The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 2, 1932, Page 3

— | DAILY WORKER, RY 2, , 1932 Page| Three _ | WORKERS’ CORRESPONDENCE-- ae PAY INCREASE FOR SOVIET MINERS—ENTIRE U.S. MINING TOWN JOBLESS—BETHLEHEM STEEL WORKERS WAGES DOWN TO $15—NEGRO DRIVEN FROM FARM IN NORTH CAROLINA eee eee? | Pay Rises For Soviet Coal Diggers; American Miners F acing Misery and Hunger ‘Soviet Miners Get Big Wage Increase; Exceed 5 Year Plan ‘New Wage Scale Doubles Pay of Miners In Donbass Region of U.S. S. R. Six Hour Day and New Mechanization Makes Work ‘Dear Comrade, Easier Donbass, U.S. 8. R. We are a shock brigade of miners named after the GPU, We work in the northern pit at Gorlovs have won three challenge Red mine. Soviet Union. in the Donbass. We Flags for the best work of the One'of the flags is given in a competition for all the t We received your letter at a time when the proletariat of (he U.S.S.R. was reckoning up its successes on the front of socialist construction and taking note of the failures so as to} —avyoid them in the future. PUEBLO WORKERS, ORGANIZE BIG JOBLESS MEETS Bosses Jail Worker, Yet Movement Gains New Support (By a Worker Correspondent) PUEBLO, Col—The Pueblo steel mills are still closed down. Masses of-people in Colorado are out of work with no prospects of ever getting a job. The foothills are full of deadwood, ut. the workers are not allowed to Yake this wood. ‘These lands belong 06 the U. S. government and the State of Colorado. There are signs posted everywhere threatening those who take wood with fines and prison, ‘Though the wood is rotting on the ground, the state is ready to prose- sute-anyone who dares to take a stick of it. Pueblo had its first Unemployed Council meeting on December 19. 200 people attended and ten police. Five speakers from Denver explained the role of the Council. W. L. Blondeau was arrested for distributing hand bills for the meeting. We will grow here, for the workers, both employed and unemployed, show great enthu- siasm for our program of struggle. One family in Pueblo is living in a hole in the ground. The mother has T. B. and the children are sick. ‘The father is unemployed. They are without food and fuel. The Com- munity Chest has refused to help the on the grounds that they ave not been in the State of Colo- ado for a year. The old age pension in Colorado fell through. The authorities refuse to make appropriations for old age | pensions, though the law was passed ' by the legislature. Conditions are getting to be hell. One family is eating dog meat. We also, as part of the great army of shock brigaders of the Five Year Plan looked over our work at the time of the October celebrations and we wish to inform you of it. First of all, let us tell you of our pit, It is a pit giving big bright coal suitable for cooking, and is worked at a depth of 365 meters; our district is the main district for supplying coking coal, Up to 1928 coal was obtained ex- clusively by hand methods, using the overhead and bay method. From 1928 the mine was mechanized, pneumatic drills being introduced. Now about 80 per cent of the total output of coal is got by mechanical methods. In July this year our pit went over to the pillar method of coal getting, owing to which the efficiency of the work of the diggers greatly increased, and consequently the output of coal from the pit. The best hewers, shock brigades, give an output of 40 tons a day by this system, with a 6-hour day, and get less tired even with such an output than under the old sys- tem when they hewed 10-15 tons. Fulfilled Plan plan every day after the 10th of Oc- tober. By the 14th anniversary of the October Revolution, the brigades and communes sent to the surface 4,000 tons over the plan. We have fulfilled our October task by 145 per cent, sending to the sunface 550 tons more than the plan called for. Pay Increased Supreme Economic Council and the Central Trade Union Council, a new wage scale was introduced in our pit in October. It includes piece work pay. Previously the hewers earned 150-200 rubles, but now they earn 300 to 400 rubles. the life of miners of the west. We shall answer you in detail. Please | write. We shall expect letters. With comradely greetings, Chukov, Svish, Filimonov, Nicola- enko, A. Kulik, D. Kulik. Our address is: USSR, Donbass. | Gorlovsky District, Northern Mine. HORN AND HARDART CO. PROFITS SHOW GAIN AT WORKERS’ EXPENSE One Waitress Now Forced to Do the Work of | Two ) and Earns Less share of stock. tomer. Another claim by this the serving of larger portions. How is this miracle accomplished? First, the claims about having as many workers as last year. This is due’ to the opening of many new yestaurants of various types in Phila- delphia. In reality, threes months after the fiscal report's figures of earning the number of workers is Jess, because any waiter or waitress ‘will tell you privately that they now have to step very lively, as they are forced to do the work of two, one