The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 17, 1924, Page 6

A. o Page Six Seememraanerssometnaesmtr earnest cmaaner MCS er eI Nake nga amma THE DAILY WORKER ira So wat lenis dt ct ER cen Sas a 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 bpeece, only): $8.00 per year $4,50..6 months $2.50. .8 months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street b casthentseneneds Editors ...Business Manager J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- under the act of March 3, 1879. Chicago, Illinois MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class Office at Chicago, Ill. oe Advertising rates on application. Get Daugherty The investigation of the Department of Justice and Attorney General Daugherty have only begun. The disclosures have already revealed evidence of crookedness and cor- ruption on the part of cabinet officials which are far more grave than those brought to light in the Teapot exposures. Everybody knows that the worst is yet to come—if it will be permitted to come. One tends to get suspicious nowadays whether the whole truth will be allowed to come out about the strikebreaking head of the Department of Justice. Such suspicions and misgivings are especially warranted in view of the gentle treatment accorded McLean by Senator Walsh when the former was given a chance to get away without telling the committee who is the “principal.” These investigations must be pressed to the limit. The workers and farmers have a vital interest to go all the way down the line in these investigations. The workingmen and poor farmers are the only ones who are gen- uinely interested in getting to the bottom of the whole rotten affair. Obviously, these ex- aminations will dwindle into nothingness un- less the workers get on the job and force things a bit. First of all, the’ workers, particularly the organized workers, the railway organizations, the Executive Council of the American Fed- eration of Labor, and all other agencies of the trade union movement should immediately arrange to come before the Senate Committee and tell the whole country about the conduct of Attorney General Daugherty in the shop- men’s and other strikes. Alongside of the crimes and outrages committed by Daugherty and his gunmen in strikes against the work- ingmen and poor farmers all the infamy and all the blackness already fastened on Daugh- erty appear angelic. The whole story of the Daughertys, Mellons, _and Hughes will never be told unless the workers force the telling. Regardless of polit- ical or other differences, all workingmen ought to line up in one mighty effort to get Daugh- erty, to get rid of the most brutal enemy of the workers and farmers. The first step in this direction is the disclosure of the crimes of Daugherty against strikers and other workers. March 17th Saint Patrick was one of the most useful saints Ireland ever produced. He is worth the weight of his tomb in gold to the American politicians. Democrats and republicans who get their knowledge about Ireland’s long struggle against British domination from the caricatures in the so-called comic weeklies and from the burlesque stage, show an intense in- terest in Ireland on the 17th of March, which is set apart as Ireland’s national holiday for what reason the Gods alone know. They do this for very good, sound political reasons. The capitalists realize that there are millions of Irish workers in America, who, like all the other national groups here, are very interested in the events taking place in the land of their birth. The politicians capitalize this interest and by pretending a great love for Ireland, and giving an occasional twist to the lion’s tail, manage to get the Irish votes on election day. But while the Irish-American capitalist lackeys honor a dead saint and seek to hold the Irish workers in America at the tail of their political chariot, there are thousands of Trish workers. spreading Communist propa- ganda among their fellow workers. They are teaching them that the question of freedom for Ireland can only be solved when the capitalist system is overthrown in Europe and thruout the world. They are tell- ing them that the duty of Irish workers in America is to join a fighting party, the Work- ers Party, that believes in and works for free- dom in all lands and for all peoples. .