The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 29, 1924, Page 5

as Fe “The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.’ —Karl Marx. Special Magazine Supplement THE DAILY WORKER. SECOND SECTION March 29th, 1924. This magazine supplement will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Le Se a Ce a SD Unemployment in the United States Statement adopted by the Cen- tral Executive Committee of the Workers Party. NEMPLOYMENT is a constant scourge of. the workers under capitalism. It is ever present in ome degree, except in those pe- rieds when rival groups of imperial- ists whet the workers to murdering each other and when production of war materials temporarily absorbs the full labor forces; in “normal times” it is the so-called industrial reserve army, while in. times of acute crisis, unemployment throws millions of workers upon the streets takes on a mass character it bat brings into bold relief the inherent problems that face the working class at all times. Mass unemployment, however, does present. its own distinctive problems in the character of the immediate struggle of the workers, particularly of those directly in- volved. It, therefore, becomes of vital importance for our Party to have exact knowledge of the growth and extent of unemployment, its sectional and industrial © varia- tions, its tempo of development, end to prepare definite lines of. action for the wotkers in their struggle against its devastating effects. Immediate Cause of Present Unemployment. The capitalist system of the werld has, since i919 and wp to the latler part of 1925, presented a spectacle of constantly declining production and growing unemployment. It is in the throes of the most profound crisis of history. Many millions of workers are deprived of all. chance to make a living, and those wh« work have their wages constantl; driven down. The United States is an integral part of world capital- ism, and it is impossible that it should escape participation in this crisis. In 1921, when the first big drop in exports to Europe from the United States occurred as a result of Eu- rope’s bankruptcy, there were 5 to 6 millions of workers thrown out of employment in the resulting depres- sion. But in spite of the fact that fn 1922 ard 1923, exports declined still more, yet American capitalism was able temporarily to recover it- self, increase production to new high levels, and generally to restore “normalcy.” The principal factor in this tem- porary recovery, in the face of lost export markets was an unexamplcd domestic market, created by great capital expenditures, chiefly in the tremendous boom in the building in- dustry, great replacements and ox- tensions on the railroad systems of the country, and also in the unheard- the tempo of development is sub- ject to factors. Thus at the present moment there has been a distinct check 1n the downward trend, with many fac. tors in the industrial situation rez- istering an appreciable improve- ment As an example of the facts that substantiate this observation may be cited the record of car-load- ing for the week ending March Ist, which exceeded by a wide margin the loading record for any week ia January, February or March in history. So eminent an economist as Eu- gene Varga has said, in his review of the economic situation of the world for 1923: “Production and the whole economic life of the United States and Canada continue on a |fairly good level, without so far | showing any clear signs of an ap- |proaching crisis. We do not wish to | Say that this crisis will not socn ; arise. In accordance with the gen- \eral experience of capitalist produc- | tion this schould be the case in the variation by many minor not distant future, but so far as we agricultural crisis. | ber of employed 2,838 during the year in the centers covered by the report or a little over 1 per cent while the operations of the indus- try, by volume of production, de- creased in percentage of capacity from 74 to 63 in the same period, indicating much partial employment. Bituminous coal production — fel! (comparative figures based on the 1913 index) from a peak production during the year of 126, and a yearly average of 114, to but 101 in Decem- ber, 19238. The building industry estimates a 10 per cent to 15 per cent reduction in operations for 1924. Railroad construction and re- placements, optimisticaily estimated some months ago at two billions of dollars for 1924, has not material- ized and will doubtless not be real- ized in anything like that sum. The railroads have reduced their operat- ing forces by 175,000 during the latter part of 1923 and since. The trend toward unemployment has been accentuated by the hundreds of thousands of farmers driven from the land and into the cities by the These are but capital which are shifting the cen- ter of gravity of the industry toward the new fields, and thereby displac- ing labor and creating unémploy. ment. These industrial and _ sectional problems of unemployment require special programs of action for the workers in the respective fields, co- ordinated and included in the gen- eral struggle, adjusting to local conditions the fight against immi- nent impoverishment and unemploy- ment; they canot alone, however, be made the basis of a general pro- gram to fight unemployment, which must be built upon the situation of the American working class as a whole. On this general situation at this time, we can say that unem- ployment. is increasing and threat- ens to assume a mass character sometime between the summer of 1924 and spring of 1925, but it has not yet reached that stage. Program jor Fighting Unemploy- ment, The Workers Party shall take a leading par: in the fight against unemployment in all its phases, Tne HE’S DOING HIS BEST « \“ XG ee 4, ds SHG. M%, we 4 a4 ee A SSS But He Can’t Hold on Much Longer. —_— SAM! Sam) DONT LET THE BULL GET MEM ANA dedi, fends. of expansion of the automobile and|¢can observe there are no objective;a few of the objective facts that oil industries, More than ten|visible signs at present.” months ago, however, Roger Babson was pointing out what the Com- munists knew, that “Many of the men now getting an increase in wages will be out of work before 1924 is ended.” The domestic markets could not continue indefinitely to absorb the high production of American indus- tries under the limitations of. capi- talism. The turning point came in May, 1923, and industry has becn on the down-grade since that time with a growing accompaniment of dent ah te a Mere ere vow n the not distant fo- ture, develo In this judgment the Central Ex- ecutive Committee of the Workers ing The sjtuation has not fundamentally changed since Comrade Varga wrote his report.. Unemployment has not devel character in the Uni States, The downward tendency of pro- duction and the growth of the nuin- ber of — is, however, dis- tinctly _and threatening. While it would lead to serious error i is point to the unquestionable growta of unemployment. Along with this gradual] trend in the general situation goes more vio- lent displacements within certain industries gnd localities. Thus the *|coal industry is in the midst of a most difficult readjustment which is throwing large numbers out of em- ployment in the entire industry, while in certain restricted fields the industry is flourishing. Coal min- ing was so expanded under the ne- cessities of war, that it has a pro-| ductive capacity 40 per cent above, the needs of. the domestic market in times of peace. Operators are tak- ing advantage of this fact to shift uction from union fields and igh-cost mines, to non-union areas and low-cost pits. This internal adjustment, involv- ing the expulsion of 200,000 miners from the industry by torce of star; vation, creates a major crisis in the coal mining industry. The copper indus’ its a somewhat: simi- lar with an industry, keyed up to war needs, now cut from Bropean markets, and with the complication of new low-cost ore fields recently opened to explois tation with great expenditure of ‘CANT You SEE \'m 0 Jo HOLD HIM BACK! } OING MY BEST eer 3 pe \ Zo 4% ~a\ a ¢ « @ Nas daly «\ oo STRESS following. general considerations will guide our participation in such struggies: Unemployment is an_ inevitable accompaniment of capitalism, and ‘ean only be abolished with the sys- tem that produces it. The struggle against unemployment must be cal- culated to enlighten the workers to this fact, without dampening the ‘ardor of their struggle but rather | intensifying it. | fical To this end, prac- sets of demands must be formulated and a program of action established, designed to weld .afi manifestations of protest against unemployment into a national move- ment; this must in turn be adjusted to each local and industrial situation in a practical manner. The slogans and practical actions of the struggle will follow two gcn- eral channels, the political and in- dustrial; they will be: directly against the government as the rep- resentatives .of the capitalist sys- tem, and against the industry and individual employer as the- imme- diate exploiter. These two aspects will often be iaterwined and inter- changeable, but for clearness are considered veparately, They will (Continued on page 8.)