The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 22, 1924, Page 4

+. oe i 4 } i { Page Four THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1640 N. Halsted St,, Chicago, lll. (Phone: Lincoln 7680.) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $6.00 per year $3.50..6 months $2.00..8 months By mail (in Chicago only): $8.00 per year $4.50. .6 months $2.50..8 months Address all mai] and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1640 N. Halsted Street Chicago, Illinois J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE § * MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Editors .Business Manager Post- Office at Chicago, Ill., under the act.of March 3, 1879. eR Advertising rates on application. Gompers Remains Calm The Daugherty investigation, like the Tea-| pot Dome exposures, leaves Brother Gompers cold. A great calm prevails at American Federa- tion of Labor headquarters; it is the one quiet spot in the capital. The department of justice under Daugherty and its bureau of investigation (a euphemism for brazen blackmail) under William J. Burns have been the most dangerous enemies of labor. Department of Justice operatives have been active in every strike of any magnitude; they have played the same role that spies and de- tectives always play—that is to say they have been doing their level best to aid the employ- ers in their war on unions and union men. During the railway strike of 1922 the de- partment of justice came out openly as a strike breaking agency; thousands of its sleuths were detailed to spying upon the unions and framing evidence against their members. [The strike- breaking activities of Daugherty and Burns culminated in a nationwide injunction against the strikers—a wholly illegal proceeding ob- tained by fraud and misrepresentation, it was a clear instance of the brazen disregard by American capitalism of elementary rights guaranteed citizens by the constitution of the republic. Th every frame-up of workers engineered by the employers Burns agents have figured ; they are the bloodhounds of American capi- talism and one would think that even a con- servative labor leader like Brother Gompers would welcome an opportunity to tell what he knows concerning this anti-labor gang and its bosses, Daugherty and Burns, representing justice in our domain. , Not so. Vociferously garrulous and insistent that he be allowed to appear and denounce Soviet Russia before the senate investigating committee headed by Borah, he has indulged in no similar outburst relative to the Daugh- _erty-Burns matter. It may be argued that Brother Gompers knows nothing detrimental to these assiduous agents of the employers, but to admit this is to admit that he is the most monumental dumb- bell that ever carried a union card. Brother Gompers is not a dumbbell and in the years that he has held office as the head of the American labor movement, he must have ac- cumulated an instructive dossier concerning the activities—legal and otherwise—of Daugh- erty, Burns and their predecessors. This is the appointed time, if Brother Gom- pers so desires, to put considerable of a kibosh on the injunction activities of employers and their governmental tools. Always a great be- liever in the force of public opinion and the author of several theses upon that interesting subject, Brother Gompers should know that the American public has turned its thumbs down on oil gladiators like Daugherty and Burns. This is the time to step to them, insert the harpoon into their quivering flesh, give it a few painful twists and call upon the dear public to watch their agonized antics. Much good would accrue to labor from such action. . The timid tribe of politicians would begin to think twice before glorifying injunc- tion processes and in the future the vision of a squirming attorney-genera] and his gumshoe aids would be always before their eyes. We fear that Brother Gompers is not made of such stern stuff. He is lifted to great heights of denunciatory eloquence only when a work- ingclass of a whole nation like Russia win to victory by other means than the use of the union label and “rewarding friends and pun- ishing enemies.’