The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 3, 1927, Page 8

E a te rt tt Page Eight THE DAILY WUKKUK, Niw TURK, WEUNESUAY, AUWUD! 3, Lesy Southern Mill Wage Under British By HARVEY O’CONNOR. © WASHINGTON, Aug, 1 (FP). —) Southern textile re leve ing beneath the “pauy England, according to an mission just made by the B Cotton Spinners’ and Doubler SO- ciation. Yarns from southern mills are actually being sold in England, under-cutting Br 's, whose la- bor conditions have hitherto been held up as a horrible example of what would happen to Am n workers if they were not sheltered behind a high tariff wall. Beat Briti: Southern te ing sold on placing the throwing thous: tile worker: the menace of t and wretched be- dis- ts, eX- are als' world markets, unemployment has reached foreign labor have been assu pol republican American w textile tariffs. Envies U. S. The big English te enly owns France but ton p United Stat This corporation com- plains to its stockholders that it could if it were not for were it not for high Slavery. tile firm mills i ations in the vice it has to render | ers. These handicaps s explained, make it hard to compete with the “southern mills of the United States, which on account of long hours and low wages are able not only to take | @ part of our trade in neutral mark- ets, but even to export yarn into our home market.” An offensive against the British textile union and social legislation ex- actly analagous to the New England employers’ drive on the Textile Work- | ers’ Union and on Massachusetts’ 48- | hour law for women may be expected | as the result of southern labor policy. | Mills in Alabama pay about half the New England scale while in the Caro- linas wages are about two-thirds the | northern level. With the 10-hour day prevalent and protective legislation non-existent, the cotton mills of Dixie 1 (Continued from Page One) ! roads. They spending their wages,! will in turn employ ore men, and| they in turn on indefinitely.” Now, if the capitalists were sensible people they would never law men off but would keep them constantly at work | at high wages and instead of per- mitting bankers to teach thrift and encourage saying, the government would employ spell binders to lecture | to the ers on the virtue of) thriftlessn But in all probability | greedy employers will continue to em- ploy labor only when it pay> and bankers will continue to take the workers’ savings for a few cents on the dollar instead of urging the work- | er to spend it, thus giving employ-| ment to more garment workers, shoe | makers, and brewery workers. John is like a voice crying in the wilder- ness. Coast ‘Investor and Industrial Review has an article on “Why Russia Fails and U. S. Succeeds”. We are told that socialism is being forced on the people in Russia by| the rifle and the hangman’s noose, | | and cotton- aid of expert designers, these mills Current Events By T. J. O'FLAHERTY find their labor costs lower even than England’s. British Move Mills. One step taken by the oversea dustry to meet south competition le maintaining profits is to build s in the south. Work is proceed- ing now on a big Alabama mill to be hich operated by a Brit company will import yarn at lower pro costs than its own mills at hone attain. The New ¢ only comfort for wor' pheno will erat than a gen- e warned, a he south will with the same labor prob- New England. Not only te » but neral manufacturing being encouraged by the exploita of cheap labor and hydrc-elec’ er. New England Suffers. In event the manufacture of coarse textiles seems doomed in } England. Mill owners there, particu larly in the New Bedford-Fall River section, are devoting more effort to the manufacture of cotton-and-rayon nd-silk cloths. With the are turning out “style” fabrics which have gained wide popularity among | American consumers. More complex |machinery and more highly skilled workers are required in these lines than in the south now possesses. New | England is confident that it can main- } {tain superiority in this class of tex- | tiles, if manufacturers can be kicked | into concentration on better market- | ing methods. | If New England, with the Great | Lakes and grain regions, can influ- ence congress to approve of the St. Lawrence waterway and power de- velopment, another big advantage of | the south in cheap power will neu- tralized. The New England Council | believes the finer te: , aided by cheap power and better distribution, can be kept in*its mills against south- | ern competition. EW of our readers need to be told that this official organ of finan- cial swindlers is lying like a drunken Kiwanian, but it gives us a good ex- cuse to write a paragraph about the Soviet Union. When the irate cap- italist scribbler says that the Soviet Union puts a premium on illiteracy he is lying stupidly. The U.S. S. R. is one big schoolroom. During the Czarist regime only the children of the aristocracy and the well-to-do classes were in a position to secure an education. Now the children of | the workers and peasants have that privilege. gradually and there is less violence! used in this mighty task than there | is in the United States in the effort | to enforce prohibition. | * * + | 'HE contemptuous at the workers and peasants classes that rule one-sixth