The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1929, Page 4

Four D: ATLY One NEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL 23 1929 ALL WORKERS IN TOWN ARE SLAVES OF THE PERRY KNITTING MILLS; RECEIVE LOW WAGES (By a Worker Correspondent) PERRY, N. Y., (By Mail).— There are in this town two mills, or a silk mill and the other a | woolen knitting mill. The former | employs over 1,500, of w hom 1,000 | men and 500 me of the work about 15 per cent Italian, rest mixed. Many Girl Workers. ,» Many women are in the PS 0 Ge eee , going to or coming from Oe heen toe nab ee as jo eeeanetne amdlla, eae rah PA > Ade SS Due to this, the tov is called i Pong “She Town,” because the mill girls. Girls and women are the only qualified people jobs in these mills. bosses employ only girls an? wom- ~ho can get on $8-$12 Wages. Due to this, be 10 a. m. The wages in the Perry Knit- and 3 p. m., the streets are full ting Mill, where the so-called of men, and mor-’ s and eve- | “Spaides” sweaters are knitted into a ready-to-wear product, run between $8 and $12 a week, $10 being the average. No one is per- mitted to get more than $12 a week, no matter how much the | worker tries. Sometimes it happens that a worker, according to set price (they all work piece work) suc- ceeds in making a few cents over this amount. For this he or she laid off worker, pays the pr'ce, by being or replaced by another without any rezcon at a’. Speedup, Terror. | The speedup system, the terrori- zation of the workers by company watch-dogs is terrible. The hours of work are 49 1-2 a week, with overtime on straight-time pay. The workers get from 15 to 20 minutes for lunch and have to rush back for fear they will not be able to make even the m‘serable sum cf $8-$10 a week. Family Owns Town. One family named Fraber owns the whole town, including the two mills and one in Pt. Morris, N. Bs about 8 miles from Perry. C. M. Fraber, a member of this ads 9 of the 12 months a, and is the czar of the whole city and county govern- ment. Tho two sets of “fic‘a!s receive direct orders “o~> him. Cuts in wages, in the rates of piece work, are con~'a> ‘y taking place. The worles are often in open reyolt. Several attempts were made to strike in the last two months, but lack of leader- ship and experience on the part of the v ers in this direction forced them to abandon the ‘ strikes. , The National Texti!> Workers Union, with a Polish-speaking or- ganizer, will find a fertile soil in Perry, where there only one industry, the Perry Knitting Mills, where everyone in the town works. —C. M. Mine Company Thugs Beat Up Worker Active in Organizing W. Va. Coal Diggers LEWIS MACHINE POR THE BOSSES: Corrupt Officials Act As Spotters | d and severely thugs eon at Mine No, 1 of Co. a by and, | o owns the Kinlock Pa., where he in the explosion 0 company ov e fri: ghtful and four days a) mm by the eed $25 for two of the National Kam- mation ization of Defense ight the down » Dad Cush, a a member of local of the National ion was fired because of rganizing the min- by e notori- ton, once a prom- le and Labor ing, and now nt against e, of the The unorgan- id the organized min- ed by the Lewis i e join- Demonstrate your solidarity with the striking m textile, food and shoe workers on May Day, and against the treacherous socialist party and flunkeys of the A. F. of L. DOING SPYING | describing their shop conditions, to be forwarded to workers in the Soviet the capitalist | USSR Houseworkers Have a Strong Union COMPANY POLICE FORCED OUT BY Today we print a letter from a houseworker in the Soviet Union. She tells of the strong union these workers have built up since the Revolution, and of the former slavery under the czar. * * * m the daughter of a farmer’s son who thru his father’s drunken- ness was compelled to leave his home and went as a sailor on a Canadian '. Thru his death in 1910, I became an orphan when 9 years old.| Early Slavery. After finishing school, I had to take care of my father’s brother's children. Continued punishment from my aunt forced me to run away and take work in the neighboring village. This was in 1915. I had to work from early in the morning till late at night and was always alone, feeling lonesome. How ignorant I was at that time, one can see from the following: After the downfall of the czarist regime, I angrily cried out: “How| can we live without the czar?” | Soon after that I went to Perm. Here I lost some of this ignorance, | | but was unable to attend meetings, arranged by houseworkers, for the “lady” of the house would have fired me. In 1918-1919 Perm was again under the rule of the white guards. My boss welcomed them with open arms. One ball after another was | arranged to