The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-08
BY MARGUERITE YOUNG

"Scratch-House News" a
single-sheet, mimeographed
newspaper, appeared on the
Baltimore waterfront in Sep
TENDER, 1882. 1t was dis
free by the Waterfront r.
Council. Typical Of its
contents were two items in its first
issue:
ANIMALS MAIN SEAMEN
Several seamen tried 10 sleep
in Brother WOlfe's House of Hor-
rOrs IA waterfront missiOn), hut
slumber they could not. They
had no more than lay down
when they were attacked by
ferOcious bedhugs, cruns and I'M
known animals. Those who man
aged to escape unharmed went
down and demanded that the
Reverend boil the joint up to
make it fit for human beings. A
committee visited the Reverend
the next day, but to no avail. So
the committee went to the Board
of Health with the damning evil
dence, including some of the hog
wash called stew in a bottle. A
Board of Health inspector was
down to the mission before the
committee got back. Wolfe ex-
planned that they were just sea-
men who were dissatisfied with
his dump, and the inspector beat
it. 1t appears that the bedbugs
have increased in size since then.
Maybe this explains where all the
truckloads of grub goes to, be-
cause it's not on the table and it's
einch it don't evaporate."
DOUBLE WORK, HALF PAY!
1.-THE Williams Line, that makes
piles of SIS in intercOsstal trade,
have devised a scheme to rob a
few more niekels from the sea-
men. The S. S. WillmOtO, one of
the floating prisons of this COM
pany, called up the U. S. Ship
ping Board for a man capable of
performing the feat of doing o. S.
Ordinary seaman) and meSsbOy's
work combined for the staggering
sum of $3.50 per month. They
succeeded in getting a man. This
shows what the shipowners want.
Instead of two-watch system,
they intend to hand the seamen
one-watch system. You sign on,
go on watch, stay on watch until
you sign off. One trip, one watch.
On the beach, starvation. misery
and death. The Dollars, Munsons,
and all the shipowners will not
stop at anything in their greed for
profits. Seamen can make these
shipowners come across with bet
ter conditions by organizing and
fighting! JOIN THE MARINE
WORKERS IND RIAL
UNIONw
Thus proletarians' pens scratched
out the battle-ground of acute, i'm
mediate needs on which the heroic
fight for workers control of unem-
relief developed. 1t took
a year and dramatic strike to rally
the unemployed seamen ION the
beach" but once they modified. it
was for militant class struggle.
With continual collective exposure
of corruption. drawing their ranks
ever closer through demonstrations
and strikes-this is how they won.
A Marine Workers Industrial
League was organized here in 1929,
and converted into branch of the
M. w. I. U. in the summer of 1880.
A Waterfront Unemployment Coun-
Gil was organized in 1881. Member
ship was small. AS a seaman re-
lated, you could talk organization,
but that was all. You couldn't con-
vince anybody the others would
stick" The national strike, which
was lost in 1921 under the leader
ship of the A. r. of L. International
Union, was still a fresh
and so was that of the big
1923 strike led by the I. w. w.
But the need for organized re-
sistance became acute. After 1929,
the average wages of S6250 per
month dwindled to $40 to $50. On
coastwise vessels the two-wstch
the three-watch system.
The Munson Line began to hold
back wages. More and more sea-
men piled onto "the beach" as big
lines merged; and naturalization
and speed-up appeared all along the
line, until it wasn't rare for mess
room meals to be replaced by feed
ing in the foc-sle. The unemployed