The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1929, Page 4

WATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1929 HELL-HOLE IS A SISTER SHIP OF S, §, VESTRIS Starvation Pay, Long Hours for Slaves The Daily Worker herewith pub- lishes the first part of a letter from a seaman correspondent, who slaved ahoard the S, S. Van- dyck, of the Lamport & Holt C a sister ship of the liner Vestris, on which the Lamport & Holt Line was responsible for the death of over a hundred lives. The seaman correspondent reveals that si iJar, even worse, conditions exis aboard the hell-hole sister ships of the Vest and that an even worse waits the sermen and pas- sengers aboard these hell-holes should disaster occur to these ships. (By a Seaman Correspondent) I will describe the ¢ tions on baord the Lamport & Holt ship Van- yck, a hell-hole for the seamen, owned by the line that was respon- sible for the death of over 100 on the steamship Vestris, The condi- tions on the Vandyck are every bit as bad as they were on the Vestris. If the Vandyck should get into the same difficulties as the Vestris did when it sank near Cape Hatteras, then there is no telling how many People would lose their lives, for the ship is as bad, the officers as incapable and the lifeboats as rot- ten as those of the Vestris. I was a pantryman on the Van- dyck on the voyage from New York to Buenos Aires. Argentina, and on the return trin from Buenos Aires hack to New York. This was from Jan. 4 to March 8. Slave 6 A. M. to 11 P. M. The hours of the pantrymen are from 6 a. m. to 11 p. m., and more | often long past this hour. It is a rare occasion when the pantrymen get through at 11 p.m. The work of the pantryman, who gets $45 a/| month, consists of cleaning the presses, getting the stores from the store-room, cleaning the ports, wash- ing down the pantry three times a day to make it clean for inspection, getting the food from the galley | after it is cooked, and washing the | enamelware—all for $45 a month. There is no such thing as a lunch | If | hour for the slaves on this boat. lucky, we get an hour off at 2 p. m., not more often than every other day. Four men do all the work in a pan- try longer than a city ‘block. All get $45 a month, a month of 30 days, | not 28 days, Pay is given at the end of the return trip to New York. You can get an advance of $10 or so when the ship reaches Buenos Aires. The chief steward walks about, looking for more and more work for the men to do. Not a minute’s chance to rest—the chief officers aiways find something for you to There are only four pantry- | men on the Vandyck, when there is | enough work for 10. menor more. | VW | | Vandyck: , ily Worker today starts publishing a letter from a seaman correspondent, telling of con- ery on board the Lamport and Holt liner Vandyck, shown above. The Vandyck is « the Vestris, on which the Lamport-Holt line sent over 100 to death. » better chance in « storm than the Vestris did,” says this seaman cor: shown above, aground on a flat in Buttermilk Channel, between Governor's Island and ‘The Vandyck ondent, The Soviet Miner t Hour Day in “All the coal miners employed wor} have been increased by 5.3 per cen Makieva Trust, in Makieva, in center of the Soviet Union. Worker. These worker and peasant correspondents are eager to hear from and. write to American workers and farmers, Write to a So- Send your letter to them care of the viet worker or farmer now. worker correspondence departmen have it forwarded to a Soviet workér or peasant. Write now. And uction of the industries, for building new factories and mills, for new schools-and dwelling houses,” he continues. This miner’s letter, together with letters from many other worker and peasant correspondents of the Soviet Union will soon be published in the worker correspondence section of the Daily 0 Tell of Six Donetz Mines in the Makieva mines have been ng six hours a day since last September, and their earnings ‘” So writes a miner correspondent, a worker in the mines cf the the Donetz Basin, great mining “All the profits that are made by our industries are used for t of the Daily Worker. We will watch for the letters soon to appear on this page. of workers activities in the distric dinner we get mostly some sort of clam chowder soup and steak four days old warmed up. Dishwater tea and muddy coffee is also served the | seamen. | The food served the Negro work- | The photo above shows two worker correspondents of the Soviet Union, nart of the great organization of worker correspondents that keep the newspapers of the Sovict Union supplied with accounts ts. behaved so heroically in rescue work on the Vestris; the revels and feasts by the parasite wealthy passengers, for which the already desperately