The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 25, 1928, Page 4

‘ Hell Is No Worse Than Working in Steel Mills Is Opinion Page Four WHE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1928 WORKERS COULD NOT BEFORE SENDING AID IF THEY NEW (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (By mail).—I am enclosing one of handbills given out by the relief for the strikers in New rd. Maybe you can use it? We are still all on strike and vard, New Bedford, Mass. stay on strike until we get our demands. You know, com- hs ° * , that if they cut our wages, which are now about $17 a wi Joseph Madeires and wife have nine children, the oldest 16 uw ten percent, we can't live, We would have to move aw years, the youngest 7 weeks. This family of eleven has been 7 “from here or just die. If all the work could see what goes on living on the wages of the father, which were $17.00 before the here they could not sleep before they sent us help. He was employad as a speed tender in the ‘Potomska —-MEIXOS. handbill from New Bedford. It is issued by the Workers Inter- national Relief which is supplying food and clothing to the textile strikers, The address of the Relief is 12 Rodney French Boule- cut, the second one this year. and now another wage-cut is being forced, upon these miserably under-paid workers. Well known economists estimate. that it takes $1,80 to keep a family of five in food, clothing and shelter o moderate basis. One naturally asks how a family of ele on $17.00 a week, which, when lost days are discounted, 0 a year. The answer is that they do not li the * * here are thousands of such families in New Bedford, Mass., 000 textile workers are on strike against a 10% wage- f Editor’s Not The following are some extr om the tai housing i: Since the war there have been four wage-cuts totaling 45%, Their food lacks nourishment, their clothing is poor s, altho they weave the finest of cloth. Their y, overcrowded, without baths, and very i NON NA a RRR E TT ER EET BEDFORD STRIKE NEED poorly furnished. life. already Is it any wonder they are on strike? Ten per cent off the present wage means $15.30 a week. Some strikers say, we might 0 a year just as well drown our children and ourselves as die a slow death yn a very by starvation, ven lives We urge you to send us as large a contribution as possible, amounts so that we can bring bread and milk to the children and a little ve—they soup to the adults. With your help we can do it. WORKERS INTERNATIONAL RELIEF FOR NEW BEDFORD TEXTILE STRIKERS. aan ps Saecetaet ces > Mere ones Sere ase Howms tow oe DACKING-HOUSE |LABORPA MEN ARE SLAVES IN SIOUX CITY BETHLEHEM STEEL WORKERS SLAVES OF BOSS GREED: § ne” / Labor for Famine Wag- |Have to Lay-off Every |Tammany gy Use Workers as¥Pawns es at Blazing Furnaces (By a Worker Correspondent) Many workers are under the im- Third Day of Speed-up | (By a Worker €o (By a Worker Correspondent) pondent) BALTIMORE, Md., (By 3 SIOUX CITY, Iowa, (By Mail)— i oes arvlane e As a comrade and a worker I will en- A seed seapr ag ry tnt the Beth! 1 Co. is. located | deavor to describe conditions in Sioux | P°rsonal favors for. the! iy are npr place ! City. good with the Tammany Hall bosses. I, too, was under that im- As is to be expected, the packers ion once. I was once a member | dominate and run this city. Being the} of one of the Tammany clubs in New | largest- employers of labor, they set| York City, I always voted the demo- jthe wage scale for the rest of the) -ratic ticket. I knew that Tammany | bosses, and you can be sure that it} wasn’t very honest, but still I had | isn’t too high. They pay from thirty-| hopes that, if I was in good with | seveh and one-half cents to forty-two | them, I would some day receive a per- | and one-half cents for unskilled labor, | sonal favor. }and up; to seventy-three cents for About two years ago I was unem- | skilled labor. ployed. I tried all over to find a must cross 2? to get on the id after you a er you that this i world of its own that; Bethlehem Steel Cor- just y of company po- the Bethlehem Workers are the slaves who are ng the latest engineering The project is the new bridge which when completed will span San Francisco Bay, carrying the road from San