The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 26, 1929, Page 4

Four DAILY WORKER, Stevedore Cont MILITANT NEGRO OPEN HATCHES ARE AMONG DANGERS OF DOCK WOR WORKERS WILL FIGHT ROBBERY Wolford Leads Group of Progressives n pee é Worker Correspondent. , Pa., (By Mail).—The prazen t of 40 per cent of every longshoreman’s pay wages, which has been a practice of the contracting stevedores here at the expense of the Negro dock workers is being bitterly fought by a group ef militant Negro longshoremen, aumbering approximately 135, under che leadership of Thomas Wolford, a leader of the Negro wor here, and a member of the American Ne- gro Labor Congress. Wolford has been barred from the numerous riverside industries of Chester because of his courageous militancy against the crooked bosses and because of his attempts to unionize the longshoremen. Cheat Workers. “Foremen of the longshoreme cheat the longshoremen out of 3 cents of every hour’s pay of every worker; giving our men only 50 cents an hour, instead of the 85 cents the men should get. The pay of every other seaport along the At- lantic seaboard is 85 cents.” That is what Wolford tells the dockers. “Our only means of combatting these thieving foremen who are aid- ed by the riverside companies, is to form a militant union. Then we can walk out until we receive our proper pay.” Wolford is confident that his group of workers will organize a walkout in the near future. “It is a shame to let your steve- dore contractors take advantage of you in such a way as they do,” Wol- ford dins into the minds of the steve- dores. “Chester is the only non- union port in the Atlantic coast.” Wolford has been fighting to arouse a number of longshoremen who are satisfied to drift along with the wage they are getting. He warns them to fight for the wage that is Cue them, “because the Negroes, more than any other worker are ex- ploited in their youth and thrown in the ash can when they get a little older. Get your deserved'wages, get your 85 cents an hour while you can,” he advices. Form Militant Group. He is backed by a group of ap- proximately 135 longshoremen. They are working hard to overcome the non-militant spirit of more than one hundred other stevedores, w Many of the militant workers be- long to the local branch of the Ne- gro Labor Congress, one of the most active and strongest groups in the country. Fight Doping of Workers. Wolford plans to organize the chauffeurs and cabmen of the city after he has succeeded with the long- shoremen. | He is also bitterly fighting the spread of the “dope” habit which has taken root among many workers of the Bethel Court district. The po- litical leader of the Negroes in that section was recently sent to federal jail for five years after the authori- ties could no longer overlook his business in dope, ruining scores of hard working Negroes here. “They are trying to dope the Ne- groes so we will not realize our| needs to combine and fight for our rights,” Wolford says. “We've got| to demand our rights, go out and fight for them,” he says, “because they certainly won’t hand them to us on a platter.” mn KIDNAPPER SENTENCED. WOOSTER, Ohio, March 25 (UP) —Eliss Arnold was sentenced to 20 years in the state penitentiary tc- day for kidnaping four-year-old Mel- vin Horst, of Orrville. His son, Ar- | thur, 17, was sentenced to an inde- terminate term in the Mansfield Reformatory. BOYS FIGHT MISTREATMENT BERLIN (By Mail).—Boys in the | Lindsnhof Reformatoi7 rioted over rotten food served and bad treat-| ment. Police were called in against the boys. | vactors Are Robbing Chester Longshore ‘ ~ EW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1929 | { are cheated by stevedore contractors is described ndents on this page. The work of the dockers ts low—50 cents an hour, Above At left dockers are shown How dockwor econd part of the letter from a farmer correspondent in Union is published today. In this letter the Soviet Union farmer tells of conditions since the Revolution, describing the great benefits for the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union workers’ and farmers’ government. farmer wishes to hear from American farmers, and is anxious to communicate with them in return. Send your letters to the Daily Worker, worker correspondence department, to be for- warded to a Soviet Union worker or farmer. * * * Things were not very sunny the first years after thé Revolution. | There was the civil war, there was universal disorganization, and famine. | As the result of it, by the beginning of 1922 I was left with a family | of 12, having only one horse and without any food supplies or seed grain. The Soviet Government Aids. lowering a boxed auto, a heavy lo dockers often fall, cau ing serious it with a touch of his hand. ad, toa pier. The gangway man Note open hatch, down which injury or death. The second photo shows dockworkers raising a load to the level of the hatch coamings. Education, Technical CRAFT UNIONS Aid, for USSR Farmers MDTOALBANY IN “FAMILIARITY” __ PRESS BOSSES SPEEDUP SCHEME | ‘Owners Held Out 14 But Those Focled Are Weeks Thru This By a Worker Correspondent. ALBANY, N. Y., (By Mail).