VILE CONDITIONS RARED IN GIRLS REFORMATORY; LABOR LAW IS FLOUTED
Vile Conditions Bared In Girls Reformatory; Labor Law Is Flouted George Gooze, Head of Shirtmakers' Union in New York, Presents Affidavits aad Demands Governor Roosevelt Order Immediate...
...Only the combined efforts of the Central Labor Union, the then Socialist Party and the I. W. W. and Its supporters prevented the city from bidding in this 'white elephant' at $350,000...
...Samuel N. Preedman, New Leader representative, also addressed the strikers...
...Power Plant Gobbled Up In 1929 the city owner power-plant was sold to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating (a member of the North Amerian group which in 1928, over a year ago, controlled 7.3 per cent of the total U. S. production...
...s. v. Kenniaon...
...yafter the war...
...My friend's dog gets better food than we did...
...Edward P. Clarke, Sunnyside Branch, Queens County, N. Y„ writes: 'They say August is a poor month for collections, but I have not found It so...
...In . the morning we would get bread and tea aad no butter unless we sawed a piece from the cube served us at supper...
...Thomas, Senior, and the grand old Socialist party to know that we wffl succeed...
...Chain Stores Sen Shirts Because, the letter to the Governor asserts, this work is done under what amounts to sweat-shop conditions, with girls working nine hours and more a day, and virtually constitutes prison labor, not only should this practice be stopped, but the entire condition of the institution should be thoroughly investigated...
...The most significant donation came from a Negro hod carriers" union...
...tea, bread and butter...
...At present we are doing our best...
...If this quota is not attained in the regular nine hours of work, girls are kept ten or more hours at their tasks until it is reached...
...The Communists left town quickly and quietly...
...Once I saw a girl who was soon to become a mother being punished for breaking some rule by being put in a straight-Jacket...
...Dirtiness in the House of Good Shepherd, exploitation of the girls, brutality by those in charge for even minor offenses, and other abuses were cited in the affidavits sent to the Governor...
...In 1919-20 the city bought up-the local traction company with its 5 and onehalf miles of track and 10 antiquated cars at a cost of $196,000...
...Negro porters, organised in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under A. F. of L. charters, wffl abed ro tears because these profiteers have lost IWr grip...
...The Young People's Labor College, as it was called, was held under the auspices of the Finnish Socialist Federation...
...As a union man, I am naturally interested in protecting organized workers whose earnings and living standards are undermined by competition of what appears to me to be sweated and prison labor done by minors and delinquents in the House of Good Shepherd...
...The plant was sold for $1,200,000 to be used on street improvement A. F. of L. organized labor made no protest, the L W. W. had practially disappeared and although the local Socialist and Communist parties (mostly Finnish) weekly denounced the affair, valuable energy was wasted in mutual recriminations...
...Beard observe that the lack of a labor class consciousness is probably due to the fact of the absence of the long battle for the ballot that was the basis of a long struggle between the city proletariat and the Bourgeois class of Europe...
...Its partial heir, the Building Trades Council, surrepliously passed from the scene, sometime within the last three years, "tfhion Job" is advertised on two building projects now under construction but building workers interviewed admitted that the larger portion of building carried on in the last few years had made no such pretensions...
...W. Va, writes: "Will I join the class of 2pOT Tea, I wlu...
...The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen have a building here in Ashtabula which is a center and junction for New Yori CanUal, -lickel Plate and the Pennsylvania R. R.'s...
...kBke Larena, Ohattorey...
...Court wfll be held m Bnxnsvffle, forty miles away, and over the mountains from Marion...
...Cllnchfleld is a larger mill than the one on strike, with about a thousand employees...
...Mies Marion Hayes, of New York: "I enclose $5 for the party drive for funds...
...Injunction Is Fought In Marion Violence by Mail Overseer Lands Him in Court— Communists Are Rebuffed By John Herling (SsMial OmnMtm *f TTm X«v Le»4«r> MARION, N. C.—Monday, Marion strikers wffl -fight in court the efforts of Signal W. Baldwin, president of the Marion Manufactaabs|tOomr»ny to restrain them from jacketing...
...The Marion strikers told them that they were having a good strike, that they were being treated squarely, and they had no need for another organization...
...They join nightly in the parades of the East Marion strikers: and sing the songs of the striken...
...The strikers resent the Communist Infiltration of Marion at a time when united action against the mill bosses is the paramount object...
...The Chamber of Commerce backed municipal ownership in this case...
...I often found the meals did not satisfy my hunger...
...They enclose contributions ranging from $1 to $1,000...
...There was no help to be had however from organized labor or from any of the political groups represented...
...I would do so cheerfully...
...R. W. Anderson, Los Angeles, Calif., writes: "I wffl start the ball a-rolling by pledging one day's wages...
...Many times thojwsed was moldy and the butter The food was not nourishing and often bad," another one asserts...
...McDowell County farmers continue to bring their bushels to the strike commissary...
