The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-03

The DAILY WORKER de
mind so a reporter called on
at the plant of Calm & Kovler,
at 327 S. Market Street. There
we found why Mr.. Kovler is
peeved at the union. &
Left Out of IS.
Only five girls are manning the
machines where 35 used to work, be-
fore the strike call and they are
turning out very little work. And no
one else will scab for them.
The DAILY WORKER wanted to
know what stories Mr.. Kovler would
tell about his shop conditions. His
yarns on the shooting, for which
Morris Bealis was kidnapped by
Groves police and later freed when
witnesses failed to back the detectives
up in the frame-up plot, had been
several and contradictory. So our
reporter asked him how he treated the
girls in his shop.
Such Lovely Place.
The non-union manufacturer talked
eagerly. He told about high wages
, and perfect conditions,-in fact he
, pictured such a factory workers
Utopia that we almost forgot the hard
facts of low wages and piece work
discrimination and blacklisting that
had been furnished us by some of his
striking employees.
! my girls" said Mr.. Kovler. "Why
my girls make more than the city
police, the firemen, or the postal
workers" 'The police get only
$50 week. don't see how a man
can live on it."
2 "Thirty-five dollars week for wo-
= men is better than they can do any
s where else. The garment industry
pays the highest wages in the country.
e Why, American girls won't believe
a they can make SO much" Most of
the girls employed at Gavin G. Kov-
: ler's are Polish or Russian-Jewish.
A 100 Per Center.
America is a great land of OPP
: portunity, for the foreigner" re-
l marked Mr.. Kovler. but if you
were an American girl in industry,
you wouldn't want some foreigner
telling you what to do" he added
irrelevantly. "If you were foreign,
that's different.
"We've always had an open shop:
T never Disseminated against anyone"
claimed Kovler and Immediately con-
tradicted himself with the statement.
"We're not against organized labor,
f nor the federation; but we've got to
: fight these radicals. The law must be
: obeyed."
d "There are 900 other good unions"
2 continued Kovler, "the engineers and
f the builders" whom he does not OPP
! pose. 1t is only the international
Il Ladies Workers" Che doesn't get the
I unions name right who lead his girls
: astray "They pull out the girls in
r organized shops where even in this
: slack time the girls are making sep to
a $40 a week." asserted Kovler, (union
girls find that even the largest shops
9 seldom give girl as much as $50
q week and that the average turnout
the year is not over $20.)
i Likes 20 Hours Better.
! "The girls want to work only 40
|, hours a week." said Kovler. Grocery
q and butcher clerks have to work 70
. hours a week. Why should these
girls work only 40?" he demanded.
as it fair, It isn't" ''It's all the
a same work, isn't it?" But Kovler
. didn't know that he chose an illus
/ tration from an almost unorganized
v field that obviously is not "the same"
Y as the garment industry.
= Mr.. Kovler showed the interviewer
5 his plant, explaining that most of his
trade is in silk dresses, retailed by
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.
Only Five Girls Working.
eve have only small place." re-
marked Kovler. "Only five girls on
the machines now. They don't look
+ as tho they would fight anyone, do
! they?" THE DAILY WORKER re-
porter refrained from comment).
Casually we have about 35 workers
e all told. Twenty went out on strike"
Il .Kovler stated at one time and at an
: other. "You can't get our girls to go
: out. The union people come up here
: and pound on the table but our girls
{ just laugh at them"
: Kovler displayed a beautiful sum-
mer frock of silk and said that the
!. girls were paid So for making such
: dress and could make or in a day.
+, ave sell the dress for $3.50 whole
: sale and the retailer must charge at
{ least $45 to make anything at all"
: Big Profits of Girls Labor.
Judging by the material and max
: ing, liberal allowance for other labor
= than the operators and for overhead.
!. Gavin g. Kovler must have at least
$ profit of $12 on each of these silk
/, dresses. Multiply this sum by the
y usual number Of operators, IL, and
I again by the number Of dresses made
I each day and you will have a rough
e estimate of what the boss makes. II
: we assume that the boss "four or five
: dresses per girl' is correct, say gen.
A erously so dresses a day, the daily
\ clear profit would be 5000 a day or
so.
D Hazy About Shooting.
There was almost a sob scene when