The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 9, 1932, Page 3

i DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK ATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1932 WORKERS’ CORRESPONDENCE-- PINCHOT ‘RELIEF’ PLAN’ EXPOSED AS A FRAUD TO QUIET WORKERS Only Workers Who Vote the “Right Way” Get Jobs Through Pinchot Plan Finleyville Communist Party Unit Gains in Strength Through Eviction Fights (By a Worker Correspondent) FINLEYVILLE, Pa.—A few days ago the governor issued a statement about the road work, saying that he had given instructions to the foremen to employ men who were in actual need. There are five men employed on one of the roadwork jobs in Union Township. These five have steady employment, while the rest, that is, hundreds who are in actual need and starving ean’t get work, although they NEGRO PATIENT JIM-CROWED IN MICH. HOSPITAL Negro Baby Killed Through Nurse’s Carelessness (By a Worker Correspondent) SAGINAW, Mich.—A colored wo- man was taken to the city hospital December 21 heing very sick. The doctor did not examine her or tell’ her what was wrong. They put med- icine on a little table but did not tell her when she was to take it. ‘They gave the white patients all they wanted to eat, but the colored did not have enough and what they did get to eat was half cooked. On Sunday the white had chicken but the Negroes had dumplings that was not fit to feed a dog. ‘The colored did not get a bath when they were taken to the hospi- tal. One colored woman was in the hospital two weeks and they only changed her bed once. When the patients ask for a bed pan they have to wait until the nurse gets ready to bring it. The woman said she would rather be in jail. About a month ago, a colored wo- man, Mrs. Sanders, had @ baby born and it was scalded to death through plain carelessness. People told the nurse the hot water bottle leaked. ‘Then they tried to keep people quiet by telling them the baby was in the cottage. Mrs. Clark told the nurse they killed the brby. They told her to keep still. KEUFFER, ESSER SLASHES WAGES Must Build — Up Shop Committees HOBOKEN, N. J.—The bosses of he Keuffer and Esser Company re- ceutly cut the wages of its remaining part time workers from 8 to 15 per cent in the entire plant. This cut took place about two weeks ago. About 400 workers are affected, in- cluding some women workers, During the past year and a half the. workers have been cut from five to two days work a week. ‘The vast majority of the workers are Germans and are talking about the bad conditions and the terrible speed-up they are forced to endure. ‘They say, after each cut they must tighten up on their belts. Here in the cleaning department is a brute slave-driver called Mr. were among the first to be registered, Asked How to Vote. The writer went to Washington to register. The third question that I was asked was I affiliated with any Political group. In other words how do you vote. I told the man in charge that it was none of his damned busi- ness how I voted or what my politics were. The result is that I was never called for a job and my name can- not be found on the list. This is just to show how crooked the whole thing is. Pinchot’s pro- gram is just a scheme to quiet the growing clamor of the hungry work- ers, Unemployed Council Busy. The Unemployed Council is busy keeping in touch with all the cases of workers who are threatened with eviction. One of our workers was threatened with eviction. When we gave the landlord notice that we would put him back he relented and allowed the worker to stay in the house. We also forced the landlord to give the worker good for his fam- ily. We have another case of eviction and we are planning a mass demon- stration in front of the squires to force the officials to allow the worker to remain in the house. News has come to us here of hte death of two workers from starvation in the town of Monongahelia. The verdict of the coroner was heart di- sease. Force Chorch Attendance. The man who furnished the Cover- dale barracks passed the word to all the miners and their families that they must either go to the catholic church on Christmas or be put out of the barracks. There was only a few who went. ‘The Finloyville unit of the Commu- nist Party is gaining in strength every day through the good fights we are putting up. We sre preparing to open a fight here for free milk for the children in the schools. The children are forced to bring three cents to the school in order to get milk. Michigan Poor House Inmates Threatened (By a Worker Correspondent) ELOISE, Mich.