The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 1, 1930, Page 5

a | | 1) rare: DAT: ¥ WORKER, NEW. YORK, SATURDA AX, MARGH 1, 1930 _Page Fivi UNEMPLOYED IN TLE AND RUBBER! WORKERS IN AKRON READY TO FIGHT Those Still At Work Are Called On To Act With Jobless As Lay-Offs Continue in Big Plants Demonstration at which the Toledo Workers Gave a Sample of Their Militancy (By a Worker Correspondent) TOLEDO, Ohio—A line on “prosperity” in Toledo. ago the Toledo Machine and Tool Company began laying off. ago when the big Russian order was fi Some time ago they fired for geod U.S. GOVT. LAYS pei SPEEDS uP ARLEANS TOILERS “ ” Uncle Shylock Holds still are going to ae i Whip on Wharf Men |big demonstration of the wiem- | ployed was staged Tuesday, Feb, 19 \in front of the Safety Building. At |least 5,000 marched there from | Two months | Two weeks ished they practically shut Cown. | foreign-born who did not have | final papers. Electric Autolite, the ‘biggest of | | its kind in world, is operatirg at | |about half capacity, and W llys- | Overland Auto Co. at about 20 per | | cent, Thousands of workers are in dis- | tress because the employment is go-| linge down. All bosses’ relief ageiicies, | soup kitchens are being used to try | ” | to keep the unemployed out o/ the | Trade Union Unity League. | (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW ORLEANS, La.—The U. §.| Gast, 2000, igarched Sovernment. 35 using capitalist Y-|"" one workers demanded that. City tionalization against its employees pitieil: dudes Vand Belews Gane here. The workers are under a ter- mittee meas them i bbe which | rific speed-up in the Missiesippi| as refused. The workers then | Warrior Service, which, is directly | 2 seq the committee to meet them in under the control of the U. S. War | large hall and this w 1 Department. A major-general heads |°0Y Tee Oa" an riiteaeshes . - JOr-B refused. The ouncil Committee then “Online jasked the workers for a delegetion nly after working for nine con-| of workers to come in and meet it, secutive hours at the miserly wage | All doors leading to committee of 40 cents per hour are the workers rooms were barred and the halls allowed a pittance of overtime—60 were lined witH 100 dicks, This pro- cents. This means that if the men | Position was shouted down by the | work from 1 o'clock in the after-! workers as a trick to lead the lead- | noon to 5, in the evening, they get ers to a slaughter. not ov: e y | date aie Wind a aes) cael Workers then paraded down town night. This is at the Bienville st, | Stects returning to Court House peer ~ "| Square for a meeting. As Com:ade |Johnson was speaking the cops re- ye peatedly laid hands on him but every | While two years ago there Were | time the workers shoved them aside. seven to eight men to a gang, it has} ‘That’s a foretaste of what we'll now been cut to five men, who are} qo March 6! spedup to do more work than did | the eight two years ago, There are | four men to the dock gang, which once had also six to seven men. Each man who handles a truck is burdened with 14 100-pound saks, making 1,400 pounds for a one-man load. Cut Forees Down —TOLEDO WORKER. | Paci | | | AKRON, Ohio— Three hunired {end fifty workers marched under the leadership of the Communist Party down the main streets of {Akron to th “Immediate Relief” for the unemployed workers. These Lift Heavy Sack | “charitable” organizations are fi- On the barge the sacks are stowed | nancially supported by: the Al-ron 11 tiers high, with two men on the| bosses and the Akron City Coun- inboard and two men on the out-|cil. A committee of workers were board, one man for the skid. This|met by these organizations with part of the job should have at ‘east |the same answer the bosses have cight men, as it is the most brutal |elways answered “We Can’t do of lind of punishment for two men to|tke boses as one of empty “prom lift all day the 100-pound sacks, |ises” which were to “settle in the building the tire 11 sacks high,|empty stomachs for food” as one straining themselves (and being |of the workers remarked. treated worse than slaves by the, The Wubbder Baron’s Police as white straw-bosess, who are often! “EF mere “kids” and relatives of the! The whole police of Akron and general manager), and when they/added to it the nrivate police of} are worn with toil and unfit for the | the Goodyear and. Goodrich cor- service of the chief of all slave-driv- porations “escorted” the parade ers, “Uncle Shylock,” they are put | banned. The chief of police was | on the scrap heap of