The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1924, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER February 2, 1924 | ie THE DAILY WORKER. are me TRS man knows precisely what e ° } Studebaker Theater | th a “protecting” industry and private business” S qe Sh M W k x Chica i Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO.,| means to him in his every-day life and work. erlous cusing ortage enaces or. ers at Sen Men Fae } 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Ill. Injunctions, severe prison sentences, low cea oe This Sunday Morning, Fel } (Phone: Lincoin 7680.) the working people in the metrop-|cent of the population whose in- aa control of the Amerigan Federation of Labor, and many of its leading figures dread wages, intolerable working conditions, smash- ed labor organizations and broken strikes are the only fruits the workers. have gathered under the rule of capitalist democracy. Poor Team Work There is a sad lack of co-operation between Brother Meyer Perlstein and 8, Vanofsky, editor of Justice, official organ of the Inter- national Ladies Garment Workers. Perlstein has been weeping all over the pages of the.Chicago Tribune because of the disruptive work of certain sheiks, he alleges, are employed by bosses and to the activities of these persons he ascribes the failure of the organization campaign here. Comes now Brother Yanofsky, ex-anarchist, and a recent convert to Gompersism, and lays the blame for the organization debacle on the radical elements, thus giving the lie direct to his payroll colleague. In this difference of opinion between two alibi artists we take a neutral position, i. e., we consider both of them very clumsy Hars. The truth of-the matter is that following the expulsion of the left wing elements the Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. in Chicago has lost its fighting spirit. Of this invaluable asset of a union the left wingers had a monopoly. Deprived of their activities, aid and advice the Ladies’ Garment Workers Union is becom- ing a typical Gompers union—devoid of initia- tive, destitute of leadership, with its officials blaming everything but their own reaction and inefficiency for the failure to accomplish the primary function of any union-organization of the industry over which it claims jurisdiction. The jeft wingers, the most active ones at least, have been deprived of membership in the union and we await’ with considerable curiosity the next Sigman-Perlstein-Yanofsky alibi for the continuation of the retreat the Ladies’ Garment: Workers will be forced to make until the officialdom recognizes the fact that functioning unions are not built up by high-salaried incompetents but. by militant workers whose devotion. to revolutionary theory and practice is the best index of their loyalty to the working class. The Profits of Prohibition In the little side show of an investigation now going on in New York, the investigation of the Anti-Saloon League, much light is being shed on prohibition as an industry. We have long known that the enforcement of the pro- hibition law has been the butt of politics and has enabled the present capitalist administra- tion to build up its machine thru the disposal of handsome patronage. We have long sus- pected that our most strenuous prohibition ad- vocates were giving vent too lightly to moral indignation over the ravages of liquor. We have often wondered how much they were paid by those who had the price and the de- sire to pay for these moral outbursts. The New York investigation of William H. Anderson, the cyclops of the National Prohi- bition movement, has fortunately let us in @ bit on this secret. We now have a confession, and it must be a true confession, since Mr. Anderson has always advertised his high re- gard for morals, from this leader of the Pro- hibition league that some mysterious stranger gave him $20,000 in cash. Mr. Anderson grudgingly further confessed that he was oper- ating his prohibition campaign on a basis of splitting commissions. .Of course, the reason for his being so well treated is to be found in the fact that his work was satisfactory. These are but a few of the myriad of facts yet to be disclésed proving that prohibition under capitalism, like most of the other move-’ ments for the uplift of the working men, is run on the basis of making profits. Most of the professional prohibition agents “are en- gaged in their game in order to amass the profits formerly secured by the manufacturers of sundry liquors. There is only one way of removing the many evils of the use of liquor to which the workers are subjected. _That way is to take the profit out of prohibition and not the present capitalist method of transferring the liquor har to the field of our new and SUBSCRIPTION. RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50..6 months $2.00..8 months By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50. .6 months $2.50. .8 months By carrier: $10.00 per year $1.00 per month $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640. N. Halsted Street J. LOUIS ENGDAHL.. Editor WILLIAM F, DUNNE eee Labor Editor MORITZ J. LOEB.......