The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 11, 1927, Page 6

Page Six FULLER MURDERS FOR GLASS; AND PRESS REJOICES ass Lines Stand Out In Sacco Case \ LER (Fed. Press). ASS nes Show Clear. CHICAGO, Aug. 10 (FP).-—The his- : nion in the Hay- 2 in Chicago is > judgments on in Massa- ing on cl the capi le and the worker the drifting liber- the innocence of 2 all opin- Chi- cage served doom, now against etti. It says editorial] oadside. e partisans of Nl be shaken in the murderers | Borardelli were martyrs. But the na-| be grateful that organized move- in the history prevailed and and atrocious hed. That is a vic- that a crime w tory for 2, for order and for} humanit t organized | clamor ntiment, and | ell, Pres. Strat- serve the for their | gh service ation. bor Defense, arters in Chica- or political pris- | the country, says: of Gov. Fuller in ap-| on to execute Sacco not only a vicious | ninal revenge n but it is a working class. i are the banner i 1 and this de, if the out, to a new nst the work- nit defeat for we upon .the irresis. bor Defense is ms in most of country and ons in r similar on Lowell Murder 1 to learn n legal murder s the me Esther * Harvard’s | Fuller i sion which cution wit- phazard in- Takes Own Life. I 1 out of work inhaling g st., Orange, | es Old Picket vined by Coal Co. Fight to Unionize NANT-Y-GLO, Pa., Aug. 10.-- Archie r, age 5 yea ii of » named in an injun ecured Heisley Coal Co. United Mine Work- off . The bit- of Nant-Y-Glo’s have renewed their ind 1925 to unionize hk 2 one tion local hie has made s William 2 board | bev. “He may even have jained in the song complained of by the} olaintiff, ‘Where you worka, John?’ He may have donc something like this, although I do not know that he A nt-Y-Glo union miners are us- he pic line songs composed by Johnson, school teacher at Sagamore, during the organization strike there last year. Miss John- | son and Paul W. Fuller, who di- | | rected the singing pickets, are now | in charge of workers’ education at Passaic, N. J. || ~ | |Hupeh, and Hunan. During this time VERMAN GRACE MAITLAND TT Sit GRace eeRmMan, BANC. MaRKOFEY Bus sent to Boston by the Sacco-Vanzetti Emergen cy Committee, bea condemned men to Gov. Fuller. aah A if ring a delegation deputized to carry a (Rose BAS PON protest against execution of the ~~ (Courtesy ‘The New York World) Wages and’ Working Conditions in China | By EARL BROWDER. RE is so little data on exact | wages and working conditions in| China, that every little information that can be added to the store of in- formation on the subject is of value. Therefore, in the following acticle, I have condensed the most important observations made on this subject during a five-month visit covering the Provinces of Kwangtung, Kiangsi, which will be followed by a which Comrade Browder is at months, which will be entitled ‘ Chinese Revolution.”) my colleagues and I made one trip (Ep1TOR’s NOTE: The articles beginning today on Wages and Working Conditions in China by Earl Browder, are a preliminary to his story of the trip of the International Workers’ Delegation, of which he was a member, thru China, detailed study of the Chinese revolution and the organizations of the Chinese toilers. These articles are preliminary to the appearance of a book work «pon, to appear in a few “Workers and Peasants in the of 25 days thru the interior of Kwangtung and Kiangsi, and later a eine spent ethetaen sworkiie vests trip of five days thru Hunan, most of | the street where the prospective cus- which time was spent in the smaller rickshaw coolies, cart coolies, ware- house coolies, ete. They perfornt the cities and towns which are seldom heard of outside of China. Thus we obtained a picture of conditions thru-| out South and Central China, in the| large cities as well as small towns, tomers are passing along.” They eat| labor that in other countries is done and live with their employer, work- ing 12 to 16 hours per day, seven days per week; their only holidays are at New Years, when they have |7 to 10 days. 7 i in Fel y, M | saithey ne eet APPRENTICES work for 3 to oe ieee h years for nothing but food and ANTON (Kwantung Province) was} bed; at the end of their apprentice- our first point of investigation.) ship they begin to draw wages, $5 to This is a city of over a million popu-/$7 per month, which gradually in- lation, the Southern gateway to| creases, up to $20 per month, with a China, the center of the Nationalist) very few highly-skilled workers, of movement for years, and the only| course, getting more. The wage for place in China where trade unions| artisans of average skill is aout $20 were legal before the middle of last| per month when he has been in the year. Canton was the headquarters; trade for 10 years. of the All-China Labor Federation| In addition to his wage, the artisan from 1922 to the beginning of 1927.