The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 16, 1932, Page 4

Yorker Porty U.S.A exept Sunday, at 50 E. 56. Cable “DAIWORK.” St., New York, N. Y. Dail Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co., Inc., dail, Asth St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone ALronquin Address and mail checks to the Dally Worker, 50 E. 131 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3 Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six_months. 34.50. The Hero of Bloody Thursday Goes Abroad ENERAL DOUGLAS MacARTHUR, chief of staff of the United States Army and “hero” of Bloody Thursday who personally led the attack of the cavalry, infantry and tanks upon the veterans, is leaving for Europe o witness the military maneuvers in Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, In the language of diplomacy, he states that his trip is But “Affairs,” the well informed semi-official Washington weekly review, of August 12th says that this “explanation as been accepted abroad, where it is interpreted for the most part as a move of the Hoover administration to get further information regarding Russia’s military strength and the strength of her potential armies.” two months, $1; exeepting Foreign: one year, $8; on a visit Austria and Roumania. merely a vacation. General MacArthur will witness the military maneuvers chiefly of the vassal states of French imperialism, of the armies bordering on the west- ern frontier of the Soviet Union. While the Hoover government circulates reports calculated to sow illusions among the workers that it is changing its course with regard to the Soviet Union, which it has steadily refused to recognize since the revolution, the agents of the Hoover government the real policy of the capitalist groups that dominate the country g its official representatives to encourage the preparations for show. by Sen the invasion of the Socialist Fatherland The visit of General MacArthur is undoubtedly connected up with the new spurt of activity against the Soviet Union, indicated by the further advance of Japanese imperialism in China, of the movements of the tribal groups inspired by British imperialism toward Soviet Mongolia, by the new slanders spread with regard to the “failures” of the Five Year Plan, and by the increased production of armaments and ever-expanding growth of the shipments of arms to the Far East The generals and the government which make civil war upon the working class and subject them to the most violent terror, are the same are preparing for war abroad, for a war of destruction of the of Washington and the bloody imperial- forces that Socialist Fatherland. The bat ist battles which the Washington government is preparing are component parts of one and the same policy—the capitalist way out of the cri rkers must raise the banner of mass struggles, for out of the crisis—the way leading to the overthrow is— against which the w the revolutionary w: of the system of terror and war. Result of Pinchot’s Special Session x of Pennsylvania, called the legis- weeks ago Pinchot, govern lature into session on the pretext of “considering the pressing problem unemployment.” His message to the special session on June 27th, included the following: “We cannot gamble the security of public order and the welfare of our people on surface indications. For well we know that underneath is widespread and increasing unrest.” Pinchot is prim- arily interested in what he calls “public order,” ie, maintaining the brutal rule of the Mellons, the Schwabs, the Morgans over the starving masses of Pennsylvania, the seat of the mightiest of American industries. In the same message Pinchot boasted that the state had helped banks to “weather the storm,” but he certainly cannot truthfully claim that he has done anything to help the hungry workers and farmers weather the storm. Instead he has helped to deprive the starving masses of every means of defense against the storm of the capitalist crisis. + VEN Besides police and military attacks against, the workers, the government of the “liberal” Pinchot more and more resorts to jailing working class Jeaders under the provsions of the infamous Flynn sedition law. At the special session of the legislature Pinchot has made it plain that his concern is to “balance the budget,” that is pay for the state ma- suppression of the working class. He has refused to abolish rous state constabulary (cossacks)—a thing he demagogically do in his last election campagin. Instead he uses this con- creasing violence against the working class, as in the coal strike and in the Anthracite. lature there are three political mach -— all constituent state republican party. They are the Melion machine with headquarters in Pittsburgh, the notorious Vare machine of Philadelphia ond Pinchot’s own machine. The big city machines of Philadelphia and Pitisburgh have cut off all relief for unemployed—even the meagre relief such, for instance, as was administered in Philadelphia by the Lloyd commission, which suspended activities on June 25th. It was to stop any mass movement against this cutting off of all relief that Pinchot enlled the legislature into session seven weeks ago. Since the beginning of the session there has been a continuous struggle between these three machines, all