honor the officers of tle white guards, and we house- girls | had to serve them. The white guard officers insulted the house workers. | Eyes Opened. Soon the w guards were driven away by the Red Guard, this time forever. At that time I came to a family belonging to the Red Army, Here it was that my eyes were opened and soon after I became a member of the Communist Youth League. This organization sent me to the workers’ faculty for three years. | After that time, I was to go to a university, but my tuberculosis, con- tracted during the slav to the bourgecisie made this impossible and I took up work in the district office of the Woman House Workers. Have Own Union. A few more words on the conditions of the Russian houseworkers. To nt us and fight for the rights of the house workers, we have an ation, the Union of the Food Workers, to which belong waiters, s, cooks, house workers, ete. Formerly our bosses used to pay whatever they pleased and working hours were unlimited. Today a considerable change has taken place. For every employee, the employers have to sign a contract, which tells them how much they have to pay. Half the wages are allowed for room and board. The amount of the wage depends on the income of the employer, who has to take out insurance for his employee too. The contract states that working hours must not exceed eight, overtime must be paid and after 5 and a half years of continuous work the houseworker is entitled to two weeks vacation with full pay every year. Follow Lenin’s Teaching. The employer has to furnish working clothes. In case the house- worker cannot read or write, the employer must give her time for the necessary studies and also allow her time to attend the union meetings regularly. eworkers are very actively attending meetings and endeavor the words of Lenin: woman worker should be enabled to participate in the ad- e duties of the country.” shall be our battle cry. With best wishes, in the name of the woman houseworkers of the city of Perm. A. WACHONINA. ae 8 A letter from a worker, who is a student at the Moscow Higher Technical School, in training as a Red specialist, will be the final letter from a Soviet worker correspondent in this series. It will begin tomorrow. The Daily Worker hopes to begin a new series of these letters from worker and farmer correspondents of the Soviet Union in the near future. But, to make this possible, American workers must send in letters, Union. These workers are eager to establish correspondence with the workers and farmers of the United States. Write to them today, thru the worker correspondence department of the Daily Worker. Our Answer to the Attack Negro Cab Drivers Are Among Worst Treated of N. Y. Taxi Workers Against the Soviet Union. VvVvVvVvV BEGINNING MAY 1ST Daily 325 Worker will begin publication of new serial A story of life under Work- ers’ Rule and the real ef- forts that are being made to build a Socialist Economy in the Soviet Union Vv By FEODOR GLADKOV one of the outstanding Revolutionary Fiction writers of today Be Sure to Read This Ex- cellent Story. — Order an Extra Copy from Your Newsdealer.—Get a Copy of the Daily Worker Into the Hands of YourShop mate If You Live Outside New York SUBSCRIBE! (Rates can be found in another part of the paper). (By a Worker Correspondent) Among the most exploited work- ers are the taxicab chauffeurs. They work on 40 per cent commission and no pay for 90 hours a week. A taxi chauffeur averages $30 a week. If at the end of 12 to 15 hours a day a man does not bring in enough to suit the fleet owners, he is im- mediately discharged. Very many men are discharged 4 and 5 times a week by different fleet owners, The Negro chauffeurs are the most exploited of all. He is so pressed that he is forced to take j any commission at all and not be- ing organized, must accept 20 per cent on the dollar to get a job. The taxicab must be inspected every three months. The men are forced to take the cars to the police commissioner. Where I work there are 300 cabs, and we took the cabs down there. Naturally we had to use a whole day’s pay and when we de- manded lunch money the boss said, “If you don’t like it you can get out, I can get plenty of others.” A militant union has been organ- ized to fight the fleet owners which meets every first and third Thurs- day in the month at Labor Temple, 243 E. 84th St., New York City. —HACKMAN. BOSS GAVE ANTI-LABOR JUDGE $20,000. MADISON, Wis. April 22,—Im- peachment charges are contemplated in the legislature here because of evidence that Circuit Judge E. B. Belden approved private detectives’ bills of $10,000 for liquor and pros- titutes during his “investigation” of the Allen A. strike. The strikers NEW LAWS TO AID SHOE BETRAYERS |The Camel Through the INPENNSYLVANIA | Praised by M Misleaders of A. F. of L. (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, (By Mail).