22 Wage Cuts During April Are Reported
22 Wage Cuts During April Are Reported Number of Increases During Month Drops To 32??”Slump Found Most Serious In History rfHE great stock market panic J_ gad industrial depression...
...A bill sponsored by the Women's Trade Union League to insure Saturday half - holiday for women was adopted...
...Vivian Garth of Chicago and August D&nielsson...
...and set forth^Ln a bulletin of the State Federation of Labor issued August 31, 1929...
...What has added bitterness to the :v::is3s struggle is thj cooperation ort'.veea the Lewis provisional uncn with the op-arators...
...Graduate directors: Mary Gof, White Goods Workers Union...
...Many workers during labor disputes," he said, "get sentences of over a year which land.them into the penitentiary, and yet we know they are not criminals...
...Miners of ten large -trip mines have elected a comTiittes of eleven to present this j jriavance to the operators...
...Autos slumped *5...
...Germer and other union officials are going ahead with their organization campaign in Ohio...
...Legislature Scorned Bills Of N. Y. Labor Check-up Shows Small Concessions Given to Demands of State Federation of Labor By Herbert A. Merrill iJftw tnssaoo CsriispsssssinO ALBANY...
...The bill also requires 'applicants not to haVe been in the penitentiay for ten years prior to application...
...Except those from unorganized centers, they are all trade union members...
...On Water Power (4) "Amending state anti-monopoly law by inserting the declaration that 'the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce' within the meaning of the law...
...One difference, however, should be noted," says the Labor Bureau' _the drop was much faster this time than at any of the others...
...This measure provides for $9 as maximum relief, a 65 age limit for both men and women, and requires American citizenship and residence in the country 20 years and in the state 15 years immediately preceding date of application...
...An admisV n t L 2 5 C e D t 3 w i U 1 x 5 c h a r S e < 3 proceeds going to Labor Ag' e the Socialist Sunday Schools * ***' York...
...We gns assuming, in saying this, that tbs bottom has already been reached and that we are on the upgrade, or at least that things wQl get no worse...
...The meeting had been scheduled to be held in the auditorium of the High School but the authorities learning that cars of Lewis men were to come from Franklin County, where Adolph Germer was assaulted a few weeks ago permission for the use of the auditorium was revoked...
...Fred Cederholm of Bridgeport member of the Conference for Progressive Political Labor Action, cited the clause denying pensions to those having served a penitentiary sentence as practically excluding the best and most unselfish workers in the ranks of organized labor...
...Nothing done by Legislature, but lump sum appropriated for Labor Department may enable a few more inspectors to be put on, or may not...
...Ohio Districts Join with New Miners' Union Lewis Forces Try Repression In Ohio, Illinois and Kansas...
...Arturo GiovanitU, labor poet and president of the Italian Chamber of Labor...
...In District 14, Kansas, Alexander Howat, president of the re- . jrganized union, and Henry Allai...
...Item by item, these economists Jaye gone over the indices to inaptria] activity...
...At the Brookwood Labor College annuel meeting, J. C. Kennedy, director of studies, was elected to the board of directors by the faculty group...
...This is the conejusion to be gained from the careful analysis of the current "Hoover prosperity'- by the economists of Libor Bureau...
...In Kansas the John L Lewis faction appears to be working through the operators by having miners sign "allegiance slips" In order to obtain work...
...The parade and hooting followed...
...Bright and Cannon to Debate A. F. L. Policies The policies and tactics of the **?«rican Federation of Labor will E g subject of a debate between r*Ph D. Cannon of the InteraaBJJJ Jewelry Workers Union and T'aard Bright, business manager * U b o r Age, at the People's ~*j*e Auditorium, 7 East 15th ***t Friday evening...
...In (jje accumulation of stocks...
...Paul Douglas of the economics department, Swarthmore College...
...Kansas min???r3 r;m2m"oer that this'"loyalty" -p.rne was prayed by Lewis and...
...Allai got mired in a bog by | saying that Howat was afraid to pull a strike...
