child- brides increased. To escape intolerable conditions in homes and to get away from the factory is the reason for most of the early marriages. The men marrying these girls are mostly unskilled workers. The low wages paid to these workers are not suffi- cient to maintain a family, making it necessary for the wife to go back into the factory. The mother occupied in the factory is not able to give attention to the children. The street attracts the children for whom children’s courts and houses of correction are established. Raising the marriage age to 16 will not do away with the cause for the misery of these thousands of child-wives. Only when the govern- ment representing the interests of the employers will be abolished and a Workers’ Government established will the conditions of girls, even tho they will marry at an early age, be made better, It is to the inter- est of working women to cooperate with men work- ers in the struggle for a Workers’ Government. BODIES BY BRIGGS. In the recent fire at the Briggs Body Plant in Detroit an unknown number of men were burned to death. Twenty bodies were recovered. None of the Briggs officials were arrested and no gunboats were sent to protect the interests of American work- men. At the Aute Show: Soft glowing lights in pillared hall, with music softer still, The soothing blend of palm and-rose and golden daffodill, The swirl of fashion’s silken tide, sweet laughter’s vibrant thrill, Dame and mistress gathered there a languid hour to kill. Came through the crowd a money king, silk hatted, boorish, grim, A fur clad strumpet on his arm, her form divinely slim, They paused before a gleaming car—last e word in speed and trim, He helped her in, the cushions soft embraced each dainty limb. “Oh, Dan!” she cried, “this car for me,” his check book out he digs, "Tis just the thing to set them wild, those cattish, women priggs. A clever salesman fussed around, his job to sell these rigs, “No better car in all the world, this body’s made by Briggs.” At the Auto Factory: Deep in the murk of spray booths that stink like the pit of hell, The workers sweat at the paint guns on cars that showmen sell, Gas laden air and poisoned lungs their labored breathings tell, Stark hunger’s whip the foreman cracks, they speed to every yell. A thunder crash and death rode through, astride a blood red flame, The workers died in their bondage, each black and blasted frame, Burnt offering to the god of greed ; great Christ the cruel shame, Incense at profit’s altar their scorching flesh became. BODIES BY BRIGGS, this cinder heap of things that once were men, Bone of our bone, our brothers they, slain in that flaming den, Such the tally of wealth and greed through all of mortal ken, Death marks the score in worker’s blood using a golden pen. Ww P.R. O'SCRIBED,