— Two big open shops publishers of Albany newspapers have had to sur- render to the printers after a long fight. vember 8, the Albany | Times Union, owned by Hearst, and But here the Soviet government came to my aid. First of all I got! the Evening News and Knicker- some provisions, though not very abundant; then I was given ‘seed grain! hocker Press, owned by the Gannet for planting. And by the end of 1922 I already had my own bread. In 1923 I got a loan for the purchase of a couple of oxen and since e the growth of my farm began. First of all I learned what agronomic aid meant. Until that time I tilled my land and planted any old way, but now I got some information how to prepare the soil. farming m; Besides the agro: my aid. mist, a workers’ and farmers’ newspaper came to | before planting, and that increased the crop by 15 per cent. compared with dry seeds. Scientific Methods. Besides, owing to scientific methods, I succeeded in the dry summer | of 1927, when the neighboring farmers using primitive methods collected up to 10 poods (a pood equals 37 Ibs.) from a dessiatine (a dessiatine watered on many demands, to meet equals 21-2 acres), in collecting 35 poods of wheat per dessiatine and as | the offers of the publishers, but the much as 80 poods of eats per dessiatine. No matter how much a peasant tried before the Revolution, his | further concessions to the bosses by labor and achievements had no value and nobody paid any attention to/the officials. Finally the demands | presented to the publishers were a | three-year contract, an increase of Soviet country, | $1 a week each year, and a 45-hour t| week of work. | him. Organize Collective Farm. It is quite different in the workers’ and peasants’ For my experimental farming and scientific methads of cultivation received from the provincial agricultural board a prize of 40 roubles in| 1925. In 1926 at the district exposition at Akbukaka I received a diploma of 2nd degree and a premium, a “zig-zag” iron harrow. And at the} provincial ex: and the first premium of 25 roubles. Toward the end of 1927 my proper- | ty, while having 15 people in the family, was valued at over 2,000 roubles. Now I do not own any property. All I had I turned over to the collec- | tive farm which I organized. | Education. With regard to education the situation is far from the pre-revolution- | never act to help the printers’ union, ary. My son who had received an elementary agricultural education was| nor does the printers’ union act to given by the Soviet government an opportunity to finish his studies and he help the other workers. is now an agronomist. My second son while being in the Red Army, learned At the advice of the agricultural laboratory of the newspaper | big chain of newspapers. “Bednota,” I soaked the seed in a solution of manure mixed with ashes | time of the lockout, agreement had fore 4 Other more} been reached during previous nego-; scientific stimulants increased the crop by as much as 40 per cent as/tiations on all provisions of a new) | the period of the agreement. \all negotiations, osition at Artubinsk I received a diploma of first degree |altho they had previously agreed to linterests, locked out all the union compositors, and imported a gang of strikebreakers, at wages way be- low the union scale. They even hired women compositors as scabs, After that I began to do some experimental | paying wages so low that a union man would not sniff at it. Both Gannet and Hearst own a At the| contract except wages, hours, and Officials “Concede.” The union officials had back- yank and file would not allow any The bosses then withdrew from and demanded a number of changes in the contract, it. Then came ‘the lockout. | The bosses were able to keep up this lock out for 14 weeks. Why? Because the other workers on the Hearst and Gannet papers belonged to different unions altogether, which The stereotypers, the photo-en-| radio-telegraphy and the third has been sent at government expense to gravers, mailers, etc., all have their | study at the district Soviet party school, a high school. Let your bourgeois bloodsuckers try after this to prove that the Soviet government has given nothing to the toilers. own unions. Thru the curse of craft unions, in- stead of the one big, strong union True, there are still many people who are not contented. These very|for the whole newspaper industry, people serve as examples for the bourgeoisie and as a ground for condemn- | these different unions, all of whose ing the socialist reconstruction. But who are these discontented people? | They are the remnants of our pre-revolution period, the old bloodsuckers | —the kulaks, priests, speculators, Nepmen, etc. Concluding