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

-———~wanized labor. THE DAILY WORKER Wednesday, March 12, 1924 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. .3 months | By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50..6 months $2.50..3 months $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street 3, LOUIS ENGDAHL } Béitors WILLIAM F. DUNNE $ . MORITZ J. LOEB. ..Business Manager nes ¥: ti : nd-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Dimes at Chicas, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. 3 Chicago, Illinois | Advertising rates on application. Ford’s Reward By a vote of 227-142 the House of Represen- tatives has decided to hand over_the great Muscle Shoals power resource aggregating 900,000 horsepower. In violation of the Federal water power act limiting such leases to fifty years the House decided to give away for one hundred years to Mr. Ford for the paltry sum of a maximum of ten million dollars nitrate plants, steam plants, and quarries valued at scores of mil- lions of dollars. The scrap value of the avail- able equipment alone is worth more than what Ford is to pay for the greatest power resource of the country. The whole episode is illustrative of the in- herently corrupt character of capitalist demo- cratic government in the United States. For two years Mr. Ford and other private inter- ests tried to grab up this great source of wealth. Fora time it appeared as if Mr. Ford stood no chance against the competing bidders. This was particularly true when the flivver king was harboring and advertising his own presidential ambitions. But no sooner did Ford renounce his presidential aspirations and publicly declare himself for Coolidge than his Muscle Shoals prospects became rosy. When the Detroit multimillionaire changed the name of: his clubs from “Rord for President” to “Ford for President Coolidge” the Muscle Shoals issue was settled. The reactionary ad- ministration forthwith decided to be generous to Mr. Ford. Whe reward to Mr. Ford by the Coolidge clique is another case of the typical Teapot politics with which our whole governmental system reeks. If anybody still nurses any illu- sions as to Mr. Ford’s idealism, stupid, abnor- mal, or otherwise, this deal for Muscle Shoals made with the oil-besmeared Old Guard should dispel these notions forever. Mr. Ford has shown ‘himself to be as good a politician as an exploiter of the workers and an enemy of or- The price paid by the working masses for this disillusionment and enlighten- ment as to Ford’s political integrity and in- competence is our surrender of the greatest water power resources in the country. This is an-expensive price indeed, but we will have to go on paying such prices until the workers and farmers take over the government and the industries. The Curse of Child Labor Except for China and India the scourge of thild labor has been more widespread and devastating in the United States, the most capi- talist country, than in any other land on earth. It has been estimated that more than one million children between the ages of ten and fifteen are still engaged in the statistically labeled “gainful occupations,” that is, they} are employed in industries netting the bosses profits. In the beet fields of Michigan, in the coal mines of Tennessee and Virginia, in the textile mills of North Carolina and Rhode [sland, on the cotton plantations of Texas and Alabama, and in the orange-berry bogs of New Jersey we have these hundreds of thou- sands of children grinding out profits for the employing class. Even in the metropolis of our country, New York, there are children of three years of age, at work in their dilapidated unsanitary rooms, misnamed homes, helping to turn out costly dresses for the chosen ladies of Fifth Avenue aritocrats of capitalist high |the housing system compelling them to live in | fire traps. Ne loss of thirteen lives i fire on Madison} a ches ho pre aiory B. W. Huebsch, Inc., of New York City. Huebsch & Co. | tragedies. | are thirty thousand homes in New York in fire! "30,000 Firetraps The other day the workers of New York held a rousing: protest demonstration against The event was occasioned by the Street, in the heart of the congested East Side occupied by the working class. Now Fire Chief Kenlon comes forward with information that should arouse every working- man in the country to immediate action to make impossible the recurrence of such According to Chief Kenlon there peril. Deadly, hazardous fire perils are the| lot of one million members of the working} class who are forced