The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 29, 1931, Page 3

ee CUTS WAGES THREE TIMES IN TWO YRS. Slave Under . Vicious Speed-Up for As Low As $10 Per Week Boss Calls Workers “My Children” Then Sub- jects Them to Most Brutal Treatment Packing .Room. Girls Daily Worker :— I am a shoe worker in the Progress Shoe Company, where there are about 150 workers slaving from 7.30 a. m. till 6.30 p. m. every day in the week for almost nothing. Most of us are piece-workers, except the packing room girls who have to slave 48 hours a week at wages as low as $10 a week. Besides having to take the insults of the bosses, these girls are speeded up most unmercifully and must work over- But when one of these girls happens time at single wages. MAID OFFERED TWO MAN JOB FOR 2c AN HOUR Must Slave 10 Hours _A Day: Take Care of. Home and 3 Children. Indianapolis, Ind. Daily Worker: . I have been looking for work since 1980." Today I found an ad in an Indianapolis paper which calls for a maid to work at 1937 North Penn St. In desperate need for work, I answered this ad. : 1014 Hours Daily—83 a Week. This is what I learned. There were three childz¢n in the family— two the maid must dress, cook the meals and send them to school. The maid is supposed to come to work at 6 o'clock in the morning and work until four in the evening, for which she would receive the sum of $3 @ week. The maid must take care of the baby all day. Not only that, but she must do all the housework, in- cluding the ironing. I guess this work was fit for more than two maids. Two Cents an Hour. ‘Well it turns out that all the maid gets is 5 cents an hour and she must work for 10), hours a day. Then the maid is supposed to live else- where, for which she has to pay $1.50 carfare a week, In other words, she must work’ 65 hours ‘a week for $1.50, which pays her only 2 cents an, hour. ‘This is what capitalism pays the worker. —A Worker. French ' Workers Victorious in 19 Strikes in Month Mass Movements Hit Bosses Efforts to Force More Slashes (By A French Worker) 47 strikes, including 79,715- workers took place in France in one month. Of these struggles, over 50 percent were against wage-cuts, and 13 per tent demanded a wage-increase. This thows clearly that the French workers Tefuse to support the consequences of the present crisis. 19 strikes won a victory for the workers, The most important strike was the miners’ strike. Altho " the miners of the Nord and Pas de Ca- lais went back to work due: to the treachery of the reformist. leaders, the: fought valiantly against the fascist forces and at most occasions were the masters of the streets dur- ing the fights. z Unemployed Workers Militant. The unemployed movement is very active also. The mass: unem- ployed demonstrations took place in ‘Tury, Saint Quen, Monpeliier, Bo- piquy, Bezons, Nice, Montretil,- Oul- nay-sous-Bois, etc. In the demonstrations at the Olean factory in Bobique=and in front of the Torp Plan in Montrueil a real good united front took: place between the employed and unem- ployed workers. . Unemployment is getting worse every day. There are 10,000 more workers out of a job weekly. France, which was able to enter the crisis later, is now coming fast to the situ- ation of other capitalist countries. In order to get out of it, the French capitalists resort to wage-cutting which in many cases goes as high as 20 percent, even though the wages are alreddy very low. The French workers have orgahized mass movements against these conditions and are fighting the attacks of the bosses. * More Proof on zs : Mooney and Billings Innocence __ Hondo, Calif. Daily Worker: According to a copyrighted article in the Los Angeles Record of May 20, 1931, a German war agent, grind nephew of Field Marshal Von Moltke, confesses that a German spy perpe- ‘trated the bomb outrage at Sar Francisco for which Tom’ Mooney and Warren Billings have been im “prigoned for 15 years, —L.'P, R. New York, N. Y. to come two minutes late the com- pany takes off for fifteen minutes. Each girl has to do work for two or she looses her job. Wages Cut Three Times During the last two years our wages were cut three times. The first cut was a 10 per cent cut, then came another 10 per cent slash and not long ago they cut us 5 per cent. Now the boss tells us that if we want to work during the summer months we will have to take another 10 per cent cut, otherwise he will close the place up altogether. And Mr. Doak says there are no wage cuts! Why that’s all that’s been going on down here for the last two years, Terrific Speed-up And the way we are speeded up. We