—Conditions in the ‘Wayne County Hospital and the Poor House at Eloise are incredible. Mayor Murphy's election officials are doing their best to hide evils a little better than heretofore. Inmates are threatened with con- finement in the state madhouse, if they dare write to a newspaper or anyone regarding the conditions. There is in the Eloise institutions every evidence of a professional and political hook-up with the dope and booze rings. The writer, because of many attempts to call public atten- tion to the criminal side of affairs here, has been constantly under sus- picion and is in danger of being maltreated. Fuegh, the straw boss, who with the (other bosses of various departments are conducting weekly meetings on (Mondays with superintendent, for to “The labor movement will gain the hand. and show the way to and socialism.” LENIN. orkers Demand Relief in Wis.; Socialists Jail Them Cops Who Attacked Hunger March Lose in Ind. Bank Crash (By a Worker Correspondent) CHICAGO—Many of the Ham- mond, Ind., police had money in the First National Bank of that city when it closed. Perhaps this is cap- italism’s reward to them for attack- ing the Hunger Marchers when they came through here. (By a Worker Correspondent) BROOELYN, N. ¥.—I worked for the Central Jewish Aid Society at 1206-15th St., Denver, Col. Ray 8. David, superintendent of the society listed here. Had a yery hard time. Have not been working a long time. Applied to the United Jewish Aid, 1095 Myrtle Ave. Brooklyn and was told they could do nothing for me. On three different times I sat and watched what kind of help given to others. Everybody was sent away without receiving any help. When I talked to the others about what they charity offices are making a mockery of the word charity. Nobody at that office received any help. They le when they show records that they help. It is nothing but a fake, LETTER FROM RED ARMY — HOW PINCHOT ‘*‘RELIEF”’ OYSTER DIGGERS ORGANIZING IN BALTIMORE — Soldier Tells How Red Army Helps to Build Socialism in the Soviet Union Nijni Novgorod. Dear Comrades: This morning we read your letter. It was very pleasant to read that you sent us greetings for the anni- versary of the October Revolution and that you look on the U.S.S.R. as your socialist fatherland. We saw from your letter how you live under hard conditions. Capitalism is turn- ing and twisting in the grips of the imperialist crisis. Capitalism is try- ing to throw all the burdens from its own shoulders on to yours. But things are different here. We are young fighters and have not been long in the army. We came from the factories, mills and collec~ tive farms. Socialist economy is growing and spreading here, andnew industrial giants are coming into operation, while collectivization 1s increasing in the country districts. Not long ago we finished building our Nijni automobile works. In the villages of our province 48 per cent of the farms are collectivized, In the Red Army. At the present moment we are nob engaged in factory work. We have joined the army to learn to defend DIGGENS LUMBER MILLS CUT PAY TEN PER CENT 15 Per Cent Slash Hits Mich. Foundry Workers (By a Worker Correspondent) CADILLAC, Mich.—As a devoted reader of the Daily Worker I saw @ piece in the paper that you would like to know of evictions, pay cuts, and things done against the laboring class, so I am letting you know of pay cuts in this city, as you probably haven’t heard of them yet. Here in Commers Diggins Planning Mill (or us workerse here have a ‘etter mame for it—Come and Dig- in’s Mill)— I used to work there but they flred me because I wouldn’t handle three sixteen inch boards, at once, iy At. this mill Bill Saunders who owns it gave the hard working boys who work there a present of a 10 per cent wage cuts. If you were getting $2.25 for 8 hours the first of the year you would get $2.05. One fellow is getting $1.95 for 8 hours. The cut is to effect all Commers Diggins mills, number yards and log- ging camps. And at that most of the men are only getting one and two days in a week, some of them not any, At Proter's foundry works, the boys got a cut of 15 cents on the dollar, which has already taken effect. UNION MINERS DENIED RELIEF “Relief” Only for Open Shoppers (By a Worker Corespondent) BUTTE, Mon.