The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-03-04
new YORK is
HUB OF TEXTILE
INDUSTRY IN U. S.
Anti-Labor Plans Are
Matched in Metropolis
Continued from page ~

not even buy there q comprehensive
directory Of the mill towns. Il bot
the last little pocket textile directory
to be had in Providence.) Every
question is answered, "Oh, you might
get that in New York"
Where Butler Is Gear.
In New Bedford and Fall River
you can get much gossip Of the car
like rule of "Old Man Butler" (Cool-
idges angeD and his tight little clique
Of local cotton-mill squires.
1t seems as tho there in the two old
mill cities OF southern Massachusetts
is the only remaining stronghold Of
the old order. You can hear much
talk of how the new men" of the
wider world a few months ago were
scolding the "old men" Of New Bed
ford and Fall River for refusing to
coordinate their wage-cutting and la
bor-hsiting and speeding-up with the
general campaign of that nature
which is now on.
You can hear how the "old men"
managed with their political and
banking facilities to freeze out any
new arrivals who try to start up any
unwelcome businesses there.
And you can hear tow Old Man But
Ter, local king of them all, is quarrel
ing with the Coolidge cabinet about
this policy of international finance
capital which Invests in foreign in
dustries, building them up to com.
pete with our own (More of this
later; 1t seems strange to hear of But.
Ter, who led Coolidge to the White
House, now quarreling with Cool
idge's mission of perfecting the AM
erfcan finance-capital oligarchy over
the WORLDLY
You hear talk of all that, but you
get no general information Of what is
going on in the big labor-defation
drive which now embraces with a sin.
gle plan the entire industry Of weav-
ing and spinning wool and cotton.
you can get that in New York"
Company Union Movement.
Yes, you can get that in New York.
The real center of control of every
thing pertaining to the textile indus
try is in New York-the center of
everything except the phase of textile
labor organization, and that has no
center anywhere. That is, unless you
take the point of view of capital. If
you take that point of view, you can
find a textile tabor movement" which
does indeed center in New York, and.
in one street Of New York-Wall
Street. Look at the hideous night.
mare, the clamorous, raucus, insistent
movement, gaining ground and conf
dence and holiness every day, which
haunts the slogan: LET the Mill
Agents, Superintendent and Over.
seers be Your Labor Leaders," This
is a company-union movement of such
unmitigated, staggering nerve, that
you almost refuse to believe your ears
and eyes when you run across it. 1t
is one of the biggest and most deadly
OF events that ever occurred in the
struggle between labor and capital in
this country. You might strain the
language enuf to call it fascist move
ment in a pacifist stage. The pacifist
phase Of 1t is surely only a passing
phase, and finds that form only be-
cause there has not been enuf labor
resistance to make 1t show its fangs
At present this movement is pulling
the glad-hand Sunday-school stuff
with "inspirational," Cooperation"
and welfare" talk to the workers
from bosses who hope to get the whole
industry of wooden and cotton manu-
facture tied up in an unbeatable
system OF scabbery before any coun.
ter-movement can establish itself on
a big enuf scale to count.
This "superindendents' labor move.
ment' is completely centralized in
Wall Street, New York.
And the countermovemen of real
labor has no center anywhere excep'
so far as the Workers Communist
Party, with the Trade Union Educa.
tional League and the Young Work
ers' League may succeed in giving II
national head. Up to the present,
the labor resistance to the monstrous
scab movement is scattered and frag-
mentary, expressing itself in few
spontaneous, isolated local strikes and
In lot Of confused. grumbling except
in some New England towns where
the proposal of the Workers Party has
caused half-dozen united front rank
and file committees to be formed.
What has been done in this way is
good, but 1t is only drop in the
bucket. The drive of the mill own.
ers from the Wall Street center has
now been on for three months in the
most intensified form, and for about
three months more preceding that,
In less open form. There is no
Disgusting the fact that the bosses
have succeeded in isolating all OF the
sporadic strikes that have occurred so
Gas nj 81