my letter, I ask to accept my assurances of the sincerity | and truthfulness of all stated above. As I do not know any foreign language, if any foreign comrade! wishes to carry on a correspondence with me, I think it can be done thru the Daily Worker, which will forward the letter to me thru one| of the Soviet newspapers, who will translate it, and also translate my | letters to you American farmers. With comradely greetings, I remain, S. F. NEMETZ, Farmer-Correspondent. + » Je Tomorrow a textile worker of ‘the Dedevskaia Factory of the Second State Cotton Trust will tell how the seven-hour day came to | his factory. This textile worker wishes to hear from textile workers in the United States. Send your letters to the Worker Correspon- dence Department, Daily Worker, and we will forward them to the Soviet worker, who is anxious to write to you. (Letters from Soviet workers will be translated into English.) JOBLESS MANY YEARS Wool Sorters Tied Up by A.F.L. Fakers By a Worker Correspondent. LAWRENCE, Mass., (By Mail).— |some of them for years. So in their fine A. F. of L. spirit those union wool sorters decided to work over- |time on straight pay, rather than have a few of their brothers put to work alongside with them. . That shows clearly what their sorters have had a “swell| great big A. F. of L. has been teach- (no work at all to do and|ing them all the while they have wool time” | members work in the same industry, have contracts expiring at different | times. So the stereotypers and the other unions working on these pa-/| pers who had locked out the printers, | could whine, “We can’t help you in} this strike, because we are tied up| by contract, which do not expire for a long time.” Craft Unions Aid Bosses. This is naturally what the news- | paper publishers want. It’s just the | dish that suits them. And it suits the officials of the printing craft union. Great stuff—for the bosses. The Albany striking typos estab- lished a paper of their own in com- petition with the scab papers—they called it the Albany Citizen. Will it be continued after the strike? Hearst gave in after 14 weeks, and the following terms were agreed on: New Terms. Contract to run three years from March 1, 1929-82; to contain arbi- tration clause recognizing the laws of the local and the international unions; members return in priority order previous to lockout. Soon Disillusioned By a Worker Correspondent. ‘he bosses use various means to divide the workers. Here is the scheme that our boss, in the Pull- man Couch Furniture Co., Long Is- land City, uses. workers call him by his name, but lets himself be called John. This is of course to make be- lieve that workers and employers are “alike.” So he picks out some backward workers in the shop, work- He does not let the | second) en of 40 Percent of Wages a SRT Se TI AA Se Sp OCKMEN ARE | by the workers in the pi | other danger to docker: ure at Aelita, the latest of the Soviet motion pictures to be shown in th United Siates, is one of the most daring expr. | camera yet x Now having its American pre- |miere at the Film Guild Cinema on !West Eighth St., Aelita is a pro- | duet of the Moscow Chamber Studio. It has been variously described as }a Russian “R.U.R.” and a_ Soviet ;“Caligari.” In some respects it soars miles above either, only to finally descend to a depth away be- low “R.U.R.” The opening of the film brings us to the state laboratory over which inoff and Spironoff are the presid- ing geniuses. Spiridonoff is seek. KERS; LOW WAGES other da les danger of being hit by loads ond | falling into open hatches—low hatch coamings. UPHOLSTERYBOSS “Aclita” a Great Picture, Falls Down ions of the art of the ROBBED OF 35 GENTS PER HR, |Riverside Industries Aid Hold-up | (By a Worker Correspondent.) | CHESTER, Pa., (By Mail).—Rob- ry in the most open form is being racticed against the Negro long- oremen of this city. The bold thievery of 40 percent of every longshoreman’s wages has being go- ing on here for years. The Negro longshoremen are not being paid by the company the full scale of 85 cents an hour by the companies that hire these men. The men are being cheated out of 35 cents an hour by the contracting stevedores who supe rly the men to the various com- panies. A load of barre right. Thes Be, Robbing | The employers and contracting stevedores cheat the workers and fool the men in the following man- ner. When the Negro stevedores are they are informed that ive 50 cents an hour When the men are |paid they receive their money from |the pay office of the company (get- ting only 50 cents an hour) and Badly in End | BLANCHE YU KA. the contracting stevedore pockets the extra 85 cents an hour which |he receives for supplying the men | for the company. | The companies and contracting stevedores have this agreement be- |tween them. The stevedores, many of them, do not realize that they are being cheated out of this sum. Companies