to inhabit these abomina-| ble traps. Eloquent testimony of the serious dangers confronting the workers as a result of | this perilous state of affairs is afforded by the fact that in 1923 fires in the tenement houses of New York took a toll of eighty-one lives. A most instructive sidelight on the critical} conditions in the Empire city is furnished by the conclusion of Frederick C. Kuehnle, the Chief Inspector of the Bureau of Buildings in Manhattan, that if the landlord of the firetrap on Madison Street had spent $2,500 for iron staircases and wire lath-cement walls the lives of the workers and their children might have been saved. . . This is the pith of the whole calamitous housing condition under which the workers of every city find themselves today. When the homes of the workingmen are privately owned and run for profits the landlords will not make the necessary repairs, will not take steps to secure the lives of the tenants against the! menace of fatal blazes. To take such steps would reduce the profits and the landlords are more interested in high rates of profit on their investment than they are in the lives of their tenants. Since these same landlords are also the owners of the government, nothing can be expected from this source by the working class. There may be less than thirty thousand fire traps in Chicago, Philadelphia or San Francisco. But in all the cities of the country the houses of the workers and the municipal governments are owned by the profit-seeking landlord class. Hence all the workers face the same dangers. Gompers Plays His Part The March issue of Mr. Gompers’ private house organ, the American Federationist, is an unusually uninteresting number. But there is one article in this issue that is even more in- structive than interesting. This is the story by Mr. Gompers of Mr. Gompers’ trip to Panama. We refer to the impression Mr. .Gompers tried to give his readers of the blessings Haiti has received at the hands of the American troops of occupation. Everybody knows that the conduct of the American marines in Haiti is one of the black- est crimes perpetrated by any of the imperial- ist capitalist governments. American employ- ing class military forces raped the Haitian Republic and forcibly dissolved its parliament. Even the Harvester Trust Senator McCormick of Illinois, who had previously indorsed the high-handed outrageous conduct of the forces of occupation in Haiti, has changed his mind and now advocates America’s discarding its present policies. But with Mr. Gompers it is different. The president of the American Federation of Labor quotes the so-called President Borno of the Haitian Republic to show that all the demands that have arisen in Haiti and the United States for the withdrawal of the marines had no real basis in the conditions and were unwarranted. Mr. Gompers has Borno say: “It is only the outs that are dissatisfied. One, two, or three men might some day send out a statement con- trary to what is the opinion of the great ma- jority of the Haitian people. Naturally people in the United States may think there is some basis for the charges made. But there is not.” Gompers shows his hand here as a partner to the infamous policy pursued by our indus: trial and financial magnates in crushing the Haitian people. This disgraceful conduct on the part of Mr. Gompers is an outrage against the whole American working class. At best Mr. Gompers speaks only for a small section of our workers, the uppermost layer of the society. Child labor is an organic disease of capi-|been led into becoming part and parcel of the b talist production for profits. National organ-|imperialist system at the expense of the great izations numbering a membership of ten mil-|mass of workingmen massed in the big basic lions have been unable to free these children|industries of the country. Gompers, as the from the bondage of capitalist exploitation. As|loyal lackey of the organ of dollar democracy a matter of fact, the Children’s Bureau at|at home, the strikebreaking government of the Washington has found that the first six months| United States, is also an organic part of the of 1923 show an increase of 38 per cent in|¢apitalist machinery of oppression abroad, a child labor. highly skilled aristocratic workers who have vital part of the whole imperialist system By IURY LIBEDINSKY Published by THE DAILY WORK- thru special arrangement with Coyprighted, 1923, by B, W. * 2 2 6 (WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE): The Russian Communist Party branch is governing this frontier city and fighting