The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-19
GIGANTIC GRAFT IN MISSISSIPPI FLOOD CONTROL
Cu2Y9ntEUentS
BY T. ]. o'FLAHERry.

THE foreign editor Of the Paris
Matin has written for the New
York Times a special article in which
he declares his admiration for the
United States tho there are a few
trifling deficiencies that detract from
the comfort of those accustomed to
being waited on by less favored in
dividuals engaged in the business of
contributing to the physical and men,
tai comfort of their betters. For in
stance, we are informed by the dis
tinguished journalist that he was
quite inconvenience while staying in
a New York hotel because instead of
being able to press a button for male
or female servants according to his
particular needs he was obliged to
telephone and go to the trouble Of de-
scribing his requirements in detail in
stead of leaving such trifling matters
to flunkeys trained in the art of read
ing the minds of guests.
NO doubt when American capitalism
~ grows little older and blooms in
to a finer flower Of civilization those
little Inconvenience will disappear.
What we are chiefly concerned with
is this editors comment on our pros
perity. A country that can give a
mason S14 day and miner only
little less is country worth fighting
for. And when the American worker
dallies thru his days pleasurable toll
if toll it may be called-he dolls up
and with his wife and family spins
out into the country in smart auto
mobile That is what the Frenchman
saw. He also noticed that nothing
prevents him (the American) from
aspiring to riches and an important
position" We agree but
WHILE it is true that in this rich
" country some of the skilled union
workers in the building trades earn
S14 day and an automobile is no
novelty to them, our visitor did not
tell us how many months out of the
working year those S14-a-day build
ing trades workers are unemployed.
But when the Times correspondent
tells us that the mine worker gets al
most as much, he is talking thru his
nose. The Jacksonville agreement
called for union wage scale of $3.50
a day for the highest category of mine
help and it is safe to assume that the
mine owners did not pay above the
scale. The fact is that many of them
threw the agreement in their waste
baskets and paid below the scale.
THAT a section of the American
workingclass shares in the pros
perity of American Imperialism is I'M
deniable. But this section is small
compared to the total workingclass
population of the country. The work.
ers in few favored trades-(favored
for the time being. They will get
their medicine later on) are petted be-
cause their employers find it pays
better to be generous since they can
afford it, than to risk greater losses
thru protractsd strikes. But it is be-
coming evident now that there will
soon be Tightening up and that the
bosses are getting ready to wreck the
last bulwarks of A. F. of L. craft
unionism in the United States. Then
the budding "aristocrats Of labor" may
have to draw in the belt, unless the
unorganized workers are organized
and the present reactionery leader
ship of the trades union is supplanted
NJ, ,.,.orr~o@rix,a loaIa,.cbi,,
IN a. recent visit to Boston saw
" enough to convince me that the
prosperity of the w6rkingclass at this
time is greatly overestimated. 1t is
true that the labor leaders in Massa-
chusetts are almost as prosperous as
they are in Chicago or New York and
if one does not see beyond the labor
leaders or even beyond skilled build
ing trades workers and printers, it is
nit strange that such short sighted
person should be awed by the appear
ance of prosperity which our capital
list editors insist is universal in the
United States. If our workingclass
population--th actually engaged in
the industrial and commercial appar-
atus Of the country--was organized
industrially and politically, then 1t
would be possible for them to secure
a greater share Of their product while
st the same time building up their
machinery with view to taking over
industry and operating it for the bene-
fit of all the socially useful and our
main job is to do that very thing.
ONE cannot possibly know how the
y workers live, simply by reading the
capitalist press. One cannot know
with any degree Of accuracy how the
workers feel about things by reading
the speeches Of the labor bankers and
Continued on Page 8,