The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 12, 1924, Page 6

/ Page Six THE DAILY WORKEK Tuesday, February 12, 192" THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, Ill, (Phone; Lincoln 7680.) 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 $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street J. LOUIS ENGDAHL.. WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB... tered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Ones at Chicago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. Ines 5 wifes et MBS ck cl eA Te ea REN => Chicago, Ilinois Labor Editor Business Manager Advertising rates on application. Massolini in Herrin Stripped of its designedly theatrical char- acter the recent outrages on the civil liberties of the citizens and residents of Williamson county appear to be nothing else than a brazen conspiracy entered into by the Illinois Cham- ber of Commerce, the Ku Klux Klan and the prohibition enforcement authorities to terror- ize the union miners and their sympathizers in Herrin and the surrounding country, break up the United Mine Workers in that territory and establish an armed dictatorship over the work- ets of that vicinity. Swashbuckler Young quite evidently has the assurance of powerful backing for any crimes against persons and property that he may com- mit. We are somewhat familiar with this type of individual and it has been our experience that they do not go into action unless they have about one thousand per cent the best of it. Machine-guns cost money and Young seems to have about as many of these as the average gunman has automatics. Homes of miners have been invaded without warrant or any pretense of due process of law simply on the pretext that they had liquor of one kind or another on their premises; it is significant that the names of the victims have a foreign sound and that they are members of the United Mine Workers of America. The reactionary interests of Illinois have never forgiven the citizens of Williamson county because they refused to hang wholesale the workers who took part in the battle at the Lester strip mine in which the scabs and gun- men got the worst of it. An enormous sum was raised by the Illinois chamber of com- merce for the prosecution of the miners and it is extremely probable that what remains of the per cent American cohorts in their assaults on the lives and liberties of the workers of Will- iamson county. The sympathetic statements concerning the activities of Young and his Klan forces eman- ating from prohibition enforcement headquar- ters in Washington, D. C., lend color to the be- lief that this governmental agency with its new appropriation of $50,000,000 is the latest re- eruit to the anti-labor legal instruments that the United States government has placed at the disposal of the employers. With its thou- sands of operatives responsible to no one, ap- parently able to escape the consequences of their illegal acts because of assumption that they are enforcing the law of the land, the prohibition enforcement branch of the federal government becomes a valuable ally to the department of justice and other anti-labor agencies. Why Williamson county should be selected for a law-enforcing campaign when in Chicago there is an almost virgin field for this form of ' activity can be explained only by the theory that enforcement of the prohibition law is merely the legal veil for an orgy of terrorism directed against the miners. From the news dispatches it seems quite clear that the national guard units now in Williamson county are co-operating with the Klan forces and that a considerable number of them are acting as a bodyguard for Younz, who has taken over the Herrin city hall, sits at a dask, on which a machine-gun is mounted, and issues orders to his underlings. The Klan password, according to the dispatches, is just as effective in getting thru the military cordons as is the military countersign. All of which indicates that the employers of this country are organizing here and there skeleton detachments, military and semi-mili- tary forces, that can be linked up with govern- ment agencies for purposes of suppression. The Herrin episode hag all of the bragga- docio and opera bouffe characteristics that were to be remarked in the carly exploits of the fascist movement in Italy. It combines all the motives of puritanical morality, revenge for the shattered. prestige of employers and hatred of organized workers, native and for- eign-Born, that distinguishes fascism the world over. Hired mercenaries, aided by the ignorant and servile element of the population in an offensive against workers in strikes, is no new phenomenon in the United States. An open declaration of, war against the workers of an entire community during a » period of industrial peace, so far as we know, is without precedent in the United States and LaFollette’s Game Senator Robert M. LaFollette is playing a double game and a dangerous one—as all double games are. He is gambling for the republican nomina- tion while whispering words of sympathy to workers and farmers, who want him to break clean with his party of reaction and head a national Farmer-Labor party. In Illinois such notorious labor fakers as John H. Walker are endeavoring to organize a movement to place him on the ticket in the presidential primary, and the son of the senator, Philip LaFollette, is to speak at the meeting where the project will be broached as proof that the