The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 23, 1928, Page 4

| a ee ee ee Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1928 Unbearable Conditions Described by Worker Correspondents Thruout USS: UNEMPLOYED MAN ee Mac oe (MINER TELLS OF THREATENS DEATH TO AVOID HUNGER Would End ‘Sufferings |? of Wife, Children (By a Work ee ) LOS, ANG 1).—Here in this lar ine, eanlel eannot find even if th pay for it. since my children have no to eat. I am ying hard to find work, but there iS no Work. e: ave no un gy to d for my chil- ull depending on my things turn out any » do not be rprised if some in the paper that me y have been found dead. ; happening in the land of . Shame. I am looking for work end not for charity. Work is denied it means | should starve and Let the world know this stor; after we are gone. I hope that some And if AN ITALIAN WORKER. * * . Courts Decide ° Against Girl Worker (By a Worker Correspondent.) The other day I observed in one of our municipal courts case: of the 7th District, West 125th St. New Yor! A work rl, who, from her gen-| appearance and the clothes. ‘she wore, seemed poor, appeared in court against a Bronx tailor, whom she sued for “breach of contract.” "Pht tailor, she said, had agreed upon a price of twenty dollars for a two piece suit, with her material. Left Extra Material. eet wasn’t working that day,” the girl went on saying, “and wanted to get the material for the suit, while Thad the time. I didn’t,..however, fiave the money that day, as I am paid on Saturdays; I asked the tailor if he minded paying for the goods, when delivered C. 0. D. He agreed to that, because I left there two yards of velvet which Was to have been part of the garment,” the girl con- tinued. “As soon as I received my pay, 1} came to the tailor and paid him back the money, ($16) for the goods which fie paid for on delivery.” The mistake the girl made, was that she had failed, because of lack of ex- perience on her part, to collect the receipts from the tailor. Having fail- ed to do that, the tailor became master of the situation—and when the girl came for a second fitting, he informed her that she would have to pay five |” The girl} dollars more for the work, not having realized her mistake re- | garding the receipts and being in dignant, because of the irregularitie on the part of the tailor, refused to pay the in se. Two months had past and the tailor} refused to come to terms. Not even when the girl was willing to pay him the extra five dollars, did he seem anxious to finish the suit. She finally | had to summon the man to court. The tailor was w however, on] matters of court complications. Hé! therefore came armed with a clevers folitician who knew the “rope in New York City courts. Consequent- ly, when plaintiff and defendant ap-} ered befor bored j while looking plump . He yawned r n@his rested, h ace with a pair of d the defendant one or two questions and without giv- g the plaintiff a chance to state case or present. witnesses, thé judge fold the defendant to call at the elerk’s office for his judgment! Justice. And that’s called justice. On the way to the clerk’s office,! the defendant’s wife said to the plain- tiff: “You refused to pay the five dollars increase, you are now the loser | of all your material.” Thus the tailor carried away from the court of justice and with the help of its judges, twenty-five dollars worth of goods which rightfully be- longed to this working girl struggling hard for a living. | 7A WORKER. Life Worthless Without Daily Worker. _ (By a Worker Correspondent.) S VEGAS, Nevada, (By Mail). want to see our DAILY WORKER iefended from the present blackest reaction that is coming from all directions, from the capitalists and the social traitors in the Labor move- ~ ment. I am sending $5 for the DAILY WORKER defense fund. Life seems 6 be worthless without such devoted ters as The DAILY WORKER is. the same time all possible effort st be made to get our comrades of danger. I hope that in- dustrial democracy is close at hand. in e will avenge this outrage to hu-} some] Gunner Legionnaires: Are 3y a Worker Correspondent.) ATERSON, N. J., (By Mail) — ay, Feb. 17, 1928, I noticed a spondence in The DAILY |WORKER, “Legion and Big Busi- I will add to that article a | \¢ Se F Ip tive part on many fronts. American-Legion has a big board advertisement in the center jof Patterson, too and they had all kinds of campaigns, but.a large num- ber of service men do not belong to the Legion and never will, and I am on at never will join the pom organization, that is the k an merican Legio _ Many membe of the American n have an opportunity the nt time of big “prosp te enjo ‘reedom” (from the fac and iberty” (to look for a job f norning till night) and ‘Patriot (to look on an empty stomach f food and shelter in some chari 00th where ice will be as thick n the trenches ov yt Who is be tind American “PF vehind the oil —AN_EX-MACHINE | EDITOR-—The _ letter {above was sent in by a Worker | Correspondent from Detroit, Mich., j and appeared on re ‘Peb.