Bérmunkás, 1936. január-június (24. évfolyam, 874-899. szám)
1936-02-15 / 880. szám
8 oldal BÉRMUNKÁS 1936 február 15. Junior Column Something about those who must go to bed hungry! Tom lay, tossing and turning in his bed, unable to gain the blessed temporary obliviousness from wordly cares which a good night’s sleep would afford. He couldn’t sleep because he was worrying: ha couldn’t sleep because he was cold. His thoguhts went back ten-fifteen years. They had had a cozy little home. He was helping his parents with payments to the Building and Loan Society so that soon they could call it their own. A great shipyard was humming day and night with workers — mills of lesser importance existed because of this great plant. People were busily working, happily going about the daily routine of living. Tom’s father was of the shipyard — but Tommy himself was contented in his own little enterprise — that of bricklaying, brick pointing, even painting: almost anything that would take him up high in the air. He was a King on a chimney peedstal — took keen delight in looking down at the crowds milling Jdown below — craning their necks to look at him working above them. This was the cream in his coffee of life — later he was to drink of the dregs. The mill noises were not so loud anymore. The smaller ones were forced to stop operations altogether. The workers sought employment at the larger plants but could make no connections here either. The shipyard, the wheel round which all else revolved; the mainstaff of life for these people — it was no more! They became uneasy, bewildered, incredulous! The stock market crash meant nothing to them, they couldn’t understand that! They weren’t stockholders! The lesser mills shut down, tight, no hope of reopening. The majority of * these people were foreigners. True, they had become citizens of the United States but they retained the foreign instincts. They understood but one think! They were owners, for their livelihood, depending on the mills, the mill When this failed, when they could no longer work — they were lost! Tom’s father worried! He was old, lost his job, couldn’t get another. The old values were gone. His house was worth less than half what he bought it for, but he still had to make payments on the house at the original purchase price. A short illness and Tom was left with an old mother to take care of. Tom mortgaged their home to the hilt. Paid for his father’s funeral. The deed to the property was in their name but a big debt hung over their heads. The mills, factories being shut down — depression spelling gloom everywhere — people weren’t concerned about the appearance of their properties and Tom himself was without steady work. Three weeks ago he had finished pointing the walls of a doctor’s residence. The doctor had been rather unfair. He asked to have the walls done and was charged for just that. When the work was completed he had gone over the entire building, pointing out places to patch up. The steps, the cellar windows, the garden walk needed cementing; the back yard brick wall — all of which he wanted done but for which he didn’t expect to pay. Tom had to do it under the threat that wouldn’t get a cent for the work he had already done. At last the doctor was satisfied. But Tom’s lips curved in a bitter smile. Three weeks ago! And he had not been paid yet. He had to wait until the doctor’s patients paid him and before Tom, came the medicine supply houses, waiting payments of bills — and they realy came first, he supposed. If they weren’t paid the doctor wouldn’t get medicine and he couldn’t treat patients, so that ... ah, well, it was all a vicious circle. He had rebuilt a chimney and was waiting now for the realtor to collect the monthly rental from the tenants; in that way, Tom would eventually get his money. Last night he had helped a friend move to new lodgings and in payment he had gotten two gallons of gasoline for his car. However, that was necessary. He needed the car for delivering material to “jobs.” (The thought of how he had melted rock salt and poured it into his "radiator to keep the car from freezing, made him smile.) It wasn’t that he didn’t or would’t work, thought Tom, only he had the confoundedest luck in getting the non-paying sort. Here he was with a house. The Welfare and County Relief Board had advised him to sell it. He couldn’t sell it — nobody would give him anything for it. People of his own sort weren’t able to buy because the mills were shut down and