- A Forbidden Path The capitalist press, particularly the financial and industrial newspapers, have been commenting exten- a ie the rapid growth of the German merchant and shipbuilding industry in recent months, They have been pointing out repeatedly that is was the cheapness of German labor that has enabled the capi- talists of Germany to forge ahead and that the employ- of this country ought to take their cue from the el capitalists. We are glad to announce that the German workers ¥ their own capitalists, social patriots and wa Seiad teste cinilate have d ‘a leclared a general strike in the ards of Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and Stettin, We feel sure our capitalist masters wiil no longer ask to follow the path of the German workers. It is that only that which brings profits to our bosses . - JOIN ‘THE WORKERS PARTY -@e Ignorance of the Law In the courts controlled by the capitalists, ignorance of the law is officially and formally banned as an excuse or a reason for immunity from, punishment in case of legal violations. But this rule is applied in true employing class fashion only when it hits the workers and poor farmers. Whenever the bosses are concerned, this method of legal procedure is dropped either outright or lost in one of the many winding dark alleys of the intricacies of legal technique. The utter hypocrisy of the pleas of the em- ployers and their apologists regarding their courts and law being based on principles of absolute justice above all economic classes is obvious. The wealthy who make the laws and who have professional legal experts at their disposal are the ones who have all the chance on earth to know what the law is. For them ignorance of the law is inexcusable. The poor, the workingmen and expropriated farmers, who have to slave away their lives piling up profits for their employers and the bankers and manufacturers, have neither the time nor the money to acquaint themselves with the ponderous statute books. For the workers and farmers ignorance of the law really should be a reason for freedom from punishment under the law. Yet, what do we find under our capitalist class dictatorship, under our present legal system based on the supremacy and perpetua- tion of private property interests? Here is the Honorable Secretary of State Hughes, whose latest claim to distinction is his nightmare in which he saw a red flag being hoisted over the White House, pleading ignorance of the law in order to be excused for taking in the Carpen- tier-Dempsey prize-fight picture show which was run in violation of the law. Mr. Hughes surely has gall. Does he really think that the masses will fall for this bun- combe? How comes it that one of the leading jurists of the country and a former member of the United States Supreme Court is ignorant of so elementary a law as that involved in the vio- lation of a federal statute thru the bringing in of these fight films? Yes, ignorance of the law is no excuse for the the violation of the law—when a workingman or a farmer is to be punished. It is, however, a good and sufficient reason when a capitalist, an employing class spokesman, an ex-member of the United States Supreme Court and one of the leading lights of the American Bar Association, is involved. What better evidence could we want for the capitalist class charactersof our government and laws? What more eloquent proof do the workingmen and dispossessed farming masses want before they get on the job to get rid of the present government financiers, industrial magnates and plunderers of the resources of the country and establish a Workers’ and Farmers’ Republic in the United States? Funny But True There is a silver lining to the black clouds of capitalist corruption and filth that have been hovering over the national government in Washington. Occasionally a ray of humor pierces the stifling atmosphere saturated with the revelations of sinister and heinous crimes against the masses. The other day, Senator Moses, known to be the clown of the august upper house of the government, remarked at the Wheeler com- mittee investigating Daugherty that it would be better to ask Gaston B. Means, the former Burns agent, what senators he has not inves- tigated instead of asking him for those he has gone after. This was a highly practical sug- gestion. We are pleasantly surprised that a man of Mr. Moses’ mental and financial caliber could offer such valuable advice. Much to our regret the committee did not adopt the Moses plan for leading the hearings out of the wilder- ness of shocking testimony. Then, Mr. Longworth, the multi-millionaire floor leader of the reactionary republicans in the house of representatives made another commendable suggestion, humorously of course, but nevertheless very much in order, that “the rules of the House should provide that when the roll is called that, instead of members responding ‘yea’ and ‘nay,’ they should answer ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty.’ ” _ Both of these suggestions were made in a light vein. They may be funny, but they are very much in place and necessary just now. These proposals have much more in them than the levity accompanying their release. In ef- fect they would surely tend to afford a true and accurate index of the condition of the government today. Funny as these remarks of Moses and Longworth may be, their very birth reflects fundamental change of a state of mind, of attitude towards the whole govern- mental system of the country that is rapidly being assumed by increasing numbers of the great mass of the population. Fighting For Morgan The democrats will make a desperate effort to dis- place the agent of the Boston bankers, Coolidge, with Cs agent of J. P. Morgan and Company at the White louse. : ‘ Should the democrats succeed in this attempt it will not be the first time in the history of their party, or the country, that an attorney of J, P. Morgan & Co. shall have-been president of the United States, In the four-year interval between his first and second term Grover Cleveland was working for the Morgan law firm of Stetson, Jennings & Russel, and was especially picked to be the elder Morgan’s personal attorney. John W, Davis, one of the prominent demo- crati ential aspirants, is now connected with this same arm, Tales of the Scab Shops - — I THE sub-committee of the Citi- zens’ Committee is really interested in investigating the striking garment workers’ denials of the bosses’: “Nothing wrong in my shop, Con- ditions fine. Everyone working!” let them call on Mrs, A. R. Bock, 4300 N. Ridgeway street, to testify. She and her friend, Miss G. Williams, formerly at Mitchell Bros. Shop, at- tended Commissioner Mary McDow- ell’s conference of employers and strikers, hoping that they might pre- sent their case for the girls. But in the “tea-party” which the conference turned out to be for all but a couple of bosses and the union officials, who met in private with a few “citizens,” these eager workers were practically ignored. Contrary to the bosses’ statement that the girls work 45 to 50 weeks in the year, Miss Williams found that in six months’ employment at Mit- chell Bros. she worked barely ten full weeks. ‘ Exploiting Married Girls. “We have to go and sit in the shop every day, even if we get only one garment to work on,” (piece work plan) Miss Williams, told me,, and when we propose a shorter week so that the work will by more evenly distributed, the boss says the girls would rather sit around his shop than home alone. When two thirds of the girls are married, you can guess how glad they are to let their household duties slide while they sit unem- ployed in the shop.” “Five girls got married during the time I worked at Mitchell’s, con- tinued Miss Williams, “and within three weeks each was back at work. Before they were married they say they don’t have to join the union be- cause they're going to be married and then they’ll work for too little afterwards hecause they are only sup- plementing their husbands’ meager Boys Need Hero--Get Electric Chair A new way has been discovered to rid the country of crime. Give the boys a hero! This divine plan was given the world by Supreme Court Justice James C. Cropsey, about. two minutes after he had sentenced four young men to be killed in the electric chair during the week, beginning April 7. Morris Diamond, Joe Diamond, John Farina and Anthony Pantano are the four boys who were convicted in Cropsey’s court of the murder of two bank messengers in Brooklyn last November. The four bandits were evidently trying to imitate oth- er more prominent members of the robbing fraternity and were less lucky in covering up their exploits. So they were caught, tried, found guilty, sentenced to die. It is not so often that a bunch of four comes before a judge at the same time to get the death penalty. Even a hardened judge feels a bit creepy about an episode like that. The occasion, however, furnishes him with a text and his sermon is likely to be printed. The judge took ad- vantage of it and told the anxious race that crime must be’ stopped at once and that the way to stop it is to give every boy a hero. Which so softened my little heart that I limbered up immediately and gave in to the holy impulse to assist the good judge in placing the desired galaxy of most famous heroés face to face with the tender saplings ‘of our growing generation and help them see the good ways of heroes. One of the nicest heroes I have ever met was Saul, an early king of Israel. I thot hegwas about as good as they make them, for he had killed wages.” Say “Union” and You're Fired. . Mrs. Bock stated that at all the big shops, Arthur Weiss, Francine Frocks, Mitchell Bros, or Lipson Bros., if a girl even says the word “anion” she is discharged. Mrs. Bock worked six weeks at Arthur Weiss’ and discovered that the girls in the shop all favored organizing but for fear of losing their jobs took no action, “A year or so ago Miss Grossman, the manager, took a vote of the girls for or against unionizing,” explained “Mrs. Bock. “The girls were all in favor, but Miss Grossman, contrary to her promise to accept their deci- sion, took ‘two weeks to think it over’ and has never done anything more. “Yellow Dog” Contract. “T was discharged after two and a half days at Mitchell’s because of my union affiliation,” said Mrs. Bock. “On the third day two other