The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 6, 1924, Page 5

Tuesday, May 6, 1924 THE DAILY WORKER Page Five 13 CINCINNATI “WORKERS HIT WAR FRAME-UP Arrested in 1917 for Anti-War Leaflet WASHINGTON,’ May 5.—Questions showered from the supreme court bench here upon Atty. Ed. F. Alexan- der, pleading the case of 13 Cincin- nati workers arrested as members of - the Socialist Party in 1917 and con- victed .in 1919 on charges of having circulated an anti-conscription leaflet, were uniformly friendly, when the case was argued April 29 on a ques- tion “of writ of certiorari, ‘The defend- nts; some of whom are now mem- bers of the Workers Party, were framed according“to their lawyer, and the Charge of treason brought against em in the first place and indictment or “conspiracy to defraud the United by indueing men not to re- er for the draft, was described as Alexander told the court how the Cincinnati Sodialists met on the Sun- day before draft registration day, to nominate a city ticket. After doing that, they agreed to a proposal by Lotta Burke, a member, that they print and circulate part of a leaflet against the idea of conscription, which had been used in Cleveland. She read the Cleveland leaflet, omit- ting, however, a. paragraph urging men to “refuse to register for con- scription.” This leaflet, with the refusal cross- ed out, was taken to a small printer named Tom Foster, who afterward turned out to be a ready witness for the prosecution and is thought to have been “planted” to involve radicals and railroad workers in trouble, Foster de- livered to ..18s Burke two proofs of the leaflet, in which the illegal para- graph did not appear. Then he failed to deliver any leaflets to the party until the hour for their citywide dis- tribution. After many had been dis- tributed, Miss Burke found that the printer had inserted the illegal para- graph. . She tried to stop the distri- bution. “But the business men’s spy- Ing organization and federal officers ere already informed, and arrested 1 party workers at their meeting laces, Later they arrested Miss jurke and the party candidate for | mayor, Hammerschmidt, who was her escort to the printing office. The law’S delays marked every step in the prose¢ution, after the local Scripps paper, the Cincinnati Post, had led the hysterical demand for the death penalty if the “treason” should be proved. Tom Foster was not even arrested. The trial judge _ died, and his successor sentenced the Socialists to prison terms of from 1 to 3 months, altho conviction had been voted only after the jury had been evenly divided and had stipulat- ed that they should ask for mercy for all the accused, The defense argued that a recom- mendation for mercy, which the jury voted, made utterly silly the convic- tion, of “conspiracy to defraud” the government out of conscripted sol- iers. ~— fear Are you self-conscious Gbout the impression . you make on people? Peon ap) has a peg plea ca O wer is one sigs so many ron self, ‘quech anche pe If the teeth are not well kepe they at once become a ity. kt tons sms i dered the mamed~—o len “A large tube of Listerine Tooth Paste is 25 cents; at your drug- TAMPICO STRIKE LEADER TELLS DAILY WORKER OF FIGHT WITH BIG BRITISH OIL INTERESTS By JAY LOVESTONE, (Special to the Daily Worker.) MEXICO CITY, Mexico, April 30.—*We will fight till we win and we are bent on victory at all costs.” This is the message sent, thruthe DAILY WORKER, to the workers and poor farmers of the United States. by Gregorio Furrubiates, leader of the Mexican work- ers, now striking against the powerful British oil corporation at Tampico, the El Aguila. Gregorio Furrubiates is a genuine rebel, d proletarian fighter of the first order, enjoys the whole-h earted confidence of the workers, and fs a communist. The following sidelights on the gigantic strike now raging in Tampico were given your correspondent by Com- rade Furrubiates while he was in Mexico City as a member of a committee of striking workers to see President Obregon and tell him that his arbitration commis- sion had better act without delay or else the strikers would be com"; pelled to take matters into their own hands against El Aguila Oil Corporation. Electrical Workers Strike First. “The strike began as a strike of 150 electricians employed: by the Tam- pico Light and Power Company, of which Mr. J. S. Leach was manager. Mr. Leach has since been expelled from Mexico by the government for his persistently hostile and trouble- some attitude towards the working men, “The strike of the electricans last- ed five months, Mr. Leach at one time succeeded in rounding up 125 scabs. But we soon gave them such a worth- while education and made such an example out of them that it imbued the oil workers of El] Aguila, which was using the light and power of. the struck electrical company, with a spir- it of magnificent solidarity. A mass spontaneous organization wave swept their ranks. When it was their. turn to strike, the oil workers came out. 100 per cent. And today these scabs can’t get a job anywhere and are os- tracised by all workers everywhere. “For the first 12 days of the electri- cal workers’ ‘strike there were neither police nor military on guard. \ There were no scabs to protect. The oil capitalists then resorted to a trick to fool the government into rushing sol- diers to the strike zone by telling it that the workers had taken over the factories. But when the soldiers came there were no scabs to look out for. “The men, women and children all lined up solidly behind the electrical workers, who ‘did take over the plant when they struck. As a matter of fact, the workers