The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 13, 1931, Page 3

es " = J belie Mal 18 hd EE —_ x DAILY WORKER, ' NEW _YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE a! 1931 Page inree — “MANSFIELD VICTORIOUS IN TWO WAGE CUTS STRIKES Unemployed Council Gains in Membership; | YCL Unit Sends 15 Delegates to Youth Meet Mansfield Charity Cuts Relief; City Plans to Cut Public School Teachers’ Pay Editor Daily Worker, The capitalists in Mansfield are trying to make the work- ers believe that employment is gaining ground. They prove this by slashing wages, laying off more workers and to add to the.prevailing misery they shut down charity. workers in Mansfield are determined for better organization. They prove this by the victories in the recent strikes, like the Empire Steel strike, where the workers organized them- selves under the leadership of the T. U. U. L. and exposed the MAJESTIC RADIO WORKERS DRIVEN AT LONG HOURS ‘Common Sight to See Men Putting in 16 and 17 Hour Day” (By a Worker Correspondent:) CHICAGO, Ill.—It is quite a num- ber of years that I have made my living as an industrial worker, and have worked at all types of jobs. ex- periencing exploitation of all kinds. But the Majestic Radio Co. went far beyond all that I have ever experi- enced. ‘We often cite the exxploitation of Negroes in the South. We almost find “the same conditions here in Chicago at the Majestic Co. Here are a few samples: ‘The work day is 10 hours and only @ worker working over 49 hours gets paid time and a half for overtime, but there are only a few day workers in the factory. The rest all work on the piece system. The average worker is getting from 30 to 40 cents per hour. One worker I happened to get acquainted with works at a large punch press machine, working piece-work for 74 hours’ work. In one week he earned the total of 27.83. Another worker who was working on the same type of ma- chine boasted that he averages 40 cents per hour at piece-work in the refrigerator shop. Another worker, working in the radio department, during lunch hour told me that he ‘was. an experienced cabinet maker, and while working at piece system made from 50 to 55 cents an hour, and, if it so happens that the worker produces more, the company does not pay more than 60 cents per hour. «« 16-17 Hours’ Work. ‘While. working nights it was a common sight to see workers that thave started to work at 7 a. m. and work until 10 and 12 p. m., making the work day 16 te 17 hours. I was told that one worker that week worked 83 hours. These long hours and overtime does not happen so often, only when rush orders arrive, then the worker is driven to a frenzy. Soon. the-orders are filled and then the lay-offs. ‘The worker has to go through a half dozen agencies, doctors and all kinds of red tape before he can se- cure the slave job, thinking that at last he pas found work. The results are that he is driven for a week or two af inhuman speed then laid off. Although there is great discontent among. the workers, the necessary steps are not taken towards organ- ization. “Seems like it is high time to do something to emerge from this slavery. The only road lies-in or- ganizing into fighting unions under the leadership of the T. U. U. L, ‘and only then can we force the em- ployers to give us a decent wage. A —A Laid Off Worker. Wash, Lumber Mill Threatens Closing Unemployment’ Grows ain North West (By a Worker Cor Correspondent) HOQUIAM, Wash—With Hoover, Doak,..Green, Woll and all the other ie officials of the government, and ACF. _of L. saying that there is it in unemployment, here in the Gray’s Harbor country just the. ‘opposite is the truth, In Aberdeen, the Bay City-Lumber the danger of such a move. In Hoquiam the conditions of the unemployed is growing noticably 2; Only one saw-mill and a few | factories are running; tne pum mill gives work on the stagger plan to a few workers, Gne-worker reporting to this writer from ‘Shelton, which is about forty miles from the Harbor, said “We need. you and. the T.U.U.L. down in that town.” The Reed sawmill will close down for the summer on the third WORKERS Mansfield, Ohio. However, the A. F. of L. fakers. They were thus able to receive their demands. Then, following the Empire Steel strike, an- | other strike in the Martin Stee] was won by the workers, A whole shop of 75 workers went out on strike after a 10 per cent wage-cut was effected. They went on strike Thursday, May 21, and they won théir demands the next day. This strike ended so vic- toriously for the workers that the Jocal capitalist papers were afraid to publish this victory for fear that it would be spread to the other fac- tories who