The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 27, 1929, Page 4

NINETY HOURS AW (By a Seaman Correspondent) BOSTON (By Mail).—M March 11, I ship} sylvanian of the 1 Ha- waiian Steamship Co. We sailed .from New York under two watches. ee on the enn Am The hours of these two wat were so arranged that we put in 14 hours one day and 10 the next day. In spite of these long hours we were often asked to work overtime for which time off was Miners of BOSSES FIRST SPREAD RUMOR OF INCREASE Men Hoaxed, More Pay Cuts Expected ker Correspon LIFORNIA, Penn. (B —I am ¥: heen gcing a Fs a Coal Brownsville, the Jones peration, The miners of Pa., and are cwned by and Laughlin Stee! Cor- the Vesta mines Things happened unexnectedly jo the great majority Tropaganda was pany eompany would give a 10 per cent increase to all of the men wor n and around the mines, “in spite ‘f its paying already a higher rate than the rest of the coal companies | xround here,” as the company said. Fooled by Company. h few ex- ceptions. ise was ming you could hear a‘! over | the mine the praise of the fooled minets for the company, for a prom- ‘se only, But March 15 came and knocked all this bull out of the min- crs, as the foreman went sround and instructed all the outside men | ond the laborers in ths mine t they must work for 50 cents 1] a day from March 16 on. More Cuts Coming. No mvre praise for the company after this. Those who have not yet eotten the cut know that they will be the next ones to get it. This | should teaeh us never to believe that one company is better than an- other; they are all alike and pay hetter only when the miners are or- anized in a powerful union that Il force the company to come to terms. Now that the United Mine Work- ers is working hand in hand with the coal operators, we must unite ourselves in the new fighting union. the National Miners Union, and fight shoulder to shoulder not only | for higher wages but also to ee away with the whole capitalist class and take over the mines and run them on a real union basis for the | benefit of all the workers. VESTA MINER. ISRAEL” AT YIDDISH ART THEATRE THURSDAY. j Five plays make up the repertory this week at the Yid- “sh atre. Representative dramas from past s ms as well 2s two of this. year’s productions will be given during the week. Tonight Maurice Schwartz will present his new version of Jacob Gordin’s “God, Man and Devil,” and on Wednesday night Peretz Hirsh- hein’s “Green Fields.” On Thurs-} day evening “Israel.” a benefit per- formance for Ben Zvi Baratoff, one} of the leading members of the per-| ~enent acting company, will be) given. The theatre’s most recent success, Scholom Aleichem’s “Stempenyu, the Fiddler,” will be the bill on Friday | might, twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday. “bedula fo JOHN DRINKWATER’S “BIRD IN HAND” OPENS IN APRIL. | Announcer--nt was made vester:| 4ay that “Bird in Hand,” John} Drinkwater’s latest play, will be nresented here early in April by “ee Shubert, and that Mr. Drink- water would come to New York to supervise the American presenta- ‘ion. Mr. Drinkwater has not been| to this country since he brought aver his play “Abraham Lincoln” 1920. “Bird in Hand” is row current at the Royale Theatre, London, where it has been playing for over a year. ay The working class cannot imply lay hold of the ready-made xtate machinery, and wield it for its own .Thin new Commune (Pari e) breaks vhe modern state power-—Marx, ‘e located | , near | eceived a great,surprise on March | of the men. | started by the com- } about a month ago that the DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNE worked ere you n the ve it to = eight were given a ‘promise.’ ns Pe inh. falls and ac- | count that from our’ own below we have to eat our “meals”, keep our quarters clean, wash ourselves and our clothes, | There is no time to read, no time to talk and get acquainted with one ancther, As soon as we knock off we have to hit the bunk for it’s a whether not "HH an uninterrupted four urs of sleep, gamble or get time | SDAY, MARCH a1, 1929 Words fail me when I try to describe the terrific speed-up at which the seamen are driven on this ship, so all I can say is that it’s the worst I ever saw. The captain and officers are all in the naval reserve, the cap- tain holding the title of lieuten- ant commander of the naval re- serve. The result of this is a series of rules on the ship. You can’t do this and you can't do that, here, too numerous to mention Another characteristic feature of this imposed military discip- line is the captain’s frequent in- spection of the crew's quarters. This is not for sanitary purposes, for when I saw him the other day cautiously pick up a book from a bunk to read the title I knew that he was