The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-25
BARGE OWNERS
MEET TO BLUFF
THEIR WORKERS
Can't Carry Out Threat
To DepOrt Strikers

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To DepOrt Strikers
The Barge and Boat Owners Asso-
citation called meeting of their mem
.bers shortly after the Cullen Coal and
Fuel Co. began to terrorize its strik-
ing workers back to their jobs with
fear of deportation.
This Barge and Boat Owners Asso-
citation is strange phenomenon on
the labor horizon in so far as it APP
pears and disappears with the coming
and passing of all strikes or attempts
at organization in the ranks of the
severely exploited barge workers and
boatmen. The Barge and Boat Own
ers' Association in short exists only
for the purpose of breaking up any
effort on the part of the workers to
better their working and living eondi-
tions on the floating hell holes in
which they are imprisoned during the
period of their sporadic employment.
Cowardly Tactics.
The owners of the barges and boats
which take the cargoes of coal and
similar material between the New
Jersey and New York river and sea
ports are represented by Stevie, the
agent for one of the largest contrac-
tors in this part of the country, name
ly. Henry Steers and Co.
Now they have come together to
discuss ways and means to break up
the spirit of the suffering bargemen
and their families.
This is the latest move in the most
cowardly and filthy tactics that the
corporation heads in the industry have
as yet tried. The majority of the
workers in New York harbor thru
their foreign birth are susceptible vic
Tins to the merciless courts and the
immigration authorities.
Bluff Workers.
OF course even under the present
corrupt Tammany administration it
would be impossible to deport the
thousands of workers who are natu-
rally involved.
But the bosses take advantage Of
the fact that the workers, who are
forever tied up to their miserable
floating graveyards, never had a
chance to gain any sort Of education,
only in rare cases have been fortunate
enough to pass the reading and writ
ing stage, and cannot see thru this
blind.
Recently DR.. Poland of the Marble
Collegiate Church, after short sur
vey of the situation in which the barge
and boatmen find themselves and their
families, returned to his Fifth Ave-
nue. Cathedral and was moved to an
inspirational outburst, in which he
made the subject of the boatmen's
conditions, the theme of his sermon,
drawing an allusion to hell on earth,
etc. This same gentleman, however,
also warned the workers against the
sin Of striking for their just demands.
He painted the picture so wildly,
however, that one of his wellpaunched
congregation who happened to have
been born with the sum of $20,000,000
to his name, was moved TO see the
futility of sending ten thousand dol
lars a year to educate the heather
savages in Africa and Asia. He came
to the conclusion that there were more
heathens here.
AT another time the Ri. Rev. DIR.
Murphy came down to see for himself
whether the conditions which The
DAILY WORKER is depicting in its
columns.
He also deplored the miserable ex-
istence of the workers on their boats
and barges. In conjunction with the
honorable Mrs. Barnes of the New
York board of education he agreed
that the wages which the workers
were receiving were hardly sufficient
to keep the children of the barge mas
tiers in school for any length Of time.
Consequently the New York Board
of Education does not discipline the
children of the workers on the barges
and boats. You can picture for your
self what this indicates.
Union Shows Way.
The Independent Tidewater Boat
and Bargemen's Union advocates the
organization of the barge and boat
men into the ranks of the union.
In this way they will be able to fight
the bosses and their wiles. They will
then be able to get minimum wage
scale of 500 a month instead Of $50
or 500 month and while it is true
that this is by no means a sufficient
wage scale for the barge workers, it
would be the first step to the gaining
Of the proper working and living con-
ditions for barge and boatmen-,and
their families.