The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 2, 1933, Page 4

Page Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1933 ant meonoeenAc dN STEEL, METAL WORKERS WIN GAINS AGAINST NRA THRU STRIKES Schwab, New Dealer, Is Dirty Dealer in War Profits Swindle Whooped It Up for War Armaments, and Then} Sold Defective Ste el to Hike Profits By SEYMOUR WALDMAN. | IHARLES M. SCHWAB’S recent visit to the White House to | confer with President Roosevelt on the NRA re-emphasizes the anti-labor significance of the “New Deal Who is “New Dealer”, Char most breast-beating profiteer and war-monger, one: of the most representative of the | exploiters who literally coin money | out of workers’ blood in both w peace. blood-stained history in the steel mills and coal mines is well known. But let us glance at less- heralded and more important quali- fications for participating in the| “New Deal’—qualifications based on | his intimate connectio: with the | government mechanism since 1894, | when he confessed to a Congressional | committee that he, as General Su- perintendent of the C: Company, had given orders to con-| ceal defects in armor plate later sold to the Navy. Of course, the bourgeois press | neglected this sort of informa-| tion last year, when it induiged in| olly congratulations on the occasion | of Schwab's seventieth birthday. It | did describe the scene in the office | of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where an oi] portrait of Schwab nes- tied in the folds of the Stars and) Stripes, under the dates 1862-1932. | It. did reprint congratulatory tele- gtams sent by such leading members of the ruling class as Herbert Hoo- | ver and General John J. Pershing. But there was not a word, in the voluminous glowing accounts of Schwab’s “career” about his spade | work for Bethlehem in 1918, while officially the dollar-a-year Director- General of the United States Ship- ping Board Emergency Fleet Corpo- ration, which superintended the granting of huge government ship- building contracts—a service which resulted in profits of untold millions to Bethlehem and other steel com- | panies. Nor any reference to his company’s employment of the notori- ous William B. Shearer for the pur- pose of wrecking the Geneva Arms | Conference of 1927. Nor to Schwab’s founding, with J. P. Morgan of the | U.S. Steel Corporation, and other | tdustrial and financial leaders, of | the jingoistic Navy League, one of | the steel interests’ most effective | propaganda organs. General Douglas MacArthur, chief of staff of the U. S. Army under Hoover and Roosevelt, and military commander of the force which burn- ed; gassed and shot down unarmed ‘worker-veterans in Washington on “Bloody Thursday” of July, 1932, said, in a statement before the re- cent War Policies Commission: “J think it pertinent also to say here that the voluntary assistance we constantly receive from... patriotic industrialists, is of the utmost value and fully appreciated by the Government. We are study- ing ways and means through which this assistance may be more effi- ciently organized—and so facili- tate crystallization of information and opinion, and promote mutual understanding of these important subjects.” A buried House of Representatives Repcri, No, 1468, Fifty-third Con- gress, second session, entitled “Vio- | “lation of Armor Plate Contracts,” il- Juminates Schwab's first venture into | patrioteering. This report followed | investigation by the House Commit- te): on Naval Affairs into charges of | fYwud against the Carnegie Steel | CGumpany, then Carnegie, Phipps and | Company. Schwab, then general su- | rintendent of Carnegie, admitted | the committee that he gave orders | thet “blow-holes” in armor plate First Time in Hi ” les M. Schwab? He is the fore- super-patriot, the most sentimental the | should of I at it was “likely” that his co’ did really eal the fact of oles in the es.” William E. Corey, president of the Mi e and Ordnance Coy irector of the Interna- Nickel Company, was in charge | the armor plant in which the | at re committed. On the stand, | tified : anybody above you—did any | pai tio: of | Q. Did anybody else?