The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 27, 1935, Page 3

Z Unemploy Urge National Joint Struggle For H.R. 2827 Four-Point Program of Action Proposed in Letter to N.E.C. NEW YORK.—in answer to the concerted administration drive to force through the Roosevelt de- mand for a slave wage on all work relief jobs as the beginning of a general wage offensive, the National Unemployment Councils yesterday addressed an appeal to the National Executive Committee of the Social- ist Party for unity around a four- point m of struggle for im- mediate demands of the working class. The letter hailed the recent de- cision of the Socialist Party to en- dorse the Workers Unemployment, Old Age and Social Insurance Bill, H. R. 2827, nationally. It set forth a four-point program as the basis for unity, This program calls for: adequate cash relief for every) worker without discrimination; jobs | at trade union wages with a guar- anteed number of weeks each month; for the Workers’ Bill, and for organizational unity of all mass unemployed organizations. The letter follows: NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT COUNCIL For Working Class Unity To the National Executive Com- mittee, Socialist. Party, Chicago, Ill.: Never before was united action of all working class organizations more imperative than now. The proposal of the Roosevelt govern- ment to transfer 1,500,000 so- called “unemployables” to the re- lief rolls of the municipalities and | states; and to provide jobs at $50 a month for the remaining 3,500,000 on the relief lists, threatens not only the living standards of the unemployed, but the very life of the trade union movement of the country. Wage standards gen- erally face slashes. The millions of unemployed not on the relief rolls face greater destitution. William Green has been forced to protest against the wage stand- ard, declaring that he would put up a “hell of a fight.” The fight thus far has been limited to con- | ferences witn government officials and committees. This is totally insufficient.” The-whole trade union movement must be roused to awareness of the seriousness of the situation. Roosevelt's Program The “social security” program of the Roosevelt government, both in principle and program, is a slap in the face of the American work- ers, The unemployed are com- pletely ignored, but even those now holding jobs and who in the future might be discharged will receive only a pittance, even below present relief standards, on which to live. We are convinced that this is a situation in which the whole working class can be rallied for united. militant struggle. The danger to the American labor movement was never more press- f Ing. The National Unemployment Council approaches you once more with the proposal for united ac- | calamity,” and ordered the! tion, We have learned with pleas- ure that you have now endorsed the Workers’ Unemployment, Old Age and Social Insurance Bill. Before the National Congress for Unemployment and Social Insur- | ance, we asked your cooperation in. the organization of the Con- gress. Although you did not of- ficially consent, we were glad to note the presence of a consider- able number of Socialist Party members and leaders in this im- portant Congress. Broadus Mit- chell was a leading speaker. Four-Point Program We ask, therefore, that you seriously consider our proposal to united our forces in an effort to rouse the American Federation of Labor and all working class or- ganizations to the grave menace that faces us. Our united forces will enable us to reach far broader sections of the working popula- tion and act as a force to bring together wide sections on a pro- gram of action against the whole program being put into effect by the Roosevelt government. - We propose as the points of this. »United struggle: 1. Adequate cash relief for every worker without discrimination; 2. Jobs at trade union wages with a guaranteed number of weeks each; 3. For the Workers Unemployment, Old Age and Social Insurance Bill HL R. 2827; 4. Organizational unity of all mass unemployed organiza- tions. NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT COUNCILS. Ohio Woman | ment Council committee invening | tor ‘the Martins, was found guilty. Many Steel Men Are | Enrolled in Union In Baltimore Drive { ‘ | BALTIMORE, Md., Feb. 26.