The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 11, 1930, Page 8

i ‘ ' DAILY WORKBK, NEW TURK, AND THEY’LL DO IT AGA LLED AGAINST ROCKEFE | STANDARD OIL WORKERS REBE IN ry aS ae . = : a get together and form an oil workers’ industrial union—one that will | These oil workers are going to rebel soon. take in every kind of oil worker—from the men in the fields to the | in the big Standard Oil refineries in Bayonne. That was in 1915, when men in the refineries, They did it once before, | sent in—and the strikers fought back against the troops and police. | First and second pictures are sonie scenes from that great strike. The strikers are battling the troops. Last photo shows Standard Oil .work- An oil worker in the big Standard Oil refinery in Whiting, In- , tells of the intolerable conditions the men who slave for Rocke- r are forced to stand for. The oil refinery workers. have got to And they’re going to do it tinder the leadership | of the Trade Union Unity League—which is on the job in Whiting. the Standard Oil was turning its entire output over to the Allied im- | perialist powers. They scared the bosses so badly that troops were ers in the Whiting refinery. A. F.LIN MANY IN MARE |, SORE AS RAISE IS TURNED DOWN a | Sub and Cruiser Are 60 Miners Were Being Built for War VALLEJO, California,. (By. Mail). I it nut the condtions of vorkers in the Mare Island N: n Vallejo. The v rs in the» Yard «are workin: vw ona winter schedule; § hours lay, 6 days. and 48 ammer sched- | afternoon off As you know, are allowed, pro- s there a year. This yard issat present’ construct- E , the V-6,-and- a ie er 29, the: U.:S. force of 4,800 is at work 90 boilermake Murdered Here— —And This Is What They Slaved For -OLD TOWN COAL COMPANY heen Jaid-off ve been -nn.big Jay-offs-as n- the above work: is April, there may: be fol, ¢raftcunions. are liticians to. see. to it ment builds a bigger more work for the bourgy e of. the , through the Cham- have the same 2 the same methods. > employees at men. Some nmerce, he death-trap mine. the yards of the ¢ vice 00 organized . of L. Due ed. by- the -uniens asons most- of. the hops. in. town employers. ie. demand - of t the pres- slavery drew exactly nothing. owed the bosses a little over $2. to pressu and for other ing to get (By a worker correspondent). McALESTER, Okla. (By Mail).— The local papers carried a news: item on December: 22nd that the general manager of the Old Town | Coal Co. that killed 60 miners was | going to shove up thé payday, which j would be. a tidy sum ‘whieh would assure these victims against-any im- 5 by the A. F, | Mediate néed. Find enclosed voucher | ing by the shown | {2% one of these victims of bosses’ s also been stow | greed, and let the vouchér Speak for y. Yard; worl King | itself. There is no ruse these mur- atin and. Brookly2 vs will not use to hide the Noe ialey staat nes they are daily committing | cra Se the smen, are - sore > the fayorable data, collect- ir committees, was thrown | the Secretary Na’ and all raises proposed cancelled. —MARE ISLAND NAVY YARD WORKER. Editor’s Note:—The example of bec ed by out by political diek of L. officials} up by ae Satake. hnait ue thele | against the slaves who have to work | hese _misleaders boas being close. pals. with the secre- tary of the navy, and other goy- ernment ¢ Is. And what is the result? Secretary of the Navy Adams refuses a wage increase. Navy Yard workers, the ‘Trade Union Unity, League uses - one —fight «the bosses whether y be private bosses, or govern- ment bosses Mare Island, Navy Yard work can get in touch with the FUUL at 145 Turk St. San Franeisco. ) The Trade Union Unity League has started: work in the Brooklyn and Philadelphia Navy Yards, where many workers have learned that it is-a fighting and honest. organ WHERE OIL nd to. get what. the. workers | | for their mere existence, The miners and their families are | j-at the mercy of these operators and the grafting state officials working | hand-in-glove with these vultures | that parade under the cloak of char- | | ity. I visited 16 families of these vic- tims of boss-greed, In eyery case I found the Red-Cross had made their usual investigation and..up to De- cember 30th I did not find any place where the Red Cross, had used any | of the $60,000 to help these victims | in any way. And the best encourage- | ment they -had given them, was: If |you can» live till Jan. 1st, 1930, we | will send you some groceries. | In oné ease tkey made inquiries if the tim ‘had carried any insur- KINGS RULE Okla. City ..