waitér or waitress, as the case may , being laid off. for wages, this is not a heavy iter to Horn and Hardart’s. In ¢ “better” neighborhoods where ‘traffic is heavier the waiters and waitresses earn $3, $3.50 and $4 in tips, where formerly they made $7 per day. And it must not be for- gotten that it required two waiters or tresses to do the work. In other words, for double the amount offlabor the workers of Horn and fart are now getting (chiefly the customers) half the amount a wages, In the less frequented res- taurants conditions are on the whole much worse Food Workers Industrial Union Calls on Work- ers to Organize (By a Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—For its last fiscal year, ending | ptember 30, 1931, the Horn and Hardart Baking Co. of Phila- ‘delphia reports a net income of $1,509,495 equal to $15.41 per _ Current business is there according to Horn and Hardart’s “progressing” on a high level. taining the same force of workers and wages although ad- mitting a decline in the average check amount of each cus- They also claim to be main- firm is reduction in prices and As, for larger amounts of food for reduced prices, this claim is chiefly a figment of the ,imagination of H. and H’s accountants and publicity agents. ‘The world is flooded with ‘heat, but at Horn and Hardart’s the same small and meagre portions of bread are served for the same coin, Even the apple sauce, as the pub- licity agents well know, is applied in Jarger portions only to the press for publicity purposes, At Horn and Hardart’s the portions of this food, just like the bread, remains as smal] That's why a dividend of $15.41 per share can be declared by this firm, But the restaurant workers can against the high level prices by first organization of the waiters, wait- resses, cooks, etc. into the Food Workers’ Industrial Union and by ‘As the result, the pit fulfilled its | According to the decision of the | We are very interested to know of | as during the gold rush of 1922-28. | fight against the worsening of their | conditions and the worker customers | six hours a day. “PAU L men as a matter of routine ask h basis he was picked up? “Oh, he is a Communist.” They know these men, the Cor terrorization. They have several a for their deporiation and what they lands has been made clear to every been lost time. Their misery and it deported. “Look out, Mussolini—loo! fascist murderers, We are coming the Communists. We have learned, much have you got, comrade. etc., must have funds.” He has three dollars. That is t I must pay to the Daily Worker.” “Then this court cannot take it OUR PAPER.” A group of shock brigade miners in the Soviet U nion. The door of the immigration detention cell clanged. worker joins the scores waiting deportation to their “Another and our comrades haye made us graduates. place in the ranks of the proletaire.” But even where one learns so much the routine must go on. | BUT—It is not mine, comrades,” he prote: They have had their wages doubled and work cies PAPER MUNTER, A foreign born home lands. The im where he is from and on what political.” “Born in -- mmunists, these victims of capitalist Ireddy in their midst. ‘The reasons must do when they reach their home- one of them by the comrades. The time these workers have spent in the detention station has not 's cause is no mystery. Let them be Kk out Venizeloes—look out all of you back and we are going to fight with The American boss has taught us We are coming to fill our “How The court which supplies us with tobacco, he sum usually levied on newcomers. “It is money that from you, we would not’ live off of (By a Worker Correspondent) LIBBY, Mont.—In order to make | the workers here believe that pros- | perity is just over the horizon, the | little dinky newspaper that is printed ‘PARTY GROWS IN _ STEGER, ILLINOIS Calls Workers to Fight for Relief | (By a Worker Correspondent) STEGER, I1l.—In my opinion work- ing for charity is forced labor and the | form of “relief” that the city is giving |in this town is forced labor of the | worst kind. | Besides being humiliated and brow- beaten, the workers who are unem- ployed here are cheated by the fake relief mongers. Especially are the the foreign-born workers cheated in the worst manner. | One of the workers in the forced | labor company here, being unable to | speak English good, was cheated out | of the small sum alloted him for two | days work. He worked five days and on receiving his pay he found that | he was only credited with three days | work. He immediately called| the “relief” official's attention to the fact that he was short two days pay. The official told him he ought to be sa- | tistied with what he got. The official told the worker that no one saw him work the other two days. | The workers in Steger should wake up and organize into the Unemployed Council to fight for real relief and unemployment insurance at the ex- pense of the rich capitalists. ‘We have just began to organize the