+006+ Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 A the Post- Office at Chicago, Illy under the act of March 8, 1879. er 3% Advertising rates on application. The Russian Investigation The Senate investigation of alleged Soviet Government activities’ in the United States against the government seems to have lost fire. For a few days it appeared that the sub-com- mittee presided over by Borah would really get down to the bottom of things and preseht a comprehensive report to the Senate in order to enable it to debate the Borah» Russian Rec- ognition Resolution with some degree of in- telligence. It appears now that there is a danger of the country. being spared the pleasure of a near- intelligent debate in Congress on the Russian question.. There is an attempt being made to have the committee discontinue its hearings. There can be only one reason for the effort to stop the sessions of Borah’s sub-committee. The State Department has presented its case and it is the concensus of opinion amongst the members of the sub-committee and the inter- ested observers that the evidence submitted by Hughes was very weak. The documents and general material presented by the State De- partment’s agents were handled much more poorly than by some second-class city attor- neys in their prosecution of Communists. This unquestionably will be the decisive reason for discontinuing the hearings if the committee decides to do so. Samuel Gompers has made a formal request upon the sub-committee to be permitted .to state his case against the Communists. Some committee members were at first reluctant to accede to Gompers’ request for fear that. it would become too evident that the decisive rea- son for the administration’s refusal to resume friendly relations with Russia was its fear of the effect a new Russian policy would have on the American labor movement.- The govern- ment is particularly interested in perpetuating Chicago, Illinois Russian recognition because they feel that it would hurt the prestige and domination of the labor lieutenants of capital in the organized working class movement. .Compers, however, was granted permission to appear before the committee. Should hear- ings be resumed the capitalist press will, with- out doubt, give the ‘widest publicity to Gom- pers’ counterfeit charges against the Commun- ists in America and against’the Soviet Govern- ment. It will then be pertinent to ask whether the Senate sub-committee in its desire, to get the fullest information about the horrible crimes that are supposedly committed by American Communists, at the behest of the Soviet Government, will agree to allow repre- sentatives of the Workers Party to state the Communist case at the hearings. If the Senate is to be given all the facts ob- tainable then the Communists will have to be heard. Otherwise, the charge of bias against the sub-committee will be irrefutable, especi- ally in view of the fact that Gompers, Lewis, and others, will have had the opportunity to misrepresent the Communist program and activities. Democracy From the Inside Millions of workers and farmers who for- merly were subjected to the blessings of Capi- talist Democracy are now living under the pall of open, brutal capitalist dictatorships—Fas- cist governments. Within the last two years the tendency to discard the mask of fraudulent democracy has been so greatly enhanced that the official apologists of the capitalist order have had the devil’s own time trying to build up a philoso- phy of excuses for the rousing welcome the big (Continued from page 1) tain only. a quarter of our total population. The Bigger the City, the Worse the Suffering Mr. George Gove was the Dis rector of Investigations of the New Work State Housing) and Regional Planning Commission, which has just completed a thorogoing survey of the housing crisis in the Empire State. In discussing the housing