...they had no class pins and wove no daisy chains, they worried over no final exams and hoisted no mules onto the roof of the dean's house by way of expressing their sorrow at leaving school...
...Shorter Work Week (12) "Enactments of amendments to ?«er?«?«Tmg compromise 48 hour-week law for employed women and minora (interpreted by court decision-to mean from 49 H to 52 hours a week) so as to establish a genuine 48 hour-a-week law as recommended by Governor Roosevelt" This proposal rejected...
...Faculty directors: A. J. Muste, Josephine Colby, Dave Saposs, Clinton J. Golden and J. C. Kennedy...
...Refrejshjnerjts Will be served...
...Wages of factory workers dropP*d 4% between April of last year ?»?«1 this year...
...In Ohio a meeting of the new union was prevented by its opponents...
...Against 66, 64, and 116 increases granted in the first three inorrths of 1930, April limped in vim but 32...
...A. J. Kennedy of the Amalgamated Lithographers and member of the Brookwood board of directors...
...Martin F. Plunkett of the state Socialist party condemned the measure as one which tries to exclude as many workers as possible...
...State and district judges and United States Senators...
...August Claes::ns and Louis Weldman will ad-zzs the conference...
...5) "Amending State Constitution so as to enable voters to initiate amendments by petition for immediate submission to re"eredum without intervention of Legislature...
...Conn...
...The Brookwood graduates, the eight such groups to go out from Brookwood, represent 16 trades and come from 14 states and Canada...
...chairman of the faculty, who said: "Young people who...
...If this assumption is mistaken, then the present depression may take as long to reach bottom as the previous ones, but it also may be more severe in the size of the fall...
...educational director of the International Ladies Garment Workers...
...Under the 3ld organization the wages of miners have declined to $3.60 and $5.00 per day...
...They include machinists from Detroit, Cleveland a nd Youngs town...
...8) "Increasing the number of safety inspectors employed by the State Department Labor to inspect workshops, machinery, underground and surface construction and electrical installation and power wires, so as to diminish the hazard of accidental injury to workers...
...FP...
...Wages of those who remained employed did not fall so sharply as in previous depressions since The war and unemployment may not be so acute...
...At least one graduating class in the United States got through Commencement Day without (being assured that beyond the Alps lies Italy, or that they were now embarking upon life's great adventure, fully equipped to rise high in the scale of personal success...
...Walter E. Davis also spoke...
...The delegates were optimistic, however, of final success if a united front were established...
...The conservative policy of ???anufacturers who are restricting ntput so as to avoid surplus inventories, a policy which receives sack approbation in the current filarial reviews and which is advocated as the sort of sound business strategy which will prevent ???ay acute general break in comaodity prices, is inevitably resulting in reduced earning power for fte workers...
...Wage Increases Fewer Even more ominous were the esntinued wage cuts reported to Labor Bureau in April together with a drastic decline in wage increases...
...The "aleg...
...This action and their handing out of "allegiance slips" to coaldiggers, which is denounced as the "yellow dog plan," will not help the old organization...
...The drop in jpjj^jing for example was "larger than in 1923 and in 1920-21...
...After the meeting, a miner who lad been threatened by a Lewis nan said: "I don't wonder John L. Lewis doesn't want those men to ipeak...
...and Leonard Bright will take a*^!?*t i v e P o s i t i o ?° - The debaters rVjoth Socialists who have held ;n*I0OS o f 'eacfership in the field, and are, therefore, well p S e d to present both sides of question at issue...
...Meetings have been ! arranged in other mining towns 1 md three Ohio sub-districts have applied for charters...
...Stocks bulging the wholesale warehouses and retail Reives are measured now at 158, compared with 120 last June, a rise of shout 30"o...
...Wage ???creases in the 12-month period ***re less in volume and restricted to a few isolated industries in ???ska a smaller number of work' s are normally engaged...
...The members the Youpg C'r-'.2 League ir...
...Otherwise the board is unchanged...
...textile workers from seven states: a steel worker and his wife from Warren, Ohio...
