The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 9, 1931, Page 3

VAILI VANCOUVER ELECTRIC USES STAGGER SYSTEM AND FIRES WORKERS Force Loggers On Piece Work; Fire Those Who ‘Fall Down” After They Slave Under Terrific Speed-Up Seeing Need for Class-Struggle, Many Log- gers Join Lumber Industrial Union Daily Worker, Vancouver, Canada. Spring is here but the work on the skid-road in this city is quite as dull as-during the past, winter. No chance for me to get back on the city work—as quite a little army of real old timers are eveéh wandering rest going hungry. around partly on relief and the The city and the B. C. Electric where I formerly worked are using the Stagger system. Workers are layed off for days and half days, no work on Saturdays, with of course a decrease DENIED WORKE DEMANDS, OMAHA MAYOR VOYAGES City Funds Used for Contests As Jobless Army Increases Omaha, Nebraska. Dear Comrades: The “city fathers” here have con- stantly boasted that “conditions in Omaha are so much better than in the rest of the world” and that “Omaha has no bread lines.” That the latter have never been estab- lished is merely a feature of a hard- boiled and stupid aristocracy, and not because the suffering and star- vation are any milder in Omaha than elsewhere. The army. of unemployed is growing larger every day. It is really a-trifle more noticeable here than in some of the larger cities that I have been in recently. Mayor Met- calf, who flatly refused to comply with a single demand of the unem- ployed here, is getting ready to take @ pleasure trip to Paris, France, at the expense of the city. Luxuries for Parasites, The city government also boasts that over $2,000,000 has been saved in the last year by not making paving repairs (and much needed repairs they are). What might have been spent for food and clothes for sev- eral thousand workers’ families will now be spent (or be a fraction of the sum that is spent) for champagne and other “luxuries” that American parasites go to Paris for. Mayor Metcalf is now conducting.a contest for the best 500 word letter on what the mayor should wear on his trip to Paris, Mayor Metcalf recently put up the stupid proposition for solving the unemployment situation by plowing up all the vacant lots in the city and forcing the unemployed workers to take care of the gardens that were to be planted on them, —E. B. WORCORR- BRIEFS ORCHARD WORKERS GET 10 PER CENT CUT OAKLAND, Cal.—Bosses have is- sued a statement that “slightly lower wages will be paid to orchard workers in this section as compared with last year.” Thinning and pruning of apricot orchards got under way with a “slight reduction” of five to ten cents Jess per hour than last year. This year’s scale on large cherry crop which is expected here will be 30 to 3014 cents an hout,.as compared with 35 to 40 cents last year. This “slight reduction” is in line with all orchard and agricultural work as a whole throughout Califor- mia. Workers, organize into the Ag- rieultural Workers’ Industrial Union _ © tight wage-cuts! --- —A, A, . a Sag i CHISHOLM SPEEDS UP WORKERS. * CHISHOLM, Minn.—The Oliver Mining Co. has been working four CEP. eo 8 6 TROTSKY'S LATEST CHICAGG, TI.—Trotsky talks about | i in pay. There is much talk about another wage-cut. Terrific Speed-up. Then small groups of loggers are sent to the camps to be faced by all kinds of bosses’ schemes: first a really terrific speed-up, so that those wi were on relief and on the “stem” last winter are so run down t!: cannot “hit the ball and make good” as the saying goes. So it’s ei fired or go on piece work and ma™ of the latter actually going in tl hole, Lambermen Organizing. The other side of the picture is organization — organizers are going out to the camps and getting a good response in signing up loggers into the Lumber and Agricultural Work- ers’ Industrial Union. In town good open air meetings are beeing held and the unemployed organization is ac- tive with 2,000 copies of “Unemployed. Workers” printed this week. Over 18,000 signatures were secured here at the coast for the “Workers’ Unity” bill for unemployment insurance. Delegations of workers rode the “freights” through to the East in time to unite and present the de- mands contained in the bill, on be- half of the 100,000 sigers to the Fed- eral government at Ottawa on April 15. The May Day preparations were taken up too late to be the success they should—however a mass meet- ing was held at Powell St. and an International Concert in the evening. Several successful financial affairs have been put on by the Canadian Labor Defense League during the late winter. All were needed where so much class justice is being meted out to workers on accgunt of the unem- ployed parades. Comradely, L. F, LNEW HAVEN JOB BUREAU DUPES HUNGRY WORKER Meets Auto Junk Pile 'Tstead of Farm; Gets “1 for Two Days Work NEW HAVEN, Conn. May 6.