also received wage-cuts, Now the Mansfield Public Schools are squawking over the hard times. They complain that they are run- ning short of money and that they will be either forced to cut the school term or the teachers’ wages. Child Labor. Then there is child labor here in Mansfield. Small school children try to sell the capitalist dope for_a few more pennies a day. These children stay on the corners for sometimes ten hours, and one can see many of them falling asleep on their job, picked up by a@ policeman and brought home, tired and hungry. Business is so “good” here that when the local contractor asked for one laborer 500 workers came the next morning for the job. Organizing. In Mansfield we have organized an Unemployed Council and at every meeting we gain many new members. A unit of the Y. C. L. was organized and they sent 15 delegates to the N.Y. D. Mansfield is a good field for organizational work. This hhas been due in. many respects to the last hunger march. This hunger march has awakened most of the workers. U Yet with the prevailing miseries in | Mansfield the capitalists still bark that prosperity is around the corner. Yours for the revolution. —J.W. HARD HIT, CALIF. FARMERS PLOUGH UP VEGETABLES Children Made toWork In Orchards With Parents Sacramento, Cal. Comrade Editor: a Conditions in the argicultural region here are becoming worse from day to day. The cherry growers ¢an find no market for their products, because the workers have no money to buy with. Food Dacre: Just out of Sacramento the other day I noticed a Japanese farmer ploughing up a field or turnips while there are thousands of workers in the United States starving. Between Sacramento and Davis they have ploughed up lettuce, for which there was no market. Last fall and-winter tons -upon tons of onions were dumped into the Jouquin River. The way things look the farmers will be in the bread lines this com- ing winter. Child Labor. I had a talk with a worker's wife and she told me that her husband was looking for apricot picking for the last two weeks and when he thought that he had a master he was told that he would have to bring his whole family. In order for a man to make a living picking fruit his wife and children must also work. Instead of inducing the children to go to school and get an education the bosses want them to work in the orchards and fields from morning until night. —J. Ss. Workers Have No Fuel Texas Bosses Burn It | The sheriff, threatened to put him mext day. Dear Editor: As I have been reading the lies in the capitalist papers about the Soviet Union convict labor, I have got to write a few facts about my experi- ence in the United States. As I was forced to ride a freight train through the Southern states in search of work I had this experi- ence. In Evergreen, Ala., five cops searched the train and caught two Negroes and myself. They search every train that comes through in order to get free labor and to keep the wages of other workers down. They put us in jail and kept us | on starvation rations for two weeks before we were tried. For breakfast they gave us two biscuits, a spoonful of grits and maybe a little syrup. For supper about the same portion of either beans or spinach and a} small piece of bread. I was lucky to | have a few dollars to buy something | to eat from the outside. Landowners Lease Prisoners. When we had our trial they fined us $10 and costs, which amounted to $33 or forty-eight days hard labor. | ‘They leased us out to rich landown- | ers after two days in jail. I was handcuffed by the sheriff in company with a Negro who had been in the same convict camp before. He was framed this time for carrying a gun which he found in a trash pile. It was unloaded, rusty and half of it was gone. We were put in a Ford car by the county sheriff and his father and started for the camp. The Sheriff's Slaves. We stopped at the sheriff's farm for lunch. We were given a small piece of bread and a glass of butter- milk. He ran a grocery store there and had a Negro family to do his farm work, His father lived in a big, fine white house, but the Negro fam- ily lived in a shanty more like a cow-shed. The sheriff kept him in debt for groceries and what clothes they wore were those the sheriff had worn out. They were not allowed to leave while they were in debt to the farm owner. After dinner (so-called) we started out again and soon saw another Negro breaking ground. The sheriff called him over. The Negro acted very badly scared. He was also in debt. where we were going if he didn’t pay up, though this was impossible. We went on our way until we reached the farm, where we were put in stripes. Here I met an