—Conditions in the towns are as follows: A large part of Butte miners are totally unem- ployed; the local relief organization, organized originally as independent relief bureau for relief of unemployed miners was recently turned over to the Anaconda Copper Mining Com~ pany, which immediately started to discriminate against those trying to organize in the National Miners Union. The churchces are doing all ir their power to keep the workers from organizing, It ‘s rumored by miners that the ‘Thamway Mine, employing 3,000 workers, which has been using the stagger plan to date is to shut down completely. The other mines are going under a system of 2 weeks on and 2 wekes off. It is also rumored that the city merchants will cease to extend credits to unemployed miners after the first of the year. 3 Central Pa. Mines Close; | 500 Fired (By a Worker Correspondent) JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — While the bosses and their lackeys are talking about solving unemployment, more miners are losing their jobs in cen- tral Pennsylvania, ‘The road work here, which is so politely called “relief work,” in some cases has not paid the workers for 2 months. The workers were near starved when the pay finally came. laid off 50, This happened on New Year’s day. ‘Number 1, 2 and 6 mine in Blough, near here, shut down completely on Jan. 1, Five hundred miners lost their Jobs in this layoff. The workers here are saying that the Hoover-Pinchot program is all the bunk. Now is the time for the workers to organize into the National Miners Union and the Unemployed Council. Let us march to Somerset and show teh bosses that we will not starve. Red Army Discipline Not Built on Fear of Punishment; Soldiers Receive Political and Cultural Education our socialist state, the fortress of the world revolution. We know from mals which can be treated by the We have officers any way they like. not discipline based on fear of pun- ishment. Our attitude to our duties is conscientious. We know that we have to learn to defend our own cause, The comrades who remained in the factories can work in peace books and from the stories of others how soldiers served in previous times and how we serve now. Our condi- tions are completely different. Red Army men are not now mere cannon fodder, not uniformed ani- FISHER BODY PLANT SLASHES WAGES IN EVERY DEPARTMENT Metal Finishers Get Cut Twice; Welders and Floir Panellers Hard Hit “Spark Plug”, Fisher Body Shop Paper, Calls for Organization CLEVELAND, O.—While Fisher Body workers are barely eking out an existence on two or three days’ work a week, General Motors continues to slash their wages. Metal finishers on shrouds used to get 30c a job. This last summer they were cut to 20c and recently they were cut to 18c a job. Spot welders on tool boxes have been cut from 48¢ to 38¢ a hundred. When they make over 80c an hour their rate is cut again, after which the bosses speed them up until they again make 80c and again the rate is cut. It’s a regular wage- PAY CUTS RAGE |. 22s". IN AUTO PLANTS Chevrolet Began New Year With Cuts (By = Worker Correspondent) DETROIT, Mich.—vVery little ap- pears in the Daily about the condi~ tions in the shops. The writer is out of work for a long time now, but the news that come from workers still on the job in the various shops are in- deed shocking to one’s sense. A worker from the Chevrolet tells me that right after New Years the whole shop departments got cut in their wages running up to 20 per cent but not less than 12 per cent in the lowest paid rates. Another worker from the Murray Body plants tells me that men in the metal finishing division are receiving between $9 to $12 at the most for sixty hours of work and when they went to complain to the plant super- intendent, they were told that that is all the company can afford to pay their men. And after they came back from the manager's office their de- partment foreman told them that soon the”ll have to work for the lash- ing that the company is going to ad- minister its workers. ‘This apparently was an outburst of disgust of the foreman because the foremen also were getting their dose lately. Namely they were put on the hourly rates in place of their monthly salaries. ‘The Plymouth Car Company is giv- ing its workers one vacation after the other. So every one of them is invest- ing his last few cents in a small brew- ery or a joint. And the girls go to the street in very much “INDIVIDUAL” fashion and sell their bodies for a quarter—that buys them their stock- ings. ~F. 8. Affair for Ford Hunger March To Be Held Feb. 6th DETROIT, Mich.