davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20

SlumgulIion Philosophers
By JORGE


The word, I think, you will find in Mark
Twain's 'Roughing It." and it applied to kind
of stew into which anything went that might
be swallowed. But the slumgullon of the western
pioneers is a different variety than that Of the
Bowery of today.
Someone beefed about our referring recently
to the I. B. w. A. without explaining what it
stood for. Well, it stands for slumgulhon, Bowery
slumgullion. The initials, however stand fer
international Brotherhood Welfare Association"
which is misrepresentation of the meaning Of
each of the four words
1t was founded and wet-nursed along by the
millionaire nut, James Eads Howe who like
Rockefeller distributing new dimes, went about
"doing good by intoxicating a philosophy, OF
"brotherly" submission in the minds Of the down
and-out victims of capitalism.
The I. B. w. A. was and is no organization
When any Snooth-tongued hckspitter could ingra-
tate himself in Howe's fancy, Howe would pay
the rent for some tumble-dow hall, install hia
protege as secretary" and, 10, the I. 3. w. A.
had another branch!"
There the protege would be the boss, with
credentials to bum the town and graft from tho
proceeds There, the down and-outers might
meet, flop on the floor, swap yarns OF better
days, boil their GRUMPY shirts and, later in the
same oil can, boil mulligan stew--the slumgulion
a la Bowery.
But there also, came the godawful mission
aries of righteousness, the bowling methodists
holy rollers and assorted preachers, and all the
freaks of social reform" and chloroform, with
hole and corner remedies for poverty to dis
suade the victims of the capitalists from "ugh
thoughts" of class hatred. For remember, it is
brotherhood" association, and Old Man Howe
insisted that all men were brothers" There
must be no family quarrels in society
Well Old Man Howe kicked off recently, leay-
ing $250,000 for the relief Of hoboes" And nu-
merous gutter-snipes among his secretaries" are
Ralph E. Dalton, whom we seem to recall as hav-
ing stung number of workers here in New York
in 1928 with fake employment scheme, is get
ting in the papers with news of a "hoboes con-
vention" there on March 23rd
There's to be memorial for Howe and Hobo
College And SO on But it is all reduced to
belly-crawling and snivelling charity idea. No
unemployed worker in his senses wants that.
1t Saps the fighting spirit of the down. out
worker; it Sidetracks them from class struggle
Some Of Howes Hobo College graduates have
shown up in the Unemployed Councils, but have
no business there. They are windy nessiahs Of
psychology" RELATIVELY and what not but they.
are not leaders for unemployed workers who have
the job of fighting for unemployment insurance
Along with the employed, of course. because no
worker today is secure But !. B. w. A. offers
them only the brotherhood" lie of the slumguI-
lion philosophers.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
BY WALTER WILSON.
(ArticIe No. H.

AMERICAS chain gang system and its brutal
n tiles have often been compared to other hor-.
rors torture systems and forms of Imprisonment
"Czarist Russia had its Siberia; the Balkans
has its underground nqusition; Venezuela its
torture chambers; France, its Devils Island
and America has its chain gangs" is the open
ing paragraph in recent article in radical
monthly. 1t is an apt comparison.
The "vagrancy" laws which had their origin
at the close of the American Civil War, and the
paper emancipation" of the Negroes, and which
penalize unemployed workers. are the biggest
feeders to these chain gangs When slaves were
freed" the southern ruling class was afraid
the Negroes would not accept employment readily
and at the planters terms. The laws provided
that any unemployed worker who refused job
rendered him was guilty of being vagrant,
which Is another way of saying guilty of re-
ftsing. starvation wages. The penalty for being
a vagrant is heavy fine or long sentence on
the Chain gang or to be bount out to an en-
ployer who pays the fine and court costs and
charges these up to the worker
The vagrancy laws are, just as peonage laws
and practices, a conscious effort on the part
Of southern financial lords and planters to per-
petuatc forced labor The law is used to coerce
laborers by holding the threat of prosecution and
chain gangs over them. At first aimed at Negroes
the only changes have been made to include
white workers also. Eloquent testimony to their
success is the fact that nearly every other state
In the uniqn has copied them 49,.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
''Free Fish for Unemployed"

But it didn't turn out that way Yet that is
what the capitalist papers in Rockford, Illinois,
played up every day for week 1t was just an
other Fish Report"
The papers said that fish would be seined out
of the Rock river and Kisnwaukee river and dis
tributed free to the jobless of Rockford, if the
unemployed would go out to the scene of fishing,
about Is miles from town, More that those
who came to certain place in town could get
fish by paying the small cost Of transportation.
But" says our correspondent, when the UNI
employed came down to get the fish, they were
told that they had to pay nine cents q pound
for carp and other more or less inedible fish.
Many unemployed workers walked for miles to
get something for their starving children, but
we're disappointed. They had to go back empty
handed,
The unemployed of Rockford should have
known that anything that is called "Fish" is
phoney.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
BY CARL BRADLEY

