The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 23, 1929, Page 3

A DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1929 Overwhelming Vote for Militant Policy in French Un 1,500 TO 200 AFTER GACHIN HITS MINORITY Anarcho - Syndicalists Entirely Defeated (Wireless by Inpreccor) PARIS, France, Sept. 22.—The militant policy of the majority in the central committee of the Confed- eration Genarale de Travaille Uni- taire (the French militant trade union center) was voted approval Friday by 1,500 against 200 votes with only a few abstentions, in one of the dramatic moments of the eighth session of its Fifth Congress. Marcel Cachin then delivered a great speech, continually interrupt- ed by applause, when he declared the Communist Party was the leader of the revolutionary proletariat. Vassard and Gitton also spoke for the majority. The tremendous vote for the majority policy represents the defeat of the anarcho-syndical- ist elements and marks an import- ant stage in the French revolution- ary movement. Not only hi forged the weapons death to itself; it has called fmto existence the men re to Wield those wenpons—the modern working elass—the proletarians.— Karl Marx (Communtst Manifesto). the pbourgeoiste at bring | | | j | | | | | | | | workers who rebelled against Bri tool in keeping Arabs subjugated, Photo shows British machine gunners shooting down Arab tish imperialism and Zionism, its Persian Oil Workers’ Organize Militantly; Britain Arms “Rights” The German socialist Vorwaerts is greatly worried over the success of Communist organizers in the new industrial district in Persia. Its special correspondent, writing fran- tically from Teheran, points out) that the building of refineries at Abadan, on the Persian gulf, has created an industrial population of | 80,000 who have recently conducted militant strikes, and are organizing on militant lines, The Vorwaerts comments editorially: Try to Mislead. “Here is one of the most import- | lant strategic points of Asia which | should be utilized by the European, labor movement for the purpose of winning the colored workers for the idea of trade union and cooperation, and should not be left without a struggle to the mercies of Bolshevist jand makers of revolutions.” In addition, the correspondent ad- mits that the recent uprising of desert tribes against the Persian government is the result of British intrigue, “For some months there has been a regular rzin of modern English rifles in the encampments of the wandering Kashgar and Bakhtir tribes and in the bazaars of the caravan towns. Even machine guns have been sold at low prices. And, furthermore, the sheiks of the dis- {contented tribes suddenly have had the money, with which to buy these luxuries, despite their well-known poverty.” Women in the Cotton Mills By ELLEN WETHERELL. I stepped from the train at Colum- hia, South Carolina. It was a beauti- ful March morning. The grass was green, the trees were in bud, and the sunshine lay warm over all the land. 1 had come from the frozen hills of the North in search of a climate; also in search of informa- n in regard to the first cotton mills of the state. I took my landlady into my con- fidence. She hunted up a book, en- titled, “The Hand Book of South Carolina.” I opened it, and found on its first pages as attractive a picture of bourgeoisie stupidity and cupridity, as Charles Dickens found in the Circumlocution Office in Lon- don, I read it and was incluned to laugh, but the whistles of the mills, calling the workers at 6.30 stayed all merriment on my part. The fol- lowing is what I ready in “The Hand Book of South Carolina.” “From August Kohn’s Summary of the History of the Cotton Indus- try.” “The South Carolina Homespun Company of Charleston, 1808, was the most importand and pretentious undertaking in the cotcon mills in- dusiry up to this time. The ex- ercises incident to the laying of the cornerstone brought a gathering of three thousand people, and the occa- sion seems to have been one of great importance to Charleston. “The address was delivered by the Right Worshipful William Smith, and is a general dissertation on the beauties of Labor and the glories of the State of South Carolina. ‘It is most interesting to read,’ con- tinues Mr. Kohn, ‘after more than cne hundred years, what Mr, Lloyd, the head of the Masonic Order of South Carolina, said in his most memorable address about the pros- pective cotton mills! Here will be found a never failing asylum for the friendless. orphans and the bereft widows, The distribution of labor and the improvement in machinery, happily combine to call into