— There is an employment office here in New Haven that has got the ap- proval of most of all the sky pilots, and other social workers in general. It is known as the free employment office. The Evening Register calls it an agency that is doing the most wor- thy work. This place is run by an expert from the A. F. of L. A few days ago he had the mis- fortune of going in there. The “workingman’s friend” asked him the following questions. “Can you milk cows?” “Can you take care of cat- tle?” “Can you cultivate?” Worker Duped. The poor homeless man started for the farm, which he found was in the town of Hamden. After he arrived, he saw that he was duped. He found one cow, one old plug of a horse, a few chickens, on two acres of ground. On one end of the land he saw huge plies of junk automobiles. Instead of a fine farm, he had found an auto- mobile graveyard. “Are you ready to go to work,’ asked the two employers, “Yes,” replied the hungry man. The fakers gave him a heavy ham- mer and a cold chisel, and they star- ted him on dismantling the junk autos. Noon time came; there was not any invitation by them to come to dinner, He labored all of the af- ternoon with the tw@ slavedrivers af- ter him, Finally evening came. He was in- vited to come into the house for sup- per, The poor famished man sat down at the table. He saw two buns and some stew on a plate. He took one of the buns. Try as he might, he could not sink his teeth into them, 50 Cents a Day. He then tramped to Centerville, where there is a police station, He told his story to the police. A pol- iceman took him in his auto back to the “farm,” after about twenty minutes of wrangling. They gave the poor man one dollar for two days of slavery. —W. L. Sear nas Dean Mea Sect me on this. G.B., Negro Worker. eee WORCORR NOTE:—Since the Policy of the American bosses is to deport all class-conscious, forgign- born workers, we suggest that you, as a class-conscious American worker, remain here and help ficht egainst this policy of the Amo can government and their lackeys. Union; we. ose ANY MEN HURT IN FORD PLANT BY THE SPEEDY. “If You Don’t Like It, Get Out’—Say Bosses Philadelphia, Pa. Daily Worker: A letter by a former foreman of Ford’s plant in Chester recently ap- peared in the local tabloid sheet, the Daily News. He was fired because he refused to drive the men under him. He also exposed the conditior there, but what he wrote wasn’t news, for everybody knows Ford is a slave- driver. ‘Thursday, April 30, the men were told to sign their number to a state- ment saying they were satisfied with the wages and conditions in the plant. Most of them did not under- stend what they were asked to sign, but, when they did, they raised hell. Well, the bosses told them they didn’t have to work for Ford, in other words, to get out if they didn’t like it. Now I would like to write about the seen nothing about them in the Daily Worker. A crew is given a certain time to unload a box-car, usually from 3 to 8 hours. The cars must be stripped of bracings by quitting time. The bracings hold the ma- chinery in place in the box-car and ep the machinery away from ng that might scratch it. 2 bracings have large nails in because of the speed-up are placed on the floor ar, for there are no men them cutside. Many men 3 nails in their feet, and | bef they can see the doctor they | must get a sick slip from a fore- man. The foremen refuses, because they are given hell for allowing too many men to leave the job. One fellow had to scck a foreman on the jaw before he got a sick slip. It makes no difference to the bosses if a worker gets blood poison- ing, for there are plenty of men to replace them, The toilets are closed plain the straw bosses say: “What do you wear pants for?” If a man is hurt, he gets no pay while he is in the medical office. even though it may not be the fault of the worker, and if he stays home because of his injuries, he may find himself minus a job. Most of the men work only three days a week. —R, “opress Workers (On “Model Farm” Low Wages and Long Hours for Men Madison, N. J. Daily Worker: There are six milkers on Noe Farms who are forced to work long hours for small