The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 18, 1931, Page 3

DAILY _WORKER, NEW. YORK, SATURDAY, _APRIL 18, 1931 __ « Bich bv, ) THOUSANDS OF JOBLESS WORKERS BEING LURED TO BOULDER DAM WHITE MOTOR CO. CUTS WAGES WHEN MEN ARE SHIFTED TO PIECEWORK Workers Formerly Making $6.00 A Day Are Lucky If They Average $3.00 Change Made Dep’t by Dep’t to. Forestall the Action of the Workers Cleveland, O. The stagger plan, wage cuts, intimidation, and all can be found in White Motor Company. Of course it’s the same in other plants, but this worker tells of some interesting things in the plant where he works. In the last three months the factory was changed from the bonus system of paying to piece work. All departments were not changeg at once but first one department, then two weeks later another and so on. piece work the wages were cut in every department. 2 EARS SS TABS, SSS a SC TREBLE WORK IN OAKLAND RESTAURANT Union Condones Such Practice, Conditions Grow Worse Oakland, Cal. Daily Worker :— An aged worker, 65 years old, does the work of dishwasher, fry cook, all | around scrubber and kitchen man| in one of the restaurants here. He works 14 hours straight a day, getting the grand pay of about $20 for a week of 7 days. He doesn’t even take time to eat his meals, eat- | ing a sandwich now and then between work. He is afraid to sit down for| fear the boss will lay him off. | Former dishwasher, a man with a| family of 5 children, was layed off only recently and this aged man was told he must do his work if he wants to hold his job. Naturally being old, though he knows the restaurant trade | "very well starting to work at the age of 12, he could not protest—but...... the place where this happened is 100} per cent union house. This old man has a Cooks, Waiters and Waitress Union card, being in the union for many years. What is the union going about this doubling (rather trebling) of the work? They pretend not to see it (I have no doubt telling him personally to stick to it for he would be out of luck if he quit). ‘This is the way our fake union fights for better conditions. This procedure ° of doubling up on jobs is practised in many places throughout the city. “Socialist” Boss Is Mayor-In Racine Bosses Count On Him To Check Workers RACINE, Wis.—On April 7 a “so- clalist,” William Swoboda, was elected, by @ narrow margin, mayor of Racine. This socialist mayor- elect, who operates three stores in Kenosha and Racine under the name of the Chicago Wholesale Fruit & ‘Vegetable Merchant, Inc. had the support of not only the socialist Mayor Hoan of Milwaukee but also the support of Mayor Armstrong of Racine, who was exposed as a grafter and profiteer. The papers boast about Mr. Swoboda that he is acap- italist and he himself admits that he will no tehange anything in the city affairs as long as he is mayor. Not only is this “socialist” a business man but also a good member of the American Legion. ‘The capitalist reporter who visited him was much impressed by the so- cialist Mayor Swoboda and states that he will make a good mayor (for the bosses) as “he has no class hatred.” The néw mayor also prom- \ Ised the bosses that he will not pick | socialists for the city government ; Jobs, but will take those who can { serve (the bosses’ interests) best. The ‘workers of Racine will now get a yf taste of the “socialism” which the workers of Milwaukee have “en- joyed” under Mayor Hoan, in the form of wage-cuts, unemployment, starvation and police terror. Only by supporting the Communist Party will the workers of Racine be able to put up @ real fight and change the present miserable conditions. Demonstrate on May Day against the bosses and their socialist agents, Racine Worker. Philadelphia Dump Is Home of Jobless PHILADELPHIA, Pa., April 15.— Unemployed workers are living in empty wagon bodies and packing cases on the dump at South American and Oregon streets. On some boxes they had flag poles with the American flag floating, which shows that the pueslgnar® idea is not true. One man in particular was observed by the correspondent poking through garbage, mostly rotten celery, for his Easter dinner. Erect Negroes were living here, but their shacks were burned and they were arrested. ‘The dump has # foul smell. In the process of changing to Where a man was able to make $6 he is lucky to make $3. Not satisfied with cutting the prices on the pieces, the workers must turn out more work now than they did before in one day. Piece Work Basis. All departments, with the excep- tion of the repairing department, have been changed to the piece- work basis. A guarantee of 54 cents and up to