scheme has Senator LaFol- lette’s endorsement. That LaFollette has not done his best to tear the last rags of respectability from the quiver- ing form of the republican party is shown by his surrender of the leadership in the Teapot Dome expose to Senator Walsh, a reactionary democrat, after LaFollette had started the in- vestigation; he has taken no prominent part in the proceedings, but has profited from the exposure of his rivals in both parties. If LaFollette does not intend to attempt to salvage the wreckage of the republican party by driving for the presidency as its candidate, why has he not taken the greatest opportunity ever presented to a man in public life and with the proof of the bi-partisan corruption of American capitalist government at hand in the oil graft exposures, called upon the masses to desert the stinking carcasses of elephant and donkey? The explanation is to be found, we believe, in the self-evident fact that LaFollette wants to be president and is more than: willing to sabotage the mass movement of the workers and farmers for political independence to satis- fy his personal ambitions. He would much prefer to be a republican president, owing a certain amount of allegiance to the respectable middle-class elements in the republican party and a certain amount to the capitalists of America than to be elected president by a Farmer-Labor party, warring hapon all the privileged elements in American economic and political life. LaFollette is no leader of the masses. He is a middle-class politician with all the weak- nesses and vacillation of his class and in our opinion is the ideal type for the reactionaries to use in overcoming the discredit brought upon the republican party by their kept poli- ticians. LaFollette in the presidential chair as the spokesman of a political party of workers and farmers might give the working masses an opportunity to onganize their forces for a stronger assault of American capitalism. LaFollette elected to the presidency on the epublican ticket would be another Wilson—or worse. His fighting qualities—considerably overestimated, in our opinion—would be used in behalf of the employers and not of the workers and farmers. Senator LaFollette would do well to con- sider another aspect of the situation that arises from the interest in which the workers and farmers are watching his maneuvers. He may not get the republican nomination after all and he may have some difficulty then in convincing the militant farmers and workers of his de- sirability as their candidate on a Farmer-Labor ticket. It is quite possible that Senator LaFollette is making the mistake so often made by those who profess great concern over the wrongs of the masses, but who are careful never to at- tack these evils at their root—the mistake of believing that the masses can be fooled forever by phrases, when they want action. Poor Mr. Mellon! That stalwart guardian of our national treasury, Mr. Andrew Mellon, of Pittsburgh, has let out a wail unto the heavens against the attempt of the democrats and insurgent re- publicans to inject politics into the tax ques- tion. If ever the old adage, that “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” was true, it is infinitely truer in this instance. Mr. Mellon has all too often used his office to help politically and financially the powerful manu- facturing and banking interests supporting his party. Besides, Mr. Mellon has, with increas- ing frequency, more than made up for the sac- rifice he incurred when he took this “poor man’s” job in Washington by his sundry rul- ings on tax payments and amortization in the cases of the Gulf Oil Corporation, the Standard 3teel Car Company, and the Aluminum Trust. Mr. Mellon is personally and directly inter- ested in these three gigantic concerns. But the most timely blow yet struck at Mel- lon; hypocritical ery for non-partisanship in the tax question is that delivered by the re- port of the Bureau of Internal revenue for 1921. This report shows that one person in Pennsylvania made a return of net income of betveeen two and three million dollars. An- other return of net income of between one and one and one and a half million dollars was filed in Pennsylvania. The wealthier of these persons was undoubtedly Mr. Mellon who had a net income of $2,223,058.00. On a net in- come of two million dollars, Mr. Mellon would be saving under his ‘non-partisan tax scheme” approximately $508,406.00. When these figures are compared with the can be taken only ag an indication of the ruth-| fact that in 1921 there were 47,646 persons in less character of the new tactics, which the| Pennsylvania who made returns on incomes rulers of this country are preparing to adopt| between three and four thousand dollars the in the war on labor. glaring hypocrisy of Mr. Mellon comes into There will be many Herrins in America un-| painful clarity. As a matter of fact, Mr. Mel- } American labor awakens to its danger| lon alone would save more under his plan than Dor the movement gains impetus. all these small tax-payers put together. 