—A. No, sir. | e a Senate subcom- mittee investigating the Geneva ac- tivities of the shady Shearer, Schwab | professed innocence of the employ- | ment of boxing-promoter Shearer by Bethlehem Steel. At least, said | Schwab, he was innocent of it until “this question came out”! Schwab | informed the Committee that his in- | terest in the Geneva. Arms Confer- | ence during the sessions of which | Shearer was the well-paid tool of the arms and ship-building impe- | rialists, could be attributed to his love of peace! Said Schwab: “I was | interested in a way that I wanted to see peace come to the world, and | especially to this own great country | of ours; no entanglements of war. Not only was I interested as a pa- | triotic American citizen, but I may say that I was selfishly interested from a prosperity point of view of this great country, particularly as an industrial country under peaceful conditions.” Such is the hypocritical mouthing of this breast-beating pa- trioteer who has made so many mil- lions from grinding workers. All of which does not prevent “New Dealer” Schwab from spending many Sunday afternoons in an angelic at- titude (attended with great publicity) listening to the soul-quieting strains of religious music, pealing from a mighty organ in a cathedral-like chamber of his New York castle. And this castle, which fills an entire square block, is directly across from & row of Hoovervilles which front on the Hudson River. “Steel and Metal” Worker Popular in All Steel Districts PITTSBURGH, Pa.—Thousands of copies of the Steel and Metal Worker, official organ of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union are being sold in the steel mills. The latest issue of the Steel and Metal Worker is devoted entirely to the struggle of the workers against the steel trusts’ code, now going into effect in the steel mills, This issue contoins a complete re- port on the fight made by the SMWIU in Washington for the code presented by the workers. Copies of this paper can be obtained by writing to the Steel and Metal Worker, Room 200, 149 Washington Place, Pittsburgh, Pa. Help improve the “Daily Worker.” send in your suggestions and criticism! Let us know what the workers in your shop think about the “Dally.” story Forging _ Co. Men Hold Open Union Meet of struggle, concentration on this By BILL CLARK Indiana Organizer, S.M.W.1.U. For the first time in the history of the Standard Forgings Co. of Indi- na Harbor, about 100 attended a mass meeting and discussed their @onditions on August 26. The ma- fority left the meeting as members of the Steel and Metal Workers In- _ dustrial Union. The overwhelming ‘ sentiment of the workers was for - struggle against their miserable con- ditions—for immediate strike if the company does not concede to their demands. At this meeting plans were eid for further organization of the _ remaining 500 workers of this com- " _ Because of the fact that this com- “patty was the weakest link of the steel bosses and because the condi- _ tions were best for the development ant ee Cec ge Wages have e luced by 75 per cent and Since 1929. Sammersmiths, the st paid labor in the mental Ss, who used to earn as high as 0 per day, are now only able to a $4 daily and less. Heaters, rs, inspectors and other workers conditions, linked up with the that the S.M.W.LU. had its number of members in this made this company the cen- point of concentration. The language press was mobilized for this work. News of events in the shop started to appear in the col- umns of our papers. Organizers of the language bureaus actually came to the steel region and helped to rally their readers of the respective papers and other workers behind the SMWIU. All of these forces helped to sell the Steel and Metal Worker and also to distribute the union literature among the masses of steel workers and recruit workers for the union. The union members in Standard Forgings responded well to the con- centration activities. The meetings of the union started to increase. A program of demands was discussed and adopted. This was issued in leaf- let form to all workers in the plant. There was a good response to our demands. One of the workers ac- tually came to Gary (at that time there was no union headquarters in Indiana Harbor) to join the Union. The steel code presented by the union to Washington hearings also had a great effect upon the workers. It was brought out that the reason many workers did not join the union was because they could not come to meetings. These workers live in Hammond, Chicago, Whiting, East Chicago and Gary. It was therefore decided to hold meetings of the work- ers right after each shift. If the union can win these de- mands with its policy of militant struggle, the tens of thousands of steel workers of the Calumet region will see that only the SMWIU can Jead the workers in their struggle for improved conditions. This work in Standard Forgings shows that with proper concentration the union and the Party can be built in the basic industries and can develop struggles against the Slavery Act and for a | Spoke on Ship Code — Geo. Powers, Chairman of Ship- yards Delegation that presented workers’ own code. 500 Str Lay-off of UnionMen | By a Worker Correspondent McKees Rocks, Pa.