The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-20

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credit peVer's traction plan, and
then ring In one Of hls own.
Into the mill he eagerly brings him
self, his wife and his children-(these
cotton manufacturers have been Zero
cious in their opposition to the child
labor amendement)-ready to worl
as matter of course from sun-up t.
shutdown in the lint-laden air for Just
a little more sow-belly and corn-pone
Labor unions?-Some strange, exotic
words akin to the dread word, Boil
shevism.
Put Up Own Leaders"
Furthermore" continues the pub
location, "the southern mills have been
remarkably free from labor troubles,
owing to the fact that unionism has
made practically no headway in that
section"
A study Of the recent utterances of
various textile barons leaves no room
for doubt that it is their concerted
plan to hold the south by means of
welfare" frauds, trickery, force and
violence, or any other means against
the introduction of labor unions; and
to use any and all Of the same means
in the present wage-euttlns, open-shop
drive to reduce the New England tex
tile workers to the same basis of
coolie-labor which they are establish
ing in the south.
A singular and almost incredibly
open evidence of this is found in the
present slogan of the mill owners, re-
Gently launched thruout New England:
"Let your mill superintendent be your
labor-leaderI Listen to no so-oalled
labor leaders from outside your own
MILL"
In the face of these facts it is moth
ing less than pitiful to hear trade
union officials speak of each one of q
hundred mill quarrels separately as a
problem of getting an adjustment
for this or that handful of workers
usually the skilled workers only con
sidered-in a fragmentary way and
nearly always on the basis of 9
present ten per cent wage-cut and a
future promise.
Sees 25 Per Cent Cut
II we Judge the problem as a whole
we cannot escape the conclusion that
the objective of the New England
drive is at least rs per cent cut and
an iron-clad open shop. Textile man.
ufacturers' references to the. neces
sity to compete with (their OWN
southern mills which have the adj
vantage of newer machinery" give
even some basis for the suspicion that
they hope to have New England wages
cut more than the rs or 80 per cent
And why do we hear from the
mouths of these textile kings constant
illusions to "the Dawes plan" and
foreign slavery" of the German work
ers with an equal slavery Of the New
England workers?
Already we see the rapid disappear
ance of many of the differences bet
ween the skilled and unskillsd work.
ers which until recently were very i'm
portant features here. Skilled crafts
there still are, of course; and trade
unionism at present often depends
upon organizing only the skilled tex
tile crafts and depending upon the
spontaneous loyalty Of the morgan
ICED unskilled and semi-skilled work.
ers in case of disputes. But the adj
vantageous position of skilled labor in
the cotton mills tends to disappear.
Spinners, for instance, are being so
drastically pushed into speeding-up
systems that they complain of prac-
tically having lost the status Of
skilled craft.
In "Life-and-Death" Crisis
A half-blind man could see that
labor unionism in the textile indus
try is now in a life-and-death crisis.
The half-dozen fragments and mem
berless memories of labor organiza-
tions here, tend to jog along in dreams
Of past conditions until suddenly jolt
ed into sudden fight, petty lad
justment." then to sink into phleg-
matte, sodden routine, while the world
about them is ablaze.
Again will say there are except
ions to be found. Some Of the unions
are ready-even their officials are
ready-to listen to the call for wide
effort at unifcation. The work of the
united front movement instigated by
the Workers Party is being felt, and
many groups and organizations Of
wofvers here and there have promised
and are giving cooperation.
But II will be necessary to get unity
on a vast scale. All OF New England
textile labor will stand or fall to-
gether. And it can not make any eff
fective Roadway unless out OF this
campaign comes an organizational
form big enough to reach turnout all
America. There must be textile union
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