are being rushed like a lot of wild dogs. Each night the manager goes around to find.out how many dozen each man made, and when he found out that one laster lasted 34 dozen, then right away he came over and said, “You fellows claim you can’t make a living, but look at that fellow—he lasted 34 dozen.” The boss, however, failed to mention that this fellow rushed himself to death and worked 11 hours. In the cutting roo mwe have a foreman, Mr. Pomerant, who is known to all the workers as the meanest man in the shoe line, He calls the workers “damned fools” and all the vile names he can think of. When the boss wants to cut the wages he calls the man toge- ther and calls them children. “I’m the father and you're the children,” he says, “and as a family, each one of the children doing some- thing for the father to keep the family from being ruined.” And the very next day the little “fath- er” throws the “children” out into the street like dogs. Now I want to ask the workers in the Progress Shoe Ci as well as all other shoe workers, how much longer can we stand for these con- ditions—these wage cuts, these in- sults. I guess we've stood for them long enough, and it’s about time for us to get together into the Shoe Workers Industrial Union and fight this, —A Shoe Slave. Sacramento Can Co. Lays Off 60 Men ‘ Jobless, Wage Cuts Increasing in Akron, Ohio (By a Worker Correspondent.) AKRON, Chio.—In spite of the talk in the newspapers about con- Gitions getting better, we see the following taking place in the cities of Akron and Barberton. At the Columbia Chemical Works, at Barberton, the Bedeaux speed-up is being introduced, with lay-offs taking place every day. The Babcox and Wilcox Boiler Works is the only place in the city that is working anything like full time. This shop, however, one that made parts for bat ships and shells during the war. In the “Rubber City” (City of Opportunity in 2928). the Good- rich Rubber has cut the wages for all salaried workers 10 per cent, with lay-offs taking place daily. The only department that is work- ing full time is the gas mask de- partment, where thousands of masks are made daily and shipped to foreign countries, probably to be used against the Soviet Union. |} Or, maybe, the genial old scare- |} crow of capitalism, Uncle Sam, is getting ready for another war to kill off the unemployed he won't have to pay unemployment insurance. Poor Farmers Duped By Loan Sharks in Minn. Banks Refuse Short} Loans to Farmers Pillager, Minn. Dear Comrades: In Minnesota we have “free” pub- lic roads. They are free te the ex- tent that we have to pay a car li- cense as well as a gas tax to use them. This tax is due at the same time the personal property tax is due, which makes it doubly hard to pay and if it is not payed on time you are fined up to $5. Robbed by Loan Sharks. A poor farmer was unable to pay this tax, and as the last resort he had to borrow from a loan shark in Brianerd as the banks have cut SP Shops Close Down More Departments SACRAMENTO, Cal.—The Ameri- can Can Co. of Sacramento laid off 25 men in the second week of May and during the following week 35 more were fired and the rest of the workers were put on part time work. The Southern Pacific shops here rave closed down some of their de- partments entirely. The others are working part time. Conditions of the workers are get- ting worse from day to day. Work- ers must organize and fight against the capitalist system which brings all this misery and wretchedness to them, Under capitalism the more the worker produces the sooner he is put on the streets to starve. This is the chance a worker has under capitalism. POOR FARMERS HOME ey, out all the small and short time loans. ‘The farmer wanted $25 for 90 days, so the shark made out two notes for him to sign, one for $25 and one for $9, due in 90 days. He gave the farmer a check for $25 and offered to cash it for him. He did and handed the farmer $24.50, explaining that they had to do these things as there was no profit in these small loans. This is a sample of the way the poor farmers are being kicked around in Minnesota. Editorial Note:—The poor farm- ers should organize into commit- tees of action to fight these con- ditions. Force the government to give free seed. Refuse to pay taxes, rent and debts. The United Farm- ers League, Box 94, Wisc., will give the farmers leadership in their struggles, ATTACK WAGE CUTS Lumber & Farm Workers Organize! Mt. Vernon, Wash. Daily Worker: “And there are no wage-cuts.” We are thus solemnly assured thru the press that wages of Am- erican workers have not been