? It must also be remembered that Brother Gompers entered into a united front with the department of justice against the Communists and it may be that this unity of action extends even farther into the labor movement. Perhaps the astute Mr. Burns also has been busy compiling a dossier on the activities of labor leaders. Abusing Our Patience The political atmosphere is clearing and the likelihood for the organization of a third party opposed to the republican and democratic or- ganizations is becoming more definite. By many attentive observers it is now taken for granted that all political calculations must reckon with a new third party organization in the coming elections. Of course, the organization of a third party resulting from a split of serious magnitude in ist interests dominating the two old parties take great care, some Wall Street faker or quack will jump on the bandwagon, get a place of prominence and importance in the new movement of revolt against the big busi- ness interests and thus utilize his position to Sabotage and betray the very progressive movement he is supposed to be serving. The reported suggestion that Josephus Daniels, secretary of the navy in the Wilson “Efficient” By WILLIAM F. DUNNE, OVER-PRODUCTION is alarming the American capitalist class. The spokesmen of this class are not exactly hysterical but I would not blame them if they were, The evi- dence submitted by such devoted ad- herents of capitalism as James J. administration, will be a vice-presidential can-| Davis, secrétary of labor, showing the didate of the third party movement in order to|tremendous productive capacity of give it a broad enough base to appeal to for- mer democratic, as well as republican follow- ers, is a dangerous case of the above charac- ter. Daniels is an agent of the big capitalist interests, despite his proclaimed piety, or per- haps because of it. yg Even to hint the name of Daniels is to abuse the excessive patience of the manhandled American masses. In pursuance of his pious policy, Mr, Daniels, as secretary of the navy, in co-operation with Mr. Payne, then secretary of the interior, made leases on navy oil reserve lands to many big oil concerns. It is true Do- heny and Sinclair did not get any of these con- cessions. But what difference is there which clique of oil thieves-gets away with the supply of oil that belongs to the country? Daniels, who is now beginning to smear himself with progressive paint, handed out valuable oil leases for a song to the following corporations: The Boston Pacific Oil company, the Associated Oil company, Union Oil, Buena Vista Oil, Caribou Oil, General Petroleum, Record Oil, United Oil, and the Consolidated Mutual Oil company. The workers and farmers will not fall for any such tricks. To the farmers and workers it does not matter whether Consolidated} Mutual capitalists plunder the government with the aid of Daniels, or the Sinclair inter- ests rob the country with the aid of Denby. Daniels is as guilty of aiding and abetting criminal capitalist ventures as Denby was. Hiding behind a third party label will not save Daniels. Such abuse of the patience of the great mass of workers and poor farmers will | only hasten the doom of these capitalist char- latans of the stripe of Daniels. Supply and Demand One of the iron laws on which the present system of capitalist exploitation of the workers is founded is the iron law of supply and de- mand. 5 : When the farmers are broke and are com- pelled by the big bankers and manufacturers | to sell at prices lower than what it has cost’ American, industry, when coupled with the phenomenon of the ever- narrowing world market, gives real reason for the grave concern mani- fested in the more analytical capital- ist journals. There is even an undertone of fear in the trumpet note of prosper- ity sounded by the daily press -of capitalism, Spurred on by the prospect of enormous profits during sr war period, the industrial capitalists doubled, trebled and quadrupled the capacity of their plants. There is ab- solutely no grounds for believing that even tho European markets were restored there would be an outlet for the full volume of production for which American industry now is or- ganized. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that in the constant war upon the living standard of the work- ers, the desire for ever cheaper pro- duction and thru the introduction of labor saving. devic§s American in- dustry, in addition to its tremendous expansion, has become more efficient. Overproduction Figures. Illuminating indeed are some of the facts cited by James J. Davis to prove that the: influx ofa million immigrants yearly would absorb but a negligible portion of the goods which flood the domestic market whose saturation is an important fac- tor in the imperialistic adventures of American capital. Starting with the soft coal mining industry we find that it is able to produce one billion tons per year. The yearly consumption of soft coal is something like one-half billion tons. The soft coal mines then, can, with the present equipment and man- power, produce twice the amount of coal needed. The shoe market can absorb, under the most favorable conditions that have obtained, 325,000,000 pairs per year. The shoe