profit- able employment the tender services of those who have just sprung from the cradle, as weil as those who are tottering to the grave; thus, train- ing up the little innocents to early and wholesome habits of honest in- dustry, and smoothing the wrinkled front of decrepitude with the smiles of competency and protection. Here too, will be found an everlasting refuge for those unfortunates of other climes, expatriated with their vseful talents, by the grim hand of unrelenting depotism, and the in- tolerable pressure of taxation and hunger, wafted by the sighs of fel- low misery, to seek liberty and bread cn these happy shores.” Can't See Out. I closed the book and went into the mills. I noticed that the window panes weer painted, I asked the reason for this of the conductor of the trolley car. The man gave & loud, laugh, saying, “So the hands can't see out, of course.” I stopped before the great iron gates of the Granby Mills. A crowd of little children had gathered there, all carrying pails and baskets. It was near the noon hour, and the children had come to the mill with lunch for their fathers and mothers who work- ed in the mills. Later I followed these workers back into the mills. The Granby was one of the smallest mills ‘of Columbia. The children looked old, pinched, and hungry. I put a question to one of them. “Do you work'in the mill?” “Np” drawled the child, “I'se stays home, to min’ the chil’len, We’un’s fathers and mothers works.” “How old are you and how many are there of you?’ ‘ “Tse ten, and’ there is six of we'uns.” “Do you go to school?” The child, cast her eyés to tho ground and drawled, “No, I have to mind the chil’lens.” | The brazen clang of a bell rang {out and the children huddled closer ‘to the door. The great iron gate {swung slowly open to let out a |grimy, greasy horde of underfed |men, women and children. They | slippery as the floors of their mill ‘ | prison. their eyes. “Ten hours, did you say, super- intendent, that these women and children work here?” “Yas,” replied | the man, “that’s nothin’. ? The chil- dren on the night shift work eleven Another—Worse. The man invited me to go to the OPENS WAY FOR AT CLEVELAND ARAB REBELLION ‘Yemen, Iraq, Trans- Jordania May Move Many of the facts back of the ;events in Arabistan are now being admitted by capitalist press report- ers in Jerusalem and Beirut. The latest is an explanation of the fail- ure of the Transjordanian and Iraq tribes to invade Palestine in force. | The movement had started, ac-} cording to yesterday’s dispatches, when the revolutionists against | British dominion had to stop in or-| der to check a contemplated attack | by Ibn Saud, king of the Hedjaz and Sultan of Nejd, on Transjor- dania. some time been pursuing an equi- vocal course, now apparently in con- flict with British imperialism, and then undoubtedly taking bribes from the British government. However, his army, now mobil- ized, of 40,000, was such a menace to the uprising in Transjordania, as to be of objective aid to England, |and helped to participate the rising against him of the Mutain, Ujman and Ateiba confederacies of tribes, who remember aid ‘given Britain in |1927 by this same Ibn Saud. offices in Jerusalem and Beirut, that if the king of the Hedjaz loses a battle which may be fought any time soon, a gigantic anti-imperi- alist mover-ent of all Arabs will be very probable, The British labor party govern- |ment is straining every effort to save the British mandates in Meso- potamia |flooded with British troor:. In Iraq | (Mesopotamia, where the Mosul oil fields are located) mollifying tactics are being tried. A treaty with Iraq similar to that walked with a shuffling step, as if | hours; work keeps ’em out of mis-| with Egypt, admitting formal inde- mother earth were as slimy and chief and gives ’em money to spend.” | pendence but keeping all the power in British hands is in process of for- mation. An Iraq nationalist party Said the superintendent to me, | next floor to see the next process in |is gaining strength every day, how-| |“married women make the best | Cotton cloth making. Instead, I went jever, and has forced its way into | workers; they are more docile and|0ut and over to the Olympia Mills. | the cabinet, where the proposed min- | settled.” “Yes, children are em- ployed, under ten years. The law is nothing. Chidlren are good help, their fingers are small and can kandle the threads without break- | ing. “Yes, I believe in children | working in the mills. My boy is in this mill, couldn’t keep him out. Now, just come in an’ I'll show you | round.” } | I followed the shuffling steps of | the “cracker” superintendent into the. miils. I looked on as he lifted the soft, white cotton from the wick- er crates awaiting the spindle. “Fine!” said he, “My God! what a place ” I cried. I cannot breathe here. I cannot walk these slimy floors.” | Choked With Dust. The looms started; the deadly buzz began the atmosphere grew thicker with the cotton lint. Choking, I tried to talk, to ask questions, but in vain, The noise of the machinery drowned my speech. The smell of | the oil grew more offensive; I felt faint. The superintendent spoke, “Do yu’uns want tu go out?” “No no, not until I see and know more, I replied. Down the long weaving room we went, between the Draper looms, | noting the very small children at | work. The superintendent’s boy, a youngster of ten years, was chew- | ing tobacco and spitting as dexter-| ously as a bar room loafer. I saw the stooping mothers; I saw the stooping fathers; I saw the little, little children, many of them girls, painfully reaching up their thin arms to tie the threads. There were! no smiles on their faces, no hope in Maybe, I thought, conditions will be better there. The Olympia mill is the largest in the world, producing fine cotton cloth. It has 375,000 spindles, and em- ploys three thousand men and wo- men and some five hundred chil- dren. Today, all the mills in South Carolina have merged their inter- sts, and I exvect all in the South, and are running under one control. I spoke of this to the superintendent. “If the cotton mills of America can merge and form a trust of manu- facturers, why should not the mill workers organize into one big, in- dustrial union, and when they strike, strike all together? Surely, in time this must take place for their pro- } tection.” I found the Olympia mill was like unto the Granby on a larger scale. I saw more stooping men, a Jarger number of stooping women, a higher percentage of little children, a thick- er atmosphere of cotton lint, a loud- er noise, more looms, more greasy stairs, heavier machinery, more painted windows, a severer discip- line, and a more unwholesome air of discomfort and God forsakenness. “What wages do you pay,” asked. The man replied, “$1.50 for skilled men, $1 for women, and from 25 to 50 cents for children. Wages have advanced during the last ten years.” “And what of the advance in divi- dends?”” was on my tongue, but I refrained. (To be Continued.) Build Up the United Front of the Working Class From the Bot- tom Up—at the Enterprises! I} ister of finance is known as a vig- irous anti-British man. The state of Yemen, the only Arab {state which has a treaty with the U, S. S. R., is determinedly against |British influence in Arabistan but has been cramped under the menace of Ibn Saud’s Wahabi empire to the jnorthward. If Saud collapses, Yem- len might add its power to an Ara- | bian nationalist government, the im- perialist observers fear. What to Do for the Defense of the 16 Gastonia Prisoners 1.—Hold mass protest meet- ings! 2.—Mobilize for the mass col- lection days, Sept. 21 and 22! 3.—Send resolutions of protest and telegrams of greeting to ‘isoners at Mecklenburg County il, Charlotte, North Carolina. 4.—Build International Labor Defense units! 5.—Build Workers International Relief units! 6.—Tell your neighbors, shop- mates, friends of Gastoni 7—Build a united front in the shops, factories and mines! 8.—No let-up until all the Gas- tonia prisoners are freed from the danger of lynch-law or legal lynching! The Gastonia Joint Defense and Relief Campaign Com- mittee, 80 East 11th St., New York City. ‘Answer the Attacks of the Social Fascists Against the DAILY WORKER MORNING FREIHEIT by getting behind the BAZAAIR MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Eighth Avenue, 49th and 50th Streets OCTOBER 3, 4, 5, 6 Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday Leave all your buying for those days because _ Madison Square Garden will be turned into A FOUR-DAY DEPARTMENT STORE Thursday, October 3rd Friday, October 4th.. Saturday, October 5th Sunday, October 6th.. Total. . 