— Many steel workers joined the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers at || a meeting here for employees of || the Bethlehem Steel Company at Sparrows Point, addressed by Mary Van Kleeck and by Anna Neary, representing the Balti- more Federation of Labor. The meeting held in Finnish Hall, was a part of the organization drive now in progress. This week a delegation from both A. A, lodges will go to | Washington to meet with Mary- || land congressmen and senators and to demand that they sup- port legislation for the thirty- |) hour week. Is Convicted | Of Blackmail) (Daily Worker Ohio Burean) CLEVELAND, Ohio, Feb. 26. — After five and a half hours of de- liberation, a compromise verdict | was returned by a jury of eight | men and four women in the black- mail frame-up against two unem- ployed women who prevailed on a/ relief investigator to provide win- ter clothing for the children of the Martin family. Mrs. Mary Martin, mother of the four children for whom the cloth- | ing requisitions were obtained, was | found not guilty; Mrs. Viola Ju- bach, spokesman for an unemploy- | Sentence of one to five years in the penitentiary and $1,000 fine is pro- vided by the Ohio statutes. | A stay of sentence was granted | until Saturday, March 9, when a} motion for a new trial will be heard in room 5, Court House, Lake- side Avenue, Cleveland. If a new trial is mot granted, appeal is planned. The defense is conducted by the International Labor Defense with W. C. Sandberg, district secre- | tary, at the defense table with the | International Labor Defense attor- | nies Yetta Land, N, D. Davis, and Louis Eider. This is the second trial. A month ago when the International Labor Defense had subpoenaed Mayor Davis, Police Chief Matowitz, and Marc Grossman, relief chairman, to prove a conspiracy to lower re- lief so as to save two-thirds of the tax money for the Wall Street bankers, and by starving the unem- | ployed use them as a whip to cut wages, Judge Hertz declared a mis- | trial. The Ohio code provides that no one is to be tried a second time for the same offense and once a jury is impaneled, a mistrial can be declared only on the grounds of the illness or death of some one in- volved, tampering with the jury, or an accident or calamity.’ Judge Skeel ruled that the attempt of the I. L. D. to prove a conspiracy by or- ganized capital to lower relief and the fining of N. D. Davis $100 and costs for contempt was an “accident | or | women tried a second time. Hachasd iced: Wife Pickets AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 26.—A mass | protest is being organized here against the treatment of Nuart Movsesian, whose heroic fight to get. her husband's job back in the Good- | rich Rubber plant has won the sup- port of thousands of workers who themselves are potential victims of | the same treatment. Mrs. Movsesian was arrested and given a suspended sentence of thirty days in the workhoue last week when she picketed the B, F. Good- rich Company offices and demanded that the company reinstate her husband who has given seventeen yars of his life to them and became a cripple in the process. When she was brought into court, Mrs, Mov- sesian answered the attempts of the pudge to sidetrack the issue and put her on the defensive with clear cut and challenging answers. The judge to sidetrack the issue and that her husband mistreated her. “The depression has wrecked many homes, but my husband and I are not here fighting each other. We are demanding our rights from the .B. F. Goodrich Company,” was her proud answer. WHAT Philadelphia, Pa. Grand Concert and Bazaar. Aus- picer: Unemployment Councils of Philadelphia, Friday and Saturday °S ON im } Door prize, radio, plenty of refreshments and the donation is ie, All. welcome. Newark, N. J. :, March Halt! Newark organizations don't Seu ee ce ee ee arrange affairs March 17, Paris = eee — 2 Poor fee Gn Commune Day. Extraordinary ex- Show, Play, Dancing, Music, Na- hibit, Gropper, Burck, Del, Marsh, tonal Speaker, Sergel Radamsky and Nigob, noted concert pianist. Admis- Maria Radamsky. Proceeds for pub- - 3 Heation of newspaper for the unem-| Chicago, II. ployed. Adm, 3§¢ for both evenings. Come and enjoy with us » concert and banquet with attractive pro- Section Organizers, Rubey Cooper, Gras And eiatisbous:s uate ae aaOL former, and Bill ‘Sennett, present. |'0 either start or carry on the cam- Poesia ree Arete Gere | masa wate: cuah Tiss Sagi retraite a Soneeaty Wh yey WN Teun ere Ave. Entertainment, "refreshments, | 5 constitution, organized skilled Protest Meeting against Governor Earle's new tax proposal at William Penn Hall, 5117 Master St., Thurs- day, Feb. 28. 