of the earth’s surface | is just what should be expected from a representative of a class that is doomed to pass out of history, pro- pelled by the tip of the proletarian | boot. We cannot blame the capital-| ists for being sore. It is not a plea- sneer Socialism is ‘being built up| a that a premium is placed on illiter-| sant thing for them to contemplate acy and that the government is one! the loss of their graft and power. of the lowest order of people by the|'They are entitled to as much sym- lowest order of people for the low-|pathy as the confidence man who est ordey of people, that in America| swindles a man out of his money capitalism is socialism and that here| when the swindled takes it out of his the only handicap is to be born into] hide, wealth. The rag that published this * * * drivel hails from San Francisco. USSIA is not failing. Her pro-| Be pee S ductive plant is gaining rapidly | Pacific Air Line Jin power. Her oil production is| | away beyond the pre-war figure. The standard of living of the workers }and peasants is on the up-grade. II- literacy will soon be only a dream of the past. Russia is succeeding | | for ninety-five per cent of the popu- |lation as the United States is for the exploiting minority. That is the | | difference. It all depends from what |angle you look at the question. From the capitalist point of view the organ of the California parasites is right. | From our view point it is wrong. * * * wee covering California we re- spectfully call your attention to| |the sweet exhibition of candor given) by Mrs. Minnie Kennedy, mother of | the famous female Elmer Gantry, in| the controversy now taking place be-| | tween those two religious frauds. The| twin servants of the lord are now quarrelling over the spoils and they are using the kind of language that} would sound better in a barroom than | {in a church. They are talking cold eh ee “When we started in busi- ness,” said Mrs. Kennedy, “it was | understood Ainiee was to do all the | preaching and I was to do the work land would share profits on a 50-50 basis.” Now, when the business amounts to over a million dollars | Aimee becomes afflicted with a poor ;memory and Jesus is reported to be jabout to demand an audit of his business. Still, the Los Angeles | sucker is a hardy specimen and he will keep coming. A passenger air line from San Francisco to Japan will soon be a reality, according to Ercell Linton, above, formerly of the Royal Air Force, returned from the Orient. He's interested in establishing the line and is back- ed by a syndicate of British capitalists. 4 é 4 —— | 8,308 people, THE PACIFICATION OF NICARAGUA f ‘One Million Workers Are Organized on Railroads of Union of Soviet Republics Note.—Since the Bolshevik Revolution, in Novem- ber, 1927, the workers on the railroads of the Union of Soviet Republics have built up a powerful trade union with 1,000,000 members. The manner in h these workers are organized should be of vital i t, not only to railroad workers, but to all la world over. Alexis Amassow, General Secretary of the Union, answered that question in a detailed reply given to J. Louis Engdahl, editor of The DAILY WORKER, during the latter’s re- cent visit to the Soviet Union. Amassow will an- swer other questions concerning the railroad work- ers’ union. Today’s reply follows: * x * The Question and Answer. -—How is the Railroad Workers’ Union or- | * ganized in the Union of Soviet Republics? NSWER:—The Railwaymen’s Union in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics is constructed thru ap- proaching the ma of the workers at their places of work: in depots, workshops, railway stations, and dis- tricts. Local committees are organized at the rate of one com ee per 25 or more employees. The number of such committees was: 3,987 on October 1, 1925, 4,348 on January 1, 1926, and 4,503 on April 1, 1926. In these committees and around them are concer- | trated the active body of the union’s membership con- sisting of the members of the local committees. Such active members there were: 25,204 on January 1, 1926, ,021 on April 1, 1926. There are 768 union agents. | d the local committees are organized and per- | commissions for the purpose of affording the ice and guidance in the various spheres of the | tivity. Such commissions are of three kinds: On April 1, 1926, there were upon the local committees: 4,798 organization and education commis- sions, in w 19,769 people participated; 2,091 produc- tion commissions, in which 12,100 people participated, and 4,998 labor protection commissions, in which 19,200 people took part. * * * One of the chief organs for attracting the members of the union to active work in the union is the Institute of Delegates. These delegates are elected at the place of work, from 10 to 1, according to the number of peo- plo employed, constituting around the local committees | a large body of active members who, preliminary to. the holding of general meetings of workers and yem- ployees, discuss all the important questions affecting the life of the union and of the workers. On April 1, 1926, there were 48,104 union delegates. * * * The highest organ of the union at the place of work is the general meeting of workers and employes, which receives all the important reports and accounts from