Tobacco Workers Victims Of Ruthless and Greedy Class of Employers
Tobacco Workers Victims Of Ruthless and Greedy Class of Employers Workers Are Denied the Right to Organize, and Receive Miserably Low Wages in Sharp Contrast with Enonnowj Profits Reaped by...
...And the Reynold* is merely trie most nreifersaf which also means the most ram...
...In Gary, gas, light and water bills were paid to the same company—formerly a subsidiary of U. S. Steel .—and nonpayment of a gas bill was penalized by turning off light and water as well as gas...
...More likely is the prospect of continued parliamentary conto the reactionaries and fascists...
...trust—averaged from $6 to $10 » room, and that four families smsetimes live in a three or fourrooB -flat...
...The Communists, as was expected, will gain quite a number of seats...
...it was estimated by a Gary newspaper man that the water supply had been turned off for 5,000 families in a city of 100,000 inhabitants...
...The Corporation," the article goes on, "has no dealings with organized labor...
...aggression by Hitler Germany, and reorganization of markets and sources of raw materials in a manner which would give all nations a fair opportunity to develop economically and thus make possible elimination of one of the basic causes of war...
...Details, of .the party's proposed defense program include "military defense based.upon substantial destruction of the routes of penetration (from Germany), preponderance of defensive armaments, mobilization of all the defensive forces of the nation, limitation of the term ' of service and of the financial burden to the indispensable minimum, and nationalization of the munitions industry...
...Their prodoak are tha'finest in every division...
...Tne program has the support of the working class organizations of 15 leading countries, representing a total membership of 36,000,000...
...In countries where such coalition sad cooperation has been followed, the result has been a definite strengthening of the democratic regime and paralysis of its enemies both oa the rigjft and on the left...
...The blue print is found in the mass of facts and figures...
...government of labor, immediate radical reforme in the economic structure, provisions for wider economic development of the country aItfJnj lines designed to facilitate the social interest, and comprehensive improvements in the country's code of social legislation form part of the* first section of the program...
...How do you like that...
...election program for 1937 is being drawn up...
...That bond was a social contract that in return for the profits of managing their vast industrial empire, they would deliver to America, with interest compounded annually, a better way of life for everyone entangled with the enormous influence the Corporation would wield...
...The Workers Abroad French Elections Reveal Big Gains for Communists—Second Ballot Next Sunday Indicates Majority for People's Front — Some Preliminary Comment on the Situation...
...In 1933, they averaged about $13...
...The net figures on the first ballot show a gain of four seats for the Communists, a loss of four seats for the Radicals and a similar ioss for the Socialists...
...Nor do they intend, as the Trotskyites wanjUfaave it, to ^acinxate a Hitler victory in the event of warl by starling a civil war i°tkeir own country in the name of the phantom of "permanent _BS_L2M I*el*~* workers have not forgotten what this .policy did to BSVohitionary Russia...
...Workers Forced to Take Relief The FERA thought it wise tt peek behind these tobacco ads, anc here is a part of its report: "This study shows the situatior of the tobacco workers on relief in Virginia and North Carolina . regions...
...Employees Exceed Army "In 1935," says the article in beginning, "the United States Army had a strength of 138,000 men...
...The conference laid down a policy for the organised workers of the world providing for collective security of nations through collective action, collective resistance to an" aCRressor, democratization and strengthening of the League of Nations'as an instrument for the carrying out of this program, together with international adjustment of control of markets and the sources of raw materials as essential to the elimination of competition and friction between nations...
...The shipments to Gerroafry /were stopped during the first'two months of this year...
...Average annual ears, ings were $144...
...Wanes Miserably Law :ff "Low wages are also ah h>*psnh ant factor...
...Some day that story will be written...
...The Fortune article lists "electricians, bricklayers, wet c h men, spies, nurses, storekeepers, rent collectors —all go to make up the Corporation's immense and elastic payroll...
...The default of a social bond is likely to be, as the world has now discovered, a matter of concern just as grave as the default of a financial bond...
...National Defense in Holland In Holland, too, the Socialist Party is moving to reconsider its national defense policy in view of the war danger emanating from Hitler Germany...
...Tat labor press of America joins a*,* unit in calling upon all union menbers to aid in this struggle...