cut. We suppose an average cut of more than 30 per cent in the lumber in- dustry here does not mean anything. The local papers are full of bunk in regard to things getting better, but they have no space for the fact that the fire season approaches and the log camps, the few that are operating will use it as an excuse to stay closed all summer. No, and they overlook the fact that farmers are receiving at the condensaries $18 per ton or 90¢ a hundred lbs., about 7c per gallon for their milk with children starving in the cities “or milk which can be bought for About 40¢ per gallon if you have the rrice, Maybe eggs at Ide per dozer and refusal of canneries to contract for berries and small fruits is a sign of returning prosperity but we fail to see it. A local cannery will start in July and they blaze it out in big head- lines, but nothing is said about their going to can peas, which means about one-third of the pack of veg- etables we had last year or aboyt two months work for the cannery workers and this with increased speed-up and reduced wages, Units Organized We are organizing; units of the united farmers and lumber workers have recently been organized as well as increases in the membership of the unemployed council. They may fool some people for a while with the Hoover sunshine talk but con- Citions such as ‘we have here are setting-thenr to thinking, even the foolish ones are awakening. —A_ Farmer, EW YORK, FRIDAY, AY 29, 1931 Writing fr om the Shops Worker Correspondents in a Soviet factory writing for their paper, helping in the great task of building up Socialism and the Five Year Pian. Workers in America have through the revolutionary press to correspondence group in your factory, shop or neighborhood. you fight! the task of mobilizing the workers smash the bosses. Build a worker Write as California Prisoners Held Beyond Sentence San Quentin, Cal Dear Comrade: The Daily Worker does not arrive any more due to a ban placed on it, altho why it was placed I am unable to understand. However, if the bulletin board in the prison yard keeps up its con- structive work |the entire prison will soon go haywire. All of which - revolves around a little story which I anf sure will be interesting to you and the other comrades way up in New York. Held Beyond Term To begin with the parole laws of this state make it obligatory upon an inmate receiving parole to have a job to go to before he leaves here. This requires a state official to look after such work, that is, the work of keeping the inmate on the job after he is released and seeing that the ex- inmate makes out and submits a report each week to the parole of- ficer. It is only natural that men are here, who have been given paroles but who cannot leave un- til they have a job, despite the fact that their legitimate time has ex- pired and they should be “outside” enjoying a small measure of liber- ty while serving out the remainder of their sentence on parole. It follows then, that many men have not been able to secure jobs and have had to fall back on the State Parole Officer to get them a job. The State Parole Officer does not run an employment agen- cy, altho he sometimes secures jobs for men when a request comes to his office for a certain type of man. Hard pressed for jobs lately by men who are due out the State Parole Officer sent a letter to our Warden wherein he stated: “This will give the men an idea as to just what the situation is with respect to employment when so many others are idle. There are many men who want jobs, but who have no friends to assist them.” Nor was this all. Attached to the letter, and prominently dis- played on the Bulletin board in the main yard of the prison was a clipping from the S. F. “News” giving the unemployment figures in various cities. Here was a glar- ing admission of the horrible con- ditions which the working class are living under due to the crisis. Crisis Felt In Prison What do we understand from all this? First, that the State Parole Officer is being pestered to death with applications from inmates who are due out and; Second, in order o justify his stand he must give the figures he sees in the papers without seeking for the deeper rea- sons of world economic crisis; Third, the far-reaching influences of the crisis is felt by even men in prison and adds materially to their already long sentences; and Fourth,| Los Angeles, which city sends the larg- est quota of men to this institu- tion, is keeping its unemployment news secret for fear that the un- employed might awake to their mis- erable conditions and devise some means to overcome such misery. POLICE STATIONS NOT BUREAUS OF INFORMATION FOR MILITANTS Worker Critigizes Organizer Who Goes to Po- lice Station for Information On Meet (By a Worker Correspondent) WATERBURY, ,Conn.