The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 21, 1931, Page 3

poses > DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1931 age Three FORD HUMILIATES OLD WORKERS—BALTIMORE “RELIEF” PLAN E X P OSE D—LUMBER WORKERS’ CORRESPONDENCE etree ™" WORKERS RALLY FOR STRUGGLE—MINER WRITES ON USSR—LETTER ON JAIL HORRORS LUMBER STRIKE ENDS; WORKERS RALLY FOR _ GREATER MASS FIGHi Party Unit and Local Union Grow Out of Bal- lard Lumber Workers Bitter Fight 60,000 Destitute Work » y Raising Voice in Mass Protest naar SEATTLE, Wash.—Over shingle mill-workers have been ons. The workers who struck that brought the total of cuts up back by police terrorism. They have formed their union local and built a-Party and League tirely, but have learned a less They are preparing for greater Reign of Terror What are the lumber barons doing? CHARITY ASSN AIMS TO BREAK WORKERS’ HOME Ynemployed Council; Takes Up Fight for Real Relief {By a Worker Correspondent.) ST. LOUIS; Mo.—A Negro worker, Frank Warfield, whom the Provid-) ence Association was giving $3 a week | ‘ast winter to-take care of a family | ef four, which is not enough to take | care of one person. The result was | that the babies; one 1-year 8 months the other 2 years 8 months began to} show effects of undernourishment. When he asked for more relief, Mrs. Tatium, one of the represen- tatives of the Providence Association, told him if he-could not take care of his family they would have to put his children in.an Orphan Home. She also asked him if his wife had any relatives anywhere, that they could send her to who are able to take care of her, using the threat of taking her children and stopping what little re- Nef they got in orde rto force her to consent to go to her people. ‘This is open breaking up of the family and separating the children | from their father. His wife was preg- nant and needs~him. This is gne of the many tricks they use to’ keep from helping “families who are in a destituted condition. ‘This worker has joined the uUnem-| ployment Council and pledged him- self to fight in the interests of the working class; and calls to all work~ ers to join the Unemployment Coun- cil and fight for the right to live. For only thru organization will the workers be able to force the bosses to give immediate-relief. RELIEF FAKERS GYP SALESGIRLS Al Smith=Funds Begs Girls Earning $10 (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—The bosses are beat- ing their drums for charity; they are launching bigger and better ban- quets, football games, full dress balls, the band wagon is parading with a “screaming banner, “Give until it hurts.” What.,goes this ballyhoo mean for the department store work- ars, whose wages have been cut again and again, whose hours have been staggered with proportionate decreases? = In New York the local Al Smith- @theon robbery committee, featuring on fts roster such parasites as Mrs. ‘Vineent Astor, Mrs. August Belmont, etc., has already begun to execute the offensive against’ department store workers with ‘the openly expressed approval of Edward A. Filene, the Btrausses, thé Gimbels and the other representatives of Wall Street capi- tal invested in -department stores. ‘They have gone to Macys, where 3,000 of the “lowest paid employes have had their wages repeatedly cut, now earning from $10 to $20 week, to contribute: 1 per cent of twenty weeks’ salary to. this fake panhand- ling, grafting Smith-Gibson Fund. ‘The department store section of the Office Workers’ Union calls upon the workers of Macys, and of Gimbels, Saks, Wanamakers, Bloomingdales and other stores to organize them- selves into department committees, to join the Office Workers’ Union. De- partment store workers, prepare now to fight under. the slogan Not one cent off for fake charity, not one cent off in wage cuts. Unemployment in- By a Worker Correspondent) ers and Families Are a hundred lumbermen and blacklisted by the lumber bar- in August against a wage-cut to 50 per cent, have been driven unit. They have not lost en- on in working class struggle. struggles. Have they rested | content with the smashing of the strike? They used the Seattle “labor” mayor to drive the workers from the picket lines with riot cars. They sent | provocaters into the ranks of the/ union. When they failed, the police thugs openly attacked the workers on the picket line. In August, after the