The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 26, 1924, Page 8

Saturday, April 26, 1924 THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1113. W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months $2.00....3 months iy mail (in Chicago only): $4,60....6 months $2.50...3 months $6.00 per year $8.00 per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, IIlinols J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ) WILLIAM F, DUNNE) ““ MORITZ J. LOBB.. Editors Business Manager Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application, <P 290 The Trade Unions--May Day, 1924 By WILLIAM F. DUNNE The years 1923-24 bear eloquent testimony to the utter Ynability of the American trade union movement to extend organization in a period marked by industrial activity. 1923 was one of the “boom” years that the United States boasts of to less fortunate countries. In all lines of manufacture and construction there was a demand for workers. Wages increased, especially in the building trades, but dissension and dualism weakened the build- ing trades department. Today there is hardly a large city that has not two or more building trades councils waging war to the knife on each other. Building trades union membership has decreased. Rail Transportation. In the transportation industry the shop crafts—ma- chinists, blacksmiths, boilermakers, electricians, sheet metal workers, etc., have been almost wiped out. On only a few of the big railroad systems is there even a semblance of organization of these trades and this is unable to function effectively. because of the loss of morale consequent on the loss of the strike in 1922. The engineers, firemen, conductors and trainmen are well organized but they have no connection with the rest of the labor ‘movement. They are really property hold- ing institutions and not:unions in the real sense of the word. Coal Mining. In the coal mining industry organization is at a stand- still. The officialdom of the United Mine. Workers, in- stead of urging every coal miner in the country to join the union actually proposes that from 150,000 to 200,000 miners be forced. out of the industry.. This is strange strategy but stranger still when the fact is known that these thousands are members that it is proposed to starve out of. the industry. The organization campaigns of the United Mine Workers in West Virginia—potentially the richest bitu- minous field in America—have proved failures. There are now more non-union miners in that state than ever before and the coal mined by them is forcing many union mines in other states to close. Steel In the steel industry the widely-advertised organiza- tion campaign conducted under the safe and sane auspices of several international unions with the bless- ing of the American Federation of Labor was nothing short of a disgrace. The campaign to organize the lowly steel workers was-heralded as a movement that would confound Com- munist and other crities of- the American Federation of Labor officialdom. “You claim that we never organize any workers. Well, here we are tackling the United States Steel Corporation.. Another thing: Foster did a fairly good job‘but be was. too radical; lots of workers were frightened away. “Yow got to be conservative so they can’t get nothing on: you.” hus say the officials.who assumed charge’ of the campaign, Something like $60,000 or $70,000 had been left over by the Foster committee and this was a nice nest egg for the treasury of the organising committee, The work started, cautious publicity appeared every once in a: while—not too often—and finally it was announced that the organizing committee planned to proceed very slowly and carefully to develop some sort of an enveloping movement that would leave the Pittsburgh district no option but to capitulate. For a long time now thére Has been a great silence. No more publicity appeats but from authentic sources I learn that these cautious committeemen have organized almost one steel worker for every thousand dollars in the treasury—60 steel workers, $60,000. Joking aside, never has. there been a more glaring example of the inefficiency, timidity and general all- around bankruptcy of trade union officialdom than the pseudo-organizing campaign in the steel industry. Labor organization is at its“lowest point in steel. Textiles. In the textile industry a period of prosperity preceded the present chaotic condition. Many northern mills are moving to the south where labor is still cheaper and this has resulted in tremendous hardship to workers affected by the change. The feature of the situation that is of major impor: tance, however, is that during the prosperous period no substantial organizational gains were made nor was any militant organizational campaign attempted. The textile workers face the coming depression without any unity between those organizations existing in the industry and with no possibility of maintaining even a 25 per cent organization. Marine Transport. In marine transport conditions have gone from bad to worse tho work has been plentiful. The seamen’s union has practically disappeared and port after port has refused to deal with the longshoremen’s union and has gone open shop, There is probably more demoraliza- tion in the marine transport industry than in any other that was at one