8 p.m. Unemployment Council of 4901 Thompson St. Cleveland, Ohio A nite of merriment in honor of dancing to music by Duke Croswells Orchestra, Adm. 20¢. A big Banquet and Dance will be held Saturday, March 2, at Holly- wood Hall, 3417 W. 484 81. The pro- ceeds are for the Communist Party Election Campaign. Excellent floor show, prominent speakers, » Choy Red Wedding to be held on Merch Suey” dinner, entertainers, etc, All 2, at 6818 Wade Park. Dancing workers of Chicago are invited to from & p.m. to wee hours of the attend. DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1935 Page 3 ment Councils Call on Socialist Pa Task of Organizing Steel Workers Is One for Entire Labor Movement ® = Pi CEe Crafts Must Be United in A.F.L. on the Basis of Industrial Set-Up By WM. Z. FOSTER HE steel workers, recovering from the betrayal by their leaders to the Roosevelt-Steel Trust Labor Board last year, are launching a new campaign of organization, and are calling upno the A, F. of L. for assistance. grant this help. The task of organizing the steel workers is not one alone for the weak Amalgamated Association of Tron, Steel and Tin Workers, but for the whole labor movement. If the campaign is successful it will deal a@ heavy blow to company unionism, generally, will stimulate the organ- ization of the unorganized every- where, and will strengthen the trade unions and other workers’ organiza- tions throughout the country. It will also give a powerful blow against the whole open shop cam- paign and the developing Fascist reaction. But if the A. F. of L. leadership is to give any Teal assistance to the organization of the steel industry, The A. F. of L. must ' =a it will have to depart radically from | f | This is the answer of government and bosses when workers resist its previous policy. The record of the A. F. of L. in the steel industry is one of neglect, incompetence and betrayal. Every time it has put its hand into the steel situation, the steel workers have paid a high cost for the interference, Not to go back too far in the in- dustry’s history—the 1912 A. F. of L. campaign to organize the steel in- dustry was a ridiculous farce. In the 1919 organization campaign and strike, also, the A. F. of L. top lead- ers systematically neglected and sabotaged the movement from start to finish. In 1923, the A. F. of L. put on another “organizing cam- paign,” in which a bunch of chair- | warming organizers succeeded only in squandering completely the re- maining $70,000 of the $100,000, left over from the 1919 strike, as an or- ganizing fund; they brought into the unions actually less than 500 men. In the 1934 campaign, when the rank and file steel workers took the job in hand themselves and de~ veloped a splendid strike movement and had the best opportunity in the whole history of the steel industry to score a real victory, the A. F. of L. and the Green-Tighe leadership, meekly accompanied by the windy Committee of Ten, and in spite of the warnings of the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League, steered the whole move- ment into the trap set for it by Roosevelt and the Steel Trust. If the steel workers are still unorgan- ized, the prime responsibility for this situation rests at the door of the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. It is clear that the Steel Trust does not want any unions in its plants, except company unions, and if it is to be forced to acecpt the A. F. of L. union, this can only be done by the trade union movement mobilizing all its forces for the job, something which up to date the A. F, of L. leadership has never done. Below are a few general proposi- tions re§arding what the A. F. of L. can and should do in the situa- tion, They are fundamentally necessary and arise out of labor’s bitter experience in the steel in- dustry: eC ie Wbin 1, One Union in the Steel Industry LL workers of whatever craft or calling in the smelting, rolling into one industrial union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. Craft unions claiming jurisdiction over workers | in the steel industry should not be | allowed to meddle in the campaign | and separate their craftsmen from the general mass. This will be the easier to prevent as the A, A. con- stitution, for over half a century, has provided jurisdiction over all workers in the mills. It would be criminal stupidity to carry forward the present organizing campaign on the basis of many crafts dividing up the workers among them. To do so would be to afflict the campaign with the dead anchors of the division of forces, decentralization of authority, jurisdictional quar- rels, and finally union scabbery that. so weakened the solidarity of the workers in 1919 and was such a major factor in their defeat. In 1919 it was a practical pro- gram to link together the 24 craft unions for a joint campaign in the industry. This was so because at the time there was little sentiment for industrial unionism in the A. F. of L, the system of federating crafts in one industry was a grow- | ing form of solidarity, and the metal crafts would not possibly have yielded on their jurisdictional claims. Besides, the A. A. leaders were so reactionary (and there was no rank and file movement then in the A. A.) that it would have been utterly impossible to get the