AFTER special meeting that lasted about ten
n minutes the rank and file of the Carpenters
Union Local Number 101 voted 800 to 5 against
the proposals of the union bureaucrats to place
another assessment on their low incomes, to aid
the unemployed union members.
The Trade Union Unity League issued out
special leaf1et to the workers at the meeting
that created a good sentiment. The workers
agreed with the demands 100 per cent and i'm
mediately when the meeting opened up there
was such apparent hatred for the of1cialdom that
the officers were forced to cut meeting short
especially when rank and file worker denounced
the fragrant spending of money on four business
agents when they needed only one. He said
why in the hell don't they discharge three of
the business agents that get SIS bucks a week
which would be able to feed fifteen unemployed
carpenters families
Union Politician For 20 Years Speaks
One fat union official attempted to speak on
how the employed brothers ought to help the
unemployed brothers" and shouldn't object to a
5 cent an hour tax. He was heckled so bad by
the rank and file, that he had to retreat back
into his hole. Then they proceeded to make
motion from The officials, which drew 300 vote
for it and a majority against it, but one worker
protested that the motion was not made clear
and the officials we're forced to remake the mo-
tion which drew vote of 1900 to against the
cent assessment The whole proceedings took
about ten minutes and the meeting was quickly
adjourned with the Union officials sneaking out
the back way in retreat happy over the thought
that the workers didn't kick them out of the hall.
A. F. of L. Union Officials Yellow
With only about 800 members out of its $500
membership IN Baltimore working on part time,
the Union officials tried to pass the cent assess
ment on the small working force. This would
amount to each worker for 40 hours work $500
a week and this scource of funds from those en-
ployed would amount only to $500 week and
'if all of this would be divided" among the I'M
employed carpenters, it would amount to dollar
week for the unemployed carpenter and his
family. This attempt of the officials shows very
clearly the methods they use to distract the
worker away from fighting for real unemploy-
ment insurance to be paid by the bosses The
A. F. of L. officials are yellow and too reactionary
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
AMERINGER BLOWS UP BUT
MINERS STILL FOR N. NJ. u.

the miners is exactly that no convention at all
shall be called. This idea Of calling convention
is denounced as union wrecking by the attorney
for Fishwick, in his statement announcing the
agreement and is ratified by the judge as part
of the agreement.
Stanton UNIWA local has already voted for
the convention. Music, who has had his men
Sprinkled throughout the "Reorganized UNIV"
apparatus, urged the convention call. But Adolph
Germer socialist, also in the Fishwick apparatus,
denounces the convention call. $50 says the Fed
Grated Press.
Howat has not stated his position and Far
rngton's position is not known at present Far
rington is the man expelled in 1926 from the
UNIV before the split, of course) for taking
a $4,000 bribe from the Peabody Coal Co. while
serving as president of District IL of the UNIV.
He has always been very close to Ameringer and
was often in open rebellion against Lewis. He
was readnlitted to the ''Reorganized UNIV" by
Fishwick and was Fishwck's link with the Pea
body Coal Co.
Furthermore Ameringer leaves open the road
for retreat to Fishwick. He says everything will
be all right with him if Fishwick calls the con-
vention, and he absolves the whole crowd Of
"Reorganized" officials of graft and deliberate
misleading, only charging them with betraying
the workers by going back to Lewis without "a
convention. He says. it might be that it is best
to surrender to Lewis, TUT objects to the way
it is done.
In view of the facts BLOWN, there is Suspi
ion that Amerir ger is merely acting as kind
of military pol ce for F-sfwick staying behind
in order to gather under his control those who
at first refuse to follow Fishwick back into the
Lewis camp, giving them leadership that will
hold the rebellious elements away from the
National Miners Union, and then later, bringing
them along to Lewis and FiShwick
Or it may be that Ameringer, dropped because
of the bargain with Lewis, hopes to build his
own movement to the point where he will have
to be bargained with by Ffshwick and Lewis, and
can have something to sell to Lewis and FishwicE.
On the face of it, it looks as though there
was at least for the time, new split in the
UNIV, a section refusing to return to Lewis.
But as both Lewis and the Fishwick crowd are
controlled by the coal companies. as both sell
out the workers every struggle for better con-
ditions, as both rob the miners through the
check off, it is still more true than ever before
that the National Miners Union is the only union
for the coal diggers. And this is true whatever
bargains subterranean horse trading, and splits,
real or fictitious, may go on among the grafters.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
Vagrancy and Chain Gang