about $f, was given for day work to the different classes of workers, for instance: Classes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are the classes the workers are divided into. The kind of work done (unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled) deter- mines into which class the worker is placed. This was for time spent in setting up a job. They still give | the guarantee, but a 14-cent wage- cut on the hour was given to all classes! They are gradually work- ing around to the place where they will not pay any day work at all. It is almost as bad now as if no day work was paid. Four Days a Week. The factory is running four days a week, but only about 5 per cent of the workers labor the full four days. One group of workers work one day, another group the next, and so on. Only the inspectors are kept on every day, They are paid a little more money than the rest in spite of the wage-cuts, and are used to spy on the rest of the workers. The other workers are not given a chance to work together long enough to get acquainted. They seldom have a chance to talk to each other, be- cause of the rush all day long, and when one man stops at onother ma- | chine the foreman comes along and wants to know what they are talking re | . about. Some workers come in and | Agencies and Bosses hang around about two hours, get enough work to make ten cents and then are told to go home. Maybe in a week or ten days they are put on again. Afraid of Strike. The bosses are afraid that these workers will strike. They cannot stay in the machine shop a minute after the whistle blows for noon. No one is allowed to remain. About two months before the piece- work system was installed a regis- tration of all workers was taken, in order to determine how. many were ex-servicemen. It was found that 90 per cent of the workers were over in France (fighting for democracy!). When the laying-off came, the ex- servicemen were kept in preference te the others, but many of them nevertheless were laid off also. Some had been working there 16 and 18 years. There is a considerable amount of discontent in this shop. Shop-gate meetings are being arranged by Sec- tion 2 of the Communist Party in or- der to prepare for May First. Nu- cleus 24 of the Communist Party (Section 2) is concentrating on this shop to organize a shop committee. Workers of White Motor write in about your conditions to the Dally Worker and come up to 1245 Prospect Ave. to tell us about your problems. Only the organized power of the working class can save the political prisoners! | those who hang around the door- Cut Wages As Relief Ends, What There Was, in the Lumber Towns (By a Worker Correspondent) CENTRALIA, Wash., (By Mail)— Wage cuts in Onalaska and in every | lumber camp and mill around here | are rousing resentment among the workers, Centralia and Chehalis are in a chaotic condition. The Centralia Daily Chronicle carried a notice from the local relief committee that be- tween April 1 and 15 all relief would be stopped. This affects some 200 families—at least 1,000 persons. This is typical of the conditions all over this section of Washington, Ho- quiam, Aberdeen, Montesano, Cen- tralia, Chehalis, South Bend, and Raymond ere all affected alike. Re- lief is being cut off or trimmed down leaving workers hungry, ragged and| homeless. All sandwiched between | wage cuts and speed up, a hell of a| picture in a land where there is so much of every thing. Come on workers and organize and put an end to this crazy system! SAN DIEGO CLAIMS MOST SUICIDES Boss Papers § Say ‘Good Times Are Here’ San Diego, Cal. Daily Worker: This city it noted for the great amount of suicides that are always taking place here. Here's another case, Mrs. Doris Dawney, 29, was found dead in her home at 588 Park Biv’d the other evening by neighbors. She} was lying on the door with her head on two pillows near a gas jet. According to the capitalist press | “She was despondent because she was unable to find work “And in mockery to this they still scream that times are getting better. At the same time the Young Women’s Christian Association report that they have 435 women on their list alone asking for jobs, and they claim the placements are decreasing. They also report “Due to some employees taking advantage of the plight of un- employed there are a number of calls for women to work full time for board and room.” ‘Women! join the unemployed Councils and fight the murder and prostitute Capitalist System. C. G.