The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-02-02


a special meeting on Communists and told us
we should run them out of town. We think
we ought to have a special meeting on picket
ing
Back in 1916 IS per cent of the workers in
the mills the largest cotton plant in the South,
were organized Then the management stepped
in and formed company union. All the work
ers were asked to vote for or against it. 1t
was very simple. Anyone who voted against it
was Immediately fired. The company called it
industrial Democracy" ct didn't know Just
what that meant" a worker said "but found
out right quick it meant Everything for the
bosses, and nothing for the workers"
In 1880 the bosses tried to make the work
ers sign yellow dog contracts, promising not to
join union.
Wage Cuts
In 1920, the workers got 40 per cent cut and
a 10 per cent cut in 1924. On February l. 1880,
they got another 10 per cent cut. bringing wages
for Negro workers down to an average of s69l
a week, and white workers from Sc to SIS week
when they worked full time. The mills are
often ON part time. Even before the last cut
the management admitted workers were getting
only Si8 week Wages we're further reduced
by weavers being locked for imperfect cloth.
fines for breakage and money being voted" out
of their pay for donations to the local Red Cross
MIA, odNdtlOIl FIIIly, lOCdI HOSplJdlS eIC
When given to these institutions. the donations
were always given nj the name of Mr.. Fitz-
gerald, never in the name of the workers. why,
we know those hospitals wouldn't care for us
without our paying the regular rate, or any
of those organizations do ANYTHING for u.s. the
workers says And we didn't want to give to
charity when we haven't enough for our own,
but it was a case of be charitable or be fired"
Although thousands of dollars have been given
by the workers to the local Red Cross the Red
Cross is stating publicly that it will give no
aid to strikers families. Money also de-
Quoted from the workers pay for the many
welfare schemes of the company union. For
small loans, the workers are asked anywhere
from 40 per cent to 500 per cent from the mill
supervisors. The U. S. Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics gives s1123 as the actual weekly earnings
of cotton mill workers of Virginia, in 1923 Wages
have gone down since then. They are about
30 per cent lower than wages in New England;
this although food. clothing and other items
are more expensive in the south.
WageS-And Salaries
1t is said that President Fitzgerald leader
in the American Cotton Manufacturers Asso-
citation. and a pillar of the church, gets a sal
airy Of $4,000 a year. The company has also
never missed regular payments of per cent on
its s75OO,OOO of preferred and 10 per cent on
its s12OO00Oo of common stock, owned by
handful of stockholders. Labor and Textiles.
Stretch-out was forced on the workers. The
company announced it in the following elegant
language: Permitting efficient operatives to
run more machines when practicable and there
by to improve their earnings" Federated Press,
Feb /. 1890 Hundreds of workers were thrown
on the streets, and those remaining speeded up
to an inhuman extent, in ore instance, a weaver
being increased to "a looms, and getting $14
week.
Piece Work
Although SIS hours is the legal working week,
Danville workers work 60, 70 and sometimes even
80 hours Most of the work is piece work.
The company owned shacks, from which the
strikers being evicted. often do rot
have running water toilets, and are flinlsily
built. The company stores charge as high as
20 per cent more for their goods than the other
stores The workers are not able to buy the
proper food and pellagra is widespread
What do Mr. German, Mr.. Mcmahon and
Mr. Green say to all this-all these conditions
which are not confined to Danville but to the
entire South, affecting 100000 textile workers?
In January, 1880, Mr. Green made speech
in Memphis Tenn, to 200 business and profess
sonal men, about which the Memphis Com
mercal Appeal leading southern daily said:
William Green, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, might be taken for the pres
ident OF a bank. the president OF a railroad,
United States senator or a good corporation
lawyer. He is the kind of person who de-
plores strikes or wak-outs and considers friction
between employer and employee result of mis-
understanding of labor conditions. Mr.. Green
made favorable impression on those who heard
him in Memphis. The policies he advocates
might have come with proprety from the pres
ident of the American Bankers Association or
the head of any group of business or profess
sional men," And Mr.. Mcmahon of the United
Textile Workers, in 1929, said: "We aren't talk
ing higher wages We aren't talking shorter
hours You can't express our detectives in those
terms We want to sit down with the mill
owners we want to take up their problems as
our problems, we want the owners, ourselves,
and the general public to sit down and diagnose
the industry's ills and seek mutually means to
| heal them" Labor and Textiles.
The National Textile Workers Union would
like to make clear to the Southern workers that
we talking higher wages and shorter hours.
| We can express our detectives in those terms
and more. We do not want to sit down with
| the mill owners, nor do we consider their prob
lens our problems. We are talking and fighting
the bosses for higher wages, shorter hours, for
equal rights for Negroes, for minimum wage of
| $40, for shorter work day, for unemployment
insurance and for equal pay for equal work.
We are talking and fighting against the stretch
out. against piece work. against overtime, against
night work for women, and against all the other
thousand and one ways that the mill bosses