The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-05
BY A. B. MAGIL

twenty thousand Chicago stock
yard workers went out on strike. 1t
was a strike against one of the
most brutal, most diabolical slavery
systems ever devised by American
capitalism. Talk about slavery.
Twenty thousand workers, most of
them foreign-born, were working
under conditions that make your
hair stand on end--12, ID, 16 hours
d day for wages as low as eight
or nine dollars a week, working in
bitter cold and oppressive heat, in
overwhelming stencil, in damp, germ
laden chambers, with rheumatism
and all sorts of fiendish pains stab
bing them all the time.
Twenty thousand of them rose in
revolt. One of the strikers was a
20-year-old youth named Fred FL
lis. He had gone to work in the
yards two years before and had
gotten job as trucker. The truck
crs transported cases of prepared
meats from the refrigerators to the
cars to be shipped to various parts
of the country. They had to keep
constantly on the run between the
refrigerators and the cars. The tenn
reraturc in the refrigerators was
5 below zere. Outside in the bitter
Chicago winter it was little better.
No coat, half-frozen, the wind lash
ing your face and-speed, speed!
In the summer it meant stepping
from 5 below zero into an oppres-
sive ninety-odd, hundreds Of times
day. If an exhausted worker slowed
up for a moment, whack would go
the stick of the straw-boss. the
worker would stagger painfully in
to the trot, the human machine
would go thru the motions again.
The average work day was IL
hours; pay 1914 cents an hour, $1.98
a day. Of course they made more.
In fact, during the busy season they
could clean up quite a pile on Sat-
urday working Is hours-whether
they wanted to or not. Get to work
in the morning. Fifteen minutes
flor breakfast, 80 minutes for lunch,
Is for supper-and 18 solid hours
| of back breaking work.
The truckers didn't kid them
selves. Each man worked on, know
ing he.couldn't last, no matter how
strong he was to start with. Every
body knew that the average work
| life of a trucker was four years. Az
ter that he was thrown OF, the gar
hage heap. Used up Next! 'se
The. Swifts and Armours never
threw any parts Of their slaughtered
animals away, ne matter how foul
end .moldy. But afinan who had sold
his life to them for few years was
thrown, away as so much garbage.
Andthsre was always finer strong,
healthy fellow to step into his. place.
| i Il s... -
TWENTY thousand of them in re-
volt in Chicago. in the year, 1905,
Thru the hot, weary months thru
seven long bitter months they fought
en-. Scabs were brought IN, paid high
wages, fed, clothed, lodged. gorged
with whiskey. The police and the
courts hearkened' to their masters
voice. Mr.. Swift might be travelling
in Europe, enjoying the old masters
in the Louvre org-the pure, golden
air Of Florence where 50 many great
men had walked. But he would break
the back OF theastrike. And mean.
while the huge, tireless stockyards
worked on as usual, feeding their
rotten, diseased meat, flesh and blood
Of animals, Of human beings to the
country. - 4 = ',,.4.'
/ The strikers were, driven back.
Many Of the scabs were retained
and go nearly everybody was put
on part time; You could starve twice
las fast now The, truckers had struck
for a raise Of from. 1874 Ito 17A
cents an hour. a month after they
returned they were cut to 1914 cents.
Five below in The refrigerators, 10
hours on Saturdays, speed, speed!
tA man lasted four years arid was
thru. Mr.. Swift bought another
old master. The air Of Florence :
ali, one can.feei the spirit Of Dante
himself alive in these streets! i.
III USED to see the sun only on. Sun.
days." Fred Ellis said to me. j.
Il Nwas % years after, in the office
q. the Daily Worker in Nav York