the counter- revolution. Earlier installments tell of the fuel shortage that pre- vents seed grain from being fetched on the railroad. The Party meeting decides to send the Red Army far away for fuel, at the risk of leaving the city open for bandits and counter-revolutionists. It also decides to conscript the local bourgeoisie for wood cutting in a near-by park. Varied types of party members are flashed on the screen: Klimin, the efficient president of the branch, who still finds time to have a sweetheart; Robeiko, the consumptive, whose devotion is killing him; Gornuikh, the brilliant youth of 19 on the Cheka; Matusenko, the luxury- loving place-hunter and Stalmak- hov, a practical workingman revo- lutionist. Gornuikh, disguised as a peasant, overhears talk in the market place about a- plot of counter-revolutionists to seize the town while the Red Army is away getting wood. The Communist company is summoned but, perhaps, too late. Robeiko is dragged out of his house and shot, Klimin’s sweetheart is butchered and Klimin and Stalmakhov are overporered and hurled into a dungeon, The counter-revolutionaries are in pos- session of the town, with the Red Army away. Klimin and Stalmak- hov are butchered before the Com- munist company led by Gornuikh can arrive. The Red Army ap- pears at last with great reinforce- ments and the big battle begins with Karaulov, a rough Cossack revolutionist,.in command of the Red forces.— (NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY). CB rag! CHAPTER XII—Continued. iS acts moved forward slowly and lost -many killed and wounded, and when in the blue morning mist, on the hillock by the railings and little houses, Spitsyn saw the dis- tant lines of the enemy, the edge of the sky was already bright scar- let and the’sun was on the point of gliding up. from behind the rolling faraway horizon. Spitsyn was now not thinking of anything. Fastening his cartridge belt so that he could quickly and easily get at his cartridges, he aimed smartly, fired, and the rifle thundered at his ear, and jerked in his strong hands as if it were alive. Then, stopping, he ran breathlessly to the next hillock, fell on his knees, took aim once more, and agai the rifle thundered at his eur. Fidein had been slightly wounded in the left shoulder, but the bone had not been touched and he remained in the ranks. Spitsyn bandaged him silently, and then they ran on again, one beside the other, and poured in the direction of the little houses and railings of the outskirts, white puffs of smoke, and invisible ter- rible bullets, In times of peace, Danilov never thought of war and battles, but lived for his own pleasure, spoke at meetings, rode to the Politdep to have a row with Mar- tuinov, and did not mind drinking and flirting with a pretty girl, But war came along and seized Dan- ilov, only not like Seletsky as a director of fighting operations but as a soldier in the ranks, Always in battle he marched in the first line, and from far away the Red Army men saw the shining leather jacket and the scarlet riding breeches of the Commissar. And now he had already asked Karaulov and Seletsky several times: “Give me a company and T'll go for them with the bay- onet.’ The Battalion Commander, not understanding him, shrugged his shoulders and turned away, DB itsantainanhionigs What Do-You Think of Our First Story? The DAILY WORKER wants to know what its readers think of the first serial novel it o! its readers. We have many installments of this gri rq story. Another appears today. What do you think of the story, its setting, ite character, as far as we have gone? We want our reads ers to let us know. Write down your views and send them in to the DAILY WORKER, 1640 N. Halsted St., Chicago, I. We publish as many of these letters as we can find space for. Don’t de- lay. Write today. and Karaulov swore at him briefly but forcibly. Danilov had been offended and had gone to the first company to find his friend Spitsyn, whom he respected for his brains, tho he laughed at him now and again. He wanted to share his resentment with him. He walked up behind the lines, sometimes distinguish- ‘ing near the railings the small dark figure of an enemy and shoot- ing at it with his revolver. Friend- ly and cheerfully he greeted the Red Army men, and coming up to’ the flank of the first company, he had already seen Spitsyn’s bent back, and was just going to call him, when, suddenly, looking to- wards the nearest houses of the outskirts, he saw a black spot coming nearer. He looked at it sharply and keenly and stood still. A few bullets whistled