A. A. workers almost exclusively. If there had been no joint movement of the crafts there would have been no | organization campaign or strike. Now the situation, however, is fundamentally changed. The steel strike of 1919 imperatively taught the need of one industrial union in | attacks on their wages and conditions. Scene In Kohler, Wis., “model | factory town,” last year, where two strikers were killed and many in- jured. has been emphasized time and | again since in the automobile, rub- ber, aluminum and many other in- | dustries. In consequence, there is |a@ strong sentiment in the A. F. of |L. now for the industrial form of | | organization, And, most important | of all, the A. A. is now in a position |to carry through a militant organ- ization campaign and strike. It is true that the Tighe leaders are as | useless and harmful as ever, but the militant organized rank and file | movement can and will do the work |in spite of the reactionary leader- ship. | A final end must be put to the nineteenth century system of craft unionism in the steel industry. The | experience of the past. fairly shouts |the necessity for industrial union- ism, And if this demand is ignored and the.crafts allowed to inject | themselves into the industry, the |suecess of the entire movement will ie seriously jeopardized. * Pari’ 2. Oust Corrupt Tighe Leadership | 'T is unthinkable that the steel workers should be organized by the present Tighe-Leonard leader- ship. This corrupt and reactionary clique cannot and will not organize the workers in the industry. This is definitely proven by their long record of incompetence and treach- jery. Their union plans go no fur- |ther than the maintenance of a | petty, lickspittle, little organization jin the smaller plants on the fringes of the industry, sufficient to pay | these parasites their salaries, In 1919 this same clique of labor | fakers blocked, sabotaged and be- | trayed the movement at every turn. And in the succeeding several years of “prosperity” they did nothing whatever to organize the industry. |It was also characteristic of their general policy that in 1934, when the workers were organizing rapidly in spite of them, they gave the A. jand fabricating departments of the UF. of L. every assistance to mislead | steel industry should be organized the movement into the swamp of the Roosevelt-Steel Board. If any further proof is needed of their disloyalty to the steel workers, it is given amply by their present Trust Labor union militants and lodges, to split the union, It would give these worthies only satisfaction if their | disruptive course should break up The history of the A. A. top lead- ership is replete with examples of to fat jobs with the Steel Corpora- tion or the government for keeping the workers unorganized. It is high time for the Tighe-Leonard leader- ship to go to their rewards from the companies as so many of their predecessors have done. The rank and file memers of the steel workers, aroused to the dis- loyalty of their top leaders, are now in the process of driving them from office, If not interfered with by the A. F. of L. they will soon put a finish to the whole clatter of them and put at the head of their union the present sincere and militant Leas of the rank and file move- ment. Tighe and his gang of misleaders must go if there is to be a serious | fight put up for the organization of the steel industry. The A. F. of L. Executive Council should condemn Tighe’s splitting policy. Any as- sistance lent by the A. F. of L. to this bunch of labor traitors to keep them in power or to enforce their infamous expulsion campaign, would be direct betrayal of the steel workers, oa fe 3. A Centralized Organiz- ing Crew Y feed A. F. of L. should furnish a substantial group of organizers the steel industry, a lesson which to the steel campaign and call upon all its affiliated unions to also con- the present organization campaign. | the officials of the union retiring | tribute organizers; or far better vet, to finance organizers from the ranks of the steel workers. A mini- mum of 100-150 organizers, includ- |ing a considerable proportion of be conducted under one organization should set up a joint | organizing committee led by the present leaders of the rank and file movement who have demonstrated that they can and will organize the workers. This committee should have complete jurisdiction over all | Organizers, regardless of what cen- ters they come from. Organizers directed from outside headquarters, | whether the A. F. of L. or of in- dividual unions are practically use- Jess as was amply demonstrated in ;the 1919 campaign. All the or- | 8anizers must work as a solid crew | under the direction of one center if | serious work is to be accomplished. one saben 