The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 7, 1931, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1931 B ze Three _ BETHLEHEM STEEL CO. TRIES COMPANY UNION TRICK TO FOOL TOILERS ‘‘wo and Three Days Work In Many Depart- ments Is The General Average Speed-up Another Notch Up; Wages So Low Workers Can’t Meet Rent Baltimore, Md. Daily Worker: Every day the bosses of the Bethlehem Steel Corp., in Sparrows Point, try to hand-in schemes to fool the workers. | | | Breaker-Boys of the Anthracite PITTSBURGH HOOP FIRES AND SPEEDS UP. THE WORKERS Negro Worker /Killed;| Poor Lights Cause Glassport, Pa. Daily Worker: In the Pittsburgh Steel Hoop Co.| workers are fired daily. More speed- up occurrs than ever before, Work- ers are injured. Roll bosses, the highest paid workers tell the workers | to hurry up, since we're not getting| day pay but tonnage, which means Layoff 2,000 Phone Girls In Detroit As Dials Are Put In Detroit, Mich. Daily Worker: Another big lay-off of 2,500 tele- phone girls, operators who will join the other thousands of jobless here. The Telephone Company has installed the dial system which rids them of the use of the many thousands of people they have now in their employ. They have started the lay-offs and will continue to do so as soon as the dial system has been installed in all of the homes. Thus placing thousands of workers on a system of starvation, Workers! Organize and end this SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS RISK THEIR LIVES DAILY EN KILLED IN ONE DAY ALONE SAYS WORKER ON THIS JOB NINE M Terrible Speedup and Brings On Many Editor Daily Worker: No Safety Precautions Accidents, Death Slave-Driving Company Threatens Big Lay Qff Soon, Wants “Good” Workers Brooklyn, N. Y. Imagine yourself working with a pick and shovel one thou sand feet below the ground, standing in water and mud fron “wo weeks ago the company asked the workers to buy stocks. This week they put a bulletin out calling the workers to elect | the so-called representatives of the workers, making the work-| | that we are to sweat more for less|} Capitalist system. —F.s. Young boys, exploited to the limit in the coal breakers in the | pay. If the workers wish to get a Anthracite. Thousands of miners have been thrown out of the ‘mines | drink or go to the toilet, a special permanently and revolt is smoldering under the fascist rule of the morning to night. Cold water dripping down from overhead Big chunks of rock and mud falling down all the time. ers think they are owners of the company, yet if anybody is ‘00 old or fails to speed-up, ont he goes: Everywhere in every epartment conditions get worse. A committee of experts go round each department looking at the men, to see how many | can be eliminated, and to speed-up the men. The Sheet Mill department has men who work two or three out of (2 BACK-BREAKING HOURS AT HOTEL BLACKSTONE, € | single line, small and narrow, and| 15 days, now they are working five out of every 15 days because the com- pany got a big order from the Ford | Motor Co. Some of this order is |some double line 20 and 21, the Lewis gang. These young workers are with their elder brothers and | fathers in the fight against worsening conditions and literal starvation. Cleveland AFL Mem to Get “Insurance” for His Family: CLEVELAND, 0.—A member of Electrical Workers Local Union No. | 38, of Cleveland, who had been out | |doublers and metallers have a hard Washionable Place ; | time on account of the low scale and | |the bad condition of the hot mill |oven. They only make three or four Parasites Dine Here In Luxury —— | Chicago. Ill. Daily Worker:— The Blackstone hotel, one of the ‘ichest and the most fashionable in chicago, like all the others has a| vestaurant service for its ‘“disting- ushed” guests and patrons. To look», w that restaurant and observe how | he patrons enjoy their tasty two dol- | ar meals, one would never imagine | hat everything which is placed on he tables before them is drenched n the blood of the workers in the dtehen, | The women in the kitchen work 12 hours a day at a killing speed-up ind *besides preparing the meals hey have to lift and carry heavy yarrels and sacks of flour, vegeta~ oles and other stuffs. The wages for this hard work, were until re- cently $15 a week with meals. But the women were strictly instructed not to dare take anything home for the hungry children, not even the “left overs,” because there is a dan- ser that the women may “steal” a f or an orange or the like and put ft in the “left overs.” ‘These meagre wages the manage- asnt of the Blackstone Hotel decided’ 9 cut to 12 dollars and declared the ‘rage cut in a manner that the women rorkers had either to “take it or leave ie —L. S. [ONS OF FOOD ROT IN TEXAS © Vhile Workers North Face Hunger (By a Worker Correspondent) SAN BENITO, Texas.