the union and the administrative organs, and renders deci- sions which are obligatory upon the local committees. Altogether from January until March, .1926, there were held on the transport 22,830 general meetings, at- tended by 76,712 members of the union. The local committees are elected by general meetings of workers and employes for a period of from six to twelve months, but they may be reelected before the expiration of the period upon requisition made by not less than one-third of the*people employed’on a given enterprise, or by order of the higher organs of the union. Thus, the body of active members among the rank and file of the membership, comprising the members of’ the local committees, the delegates, and the members of the permanent commissions, amounted to about 125,000 people on April 1, 1926. As a rule, these active people ure giving their service to the union as voluntary unpaid workers, except the paid officials of the local commit- tees, whose number on the entire railway system was t * * * The second linking organ, after the local committee, } is the district committee, which is built on the scale of the traction district, and is located at the place where the principal depot is situated, On April 1, 1926, there were 202 district committees on the entire railway sys- tem, with a total of 3,406 members serving on them. The district committees are elected, for a period of one year, at the district meetings of workers and em- ployees, while the delegates to such meetings are elected by nieetings of workers and employes at their places of work, in the various workshops, offices and railway stations. The next higher organ above the district committee is the line committee, which embraces the members of the union on April 1, 1926, was | * * | bottom at the respective conferences and general meet- | ings. the union within the boundaries of a given railway line, over a distance of from 1,000 to 4,000 kilometres. Such committees there are 26, with a total of 740 people serv- ing on them. The line committees are elected by line meetings, while the delegates to such meetings are elected by the general meetings of workers and employes at their places of work, in the various workshops, etc. The line tommittees are elected for a period of 18 months. * * * Thus, the whole of the active body of membership in the Railwaymen’s Union of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics on April-May, 1926, together with the district and line committees, comprised nearly 130,000 members of the union, whilst the total membership of the Rail- waymen’s Union at the time of the Eighth Conference of the Railwaymen (April, 1926) stood at 926,000. This figure was given at the conference as a preliminary one, and after a statistical analysis the real membership of established at 981,000. * In addition to the line organizations, for the purpose of rendering more efficient service to the national groups and outlying districts of the Federated Republics, there exist the Bureau of the Central Committee and the Na- tional Central Bureau, e. g. the hee Sale and so on. * * * All these organizations, beginning with the local com- mittees and ending with the Bureau of the Central Com- mittee and the National Central Bureau, are guided by the central committee of the union, elected by the All- Union Conference, whose delegates are elected by the general meetings of members at. the places of work, at depots, railway stations, etc. * * * From the above data it follows that the whole struc- ture of the Railwaymen’s Union of the Union of Social- ist Soviet Republics is based exclusively upon the broad principle of election of the union organs from top to ings. Each organ of the union carries on independent activ- ity, on its own scale, on the grounds of the instructions given by the higher organs, and of the decisions of the respective conferences and gencral and delegate meet- Each organ of the union has the right to urge its views before the higher organs until such time as a decision shall be given by the higher organ upon a controversial question, but as soon as such decision is given, it must be implicitly carried out by all the organs of the union. It means that all the organs of the Union from top to bottom are built upon the principle of democratic cen- tralism, i. e. in all their activity they observe the strict subordination of the lower organs in regard to those| above them, or in other words, each higher organ has the right to abrogate any decision adopted by the organ subordinate to it, if the latter be found to be in contra- diction to the instructions given by the higher organs of the union. > Dusts and Labor and Health All industrial dusts are harmful if inhaled frequently and in large amounts. The stone, flint, emery dust injuries, cuts with its sharp edges, stings with its pointy ends. Dust of fur, wool, cotton, hair, feathers, felt, leather, paper, tobacco, wood irritate sufficiently to lessen the, resistance of the respiratory organs to illness and so prepare the way to disease. Even flour dust, although a mild irritant, will provoke catarrhs. Consumption is often a direct or in- direct result of constant dust breathing, Some dusts, beside their irritating effect as dusts, are also poisonous and cause general