—Over 500 workers went out on strike in Pressed Steel Car Co. (McKees Rocks Plant) demanding statement of the workers that were discharged om account of joining the Steel and Metal Work- ers Industrial Union, increase of pay to 1929 wage scale, and recog- nition of the S.M.W.LU. Strike called Monday evening by the strikers appealing to the Unem- ployed Council to help on the picket line. Tuesday morning at 4 a.m., nearly 3,000 workers were on the picket line whefe only 500 workers are employed. The bosses, realizing the united front of the employed and unemployed work- ers, granted all demands, recog- nizing the shop committee elected by the rank and file. The Steel and Metal Workers Industrial rein- | Union is gaining new members and is leading the struggles of the workers in the steel mills in the Pittsburgh District. Help improve the “Daily Worker.” send in your suggestions and criticism! Let us know what the workers in your shop think about the “Daily.” ike in McKees| ‘Rocks Plant Against | | Under the Smoke in Gary and South Chicago Mills I visited te steel cities in the Chi- cago area. The vicinity of the Wis- consin and Illinois steel mills in South Chicago, the Strand of the steel workers, is populated by Mexi- can, Negro, Serbian, Croatian, Polish, Italian and workers of other nation- alities. The sky is covered with smoke. No sun rays penetrate the vicinity. Heavy clouds.of smoke hang over the streets and the air is full of gas. Small children with pale faces play in the yards which are full of gar- bage and rusted iron. a In Gary, Ind. the houses of the workers are nearly the same as in South Chicago. They look a little {better but the inside is a pitiable sight. No furniture, dirty, were not painted for 10 or 12 years. | The Increase in Empioyment Among the Steel Workers According to the claims of the steel magnates, the Illinois Steel Mill, which is a U. S, Steel Corpora- tion in South Chicago, employes now 7,000 people. The Wisconsin Steel Mill of South Chicago, which is the International Harvester Company, employs 2,500 people. The Illinois Steel Mill of Gary, Ind., which occu- pies four miles on Lake Michigan in Gary, employs now 12,000 workers. Conditions of Work The steel workers in the Chicago area work under the most terrific conditions. They work half naked. The sparks of fire strike their bare flesh. The smoke chokes them. Many of them can hardly stand up. At the blast furnaces, they become consump- tive very soon. The Bessimer work- ers, blowers, moulders, welders, mak- ers of steel are all under danger of being’ blinded, of being physically de- stroyed by the fire. On Friday, July 21, a Negro work- jer, Leslie Johnson, was killed in the 160 inch plate mill. He was employed as a hooker, and one of the big plates rolled on top of him and crushed him. The plate was being made for Hoover Dam. This worker was working With a gang of four who were already in the wash house, ready to quit. Johnson was hooking up his last plate, ready to quit him- self, when ‘the roller let the plate down and crushed him. In speaking to a Serbian worker in Gary, Ind., he told me the following: “I was four years out of a’ job. I was anxious to get work, and was hired by the Sheet and Tin Mill as a mechanic in the Welders’ Depart- ment. But I had to leave the job in! By MORRIS BACKALL two days. Otherwise I would blind man now, so terrible are the conditions of work, The stnoxe auu gas eats your eyes out. In the Beth- Jehem Mills such conditions do not exist.” The A. F. of L. The A. F. of L, is trying to make use of the National Recovery Act to penetrate into the steel area. They established headquarters immediately near the halls of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union. In South Chicago, their organizer, Mr. Hogan, called a meeting and not one steel L. The Steel and Metal Workers In- and organized the workers. Harbor, they are making a little headway now, through different | tricks. Their organizers go to Indi- |ana Harbor and tell the workers jthere that all the steel workers of Gary joined their union. They go | back to Gary, Ind., and tell the steel workers of Gary that all the steel workers of Indiana Harbor joined the union. The Company Union Through four years of unemploy- | ment, through great misery and suf- | fering of the steel workers, they felt the company union as a tool of the bosses. The heads of the company union are usually heads of the Amer- ican Legion, National Guard. of pa- scab leaders. The S.M.W.LU. Around Chicago The headquarters of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union ih South Chicago, Gary, Ind. and ‘in Indiana Harbor, are the centers of struggle of the steel workers. Many complaints are brought there. Work- ers drop in for advice, for informa- tion. A stream of life is to be seen every afternoon and evening. The Steel and Metal Workers In- dustrial Union is spreading a peti- tion among the workers for the union code for the steel industry. Discrimination Against Negroes Negro workers employed in the Il- linois Steel Mills know in advance that they will remain laborers all their life and that they will be sent to the most dangerous work by the straw bosses. The Steel and Metal Workers In- equal rights of the Negro and white workers in the steel area, and is ronvlar among the Negro workers of the steel region. worker responded to join the A. F. of | dustrial Union took over the meeting But in Gary, Ind., and in Indiana | triotic and war societies. They are | dustrial Union is fighting fox the | Heads Fighting Union mer ice RNR Pat Cush, Chaitman, Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union. | Earn 60 Cents for 8) Hours on PieceWork jin Otis Steel Shops By a Worker Correspondent CLEVELAND, O.—Some months ago, the Otis Stee! Corporation began to hire workers to work. Many workers already believed that prosperity is back. But it turned out entirely different., Cleveland A. F. of L. leaders ap- peared and organized a local. And what happencd? The workers work 8 hours a day on piece work and some of them can make only 60 cents a day. When the work- ers declared that they cannot work for so little pay, the foreman told them that there was no ma- terial and you sat idle and did nothing. And when enough ma- teriel will be on hand, you will be able to earn $6 a day, Some workers believed it, but cthers al- ready began a struggle against such a system. There is ng doubt that in the near fmiure a local of the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union will be organized in the Otis Steel Co., which will lead a struggle against the ter- ible exploitation in these steel factories. A good example for the Cleveland workers was the Excel Spting Co., where the meta! work- efs were out on strike for three days, and the result was that the workers won raises in pay and the union was recognized. By BILL DUNNE There is an opinion widely preva- Jeni, existing to some extent even among Communists, that, because of the highly organized structure of big industry—U. S. Steel and its sub- sidiaries, for example—the robbery of | workers is confined to exploitation in production in these mammoth en- terprises; that efploitation is so highly cganized that the big capi- talists do not descend to the use of |cheating, chicanery and fraud of which Marx spoke. | In other words, robbery of work- ers in such giant enterprises consists |only in the tyranny of the produc- | tion process, the seizing of the sur- | plus value, in the speedup, stretch- | ing out of hours, etc. Robbery is sup- posed to be on the grand scale—a sort of pure exploitation, wholly im- personal. The other side of this con- ception is belief that the smaller | capitalists, driven by merciless com- | petition, are more contemptible in their treatment of workers than are | the biggest concerns. The big com- | panies are brutal but brutal in a big way. This is the idea. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let us take just two or three instances occurring in the Lackawan- na plant of the Bethlehem Steel Company, close to Buffalo. Cheap Swindles The kind of cheap swindle, which is what the Bethlehem (U.S. Steel subsidiary headed by that renowned optimist and philanthropist, Charles M. Schwab) pension system is, would, if put over by a confidence man, land him in jail for many long years. ‘The yearly pension’ of each worker with 25 years’ of “service” is figured on the basis of 2 per cent interest on an amount equal to the total of his earnings in the last ten yeats of his employment. For example, if a steel worker has been paid at the rate of $1,000 per year (a high average) for his last ten years of toil, his pension will be 2 per cent yearly on $10,000 —$200. Paid monthly, he is supposed to get the fabulous sum of $16.66 every thirty days. But there has been and still is a crisis during which many thousands of steel workers, now in the last 10 years of their “service,” have aver- aged no more than one year’s actual work in four years. (Wages have also been cut directly. This lowers the ten year income average, but here we will deal only with the question of unemployment in its relation to the pension system.) For these thousands of steel work- ers (figuring on the $1,000 per year average for the sake of convenience) unemployment