attack upon workers in the picket line | which involved the arrest of over a| dozen workers, the police opened a reign of terror in the streets of Bal- | lard. Strikers and picketeers of the | Unemployed Councils were torn from their homes and railroaded to jail. Some of the arrested workers were freed by mass jamming of the police courts, The lumber barons, however, are not content. They fear the les- sons that the strike has carried to all lumber workers. They are at- tempting to smash the rising mili- tancy of the lumber workers by the most brutal railroading in years. Not since the days of the Cent- ralia massacre have workers faced such serious chrages and been threat- ened with such long terms of impris- onment. Six workers, including one girl relief worker, face a total,of 20 years each in prison. Their trial comes up in the third week of No- vember. 60,000 Destitute At the present time 60,000 lumber workers and their families are des- titute. They are raising their voice in mass protest. November is a month of struggle for the lumber workers. In Portland, Paul Munter, fourth of the criminal syndicalism defendants is going on trial. The workers are fighting on two import- ant factors for the right to organize and strike in the northwest. Alert to the War Danger Workers, do not underestimate the importance of the struggle of the Bal- lard: strikers and the Portland pris- oners. Much of value to the working }class is at stake in the northwest now. Fight in your organizations for | protest resolutions. Address them to the governor of Washington and the Superfor Court in Seattle. To the governor of Oregon and the Multno- mah County Superior Court in Port- land, Ore. Support the International Labor Defense for the northwest strike and syndicalism cases. Northwestern workers, fight the attack upon our ranks. Fight for the repeal of the criminal syndicalism laws! Fight for the release of Ben Boloff and all class war prisoners. Smash the new wave of lumber barons’ terror with the full power of your protest! Re- sist the attack to split our ranks. Alert to the war danger! PARASITE GIVES MILLION FOR CATS CHICAGO.—At the same time the Chicago Daily Tribune ennounced that there were 10,000 children in the city of Chicago starving, there was an article on another page stat- ing that Mrs. Marion D; McConnell had donated $1,000,000 for the care of dogs and cats. Capitalism wor- ries about its dogs and cats, but un- WAGE CUTS AND HUMILIATION FOR OLD WORKERS (By a Worker Correspondent) DETROIT, Mich.—The thief and hypocrite, Mr. Henry Ford, who is a member of the masonic order and is given all kinds of degrees for this and that is treating the men who slaved for him for 15 and 18 years in the most tyrannical way. We die makers, as highly skilled workers, listened to the talk of Mr. Ford for a long time and we believed that he would not cut the wages. We even bought Ford cars and homes on time payments. Today the wage cuts are here. And with the wage cuts goes all kinds of embarrassment and man-handling. We are led up like horses, stripped of our clothes before a doctor, young and old together, having our testicles pressed and being subjected to other indignities that should only be car- ried out in private. The greedy, immoral Mr. Ford! From the opinion ex- pressed by the majority of the men they will never forget the experience of being lined up like cattle with their sexual parts exposed. LUMBER WORKERS Jobless at Ford Plant IN FORD FACTORIES One lady, a fraternal lodge member with Mr. Ford, stated that she was surprised to hear that Mr. Ford stooped so low as to practice immorality on his men. Then he adds to this insult a wage-cut, which he could well afford to lose, as he has been grinding billions out of these men for years. It is about time that Ford returns at least a grain of corn to the men. Die makers, you must not stand for this. Let us get busy and organize our class into one big solid Auto Workers’ Union before it is too late. Smash the wage cuts and refuse to be subjected to Mr. Ford’s immoral and greedy whims, Editorial Note——What this comrade calls “immorality” is really in the strict sense capitalist tyranny, a type of tyranny at which Mr. Ford | is a past master. The Ford workers should rise up in militant mass protest against this tyranny with all its indignities and humiliation. But this move of Ford means