Francisco to Hayward in Alameda County. It is reputed to be the longest highway bridge in the world. To finish the job as quickly as triumph of American capitalism. inquire lice that is owne Every build’r theatre, gro-| 5 ; . p : peerere cery store, store, dry goods; possible, the contractors speed up the bridge workers inhumanly. The | The speed-up system here is ter- job, but I was ipcncrag : in ee, “dre age, fire de-| pictures show two sketches of the projected bridge. lrific. In some departments they| cided to apply for a a ne ie partr et id even the ten} — WAR SPU EATS Si nieee tee _| drive the workers to such an extent | OMe of the captains o: aC ahs churches t the Bethlehem. |that the men have to lay off about | #out it, and he told me that he woul use his influence in my behalf. After hearing this promise I filed an appli- cation for a job in the street cleaning department with the Civil Service Commission. It is already two years since I was examined and I am still on the wait- ing list. The politician who promised to use his influence in my behalf did nothing for me. He told me that he was not able to do anything for me because there are too many men on the waiting list for city jobs. Let my instance be an example to | every third day as they can’t stand Calls Longshoreman Union vs Delegate an Officia / Bookie Whenever they think that any of Hell. a real imy ion of Hell— move to the cer of Sparrows Point and look around within the radius of a mile or two and see all the differ- ent departments sending out their fire} sky high. The flame ard glare from| Mr. Frank Madann is the delegate’ by some strong arm guys. the furnaces illuminate the whole sur-|of Local 856 of the International roundings. Over there is the open|Longshoremen’s Association, I. L. hearth dept., where many furances.|Of all the delegates he is the standing in a row under a giant build-! hated by the rank and file. To get the men are getting too friendly, with | one another, they lay off a whole are given a “physical examination” | bunch of them, for they are afraid that there might be some labor ac- tivity going on on the quiet. (By a Worker Correspondent) Some time ago the membership of mae the Local protested against Madann “*\ for his negligence in attending to his It is very hard to organize inside | the packing plant, as there are so ing, are aglow day and might melting) He is not at all interested in trade | functions ne see Madann then! many stool-pigeons posted all over. 2 aglo y y e ee 8 : i i : . ean iron, copnér-and other min.|unlonidtm,, -Iustead. of.coming anong casey a etre peas kane bonne of the economic bressury the erals tha ake 1 the longshoremen and trying to or-} ork. e did nothing of the kind, jbosses can put on men with families Saat eee tat 0 to make steel. Bie ee ey into the union, the fel. BoWever. Now he is pursuing the |to support, so many of the men are other workers who may expect per- There is the be my ey ae rales ae a workers to bet | S2me old tactics again, |atraid to attempt to organize. But | Sonal favors Sag caants ae aken from ie Soll ingo' orm i br } : . * iti ri i r 2) noliticians cannot and will not 0 shea and heated and then rolled into bars/0n horse races. On the bets he makes| This will keep on until the long- |Conditions are ripe for it, for the men [fs tte Sot" “they are not or’ slabs. They bave a rail mill here| money. shoremen elect men who are real trade |87¢ at in = discontented ‘mood and), osted in you at all. They are only that is one of the most modern in| When a worker complains about | unionists and not bookies in office. [Recepiine 0 Props eerds- willing to use you as a tool for their the country. mistreatment on the job and violation) It is about time we did something | There ought to be one grand house-| own crooked ends. Another giant department that is/0f the union rule r. Frank Madann to kick out Joseph P. Ryan, Madann {cleaning clear down the line from| am now in favor of a Labor Party pract’cally an industrs by itself takes tells him in plain English, “Keep quiet|and the rest of the gang from the {Green to the smallest craft official. | .nq would support it in the coring bars of iron and with modern machin-/#"4 go to hell.” If you protest you union. —J. O'S AND A.B. S. —FENTON. _ |oelection. —A WORKER. ery makes wire and nails that would|— y fe ES ; = $ a 7 i ae ae astonish the average human. A slight thousands of feet of pipe a day. The) had a four hour shift but this would, possible by inducing the worker to a, makes $6 for ten hours, then the example of one little department in| pipe mill is reputed here for needing| not be desired by the bosses. Bethle-| high speed as a result of pay being) worker finds himself at the mercy of this wire mill where they make nails | !