4, Ample Funds ie 1919 the thing that actually de- |" feated the movement was the initial failure of the A. F. of L. and the affiliated unions to furnish suf- ficient funds at the outset to start the campaign properly. Although the 24 unions affilated with the Na- tional Committee for Organizing the Iron and Steel Workers were |Tich from war-time dues and had |many millions of dollars in their treasuries, they refused to put even the smallest assessment on their | members, and gave us only $1,400 and a half dozen organizers with which to start the huge task of organizing the industry. This lack of funds and men caused the abandonment of the original plan of a swift drive at the same time in all steel centers, a drive which later experience proved, would have forced a swift settlement by the Steel Trust in war time. Lack of |initial funds almost destroyed the | Movement altogether. Indeed, the |funds for organizing the worker: | were only gathered from these | workers as the organizing campaign |Pproceeded. This pinch-penny pol | icy was part of the deliberate cam | Paign of sabotage. | This disastrous policy must not |be repeated this time. \a proper campaign, much money is | possibly raise all of it. The A. F. of L, has the duty to assemble most of this money, especially in the initial stages of the work, Fun- damentally necessary, therefore, is | that it should place an assessment of at least five cents per member on all affiliated unions and call upon them to make immediate ad- vance payments to the A. A. or- ganizing forces. es one: 5. Supporting Action from | Railroad Workers BVIOUSLY a great strike in the steel industry may create a sit- uation calling for active support from many unions, especially the coal miners, And from the outset, it is clear that steps must be taken to get at least the railroad unions directly behind the movement. In | 1919 one of the major causes of the | loss of the strike was the failure of | the reiiroad unions to strike the workers on the highly strategic Tighe Leadership Must Go—Vast Organizing Crew Is Needed | that the following proposals be car- | ried out: | (a) All railroad workers em- Ployed directly by the steel mills in their own yards should be or- ganized into the A, A. (b) The connecting roads shoud be prepared to strike jointly with the body of steel workers. (ce) Railroad workers on the main lines should refuse to haul seabs and materials in and out of the mills, whether the union officials sanction such solidarity actions or not, 6. A National Movement IN order to develop a maximum Possibiilty of defeating the Steel | Trust, the campaign to organize the | workers must be pushed simultane- j ously in all important steel centers. This should be done in general along the lines of the original plans for the 1919 campaign. The work should be prosecuted with the ut- most energy and every known mod- ern method of mass agitation, in- cluding monster meetings, parades, the press, radio, etc. should be widely used. Such a powerful agitation will give the steel workers facing the gigantic Steel Trust, a sense of their own power and sup- port from other sections of workers, | and will go far to raise their fight- ing morale and overcome the slump caused by the betrayal of 1934, There must be none of the ante- |diluvian nonsense which we had to | contend with trom the top A. F L. leaders in 1919 about starting the movement in one mill or one lo- Negroes, should be put into the |cality to “show the workers what | field at the earliest possible date, | we can do.” Such a method leaves | The organizing campaign should | the workers open to the dangers of | head | the destruction of the campaign by | strictly, that of the A. A. The latter | being forced into premature strikes | ing the workers demoralized by | Pseudo-concessions by the com- | panies in the unorganized localities. A great national movement over- comes these dangers. The A. F. of L. has the resources for such a national campaign with- out straining itself in any respe Tt can readily mobilize the nece: sg ill-prepared key points, or hav- | sary organizers and money. Nothing | | short of such a broad national cam- |paign can meet the necessities of | the situation. ig Ag 7. A Fighting Movement ROM the beginning, the steel movement must be based upon organized preparations for a strike. The A.B.C. of the situation in the jindustry is that the steel bosses will {not concede trade union organiza- tion and the workers’ other de- mands without a strike struggle. This ought to be clear even to the A. F. of L. leaders (who like the Bourbons seem to learn nothing and to forget nothing) after the | debacle they led the steel workers into in 1934 by hoodwinking them |into accepting the Roosevelt-Steel | Trust Labor