of them using the unemployment question as a political foot-ball. parts. of t None of them favors unemployment relief—all of them talk about it. Pinchot accuses the legislature of sabotaging relief. So the legislature handed the “liberal” governor a “fast one.” They proposed that, as a start, Pinchot make available for direct payment to the unemployed a $12,000,000 road building fund. The governor replied that the road build- ing fund was something sacred, something that should under no circum- stances be touched for “any purpose other than road building.” Its sacredness consists in the fact that it is this fund that Pinchot uses to hand out special favors to his own political henchmen. This fund, that is now but $12,000,000, has to be judiciously dispersed to keep the Pinchot machine in running order. This fact is, of course, known to Pinchot’s opponents—hence it is attacked, not because Pinchot’s opponents want to aid the unemployed, but because they want to gain a point over Pinchot by depriving him of this convenient form of graft. At any rate the political crooks in the legislature, that play with the misery of the two million unemployed workers and hundreds of thousands of impov- erished farmers of Pennsylvania, have forced Pinchot the “liberal” to again show his true colors. Their own demagogy is, to be sure, seen in the fact that if the road building fund were appropriated in its entirety it would mean only $6 for every unemployed worker and his dependents, But what are the two socialist members of the state legislature, Dar- lingten Hoopes and Mrs. Wilson, both of Reading, doing? Are they de- mending the establishment of unemployment and social insurance at the expense of the state and the employers? Are they even presenting the distorted form of unemployment insurance which would compel the workers to contribute in part for this insurance? No. They urge an Appropriation to be administered by the State Labor Department to “deserving” unemployed. Primarily the legislature {s in session to create false hopes among the workers, to foster illusions, to try to preserve “public order” and to di- vert into capitalist channels, in support of the Republican racketeers the “widespread and increasing unrest” that frightens Pinchot and his lass: The unemployed workers of Pennsylvania cannot expect any adequate telief from this session. Only by fighting for immediate relief and un- employment insurance through mass meetings, demonstrations and marehes, forming a united front in the neighborhoods, factories, in the trade unions, under the leadership of the militant Unemployed Councils, tan the “liberal” Pinchot and the steel barons and millionaires that back aim, be forced to grant relief to the hungry. This is a task that is sasic for our Party in the election campaign in the state of Pennsylvania, 4s elsewhere, ” THE “FIGHTIN COX! bea FATHER Cox In the Ohio Steel Mills (The following article is especially timely in view of the formation in Pittsburgh, on Sunday, of the Steel and Metal Workers’ Industrial | Union.) aL ee Oe By EDWIN CLARK IN July, 1932, the blast furnaces and steel mills are operating at 12 per cent capacity. What is the effect of this condition upon the lives of the steel workers? A recent survey of steel mills areas near Cleveand, Youngstown and Pitts- burgh by the Ohio Labor Research Association sheds some light on this question. AVERAGE $5 WEEKLY The median average weekly pay of the ninety-four workers in forty steel mills was only $5 a week dur- ing 1932. Since these workers were representative of conditions thru- out the industry with the exception that there were no unemployed workers among them, it can be safely stated that the average weekly pay of half the employed steel workers during 1932 was less than $5 a week. Where has the much talked of American “prosper- ity’”’ the highly paid steel worker, gone to? Was the steel worker ever so highy paid? In 1929 although nearly nearly half of the men were skilled workers and over two-thirds of them had been engaged in the steel industry more than ten years, 70 per cent of them received less than $38.50 a week. Forty-four per cent of the men, even during this periog when steel production and profits were at a high peak made less than $30 a week In 1932, 76 per cent of the men got less than $10 a week while not one worker got as much as $31. These figures indicate that wages have been re- duced a great deal more than the 25 per cent wage cuts which were publicly announced, In 1929 the average number of hours worked per week was 53 1-2 while by 1932 this had been reduced to 14 1-2 hours, Reports were received of workers slaving in the steel mills for as low as 20c 25c and 27c an hour. The median average hourly rate in 1932 was 37c an hour. WANT ONLY , YOUNG SLAVES The work in the steel mills is so taxing that only the youngest and strongest can stand up the strain. No man is hired after reaching the age of 45 years Only 18 per cent of the men stated that their em- ployers maintained old age pension systems. Even at these mills men said that workers were laid off shortly before becoming eligible for a pension, If financial circum. stances do not permit the com- pany granting a pension, it is simply not given and the worker is left to shift for himself Men