time fairly well organized. Lumber. In the lumber industry there is no organization ex- cept in the Pacific Northwest where the Industrial Work- ers of the World carry on a sort of guerrilla warfare with the timber barons. The great timber industry of the southern states is entirely unorganized and the will of the lumber trust is law. Metal Mining. In metal. mining there has been absolutely no im- provement since last May Day. The industry as a whole is in rather a stagnant condition due to the loss of Euro- pean markets and importation of copper from South American countries—from properties owned by Ameri- can concerns, The amount of organization is negligible. % Electric Light and Power. The electric light and power industry—one of the most strategically important from the standpoint of both labor and capital because of its vital necessity to big industry—is at least. 90 per cent unorganized. The gigantic electric monopolies are not troubled by labor organizers and the American trade union movement has permitted this great industrial monopoly to develop with but little attempt to organize it. Distributive Trades. In the complicated processes of distribution in the United States ‘there is little if any labor organization. The “white collar slaves” are entirely unsympathetic towards the aiid union movement and outside of a feeble organizatidn of retail clerks and a few scattered unions of the offi¢e-workers, organization is non-existent. _) Food Industry. In the food ihdustry, with some 2,500,000 workers, in- cluding both the basic processes of manufacture and ii distribution there are perhaps 75,000 organized workers —milk-wagon drivers, cooks, waiters and meatcutters jand butcher workmen. Metal Trades: In the metal trades, outside of railway transport, one seeks in vain for any substantial organization in the great metal working centers of the Middle West and Atlantic seaboard. A few isolated unions of machinists, boilermakers, sheet-metal workers, blacksmiths, etc., are all that exist and the present prosperity has resulted in no inerease of organization. Has Passed Peak. The numerical strength of the labor unions, has de- creased during the most favorable time for organization — when there are plenty of jobs. In 1923 the American Federation of Labor lost over 250,000 members and the loss this year will be still larger. The conclusion seems warranted that with its present policy and leadership—to say nothing of structure—the American Federation of Labor reached the zenith of its power during the war and that with the renewed war- fare of the employers it has been cowed and made even more conservative. The programs of class-collaboration emanating from many heads of international unions and even from Gompers himself is evidence that the open- shop drive killed what little fighting spirit that. was left. From now on the officialdom will become more brazen in support of the capitalist class and capitalist system. It does not need'to be emphasized that the failure of the trade union movement to increase its strength dur- ing a prosperous period is a grave danger to the work- ing class; the trade unions are the most powerful weapon the workers of this nation have altho compared with the power of the capitalists it is a feeble thing indeed. The treachery and incompetency of the existing lead- ership is being. shown both by practice and precept to the workers of America. The Communists have a mon- opoly of the left wing movement within the unions and on such issues as class farmer-labor party have been able to convince thousands of workers of the necessity for building a militant labor union movement coupled with a fighting class party of workers and farmers. Because of their failure to initiate such, campaigns as these and because of their actual sabotage and be- trayal of the masses the bureaucrats, in the coming stagnant’ industrial period, are going to lose. They may retain their hold on the union treasuries but not on the minds of the union members. More and more it-is apparent that the future of the American labor movement depends upon the activities of the Communists and the left wing elements organized around them. Without this force in the arena of the American class struggle the situation would be hopeless indeed. Thaw and Mooney. Crazy Harry Kendall Thaw, heir to $6,000,000 of the vintage of Pittsburgh, has been declared sane in a Philadelphia courtroom. It is stated he will be freed. Yet Tom Mooney, brilliant young leader of the} working class, sits in a prison cell in San Quentin, | Cal., still serving his life sentence. | Thaw committed murder and then pleaded in- sanity to escape the electric chair. All of his actions, especially his conduct in the Philadelphia courtroom, these past days, prove Thaw an incur- able'nut. He is just as much a lunatic now as he was when he beat up New: York showgirls and} artists models, hired for the purpose, for the| pleasure it gave him; or when he attacked young boys, especially secured for him. He is just as hare brained now as he was when he bit live rab- bits, or submitted them to other tortures, But Thaw has six million Pittsburgh dollars on his side. He has the wealth of ‘the steel and coal czardom of Western Pennsylvania on his side. Money saved Thaw from the electric chair. It is now going to save him