The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-20
The House that Bananas Built:
Wall Streets Fruit Empire

JOKeQ ABOUT IN LnlS country.
The little group of Boston and
Wall Street parasites who make up
United Fruit, dominate an area of
almost three and half million acres
which the company owns or leases
in Caribbean countries. The COM
pany also owns over 81 million worth
Of equipment; hundreds OF miles of
telephone and railway lines; and the
Great White Fleet" OF 100 ships.
Nearly 10000 agricultural laborers
ere employed by the United Fruit in
Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia,
Costa Rica and several other coun-
tries bordering on the Caribbean.
About half these workers are Ne
groes who have been imported chief
ly from Jamaica. Both Negroes and
whites are forced TO live in filthy
barracks consisting Of six or eight
rooms, each room housing an entire
family. Company stores keep the
workers in debt Just as coal miners
in typical Pennsylvania company
town are bled dry.
Dividends Of s3O,O60,0OO Dur ng Crisis
Even during pre-crisis years the
company paid wages as low as $l12
for a 12-hour day clearing dense
forests. For freeing and pruning,
workers were paid at the rate Of
about 10 cents a day on piece work.
But since 1929, wages have been
slashed as much as so per cent! The
author quotes a recently returned
student who told Of 81 week being
paid to Costa Ricah peasants.
No wonder then that United Fruit
could report profits of 100000 for
the first nine months Of the current
year - nearly $5,oo09o0 more than
for the corresponding 1882 period.
And dividends paid stockholders dur
ing the three crisis years, 1930-32
amounted to over $3o,000,o0O
Not only does Omitted Fruit do
inmate the working hours Of its en-
ployees. It controls governments,
churches, politics, in these countries
And such control is nowhere more
clearly apparent than in the brutal
suppression of strikes and revolts of
laborers who struggle against intol-
cradle conditions. Such a strike oc-
Cured in Colombia in 1928, when
about 1000 were nlassacred with the
assistance of the government which
had declared martial law at the re-
quest of the American concern.
And in Honduras, where the most
important struggles Have taken place
President Collindres sent troops to
crush strike early In 1892 against
20 per cent and rs. per cent wage
cuts. Other revolts are recorded by
Monies, and the fact that the United
States State Department too is at the
beck and call of such imperialist ex-
ploiterS.
Such a pamphlet, brilliantly illus
trated and popularity written, should
be of the GREATEST value in the cam
paign to enlighten workers in the
United States concerning the condi-
lions of their fellow workers in
countries under Wall Street rule
Workers in these countries have
shown political aleftnass in following
the struggles of U, S, labor. But the
latter have been generally ignorant
of the anti-impeFislist struggles in
the Caribbean. Now, when the focus
is on Cuba where, incidentally
United Fruit also has wide holdings
such a pamphlet as this is most
timely. It should be distributed not
only by every single John Reed Club
and all Anti-Imperialist League
branches. 1t should be best seller
at every mass meeting and confer
ence where workers are gathered
Buy a copy and see for yourself II
this is not the most appealing PAM
phlet yet issued in the effective In
ternational series.