davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Arkansas Miners
Robbed Of Wages
Families Starving and
Desperate
(By a Worker Correspondent)


FORT SMITH, Ark.-The miners
are in a terrible condition out here
in Arkansas. They are not living
they are merely existing. They have
had very little work in over a year.
Those who are working get only a
couple of days work week at So to
81 a day.
Then the miners are robbed of
some Of their pay by fellow by
the name of Bob Young, who has
the contract of putting the coal on
top. This Bob Young is notorious
out here as union buster and has
done the miners more dirt than any,
body in town.
The miners are now paying dear
for listening to the hot air the bosses
and their agents peddled about ere
turning prosperity" I just met a
miner who told me he had nothing
for himself and his family to eat
for two day s. A miners wife, des-
perate from starvation, rushed into
q store and seized q sack Of flour.
and bucket Of lard. She looked
SO determined that the merchant was
afraid to try to stop her.
The Arkansas miners will have to
do like the. miners in Pennsylvarsa
are doing-that is, line up with the
National Miners Union and strike
against starvation.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Cannery Wages Down
Is Per Cent in Calf.
(By a Worker Correspondent

NILES, Cal.-Schuch cannery
here employs about $50 workers now.
Most of the workers are town peo-
pie and poor small farmers wives
and daughters-some mere children.
S1.50 Day.
We are canning apricots now and
after 3 weeks the cannery will close.
San Joaquin valley apricots are al
ready overripened and the growers
are rushing shipments. So we are
being rushed in turn. Our wages
average about $1.50 per day--a cut
of at least Is per cent over last year
This year less are employed here
than usually. We did not pack any
cherries at all this year, as the can
neries claim they cannot pay but
2 cents per pound for them to the
growers. In the orchards the cher
ries are rotting on the trees. Great
over-abundance has been produced
by nature, yet canned cherries sell
at the same price to the consumers.
Workers are half-starved, under
paid and shudder to think that the
canneries will close again soon.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

We've got 7 in our family to eat.
Sometimes we have black coffee and
bread, and sometimes we have nuth-
in. No dinner at ALL" Zita Lusciana,
an eleven-year-ol girl stated mat
ter-of -factly. Mine work amt so
regular" she continued.
Two children, one child laborer
of II who looks no more than 13,
are now in New York, sent by the
Pennsylvania Ohio Striking Miners
Relief Committee oget funds for
the fighting miners families.
John Pomfert, who has been working
with his father for seven months in
the coal mines loading coal, came
out on strike with the other workers
Immediately the National Miners
Union came to Kinloch. eve was
waintin' for the Union" he said, "and
as soon as organizers came, we
struck. My father and 7, we both
earned $50 in two weeks. I get $40
for two weeks work. We got to buy
all our things at the company stores.
We live in company houses, three
rooms, toilet outside, no running
water, plaster pealing off, and it
costs us Sc.
1--WE came out on Friday, and on
Saturday II miners families didn't
have nothin' to eat. When we saw
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

Most of the marchers had been up
since four o'clock picketing and pull
ing down news mines, marching sew
eral miles often to do this.
One miners wife said in a matter
os-fact way that she had gotten up
az twelve, after three hours sleep in
order to do the family washing and
ironing before going on the picket
line.
Farmers nj the neighboring dis
tricts, although hard up themselves,
when visited by local strikers relief
committees give from what little they
have. But this is not enough. In
order for the miners to get even
one decent meal a day, the workers
of the rest of tie country must rush
to their aid at once. If you still
have three meals a day, remember
that there are thousands in the coal
fields who've not had a square meal
in mony months. "Only beans-beans
and beans" as one miner expressed
it, land darn little of that" One
family for instance of eight members
had one loaf of bread and some let
tuce yesterday, nothing today, and
the prospect of nothing tomorrow
Immediate relief is the most prac-
teal way the rest of the working
class can support the coal diggers in
their heroic struggle.
Not only has the mine strike had
a tremendous effect on the steel
workers, encouraging them to con-
slider undertaking similar action, and
also on the Pennsylvania unemploy-
ed, but also the small shop-keeper
and similar elements in the local
territory are actively in sympathy
with the strike. Examples-today,
when miners wives and kids wanted
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Sidelights On the Hunger
March to Washington, Pa.