more than just indignities and humiliation; it is a move to force the old workers out of the factory and onto the scrap | heap who have been worn out by Mr. Ford’s speed-up system. Only the stoutest will be able to pass the Ford medical test after they have slaved for years in the Ford plants. In fighting the wage cut, workers must also fight discrimination against old workers. STRIKE AGAINST FIFTH WAGE-CUT Demand $2.50 Mini-| mum Wage; Young Workers Lead Aberdeen, Wesh. Daily Worker: | Here at Aberdeen at the Jumber | mills we have received wage cut after | wage cut. This is the fifth wage cut | that we have received at Schafers | Mill, four since April, 1930: ‘This is the first time any resistance | has been shown openly by the work- | ers, in any mill in Aberdeen. On the second of November, a wage cut went into effect, cutting us 50 cents to a dollar for those who get less than $3 per day. For those who get $3 and up were cut $2 and up making $1.50 per day low. A few men walked out and formed a committee to see what could be done about it with the representative of the National Lumber Workers Union, and some Young Communist League members in the lead. We drew up proposals for demands and at 5 p. m. held a factory gate meeting. At this meeting we elected a strike committee which drew up the following demands: 1. $2.50 minimum wage per day and the same wage scale as before the cut for those who were cut a dollat or more. 2. Time and half for all overtime | at the River Rouge Ford Plant. JOBLESS PICKET IN NEEDLE FIGHT Strikers Demand No Jim-Crowism (By a Worker Correspondent) KANSAS CITY, Mo—The workers Thousands of unemployed workers waiting vainly in line for a job TAMMANY THUGS USE STRONG ARM, AGAINST VOTERS Police Support Thugs in Move to Steal Communist Votes New York City Dear Comrades: As I entered the booth on election day, the Democratic captain told me to vote his party, but as I closed the curtain and pulled down the pointers | of the fifth row, I found to my sur- | prise that the curtains were locked. | I immediately demanded that he re- lease the pin, but instead of doing that, he entered my booth and when he saw how I voted, ordered me to change my vote. I shouted that he get out, but in vain. After picking an argument with him, I finally forced him to release the pin which pre- | vented the curtain from closing. When I was about to leave the polling place, the Democratic captain ran over to me and told me that I} will pay for what I did. The police- Man was standing in front of us and I told him that he had no right to enter the booth, but the captain answered me, “I don’t mind, see.” I looked at the policeman and I said, | “I see.” This is only my experience, but a few of my friends were even less fortunate. One of them went to a Polling place on East Broadway and was escorted to the booth by three | | | | | JOHNSTOWN, PA. PROTEST MEETING Demand Release Mine Leaders and Strikers (By a Wor er Correspondent) JOHNSTOWN, Pa—About 100 | }he worked for the American Pavement Company. |last three months he has been going from one place to another ‘lany work for him. over 8 hours per day. 3. No extra work due to the breakers of machinery and no de- duction of pay for the same cause. 4. Recognition of Shop Com- mittec, 5. No blackilst of strikers. These are the demands of the strikers which are not extreme but which will for a time at least bettcr our conditions so that we will not exactly starve on the job. More later in the Liberty Garment Co., Kansas | Steel workers and coal miners gath- City, Mo., went on strike November 9 | ered here in a protest mass meeting |under the leadership of the Needle | against the bosses’ terror in Western Trades Workers Industrial Union. | pennsylvania “and Kentucky. The |Mass picketing was immediately | meeting was called by the Interna- Resattirst |tional Labor Defense and the Na- | A call was immediately sent to the | tional Miners Union. Unemployed Council and unemployed | Comrade Rona, secretary of the ; Workers joined the strikers on the | Johnstown Branch of the LL.D, |picket line. For the first time in| opened the meeting. Comrade Vuho- ;Place on gangsters who patted on the shoulder politely telling that he will do as he Pleased next year, but now they were voing for him, and they did. Another friend went into a polling Attorney Street and at- tempted to vote Communist. I use the word “attempted” because that is as | far as he got, for the Democratic captain ordered him out and voted | for him. I could go on indefinitely relating BALTIMORE WELFARE RELIEF PLAN PROVES TO BE FORCED LABOR Family Welfare Refuses Food to Starving Ex- Serviceman and Family of Five Forced to Work Eight Hours for Glass Co. for Basket of Food By a Worker Correspondent) BALTIMORE, Md.