wages. These work- ers receive from $25 to $40 a month, including room and board. All these milkers do the same amount of work, but they are paid according to their age and length of service. Work begins at 5 a. m. and ends at 5:30 p. m., about 14 hours of hard labor daily. Food in the boarding house is yery poor. Lodging is ter- rible. The rooms are unheated and very dingy, rusty beds. There is no kind of social life. The workers are forced to spend their measly wages for an old Ford so that they can go to the city once in a while, Ready to Organize. Yet Noe Farm ts considered a mod- ern and up-to-date farm. They em- ploy 20 workers, who are complain- ing bitterly on account of their low wages and the rotten conditions here. They are ready to be organized into the Agricultural Workers’ Union, —A Farmer, Workers Correspondence {s the bro’sheris of Ure revolutionary press, Build your press by writing for it | about your day to day struggles, conditions in the place, for I have | by 3 o'clock and if the men com- | BOSSES PAY All Wealth mes a | in textile mill, No Joblessness; Workers Work Only 7 Hours)! WORKDN, NOW LURK, SALTUNUVAT; TIAL 9, 19OT Factories Managed by the Workers in the te : rage Tiree Soviet Goes to the Workers #i These are the rulers: (Left) Soviet worker testing new diesel engine. (Above) New recruits for the collective farms. (Right) Woman worker Daily Under Healthy Conditions Town of Smolensk, U.S.S.R. Dear Comrade: I am very pleased to receive your letter and will write you back upon | the life in USSR. I see you are interested in our work in the country where all the power is in the rands of workers. In U.S.S.R. all the fac- otries, works, railways, in one word ll the industries in the hands of the state of the workers; almost 96 per cent of the trade is in the hands of the cooperatives. Workers Run Factories You write the masters of younr | country are the rich millionaires the | aim of which is to exploit the work- | ers, in order to have more profit, In US.S.RB., it is quite the contrary; I work in a great trust of food indus- |try. This trust is led by V.S.N.H. | (the Superior Council of National |Economy). The manager of our | trust is a worker and his substitute |is also a woman worker of the fac- ‘tory. Other managers of the trust are also workers. All the industrial plans were considered and confirmed by the employees and the workers at the meetings. We took part in every | work of our enterprise as we felt; | the enterprise belongs to us, the workers, and not the capitalists, Now I will tell you who receives the profit of all state-enterprises. We spend this money by enlarging our factories and works, by building the new ones, by improving the condi- tions of life of the workers and em- ployees and by building the new houses, clubs, rest-houses. sanas, creches, kinder-gartens and so on. You write you work’9 hours, in your country there are a great many men without any jobs. We work only 7 hours. Actually nearly all workers work 7 hours a day. We have no joblessness at all. will find work at once. We have a shortage of skilled workers and every man and woman who wants to work, | receives work immediately, This year we will have a shortage of two mil- lion skilled workers and our gov- ernment had taken measures con- cerning the new cadres, teaching the youth, the men and womef on the account of the state. It is a very short letter, but I wanted only to show you the differ- ;ence between the conditions in the capitalist countries with these of the USSR. Wait for your letters. —Kaplan. New York Oty. Daily Worker: | The capitalist papers are still try- ing to fool the workers about the proaching end of the economic de- sion and the fact that “pros- perity is here.” ‘The press thinks that by writing these fake news items that they will be able to sup- press the workers, both employed and unemployed, who are being thrown out daily from factories, shops, ete. These starving workers’ revolt 1s much stronger than the capitalist press lies. Girls Work for $10 a Week. In a large office building on 295 Madison Ave., New York City, all the elevator operators were dis- charged and girls were employed in- stead. The men, some having fam- ilies to support, were discharged, not because of inefficiency, or because of poor business—every place there is occupied and the rent is very high. The workers were cruelly thrown out to starve, wives and children in- | cluded, for the reason that they re- ceived $23 a week and the girls were GIRLS REPLACE MEN OPERATORS: Get Less Than Half of Men’s Wages taking their places for the miser- able sum of $10. ‘These girls, after. long months of unemployment, were forced to take these jobs and did not realize that they were taking the bread away from these workers. Nurse’s Pay Cut $5. In the N. ¥. Times there was an advertisement for a nurse wanted: “Trained nurse wanted for a lady, 24 hours duty,.