The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 19, 1930, Page 3

(<a Aten Sa GO He * cos GHIGAGO GZAR MARSHALL FIELD I “MAKES MILLIONS OUT OF LOW PAY, BAD CONDITIONS FOR SHOP GIRLS Woman Works 40 Years and Gets (No, Not a Raise or Less Hours) Her Picture Taken 7 ‘ (By @ Worker Correspondent) 4», CHICAGO.—Some of the local big capitalists go not only by their es but also by Roman figures attached to their names, as the czars “kings. So it happens that the present boss of the biggest depart- it store in Chicago is Marshall Field Il]. Walking from place to vainly looking for Heoverized prosperity and a job I went into the ployment office of this department store. The employment agent ed me over from top to bottom and asked if I was an experienced + Isaid I was. “Well, you can start (0 work.” Then I asked: “How much do you pay?” “You will get $12 per week, and you he 800 for an apron and 50 cents for | I needed a job badly, but LI co not agree to work that cheap. wAtter arguing for a while he d to pay me $14, but warned me not to tell anyone or I will lose my job. I heard one employment ent tell an applicant for a job that any girl or woman working for all Field must have some one on whom to rely for partial sup- beeause the wages are not adequate to support any one. They it have a father, husband or sweetheart to help them out. '.. An hour or so after I started to work waiting on people in a lunch + department. I saw them taking pictures of an old lady. I asked what {it;means, They told me this was her anniversary. She had worked in ‘that department for 40 years. They put her picture in the newspapers to draw, trade. She comes an hour earlier than the other workers, and 4,2, g00d slave. She dishes up the food, but would not give the help ‘anything if they were hungry, because she claimed the food was too ‘expensive for the workers. We get our meals, but not the food we e to have $1.50 to start: or nothing at all when they are busy. Twice I complained to the *menager. before I got a more or less decent meal. 4 All'the women work 81 to 9 hours and are not allowed to sit down uring that time, except 30 minutes for lunch. Most girls are afraid to take,the half hour alloted, as the restaurant is usually busy. The ‘ig hard cement and damp most of the time, and most of the women ve, swollen feet. Many of them are religious and you can often hear: fave.you been to mass this morning?” etc. They asked me if I | { (a.christian. “Yes, I was christianed as a baby, but I don't believe Ihave learned it is all bunk,” I replied. mu)must, believe in god, if you want your soul to be saved and ” n't; all) it. goodyluck to work in a lousy place for forty years x U led up and be so ignorant.” Bince;that' time the girls and forelady don’t care to speak to me therjout. Negroes are not allowed to ent in this place. The s iteaching us race prejudice. I asked one waitress why she é to, Negroes, “aren't they just as human as we are, and you thatithey’can not help being colored as we can not help being NO, we.can have nothing to do with them,” she answered. Hiroves that the bosses are getting results in their attempt to 1 in Chicago as ignorant as the peasants were kept ,ezar. Communism alone will save them from their ignorance, bi, DISTRICT ‘BUILD “DAILY” Call Upon Workers to Aid Paper ‘The revolutionary labor movement n Chicago must have its press. Sooner or later Chicago will have t paper of ‘its own. In the mean- ‘ame the National Edition of the D}lly Worker is also the fighting njjan of the Chicago labor move- nJnt. In order to make it more ective and influential in Chicago nd District 8 it was decided to have + permanent section in the paper, o be printed in the Wednesday is- ue. In connection with this sec- ion the worker correspondence novement in our district will be de- ‘eloped. Preliminary steps to or- ranize groups and classes for vorker correspondents in Chicago nd Gary were already taken. Sim- lar steps will also be taken in other varts of the district. In connection vith this section we also expect to lave advertisements which will help FIRE 23 he Daily financially. 4 WASHINGTON. — According to We call upon all units of the| latest reports 23 workers in the Party, the Trads Union Unity| Statistical bureau at Washington League, the International Labor De-| will be fired. These workers were fense, the Women’s Federation, la- | gathering figures on unemployment. bor and fraternal organizations, the Unemployed Councils, the Young | —An Hash Slinger. bor Congress, etc., to recruit com- vades for the worker correspon- dents’ groups and classes and to | send in news of their activities to |the Chicago District 8 Section of | the Daily Worker. Our aim is to have a worker correspondent in | eyery shop or factory, It should be | understood that advertisements dis- | guised es “news” for affairs where | admission is charged will also be | charged for at the regular rates. | We call upon all loyal comrades of the labor movement to help us {make the Chicago District 8 Sec- |tion in the Daily Worker and the, | paper in general a powerful instru- | ment in the class struggle in the hands of the Chicago workers. Get in touch with the Chicago) j office of the Daily Worker. Solicit |ads for the paper. Get news for the Chicago Section. Join the | worker correspoadents’ movement. Write as you fight! Address all communications for this section to the Chicago office of | the Daily Worker, 1413 W. 18th