Selling the Daily Worker to 45,000 employees on lunch break at Chicago’s massive Western Electric Hawthorne Plant, formerly at 22nd Street and 48th Avenue.

‘Selling the Daily Worker in Front of Chicago’s Biggest Factory is a Lively Experience’ by Joseph Kowalski from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 83. June 24, 1924.

Heading in the DAILY WORKER that our comrades are selling thousands of copies of the DAILY WORKER at the gates of the Western Electric company, the biggest plant in Chicago.

I asked Jack McCarthy, circulation manager of the DAILY WORKER, to take me with him. One noon, we went in a truck, three girls and three men.

As soon as we arrived about 10 youngsters came running from all directions and pleading for the paper. “Give me 50 copies!” “Give me 100 copies!” “You won’t be able to sell that much.”

“Oh yes, I sold 50 copies yesterday.” “I sold 70 copies.”

So the only thing for McCarthy to do was to give them the number of DAILY WORKERS they demanded.

A Capitalist Prison.

I got my 50 copies from McCarthy and the instructions where to sell them. It was about three minutes to 12 o’clock. Standing at the corner, I gave a look at the big brick mountain on the other side of the street. I reminded myself of Reeve’s articles about the conditions in this shop. Yes, there are 40,000 workers, men, women and children behind these walls, slaving for Morgan and other magnates.

The windows are open. They are looking outside is the spring, the aroma of nature which forces every heart of young and old to beat faster. They see from the windows the parks, forests, the “green carpets.” How good and pleasant it would be to get out of this stinky and unhealthy factory. But they are needed by the parasites and they have to stay inside and work for a few dollars week, making millions for the bosses.

Foul Eating Places.

The whistle blows. Out of the gates are coming the workers, running.

“The DAILY WORKER!” “Buy your paper here, the DAILY WORKER,” we cry from all directions. Very few of the workers stop to buy the paper. They are running across the street to the row of small unsanitary “restaurants.” In five minutes all those “halls” are crowded with people.

Staying near the door of one of those “restaurants” I can smell the heavy unhealthy odor coming out. After a few minutes they are coming out of the “restaurants.” Now they are buying the paper. Here comes a young man about 19 years of age and buys the DAILY WORKER. Another, a third. I am surprised. They sit against the wall, eagerly reading column after column of the paper.

Two girls are passing me. “The DAILY WORKER!” “Buy your paper here!” Some hesitation, and they stop; one, about 18 years of age, the other older.

“Say, comrade, will you sell me two copies of the paper for a nickel?” I said: “Well, the price of the DAILY WORKER is three cents.” “Yes, I know, but my friend has no money and all I have left after getting my lunch is just this nickel. My friend’s mother is an old woman who worked for the Western Electric for 12 years. Now she is sick and hasn’t worked for the last 18 months. My friend is earning only $18 a week and has to support herself and her mother. Once she brought home a copy of the DAILY WORKER which I bought. Her mother said that this is the best paper she ever read in her life and she is very anxious to read it every day. Please, sell two copies for 5 cents.”

Has Made Many Friends.

“The DALLY WORKER! The only workers paper in English! Buy your paper right here!” My voice is already more noisy. I feel that I am not alone here, that I have plenty of friends among those who are walking around me. I feel that I am doing good service to them. And so copy after copy is disappearing from my arms.

Here comes an older worker, dirty and oiled rags around him. Quickly he gives me 3 cents and looks around to see if some of the bosses will see him buying the paper. I feel that he wants to talk with me.

“Step into the ice cream parlor,” I said. He is coming, but still looking around.

“You gave them a good knock in the with this campaign. They feel very badly. This morning I heard from one of the suckers that all the old workers in whom the bosses have confidence got orders to watch those who are reading the DAILY WORKER and report to the bosses. But do not stop. Keep going. You are doing good work.” And he left me there standing in surprise.

Yes, we will “keep going” not only against your bosses of Western Electric but against the whole capitalistic world. That is our aim. That is our duty. That is our desire! But you have to help us. Stand with us shoulder by shoulder and we will be able to conquer the rotten capitalist system over the whole world!

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n083-jun-24-1924-DW-LOC.pdf