looking fer radical literature. day morning while I was at the wheel I was asked to get the men on my watch and together with them wash down decks, So when I was relicved from the wheel I went down to tell the men what the mate wanted done and I ad- ded what I thought of washing decks on Sunday, while on a two gale that was then blowing would blow the wa-er from the hose all over us and how cold and miser- able we would feel. “Refuse to Wash Decks. He makes one round a day and this at any hour of the day. Sun- watch ship, and how the icy cold | Their answer came as “If you refuse we'll There was hell to pay bridge for this. The threatened to put me one man: refuse.” on the captain in irons. When he saw that I could not be | intimidated he put me on look- out in broad daylight on the fore stle head where I spent the rest f my wateh. He then refused to let me take the wheel any more. day The next we sot into Boston. 1 was EK FOR SEAMEN ON THE AMERICAN-HAWAIIAN COMPANY STEAMSH fired and according to rumo the mate called up town for ty A. Bs and an ordinary seam: to replace my watch mates w stuck witi. me, Wages on the American H waiian ships are $65 for quarte masters and $60 a mont. for company runs inte nd has no foreign comp tition, yet working conditions f seamen are worse than any oth company.—J, H. Laughlin Their Hope Is the New Miners’ Union Betrayed by the reactionary Lewis machine in their battle for a living fight to the end under the banner is the keynote of a letter from a on this page. Above, n t miners ge and decent conditions, the coal miners are determined to of the National Miners Union. This miner correspondent which appears he depth of a mine. How the 7-Hou toa cia Textile Mill how, instead of workers being th alization measures were adopted, workers in the Soviet increase of production, and more Dear Comrad Our factor; employs 4,000 workers, Until the end of 1927 vr Day Came the following letter from the Soviet atile workers in the United States. seven-hour day to his factory, and ‘own out on the street when ration- as is the case under capitalism, the ile factory receive higher wages with the workers were employed. (Dekovskaia Factory of the 2d State Cotton Trust) the weavers in our weaving department worked on ten looms, the ‘assistant, foremen on 40 and in the spinning department on three sides. at that time. In 1927 the Trust decided to ures, b; when this ques argued against it saying that “it looms to attend to, the wages will the number of looms worked by a weaver. m was raised at the meetings before the workers, they There’ were 2,600 workers in the factory introduce some rationalization meas- At first will be difficult to work with more be reduced because the workers will not be able to earn as much as they earned before as they could not attend to the additional looms.” The Seven- the advantages of the change had been explained to them, the workers agreed to the rationalization, and on December After the factory adopted this men—45 looms and in the When the change fluous, and in ca tem: adopted spinning department on four Hour Day. 2 weavers—15 looms, assistant fore- sides. some of the workers became super- alist conditions they would have been thrown out into the street, but here they were paid their average wages for De- cember and January and in January, seven hour: to those di So that no and adopted the three. aced by the rationalization and hiring even new workers. our frctory employes 4,000 people (the rationalization and 1928, the factory began to work hift system thaus giving employment the seven-hour work-day gave employment to 1,400 new workers). Wages Higher. Now the workers do not say that it is hard to work, because despite the change their earnings have inc been reduced. Before the rationalization and the average wages were: and spinners—2 roubles 60 copeks now: 4 roubles handy, but the difference may be other). reased, and the working hours have the adoption of the seven-hour day, weavers—2 roubles 70 copeks to 2 roubles 80 copeks; assistant foremen—4 roubles 40 copeks t 4 roubles 50°copeks to 2 roubles 7 copeks a day; and roubles to 3 roubles 10 copeks; assistant foremen— copeks to 5 roubles 10 copeks, and spinners—2 roubles 95 copeks to 3 roubles (the figures are not act, as I haven’t got them just a few copeks one way or the Conditions Improved. Thus the rationalization measures and the adoption of the seven- hour day improved the material conditions of the workers and increased the productivity of the factory by reducing unemployment. We are waiting for the time become the owners of their factori and proved to advantage of the State when the workers abroad will also es and mills and will also introduce the rationalization of production for the purpose of