and part time work have cut their ten years to seven. That is, instead of being able to esti-. mate their pension on the basis of 2 per cent per year on $10,000, they must figure it as 2 per cent on only $7,000—-$140 yearly on retirement in- stead of $200. They will get $11.66 per month instead of $16.66, through no fault of their own. Low Form of Larceny Is this a swindle or is this a swindle? Tt is not only that this low form of larceny is pulled off by the Beth- Jehem magnates but they invented it. Another example: Sometime before 1928 Bethlehem Steel had a lot of houses in Lacka- higher standard of living for the workers in the steel industry, wanna Park. It tried to sell but the real estate market was in a bad way Cheap Swindles of Big More Dollars from Steel Trusts to Squeeze Workers’ Slim Pay for some reason so they rented these houses to employes. Business im- proved and along in 1928-29) the company notified the worker renters that they would either have to buy the properties they were living in— a threat of discharge, and because rents were high and living quarters hard to get—most of these workers had big families—they bought the houses on the company terms. As soon as they made the first payment, they were ordered to take out enough insurance to cover the mortgage. The insurance premiums were checked off their pay. So were the payments for the houses, The crisis came and most of these workers were laid off. The Bethle- hem allowed them to occupy the houses and did not bother them much about payment. Recently these workers have been | or move out. Since this was actually | put back on the payroll. As a mat- ter of fact they were among the first put back to work when operations were partially resumed since the company had an investment in them. ‘The company checks off the premi- ums for the insurance guaranteeing the mortgage and also for the back payments on the property. Double Slavery All the wages of these workers went back into the company coffers. The workers were forced to apply to the ‘Lackawanna City Relief for food. There was a scandal and for a while the Bethlehem checked off only for insurance. Now the check- cff ige the payments has been re- sumed. Buying these houses at the inflat- ed prices of the boom period, forced to do so for fear of discharge, the act of purchase sold these workers into double slavery. The company = oT CHANGES IM STEEL. AND METAL, WORKER: a portions as the inerease in the 19 employers and the F dusted from the workers! wages, PROM THE COMPANY OR A ere, Elections to take place RESENTATIVE OP THE EMPLOYERS FRE! elections to the comittees, Abolition of all s methods. decided by the workers effected. Res and of spell periods sim reat houses, vided at wul O16~a4 over 6 OF who have worked paid by the companyand vo. for foxale worker Fei fee and constant medical euperei Abolition of & comprehen: ployeps and yederai collections inside the plants by with interest at 1, ALL DEBTS OP EMPLOYEES OP GROUP INSURANCE P. ARY STORE WORKERS UNEMP! ‘OR WORKING PART mm. AS, The signatorte not to hire or employ epi dageective agencies shite this code ALL WORKERS SMALL HAYP THR RIONT TO Cox Aer On OOVARIMENT. IHTERPENRROE mM $20 mintoum national week! for common -day week, ALl hourly and tomange rates ‘Seamon~ ‘MME UWRESTRIOTHD RIGHT TO ORGANIZE OR JOIN ANY UNION WITHOUT 1 ‘THE GOVERRMENT NERS! MILL OR SHOP COMMTIEES, elected OFF the ar to infety inves Bal att od by the workers" chested counitteans, a change rooms, end wa! eabie pisces in every pleat, ons equal to two-thirds of regule pensions Srecthirds of tomter sasee for elt varkere yederal Governsent, (wo lS=minute rost periods meh period, at con oop of age. Sani’ sion for all female workers, compu and ten of soctes 8 nh e Se pub: gommtenioneé” to pr jenoation or Toketituted daw entora joa to Aiscontinue all employee atook savings gree to abolish their 9 ‘under -cove “Reasonable,” Said Miss Perkins About This Code, But Morgan-NRA Outfit Rejected It INDUSTRY CODB PROPOSED BY STEEL St INDUSTRIAL ORION, July 31,1953, 8. A murantes of 40 vesks work per year; all workers getting lesa than 40 weeks work to receive U ‘Insurance at the rate of full wages - the cost to be paid ‘by the company AND TEE Fedaral Covernsaets Uneaploysent Insurance for all workers permanently laid off at the of the aap Federal Government, ho part of the coat to'te dat (TERFERE? COMPANY RECOGNITION OP ELECTED WOR- ently and all work \oyera* 08 ‘A REP SENT, All workers to participate in the crimination against the rights of Kegro workers to hold de fcriadnation eguinet Hogross as Aieioge qual poy for seuss’ eats The pace of production on ths Job to b+ storation of