poisoning. For instance lead dust, which is found in very many industries, but especially in white lead factories. Coal as such is harmless, but its dust among miners and shovelers is harmful because it becomes imbedded in the lungs and often destroys its tissue. Sandblasting is extremely dangerous in spite of the masks which the workers are using for their protection, Less harmful, but still very risky, is the dust from bricks, marble, tiles, terracotta. Serious respiratory diseases are due to the inhalation of filings of iron and other metals. Emery, used in grinding and in making of polishing-paper, is one of the strongest irritants of the nose, throat, air- pipes, lungs and even the ears. Although exhaust sys- tems in a more or less perfect way—eften very imperfect —are in use, the mortality from lung tuberculosis among all kinds of grinders is very high. Cement production is also a very dusty industry, but it is somewhat less in- jurious than the preceding ones. Ashes, notwithstanding their fineness, do not fail to irritate the organs of those who must inhale them in- cessantly, but on the whole to a lesser extent than other dusts. Ashcan collectors of the city Street Cleaning De- partments, although m@ch exposed to this sort of dust, are less in danger than would be expected, because of the open air in which they work. There is almost no industry without its peculiar dust, Its harm could be minimized by the adoption of all the modern safety engineering devices made for preventive purposes and by shortening the hours of work. Organ- ized labor should study the dust question, educate its members to demand the proper safeguards and insist on much shorter work days in the particularly hazardous ,everything under the sun. | Literature, or, the Perfect Critical Method,” is one of the finest pieces of satirical writing we have seen for a long time. Those who have been amused \frank and realistic for the liberals. prefer to ignore. ‘| with trades.—Dr. B, Liber, in Rational Living. HILARIOUS AND SAGE OBSERVATIONS FOR MID-SUMMER READING. NEW MASSES, August, 1927. Price 25c, One article in this issue is particularly noteworthy inasmuch as it is a model for handling preposterous literary adventurers and dilettantes who make themselves obnoxious by presuming to discuss in most learned fashion The article by Joseph Freeman on “Bulgarian by the pitiful pretense to erudition that characterizes the works thrown together by V. F. Calverton will instantly recognize the subject of Freeman’s satire. That artcile alone justifies the August issue. * * * But there are a number of other admirable articles, particularly the | first one in the magazine relating the life experiences of an American woman, This article was sent to “The Nation” by request as one of the series on the woman question that liberal apology was running. When the Nation outfit read it they refused to publish it. It is far too The sordid struggle depicted by the author (unknown to us) portrays a section of this society that the dilettants * * * * Upton Sinclair has an article relating his impressions of his experiences he Boston censorship, which is amusing not only because it depicts the stupidity of the superintendent of police, but because it also reveals Upton at his best. Describing the police station he says: “They had just brought in a bootlegger, and pretty soon they brought in another, and I remembered the historic figure who was crucified between two thieves.” Only Upton could be guilty of this sublime symbolism. The prolific euthor is also most naive when he relates that the police superintendent, one ‘rowley, used “‘some Anglo-Saxon words which I had never heard before, y acquaintance with obscenity being extremely limited.” We deduce from this that the poor fellow was shocked, if not mortified. (What I would like to know from the editors of the “New Masses” is why they put a quotation from Karl Marx on the same page with Upton’s contribution.) There are cartoons that are above the average—all of them are good, some excellent—frém the eover page by Gropper showing Cal in his cowboy outfit to Art Young’s back cover illustration for the advertisement of Col. C. E. S, Wood’s book, “Heavenly Discourse.” * * * There are othtr contributions—articles and poems—by Albert Rhys Williams, Charles Recht, Fowler Hill and others, that are quite interesting. There are a number of indifferent book reviews. The one of Harry Laidler’s “History of Socialist Thought” by James Fuchs is commendable, except that the reviewer lapses into an extremely uncritical attitude when he refers to James Oneal as a historian, instead of a plain liar and fraud whose so-called historical works are utterly unreliable, unscientific anti-Marxist and there- fore worse than useless. But the contributions of Freeman and the anonymous woman make up for all the other shortcomings of the number. —H. M WICKS. THE COST OF LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY, 1926. Published by the National Industrial Conference Board, New York. $2.00. fee is a crying need in the Communist and Lef Wing movements in the United States for a Labor Research Bureau, akin to the Labor Research Bureau of Great Britain, manned by a personnell capable of conducting original research, interpreted from a