—Every map ¢ business conditions has been show- ig the lower Rio Grande valley as ood. If conditions in the valley are »od they must be worse than hell sewhere. ‘There are no industries here. Grow- ig vegetables and oranges and grape- uit are the principal activities./ fexicans do most of the common ork at from $1 to $1.50 a day. This inter farmers are getting $4 to $6 ton for cabbage, spinach 6c to 10c sr bushel, beets 2c a dozen bunches, uwrots, lettuce and other things in soportion. Ask your grocer what the tail prices are. “Thousands of tons ' good food are going to waste, be-| suse prices do not pay cost of pick- g, while millions starve up north. Land here has been se! at from | fr ; wi | dollars a day. The hot mill laborers j only get 37 cents an hour for which | | they have to work fast in order to keep in time with the piece workers. In the floor department there were ‘om 20 to 30 laborers who worked | chopping stickers, now there are only | from three to four workers. | Openers where all Negroes work | ave a stagger system of 20 openers | aiting on four mills. Many of these of work for over a year and who had made hundreds of trips to the union headquarters to ask the sec- retary and business agent for work and received the same reply, “No jobs.” This worker became discour- aged, and on his last trip to the union office, asked the secretary if the union paid insurance for a member who commits suicide, The secretary replied, yes. This work- er, thinking of his family and the hopelessness of being able to pro: vide for them, having nothing at home to eat, decided to give up On his return home | ber Kills Self entered the garage and started the motor, dying of monoxide gas. The well-paid bell-wethers who are misleading and betraying the members of the A. F. of L. and forcing them to accept worse con- ditions, starvation and suicide don't give a damn how many die as long as they get their salary and bribes. the A, F, of L. unions and kick out the fakers and traitors. Not star- vation and suicide but immediate relief and unemployment insurance. Don’t starve, Fight! Join the Un- employed Councils and revolution- ary unions /of the Trade Union Unity League. Fight both the boss- Organize militant minorities in | | time clock, taken care of by the fore-| | man of the shop, sees that we don’t |take longer than two minutes, If we do we get fired. If a worker is! sick, he is not allowed to go home, he must finish his work, if he stays | out the next day he is fired. Previ- ously the company had a spell hand which needed the use of ten work- ers, now they're all ‘fired, Long Hours. | twelve hours a day and are not even | allowed a half hour for lunch. | Men are injured here because of | the poor safety equipment. Re- cently a Negro worker was killed because the company didn’t have any where freight train passes. Workers of Pittsburgh Steel Hoop | Corp. don’t stand for the speed- up and lay-offs but join the Metal Workers Industrial League which fights for better conditions. —A Hoop Worker. lights in the yard, The men are at work from ten to} SEE THRU TRICKS | are threatened with evictions because | the struggle. of their low wages which make it | | impossible for them to pay their rent. The workers are just about tired of | the conditions here, they receive leaf- Jets from us and are very sympa- thetic with the Communist Party and | the MWIL. from the union headquarters he | Chicago, Til. —A Worker. ORGANIZE COUNCIL IN CARDALE, PA. Cossacks Try Smash Jobless Group |Daily Worl When tax assessment for the year 1928 was levied, more than 332,000 | pieces of property were sold for taxes. That figures represents roughly one- | fourth of the 1,300,000 parcels of real property in. Cook County. If the same ratio of sales for the tai |.or, as some have described it “gov. ernment confiscation by taxation” | continued for five years there would | not be one privately owned piece of real estate in Cook County. Dear Comrade:— The property owners are enraged. I would like that you publish in the | They point out through the Chicago Daily Worker the following: | Real Estate Board that tax relief is ‘We have organized an Unemployed | needed, and a considerable group of | Council in Cardale and vicinity which | people are advocating a general tax Cardale, Pa. Property of 996,000 Small Householders Sold | For Taxes | ments in the State of Illinois have es and the traitors in the old unions. OF NORWALK AFL Officials Take Rights From Workers South Norwalk, Conn. Daily Worker: The members of the American Fed- eration of Labor are