...Without manganese, of which Russia is the leading producer, it is impossible to manufacture the carmon...
...Yet in those same years, the aV J. Reynolds Tobacco Company patf $30,000,000 in dividends, not a mention a rakeoff of unknown rim to the insiders...
...The concert is sponsored by 4t Russian Fund for Writers saf Scientists...
...In 1929, steel workers were estimated to earn an average of $33 a week...
...A big year was 1920, when the Corporation had on its payroll some 267,000 workers...
...for preventing, in a thousand devious ways, that free expression of political belief that is a fundamental part of the American tradition...
...place Holland in a position to cooperate with other countries in thwarting any war adventure on tile part ef Hitler Germany...
...It would be a picture, indeed, if every huge advertisement of these non-union cigarettes should -suddenly become transparent, allowing every purchaser to see the toiling underpaid and unfree humanity from whose hands, in fields and at machines, the product Howe tc market...
...Manganese is essential in the production' of hard steels used in the making of shells, guns, etc...
...lie following points are put forward in the platform with regard to tne' organization of peace: "Preventive and pacific elimination of the economic causes of international disputes, especially by the gradual removal of obstacles to intexhatzoaal trade, the application to all colonies, under the control nf'the League of Nations, of the international free trade regime ¦ - h "is already in existence in the treaty basin of the Congo...
...Coupled with the fact that the Right and the extreme Right appear to, be the only other gainers, despite the expected slim majority for tne People's Front parties, the picture is not a very promising one...
...Trotsky, and play into .the hands of Hitler...
...They do not intend to Bit with arms folded and preach sweet non-resistance when Hitler hordes come swarming from across the ?rpnt»er...
...18 to 24 hours on tne change ef shifts...
...Socialism and democracy are the losers...
...And when the numbers were highest, the Steel Trust was working men 12 hours a day, with from...
...and other instruments of destruction whicn" Hitler has been piling up mountain high in preparation for a new war...
...Nearly half of them j were receiving relief at the same time that they were receiving wages...
...In Franee/where the Communists have been pen—itted to dominate the People's Front for their own id talis*' purposes, while the Socialists have joined with the Communist* in a united front of their own, the result is continued parliamenatry confusion and the strengthening of the reactionary right, the fascists and Communists...
...The "welfare work" of U. * Steel is accurately measured bj the comfort stations and urlnap mentioned before...
...The average weekly income, t( earnings for the 477 families ut the sample studied was $3.02...
...For the Corporation's attitude toward the problem is that there isn't any problem...
...A government which prides itself upon being so revolutionary dare not withheld from fascist Germany essential war material without which it, could not proeasewt»-l»-.fahmaamwt*ra«ram...
...3ts the reader will perceive, this proposed platform is in line with the policy of the London Conference of the Labor and Socialist International and the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...Indications are that the People's Front will come out with • majority...
...the Edison Hotel, Broadway ssl 17th St The composer himmf will participate in the concert, supported by a group of dhdp> ruished artists including Mies* Piastro, Anna Leskaya, Max Pn> teleieff, Nicholas Bereeowsky, v Gothlieb and Clarence Adler...
...Preparation* for Elections in Belgium The general council of the Belgian Labor Party, which is part of the •present - Belgian coalition government, has prepared an election platform for the coming parliamentary elections in Belgium...
...But the most revealing fact and utterance in the article, the thing which gives in a sentence the mental measure of the managers of the Steel Trust, is that those managers count the building of comfort stations and urinals as "social welfare work" Men who could do that may be expected to fall over their own feet in entering the Pearly Gates...
...and ranks high on both counts...
...Parts of it have been put on paper and some of it between covers...
...Whether or not the Socialists hold their strength on the second ballot or come out with some gains, it is already apparent that the...
...Faj households containing only o*e worker, the average was $2.35, sal for those with two or more weak, ers, the average was $4.97...
...By John Powers fVIO conclusive comment is possible this week on the elections of last * v Sunday to the French Chamber of Deputies for the reason that the detailed picture will remain uncertain and confused until after the pofond h«iw±ing to be held this coming- Sunday.__ 11m results of the first ballot proved even more meager than had been expected...