St., Chicago, Il]. CHICAGO DISTRICT 8 SEC- TION OF THE DAILY WORKER. STATISTICAL BUREAU TO Support the Daily Worker Drive! | Communist League, the Negro La-| Get Donations! Get Subs! e Demonstrating for “Work or Wages” | Part of the two mile long march through the factory and work- ing class district of 50,000 jobless and employed workers, marching against the starvation the bosses have condemned t Stockyards Lousy With Boss Spies In the various plants in the Stock- yards of Chicago the spy system in the past few months has increased. These spies are called “white coats” by the workers and instead of work- ing in one department, they go from department to department, the workers sometimes not seeing the same one for weeks, they sneak up on you at all times and are always hiding behind seme thing watching} and listening tothe workers. For the least thing they are mighty quick on bawling out the worker. Several months ago, I was taking a truck of boxes into an elevator and something dropped from the | truck, I went.to pick it up and one of the white coats happened to come along, he said “get out of the way, nigger.” I started after him but what was the use. I asked the fore- man who he was and the foreman | said that was the general super- intendent. On June 3 a worker at Swifts | straightened up from his work and One!dsy:a'Spanish girl came in to eat, and they talked about | ™#d° ® remark to his fellow work- er, a white coat happened to be snooping around and told him to get busy, this was- not the place to loaf, and when the worker made a remark to him which the white coat considered insulting, the worker was fired at once. The workers in this department as everywhere in the yards are so terrcrized by these white coats and are constantly in fear of losing their jobs that they condemned this worker for talking back to the spy, yet I have seen these same workers go into a rage when the Bado man (checker) stands around too long taking their standard. What with the white coats, the Bedo man, the foreman, there are more spies than workers in the yards. In many departments the foreman works with the other work- ers and the workers do not know he is a spy until they are reported for something they say or do. All over the yards the older men are being layed off and fired, es- pecially is this true of older Ne- gro workers. Only last week 7 men were fired |in the Lard Refinery of Swifts, one of them, a Negro, had worked there 12 years. It was time for his vaca-| more work to do for the same pay| tion and a worker who works here 12 years is entitled to two weeks vacation with pay, instead of that they are fired so they don’t have to give them vacations. They pro- mised this particular man that he would be sent for soon but the fore- man made a remark the other day that he would never come back to Swifts as he was too old. Only about one-third of the num- ber of workers are working here now that were working at the first of the year and of these 50 per cent are young workers. Most of those still working are only working part time and while the lay-offs haven't Make Libby Men Pay for Own Insurance | Dear Editor Daily Worker: At the Chicago stock yards, famous for their smell and ex- ploitation, the patking companies force their workers to buy insur- ance against sickness and injury. The company I was working for, Libby, McNeil and Libby, made me buy and pay for $2,000 insur- ance. This insurance was sup- | posed to cover injuries both at work and at home. About a month ago I was injured at my house so bad that I am unable to walk without the support of a stick. When I came back to work they told me: “Nothing doing, we cannot use you any more.” I went to the office to arrange about collecting on my insurance policy, but there they told me there was nothing coming to me. I attempted several times to find out what kind of an “insurance” game it was and why they are collecting money from us if we are not aided when injured or sick, The last time I was there they told m to get out and stay out and not to bother them. Now I see that the rich swine barons are skinning not only the cattle, but also us—the workers. —Worker Correspondent. Chicago, Ill. Needy War Vet Slashes Wrists; Got No Help Daily Worker :— A war veteran of Burnside, N. C., cut his wrists to commit sui- cide because he could get no help from the Veterans’ Bureau. But the Veterans’ Bureau loses no time in paying $400 and $500 a month salaries to the four- flushing office holders whose job is to settle the claims of ex- soldiers and relieve their dis- tress. j been mass lay-offs they have con- tinually layed’ off workers, every day, every week. Just today they were taking some more names and addresses, that means tomorrow or the end of the week we, that are | still on the Job, will have stil] | or less. In the power room of Swifts there is no one working but the engineer, and he does every thing even the sweeping. For the Stockyards workers in} Chicago and elsewhere there is only one thing to do and that is to or-| genize. The only organization that fight for the working class, that makes no distinction between race and craft or skill is the Food and Packinghouse Workers Industrial League of the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party. —A Swift Negro Worker. Daily Worker: and Telegraph trust. Last year the | Constant layoffs, speed-up and cut- ting fo wages took place. Now, for example, at the wire | mill which is now