>17. xUNNER. referred t Young stown Workers ® ! | Aid to Striking Miners | =(By a Worker Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, 0O., (By Mz {A mine Felief conferen gahized inthis city about six weeks }agonlDelegates from several unio |fratertial’ organizations, the Workers Party and the. Young Workers Leagné were presen'. In spite of the fact that over fifty appeals were ‘sent-out to, various unons only about, six-found it worth while to send dele- aes Carpenters’ Delegate Chairman The conference elected an execu- tive committee, the chairman of} which was the delegate from the Car- penter’s Union. In only a week’s time two truck- loads of food and clothing were col-| lected. These went sent immediately | to Pittsburgh, where the Distributing | Committee transported them to the| miners’ camps. We have begun to! work harder and faster in order to |raise relief, With their own eyes the men who took the supplies to Pitts- burgh saw how badly the miners needed help, so they got a couple more fellows into the voluntary com- mittee and began afresh. Two Tons of Food. At the end of two weeks, over two tons of food was collected. This food was also sent to Pittsburgh. On their return the committee ‘ported that this was only a beginning of {their work. At the last meeting it was decided | ‘to begin work upon a broader scale. A big banquet will be arranged in the near future. It was further de- ided to have a place to house collec- |tions of money, food and clo‘hing. |More spirit and more voluntary hands | |will help the miners. On with the} work! Show the bosses that the striking mifiérs“are mot alone, show them that“a gigantic human wall is | in back~of them. | —N. L. we OE Chase Bank. Robs | Workers? Wages By a W rker Gorressonfant) ee Chase National Bank has~a } capital of $1,0. 3,993. The main | offices of this bank are at 57 Broad-| lway.; This bank maintains a restaur- ant, under the name of the Place. Corporation, which is for -its employes. That is where I work. The| Chase National Bank takes $1 a day} from the pay of each clerk or other worker, which the bank says is for lunch. Each worer.must eat in the 42 Trinity Place. Restauvant whether. |he wants to or not, The meal they | charge a dollar for is not worth more | than 50 cents, and that is all you pay} ‘at other restaurants for the same| j meal. | The workers at: the Chase Na tional Bank’s restaurant, the 42 Trin. j ity Place Corporation, get the follow- |ing wages: \ for 60 hours a week; porters, $18 for a 60 hour week; dishwashers, $12 a 60 hour week, cooks, $25 a 60 hour week, The manager of the restaurant gets $120 a week for doing no work, and his assistant $60 for hardly any work. In addition to $1 a day being deducted for meals, 20 cents a week is de- ducted from the restaurant workers’ pay, and this is given back at the end of the year at Christmas in a $10 bonus. The clerks in the bank have to stand for $1.50 a week being taken from their pay, so that the com- pany might give them a $75 bonus at Christmas. Besides this, don’t forget the $1 a day deducted for lunch. —CHASE NATIONAL EMPLOYE. PINCHOT NOT CANDIDATE. HARRISBURG, Pa. Feb. 22, — Gifford Pinchot will not be a candi- date for United States senator in Pennsylvania in the April primaries, he announced today, s I am an ex-service man and | strike-| HORRORS INPENN ANTHRACITE AREA Long Hours, Hard La- bor, Poor Pay (By a Wor Correspondent.) HENDERSONVILLE, Pa. (By Mail).—I want to’ tell The DAILY WORKER some facts about the mines.. People don’t understxnd that we have to lay our own tracks and keep them up all the time so the com- }pany can get their coal out at no expense to them. The coal operators don’t want it known that they make the miners push the cars all day long ‘and children work 10 to 14 hours a The firm I work for owns the | for lievable. Y. Textile Company Robs Its Employees (By a Worker Correspondent) I am an office boy in the office of a millionaire textile firm. in down- a dozen mill towns in North Carolina and other parts of the South, and every stick of wood in these towns. They pay the workers in their mills from $8 to $14 a week. These southern mill hands, including women day. schools in all these towns, where the a few dollars a week. All the work-|7 ers in the villages of the company When the’ children are 10°or 12, they are taken-out- of -sehool-to-work- for a few dollars a week. All the white we get We are poisoned in two different The dust from the lead bat- and for 63 hours lead acetate ways. teries fills the air, EXPOSE CHEMICAL POISON AT LEAD BATTERYGOMPANY town New York City. This firm owns] ]Tands Turned Black by Deadly Acetate’ Fumes (By a Worker Correspondent) (By Mail).