to make extra posters, Washington
shop-keepers gladly gave cardboard
boxes, ink, and shoe backing, and
use of stores for this purpose, and
helped in the work. Also, along with
steel workers families they set buck
cts of fresh water along the line of
march. Signs read, Join Us and
Fight Starvation" Food for our
Children" Negro and white miners,
unite" I'D Not Mar1g q yellow
Dog" Join the National Miners
Union"
Several Negro miners made ex-
cellent speeches. The UNIV came in
for drastic criticism. One said, when
I was kid my ma used to switch
me. But she never got to switch
me but once with any switch, be-
cause I always got hold of 'em after
wards and broke them up. Well,
Lewis and his gang gave me a ter
rible switching once. He gave all
of us. But I'll be gol-darned if he's
ever going to get chance to do 1t
again Well break him and his gang
first"
Another miner said, For a long
time I've been ready to strike against
this starvation. But I figured I could
not strike alone. Now we got a real
union to lead us, our National Miners
Union. It's up to us to win"
An Avella middle-aged man, un-
employed miner brought to the front
of the truck for the demonstrators
to see a small lad who claimed he
was sixteen but looked barely thir-
teen. Look" the miner told them,
"the coal barons turn men like me
out of the mines and put young chill
dren like this in to take our place"
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Miners Children Fight With Parents
In Strike Against Starvation

this, we went and organized Re-
lief Committee and got stuff from
the farmers. They helped us along
some"
eve haven't got many scabs in
the mines, only about so, and they,
all about 20 who're dirty rats, don't
want to work there and how These
scabs were gotten in first flOm Pitts
burgh, they were told they'd work
on the roads. But soon as they
found out they was hired for scab-
bin, they left. Then the bosses went
to Cleveland and got a carload of
'em. Told 'em they'd work on State
Construction work. About half way
they were told it was labor trouble.
The State Troopers were on each
side of the car and wouldn't let them
off. Step off this car they said,
and you'll be dead
"a scab can't go to the toilet with
out having deputy sheriff with him.
They all want to come out with us,
and when we get a strong picket
line, they'll join us. Otherwise they
are afraid of getting shot,.
my father and I, we always was
union. We never did scab.
"zita and me, we're gonna collect
money to send back home to keer
the strike going. We sure must wir
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
RED CROSS AND
S. P. UNITE TO
FOOL WORKERS
Offer Barren Land and
a Few Seed to Jobless
CBy a Worker CORRESPONDENCE

by a Worker Correspondent
Reading, Pa.
Dear Comrade:-
I want to inform you that our So.
called socialist party city admins
tration is again getting on the job to
make us believe that they are fos
us workers. They are now using thu
old City Hall for an employmenS
agency in which they had the tdey
to make the workers believe thaA
they can get jobs. But there are nd
jobs available so they turned 10 Id
to an agency to give the workers
land" on which to plant stuff, 81
exist on at the end OF the sumrneS,
The ground they are giving out Il
in Hampton Heights and the 18th
Ward. In the latter place half OF
the land is under water and tho
other half is rock. The things thai
they give the workers to plant ID a
half dozen cabbage plants, hah
dozen tomato plants which ara
three feet high and will bear very
little, and few other seed, which
are done up in big packages with
red cross all over the packages.
I would like to know whether the
socialist party and the red cross thing
that the workers can starve to death
until these lousy plants viii give
them food at the end of the sunmeg
and at that we will not be able to
have more than a week of food otIs
of it.
The workersof Reading will de-
feat the socialists because they fool
the workers, we will support the
Communist Party because they
because they fight for the WorkerS
Unemployment Insurance - That's
what we want!
The socialist party is only inter~
ested in keeping aNay the workers
from their real work of ORGANT.
ZATION. They want to be cleo.
ted and therefore they give -
gardens that mean nnAAi--
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