and Robbery. Foremen of the longshoremen are thus stealing 35 cents an hour out, hour’s. work, giving the |men only 50 cents an hour, instead of 85 cents an hour. These rob- beries are aided by the riverside in- dustries, chiefly the Scott Paper Who plays the leading role in The Lady from the Sea,” Ibsen’s ing a way to communicate with drama now current at the Bijou |sce they worked like hell during | Mars, and to fly there. A puzzling | Theatre. crs who still believe that, without | message is received on the labora. | 4 Kl work? |Peere caat ee and what should be the big thing, iihese prskers MILME he hE Go rR eta sier 1 eaioe of the ‘boas, calling the Hone “John” | 0 Sees mere Spiridonoff is determined to fly : f to that planet, and succeeds in captured by Arcvad’s men. Finally building @ super-plane which will | SPitidonoff, in order to rule the take him there, | ae |to start a rising lof the robots. The While Spiridonoff is preparing for | }.,1, “f ne the grand flight to Mars, let’s see | watite ae and Spiridonoff end ers who still believe that without season time. This of course, meant that all of us must speed up. The boss treats these workers a little | better for setting the pace, giving them small favors and patting them the revolt of the robots, is messed} up. The two worker stowaways are | planet jointly with Aelita, conspires | Co., the American Dyewood, and the Harbison Refractories Co, The men earn only $21.50 to $30 a\week when they deserve from $40 to $66 a week for the same work. revolt, deposed Mussolini, and asked the king to rule them. No dictator- ship of the Martian robot proletar- iat here. You'd think Spiridonoff, fresh from Moscow, would know on the back for this. After the boss had worked this scheme successfully this John proved | how good a “friend” he was of the workers whom’ he allowed to call him John. Some of these workers who had been duped into speeding |up found out in the following way how the boss “John” was not their friend. It happened that one of these |workers who had been fooled into thinking the boss was a “friend” of the workers bought some material for his home use, and for which he | paid. Because of the hours that we work, he wanted to pack this ma- terial in working hours. doing, why the hell ain’t you work- ing. I will take every damn minute off your time.” This incident helped our organi- zational work, because it disiliusion- ed this worker and some of the others who had been fooled. They now realize that without a real up- holstery workers’ industrial union they will be treated like saves. All the workers in the They Couch shop are unorganized. The boss | |passed by and began hollering at |this worker, “What the hell are you} Pullman } | what kind of place it is. | Arevad has been able to invent a device thru which any part of |the earth is clearly visible. Being |a sort of Mussolini besides being an Einstein, he permits no one except |the councillors and his assistant, Vel- tox, to use the device. But Aelita uses her wiles to good advantage, and prevails on young Veltox to let her see the earth. She sees it, and after getting a glimpse of Broad- | way, New York, and a scene in Mos- | cow, she sees what she really wants to see—a red hot Hollywood love scene, kisses and all. A star-shell from ‘Spiridonoff lands on Mars, and Arevad convenes fearing an aerial attack. Aelita by stealth gets to the earth-seeing ap- paratus, and dispatches her maid to meet Spiridonoff at the landing place. Spiridonoff is brought to From then on thé story degenerates, work 9 hours a day. There are al- together about 150 workers in the place. It is a branch of the main factory in Chicago. | —PULLMAN COUCH WORKER. PROGRAM —Now in pamphlet form! eae, OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL |] conevy WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS 43 East 125th Street New York City BIG MASQUERADE BALL FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE a hurried meeting of his cabinet, | Aelita, who immediately succumbs. | The wool sorters are amongst the|the whole year round to do it in). highest paid of all the textile work-|I have known wool sorters to be out ers, and they have in the past en-| of work for a couple of years at a _ joyed working conditions that made | time. _ them think they could forever stand) Now to make a long story short: ‘on their high pedestals and look The Pacific Mills of Lawrence em- down on other textile workers. They ploy a full fledged union crew of maintained their favorable position wool sorters. all of the great wor- _ through sheer selfishness, for in- shippers of the A. F. of L, ce: They would allow one learner, ‘The members pay their dues and so many wool sorters. But the let the officials run their business. learner had to work three years| Why not? They have enjoyed short a child labor pay before he could | hours and fair pay so long, that they a wool sorters