| gets fed on a bowl of rice, twice or| It is not, however, a modern indus- | three times a day, with a piece of pork trial city, like Shanghai or Hankow,|} twice a month; and has a hole to but almost entirely commercial and/| sleep in, or a bench in the shop. The handicraft industries. | conditions of work of the artisans, a 10 to 14 hours a day. by animals or machinery; it is abso- lutely “inhuman,” if that word can have any meaning, as it is almost impossile to believe that human be- ings can continue to live, bearing such | burdens every day in the year, for| (THE rickshaw coolies take the place | 4 of horses and automobiles for city | transport, and spend hours on end, | | running at a smart pace, to carry | | their more fortunate fellow citizens | | Several miles for from 5 to 20 cents. | | These coolies not only bear the bur- | den of their physical loads, but also ;@ terrific burden of taxation and | middle-men, Thus, the rickshaw coolies, even in | Canton, pay a tax which, in propor- tion to their earnings, is doubtless the | heaviest borne by any section of the! | Population. Paid in the first place RK spite of the handicap of this last t, the workers of Canton were enjoying conditions better than we found later in any other place. Since we were there, it must be remem- bered, the coup d’etat of Li Chi-sen, lieutenant of Chiang Kai-shek, has placed power in the hands*of the ene- mies of the workers; this fact is prob- | ably already showing itself in a worsening of conditions, but of the > details of this we as yet know noth- ing. We deal with Canton as it was| in February. | HERE are approximately 230,000 workers in Canton organized in the trade unions. Of these about 10,000 are industrial workers in the modern sense, the rest being artisans, shop clerks, and coolies. These in- dustrial w rs constitute a sort of economic aristocracy, their wages and} orking conditions being much higher | than the rest of the working class. | They consist of, in the main, seamen, | railway workers, chauffeurs, electric light and waterworkers employes, ar-| senal workers, the employes of aj few small téxtile mills and machine; shops, and modern printing plants. HE ordinary, ysual wage of work- ers in these lines is $30 per month. ($1 Chinese is nominally about the same as 1 rouble Russian, or 56 cents U. S., but Chinese currencies ‘are al- | most universally depreciated about 20 per cent at this time.) This’ wage) allows for no rest worked the sar being true in Canton for All workers. | The railroad workers get a wage | somewhat above this average, be- | although they also work on ik E they now get paid double- | time for this day. Chauffeurs are another special category; on accoun® of shortage of skilled men they were | receiving $60 (Chinese) per month. Almost all of these 10,000 workers have the 8-hour day, nominally, but “military emergencies” constantly’! cancél this “rule,” HE artisans (handicraft workers) constitute the main body of the| Canton working class. The principal groups are, the workers in matting, | bamboo work, ivory and bone, silk, tea, metal, herbs, earthernware, fire- crackers, paper, furniture, wood- carving, marble, and precious stones. They generally work, 2 to 6 arti-| sans, in the shop with their employer, | who also works alongside of them. These little shops are scattered along | the business streets, the entire front | m4 especially in the interior of China and| to the Government by the owner of in the small towns, are @istinctly/the rickshaw, it is then added to the > to all sorts of sub-middlemen, so that the coolies get about half what has actually been paid for the work. I was told of instances which the Union had investigated, where the | coolies had received less than 20 per |cent. The average earnings of an | able-bodied young coolie is $15 per |. month—when employed. | JNEMPLOYMENT, a terrible! | scourage for all kinds of labor in | China, is especially chronic among the | | coolies, on account of the constant |flow of peasants, driven from the| | land, coming into the cities. ;. Old and infirm coolies live from hand to mouth on the few coppers they pick up here and there from odd jobs. I HAVE seen in Canton, great heavy carts loaded high with cans bearing the “Socony” (Standard Oil Co. of New York) label, being pulled thru the streets by gangs of men, women, and children, evidently families, starved-looking, gaunt and exhausted, | straining with all their might at the ropes—and earning an average of 15 cents each for twelve hours labor, to the greater profit of Standard Oil. It made me understand more clearly | why Rockefeller prizes his Chinese | business, and why capitalists every- where are determined that the “Bol- shevik” trade unions of China must be destroyed. Teo clerks, in stores, shops, and tea houses, form another large group, In Canton about 35,000 are organized in the trade unions. There are still traces in Canton of the semi-slave, Il. semi-feudal. rent which the coolies must pay; but when it gets to the coolies it is 12 cents instead of five, | THE coolies of all kinds and grades suffer from the middleman, who contracts jobs and then lets them out OCOTAL By J. ALBERT HIRSCH. Il HE coolies form a large and im- portant part of the working class in Canton, as everywhere in China. There are several groups, such as And so we lie on our native sands, Three hundred corpses with outstretched hands, Clogged to the