— In the National Lead Battery Co. i North Bergen, N. J., the workers are nearly unbe- We work 63 hours a week— days, a week, 9 hours each day. All BERGEN, N. J., is 40 cents an hour. breath in the conditions n2?? Who i it get nothing for this work and have |to three tons. for which they don’t get any pay. The have to get from three to fifteen feet of slate back from the face of the coal so the cutter can get to work again. Blowing Up Wages. I have worked two or three days vready breaking up such slate and ad to usé up about six dollars worth pad plosive. Thé coal company did that I was out the six dollars. , that was me. They got their} done for nothing. was my pay when I got what the} j,. little boy got—nothing. Pick miners get $1.11 a ton here | aire con and loaders $.77'for a ton. How can| sjaves. we live on this operators’ scale and | other |lages. worl pick-handle. good to us and every lead of coal we get costs us about ten dollars. And now they want to break the union so} they can make us load five or six ton ears for which we will get from one brains. to the A Damned Lie! That hard man Baker of the Pitts- burgh Coal Company said last week that a miner ought to make from $400 to $900 a month. Man never lived that could go into a coal mine and make that money. If I could do that, all I want is five years and then I would have enough for all my life. I would not have to go into the family year. Daily N boxing or girls, etc. low wages. cern, ev which ves in, the villages of the company L.avork for. live in. company..owned houses, from which they are put out with their families if the company|taste, and I can can’ get cheaper workers. things without The company I worl: for advertises | 50U"- in the textile trade magazines that the workers in this town are. “docile and. content, and used to long hour: They are native stock, and not trouble makers.”, This is used as bait to draw merchants and manufacturers So much for the way the mill But where| hands in the South are treated. Now t me tell you how’ we are treated in |the New. York offices of this million- We're the white collar This company belong? to a family push the cars for nothing and lay} of rich southern jews. their tracks for them and get their| | pany will not ‘hire a Jew in its offi- coal out for them? We also have to/ ces. I, the office boy, get. $16 a week, | pay for our own tool sharpening and | the clerks and typists get $20 a week, our lamps cost us six cents a day. | and the bookkeepers, who think they Our powder costs about $1.90 to $2 al are “regular guys” because they wear }day. The company charges us from} white collars, get $22 a week. All sixty to seventy-five cents for a lousy|thesé white collar slaves have no The company is very| brains, or they would not stand for being stepped on by the office man- ages and executives if they had any But all they do is read the} talk about horse races,|of the They all kowtow | head bookkeeper or auditor, |who gets $50 a week, and he bows} down to the office manager who gets $75 a week. This fellow in turn kisses} the shoes of the vice president (3 of thém), who are all members of the owns These vice-presidents get $10,000 a We have to work overtime when- ever the bosses want us to, and all a week we reid fumes. clothes in two or into the vil- every few days. half ‘like union Yet the com-| plant. Lead Battery Company Kearny, N. worst ‘ open are located. |last December. the business. | days. dust. This lead acetate is a poisonous chemical which has a sickly sweet eat the sourest knowing they are That proves that I have been poisoned by the lead acetate. My hands are black from this poison, and hey cannot be washed off. We are also poisoned by sulphuric This acid destroys our three days. have to wear new clothes and shoes We We are speeded up liké slaves, and forced to work overtime on Sundays at ordinary wages, not time and a workers have. course, we have no union. There are about 200 workers in the " sighs 10) Often, when a worker gets so feature formerly with the Ziegfield sick from being poisoned that he can hardly stand