who break underneath the speed-up and strain of working in the hot dusty, smoky mills and have accidents are discharged since the payment of accident compensation is costly to the company. RATIONALIZATION INCREASED Rationaliation or the intrdouc- tion of new machines and methods of work which reduce the necessary labor time has been proceeding rapidly. Fifty-three per cent of the men said rationalization had taken place in their departments. The workers said that one-half to 80 per cent of the men had been eliminated from production as a result of these new machines. ‘There was a tenedency to cut wages espectally on the jobs that were on @ plece-work basis. Among | placement of “A N ew, Militant Organization is Arising”; , Workers Laying Basis for Fight the charges that were most fre- quently mentioned were the dis- steam engines by electric gasoline or Diesel motors requiring fewer engineers for their operation. New types of furnaces were quite common so designed as to hold more tonnage with the same number of attendants. New roll- ing machinery increased production four or five times. The significant thing about all this rationalization taking place during a period of depression, was that it accentuated over-production and unemploy- ment by turning out more ton- nage with a smaller labor force. The benefit of this increased pro- ductivity does not go to the work- ers, as it does in the Soviet Union, but to the owners of the machin- ery the capitalists who are des- perately trying to find a profitable investment for the profits which have been ground out of the sweat and blood of the workers. SPEED-UP RAGES Speed-up or the pushing of the men to get out more production with the same machine and meth- ods of work was found to be tak- ing place even more widely than rationalization, Seventy-six of the men said that the bosses were pushing them by various means to force them to get out more work than they had ever done before. ‘When the 18 men who were doing piece work are excluded this means that practically all the workers were driven to work harder and harder for the profiteering capitalists. This is part of the desperate attempt of the employers to cut their overhead and labor costs in every conceivable way to avoid placing the burden of the depression upon the huge surpluses which were amassed in the preced- ing years, Workers said they could not even stop to get a drink of water eat a sandwich or wash up. Efficiency men and “pushers” were engaged by the employment de- partments to figure out methods of making the workers move faster. Men were made to work six hours without a break. Even the fore- being discontinued by the com- panies. Thirty-five of the men said they .had no washing facilities of any kind at the steel mills. Only 62 per cent had hot running water while only 51 per cent had any shower bath Twenty-five do not even have any lockers in which to keep their clothes. Only 39 per cent of the men needing protec- tion from injurious gas or smoke were given any kind of protection. Although most of the men said they were working under conditions of excessive heat just 48 per cent of those needing it had any protec- tion from heat. Even though the state is supposed to have industrial commissions which inspect the mills and enforce provisions of the safety code safety conditions are very bad. Accidents have become fewer in number during the past few years. Because the number of man—hours worked have become so much fewer. If taken in relation to the amount of employment it would doubtless be found that there has been a con- siderable increase in accidents que to the speed-up and lack of atten- tion to safety devices. Reports were received of men having hands and legs cut off legs and arms broken severe burns, loss of fingers, being killed by falling objects and receiving infections due to careless- ness in dressing the injuries. Al- though compensation was some- times paid it was utterly inadequate. For death of their husbands widows received $6,000. Fifty-one per cent of the workers had observed or been involved in accidents within the last three years. STOCK-SELLING PROGRAM The companies have attempted various “welfare” devices to create an illusion that they were in- terested in the well being of their employees and also to reduce turn over, prevent unions from entering, and breaking strikes. Ninety-one per cent of the men stated that they were carrying some kind of company life insurance. per cent of these men said they strongly disliked this insurance sys- Seventy- a Photo (left) shows a steel plant in the Soviet Union, where wages continue to rise and the hours of labor are shortened. Photo (right) shows a Soviet poster depicting capitalism sending forth its lackeys to organize war on the Soviet Union, men were required to work in some departments so that there was no extra man to spell a worker for a few minutes, One man exhausted by tending two machine had elip- ped and was badly scalded bya fall into a vat of hot water. ACCIDENTS INCREASE Even such seemingly inexpensive conveniences as hot water for washing and protection from ex- cessive heat at the furnaces were them. The usual preminum for this insurance was $1 a month per $1000 athough other rates as high as $1.90 were reported. This was de- ducted