improving the living conditions of the workers. With fraternal greetings, * —V. S, LIAMIN, a textile worker, BAA The next letter from a worker in the Soviet Union will be from a miner in the Donctz Basin wh o will tell of industrial and living conditions in the mines of the Malcieva Trust, which has also a steel works employing 9,000 workers, appear tomorrow. The first part of the letter will Coal miners of the United States, write to the coal miners of the Soviet Union. They are anxious conditions in your section, to writ the Worker Correspondent Department of the Daily Worker. to hear from you, the learn about te to you, Address your letters to We witl forward the letter to the miners of the Soviet Union, NEW AUTO SPEEDUP E Sirikes i in Several Plants; to Cut Wages’ » By a Worker Correspondent. DETROIT, Mich. (By Mail)—| ‘The General Motors Co. new sched- ule calls for speeding up the men about 20 per cent in every depart- ment. Take Chevroiet Plant, No. _ for instance; the old-time schedule | for rear axle, through the 13 depart- | operations is about an hour and 41 minutes, The average wage in this ‘department is 70 cents an hour. Turning out 20 per cent more work for the same wage means an aver- 1, age wage cut of 14 cents an hour throughout the plant. The General Motors Corporation jeent wage cut for all its plants in | Oshawa, Canada, The General Mo- \tors is afraid cf another strike there, so has not put the wage cut | in effect there as yet. All the foremen in the Detroit General Motors Corporation plant | got the new time schedule, which |was to go into effect Monday, Feb. 25. It has not been put into effect yet. Why do the bosses hesitate? The only thing holding back wage cuts at this time is a fear of labor ‘trouble. The strikes in Fisher Body plants 21 and 38 and in the Oak- land-Pontiae plants, as well as the ments, all the way through the as- | long ago decided on a policy of cut- | organization of the new local of the “embly line, took approximately two jting wages throughout all their |Auto Workers Union in Pontiac ac- Sours end five minutes, The new time schedule for all these various plants and subsidiaries, and several | months ago it announced a 2744 per counts for this hesitancy. AUTO WORKER. 1927, | ‘Vesta Co. CARPENTER FAKERS WORK WITH BOSSES District Council and | Owners in Cahoots | | | | By a Worker Correspondent. Perhaps the fact that the carpen- ters are making below the prevail- ing scale of wages in all city jobs is something new to the readers, but it is nothing new for the members of the carpenters’ (dis)organization. | Charles Johnson, president of the | Dock Builders Local 1454 and a wit- |ness of the brutal attack on Morris | Rosen on the boat going to the Car- |venters Union Convention in Lake- land, Fla., now charges the district jcouncil officials with being influ- lenced by the city administration not to enforce the present wage scale at $12 a day. It is also noted that the intended strike to enforce the wage scale was defeated in the district council, and no actien taken, and the greasy | boys of the executive board shelved | all action. | Fakers Work with Bosses. These misleaders never seriously | |considered making any move on be- | |half of the carpenters on city jobs or the carpenters in any shop or fac- jean: No union scale is paid in the | great majority of places in this) regarded so long as the district |council works in harmony with the |bosses’ association, The district |council would never dare or think of calling a strike or make a seri- ous move on a large scale to enforce the rules of the carpenters’ union. “We've Got Ours.” They figure, |why enforce union conditions, why alleviate the intolerable conditions jof the carpenters; we have got ours.” While the members are suifering junder the present unemployment |conditions, and try to pay their dues, | |fines are imposed in increased num- |bers from $25 to $200 or more, The reactionary officialdom does nothing for the men, sits tight in their district council, and every- thing moves like clockwork for the bosses, even though one reactionary jlike Johnson makes a “vrotest’” jagainst the dealings of Halcket- | Wilson and Co, A way is found by these reactionaries to compromise, to sell out. | Shake the Fakers Off! Progressives are suppressed un- der the threat of being expelled and the lay members are scared or too disgusted to say anything or act for the time being. The Hutcheson machine is run- ning smoothly for the time being, but the rank and file carpenters will gather their strength and shake these leeches off. “Revolt on the “Revolt on the Volga,” the latest Sovkino production, will have its American premiere at the Film | Guild Cinema next Saturday. The film is a stirring drama of an up- rising among Tartar peasants against the regime of Catherine the Great. Its a:\hentic atmosphere and historical accuracy is assured by the fact that Jurij Taritsch, the director of “Czar Ivan the Terrible” | directed “Revolt on the Volga.” The story revolves about Bulat- Batyr, a Russian “Robin Hood.” Some situations call for a cast of 5,000 natives, many of whom are | descendants of the original Tartar insurrectionists. Other famous char- acters depicted are Pugatchev, the peasant “czar” and General Potem- kin, the favorite of Queen Cather- ine. The scenes are laid in the re- gion of the Ural mountains and on the River Volga. On the same program, the Film —— ratte eee nemo capers ALABAMA PRISONERS SLAVE. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., (By Mail), —The State Convict Department of Alabama will build a canning fac- tory at the state prison near At- more, Prisoners here are forced to slave long hours under a system whereby their labor is hired out to companies, MINERS STARVE INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (By Mail) —In Pike County, Indiana, there are over 250 families of coal miners, faced with starvation, because the miners have been unable to find} work. They have no money to get away to other sections, ; the organization is absolutely | “Why call astrike, | Have Premiere on Saturday VERNON SHOE SLAVES GET ‘YELLOW 006" Speedup, “Piece Work, Poor Conditions By a Worker Correspondent. After the officials of the corrupt Shoe Workers’ Protective Union sold us out to the bosses and broke our strike three years ago, the con- ditions in our shop, the A. Vernon ‘and Sons shop, Hendrix and Dumont Ave., Brooklyn, became absolutely intolerable. It looks as if the bosses are trying to make up for the time when there were union conditions °"Paign now in force prevailing in the trade, workers A worker correspondent on this page tells of the wage in the steel mills. in one of the mills of the Steel Trust. | putting Photo shows Slav 0i-Hour Week For Piece Workers. Piece work has been introduced in almost all the departments at un-| heard of low prices, such as 25 cents | a dozen for sticking, 12 cents a) dozen for heel tacking, etc. A week of 49 hours is the rule jfor week workers at wages ranging) (By a Worker Correspondent.) |from $13 to $18 a week. On ac- INDIANA HARBOR, Ind. count of the very low prices that! Mail).—The Inland Steel Co. is one the piece workers get they are com- | cf the worst exploiters velled to work sometimes 52 and 54 labor. The workers in the steel hours a week. This is especially mils are supposed to be enjoying true about the stickers, am eight-hour day, but there are In addition to the above mentioned | raany departments in which the direct result of the ruthless ex- | hours per day. | ploitation and speed-up system prac- ticed in time of season, the securi- ties, ranging from $50-$200 for cer- |tain workers, yellow dog contracts, and compulsory shares make it ab- solutely impossible to make a human living. | Speed-up. The speed-up system, and long | hours systematically draw out the life blood of the young workers em-| | ploved at the various machines and/ ;make them cripples for the rest of | their lives, Under pain of leaving your job, you are compelled to keep your }mouth shut and cannot even utter a word of discontent with these}. |slavish conditions, because those | ROMER: dirty stool-pigeons, in order to be-| There has been a come favorites of the boss, will in-|Campaign which is done in a very form him of it immediately. jclever manner. The bosses know | Join Militant Union! that if they reduced the wages of Only on one condition can we se- cure for ourselves working condi-| Would revolt. So they cut the wages tions which will enable us to make |°f one department at a time. The a living and at the same time re, | HORARS. always keep the workers duce the number of hours, and this| divided. They always create a bad is by joining the newly organized feeling between workers of differ- Independent Shoe Workers’ Union, emt races and nationalities, so as to and by putting up under its leader-| ship a determined fight for a 40-| hour week, and for a wage scale which will enable us to make a de- cent living in exchange for our) labor. | Only by being organized can we) put up demands and get them. Down with the exploiters. For a} powerful Industrial Shoe Workers’ Union. The wages range from 28 cents per hour youths who labor in the boit and rivet department receive) to $1 per jhour, which the bricklayers receive. On an average it would be about 42 cents per hour, and you cannot live half decently on this wage. We | have all been reading about “pros- prosperity are the handful of para- | sites who own the mills, the blood and sweat of the MAURICE