The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-17
GOOD SPIRIT IN TEXTILE STRIKE
CONTINUED from page u
,rsted Mills.

Nearly all of the present sporadic
cotton mill strikes began in manner
more or less like this one in the Mid
dleboro wooden mill. On the part OF
the employers we find always the
same trickery, sneaking, deception
and double-crossing-always charac-
terized with whining pleas Of 'pov-
erty" on the part of the multimillion-
aire textile kings, and always ending
in squeezing few more dollars of
profit per day out Of the impoverished
workers.
Isolation and Betrayal.
And also every incident of this sort
in mill town has been characterized
by isolation. Nowhere have the tex
tile workers been encouraged to look
at their problem as extending beyond
the narrow confines of their own vii
lage. 1t has always been, 200 out here,
100 out there, 500 out somewhere else,
usually on craft out and the other
crafts in, with the vast majority left
untouched by anything but spontane-
GUS discomfort, smoldering with no ac-
ton and no leadership.
Most of the labor leaders, leading
nothing but pitiful fragments of by
gone glory, have had nothing on their
minds but trying hastily to "get a set
Element" on a petty scale on the ba-
sis of partial or complete surrender.
Or, in the case of Mr.. Mcmahon, presi-
dent Of the United Textile Workers,
to prevent a strike by every possible
means, prevent any coordination be-
tween the workers Of one mill and
those of another mill, or between any
one fragmentary union and any other.
Division Of Workers, Solidarity
Of Bosses.
The general rule has been, every
seperate craft, for itself-complet is.
olation of small handfuls of workers
in this thickly settled New England
community which is geographically al
most as solid as one huge city.
At the same time the employers act
as one man. The unity of the bosses
has enabled them to maneuver with
incredible skill to proven unity of the
workers.
One explanation is the press. A
working class press simply does not
exist here. All the small and large
town papers are as branches of one
concern, and that an adjunct of the
cotton manufacturers association.
! Never word does a textile worker
learn of anything in another town
that would be of interest to him in
this struggle, except what is feverish-
ly distorted and pulled into propa-
ganda form for the mill owners. Sell
dom if ever does one isolated union
communicate with another, or have
any other means Of information than
the mill-owners' press or drifting ru-
NOR. "a systematic distribution ma
chinery for the DAILY WORKER is
more badly needed in this community,
think, than in any other that
l know
If this condition continues there is
no doubt that all of New England will
soon be choked into condition OF
open shop slavery and suppression
equal to that of Don Chains West
Virginia coal region. OF openly vic.
lent suppression of the workers, there
is little in evidence as yet. But us
ually and nearly everywhere the sys.
tenn of invisible, silk-gloved coercion
and chicanery is the method pursued
This method has sufficed up to the
present for a gradual and silent, and
cheap, strangulation of labor in the
textile mills.
Cotton 5arons Clean Up.
But few weeks ago the price OF
raw cotton fell about one-third. The
cotton-mill combine saw a chance to
make quick killing on supplying the
domestic market. (They even claimed
to think the Dawes plan was going t.
give them a European market.) The
big wholesale wage slashing, combin
ed with an intensive open shop drive
was begun on an accelerated speed
and then came resistance, with spor.
adic strikes.
But to return to the Middleborc
strike. In the case of Middleboro II
is wooden weavers' strike. and the
WOODEN mills are not much involved
as yet.
AS soon as the Nenasket Mil
bosses saw that their bluff of "let's
call it general strike" was called
they began trying TO confine it to the
weavers, and trying to win the weav
ers back, one by one. A certain man
working in the guise Of designer
but really functioning as a stoolpig
con for the superintendent, became {
propagandist for winning the weaveri
back individually. This man, Martin
Eckert, was sent around quietly to in
terview the strikers, one by one.
sly, ingratiating fellow, Eckert always
plays the part Of the secret friend
who ia going IN advfaa aaoh worka,