The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-07-29
new SPEEDUP
MACHINERY TO
DRIVE WORKERS
Communists" Bosses
Main Fear
(Bp a Worker Correspondent

laws, rules ana pIONSEbSs IL4t OllS
does not go with the capitalist class.
Take the millionaire Collins and Ak
man Corp, plush and velvet trust,
real estate moguls and owners of a
dozen giant mills scattered about the
country.
Their immense holdings, bought
with the blood of workers, are con-
stantly being added to and still the
hoggish bosses are not glutted. They
lie awake at night Matching out
schemes to wiring more profits from
the toil-withered thongs and sinews
of the slaves they exploit by the
thousand.
Murder Mills.
There are five "Ca-VeP murder
mills in Philadelphia, Pa, downing
town, Pa, and parts of North Caro-
Ina. Mill GA" the main shambles
at 51st and Columbia Ave, has 400
looms and is running full blast night
snd day.
The Pay of a Coolie.
The weavers drudge in 10-hour
shifts for coolie pay. They never
get in full week, for the looms run
cut within five days and it takes the
twisters two days to set them up
again, during which time the weav-
ers have to park at home without
compensation. Lost time bilks them
cut of q weeks pay every month.
Excepting the office, there is not
a chair in the whole place. The
noise of the Gathering frames is so
great that auto horns have been in
stalled to signal straw-bosses when
they are wanted down front -
mere alarm gongs could not be
heard above the roar. Six stories
are overburdened with the weight of
heavy looms packed close together;
the top floor rolls like the deck of
ship in a running sea, but of course
the building inspector" won t
know about it until the mill caves
in some fine day.
Speedup is Ferocious.
The speedup in its most ferocious
form yields the knout here, as
slaughter pen ga" must set the pace
for the rest of the string. Two years
ago Collins and Altman lost a
million dollar contract by failing to
deliver an order of goods on time.
1t was Just a drop in the gravy, but
hey decided then and there not to
let anything slip thru their fingers
iii the future. So they put to work
corps of efficiency artists who
sliced off the Overhead" (wages) u,
doubled the work Of the slaves and
soon made up the million many
times over. In fact, the system was
such gold mine that the bosses are
now seeking ways to speed-up the
speed-up.
New Speedup Machines.
Previously there was one weaver
weaver to a frame. Even so, it took
the last ounce of energy to hold
down a Ca-Vel job, because working
q plush or velvet loom is hard labor
and unlike silk loom, it calls for
hawk-eyed watching from start to
finish. But the speed-up hounds re-
Gently designed device which stops
the loom automatically when a
bobbin goes dead; this, they claim,
gives the serfs a lot of spare time
in which to play around and going
on the assumption that the "devir'
will find work for eide" hands to
do if the bosses don't; the workers
are being forced to operate two
frames apiece, and at the old rate of
nay. This cute invention has al
ready chased a third of the Collins
and Altman weavers into the soup
line.
A few corners of Mill GA" have
not yet been rationalized. However,
ne management hopes to have all
the weavers running two looms be-
fore the summer is up.
A Spontaneous Strike.
When they first began foisting
this bloody scheme on the workers
The bosses met some unlocked fol
Observation-Disclosures against them
broke out in spontaneous strike or
one floor of the mill only a short
while back. Looms were shut down
and a committee sent to the chief
erinp's private office with demands
for either complete abolition of the
speed-up or double pay for double
work. The spokesman pointed out
nat in spite of the automatic stop
per each weaver was doing the work
# two men, no automatic loom
tender having been invented.
The strike petered out for want OF
leadership, but not before throwing
2 scare into the exploiters. Night
mares in which million-dollar con-
tracts went winging away, troubled
their swinish slumbers.
One straw-boss was heard tc
whine. cts shame you plush
wcavers should belly-ache about
working one pair of frames when
silk workers are glad to tend a
dozen" He also admitted, privately
that he didn't know which way the
firm would turn with a real organ
lied strike on its hands. What the
bosses are especially afraid of is
that TIE m-moon-ists," in the
Pulse Of the National Textile Work
ers Union, will get a foothold in
their favorite profit-grinder.
Bosses Afraid.