Board. At the time, the Communist Party and the |Trade Union Unity League raised their voices and made militant op- | position against this betrayal afid submitted a program of strike ac- tion, which if applied, would have | carried the workers to a great vic- | demoralization which was sure to and did come after the betrayal, |after the sell-out by the leaders. Among the steel organizers there must be no illusions that Roosevelt, | is the friend of the steel workers | and wants them to be organized | into the A. F. of L.; or that arbitra- | | tion is anything else but an insi- | | dious weapon of the bosses to ham- | | string the workers in their struggle. | Preparations must be made for a |real strike. There must be no more To put on | “postponing”; that is, calling off of | |the strike movement unless the criminal attempt to expel the best Necessary, and the A. A. cannot | Major demands of the workers are |definitely granted. Only if the movement is based on such a strike | perspective will the steel workers, | disgusted by the 1934 debacle, re- cover from their disorganization and rally again to the union, 8. Plan Is Practical pee foregoing proposals are ba- | sically necessary to the organi- | zation of the steel workers. They | are dictated by the long years of | organizing experience in the steel | industry. If they are not heeded, it will mean that the lessons of the past and the plain dictates of |the present situation are ignored, |and the success of the movement will be jeopardized. The proposals are practical and easily within the power of the A. F. of L.; and the militant rank and file steel workers should insist that | the A. F, of L. shape its policies in the campaign accordingly. All that | ‘is necessary to put these proposals into effect is nothing more than a | little horse sense and a modicum of | honest trade unionism. The sin- | cerity and intelligence of the A. F.| | tory. They clearly pointed out the | Protests of Labor Defeat New Mexico Syndicalism Bill SANTA FE, N. M., Feb. 26.—By a vote of fourteen to nine, after a bitter debate, the State Senate of New Mexico rejected t crimi- ; nal syndicalism bill which had passed the House. The defeat of the bill followed vigorous protests by labor organ- izations and liber groups throughout the tate with speakers from the Comm Party and the Internationa bor Defense visiting hu organizations during few weeks The bill is typical of anti-labor legisiation, which is being intro- duced in almost every 1,000 Hatters | Near Strike | In Danbury DANBURY, Conn., Feb. 26.— More than a thousand hat workers in eight rough hat factories in Danbury and Bethel are on the the past state verge of striking in order to en- — force an arbitration award granted last May to the Hatmakers’ Union of America (A. F. of L.). The arbitration award, which | granted a raise of approximately 10 per cent in wages of the men, was tmhade last Spring following a strike which affected most of the rough hat factories in Danbury and Bethel. A vote to strike if necessary. against a reduction of 5 per cent or one-half of the wage increase |given in the award, was taken at a stormy four hour session of the union on Saturday during which Michael F. Green, president, and Martin Lawlor, secretary of the na- a | tional union of New York, pleaded | with the men to “accept the re-| | duction rather than precipitate la- bor trouble at this time.” Rank and filers made a motion | that the union should be recognized then and there and that new offi- cers should be elected, but this mo- | | tion was not entertained by the | vice-president of the union, John | Beschle, who presided. Bridges Urges Marine Unity EVERETT, Wash. Feb. 26. Harry Bridges, President of the San | Francisco local of the International |Longshoremen’s Association and |leader of the recent West Coast Marine strike, paid a surprise visit the Everett local of the I.L.A ;membership meeting. Bridges was accompanied by Art Wills, who was lelected by the Puget Sound district to represent it in the drawing up of Plans for a marine federation. Bridges stressed that the most important task before the marine workers now on the coast is the establishment of a Marine Federa- tion which can see to it that the agreements of all marine unions should expire at the same time. He |Showed how the united action of |all marine workers proved success- | |ful in the recent strike. He espe- | cially emphasized that the federa- tion must be on a rank and file basis, and should not be given over to reactionary officials of the type. which sold out the General Strike | MUSIC | GAMES CHICAGO'S FIRST ANNUAL in| | i} New Masses Ball MUSICAL COMEDY STARS rty for Unity Weta Ce da ‘Cuts Wages, Speeds Men Weekly Earnings Drop —Gains Are Offset by Intense Speed-Up By IRVING MAYER WASHINGTON, D. C. (CNA).