- Worst Open Shop Town OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (By| headline’ came out im. the press Mail). — This is the worst open! t-lling “what the C. of C.was: doing shop town I ever was in in my ex-/for Labor.” The men went out in perience as:an-oil man, The ,Okla+| the country to the main: office of homa Gas and Electric owns the bus the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil lines and street car system. “They | Co. and took the acid test from the pay track men 25 cents an hour | company doctor, who passed all -~ for ten hours and’ no overtime pay.| but 82 out of 100. The rest walked Jnvfave:ig 8 cents or 2 for’15 and| back fo ° the fown. The’ company there is none.that exceeds 10 miles.| pays the. doe $2 per head for all The gas rates are. 65 « for 1,000 | men examined. . That makes $200 for feet and there are millions of feet|100 men and 18 f them go, to work. of gas bldwing to the four winds at/I suppose, anyway, they gre having the edge of the tity. | lots of Juck. The Chamber of Commerce ‘shoots | a big stick here, From their open City ranges from $2 to $3.50 and $4 shop labor bureau they hire all the | for 9-hours.on the job, and ride a _men for the Indian Territory Ilu-| truck from 10 to 15 miles in cold., minating Oil Co,, the Doheny sub-| I have been in the oil field all my sidiary of fohw D. \life and “was in the strike. in the The average wage in Oklahoma) {not to talk to anyone. | ‘Piiday for this company. © A big) WORKER. The C. of ©. hired. 100 men last; McDonald Field about. .1888,—O1L.! Read the letters on this page from McAlester, Ofia., téhere. the Old Town Coal Co. bosses’ grecd murdered 60 miners on December Photo above shows badies of the miners being removed from the Below a pay-check of a McAlester miner who slaved in the mine in which 60 of his fellow workers were killed. figuring you'll sce that this miner at the end of two weeks’ hard For the company figured out that he | McALESTER, WHERE 60 | DIED IN DEATH MINE ance, and on being informed that there was a small policy, they told this expectant mother that she had better make good, for this was all that she would get. As soon as the Mexican, Consul re- ceived the $10,000 that the govern- ment had sent to be distributed to these victims, he also came, but all he did, was to tell these victims, T did not see for what reason he did not want them to talk, unless he too was fig- uring on a share in the spoils, In any case, he did not ask, if any- thing was needed. And in some cases, there was not coal enough to last 24 hours. If it had not been for the neighbors, some of these children would have suffered from cold.—W. JOBLESS AUTO SLAVES STARVE Girl Workers Among Hardest Hit (By a Worker Correspondent) DETROIT (by Mail).—Editor: I have been out of a job now for some time. I was laid off at Murray’s and tol dto- come’ back after Thanksgiv- ing. After Thanksgiving I went back and found there still was no hiring. I have been going there each morning to try to get in and every time I get there I find a bigger’line of girls looking for work, At Hud- ton’s and at Fisher Body, and Mc- Cord Radiator the lines are some- times longer. And now girls who worked in stores and offices are looking for any kind of work and help add to our lines: What are we goingt to do? Starve? i think we should ali get together and fight for better conditions. If tre bosses can’t give us work—then let them pay for our food, clothes ‘and rent. 'é want work or wages. And if we all fight together and or- ganize, we can get our demands. Auto Worker.—- Write About Your Conditions for The Daily Worker. Become a Worker Correspondent, Organize Shop Nuclei, If you do a little } GOT TO COME IN. TO MCALESTER!” Writes Man From Coal| Town, Disaster Scene (By a worker correspondent). | McALESTER, Okla. (By Mail).—/ When the Old Town Coal. Co., Little Bolan mine was blown up, there were 2 cars half full of coal. The operator, not wanting to pay dam-/ age, turned said coa! over to the Red| Cross}.and in turn the Red Cross told | some of these victims that if they} bhad money to hire a truck to haul the coal, they could have some of the coal, their dead *usbands and fath- ers had dug and paid for with their | lives. One miner that lost his life went! | to the stfperintendent 3 days before the fatal blast and pleaded with him| | not to have any more shots fired} while the miners were below. The | satisfaction he got, was: work or | get the hell out. Now we will pass the victims to | the state and let them rub more salt | into the wound. The State Peniten-| tiary lays up against this death-trap. | So the warden sent out a bunch of | prisoners to ¢\; graves, and I} guess, he decided it would be more | conyenient to dig one hole instead | of 24, Anyway, that is what was | done, 24 “damn greasers” in one hole, with some dirt on top of them. | ‘alk is going around that the} | operators are going to let the mine | | stay closed till the Red Cross and | the rest of these human vultures suc- | jceed in starving these victims they have to leave the country. Then | they can open up this death trap again and kill some more damn slaves, It will then be easy to open) this trap, w:thout even having to go through the formality of a law suit. | With the aid of the state officials) they can whitewash the thing with-| out any trouble. The N. M, U. has/| to come here!