—Willie Walker, 1806 North Bruce St., ex-soldier, served in France eighteen months’ for Wall Street is now unemployed for three months. He has.a wife and four children ranging in age from seven to thirteen. He had been working as a stevedore for ten years, then For the for a job. He went to all the fertilizer factories and various railroads for work. Mr; Sliders, the city contractor didn t have Goes to Welfare > ‘DOCTOR DENIES Finally in desperation and against J his principles he went to the Wel-| fare Agency at 2547 Pennsylvania | TRE ATMENT T0 past bg WORKERS’ CHILD iS Ave. to speak to Miss Isabel L. Bid- good about getting some bread for his children. The kind “Christ-like lady” who has been given the jc» for Child With Fractured Arm Forced to Wait Hours for Attention taking care of the needy asked,) (By a worker Correspondent) “When did the children eat last?” | Walker replied that he had seven DETROIT, Mich.—A few weeks ago @ seven-year old boy of Sandwich, cents and bought five cents worth of | potatoes and two cents worth. of | Chesterfield cigarettes. The lady be- came highly indignant over the ex- travagance of buyink two Chesterfield cigarettes and immediately upbraided him for taking food out of his chil- | dren’s hungry mouths. All of this,/ Ont. broke his arm while playing. however, did not induce Miss Bidgood | yris father took him to a doctor who just then happened to be sitting on his porch. The doctor, upon seeing the boy’s arm in a sling, without giv- ing them time to enter the office, told the father that he would not attend to the boy unless he was paid cash. After vainly pleading and promis- to give any food to the children. | ing to pay as soon as he got money After much questioning Walker was | given a ticket to go to see Mr. Rolker, the poor man was dismissed with the generous advice to visit the Sandwich head of the Municipal Employment Bureau, where hungry workers are | told to go for a job that does not} exist. (Anything to get them away from the Welfare Agency). He was told if there was no job down there, he would have to shift for himself | and find a job. | City Hall ape aoe eek ee aes ee In the City Hall the father and being his first time here for food, ser beta ty eg nd Or he is not entitled to any food for his Ghee varravigetienss were dane whereby the Hotel Dieu Hospital would look after the boy. The boy lacked medical attention practically for one whole day because his father was out of a job and had no money. What a difference there is in the Soviet Union. When a children. worker or one of his children need medical attention in the USSR they are given it immediately at the ex- Forced Labor Miss Bidgood then gave him a job. This is the kind of slip that he got. | A Welfare Agency slave order. FAMILY WELFARE ASS’N Work Order 5 Oct. 31, 1931 The (employer's name) BRICK GLASS COMPANY will pleace| give Willie Walker of 1306 Bruce | St. work for 8 hours for which he | Peme of the state. will be paid by the Family Welfare | Association. | (Signed) ISABEL L. BIDGOOD, Secy. Northwestern District POLICE DESTROY Worked in satisfactory ae WORKERS’ HOMES | | | | | | Superintendent. 1931. ‘Drive Unemployed From Shacks (By a Worker Correspondent) LAS VEGAS, Nev.—The unem- ployed along Vegas Creek succeeded in building shacks out of old boards, Remarks There is plenty of graft involved | in this. Willie Walker, after doing | this 8 hours of work will bet a bas- | ket of food worth about half of what | money he was supposed to get for the work. Apparently the Brick on as the strike progresses. | strated. Iron Foundry Slashes Moulders Pay 10 P. C.