—The Ford Hun- ger March Carnival and Masquerade Ball for the benefit of the organiza- tion of the hunger march, will be held Saturday, Feb. 6, from 1 to 12 p. m. at the Finnish Workers Hall, 14th and McGraw. The Ford Huger March will be held February 8. ‘The carnival is arranged under the auspices of the Auto Workers Union and the Unemployed Councils of De~ troit. Floor panellers used to make $1.11 a hundred. They now get 78c, Me- tal finishers on job 558 have slashed from 12 1-2c a piece to 10c, The wage-cutting on lock pillars was put over in a more underhand manner, There were 25 men working at $7.75 a hundred, with the assist- ance of four men on day rate. A time study man was put on the job, as a result of which three of the day workers were fired and the remaining day worker put on the group. In an effort to placate the workers the rate was raised to $7.84 a hun- dred—but when pay day came around they found that their pay for nine hours was now $6.48 where before it had been $7.44. Commenting on this, “Spark Plug” shop paper of Fisher Body, says, “Fisher Body was able to put this over because these workers are not organized in a militant union. In order to stop this continual wage~ cutting and layoffs we must get into the Auto Workers Union and fight back. Join the Auto Workers Union. CRASHED BANKS GET BIG LOOT State Carries On Hokum Trial (By a Worker Correspondent) ‘TOLEDO, Ohio.—The president of the Security Home Trust Co, and five other heads of this bank were indicted after it crashed. Seven true bills containing forty-eight counts were returned against them, Their trial is still going on, but their con- nections are powerful and nothing is expected to come of it. s The heads of these banks that crashed are also among the worst exploiters of labor in ‘Toledo, Among them is C. O. Miniger (not indicated) president of the Electric Auto Lite Co., a director of the crashed Ohio Savings Bank and Trust Co. and a heavy stockholder in the crashed Security Home Trust Co. bank. These exploiters rob the workers at both ends of the scale. First they make millions through merciless exploita~ tion at the factories; then they steal the small sums that the . workers saved by defrauding them of their deposits. Rumors haye it that the Toledo banks are paying back nearly 90 per cent of the total deposits to the de- positors, This is an out-and-out lie. The Security Home Trust Co. which had several thousand working-class depositors, is paying back only 10 per cent, and quiet. We are vigilantly stend- ing on guard. When we joined the army, we did not lose all connection with the great work which is being carried on in the country. Not long ago we took part in a “subbotn!’.” at the construction of the auto work. Our Red Army com~- rades carried on a “VOroshiloy sub- botnik” to gather the harvest. During our service in the Red Army we shall not only learn mili- tary matters. During the period of service all the illiterate and semi- literate comrades will learn to read and write. We shall all become polit- ically educated, and when we are de- mobilized there will be a stream of people coming to the factories and collective farms who will start work on construction work with still greater enthusiasm. In concluding our letter, we ex- press the hope that the letter which we received from you will not be the last. We want to get from you a lot of letters and establish a real good contact with you as comrafes. Write to us at the following ad- dress: Nijni Novgorod, care Editor of “Nijni Novgorod Kommuna,” LAWRENCE MILL GETS NEW CUT IN PAY JAN. 1 5,000 Haven’t Worked A Davy in Three Months (By a Worker Correspondent) LAWRENCE, Mass.—Only one- half of the workers who went on strike are back in the mills at pre- sent. Those who are employed were really hired again by their own boss. ‘They were given blue passes to go inside the mills. Unemployment Grows. Some 5,000 workers here haven't worked a day in 3 months. Others work 3 days and their passes are taken way from them. They must then go down to the mill gates morning and noon to try to get an- other pass, While we, the unem- ployed, stand outside the mills and freeze, the bosses are killing the workers inside with the new speed- up system since the strike. Unem~ ployment is greater here than ever before. We are having an Unem~- ployed Council meeting next week. ‘The Ayer Mill (American Woolen Co. Mill) has officially announced 4 15 per cent wage cut effective Janu- ary 1. Two Banks Close. Last week the Lawrence Trust Co. and the Arlington Trust Co., two of Lawrence's best known banks, closed their doors. The people rushed to the banks waiting for them to open. ‘The scene was similar to the ones we see down at the mill gates. The banks and big stores had mocking signs