from the madhouse. Capi- talism stands by its parasites thru all the bad places. It is taking care of Thaw. Tom Mooney never killed, or thought of killing any one. But he was a good labor organizer in San Francisco and greed. hated him. » So-he was framed-up and ‘sent away for life. Courts, juries, witnesses, practically everyone concerned, has admitted Mooney was framed. But Mooney is an enemy of the bosses. He is penniless. Capitalism hates him. So it keeps him where it thinks he can do no harm. Thaw goes free. Mooney remains in prison. There is only one power than can change that. That is the power of the working class. When will the workers use that power? Making the First Page Edgar Dickens, 6914 South Laflin Street, has made the first page of the Chicago Tribune. And THE DAILY WORKER Around The Recognition Maypole \, MENTIONING THE MOVIES By PROJECTOR. War Dept. Film Pacifist Propaganda “Powder River,” an Epic of Mud, Blood and Folly. The cartoonist who draws the “Not a brain cell working” in our metro- politan press certainly slipped a peg when he failed to feature the U. S. Marines’ use of the war film, “Powder River,” as a recruiting argument. The picture has the official O. K. of the War Department, it is made by the Signal Corps of the U, 8. Army, and is run under the auspices of the “Veterans of Foreign Wars.” Any- body who joins the army after seeing its eight reels of mud, blood, cooties, and poison gas, leavened only with an occasional crap game or welfare worker's doughnut, is to be congratu- lated on finding his proper vocation. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” The army needs him, the army is welcome to him. Justifies America. The picture admits that it cannot go into the many reasons why America entered the war but seeks to justify what follows by a reel of confiscated German film showing the submarine warfare in actual progress. This in- cidentally gives some remarkable and beautiful photography, the best in the whole picture, but that is to be ex- pected since the light values are much better on the water than on the smoky, gassy battlefields in the dusk of the “zero hours.” The submarine leaves its base, is tossed around in bad weather, and finally sinks a British sailship and a freight steamer, the latter after a long running fight. he has got his pieture on the last page. That's going some for an ordinary worker—a street car motorman. ‘ Usually the first page of any issue of this yel- low press is reserved for the big bandits of busi- ness, for political grafters. mislabeled “states- men,” for insane parasites among the rich, like It each case the ship’s papers are seized, the crew ordered to the boats, and the captain taken prisoner, be- fore the ship is sunk. No special brutality is discernable, one is merely oppressed with the sense of the criminal waste of the products of labor's sweat and blood as these fine vessels are destroyed. Thaw, and for the matrimonial difficulties of the “best people.” But Edgar Dickens was an exceptional worker. He had travelled 1,822,500 miles, during half a century, over the street car tracks of Chicago. And at the age of 74 he still slaves on, driving his car. And for this he is rewarded with an 18-line write-up; what the Tribune city editor would call a human interest story; but really a payment in full for unexampled obedience in wage slavery. And in the meantime the Chicago Tribune, with all the other Chicago dailies, absolutely ignore the strike of the carworkers in Pullman and Hege- wisch, and they have forgotten that there is a strike of the garment workers. Revolting labor must be punished with dead silence, when it is not openly attacked. Vietor I’, Lawson, the open shop editor and owner of the Chicago Daily News, hasbeen re- elected a director of the Associated Press. This will insure that. this extensive capitalist news agency will not deviate one whit from its con- sistent anti-labor policy. News will continue to be poisoned at the source, by the Associated Press. Immediately after a pitiful attempt to “dress” the film with animated flags, and pictures of Wilson and Pershing “fighting for democracy,” the soldiers are shown packed like sardines on the big transports; and conveyed by “the biggest battle fieet ever assembled.” A submarine tries to get funny, but it is promptly blown to splinters. In the twinkling of an eye the soldiers are seen wallowing in the mud of France, “Digging for Democracy,” the inspired sub title writer puts it. They dug all right, it was certainly not to be seen on the surface of the Draft and Espionage Laws, and the picture makes no claim that the boys found it even at the end of their digging, Sickening Carnage. From this point on the picture is one continuous repetition of shell fire, wound dressing, trench swim- ming, prisoner taking and grave dig- ging. The first time on the screen it is more thrilling than the wildest. melodrama, but there are four bat- tles shown, each the same succession of mud, mangled wounded, and stiff carcasses to be buried, so the flush of romance soon gives way to drab monotony, Cannon are fired in end- The DAILY WORKER May Day issue, as are-all issues of the DAILY WORKER, is strictly the’product of pro- Jetatian journalists. What do you think of it? ‘This May Day finds the capitalist system weaker than ever