—Worcorr, Like the Jackals and Wolves to the Jobless (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—I am just one of ways of the Sixth Ave. employment agencies staring at the square tick- ets which proclaim that a job is open, I paid 4:80 for a lousy job at $12 per week at Coes Electrical Shop. ‘The boss used me three and a half hours, then told me I wouldn’t do | and paid me 75 cents. I returned to the agency and they wanted to re- turn me only $2.98. I let out a squawk, and finally they let me go by just deducting the 75 cents. I left considering myself lucky at that. Between the agencies and the boss- es, the unemployed are between wolves and jackals. And incidental- ly, along the gyp row you can find the Daily Worker being sold. Buy @ copy and read the truth. BUTTE CITY GOV'T BANKRUPT BUTTE, Mont., April 15—City em- | ployees were told today that the banks will no longer cash their checks, as the city is bankrupt. They will have to cash them by ‘“'scalpers,” or private persons, with a large dis- count. The city government, how- ever, will keep the firemen and police- | white. men in good humor by paying their wages’out of the pension funds. SAGINAW FLOP FILTH Must Pray for Stale Bread Saginaw, Mich. Daily Worker: There are many men here who have no homes or places of shelter other than the City Rescue Mission. Those who come to Saginaw and want a flop are directed by the coppers and other C.R.M. on in- quiring at the mission, they are di- rected to in a corner, reserved for the “bums.” After services and before 10 p.m. the floor is swept and scrubbed by a picked crew of late arrivals. After the work is finished the late ar- rivals are told to go upstairs to take a bath. Then they are given a dirty, lousy cot. If there are not any cots they are forced to sleep on the floor. The next morning, they are all herded in the main room and given a tin cup, partly filled with a col- ored fluid and a couple of pieces of hard pastry on the floor which gives the pastry a peculiar taste, since it’s a kerosene floor. If you care to come back after this you may receive another meal of beans and bread. Only two meals are served, like the above mentioned, each day. If you violate any of the hour rules, you are requested in the name of Jesus not to come back any more, This is the only place for work- ers to go to except the jail which is the worst place imaginable. Iron benches to sleep on, There are eighty men at the mis- s fon whichhas accommodation for only ten. The workers are handled like a bunch of convicts and theat- ed as they would treat a bunch of wild beasts, There are no accom- modations for shaving and the worst bathing facilities imaginable. The workers who go there are forced into Holy Prayer or they are threatened with removal from the only “shelter” in the town. They are victimized into prayer or told that they may sleep out in the cold or in a box car. —Worker Who Slept in the Saginaw Rescue Mission, DISCRIMINATE ON NEGROES FOREIGN BORN IN WARREN Workers in Steel Town Are Starving As Wages Are Cut Warren, Ohio, Dear Comrades:— In Warren, there fs much discrim- ination against Negro and foreign- born workers. Bosses in the small) factories hire only American, but not Negro and foreign born workers. In the two factories of the General Elec- tric Company they hire only white girls and women. The same is true | of stores and restaurants. In one de- |partment of the Republic Iron and} Steel Company, there are only white girls and women, no colored gir! In} the Shop Restaurant, all workers are | When the people go in to eat, the colored must sit on one side, the whites on the other. | Cutting Wages. There is continuous speed-up here, | and they cut wages three times a year. They cut the wages of those| who work in open shops, as the Not Strip Coal, Strip Bloomin Mill, and} Open Heath. In one of these they cut wages 42 per cent last time, on March 15. The workers so far have | not protested, but keep on working. There is talk of another wage cut on) June 1, 1931, The bosses in the mill take men} who are 45 years of age, and tell them | not to come around any more, be- | cause they are too old. But no other | workers are hired in their places. If| a person is sick, and he stays home a} day or two, he is fired. Last March one worker was sick, and asked the | foreman to be let home. The foreman made him work until six o'clock. The next day the worker stayed home, | went to bed, and never got up again. Workers in this) town are hungry and starving. If any one of them} tries to organize or to speak on the | streets, he is arrested and beaten up. The Republic Iron and Steel offi- cials hired many stool pigeons inside | their mill, and outside, to watch every | progressive worker and his move- ments. They