in their windows “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.” ‘To whom may we ask? To the capitalist, not the workers! Greet Miners, The miners who have organized and joined the National Miners Union have shown their solidarity and courage by voting to strike Jan- uary 1 and by refusing to give up their revolutionary union. They have set an example for every Lawrence worker. The National Textile Work- ers Union is here in Lawrence. Let us organize and join this fighting union and prepare for greater strug- gles, $3 A Week “Relief” for Family of 8—If They Are Not Red — (By a Worker Correspondent) SPOKANE, Wash—I have been busy travelling over the snow-cov- ered plains of North Dakota and Montana talking to hundreds of farmers, their wives and kids. If a fellow has eight children, can prove he is no Bolshevik, he might be able to hi-jack $3 a month out of the Red Cross, And, believe it or not, the farmers are all praying that. they have a bum crop next season. For if they have anything that can be called a crop, why the banker boys will move right in on them. A WORKER’S DIVIDEND IN Ree THE SECURITY-HOME TRUST COMPANY 1. J, FULTON, SUP'T OF BANKS m0 DATION TOLEDO, OHIO, DEC. 18, 1931 TOLEDO, ©. Soecpteratn ses imonnones 7 —iialiaes, $2 conte | Pavapen AY Amy One Or Tws Pouseres Banas “Sonera ee + The above check represents the life savings of an American worker, It was sent to as his share of the dividends of the crashed Ssemr\y-Home Trust Co, of Toledo, Ohio, FISHER BODY CUTS PAY BALTIMORE OYSTER BOATMEN MURDERED AND ROBBED OF PAY Slave on Boats Under Gun Totting Masters for $30 a Month Oyster Dredgemen Build Committee: Call on Boatmen to Organize BALTIMORE, some are killed, we Md wor The shore captain dredging oystei Of course w we're starving now and no mat We get robbed, we are threatened, Jer inhuman conditions. n of Chesapeake Bay: we want to work We e to wor! much slave conditions the mo t exist on those boats we are just naturally compelled to sign up. Tey the + the captain remarks— going to be”. And of cou! dredgemen says, “It’s thirt @ month, that’s what I signed up for’ Then the captain answers back with a dirty look on hi ‘Well I don't think Fl pay you $30. . I'm going to pay you twenty dollars a month”, and | if you don’t like it well, there's always a guy on hand to let you) know what the consequences are, you dont’ like it. Out of our miserable pay ‘ have to pay $10 for oil skins, the board bill is $5 a week for real rot- | ten grub. Anything that gets broke is charged to us and deducted from | our pay. We are simply left without | wages. | When dredging, if you happen to get sick and ask for hospital aid from the captain, he will say: “You don't | get no hospital ships aboard here”, and to strengthen his argument he will draw a shot gun. They put sick men in a skiff without any money send them ashore to get rid of them. _Shipping Sharks Profit. If captain happened to employ you from the shjpping office, then the shipping master received $2.50 out of your wages. If you complain to the shipping master, they will tell some framed up story to the captain against you. If you happen to have $100 on the pay roll—don't ever look for reaching a port as usually the inan is thrown over board, or perhaps shot if he is in the clear where nobody will ever know anything about it. The old bygone days are still in existence when brutal inhuman meth- ods were a regular thing on ships. Now the captain gets away with any- thing and with any kind of crime so long as we are not organized. They just deliberately get away with murder. Us Negro workers are tor- @ured beyond belief. Some of the white captains look upon the murder of a Negro worker as nothing unusual. In fact they get a kick out of it. We must stop this by organ‘zing all the oyster dredgemen to really abolish all these damnable crimes and inhuman conditions in the Chesapeare Bay now. We demand $62.50 a month wages. We demand 8 Hours a day! ‘We demand better food! ‘We demand human living condi- tions on board! We demand free boots skins! —Organizational Committee of Oy- ster Dredgemen, 1630 East Balto. St. Proctor Shoe Workers Gets Two Wage Cuts (By 2 Worker Correspondent.) NEW YORK.