The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-07-18
BY X. TINEYA.


THE world war, the tragedy of the
toilers hitherto unparalleled in
the history of humanity, lasted four
years. For four years millions of
sound and healthy men and youths
stood at the front and there met
their death, whilst other hundreds
of millions suffered misery and
starvation. Whole provinces and
towns were reduced to ruins, were
devastated. Millions of refugees
women and children-were driven
from one fi5<lt to the other. Mis-
cry, starvation, sickness and death
prevailed among the population.
Millions of men and youths in
the factories were replaced by
women and children, who toiled
from morning till night, for IL and
IA hours, inhaling the poison-laden
air of TINT. and poison gas and in
return received a miserable wage
which barely sufficed to keep them
from starving. In order not to be
suspected of treason they had to
put up with all the hardships of
factory life, otherwise they were
threatened with hunger, arrest,
prison, summary courts, etc.
Describe War Industries.
A German working woman de-
scribed in die Kampferin" of
March Is, 1882, her experiences in
the war as follows:
During the war of 1914-1918 I
worked in the Leverkusen factory,
in a workshop where picric acid was
produced. We all of us had in
ternal troubles of some sort or
other. The picrate dust ate into
our clothes and our skin so that we
were as yellow as canaries. Acct
dents were daily occurrence"
Another working woman reports:
During the war years I worked
in factory No. 1856. We worked
from in the morning to in the
evening and earned so to 80 marks
a week. We had to work in gas
masks and dare not take them off
while we were in the factory, for
a poison gas was being produced
which was invisible but exceedingly
virulent. Gases of gas poisoning
were frequent. Accidents we're an
everyday occurrence and no one
could ascertain how many victims
there were. The factory fire bril-
gade were always standing ready in
order to carry out injured working
women. New working women were
engaged every day, and this gave us
some means of judging how many
victims the production of poison
gas demanded.
II shall never forget one fright
full incident. A container had been
filled with gas, when suddenly a
rubber tube broke and in an in
slant the poison gas spread over
an area some hundreds of meters
wide. We who were in gas masks
Immediately fastened to help the
women who were without gas
masks. The victims lay there in
convulsions-it was terrible sight.
We helped to remove the injured,
but then received a reprimand from
our foremen; it was no concern of
ours, we ought to have gone on
with our work.
1--WE received each day half a
itre of milk, which usually had al
ready turned sour. At that time
not even babies received any milk.
"Those workers who were killed
by the poison gas had a cross put
over their graves as a token of a
grateful country's thanks"
She concludes:
mot gramme of poison gas, not
a gramme of explosives for new
war! Hands off the Soviet Union
and China!"
Textile Mill Becomes War Machine.
Another working woman in zwic-
hau reported in the same paper:
TN 1914 I worked in a spinning
mill, where all the men had been
called up to the army, After a