Communist Party here and gained 10 members in three weeks. Babbles About Prosperity; Town 75 Per Cent Bankrupt in this town published an item stat- ing that the auto manufacturers are putting more men to work. The item says that this is “rather good evidence that the upturn from the depression has started.” The real fact of the case is that | the auto bosses who recently fired | thousands, are now taking back a few. They are not, however, taking | back the full force that they fired. | This town depends upon J. Neils mill force months ago, and now run their plainers one-third time. The | town is seventy-five per cent, broke. The servile editor grabs this kind of stuff to keep the jobless workers here hopeful. At the same time the editor was going into ecstacy about “the return of prosperity” a business- man, a friend of the editor, had his lights turned off and had to close his business. Lets get together, employed and unemployed, and demand unem- ployment insurance. There will be no prosperity for the workers unless they are organized. We must build an Unemployed Council in this town to fight for real relief for the jobless. | Lumber Co., which laid off their saw | MORE WORKERS FIRED AT LAS VEGAS DAM JOB Rationalization at Boulder Dam Swells Jobless Ranks | (By a Farmer Correspondent) | LAS VEGAS, Nev.—The Six Com- panies are straining. every effort to substitute machines for the workers. Already the original estimate of the | number of workers has been drastic- ally reduced, and groups of men are | constantly being laid off to join the ever growing army of unemployed. This mania for ~ rationalization | seems to be sweeping throughout all American. industry and is especially and ominous! significant at this time of unparalleled unemployment. Now I have nothing against ma- chines as machines. In a socialist | | state it would merely mean a lightening ofthe. burdens of the| workers, and shorter hours with the | same or increased’ pay. Its effects in the capitalist state we can plainly see in the ever grow- ing army of permanently pauperized men and women. This country, as highly developed as it is mechanic- ally, can easily be made into a par- adise for the American workers. The workers, however; will have to organize into strong revolutionary unions and into the!. Communist Party day by day. Miner. Urges Maré Correspondence | (By a Worker Correspondent) | PINEVILLE, Ky.—The pen is a mighty weapon in the class struggle. | Here in Kentuck we banks on the} Daily Worker to carry the struggle to | all the coal miners. | Some of us, realizing that the Daily Worker is our paper, are writ- ing to it about our conditions and struggle. What we need is more/| miners writing so that we will at- | tract attention of all the miners in the field. I would suggest that every miner try to find time to write to the Daily Worker. | ‘The farmer has a bumper crop, enough to feed you all; But this is why, he told us, he is burning wheat for coal: “The price they offer for the wheat is hardly worth the threshin’, ‘The reason being, so they say, that there is a depression.” | ‘The food shipped by the carload for the city to consume Is dumped into the river so that prices won’t come down, { And millions who are underfed sigh a brief confession— “Our bread box, child, is empty, for there is a depression.” Machines on which our faithful hands have toiled with increased speed Have made so much of everything that working men do need; Yet when we ask for food they say ‘tis only an obscession To think that we need food and clothes when there is a depression. | (By a Worker Correspondent.) CHAPEL HILL, N. C.—Alph Min- ter is a poor Negro farmer who owns two small farms, one in Orange He was held in Pittsboro, N.C., on a days last fall, as a result of which he lost all of his crops and his life is in constant danger. The rape charge was not placed against ine farmer, as usual by a woman, but by the hoodlums of the community, The trouble began when a white woman was driving a gray mule to town to get the Negro farm- organization of the workers who are | compelled to eat at the nearest Horn and Hardart restaurant into Con- sumers’ Leagues. faim. er’s wife. The white woman passed the Negro farmer on the road and asked him if she cow’ ride wit’ Kemember she was Ne Ww ° County and one in Chatham County. | trumped up charge of rape for 21) Rich Farmers Steal Nearo’s Stock and Drive, iife away. Him from County After Framed | Rape Charge ollepeee Negro Farmer, Peter from Land in oath | Carolina, Calls Workers to Smash Terror Chapel Hill farmer's wife. The woman remained in the wagon until after they had passed a white man’s house, the house of Bill Cheek Master Bill Cheek, as the Negroes call him, is a white saw mii bose and a big farmer. He is one of the bosses in Chatham County. Mill Boss Calls for Violence. Bill Cheek became enraged when w saw Alph Minter sitting in the wagon beside the while wound’ for this same Negro Cheek said the Negro ought