humanity, with in front “ecsortmg” the merch nothing to look forward to except a Proved a complete success in spite short time of grudging charity, or /of the sixty police, one who “ea- a speedy end of hunger and cold. |tured: the “conference” called by | Join the M. W. L. ‘the City C:uneil of the, local “expt- After working a day of this tor-|8ins of industry” which the work- turous ‘slavery the men are “knock- | CT completely. ignored. Leaving ed off,” that is their pay cexses, |the hal! the cops scattered the and they are forced to cover the workers hut a assemble until he hatches, stow away the trucks and|W&S pulled down by a policeman. heavy skids and straighten all the | mediately the workers forined | gear before they are allowed to de. |:0to marching formation which the | part for the wretched hovels where | Police could not break up. they are hired by the moneyed c’ass. | A bern ae ig was held Sun- When the program of the Marine |“: Feb. 23 at 2 p. m. to get the Workers League is presented to S¢PPort of the employed worlers them, they line up and spread the lin the rubber mills behind the news to their fellow workers. They “employed campaign and was the realize also that not only are they | begining of de pampeeae | to. on , exloited by private individuals and | lira et exploited ae in the * | companies, ‘ut that the governmient |) oR id Serine: peter esp itself is also a tool to beat down |{@ Rabber orkers Industrial \t the working class to the deepest |reseve Will have. its official start depth of poverty and degradation. | (with the fist conference called for 3 ss M 6. It wi P a They soon lose all false ideas about La alaliie ee wa Maanala st by such things as “government for, of ” know so well, The workers of and by the people. \Akron are preparing for the big) —ORLEANS WORKER. | demonstration on International ————— | Unemployment. Day and the Un- Do your working rlass neigh»ors employed Council are preparing to read the Daily Worker? Sell it to|support actively the Communist them every day -nd make new|Party in this demonstration. Party members. —RUBBER SLAVE. HIGH-BALL OUTFITS ‘Loggers Organize to F ight ‘em! (By a Worker Correspondent.) MONTESANO, Wash.—The Scha- for Bros, Lumber Co. heaps insults on the workers in many ways. For | instance, sometime ago there was some bunk houses built and double- decked bunks were irstalled. The werkers rebelled 94 took things in -wir own }ands, They cut off the upper bunks and threw the excess outside, thus making twice the room in the bunk houses. Camps Reopen, Wages Cut The company did not act on this for several years, Tinally the su- perintendent hed the upper bunks velded on, thus doubling the nun-ber yf men in each of the bunk houses. When the camps were reopened after the winter shut down the wages of the day workers were cut f1 per day, piece workers, such as tallers and buckers, were cut 10 to 15 cents per thousand. This means a cut of $2 to $8 per day for this ‘class of workers. Fight These Outfits Now fellow workers, what are we going to do with these damnable highball outfits? Whether they 1. Schafer, Long- bell, Weyerhaeuser, or any of the rest of the lumber companies, we must understand that they are leaches on the backs of the workcrs, and in order to get them off we must organize into a powerful Lum- ber Workers Industrial Union, which the N, L. W. I. U. is in the making. —A LOGGER, Write About Your Conditions for The Daily Worker. Become a Worker Correspondent. 1 POWHATAN, 0. From the rubber industry centers, as centers, like Canton, from every industrial center come the reports | from worker correspondents of preparations for big demonstrations of both unemployed and employed employment. MINERS ANSWER CUT WITH STRIKE They See Thru Hoovers “No Wage Cuts” Lie (By a Worker Correspondent) POWHATAN POINT, Ohio—- The coal miners of the Powhatan Mining Co. strike for over a week, They know that Hoover's promise to the labor takers not to have wages cut was so much buil. | Strike Is the Answer. We haven't forgotten the wage | cuts in the mines here of a year ago, and now the bosses start in cutting wages again. Well, our | answer was a_ strike under the} lcadership of the National Miners! Union, and 700, of us are out. Today they are paying 45 éents per ton and they put before us their new scale and now, imagine fellow workers how can a miner live on that. $4.50 Highest Wage Let us suppose that they give | us a 4 ton wagon and if we are lucky they pay $2.50 and some- times Icss than that. If we earn in a day $4.50 that is