up, the company doctor tells him he is all right and that he can go back to work. The National is a large Minnesota company which moved to J. last year, but on ac- cout of the workers not being will- ing to stand for the rotten conditions and wages there, the company had to moye to North Bergen, where some rotten, worker-gyping firms in the country shop, There was a strike at the end of The workers de- manded a 44 hour week, 55 cents an hour, time and a half for overtime, and double pay on Sundays ‘and holi- But we lost that strike in less than a week, because the police in North Bergen were all for the boss, and the politicians of that town knew where there bread was buttered. An A. F. of L. organizer who was sent waitresses, $12. a week, | mines.in my old days at sixty-four years of age. It is all a damned lie. Think for yourself how many tons| of coal a man would have to load to make $400 a month. When a man | loads ten tons of coal a day after the |machines he knows what he has done \for that day’s work. 1 am here to tell you that no man ean load ten ae of eoal every day or he would ale, Crippled for Life. Now I am crippled’ for life and the coal company doesn’t want me because I can’t work. I was hurt under the Pittsburgh Coal Co. in 1920 and they were to give me a light job. But I haven’t got it yet so I had to get a | job somewhere else. The coal com- panies do none of the things for their miners that they state in the news- papers. If a man gets hurt, he’s thrown into a hospital, as soon a& possible they get him back to work jagain. If they have to pay compen- sation they get it back again in rents | and company taxes. We are taxed } $14 to $16 a month for rent and coal. amounts to $40 a month. They don’t care who lives and who dies. They} | are trying to drag us down to where we started fifty years ago. Thad to drive a mule for fifty eents | a day and my father had to mine coal | for $1.25 a ton and got no money} then. We had to take it all in store} goods. We had to live on corn bread etc. When I think back I would rath- jer die than see those days come arain. O, my God, | what we suffered in those days from ‘those good, loving people, the mas- ters, those poor, innocent, Christian I would rather see the) world come to an end than suffer over | we get is 75 cents supper money, even if we work 2 or 3 hours overtime. Whenever a member of the owner's | UP- Cause High Death Rate Low Wages for Negroes, Feb. 22- Death | family takes a dislike to any white collar ‘slave, even if that slave has worked in the place 5 or more years, out goes the poor slave. - I would-like to name the firm, but if I did, they would fire the whole clerical force as they did once before for some’ reason before I came there. “I. enéloge the firm’s name in the envelop for the information of The DAILY WORKER. —AN OFFICE BOY. IDENTIFY TORCH VICTIM. SOMERVILLE, N. J., Feb. 22.— charred body was found in a pool of blazing gasoline on the Bernardsville- Morristown Road on Monday, night, was definitely identified today as Miss Margaret Braman a 38 year old spinster. ‘ ST. LOUIS, Mo., rate figures released by the Ameri- can Health Association here show { that the death rate among the Negro| population of the city in 1926 was 25) per 1,000 as against 13.49 among the Artists § The housing and general liv-| ing conditions among the poverty- he ff stricken Negro workers, due to the PO ar ce e~“torch murder” victim whose} low wages paid them, was held re-| 1H) § CAP E HOWALD sponsible for the great difference. The Negro death rate has grad- ually imereased since 1921, when it was 17 per 1,000. among Negro babies was 115 per whites. for by the lead workers never showed —A LEAD eee Garrick Players Plan Three Plays for =| Spring Program A spring program of three new| plays is planned by the Garrick Play- ers at the Garrick Theatre, by Basil | Sydney and Mary Ellis, whose cur~ rent production of “The Taming of | the Shrew” in modern dress is meet- | ing with success. | The first offering will be “Twelve Thousand” translated from the Ger- man of Bruno Frank by William A. Drake. This play is laid in a Saxon | duchy during the days of the Amer- ican revolution. George Jean Nathan has written,a foreword to the play being published shortly by Alfred A. | | Sydney and Miss Ellis | will play the leading roles. | The Garrick Players will follow this with two plays to be chosen from | “Denbigh” by Theresa Helburn, “The | Father” by August Strindberg, and “Robert and Marianne,” by Paul Ger- aldy. The comedy by Miss Helburn, executive director of the Theatre Guild, was tried out in the