spy on every progres- sive worker in the charity institutions. | The worker cannot get any food for himself and his family. —IN. | Chi. Jobless Negro Workers Misery Big Cutting Down On the) Breadlines, Ete | PACKARD SPEED UP GEARED U MORE NOTCHES |\Men Not Paid When Machines Break Down on Them Detroit, Mich. Dear Comrades: The terror in the Packard plant in this city is something that no hu- | man could ever dream of in former | years. Especially the milling machines op- erators are subject to tremendous speed-up. They are arranging the | machines so that one man can run two of them. And in order to do that, he is made to run a big job! AFL Betrays a Lumber Strike; Men Call in Real Union EVERETT, Wash., (By Mail).—A strike here against the third wage cut recently, and betrayal by the A.| F. of L. has caused a group of the| ufacturing Company to appeal to the National Lumber Workers Union for organization and leadership. Five hundred walked out against |the cut. This was only part of the | force, and the A. F. of L. agents got busy, telling them to go back and | wait for negotiations to bring them} 12 the $2.00 wage they had before the} ut. That was a starvation wage, but | | Snes they got back, they received) j only $1.80 per day, and the A. F. of L.| did nothing for them. | PONTIAC BANK on one and a smaller job on the | other. When any of the machines break | down, the operator is told to go home | and come back one or two hours later; according to the length of time needed to repair that particular ma- chine. day rate at from fifty-five to sixty cents per hour. (The new perity scale.”) Sent Home Recently one operator found his machines broke at seven in the morn- ing. He was sent home and ordered to be back at eight. He came in at jeight and was told to be back at nine-thirty. He came at nine-thirty and tried his machine and found it still in need of some attention; again the foreman told him to go home, |and be back at eleven. He came in }and then from eleven o'clock on he | receives his pay. This is almost a daily occurence, and the men are | getting fed-up on this sort of treat- ment, but in this shop very few are working now and those that are working are sticking and waiting for | better times to come. But, fellow workers, you are fooling yourselves. Better do some organiz- ing under the Trade Union Unity | | League leadership. Do not waste any |more time. Stand up like an honest |man and fight the miserable condi- | | tions of the shop. —F. S. TELLS OF MISERY | ON BREADLINES 'Charity Fakers Deny Food to Starving (By a Worker Correspondent) HE Welfare Office in McKeesport, Pa., was overflowing—men in| worn, shabby clothing. their faces Because the men are paid | “pros- | CLOSES DOORS, Thousands of Workers Lose Savings (By a Worker Correspondent.) | .PONTIAC, Mich., April 7—The | People’s State Bank of this city has | closed its doors. | financial institution in the city. | In an attempt to fool worker de- banks, Gramer Smith, president of the Pontiac Commercial and Savings Bank, issued a statement to the de- positors of the defunct bank and Bank is due in no way to local con- | ditions, therefore it should cause no | uneasiness in the minds of workers who have their meagre life savings tied up in other banks. Local bankers have joined in mak- ing “promises” that the workers de- positors of the People’s State Bank will get most of their money back. They are trying their utmost to cover up the fact that the worker deposi- |tors of other banks which have | crashed all over the country have not yet got back one cent of their depos- its, and likely never will. Mission “Relief” in Albany Is Is Cut Off Bosses Cutting Wages, | At the Same Time ALBANY, N. Y.—In Albany during the past winter the City Mission has |been giving out twice a day, a cup of alleged coffee and two hard stale objects known as bread. Four or five | | drawn; women with children in their | hundred men were so hungry that | Chicago, Il. | arms, whispering to one another of | | they would stand in line for hours Daily Worker:— The conditions of the Unemployed Negro workers here are getting worse, | not better. They are cutting down) the breadlines and closing the flop- houses. ‘The Lord’s Army which was located | at 4017 Wentworth Avenue used to| give out bread which although one could have died while waiting for the food, at least gave some out. Now) they have moved and are only giving | out one loaf of bread to each person, three times a week. That's a meal for you. Conditions Worse. ‘The bosses are continuing to speed up the workers, the unemployed workers are forced to sleep in the