—Okla. Worker. KIDNAP LUMBER STRIKE HEA \Ontario, Woodsmen in| (By a Worker Correspondent) PORT ARTHUR, Ontario (By “THE NM.U.HAS BRIGGS BODY CO, HIRES BACK FEW-WAGES CUT Put Fake Ad in Boss| Papers for 10,000 | | (By a Worker Correspondent)- | DETROIT (by Mail).—The fol- lowing clipping was received from a capitalist | newspaper headed, “Briggs Recalls 10,000 Workmen”: Another big alluring advertise- | ment in’ the paper which is mis-| leading. The body of the article states that a couple of thousand men will be hired, which they put under the headline of “10,000 men wanted.” Are there not enough men here starving now?” | Since receiving this letter, fur-| ther reports have come in. Not| more than 1,000 men were actually | employed. Second, these workers were greeted by wage cuts and nqw speed-up methode, Back-hangers were getting 16c before the lay-off, now get 14c. Tacking sides—four men used to get 8 a job—now get 7c. Top—reed—three men on job, used to pay $4 per hundred, now pays $3.60. On many jobs the men were able to make not more than 30¢ an hour. Briggs makes no attempt to mask his vicious exploitation of labor and starts out the Christmas season with | 4 wage’ cfit of from 10 to 10% per cent, 2 Briggs workers are facing a year of drastic wage cuts, more vicious speeding up and worsening of condi-| Workers ni the Briggs plants! | Now is the time to fight back! Or- ganize yous shop locals. Auto Workers Union. —Briggs Slave. PHILA, TRUCKERS DEFY OFFICIALS By Phony Contract 4 (By a worker correspondent). PHILADELPHIA, Ja. (By Mail).| Have you ever heard of a Thomas O’Brien, organizer of the. Interna- tional Brotherhood of Teamsters, ‘ears, ete.? Fourteen, drivers were fired six months ago by the Philadelphia POLITICAL DEALS; NAVY YARD MEN GET NO WA GE RAISE McAlester Miners Starve in These Shacks 'NMU ENEMIES Slave like hell in a death-trap this—to starve in, the Little Bolan Mine in mine—then home to a shacle like Then along comes an explosion like that one in McAlester, Okla., miners’ lives snuffed out by the coal operators’ greed. December 17—60 more Such is the McAlester miners’ life, agd the life of coal miners everywhere under the capitalist system. But, led b miners v settle scores with the y the National Miners Union, the coal bosses. “| THE MEN WHO SLAVE T ENRICH ROCKEFELLER (By a Worker Correspondent) WHITING, Ind. (By I started on the labor gang at 50¢ was there just the same. Not rest or anything, only just work. Then at the end of two weeks I was transferred to the paint gang. I thought the labor boss was bad, bue he could not hold a candle to the pushers on the paint gangs. The company promises that seniority | be in so long before you get ‘that, can’t meet his bills and do it. Do save on labor ask for a and say, ou are Say- lon the job. ‘They r. And if y y can come you don’t need it, for ing so muea, Also, after you are a year, you will take pretty. near anything, to keep from losing that 50 per, cent they give you. ‘These are just a few of the con- in| Mail).—For some cight weeks 800 Iamber workers in the Port Arthur District have been on strike battling against the most intolerable condi- tions and low wages that prevail in the lumber camps of Canada, The spirit of solidarity among the strikers has been spleridid and the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, a Pan . | fighting union of the Canadian| »Y jgQnaing (all the drivers, and) workers, has been determined that “Three ‘months later a wage-scalt the strike shall be successful and | agreement was ‘drawn up by the shall spread to other camps where) local and endorsed. by the Interna- the conditions are equally rotten. tional. This agreement was - pre- The union, therefore, sent out two) sonted to the Philadelphia Daily organizers on November the. 18th) News. ‘The company. refused to, ne- through the Onion. Lake District} gotiate on this new agreement, (Ontario). thera _ claiming that a former agreement Previous to the organization trip! existed with J. O’Brien, organizer