The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 27, 1931, Page 4

RKER, NEW YO! , SATURDAY, JUNE, 27_'19. 2 3 Le. tte Be a. rea” BOSTON TUBE RIVET DRIVES WORKERS AT A HIGH SPEED PACE Average Wage $13 to $14 a Week; Women Work for $7 to $9 jperators Who Ran Four Machines Are Now Forced to Run Five (By a Worker Correspondent) “BOSTON, Mass.—It is now within a year and a half since we Of the Tubular Rivet Company went on short time and M. N. Bray did not ask you if you could.stand the burden. He just took it for granted that you should. So his attitude is just the same as any other capitalist, to unload the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the slaves an-the factory. This will make more profits for himself and his | es, confederates. erHe also speeded up the machines on the manufacturing end | When the operators asked for al raise in 1929 he discriminated in the of the game to the limit. FORD SPEED-UP DOUBLED SINCE 25; MORE FIRED a. Wi orkers Suffer | “From Accidents and Diseases «By a Worker Correspondent) DETROIT, Mich—Ford workers in © department 401, job 1380, have been forced to undergo more speed-up. | Production has. jumped per worker from 35 to 350 pieces in eight hours. In. the foundry B-34 there were 58| operation in all in 1925, with 800) men turning out 2900 cylinder blocks | in eight hours. Now we are in for double speed-up. Around 500 men turn;out 4000 cylinder blocks in a day. Disease Spreads. | I worked on this job for one day as-loan-out man. The boss called one man all kinds of vulgar names | and said if he didn’t work faster he | would fire him. This is very hard | work and dangerous to the health | of the workers—diseases such as| searlet. fever, diphthéria, typhoid, eczema and tuberculosis being com- ™on..amohg the workers’ families here. The Ford failure to safeguard | the workers is responsible for many | injuries: loss of arms, fingers, toes, eyes and ears. One sees new faces every day. Only the very youngest can stand the pace and they are soon elimi- ated, completely worn out by the terrific speed. Production Increased 15 Times. In the Ford plants the produc- tion of each man has increased 15 times in 25 years. The result is that tens of thousands of workers are| beiig thrown out of work to actually starve while those who are working “are worked to death. i In department 401 two thirds of) Sthe-workers were fired. One of the} Workers, with tears in his eyes, told | the foreman that he lost his home 5 weeks ago and now that his Job was gone. he would go out and kill | himself. ..The Ford system, workers, is home Jbreaking and man kililng. Organ- jze-into the Auto Workers Industrial | Union and fight against these condi- sHions, | New Wage Cut For | Clothing Cutters Must Organize And Fight It ~ (By 2 Worker Correspondent.) INDIANAPOLIS, Ind—In the clothing industry we are not only ‘worKed at a neckbreaking speed, but “we fave suffered one wage-cut after another. A few weeks ago, the well-known leach, Frank Rosenblum, came to this tty and without showing himself to the workers went to the company pigs After a long conference with John Smith, he ei a board meeting and the re- . Bult was a 10 per cent wage-cut for the workers making Culver uniforms. aed Cutters Get Cut. About two weeks later the foreman of the cutters announced that the cutters would get 7 cents less per pair” on extra trousers. When a worker from a different department protested this cut, the blood-sucker, Rosenbloom, sent him word through his tool, the business agent, that it ~~ would-cost him uis job if he would het stop talking. This is the way the bosses terror- ize the workers and keep them under the union heel. But despite the ter- ror, the workers here are talking or- tion to fight against these conditions. AWESTERN PACIFIC CUTS PENSIONS. (By a Worker Correspondent) SACRAMENTO, Cal.—According to in old worker who was on the pen- sion list of the Western Pacific, many of the pensions have been cut Most of the old workers, who have years for the Western Pa- cific, have been laid off and In this. 1 have lost all right to pen- “sion. Many of the old ones who were _ en pension have had their pensions re | raise? | go. Yet when your wife and chil- | had $10 less in their pay envelopes jon the next pay day. The next thing raise by giving some men one| yecnt, others two and others three | ents raise. But what happened | Jat the same time that we got the| Speed-Up. | M.N. Bray made the operators run five machines instead of the four | | they had previously run. So the in- | crease that we got amounted to nothing plus