cold now, with a dingy piece of bread to live on for the week. The Lord’s Army have it handy now since there’s | an undertaker right next door which | can take care|of the starved to death | workers. April 10th, 23 workers died | in their chapel, most of these work- ers died from starving on the bread- | lines. The bosses’ papers keep quict about these deaths which occurred as a result of starvation and misery. Workers! nationality, we are the builders of! this world, we must not starve amidst so much plenty, amidst filled up warehouses. We must join in solidar- | | ity to form a militant union, We | must build up the T. U. U. L., form | Unemployed Councils and demand immediate relief. —J. P.—Unemployed Worker. Regardless of color or | Iowa Miners In A Fighting Mood In Spite of Church Springfield, Il. Daily Worker: I do not offer any excuse for not writing before, at the time when the mine shut down. The mine where I was working closed on the 27th of February, leaving the miners in a destitute condition, as the work was so poor that they did not give them any chance to make enough to pay old grocery bills. ‘The miners inSlater, and also in Madrid, Iowa, are more afraid of the Catholic priest than they are afraid of the pit bosses. It is a Cath- olic company, and the ones who give large donations to the church get the jobs. One Italian with nine chil- dren has been crucified by the priest for 18 months for not going to church, However, there are some good fighting elements among them. The branch of the ILD here was or- sanized with plenty of good fighting workers, but no leadership. —T. M. | ing cold of their houses. | the house. | three-year-old | bought at an auction. | to buy batteries. | their husbands who for months had | no jobs, of their landlords who har- | rangued them daily, of their children | who were sick with pneumonia and / with rickets Some dozed in the | warmth of the office after the freez- Each time} the door opened to the office of Mrs. | Wilson—the cool, efficient Mrs. Wil- son who gets $300 a month for her job of handing out charity—the ap- plicants jumped, hoping against hope that after hours of endless waiting | their name would be called. Again the door opened to discharge | @ woman muttering under her breath—“but the landlord will throw. us out. What shall we do?” With a jump I ran to the office door as at last my Name was called. Mrs. Wilson made short of my story. “Don't tell me anything now. Some- one will come to investigate your case tomorrow.” He came, the following week, the investigator. We huddled in our tat- tered blankets as he snooped around In a corner he found a radio which I had It had long been silent since with no money to | buy food we surely had not been able “Sell that,” he said, “and buy something to eat for your family.” I would have shot him if I had had a gun. But rage against the investigator didn’t fill our stomachs, We had to eat. And so the next place was the Salvation Army. The thousands in the bread-line formed a queue the length of four city blocks. In the bitter cold the men shivered, stamp- ed their numbed feet, waited and waited their turn. “Show me your card.” I had none. “Nothing doing then.” Behind me stood a Negro who had a card. His temper rose as he saw us, one after the other, refused food because we had no card. He began to protest. Other voices joined in. The samaritans, fearing a riot, fin- ally gave in and handed us a bowl of soup. Soup? Hot water into which had been smashed a tomato and which turned our empty stom- achs. We could not eat, The Negro who had fought for us drew some blanks out of his pocket. “Here,” he said. “Join the Unem- ployed Council. Get ‘what's coming to you instead of this rank charity stuff.” Our stomachs were empty, but we signed, and with the signing came the will to fight—to fight for what is the right of every worker— “WORK OR WAGES!” Use your Red Shock Troop Lis: ‘very day on your job, The worke next to you will help save the Daily Worker for these miserable crumbs from the | masters’ table. | This Mission would boast in the lo- | cal press that meals were given out. | However, even these few crumbs are | |no longer issued. The local bosses | know this and cutting wages more than ever. For instance on road | work near here the pay is 30 cents) an hour and $8.50 a week to dwell in |a@ miserable hut. For even these pal- | | try wages the jobless are forced to pay $8.00 for the job. A great deal of public works projected here has ;been put off until next year as the thieving politicians could not agree as to the sharing of the loot. —H. J. | KNOWS TRUE COLORS OF