Italian prisoner who said a deputy had slipped a gun in his pocket and caused him to get three months. Convicts In Lumber Camps. At 6:30 the convicts started march- ing in from work. For supper he had unseasoned beans and hard cornbread, baked early that morning. We had a change to spinach” every other day. We went to bed at 9 Pp. m., ‘but every half hour a guard would ring a big church bell and strike a triangle at the heads of our beds to keep us from sleeping. I got very little sleep for the first three days. This was to keep us from being in a settled mental state in the daytime so we would give thought to how bad we were treated. The next morning at ten minutes to four we were awakened. We had 20 minutes to get into our stripes and shoes and get our breakfast of two small pieces of bacon, two spoons of syrup and six hard biscuits baked the day before. What we didn’t have time to eat we put in buckets for our lunch and at ten after four we were on our way to work. Our work was repairing and lengthening a tram- way to the lumber camps. On one occasion in the lumber camps an Italian strained his back lifting a rail. He was flat on his back in bed for three days. The first morning he was able to go to break- fast the warden asked why he wasn't working. The guard said that he strained his back. The warden said to put him in the hot box. To avoid this the prisoner went to work the Hot Box. The hot box was a place where the men were put for punishment. It was a box in the corner of the room extending from the floor to the ceil- ing with only enough room for a man to stand in it straight. Many prisoners were put into it. One Ne- gro was put in because he was sick and not able to work. He was forced to work and when he came back in he was put in the box without sup- per, kept there all night and sent to work the next day without break- fast. The second night he was fed and put back in the box. He was given breakfast and sent to work again next day. He wasn't able to walk for his feet had burst open. They put him to crawling on his hands and knees, picking up sticks, and each night he was put into the at Overflow Outlets (By a Worker Correspondent.) BRECKENRIDGE, Texas.—In the midst of this petroleum field. where there is plenty of natural gas to serve all the people in the town, many workers’ families must do without this fuel because they haven't the money to pay for it. Detroy Gas. Instead of letting the workers have gas, overflow outlets are burned up; a big flame is kept going night and day just outside of the city. © Crops are good fine yield a of oats, especially. But/ farmers face ruin with the prospect, of 15-cent oats and 30-cent, wheat. GIVE YOUR ANSWER TO HOO- VER'S PROGRAM OF HUNGER, WAGE CUTS AND PERSECUTION! | told that other charges were pending box until he died. Other Negroes who served their sentences out were against them and were kept long over their time and worker hard. One Southern white boy. about 20, got his foot smashed by the gang dropping a rail on it through having to hurry so much. He was put into his cell without the bones being set or getting other medical attention, His foot and leg were turning black and giving him a lot of trouble when. I was released. My father sent me $20 to my fine. I was given $1.70 to take me bacs to the town I was sent from, Free. I was on my way back and had gone only a few miles when I was offered a job in another camp where most of the work was done by peni- tentiary labor. I was offered $1.80 a A steel cage in a southern prison camp. ‘Farmer Exposes Forced Convict | Labor in Alabama Lumber Camps Prisoners are crowded into such cages like wild beasts at the end of a day’s forced labor. Most of the prisoners are Negro workers framed up on the charge of vagrancy and sold into slavery by the southern bosses. day, out of which was taken $1 a day for board, which would leave me 80 cents for clothes and other things. I took the job, but after working only ten minutes the man I was working with got fired and I followed him off the job. I was asked by-the prisoners in the first camp to go to the governor and tell how they were treated. Istarted to go but a building contractor told me it was useless as they would not let me in the capitol. —A Farmer From Arkansas. “Fear Born in Slave Says Negro Woman; (By a Negro woman who was saved from eviction by the Unemployed Council.) Pittsburgh, Pa, The Negro, brought into this coun- try without his consent by the white slave-owners, has inherited that fear and distrust of the white man even today, especially when he sees that the lynching mob is composed of white people. now is that those who brought them here