...That was some 60.000 men f<™»» than the number of people who worked for the U. S. Steel Corporation- in the . same year...
...Further comment must be reserved for next week...
...According to the official Soviet enatanm report, Soviet Russia saM.to Germany hut year 235,888 tana of manganese, as compared with 138,060 tons sold to the United Stales and 14,000 tons to Great Britain...
...principal gainers, numerically and politically, in the Left camp, are the Communists...
...Here is a weapon that every ¦*«* member can use in beating sen the resistance of one of tat nest highly entrenched divisions ef Utterly anti-union big business...
...Stalin Supplies War Material to Hitler The world was shocked to learn some time ago that for a long time Soviet Russia had supplied large quantities of oil to Mussolini for his armies in Ethiopia...
...That is taken, from the report of an investigation made in 1934...
...Only an honest coalition and cooperation of parties sincerely devoted to the defense of democracy can hope to achieve positive results...
...i Vicious Anti-Labor Policy Prevails in Steel Industry v__ Giant Trust Founded by Elder Morgan Grinds Workers by Depressing Wages and Lengthening Hours—Elaborate Espionage System Terrorizes Employees Into Submission — Welfare Work Held a Mockery—Industrial Tyranny Is Condemned...
...The Dutch Socialist Party has always been in the forefront of the struggle for peace and disarmament, "but in the face of the situation now confronting Europe the party's executive has decided to submit the following motion to the forthcoming conference of the party: "The conference points out that doubts have arisen in the party on the question whether the point in the program on national disarmament in the sense of the decision of the party conference of 1921 can be maintained unaltered...
...only 12 per cent of the single worker househole* made as much as $300...
...It is charged with depressing wages and lengthening the hours of labor, with spying upon its j workmen both inside the plants and in their homes, with debauching onions, corrupting union leaders, and with imperturbable aplomb, grinding down its workers day and night . . . constantly menacing labor organizations...
...In 1932...
...for denying free speech and the right ef assembly to its employees, ferintimidating workmen who are dissatisfied with their working conditions...
...Their total representation may be as high as 50 sod more, ss compared with 10 in the last Chamber...
...4Jnion men and women, with1* voice in determining the con* -ions under which they gw* service, make these product...
...Fortune finds all these charges justified, particularly^ the -last Electricians in the "Chicago area report that the steel trust pays their trade wages 40 per cent below the union grade...
...Welfare Work "One hundred and sixty unskilled and semi-skilled workers in Duquesne whose incomes were investigated were found to have earned an average of $868 foi 1933...
...Cable dispatches from Paris indicate that the greatest gains, when the final tabulation is made, will be by the parties of the extreme Sight and extreme Left...
...Misery Concealed Behind Ads Tobacco, exemplified in the Big Four, stood, almost as in a house apart, spreading over the land, hauling in its huge revenue...
...And the alluring, expensive advertisements tell of the wonders of Luckies...
...How the Socialists will show up in the final result remains in doubt...
...47 got less than $300...
...tne-part dealing with foreign policy declares that "the Belgian labtajl-Paifly is in favor of the defense of the country against unprorepnd.attack" and of a reorganization of national defense...
...s Bright Picture In Union Pta** The reverse side of the tobseee picture is found in the union fartories...
...We do not,' Gary wrote in his lawyer's terminology, 'confer, negotiate with or combat organized labor...
...In 1935, another inquiry was made, and here are some of the things found: "The factor most significant in bringing tobacco workers oa rami is under-employment Workers i> the families studied averaged oak 91 days' work in the year...
...Chesterfields, Old Golds and Camels, while the men and women that make them are denied the right to have unions, are shorn of every vestige of self-expression or of voice in determining the conditions under which they give service in the making of these n o n - union brands...
...They remember Brest Litovsk, from which Russia was emancipated only by the military defeat of Germany in November, 1918...
...For Communists of the Trotsky type and all Communists the workers of Belgium have a wholesome contempt...
...In the first year of its existence, the Steel Trust had 168,000 men...
...In Germany this was a very material .factor in the triumph of Hitlerism...
...On the first ballot they captured several important seats from the Socialists...
...It may be expected that the conference will approve a program of adequate defense designed to...