May the process continue, % \ less footage and with every recoil comes the thought, “More graves to dig, more houses to rebuild, more labor wasted, labor, blood, labor, sweat, labor weariness, labor, blood,” and so on in an endless chain, S THE INTERNATIONALE The Song of the Workers. Sing it again on this May Day. Arise, ye pris’ners of starvation, Arise, ye wretched of the earth, For justice thunders condemnation, A better world’s in birth. No more traditions’ chains shall bind us, Arise, ye slaves no more in thrall! The earth shall rise on new foundations, We have been naught, We shall be all. REFRAIN. Let each stand in his place! "Tis the final conflict, The International Party, Shall be the human race! "Tis the final conflict, Let each stand in his place! The International Party, Shall be the human race! The law oppresses us and tricks us, Exploiters drink the victim’s blood; The rich are free from obligations,, The laws the poor delude. Too long we've languished in subjection, Equality has other laws: “No rights,” says she, “without th No claims on equals without cause.” REFRAIN. duties,” We want no condescending saviors, To rule us from their judgment hall. We workers ask not for their favors, Let us consult for all! To make the thief disgorge his booty, To free the spirit from its cell, We must ourselves decide our duty, We must decide and do it well. REFRAIN. Behold them seated in their glory, The kings of mine and rail and soil!’ . What have you read in all their story, But how they plundered toil? | Fruits of the people’s work are buried In the strong coffers of a few; In fighting for their restitution } The workers only ask their due. REFRAIN. Toilers from shops and fields united, The party we of all who work | The earth belongs to us, the people, No room here for the shirk. Shy How many on our flesh have fattened! But if the bloody birds of prey = Shall vanish from the sky some morning, The golden sunlight still will stay. REFRAIN. MAY DAY IN MOSCOW “By ARTURO GIOVANNITTI, A rift of wings and clouds around each sentried ile, Red flags licking like flames the fold of the great dome, Silence and sunlight and the bared heads of the people... The Red Army is coming home. ‘ (May 1921 Liberator) AS WE SEE IT BY T. J. O')FLAHERTY A jury has found Harry Thaw sane. Thaw is-a millionaire. When he mur- dered Stanford White Its millions came to his assistance and proved to the satisfaction of a jury that he was off his head. Hé was sent to a crazy house. While there he whiled away. the time biting pet rabbits. Doctors hired by Thaw declare this is not a sign of sex perversion. Perhaps the rabbits were perverse! If Thaw bit a bulldog, perhaps the alienists might consider himinsane. At least he would be taking a chance and that would be The rabbits should be thankful, how- ever, that they did not feel revengeful and bit Thaw. % Re The world—or that portion. of the population suffering from arrested mental development, that takes the yellow capitalist press seriously—hav- ing allowed the murder of Stanford White to cease being a source of irri- |tation to them, and having satisfied their desire for sacrificial victims dur- ing the world war, the friends of Har- ry Thaw thought the time opportune to get him out of the insane asylum, so alienists prove that he is sane, tho when left a moment to himself in court he broke loose and babbled like an idiot. Thaw is now declared sane. He has five million dollars in his own right. He had only a million when he wént into the crazy house. Crazy man grows rich under crazy system, while in crazy house biting little rabbits. Workers grow poor, outside bughouse, working for crazy man whose millions are used to pay them in wages a por- tion of what they produce for nutty man. Who are crazier than Thaw? Answer—The crazy workers who tol- erate this crazy system. i a. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, came to Chicago recently to fight the injunc- tion that is raising the devil with the strike of the dressmakers ands inci- dentally a thorn in the side of the or- ganized labor movement. Sam held some conferences with women in the Congress hotel.’, He did not even open his mouth about the injunction. It ‘was not worthy of the great man’s at+ tention while there were weightier questions to tackle. He suddenly ap- pears in Washington, To testify against the Teapot Dome plunderers? To drive a nail in the political coffin of Harry M. Daugherty, labor foe? To throw some light on the dark recesses of the Internal Revenue Bureau and Mellon's whisky deals? No! No!! No!! Gompers stood like the boy on the burning deck and eloquently pleaded the cause of a thirsty nation demanding the return of 2.75 per cent beer. Gompers was praised for his ac- tion by the Chicago Tribune and the Daily News, two organs that would have gladly slit his throat were he only to utter as many words against, the injunction as he did in favor of booze. g ‘Trachtenberg In Denver April 30 DENVER, Colorado, April 25.— Since arranging for the May Day Dance on April 27th, we have receiv. }}ed word that Alexander Trachtenberg who has spent the last five months in Russia and Germany will speak at May Day Mass meeting, Wednesday, April 30th; Hight p. m., at Social Turner Hall, Tenth and Larimer Sts, an indication of lack of judgmept,—_— ena ‘ te