over his head. But he went on staring and suddenly roared out; “Comrades, some woman or other is running. Be careful how you shoot.” Already they all saw her. Her hair was loose in the wind, and now and again she fell, screamed piercingly, and ran on again. In pursuit of her, from the enemy’s lines, poured shot after shot, And suddenly Fidein shouted out in his ringing young voice, and his words were carried far along the ilne: “Lads, it?s our schoolmistress, it’s Comrade Gratcheva!” Others supported him: “Yes. Yes. It’s she, herself!” Danilov ran forward with his revolver. “Now then, Comrades, to the rescue of our schoolmistress, Come on to meet her! Forward!” “Lie down, Comrade Gratcheva! Lie down in the snow!” Fidein shouted to her. Lisa did not un- derstand at first what these people were shouting at her. But then she saw the line running towards her, nearer and nearer, and at last fear no longer prevented her from recognizing the familiar faces, There they all were, dear ones, her own, more than her own! The lads she had taught the multipli- cation table to in the school, now armed with terrible rifle, they seemed to Lisa a powerful aveng- ing force, a force of triumphant justice. She fell on the snow. “How did you'come here?” she heard. a sharp voice, and lifting her head she saw a stern sky over- head only faintly turning blue, a dim red sun, a grey mass of houses on the hill close by, and she heard the irregular sounds of the fusil- lade, threaded by the monotonous tapping of the machine gun. Im- mediately before her, on a back- ground of dark earth and white snow, she saw a grey, literally bloodless face, matted eyebrows, wrinkled cheeks and thin beard, and recognized the Brigade Com- mander, Karaulov, She was not afraid of him as she had been for- merly, but, weeping, began to tell him what she had lived thru dur- ing the night. Karaulov, not interrupting, heard the details of Robeiko’s death, heard in silence the tale of Sim- kova’s corpse, which was still ly- ing there ... under the grey rail- ing . . . and Karaulov’s face was Are You Reading “A Week” 7 motionless, except for some muscle that. jerked in his cheek. But when the Battalion Commander in- terrupted her disconnected narra- tive with a brief report that connection with the railway station had ‘been established, and that Comrade Gornuikh, the Chekist, was there with - fifty railwaymen of the Communist Company, Kar- aulov commanded in reply, abruptly: “Danilov! Go for them with the bayonet. Now I permit it. Finish them. off, sons of dogs! Begin with the left flank. . .. Seletsky! Fire down the streets with the machine guns... . Take no pris- oners.”” And then he caught Danilov, who was delighted at the command, by the hand, held him a moment. and whispered: “vid you hear? They have killed Robeiko, . . . When the town is taken, I shall drink like sand, . . . But now, advance!” CHAPTER XIII. oO VER the purple-brown distance of the fields, catching at the grey roofs of the houses, slowly, hanging low, heavy, damp, quiet masses of clouds floated up. They sowed a thin drizzle, hesitating, timorous, but joyful, like the first caress of love, like the trembling approach of a youth to the naked female body. The hills were in- visible—the misty net of rain hid them, and under the low cloudy canopy: the world was small and constricted, but the air was grow- ing warm and saturated with mois- ture, just as it is under the glass of a garden frame, dimmed with a dull film of tiny drops of water. The light wind, lazy. and ca- priciously changing direction, car- ried from the fields to the town the intoxicating aroma of the dis- solution of the old life and the be- ginning of the new, and, from the town to the fields, noises, knock- ings, whistles and church bells. Konstantin Petrovich was drink- ing in both one and the other with his whole being: he was standing on the sandy hill—there is a soli- tary weather-beaten rock there— and looked down at the pile of houses and the railings, the mass of churches, and the picture of the quiet little town, tedious, familiar in all its details, seemed to him transparent, and sewn with tarnish- ed thread on ‘an ancient faded curtain, ‘ Some one strong and bold would finally tear it up, and there would shine out from under it the varie- gated colors of a new life, alien and hostile to Konstantin Petro- vitch, and glowing with a beauty that he would not be able to under- stand. Life, like an aged snake, was once moré changing its skin, iaeeine off the old one, faded and wrinkled,.and under it were being revealed the bright