driven slaves were forced to toil practically 24 hours | do, whether the work they make you |ers. who are mostly from the Bar-| a day—the unseaworthiness of the do has anything to do with your job or not. The waiters, for instance, besides waiting on table, have to wash plates and pans, scrub the saloon four times a day. The condition: are so bad that two bedroom stew- ards tried to commit suicide on that trip. Slaves Get the Leavings. The food served to the workers on the Vandyck is unspeakable. It consists of the leavings of the pas- sengers. Food is served three times a day to the workers on the ship, each meal after the passengers have eaten, in order that the leavings only be given the slaves. We start the day’s slavery at 6 a. m., but break- fast is not given until 10 a. m., after the last passenger has eaten his. If the passengers do not deign to get up early for their breakfast, it only means the seamen and kitchen slaves will have to wait so much longer for their breakfast. No breakfast is served the slaves until four hours after they have be- gun working. Then at 2:30 we get dinner, after the last passenger has eaten dinner. Supper doesn’t come around for the slaves until 9 p. m., after the last yassenger has eaten supper. For breakfast, the slaves on the Vandyck get whatever is left from the tables of the passengers. For PAINT FAKER FOR BOSS Aids Master Builders in West Canada (By a Worker Correspondent) WINNIPEG, Manitoba, (By Mail) —The organizer of the A. F. of L, Painters’ Union in Western Canada is playing the hand of the building trades bosses as shown by the fol- lowing incident. The Masters Painters’ Association, which is not part of the Builders’ Exchange, is being compelled by the Builders’ Exchange to become 2 ‘member of the building bosses’ asso- ciation thru pressure from the lat- ter. The painters do not care whether the boss painters affiliate with the boss building trades asso- ti but the Painters’ Union or- i in Western Canada seems r some reason to care a lot, for e is acting as an agent of the boss rs in helping force the Paint- |badoes, is unmentionable. They | practicallly starve. These poor slaves jnever get any fruit. Recruiting the Slaves. Here is the way the Lamport & Holt Co. gets its slaves: The men sign a contract in England to do 121 months on board the Lamport & Tolt ship. They are sent out from Liv 0! to New York as “passen- gers,” and sent home this way also, in order to avoid the American law | |against contract labor. Long be-| |fore the 12 months are up, the men | |are so completely wern out from the | junbearable slavery that many of | them become permanently drunk, or commit petty crimes, in order to be sent back home. Many commit sui- cide if they cannot get out of the} \slavery before the 12 months are up. | * ~ * The second part of this descrip- tion by a seaman correspondent of the slavery on board the Lamport & Holt hell-holes will appear in tomorrow's worker correspondence | section. The reader will be en- abled to see clearly the causes of the horrible disaster on the sister ship of the Vandyck, the ill-fated Vestris. The constant drunken- ness of the slave-driving officers, the cruel treatment of the Negro workers of the Lamport & Holt Line, the same Negro workers who ers’ Association into the exchange. The Painters’ Association offered ithe painters 95 cents an hour. The A. F. of L. organizer recommended that the men should take 90 cents an hour this year and 95 cents next year on a two year agreement. This agreement must be made with the Builders’ Exchange, he said, not the Master Painters’ Association. It is plain that this organizer is working for the Builders’ Exchange, and evi- dently not for the workers. It does not make any difference whether the painter bosses join in |the building bosses association, for ithe workers’ have to fight every ‘inch \against all these bosses for any gains. The Master Painters are no Vandyck—these are only part of the story of class struggle on the sea which the seaman correspon- dent will reveal. Six Sailors Die When Schooner Is Wrecked Near New Foundland MONTREAL, March 19.