beginning to understand the trickery of their of- |ficials. They are trending towards | the left wing, since the misleaders to} saye their salaries and to keep the decaying union under their control, are taking the right from the rank and filers of discussing and deciding ers. In the past three years no less | than 996,000 pieces of property have | been sold for taxes in Cook County. Poor workers and farmers of Cook County are the ones who have lost| their property, a small home or a} farm. Not satisfied with this, the govern- denied more than 500,000 workers their right to work, denied real re- | lief, and at the same time through | Governor Emmerson, relief commis- | the shortcomings of the workers. The sion, Red Cross and Charity organ-’ ofricials themselves changed the con- izations have sent their agents into| stitution from which the workers en- the homes of starving workers, not) joyed some rights, now they are de- to feed them, but to advise them as to | prived from these few. The Consti-| what part of their furniture they | tution reads that the District Coun-| is located in Fayette County.” The | strike. first meeting was held on February 18,, We know that the years 1929-19'0| Comrade Vucavich was the speake: .| were worse years for property own- | The total number of workers attend- | ing the meeting was about one hun- dred and fifty. This was the first meeting held in this locality. A committee of ten | Bethlehem Steel Chases Workers from Field They Paid For (the workers) should sell so as to} cy is to decide and discuss any mat~ help the Relief Commission, Red | to, concerning the violation of the Cross, charities and the bosses. laws by any members, and the pre- A Worker. t} sident of the local union has the power to stop the discussion of any | subject whenever he doesn’t like it. Here in South Norwalk we have good example. The President Car- mine Famighetti closed the meet- | straw bosses. This is the second "| the head, so-the boss is going to was elected. The second meeting was held .on Saturday, Feb. 21. Comrade Cush spoke for us. We had a meeting of about one hundred and fifty men including a few state police and deputies. The committee decided to demon- strate on February 25th and a mect- ing was held on that day, but we could not get enough men together. ‘The company threatened to dis- charge and put out of the house any- one that attended the meeting and some of them were scared out. But we are still striving to build an| organization in this community | to} surpass any of the others, —J.C. More Wage Cuts In | Rhode Island Town Pascoag, R. I. Daily Worker: The Premium Worsted Co. in Bridgeton have just handed out an- | other cut of 10 per cent to all their | | | cut in the space of a few weeks. ‘The previous cut only affected the weavers who were given a cut of| 45 per cent and two more looms. We can’t reach these people thru try to reach their stomach, —A Worker. i Baltimore, Md. Dear Comrades: | During 1926 the Bethlehem Steel Co. forced the workers to buy shares | for a (sports) field in Duntock and | promised to pay 6 per cent interest. | and at the same time trying to have some field to play games on when they had some time they bought 5 and other 10 shares, New Orleans. | Editor Daily Worker: | Many workers were fooled by this | Now, after five years, the company | not only has not given any interest | to these workers, but a few weeks | ago when they went to play football |. they were threatened by the man-| ager, who wanted to throw them out. All the workers that day protested and many of them went to break their locks. Seein gthis, the man- ager, who is.a dentist, got scared and he let the -workers play. —?P. Ss. Police Try Scab Herding In New Orleans | phoney stunt in Fort Payne, Ala. | They are giving the workers a,dollar Travelled through the States of /a month, but making a big fuss over | Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi and found conditions bad |a job to help break strike but re-/bers are the slaves of these mis- everywhere. Jails are full with un- {employed. Red Cross pulling a} Hundreds of Men’s | it. Cops in New Orleans offered me | fused to accept the job. —F. P, Tailors Walk Streets In New York Bronx, N. Y. Daily Worker: Hundreds of tailors are filling up the labor bureau day by day waiting from. 8 in the morning till 12 noon to get a job. The more forturate ones who are sent to gt a half or a day's work can not accept these jcbs due to the present system of piece ollar A Day Is Pay for Workers Planting Trees AG Feo eese zi New York, N. ¥, Daily Worker: They subject us waiters to tip- ping. Why? Because the bosses refuse to give us a salary to which we are entitled. Waitérs