...Bur dinner we might have hash, potatoes, beets, bread and tea, and for supper rice paddkeg...
...D. P. Giles of Marion will represent the strikers...
...Mr...
...Please send me additional subscription blanks...
...Two important developments came this week when Robert Loudermflk, an overseer In the Cllnchfleld mill, nearby, which has been shut down for two weeks, attempted to drive through a parade of women strikers...
...H. Hoffman...
...Goose also asserted that through manufacturers such as David Kurts, of 596 Broadway, N. Y. C, the T. W. Grand chain stores are enabled to put the shirts made at the reformatory on the market at prices with which manufacturers using free labor cannot complete...
...We wish it could be more...
...He has since done more by getting additional pledges...
...Goose informed the Governor that he had teamed minors were also employed on the stitching work...
...Exploiters of Porters Die CHICAGO (FP)— Hardly had Edward Carry, president of the Pullman Co., gone to the grave where he could no longer oppress the sleeping car porters than John Runnena, chairman of the same exploiting corporation, lawyer and politician, followed Carry into death...
...The local rate to consumers was lower than any private plant rate in the United States...
...He encloses his pledge, and follows it up with a payment on It...
...Salt pork is being brought by the thousand pounds...
...W. L. Krieghoff, Detroit, Mich...
...The political, cultural, and social bases on which so many of these organization stood are being sapped by the dominant forces of American social and cultural life...
...I can hardly do it, but for his party a Socialist must do an that he can...
...M. Vasiley...
...Protests to the Department of Social Welfare have produced no results so far, the letter asserts...
...Central Labor Union Gone Here in Ashtabula there is an exceedingly discouraging picture presented...
...Their secretary complained of cutting of forces as a result of "newer methods" and of the stringent physical examination conducted periodically leading to the.elimination of men before they became available for pensions...
...Alfred Hoffman, strike leader, is a Brookwood graduate...
...There are about twothirds of the Cllnchfleld mill who have joined the union...
...Charles Kolb, state secretary of Oregon, raised over $100 in a few days in Portland, and is still convassing members...
...And that from South Carolina...
...The Chamber of Commerce et al backed the sale of the plant because of the promise of the Cleveland company to construct a $25,000,000 generating plant on the lake shore here...
...Garls Bs stoPy Treated "Per refusing to work or breaking some of the rules,'' another part to the affidavits says, "I have seen many girls put hi sa-aight-Jackets, sometimes being kept to it a whole day and night Others were handcuffed, and sometimes sense of the gtrto would be ordered to beat another girl as punishment for breaking some rule...
...Relief is beginning to come in from North Carolina unions, in response to an appeal by President T. A. Wilson of the State Pederation of Labor...
...Communist members of the National Textile Workers Union invaded Marion with "Labor Defenders...
...There are a few of the hundreds of letters that have come to Norman Thomas, national chairman of the drive...
...Maybe more money wffl reach you before the thirty days are over...
...The Shopmen and the Trainmen used to meet, in the B. R. T. building but were unable to afford the rent" and the secretary of the Trainmen was unable to inform the director of the Y. P. L. College where they are located now...
...each giving to accordance with his or her ability...
...Enclosed and my check for $10...
...New York City, returns his first subscription blank filled out with a total of $35 pledged from six members of his branch and writes: "This is only a start...
...Wul take up at a special meeting next week the matter of the national drive...
...The men and women of Cllnchfleld believe that the extra week of curtailment is a punishment for their efforts at unionization...
...The girls working on the maftiinee, the statement asserts, are required daily to turn out the stitching on 80 downs of shirts...
...Perhaps on account of the language difficulty the Finnish leaders have been the first to feel the tendency of their young people to drift away from not only their politico-cultural organization but from any active connection with the labor movement...
...The food was mostly bad," one affidavit asserts...
...This first project of the Young People's Labor College aroused both interest and sympathy on every hand...
...Frederick V. Field, of New York, pledges $500 and writes: 'It is a pleasure to contribute to the Socialist party...
...Inaffldsvtts aenossnaagtngMr...
...Dean A. J. Muste of Brookwood Labor College was the main speaker during the past week at mass meetings of the Marion Manufacturing Company's striking mill workers...
...The local chapter of the International Labor Defense did help to present the story of the Gastonia cases to the students...
...rn get through here, or I'll kill someone...
...Class consciousness has been and is today largely confined to our ruling business classes and is the result to some extent of the century long conflict with agrarianism just as Mr...
...Loudermflk to the sheriff, and to court, and he was released on bond to appear in September...
...Locally the older folks were almost pathetically Interested in any work among their children, even the mailman stopped to ask questions and express his approbation...
...From Letters That Accompany The Donations TN ADDITION to the steady stream * e< enatotoaaons nsurtng Into the headquarter* of the United ¦nrlsHst Drive, at » stoat leth street, there ass letters dkatoslng the faith of gjiHsltots who have innttail true through the kdtsd, and whose faith in the aliaasto triumph of the ktoato to which they have given their Uvea remains unimpaired...