from one pay every month no matter how small it might be. Sick relief was carried by 57 per cent of the men in addition to the life insurance. Another device which attempts to deceive the workers regarding the ownership of the steel corpora~ tions is the stock selling program which was reported by 51 per cent of the men. Only six of these men had ever been able to spare enough money from the small earnings to buy as much as one share of stock. One mar who had bought stock at $125 a share found that when he wanted to sell it he could only get $35 a share for it. It can thus seen how shaky is the foundation for the smal investor in the steel mills. A few of the mills went so far in their “welfare” programs as to carry on baseball games, play- grounds and classes for their mill hands. In this way they hope to gain a complete control over the spare time of the workers as well as during the time at the shop. The drumming up of company en- thusiasm in ‘sport leagues helps to deter the workers from miitant labor organization, TYPICAL “RELIEF” Only 41 per cent of the workers reported their companies as carry- ing on some sort of unemploy- ment relief program, In most cases the amounts given were ridiculously inadequate as in the case of the family which waited two or three hours in line for a box of groceries worth $2.50 which was supposed to last for a month. Many of the companies only distributed the Red Cross flour claiming that their own relief relief funds were ex- hausted although their balance sheets show millions of dollars set aside as reserve funds. Some of the steel mills operated company houses for which exhor- bitant rents were charged. These rents were never found to have been cut as much as wages had been cut since 1929. Most of the vonts had only been reduced 10 per cent although wages had fal- len 90 per cent in many instances. Since the rent was deducted dir- ectly from one pay check every month and the insurance from the other pay check, it happened in some instances that employed workers saw little or you pay after the deductions were mace, The companies spend thousands of dollars for the maintenance of a ruthless, underhand spying and blacklisting system. This system detects workers who carry on any union activities or even are pre- sent at union meetings. The men are then summarily dismissed without any trial or chance for consideration. Reports were re- received of as many as 36 workers bgeing dismissed at one time from one mill, After firing the names of the men are sent around to the other: mills so that their chances of re-employment in the steel in- dustry—the only job they know— are very small. However, in spite of this terror, @ new militant organization is ar- ising out of the wretched condi- tions of the steel workers. This organization, the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union, is con- ducting an intensive campaign among workers through leaflets, shop stickers, mass meetings and demonstrations as well as by per- sonal contacts. A policy of rank and file control rather than bur- eaucratic dictatorship, as in the Amalgamated Association of Iron Sheet, and Tin Metal Workers, is maintained, The continuance of the crisis with its wage cuts, mass unemployment and starvation will ‘undoubtedly soon see a more suc- cessful repetition of great, steel strike of 1919. By MYRA PAGE Our Correspondent in the Soviet Union. PART X. (This is the last of a series of articles which contrasted the work- ing and living conditions of work- ers in the Podolsk plant in the Russia of Czarist days, with the conditions of workers in the same plant in the Russia of today—the land of the construction of the system of Socialism. The contrast actually depicted the difference between two systems —capitalism versus socialism—and showed what workers can do to improve their conditions after they have overthrown their exploiters | and set up a government owned and controlled by workers and farmers.) There are seven in the Betkin family. Alex, the father, is & sandy-haired, quiet {man nearing fifty. He repairs transmission at the plant. When not busy with Party and union work or attending a meeting of the workers’ housing committee, his main pleasure is to sit hunched over his pipe, listening to the radio, reading the papers, studying one of his technical books, or helping his youngest children with their lessons, “Study hard,” he urges them. “In your Ma’s and my time, work- ers’ kids didn’t have such chances as you. She never got, even, to read and write, Do your best, be- cause you're to help run this coun- try. We're our own masters now.” Last year Alex was a delegate from his shop to the town Soviet (council), When he talks of the old, bitter days, Olga’s more ready, colorful tongue breaks in, running ahead. Olga Betkin ts one cf those countless working women whom the revolution has brought to life. She is on fire with growth—her own, the children’s, and above all, “our PyatUetka.” Nexi to Victor, who is twenty, coms Tonya. Her eyes are the deey, blue of the neat blouse she is wearing. A toboggan cap is perched on her fair, straight hair; her cheeks are still fiushed from skiing. Paul and Vera Paul, just entering his teens, and little Kolya like outdoor sports, too. They spend their mornings on their skates