The Connecticut labor news., 1923-04-27
MUST "KO-TOW" OR BE BLACKLISTED IN
 HARTFORD PLANTS
Bosses Resort to Dark Age System of Discipline to Break Spirit
 of Workers.

How the "black-list" operates to discipline" workmen in many Con- necticut' industrial centers is exposed in a communication just received by Labor from a government employe, whose duties give him an exceptional opportunity for observation.
 Numerous cases are on record where family breadwinners, in viola ton of the American sense of a "square deal," are starved into sub mission through unemployment until they are forced to come back to their former employers, hat in hand, and actually beg for job on any terms. That the practice is common in Hartford and other large cities i'll the state is evidence that it is a part of a deliberate attempt on the part of manufacturers to "break the spirit" of workmen who assert a bit of Ameri- can independence in refusing to "ko- tow" under all occasions to boss" foremen.
 The fact that hundreds of workers in Hartford have labored in factories for long and peaceful periods under assumed names, due to the blacklist, proves that they could not have been very Dangerous" men in the first place, for the mere change the char acter of what foremen refer to as bad men,"
 An instance is given of one par ticular case that shows how the ''blacklist" works behind the scenes. For no other reason than being un- fortunate enough to have d misunder- standing with his foreman about the slamming of a door, workman was discharged. He was an expert me chanic and had been employed at the plant for over four years.
 The next morning he called at one of the leading factories and applied for a job. He was turned down. Other efforts met with the same re- suit In every case he was told by the employment management to wait a minute" and the answer always was that there were no vacancies open.
 Finally he found employment in a town IS miles from Hartford and be- cause he was paying for his home on the installment plan, he was forced to Commute" each morning to his job. After three hard years of travelling back and forth, he was driven to look for work again in Hartford on ac- count of his wife and children. While he saw other men being hired every day, he was still unable to find work for himself.
 At length he asked an employment agent what was the matter and was frankly told that he had been report ed as an "agitator" and general trouble maker" by the foreman who had discharged him, and that he might just as we'll stop trying to get a job in Hartford As the situation pre- scented no alternative, this American workman swallowed his pride and with hat in hand, went to the fore man and asked him what he must do to be permitted to work in Hartford again.
 This foreman told him that if he had "learned his lesson" and was pre- pared to keep civil tongue in his head" he might go to work. Upon promising that he would "be good" under anv circumstances, if only given chance to earn living for his fam fly, he was told he could secure a job in any Hartford factory if he waited A hours before making application He visited eight shops the next morn ing and was told in every case he could start work the next day.
 A peculiar feature of the strike of is the fact that these striking union men are also -''blacklisted" by the Manufacturers Association. In some cases where strikers obtained work they were told few days later that their "disguises" had been pierced and