of these two workers, the lumber! of the International and was made bosses of this district, particularly jn the presence of the state and fed- a man named Maki ,had threatened | eral conciliators and a Frank Burch that if any lumber union’s organizer | of teh Central Labor Council. made their way into these camps, he} Following is the former agrec-| would be shot. By all indications! ney “That this local canrot ask the lumber barons have carried out/f- 3 increase in wages or changed their threat.” Voutaillainen and Ros-| working conditions until/such.a time Daily News for being members of a union. After a few weeks a fishy settlement was made by this J. O’- Brien, organizer, -whereby only 6 out of the 14 were returned to work wtih the right to organize. These 6 militant drivers in one week back in one week in the shop surprised all | the pipe department and other de- | jbecause five men were wheeling from | counts, but at the end of four months} _ These on the paint gang, I was set back to ditions in the plant, that you know the labor gang, and two or three | that exist, there. Other plants are fellows that I know that had not) :ust as bad, in fact, Sinclair 1s been there as long as I, were left, Worse. , on the paint gang, altho there was| But the only way out is through nothing the matter’ with my work|°rganizing into a real union. And or the amount done, for the foreman| that Union is the Trade Union Unity| Rul aa League, it’s for the workers of all Now I have’ seen the same thing in} August 8ist-and September 1st.and 3 veye| “nd 1929, a militant fighting union partments. The first two years were) that fights for higher pay, better d. ‘ou ozs: 3 see se a fase pea ook conditions, five day week, seven hour A | day, and for the things that make men bawled out for stopping to get) ,. pet ff ‘a drink when. they were: passing the | life worth living.—Oil Worker. water bucket and for cleaning when} they got smeated up with paint from! the spray. Also, when they were building the) 5th row of stills, I heard the Super| raise hell with the labor foreman] the conerete mixer. He only wanted! four to-do it, said there were only) By a Worker Correspondent) four loads going in, when there) HARTFORD, Conn, (By Mail).— were five, two of sand, two of rock/In the Colt Repeating Arms, in. the races, founded in Cleveland, Ohio last} vall, the two organizers that left for the Maki camp have “disappeared,” Ou that day, these mieh made their way towards Makis. camp. They got 4s far as a small island in Onion Lake, when they were called. by Maki’ and some of his men to come over to the camp: fire: and warm themselves (this. is according to Maki’s story). After staying ‘a while at this camp fire, they left with the men part of the way. They were never) seen after this. The trappers camp alking after them a} hands of the executive board of the as ll Philadelphia newspaper drivers were 109 per cent organized.” Hows that for an AFofL agree-| ment. The Philadelphia Daily News expected thes? workers to live up such a ridiculous agreement, The workers heard of it before and re- volted. Organizer. O’Brien was iat | the meeting of these drivers at the time they voted 100 per cent |to strike. He left the situation in the local. and left town. After a confer- ence the men struck. During the tlt contained their provisions was | strike the organizer left this newly never reached by them. Of course | organized group drifting, he being the theory propounded by the lum-/m tly cut of town. and two sacks of cement, which is one wheel-barrow load. I heard our labor foreman cuss hell out of a man with one of the big boys stand- ing alongside of him, and this is not supposed to be allowed there. In the three years I was there, | know of four killed and severa! Sadly injured. So that shows that the work there is dangerous, And that the workers take a big risk work- ing there for their 50 to 64%c per hour, which most of them get. Al- though more pay would not do away with the danger, but it is worth it production department, men over 4! are seldom employed. The tempo o: | production is so. fast.that sooner or later you break under the strain. The poorer ones are soon weeded pout and faster ones hired. After a jwhile they get to make the limit— $30. a week, then the limit is re- moved. They work harder and get $40 or so for a few weeks, then the rates are cut again, and they have to work like hell to make $30. This has happened alot of times, but be- cause we aren’t organized, we don’t jdo anything, to work in an oil refinery. Suppose} In the forge room, where amidst BOMB HALL IN LIVINGSTON, IL Bombers Shielded By Town