50 ‘"s39 Combination for all four days - 50 $ 1.25 eee $250 On Sale at Daily Worker, 26 Union Square, New York It is frankly stated in government | jat the T. U. U. jeently held in Cleveland. | The Wahebi ruler has for|. | | | | | I and Palestine. Palestine is | P™ UNITY MEETING Reports on Textile and Steel Given There were 72 women delegate: L. Convention re- At the special Womans Conference, many |of them spoke on conditions in their | industries. Three delegates reported on the |textile industry, one from the South, lone from New Bedford, and one from the rayon industry, They all had similar stories to tell of starva- tion wages, lon hours, and dis- crimination work- against women ers. Most of the women in these industries have homes and small children to look after besides the work in the shop. They are forced to work by the small wages paid to the men. * In the rayon industry, very young girls are replacing men, Girls only 14 years old work 15 hours a day. Wages are continually cut, either directly or by some indirect method. The workers make less than they did four years ago. The working force has been cut in half, half of the workers being laid off and the other half forced to do double work. One worker spoke particularly of the militancy of the women on the picket line, She stated that women are more daring on the picket line than the men, and show more in- itiative. She pointed out the neces- sity for special organizers for wo- men, as 50 per cent of the textile workers are women with special ‘oblems. The fellow-worker from New Bed- ford reported that there is a great needs for women’s education. The women have been kept backward for : French United Labor F ATTACK ON SAUD 72 WOMEN WERE High Maternity Death Federation Cong Page Three YESS RUBBER WORKERS Rate Under U. S. Slaverv'p Alp $9, DAILY The death rate from childbirth has been higher in the U. S, than in any other “civilized” country sinse 1924, according to a report presented to the convention of ob- stetricians at Memphis, Tenn., last week. For every 10,000 women in the U. S. giving birth to live infants, 5 of them die during childbirth. he .next highest rate is that of Scotland, with 58 maternal deaths per 10,000 live births. The lowest rate was reported for The Nether- lands (Belgium and Holland), with 23 per 10,000. s e per cent of these deaths are preventable. They are caused by poisoning, due to improper care Only skilled attention during con- rates But even it is the cannot take a con- trol informatior Poisoning als often results fror uch abortions, and from wome attempts to cause miscarriages through artifi cial means, In the Soviet Union, where wo- men are given every chance for freedom, working women and the wives of workers get skilled medical attention free. During confinement they are given the best of hospital service. Working women get six weeks before and after confinement release from work with pay Aft : a mother in the Soviet Un- k, there is ac ion finement and good care durnig the sunny ry for t period of pregnancy can prevent At the proper time th moth such poisoning. Obviously, women leaves her work to nurse her child who forced to work right up|She leaves the shop a half an hour to last day cannot have such'earlier than the other workers, in| ta care. remely high hospital rates order to get home before crowd, force working women to make use and to have extra time to care for of unskilled midwifes. the baby. As abortions inethe U. S. are il- Only when the workers of the U. legal, no figures are available as S. establish a Soviet Republic will to the deaths due to this cause. the women here be able to have is well known that many */a chance to have healthy babies who have failed, get rich by without danger or worry to them- ing working women extortionist selves. Every day there is some cacident. WOMEN SLAVE IN STEEL MILL Wheeling Plant Pays Low Wages (By « Worker Correspondert) I work in the Wheeling Steel Corporation ten and a half hours a day, starting at 7 in the morning |so long they have many prejudices. |until half past five in the evening. With proper organizing work, she into the union, as many of them already are. She also mentioned that in many cases the husbands hinder the wives from being active. As far as 1 am concerned, I can't claim to have discovered the ex- istence of ela in modern society trife agninst one another. ass historians long ngo described the evolution of the class struggles, and political economists showed the economic physiology of the classes, I haye added ns a new contribution the following proposi- tions: 1) that the existence of clas is bound up with certain s of material production; 2) the class struggle leads neces- sarily to dictatorship of the proletariat; 3) that this dictatorship is but the transition to the abo! tion of all classes and to the ation of a society of free and equal. —Marx. jIf we are one minute late, one half lis sure all the women can be brought |hour is taken off from our time. |The wages are $2.80 a day. If Jone stops to straighten their back up or to take a breath the boss in back of you starts to growl. You are not allowed to speak to anyone during working hours, but