SCHWARTZ. —SHOE SLAVE. Volga’”’ to Guild Cinema will present the Amer- ican premiere of Man Ray’s “Star of the Sea,” a James Joyce treat- ment of a Baudelairian theme, and the first showing of “La Nuit Elec- trique,” a screen-sonata to the beau- ties of electric lights at night. Who is appearing in “Stempenyu, the Fiddler,’ Scholom Aleichem’s merry comedy at the Yiddish Art Theatre. BIG MASQUERADE BALL FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE “U] 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 bow office $1.25. Tickets for sale at Uj Elore office, 26 Union Sq., Hungarian Workers Home, 350 Hast 81st St. Tableau from the 1919 Hungarizn Revolution iG all the mill at once the workers | of human | facts, the short season, which:is the! workers have to work 10 and 12 (that is the amount the | They are fight for the workers, making millions of dollars out of Party that fights to organize the stee] workers wage-cutting | Steel 1 Bosses Try to Create Ill-Feeling Between Workers keep the workers from forming a mies, the Steel Co. s steel | | (By ; united front against their real ene- |; GAS WORKERS IN PHIL ANE! PRI potters On the Stree Wateh Meter Men Si By a We PHIL Correspon DELPHIA (By Hu of workers Haid off by the U: ment Co. of Phils Scores have |off at the pumping statio men, firemen, pine-fitters, ete., ha Mail). ere due to | Leen laid off in the last month. Ty weeks ago a large number of it cffice force were taid off. A larj slash in wages and speed-up are store for the meter-reading gan |time required to enter « house al read meters, The men are give longer routes and whenever 4 cor plaint is made the men are fired. Large numbers of the meter rea: ers have been laid off and the e |tra work forced on those still « |the job. This also affects the wor The spy system 1s also used in the ‘crs of the Philadelphia Electric C steel mills. pai. stool-pigeons to spy on the work heard about organizing. Due to + vicious speed-up s' tem, which is used in all the de- partments, there are many acci- deni and when a wor is injured the company to sign papers and “hooked” on any which he has coming to him. Steel workers, the only way we can fight against long hours, wage Textile Workers Unions, which will The only into powerful industrial unions is the Communist Party. The only paper which every steel worker should read the Daily Worker. The company employs |, s and report any talk that is|taken over by a holding ‘co! get rates to compensation | and el: \perity,” but the steel workers who cuts, the speed-up system and mis- | Auger, make 42 cents and 50 cents an hour |¢rable conditions is to organize our- | was found guilty of rape by a Car! do not get any of this “prosperity.” |elves into a strong militant union | ton County jury. he only ones who are enjoying like the new National Miners and/ ich is owned by the Unitea G: which a short time age v: Co., owned by J. P. Morgan. The workers are being laid “ o inerease the profits of this b ionaire, Mayor Mackey of Philade foreign-born whia, and the putrid gang of repu al- |lican_ politicians are behind clos¢ ways tries to find a way to induce | doors |him making iD AIL ED FOR RAPE OTTAWA (By Mail).—Uouis } M. P. Liberal M. P. of Ontari He received jail sentence, Poor men ar tenced to death here for this c cols sovicty ns to in lated Inbor, In Communist society recumulated fabor is bat a mean: to widen, to ent! of to promote thr the laborer.—iar mist \ Manifesto). existence Merx <Con ‘Theatre Guild Productions EUGENE O'NEILL'S DYNAMO MARTIN BECK THEA. SIL-VARA'S COM CAPRICE GUILD thea. \. znd st Eves. 8 Mats., Wed., Thurs., Sat., 2:40 EUGENE O'NEILL'S Strange Interlude John GOLDEN, Thea. ast E, of B'way EVENINGS ONLY ‘AT. 30 \CoMEDY Theat, 41st St, E. of | Sun. at $:50. — Mats. Thurs. RUTH Draper & civic REPERTORY 148t..6thay eves. 8:30 50c: $1.00; $1.50 Mats, Wed.&Sat.,2:30 | EVA LE GALLIENNE, Direct Today Mat. “The Cradle Song.” Tonight, “The Cherry Orchard.” Thurs, Eve., “Katerina,” Broadway. Eves., ioe | PLYMOUTH at. | yt BIG WEEK Ag sT Bway “inspirin, wordt wikie TIMES ~ ARTHUR HOPKIN presents HotipaY Comedy Hit by PHILIP BARRY ‘Thea, W, 45 St. Ev. 8.1 Mats. Thurs, & Sat. 2: Chanin’s MAJESTIC Theatr, 44th St, West of Broadway Uves, 8:30; Mats: Wed. & Sat. The Greatest gnd Funniest Reve. Pleasure Bounc Whe other clasnes decay and tinal disappear in the face of modern 5 dustry; tke proletariat fs fta spec ana eesential p-oduet— Mal byes, Even SMaterina” i Corumpnist Manifesto), Farewell Periormance I ISADORA DUNCAN DANCER in a Program of Revolutionary Songs and Dances at MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE APRIL 18, 19, 20, 211 TICKETS ON SALE at— Daily Worker Office, Room 201, 26 Union Sq., New York City & at Box Office “ POPULAR PRICES