— The House of Representatives of the | \ Legislature of the State of Pennsyl- | vania, by a vote of 184 to 0 passed one of the most vicious and treacher- ous anti-labor acts known to even this reactionary commonwealth, the employers’ paradise of the coal, iron, steel, railroad and textile barons. The state senate has also passed it) | unanimously, This act is known as the Musman- no bill, and authorizes appointment jby the governor of “industrial | | police” upon application of corpora- tions, associations and individuals. Previously, in this state, gangsters in the employment of the bosses of | coal mines and steel plants were} activities had become so vicious that even the passive Pennsylvanians were moved to protest. What few allegedly “liberal” papers remain in the state demanded that these gun- men be removed, and even the re- actionary labor organizations, altho usually willing to collaborate to al- most any extent with the bosses in the Grand Duchy of Mellon, made similar demands. police” jurisdiction on company property only. When it is realized that vast areas of entire counties in Central and Western Pennsyl- vania are owned by the counts and dukes of the coal, iron or railroad companies, that many towns are “company towns” these towns totalling hundreds, it can well be seen this supposed improvement is only a piece of fakery imposed upon the miners, steel workers, railroad men, ete. It is significant to note that most of the A. F. of L, “labor” organiza- tions as well as other conservative “anions” approved the bill, thus in the guise of “bettering” conditions, actually adding to perpetrate this fraud upon the workers. —C. R. Gastonia Mill Houses Are Not Fit to Live In (By a Worker Correspondent) GASTONIA, N. C., (By Mail).— I heard Fred Beal speaking on the living conditions of the mill work-} ers, and this is the condition of the Gastonia mill workers. This mill runs 12 hours a day, 60 hours a week, and my average wages are $15 or $16 a week. There are plenty in the same room I work in who make $10.80 to $12 a week. As to the conditions of the houses. My house isn’t fit to live in, and the toilet is on the outside of the) — house, right in front of my dining room window. You should just know how we have to slave here for a liv- ing. To be forced to slave 12 hours a day is far too much for women to work and then have to go home and do house work. —Cc. M. Tell of Exploitation InsideBeauty Parlor on the “Gay White Way” (By a Worker Correspondent) We wish to call your attention to the conditions in the Morris Beauty Laboratories, at 1700 Broadway, New York City. There are about 50 girls and a few men employed there. A few of the complaints are: If we are late a minute, they take a half hour’s pay from us. If we get hurt, they deduct some of our pay, because they say, “we can’t do as much as before.” Straight pay for overtime; if we refuse to work overtime, wé are dis- charged. There are no wash rooms for the workers and no privacy. If badly hurt, we are let out without @ penny. —THE GIRLS. SCOTT NEARING will lecture on “What Is Happening In the Soviet Union ” Fri., April 26, 8 p. m. at Hunts Point Palace (168rd St. and Southern Blvd.) ADMISSION 50c and 75c. found Judge Belden always 100 per cent for the employers, Agnptonnt Section 5, Bronx Com- munist Party. known as coal and iron police. Their | This bill will give the “industrial | MILITANT UNION IPhiladelphia - Now Has| | Industrial Union | (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, (By Mail).— |As one method of speeding up workers the shoe bosses long ago discovered the value of the piece- rk system. The employers di- ided the workers through making hem compete for extra work and by giving the best work to those who worked hardest, and were least interested in securing better con- |ditions. The bosses are now using this system to cut prices without appearing to give a general wage- cut. All the boss has to do when he wants to cut prices is to change the} |name of the style and give a lower) price for the same article. This would not be possible on week work. |Join the union and elect price com- mittees in every department. Join the union and fight for a higher weekly wage. The Bosses Are Organized. To fool the shoe workers and make it easier to cut wages and lengthen | hours the shoe bosses have or-} ganized. They are organized in the Manufacturers’ Association — the bosses union—which unites all the bosses against the workers. They have organized a company union, the Central Convention or Suckers-Club, which