soil in a buzz of flies, Watching the vultures with sightless eyes. They came from the home of the brave and the free, From the docile, sweet land of liberty, Where Monroe Doctrines are cradled, and laws To save small nations from ravagers’ claws. Where the rule of the people is cited with pride, Each land’s sovereign right its own fate to decide, Where men before God are all equal and free To seek Happiness, Life and Liberty. . .. Then why do we lie on our native sands, Three hundred corpses with outstretched hands, Clogged to the soil in a buzz of flies, Watching the vultures with sightless eyes? I am ambassador to a rival im- perialist power. I delivered a speech recently in which I said that it would be a good idea to have a referendum on war betore declaring it if such an inno- vation were possible. This tickled the pacifists and they immediately placed my name in nomination for president of the United States. L have a lot of money but outside of that I don’t amount to much afid you may have a hard time «guessing my name. THE DAILY WORKER EVERY DA READ semi-feudal conditions under which this class works still in most places in China. The unions have, however, abolished many of the worst abuses, such as corporal punishment, un- limited hours, ete. Gradually order and system is being brought even in- to the lives of these miserable shop clerks, pt Canton, after a long strike, the hours of clerks in the big depart- ment stores was limited to 10 per day. In the small stores hours are still 13 to 16 per day. In some of the tea houses the hours are 12, because they. keep open night and day and the Union will no longer permit the 24 hour shift that used to prevail, when the workers slept at odd mo- ments when there were no customers, but had to be present at all times | ready for work. Almost all of them live,and eat in the shops, their lodgings usually con- sisting of a shelf under a counter, or beneath a staircase, and their food thes inevitable bowl of rice, with a bit of pork on feastdays. They begin | work as apprentices with no wages, which only start with the fourth year. Wages in the small and poorer shops average $10 per month; in the big stores and the richer establish- , ments, the average is $15 per month. WoOmEN and child labor is even more exploited than that of men. Generally their wages are from 30 |per cent to 60 per cent of that of men. Besides ordinary coolie labor, | they are found principally in the |small factories (matches, hosiery, | silk, food preparation, ete). There are 16,000 women members in the | trade unions of Canton, which the junion leaders claim is 80 per cent of the women workers. The hosiery workers are 100 per cent organized, the match factories 70 per cent. Wo- men and children have relatively made the greatest gains from trade union organization. | | | | | HYGENIC conditions are indescrib- \_" ably bad~ That is, of course, true ‘for the entire population, including | employers, for senitation in a modern ‘sense is only in its beginnings. Only in the modern industries, the Govern- ment plants, big department stores, is there a beginning of sanitation and hygeine. These also have dispensa- ries with modern medical attendance WITH THE oung BWoinre CONNECTICUT YOUNG WORKERS WANT UNION IN FIGHT AGAINST EXPLOITING COMPANIES By A. GOTHIS. The industries employing most of the workers in Connecticut are metal, rubber and textile. In this article I will give a resumé of the conditions of the adult and young workers in the above industries. ‘ers of the state to clean up the open The light metal industry in concen-|shop in Connecticut, The erying need trated in the larger cities such as of the moment is the unification of Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, | the several sporadic attempts to or- Waterbury, ete. Some of the prod-|ganize on the part of the district ucts are typewriters, electrical appli- | c8uncil and several locals of the ma- ances, locks, “munitions, air craft! chinists’ union, and the attempts of products, clocks and watches. | the upholsterers in Hartford, Stam- Most of the factories employ sev- | ford and Bridgeport. Even the Build- eral thousand workers. A factory|ing Trades unions are weak. The employing less than 500 is a rare ex-| painters of New Haven have just won (the, first by the transfering of work to another mill, and the second thru an injunction. The strikes proved, however, that the young workers are willing to fight. Tt is up to the progressive work- \ception. The hours of work are from the closed shop after a brief strike, 50 per week up. Wages for male) which served as an opportunity to workers run from 25 to 40 cents per | organize many non-union painters hour, for female 25 to 30 cents. Effi-| and paperhangers. The workers of ciency, speed up systems and company|the U. S. Rubber Co. and the Clock unions are common to all larger fac-|shops of New Haven and Waterbury tories. Very few of the workers are/are restless and discontented. organized in the machinists and metal! The problems of the young workers polishers unions. The young workers|in Connecticut are the problems of are, totally unorganized. \the