working class point of view, and which will be able to supply to the various branches of our movement statistical and other data about the rapidly changing phenomena of modern American life, It is unfortunate that at the present time we are compelled to rely for a considerable portion of our factual data upon the research organizations which are kept in the field by employing and banking interests, Such, for example, is the National Industrial Conference Board. * * * The question of living costs, in relation to wages, is of the uttermost mportance to the working class. To date, The National Industrial Confer- nee Board has made and published four studies of living costs. These are amily Budgets of American Wage Earners (1921);” “The Cost of Living Among Wage Earners: Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania, (1922);” “The Cost of Living in the United States, 1914-1926;”* and, finally, “The Cost of Living in New York City, 1926.” The investigation of living costs in New York purports to determine the minimum amount of money required to maintain “a fair American stan- dard of living in New York City,” for persons engaged in industrial occupa- ‘ions and in office employments. Investigation is supposed to have been made of what the Industrial Conference Board considers fair weekly and -nnual outlays for housing, fuel and light, food, clothing, and such sundries is transportation, recreation and the like, These costs are then budgeted tor (1) single men living apart from their families; (2) single women indus- ‘rial workers living at home and single women office workers living apart from family groups, and (8) families of one, two and three children. * * = ‘The totals of the budgets drawn up as the minimum requirements for cach category studied are as follows: Industrial Workers Office Workers : ; Yearly Weekly Yearly Weekly Family of man, wife and three DUA Nasik ic aie os sie baie o Bite $1,880.17 36.16 2,119.11 40.75 Single man, living apart from family ROU ecco Cale recs fcln ce geas 971.87 18.69 1,187.01 21.87 Single Woman, living as part of family group its 665.25 12.80 taiearine arr: Single woman, living apart from TaD TETOUD 0s upc sus cera noe raea ee 1,005.81 19.34 * * * A study of the details of these budgets has left us far from fascinated, or even satisfied. Why office workers are entitled to better food, clohting and shelter than industrial workers is quite beyond us, Nor are we satis- fied with the reasons &ssigned in the volume for not computing the budgets cf industrial women workers living apart from their families—though here we very strongly suspect that the wages commonly earned by this group of workers, as compared with the minimum required to keep body and soul to- gether, even on the poverty line, strongly influenced the decision of Miss M. L. Stecker and her assistants of the Conference Board’s Restarch Staff, who conducted this investigation. Moreover, this study essays to set forth not the amount required to enable a worker to live in poverty but, on the contrary to enable him or her to maintain “a fair American standard of living.” Here are a few sample items, picked gt random from the detailed budgets, which will enable the reader to judge for himself as to the adequacy of the totals cited above: An industrial worker supporting a family of five persons in the Borough of Manhattan, is allotted $14.66 per week for food for the entire family and $34.00 monthly for rent (p. 87); single female industrial workers living as part of a family group are allowed $1.96 weekly as their contribution to- ward the faimly rent and $3.39 weekly for food (p. 97); the same class of workers is allowed two pair of silk stockings a year, two pair of $4.00 shoes a year and $2.62 a year with which to keep these shoes soled and heeled (p. 95). A fellow even has to be frugal about his smokes—male industrial workers being budgeted for 30 cents wsekly for tobacco, candy, etc. * * * We see, therefore, that the totals cited by the Conference Board are entirely inadequate. And yet, withal, a comparison with other figures re- cently made available by other sources indicates that even these starvation line budgets are far in excess of the amount actually earned by industrial workers—both in New York and other parts of the country. ’ We have seen that $1880 was computed as the absolute minimum upor which a family composed of man, wife and three children under fourteer. years of age can possibly subsist. Latest fgiures, compiled by the U. S. Dept. of Commerce, show that during 1925 $1567 was the average annua) wage of industrial workers in New York City (for the rest of the country the average was $1279). It would appear that there is something phony about the high standard of living that is supposed to be enjoyed by the American working class. —JACK HARDY. Books Received. To Be Reviewed Later. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE 20TH CENTURY. By E. Roy Calvert Putnam & Sons. GREAT ABSTRUSE AUTHORS, WHO THEY WERE AND ARE. By Frank Noah. The Christopher Publishing House, Boston. $2.50. GEORGE R. STUART, LIFE AND WORK. By W. W. Pinson. Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Tenn, THE WORKS OF EUGENE O’NEILL. Boni and Liveright. CIRCUS PARADE. By Jim Tully. Albert: and Charles Boni.