4 1 is in a desperate Workers Party By J. W. JOHNSTONE. ‘TH coal miners’ convention, held in Indianapolis, Ind,, which en- ded in a_ near riot, brought out more clearly the new turn which the American labor movement has been slowly taking, swinging it more con- sciously into the world labor move- ment, than any previous convention. To the casual observer, and the convention, doubt the most constitutional chronic pessimist, the surface indi- cations were that John L, Lewis re- tained his control over the organiza- tion, by the will of the majority, in spite of the Communist faction and the progressive delegates in the con- vention, The convention ean be summar- ized as follows: (1). Convention opens with John L. Lewis seemingly in complete control. (2). In spite of the terrific red baiting, the Communist faction is recognized by the progressive element as the leaders of the opposition. (3) Majority of delegates in open revolt against the administration. his control. (4). The progressives determined to i to reconsider all progressive meas- ures that had been railroaded thru in early days of the convention. (5). Lewis loses his control com- pletely, ending the convention, without finishing the work of the con- vention and without the consent of the delegates, (6). A post-convention meeting, with 1,187 delegates’ participating, decides to call a special convention for the purpose of impeaching the Lewis administration, to give Howat a fair hearing and for the reconsid- eration of the political and trade union measures that Lewis rail- roaded. This, however, does not give a real living picture of the convention. To get the proper focus, one must know the conditions under which the battle issue. make was fought, the arena where it was fought as well as the combatants, the principles involved, the future poten- North Dakota The Convention of the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota that has just closed with the onganization of a state Farmer-Labor party, arising out of the bankruptcy of the republi- can politicians in the League, is an historic event of paramount importance to the work- ing masses of this country. North Dakota has for many years been the pivotal, keystone state in guaging the political temper and conduct of the agricultural masses of the Northwest. It was North Dakota that first gave us the revolt against the grain gamb- lers and the Supreme Court’s high-handed de- cision supporting these plunderers of the farm- ers. The Non-Partisan League of North Da- kota was the banner organization as well as the first of its kind. _ The most important points brought home by what happened at this gathering are the fol- lowing: First of all, the convention threw the last spadeful of earth on the false report spread by the administration press that Cool- idge was gaining in popularity in the North- west. Except from the professional political job seekers, and those who either had been or were still seeking to be baptized in the unholy waters of the Potomac, Coolidge met with no favor and received no support at this conven- tion. The organization of a state Farmer-Labor Party by forty delegates representing at least 20 of the most densely populated counties of the State is particularly significant because this act can only be interpreted as a challenge to LaFollette. The farmers have made up their minds that LaFollette must either bredk with the republican party and bid it good-bye forever or else drop all his pretenses of being the leader of the attack against the Old Guard corruptionists and reactionaries. The organ- ization of a state Farmer-Labor Party in North Dakota is a warning to LaFollette that the farming masses of the Northwest are not going to wait for him and again be left in the rut and slough of economic bankruptcy and political impotency. LaFollette: must get out or he is thru. Above all, this convention shows the urgen-' cy of cementing the solidarity between the dis- possessed rural masses and the exploited city workers. It is the workingmen massed in the big industries of the big cities that have had the most experience in the struggle against the overlords of our economic life. The experience of these city workers is essential to a success- ful fight against the common enemy of the farmers and the industrial masses. The unity between the workers of Pitts. burgh, Chicago, and. New York and the farm- ers of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Nebraska is drawing nearer. The recent events in North Dakota will go a long way towards securing this unity and the victory of the workers and farmers in their struggle to establish a work- and farmers’ government in the United States. s Cal’s Campaign Managers The administration has let loose a flood of words appealing to the Democrats and insur- gent Republicans not to make a partisan issue out of the Teapot Dome scandal. Naturally, Coolidge, being at the head of the govern- ment, has been the most eloquent pleader for non-partisanship and disinterestedness in the oo disaster that has befallen his party thru all being caught red-handed. How empty all these stressed words of the President are is known to almost everybody. But the death blow to these Puritanic confes- sions of “Silent Cal” is sk by the present political situation in where Coolidge fight to win the State from s Power of Machine. The Lewis machine is. without t powerful reactionary combination in the world trade union movement. They have an annual in- come of a million dollars with which to perpetuate their power. authority over the membership is greater than any rul- ing monarch in the world. Even the names and addresses of local” union secretaries are known only to the administration. the A. F. of L. wishes to circularize the miners’ unions, it is dond by the Lewis machine—they trust nobody. The appointive power of Lewis puts the convention from