The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-18
Muscatine, Iowa,
Lost Big Battle;
Workers Pay Now
Continued from page u

| for picking. They peel tomatoes, an
eighteen-quart bucket heaped up high
for fifty cents. Fast workers in from
91k to 10 hours make $3.50, other
workers, the great majority, do not
get more than $500, and many Of,
those work Is hours or more in an
effort to get that sum; beginning work .
as early as s a. M, and continuing
until p. m.
In order that the human element
may not enter into the factory to in
terfere with profits, inspectors and
foreladies are imported each season
from outside Muscatine. They are in
structed not to make friends with any
of the workers.
The brutality of these Amazons is
indescribable. Some poor victim may
have finished bucket full when along
comes the inspector-one or two may
have little of the skin left on-she
dumps the bucket back into the tub
and the victim spends one to two
hours cleaning up the muss without
pay. The women are now peeling on
ions at II cents gallon, last winter
they were paid 20 cents a gallon.
These are the little onions that are
| sold in bottles and a gallon represents
great many onions.
COMMENTED" Workers Celebrates"
The Heintz company collects 25
cents per week from their sweated
workers for club dues. The "club"
gave a dance a few weeks ago and
charged rs cents a ticket. Every
worker had to pay for a ticket.
The dance was held in the Gold
Room" Of the Muscatine Hotel The
company got a lot of free publicity,
which would no doubt make the "57
varieties" more appetizing to the care
free public. The liberal policy" of
the Heintz company received a boost
at the expense of the slaves.
Your reporter had occasion to look
up button worker on Mulberry ave-
nue. and there he found a dwelling
that surpasses in horror, the den of
Fagin in Dickens "Oliver Twist" A
rickety stairway, two flights up: dark
hall ways with holes in the floor and
scarcely any plaster left on the walls.
No large city can 'boast" of more
concrete sight Of poverty and exploit
tation. 1 have been assured that
there are many such dwellings" in
Muscatine.
Gunner and Military Crush Spirit.
A few years ago the button workers
-of Muscatine, which has three or four
large factories, making buttons, were
well organized. A strike was precipi-
tated which proved one of the longest
and most bitterly contested struggles
in American labor history. Gunmen
and sluggers were imported but
there were few scabs. The gunner
beat up and shot the pickets and also
number of bystanders. This reused
the populace and thousand or more
of them, many of whom were armed,
drove the fifty gunner into a hotel
and surrounded them. The militia
was called out, many of them striking
button workers, to uphold Flaw and
order" and protect the gunner. The
troops formed in line and the slug
gers passed between the ranks in
safety to the train.
The militia remained until the
starvation process had done it's dead
ly work. The union was utterly de-
stroyed and the Muscatine Legrees
continue making large profits in COM
| nafifion with tho oxyaat ebove 80 Nra,,
York and other large cities.
II is practically all piece work in
the button factories, working from 9.
to 10 hours. Women sew the buttons
on cards, A. 6 or IL buttons to card,
for which they receive two cents for,
gross of buttons. They are on
level with the match box and flower
makers of New York's sweatshops..
The spirit of Muscatine has been
crushed and capital is now king.
There are comparatively few workers
Of foreign birth in the little town,
but little business has joined the
kluxers to save America for Ameri-
cans, and presumably the profits of
foreign stockholders.
Meeting Of Workers Party
Museatine workers cast a good.
sized vote for the Workers Party
ticket last November. In response
to that call a meeting to present
the program Of the party will be
held at Macabee's Hall, 22a Iowa
avenue, on Sunday afternoon, Feb.
e. at $3.50 p. m. j. {. Snyder,
district organizer, and David coutts
J will be the speakers.