shortage with the writer, Mr. Gove said that his commissions investi- gation definitely indicated “that the larger the city the more serious is its housing pro! Jem, and the more difficult is it to meet the housing demands of the great mass of peo- ple.” High rents, taxes, and trans- portation all play their part in ag- gravating the housing difficulties here. Thus the best picture of the hous- ing. crisis, which is national, the best view of the shortage of homes from all important angles, can be ‘obtained from a review of the con- ditions in New York. Millions of —— Net Provided ‘or According to the latest official census. figures, there are 6,566,636 people living in New York City. Last June there were, in New York City, 103,387 tenement houses, hav- ing 1,036,870 apartments. These apartments house 4,353,520 people. If one should entirely disregard the fitness of the houses inhabited by the mass of workers, and even as- sume that the shanties in the squal- lid alleys and the wretched hovels now inhabited by the workingmen, are satisfactory homes, then there would be siill a lack of housing fa- cilities for at least 2,218,116 peo- le. Pat the hearings, conducted by the New York Housing Commis- sion, it was shown that these fig- ures translated themselves into a lack of homes for no less than 165,- 903 families. One of the most ex- perienced social investigators in New York, who has had many years of contact with the working class dis- tricts, and who has appeared before the Housing Commission, told me that the situation was really much worse. Said Miss B—-: “At least five times this number of peo- ple are today compelled to live in houses whose conditions cannot be endured for a long time. Many families are forced to double up ‘in apartments built for half the num- ber of people, because they cannot find rooms that they can afford to pay for.” f In_ many sections of the city the housing conditions remind one of the miserable shacks that crowd the raw mining camps and the con- gested steel and oil communities, President Harry B. Ely, of the Fede: q lent =) ration of Tenants’ Associations, cited a case where no less than forty-two tenants occupied one ten- ement in three, eight hour shifts for sleeping. Vacancies Decrease Steadily The number of houses available for occupation by the mass of work- ers is decreasing steadily. At the same time the population of New York City is increasing at the rate of about 250,000 a year. One of the most comprehensive investigations. of the rising short- age of homes for the great mass of ‘workers was made by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This|% of strongest champions of the in- terests, and whose service bg institution, which is one tion, made its report public November, to the effect that: ing agencies in this city, as to rents fol priced apartments, and no reduction in rents, which generally 9. per cent higher than a year ago.” The additional construction in the last few years was admitted by Dr. Lindsay, Rggrecetttie Hayes wealthiest New York landloi before the Housing Commission ta be of no heBefit™ tothe average worker who cofild never attempt to pay more than $10 to $12 for a room. Be- sides, the Commission looked into the character of about 200 of these vacancies and found that “most of the tenements visited had been va- cant for a long period and were either abandoned as unfit for use, or held for higher rental than pre- vailed in the neighborhood for sim- ilar apartments.” , Interviewing several worker-ten- ants in the Bronx, Harlem, Chelsea and East Side districts, I the|$ J. KAPLAN MADE-TO-ORDER “intial the | ¢ employin: lass No one can ques-| 4 age) last | 3 “In-| 4 quiry among apartment house rent-|% ing October 1, indicated a con-|% tinued shortage of medium and low}¢ average | 4 olis: Q.—How many vacancies are there in your section today? A. (Mrs, G—y, Bronx) —"I don’t know of a single one. For some}: time I have been looking out for a friend of mine to get new rooms for her family, The other day I saw a room-to-let_ sign and tried to get|’ the flat, The janitor told me that he has already promised about twen- ty other people a chance to look it over,” i Mr. T——h, @ worker having a family of seven, and occupying a four room apartment on the East Side, told me: “I haven't seen a new house built In my neighborhood for at least ten years, I would like to move jnto larger quarters, but I can’t afford to spend car fare to ride to work, and it is next to impossible to find anythi: better in the neighborhood. Besides, as a new tenant, I would have to pay more for the same number of rooms. Iam already paying the limit,” ’ That this condition prevails thru- out the city was established by the testimony of; Tenement House Com- missioner Frank Mann, before the posing Commission, as shown be- low: “Q.