...As there is a state labor law against prison labor product being used in the open market, and the House of Good Shepherd, while a reformatory, seems to me to come under the meaning of that act, I respectfully request you to investigate and remedy existing conditions in this Institution," he wrote...
...We wffl visit all the comrades of our branch and collect as much as we possibly can...
...found a box of shells to his car, a rifle, and a good old .38...
...Labor Law Is Flouted George Gooze, Head of Shirtmakers' Union in New York, Presents Affidavits aad Demands Governor Roosevelt Order Immediate Investigaition . w***aAMGEKOU8LY had aenaWoas that JL/ "In scene respect rival those which led to the recent outbreaks In Auburn and Clinton prisons" exist in the House of Good Shepherd, the reformatory for girts, according to charges laid before Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt by George Goose, manager of the Shirt, Boys' Waist and Collar Workers Joint Board, affiliated with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America...
...The Central Labor Union totally disappeared short...
...Goose's letter asking for an Immediate investigation, former inmates ef the Institution, located In New York City until tost November and now at Peekskffl, N. Y., declare that the food is bad and unhealthy —so bad that one girl declared "My '.'.zzt'n dog gets better fqpd than we did—," that for trifling offenses girls are put In straight-Jackets, punished brutally in other ways, and that often girts are kept in the reformatory long after the expiration of their official sentences...
...and which private firms put out competitively on the market for commercial use...
...Mrs...
...They hustled Mr...
...They were received by the "peace" committee of strikers...
...Brie, Pa sends in her own contribution, and writes: "Am using my husband's automobile to visit party members...
...That that j economic base Is rapidly being conetruced I there is utile doubt...
...Elected as delegate to the State Pederation of Labor convention to be held soon, he declares that he intends to canvass the delegates tor pledges...
...The local plant was a money maker;' even the notorious graft at the City Hall did not prevent the project from piling up surpluses...
...Just at present I cannot send more, but, if in the course of events, you find It necessary to send me another request, I wffl try and respond.** * * * George Welby Van Pelt, Washington, D. C, seconds $5 and writes, "I wish I were able to give more...
...Have $157 for the national drive from our members, and more sure to come...
...The significance of this lies in the fact that the Cllnchfleld MM, not yet on strike, has tor weeks been provoking their employees in an effort to make them strike...
...Those forces in American life as given in the Mirror of "Mlddletown" that seem to be strengthening the defense mechanisms of the ruling business classes in their Chambers of Commerce and their Rotary and Kiwarns clubs, seem to be weakening working class organization whatever their color or flavor...
...literature, and dues books for their organization...
...No sooner had he said that when several of the Martdheers jumped on him, took his shot-gun away from him...
...The concern had never made money and under normal circumstances could not hope to...
...secretary Harlem Jewish branch...
...For breaking the rule of not talking during meal-time or working hours or at any time except during the brief recreation periods, girls were punished by the nuns...
...The labor and radical movement has up to the beginning of the 20th century possessed no general or uniform base throughout America In an economic sense...
...I was ordered to hold her while a nun tried to get her into it, and had to obey orders although I didn't want to...
...Baldwin's lawyers win attempt to make permanent an Injunction issued by Judge John H. Harwood on July 25...
...The boss weaver bruised several of the women, parked his ear to prevent the parade, and then stuck his shot-gun out of the auto window...
...Have collected $40, and there are many others I wffl see in the next few days...
...Sometimes a girl was punished by being confined for a week to the dormitory, not being allowed to leave it or talk to any one...
...Goose said that he learned the facts of the alleged insanitary and tohuman conditions at the Institution while seeking to abolish the system under which the girls are used to do work on shirts for which the girls receive no pay...
...The House of Good Shepherd, be asserted, contracts for the work through Miss L. V. Myles who Is also an agent for the penitentiary in Rhode Island...
...Young Peoples Labor College First Sign Of Recovery Of Labor In Ashtabula, Ohio Central Labor and Building Trades Council Disappear —Power Trust Takes City Plant By Arthur G. McDowell < Special C«rresp*Dd«Rt of The New Leader) ASHTABULA, Ohio.—The first attempt at formal education of workers' children along labor lines closed here after three weeks' summer session...
...of Charleston, S. C: "You wffl find herewith $20*—our bit to help swell the nation-wide drive of a worthy cause to humanity...
...I have faith in Mr...
...One of the hardest things about the House Is the silence rule, which amounts to solitary confinement, although it is harder, because while the girls are near each other, they aren't allowed to talk...
...The most hopeful aspect is the con. cern of the Federation and of others for the young people and the direction they shall take...
...Please send me an application blank...
...We were not allowed to ask for a second helping, even when we were hungry...
...I wish to be enrolled as a member of the Socialist party...
...and Mrs...
...Early Sunday morning...
Vol. 9 • August 1929 • No. 1