depend on tips to support their families, not on wages and hours, I think Mr. Franklin P, Adams (Liberty Magazine) blusters on his criticism on the average waiter. Waiters are overworked, treated rudely by many of the patrons, Would a waiter who depends en- tirely upon tips for a living treat his customers poorly? Of course not! I would like to know where Mr. Adams got his information? It is not true that walters receive as Boss Columnist Slanders Overwerked, Underpaid Waiters In “Liberty” W’kly Then aa to a waiter cheating on Prices for food. It is easy to criticize a poor worker, but where is the just crit- icism? Haven't you read tke papers lately? Where thousands and thou- sands of dollars have been swin- died by the boss class, but you don't turn to that, instead you waste your time slandering those people who work in crowded rest- aurants, who are hurried, scolded continually and who wait anxious- ly for a few generous people to give them tips so that they may carn a decent wage, —R. M. Use your Red Shock Troop List every day un your job. The worker next to you will help save the Daily Worker, j v work, ‘The bosses demanc the best quality of work regradless of the cheap prices they pay to the workers. No matter how fast a worker could be he can not make more than fiom three to, four dollars per day by long hours of hard toiling. As the masters are aware of the present demoralization and chaos in the Amalgamated company union they are taking full advan- tage in exploiting the workers, Recently a number of unemploy- ed tailors applied to the mayor's committee for work and they were told that they are getting $15 week- ly unemployment insurance by the ACW and that there are no jobs for them, The generals of the Amalgamated | instead of installing union cotnrol, a 40 hour week work and a 5 hour Jess tailors should have work during the present pirisis is helping the bosses to betray the workers. ‘The new systern in registering the tailors to wait for their next to get a job is an old oie and is nothing | but a scheme to keep these hundreds of unemployed away from the labor bureau. No schemes will help the workers in the present misery. ‘The tailors themselves must act against their present cheaters by helping to build the Needle Trades Workers’ In- dustrial Union. «MA Tailors | day without overtime, that the job-| | ton. ings for two months while the rank and filers were discussing very im- portant things, and at the last meeting 2 motion was made to cut the salaries of the officials giving support to the unemployed. He stopped the meeting saying that he couldn't have us vote on such a thing, since he saw clearly that the rank and file members would vote in the affirmative, so he acted as dictator, to which the constitu- tion gives him right. It is also understood that the of- ficials manage to get themselves el- lected yearly by force or fake, and | when a case is in their hands at the district council or at the local they do what they like, while the mem- | leaders. —A Worker. Armed Police Attack Oklahoma Unemployed OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., March 3.—Police attacked a demonstration of 500 workers here Feb. 25, when they started to march, in protest against hunger. Seven were jailed. After all the vicious stories in the capitalist press stating that the po- lice force would be doubled and pre- pared to smash all demonstrations, 500 came out and held a demonstra- tion in a proletarian district of the city. Fifty armed police were in the attack on the march which started after the meeting. Some farm work- ers were injured. In spite of this, about 100 spon- taneously marched to the Workers’ Center for the indoor meeting. Nearly 10,000 Jobless In Houston, Texas Houston, Tex. | Family responsibilities prevent im- | mediate activity in the workers’ movement but I can contribute, agi- tate, and spread these papers among the unemployed. Soon as my job gives out (I suppose it will be soon) Tl be active in some sort of dem- onstrations in the neck of the woods. Until then, I'll scatter these sheets and try to recruit a few militants who should start something in Hous- It’s too quiet here, as there are nearly 10,000 unemployed, ought to liven ‘em up ‘a bit with a few hundred papers. YOUNG EDNA MINER STRIKER TELLS OF FIGHT |Asking Other Miners| to Join In for Bigger Battle — Adamsburg, Pa. Edna Mine, No, 1 Dear Comrades:— I read the Datly Worker every day | |I get one to read. And I and a lot| of other people here think it is the best paper we have ever read. Tam an active young fellow and es- pecially in the strike of the Edna No. 1 and 2 and the John Carr mines and I get a big kick out of fighting against the bosses. The bosses tried to frame me and stick me in jail to keep me out of this good strike of ours. I call it a good time for this reason. It makes a fellow feel good to know that he is fighting for his rights. If only the other miners would come out on strike and fight like hell. We would soon get every demand we min- ers would ask for. They would have to because everybody knows that the country can’t do without coal. So we miners of Edna No, 1 and No. 2 and the John Carr, miners are ask- ing all the miners nearby to fight with us, And they are getting ready and some are ready to fight with us.