patches of the never yet seen pattern of the new life. Were not these the bright patches that even now were lighting up the grey picture seen thru the smoke and rain, the scarlet flag on the building of the Circus, yes, and the red placard over the chem- ists’s shop in the square? And Konstantin -Petrovitch look- ed back on the past life of the Rus- sian people, that went on on the background of those wild misty fields, in little grey towns, in the innumerable villages, the life that had been painted by Pushkin, Tur- genev, Chekhov . . . and hundreds of other Russian writers, who wept over that life that was now for- ever gone, described it so truly, and continually enchanted Kon- stantin Petrovitch with its melan- choly beauty. For twenty years he had taught literature in the Gymnasium of the town, for twenty years, year by year, he had read thru the elegantly bound pooks that filled two cases in his little study. Their ranks had much thinner since the Revolution. ‘. , » Margarita Semenova, the elderly woman who was for him both wife and servant, wes ex- changing them for meat, groats, flour and eggs. - (To Be Continued Thursday.) CHRANA OR CHEKA? of Me's NATIONAL REPUBLICAN, official mouthpiece of the decay- ing “Grand Old Party,” has of late een fuming at the mouth against the Teapot investigation. In a screaming front page outburst the all too-righteous mouthed Mr. Al- bert H, Laidlaw, one of the most ex- pensive capitalist propagandists on the market, charges the senate pub- lic lands committee witn overthrow- ing the Constitution and becoming a Cheka. supplanted government by Constitu- tion, rants Mr. Laidlaw. law and his like. The real is: naked uglin of a scare by the workin, tion, His Pitiful Whine. No one will be fooled by Mr. Laie ue is not one between so-called constitu- tionalism and the cheka, but the fact that our capitalist Ochrana, our dic- tatorial capitalist clique dominating the country, is being exposed in its ind given somewhat ion of the and farming masges to the revelations of the Teapot investiga- comparison.” Class Conflicts Sharpening. terror-stricken and panicky. the ‘reign of terror’ would be like a pleasant excursion to the country in So Mr. Laidlaw and his ilk are AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O'FLAHERTY. Clare Sheridan says that the King of England had not any intimate, friends until the British Labor party came into office. She tells us that George is very democratic and felt quite at home among the sick and wounded during the war. No doubt he: appreciated the boys’ heroism in behalf of his meal ticket. Even his son, the Prince of Wales, prefers jockeys to gentlemen. + 2 ® When the Ministerial list of the MacDonald government was present- ed to him, the King did not know what to do, There were so many aristocratic socialists there that he was up in the air, so to speak. Lords and Sirs intermixed mith a stray la- bor leader cluttered the cabinet menu card. But when he reached the name of John Wheatley from the Clyde, he shook his head. Hé had his “doots.” John was a socialist and talked like one. "8 8 Ramsay MacDonald assured His Majesty, Wheatley was a very proper person. Then the “swearing in” cere- mony took place. The king knew them all by their first names. The labor members were ordered to kneel on a velvet cushion in front of him, which they did, swore allegiance to him on a New Testament which was a gift of the occasion and engraved with the name of each. The kissing of George’s hand followed. After the osculatory exercises were over the king buttonholed Ramsay MacDonald and whispered in his ear, “Of all my Ministerial subjects, Ramsay, old dear, the one who gave me the most lingering kiss was subject Wheatley.” Now, there you are. .- * *. * The. DAILY WORKER may carry a news item like this in the year 1950, social revolutions and other cir- cumstances permitting: “Congress- man Puddlebrain introduced a) bill in the House today authorizing the president to appoint a committee of three with a view to examining the possibilities of the scheme suggested by J. P. Bloater of the Alaska Lum- ber Trust, to provide disabled veter- ans of the war for, democracy’ with jerutches and mahogany frames for their honorable discharge certificates. The congressman suggested the fol- lowing names to the president: Con- gressmen Flimflam of Missouri, Ko- kum of New York and Kelly Poole of Chicago. Congressman Puddlebrain resented the imputation that Mr. Bloater was moved by any motive but the welfare of the ex-servicemen when he made the suggestion. A bill to give the