the highest possible out of this we have to pay for powder $1, and now they come out and claim that the company is going bankrupt and if the com- pany goes bankrupt they say we won't have no work at all. Be- sides this they are robbing us in the ecfpany store where the prices are at least 20-30 per cent higher than in other stores. As far as the miners are con cerned the situation can be chang- ed only thru the National Miners Union affiliated to the TUUL, the enly revolutionary working class industrial center. Every miner regardles of nationality, color or age should join immediately be- cause this is our last chance. TROND AT HATAN STRIKER. TIMKEN FIRES ALL PAST 40) Workers. Make Answer on March 6! (Bu a Worker Correspondent) | CANTON, Ohio—An unemploye | worker of the Timken Roller Bear- ing Co. have worked for them close to 2 years. Lots of the time work- ed 7 days a week and from 1! to 24 -hours a shift. Taken sick, wes sent. home by the company doctor at the Timken plant and had to go to the hespital for trentment. Fired for Getting Sick on Joh | Was released from tne hospita. in about 12 doys end reported to Timken for work. Was told by a boss he had nothing for me. a | T was laid off. Had no work, so went every. morning to try Ne work. nswer was always, mole doing come baci: tomorrow. Kept going til’ on the first of February they had a few days work fer 40 men and I got my name on the list. Got my name signed up on the list in the office and was sent back to the employment manager who | said I cannot place you back on the job, T asked, why? He said, you was fired off the job. What for? For laying off, he said That is because they are now) getting rid of all workers past 40 years «f age, so now that T have | telped to make nearly 26 ‘million | dollars for Timken, now he fas the | the millions while I have no job. What ere the laboring class going | to do about such things? | We must orgarize for work or) wages. and we must have. the Workers still at work to join us, | ‘Let us start now. Let’s have a hig) unempleyment demonstration © in Canton on March 6. LAID. OFF TIMEN WORKEF The Daily Werker is the. ‘Party’ a hest instrument to make contacts | umongz the masses of workers, to build a mass Commtnisr Party, At left, workers Right, risks of rub | and fabric are j Akron, from the steel workers, ned. wo workers on March 6, against uy- | | onstrating March 6. WITH THE SHOP PAPERS RACE TRICK DONT. A LUSDY CHIRP PROM THE “SPARROWS POINT WORKER” Once upon a time, the only a little fledgeling of a shop paper. say, 1928, It twittered feebly and spo dically. At one time it was not heard from about five or six months. Now it is grown up, and its plumage has changed, It is a six-page shop paper mimeoed on pale blue paper and quite attractive. Two letters on the youth page and a letter on another’ page soothes our worker correspondence sensibilities. A letter from a Negro worker shows the need for fighting against discrimination in this Bethlehem steel plant. Sparrows Point Worker, : 514 N. Eutaw St. ~ Baltimore, Md. Dear Sirs: IT am working in the Pipe Mill around the furnaces with other Negro and white workers. We all do about about the same work but the boss marks up the white worker's card for a rate of fifty cents while he marks a thirty-seven rate on the cards of the Negro worker. I wonder why we get so little money and why we get less than the white workers. —A NEGRO PIPE MILL * * * WORKER. EDITORIAL COMMENT: This type of discrimination is practiced by the boases in order to divide the forces of the working class, to keep the whites separated from the Negro and prevent them organizing into the fighting trade union and to use one against the other when workers strike. Now for some criticism. First, for a shop paper it i general, outside of the letters and a few short articl concrete conditions of the shop are not reflected. tions of worsening conditions, ete., All form: capitalist rationalization should be presented concretely, however they ‘may seem. The full page strip of cartoons on the last page is really an attractive feature. But we wish to point out that the com- rade lets drop a pacifist tinge from his pen when he drew “the boob” going to war and “honored” by those who sent him there after he is dead. Not a pacifist C. O. attitude but a “turn the master’s war into a war against the masters” attitude would have been more correct. With these shortcomings corrected there is no reason why the rows Pgint Worker” should not become an effective Weapon in lea the Bethlehem plants