$3 a day.” A trained nurse's standard fee is $8 for a 12- hour day or night duty. The nurse alone who works in a sick, depressed atmosphere is allowed to work the usual 12 hours at a stretch. Now she is asked to work 24 hours, and for the sum of $3. Now, to derive benefit from the great crisis, the rich offer the trained nurse $3 for 24 hours’ duty—121-2 cents per hour! ‘The unemployed and employed workers are uniting and are deter- mined to fight against these miser- able conditions and will establish a workers’ and farmers’ government here in the United States. Who is healthful | AUTOMAT BOSSES WOULD JIMCROW NEGRO IN N. Y. ‘Toy 1 Marchers Force Lilly White Bosses | to Let Negro Eat New York, N. Y. | Daily Worker:— | May Ist this year was the greatest I ever saw. Though I was supposed to work that day, I managed to get away to march with the rest of the slaves of capitalism. Workers Enthusiastic. All the workers where I work were very enthusiastic about the parade and demonstration, many of them marching in it. All the way we met workers who were glad to see us and who sympa- thize with our struggle. Although everything was quiet un- til we reached Union Square, some- thing had to happen at some other place, and that was the Automat Res- taurant, on 14th Street, near the Ed- ison Company building. A Jim-Crow Cop. A Southern “gentleman” (a jack- ass) in the service of the detectivve force, thought that he was too “civil- ized” and that it was a disgrace to eat beside a Negro. Along with the manager of the res- taurant, the gink from the South pre- tended that the Negro comrades were blocking the way and spoiled business. They then tried to push the Negro workers out of the restaurant. Many white workers sided in with the Ne- groes and gathered around the boss and cop with threatening gestures and forced them to keep their hands off of the Negro workers. We all walked out of the restaurant together then, white and Negro, the dick and the restaurant boss looking at us and feeling very down-hearted because they could not satisfy their jim-crow feelings. Build a Worcorr Group in your shop! Write About your struggles! —A Woman Worker. Thousands of Miners Starving in Pa. WORTHLESS CHECKS Mines Region (By a Worker Correspondent) PITTSBURGH, Pa.—As an ex- ample of the kind of pay checks the miners who are still working are get- ting nowadays in the Pennsylvania bituminous coal regions, I enclose a check a coal miner received here last April 15. You will notice the miner received nothing whatsoever for his work. Fifteen dollars and sixty-nine cents was the amount the miner was sup- posed to have earned, but the com- pany, greedy for profits and with an air of unconcern for the welfare of the worker, put the $15.69 into their own coffers and handed the worker a check good for the amount of $0.00. Company Store Gets All Fifteen dollars and six cents was taken by the company store, 55 cents for medical attention he never got and 8 cents for repairing the tools with which he digs out the profits for the mine owners, ‘This is a common occurrence here in the mining fields. Thousands of workers work week in and week out for the rich mine bosses, who spend most of their time luxurating and Jazing around at the European watering places and Miami Beach, and receive not one cent of pay— only a few dollars worth of food from the company store. “Worse Than Chattel Slavery. ‘The Labor Research Association, in its mining notes for the month of May, points out that the average weekly earnings per worker in the Pennsylvania / bituminous region is $19.59 a month, but fails to state that even this little money is sel- dom seen by the workers, Those who are working in the mines live under the most impoverished con- ditions, equal even to the conditions existing in the South during chattel slave days, Indeed the miner is worse off than the chattel slave. The chattel slave received only a little food and a poor shelter for his work and a beating once in a while, but the slave owners very seldom mur- dered their slaves, because they were private property and it would cost money to get new ones, The mine owners, however, rejoice when a state Philadelphia, Pa. To My Fellow Workers in the Soviet Union, U. S. S. R. Dear Comrades, I wish to relate my personal sit- uation as an American worker. I am thirty years of age, married nine years and have two children, five and seven years of age. Deadly Fumes Ruins Worker. My trade is in the building line as roofing and heating mechanic in which I have served twelve years.