The bill was model one as far
as capitalistic legislature goes-but
as with all capftalistic legislation,
there was joker. Inserted in the
bill was clause permitting appren-
tees to receive less than the ninu-
mum $1,000 per week.
Since this famous piece Of Iegis-
lation has passed, girls and women
are now hired as apprentices. They
are paid as low as $500 per week,
on the pretext that they are learn
ing trade. Mexican and Negro girls
especially, suffer from this form of
hypocrisy.
This practice is carried on quite
openly. The Woolworth, Kresge,
Grand, and United five and ten cents
stores carry about half of their girls
as apprentices at $1,000 weekly, al
though girl can learn what is re-
quired from her in half an hour
Newberries does somewhat better, with
Sl4,00 a week.
$500 a Week.
Recently at Partisan Millinery Co.
it was discovered that a girl had
been in their employ for years at
$500 weekly. She was already a
skilled liner and maker, but was still
listed as an apprentice.
Practically every industry in Los
Angeles; department stores, restaur-
ants, factories, etc. have their ap-
prentices.
Sears and Roebuck not only en-
ploy apprentices but it has put them
on the stagger system in a number
of departments. In these depart
ments the girls are divided into two
forces, each working only three
days per week-at three days pay.
The force that works are made to
do the work Of the half on "vaca-
ton"
Lured TO Prostitution.
Thousands Of girls are out of
work in Los Angeles and the piu1ps
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
BY BILL DUNE.


BRIDGEPORT, Ohio, June 49,
300 miners at Big Run, 760 at two
Constanza mines and 200 at Gaylord
No. struck this morning according
to reports received at the district
headquarters of the National Min
ers Union and the District Rank and
File Strike Committee, 2 North Side
Lincoln Ave, Bridgeport, Ohio.
The Executive Committee Of the
District Rank and File Strike Com
n1ittee, elected at the meeting held in
Dtllonvale yesterday, following the
closing Of Roma Hall in Bellaire
where the meeting was scheduled by
city police and special deputy sher-
IFS, met in the district headquarters
and made plans for carrying out the
main decision of the Rank and File
Strike Committee of 100 delegates for
spreading the strike. The Executive
Committee elected the following off,
GERS: Whitney Nelson, chairman;
John Rollins, vice chairman, and
Tony Minerich, secretary.
1t selected number of Ohio and
West Virginia mines as concentration
points where literature will be dis
tributed and to which organizers will
be sent. Reports Of the members Of
the strike Executive Committee from
their mines and sections show that
in most instances where miners are
still working the miners are only
waiting to receive the strike call and
direction as to how to proceed to
organize and carry or the strike. In
q number OF mines also, as reports
showed, spontaneous strike has
been prevented only by actual ter
rorization of the miners by armed
special deputies, members of the
American Legion and other methods
of suppression. At one of the Brad
ley mines, for instance, American
Legionaires have set up machine
gun covering the approach to the
mine and are threatening the miners
with violence and even death if they
strike as they have already declared
their willingness to do.
The strike Committee Executive
declares that directly contrary to
statements in the Pittsburgh, Cleve-
land and local press to the effect that
the strike in Ohio and West Virginia
is a result of threats to the miners
made by National Miners Union or
ganizers the situation is such that
many mines have struck without a
single organizer being pres mt or a
single leaflet being distributed to the
miners and that only lack of forces
available for organization work pre-
vents the more rapid development of
the strike against starvation and
slavery in Ohio and West Virginia.
The meeting Of the rank and file
district strike committee instructed
its executive to call upon all mine
workers and their families to buy
nothing in Bellaire and st. Glars
vile and to defer payment of all bills
till after the strike since in these two
towns the breaking up of miners
meetings, the gassing of miners and
their wives and children and other
workers, the actual open declaration
of war upon the striking miners and
their leaders such as that in the Bel
laire Leader of June 10, makes it
clear that the business men of these
communities and county authorities
are supporting the starvation and
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
McKeesbort Miners Out Solid On
Strike; All Join Nat. Mine Union

elected their officers and have or
and keep the strike breakers away
from the mines.
Relief Committee Formed
ganized strike committee of rs
men who look after the picket line
We have also formed a relief COM
mittee which will look after any
striker and strikers family who are
in need Of aid.
This strike has been called to try
to get better working conditions and
wages in the mines. The average
wage under the present conditions is
from SIT to $40 for days days work
and no man can live and support
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
First TrucklOad of
Food to Miners Sent