—Six members of\the crew of the schooner Russell Lake perished when the ship was wrecked near St. John’s, F. The vessel was owned by @lyde Lake, minister of fisheries in the Newfoundland government. He has been more interested in profits than in precautions for the sailors. Fishermen here have pointed out that Lake, himself an owner of fish- ing schooners, as minister of fisher- ies, naturally would take no steps for the interest of the poorly paid crews, who are forced to make their living by going to sea in unsafe RAYON SCABS HARD TO GET |Whole Town Rooting for Strikers (By a Worker Correspondent) CHATANOOGA, Tenn., (By Mail). —The most important labor event in Tennessee is the strike of the rayon workers in Elizabethton, near John- son City. | About 1,700 rayon workers struck jwhen Arthur Mothwurf, president of the Glanzstoff Corporation, refused to raise tho wages of the workers. The factory is completely shut down. Most of the strikers are women. Some workers did not go on strike immediately but they were locked out by the company. | The officialdom of the A. F. of |L. asked the strikers to return to |work. The strikers repudiated them land said that they would stay out juntil their demands were granted. Women make up to $11.58 a week and men to $20.81 a week. The women work 51 hours a week and the |men 56 hours a week. An injunction | j was issued to the company which| \Refuse to Pay for All is aimed to prevent picketing. Can't Get Scab Guards. | Sheriff Moreland said he was un- jable to get scab guards since all the |workers in town are in sympathy with the strikers. | The meetings of the strikers are very lively. Last Wednesday the strikers and their sympathizers pa- \raded thru the streets of the town. \After the parade they held a meet- ling in the Carter County Tabernacle. /At that meeting Attorney General |} |ROert Aten urged the strikers to/ jreturn to work. He gave as the rea-| json that “the strike is not author- ‘ized by a ‘bona fide’ labor organiza- |tion.” The strikers turned down the attorney general. | AR 'W. I. R. Sends Clothing |to Starving Miners; |Cooperates With NMU A crate of shoes and clothing has been shipped to starving miners and their families in the Pennsylvania region by the National Office of the Workers International Relief, One Union Square, Rose Pastor Stokes, acting secretary of the W. I. R. announced last ‘night. | Thomas Rodgers, secretary-treas- \urer, District 2, National Miners | Union, Portage, Pa., to whom the crate was sent will distribute the clothing among the miners. The W. I. R. is co-operating with the Na- tional Miners Union in a national campaign to feed and clothe the starving coal diggers. The W. I. R. has established a clothing center at 2311 Second Ave., New York City, where part of the clothing is being .assembled and shipped to the coal regions. “All friends of the unemployed t/miners and their needy families’ Mrs, Stokes stated, “are urged to Paris devotiin to cause of the work- ing cla M. J. Olgin better to the painters than the Building Bosses’ Exchange. \ ab VN ia WORKERS LIBRARY 43 EAST 125TH STREET —A Gem of Revolu- tionary Fiction . . Barricades by GEORGE SPIRO A stirring narration of the heroism of the proletarian women id children during the “72 da: that shook France.” 50. PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CITY “It is a work of love. It is a work of ploguly the Lamport-Holf Slave Ship Vandyck:, a Hell-Hole for Seamen BARBERS MUST | “Solitaire . Deals With Life 7 in Coney Island Sideshow WILL END RULE "PAY OFFICIALS GRAFT FOR J08 ‘Socialist’ Rules Bronx | | PLAY that differs from produc- | is now at the Waldorf Theatre. It | is “Solitaire”, by Frederick Rath and | Koby Cohn, The central figure of the play is 4 {a Coney Island midget. His mar- Local With Thugs iriage to a boardwalk gold digger ne jand the tragic result are the basis (By a Worker Correspondent.) | of the plot. Well written and cap- The misleaders of the Barbers | ably acted most of the time, it de- Union have double-crossed the bar- | velops into a neatly knit cross-sec- bers’ rank and file time and again. | tion of a part of contemporary life | The international is honeycombed | seldom . touched. The audience is} with graft; not only the interna- | interested throughout the play. Al- tional but the locals have to stand tho it is billed as a comedy-drama, all kinds of corruption from the of- | the later section of the designation ficials. |alone, is more appropriate. Must Pay Graft for Jobs. | Major Bobby, a freak in one of Loca! 560 in the Bronx is a case in | Coney Island’s numerous sideshows jpoint. The officials and their /is more or less vamped into a mar- henchmen run everything to suit | riage by a local girl, who is look- jthemselves; if you don’t belong to | ing for a meal ticket. |the clique that supports these mis-| His best pal, strong man of the jleaders, you have a hard time get- | same show with the major, attempts ting work; to get work you have toto prevent the marriage. | vote for the officials or pay the| The latter girl finds she is tired of lusiness agent $10 or more, as many being tied down with the midget, so |barbers charge. , jshe and a lifeguard decide to elope If you want to get a job, as you|to Chicago. The lifeguard taunts jare entitled to, without paying graft | Major Bobby on the eve of the de- |for it, you are starved