The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 15, 1924, Page 9

si iy ee ee The Ku Klux Klan and the Miners - the mining industry the Ku Klux Klan is becoming a menac- ing factor that will have to be reck- oned with in the very near future. -They are making a bold bid for con- trol of the miners’ union, notwith- standing that membership in the Klan is sufficient grounds for expul- sion. It is generally taken for granted amongst the miners that the klan has already gained complete control of the Indiana district. The recommendation of Van Bitt- ner, speaking for the resolutions com- mittee at the national convention, that the clause against the klan be stricken from the constitution, the open support given to the klan by Hessler, of Indiana, the fact that Lewis seemed willing to let it go over, forced many of the delegates to leave the convention firmly in the belief, that the Lewis machine, was either deadly afraid of the influence of the klan, or were actually mem- bers of it. This recommendation coming from the resolutions, com- mittee vas made unquestionably with Lewis’ approval. It was his own hand picked committee, and every delegate knew that none of the committees reported on any ques- tion to the convention, without fixst consulting with Lewis. Klan Is Not Molested. This is what helps to make the klan a dangerous factor in the min- ing industry, and explains-why no real organized expose of the klan has been made by the miners’ offi- cials, altho the homes of their mem- bers have been invaded by the klan, and a veritable reign of terror i: being carried on against the for- eigner in many states, reaching a high water mark in the mining “towns in southern IHinois. Thé Com- munists and even the mildest of pro- — are hounded by the Lewis- arrington machine, are boycotted im the mine, expelled from the union, because they want to make the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica a real militant fighting force, * but the klan is left Fes to out its work of terrorism and dis- ruption. The domination of the klan in Her- rin, Johnson City, West Frankfort i & ~ and other mining towns, is a stand- ing challenge to organized labor of Illinois, which has not as yet been accepted. It is an open insult to the miners of Illinois whose members are mostly of foreign birth. As long as the klan is allowed unrestricted license to do as they please, it wil be diffieult to tell just who compose its members, but the morons and cowards who make up the klan, could very easily be exposed to the light of day, if an energetic public cam- paign was carried on against them, led by the miners’ officials and the Illinois State Federation of Labor. The resistance against theklan in these towns is led by miners, in spite of the passive attitude of their official. Senator Sneed, who is also an official of the miners’ union in the Herrin. sub-district, should be leading the fight in that. town, but he is afraid’ of his political job. Frank Farrington and John 4H. Walker should be leading a state fight against this gang of hoodlums, but it is not considered good poli- ties to take this fight up. The fact that the three of them are miners, and it is the members of their or- ganization that: are the victims, seems to have no weight with them. Declares Klan Members Cowards The utter cowardliness of the klan members is shown, not only by the fact that they do their dirty work generally in the dead of night, | hooded and in gangs large enough to insure safety, but that they are afraid to admit openly their meni- bership, altho the organization i8 legal. Only a few of them come out in the open, such as Glen Young, and he has to get a big, fat fee for doing so, the rest of the cowardly crew sneak into the darkness of secrecy. The smoke screen behind which these mental dwarfs work is prohi- bition— In reality they are being used as a white guard organization, and if the present congress passes any of the numerous anti-fpretgn earry | born bills that are now pending be- fore that body, the klan will be the secret service organization which will spy upon the foreign born work- ers and take upon themselves the regulation of their political and eco- nomie advancement. That this is no idle forecast was shown in the election of delegates to the miners’ state convention in Illi- nois, The issues were clear, you were either for the Lewis-Farring- ton policies, or you were against them, und the progressive miners do not see any particular difference be- tween Farrington, Lewis, and the klan. In one local union where two suspected klansmen were badly de- feated, and where the majonty of the delegates elected were foreign born workers, a notice was posted in the-mine, stating “That interpreters were wanted to go to the state