ran the plant very well and made a profit, of §,000..pesos. a day. Soon the electrical workers won their strike. They then declared that they will supply El Aguila pow- er only upon the request and recom- mendation of the Oil Workers’ Union. The capitalists then went after the: oil workers. Here is where the pres- ent serious strike troubles began. Oil Workers Locked Out. “No sooner were the oil workers locked out and forced to strike in self defense against the attacks made on them by El Aguila, than they raised the red flag over the plant and \1rew a guard of working men about it Im- mediately the British Corporation ap- pealed to the Association of Oil Pro- ducers in Mexico for help.” At this point your correspondent re- minded the strike leader that’ this was the same outfit of international oil interests that once occupied offi- ces in 347 Fifth Avenue, New York City, and dictated the © policies of | Washington and Mexico City at a time when the relations between the two governments were intensely strained. This clique of oil magnates even had its own army in Mexico, led by one named Pelaez. This reminder served to cause Fur- rubiates to state that it was precise- ly the knowledge of those facts that has aroused the ire of great masses even outside the ranks of the oil workers. The strikers are convinced that the sole object of El Aguila in appealing to the Association of Of) Producers is to invoke the powerful influence of the latter on the United States government, which in turn, will bring to bear heavy pressure on the Mexican government to terminate the strike favorably for the Hl Aguila cor- _In the May Issue! “THE Govan IN RUSS By WM. F. KRUSE, A generously illustrated article out Russia with a The Famin Interesting $2.00 a Vea y nate RUSSIA PICTORIAL, 9 South Lincoln Street, Chieago, Ill. picture camera. HER FEATUR' Democratic Japan sssssseessnssesse MY sovecsvorscatdensees in Max A pies Class American Reacts to Russi: Photogra) Internati v7 SUBSCRIBE NOW. sseenesanenaneneenseneoorenseen srvsenisseseusneeelenamenennesne veserscesssssonssssssnnnssenssoies STAT Bsscsscosseettorscessonnsie Ds by one who has travelled thru- ($1.00 Six Months | poration. Then the stocky, solidly built strike leader went on to say: ‘Yes, the gov- ernment is pledged to force arbitra- tion. In view of the British company having the international oil interests acting for it, we will very likely be compelled to declare a general strike in the port of Tampico. “When the company tried to break our ranks by firing 150 of our men be- cause of the stoppage of power in- curred by the electricians’ strike, then it set the house on fire. The lockout gave tremendous impetus to our agi- tation for organization amongst the oil workers. Continued firing of oil workers by El Aguila boosted our campaign still more. Soon a commit: tee of ofl workers called upon the E] Aguila and demanded that the lock: out cease immediately and that all the workers be given back their jobs, This appeal of ours fell on deaf ears. Today from 2,075 to 3,000 of the firm are organized and striking very well. Only a few clerks have been left out. All other workers are organized in- dustrially. “Our unfon seeks to have the Brit- ish Oil Corporation comply with the labor laws of the country which pro- vides for an 8-hour working day, sani- tary conditions of employment, acci- dent insurance and three months’ pay if discharged without cause. We have been fired without cause. We have been struggling for more than @ month.” Great Solidarity of Workers. Thereupon the writer put this ques- tion to Furrubiates: How do the rest of the workers feel about your fight? To this Furrubiates replied: “All the workers of Tampico are rallying to the oil laborers, A mani- festo pledging us their full support has just been issued. Inspiring» soli- darity is evidenced among the rail- road workers, the red anarcho-syndi- calists, and even the yellow unions. Substantial material help is being rendered us. The Tampico workers are giving us 5,000 pesos weekly. The Butchers’ Union is giving us three cows.a day. “The organized workers have built dramatic clubs giving plays, having proletarian. class themes only. The unorganized workers are helping us financially. by patronizing these plays. One play is given every week. This nets the strikers at least 1,500 pesos weekly. Just to show you how the jother workers feel about our fight, let me read to you the following tele- gram [ received a few moments ago from my union, The Oil Workers’ Un- ion of Tampico.” Furrubiates went on*to read: “We can sustain strike indefinite time. Electricians are aiding 1,000 pesos weekly! street car men, 700; small merchants — society, 200; the butchers, three cows a day. Work- ers of this port are ready for gen- etal strike if necessary. Delegate ‘entral and South American organiza- tions tell us will boycott El Aguila Products if strike is not settled.’” s“Out of 2,300 workers there is not 4 scab on the job today. Force Government To Act. “When we were tipped off that the company was planning to fill several of its tankers, we telegraphed Presi- dent Obregon and demanded that he order the Commander of the local military force to prevent the scabs from handling the oil. Our demand brought back the following telegra- phic reply from Obregon: “Your attentive message received, Have already ordered the Secretary of Industry and Labor thru his dele- gated representative to guard the ob- servance of the labor laws and pre- vent the resumption of work as long as the conflict has mot been terminated by the authorities in charge of arbitration. Respectfully, Obregon, President