The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-27
MERCHANT SHIPS
READY FOR WAR
How Imperialist Firms
Exploit All Workers
Continued from Page One
your dimes on the Fifth Avenue

Imperialism? Here II Is.
Then we have the Atlantic, Gulf
and West Indies Line, with 81 ships /
of ass, 1876 tonnage. 1t has &c sub
salaries, such as the Clyde Line,
the New York and Cuba Mail, the .
Ward Line Terminal and others. 1t .
owns "a per cent of a syndicate .
which controls 100000 acres of .
oil lands in Colombia, and what is
more, dear reader, its director, Ed
win ]. Berwind, pays you scab .
wages in West Virginia coal mines
and lumber camps, or fights you with
a company union on the INTERIOR
ough Rapid Transit lines right here
in little old New York.
The United Fruit Company, with
80 ships of 15S,O29 tons, viii ex-
plot you if you work as a house
boy in Jamaica hotels, as a sugar
refinery worker at Charlestown,
Massachusetts,, as a plantation
worker on their $4,000 acre conces-
sion in Panama, or as a trucker in
a wholesale fruit and produce house
in Jersey City, or as a seaman.
Which do you prefer.
Paste This In Your Hat.
You can make profits for the
owners of the Grace Line, which has
Ia steel ships on which they exploit
seamen between U. S. and Chile
] and Peru, not only by shipping as
a seaman, but by working as min
| er in either Butte, Montana, or
Chile, or as a smelter worker or
chemical worker in New Jersey.
Take your choice, but don't ever
forget that whether you work in a
New York department store, a De-
troit auto factory, on a Fifth Ave
nue. bus or the subways, whether
you dig potatoes in Colorado or
copper in Michigan, your interests
are identical with the workers of
Latin America and the seamen who
connect you with those lands.
More Than One Imperialism.
Now it happens that American
imperialism is not the only imper-
ialism interested in Latin America,
nor in trade generally, nor in ship
ping. Great Britain intends to keep
on being great" and the two are
running full speed ahead into war
Britain is preparing, as you can
well see by the Anglo-French naval
agreement. America is preparing
by cruiser program that chal-
lenges the world. But that is not
all. The American merchant, mar
inc is being put into readiness for
war, and part of the merchant
marine are the sailors who man the
ship.
Preparing For War
In the last war "to end war"
there was too much 'chaos" to suit
the capitalists. Naval officers put
on merchantmen were too dumb for
words, didn't know what to do there.
And in spite of Andy Furuseth of
the International Seamen's Union,
who expelled men that wouldn't go
out for S85 a month when they
could get 500 for a two weeks
job one way across and ride back
free as second class passengers, the
seamen were too "unpatriotic" in
thinking of their wages and condi-
tons to be pleasing to American
capitalists. In present war prepara-
tions they are looking out for such
things.
AS a. war preparation, the Jones'
White Act was passed by congress
and is now law. Thirty-five mer-
chantmen are to be built with gov
eminent loans amounting to a sub
sidy, While they and the existing
lines carrying mail to be put under .
control of the U. S. navy.
The Naval Reserve.
This is the U. S. Naval Reserve,
now skeleton organization of po-
tential officers. The Jones' White !
law provides that American ships
carrying mail, must fly the Naval
Reserve flag and have so per cent .
of the crew as members Of the Ma
val Reserve. Rich subsidies for .
mail carrying ships pay the COM
panies to do it. The companies will .
prefer officers who are members of /.
the reserve, and as a naval officer /
in war time can scarcely make a
civilian crew carry out naval orders /
without the navy has some definite /
control over the men, it naturally .
forces the common seamen also into
the Naval Reserve.
Even in time of peace, the sea-
men will be faced, if they strike,
with the claim that they are fight |
ing the navy and the government. .
In time of war, if the companies .
wish, they can say that they can
not pay the wages demanded and
may force the seamen to work for !
$40 month as members of the U. |
S. navy.
you're In the Army Now"
OF course the law says a man
"a man." understand-can quit when
he wishes from the Naval Reserve.
But let a whole crew try it out in
war time and see how many con-
spiracy charges can be framed up
against them.
The only way the men can buck
this game is by organization That
10 tba hior tbipo 70 oipr Tho eoo,c,on