—fome time ago I noticed in “Red Sparks” of the Daily Worker that one of the Com- munist speakers in a certain district went to a certain town to speak or to attend a Party meeting, but as he did not have the address of the Party headquarters he promptly went to the police headquarters for informa- tion, where he got himself arrested and kept in jail over night. On May 21, in District 15, in Con- necticut, a speaker used the same method to find out the location of the open-air meeting in Waterbury that was organized to protest against the sentencirs of the nine Scottsboro boys to the electric chair. Comrade Jackson came to speak at the meeting and did not have the Fire lowa Worker Who Dares to Ask ‘© for Injury Payment Davenport, Iowa. Daily Worker: I worked at th: Overson Egg Co. last season and while working there I was hurt by an egg case that fell on the back of my neck and head. I was forced to remain away for a whole week, for which I made the company pay compensation and the doctor bills. For this reason they did not hire me this season, so I was told by the forelady, who does not hesitate ‘to tell the other girls why I was fired. Slave for 20 Cents an Hour, The girls are only getting 20 cents an hour under the most slave-driving conditions, Therefore I want to pass some papers around to the girls:who are working there, for I think they should be organized. I am a mem- ber of the Unemployed Council. —An Unemployed Worker, address cf the meeting. Although he had the address of the Party headquarters, he marched straight to the police station, where the cops kept him until the meeting was over. After he was released he came to the secretary's house to excuse himself on the above-mentioned grounds. We had to laugh at his stupidity in spite of our disappointment. Comrades, we have got to correct such mistakes. This is the third time in a year that speakers did not show up at meetings. . Editorial Note—The foregoing letter should make it clear to all comrades that police stations should not be used by militant workers and Communists as infor- mation bureaus. Soviet Worker Wants. .to Correspond With. .Ford Moter Workers Moscow, U, 5S. S. R. To the Workers and Employes of the Ford Works! I should like to correspond with any of the workers or employes of the Ford Works ‘about their life and work in the U. 8. A. I will describe ‘my life end work and what is happening in the Soviet Union. Write to me: Nikolas Checherine, Street of Decabrisioi, 23, Leningrad, U. S. S. R. Yours sincerely, —Checherine, Fight lynching. Fight deporta- Hon of foreign born. Elect dele- gates to your city conference for protection of foreign born. ‘ School Children Replace Parents In Chicago Firm mM. . Chicago, Daily Worker: Today I overheard a few words of conversation between school children at Evergreen Avenue and Hoyne Avenue. One boy asked an- other if he is going to work for Goldbergs Dry Goods Chain Store Co. Since I am unemployed I became interested, and wanted to find out what kind of work or wages there might be. This is what I found out. Kids at the age of ten and twelve are hired by Goldberg Brothers to do some work in con- nection with advertising. This boy said that he and 4 or 5 others were promised 50c for a half day work. They put in 5°to 6 hours each and got 20c for it. They were gyped 30c or G0c of the promised wages. Do not let your children work on jobs that you can take for || higher wages. slovery. Fight against this Oakland Lays Off 20 City Workers In Fake Cleanup Politicians Still Get Fat Salaries (By a Worker Vorrespondent) OAKLAND, C ali f.—Commissioner of Public Works E. Thompson just announced that he had discharged a large number of employees in the public works department, saving $3,000 a month approximately. Em- Pployees were dismissed in all branches of the publis works department, in- cluding the city hall janitors, the bureau of research and auditorium. Altogether some 20 or more em- ployes were discharged during this clean-up. The discharged employes were those of manual lebor. This saving is to be shouldered by other em- ployes who also receive not too big a wage. Politicians Hold Jobs. Politicians who receive high sal- aries and of whom there are quite many here—commissioners upon commissioners, sergeants, inspectors, etc., they are not doubled on the jobs and their salaries are intact. ‘There were twelve old automobiles (some useless, anyway, and the offi- cials scorned to be seen in them) taken away from the officials, which will be sold at auttion soon as an economy program. These were the 8-cylinder sedans, which are rattling boxes now. These cars were used up more for joy rides by commission- ers than city service. But one or a few less junks will only improve the looks of the city garage. Thi is told to the citizens as a sacrifice of the Officials fm order to save, while the Wages In Hospitals Do (By a Worker C NEW YORK.