girls and I were asked to sign the ‘yellow dog’ individual contract by Mr. Mc- Lain, the manager. When we asked leave to consider it over our half- hour noon, Mr. McLain became an- gry. It looked to the other girls in the shop as tho we had refused, to sign. When I came back from lunch he told me to go, because they had found out who I was.” The vicious individual contract calls for two weeks’ notice to the boss if the girl decJles to join the union and states that the employer will give the same notice if he, in- tends to sign up with the union. It demands that none of the girls even speak to a union representative, It offers protection in case of “trouble.” “One of my friends was discharged from Mitchell’s because she was seen giving her address to a union girl,” exclaimed Miss Williams. “And the boss even discourages any sort of in- timacy between the girls. He gets iles and piles of people and God had Bisseea him in his labors and the story of his reign is still a source of inspiration to every Sunday school boy in Christendom, But one Sab- bath morning our preacher shocked me freatly by reading the beautiful song of the lovely women in the Bible who, sure enuf, liked Saul, but had also begun to make goo-goo eyes at an even greater hero, who was said by himself to be a man after God’s own heart, and finished up their adoration by singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands.” These heroes should help the kids considerably to keep the finger off the trigger. But that is a little off, perhaps. Let us come closer in time and space. Here is our own exalted national hero whose monuments will adorn parks and courthouse squares and whose yellow stripes will decorate telegraph poles along the highways from coast to coast from now on till the Bolshevik revolution, that great man with the big stick, Roosevelt, gone but not forgotten. How proud we were of him when he donned the. Rough Rider rags and led his brave on the run away from the perils in San Juan, and how gloriously he shot a fleeing Spaniard in the back. How thrilled we. were when Teddy came back from Africa and told us the glad story of how he had shot a fe- male monkey in her breast and de- scribed how the little animal had put her hand over the hole from which flowed a steady stream of blood, and brought grand applause as he re- marked, “how cute it looked.” This hero was such a fine example i? suspicious every time two or more are getting friendly.” ‘iece Work Discrimination. Both Mrs. Bock and Miss Williams protested against discrimination in the pricing of garments, Investiga- tors. may find sanitary conditions good, but they don’t realize how the older employes are favored. If girls complain of price discrepancies on garments that take approximately the same time for completion, the boss tells them to leave. “T wag actually, paid five dollars a week extra not to say nothing about prices,” Mrs. Bock indignantly as- serted. This was at Ribback’s in Evanston. “Mrs. Horwitz said that he~could send the dresses to the ‘farmer’ girls at Freeport who were glad to work tor less while they were ‘learning how to make their own clothes!’ I. found at Freeport that there was no farmer girls em- ployed, but just the same type of workers as in the larger cities. $15 Maximum Wage. “Fifteen dollars is the maximum wage guaranteed the girls in Evan- ston now,” remarked Mrs. Bock. “And when I asked the girls here what they average yearly they say $18 to $20. That is for the old-timers. And when they are busy and make as high as $35 they wor!: trom 7:30 in the morning to’ 8:00 at night, and sit at their machines thru lunch!” At Lipson Bros, ten to fifteen col- ored girls are employed, according to Miss Williams. One of the brothers personally supervises the girls and on the pretext that the colored are not so efficient, he discriminates in distributing the dresses. When a white girl protested against this practice, she was offered five dollars to keep quiet. Benevolence at a Price. “The boss brags of his benevolence Monday, March to the girls, giving them three enter- tainments a year,” said Miss Wil- liams, “but ne makes the girls them- selves pay. Mitchell offers a. picnic, a dance and a Christmas party and each time he sells tickets for 50 cents and the girls have to bring their own food. He takes them to the public forest preserve for the picnic, giving them only a half holi- day. He uses a rent-free park pa- vilion for the dance but charges the girls admission. What money is left after paying musicians is supposed to. go for the Christmas party, but then again the girls supply the lunch. He does give them each a two-pound box of candy and that’s all his touted generosity amounts to.” ; Won't Hire Jews. “They ask the girls at all the big shops if they are Jewish,” asserted Mrs. Bock. “The bosses won't em- ploy their own people, knowing that they are most likely to be