takes money from the work- | ers every few months in order to| vote us wage-cuts every October, The bosses have brought up the Boot & Shoe Workers Union and the Protective Union, which are working in the interests of the bosses, ex-| | posing militant workers who talk about conditions in the union and selling out strikes in the interests | of the bosses. The experience of the working class has proved that only thru | struggle can they improve their con- ditions. No struggle can be ef- fectively carried out without organi- zation. The experience of the workers with the Boot & Shoe and Protective Union has not defeated our desire for organization. The Shoe Work- ers Industrial Union of Philadelphia | has been organized the past few] weeks. This is an organization con- trolled by the workers in the shops; an organization that carries on a} consistent fight for better wages and conditions for all the workers of | Philadelphia. Shoe and leather workers of Philadelphia. Join the union to bet- ter your conditions. Follow the example of the shoe workers of Lynn | and Haverhill, Mass., and New York | City who have fought and won strikes for the workers in the past few weeks. Apply to 39 N. 10th St., Philadelphia. ' Needle’s Eye’ Frantisek Langer, a Czecho-Slovak | army surgeon during the world war, has a play running under auspices of the Theatre Guild at Martin Beck Theatre that is probably the funniest and most satirical thing produced here this year. The play is ren- dered in English translation, ex- cept for the sign- boards and win- dow lettering on “Prague Mode | Dairy” thatmake s the single scene scene for the last act. The story has to do with a rare old slum dwelling swindler, Mrs. Pesta, played by Helen Westley, and her efforts to provide well for her illegitimate daughter, Susi, acted by Miriam Hopkins, at the expense of | various easy marks in the Czecho- Slovak ruling class. In this humanitarian effort, Susi eventually supercedes her mothers. As a gentle hearted gold digger, she doesn’t need any particular help from the previous generation. When she takes a fancy to a young man of the leisure class she not only plays the stock market successfully with tips inadvertently dropped by his banker friends, and overlooked by him, but she starts a string of dairies and puts him to work in one of them when his caste-bound father | throws her out. It is a wonderful} example of what the economists call primitive accumulation, and the bourgeois world mentions usually as “getting a start in life.” Prostitu- tion has been the origin of many fortunes whose present heirs exude propriety, it has created noble families all through history and founded not a few churches as New Yorkers knew well enough without going to Central Europe to find out. The dialog is simply killing. The smug hypocrit, the father of Susi’s choice, acted by Claude Rains as a whiskered and voluble figure of im- maculate dress, is scolded at by al cynical Cousellor Andrejs (Joseph Kilgour) for so tactlessly discover- ing that his son is not more than technically a bachelor yet. The general social theory of the | playwright, insofar as there is any, and it is rather unobtrusive, seems to come in the conversation of An- drejs with the boss of a big com- pany. Director Bezchyba, where they agree that the ruling class is getting so efete that if it were not for occasional additions to the breed through such strong and able char- acters as the lowly born Susi, it would pinch out and socialism come in. “Here Is Alik Vilim,” they say, “so lazy he doesnt even talk any more. This girl may do something for him, for if he marries into his own class, his children won't even be able to eat for themselves.” Alik, the man Susi has got hold of, is HoLibaY Comedy Hit by PHILIP BARRY Thea. W. 45 St. Ev. 8.50 PLYMOUTH Mats. Thurs. & Sat. 2.35 Chanin’s MAJESTIC Theatre 44th St. West of Brondway Eves, 8:30; Mats: Wed, & Sat, 2:30 ‘The Greatest and Funniest Revue Pleasure Bound MOROSCO 8.50. Mats, Wed.&Sat.2:30 JOHN DRINKWATER’S Comedy Hit BIRD N HAND Sovkino’s Tremendous Sister Picture to “Potemkin” Prisoners Sea’ A great Drama of the Soviet Navy) 66 Fifth Avenue, Corn Contin. 2 P, M. to Midnight advertising as follows: Comprodaily 26-28 Union Square, New York City. o CAMEL Neste iye MARTIN BECK THEA. 45th W. of &th Ave. Evs. 8:50 Mats. Thurs, & Sat. 2:40 Man's Estate by Beatrice Blackmar and ce Gould Theatre, W. BILTMORE 47th Street :50; Mats. Thurs.