—Now take Manhattan. 972 va- cancies in the old law tenements, as of March, 1923, compared with 2,883 vacancies in the old law tene- ments, as of April, 1920; is that right? “ “A-—April, 1922, yes; 2,883, “Q.—Showing & much more seri- ous condition, so far as vacancies for moderate priced apartments in Manhattan is concerned, in March, 1928, than in April, 1920; is that right? “A.—Undoubtedly; so far as lower rental apartments are concerned, there are practically none to be had. They are practically all oc- cupied. “Q.—These vacancies, in old law tenements, as a matter of fact, are the least desirable, are they not? “A—Of course, they are the least desirable. I am under the impres- sion, and I maintained years ago, that, if -normal conditions had con- tinued to prevail, the time would come when nobody would.live in the old law tenements.” Mass Dearth of Houses for the Workers Tho there has been going on a good deal of building construction in the, last two or three years in New York, the shortage of houses} from which the great mass of wage earners is suffering ‘is increasing. It has long been the concensus of opinion amongst the most com- petent social investigators that the! maximum the average family can expend for rent is 20 per cent of its total income. Analyzing the effect of new construction on the situation in New York Commission concluded. “Only a.few instances were! reported of rents in new construc- tion at less than $15 per room, or $45 for a three room apartment. Assuming 20 per cent of the income for rent, and also on the basis of average rentals paid, construction at this minimum rental is beyond the means of most of the 69 per / cent of the population with family ee below $2,500 a year.” { ie Up-to-Date with a SUIT OR OVERCOAT $40.00 and Up He will do your cleaning and repairing at moderate prices. 4 J. KAPLAN up to $60:a week, ‘with waste. This present system new construction is helpful |¥ and available only to about 8 per * come is $5,000 ar more. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce found from an investigation of the rent situation confronting 500 fam- ilies of the workers in the eight leading industries of the Borough that less than 3 per cent of the newly built houses is “within the renting power of persons earning and that there ‘was none available in Brooklyn in 1922 for a person earning lesg than $45 a week.” Why the Shortage? ‘The fundamental cause of the housing shortage in New York and in the other centers of the country is to be found in the private capital- ist control of the housing facilities of the great masses of workers. The capitalists find it necessary to maintain a huge army of un- employed workers, an industrial re- serve army, in order to maintain what their defenders have chosen to call “an economic equilibrium in wages,” in reality, the lowest wages workers can possibly be compelled to acce} Likewise, the capitalist landlords are now bent on ,main- taining a huge reserve army of tenants, of workers being forced to pay the highest, outrageous rents for houses that should long ago have been condemned as unfit for habitation. The profit hungry land- fords are not willing to invest mon- ey in building homes which the workers can afford to pay for from their low wages. Director of Investigations Gove! summed up the whole situation very ‘well to me when he said: “We must sup, three-fourths of our families wil iomes at $500 a year or less. This can’t be done under speculative enterprise, ‘The landlords haven’t done it and won’t do it. Speculative enterprise is filled with waste. The whole competitive system is filled 0 has given rise to the fly-by-night speculator, who is out only ae enough money to swing a deal, iv peat pate houses, boost the’ rent, raise the prices, and quit.” (The second article will deal with the terrible effects of the liv- ing crisis on. the workers’ families.) Protect the Foreign Born! Ward: “Yes” BOOK SHOP, 158 W. Street. Ten-thirty o'clock: Sharp Great Public Debate Between Professor SCOTT NEARING Formerly of the University of Pennsylvania, and PERCY WARD The Eminent Rationalist Oratew _ On the Question: “Will the Mind of Man Outgrow Religion?” Nearing: “No” Tickets