nothing. The average wages paid, at the | present time, to the slaves in the Tu- bular Rivet is from thirteen to | fourteen dollars a week for the men while the women get from seven to nine dolars. In the ma- chine shop the wages average | | eighteen to twenty dollars. Now, fellow-workers, there is | only one way out of this and that is to organize into a strong union like the Trade Union Unity League. This is the only union that fights for our rights and for better conditions. Joining the Trade Union Unity League you will have the support of the whole working class of the world because it is an international association of unions. Resist Wage Cut! Resist the wage cuts of M. N. Bray | | and refuse to be 2 slave for the rest | of your life. Let the bosses know that we have a right to live and re- ceive wages that will maintain us on a good standard of living. You know that when the bosses tell you to go to war and fight to help them rob other countries you | dren tell you to fight for better conditions you turn yellow. Do you want to see your family starve and freeze and suffer all sorts of abuse? If not, join the Trade Union Unity League now and put in your de- | mands, fight for them and you'll get them. —A Tubular Rivet Worker. BROOKLYN DYE WORKS FORCES | NEW WAGE CUT Company Union Tells) Workers To Be Satisfied (By a Worker Correspondent.) NEW YORK.—Six months ago the boss of the American Dye Works, at 4006 Utreich Ave., B rooklyn, eloped with a chorus girl and the very next day after the incident his wife took over the management of the factory. The first thing she did was to an- nounce a wage-cut and the workers she did was to keep back the pay of a couple of the workers. Second Cut But Mr. Goldberg—that’s the boss name—soon got tired of his chorus satisfied that you have a job.” We workers, however, cannot stand for such an answer. We must organize under the leader- ship of the National Textile Work- ers Union and force the Lea to | food and they told him to come back jon June 10, This means that first | the unemployed council because they \Miners Sala far. Recoenan Of the National Miners Union (By a Worker Correspondent) SAGAMORE, Pa.—There are 900 miners of the D. C. Coal Company on strike here now. They came out of mines No. 13, 17 and 15. Last month we got a 20 per cent wage cut, but on account of lack of leadership the men stayed in the mine. At last the National Miners Union came and gave us ‘he re- quired leadership and the strike was on. The day of the strike the miners were promised a hotel where they could hold a meeting and when they went to hold it they were refused. Were the miners through then? They | were not. They walked five miles | out of town and held the meeting. | The police did everything in their} power to try to scare th eminers and force the people who owned the lot | not to let the miners use it. When the picket line was formed | the police tried to frighten the miners by saying that they would shut the mine and never start it again. The bosses promised to withdraw | | the wage-cut and give us our check- | weighman, but we said, ‘MINER'S FAMILY LIVES ON GRASS Unemployed Council | Gets Relief (By a Worker Correspondent) . | MAHONOY, Pa.—The mines in| “We wi ant | \this city have been closed for over | a year. The miners are walking the| | streets starving. They are pleading} for jobs in the mills and factories to make a few cents for their starv- ing families, but nowhere can they find a job. Everywhere the answer is “no help wanted” and “we have too many.” The miners and their families were never so destitute here. The children faint from hunger in the schools. Many of the children cannot go to school because they they have no clothes and shoes. Eats Grass A miner's family of eleven in Buck | Mountain is actually starving to} death. The father has been out of work for ten months. The children are crying and asking the poor| |father to give them bread. But he! \is starving himself and can’t get a| job and can get food nowhere. He} goes out into the fields and picks | grass and the mother cooks it for | the children. The children look like | skeletons. Legion Refuses to Help On May 29 this father went to| the American Legion and asked for |he should die and then come for | food. He found the unemployed coun-/| {cil in Mohanoy, however, and told | 2. |his story to them on June Our | | council at once rushed and collected | | food for him. Over 300 families in this city have | applied for food, but the city offi- | cials and the other bosses’ agents do not pay any attention to the starv- ing workers. The churches