&Sat. “TX Comedy by Sil-Vara CAPRICE GUILD ae, ve Wiea st Mats, Thurs. aa mate 4 Strange Interlude John GOLDEN,’ SS EVENINGS ONLY’ tre Our own age, the bourgeois age, is distinguished by this—that it has simplified class More and more, ety is up into two it hostile into two great d classent letarint-—Marx. TO ALL OUR READERS :— Address all remittances for subscriptions, bundles and Publishing Co., Inc., ’at Martin Beck JILL ESMOND MOORE In John Drinkwater’s latest comedy, “Bird In Hand,” which moves this evening from the Booth Morosco Theatre. humanly acted by Elliot Cabot. In the end he becomes quite an orator. It seems-to be kind of denatured fascism, a sort of progressive and | humorous, not too certain, left wing bourgeois play. Jacob Ben-Ami Joins the Civic Repertory Jacob Ben-Ami, probably the most distinguished recruit to the English speaking stage from the Yiddish Theatre, has accepted the invitation of Eva Le Gallienne to join her Civic Repertory Theatre as a member of the permanent acting company. He j will join the organization at the opening of the fourth season early |in October, Born in Russia, obtaining his first experience on the stage in the Rus- sian Theatre in Minsk, Ben-Ami col- laborated with the playwright, Peretz Hirshbein, in founding the first serious Yiddish Theatre in Odessa in 1910 at the age of twenty. In 1914 he left Russia for London and proceeded during the same year to this country. After creating many roles and winning distinction at the Irving Place Theatre and at the Gar- den Theatre, he made his first ap- pearances on the English speaking | stage under the direction of Arthur Hopkins in “Svangali,” and “Samson and Delilah” and in Peretz Hirsh- bein’s ‘The Idle Inn.” His latest en- gagements in the English language in recent seasons have been in “Jim the Penman” and in “Diplomacy.” Ben-Ami’s debut with the Civic Repertory Theatre will be in the role of Trigorin in Tchekov’s “The Sea-Gull” and opposite Alla Nazi- mova in “Irina Arkadina.” He will have other important roles in next season’s new productions as well as in the productions of this season and previous seasons which will be carried over into next year's schedules. May 300,000 Workers. a. DAILY WORKER 26 Union Square New York City. Send us... CITY .. Day Edition Order your bundle now for the Special May Day Edition of the Daily Worker. This issue will contain special features, correspondence, and articles. Every unit of the Communist Party of America, every working class or- ganization should ordedr a bundle of this issue for distribution on May Day. Every factory and every May Day Meeting must have its supply of Daily This special enlarged edition will sell at the rate of $8.00 per thousand. sesceveeee copies of the Special May Day Edition of the Daily Worker at the rate of $8.00 per thousand +e» STATE ....06 We are enclosing a remittance to cover same. §3,00-$8.00 A WEEK WAITERS’ WAGE IN PHILADELPHIA, Hail Strike of N. Y. Food Workers (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, Pa., (By Mail). —I feel that I must try to describe the conditions in the restaurants and hotels in Philadelphia. The hours of slavery are the same for every de- partment of the craft. We work anywhere from 60 to 75 hours a week at the lowest scale of wages imaginable. Waiters and waitresses receive from $3.50 to $8 a week. Cooks get a little more. Dishwashers get an average of $10 a week. The slavery is the same for all. We are on our feet, on the go from the minute we come in till we go home. There is no specified time for our lunch. We sit down and eat the miserable food that is thrown at us and we are given about 10 min- utes to swallow it and then go back to work. Rotten Food for Workers. If a worker is not acquainted with the restaurant and hotel graft he will find it hard to believe the des- cription of the food we get. All the stale and tainted meat, some of it." more than a week old, is cooked into a steak or ground up and ham- burger made of it. This is the daily menu of the restaurant and hotel workers. It is never changed but always the same twice a day. 6 a. m. to 12 p. m. The hours are arranged so that very often we start work at’6 a. m. and finish at 12 midnight, with a couple of hours off in the afternoon. It is a great system; one man does the work of two and gets nothing to eat but miserable, stinking food, 60 per cent suffering from indiges- tion and flat feet. It is no wonder that the news of the recently organized New York cafeteria workers’ general strike is being received with great enthus- jasm here by all food workers, Will Win Struggle. Altho just organized, we are mak- - ing great progress all over. Our members are militant workers who believe in and act upon the slogan of our union, “Every member an | organizer.” H We are out to fight barbaric con- ditions and abolish long hours and low wages. With our militant or- ganization and determined effort our struggle will be won. ae COPIES