...Bills died in committee...
...Slump Found Most Serious In History rfHE great stock market panic J_ gad industrial depression of 1939-30 will go down in the armals of economics as the worst shock to jge industrial system since the -gaic of 1921-22...
...The heaviest losses ???ere felt in men's clothing, hardIre, brass, bronze and copper products, furniture, machine tools, *irU and collars, woolen, worsted ???si cotton goods factories...
...Pres...
...your committee," declares the bulletin, "recommends that our original injunction relief bill as introduced in the 1929 session be again introduced in the Legislature of 1930 as the chief legislative demand of organized labor of New York State, and that its enactment be sought in the form in which it is thus prepared...
...The graduates wore no stuffy caps and gowns...
...Discussing the wage "advances," the Labor Bureau points out that "it is inconceivable to grant a wage I Increase and yet have the individual wage earner receive a smaller pay envelope at the end of the week because of the shorter time worked...
...He pleaded for a bill that would be as inclusive as possible...
...6> "Restoration of direct primary nomination of candidates for state offices...
...Proposed Bill Debated This proposed measure drew vigorous fire from the Socialist and progressive laborites present Sec...
...There were 25 wage tats in April, to 26 in March, 23 is February and nine in January...
...Drop Came Quicker atrhe actual volume ofr departstent stores also fell at least as geverely in this depression as in any other," states the Labor Bureau...
...What labor got this year was a bill that provides that the court or judge may not enjoin a defendant "only upon such notice as the court or judge in its or his discretion may direct...
...The miners of Kan- j -as and Missouri remember that j Mowat went to jail for them In a 1 :i;j'ut against the Kansas law which jor.scripted labor for private em- ; p'.oyirs...
...Shall we, then, deny them relief...
...the-same period the number * Jobs declined 9...
...N. Y. (FP...
...Operators Aid Them SPRINGFIELD, IB...
...El) "Providing by law that any improvement of const ruction work for which public moneys are wholly or partly expended shall be subject to the eight-hour and prevailing rate of wages sections of the Labor Law...
...of tows, rhen while men and women sat.in :ars along the road and others stood expectantly by, Mercer rearid his lank form up on a hay-rick md from that eminence he preach>d the gospel of re-organization...
...set out to work in the labor movement of America have the toughest assignment in the world...
...vice president Abraham Lefkowitz of the American Federation of Teachers...
...13) "Regulation of private feecollecting employment agencies so as to end the abuse of shipping workers to points where there is no employment fitted for them, and to abolish extortionate fees and corrupt collusion with persons engaging workers temporarily...
...needle trades workers from New York, Philadelphia and Boston...
...Pleas for Fair play proved futile...
...Only paper *"d "printing, of 12 groups, reportP more jobs, and it was a fraction I ?« e per cent...
...If you belong to those in whose hearts the fire of labor idealism burns, there is a place for you in the army of labor, and at the points where the fighting will be the hardest and progress the slowest and tangible results the smallest in the years just ahead...
...The 1930 Legislature paused, and the Governor signed bill providing that all grade-crossing elimination work come under these provisions of the Labor Law...
...Make the bill something the workers can get enthusiastic ebout," he said, "and the pressure brought to bear on the politicians will straighten ouf all technicalities...
...A vigorous drive for an old age pension law was launched when about 45 delegates, representing the Connecticut State Federation of Labor, the Socialist Party, religious, fraternal, educational and social service agencies, met in Hotel Garde to discuss how to introduce this measure in the 1931 Connecticut legislature...
...metal products 16*3%, lum* 13%, textiles 9...
...Old folks with relatives legally responsible for their support are denied relief...
...In meeting t he arguments of those, who are opposed to independent political action of the workers it is important to know what the organized labor movement wanted from the 1930 State Legislature in New York and what it got There were thirteen distinct proposals in the main legislative program of the New York State Federation of Labor for 1930 as adopted in State Convention August 21, 1929...
...Westville is the location of two nines owned by the United States S.eel Corporation...
...Commenting on the "wage truce" which Pres...