—J. RAISIN SELLING LATEST “RELIEF” Bosses Rake in the Money Meanwhile (By a Worker Correspondent) OAKLAND, Cal.—In ten large coast cities, California raisins are to sup- | plant apples as merchandise for otherwise unemployed street corner salesmen. 3 . D. Brown and N. Shorb of the San Francisco apple committee said they were making arrangements to offer the raisins to the public instead of apples because apple sales are falling off everywhere. In Frisco alone the apple sales have fallen off from 30,000 to 22,000 a day. The unempled were able to take in from $1.50 to $2.00 a day only after paying for crates and carting and their sales stretching over several days, it did not pay at all. Why so? Because large wholesale houses and apple concerns raised the prices double of what they started with last fall, A fight ensued between California apple concerns and Oregon. Califor- nia wholesalers kicking that Oregon apples were flooding the streets here. Even at that it didn’t pay to sell at 5 cents each for the unemployed salesmen. Finally, Oregon apples were also raised in price. Therefore the sales dropped off because many unemployed gave up those unprofit- able jobs. _ Now more profit is anticipated from the sale of raisins. Thus the whole- salers dicker for profits while the un- employed freeze and starve making these profits. The unemployed must organize into Unemployed Councils and fight for social insurance and better living con- ditions from the bosses. —A. there are thirty working. Ou one day alone because of the te around like wild bulls shouting them- selves hoarse “come on there you bastards, speed up or get the hell off the job.” Those are the words ring- | five gets hurt or killed every week, On this particular job (Patrick McGovern tunnel work) t of those thirty from three tc Nine men were killed in rrible speed-up, Bosses running ieee ‘OHIO MINERS GET wp trom thew ot anating asses! BIG WAGE CUTS; UMWA STABS ’EM One worker, after slaving there for | six months is @ cripple for life, his | body twisted with rheumatism, and | has had two operations. Not being able to work or receive a cent com- pensation he is doomed to a miser- able life. A physician at the hospital where this worker has to go said that 80 out of 100 get rheumatism and tuberculosis after six months. out in a pamphlet by the company 50 as to be able to squeeze the last Grop of blood out of the worker and make bigger profits. “One of these days, as the work progresses, fewer workers will be employed. It is natural to keep the best men. Make yourself a good man and hold on to your job. Keep at work by doing good work taking care of your job. Employ- ees losing their badges will not get paid.” One Negro was badly beaten by one of the bosses. Overtime is’ not paid for Sundays. Anyone refusing to work for straight time gets fired. No time is taken for dinner. These are the conditions at the Patrick McGovern slave driving company, a million dollar concern.—M. 8S. CHARITY MEANS SLOW STARVATION Denver Jobless Live On $2 Weekly Denver, Colo, Editor Daily Worker: At the Feb. 25 demonstration I talked with women who told me of their experiences with the charitable organizations in this city. Here are some bright points given | traps. | Get No Compensation. | \Learning NMU Js A Fighting Union (By a Worker Correspondent) BELLAIRE, O.—Wages ‘have “heen slashes to less than half the- scale of a few years ago in the coal’ mines of Ohio and W. Virginia. ‘Inside day labor receives only $3.20-a day in @ number of eastern Ohio mines and $4 is considered an average wage. With many of the mines working only two days a week, the miners ere at a starvation level even when they have a job. In West Virginia wages are even worse, running to as little as $2 a dar. | Ohio operators, who are dissatisfied | with the present conditions of eut- |throat competition and fearful. that the miners will revolt, are enconrag- ing the United Mine Workers (they don’t care much which faction) to gain a foothold among the. miners again. As John W. Love, business columnist for the Cleveland. Press, puts