were white bosses, and these same bosses also brought the foreign- born workers into this country al- most in the same manner. They went to Europe and other continents and spread lies about the wealth of this country in times of strikes, up- risings on the part of the American workers against the long hours and miserable conditions imposed upon them in the mines, mills and factor- jes. ‘The Negro worker must also learn that those in the lynching mobs are workers who suffer the same miser- able conditions but have been taught by the white and colored ruling class What they must see! Days Must Be Lost,” | Workers Must Unite alike to hate the Negro for one pur- | pose—the same reason for making the Ameridan born workers, colored and white, hate the foreign-born work- ers—so that the workers should be} divided in all these different cate- gories and fight against each other, instead of uniting and fighting against the bosses, colored or white. The fear born in us from the sla- very times must be lost and we must. Negro worker in southern prison camp. FIND BAKER AND not stand afraid to trust our own People (all workers) in regards to solving the Negro problem. The Ne- gro must realize today that the for- eign born and Negro both stand as similar problems. So but that they must put forth all of their energy and support to help fight and con- | quer that old race problem. And only recently has it been seen that the Negro worker is breaking down that fear and is organizing, to- gether with_his fellow-workers of all races, because this is a Workers’ world and nothing but the workers can bring about real liberty. The Negro and white are organizing together to fight their.common enemy, the boss. | Czarist Flag and “Old Glory” Side by Side (By a Worker Correspondent.) NEW BRITAIN, Conn.—One hun- dred members of the Russian Brotherhood, who came to this city for a state convention, celebrated the 25th anniversary of their organiza- tion by parading behind the Tsarist flag. When the Russian workers Jearned that the New Britain Rus- sian priest had ordered the Tsarist flag to be carried in the parade they did not take part in the parade. ‘Thirteen cops on foot and on motor- cycles and as many dicks formed a h square in the parade, in the center of which was the Tsarist flag along- side of the American flag. If we can judge by the associates of the Star Spangled Banner in this parade then we can say that the Star Spangled Banner is getting very degenerate. The cops are bad enough, the dumb brutes, but the White Guards of the Tsar, together with the cops, made a splendid dem- onstration of degeneracy. —Factory Worker, FAMILY STARVED Downtown Council Get) Food For Them | (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—The Downtown Un- employed Council, through its can- |! vassing on its concentration block. found that Louis Felcher of 646 E. Sixth St, wnemployed baker and a member of Local 1, has four children and has been ordered by the court to move out from his room and the family is starving. The Downtown Council brought foor fod the family and the councit is organizing the tenants to stop the landlord from throwing the family out in the streets. The council also secured food for the family of Mrs. Ushercky of 84 Ave. B. ‘The Downtown Council held ‘a meeting last night at University Pl. and 14th St. Policemen tried to break up the meeting several times when the speaker made appeals for Labor Unity, but did not succeed very well. Sixty copies of Labor Unity were sold. Detroit Mich. Dear Comrade Editor: Herewith I am sending a check for 45c for a fellow worker, who has been working at the Briggs Manufacturing Co., Cernor Ave. plant (formerly Waterloo plant), that is building auto bodies for the “great philanthropi Ford, the Hudson-Essex, and the Chrysler-Rlymouth. This worker was hired as a production man on the basis of a piecework rate on body work. He was ordered to come to work in the morning and started at 7 am., April 29. From 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. he was working like hell, na- turally so because his job was a plece work job. At 11:30, they ran out of stock and told him to go home and come back the next day, He askea how much money he had made, and he was given the slip that he had made exactly 45c. He got damn dis- gusted that he did not come back the next day. In other words he quit: He thought that if he has to starve, . "| This 45c for 4 hours work means; even Worker in Murray Plant Earns $2.50 A Week he ts not going to starve working. more than actual starvation. $2.25 a Week! ‘This is not only an individual case, but this has been shown by another worker's