...Absolutely nothing doing on this...
...Before giving up the meeting Germer and Bender agreed to share time with Lewis speakers but this offer to debate the issues was refused...
...Labor got no consideration on this proposal...
...and make you hold on in the face of opposition, misunderstanding and defeat...
...Muste's Parting Message Commencement speakers included Prof...
...10) "Restoration to municipalities of control and regulation of fares of street railways and bus companies and other public service utilities...
...aace slips" which miners are , is'i:cd to sign before getting em- ' ployraent is a method of coercing > -jsldig^ers away from tne reor- j -i-,:z;d union...
...Despite the fact that in a refer- ! endum the Kansas miners by a vote of 1,891 to 52 support the reorganized miners' union, the Kansas operators a few weeks ago dec:d?J to check eff dues for the ???'provisional" organization of Lewis...
...Editor Pail Ziegler of the Railway Clerk...
...Fight For Pensions Is Organized Bill to Be Presented to State Legislature Discussed at New Haven Session NEW HAVEN, Conn...
...nobody knows because there are no comprehensive figures...
...a longshoreman from,, Houston, and a laundry worker from Seattle...
...7) "State owership and development, of public waters and energy therefrom, and distribution of produced electric light, heat^ ?.nd power to hemes, farms and workshops at cost" This truly "Socialist" proposal was only considered to the extent of creating a commission to investigate and recommend a plan for the development of the power resources of the St...
...i George Mercer and Peter Agnessen had, been invited by board | nember Peter Markunos to speak n Westville...
...In Illinois a panic-stricken hall proprietor refused to open his hall for a meeting of the new union at Westville...
...curators when Howat and -r^sy went ttT jail Tor fighting tlis Kansas indus.-ia: .-oaScription law aaariy tan years ago...
...which hovers can't buy because they have v jobs...
...a carpenter, a furrier, and a radio worker from New York, and railway clerks from Boston and Montreal...
...It is believed that the rowdies were aided by the Communist National Miners' Union which has also served the conservatives in southern Illinois...
...ph Cannon will uphold the t^astive of the proposition J** the workers should support j * Present policies and tactics df j * American Federation of La...
...Despite these methods...
...head of the school, and representatives from the two classes...
...All labor got on account of this was the inclusion under the Compensation Law of four new groups of occupational diseases...
...Officials here charge that this affair was directed by Van A. Blttner and Patrick Fagan, both employed by John L Lewis...
...Having been denied access to two halls, Markunos, at :he head of 300 miners on foot and n automobiles, led the three speakers to a field that he owns on the lard road three miles out...
...George Creech, Upholstsry Workers Union...
...John P. Egan of the State Federation who was elected permanent chairman of the pension backers...
...They are telling the truth md the truth hurts him...
...Injunction Bill (1...
...A. J. Muste...
...At a speech ivliich he made there just after the j Springfield Convention, Oscar Am- i :ringer, editor of The Illinois Min- I sr, openly charged that Lewis was ;>Cing assisted in his union-wreck- I n; efforts by the steel trust inheres ts...
...To Re-Draft Measure Abraham Epstein, secretary of the American Association for Old Ag3 Security, was called upon by Chairman Egan to give his views on the proposed measure...
...Allen S. Haywood of District 12, Germer, and Frank A. Bender, president of the Ohio miners, who were to speak, decided to abandon the hall meeting...
...2) "Providing for establishing an Exclusive State Insurance Fund as the only carrier of Workmen's Compensation Insurance iu this state, except such insurance as is supplied for public employees from public funds...
...This unusual graduation took place at Brookwood Labor College when 36 industrial workers, having completed intensive one- and two-year courses in workers' education, prepared to go back to the labor movement to apply the added knowledge and training they had acquired...
...The U. S. department of labor reported a total of no less than 74 establishments cutting the wages of 13,000 workers...
...22 Wage Cuts During April Are Reported Number of Increases During Month Drops To 32...
...Epstein related from his experience what he thought can be accomplished in an initial step...
...told those present not to be too much concerned with legal technicalities...