pay. So this rul- had no reason to worry; (time and ‘ing, while at the same time helping |a half for overtime, ete.) bosses, had a tendency to dis-| But now, a mean proposition was oul any but a well financed pro- put to them several weeks ago. The tive wool sorter to learn the firm had a rush order, and they sent d (Wool sorting can be learned | one of the straw bosses 'to ask the three months time.) | wool sorters to work overtime Satur- ' Now for the last five or six years, day afternoons on straight pay, that since the sheep breeders raise sheep| means no overtime, and if they re- only one or two grades of wool, fused to do so, the firm would simply needs but little sorting, and have to hire a few of those hungry same time due to the slack- wool sortezs who have had no work in all of the textile industry,,at all to do for many months and A 4 been organized. But nevertheless, shame to you Pacific mill sorters: uny one with a Jittle red blood in his |veins would have protested against |the overtime, when so many of your brothers are tramping the streets, and inasmuch as you are not using any machinery to do your work, the \firm would not have had any case jagainst your decision, but by your action you have proved your ignor- |ance of working class solidarity. You jare cutting your own throats with- \out even knowing it. Shame to you | Pacific mill wool sorters. —A’ TEXTILE WORKER. HIT BY TRAIN, MAY DIE MILWAUKEE (By Mail)—Harry |Roenick, 55-year-old railroad worker, \is in a serious condition after being et by a train on the Milwaukee |road while a¢ work at Hampton Ave. ‘crossing. He may die, Under previous contract wage was $51 for day work, $54 for night work, 48 hours. Under new contract 50 cents increase to Oct. 1 this year, then additional 50 cents to May 1, 1930; additional $1 to Jan. 1, 1931, and additional $1 to end of contract March, 1932, Working week will be 45 hours. Hourly rates under old contract: Day, $1.06 1-4, night $1.12 1-2. Hourly rates under new contract: day, $1.14 and four-ninths to $1.20 at expiration of contract, night, $1.21 and a ninth to $1.26 and two-thirds at end of contract. During the first two years of contract, time and a half for overtime after 8 hours; third year, after 7 1-2 hours. Gannet, owner of the Knicker- bocker Press and Evening News also gave in, on the same terms. But if not for the curse of craft unions, full demands would have been im- “UJ ELORE” —Hungarian Communist Daily— Arranged by the UJ ELORE conference with the co- operation of the New York Hungarian organizations will be held Sat. Eve., March 30th 8 P.M, at Central Opera House 67th Street and Third Avenue TICKETS in advance $1.00; at the box office $1.25. Tickets for sale at Uj Elore office, 26 Union Sq., Hungarian Workers Home, 350 Hast 8sist St. Tableau from the 1919 Hungarian Revolution mediately won. ‘ +ALBANY PRINTER. Instead of being shown how and) better than to let love put a crimp where the robots live, we are con-/on the Revolution. But those intel- tinually shown Aelita’s palace. The lectuals—you can’t depend on ’em. mass scenes, as few as they are,| The acting is distinguished in are splendidly handled. The rising| Aelita. The rest of the program is of the robots comes like a bomb-'~omposed of “Potemkin” and the |shell, all of a sudden, before you|“Last Laugh,” your money’s worth |expect it, and ends in Aelita, the| if you ever got it. |queen, and -Spiridonoff holding) | sway, and talking about annexing | the earth. : | For a Soviet picture, the Selita In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to Increase accumu- lated labor. In Communist society necumulated labor is but a me | i ; to widen, to enrich, to promote the | falls down badly in ending thus. It| Qustence of the laborer—Karl is as if the Italian workers rise in Mzrx (Communist Manifesto). cf ie AU eS Yossie eS ——$____. 1 BIG. WEEK EUGENE O'NEILL’S DY NAMO} MARTIN BECK THEA. 40th W. of 8th Ave. Evs. 8:50 Mats., Thurs. & Sat, 2340 SIL-VARA’S COMEDY CAPRICE GUILD Thea. aves. Mats., Wed., Thurs. ine Warming” rt “TRIBUNE = TIMES EU Strange Interlude John GOLDEN Thea., 58th EB, of B'way EVENINGS ONLY AT 6:30 NE O'NEILL'S ARTHUR HOPKINS | comeay Hit by PHILIP BARRY | ‘Thea. W. 46 St. Bv, 8.50 [PLYMOUTH wrats. Thurs. & Sat. 2.36 |Chanin’s MAJESTIC Theatre 44th St, West of Brondway Eves, 8:30; Mats.: Wed. & Sat. 2:30 ‘The Greatest and Funniest Revue Pleasure Bound finally mm ie Theatre, 41st S' Broadway. E Sun, at 8:50. — Mats, Thur: RUTH Draper civic REPERTORY ce Eves 50c; $1.00: $1.50 Mat EVA LE GALLIB Tonight, “Katerina.” | Wea. Mat. “The Cradle Song.” | Wed. Eve, “The Cherry Orchard.” . of inel. Sat. Wed.&Sat..2:30 KE, Director e other classes deeny ai pear in the face of m dustry; the proletariat is its spe and ersential p-oduct—Karl Marx (Corumunist Mansfesto). Farewell Pertormance! 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 Box Office 4, POPULAR PRICES