interested in the union. “Mr. Mitchell asked me how I could associate with that ‘riff-raff’ in the union,” contributed Miss Wil- By ESTHER LOWELL liams, “and when I retorted that he | was associated with Jewish employ- ers, he replied that that was differ- ( ent. “T have never worked at a place where more effort was made to cre- ate race hatred than at Mitchells’,” Miss Williams concluded. Both she and Mrs. Bock have lo: been active in the union, Miss Wil- liams at Cleveland, Ohio, chiefly. Mrs. Bock was in the movement twenty years ago for ten years and has been back only the last year and a half after ten years outside. She finds the bosses just as hard to deal with as before, altho shop conditions have been considerably improved. Mitchell has written to married girls who seabbed during the 1917 strike to help him. out again now. to his brood that one of his offspring became honest and upright enough to stick up the public oil messengers in the dark and get enuf grease to lu- bricate his transmission gears for several decades. Maybe this lad hero and his hero dad will help the kids to keep the finger off the trigger. : A later and even more heroic hero, who lied so gently, and kept us out of war, so lovingly, by plunging us into the prettiest little murder game that an envious history has ever be- held, must also be kept in front of the erring youth until the day of the bolshevik revolution. How amateur- ish Nebuchadnezzar and Herod and Nero and Ivan the Terrible look the minute America’s war president ap- pears upon the scene. Here at last we have the great drillmaster of our youth. Even at. Wilson’s funeral we were told that never before in the history of the world have so many young men been instructed in so short a time and made perfect mur- derers as under the efficient leader- ship of the gigantic hero of the world war. It was Wilson who marshalled the four million men of our country and taught them the beautiful art of killing. It was this hero who inspir- ed the churches and the Y. M. C. A. to force all the ferver of religion in- to the hearts of the soldiers and promise the mthe flow of God’s bless- ings in proportion to the human blood they mighf be able to spill. It was under the moralizing influence of this arch hero that the song of hate reverberated thruout the whole world and made every brutal instinct in the human heart respond to the impulse of murder on a large lode. Beside him the kaiser became a piker A FRENCH MUSSOLINI By JAY LOVESTONE. aes the class struggle today is international in its fundamental features is clearly evidenced by the historical events that are taking place in the conflict between the em- ployers and the workers in the vari- ous countries of the world In Russia, in Italy, in Spain, in Germany, the social-patriots, the renegade socialists, had at one time or other been fighting the commun- ists because, we were asked to be- lieve, that the proponents of the Soviet system were op} to “pure” democracy without which the working anJ farming masses could never get along. Yet it was invari- ably found that these re le so- cialists always lined up solidly for an iron vapitalist dictatorship over the workers when the latter made uny attempt to assert their politicel power to check the aggression of their exploiters, In France we are about to be treated to a Fascist escapade in or- der to save’ “pure” democracy of capitalism. A dictatorship unlimited in ruthlessness is proposed, ry Comite des Forges, TeprRianne the powerful iron and steel ring that has been throttling France, is the hs bak mic force behind this move. M. Lau- rent, a former ambassador to Berlin, one of its members, declares that the safety of France lies only in “sus- pending constitutional rights and es- tablishing a dictatorship in the Ital- ian manner.” “Reforms” are being demanded which in effect mean a dic- tatorship of the banks over the by oye — oti nie tenngst e usual preliminary an open attempt at the cclabtishealent of \this dictatorship are now bel it ken, Gustave Herve, the ex-social- ist, who, duri working class and its aspira- has become afflicted with a hatred of | impe the France to date, tions for freedom comparable only to his love for unrestrained capital- ist tyranny under the guise of “pure” democracy, has come for- ward with the probable program of the French Fascisti. Herve, who has fought with assault and _ battery, with lies and calumny, the Workers | and Farmers’ Republic of Russia be- cause it denies the exploiters of la- bor the right to decide the fate of the poor workingmen and farmers, is now, a la Mussolini, coming for- ward with a program of Fascist | “reconstruction” aiming to chain the | masses like gallery slaves to be! ores of their imperialist masters, the | capitalists of France. Mr. Herve’s plan for a capitalist dictatorship in France demands that | there be levied a tax on bread and | sugar; there