con- vention,” etc. A notice like this, ap- pearing for the first time would have meant but little, but in the tense atmosphere of these southern Illinois towns, where everybody goes armed after dark, it took on a more signifi- cant aspect, Trade Unions Oppose Knights. In these towns everything is union, it is hard to find a non-union man anywhere. The entire official trade union movement is opposed to the Ku Klux Klan. Where: then does the klan get its strength. It is led by the small business element, financed by all business groups, its purpose is to—destroy the trade union move- ment, or reduce it to klan control. They are ably assisted by the weak- kneed passive attitude of the offi- cials of organized labor, and have the active support of these damn- fool American born workers whose understanding of life goes no fur- ther than the A. P. A.’s of the early 90’. They do not see that the at- tack against the foreign born work- ers, under the slogan of a 100 per eent Americanism, is an attack on all workers in general, irrespective of the place of their birth, ‘and upon the labor movement in particular. How could the Ku Klux Klan in ‘cities like Herrin, Johnson City and West Frankfort, ete., create a reign of terrorism, raid the homes of min- ers, place themselves above the law, arrest hundreds of men and women, herd them into special cars at the point of a machine gun, if they did not have at least the passive consent of union officialdom. The effect of this attack upon the foreigti born, instead of making diti- zens of them, really keeps them from becoming citizens. In actual prac- tice the foreigner finds that he can get better protection from the for- eign consul than he gets from either his union or the local law enforcing bodies, and the foreign consuls are advising their countrymen not to take out their citizenship papers, be- cause in doing so they can get no protection from him or from the gov- ernment that he represents. Strange as this may seem, yet it is true, as witness the vigorous protest of the French consul against the raids of the klan on the French celony in Johnson City. Terrifying Effect of Secrecy. Where are all those fighting min- ers that made such a glorious record for organized labor in the State of Illinois? How can they stand idly by and not accept this challenge. In the city of West Frankfort. which is 100 per cent organized, the fiery cross of the klan burns day and night in the center of the town, yet not a half dozen men are known publicly to be members of the klan. The terrifying. effect of the klan upon the population is its secrecy and its ruthlessness. ‘Ine average man does not care to take the risk in leading the fight against these monsters for fear of their vengeance, which is swift, brutal and extends to all members of the family alike. The cause of this abnormal situa- tion is thé inaction of the leaders of organized labor. If instead of fight- ing the radicals or assisting to keep in office such tin horn politicians as Governor Small, they would start an organized public campaign against the klan, they could clean it out of Illinois within 48 hours. I doubt if there are a hundred workers in the entire state who would have the courage in the face of such a cam- paign to come out openly in support of the klan, and the miners have the power in their hands to force the busigess men to change their opinion about the Americanism of the klan. The miners must demand that their officials wage a fight against the Ku Klux Klan until it is driven from the coal fields of this state. Lenin’s Successor--A. I. Rikov, Soviet Russia’s New Premier. A w= IVANOVITCH RIKOV was born March 19, 1881, in Sar- atov (the capital of the province of that name in Central Russia) to whi.h city his peasant father moved from the Viatka Province to engage in trading. When Alexis, ‘who was the youngest member of the family, was eight years old, his father be- came very poor and soon died, a vic- tim of cholera. The young Alexis was placed in the Gymnasium (a school with a course of study equivalent to high school and two years of college) by his oldest sister, a teacher, who main- tained him up to his sixteenth year. After that he was forced to earn his own livelihood and take care of his tuition fees, . Rikov’s first contact with the revo- lutionary movement came during the attendance of the gymnasium where he joined the secret study circles and participated in the issuance of an illegal journal. It. was during this period. that Rikey got acquainted with the works of Karl Marx and other studies of the Socialist and labor movement of Western Europe. Suspected of participating in revo- lutionary circles, he was prohibited from entering the universities of the capitals (Leningrad and Moscow). In Solitary