industry can pro- duce 578,000,000 pairs. The Endi¢ott-Johnson shoe fac- tory, thru its efficiency system, gets an average of 12 pairs of shoes per day from each employe. With other factories operating on the same basis 25 per cent of the workers now em- ployed in the shoe industry could pro- duce enough to take care of the do- mestic market or the whole industry American Capitalism months. If the entire industry is|fact they cannot because of the com- brought up the level of efficiency now | petitive nature of the international prevailing in the best equipped plants |struggle for markets. all the iron and steel needed for ex- Destroying Markets. ting markets can be produced with my sid ig force eg by two- Every nerve is strained to reduce thirds, . production costs, i e., to use less Machinery {s displacing with start-|!abor-power—to get along with less ling rapidity men in occupations |W°rkers while at the same time in- hitherto believed to be specially the {creasing the output of commodities, province of the unskilled workers. In|!t is in this manner that capital- the brickmaking industry of Chicago |ist industry destroys its greatest there is now a machine that turns out |market—by reducing the purchasing 49,000 bricks per hour; it is handled |Power of the great bulk of the popu- by one man. If the entire industry |!ation, the working class, is equipped with such machines it is} There are no great new fields of estimated that 5,000 men can do the| exploitation for the American capi- work for which 33,000 are required |talist class to conquer. The back- now. . | ward nations of a quarter of a cen- Lowering Labor Costs. tury ago have now their own econ- The larger proportionate increase|©my and require less manufactured in the wages of the unskilled workers | Commodities from. America; raw ma- during and since the war has|terials they produce cheaper: than prompted the employers to havé de-| We can. vised and installed machinery for} American industry is organized the rough jobs of loading and un-jfor a wotld market; during the war loading material, clearing rubbish, |it became the premier exporter of etc. manufactured products because In one plant in Bridgeport, Con-|other nations were organized: for necticut, hot fron cauldrons are|/war alone. Even befgre 1914 the handled by a conveyor operated by | American workers were suffering one man; twenty-five workers were|from mass unemployment, insanely formerly employed on this job. All| efficient capitalist production had kinds of automatic lifters, stackers|glutted the world markets, and pilers are now being installed in The Future. warehouses and on the water front Th hai ba displacing the unskilled workers in an awd as been a fall and rise of occupation which until lately, was| Production since the war and now thought machinery-proof. the period of readjustment is almost That distribution in many lines has} °V¢!: , During that period the class reached the limit of expansion is|°f industrial workers had been in- shown by the fact that in the distri- | creased 5 cag vel white and negro bution of foodstuffs there is one|f@tmers have been driven from the wholesaler for every four manufae-|/and and are competing with the turers! one wholesaler for every fifty-| lder “hands”—to use the English five retailers and one retailer for| ‘etm that so well expresses the cap- every group of seventy families esti-|italist opinion of the workers, Cun- mated to include 815 persongy ningly devised machines that do the “The ideal condition,” says the|Work of hundreds of thousands of steel trust secretary of labor, “is|Wage-eatners have made American when capital and labor balance.” Just | industry the most efficient in the exactly what he means by this he/ World. It is centralized and ruled onal does not know himself, but | With an iron hand and it has sum- loubtless he has a vague vision of|™oned to its aid the best technical some Utopia where labor produces| talent; its processes—chemical, me- just enough commodities for the| chanical and electrical—are the won+ market and then starves quietly un-|4er of modern industrial civilization. til further demands revive industry.