veterans of the great war adjusted compensation in the form of iodine for their rheumatism was in- troduced today in the senate by Hodge Podge of Massachusetts. It is opposed by the Senator Turpentine eta Genre ss * © The Vatican is contemplating rec- ognition of the Soviet government. Negotiations are in progress to ar- range a treaty. It seems that the spurt of enthusiasm which prevailed in counter-revolutionary quarters has now died down and His Holiness is doing the wise thing. Coupled with this information came beens eed the Greek t succeeded in findin; a man th Foes the country off his hands. The victim has a long name but we doubt if his term will be so long. Our favorite restaurant could throw no light on what penitentiary he escaped from, but the opinion was hazarded that he must be a second story worker, who figures on a quick getaway in ‘case of trouble. Ramsay Has Tough Time. Ramsay MacDonald has a tough ‘time trying to please Lord Curzon and the manufacturers and keep his labor followers at his heels at the same time. Well, they are at his heels— barking. The labor leaders who are not in the cabinet do not see any rea- son why they should not be called into conference whenever matters affect- ing the interests of their unions come before the government. MacDonald was told that the workers do not ap- perciate the blessings of government- appointed courts of inquiry as was established in the last strike. They prefer to fight it out without the in- tervention of an alleged sympathetic body. 16 More Syndicalism Cases. SACRAMENTO, the 23 I. W. bP in arrested in criminal syndicalism charge, They presumably be tried before Judge Busick, . W. injunction, and the five years for circularizing lly, bd of a repeal of the syndical March 11—Of author of the anti- Exposure of American Ochrana, Mr. Laidlaw has more brass than even we thought he had, His whole article is just one whine after an- other against what he calls the at- tempts to outrage and rape such lily- white innocents as Fall, Paadbarty: the country, that it. is even ousnly Sinclair, Denby, Doheny, and Cool-| threatening to use force and vio! idge. The spokesman for the Re-!in order to stifle the Teapot disclos- publican Party invokes the aid of| ures, Thus thundered » Laidla that be evar of en behalf of en bie ocracy—the division of governmen' forces on guard for cay UAT and exocttine’ Gepetieagnie. eile} ahold dhe iSbehstapttatases 4 and executive » This low the exam set by the United crushing the weaker peoples of the industrially So determined is the reactionary coterie of exploiters to save its Och- rana, its secret and open brutal con- trol of the government machinery, the means of production and ex- change and the natural resources of What a scathing indictment of our capitalist social order this sordid picture of children at|!ss developed countries. work “by the dawn’s early light” presents!| This is the part played by Mr. Gompers in What monumental folly is generated by a sys-|the struggles of the workers and farmers tem of production and exchange under which|4gainst their exploiters and oppressors. The one in every twelve children is compelled to|capitalist clique that is holding in subjection labor and one in every ten adults is lined up|the working masses of the United States, the in a movement for the abolition of this dread-| Philippines, Haiti, San Domingo, the Virgin ful scourge! Islands, and Mexico surely owes a great debt Karl Marx has well said that “capital comes of gratitude to Mr. Gompers for his role in the into this world dripping blood and dirt from|‘!8ss conflict raging between the employing every one of its pores.” All such drugs as and working classes. * weak, half-hearted palliatives of reform legis- lation have failed to destroy this scourge of} The .100 per cent American students at child labor. What is needed now is the sur-| James Patten’s Northwestern University show geon’s knife to go to the root of the afflicted| that they are not too proud to fight. A large area. Only a major operation on the whole|mob of them pelted a few peaceful studen social order—the thoro reorganization of so-| with stale eggs a few evenings ago. ‘This in- tiety on a Communist basis can end the evils|dicates of course that when the next war of child labor. 5 breaks out they will all rush to Washington. af character of the government nse brig to Ie, heavens that this sacr prop of our employing such dictatorship is being under- mined by the Teapot bj ei The Public Lands Committee is assuming the roles of the courts the exec- utive! Government by has