experience at the Murray Body plant. This fellow worker at the Murray Body has worked the first day, 9 hours and made $1.25, on @ piecework bonus basis, and was also told by the foreman to buy himself the necessary tools. The tools re- quired cost him $1.50. And when he came to work the next day, having the tools and everything ready to proceed to work, there were some small wooden blocks about 1 1-2x 2 1-2x8 inches that he could not get from the stockroom, ‘and when’ he told the foreman that he needed the stock or else he couldn’t proceea to work. He was told to go home and come in the next day, and if he wanted to be sure of his job, he should bring some of the wooden blocks from home, and he would not have to wait until the company gets them, When tine week was over, all the earnings was $2.25. He nearly spent the whole ambunt on street car fare and besides that had to bor- ro wmoney to buy toois and his lunch, and supplies for his family at home and all necessary things to be @ounted in. Another worker in the Briggs Man- ufacturing plant was coming to work regularly every day, waited for four hours and was sent home. This kept on for a whole week. After the week | is through organization. | Detroit Auto Worker Gets 45c for | Day’s Work i in the Briggs Plant Editor, Daily Worker: Conditions here in Las Vegas speak more eloquently than words of the confusion, calousness and cruelty of the present system as concerns the workin statements in the press, the workers have been pouring in. The single workers are now sleeping behind billboards, in al- leys and near the city dump. Their lot is terrible to the nth degree. At the present time due to a whooping cough epidemic is raging. This epidemic has spread until now | a considerable portion of the al children are affected. Contrast, When watching the crowds one is immediately struck by the two dis-} tinct categories into which they fall. | The first are the familiar, overalled | and shabbily dressed figures of the | unemployed. The next are the well- | tailored, inclined to be stout gentle- men, The latter are the concession | hunters. The government, as you| know, is about to build a town here | at the dam site (private contract, of | course), and, rather than sell at a minimum to the workers, they will | lease the shirt, grocery, etc., conces- sions to these concessioners, who will sell at a maximum. Another inter- esting phase of capitalism. I cannot help comparing condi- | tions here with conditions as they | would be in a similar project in the} Soviet Union. First of all, the gov- ernment engineers would be on the job with the preliminary surveys. Then the more detailed projections would be laid out. The detailed plans would be drawn up. The press notices would come from the engi- | neers on the job. The necessary) workers put through the recognized | channels. But here in Las Vegas we see confusion, starvation and despair, with the continual rush of workers to the dam site. Workers who spend their last few dollars to get there. I wish that the capitalists at Wash- ington and in Wall Street could hear the radical talk that goes around in all the campfires here. Their hair would turn gray overnight. These parasites will have to go to Mars pretty soon, because things are get- ting pretty hot, much too hot. —An Unemployed Worker. Ford Docks Half Hour Pay for 15 Minute Lay Off Workers ~ Dare Not Even Go to Toilet Dear Editor: In my department where I work last Tuesday we went home 15 min- utes before the quitting time and were docked 30 minutes. The next day I asked the foreman: “What is the big idea that they cut our time?” He said: “You are damn lucky that you work and what the hell more do you want? If you complain too much you'll get kicked out.” Yes, comrades, as lohg as the work- ers are not organized the bosses can | treat them any way that they please. The only way that the workers can | defend themselves against the bosses | Not only this, the workers are even | Workers Pouring in, Hoping for Job; Workers Sleep At City Dumps \Suffering terrorized from going to the toilet, | because if they are caught in the| toilet they get fired. The Ford Co. | has invented a new method how to hunt the workers. Partitions and in- | penetrable glasses of some toilets are | torn down so the servicemen can see | workers without going in the toil-| ets. This is also a part of Ford Slavery and speed-up system. Just imagine, we, the poor workers, have to work eight hours steady without | going to the toilet. This is the worst way to ruin the workers’ health. It is up to us workers to organize and Jearn how to fight against the bosses’ slavery system. —Ford Worker, Sioux