and other of the bosses’ institutions are trying to} make the. workers starve quiet.) They tell them to keep away from j are “red” and Bolshevik. They | think they can confuse the workers this way. But they can’t get away with it. The workers will not die of starvation. They will organize and fight the coal operators and their agents for the right to live. We must organize the same as they did in other towns and force the bosses to give the starving workeis rea) relief. We must not die starving We. must fight! GRAFTERS? Manchester, Iowa. — Daily Worker: I see that they passed a finger- print law in Michigan. If they passed it for the workers, why not apply it'to some of them grafters in our state capitals? They that sell themselves to the big guns. They are the ones that ought to be finger- printed. Keep up the good work and we will print their fingers. | benefit of the striking miners. —A Worker, take back the cut. Bethlehem Steel Corp. Increases Speed-up; Fives More Workers BALTIMORE, Md. — The Bethle- hem Steel Corporation at Sparrows Point is doing everything in its power to keep up its profits in face of the declining production. They are speeding up the workers more and more each day and at the same time they are laying more workers off. They are also using bad steel in many of the departments where tin and sheet iron is made. t The Tin Mill has been running part time for over a month and the workers working on piece work aver- age around $12 to $15 a week, Terorize Foreign-Born. The immigration officials are also paying us regular visits. They go around and terrorize the foreign-born workers by asking them all kinds of questions, Already they have taken six workers out of here and deported them. By this method the bosses hope to frighten the workers from organizing against the rotten condi- tions in the mills. Most of the Ne- the National Miners Union.” The bosses refused this, but we all stand solid on this point. For the last six months 50 miners went to work with nothing but water in their dinner pails. Those that | had no lunch were forced to beg for | sandwiches, and yet stand a chance of getting fired by begging. Many of the young miners worked from early in the morning until 12 o’clock at night. The mine company Section of the great Washington, Pa., Hunger March on June 17, when 15,000 striking miners and unemployed workers and their wives and children marched on Washington ‘County Seat. demands to the County Supervisors They presented demanding no evictions of starving families, free food and milk for children and babies, immediate release of jailed miners, the right to pickei t and the immediate appropriation of funds to pay $10 a week to each striking miner and $5 for each neers JINER TELLS OF STRIKERS’ WILL TO WIN STRIKE AGAINST STARVATION Pittsburgh, Pa. | Dear Editor: A few lines to let you know how| our strike is getting along. We have} 460 miners out at the Pittsburgh} Coal Co. Mine; 120 are still in the} mine. The company is bringing} scabs in, in an attempt to break the strike, but, scabe or no scabs, ons | | strike is not gaing to be broken—we | will win this strike. At our picket, line, men, women and children stand | with grim determination ready to} stop anyone. Starving. | We are sta so bad here in} Pricedale that all the merchants are | | gcing to stage a demonstration to| demand tha twe get relief. We are holding a benefit show at the Verdi) Theater at Vernon, Pa. for the} Why are some of the miners still} working? They are living in the) | company houses and are afraid to} | strike for fear of being thrown out of their homes. They say they are } with us 100 per cent and will come out of we can get them a place to stay. Most of these miners are Ne- groes and the police are using all kinds of terror against them to keep them from striking with us. If it is the last thing we do we will fetch these Negro miners out on strike with us. 200 Join N. M. U. Out of 460 miners we have 200 members in the National Miners’ Union. We are happy to belong to the N. M. U., because we know that it is our union—a union in which the miners lead themselves during strikes. I do wish that other miners | would write about their experiences during the strike. —A Striking Miner. Over 60,000 Without Cou (By a Worker Correspondent.) HONDO, Cal.