The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-06

NSdfSu Ill q w dSIlllAS OOlA ulo-
patch to the Baltimore Afro
American.
The paper reports discovery
of secret documents in Washington
insisting upon still lower wages for
Negro workers, and a letter from
Dr.. Motion endorsing the demand of
the Southland Manufacturing Co.
of Montgomery, Ala, for an MIRA.
code differential based on race,
with lower wage payments for its
Negro employees. The Southland
bosses had asked for further ex-
tension Of relief" at the expense
OF its already underpaid Negro
workers. Motion in his letter de-
clared: II am convinced that the
management is making an honest
effort to conform to the N. R. A..
code IN the industry"
Paper Attempts to Whitewash
Motion
The Afro-American which pub
fishes these sensational revelations,
attempts to whitewaSh Motion with
the statement ut is felt by many
that DR.. Motion was an unwilling
aide to q scheme aimed at defraud-
ing thousands of workers through
out the South of their rightful
earnings" Thus the Afro-A meri-
can gives indirect support to the
very conditions against which it
raves.
The Southland Manufacturing Co.
employs some 300 women, and
wanted to pay its Negro workers SO
week instead of the $40 wage
specified in the code as a minimum,
but which in actual practice has
become the average wage.
Manufacturer Calls for Sub
Normal" Code for Negroes
Among the secret documents re-
ported by the Afro American is one
from j. F. Ames, owner of factories
In Selma, Ala, and Cleveland, Ohio,
urging the manufacturers, North
and South, to stick together in
their insistence upon lower wages
for Negro workers. Anes calls for
a "sub-nornal" code for all Negro
workers, on the grounds that since
they have been kept at the bottom
of capitalist society they should be
forced down into still deeper mis-
cry, or, as he chauvinistically puts
it, since they are at the bottom of
worthwhile accomplishment in the
affairs of the world since the be-
ginning of time"
Ames has circularized other man
ufacturers with many letters SLAM
dering the Negro workers and their
capacity for equal performance OF
work. One such letter declares
that unfortunately, the African
Negro must be placed very low in
the scale of intelligence" It sets
forth purported figures from the
q. s. War Department Intelligence
tests taken during the war, in an
attempt to prove Negroes inferior
Admits and Endorses Boss Discrim-
ination Policy
Another of his circular letters ad-
mits and endorses the general dis
elimination practiced by capitalist
enterprises against Negro workers
declaring:
TT Is an established fact over
the entire nation that, generally,
colored man or woman should
be and is paid less than a white
man or woman, the reason being
that their performance, respon-
sfbility and capability are less.
This fact has been established
since the beginning of time" he
declares in his bumptious ignor-
ance, concluding with call to
his fellow bosses to further force
down the standard of living of
the Negro masses as a capitalist
way out Of the crisis: "At a crisis
iike we are passing through, 1t
certainly will prove disastrous 10
fan TO consider what this means"
He proposes wage of $3.50 for
40-hour week for Negroes in the