One of the most typical unemployed or va
grancy laws is that of the state of Georgia:
Persons wandering or strolling about in idle
ness who are able to work and have no prop
erty to support them and do not work =. are
Migrants" The penalty for vagrancy is fixed
at not over $1,000 fine or six months ON the
chain gang, or both. The Arkansas law specifies
that Migrants must be over IA years Of age. One
or two other states have provisions exempting
unemployed strikers.
The Southern courts, especially the rural
courts, are recruiting grounds for planters and
other employers A raid and wholesale arrest
on vagrancy charges corresponds an urgent de-
mand for cheap labor. The magistrate con-
stable and other court officials get fee for ar
rests and convictions plus q bonus from the
grateful employers. This is the notorious "fee"
system which is in common use In the South for
arresting poor Negroes and whites, taking them
before petty courts where for instantaneous
or minor offenses on trumped-up charges, fines
and heavy costs are imposed which the defend
ants cannot pay and they are literally sold to
contractors manufacturers, farmers, or anybody
who needs unskilled labor and is willing to pay
the fines and court costs.
Any contention that all this is admittedly of
the past but not Of the present is easily proven
false. A prominent attorney of Texas admits
"The vagrancy laws of Texas are sufficiently
embracing to cover many people and are used
to supply cheap labor for planters and others
through fear Of prosecution When demand is
made for labor at small wages and laborers de-
cline TO accept that employment they are ar
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
INSTALLMENT 10.
Molders' Union No. 164.

WHILE Mooney was deliberately framed by
w Swanson Fickert and the labor leaders,
what did the officers of MONEYS own local
Efolders' Union No. 164-do to help him? For
over twenty eight years Mooney has been
member in good standing OF the Molders Union
During the years when he was active in its ranks
he consistently fought for the interests OF Its
members, and necessarily warned them that
machinery would destroy the value of their skill
and displace them. in industry. He urged them
to organize on broad basis and to adopt
militant stand against the attacks on their living
standards For this advice he won the enmity
not only of the employers, but also Of the reac-
tionary self seeking 'labor leaders of his union,
who used their positions in the labor movement
as stepping stones to political jobs.
1t is illuminating to know that John l. Nolan,
the most eminent member of MONEYS local. de-
clared: "I will never rest until I drive Mooney
out of the labor movement" Nolan, leading
member of the COMMITTEE of 26,' had been
militantly active but few years before making
this statement. Was it because of his connec-
ton with the Los Angeles Metal Trades Strike
Committee that he was so very anxious to ap-
pear respectable? Also enlightening is the re-
mark made by Michael j. Roach, another "emi-
nence" of Local No 1874 Mooney had just been
acquitted after standing three trials in Martinez
and one in Sacramento on charges arising from
the Electrical Workers Strike and his union ac-
tivities,. when Roach came to him, and with evil
dent glee told him that the next time they (the
corporations) get you they will throw the key
away A prophetic statement.
Why did Mooney incur the strong enmity OF
men such as John /. Nolan and Michael j..
Roach? Because he was rapidly becoming so
respected by his fellow craftsmen that in time
he would have exposed and defeated all these
misleaders of the workers In 1872 in spite Of
bitter opposition, he was elected as a delegate
from his local to the Convention Of the Inter-
national Molders' Union held in Milwaukee.
After the convention he inspected all the large
industrial plants in the East and made careful
and comprehensive study Of conditions they
affected the molders. Upon his return to San
Francisco he made report to the membership
of his local, and declared that on the basis of
knowledge gained from observation "the increas-
ing use of machinery in all the large plants in
the East was effceting an industrial revolution
in the trade" He also made strong plea for
reorganization Of the union on industrial lines
as opposed to its narrow craft forms. OF course
such report did not please the leaders Of
his ulion-they branded him a calamity
bowler"
Fifteen years later, in 1927, when Mooney had
already been in San Quentin eleven years, Pres
ident Keough OF the International Molders'
Union addressed Local No. 1874 and declared
among other things that machinery was making
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
BY YERN SMITH.