—According to an of- ficial report, 60,000 persons—all de- pendent on Los Angeles Gounty for bread—had nothing to eat the other day. W. H. Holland, county super- intendent of charities, announced that his department had ceased all welfare work for lack of funds, Instead of appropriating $459,000| to carry on until July 1, the well-fed, | $12,000-a-year supervisors cut the amount down to $100,000. And, as most of the sum went into payment of back bills, of whieh Holland claimed he knew nothing about, the funds were exhausted over night— without giving the hungry masses a chance to get @ smell of the food- stuffs in the nation’s overfilled ware- Food in Los Angeles nty houses. The figure 60,000 is only a small amount of the down-and-outers in Los Angeles—and the Soviet Union gets the blame for this, too, of course, Anyhow, fearing the worst, the rep- resentatives of the “dear people,” not the workers, finally came through with an eppropriation of $25,000— $4.16 apicce. Not much to live on for a month, even if all of jt went to the right address, which it does not. What is the cure for economic ills? Well, Calvin Coolidge looks to God; Al Smith wants more and better booze. Yours truly believes that both of them are full of fermented prunes. What we need is a.Soviet America. Dye Slaves Toil 12 Hours a Day Wages Slashed to $15 a Week Paterson, N. J. In Paterson the Indian Dye work- ers are suffering from racial discri- mination, wage cuts, Jong hours of work and lay-offs. We begin work as early as 5 in the morning and in some cases work as much as 12 to 14 hours at a stretch. In the Star Price Dye Works, the workers are facing a wage cut that will bring the pay down to as low as $15 a week. Here the boss is doing away with ‘hour pay” and tells us we must work time without limit for these low wages. If we refuse we are laid off. In the Radience Dye Works the workers work from 5 in the morning till 9 and 10 at night. In the Getty gro workers are lucky if they get one days work in 15. ‘The workers in this mill are ready to fight against these bad conditions They are ready to strike agains starvation like the coal miners. Ever: day the steel workers are coming | the -call of the Metal Workers In dustrial League, Works it is the same thing. In the Columbia Nre ‘Works we work 14 hours a day. Most of the work¢rs, however, are out of work and ore walking the streets hungry. We vnust organize into the National Tex- ile Workers Union and the unem- ‘oyed councils and fight these con- ditions. —A Dye Worker. 5 WASH. LUMBER MILLS TO CLOSE Thousands Jobless in | Lumber Towns (By a Worker Correspondent.) “HOQUIAM, Wash—In the Gray's Harbor district the mills are to soon close for an indefinite period of time. The Bay City, Donovan No. 2, Anderson Middleton, Michigan and the Hurlburst Mill. All of these are in Aberdeen, Wash. The M. R. Smith mill and logging company at Moclips have already closed. It was in this plant that the shingle weavers fought so hard a year ago, The Hobi Logging Co., in the same vicinity as the Smith Co., has also closed, with no time set for resump- tion of work. Thousands Jobless, ‘The Polson Logging Co. of Ho- quiam has laid off its ‘cutters and this means that they are going to close down as they get what logs down there are yarded out. Workers Correspondence is the backbone of the revolutionary press. Build your press by writing for it about your day to day struggles, owns everything in town, even the post office, and the miners say they are trying to own the highways. YOUNG MINERS LEAD "The majority of the strikers are young workers between the ages of 14 and 25, Thirty of these young miners asked to be organizers so they could be sent to get the other mines out. ‘The bosses are trying to spread ter- ror among the Negro miners. But one old Negro miner, who was coaxed to go to work, shouted as he came up to the picket line: “Brothers, I can’t stand it. I refuse to work.” And he turned his dinner pail @p to show the pickets that he was taking water to work. He sure did get a good hand when he asked for a place in the picket line. The women are sure doing their bit in this strike. Women between the ages of 12 and 65 are on the picket line. The miners say that they will stand in line for years to win this strike under the lead- ership of the National Miners Union. Butler Co. Strike Will Fight ’Till They Win (By a Workrr Correspondent.) PITTSBURGH, Pa—Here is the reason the miners of the Butler Con- solidated Coal Company went on strike. The majority of these min- ers.are young workers. In the mines | the men had to load 7 to 8 cars of | coal and yet the bosses wanted one } man to do it alone. The exploitation was so great that if one would stop for a rest he would get laid off. Every pay day the min- ers would get 10 per cent taken off of their pay. Those that worked | outside of the mine did not have | time to