Today the first truckIoad of
food is being shipped TO the strik-
ing miners. Now there are about
forty thousand out on strike.
With their families they number
at least one hundred thousand.
We must send them hundreds of
carloads Of food. We can only do
this If thousands of workers get
behind this program and work for
it.
The W.IR. and T.U.U.L. call
upon all workers, native and for
eign-born. Negro and white, men,
women and children together, to
rise to the solidarity-support of
the striking miners!
Send clothing to 24O E. Ninth
St.. New York. Rush funds to
District Penn. Ohio Striking Min
ers' Relief Committee, 1893 Broad
way. Room 614, New York, N. Y.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

his family on such wages.
A miner at this mine received
from 20 to rs cents per ton of coal
that is, we are given credit for this
on the company sheets. But when
we had checkweighman on the
tipple to look after our weight, these
wagons weighed from rs to IS hun
dred-weight. But now it is very sell
dom that we can get SO hundred
on the same wagon. And under pres
ent conditions the company will not
allow the miners to have the check
weighman on the tipple. Could any
one blame us miners for striking
against these starvation conditions
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
MINE BOSS PRESS
HIDES TRUTH
Worker Asks to Join
Communists
CanonSburg, Pa.
Daily Worker:

Daily Worker:
When the strike broke out here a
newspaper reporter asked me to act
as his guide and show him around
the country. The next morning I
went with him to Westland. When
the trouble began Mr. Reporter be-
gan taking snapshots. When he went
to the telephone I took his camera
and snapped a scene myself-a pic
ture of three state troopers brutally
beating 17-year-old boy. The pic
lures the reported took were all of
the miners, their wives and children
throwing rocks at the police and
fighting them. Not one Of his pic
lures showed the brutality of the
police toward the miners and their
families. The reporter was very
angry at me for taking this picture
and told me that nothing of this
kind could be turned in to his paper.
My interest in the Communist
Party up till this time had only been
my friendship with Pat Foohey, but
after thinking of Mr.. Reporters
conduct I determined to find out
why such a picture was rejected. SO
I got all the back numbers 1 could
of the Daily Worker, and now
know why the capitalists use their
press SO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS if the
people learn the truth, the power
and wealth Of the bosses will surely
and certainly be broken. I am ready
now to become a member-an &C
tive member-of the Communists
Party. "A New Comrade.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Mine Strike Spreads in
Ohio Despite Boss Terror

/ strike breaking program of the Goa,
operators and the UMWA officials.
The Strike Executive elected a spe-
cial strike relief committee from
among its members and is now pro-
ceeding to organize local relief col
lections. There is already dire need
and suffering among the miners and
their families as a result of starva-
ton wages, part time employment
and actual robbery of tonnage on
the scales by the coal operators.
Boss Press Lies.
An example of the so-called ac-
curate and impartial reporting of the
strike developments by the local cor
respondents of the Associated Press
and the local papers is seen in an
A.P. despatch carried in the Pitts
burgh Post-Gazette and Wheeling
Register this morning. Both these
news stories state that William Eos
ter, organizer of the great steel strike
in 1919-1920 and National Secretary
of the Trade Union Unity League,
who spoke at the picnic at Shady
side yesterday, was deported from
Moundsville by police and 80 Ameri-
can Legion members who had volun-
teered their services" These des-
patches also state that Bob Sivert,
District Secretary of the National
Miners Union, and Frank Borich,
National Secretary of the NNIU, were
among those deported. Neither Eos
ter, Borich, nor Sivert were in
Moundsville last night nor were they
scheduled to speak at this meeting
which had been arranged by local
workers in the Paisley mine The Or
ganizers deported by armed strike
breaking coal-operators' agents were
miners employed in Eastern Ohio
mines until the strike. Sheriff Duff
of Belmont County, according to the
Wheeling Register of Monday, June
Is, claims to have STRUCK blow at
the strike organization in Eastern
Ohio by the arrest of one Fred Sui
vaskey "alias Frank Sylvester, SO, a
Russian residing at Black Oak" A
general charge against Sulvasky ap-
pears to be that he is zone of the
undercover organizers of the strike"
This terrific blow has not yet been
felt by the rank and file strike COM
nittee of the National Miners Union
and Sheriff Duff appears to have
merely taken another step in his gen.
eral policy of arresting and intinli-
dating wherever possible all miners
who refuse any longer to accept pow
erty and serfdom at the hands of the
operators.
Not single serious act of violence
has been proved against the strik-
ers up to date in the face of the most
severe provocation by coal operators
agents and armed thugs of all de-
scriptions with meetings prohibited
and miners facing falling in the most
arbitrary fashion. The striking min
ers and their families have confined
themselves to organized protest and
picketing and few cases of neces-
sary self-defense against scabs and
armed agents of the coal-operators.
The strike committee is sending
another telegram of protest to Gov
ernor White calling his attention to
the open Indictment to violence
against strikers and organizers and
the czaristic acts of suppression of
workers meetings by city and county
authorities.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
by a Worker Correspondent
Universal, Ind.