be issued bread cards; | that the government monopoly on to matches, tobacco, railways, _ tele- | graphs and telephones be relin- quished and that these industries be turned over to private capitalist ex- ploiters, Mr. Herve advocates the immediate abolition of the eight- hour working day in order to help the French capitalists tow over the critical period in which they now find themselves financially. at Herve demands the organization a cabinet consisting. solely of capi- talist ex , business specialists, who will able to rule the country with an iron hand. In short, Mr. Herve who was so much in love with democracy when the interests of the capitalists were endangered by the rising power of | the workers is now the first one to throw over most elemen- tary principles of much-beloved democracy when interests can best be served by a capitalist regime of construction offered by Herve is Mr. Herve is acting true to the policies that the socialist renegades of all countries must logically fol- low once they fight the attempts of the workers to become the ruling class in society. The form in which Mr, Herve’s Fascism manifests it- self may be somewhat different from the form it has appeared in Italy in the person of Mussolini. Only the difference in the local con- ditions prevailing in the two coun- tries is responsible for this outward difference. In essence Mussolinism and Herveism are the same. They both arise out of the policies of soy cialist betrayal pursued by the apostles of the Second Internation- al. In times of stress the capital- ists of every country have called on these socialist renegades to’ save their political and financial necks, save them from the wrath of the revolutionary oppressed and ex. ploited masses, Gustave Herve may not be the one to be chosen the French Mussolini but it will be the program of Herve and the spirit of Herveism, at its worst, that will be the driving force in a French Fascist government once it is established, You never come back. for the most dangerous program of en- and since the war,|slavement of the workers that any| , perialist propose in MILL DOORS # ci svonine I when I Tie iepuhens oa dance tans alt eo eel for—how many cents a day? the sleepy eyes and fingers? By J. O. BENTALL almost unworthy of the name, hero. This war president hero should help the kids considerably to keep the finger off the trigger. ‘ Then we have thé heroic heroes in the Veterans’ Bureau who served a dying multitude of deluded soldiers with nice pieces of thievery out of the hospital larder, and the heroic he- roes of the teapot fraternity who jseem ta have avoided the formality ‘of toil in connection with getting their living, just as the four boys who robbed the bank messengers, at- tempted to do. Line up your fine, greasy American heroes before the eyes of the boys—Denby, Fall, Roosevelt, Doheny, Sinclair, McLean, Coolidge, Dougherty, Palmer, Burns. Fine heroes, these. They should help the kids consid- jerably to keep the finger off the trig- ger. And shall we not add the hero who sentenced the four young bandits to the electric chair, to our exalted list? Had not his action and demeanor at these trials been brazen and arbitrary enuf to cause the comment of even the most reactionary of our news- | papers and the keenest lovers of ven- geance? Were not his rulings so contrary to constitutional provisiogs that even the case hardened attor- neys stood aghast The papers said: “Motions for new trials, based on many grounds, were made. Justice Cropsey’s actions during the trial of the men were specificaQy attacked. But the judge sat staring ahead with- out any emotion whatsoever. When the lawyers had finished he quickly spoke: ‘Motion denied’ ” This buddjng hero should help the kids considerably to keep the finger off the trigger. ‘The workers of the world have a miserable object lesson in the devel- opment of Herve and those who stand with him. Mr. Herve His rendered considerable injury to the working class of France and at least as much service to the French im- perialist plunderers. But if the workingmen of France and the other countries shall have lea from this case of high treason against the proletariat that in the final instance, in the decisive mo. ment of struggle between the ex- ploited and the exploiters there is no middle of the road, there can be no golden mean and that only the organization ‘of a proletarian dicta. palociile wcticicg. salt aie te cal le suffering a tendant to the only other aie’ tive, the capitalist dictatorship Fascism, then at have learned a niost valuable lesson from this costly experience of theirs with the Horves, the Mussolinis, the Eberts, and the lesser lights of capitalist darkness. & “FRACTION” NOT “FACTION.” In the article “Shop Nuclei—Only Road to a Mass Communist Party, by John Edwards, appearing in Satur- day’s issue, March 15, 1924, the word “faction” should read fraction.”