full crews on all Jobs, working conditions, Strict observers janes on dangerous, jobe to Tuber 0 coiiitiee vo be pre- and drinking istry, full coat to be of 16, A11 now working at that : senooLing snd meintefaed at the expe st cobpany!s orpense, fame, and fanilite stitution of ‘and "ahasity* rovp insurance, and furance, cout to do defre; Avolition of ol1 *wslrar ‘the company or outside egente. in future any pol: and. sathy or andaves or their employees. suards, camen or ean’ agen a0 plans and return fe No new plane to be inatituted, eget emetic cit COMMTSSARY. Pemnsyit, 4 Cdr) Sones, brhugd ustnee' fin Carin i SORA TS ‘TIME, THESE DEBTS 70 BE CANCELLED FORTH Minter to petroniae private, te hall remainein throes be a POR AN EGR RiOnER BEMROMRD OF LIVEO. Petty Larceny in the Steel Mills played the game of “heads I win, tails, you lose.” There is nothing of the grand manner about this fraud. It is as cheap and contemptible as stealing the penhies from a/ blind beggar’s cup. Still another instance: This time We deal with the Republic Steel Com- pany. It is no pulling infant indus- try since it maintains seyen large steel and tin plants in various sec- tions of the country. In front of its Donner plant are long ranks of one-car garages. They are made of lumber, bought in car- load lots and built by low-paid la- bor. It could not have cost the Re- public more than $35 each to erect thes’ flimsy structures. The long distances which they have to travel to and from work, together with the eight and one-third cant street car fare and the poor quality of the service, make it not only con- venient but practically necessary, as well as cheaper, for steel workers to have their own cars. Without a car, from an hour and a half to three hours in travelling is added to the workday in the mill. The Republic Steel, not wishing to make moncy. out of the difficulties of its employes, rents these garages for the paltry sum of $1 per month —thriftily checked off the wages. But a little thought will reveal that $1 per month is $12 por year and that. $12 per year is tlightly more than 33 per cent per year on-an in- vestment of $35. Republic Steel owners, of course, must pay taxes on the land on which these garages are built, and inter- est on the money invested in it, out of this 33 per cent return. This is to be deplored but it is part of the burden of their capital investment, unless they also check off for this from the wages of the workers who rent garages. T have not inquired. Perhaps they do, If they don’t it is because the ef- ieee experts haven't thought of t vet. The important thing about these special forms of robbery is that they create larze reserveirs of resentment among various grouns of workers and add to the general diesatisfaction and desire to ormanize and fight azainst wage cuts, bad working conditions and so on, The burning ariceyences arising from these forms of copora- tion bleckiackery even teke prec2- dence at times in the m'nds of vork- ers over resentinent against wage cuts and afford a basis of approach for organization of immediate struggle. It is not even partially true that the big capitalist inductries are sit- isfied with intensive robborv at the point of production, made ever fierc- er by continual specd-1) ant-}>ror- displacing mechinery. They usa their great size end power to put over ev- ery miserable form of robbery that their experts can invent and, much Ad Kirkpatrick said, “the cross and the cannon precede the cash regis- ter” in the colonial countries, these looting expeditions organized against workers in heavy industry are car- vied on under the guis? of philan- thropy and according to the Frick doctrine which says that enslaving workers by debts to company stores and back rent for company houses is only “for the sake of preserving the worker's self-respect.” ° fore the big show commences”. in the side of the show tent. The crowd would surge up and over- whelm the ticket seller by the effort of each individual to be the first inside the tent where the up- roar promised erotic diversion. The strange outcries and weird music ceased as the advance guard of dupes filtered through the can- vas door. Inside there was the silence of the graveyard. The shillabers and the freaks became earnest merchants trying quietly to dispose of “lifelike photos” at a dime per. The similarity between the NRA industry for code of the other basic industries, matter), be- tween its actual | content and the methods by: which it has been put into , life, the old @# sideshow _ bally- hoo and what % you got for your money, is so obvious, once steel (all that it is considered | soberly, that lit- tle further ex- : planation