| The Liberty Garment Company is “Jim Crowed.” Negro workers are not jpleyed and unemployed was demon- | |Missourl, solidarity between the em- | vich, organizer of the National Min- | these experiences, but they are all | ers Union, and Comrade W. Mueller, |well known to the worker. I am| organizer of the Communist Party | ashamed to say that before I voted, | spoke. I could not believe that such open | Protest telegrams were sent to Gov- | intimidation and crookedness was so | Glass Company doesn’t pay anything for labor but just arranges to make some kind of donation to the Welfare and the Welfare that gets a fund for relief work pockets the difference. | paper boxes and tin, to house their families for the winter. Some millionaire riding by in his limousine did not. like the looks of the shacks, as they did not beautify employment insurance “would kill in- dividual initiative.” SL (By a Worker Correspondent) PROVIDENCE, R. I—The Builder’s Iron Foundry here cut the pay of the moulders 10 per cent. The pay is now about $27 a week. The company has put in a system whereby the moullder and his helper owe money to the company. For instance, the boss gives the men a job to make in 20 hours and if the men can’t make it in that time they are docked for all the time it takes over. The company also hollds back 20 per cent of the wages to make sure they don’t lose. One moulder owes the company $78 and another $18. EVICTED BY COAL BARONS The wife and daughter of a striking Pennsylvania miner who were thrown from their home by the coal company thugs. The little surance at the cost of the bosses and the government, furniture they had was thrown on the rond and smashed by the deputies. |employed, despite this the demonstra- tion parade was led by a Negro mem- ber of the Unemployed Council and both Negro and white workers were | on the picket line. ‘union leaders. ernor Pinchot of Pennsylvania and | Governor Sampson of Kentucky, the workers demanding the immediate release of all imprisoned strikers and Kansas City, Mo. Daily Worker: | Due to the activities of the ILD, I was released from the Cass County jail at Harrisonville, Mo., last Friday on a writ of habeas corpus, where I had been sentenced to a year in jail and a $500 fine on a charge of unlawful assembly, in connection with the Missouri State Hunger March. ‘The jail was overcrowded and the | food was practically a minus—the | sheriff, Roy Moseby, receiving $1.05 a day for feeding each prisoner, and | it cost him around $2 a day to feed | an average of 25 prisoners and his | own family. Plenty of graft there. The boys in the jail were greatly interested in the movement, two of them having reported to the Workers Center in Missouri after their re- lease, These prisoners have asked me to write to the Daily Worker about the conditions in the jail. | Last Tuesday there were 33 pris- oners and only eight bunks. The jail | was clean, but only because the) prisoners themselves kept it clean. As to the food—for “breakfast,” we re- ceived a very small portion of oats coffee; for dinner, a small portion of Imprisoned Hunger Marcher Writes of Prison Brutality prevalent—A Worker. The whole deal just reeks with rem- nants of “something that's than chattel slavery” and smells loud- ly of “forced labor.” 2 WASHINGTON BANKS CRASH | HOQUIAM, Wash.—The First Na- | tional Bank of Hoquiquiam closed | Noy. 5, taking all the savings of many of the lumber workers here. Most of the workers who lost their savings | recently wrecked a new garbage dis- GARBAGE FOR JOBBERS | | and @ cup of slop which passed for | soup, slum or Beans; for supper, @ small portion of mush or soup; and supposedly three slices of bread for each meal. However, the wife of the sheriff made a little extra graft on the side, but not sending in suffi~ cient bread; and then offering to sell us bread enough to make up the difference. Upon one occasion, she failed to put sugar in the oats for breakfast, and then changed us three cents for a little sugar. * Brutal Methods The prisoners receive one, good meal @ week—Sunday dinner—at which time the sheriff throws a party at the jail for his many relatives, and desires to show them how well he treats the prisoners. The sheriff, Roy Moseby, and the persecuting attorney, Mr. Anderson, have a neat method of obtaining ‘“confessions’—they take the suspect over to the office of Mr. Anderson, close the curtains, and force a confession by use of the most brutal methods. I have seen pris- oners return from this terrible third degree hardly able to stand up. Comradely yours, CHARLES CODER. |are out of jobs. Many Japanese | posal plant which cost $250,000. families are in very hard circum-| Why? The garbage is being used by stances in Seattle due to the closing | the Salvation Army to feed Chicago's of the Japanese Commercial Bank. unemployed. AJI.W. worse CHICAGO.