¢8s than fifty per cent of men that) hem figures pay for each man accord-| placed on each article produced. As another wage cut to meet with the tot more than thirty-five or forty|'$ ovdinarily requ:red in other pipe) -ing to the lowest possible amount of! the case may be, the worker may be| Bethlehem minimum of $5. Here is men are engaged in turning out fif-| Mills. Then there is the big shee‘! money it takes for a man or his fam- getting $6 or $7 for eight hours. Sup- already accomplished a low rate of teen hundred kegs of nails in ten! '™ill where heavy iron plate is made} ily to exist, so in this case if a man! pose the production is 200 for eight pay as well as a higher standard of hours. Machinery does the trick, Ah!| from the rough bar form. There is aj were getting four and a half dollars; hours at three and a half cents apiece production. This is a typical policy The bos are all smiles when they | Pig g@5 plant here where they make| a day for a eight hour day, this would) which makes seven dollars. The boss! instituted in Bethlehem. through this department and see} the energy to drive all the machinery| mean for a four hour day he would) takes the figure of 200 and tells the: Automatons. a hundred machines running full blast | and fire or the furnaces. Here is ten} have to receive the same amount of| worker the pay is now two and a half’ Senator Wheeler at on open forum and hardly a man in sight. or twelve giant industries in itself of} money in order to exist, and would) cents which for 200 would make five! speaking on China, showed much in- Blocks Long. the iron family that only 15,000 » | ne ssitate the raising of hourly rate} dollars. The worker raises his produc-| dignation over the terrible conditions s Tin Mill-Junction, a @%¢ employed in and it would be s: | or tonnage. Thus you find the eight! tion to 225 making about $5.63 for! that the Chinese coolie must endure has a length of four‘? 8a¥ that ; fteen years ago these! hour day forced on the worker because! eight hours. To the scheming boss: and praised America where we have In this building stand me industries without modern ma-} of the extremely low wages. These} this is still too much as they figure) modern civilized methods. Mr. Wheel- ces where iron| Chinery such as this place is equipped} workers on the furnaces would not be| a man should not earn more than fifty er would drop this assertion if he tcl aad tee with would necessitate the employ-{ making ridiculous demands if they] cents an hour on skilled work, so he should step in Bethlehem and see the and a foot wide, ™ent of 100,000 men. | ask for a four or six hour day with) inaugurates a new scheme and if tne| human automatons going full speed through a door) There are a great number of work-| more pay. ‘ ‘ worker don’t like it, he is told to quit. | rolling red hot tin, piece-work, jump- form goes through ers who live in the company-owned} _ It is interesting how they arrive at! but with the new workers in place, the| ing about, ‘piece-work, group piece and after a certain length| houses, while there is also a great | the final rate of pay for piece-work | new standard is set like this ten honrs’| work, where if one man_ slackens ed enough to be rolled |mass of workers who come down from With the introduction of a new ma- of tin, Each furnace | Baltimore each day on the street car| Chine or some kind of work, a fair has seven to eight men in front who| line. Steel wofkers don’t get up 9 or| Standard of pay is set, then in the rok the iron through a certain roll-| 10 a. m., like bankers, we get up at course of time the bosses with their ing and doubling process until it has|5 a- m., if the on the day shift, in