even if |you try to do so you cannot be |heard because of the terrible noise. |Your ears always hurt on the in- side. It is always foggy with smoke. | Every piece of steel has to be well-greased before it can go through the press so that at night one’s body is all greasy and one’s| [tongue would stick in the mouth. | There is no time to wash the hands | ‘before luch so that we have to eat |with our greasy hands, and our din-| ‘ing room is in the ladies toilet, not dressing room, for there is none. |I nave seen little girls of 15 and 16 get their hands smashed off and friend of mine got her middl finger cut off and only got 5) from the company. Every day they would place new automatic machines that would take the jobs away from 2 or 3 workers. Six years ago there were no wo-| men workers there and now there ,are hardly any men. The women do the same work on the machines for less money. There isn’t any organ- ization in this place so that when | ‘ there are big orders they hire all the women they can get and in two or three days they finish the order and lay off the help. If there is a good, strong working slave in the bunch, they will keep: her and put her in place of the weakest one. The girls have to push their own truck full of steel to their working place. In one word it is true that this is hell because I am in it. | Only when. we organize will we) be able to make this a better place to work in. L, ¢, “COOPERATORS CUT WAGES. LONDON (By Mail).—The Coop- |erative Wholesale Society is propos- ing to reduce the wages of woolen weavers and winders at their Hebden | Bridge Mill. The local trades coun-| cil will resist the attempt, declaring jexisting wages are already too low.| FOR SLAVERY 10 Hours of Speedup in Akron, Ohio. (By « Worker After we are kers. women there is pl ent It ases that cone injure the worke of time. period contracts a chronic skin disea The } of work t and the every minute of tk The wo- men workers are much more under- paid then the men workers. of the women workers are the wiv of former employees of the plant, who are now sick of the incurable skin disease and are unable to work. The women w me the sup- rs of the w in most large very The women workers are aware of the intense slavery. They are di contented. They are also conscious of the fact of the millions of profits they produce for the company; con- trolled by Wall Street bankers who will bring about the coming war. Then gas objec women the ace In order to do a ‘the brutal exploitation of women workers, the long hours and small wages, the exploitation under the rationalization system, the women workers as well as the men workers must unionize their industry and fight for a living wage and for better conditions. A WOMAN WORKER, UNDER REFORMIST RULE. BELFAST (By Mail).—Police re- fused to allow a collection to be taken at a meeting during the trade union congress here. Under the pices of the Irish Labor Defens League, the meeting demanded the release of cl war prisoners, Build Up the United Front of the Working Class From the Bot- tom Up—at the Enterprises! United States. Membership One TICKETS ON SALE NOW 75c in advance——$1.00 at the door Special Rates to Organizations for Blocs of Tickets up to Sept. 25th. Write — Mail — or Phone — orders to FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION 115 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK PHONE ALGONQUIN 6656 Join the Friends of the Soviet Union! ELCOME ) Soviet Flyers: Monster Reception WEEK OF OCTOBER FIRST (Watch Newspapers for Exact Date) Dollar Per Year. to be held in one of the largest grounds available in New York City PROMINENT SPEAKERS - EXCELLENT MUSICAL PROGRAM SUPPORT THE TRACTOR AND TRUCK FUND As an expression of friendship with the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union a gift of tractors and trucks will be pre- sented to the Soviet Flyers from the work- | ers and friends of the Soviet Union in the 274 labor and fraternal organizations have pledged their support to participate in the mass reception to the Soviet Flyers. YOUR ORGANIZATION TO DO SAME! Organizations desiring final arrangements confe announced shortly. gates to F.S.U. office. Get pledges for FRIENDS OF TH 175 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Enclosed $ he reception for t ..... for membership in the Friends of the Soviet Union. STREET CITY should elect delegates immediately for the Send names of dele- tractors Go with the delegation accompanying the tractors and trucks to the Soviet Union. URGE ‘to participate rence—date to be and trucks, E SOVIET UNION for tickets for he Soviet Flyers and