to be | lynched and hurried to the nearest | filling station to let his ideas he} known, The officers then seized Minter and the woman. They tried to in- timidate the woman to place a charge of rape against the Negro, but she would not do it ‘They put the white woman in jail. She cursed the jailers. ‘She told} them that ‘she would go to hell and return and go under the jail betore \ er”-reviling the ‘Hunger Marcirwould } |'do creditto’ the Ku Kiux Klan or | revolutionar held in jail. . | 2 3 name Tom Campbell, a Pennsylvania miner, with his child. Campbell | joined the National Miners’ Union | to fight aga WOBBLIES ADOPT KKK. TACTICS Decry ~ Struggle-of | Unemployed (By a Worker Geceupanaaait) MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—The art- icle in the I.W.W. “Industrial: Work- any downrightorganimttion “ef “the? cists who are against the revolution- ary movement of the workers | Under the head of “Not Hungry March” the reptile, F. W. Burroughs, tries to represent that there is no hunger or misery in the United | States. The bread lines in this town are full of wobblies. Give such counter-revolutionisis as Burroughs enough rope and they will hang themeselves. They say they would not go on the breadline, that they will get theirs on the stem. But the stem played out and they are on the breadline just the sa ’ It is really to bad that Burroiighs did not have his flying squad with, him to help the police. The only thing the flying sqaud of the I.W.W. is good for is to terrorise workers who | are not yet class-conscious, and high- | | jack them, with the result that Wob- | blies and their flying squad are hated most heartily by the migratory work- ers who ‘have been victimized by them. The 1.W.W., once a militant organ- | ization, is today like a dying snake, | dying, but still full of venom. ‘The | I. W. W. today is plainly a counter- . Whole Mich. Mining Town Jobless; Form Unemployed Council Miners Who Toiled for Years In Copper Face Starv Mas m semble “In (By a Worker PALMER, Mich.—Palmer, in a situation where all of the worke: the ¢losing of the Isabelle mine, years have toiled and produced find ourselv the jobless min On Dee. Hall, ment facing us, and our families. committee of the unemployed was elected, to further carry and mak preparations for a broader meeting and struggle. Another meeting v as | alled for the 14th of December, But what do we see? During this tim the mine, officials with those of the A a decision that the unemploye workers could not have the Town- ship Hall for their meeting |trigk by the bootlickers of the mine barons, was only an attempt to crush the rise of the struggles of the min- jers, who. refuse to accept the bosses | program of starvation Nevertheless the plans of the work- ers remained unchanged and despite the refusal of the hall the unem- ployed gathered in front of the | Township Hal and protested the ac- tions of the petty-officials, working hand in;hand with the bosses, in refusing the open the doors, where the workers could assemble for their meetings. The workers were deter- hall, On Ded. 23 the Jobless workers, re- gardless of the cold weather, again assembled in’ even greater numbers for an outside meeting. At this meeting a resolution of demands was read and unanimously adopted by the workers. This resolution voiced the: demands of the workers and condeniniiig-tiie bossés and super- visors of “their récént actions in re- fsal of the hall. Also this resolu- tion carried the demands of the un- employed, for immediate relief. A committee of three was elected at thé meeting to present the resolution of demands to the meeting of the Township Board which was meeting at’ the time of the meeting. The | demands were rejected by the Board |and the matter of’ getting the ‘hall was‘teft to the prosecuting attorney to decide. It is clear that this re- presentative of the laws of the bosses will also reject the miners’ demands. and endorse the bosses’ decision in refusing the building But we will not accept the deci- sions of the bosses, but will organize for greater ftghts.’. The’ bosses at- | tempts to stop the growing struggles jot the* unemployed ‘workers ‘will ‘be met by, @ brodder - and.- stronger struggles to resist the attacks im- posed on the workers of Palmer. We will organize into militant Unem- ployed Councils and unemployed committees and the fight will go on. Meeting Insurance, Relie in the army is the same as unemployed and on the brink of 7th, these workers gathered for the purpose of discussing tk village had gotten together and made This | mined to fight for the right of the | ation Demand, Social enpondentt ) a small mining town, is today are unemploved.