out. |parture. The midget in a rage then | Any barber who dares to com-|shoots the lifeguard dead. The |plain about this graft system runs the risk of being beaten up by the the blame for the murder. officials’ thugs. One barber who | Bobby refuses, went to the president of the local, Quinto, and reported how a business jagent demanded a shake-down for a job, was beaten up by the busi- ness agent, who was present. Quinto | district attorney informs the midget |did not protest. Quinto looked on | that no jury would convict him, It | during the beating and said nothing. | sounds unreal and is the weakest | Quinto is a member of the “social- ! part of the play. ist” party. This “socialist,” instead | The part of the midget is played of punishing the dishonest business | wel] by “Master” Gabriel, who is agent, had charges of insulting the realistic in a difficult role. The official brought against the barber, | g and fined him $500, and thus the | barber was expelled. The officials levy all sorts of new | life. The girl’s role is well handled taxes against the membership. They | by Dorothy Guthern, while Ryder tax us §5 for a “strike fund,” but, | Kean is convincing as the lifeguard. instead of calling a strike, they sell | us out, as happened last May, They | Negro, attracts the audience when- kept the “strike fund” tax—we got jever she is on the stage. a reduction of $2 in wages. | A strong, militant union of “= FORD SPEEDUP journeymen barbers will end all this | graft and kick these grafters out. | Then we will fight the bosses for | better conditions and wages, and win JOURNEYMAN. a4 . “ | Occupational Diseases |Get Out If You Don’t | | Like It,” Men Told | ALBANY, N, Y., March 19.—The | legislative industrial survey commis-| (By a Worker Correspondent.) sion today submitted a report to the| DETROIT, Mich. (By Mail).—I legislature recommending that fif-|am just writing a few lines about teen new diseases be added to those |ihe Ford Motor Co. covered by the Workmen’s Compen- sation Law. The list of diseases to | be added, if the advice in the report | is followed, includes silicosis, which kills stone workers and sand blasters. Bills that woud carry out the rec- ommendation were also introduced. |. run two Bullard machines. None |Organized labor had urged that all | of us could ever do that, for it is joccupational diseases be brought UN-| Killing to run one, let alone two. \der compensation coverage, but the | w ft 1 They tcld us if we refuse to run commission took care to make on! Y|two machines they will send us slight improvements. | home. " z = | Some of the workers in depart- send immediately clothing to the! ment 751 went to the employment center, preferably by parcel post,| office to get a transfer to some so that it may reach the miners and | other kind of work, They were told, their families as soon as possible. \“If you don’t like your job, go back Fifteen cents postage will deliver a|in the employment line.” large parcel. Address packages to| Ford doesn’t hire any more. He’s W. I. R. Clothing Center, 2311 Sec- | got too many. Every day they are ond Ave., New York City.” |putting in new speed-up machines “Contributions to buy bread for|to increase production and throw |the miners and their families should | many workers in the Ford plant out Major and when a repre- sentative of the district attorney’s | office arrives on the scene tells in \detail the history of the murder. The play ends when the assistant Ekstrom, who according to lobby it, workers for more production, In most departments the bosses are foreing the workers to run two ma- chines. In our department, 751, they made | be, sent to the Workers International | of work. | Relief, One Union Square, New| I am getting the Daily Worker | York City. every day. N.S. S. COME TO THE THEATRE PARTY of LOCAL 43 (Millinery Hand Workers) Tickets on sale at Office of Union, 4 W. 37th St. 640 Broadway. POPULAR PRICES TONIGHT at 8:30 P. M. at YIDDISH ART THEATRE, 14th St. and Irving Place THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS: “SUCCESS” . . . .Moishe Nadir “LANDSLEIT” . . . Berkowitz “MARRIAGE PROPOSAL. Chehkov Farewell Performance! ISADORA DUNCAN DANCERS in a Program of Revolutionary Songs and Dances at MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE APRIL 18, 19, 20, 21 TICKETS ON SALE at— Daily Worker Office, Room 201, 26 Union Sq., New York City & at Bow Office POPULAR PRICES tions usually found on Broadway | | major’s friends attempt to shoulder | trong man is portrayed by Carl! | gossip is a “strong man” in real} As a maid, Olive Burgoyne, a! The bosses are speeding up all | en, Officers Incapable, on Lamport- Holt Liner Vandyck, Says Sailor ~ MEN'S TAILORS IRENE BORDONI OF RIGHT WING |Amalgamation to