UMWA Warren, Ohio. Daily Worker :— I have been receiving your papers and think it is one of the best’ papers. Iam one of the unemployed and have been passing this paper out to other unemployed workers. I have a fam- ily of three, two boys and myself. | road. I have been a UMWA member for |16 years and had been bossing a coal | mine off and on for eleven years. The reason I quit was because they wanted me to steal from my fellow workers. | Now I have nothing now, I don’t even Use Wages for South Omaha, Nebraska. Daily Worker:— Here is more information con- cerning conditions in the South Omaha Packing House. This is how they rob the workers at the Armour plant. Some time ago, they sold shares at $93.00 which have now gone down to $53.00, Since all the workers are laid off they say they are forced to cash in the $93.00 share for the 53.00 making a loss to the worker of $40.00. They hire boys, very young work- ers at 35 cents an hour and make them do the same work as 2 man does. The older worker gets 4314 cents an hour, The workers are forced to work 50 hours a week. The company takes out from the work- ers’ wages insurance fees of which the workers do not receive any ben- efit. Last month they introduced a Safety Drive. After this drive en- ded for the month they reported no aceldents, although two workers were badly scalded. These workers got no compensation and to add lumber workers of the Robinson Man- | Tt was the largest | positors who have deposits in other) other banks in Pontiac, to the effect} that the closing of the People’s State | I work one day a week on a county | “Hoover's | Daily Worker: has been giving the impression Expect to Get Work. Most of the unempolyed workers | read in the capitalist papers the glowing accounts of this great project, second only to the Panama Canal in size, and about the thou- | sands of men that will be needed. And so these workers that read this | scratch up as much money as they | jean get and try to get here with their wives and children. They all | expect to get work here, but are dis- | appointed. The project will not com- mence for a year. Many of these workers are forced | to go from house to house begging for food. “There are so many of them | that the town has been literally milked dry. These workers and their families have erected in the Mes- quite Jungles on the outskirts of the town a regular tent city. (Hoover City we've named it.) Children Forced to Beg. The families that are destitute send their little children around | begging for food, while those who have anything at all will place a | | little flour in the disk or a few | handfuls of beans. If a working | man has anything at all he will share it. The condition here has become so desperate that the Sal- vation Army has come in here. Las Vegas, I am sure, has the longest breadline in the United States. A Mile Long Breadline. | | The breadline is situated on the | | outskirts of the town to keep it away | from the prying eyes of the natives. From morning until night you can | see the line at least a mile long. The breadline has become so long that | the Chamber of Commerce has or- | dered all single men in a truck, who will be taken to Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Like cattle, they were piled in and transported. i A Hard Winter. This winter the unemployed suf- |fered badly. A large circus tent was | provided for shelter. The beds were |flat boards placed between boxes. In |this town there are actually open |saloons. The largest saloon here is | situated right across from the po- | lice station. One cannot walk past | | this place without having a dozen | | prostitutes pounce at you. I really | |feel sorry for the girls; they are hav- | |ing a tough time of it these days, poor things, since most of the work- ers are practically unemployed. Any jobs that are handed out here are given to the workers for $2.50 a day, and how can a worker with a family exist on this amount? America’s fine standard. These werkers work seyen hours a week. Those who work have their jobs by underbidding all the other wolves who come around when a job is open. The boss, in this way, pays low wages and makes a big pile for himself. The motto of the Amer- | ican government evidently is “Give the contracts to the lowest bidder, | and the workers be damned.” AN UNEMPLOYED WORKER. | pay for a new subscription for the “Daily” I will have to get the Daily from someone who will give it to me after he has read it! —Unemployed Worker. ROB ARMOUR WORKERS Fake “Drives” this, were forced to come to work with so many bandages on that all you could see was their eyes. They had to work or lose their jobs. Another worker was accidentally hit by a girl with a frozen beef liver. This worker became deaf and they fired him so that they would not have to pay fees to cure him out of that fake Safety Fund of which the workers were squeezed out of part of their wages. —K.B. MICHIGAN LUMBER WORKERS ORGANIZING EBEN JUNCTION, Mich.