- With all of the miners;” who for huge profits for the ‘Cleveland- of starvation. The- fate of those 12,000,000 already starvation. a3 in the~Pownship problem of unsmploy: ‘ROB WORKERS IN «| ALLERTON CHAIN “RELIEF” DRIVE Head House Keeper Makes Workers: Give to Fake Charity By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—‘I everyone jin my department to contribute one | dollar to the Unemployed Fund each pay day and including the next four and a half semi-monthly pay Thus spoke Miss Sampson, an ob- solete spinster of one hundred per cent ultra bourgeois Americanism. She is the head house keeper in the Street house for women.| Miss Sampson is a female Simon’ Legrée, Her word is a law. The workers dare not talk back because they are threat- ened with the penalty of sacrificing their jobs. All one can hear in the linen room is—‘Yes ‘mam’. “Yes Miss Sampson,” etc. want | 57 The workers are driven with in- tense speed to do more work with barely any time left to! look after their own personal needs. Miss Samp- son is now more ferocious than ever because the house isn’t as full as in the past. Her mouth is always open to bark out rapid orders, and if she has to repeat an order woe to {h¢ unfort- unate worker for not being on the alert and he or she is scolded un- mercifully Wages Below Scale. ‘The maids, house men and cleaners are paid five dollars below the pre- vailing wage scale which ‘is fifty-five dollars per month for the female and eighty dollars for the male workers. ‘That is the scale for the Allerton | Chain of houses. The house painter receives eighty dollars per month, | while the other Allerton houses pay between one hundred and twenty, | thirty dollars for the same work. The painter has not the eight hour day, instead he is compelled to work all sorts of hours which oft times in- clude Sundays and holidays, and reactionary Plan Wagecuts for Jersey Building Trades (By a Worker Correspondent) ANTLANTIC CITY, N. J.—The STEEL WORKERS MUST ORGANIZE FOR BIG STRUGGLES OF 1932 bosses are planning a wage-cut in | Many Bethlehem Pay Envelopes Contain Less Than $15 for Two Weeks Work the building trades in Antlantic City. As a result of this the misleagers of | the building trades are putting up a| fake fight. President. McCarthy and contrac- tor Murkland are-planning a confer- | ence.” We have seen such conferen- } ces before and from the past record of the A. F. of L, we predict that a wage-cut will be the outcome The city’ plans to cut wages of the common laborer on city jobs $1 a dav anal Yr she would falsely swear the Negro’s And because she would zro's life aavay shéy Minter’ Was “also not swear the Neg kept her in jail Finally, without any trial, the au- thorities ordered both the man and woman to leave Chatham County. The main object of this. move, was to prevent the Negro! farmer from gathering his crops and to drive hin off his farms. The white woman lived on gne of the Negro’s farms’ in a“small house, for which she paid rent to Minter. Minter asks the workers to assist him in winning safety in his home and’on his land. He has already lost his mules and crops. The white Indy: now lives in High Point, N. C. | Negro W orkers “at Sparrows 1 Point Her ed in Camps Under Guard rker (By a W BALTIMORE, Md.—In the Bethlehem Steel | Sparrows Point wage-cuts, the stagger system, speed-up and Plant at Correspondent ) lay-offs have heen the order of the day for the last three years. Now in the. third year ef the actnally. ing. starvation. ~ Wages Cu scrisis the steel workers are it ‘Lo Bone. The wages have now been cut to the bone and those work- ing piece wor most skijJed Wwotkers""25~.to'"35“dol~ lars every two weeks. ‘ywhere the check-up system is put into effect—that is, the bosses are checking how long it takes to} do a certain ;:job. Then when the!) Worker »has'*ftnished | the “Job ~ he ‘ds’ sent home. New workers are hired and required to keep up the speed established ‘by the previous workers. Only Half Of Mills Working Many of ‘the laborers who get a change of work to a better paying job find’ to their dismay that they are fired after 5 or 6 hours. work, No ofe knows, how long he will work nowadays? Only half of the tin mills are working on a three and four day a week basis. The sheet mills work only two and three days per week | and one half of the mills are work: ing, off every day. Other departments are laying | aré earning-from 10 to 15 dollars per two “The Jaborers are-making 33. cents an hour and the { Everywhere one looks one sees mis- ery among the steel workers, Every- | where steel workers houses are be- | ing sold at auction. Others are be- ing threatened -with ewigtion, Discriminate Against’ Negroes ; The Negro workers are especially | discriminated against. Many of them | are living in camps “at“Sparrows | Point like sardines with a wire fence | around them and police watching | over them. ‘Those workers who were fooled in- | to expecting improvements are be- | ginning to see that there ys no im- | provement for the workimigjclass un- | Jess they organize and fight for it, | We have the organization for the steel workers here, the prtaly Works ers Industrial League. Come on steel workers and join struggles of 1932 , " with us and prepare for the big Tee i i t v 8 “% ‘