busy, as it always | has been, vicious speed-up is put) | into effect. Not long ago speed-up | machinery was installed, At the) | beginning one man had a hard time| operating one machine. Now since} the layoff took place, two men must | the Hawthorne plant—today theres Page Three MAKE 17,000 20 THE WORK 45,000 DONE YEAR AGO AT HAWTHORNE, | Workers Must Organize Into Metal Trades} Industrial League for Struggle While at the ned of last year the company employed about 45,000 at this “prosperous” country and is owned by the huge American Telephone made the biggest profit since the in existence. But did the workers profit any by this last year’s -e about 17,000 being speeded-up. (OW PAY FOR Daily Worker: In the candy factory where I} NDY WORKERS Chicago Gangster Part and Parcel of Bosses’ Political Machine to Fight Workers By MARTIN SAILOR. t For the last ten days there were twelve killings in Chicago dir | connected with the bootlegging business. There were also other killings not connected with booze. One of the last victims to fal! in th war is a Tribune reporter, Alfred (“Jake”) Lingle. There are $55 offered as a reward for catching the killers. The capitalist press i playing the role of the “indignant public,” demanding action from the police department in cleaning out the booze joints and gangsters. The Daily News in an editorial printed in big type on the first page de- mands: “stop the killings for profit,” at the same time admitting that “the bulky commodity (beer), as is conceded almost universally, cannot be transported systematically through the streets of the city and del- ivered in barrels in all sections without the connivance of the police.” And yet these same newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News have grown rich and prosperous by the use of public school lands obtained in a shady deal put over at a midnight ion of a city council, many years ago, as well as by the ruthless ploitation of the newsboys and workers. These same newspapers are alweys doing their very best to popularize murders and crimes by spreading every case on the first page with sensational pictures and details to keep the workers’ minds from thinking of their conditions. se: | and is digging up murder cases of twenty and thirty years ag hashing them and giving prizes to the readers for solving the “ teries” of those killings. The capitalist press knows perfectly well that the police depart- ment and the detective bureau under the notorious Stege are honey- combed with graft and corruption. Only a few d ago two detectives who for some reason suddenly became ambitious and arrested two well known gangsters and graft collectors, were punished for this by their superiors, Lieut. James O’Brien and Chief of the detectives Stege. Alderman Bowler stated at a hearing that “gunmen can kill in sight of a policeman and get away with it,” Others charged that the police is in collusion with the grafters. The capitalist press knows that Chicago gangsters obtained a shipment of twelve machine guns using the address of the Cicero police station, At the Shakespeare Avenue police station they were dispensing booze to customers, including pris- oners. And yet these same newspapers were applauding the police when they murderously beat up the unemployed, the “Reds,” the raids of the operate three of these machines.) work they constructed a conveyor It's so hard to follow up that one) that replaced two men’s work. They can't even straighten his back and] ysed to have a man putting candy whenever the boss sees that the| toxes on a truck and taking them machine is not running the man i called on the carpet. And of course} | the worker is next to get out. Two workers are now producing as much| as five did last year at this time. | Workers can not put up any re-| | sistance individually. We must or-| ganize ourselves into shop commit- | tees of the Met’ Trades Industrial] | League, which has been in existence) in the Hawthorne plant for several months. The Metal League is the organization that is) going to lead us in a fight against) the bosses of the Western Electric| and in the whole metal industry as well. | —Hawthorne Worker.! | organizer” of the working class, as Gary Steel Workers Greet “Daily” As Their Fighter Recognizing the Daily Worker as the “collective propagandist and the militant leader in the struggle ver to the elevator. Another man was running the elevator. But now the empty boxes are put on the con- veyor on the third floor and brought down to the second floor, while the full boxes are in a similar w conveyed to the third floor. For the bosses it means more profits, but for the workers—more unemployment. We are working 9 hours per day. The girls are getting 28 cents per hour. Some are Trades Industrial| working piece work, but don’t make | much. To improve conditions the workers in this shop must organize. The Trade Union Unity League should help us get human condi- tions. — Candy Slave. | for the liberation of the workers from the oppression of capitalism, we, a group of Gary steel workers , suffering undre the iron heel of the steel trust, decided to join the campaign to build The Daily Worker into a powerful weapon of the working class. double the circulation of The Daily Worker in Gary and to organize in Gary a group of Worker Correspondents who will help unmask the trickery and exploitation of the bosses. the Communist Party of Gary, strengthen its influence among the We pledge