— Low wages, speed-up and company error are the lot of the North Caro- 1 tobacco workers. This was the nce of a report recently tssued by John P. Davis of the Joint Com- ttee on National Recovery. A percentage of the tobacco workers are Negroes, particularly women The report is based on a question naire sent to workers in five tobacco plants in North Carolina The average weekly earnings for the five plants were $8.84. This wage per cent below the minimum supposed to be pald under the Pres- ident’s Re-smployment Agreement (N. R. A.)—‘hirty cents per hour for a thirty-five-hour week. Wages paid, according to the report, are as follows: Wages for a Average Usual Week Hours American Tobacco Co. $10.88 332/83 (Durham) American Tobacco Co. 11.46 ay (Reidsville) R. J. Reynold: 9.85 352/83 Brown & Williams .... 6.96 cd Taylor Bros. 6.23 * The survey points out that al- though hourly rates were increased somewhat under the N. R. A, “weekly earnings, however, changed for the worse, The all-plant average full time before the N. R. A. was $10.62, afterwards $10.03.” Speed-Up Intensified Speed-up has accompanied their reduced wages, the workers declare: ‘We are made to do more work in eight hours than we did in nine hours before N. R. A.” “Work done in ten hours now done in eight hours.” Summarizing the replies, the re | port states: “One worker says that a machine that used to make ninety gross in ten hours now makes this amount in seven to seven and a half hours. A machine that made twenty-nine sacks a minute in 1929-1930 is geared to make thirty-two sacks. Pickers are required to pick eight drafts of twenty-five pounds in eight hours, whereas formerly they picked only seven of twent: ve pounds. Extra duties also devolve upon the employees. . . .” The report concludes “Whatever N. R, A. has done to improve rates and hours has been _|more than offset by the speed-up. There is little doubt that the work- ers were better off before the N. R. A. than after.” Company Terror and Intimidation The tobacco companies are no- torious for their anti-union activi- ties, especially R. J. Reynolds To- baceo Co. The survey quotes the comments of the laborers on these activities: “Factory No. 360 R. J. R. Ne- groes cannot let it be known that they belong to the union. If so, they [the company—C. N. A.] will find something wrong to send you out of the factory and the Ne- groes are afraid to join or to say anything about the union.” S. Clay Williams, vice-chairman of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., is chairman of the Tobacco Manu- facturers’ Code Committee. The tobacco code recently signed allows wages as low as 25 cents an hour, DANCING EXHIBITS PAUL ASH’S ORCHESTRA GRAND BALLROOM STEUBEN CLUB Randolph and Wells TICKETS: In advance 75c; at door $1. On sale at: New Masses, 123 W. Madison St.; Workers Book Store, 505 8. State S.; Workers Book Store, FRIDAY NITE MARCH Ist at 8 P.M. 2135 W. Division St Sutte 1118, 128 W. Madison St. § 0 Brings You " a Copy of Hunger and Revelt: Cartoons by BURCK SPECIAL OFFER “HUNGER AND REVOLT: Cartoons by Berek” is now available only with the following subscription offers: Year's sub and copy of book 6 Months’ sub and copy of book 3 Months sub and copy of book Year's Sat. sub and copy of book Add 20 cents to Cover Postage (THESE PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE MANHATTAN AND THE BRONE) | Tear Out This Coupon connecting roads between the steel | mills and the main lines, A strike jon these roads would have com- pletely paralyzed all the big mills. To make the officials’ betrayal more evident, these men, while or- connecting road companies, and | the leaders could no! hide behind | the excuse of being bound by sacred | agreements. To avoid the sad and disastrous spectacle of union railroad men breaking the steel workers’ strike. should the present movement d velop into a strike, it is necessary of L. leaders in the developing steel campaign can be measured pretty |much by the degree with which it |adopts these elementary organiza- tion measures. | The militant mass of steel work- ganized had no contracts with the er now have, despite many serious | ‘obstacles, splendid chances for | success. Every effort must be made to strengthen their cause. The Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League are doing and will continue to do everything in their power to help the steel work- ers, and every worker in the coun- try should do likewise DAILY WORKER 50 East 13th Street New York, N. Y. | | | | or | Daily Worker for . IT am enclosing § “HUNGER AND REV Name osi....54 Street ... Please enter my subscription ¢ ) Please renew my subscription ( ) OLT: Csrtoons by Burck.” to the » plus $1.20 for a copy of