—The nurses of sition they were in yesterde office ouildings working enough to exist on. Cut Hospital as scr Staffs The hospitals, which 1 12 nurses on the floor in a ward commodating from 30 to 25 today have the number of bu help. ‘As for wag range from 20 to 30 per cent he nurses who worked before for $90 a month are getting from $60 to $55 per month now. And they are lucky to get a job at that rate. When a nurse comes to a registry | looking for private duty the answer | is: “We did not get a call for w On Sixth Avenue thousands o! are looking for work and starving on the streets. Duped By Agencies Some of the “unemployment” agencies take away money from the nurses and promise them a job and when they get to the job they find as high as twenty more waiting for the same job. Here are slaves with strong arms and brains, without money in their pockets, willing still to work 12 hours a day for six days a week. They are looking for slave masters in the markets and can't find any. Must Organize The nurses, in order to better their conditions, will have to organ- ize and fight for the shorter work day and work week without a re- duction in pay. They must organize strikes against the wage cuts. They must demand better food and better places to live. The Medical Workers League will give the nurses leader- ship in their struggles. Forget about your diplomas. The bosses do not recognize you as professionals, but as slaves. Attend the mass meeting of the Medical Workers League, Friday, May 29, at 8 p. m., 16 West 21st Street, New York City. Organize and fight for the right to live. the backbone of the revolutionary press. Workers Correspondence fs Build your press by writing for it laborers are thrown out to walk the streets as unemployed. This is the “returning prosperity” for Oaklanders. Organize together with the work- ers who are members of the van- guard, the Communist Party. Or- ganize into red unions affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League and its Unemployed Councils to fight wage-cuts and for social insurance for the unemployed. Chisholm Mine Co. Staggers Firemen . Chisholm, Minn, Dear Comrode: I have the correct information on the wage scale of the Oliver Iron Mining Co, The firemen of locomo- tives are working six hours per day and one week on and one week off. They get $3.42 per day, which makes $41.04 per month. And anyone with a family, paying rent, fuel and other living expenses will not lay away more than a few thousand a year on those wages. Indianapolis, Ind, Dear Mr. Editor, The workers in this country have just been treated to the most disrusting spectacle and the most extravagant weste of the nation’s funds that can be imagined. An untoXl amount of the country’s wealth has literally been burnt up in mid-air, fighting sham battles with imaginary foes, While pri- vate capital throughout the land is seeking every possible means of re- trenchment the officials at Wash- ington conjure up a mythical enemy attack as an excuse for squandering the money of the workers. 2,000 Children Starving. As a result of official investiga- tion Miss Grace Abbott, head of the children’s bureau of the U. S. Dept. of Labor made the startling ernouncement that there are twelve million children in this country who are suffering from & {enough and a horse buyer says he BOSSES PREPARE WAR! Jail Militant Red Builder about your day to day struggles, LEGION IN MINN ACTS AS CENSOR Poor Farmers Have No Money to Buy Seed Daily Worker: I am sorry we cannot send more to the Daily but it is costing us so much for seed we feel lucky to pay it at all. Many farmers cannot get seed could sell all kinds of horses but the farmers have no money to pay for them. We are trying hard to make new contacts for the Daily here. The Legion and Klan are strong here and all parcels and bundles we receive are opened. We could stand it ourselves but there are three families depending on us and it means several babies would be turned out to starve. So far we can find no dependable person to recommend to you, but will do all we can to spread