ourselves to We pledge ourselves to help masses and become the leading party among the workers. In order to prove that these ar hereby inclosing a check for $75 as the first results of our wo! This is our reply to the “Red investigato’ the Daily Worker. e not merely empty words we are k for of Washington and to the stool pigeons and lickspittels of the steel trust in Washington, Gary and all over the count We them what we think of them! call upon the steel workers of Pit all over the country to send in their replies to the red baiters. urgh and other workers Show Long live our DAILY WORKER! Long live the Communist Party! —A Group of Workers of Gary, Ind. CHICAGO BOSSES PULLING OFF FR ANCHISE STEAL Faker Mahen Peddles Mitten Bunk to Car Men Who Want Union (By a Worker Correspondent) On July 1 the people of Chicago will go to the polls to accept or reject a traction franchise. Briefly it provides for a new mer- ger company to comprise of the present surface and elevated lines with extensions of certain surface and elevated lines. The new mer- ger company is allowed to further capitalize its already over-watered stock, The leading role of the city in this new traction scheme is to construct at its own expense a subway and grant to the traction monopoly a perpetual franchise. It lamely mentions an old age pen- sion for aged employes. The chief sponsors of the franchise are a group of finance capitalists led by Samuel Insull, supported by the Chicago Tribune and a ma- jority of the other daily papers, who receive well-paid advertise- ments from the Insull-traction monopoly. The political fakers | of Mayor Thompson’s crowd are ardent supporters of the Insull pet franchise, as well as our union chief, Mahon, a true 100 per cent American. He does not look on the street car transportation being a great industry, and cordingly refuses to organize it on an industrial basis; instead he is trying to peddle us workers the Mitten plan. The bankers and the real estate grafters will also be found on the side of the new fran- chise. Being a traction worker, I am compelled to warn the working class to beware of the shallow promises of Insvll and his polit- ical henchmen, They insist the new franchise will not only give Chicago the best traction system in the country, but will do away with Hoover’s army of unem- ployed. We ask the Insull monopoly why they have not made the extensions provided for in the franchise of 1907? As a result of this be- trayal, thousands of toilers who live in the congested sections of the city (for instance, 44th and Normal) are forced to walk long distances to street cars, ‘The ex- tensions which have been made are in the outlying sections which were very sparsely settled. Here the Traction Co., in partnership with the local real estate dealers, have sold to the unsuspecting pub- lic worthless lots at extortionate figures. Niles Center and West- chester, on the elevated, and State St., on the surface lines, are glar- ing examples of this. | Looking over the extension which the new franchise promises us, we must conclude that the In- sull monopoly is far more inter- ested in continuing the real estate graft than in sulving Chicago’s transportation problem. Mahon and tis brother fakers would have us believe the new merger company was going to dis- play an attitude of benevolence to- ward its aged employes. Loudly do they prattle about the old age pension clause in the proposed franchise, but already we traction workers have heard of Mahon’s proposal that old age pensions should be based on the last four years of service. When a man, because of his old age, is forced to lay off almost half of the time on account of ill-health and stormy weather Mahon would re- tire, on a mere pittance, this man who has produced untold wealth for the Insull monopoly. The present equipment of the transit system consists of old type cars, which in their operation require one man to each car. The new merger company is bound by the new franchise to purchase new, modern cars, which will in- treduce to us traction workers a vicious system of mass lay-offs and speed-up, because the modern cars require only two men to a six or eight-car train on the elevated and two men to a two or three- car train on the surface line. Such trains are now operated in some of the eastern cities. Insull and Mahon would have us traction | workers vote for this condition on | July 1. The sponsors of the new fran- | chise are silent on the definite rate of fare the new merger com- pany will be allowed to collect. The new franchise, in mild words, proposes to allow the monopoly “to charge a reasonable sum,” based on its over-watered stock, which means a 10-cent fare for Chicago strect car riders. Let us recall that for some time the In- sull interest has insisted on a franchise which gave them a mon- opoly of street car traffic. This was effected by building up a political machine with enough votes to jam through the city council the Insull franchise. In this they accepted the services of the most corrupt ward heelers of the Crowe - Thompson - Swailson and McCormick factions. who | would say worker: to the unemployed “Vote for one of our of- | fice-seekers and we will land you a job on the street cars or ele- vated lines.” Communists, the attempt to terrorize the militant workers. They are always urging on the police to beat up strikers, to smash strikes. They are always applauding the police in killing of workers during