—I am a shoe fitter employed in the Proctor Shoe Com- pany. In August when the plant was fairly busy, we earned from $25 to $30 a week—the week consisting of 70 to 75 hours. But soon the firm began to slash the. miserably low wages left and right. First they gave us a cut a cut of 10 per cent. Two weeks were dol and oil The agreement is generally for ¢ After the ship shoves off and hardly past until we get another cut of 15 per cent. Thus we are making now actually 15 to 20 cents an hour. ‘When we argued with the boss telling him that we could not live on such wages and work, he answered us with scorn and said thet it did not concern him how we lived. And let it be known that we are making high grade ladies shoes. If a worker makes the least mistake, he is liable to be charged $8 which is taken out of his nay. Every shop, mine and factory a fertile field for Daily Worker sub- scriptions. 30 dollars a month, vantage, wages is ou know what yaoi EXPOSE FORCED LABOR IN OHIO JOBLESS MEET Unemployed Council in Toronto Gains in Strength (By a Worker Correspondent) TORONTO, Ohio,—It seems that in the past the public of this city, with the exception of the workers, were satisfied with the forced labor and grafting system that has been used to dole out relief to the needy. A number of meetings have been held here by the Unemployed Coun- cil without much support from the public. On Tuesday, December 29 @ mass meeting was held in our hall here. The hall was packed to the door and a number of local business men were in attendance. A repre- sentative of the Toronto Relief League was there by request. ‘The speakers of the Unemployed Council showed the public where and how the so-called Relief League was cheating and lying to the public and i | when the relief representative denied it we proved our charges and then called him a liar and made him like it. In trying to redeem himself with the public he contradicted the word of his cohorts and finally retired from the platform showing the pub- lic what kind of a betraying, lying sneak he really was. Since this meeting we have lots More sympathizers and our Council] is much stronger. ‘We are hojding a big mass meet- ing on the steps of the city hall and will demand no forced labor in the city and better and more relief. We have invited the new city council te announce what they intend to do for the unemployed of this city in 1932. The relief representative that we mentioned above was Mr. George Haney, cub reporter of the Toronto Handbill or the Toronto Tribune as some call it, I might add that there is one man in our city that says business is “picking up” and that is the rag man. U.S. TOOLMAKER HAILS SOVIETS Kharkov, U. 8. 8. R. Dear Comrade:— Now as to food, things are a lot better than we expected. Of course you cannot get what the wealthy can in the states but enough of the kind of food to make you fit to work along side of any American worker. In the factory things move slowly ‘What I mean is that work is honey compared to working at the Fisher Body. The workers are not afraid of the foreman; they talk back to him, just like he was one of them. Now in regard to organization, every group will have a Lenin corner which will have # Wbrary, class room for lectures and for clas- ses in Russian ad political subjects. ‘We are also goig to have a weekly shop paper I am going to help organize it so when we get this going I will tell you about it. —Louls Steigerwald. {A toolmaker from Detroit—neme Party sympathizer.) Jewish Aid Threatens to Jail Unemployed Worker {By a Worker Correspondent) UILWAUKEE, Wis.—The socialist {uthers (fakers and their flunkies of Milwaukee) showed to the starving unemployed workers of this city their true way of helping the workers— especially in the cases of Grace Brown, Forrest Jackson, Jack Saun- ders and Leo Marsh when as a com- mittee elected from the central branch of the unemployed councils to demand relief from the county out- door reelief station No. 1 for food and more food for starving families were arrested and sent to jail for disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct means that we demanded food for these families and fought for it rather than wait on Promises which never materialize, At “Mumpson's Hotel” the House of Correction we served ten days during which time we were forced to eat three filthy meals per day. I say filthy because the most wonderful meal of the year—“Christmas dinner” which was composed of nice chi¢ken (green with mould and so rotten that it stunk) brt the workers were not fooled, for over three quarters of it was left on their plates, on and under the tables. m Coffee was rotten as the milk was diluted with water. A dog would turn up his nose to the slop which the workers there were forced to eat. Those who did not or do not eat all that is on their plates, are subject to © “Hole” which is a dark, damp cell in the basement, ‘