or sled, as their school does- n't begin until noon. . Vera, who is fifteen, doesn’t skate every morning, though, as she helps out with the housework and shop- ping, while her mother is at work. RED PODOLSK The Former Singer Sewing Machine Plant Near Moscow half apologetically. “We ~ don’t have as fine furnishings as some, our family is big and our income, while cnough, doesn’t leave much | room for fancies. And to tell the truth, we don’t care about that.” At present Alex is earning 200 rubles a month, Olga 90, and Victor receiving a student’s allowance, in addition to free tuition, rubles. Next year he'll get 75, and the third term 110. Tonya could also receive an allowance, but the Betkins find they can live com- fortably on their present budget of 345 rubleé, so they do not ask it from the school. Home Secure from Evictions, Unemployment “The main thing,” Alex adds, “is we feel secure. The haunting fears of our old days, of being turned out of our home, of me losing my job— these are gone forever. It used to be, when anybody fell sick or a child was born, we worried how to get a doctor and with what to pay him. Now all this is free. For instance, Tonya fell ill some time back. You wouldn’t guess it, now, would you, to look at her. Lung trouble it was. She was sent, with all expenses paid out of our state social insurance fund, to Marsesky Samttorium, near Moscow. And there she stayed, until entirely well. “We can’t be evicted. Our work is steady, and when Olga and I are too old to work longer, we'll get pensions, “All this makes our minds con- tent, and free for other things.” Olga breaks in, “Of course we still have to scheme how best to manage. And there are many things we want, that we haven't yet got. Sometimes meat runs short at the store, or sugar gets low. But the big thing for Alex and me, is how our children are getting such fine educations, and we're studying, too.” Young Pioneers. It is true, every member from Kolya up, is studying hard, enjoy- ing it. Each one is absorbed in his special social activities. ‘This, is “chtaracteristis “of most So families, although not all are as active or developed as the Betkins, Paul Kolya and Vera will tell you, breathlessly and in relays, how their Pioneer bands go to the fac- tories, during noon-hour, to check up on the way workers are keep- ing their machines and doing their work. “When we find a careless fellow,” Paul declares, “we clean up his machine for him, and he’s ashamed of himself. We find out if everybody is literate and gets his papers every day. Oh, and lots ef Podolsk,” U. S. S. R. Gomig Kolya Belkin (in foreground) with his class-mates in “Red ‘This concerns Olga, who watches to see that the girl does not overdo. and gets her fun along with the rest. Next year a community house in the workers’ town will be opened up, with its modern laundry and public dining hall. Then the fam- ily can take their evening meal there, Vera's shopping trips will end, and Olga won't spend part of her free day doing the wash. How They Live Olga prepares breakfast before she leaves with Alex for the plant. Here they eat two nourishing, well- cooked meals each day. The chil- dren have their breakfast together, and warm lunches at school. At night, everybody eats a home, al- though frequently someone is away attending a class or meeting. The Betkins home is like dozens of others where I have visited, tidy, simple, with plants in the windows, fresh counterpanes on the bed, a table loaded with books and papers, and a beautiful crocheted tablecloth laid out in honor of company. On the walls and chest are family photos: the children, taken at summer camp; Olga, in a gym suit, snapped with friends while on her paid yacation in a rest home. Alex, sitting in an oyster shell frame astride a rock near the Black Sea. In the back- ground rise cliffs and a picturesque villa, which once pleased the fancy of a rich merchant, but now houses vacationing workers. In an honored place are pictures of Lenin, Stalin, Krupskaya and Voreshilov. ss things like that.” Kolya, grinning, describes how the Pioneers gather before the factory gates in the morning, chanting taunts at the late-comers “who're hindering our Five-Year Plan,” From Drudge to the Vanguard Tonya and Victor are active in the Comsomols, and four years ago Olga joined the Communist Party. When she hesitated, asking, “Do I know enough? It was only a few years I learned how to read. And how will I manage extra duties?” Her comrades at the plant told her, “You're the kind that belongs in the Party,” and they reminded her of what Lenin said about work- ing women helping to run the State. “This has become true for me,” Olgla said. “Once I was a drudge; today I'm a member from our shop to the Soviet. I chose to work in the health section, Sometime I'll tell you how we work together with the doctors and nurses, to improve our city hospital and care of the children. f “Of course, it makes it harder in a way, here at home, for me to do all these things. I'm gene a lot, But Alex understands and helps out, in a way a lot of men won't. If there's something te be done here at home, he does it as will- ingly as I.” Paul leans close to his mother's chair, “That's the way, ain’t it, Ma? We're all comrades, ain't we?” i The samovar gives @ of 55 | e