workers in Baltimore to struggle under the Wane ner of the Party. isappointedly The actual ely generaliza- of * * * When a Western Electric Boss Nearly Flopped Dead. Says a worker in Department H42 of the Western Electric plant in New York City: The big boss, Coll, was stunned with the last issue of the “Western Electric Worker.” He almost flopped dead. He walked up to me, snatched the W.E.W. out of my hands, and tore it up. “Don’t read that lousy paper, you damn fool,,” he shouted. That skunk Coll might.have thought that by tearing up that copy of the Western Electric Worker he was destroying the Western Elec- tric workers’ guide in our fight for better conditions. He did like hell. A fellow worker next to me handed me another copy and five of us read it together that very lunch hour from cover to cover. And every line of it, too. We look forward to coming the Communist Party nuéleus. issues and pledge ourselves to help * * The Shop Paper Is Your Young apa in an Edivon aes plant. The shop paper, such as the Blison Worker, the orgen of the shop nucleus in the plant, fights against the low wages, speedup, and lay-offs of these young electrical plant workers. * A Page of Letters from the Shop! As neat a shop paper as ever saw day light in New England is “The Norton Worker” issued"in the Norton works, Worcester, Mass. It is a printed four page shop piper, with a very attractive masthead. And that it is urgently needed by the workers is shown by the extent capitalist rationalization hit this plant. The facts are laid bare to the workers: ! * * * ABOUT 500 MEN LAID OFF! That's the news, sad news rather, for many of us who have worked in the Nerton Company for many years. But what else can we expect? The production has been going on with a terrifie speed. Now it is to the limit. It is overproduction. More grindstones, more grinding ma- chines, ete., have been made than needed. In. other articles in this paper, fellow workers mention about new machines, which have been installed. Machines which have increased the capacity of production. We know well how we have been driven to produce mere and more. No wonder that we came to a stop. The bosses have made enormous profits and are now enjoying “prosperity” while many of us are walk- ng the streets, and don’t know where to get our next meal. The following short excerpt from a letter in “The Norton Worker” gives a good idea of the issues in that plant and what the workers are thinking about. At the present time the workers in the kiln department do not work full weeks. Some weeks only two days work can be gotten, so the pay for an entire week varies from $10 to $16.70. Just think of aman having to support a family on such wages! I think we really do need an organization through which we will he able to demand more pay for our work and other possible benefits. So, on the way to organization! must be our aim. I hope other workers of this depariment will write also. —KILN WORKER. na steel plant pouring After slaving under these risks for slave wages, workers are thrown on streets by the thousands. T reason why the employed workers will join the unemployed in dem- ladles of molten iron. orking at a calender, where rubber is is one | about 3,000 wor MAJESTIC RADIO | ED AN ‘AND EMPLOYED, DEMONSTRATE MARCH 6! IAS THROWN $000 TOILERS ON STREET IN FEW MONTHS With Jobless, March 6 ‘Will Workers in Plant Demonstrate Together ? “Pil Say We Will.” Sixteen Girls at $17-$22 160 Men Winders a Week Doing Work of At $70 a Week (By a Worker Correspondent) CHICAGO.—The lay-offs in the big Majestic Radio plant in Chicago furnishes a good example of the price ization. In November last, there were 12, there were only 4,000 working. Las additional. 5 At the present time there are only ng. Nine thousa chucked out on the streets to starve What are the blessings for those “lucky” ones that are still at work? Here are only a few examples taken from one department. One hundred and sixty men, win- WORK IN WINSTON: SALEM ANY MORE Haines Slaves; 10, 000) Jobless to Organize “Sparrows Point Worker” was | (By a Worker Correspondent) WINSTON-SALEM, and other ed its em) 8 anyone who is caught asso g¢ with those “nigger lovers’ the NTWU) will 2. » TUUL and NTWU has evers gs in the Negro ict and organized the egro and the white together. The bosses realize that these are real fighting unions and mean to carry jon the strugele, so they drag in jthe race question to prejudice the workers. This Trick Negro equality. the one time biz goods, that Wi gaccanines Sait 14 have Den’t Work gaboo’ of the "Lilly White Southerner” is no longer so ef. fective. The starving workers are more interested in where to get the next meal than in the color of onz’s The 10,900 unemployed i: er Lovers.” The workers in the _P. H. Haines Knitting Com- rany—receiving a weekly wage ol 8 per week must not he ‘7 and $8 fooled by this trick of the bosses. Down with race prejudice! Or C into militant industrial unions for struggle against the | bosses. | —WIN ro LOO TA MARCH | GTN BALTIMORE: Here Are | Some of the Reasons Why | (Bu « Worker Corresnondent) | BALTIMORE Md.