| My trade was slack so I went to work in a work shop of the United Gas Improvement Co. in Philadel- phia, There I contracted tubercu- losis, a disease not pleasant to have and I can never get rid of it either. The deadly fumes have affected many others besides myself. I have not been able to work as a result of six months labor in that company. Wife Forced To Earn Living. My wife is forced to undertake the} struggle for the keeping of the house. She is employed at an Elec-| trical Appliance Manufacturing Con- cern in Philadelphia, the Wirt Elec- tric Co., where she works nine hours a day, for the sum of twelve dollars @ week, My rent is $25 a month for a five room apartment. We have no gas, electricity, or heat. This added ex- pense costs us $8 extra. The cheap- est grade of milk is 12 cents a quart, butter about 35 cents a pound, bread 10 cents, meat is exceptionally high far beyond our means. I receive no income from any source, not even compensation or sick benefit. Iam just one of the millions of the struggling workers in the U. S. A. with no future in store, under this society of capitalist rule. Wants To Hear From Soviets, I would like to have your views of OAKLAND COUNCIL CLOSES “RELIEF” 3 Jobless Workers Try to Commit Suicide Oakland, Cal. Daily Worker:— Spring time has brought no prom- ised relief to the workers as far as employment is concerned. Emer- gency jobs handed out by council (which wasn’t much anyway) have been ended first of April. Soup kitchens have been closed, The work- ers are getting more despondent and the papers are giving little items of here and there of suicides, attempts of suicide and the cause occasionally, in spite of the censorship, Items written below taken out of one day's issue of the local press. Jobless, Tries Suicide. Donald Averill, 30, of 2020-92nd Avenue recovering today at an emer- gency hospital from an attempt to commit suicide by cuttting his wrists with a razor blade. He was out of employment for quite a while. Despondant over illness and unem- ployment, Dolly Reddy, 33 of 3764 Shafter Avenue a nurse, attempted to commit suicide by drinking poison in her apartment. She was taken to a hospital in a serious condition. Mother Asks for Clothes. Mother of eight children, Mrs. Be- dell, appeals for cast off clothing. “Any kind of clothes will do, as long as they can be worn.” Amidst such happenings, fashions of Oaklanders are being tallied this week, to see what a well dressed wo- man and man wears here. High class stores with the cooperation of co-eds at the University of California check latest. modes. cop kills a striking mine worker, and they have even given them medals and citations for the job, Famine Conditions. According to the Federal Reserve Board, 62,000 miners were unem- ployed in the bituminous region in 1930. The number has increased during the first part of this year and the entire mining region looks like @ famine struck it. Workers are actually starving and going about barefooted. Those who are working are speeded up most unmercifully and many of the checks that they receive for their work amount to merely one or two dollars or are blanks like the one which I sent you. The National, Miners’ Union of the Trade Union Unity League is the only organization that is fighting against this starvation and for bet- ter conditions for the miners. Min- ers, join this fighting union and force the bloated bosses to give us bigger checks—checks for real money instead of the hot air checks we are getting That is a mockery to the 35,000 un- employed workers. Rich are flaunt- ing styles in the face of misery. Or- ganize and demand unemployment imsurance! —Working Mother. BVICT CHICAGO INVALID WORKER Chicago, Ml. Daily Worker: A crippled worker, who is a help- less invalid and married, was thrown out into the street at Frank St., right near a police station, just be- cause he owed a month's rent. This worker and his wife were forced to sleep in the street until some com- rades from the Unemployed Council, Branch No. 3, observed them. This council immediately mobilized both Negro and white workers, who put