adult, of the entire working class Rubber Industry Worse. jot the state. Low wages, long hours, The conditions of the workers in|terrific speeding and exploitation, the metal industry are bad enough;|terrorism thru comprehensive spy but in the rubber industry they are|Systems, company unions, and all still worse. Wages are as a rule|kinds of schemes of weekly and year- lower in the huge factories of the|ly bonuses, percentages and old age U. S. Rubber company in Hartford | pensions which keep the workers tied and New Heaven, and the work more,'n a knot. dangerous and unhealthy than in tes<* Slash Workers’ Wages. tile or metal industries. | The U. S. Rubber Co. is cutting In the textile industry we find that | wages directly in New Haven, and in- the young workers are of course the| directly in Hartford by attempting most unskilled, Many cotton and/to eliminate the weekly bonus. The woolen mills are practically shut/clock shops in New Haven and Wa- down; while the silk and velvet | terbury reduce wages regularly every branches have gone thru some bad | six months or so. The general ten- slumps. Wages in the textile indus-|/dency in the state is to reduce the try are from 12 to 18 dollars per|standards of the workers even below week. The hours are from 48 up with|the present minimum, plenty of overtime. The number of} The poradic attempts at unioniza- looms per worker have doubled and/tion in several industries must be tripled in the last two years. Only a| broadened and unified. All progres- few of the most skilled workers, like|sive workers, both in the A. F. of L, spinners and loom-fixers, are organ-|and committees from shops, must ized into narrow craft unions, which! make the burhing slogan of the hour: in most cases are not far from com-|“Organize the unorganized!” A de- pany unions, altho they belong to|termined and relentless struggle must the U. T. W. The young textile work-|be conducted against the company ers are again totally unorganized. unions and all their schemes of hood-' Workers Have Fighting Spirit. winking the workers. Young men That the young workers dre willing |and women workers should be drawn to organize is proved by the strikes|into the stuggle to strengthen the la- in New London and that of the up-|bor movement, organize the unorgan- holsterers in Hartford last. year.|ized and raise the standards of the Both of these strikes were defeated, | workers. THE WAINO Y. W. L. SCHOOL Forty seven young men and wo- men, future leaders in the Labor Movement of the United States, have just completed their six weeks of in- tensive training in the Young Work- ers School at Brule, Wis. They are shown here, with their teachers, be- side the school building. During their stay at the school these young work- ers not only studied history, eco- nomics and other related topics, but made their wall-newspapers, conduc- ted imaginary strikes, organized far- | mers and workers, and condiicted po- | litical campaigns. More than a hundred students ap- plied, this year, to take the six weeks course. The limit of accomo- dations is forty-seven, consequently the number was limited to that ure. No students were accepted who did not bring the recommendation of some farm organization, some labor organization, some co-operative, or some othgr branch of the labor move- ment. This is the third year in which such courses have been conducted, POR Labor Sports Union National Track Meet is Big Success. Over 350 athletes, coming from} various parts of the country took} part in the two day National Track | and Field Meet staged by the Labor! Sports Union at “W” Park, Wauke- gan, Ill. A crowd of 5000 turned out | to see the events run off. | * The big attraction of the meet was! George Jokela famous Finnish long | distance star, who covered the mile) in 4 minutes, 20 seconds, and the | 5000 meters in 15 minutes, 40 sec-) onds. Jokela came all the way from Canada to compete, and was given an ovation by the crowd, i Arni_ Jokinen, Waukegan high-| school basketball and football star,| won the all-around championship, | ® The mect developed a great deal of local interest and many of the mainly on the strength of his su-| Prominent city officials of Waukegan, periority in the dash and weight were present and expressed gratifi- — events. The pole vault victor of last) cation that the meet was being held year was returned as victor again, | clearing the bar at 11 feet 9} inches. Ahola, of New York, won| the high jump with a leap of 5 feet! 8% inches. | In the 100 meters dash, Sal Cepeda, | little Filipino sprinter came in first, covering the distance in 11 and two- tenths seconds. Cepeda s a veteran track man having represented the for the workers, (To Be Continued) United States in the 1920 Olympics at Amsterdam, in their city, It is very kely that the Second National Meet will, also | be staged in “W” Park which has*ideal facilities for the purpose. The outstanding success of this meet is expected to give considerable impetus to the growth of the Labor Sports Union, which has been in exis- tence for less than a year. The head- quarters of the Labor Sports Unton ae at 453 North Avenue, Chicago,