by Worker Correspondent
Universal, Ind.
Daily Worker
There is much noise in the CAPT
talist press that there is no child
labor existing in the U. S. A. On my
return from Indianapolis, I investi-
gated and found that children are
employed there of both sexes, be-
tween the age of to 49,, picking
berries.
What is most appalling about this
is that children are collected like
rubbish in the cities in trucks and
automobiles at 1880 a. m. and 7:30
p m. they are brought back home.
The children must pay 25 cents
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Wages Slashed On
Oakland City Job
By q worker Correspondentl

tBy Worker Correspondent
OAKLAND, Sal.-We carpenters,
engineers and laborers working on
Melrose High School building are be-
ing paid 81 to 50 below daily wage
scale here. This Job is supposed to
be public Job, paying employees the
standard wage scale, yet we are being
cheated.
Complain has been sent to Oak
land school board, but we feel that
this is In line wit hsuch procedure
on all public Jobs and semi-public
jobs and the complaint means moth
ing. Only talk to bluff about work.
ers receiving standard wage scale.
Nearly all jobs in the city, the con-
tractors are violating this and when
protested the blame is bounced from
contractor to the city. city to the
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
Children Toll in Fields
Long Hours for Feev Cents

day for being taken there and back.
At the start the bosses we're gen.
erous, paying IL cents crate. When
the bosses saw they had no trouble
getting over 1000 children they cut
them to Z cents a crate. The chill
dren must take their own lunches
with them from home. A child
working there for three days, Is
hour-day made $187.
Organize.
Workers, open your eyes, don't
stand for such insults. Organize
and destroy the child slavery sys-
tenn. Establish workers and farmer
government that will safeguard the
children from such horrible slavery.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

are taking advantage of the situa-
ton. Recently scout with
smooth tongue, hanging around the
Underwood Typewriter Employment
Agency succeeded in obtaining 4
few desperate young girls for th1
brothels Of Tia Juana. The of1ciak
do nothing about this. The La
Angeles Record which poses as lib4
eral and progressive tells nothing Of
this although many workers confused
by their demogogy have written to
them complaining Of these evils.
Only the united strength of the
working class can put stop to this
form of exploitation and remedy
these evils.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20

this strike. And we're gonna help
the best way we can"
1t is determination such as this,
and the fighting spirit of the miners
that drives them onward in their
struggle against starvation. With
nothing better than "black coffee and
breat to eat" when the mines are
running, and sometimes nothin' at
ALL" the miners slogan is Better
Starve and Strike Than Work and
Starve" Rush funds to GIL Penn
Ave, Pittsburg, Pa, to help the
struggle of the miners against mis-
cradle poverty and exploitation.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-20
STEEL BOSSES
LAY OFF 100
Metal Workers Indus
trial League Grows
(By a Worker Correspondent

(By a Worker Correspondent
GARY, Ind.-The Gary Sheet
Mills laid off over 100 men from all
their shops last week.
The Metal Workers Industrial
League is growing here The work.
ers, white and Negro, are forming
strong united front and are pre-
pairing to fight the bosses. All the
workers talk to around here say
they won't starve, but will fight to
the last ditch against this starvation.