The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-20
Wage DtferentiaIs in
the South

A COUNCIL of class war was held in Biz
"A mingham. Alabama, comprising 800 Of
the leading Southern exploiters Wednes-
day. Their main consideration was to
smash the growing strike wave of South
ern coal miners for higher wages, and to
prevent this strike from spreading to other
industries against the wage di1erentials between
North and South.
The N. R. A codes and President Roosevelt
specifically legalized the wage dierentias for the
South. Southern and Northern capitalists whose
interests interlocked and interwined in textile
coal iron, railroads. use the lower wage scales of
the South to play Northern against Southern work
ers, and Negro against white There is a double
differential, both recognized by the N. R. A. First
there is the dfferentia which keeps the wages of
the Negroes in the South lower than that Of the
white workers Then there is the differential that
holds wages Of Southern workers below those of
Northern wage slaves doing exactly the same work
The purpose of the ditferentials is to keep the
standard Of living Of the whole American working
class at low level The lower the Southern capt.
talists drive the wages of the Negro worker
the cheaper is their purchase of white labor power
II the Southern and Northern bosses can keep the
diferential of the Southern workers down. they can
always drive the Northern wages towards the level
Of the Southern dferentials
1t is not the capitalist press tries to make out
purely matter Of the South The Northern textile
manufacturers are heavily interested in Southern
plants. During the years 1923-1927, $1,000 900 of
Northern textile capital migrated to the South
There they found cheap labor low living standards
which they exploited to the utmost. BY this means
they able to drive the living standards of both
Northern and Southern textile workers down to
starvation levels The N R. A. perpetuated this
method Of hitting the whole working class and try
ing to keep them divided and sectional lines
The U. S. Steel Corporation with its subsidiary
the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.. follows
the same practice. It has set up it's feudal empire
in coal steel and iron ore 1t rules over the workers
with the power of life and death. The company
towns are absolute domains of the Morgan steel
trust Here wages for miners and steel workers
doing the work as their Northern brothers is
kept down, and is egalized by Roosevelts steel
code, endorsed by the A. F. of L. officials
THE Southern coal miners, Negro and white took
up the cudgles against the diTerentials, and de-
spite their o. M. W. A leaders who work with the
bosses to enforce the slave dferentiaIs went out
on strike Fearing general coal strike throughout
the country, the N. R. A. granted both Southern
and Northern miners certain concessions on April
First The concessions still kept the diferentals in
existence But the Southern bosses, closely inter-
'oCA0O Will Wdll OGrSeJs Jne morgan steel
empire, declared war to the death against any at
tempt Of the miners to narrow or abolish the diff
terential wage.
That warfare has reached the stage Of the most
bitter and cruel terror against the Southern coal
miners and steel workers Four companies of the
national guard have been sent against the miners
One Negro miner who militantly stood his ground
on the picket line, was outrageously slaughtered by
deputy gun thugs of the Morgan steel trust
The Southern coal operators are now negotiating
with General johnson to widen the differential
The whole history Of the New Deal shows that these
southern exploters related by ties of gold to the
capitalists of Wall Street. will achieve their objective
and will get the aid Of the Roosevelt regime.
The battle of the Southern workers their mil
SAINT fight is a struggle of the whole American
workng-clsss at its weakest point If the Southern