an organiza- tional point of view completely under All officer’s reports are printed and in such a ‘Way as to pur- posely confuse the delegates, and ere only given to them during the: report. The resolutions, of which there were 728, are thrown together in book form, with no index and are num- bered. Related resolutions are pur- posely scattered and are only referred in the report and by the com- mittee by their number. covering numerous resolutions are carefully prepared by the Lewis hand picked committee, worded to confuse the delegates and camouflage the Machine Preparations. With machine delegates ready to the proper motion, speakers galore prepare to talk on the reports as instructed, tellers who count “one for you and two for me,” with a payroll vote of around five hundred who vote for the machine on every question, Lewis, the most unscrupu- lous labor official in the American labor movement, in the chair. Tom- linson Hall, a huge auditorium, with a special sounding apparatus, spe- cially tuned so that the officials on the stage are clearly heard, while the voice of the delegate in the body of the hall sounds like a whisper, with SSeS a huge lela 4 of 1,800 delegates, .|that is more like a mass meeting than a convention, the militants had some work cut out for them, Arrayed against this formidable army were forty-five Communists and about 120 progressives, very few of them having had previous conven- tion experience, with only a cor- poral’s guard that could be termed capable floormen. This determined little group, fighting with their backs to the wall, under the leadership of the Comunists, finally broke thru this seemingly impregnable fortress, won the majority of the delegates, forcing Lewis, in order to temporarily save the situation, to prematurely end the convention tm confusion at a time when hundreds of delegates were de- manding the floor. Issue Always Clear. It was a remarknble achievement, and will go down in labor history as the first really intelligent attempt to wrest the leadership from the re- ,actionaries, The issue at all times was clear, no matter what the ques- tion was, the reds were on trial. In the Lewis report it was Soviet Russia and Communism that were on trial. Amalgamation, the appoint- ive power, the labor party, Nova Scotia, constitutional changes, no matter what it was the vote occurred Lewis’ When Substitutes reds or are you with the yellows? For a time the Lewis-Green com- bination psychologized tne delegates with one of the most terrific bar- rages of anti-red ammunition ever laid down in a labor convention, but this dogged few who never accepted defeat, who waged their fight with a Communist understanding and with a perseverance that was admirable, finally convinced the majority of the delegates, that the Communists and progressives were the only ones who had a constructive program and the courage to fight for it, Communists Without Rivals. One thing that became-very no- ticeable as the convention went on, Hiram Johnson. Two of the President’s five} campaign managers are oil men in California. One of these managers, Mark L. Requa, was once vice president of the Sinclair Consoli- dated Oil Corporation of which Harry F. Sin- clair was at the same time president. An- other Coolidge angel in California is Ralph Arnold, a geologist.and engineer who was in the employ of Trinidad Lake Petroleum Com- pany. These oil experts were chosen as campaign managers by Williant Butler, the Boston mil- lionaire adviser of Coolidge, in a specia] mes- sage on the occasion of the choice of this com~ mittee. Mr. Stearns declared: “I heartily approve the names suggested.” This California situation gives the lie to the noise being made by Coolidge and his clique that they intend to prosecute the oil thieves. When the President appointed Attalee Pom- erene, who, after being decisively repudiated in the Ohio Senatorial elections, was awarded the lucrative job of being counsel for fifteen railroad corporations whom he served in the Senate by helping to put over the Esch-Cum-| ey mins Railroad Act, he showed his ugly hand in the whole oil steal. When Coolidge ap- pointed oil men, particularly a Sinclair oil offi- cial, to run his campaign in so important a State as California, he drove the last nail into the lid of the coffin in which all his innocent — for political disinterestedness now lie ead. New York Rent Relief In view of the New York State Assembly’s voting to extend the present emergency rent laws to 1926, the workers of the metropolis may consider government action in the hous- ing crisis closed. The extension of the emergency rent laws enacted in 1920 for two years will be hailed by many liberals as the cure-all for the de- plorable housing conditions of the working masses. Nothing of the kind is true. At best the emergency rent laws only limit the speed with which the landlords are ‘boost the rents skyward. The rent laws haven’t helped an iota to save the workers from oppressive rents. These laws have not been of the slightest service in improving the sanitary conditions, the dread- ful congestion, and the general filthy, delap- idated state of affairs in the working class districts. The report of the New York State Commis- sion on Housing and Regional Planning is in itself a monument to the failure of these emer- gency laws to relieve the acuteness of the crisis. The report states very definitely that since 1920 the housing conditions have become steadily more miserable, bordering