City Workers .Form Worcorr Group Sioux City, Iowa. Dear Comrades: ‘We have organized a correspon- dence group here composed of four comrades, Each member is to write articles on the conditions of the workers, their struggles, ete, and turn them over to me as chairman of the group. . In this way we can always have something of interest to our local workers appearing in the Daily Worker. This will not only reflect our struggles here, but will help to increase the circulation of the Daily in Sioux City. —G. Ss. AMERICAN TINPLATE FIRES AND STAGGERS WORKERS (By a Worker Correspondent) ELWOOD, Ind—The American Sheet and Tinplate Co. of this city, in an effort to increase their profits at the expense of the workers, laid off several workers in both the plant was over his pay check was some- where around $3.46, \ and in the office during the past week. The working schedule has been reduced to three days a week. UNEMPLOYED WORKER TELLS OF MISERY AT LAS VEGAS DAM SITE Single Whooping Cough Epidemic Raging; Workers Showing Militancy; Ready for Organization Las Vegas, Nevada. ig man. Through misleading the bad conditions and food, PA. MINERS WILL "WALK MILES FOR ORGANIZATION Avpalling; Miners Solid For Strike Pittsburgh, Pa Daily Worker: I heard so much about the rotter. conditions of the miners that I de- sired to find out things for myself. I went to Export, Herminie, Etna, etc., and suffering is terrible. All miners know that the coal compa- | nies are robbing them. The miners’ wives that I talked to said that this strike is going to be a different | struggle than the previous strikes. They say this is going to be a fight against starvation, Chased Trooper- With Sickle In one home that. I went to I was told that during the last strike a miner chased a state trooper with a sickle. When asked’ What he was going to do with it, he said that he intended to cut the trooper’s head off with the sickle in case the trooper attacked him. All of the miners are talking about the National Miners Unton. They say this union is not-yellow and will strike against starvation“to’ a finish. The miners’ wives say they are glad school is over. They had to dress and fed the children then; now tue children play and sometimes they forget about food. It seems that the miners are ex- perts in finding out who the stool pigeons are who are working for the bosses trying to keep the minérs from joining the National Miners Union. For organization these miners would walk miles and give their last cent. Every night they get together and discuss what is going to happen next. These workers. are ready for a strike a hundred per cent. I am from a steel town where the steel workers are sure suffering, but the miners are in the lead when it comes to suffering and stravation. —A Steel Worker. Fire Old Shopman Unable to Keep Pace of Speed-up Bosses Fellow Worker Sees Need to Fight Against This (By a Worker Correspondent.) CHICAGO. Ill.—The iatest outrage at the Northwestern Railway shops was sending Oliver Weiland to the company’s doctor as the first step in | firing him. After years of good and | faithful service, old Oliver happened | to cause a delay on the wheeling of }an engine, because he had erred in fitting up the brasses for the trailer truck. This was the signal for Wal- terson to send him to the doctor and get rid of him. I am wondering if William Mini (assistant foreman) is going to get a free ticket to the psychopathic hospital for a brain test. He merits it from his ability to allign a new boiler. You know what I mean. His mistake was a costly one, but look who he is. Now, fellow workers, this is what is in store for every working man under the capitalist system. So, therefore, slow up. Don’t make old men out of yourselves before your time, These bosses think that as they grow older they are better fitted for their posi- tions, because of their experiences, but @ working man under the tutor- age of these parasites cannot de- velop their brains (according to them). But maybe they are right. When one considers the nit wits that make up the boss class. By the way, have you noticed how Logan is slowing up, better be care- ful, George. that they do not send |,you to the doctor, for they are liable to find out your machinery is not functioning properly. I would like to see the workers run the Northwestern shops, as they do in Russia, where the workers elect their own leaders, and, when they don’t measure up to the workers’ ideas, they oust them. I ask you, how many Northwestern foremen could pass the test? Don't try to figre this out, gs your are liable to get gray hairs and gray hairs mean unemployment. ‘ Northwestern Railway Shopmaa,