the Daily ourselves. —Farmers life lack of food. The Gov't. refuses to draw from its treasury to relieve the real and pressing necds of the starving but they pour out their money without stint to show the capitalist class how they will pro- tect them from foreign invasion. Railroad Worker. is elty last week there was rendered another of those infam- ous verdicts that have made our courts of justice a standing dis- grace to civilization. Theodore Luesse, militant worker and red builder, was railrozded to prison because he dared to denounce the atrocious acts of tyranny that are constantly being perpetrated against the workers by the ruling class. Workers! Organize! Workers, we must organize into a real, fighting organization against the attacks of the capital- ist class and their Jackeys. Join the revolutionary trade unions, —A. P. NEW YORK HO:PITALS — SLASH NURSES’ WAGES, CUT NURSI | Daily Page Three \G STAFES 200,000 Nurses Unemployed Throughout U.S.A. wn 20 to 39 Per Cent. Medical Workers League Calls Mass Meeting In New York Tonight to Organize Struggle orrespondent) today are not in the same po- Nurses a few years ago made ‘a little better than a living. This, however, is out of the ques- tion today. Today 200,000 nurses are out of work in the Nurses, who spent three and a half years in training, are now unable even to get jobs as chamber maids, waitresses or ‘cooks. We find many trained nurses in shops, factories and ub women for wages, barely IN LOCAL CALIF. FORD FACTORY Refuse to Slave Under Speed-Up System; Workers Fired San Francisco, Cal. Worker Cond in the local Ford Plant have become unbeatable. About a year ago a new superintedent was sent here to take charge of the plant. This “sup” brought his whole fam- ily into the place who act as stool- pigeons, thugs and other characters who are petty bourgeois waiters. If any worker dares to complain about the rotten conditions in the plant, he is fired. When the up” hires workers he offers to pay them $6 a day for, a certain time of probation and after the probation time he promises to pay $7 a day. However no worker can get beyond the pro- bation time, since he is always fired, I was working as a paid foreman in this Ford branch when the new “sup” came along with his whole family, He placed his brother-in-law as the chief paint foreman. This fellow de- manded more production from the workers than could be possibly done under the worst conditions of speed- ised to allow such slavery, t only I but all the wor'’-crs complained against this + 2re —A Worker, Chi. Dam Workers Paid 35c. an Hour By the U.S. Goy’} Receve Half Wages in Seript Chicago, Til. fired. Dear Worker: Here are the conditions of the workers on a government job near Morris, Ill. The Dresden Heighis Lock and Dam are being buil the Congress Construction Co. uni government contract. They see it fit to pay carpenters 50¢c an hour and builders 35c an hour. These work eight-hours a day. There is a camp on the job site where workers can obtain room and board for $9 per week. If the work- ers should loose a few days because of bad weather, his next weeks wages are mortgaged to pay for his board A worker must also loose six con secutive meals before he is entitles to any reduction. —A Worker. SHINGLE SLAVES PAY SLASHED IN HALF IN OREGON A word on the shingle industry and wage cuts therein. Notwith- standing wage cut after cut has been put into effect by the shingle man- ufacturers now, averaging 50 per cent in the one year, some of the bosses are again asking their crews to accept a cut. Although Hoover has promised there would be no wage cuts, and for a long time cap- italist press have stated that wage- cuts were on an even deal, again in Centralia a lower scale is offered on May 18, which shows that where no resistance is offered by labor the bosses keep up their mad race for profits by asking labor to work for nothing. The shingle weavers made one fight against the firts cut but were reac- tionary in principle to organize un- der a proper leadership and like old reac.ionary unions split their ranks on the question of leadership. As a result of this split the reac- tionary members opposed the T. U. U. L. leadership and tried to oust the “reds.” But the reactionary did me v*hting against the reds than against the bosses, which of course gave the bosses the chance to win the strike. Now that they have learned this lesson, and have found that there is only one leadership, the T. U. U. L., which has the cor- rect line, let us hope that the shingle weavers will live up with a union that fights against wage cutsy hk. A