fall. GIRL ORCHESTRA HEADS JEFFERSON THEATRE BILL Beginning today and continuing Friday,:.Saturday and Sunday the efferson Theatre on Fourteenth| Knopf., Mr. Of|Street will have as special headliner of their vaudeville a group of twenty girls, “The Ingenues,” an orchestra Follies. Others on the bill include the } Briants and Summers and Hunt. On the screen will be seen W. C. Field’s new starring vehicle “Two Flaming Youths.” Chester Conklin is co- featured with Fields in the picture. Russian Furs Worth $4,000,000 to Be Sold LIEPZIG, Germany, Feb. 22. — A valuation of $4,000,000 has been put on the collection of furs which the Soviet Union will put on sale here on March 26th, bearing out the reports heard recently that the Soviet gov- ernment would put up for sale an offering that would be of substan- tial proportions. Teachers Form Union SEATTLE, Wash., Feb. 22. — A number of the high school teachers here have organized a union, This hp, the 200th teachers’ union to af- ROMNEY BRENT. Gives an excellent performance as the younger Gobbo in the George Ar- liss production of “The Merchant of Venice” at the Broadhurst Theatre. LABOR ATTORNEY FOR BETTER LAW WASHINGTON, Feb. 22—A. J. Groesbeck, former governor of Mich- igan and now counsel for the Amal- gamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes, appeared here before the senate judiciary com- mittee which is conducting hearings on the proposed Shipstead anti-in- junction bill. Groesbeck, to the surprise of many, expressed the opinion that the bill which has the support of organized labor would not accomplish what is intended by it. Groesbeck urged in- stead that labor should be exempted from all injunction processes. He sug- gested an amendment to the Clayton act which would ‘specifically exempt labor from its provisions. Motive Suggested. It has been suggested that Groes- beck is seeking higher political office and therefore takes an “advanced” position on the issue, ED filiate with the American Federation of Teachers, which in turn is con- nected with the American Federation of Labor. RATT The death rate - 11,000. in. 1926. ~~ Monthly eae Meeting of the UNITED WORKERS COOPERATIVE ASS’N Friday, Feb. 24th, 8.30 P. M. at, HUNTS POINT PALACE. 163rd St. and Hunts Point Road yvEvery member should attend this meeting: people starving us by inches, cme TRUTHFUL OLD MINER.” SUNDAY 26 2 P.M. CENTRAL Opera House Tickets 50c. COOPERATIVE CELEBRATION | Of the Completion of the Second Block Houses of the United Workers Cooperative Ass’n Spectacular Strike Scene Machine Dance Mass Declamations Mass Demonstration Mass Singing Coop. Section of the Freiheit Singing Society Coop. Section of the Freiheit Dramatic Studio under the direction of Ja acob Schaefer and Jacob Mestel Eves. 8:30, Mat | Winter Garden Pves, 8:30. Mats. WORLD'S eee SENSATION! * Models : WINTHROP AN AMES me JOH. GaLswo a prea | Thea., W. 45St. Ev: BOOTH 1 srits: 8:40 Wed. & Sat. Th., W.44 St.vs.8:30 Broadhurst fie) Ware Ss in THE MERCHANT OF VE DRACH L'way, 46 St. Bvs. 8.30 FULTON Mats’ Wed.&Sat. 2.30 “BETTER THAN THE BAT” | ERLANGER'S "iny4yst-avetse THE MERRY MALONES j with GEORGE M, COHAN | National Theatre, 41 3c. W. of Biwa. 8:30. Mts. Wed.&Sat.2-30 “The Trial of Mary Dugan” * “By Bayard Veiller, with ‘Aun Hurding-Rex Cherryman Charles Rogers will play the lead- iug role in Marian Nixon’s next pic- ture for Universal, “The Cream of the Earth.” This is an adaptation of | Percy Marks’ story of the same name, HUD Theatre, West 44th Street. SON ers tn), Mets Wed.& Sat. THE N ‘OHAN FARCE WHISPERING FRIENDS — The Theatre Guild presents —- O'Neil "Neill’s ras." — Strange Interlude John Golden Then,, 58th, E. of B’way Evenings Only at 5:30, EUGENE O'NEILL'S Marco Millions Th., W, 52d St. Evs. 8:30 GUILD wits. thurs. & Sat, 2:30 Extra Matinee Wednesday Feb. 27, “Phe Doctor's Dilemma” Th., W. 42d. Ev: Mats, Wed.&Sat. Republic ENULE: 19 Girls—Direect trom Ziegfeld Follies McLaughlin & Evans—Summers & Hunt W. ©, Fields & Chester Conklin in “Iwo Flaming Youths,” MUSIC AND CONCERTS sc meceeae OPERA COMPANY ist N. GALLO PHBA. Eves. 8:20. Mats, 54th, W. of Bway. PHONE COL, 1140, Mon, Eve., Carmen, Tues. Wed., Thurs., Fri, Sat. Eve. Sat. Mat. Martha, Wed. Mat, Faust. The shooting’s all over now. with laughter, music, song and dance, the New Playwrights present at their theatre, 40 Commerce Street (phone _ Walker 5851) Michael Gold: For all performances, a 10% vall tickets purchased from thi 108 East 14th Street, Phone i | | | Stuyvesant 6584, Still in all seriousness, but ’s New Play Hoboken Blues codanon will be given on e ‘local Daily Worker Office