The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-21
CONTINUED from Page u

SeLLIemenC Oh QlmerenceS existing De-
tween the mill owners and the en-
ployes now on strike in the New
Jersey textile industry. Inasmuch as
you have wisely and partially de-
clared Of many occasions that a mere
living wage is not in harmony with
American traditions and ideals, but
that every worker should be guaran-
teed a saving wage to provide for old
age, misfortune, and education of off,
spring, we are assuming that you will
use your good offices to have our pro-
posals for a settlement of the strike
promptly accepted by the mill own
ers.
We desire to make the following ad-
ditional suggestions and requests:
Bar Colonel Johnson.
That A. F. H. Johnson, represent
ing the Botany Consolidated Mills, the
largest mills affected, should not be
permitted to represent the employers
in case of the acceptance of our pro-
posal for Cancellation and adjustment,
for the following reasons:
1.-The company represented by
Mr.. Johnson, as you are doubtless
aware. is owned and controlled large
ly, if not exclusively, by foreign
financiers and mill owners. This COM
pany has thirty affiliated textile mills
in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,
Czecho-Slovakia and Holland.
2.-The company represented by the
said johnson was, with three others
of those textile mills, seized by the
United States government, and during
the period of the war and for a long
time thereafter was in charge of the
alien property custodian of the United
States.
S.-We have appointed a sub-com-
mittee charged with the duty Of de-
handing an investigation from the
United States government authorities
into the circumstances under which
the present owners Of the Botany
Consolidated Mills secured the return
of the property from the alien pro-
perty custodian.
4. The said Johnson represents the
Prussianized system Of factory oper-
alton and control which is repugnant
to American industrial standards and
cannot be tolerated by respectable
American citizens.
5.-The said Johnson has repeated
ly denied the right of his workers to
a living wage and the right of col
lective bargainings, and has person
ally influenced and fostered attacks
made on the constitution rights of
free speech, free press and peaceful
assemblage, as evidenced by the fol
lowing:
He arbitrarily discharged the
entire representative committee that
waited upon him with respectful re-
quests for redress of intolerable
grievances.
Assaults Strike Pickets.
b The employees of the Botany
mills were attacked with poisonous
bombs, and men. women and chill
dren deluged with plug streams Of
water on bitter cold day, causing
intense suffering, resulting in i'll
ness and imperiled lives. Many vic
Tins of the assaults are still
confined to their beds on account OF
their brutal treatment, some OF
them suffering from gas poisoning
caused by the bombing.
1t was for the benefit Of the
mill controlled by the said Johnson.
and directly in front thereof, that
peaceful citizens, including strikers,
newspapermen, and local mer-
chants, were dubbed and beaten in
order to suppress protests against
the conditions in said Botany mills.
Raps Protective Tariff.
We also respectfully call your at
tention to the fact that this industry
is one of the most highly favored
beneficiaries of the protective tariff
system, enjoing an average rate of
7S per cent on its products. The pro-
ponents and defenders of this tariff
tell us that it was passed to protect
the wages and working conditions of
the American workers. The earnings
of an overwhelming majority Of the
workers in these mills are from $12 to
500 per week, and stoppage and IT.
regularity of employment reduce
their incomes even far below these
figures.
In consequence, We are unable to
pay our rent. We have produced the
pass books of our grocers to show that
many Of us are unable TO pay for ne
cessary food, and practically all of
us are deeply indebted to the local
merchants. Almost all Of the adult
workers have families, and on our
present wage we cannot sufficiently
clothe and feed our children to keep
them in school. In fact, hundreds Of
mothers with families are compelled
to work all night to add enough to
their husbands wages to support their
families, thus causing enforced neg
lect OF helpless children and strongly
tending to destroy the family unit.
The infant mortality rate in our