—‘Prosperity {in Baltimore. Thousands of eal ers in the Streets, in the r estaurants, | at the employment agencies, at the waterfront and the factory gates. On Pratt Street waterfront at 7 in the morning groups of workers are ot Gloomy faces, ren. th got the TUUL . “That's the stuff.” “we got ”. “about time we do EM WORKER, leaflet to get fovether' thine,” Jobless Freeve in Cold the front of the Amprican Co. every Monday morning men to carrv ban- You'll find hundreds of Ne- |rvo workers waiting in the cold. Suddenly the whole crowd moves to |the door. The company agent n- hire a f s with a bunch of checks en- ly1-L.e —J—J—J. line men to work in his hand, slowly gives them out one by Work For 2 Few Only | He is sure to nick the birgest and strongest in the crowd. Hundreds of hands are streiched out, only 25 get wok this dav and the others jremain standing hopelessly in the |cold, looking at the door that won’t |open again that day. False Rumors that “there is work at ze”, “the General Electric ine on men.” We decide to go The road to the plant is on company ground. Hundreds cf workers standing on the sides of the voad around the fires, They come from the city hoping to get jobs. Our names are taken with “prom jises.” | “We'll Jet vou know.” The jinct is that you'll never get this job, jand we slowly walk back to the city, |Hundreds more workers attracted by | the false rumor come the next day. | They’re turned away too. No wonder the unemploved work. ers gladly grab the TUUL leaflets lealling them to indoor meetings at (514 N. Eutaw. |a date to which nearly every worker looks forth. —BALTIMORE WORKER. | Every new. Daily Worker reader jyou get is a potential Party mem- ber, * Rumors |more than $17 per wi | be | ders, were employed who ak- ing up to $70 a week. Now the work is being done by 16 girls or women at from $17 to $22 a week (never more) Blnckers made 48 to 50 dollars per week for 8 hours a day. Now they make $16 per week working 10 hours daily Hand-sanders were paid $38 to $40 per week, Now they are never paid Finishers were paid $35 to_ $40 per week. Now only ‘$16. Coil winders were getting 1 | week, knit 50 per is $25 Now the maximum y |to $27 per week. There are many more examples, but the above will | suffice. The working day is 10% hours sith a half an hour for lunch. paid by the workers under rational- 000 workers employed. In January st week nee was a ye -off of 4,000 CENTRAL ALLOY WAGE GUTS LEAD MASS LAY-OFFS Steel pases “Slick” Ways of a Slashing Worker Correspondent) YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Some reasons why the workers in the Central Alloy (Republic Steel) Co., must organize under the Trades Union Unity League. The company has different ways of cutting wages and laying off men. The job of the first mechanic is given to the second mechanic for less pay. Pipe fitters job goes to the helper for less p: This is a new method of cutting wages so we wouldn’t notice it, They Slash Wages In the 35inch dept. after we are working a few days on a job that pays 75 cents, the boss sends us to another job that pays only 60 cents. Then, when we return to our first job we don’t get but 60 cents. This is another way the bosses cut wages. In the 9 inch dept. bosses send us home every time they feel like it. They send ‘us home after we've worked 6 hours, 7 hours. They go as far as send some of us home at 7.47, 13 minutes before quitting time. This is so we can’t claim 8 full hours. (By a Conditions and discipline within} the shop are worse then for prison! labor: no one is allowed to answer a greeting or to exchange a word with a neighbor worker, even at the same bench. Foremen .and foreladies are con- stantly promenading the isles be- tween the benches and tables, on the sharp lookout for a murmur or any slackening up of a worker, lash- ing the whip of “hurry up, girls, get a move on!” Worse than the old em of slave driving. If a worker is injured or gets “faint” he or she is not allowed to be taken to