The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-10-17

'Id1lllleS JIllS tWlI1GeF DIS DeSG tIley CdIl.
Local papers have published stories,
probably coming from the cement
corporations office, stating that the
Atlas plant will operate all winter
without undergoing the usual an
nual shutdown "for repairs and
overhauling'' which takes place every
winter. No one here believes this,
however. One of the petty bosses,
also a public official who is enraged
over the wage-cut recently forced
upon him, has stated that he knows
for a fact that this is false rumor
being spread for the purpose of de-
Ceiving the workers into believing
that they will be allowed to stay on
the present schedule all winter, so
that they can more easily be tricked
into giving up q days pay to the
Community Chest Fund, After the
chest drive is completed some flimsy
excuse to justify a complete shut
down will no doubt be advanced.
Mayor Betrays Workers.
That city officials already realize
how desperate a situation they face
this winter is revealed by the fact
that for the first time since the de-
preston, a special Unemployment
Committee" has been appointed TO
make a survey and study conditions.
This committee was appointed at the
behest of Mayor Michael Degnan,
also an employee of the Atlas Cement
plant. The mayor, who has always
been ward politician, is, strange to
say, relatively poor man. His SAL
airy as mayor Of the city is only $500
per year. AS a worker he has been
a traitor to his own class. During
the latter part of 1929 and the first
part of 1880, when the greedy cor
porations of the country were bring
ing every ounce Of pressure to bear
upon their republican and democratic
tools in congress and the senate to
put through the present tariff legis-
lation, Mayor Degnan was one of the
local mouthpieces organizing public
sentiment in favor of his master, the
Atlas Cement Corporation. In this
way he traitorously assisted in rails
ing the cost of living for the already
oVerbudened workers of which he
was one.
Community Chest Fraud.
The Community Chest campaign
is a fake from beginning to end, The
funds they raise in the name of
charity will go to ten organiza-
lions, only one or two Of which make
any pretense of providing charity
There is a boys club, members of
which are composed of workers chill
dren too poor, and thus socially
tabooed, to be admitted into the Boy
Scouts. The Salvation Army, Ameri-
can Red Cross, Humane Society and
Y. w. G. A. are also beneficiaries!
Likewise a self-supporting Home for
the Aged, together with the Hebrew
Community Center and Hudson Or
phan Asylum, dip into the funds
collected in the name of charity"
The Public Health Cooperative Com
mittee will be given a paltry 500 to
care for Hudson's needy And work.
ers who receive only a bare pittance,
a starvation wage, are being urged"
(blackjacked) into giving cat least
one days pay to the chest"
A large Negro population, the most
downtrodden and needy group in the
city, is not represented in any man
ner whatever by the Community
Chest.
The only way workers here will
get any relief from starvation this
winter is by organizing all together,
Negro and white. Build strong IN
employed Councils and elect delegates
to the giant hunger march to Wash
ington, where we workers will de-
mand in no uncertain terms that the
government give the jobless unern-
ployment insurance.
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