...Lawrence River...
...He suggested modifying certain sections to make the bill more inclusive...
...Child Labor Ignored (9) "Ratification by the Legislature of trie, proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution to enable Congress to enact a national child labor law...
...an idealism not built on sickly sentimentality, but which can bind you to a caus...
...May 23...
...As you try to organize the unorganized in steel, automobiles, textiles, oil, and the electrical industries, as you promote the movement for social insurance, as you try to build a labor party, as you combat militarism "and imperialism, as you try to develop a creative labor psychology among the American workers, you will have your share in building the commonwealth of 'justice, equality and fraternity of which humanity has dreamed through the centuries...
...Drunk and half-crazed men paraded around the hall, shouting at the top of their voices...
...They are jailed because they serve the working man too well...
...Another annual proposal of labor turned down in 1930...
...Jasper McLevy, another progressive laborite...
...Hoover claimed had been agreed to by leading industrialists, tabor Bureau tabulates a Hat of 22 separate wage cuts in adustr.es ranging from building hades, lumbering, textiles to hosiery workers and steel workers...
...1 ippointed by Lewis as provisional . president, have been carrying on i i dsbate in circulars addressed to | :he miners and statements to the ! press...
...No State Legislature has committed itself to the public distribution of electricity, much less that of 1930...
...Egan announced the possible hostility of the manufacturers to any such measure...
...Brookwood Graduates 36 Workers For Work In Union Movement Maurer Again Heads Board of Directors of Labor College ??” Kennedy Joins Board By Helen G. Norton KATONAH...
...Ihe crowd was tickled with the ine fighting spirit shown by Mer:er and when Howat took his place :he applause was enthusiastic, tfowat spoke for more than an lour, outlining the policies of the lew movement, and he was folowed by Agnessen...
...Having called off the meeting of the new union the president of the Communist union took the floor and his statements were greeted with :heers...
...the current depression equals that of the disastrous postwar deflation...
...A proposed old age pension bill was presented to the delegates (or consideration by Sec...
...It is the purpose of this article to consider these thirteen proposals seriatim, setting forth each proposal in the language of the August 31st bulletin, and stating what was done in connection with the proposal by the Legislature...
...It further provided that no penalty for violation of such injunction could be imposed without trial by jury...
...It includes : Labor directors: James H. Maurer, president of board and Reading city councilman...
...This proposal, originally fathered by Samuel Gompers, and laid before the State Legislature at every session for the last 15 or 20 years, was turned down flat as usual...
...Utterly disregarded by 1930 Legislature...
...President A. J. Kennedy of the Amalgamated Lithographers...
...That undoubtedly made the shock more severe...
...This original injunction bill provided that no injunction could be granted in an industrial dispute without a hearing of both parties concerned...
...this figure is admittedly fragmentary...
...After this lively discussion a committee was appointed to redraft the proposed bill in an attempt to get a measure that could have the solid backing of all interested elements...
...It occurred in from three to five or sis months...
...Nothing doing on this...
...Germer was scheduled to speak in Ohio at a meeting in Bridgeport but the hall was invaded by rowdies...
...Nothing done...
...Workmen** Circle English Branches To Meet May 18 A general membership meeting English speaking branches will h;ld Sunday, May 18, 2 o'clock it the Rand School...
...A challenge to the graduates was thrown down by A. J. Muste...
...Vcrkmen's CTrcle Blanches have, also bean invited...
...Most of all, there is need for idealism...
...3) "Amending Workmen's Compensation Law so as to provide that all workers disabled by diseases contracted or caused by their employment shall be compensated in the same manner as if disabled by accidental injury and increasing the maximum of weekly payments to $25 in all cases...
...In Illinois, Alexander Howat...
...Fannia Cohn...
...Intelligence of high order, sound knowledge of industrial and economic conditions, energy, courage and patience are required...
...The struggle within the coal miners' ranks brought more clashes during the past ten days...
...The group is to meet again within six weeks...
Vol. 10 • May 1930 • No. 15