is tae a eader of 1919 re Steel Strike It is becon- ing clearer that the main objective of all the codes for big decisive industries (steel, oil, coal, auto- mobile, etc.), is to strengthen the organization of the employers, and to confuse, divide and disorganize the workers in these industries. The steel code furnishes a glar- ing example of what this means. The Communist Party and the leadership of the militant unions of the Trade Union Unity League have stuted that the NIRA pro- gram consists basically of the leg- alization of the hunger standard of wages set by the “shate-the- work” plan sponsored by Walter Teagle, head of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and en- dorsel by President Green of the American Federation of Labor. ;ROOSEVELT’S ALTRUISM For daring to question the al- truism of the Roosevelt adminis- tration on this point, Communists have been denounced roundly in the press and held up to public scorn by the socialist and tiberal camp followers of the Roosevelt regime, Facts, however, are stuclorn things. One quotation from the text of the steel codes serves our purpose excellently: “Since the begining of the pre- sent depression and the conse- quent reduction in the total num- the industty, its members have made every effort to distribute, and with a remarkable degree of success have distributed the num- ber of hours of work available in |the plants so as to give employ- ;ment to the meximum number of jemployees. It is the intention of the industry to continue that pel- icy insofar as practicable... . and that wor in the industry shall, insofar as practicable, be distzibuted-so as to provide em- ployment for the employees nor. mally attached to the industry. fe eae IVEN a highly literate person, one with a working knowledge gf legal verbiage, is comyclled to read this passage two cr thre times bofoze he can gtesp the real meanin? of tals joint product of Donald Richbe*g, isttorney for the Railway Brothe: heods; Gensral Johnson, the A. F. of L. leadership and the Roosevelt collection of pompous professors misnamed “the brain trust.” It is an outstanding excmple of the us? of words to conceal thoughts. After the second or third reading it dawns upon you tha! in re-erd to hours ef work per doy nothing kas bean changed; thet the steel b> Have, as they aiivays have had, t sole right to detcrmine the hours of work per day for “their employes.” 10-HOUR DAY Ih the Lackawanna plant of the Bethlohem Steel (Buffalo) oe have exercised this right alroady and have fixed the working time at 10 hours per day, four days p2r wesk. What'ebout minimum wages under the code? ‘e beve it on no less an authority than those busy Merry-Go-Round- ere, Drow Poarson and Bob Allen, that the stecl companies “got away with”'a minimum of 27 and 28’ cents an hour. It is actunily a few cents higher than that. a big bui—the minimum anclics’ Wovkers in steel plants in towns and cities of loss than 269,900 population, The big steel plants are with the exception of the Donner plant of R@public Steel and the Jones and Loughlin. plant in Pittsbureh—in cities of less than 230,090. ie steel companies, under the code, are re- quired to pay only the absolute mini- mum, The whole proccdure shows how, by elaborate technical language and technical subterfuges, stocl work- ers are to be fooled by the NIRA. » ber of hours of work available in} ae But—end this ‘3! tT Steel Code Circus Stunts Not Fooling Men; Strikes Grow First Series of Steel Strikes Since 1919 Show Steel and Metal Workers Industrial Union Is Leading Workers to Victories its accompanying side show will recall that the slogan of the barker was: “All over, done and finished, one hour be- It will also be recalled that as the crowd hesitated before buying tickets, a most enthralling clamor would be heard from with-9= UT are the steel and metal work- ers fooled? Is the task of the Roosevelt-Wall Street yesmen so simple? It is as simple as the brain trust thinks the workers are? Here is the answer: In spite of the tremendous pressure of the government for its no-strike policy—assisted by the A. F. of L. and Socialist Party leaders eager to eat from the overflowing official trough, the following strikes took place in July (reported by the Labor Research Association). Wheeling Sturctural Steel Co., Martins Ferry, Ohio—150 out, against 22¢ hourly rite and for 40c an hour; for 8-hour day and against Sunday work. Acme Steel & Malleable Iron Works, Inc., Buffalo, N. ¥.