The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-25

TIGHTEN THOUSAND beet workers are
Il striking in Colorado, fighting starvation and
slavery. In order to give an understanding OF
the conditions which faced these workers at the
time of the strike, Organizer Sanchez OF the
Agricultural Workers Industrial League has pre-
pared an article for Labor Unity the maya
zine of the Trade Union Unity League. Here are
d Jew quotations from the article:
work In the beet fields consists of hoeing and
'ocking wedding and topping. To do this work
t,ses ninety days OF backbreaking toll by each
Lsstuorker and his entire family. A beetworker
eRd his family OF four can do only from Is to
80 acres The money saved from the summers
Work is supposed to carry them through the
uCher nine months Of the year.
During 1880 the beetworker was receiving $23
81 acre, which meant the average family made
about 5000 a year Cand to fully appreciate the
c.teDt of the sugar companys exploitation of
line workers it must be remembered that this
is the wage not for one mans work but for the
york of father, mother and all the children
Gown to and years of age).
In 1881 the worker received wage-cut OF
5 per cent. This year they were cut to as low
IS So to SIS or even lower through the intro
GucCion OF all sorts of sharing" or "co-partner"
scheme. These vary in form. One provides that
the farmer pay Sc an acre for the hoeing; 81 for
the first wedding, so cents for the second Cthis
rooney to be held back by the farmer as
suaraGtee), and for the topping the worker is
to receive so cents ton. This means that if
tae acre produces tons, the beetworker will
make 0oroviding he gets his holding back')
$1O.5O per acre. The average tonnage on fertile
soil is from 10 to u tons an acre, Had the
beet workers accepted this arrangement instead
OF striking they would have received wage-cut
Of more than 40 per cent.
Contract Peonage.
THE contract system forces a sort OF credit
system which means that instead of the worker
retting money he gets note to buy in GER
tain store Here the merchant overcharges the
beetworker at his pleasure, taking advantage Of
the latter's ignorance of English and his penni-
lessness which prevents his going elsewhere.
The merchant gets first mortgage on the work
ers' wages The overcharging is shameless, not
contenting himself with so cents or dollar the
merchant sometimes adds as much as three or
four dollars to an articles ordinary price. For
example. i'll the Spanish American colony in
Greeley, a merchant sold worker 100-pound
sack OF sugar for $3.50 when elsewhere q 100
pound sack OF sugar sold for SIS. The same hap
pened with flour and all other groceries. The
farmer supplies the worker with eggs and milk
and in return charges enormous prices even to
the extent of a worker who was charged So Tor
80 eggs when eggs were selling for 20 cents a
dozen.
But this is not all After the beetworker
has shaved all summer in the field after he has
gone through hunger and misery after his chill
dren have been taken out of school to help a
little bit. after he has been oyercharged and
robbed in the most brazen way, after his kids
OF six years old have worked in the beet fields
from sunrise to sunset, IA or 16 hours, after
the hands of the poor kid are raw and bleeding
from the cold weather of the topping period he
goes to the farmer to get his final pay, the
farmer cannot pay him, because his check from
the sugar company was taken by the banker for
the mortgage on the crop. The beetworker is