End Slavery (By a Worker Correspondent.) Tt is hard to express how glad the needle “trade workers. felt at the Amalgamated conference in Stuy- vesant Casino, February 23-24, The Amalgamated workers wished for such conferences for years. but it seemed for a time that militant workers would never reach the ~vasses of workers in the men’s tail- ving line. i We progressive tailors used to feel ‘elpless. Before our eyes the Hill- man agents used to sell us to the ‘osses as if we were so much cat+ tle. The Hillman clique helped the bosses to force on us a killing stand- ard of production, starvation wages, In “Paris,” Martin Brown’s com- edy, now in its final week at the | Music Box. | short seasons, all kinds of taxes and | higher dues, and we took all these Vaudeville Theatres | conditions without a protest. Abso- | lute darkness and hopelessness pre- | | vailed among the members of the PALACE— so-called “revolutionary” Amalga- Harry Langdon, star of the stage | mated organization. For a time we and screen, in a comedy titled “The | had a feeling of despair, it seemed Messenger”; Frank Fay; Benny | that these parasites would forever |Davis and his company, presenting | reign in the men’s tailoring indus- his Broadway stars revue; Mary|try. Haynes, assisted by Jean LaFarge;| But we awoke from our sleep. other acts. |The self-crowned grafters of the -—_—_— Amalgamated Union were shaken HIPPODROME— jup, The rage of the men’s tailors’ Jay C. Flippen and his frolic | membership will make them soon |furnish the vaudeville program. His *U" for their golden berths. {company features Hazel Shelly, At our conference the shop dele- | James Donnelly, Jack Meyers, Betty | gates of 366 | shops adopted resolu- |Veronica and the Fifteen Frolic- | tions to abolish the existing miser- some fascinators. The photoplay | #ble conditions forced on the tail- feature is “The Dummy” starring | °TS by the Hillman-Beckerman ma- Ruth Chatterton. chine; we resolved to amalgamate with the militant Needle Workers | Industrial Union and fight for a 40- | hour week, for better conditions, against the bosses and their agents, } RIVERSIDE— Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday—Clayton, Jackson and}ihe Hillman clique. D. M. Durante; Walter “Dare” Wahl; Bil- | Si ee lie Maye; Jerry Smith and Marie | | Hart, and Madie and Ray. Feature | 16 Steerage Passengers |photoplay, “Forbidden Love” star- Hing Lit Dasnitii ‘Ill on Fever Infested Thursday, Friday, Saturday— | Fascist Ship Belvedere United States Indian Reservation | -——— Band; Joseph Regan; Joe Keno and) MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, March Rosie Green; Little Mitzi, and Bill 1% (UP).—The Italian steamship Talent and Flo Merit. Feature Relvedere reached Montevideo from photoplay, in sound, “The Girl on/ Trieste today with an epidemic of the Barge” starring Sally O’Neil. | scarlet fever aboard. Sixteen steer- | age passengers were suffering from at | the disease. | It a8 recalled that about a year | ‘We have seen above that the ep in | wt | ing class is to raise the proleta: pooh 3 dicey | to the position of ruling class, to | go there was a similar epidemic | trim the battle of democracy—Karl | aboard the Belvedere. Several pase | Marx (Communist Manifesto) | testo). sengers died and were buried at sea. 45th W. of 8th Ave. Evs. 8:5 Mats., Thurs. & Sat, 2: SIL-VARA’S COMEDY CAPRICE GUILD Thea.. » sand St ver Mats., Wed., Thu: Sat 40 EUGENE @HEILL’S Strange Interlude Zohn GOLDEN, er tt ARTHUR HOPKINS HoripaY Comedy Hit by PHILIP BARRY YMOUTH Thee W. 45 St. Ev. 8.60 PLYMOUTH Mats, Thurs. & Sat. 2.35 Chanin’s MAJESTIC Theatre 44th St, West of Broadway | Eves. 8:30; "Mati d. & Sat. 2:90 Wed. The Greatest Funniest Revee Pleasure Bound COMEDY Theatre, 41st st, EB. of Broadway. Eves., incl. Sun, at 8:50, — Mats. Thurs. & Sat C RU VIC REPERTORY 480.810» 0c: $1.00: $1.50. Mate. Wed.&8a EVA LE GALLIENNE. Director ‘oday Mat., “Cherry Orchard.” T Tonight, “Cradle Song.” Thurs, bes FIRST AND ONLY SHOWING IN NEW YORK! “A Visit to Soviet Russia” The official Motion Picture of the 10th Anniversary of the U. 8. 8S. R. at the WALDORF THEATRE, 50th St., E. B’ SUNDAY, MARCH 24TH 4 Continuous Performances — 2:00; 4:15; 6:30; 8:45 . “The most comprehensive, stupenduous motion.picture of Social, political and industrial conditions in the let: Union since the October Revolution.” —Henry nme. Auspices: PROVISIONAL COMM. FRIENDS OF THE U.S. 8. R. Admission, $1.00—Tickets in advance at Workers Bookshop, 26-28 Union Square; Bronx Co-operative Cafeteria; Rappaport & Cutler, 1318 South Bouleyard, Bronx. ’ way WILL BE HELD SATURDAY, MARCH 23, AT 8:30 P. M. at 2700 BRONX PARK EAST Something Great!: Given by Branch 6, Section 5 for the Benefit of the Daily Worker