get a drink of water; yet the mine bosses say the miners are lazy. Strike 100 Per Cent. The strike was so successful that the miners went out 100 per cent, led by the young miners. All joined the National Miners’ Union. The po- lice can’t keep the women off the Picket line, so they put tacks on the road and blame the women for it. Many of the miners got véry little money on pay day, yet they were forced to pay from $40 to $60 rent. Fagan, of the United Mine Work- ers, tried to hold an open-air meet+ ing and all he could rally was three miners. He told those present that the National Miners’ Union was 4 Red Union and that it das danger- ous to belong to it. The miners an- swered that if the N. M. U. was Red they were Red, too. ‘These miners are good fighters and they will keep on fighting until they win—becauseé they are striking against starvation. 40,000 JOBLESS IN TOLEDO, OHIO Brick Yard Closes; All Are Fired Toledo, Ohio. Daily Worker:— Here in Toledo there are about 40,000 workers out of jobs, starving to death with their families, while the city and county officials are get- ting all kinds of graft through the fake relief schemes. Buick Plant Cioses. The Ashville Block Paving Co., which used to hire from 50 to 100 workers in their brick yard, has fired everybody ang the fake officials like Ed Thatcher and the other city offi- Has- workers starving in Toledo. | a fat graft in these paeohedark ree Read to Fight. I am a machinist and a_ real American, and I know what 'T am talking about. We workers ‘have have been fooled long enough and we are not going to stand for it any longer. We have just found the of- VERSAILLES MINERS STRIKE 100 PERCENT AGAINST STARVATION Miners Determined to Win Strike; Picket in Eight Hour Shifts Young Miners Play Active Role in Building Strike and Relief Committees (By a Worker Correspondent) ¢ VERSAILLES, Pa.—Here is our experience in organizing the strike at Versailles. On the first day we visited some of the miners and discussed with them about striking the mine of the Hubbard Coal Company. We found that many miners lived in Versailles, so we decided to strike the mine the first thing in the morning when the min- ers go to work. Young Miners Lead. ‘The next day we went to the mine at 5 o'clock in the morning. We dis- cussed with the miners about strik- ing and showed them how important it was to spread the strike. Little by little we stopped those | who went to work early. By 6 o'clock we had all of them stopped and many of them stopped and many of them said that they expected the National Miners Union would come |and give the starving miners lead- ership. * 100 Per Cent Strike Vote. The next thing we did was to get a private lot where we held a meet- ing. The vote for strike was 100 per cent. The strikers elected a strike committee of 26 miners. 135 Join Union. Why did. us miners strike? We were getting paid 20 cents a ton and then we had many other grievances. 46 this meeting half the miners jome¢ the National Miners Union. We then called a meeting of our lo- cal and all the miners joined the Union. 135 of ‘these miners payed their dues out of their last pay. At the hall there was a U.M.W.A. charter on the wall. The young miners took it. down and put up a N.M.U, charter instead. Young Miners Active. The young miners are playing. an active part in this strike. The min- ers picket the mine on eight hour shifts. We have elected our relief committee, which is active collecting relief. One miner was arestred in McKeesport for collecting relief: We are all happy to belong to the new union and are determined to win the strike. Contractors Use - Child Labor On Dakota Highways Children Of 12 Toil 11144 Hours A Day At Top Speed (By a Worker Correspondent) WEST FARGO, N. D—The Mc- Cormick Company, the contractors who are doing the paving on the U. S. Highway No. 10, are employ- ing boys from 12 to 17 years old. These boys comprise about one third of the working force. The hours of work for these kids is from 3 a. m. until 6 p. m, with only thirty minutes for dinner. : One lad went to sleep while at work yesterday. The boss came around and kicked him with his foot and told him to keep working or go home. 11% Hour Day For their 1115 hours of continuous toil the boys get the high wage of week! This in the state that boasts of having the most enlightened labor code in the United States. There is a law on the books here prohi- biting industrial labor by minors un- der 16 years of age. Body Breaking Toil ie Conditions for the adult workers ‘ih b wrecking. Men are continually. quit- ting because they can’t endure ite R.R. WORKERS STAGGERED AND PUT ON A PAYLESS VACATION (By a Worker Correspondent) LIVINGSTONE, Mont., June 23.