—The city of Chicago the landscape. . He. talked with the powers that be and a few days ago while the workers were away in town @ squad of police and special depu- ties swooped down and smashed every shack to bits. It was certainly a heart-rending sight to see the women and children being herded along by the brutal police. When the mén’réturned and found the ruins of their homes there was bitterness in theif hearts and they | Were ready to do almost anything, This move of the bosses is espe- , The Molotov works of the Dniepropetrovsk which produces metal parts for the new factories being built in the USSR. The workers in this plant as in all other metal plants in theSoviet Union have re- cently received a raise in pay, while workers in similar plants in Amer- ica have had their wages cut. cially serious at this time, with the cold weather right on the homeless workers. Most of the campers are |mow drifting into “Hoover City,” where they find shelter among a few | campers who have space to spare. ‘Miner Loses Eye Through Speed-Up (By a Worker Correspondent.) GARRETT, Ky.—Luma Sexton, a coal loader, lost an eye here recently | as he was assisting the trackmen of | the Wells Elkhorn Coal Co. do a job | at top speed. The miner is 45 years | old and is now out of work. It will | not be long until his little compensa- | tion is gone. No man can get a min- | ing job with one eye, so this miner | will soon be out begging if the bosses | have their way about it. | Socialism would write a very dif- | ferent chapter to this sad story. In | the ‘first place, Socialism provides | proper remuneration for all workers *|and under a workers’ government as in the Soviet Union ‘the interests of the workers is*'the chief and only problem. TION FOR THE MINERS tains not very far from Siberia. The work here is not so hard. I am NO STARVA U.S. S. Re IN THE SOVIET UNION, SAYS AMERICAN COPPER MINER life in here is very gay one. The|tion here at the cemetery, where In America they wrote that there | liberty; there is no forced labor, hut | lions out of work and hungry, Soviet people are very good natured | there are buried the falling fighters of | is famine here but that is not true. |every class conscious worker is tak- | all are equal. But for speculators, thieves and other parasites there is Dear Comrades: I inform you as I would my own father and mother that quite un- expectedly for myself I left for the Soviet Union and I arrived here in good health, Iam now working in the copper mines in the Ural moun- working as an Instructor and my no place, for the honest working-man. Here th revolution and the partisan, who| There is plenty of everything. My addres is: Peter Kovaleysky, wages are 250 rubles a month. The behavior of the administration is Here there is a little town with @ population of 25,000. Before this very courteous. whole section was nothing but woods No Speculators and swamps. But when copper was I also want to inform you that the | discovered already four big mines are the manager of the mine and the /fell in the struggle with the bands rest of the administrative force shake | of Kelchak. Many speakers spoke hands with me and other workers. among them old mothers who lost of the five year plan in four years. In short, I am very glad that I country as the same old Russia. They | I am very sorry that I did not come their sors in the fight, There were ‘ left America because in America in are building many factories and la few years there will be transformed to the Soviet Union: ten years ago. also distributed gifts to the fighters | shops, highways and beautiful houses | into a land of hungry unemployed.| neighborhood. Send regular letters life in here is & very good one, Here | in operation and a large smelter. The | Yesterday there wis a big celebra- | that were alive and ure now working. | for the workers, Here there is full|And even now there are many mil- | netics islisinaarnsamisaribecehbtshtainniasabinncnmtemehinneshilvorbenainelie enorme snsiomcpa If |ing in consideration the fulfillment | Uralmedstreyd No. 57 Room 5, ‘Dis- you should come to the Soviet Union, you would never recognize now the trict of Ural, U. S. S. R, Build a workers correspondence gtoup tn your factory, shop or to the Daily Worker.