|. American industry has eyerything ‘A Geite Picbeni but markets. Like the sow that eats $76: Gettin) tp SeAderiana > hae its young, American capitalism by year can be produced {n seven|warfare on wages and as a matter of | f American industry is confronted with its war upon the workers of Amer- a problem of the gravest character but it is too much to expect that he ould show any knowledge of the fact that it can never solve that problem while the ownership of industry re- mains in the present hands. Even the ad clubs, the rotary clubs and the kiwanis clubs recognize the necessity of increasing consumption; they are engaged in artificially stimulating de- them to produce, the economic experts earning would need to operate but one-fourth mand but they do not know that they their hire emit a wild cry to the heavens that the law of supply and demand is at work. When a new wage-slashing campaign is of the year. Marvels of the Machine. In the plants a ton of pig iron is produced at po forced to operate within the nar- row limits of the wage system. They most modern smelting are the bitterest opponents of the unions and other working class or- launched by the bosses, the workers are told! the total labor cost of the time ex- ganizations engaged in attempting to that there are more workers than needed, that} there is a greater supply of workingmen than pended by one man for an hour and twelve minutes. In the industry asa whole under present conditions, all increase the income and raise the standard of living of the workers, It never oceurs to the capitalists ica, its assistance to the ruling class of every dther capitalist nation m the war upon their working class, has destroyed the greatest factor making for stabilization of Ameri- can capitalism—a working class with a large consumptive capacity resulting in a high standard of living. As the days pass we will hear more and more the whimperings of such apologists of capitalism as James J. Davis. As “the ranks of the unemployed grow and industry stagnates—a process already begin- ning—the note of fear already per- eeptible will grow louder until it drowns out the triumphant note of the prosperity song that is chanted there is a demand. And who will dare tamper ‘the market can take care of for a and their hangers-on to relax their Now by most of the babbittry. with this immutable law of supply and de- mand? Wages are cut to the bone, Farm prices are reduced to the vanishing point. Profits mount. The law of supply and demand is vindicated and saved! | The fact of the matter is that the law of supply and demand is not to blame. The source of the difficulty for the workingman and poor} farmer is the capitalist control of the means of production and exchange, the control of the railways, the grain elevators, the transporta- tion and marketing facilities by a small group of powerful financiers and industrialists for private profits. An illustration of this point is the following condition confronting the farmers. According to the estimates of the Department of Agri- culture the farmers have more corn, oats, and barley at this time than they had in the cor- responding period a year ago. On the other hand stocks of wheat are less this year than a year ago at this time. According to the law of supply and demand corn, oats and barley should be lower and wheat should be receiv- ing a higher price: But exactly the opposite condition is true. The wheat in the farmers’ hands is worth $32,400,000 less on March “13 1924, than it was on the same date in 1923, while the corn has gone up in price. The law of supply and demand as it works in the United States is subject to the condi- tions of the world market of international capitalism, These conditions are wretched and hopeless, because of the very nature of capitalist production and exchange. Conse- quently, the conditions of our farming popula- tion are just as hopeless and wretched. The desperate state of affairs has been pictured by the noted farm expert Mr. Yoakum before the Kentucky farmers in these significant words: “The world’s greatest agricultural country is faced by a situation more menacing to the country’s future than can be said of any eco- nomic problem in any part of the world.” Perhaps our capitalist misleaders would have us believe that the law of supply and demand is responsible for six and a half mil- lion farms having gone thru bankruptcy and foreclosure in the great depression? The German bourgeois parties will have at least two-thirds majority in the new Reichstag after the elections of May 4. In addition to that they will have a neat fascisti dictatorsh: to supplement the uemoeracy, that will be, the republican and democratic parties would |jammed down the workers’ throats. The So- be a most welcome step in the direction of |cialists are losing out everywhere. completely divorcing the working and farming |Scheidemann, once leading light in the German masses from the democratic and republican camps, from the reactionary capitalist outfits. But there is great danger that unle*s’ those who have fought against the powerful capital- Philip |republic, after the revolution, is now mayor of Cassel, ge JOIN THE WORKERS Pes wan ~~ the Workers Party in response to Enthusiastic Support Given to Farmer-Labor Party