— $1.00. And they must work 7 days a! Job are nothing better. Two | * vce of the Communist Party and the | The Northern Pacific Railroad Shops Trade Union Unity League and we| here are working only four days a are going to organize and fight| week now and the Milwaukee shops against these rotten conditions. —A Worker Ready to Fight. at Miles City have put all their men on a sixty day payless vacation. ‘FOOD RATION CUT ON CHAS. SCHWAB | STEAMSHIP LINE | Marine Workers In- ;dustrial Union Calls Seamen To Organize (By a Seaman) SEATTLE, Wash.—While hundreds | of ship stewards and cooks aré on the beach starving, the S. S. Flomar of the Calmar Lines, a belly robbing company owned by Charles M. Schwab, prefers a coal burning fire- man for steward rather than a com- petent man. Reduces Allowance. While this company’s food allow- ance per day is one of the lowest in the country, this fireman steward has reduced the allowance still fur- ther—so far in fact that the crew can barely exist on it. Not only is this company satisfied with starving the crew, but the prices charged for goods that we must buy from the slop chest are 25 per cent higher than on other ships. The captain allows this steward to sell booze on the ship and rob the crew by charg- ing $8 for a bottle of rum that the captain pays $1 for. Just last week a wiper was in- jured due to lack of men. to help close the doors on the flue boxes; ‘The only assistance the first assis- tant engineer gave the injured work- er was to call him vile names and say that he wished that he had fell overboard. Organize. Marine workers, are you going to stand for such conditions? Organ- ize a ship committee on your ship. Join the Marine Workers’ Industrial Union. Strike for better conditions. Force the rich ship owners to in- crease the food allowance, to reduce the slop chest prices and to increase the pay. SLAVE LABOR | IN NEW YORK Maids Work 9 Hours Daily in Exchange For $3 Room New York. . Dear Worker: f In view that your paper is the only one that is willing to expose tha Slavery imposed upon the workers and help the masses in the, class struggle to free themselves from the yoke of the bosses, I am submitting the following statement to call the attention of the workers and readers of your paper, to the fact that slave labor is used right here in the great metropolis of N. Y. C. Last January, I took a superinten- dent job at “The Marlboro,” 518 W. 151st St., with the understanding of working twelve hours per day includ- the equivalent of 17 and receive the payment et month, plus four filthy basement rooms. Maids Get No Pay. Three chambermaids worked at this place’ from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m, an@ recei"-d 110 wages nor food for thei? work, but instead the big hearted Mr, Hauer (the boss) let each one of these women occupy a $3 a week ool in exchangs OF eae A middle aged man running elevator from 6 p.m. to midnight, re- ceived free rent on a $4 a week room Miners’ Wives Display Great Militancy On the Picket Line PITTSBURGH, Pa. — At our mine, | strike. the Warden Mine of the Pittsburgh} These miners told us they are 100 Coal Co., the standard of living is|percent with us, but are afraid of terrible and we have many of griev-|being throwed out of the Co. homes. ances. We have a good picket line| The miners have their National with 100 women and girls. Many of| Miners Union and we women have a us girls don't have much clothes to|club and are helping our husbands use and are ashamed to step out,|to win the strike. but we must in order to be on the| We have a relief committee ot- picket line. ganized and many families are get- Every morning at 4 we ‘have ating relief. picket march on the Warden Mine.} We will do all we can to win this Majority of the miners at work are|strike under the leadership of be! Negroes and the bosses terrorize the | National Miners Union. Negrots 80 they, won't’ go cub on “MINER'S WIFE. cae 5 as recompense for his work; the day, he sold apples. I wonder if this wouldn't be ‘an ideal spot for the Fish Committee to investigate and ‘put an embarg on such places.’ Yours truly, ; Ce ae MEMPHIS POWER CUTS WAGES. : Oxford, ep Dear Comrades: I just returned from» Memphis, Tenn., where I had a few days work painting. By working; 14 hours @ day at top speed I made 2.50 a day. © ing for the Memphis Light and Pow- er Company that the big boss from New York had been down there and had cut the wages in half, nad me I learned from a salesman work-- is