it, the Ohio and W. Virginia op- erators are “fixing it for the union to come back.” The miners ‘however, don’t want the kind of union that the | bosses want, and that is why neither old U. M. W. fakers ing that in the National they have a real fighting will battle for them and bosses. ‘They all agree that having to de- | pend on these organizations means slow starvation. One woman told me she and her husband and little boy are trying to live on the two dollars worth of groceries they get from the welfare department each week. She said the groceries are always gone before the week is over, and we have to go without food until we get the next week's allowance. Because the welfare department found out my husband belongs to the Unemployed Council they won't give us any more groceries. AFL HAS NEGRO WORKER FIRED “Don’t Take Niggers Into Our Union” NEW YORK.—The vicious role of the A. F. of L, as an enemy of. the In another case a mother and | Negro workers and a social carrier daughter worked 12 hours for $2.75 | within the working class of the race worth of groceries from a charitable | hatred ideas of the boss class was organization. —D. E. E. ANOTHER YEAR OF DROUGHT New Brunswick, N. J. ‘The State Department of Agricul- ture is warning the farmers that an- other year of drought can be redson- ably expected. What do they “ex- pect these farmers to do? —A Farmer. CHILD LABORERS IN N. J. ‘Trenton, N. J. Migrating child laborers for New Jersey farm work for $1.16 a dey and a fifty-hour week is the present sys- tem in this state. The highest earn- ing for @ whole family 1s thirteen dollars, while the average family earning in a year is $645. ~A Worker, Portland Jobless Worker With Eight Children Gets $4 A Week Charity Dole (By a Worker Correspondent) PORTLAND, Ore—The answer of the Portland bosses’ representa- tive to the eight thousand unem- ployed on the 25th, that they in- formed him of the needs of anybody and “he would take care of them,” that is, through the welfare bureau, so-called; is bringing many workers to the Unemployed Council, with the accounts of just what does hap- pen up here. One worker told how, prior to the demonstration, he was getting $4 a week for himself, ‘wife and eight children. “Care” at forty cents a week per person. After the demon- stration he went up ther:. There was no cursing or inseience from -W. H.C , Two days prior. In answer to their query: “Why are you here,” he said: “To get food for my children.”. He got $7, and they say the demands of the Unemployed Council are il- legal. This worker joined the Un- employed Council. Another worker, with a fifteen day old baby on his hands, had their water turned off by the city. Another demand of the U. C. is that the parasite power trust and the city dare not cut off those neces- sary services of heat light and water. More stories of like nature are coming in. Real relief can be gained by further struggle and every un- employed worker must join the Un- the officials, He had dresn his $4. ¢mployed Council. Make the bosses pay. | again demonstrated yesterday when | Maurice Barcourt, a Negro worker, | was deprived of the right to work |at his trade by the busimess agent ‘of an A. F, of L. local. | Barcourt, who is a member of the | Metal Workers’ Industrial League, was engaged on a job at the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 49th St. and Lexington Ave. when the A. F. of L. business agent approached him and demanded to see his union card. Barcourt showed him his member- ship card in the league. He was told he could not work an that card. Barcourt then offered to- poin the A. F. of L, local which has. jurisdic- tion in this field. The answer of the A. F, of L. agent was the rankly in- sulting chauvinistic statethent’ that “we don’t take in any niggers in our | union.” Within half an hour after this conversation Barcourt was fired: He not only lost his job on this construc- tion, but the boss contractor who sent him to this building has fired him altogether on the grounds that “some people are ashamed to work with Negroes.” ‘The Metal ‘Workers’ League has condemned this action of thé A. F. of L, labor fakers and together with the Building Trades Industria]. {nion is issuing a leaflet exposing the treacherous nature of this raiik’ dis- erimination against a Negro: worker. , 1 chahuirehicichjasmsbeuinnes ] TEXAS FARMER LIKES DAILY LORAINE, TEXAS.--I am one of the busted farmers of the South so money is scarce with me and hard to get but I like the paper because it gives the workman's side of the aw- ful economic condition that us work- ing people are having to put up with here in the land of plenty. So keep up the good fight for the workin= >on. J. W. i