strikes or. demonstrations, When eleven children and two women were murdered and burned by machine gun fire in Ludlow, Colorado, by gunmen employed by the Rockefeller interests during a miners strike, when four workers were shot dead in Hammond, Ind., during the big steel strike, when a striker was killed in Argo, Ill., by the gunmen of the Corn Products Refining Corporation, a subsidiary of the Rockefellers, when Ella May Wiggins was murdered in Gastonia and several others killed at Marion, when Steve Katovis was killed in New York—during all these murders the Daily News and the capitalist press in general did not demand a “stop to the killings for profit.” They had nothing but praise for the killers— the police and the gunmen—the forces of “law and order.” Why? Because those killings were for the profits of the capitalist class. They | are not opposed to these kinds of killings because they are part and parcel of the capitalist class. And graft, corruption and crime is an inseparable part of the capitalist system. They live and breed together. The $6,000,000 collected weekly in | Chicago for vice and graft by the gangsters and grafters is an in- significant sum compared with the billions of dollars collected by the big gamblers on the stock exchange, the big robbers in the mills and factories who rob the workers of their labor by giving them an in- significant part of their earnings in the form of starvation wages. The big reward offered for the killers of “Jake” Lingle won't fool anybody. We know that for such a big sum of money in Chicago more than one gangster may be sent to the electric chair, whether he had anything to do with the murder or not. A killing in Chicago can be had for such a low price as $100, and such a big sum as $55,000 will go far with the stool pigeons and brave (against unarmed workers) | detectives. But we venture to predict that the booze business, graft | corruption, and killings for profit will continue as long as the capital- ist system of killings for profit will continue. Only under the workers rule, under a Communist system of society can the workers rid them- selves of little and big grafters, gamblers and killers. | | Jand then in another, so it does not take effect all at once. This helps the bosses to keep the workers from jacting together. But at the same |time the workers are beginning to | see light, and if the Trade Union SPEED-UP SUPER AT VICTOR STOVE io Paton Since the arrival two months @80/ the men would be only too glad to from New York of a new superin-| come along. tendent, Mr. Lueas, conditions at the 4 Victor Stove Co. are growing worse | Worker Correspandent. and worse for the workers. Lucas | Chicago, Ill. was brought over to the Cicero fac- | tory especially for the purpose of speeding up production and cutting down the wages. This slave driver | is doing his very best to please the bosses. Anyone who dares to open his mouth to complain is canned, because the workers are unorgan- ized and therefore helpless. For the last two months, since Lucas took over the management wages have been cut three different times. Everyone of the three hun- dred men in the shop has been af- fected by the wage cuts and they are sore, but they don’t know yet | how to fight back. The entire shop is working on the piece work basis, and the cuts are made first in one department on one kind of work Protest Boss | Terror June 22} CHICAGO,—A protest meeting against the imprisonment of the unemployed delegation in New York and the terror against the organizers of the workers in the South, especially in Georgia, will be held at the Peoples’ Audito- rium, cor. Chicago Avenue and Campbell, Sunday, June 22, at 2:30 p. m. Arranged by the ‘Rus- sian and Ukrainian branches of the I.L.D. Speakers in Russian, English and Ukrainian langu- ages. Admission free. The Insull traction monopoly, having employed these political slaves, demand that they use their influence and vote for this polit- | ical machine, made up of crooks and racketeers. I was once told there was on file 7,000 applica- tions of men who were not hired because they had no 0. K. from this political gang. Perhaps this explains why you or your friend did not get a job with the trac- tion company. Let us traction workers fight the Insull pet franchise and ex- pose our unien chief, Mahon, who has betrayed the traction work- ers and became the supporter of the Insull gang. Let us accept the guidance of the Communist Party, the party of the working class; they alone will fight for a municipaly-owned traction sys- tem, a 5-cent fare, a full wage old age pension and against the speed-up and lay-off. May we soon rid our ranks of this arch betrayer, Mahon, the tool of In- sull, who has sold out the street car workers in New Orleans and Cleveland and has proved a good- natured, jolly pal of the grafting Insull machine. Long live the new industrial trade unions, led by the Trade Union Unity League. ‘I'rac- tion workers, fight the Insull franchise and let us support the revolutionary Communist Party! —A TRACTION WORKER. _ 25,000 Chicago Workers on May 1 fee * May Day in Chicago as the workers paraded down Maypole Ave. from Ashland Ave. on their way to Ashland Boulevard Auditorium. The workers answered the call of the Communist Party to continue the struggle of March 6 against unemployment, wage-cuts, speed- up, for the seven hour day, five day week, for social insurance and 7 m@Gainst the entire cavitalist system.