time clocks and Statistics figure out] five dollars and with experience raise er gauge tin. The order to get breakfast and take the|the established high production made! his production to possibly 300. which of time is out to the sh worker who quit was making on an average of 25 an hour. This new. man will make 25 or 250 in ten hours for of the whole group and their families. China’s coolie system has nothing on the Coolidge regime. assumed the pro BETHLEHEM STEEL WORKER. seven men compose a group and get| hour ride down to the mill. Its funny oo sh ad i al paid ace ¢ to how much good tin| how all of us fall asleep on the car} they make. If you step into the tin| until we hit the Point, then automati- r \ 5 at this| cally and disregarding the “No Smok-| h these work thous J ht comes to you that} ing” sign on the verybody begins Sempthing is wrong in. Den to light up a cigarette as though to] W E | COM E D E MONSTR A T ION solid these men | » themselves for the day’s task.) urious Gling ted hol ber winter the cold winds blew off| in front of furnaces that are throw-| the bay and sent us scurrying up the} ing out an intense heat. The air is; !omg slushy roads to the different de- GREET THE DELEGATES National Nominating Convention Ghee. dirty, wild eyed | shrieking of whistles, cranes running rushing, anxious for high tonnage.| Up and down | overhead with tons of} oe President of the United States Real automatoms. The tonnage is fix-| iron on small’slings of wire, the heat} f ed by the bo at such a rate that| that radiated from the furnace felt the most sk’lled worker on the fur-|comforting at first but then with the Nace gets $6 while the others in the| new shift coming on and a warming} group earn from $4.25 to 0 for| UP started, we were forced to stand| eight hours. | in front of the small air pipes that are| In the olden days when horses were| Meant’ for cooling us off. The shift! quite common, I saw horses tug at| that finished was happy to leave, but | heavy loads, and sweat, but in Beth-| When they left with their sweaty | lehem it is a common sight to see) bodies and open pores out in the cold | men work as if inhuman, strain, work! the expression on their face changed | fast, sweat, swear, and all for a few Even the climates are against us slices of bread. Some price to pay. Pneumonia, severe colds and cramps} Pipe Mill. A |are our lot. | They have a shipyard down here | Starvation Pay. The blast furnaces down here stand) Workers whose duties confine thert | out along the docks where huge seoop| close to the furnace work eight hour: | shovels reach down and empty a ship| such as in the tin mill, sheet mill and} in very little time. Here the crude|open hearth. It would be the wrong | ove is run through a process in the| impression, however, to suppose that | blast furnace, and after melted pour-| furnace workers get eight hours be | ed into a ladle and sent right over! cause the boss has any particular love | to the open hearth, melted and poured |for them and it woul be wrong to be- | into the furnace. Compare this meth- | lieve that eight hours is the standard! od to some mills where they have to {here in Bethlehem. Only twenty-fiv: | buy the pig iron from another com- |per cent of the men work eight hour: | pany and melt the pig iron in their|Wwhile the others work from ten tc own furnaces. Here-they just take the |thirteen hours not counting a half| fron that ordinarily make pig iron and |hour extra for lunch. It is a well es-| put in the melted form right in the|tablished fact that the boss would] furnese. The pipe mill here turns vut|have a greater tonnage daily if they stifling. There is so much smoke due| partments and we would run to escape to inadequate ventilation that you! the discomfort of the weather, only » the men on the next| to Step in the mill to enjoy a real dis- man in light under. {comfort of the clanging of bells, the i of the Workers (Communist) Party of America | SPEAKERS BEN GITLOW BEN GOLD JAMES P. CANNON WM. F. PATTON, Iowa ANITA C, WHITNEY, Calif. WILLIAM Z, FOSTER B. H. LAUDERDALE, Texas SEN. CHAS. E. TAYLOR, Mont. SCOTT NEARING, New Jersey .L. FORT-WHITEMAN, Alabama WM. W. WEINSTONE TOM RUSHTON, Michigan ~ STANLEY CLARK, Oklahoma SCOTT WILKINS, Ohio H. ZAM, Young Workers League JAY LOVESTONE, Chairman. —o MECCA TEMPLE, 133 West 55th St., New York TONIGHT Music by Hungarian Workers Symphony Society. Admission 50 cents. 