The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-04-07
BY S. d. LEVINE.

DEHIND the bars of Passaic County jail at
u Paterson. n j., five textile workers, men
and / woman are being held without bail. A
murder charge is framed up against them and
if the bosses will have their way, these workers,
whose only crime is their loyalty to the work.
ing class. may face the electric chair of capt.
talist justice of the state of New Jersey.
The accused workers are charged with the
death of Max Urban, silk mill owner. Ben
jamin Lieb Kinda Gershanovitz Louis Harris,
Louis Bart and Albert Katzenbook, all of them
are active members of the National Textile
Workers Union at Paterson
The Daily Worker has already written about
this case-which appears to be another Sacco-
Vanzetti frame-up on a larger scale. 1t is not
only a question of the lives of five innocent
workers which is at stake but it is the SYSTEM
attic framing up which the capitalist class is now
setting up against the militant section of the
working class who dare to protest against I'M
bearable conditions which the bosses impose
upon them. Just a brief sketch of the workers
conditions in the city of Paterson where these
five workers were framed up. Paterson is called
the silk city. Manufacture of silk is the main
industry of the town The working conditions
in the mills are the worst in the country There
is no limit to working hours. Ten hours is con-
sidered the normal working day, but quite often
it reaches eighteen.
In the dye houses conditions are still worse
The work is very injurious to the health of the
workers The chemicals used in the dyes pene-
trates into the bodies of the workers. doing their
deadly work and thus shortening the lives of
these workers.
Wages are very low. S18 a week to $40 for
2 weeks is an average pay. The workers are
being exploited in the most inhuman way and
any attempt on their part to better their con-
ditions is being fought against bitterly by the
greedy bosses.
Paterson has seen many big strikes in the past
Many attempts have been made by the workers
to better their conditions and in all cases they
had to fight the combined forces of the mill
magnates and New Jersey Justice"
The mill bosses of Paterson have begun to use
the present economic crisis to cut wages, in
crease speed-up and lengthen the hours of labor
The A. F. of L. unions and the Music organiza-
tons are doing nothing to fight against these
conditions. They believe in class collaboration
and the bosses are quite satisfied with those
Unions The only organization that fights
against the wage cuts and organize the workers
for struggle is the National Textile Workers
Union. The N. T. w. U. is the only hope of the
exploited masses and is thorn in the eyes of
the bosses. To break this militant union so
that they can more easily carry out their wage
cuts has become the goal of the Paterson Bosses
1t seems that Max Urbans mill was the first
one chosen by the bosses to start the wage cut.
The N. T. w. U. answered with strike which
protested against the wage cut and demanded
one cent increase for the night workers The
union picketed the mill and the workers were
determined not to surrender until they won their
demands The bosses used gangsters to fight
the pickets. In spite of that picketing continued
for the workers were determined to win
On the 18th of February fight occurred near
the Urban mill in which many participated. It
was free for all fight" and the boss Urban
was wounded and one month later died
Who attacked this boss no one knows Whether
1t was the boss gangsters, or some personal ene-
mics who took advantage of the strike for re-
Venge, as some think, no one seems to know
One thing is certain, workers in Jail had nothing