The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-21
mice Fast Worker"
Of Southern Mills
Driven by Hunger
By HARVEY o'CONNOR.

CHARLOTTE, N. c., Nov. 20 (FP).
Two hundred thousand cotton mill
workers in the two Carolinas, on the
auction block as cheap labor where
formerly their Negro brothers were
bought and sold outright, are crying
out for help against a sudden on
slaught of speed-up.
Doubling up they call 1t in the
cotton mills. Every mill worker is
familiar with the practice, but never
has there been such a wave of speed
up as within the past four months.
Nor has it ever been so intensive.
Take 1t Out of Worker.
The rise in the price of cotton is
blamed Last year 10 cent meant
misery to the cotton growers and fat
profits to the mill owners. This year
20-cent cotton threatens to cut in on
mill profits unless labor can be made
to stand the difference in the price of
the raw material.
In every mill comes the same mo-
notonous story of doubling up, of old
time workers thrown on the industrial
scrap heap, to be replaced by fresh
machine fodder from the schools at
the age of 14-and under, when the
mill boss is not too squeamish about
the school law.
In the great model Lyman mill,
owned by Pacific Mills which operates
in Lawrence, Mass, speed up is max
edly visible. Scores of boys and girls
work feverishly-at piece rates-tear-
ing sheeting, folding sheets, hem
stitching them, wrapping them for
shipment.
A Perfect Slave.
mice fast worker, amt he," says
the Pacific Mill boss, pointing to a
young man who rips sheetihg into APP
propriate lengths for sheets. The
young man works like a machine,
throwing scores of yards of material
in endless motion, the ripping being
almost too fast for the eye to follow.
He makes 81 a day." the boss
boasts. Mighty good money, I'll tell
you. Yes, only the youngsters can
stand the pace that way. But there
are plenty of EN-"
In another corner of the huge room,
women work desperately on more
miles Of sheets, hemstitching for dear
life. The sheets disappear one after
another with incredible speed through
the hemstitching machine. The woman
glances at the clock. 1t is 8 o'clock.
She has been at it since q and must
stay at it until 6.
Bonus System.
Mighty good worker" says the
boss proudly, but the little woman
looks worn and frayed as she strug-
giles on through the mountain of
sheets, trying valiantly for the bonus
which Pacific Mills gives if she keeps
up to the pacemaker.
In yarn mills it is the same. In
weaving, a new system of using bat
terry filters to assist weavers makes
it possible for one man to handle 48,
so and even 70 looms. Women pace
alongside long rows of spinning
frames, on the alert for broken
threads, an endless 10, II and 12-hour
endurance test of speeded up machin-
cry against exhausted human flesh.
The machine always wins.
Ut is Pacific Mills in Lawrence
which has led the speed up race among
northern mills. AS many as 100 looms
per weaver have been used, though
the skilled weaver in such case has
two or three poorly paid boy assis-
tants. The Independent American
Federation of Textile Operatives I'M
ion attempted to fight, this system
but Pacific Mills set up company
union to put it over.)