—two weeks’ strike of 200, July 26. Workers formerly getting 20¢ &h hour won 30c rate, those getting 30c before strike now have 40¢ an hour, and all others a 10 per cent ircrease. Shop committees recognized with work- ers nearly 100 per cent organized in Steel é& Metal Workers Industrial Union Hupp Motor Car Corp. and Van Dorn Iron Works Co., Cleveland, Obto—workers out early in August when no wage rises were grented ase companies signed blanket NRA code, Malleable Iron Co., Bridgeport, Conn.— 250, led by Trade Union Unity Leoacue Cfganisers, won 40-hour week, rate of 5.50 a Fox Furnace Co., Elyria, Ohio—150 w company refused pay in blanket code; demand ¢-hour 40¢ hourly minimum, Hatch Steel Co., BuTalo, N. Y. strike in July; return after three 's cf walkout were fired. |. Byers Co., Ambridge, Pa.—We'l } Street Journal (Aug. 7) reports strike cf | 400 against poor wages and generally | unsatisfactory conditions. Dubdil Condenser Corp., New York Cily ~-75 workers out, June 21, against ccm- pany’s refusal to withdraw wage cut. Closu; Service Co. (Owens-Illinois Glass Co, subsidiary), Long Island City, N. % —£00 out in 4-day walkout late in June, Col a Radiator Co., McKeesport, Pa. —Some 500 foundry workers particip- ated in one-day strike for 30 per ce.t wage increase with S.M.W.I.U. members tn lead; 15 per cent increase immediately granted. Midland Barge Co., Midland, Pa.—July 25, press reports workers struck in this plant. Pittsburgh Steel Foundry Corp. (Bethle- hem Steel Corp. subsidiary), Rankin, Pe.—Strike threat wins announcement cf $2 per cent wage increase. * Rethiehem Steel Corp., Sparrows Point, Md.—aAtter meeting of workers on night shift period doublers, July 31, forced the following concession: No extra work carrying. scrap except on the warm up- turn once every three weeks. cf Freihauf Trailer Co., Detroit, Mich.— BOgstruck July 10, against $3c-an-hour rate and against work week sometimes reaching 100 hours. Sun Shipbuilding-& Dry Dock Co. (sub- sidiary of Sun Oil Co.), Chester, Pa.— Metal workers out, Aug. 9, against speed up under NRA. Picket agrested second day. Murray Ohio Mfg. Co., Cleveland, Ohio Walkout of 500 (August), against wages of 8 to 10¢ an hour’ for unskilled. Coleman Bronze Co., Chicago, Tl.—3-day strike (August) of 200. workers under S.M.W.LU. after firing of two unionists. Harsch Bronze Foundry Co., Cieveland, Ohio—Strike when A. F. of 1. unionist is fired (August). ewin Metals Co,, St. Louis,. Mo.—800 Negro workers, including women, in walkout, Aug. 4, ask 45¢ an hour tor common labor, and 60c for skilled, with 8.M.W.1.U. members on picket lines. To this impressive list must be added the victorious struggles of the Pressed Steel Car workers in Mc- |Kees Rocks (Pittsburgh area), the ‘chipping department of the Donner \plant of Republic Steel (Buffalo), | Wickwire Spencer Steel (Buffalo | suburb), Standard Metal (North Buf falo), Acme (Buffalo), and a num- iber of successful strikes in light |metal shops in Jamestown, N. Y. What stands out in these struggles, many of them the first militant movement of steel and metal since 1919? It is that practically without exe ception these battles against the code —Deccuse these are what these strug- gles essentially are—have been orgai- ized end led by the Steel and Metal Wortes’ Industrial Union whicH sent a b'z delegation to Washington to votcct. the official steel code and its own amendments—that ds of steel and metal worliors seve fought and are fighting today. Tho strike struggles—every one so far yesulting in advances for work- crs fav beyond the provisions of the —led by the S.M.W.LU,, are de- cisios cxpressed in the most deters end unorganized, of the mem- of the A, F .of L. unions end the reat mass of steel worscors the starvation and slave code ed out by the biggest steel capi; ,tolic'c, their A. F. of L, agents, an | booted by the demagogy and fi ,of tie federal government. | The 4. F. of L, is being permitt ond sided to broaden its base so ; that it can more effectively ‘eff the struggles developing vido soxte, In the American class | struggle this has always presaged, quits contrary to the plans of the ‘ruling c‘ass, great mass struggles and militant class battles. The present situctien, far from being an excep- | tion, is being more and more molded into a line of class battles. The SM.W.LU. is on the eve of big a decisive struggles in the cteel industry. In this situation the winning of the workers newly on- canized by the A. F. of L. unions (unde: false pretenses) ts a strategic necessity, We must not surrender one single steel worker to the offici: A. F. of L. leadership, The utmost boldness and resolu: tion is, neccssery, based on the un: doubted advance of militancy and sonsefousness of great masses of “mor'con workers, in challenging ee A. a Pacha te cel ee as the salesmen t ve pact the renve of the steel bes ? ' vere: 5 RESON EE