Confinement, Upon graduation from the gym- nasium in 1900, Rikov entered the university of Kazan (now the capital of the Tartar Soviet Republic) where immediately became active in workers’ organizations and was chosen to membership on the lead. Pad ing revolu com: - The n- ization of Kazan, in which Rikov short student life, was li by the secret police in 1901 fale arrests of the leaders. . . fter nine months of solitary con- & i Ht 3 ; A Lenin’s Successor - ALEXIS 1. RYKOFF ALEXIS IVANOVITCH RIKOV. served as a member of the joint com- mittee of the Social-Democratic and Socialist-Revolutionary parties. After this demonstration Rikov was obliged assume an illegal existence, and t time on we find Rikov in revolutionary movement. During the period of 1902 to 1905, Rikov occupies a prominent position in the. Jaroslaw, Nijni-Novgorod, Moscow and other aniek leet organizations, by several successive party con- gresses. Rikov servdi as organizer of the Moscow district and was a member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee, i.e., that part of the C. C. whose members resided and worked in Russia. Rikov visited the emigrant revolutionary eenters— Paris, London, Geneva—only when important matters concerning the revolutionary movement were being dealt with by the leading party ele- ments, compelled to live ovtside’ of Russia. 2 Betrayed by Agent-Provocateur. Rikovy was arrested soon after the third London Congress at a_ secret meeting of the Leningrad Commit- tee. Freed by the revolution of that year, Rikovy was elected a delegate to the first Soviet of Workers’ Depu- ties, where he served until that body was disbanded by the authorities. On May 1, 1907, Rikov is again arrested and after June 28, 1908 lives under police surveillance by order of the Minister of the Interior. Having been later sent out of Russia, Rikov returns with an illegal passport, but on Feb. 1, 1910 is again arrested and sent to the province of Arch- angel for three years. He soon es- capes from there and joins the Cen- tral Committee of the party at Paris, In the summer of 1910 Rikov returns to Russia again to organize the work for the coming national congress of the party. He is turned over to the police by the agent-provocateur Bri- andinski soon after his arrival. In August, 1911 Rikov falls into the hands of the authorities in Moscow and after serving nine months in prison, is sent back to the Archangel region where he remains till Feb- ruary, 1913, -In October, 1913, Rikov is. exiled by order of the Minister of the In- terior to live four years in the far- away region of Narim in Siberia, but he escapes from there Sept. 20, 1914 to Samara where he is arrested in a month and sent back to his place 1905} of exile. Altogether kikov spent seven and one-half years in solitary confinement in prison and several years of exile in Archangel and Si- beria from which he managed ww es- cape on three occasions, From the very beginning of the March revolution in 1917, Rikov works in the Moscow Bolshevik or- ganizations, and in August of that year is again elected member of the Central Committee of the Social- Democratic party (Bolshevik) as the Communist party was then stil called. Held Important Posts, As a member of the presidium of the Moscow Soviet, Rikov prepared and secured the passage by the So- viet of resolutions, censuring the Ke- rensky government and the Menshe- viks who were supporting him. When the All-Russian Congress of Soviets voted to take over the powers of the State in November, Rikov was a member of the Executive Committee, and when the first Bolshevik Cabinet was formed upon the successful con- clusion of the proletarian revolution, Rikoy entered it as a Commissar of Internal Affairs. He was later trans- ferred to be head of the Supreme Council of National Economy when that body was formed, with the co- operation of the Council of Factory Committees of -Leningrad. When Russia was living thru her most critical years—counter-revolu- tion and blockade—Rikov was charged with the provisioning of the Red Army and the re-establishing of Rus- sian industry. With the illness of Lenin in 1921 came the need of a substitute. Rikov was made asso- ciate chairman of «the Council of Commissars and that of the Gouncil of Labor and Defense at the sugges- tion of Lenin. Since 1920 Rikov serves as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and when he was chosen Chairman of the Council of Peoples’ Commis- sars in place of his teacher and bro- ther-in-arms Lenin, he was a mem- ber of the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions, Member of the Cen- tral Executive Committee of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and Chairman of the Supreme Coun- cil of Public Economy. Rikov is now 48 years of age.