...A second vote must be taken on Sunday in 435 electoral districts, when those I null lug the highest vote on the first ballot and their competitors will fight if ont in a scramble for the support of those who have no chance of election...
...At present, about 196,000 men are on the company's books — but only 77,000 are working full time...
...The picture is in the writing which makes you fahrly see the steel workers coming from their unlovely homes and filling the grimy streets on their way to work...
...More kinds of men than steel workers work for U. S. Steel...
...Fortune adds that rents in Gary —which was built by the sue...
...But there remains to be written a great book which will constitute a revelation of a great phase of that peculiar American phenomenon that climaxed its fantastic structure in Coolidge prosperi tey and backfired so startingly in the Hoover era...
...Already large and influential elements of the Radicals, disturbed by the Communist gains, are taking advantage of the situation to swing their party away from the People's Front to the Centre, with the jit ujsrtiljlj **- s Right-Centre government succeeding to power, even though it may be preceded by a government or governments of the Left with Socialist participation...
...The Belgian workers, like the workers of all democratic countries, know that the issue is between freedom and fascism, and they do not intend to give ear to the mountebanks and charlatans under the leadership of the bankrupt egomaniac, Mr...
...How workable this majority will be remains to be seen...
...The Communists may hold the balance of power...
...Tobacco Workers Victims Of Ruthless and Greedy Class of Employers Workers Are Denied the Right to Organize, and Receive Miserably Low Wages in Sharp Contrast with Enonnowj Profits Reaped by Anti^Lahor Corporation*—Public Urged to Purchase Tobacco Products of Union Concerns...
...Tobacco, there it stands...
...A party like the Socialist-Party, which professes to stand for democracy and seeks the support of other democratic parties against fascist dictatorship, cannot make a united front with the Communist Party, committed to a dictatorship equally abhorrent...
...In steel towns, centralized ownership kept living expenses almost constant...
...of Labor constantly urges the parchase of union- made product...
...This in a compssy which when formed in 1899 v*s capitalized at $2,100,000, was fill to sell a majority of its stock a par, and has no record of any farther investment...
...Here it is, from a resolution passed June 17, 1901, by the Executive Committee of U. S. Steel: "We are unalterably opposed to any extension of union labor, and advise subsidiary companies to take a firm position when these1 questions come up, and say that they are not going to recognize it" Anti-Union Policies 1 But the summing up of labor's charges against steel is splendid...
...Nor can a People's Front, devoted to the liafsnp'u and preservation of democracy, permit Communists to play a leading role in the combination, as is the case in France, without serioaely injuring its own purpose...
...it was greater by some 70,000 than what remained of the oouBtry'a armed forces two years after the World War had ended...
...Labor and the International Crisis The London "Daily Herald," official organ of the British Labor Party, announces that the National Council of Labor in Great Britain has jnanimously endorsed the decisions of last month's joint conference in London of the Labor and Socialist International and the Internssjnesl federation of Trade Unions...
...Their cigarette brans* are Spud and Twenty Grand...
...At the same time, they are aware that the only hope of averting a new war is by collective organization of peace by promoting the unity of the working class, strengthening democracy in all nations, making the League of Nations a more effective instrument for the maintenance of international order, and reorganization of the world along Socialist lines...
...Above an, 'ten• organization of peace within the framework of the League of Nations, by strengthening and generalizing the system of collective secariey, and deleting from the treaties concluded since 1919 of all the germs of insecurity, injustice and wary To the extent to which the organization of peace is built up, progressivevand simultaneous disarmament under the control of the League of Nations...
...By George L. Knapp pORTUNE, the de luxe magazine which costs a dollar a throw, prints in its current issue an article on the labor policy of the United States Steel Corporation which will be long remembered and quoted—rf the Sted Corporation lasts...
...Now we learn from a Moscow cable to the New York Times (passed by the Soviet censor) that huge quantities of manganese were shipped from Soviet Russia to Hitler Germany throughout last year...
...The first main section of the "platform deals with the struggle s'gainSt the depression and unemployment...
...i.l ' ; As in the cape of the oil shipments to Italy, which were curtailed after-widespread protests by the international labor movement, we will now bo told that Soviet Russia could not help herself, that she just hid to furnish Hitler with manganese for his cannon and shells in order not to infuriate the fascist regime into war...