4 nr r in- | work at two cents a piece. The older! down, he threatens the bread supply| the coolie system in Bethlehem under! of Correspondent ——-DRAMA——* “The Phantom Lover’, Kaiser’s New Opus Slated for Broadway | “The Phantom Lover,” by George Eee | Kaiser, will be seen here early in Sep- ‘tember, Under the title of “Oktober- |tag,” this latest play of Kaiser's is jrunning successfully in Germany. Kaiser is best remembered this country as the author of “From Morn | to Midnight,” which the Theatre Guild presented a few seasons ago. } in Jane Barry, who was recently ‘in| “Box Seats” at the Little Theatre, | has been selected ky the Society of Cultural Relations to study for one year at the Meyerhold Theatre, Mos- cow. Miss Barry will sail for Russ: in the fall. | Kathleen Kirkwood, direetor-pro- ducer of “Ten Nights in a. Barroom,” at Wallack’s Theatre is staging her | next Triangle production, a revue with music, “Bare Facts’ of History,” | which will be presented at her Trian- | % gle Theatre the énd of June. ‘Adam | Hani over Sheet ogy a sumenm and Eve, Cleopatra, Mark Antony | which returned te the Playhouse and others will play important Pole Monday night. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is in rehearsal | now under Miss Kirkwood’s direction | and will be offered shortly on Broad- | way. Featured player in “The Road to Grim Guns Frolic for Next Imperialist War The annual convention of the ca HAMPTON ROADS, Va., May 24.— creatiical Resear has hence Prepared to hurl 2,100-pound projec- Grmatccs pan Wehai Tana ace | tiles over a 10-mile sweep of the At- ple, Detroit, Mich. June 4. A large | lantic. from the deen black maws of delegation from New York will at- | 16-inch Howitzers, the United States jtend the meeting. The executive | Army Coast Defense has inaugurated jhoard will meet a week ahead of the | at the vital entrance to Chesapeake opening of the convention. | Bay the most elaborate war games | ever undertaken on the American con- | George White’s new “Scandals” is now in rehearsal and will open in | tinent. Atlantic City June 11. This year’s, Four 16-inch mortars of the fixed edition ida! aie Pye same | battery at Fort Storey. were supple- group lat evolved the show a year | i ive fi ago, B. G. De Sylva, Ray Henderson, i mented in the defensive fire by four, iLew Brown, William K, Wells and 12-inch Howitzers and four 8~inch White himself, The revue is due on| guns from the Mobile artillery unit Broadway late in June. at Fort Eustice. Me | oe een uaa ia ——- ‘The Theatre Guild presents ——{) CHAN N'S46th St.W. of Broadway Strange Interlude | venings at 8:2 , Mats. Wed. & Sat. H SCHWAB and MANDEL'S Golden Thea., 58th, E. of B'way || MUSICAL SMASH | Evenings Only at 5:30. ij OO D N EW ALL THIS WEEK with GEO, OLSEX and HIS MUSIC VOLPONE | ; ey Th. W. 52d St. 8. 8:30 7 7 Guild || HAMMERSTEIN’S ,nueareg | Mats. Thurs. & Sat. 2:30 Week of May 28: “Marco Millions” Phone Col. $380 American Premiere NEXT MONDAY at 8:40 Seats Now Arthur Hammerstein presents KEITH-ALBEE | “A Daughter of Israel” with Betty Blythe | an International Cast. 420ST EBMAY wis 1769 s and i The Russian Film Classie 48th St. Thea. Mats. Wed. & Sat.’ LEONID ANDREYEV'S Masterpiece !Waltz« Dogs’ ae De oe® SLPETERSBIRG ‘PAR Battle of Chateau-Thierry ate i TeabONt Ss oe awh hae ___ Music by Herbert Stothart ort Russian C ymphony Orchestra WHIRL Night 3 50e to $1.50 Luna's Great Swimming 3 50¢ to $1, Incl. Tax ‘|. Winter Garden Eye 8:99. Mats. AT A 5 '| Greenwich Village Follies ) i) GREATEST OF ALL REVUES. | i | | Prsomeneay Else Needs Me!” Re —The Daily Worker. "See Russia for Yourself” TOURS to SOVIET RUSSIA THIS SUMMER (Free Vises—Extensions arranged for to visit any part of U. S. 8. R.) “July 6 ““CARONIA” Bil ee tAQUIT ANIA” On Comfortable CUNARD Steamships $450 and up. VIA: 10 DAYS RETURN: LONDON ot eget] Cehirenne. WAKSAW HELSINGFORS Moscow—Leningrad BERLIN - PARIS WORLD TOURISTS, INC. (Agents for OFFICIAL TRAVELBURO of SOVIET GOY.) 69 Fifth Ave., New York City Tel.: Algonquin 6900 Fae Neen ERCOT OT |