—A lum- ber workers’ meeting was held at Eben Junction, which was called to order by comrade Songalow, a lumber work- ers’ organizer, The Y. C. L. and the C. P. gave its greetings to this meet- ing. The C. P. and L. W. U. organ- izers showed the necessity of organ- izing and that the N. L. W. U. is the only fighting union that fights for the betterment of lumber workers’ conditions. A Lumber Workers Union local was formed here which has now |der way. thirteen members, —U. M. THOSE STUCK IN LOS VEGAS SUFFER FROM BITTER NEED, HUNGER Mile Long Breadline Mute Witness of Extent of Starvation of Workers’ Families City” Colony of Workers On Edge of Desert Scene of Misery as Veras, Nevada. The city of Las Vegas, Nevada, is located on arr oasis it the desert midway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The normal population of this railroad town is about 5,000. For more than two years, however, the capitalist ‘reptile’ press that work has commenced or is about to commence on the Boulder Dam project and workers | have been pouring in constantly. ers’ conditions that I now write. It is about these poor work- ‘BOULDER DAM JOB HARD, HOT ONE FOR MEN Miners Get $5.00; Laborers $3.50; Men Mulcted Salt Lake City Daily Worker:— I have just received some first hand information about the Boulder Dam job. There are about’750 men work- ing on the job, and it is already get- ting hot working on the sides of those straight up and down rock walls. Miners are paid $5.00. The mining outside and inside is all dry and dus- ty. The poisonous reptiles around, the heat and suffocation, the rush and speed-up, the absence of cold water, makes it a hell on earth. The men cannot even sleep after dark. Labor is paid $3.50. Bed-and board costs $1.50. They take 15 cents per day for the 10 days of each month for hospital expenses. $3.00 poll tax is taken out of the first month’s wages (after ten days). Most of the mining is done by Swedes. I suppose the Swedish boss takes sub-contracts on certain sec- tions or distances, and hires those he knows to work for $5 per day. It will be hell when summer comes, on account of the heat, It will be hell anyway before the job is well un- aI. L. G. Tulsa, Oil Capital Has Many Jobless Give Scrip to Those Working for City ‘Tulsa, Oklahoma | Daily Worker:— Tulsa is the oil capital of the world, and is said to have the highest rating of millionaires in the U.S. But with all the. wealth to boast of, the daily Papers have to admit.there are 3,000 unemployed, which is a conservative estimate. There are more than twice as much in the total population of 190,000. Scrip System. Workers working for the city get paid $3.00 per 8 hours. The nhe gets a scrip, which he has to bring to the commissary which is located down town. There he can get food in ex- change. If he wants to get anything jelse than food, he has to go to one of the chief grafters and. get an order for some one company. He has to take any kind of goods and pay any kind of a price that the grafter No. 2 chooses. Twelve weeks ago the workers gave city manager Fry and the city council of Oklahoma City a damned good an- swer to their cold refusal to help the starving workers, by taking one of the Branch stores of the Standard Chain stores. The capitalist press tried to make out that it.was an in- dependent store, Rotten Fepd. Just yesterday three of the samo chain stores, located’ih Tulsa, were indicted for selling rotten meat. But they will be witewashed in court for only $20.00 Believe me; that meat: must have been awfully bad, to cause big business to get arrested in the state of Oklahoma, However, the manager who was arrested will be made the goat, as in all cases where the big capitalist gets caught red handed, As to tre work or starve plan (sup- Posed to help the unemployed), the Tulsa Press says that the city is giv- ing 8 days a month work. But the workers say they are ‘Sil getting 3 days each month, and. now they are threatening to shut off even that. The workers here are very anxious to hear about the Unemployed Council under the leadership of the Communist Party and the T. U. U. L. —A Worker, 1931 CALENDAR FREE! Quotations from Marx; Lenin, etc. in the first annua! Daily Worker Calendar for 1931. Free with six months subscription or renewal.