Fund By C. E. RUTHENBERG (Executive Secretary, Workers Party of America) The following letter received from the Harlem Jewish Branch of the call sent to the party branches for contribution to the Farmer-Labor Party Campaign Fund which the party is raising to carry on its work in support of the June 17th Con- vention, shows. the spirit of the membership on this question: C. E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary, Chicago, Ill. Dear Comrade: | ry branches and sym) bor Party Campaign a campaign The appeal which you have sent to the for support of the Farmer- which is now in full swing, reached our branch a few days ago and the readiness and enthusiasm with which the appeal was met was great. The members of our branch have ment of a Farmer-Labor farmers and workers is the view that the establish- 'y supported by the masses of most vital importance to the movement in the United States and donated $25 from their scant financial resources, ~ tarian elements and or A class, mass Farmer-Labor Party supported by the prole- on a nation-wide scale shoul be the slogan of this great campaign. Yours in class consciousness, JOB. WEISMAN, Sec. Harlem Jewish Branch. Branches which have sent in their quota since the last report are: Harlem Jewish Branch...+ssscessevccccvccccscsssescss $2500 Rocklin Finnish Branch..,..... ‘ Wilkes-Barre Ukranian Branch. Zeigler South Slavic Branch... Toluca Italian Branch....... South Bend Russian Branch. . Cicero Checho-Slovak Branch. Chicago Finnish Branch .......+..++ Chicago Scandinavian’ Branch No, 10.. Amesbury’ Firinish Branch ......... Elizabeth Polish Branch ... Astabula Harbor Finnish Gary Russian Branch ... Lanesville Finnish Branch Omaha English Branch . New York Lettish Branch . Philadelphia South ‘Slavic W. Frat nkfort South Slavie Branch Party branches which have Party Campaign Fund ap) at their next meeting see that 3.00 gr Sa8assia SSSSSSSSSS ee ie BrSa ee SSSeen 8338s acted upon the Farmer-Labor ‘make it a special order of business every member purchases one of the { Farmer-Labor Campaign Fund Labels, We are in the midst of our ty, and ev ‘armer-Labor ad the party in increasing party unit must its activity greatest make ign a success. eampaign, comrades of the its contribution to make the Every dollar_contributed.will aid in support of the June i7th Conven- tion and make more certain the organization of a mass, class Farmer- Labor Party at that convention, are now offering you. Let us tell you how to make your money work for you. No Speculation, Gamble or Chance of Loss. Small monthly payments. Exempt from National, State or Local Taxation. Thousands have already made money.on the proposition we ya limited Write to BOX A. A. THE DAILY WORKER. amount still available. 1 ” Join the “I want to make THE DAILY WORKER grow” club. 4 for Men & will be (EVENINGS) First St. on’ and Proceeds go to feed of Germany. x at WORKERS LYCEUM (Folkets Hus), 2735 Hirsch Boul. SATURDAY, MARTH 22ND, 8 P. M. Admission in advance 50¢, at the door 60c. Refreshments served ESKSNNANNNN KHANNA NIN! MARYLA KN HIGH QUALITY FOOD Pw ae ae Telephone: Superior 9441 A BIG BAZAAR THE FRIENDS OF SOVIET RUSSIA: (LOS ANGELES BRANCH) | FRIDAY and SATURDAY, MARCH 28 and 29 and all day Sunday, March 30th. BROOKLIN HALL, Satto Street and Brooklin Ave. Those having articles to donate please bting them to 2114% E. Thursday 9 P.M. or to the hall. * REMEMBER THE TIME AND PLACE AND COME EARLY. ENTERTAINMENT AND given by . THE METAL TRADES GROUP TRADE UNION EDUCATIONAL LEAGUE SSS SSS SS SS SSS SOS tS D RESTAURAN 1011-1013 North State Street OPEN DAY AND NIGHT Saturday, March 22, 1924 EE 1 HELP RUSSIA INDUSTRIAL GREDITS R ACL C Let a Part of Your Earnings Serve the New Industry in Soviet Russia & The Rugsian Clothing Work- ers wish to borrow from their friends—The American workers They can pay you for this service. They ask not for Charity but for a Loan idolaietees The Investment {s Guaran- teed in a Contract signed by R. A. LC, and the Soviet Government THE FIRST DIVIDEND HAS BEEN PAID YOU CAN HELP Write for Iiustrated Booklet to RUSSIAN-AMERICAN NNDUSTRIAL CORPORATION NOSE. WH s7REET Wencyonir COZY LUNCH George E. Pashas We Bake Our Own Pies 2426 Lincoln Avenue One-half block from Imperial Hall CHICAGO MULLER’S RESTAURANT A good place to eat. 1010 RUSH STREET ‘ Tel. Superior 7079 Downstairs of National Office. DR. ISREAL FELDSHER Physician 2803 ROOSEVELT RD. Crawford 2658 Hours: Morning, until 10 a. m. Afternoons, 1 to'$ and 7 to 9 p. m. SHNSKNANSABKH GH NHN WHEN HAHAH NII II IN IONICS Good Clothes Boys Shoes—Furnishings—Hats Open Thursday and Saturday Evenings given by ry fellow workers and the starving pS the Dancing till 1 o'clock GOOD SERVICE, ee