back their furniture. © Militancy Wins. The landlord became frightened and called a policeman to the scene. When the policeman learned that the evicted workers had already joined the council, and when he saw the militancy of the crowd, he did not care to make any arrests and hur- riedly left the scene, much to the dismay of the landlord, Workers, it is up to all of you to organize such councils that fight ‘PHILA. WORKER TELLS” SOVIETS WHAT’S WHAT IN LAND OF “HONEY” Bedridden After Working In Gas Co. Under Deadly Fumes; Receives No Compensation Wife Forced to Slave for $12 A Week, Must Support 2 Children and Invalid Husband Russia and your trials in life and what you have to look forward to in exchange for mine as a worker and comrade. Comradely, yours, —H. H. R. Editorial Note—Here is a letter | complying with the request of the Soviet workers to the American workers to help build an Interna- tional Relations Group. Comrade H. H. R. writes to. the Building Trade Workers in the Soviet Union, He describes conditions in the U. S. A. as they affect “him and wants to learn about the’ conditions in the Soviet Union, Workers send in your letters too and we will mail them to the proper place. Help establish more comradely relations with the workers in the other lands. Write in cate’ of the Work- ers Correspondenc# Dept. Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St, N. ¥. C. ‘TWO MINES SHUT DOWN IN PENNA.; 1,500 JOBLESS Conditions Worsen Daily In Lehigh Coal Fields Daily Worker: Coaldale, Pa Conditions here in Coaldale, Ps under the old Lehigh Valley Coal Go. are worse every day. I was work- ing three days out of thei week and since they got that unemployed com- mittee selected I am out of work, I haven't been working five months and they still continue closing down valley after valley. There are about 1,500 out of work here, It seems the more we produce the more we are out of work. Not only that, but they add longer hours to those having work and cut their wages as a re- turn. However, in Soviet Russia it is quite the opposite, where they shorten the hours and increase the wages. ‘We workers here in America must fight for this, too. Shop Gate Meetings Before Fisher Body Tell of Speed-Up and Wage-Cuts in Shop CLEVELAND, Ohio.—Fisher Body Company. Twelve-a'clock. The work- ers are filing out of the factory. Most of them go to the Iiinch rooms right across the way. Many of them have their lunches with them and sit on an iron railing eating their sand- wiches. Some of them stay inside and eat their lunch, A salesman selling jewelry is stand- ing in the midst of a crowd about five or ten minutes past twelve. Tel- ling them what wonderful bargains they can get. Another kind of a salesman is on another side, dressed up like an Indian ‘trying to sell some kind of medicine...” Workers’ Organizer. Then another speaker gets up on a stone. “Fellow-workers.....” Some- thing different. Here is someone who is not trying to sell anything. The speaker continues. “Wage cuts in he shop——in every department. The speed-up is unbearable—Lay-offs— miserable conditions for all the work- ers. On the sixth floor—got a cut from 8 to 20 per cent—The glue de- partment cut from 48 to 35 cents an hour—in the Press room one worker had his hand broken in two places— We must organize against these con- ditions. Organize’ grievance commit~- tees in the Departments—prepare to resist the wage cuts and speed-up— Down Tools on May First to demon- strate against these wage cuts!” Read the Daily Worker! There isn’t much time. Another worker has a paper with him. Not the Press or Plain Dealer— But the Daily Worker. Many of the workers look at it hungrily but are in fear of the stool pigeons who are stationed throughout the crowd. Most of the workers have left the jeweler and the Indian and are listening to the speak- er who is talking about their condi- tions, who says he is from the Com- munist Party.. The fifteen minutes pass quickly, It is heartbreaking to see how rapidly the workers are ushered back into the slave shop. It seems that they walked out of the door for a moment, and then had to run back to the ihHuman speed-up. The speaker keeps on until the last worker is gone and they reluctantly leave as ho finishes with “Demon- strate. on May First against Wage Cuts.” WRITE AS YOU FIGHT! Write about the conditions in your shop, factory or neighborhood, Send letters about working class conditions to the Workers Corres- pondence Depty Daily Worker, 50 against starvation and evictions, E. 13th St