...The principal union factories are those of the^rAxtoB-Fisher Tobacco Company and the Brown and Williamson Tobacco CarpRv tion...
...Above all, the Corporation is attacked for sappressing any measure of democracy, not only in its plants but in the communities which it dominates...
...The number in'*succeeding years ranged between 147,000 and 270,000...
...leal, Raleigh and Wings...
...Without prejudicing the decision, the party conference requests the executive to appoint a committee with instructions to consider this point and the problems connected therewith and to submit a report at a time which allows for this question to be taken into account when the...
...The Communists received 1,500,000 votes, or about twice as many votes as were cast for them in 1932...
...That is the point of view which leads Fortune this month to inquire whether the present- management of U. S. Steel gives evidence of being a prudent trustee...
...It also rtsb company-owned dwelling* at boarding houses as welfare went Alexander Gretchaninoff in a Program of His Works A concert in honor of S» Russian composer Alexander • Gre chaninoff will take place « Thursday, April 30, at 9 p. m...
...The Belgian workers do not intend to follow the stupid policy of extreme boprkeois pacifism or the treacherous policy of the Trotskyites in afcahng with the grave danger of Hitlerite invasion from across the border...
...Averages are deceptive, for laborers in the plate mills were earning $3.76 a week before the steel code was adopted...
...Perhaps the mast eflY'tiv* vay to help beat down aeS,l>o:ill s to buy the products of-fair employers...
...More likely is the prospect of continued parliamentary confusion and the advantages which would accrue from such a situation ¦Stat...
...The article is at once a blue print and a picture...
...Effective Weapon of HeiwJ The Union Label Trades DeptA ment of the American Fmtsll...
...From the situation now likely to emerge, it is already clear that the People's Front in France has been vitiated by the parallel united front between the Socialists and Communists...
...By Cheater M. Wright COME day someone wiH write the story of organized money in its exploitation of the fanners and tobacco workers of the South...
...A "Social" load In creating the Steel Corporation, the article says: "Morgan the Elder signed a bond for himself and for Judge Gary, and for all their financial and industrial heirs...
...the second with ¦ the defense of peace...
...The labor problem of the Corporation is staggering, says the article, but— "The Corporation's attitude toward the problem is perhaps more staggering still...
...And 1935, you will remember, was no big year for steel...
...The Bricklayers, Masons and Plasterers have listed 30 steel companies in 12 communities which pay from 27 to 73 per cent below the union's «^*kT^i And on industrial tyranny, Fortune bluntly says: "When liberals complained af the lack af free speech in the neat tetns, they were merely discovering what steelworkers had taken for granted for 20 years...
...Of course Judge Gary was a liar when he said that, and the only error that Fortune makes in the whole article is not quoting the proof that Gary lied...
...Albarda will submit a report at the conference on the international and national political situation...
...The plat fatal emphasizes, however, that the only guarantee of the coantry's—dependence is peace, "a peace organized differently...
...The Tobacco Workers' Interaattonsl Union long since asked the labor press to help in the battle to overeme despotism in the tobacco industry...
...Smoking tobacco brands include Sir Walter Raleigh, Dial, Catcher, Golan Grain, Bugler, Target, Kite sal Old North State...
...Than is little prospect in the picture as it presents itself after the first ballot of the formation of a stable, parliamentary government...
...Lees than 30 per cent of the total membership of 618 of the new Chamber was elected, i. e. only 183 candidates received the clear -majority of votes required for election on the first ballot...
...That figure, too, put the U. S. Army in the shade...
...less, of the Big Four...
...The conference thus laid down three main purposes: maintenance ef peace by facilitating collective organization of nations to keep the peace, mobilization of economic and military resistance against any...
...Elastic payroll" is right...
...Six got less than $100...
...It will be a story in which mercy plays little part, in which tolerance for human rights is but a phantom, in which the steady, ruthless planning to get money and more money and power and more power strikes its steady, throbbing note, like the reverberation of a signal drum through a jungle...
...The Socialists, in turn, gained a few seats from the Radicals, the largest party comprising the People's Front...
Vol. 19 • May 1936 • No. 18
