The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-05
Employers Buy Up the
ALL Official Organs

Many journals Of the Information
al Unions, with the bad example of
the American Federationist before
them, accept advertisements from
the bitterest foes of labor. Thus in
The Textile Worker, published by
the United Textile Workers, are
many advertisements of firms that
as settled policy attempt to destroy
all semblances of trade unionism in
the textile industry, among them
the Fostmann & HUFFMAN Co., Bot
any Worsted Mills, and United
Piece Dye Works, companies against
whom the great Passaic strike of
1926-27 was waged. The Textile
Worker carried their advertisements
even in the thick of the strike when
the police were clubbing the strikers
and using tear bombs against them.
Other concerns advertising in The
Textile Worker are the National
Spun Silk Co. CT New Bedford, which
hired Boston detective agency to
form a company union when the
workers tried to organize in 1920;
the Henry Doherty Silk Mills of
Paterson, one Of the biggest anti
union firms in the silk industries;
the Concordia Silk Hosiery Co., of
Philadelphia, which employed the
Sherman Detective Service to break
a strike in 1920, Dunn Worsted Mills
of Woonsocket, Housac Cotton Mills
Of North Adams, ETC., etc. Whether
these companies give their adver-
tiesments to the textile unions to
keep away union organizers, or
whether they give them in return
for past favors of this kind is not
material. In any event they are so
much bribery and their influence is
deadly.
But The advertising evil does not
reach its greatest extent in the case
of the national labor papers. Most
Of these, having established incomes
from the membership per capita
tax, do not have to rely upon the
advertising patronage of employers.
This does not save them, however,
from being reactionary, as such a
Bourbon sheet as the United Mine
Workers Journal, which carries no
advertisements, abundantly proves.
But it is the local labor papers that
suffer most from the advertising
poison. Having precarious sources of
income, they fall easy victims to the
employers. Many of them descend to
unbelievable depths of corruption
and betrayal of the workers inter-
csts in order to cater to employers.
They are malignant disease spots in
the body corporate of the working
class.
Local Labor Papers
Thus such labor papers degrade
themselves into tools of the capital
list parties and become powerful in
struments for the decentralization and
betrayal Of the workers. See how
tho Cincinnati Labor Advocate, a
typical graft paper, works the game,
as reported by local worker:
"The system employed is sim
pie. The politician is approached
before an election and told he is
down or the list for a contribution
Of say 500 or $1,000. If he doesn't
come across he is Immediately at
tackled in the columns of the Ad-
vocate. If he shakes down easily
he may be approached later for
more at regular intervals. If he
pays literally he becomes a friend
Of labor worthy of the workers
support, no matter how reaction
airy his record and policies. The
Advocate like other journals Of
its kind, was once militant for
the workers, but now it is an Or
gan of the employers"
But the richest graft of the cor
rupt labor papers is not the occa-
sional political advertisements but
the all-year advertising of mercan-
tile, manufacturing, and other COM
panies. In order to get this the dis
honest ones among labor editors
abandon the last remnant Of loyalty
to the workers. Operating this graft
has become a regular profession at
which many scores work. The ap-
proach to the employers is on an anti
red, class collaboration basis. The
present drive against the left wing
in the trade unions is a gold mine
for the labor takers. These grafters
fill their papers with violent attacks