Officials (By a worker correspondent). LIVINGSTON, Ill. (By Mail). — The Club Hall where the NMU local | meets was dynamited. or bombed in | the night from Monday to: Tuesday, Dec. 31st. The damage done was slight, except for the windows, They were all blown out, save for two large ones. The bombers were not found, But the town administra- tion did not inquire or send for bloodhounds from Springfield » as they always do when little other damage or robbing is done in other: homes. There aré threats made against some of our active members. to chase them out of ‘town, deport them and so forth. So you will hear Some more news in the near future. Illinois Miner. WOULDN'T INSURE | MCALESTER MINE |That Shows. What’ a Death Trap It Was (By a worker correspondent). McALESTER, Okla. (By Mail).—_. This is the location of the Old Town.” | ‘Coal Co., which at its Little Bolam: | Mine on December 17 snuffed out-: | the lives of 60 out of a crew of 66.. | miners, at North McAlester. The, | miners here want to know more about the National Miners Union, They receive the Daily Worker: | vith much enthusiasm, always in- quiring if it is a Union paper. And Mail).—| A man getting 50 or 64% per hour) being assured it is, the next inquiry | is: Are you going to organize us; |per hour in the Standard. I had/they really give you anything at| if nothing is/done for us, the oper- | worked in lots of shops and plants,|that. After you have been. in a| ators will have us all killed. but that was the first job I ever had |year, you cannot afford to quit, for fi} ‘They Wouldn’t Be Tied where a small time foreman was on) you do, you get only 6 per cent. So,| plorable conditions imaginable, even | your heels every minute of the day.| therefore, they don't give you noth-| the firing of shots in these old gas- | Also, he never said anything, he| ing, for they save by keeping youl filled ‘mines, while the miners ate These miners have the most de- | at work. All miners are agreed that | it was this very thing that snuffed jout 60 of the miners’ lives of a | crew of 66 at Little Bolan mine of the Old Mine Coal Co. A miner who was one of the rescue party said, one miner could have been saved if.the pulmotor had been used, but they have the pul- motor at the office. I have been in- formed, but what was the use of get- ting a perfectly good. pulmotor soiled on a “damn nigger.” The average wage in little Bolen | mine is less than‘ $4.00 for an 8 hour day. ; This death trap was so danger- | ous that even the insurance, com: panies would not take the risk. There are two circulating fans in this mine, one small fan and a large one. But the large fan has not been used for three years; till after the explosion. as. ——=&—xxz&i—~—~~&~&~=—~—=>FL=—[=—————EEe COLT ARMS A MURDERER And Generous? --- Ask the Workers! Board of Directors decided, that. in case a worker is: killed. while at work, he gets the enormous sum. of $500, provided that the fault was that of the machine. ‘, ‘ Now, that's. what we call real benevolence, charity, kind-hearted- ness. In order to get compensation, for’accidents an ‘injuries, you must be out at least two weeks’ and. then you get $1 a day—maybe. You have two weeks’ vacation in Summer—. without pay. Also holidays are given off-—without pay, a The, most. any man. can make. is, $30. The assembler, the; sheeting. in-; | spector, the grinder, machine. and drop forge men all get. the same, $30. and when you figure.the time, | i y I ber bosses is that they were lost or | drowned in the frozen lake, — This | theory is very shaky, for these two} men were experienced bushmen, who knew that part ‘of the country | thoroughly and moreover the depth of the lake is only from 4 to 5 feet. The strike lasted two months un- til the workers were starved out, not receiving a bit of aid from the In- ternational. Forward to a Newspaper Workers Industrial Union! Newspaper Truck Worker. in half as much, a still blows up with a bunch of men working around it. Or a fire like that at 41 to 55 receiving house a short time ago, which cost two lives and badly burned three others. Yes, you can buy stock. You put in so much, and the company puts But you have to the noige and flames of the forges Off for holidays, layoffs. and. sick- the half-naked men work among the flying pieces of iron; if you have ever had an idea of hell, here is a} vivid realization. If a man gets careless or sleepy, if his hand ness as a. result of the speed-up, . they average only about $23, The men are worse than slaves. , A —A Young Fighter. .}’ slips, it means instant death, But for this the kind Colts Factory Every Factory a Fortress! Build Factory ist,” Nuclei. }