they were without work. Those who had money wouldn’t buy here, considering it an undesirable location. They were without electricity for lighting purposes; ( they were without gas and couldn’t cook; they couldn’t cook anyhow because the larder was empty; they had a furnace but the coal bin was empty. (Tom was by now wider awake than ever.) His mother lay in the next rom. The springs of the old bed creaked — she was trembling and shivering from the cold. Just this morning he had determined to chop down an old, dead tree for firewood. The law intervened in the form of a policeman. He was told to take out a permit in City Hall (at a cost of Two Dollars) and perhaps they’d let him chop one then. (The cop must have thought he made a sport of shopping down trees.) So they had gone to bed: a cold, barren house. Gone to their rooms, undressing in the dark, groping for their beds in an unilluminated room; worse yet, gone to bed on empty stomachs. No charitable organization will help them while they own property; nobody will buy the shack which, was once a cozy home. Considering everything — Tom guessed they weren’t so badly off. Think of that other family out in one of the western states. They were a young couple with two babies, one two years old and another two months old. The young, bereaved parents had found their infant babe frozen to death in the morning when the temperature dropped to 21 below zero and they were without a fire in the house. Anna Zsamar. CHICAGO. — Classes for young children between the ages of 7 and 13 are being organized by the Chicago Junior Wobblies and will meet every Sunday morning at 11 o’clock at the IWW hall 1604 N. California Avenue. All fellow-workers and sympathizers who have and know youngsters between above mentioned ages are asked to send them to these classes. The classes are under the direction of Martha Ruben, Lou Kenneth, a student at Wright Junior college and Arthur Hopkins, a student at the Medil School of Journalism Northwestern university. No soner does a child enter the public schools than it is filled with capitalistic propaganda and patriotism. These classes will not only teach the youngsters the principles and ideas of the working class but will also allow them to express themselves in dramatics and singing. All fellow workers are asked to co-operate in this Enterprise. Press Committee. Meglepetési party “Nem találok szavakat részben a meglepetés, részben a minket elhalmozott kívánságok megköszönésére” — mondotta Leisz munkástársnő azon az estélyen, amelyet a clevelandi munkástársnők, munkástársak és barátok a nagyszámú rokonsággal egyetemben február 8-án rendeztek Leisz József mtárs és neje 25 éves házasságuk évfordulójára. A Buckeye Roadi Szent Já- ,nos terem kicsinek bizonyult a vendégek befogadására, amely egyik bizonyitéka annak, hogy a Leisz család általános tiszteletnek örvend elsősorban munkásmozgalmi tevékenységük révén, amelyet nemcsak a helyi csoportok jótékonyan éreznek évtizedek óta, de alig van a magyar mozgalomnak Clevelan- don átutazott agilis tagja, aki közelebbről nem ismerné Leisz és neje érzelmeit és áldozat készségét az IWW-val szemben. A DU PONT lőszergyár 1935- ben részvényei után 5 dollár és 4 cent osztalékot fizet. Jelentéséiben nem adja sem a tiszta haszon teljes összegét sem részvényeinek számát. 1929-től a legjobb év. LIGGETT & MYERS Tobacco Company tiszta jövedelme 1935- ben 16 millió 856 ezer 534 dollár. Fizet 4 odllár 91 centet minden részvény után. Ennek adták jelét az estélyen megjelent munkástársak, munkástársnők, jóbarátok és nagyszámú rokonság, akik a reggeli órákig voltak együtt elfogyasztva azt a nagyszerű vacsorát, amelyet az estély sikerében sokat fáradozott Mihalkó mtársnő, Szabó mtársnő és Hartman mtársnők és mások készítettek, majd a fiatalok és idősebbek egymás mellett lejtették a táncot a zenekar játéka mellett. OPEN FORUM Auspices: Los Angeles Branch IWW Every Sunday Night at 8:00 P. M. at the IWW Hall 280 Lang Bldg., 212 So. Spring St. SUNDAY February 16th Speaker: Atty 'Arthur E. Briggs. Subject: Abraham Lincoln Honest Abe. SUNDAY February 23rd. Speaker: Jack Keney. Subject: Will unionism supplant political parties? Questions — Discussions Ad- mision free. NEWARK, N. J. Az IWW uj helységében 294. Market St.-en, második emelet, minden vasárnap délután 2:30 órai kezdettel, tudományos előadást tartunk. Kérdéseket, hozzászólásokat Töltsön el néhány órát osztályharcos munkások társaságában. 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