TT anaesrs all is not well in the "Reorgani8ed
4 United Mine Workers of America" now just
the IJAfWA once more When the majority Of
the group that has been leading the "Reorgan-
ization" section which in practice was only the
Illinois district of the old UNIV, decided to go
back in the old organization and recognize
Lewis as international president, part of the
price expected by Lewis seems to have been that
oscar Ameringer, for years the editor OF the Of
ficiaI organ of District u should be dropped as
excess baggage.
Oscar edits the American Miner" previously
the Illinois Miner" on a contract from district
IL, later from the "Reorganized UNIV" on Stip-
ulation that it be paid for by the union and
printed in his big printing shop in Oklahoma
City.
Crooked As They Are Stupid"
The March ii issue of the American Miner
turns its whole front page into an editorial state
nleut; signed by Ameringer himself, simply
bowling bloody murder against the retreat back
into the Lewis camp. He renlrakes that ga
little bird tells him that this is the final issue
of the American Miner, and states casually L
am thoroughly convinced that John L. Lewis
and his indianapolis satraps are the most in
competent niucompoops that ever occupied
union office. and that they are as crooked as
they are stupid"
flybody thinking this is strong language may
read back numbers Of the American dllinois)
Min n, published after the Lewis FishWick break
last year, and see what he has been calling Lewis
and Go. Only, then he called him CRATER,
scallawag, a vote stealer, car, union wreck
err, etc. all with the consent and approval OF
Fishwick. Harrington Germer, Howat and Music.
leaders Of the ''Reorganized UNIV" Now he
attacks him in the face Of orders, which he
quotes, coming from Fishwick, and telling him
not to say anything rejecting discredit in any
way on the officers of the international Union"
chat means Lewis and Coz.
His Own Paper.
Furthermore, Ameringer declares new paper.
a national weekly, is now to be issued, called
1.-THE Oklahoma Weekly Leader with Aneringer
as editor and owner, and he calls on all miners
to transfer their allegiance to it. This is oppo-
sitio, Of its sort, to whatever publication Fish
wick puts out.
And still more, Ameringer calls for conyen-
ton of Illinois miners to take up the question
of going back to Lewis. Part of the agreement
between Fishwick and Lewis, by which, week
before last, they decided to stop fighting each
other and divide the loot they can collect from
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20

rested and convicted as warrants.
One thing to be noticed in anaIvzing SEN
fences of poor workers, especially Negroes is
the brutal severity of punishment for trivial Of
lenses. Another thing to be noticed is that the
vast majority Of those on the chain gangs are
iterate and penniless
In June, $780, Oscar Josie, DeKalb County,
Ga, Negro, was given a 20-year sentence for
stealing one ham, and Casper WRIGHT, Ashville
Negro, stole pound Of butter last July and
although he stole for his starving family, he was
given long term on the chain gang.
The effect Of the vagrancy laws in keeping
down labor costs can easily be demonstrated
For example, the rich plantation owners get to-
gether in community at the call of the agri-
cultural committee Of the Chamber of Commerce
and decide on the rate to be paid cotton pick
ers. Workers. though unemployed, refuse to ac-
cept these starvation wages. Then this happens:
Macon, Ga, Aug. 49, 1880 ASSOCIATED Press:
Macon police were continuing Saturday their
effort as a volunteer employment bureau for
middle Georgia cotton growers = ''. '}',..''ire
u. H. Stroud, Of Alma, appealed to Police
Chief Ban T. Watkins Tor 50 TO 90 unemployed
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20

Below is the tenth installmeDt of the eX-
posture Of the A. F. L. bureaucracy's intrigue to
put Mooney and Billings in prison for life and
TO keep them there. 1t is written by Tom
Mooney himself. In the ninth instaliment'
Mooney gave an account of the treaeherous
role of Mike Casey of the Teamsters' Union
machine, and told how long list of A. #. L.
union officials fought to save Prosecutor Fickert
from recall in 1917. Now read on, MONEYS
exposure of what bis own unions leaders did
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-20
Why Kill EN-?

Since Mr. Mulrooney has been so kind as tc
furnish information to the Cuban police about
some supposed Moscow agent (who turned Sut
to be something like Seventh Day Adventist
preacher but who got pinched just the same)
he should learn something from Machado, the
former calf-thdef and present dictator.
Machado recently got bright idea. To stoI
Cuban women from taking part in demonstra
tons against his dictatorship, he collected &
choice lot of the huskiest and most venal of pros
titutes from the Women's prison of Guanabacos
and set them up in the gangster business. The
appeared on the scene Of demonstration AM
tore the clothes entirely of some women de
constructors
So far so good, Mulrooney may say, an6
wasteful N. Y. police habit of merely gra
off of prostitutes and strangling to death
who protest should be reformed and they s.
furnish by-product as in Havana But
fast, old timer.
1t seems that the gentle ladies OF the I,
Glass OF Cuba, for there even large chunks OF
native capitalists are "agin the government
though too weak to defend themselves from tn
"furies" of the lower depths and strenuously OF
jecting to being undressed in public, had SON
friends
These friends arranged a little demonstrate
for ladies only" but attending in ladies clotht
were number of brutal males, students, wi
met the attack of Machado's female gangsteT
who are the Cuban presidents best bet in "ul
holding the fair name Of the country" a.
handed out several generous beatings, with
pecial attention to the leading lady, dsn.c-
going by the name Of "Celestina Mango Macht
This is lesson No. for Mulrooney. The Sc
ond will come If necessary when any Celestin
show up, for they will find that the working FL
and women will make chop suey Of the ladi
and chase the. police who bring them arour
Selah!