on disaster. The only reason for the Legislature’s quick action in adopting unanimously the bill to ex- tend the emergency rent laws two years is the desire of the government to circumscribe the landlord’s policy of rule and ruin in such a way as merely to avoid a social explosion on the part of the suffering tenants against the disgraceful living conditions. These laws were not re-enacted to help the tenants. They don’t strike at the huge profits of the landlord class. These laws don’t even pretend to check the persistent vicious mal- practice of the landlords in refusing repairs and in forcing calamitous unsanitary condi- tions on the houses occupied by the workers. These laws will not help the workers be- cause they deliberately do not strike at the root of the housing evil—the control of this most vital necessity of the working masses— their "espgapesitiond the capitalist class for private i a on_ the question: Are you with the |j in Action at Coal Miners’ Convention tialities and the actual results of the was how the ever-growing anti-ad- ministration, forces,.from the pure and simple trade unionists who want- ed an honest administration to te party sympathizers, looked to the Communists for leadership. There - was no competition in that field; the socialists had completely disappeared. The value to our party of the work at the miners’: convention can only be measured by the way in which we take advantage of it; our program has gone into every district of the miners’ union, the Workers Party is now a recognized factor in the politi- cal as well as the everyday struggles of the miners, we must be alert enough to capitalize this situation by organizational measures. Out of this convention has come a powerful left wing movement, some hundreds of delegates actually giving their names and addresses so that they can organize their forces against the reactionaries. These hundreds of leaders, in their local unions, will carry the fight back to the member- ship, They are determined to first get rid of Lewis. To do so they-are going to call a special convention to impeach the administration. Lewts is not resting easily since the con- vention. The Result. All in all, the results of our actiy- ity were splendid; Lewis’ machine is badly damaged, his throne is under- mined, a strong left wing movement has been organized, with the Work- ers Party political leadership as a recognized fact. We cannot’ rest on our laurels, however. The militant forces in the miners’ union must be thoroly solidified. The sting of defeat of Indianapolis must be wiped out, and that can only be done by the impeachment of the Lewis administration, their removal” from office and the election of a lead- ership that has a fundamental un- derstanding of the class struggle and will fight on that basis, This is the immediate objective and it will be reached. AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O’FLAHERTY. A gentleman by the names of Weil who became known to fame and peni- tentiaries thru his ability to aecum- ulate money outside the sacred cir- cles of capitalist legality, was par- doned last year by Goveifior Small. Mr. Weil is also known in his favor- ite haunts as the “Yellow Kid.” On his release he acted ver'y much like a reformed Socialist. He mourn- ed over his life of sin and promised to walk the straight and narrow path in the future, conform to the rules of capitalist society and serve as a beacon light to guide other sinners along the righteous road, —- lomaeaanl A real estate shark. probabiy--hep-———— ing that the “yellow kid’s” experience in the gentle art of separating gul- lible citizens from their cash, would place his experience and his conver- sion at his disposal employed him asasalesman. Mr. Weil, with a keen e to the advertising value of a Bible took the Lord’s book with him and returned to Joliet to give his late associates a word of cheer and en- couragement. The capitalist press wrote long and solemn editorials on the curative power of prayer and the business value of clergymen. But it seems that it is almost as hard to reform a confirmed capitalist as a confirmed drunkard. Mr. Weil found no romance in selling house lots. About this time Coolidge’s cab- inet was turning over the oil supply of the U. S. to their friends for satchels—not empty ones. Oil there- fore intrigued the “Yellow Kid.” He is again in the toils of the law, for committing the crime of robbing the robbers. There is a legal “way to do most anything. Even murder can be committed with impunity under sandtion of government, Robbing can also be committed legally. The capitalist system itself is legalized bery. The “Yellow Kid,” how- ever, went outside the sacred circle permitted to snd Besved a Millionaire. He com- an unforgivable crime, and the to ledtad is yawning for him. Mr. ‘eil may soon have the pleasure of listening to some preacher advising him to reform. The United Mine Workers Journal is not blessed with a sense of humor else it would expire with laughter at the cartoon that appears on the cover of the current issue. An auto- mobile loaded with coal operators and a coal truck filled with miners are on the way to Jacksonville, Fla. The vehicles with their human freight ap- proach the point where the two ronda converge. Jacksonville can he seen in the distance. Both groups hail each other. But the amusing part is that the vehicle in which the miners are approaching the scene of the confer- ence is drawn by a jackass, i