selling rapidly. To ensure a seat, get your ticket early, Tickets n sale at the COVICI-McGEB Washingten FURNISHINGS! LADIES’ MEN’S INFANTS’ Trade Where Your Money Buys the Most. MARTIN’S 723 West North Avenue East of Halsted St. When in the FEDERATION BUILDING patronize the CIGAR STAND in the lobby. Federation Cigar Stand 166 W. Washington St. Telephone Diversey 5129 ED. GARBER QUALITY SHOES For Men, Women and Children 2427 LINCOLN AVENUE Near Halsted and Fullerton Ave, CHICAGO WORKERS’ SCHOOL 127 University Place (14th St. and Union Square) NEW YORK CITY “Proletarian education is a fi achieve the liberation of the working class.” ormidable weapon te help e NEW COURSES beginning week of FEB. 5, 1924 History of the American Trade Union Movement..... Solon de Leon History of Revolutions (1789-1918) History of the 3 Internationales. American Imperialism since 1860. Juliet Stuart Poynts +. Ludwig Lore Chas, Brower COURSES CONTINUED—Marxism, Economics, Evolu- tion, Literature, English._NEW TERM begins Feb. 5, 1924.—Register at 127 Unive: rsity Place. Good Clot Expert Ladies’ and Gents’ Tailors 3546 ARMITAGE AVE. Phone Albany 9400 ; Work Called for and Delivered 4 Officers EMIL JENISCH, President L. 8. VOGNILD, Vice-President LINCOLN AVE. ' AND WRIGHTWOOD AVE. Division State Bank West Division and Rockwell Sts. Growth of Deposits DEC. 31, for Men & Boys Shoes—Furnishings—Hats Two Stores hes LINCOLN AVE. AND IRVING PARK BILVD. 1920 ~ $295,743.54 the following questions and met with replies which shed startling infor- the for flourishing indusry—the industry of prohibi- tion enforcement. Soviet Russia has shown the way. In Soviet Russia the profits have been taken out of the manufacture of liquor and the enforcement of employers have accorded the new Fascist governments. Perusing some of the most inspired apolo- etic literature we came across a rather in- structive and somewhat unusually honest ex- SAMUEL ROSEN, Vice-President DEC. 31, 1921 - $651,418.82 ISAAC GROSSMANN, Vice-President G, A. BRUECKNER, Cashier ST ee cians DEC, 31, 1922 - $1,418,733.14 “| DEC. 31, 1928 - $1,756,387.75 mation on the critical stage housing shortage has assumed lanation. {In its last Monthly Bulletin, the | prohibition. In Soviet Russia there are‘no pro- ational City Bank gives tha chat why and | fessional ‘prohibition agents. J Soviet Russia D irectors ; wherefore of government to-day and of capi-|the bootlegging industry is at its lowest ebb William Ganschow; Chal t talist democracy. To quote in part: “Democ-|and does not flourish, as in the United States. |% William B, Berger Samuel R ‘ : racy had run itself into the ground, and in| Let no one be disturbed, Anderson and his R. M. Brueckner Isadore Siegel A Clearing House Bank Sheer desperation the public welcomed any | tribe will continue preying upon the gullible. E. H. Eisler L. S. Vognild } authority that promised to be strong enough | It is in the interest of the capitalist. class and Isaac Grossman Martin Weinberger & and patriotic enough to give good government. |its guardian angel, the government, to have|% imported Coverings at a tre-¥|% | Emil Jenisch John Wiech P After all, the most important service of gov- Bren pestemienel btm pend polis 3 os ape ee ee to our J Dr. G. H. Moldenheuse Morris B, Zoub ital $200. 000.00 ‘ ‘i ae ernment is that of maintaining ord of morality, decency and o' f » experience making ushkewicz A. A, Zuwalski - tecting industry and. private bucness tg |the trail of the class conflicts in order to mis-|% of Covers, enabling us to give § Capita ,Y00. you superior quality, 4 Clemens K. Shapiro, Mgr. Foreign Dept Save 30% on your Automobile % Y : eA % covers. Order direct from— % . The Leland case will undoubtedly makelf ~ GOLLIN BROS, 3% ON SAVINGS $90,000.00 Hollywood ee amenable Peg suggestions | J Formerly With Mandel Brod. from the Christian persons who are worrying|¥ © OLSTERI themselves sick over the open immorality said |% PO jenn own hike democracy really is. No Communist could fhe Mg the issue more squarely and define democracies will learn this lesson they will be | !ead the workers. greatly benefited by the experience.” Here we are told the real function of gov- ernment eed by those who are on the inside. We are indebted to the National City Bank for its frank statement of what capitalist Surplus and Undivided Profits we ‘ 6006 SO. KO! ISKY AVE, Call , pean Resources Over $2,000,000.00 mony in the Leland suit would indicate that it is the lack of concealment that is objected to.