the dispensary or to have any medical attendance without the O. K. of the foreman, which usually is not given. How Must Organize We can’t better our conditions if For the last several weeks this we don’t organize -into~the Metal shop .has installed a police station Workers Industrial League; organize within its walls to guard the factory shop committees as the basis for a workers from Communist “contam- real union against wage cuts, speed- | ination.” up and for unemployment insurance. March 6 is becoming | After the last distribution of Dai- ly Workers and leaflets at the gates attended by the al brutality and beating by the exclusive Majestic Radio Police Department (a branch within the slave driv ponded magnificently. ‘s camp res- Those that get to loan them the “thing” night to read it over. Oh, yes! The factory has, of course, a “cultural” institution. A basket ball team or some thing like it. The workers don’t even know what it is, but they know that they have to pay for it. Almost every | week they must buy a ticket for 50 or 75 cents. No excuses are allowed. The foreman openly announces: “Whoever doesn’t buy a ticket may |as well get the hell out of here!” So |the management is pocketing from | $1,500 to $2,500 every week from the girls’ pay envelopes. Well, won’t we in the shop at | work be in the unemployment dem- onstration March 6 along with the laid-off Majestic Radio workers? Tl say we will! —MAJESTIC WORKER. your shop about the Daily Worker. Sell him a copy every day for a wegk. Tren ask him to become a regular subseriher. of the city police dept.) the workers | didn’t get the Daily Worker or leaf-/} lets begged the lucky ones that did| over | Talk ¢o your. fellow workers in} Let’s all steel workers, working and laid off, join hands and demon- strate on March 6 against unem- ployment. —CENTRAL ALLOY WORKER. Boilermakers’ Union Crook—He’s Typical in A.F.L. | (By a Worker Correspondent) JERSEY CITY, N. J.—Something to show the crookedness of the of- ficials of the A. I. of L. unions, and why workers should throw ihese crooks over and join the Trade Unon Unity League, which is honest, fair and square. Joseph Leblane, formerly secre- tary and treasurer of District Iodge No. 1 of the Internatioul Brotherkood of Boilermakers. em- Lezzled nearly 25,000 of the lodge’s money—money the workers had to slave for. He took every cent ex- cept $52 from the lodge’s account in the Labor National Bank (an- other outfit I’ll show up soon). | Boilermekers in Brooklyn, Man- hattan, Jersey City and Bayonne ‘ore losers in this lodge, —OILERMAKER. Build The Daily Worker—“nd | in Your Share of the 15,000 New | “Subs. t | Negroes Pay 20 Per (By a Worker Correspondent) NORFOLK, Va.—After reading | your paper which I found on the} street I decided that you really | must have the welfare of the work- ers at heart, regardless of race. I'm writing about the Keeling Easter Co., manufacturers of ferti- lizers, agricultural lime, shells for poultry. It’ is located at Norfolk. Can't See Thru Thick Dust They employ Negro laborers and a white supt. and assistant supt. No water closet of any kind, just using the old buildings or fields or any place you can find, contrary t all “health laws.” Now the men that work in this place truck 500 Ib. at a time with lime dust so thick you can hardl see. The work is so hard that a man can hardly stand it. 10, 12 Hours a Day The hours are 10 hours at day and 12 hours nights. The rules the company is that any man who quits or leaves for any reason. with- out making 10 hours a day or 12 crushed | the foot of South Hampton Ave.,) of! A FERTILIZER HELL cent on Own Wages hours a hight shall get no pay for |the time he has made even if he |has made 9 hours that day or 11 hours that night. Worker Falls Bleeding: . | 1 know of one man who after working 11 hours one night fell bleeding at the nose and mouth and was told to get the hell out of here and was not paid one cent for that 11 hour: The supt. is a Christian man, a ‘deacon in a church who will not let the men swear or smoke but who charges them 20 percent on their own money for just one day. Rob Workers You know laborers are so poor as a rule that they always need money and this is how they get it. They are not allowed to draw on their ime before pay day. But this supt. will lend them their own money antil Saturday at 20 percent on the dollar, and take it out of their pay envelope before giving it to them Saturday. These are some of the conditions of the workers here which I hope you people can end. | ~—FERTILIZER WORKER.