of the Republic.” This telegram was sent on April 14th. Works Completely Tled Up. ‘What has been the condition of the strike since then? was my next ques- tion. The spokesman of the oil work- ers replied: ‘Since that day El Aguila has been absolutely tied up. In the midst of ‘the strike we learned that some Eng- ‘lish workers were loading oil for the firm in another port. We compelled the government to stop this. Obre- gon has declared that if the manager of the company does not present him- self before the Arbitration Commis- sion, the decision will be rendered without him, But El Aguila has so far refused to send its representative because it continually maintains that its case 18 no longer in its own hands but is now solely in the hands of the Association of Oil Producers. “We workers expect the govern. ment to compel El Aguila to adh: to the Constitutional provisions re- garding the 8-hour day, insurance, the right to organize, ete. The Strikers’ Demands, “We have thirty-three demands, WAR SECRETARY APOLOGIZES TO ANTI-WAR WOMEN Withdraws Offending Circular (By The Federated Press) BUFFALO, May 5.—Women .peace workers have made the U, S. War De- partment eat its words and withdraw its attack on them it was revealed at the National League of Women Vot- ers’ convention in session in Buffalo. Secretary of War Weeks, following protest of league members, has called in an ahti-pacifist poster distributed for propagandist purposes by General Fries, Chemical warfare service. The poster was headed “The Socialist- Pacifist Momevent in America is an Absolute Part of International Social- ism.” The convention of women were furious when President Maude Wood Park recounted the government’s at- tack on their organization. Some de- legates objected that their constitu- tional right to work for peace should be questioned by the government. Others resented the coupling of the league’s Mame on the war department poster with more radical organiza- tions. The peace activities of the league will continue. A committee was ap- pointed to cau a conference of seven- ty-five nationa: and local peace soci. eties and all other organizations hav- ing peace programs. On the commite- tee is the honoray president, Mrs. Car rie Chapman Catt. A sugary letter from President Coo- lidge did not altogether quiet the wrath of the women voters. After regretting hisinability to address thc convention and praising the advent of womem as voters as a “tremendous- ly important step in the evolution of democracy,” Coolidge said. “I am sure that thru the agencies of such organ- izatoins as your own the fullest con- ception of their duties and obligations will be carried to the women of the nation.” eScretary Weeks expressed regret for the poster and announced its with- drawel, im a letter read to the dele- gates. | ————— One of our main grievances is that workers injured while on the job be taken care of as the Constitution pro- vides. We will not compromise any of the rights guaranteed us by the Constitution. Other demands than the enforcement of the Constitutional provisions, we may be ready to arbi- trate. “At least 2,100 workers are already on strike. We are all set for a gen- eral strike in a few days to include all the workers in Tampico. That would mean taking seven thousand workers off their jobs. All the petro- leum fields are agitated. The laborers are preparing to organize a big gen- eral union of all oil workers.. There ig @ spontaneous movement in their ranks for a Federation of Oil Work ers. There are no less than 15,000 oil workers now being organized who are ready to tie up all the oil fields of the country.” McDonald Aid Sought. The writer then suggested that the strikers might consider the advisability of cabling the McDonald Government and demanding that it should not sup- port El Aguila in this fight. Furrubi- ates gladly accepted the recommen- dation. Since then the Tampico strik- ers have cabled McDonald. Samuel Gompers was also appealed to, thru the Pan-American Labor Fed- eration, to help the strikers against the oil capitalists’ association. A gen- eral appeal has been issued to all workers, asking for the support of the strikers. A boycott against all F Aguila products has already been de- clared. Workers To Fight On. Replying to the writer's seihetey ae to how long the strikers could hold out, Furrubiates declared: “Why, we are ready to go to all lengths, ap- peal to other channels, and can stay out indefinitely. El Aguila cannot af- ford to allow its machinery to remain idle longer than two months. Be- sides, the American Doheny Oil ip- terests are its fierce competitors and may be planning to take away sonfe of its business. Of course, if these competing oil interests show signs of helping El Aguila, we will attend to them also.” BUFFALO, May 5.—“Other nations are suspicious of our intentions and are justified in being so,” declared Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, former, president International Suffrage Alli- ance, to the National League of Wo- men Voters’ convention in Buffalo. UNCLE WIGGLY’S TRICKS | The Workers Party in Action \PARTY PRINCIPLES AND DISCIPLINE A letter authorized by the Central Executive Committee directing the re- instatement of an expelled comrade. Dear Comrade: The Central Executive Committee of the Party has carefully considered all the documents sent to it in regard to the expulsion of Otto Newman as a member of the Party. It has also had before it a statement by Com- rade Newman in regard to his expul- sion. It appears from these documents that he was expelled from the Party for presenting at a public meeting, on the subject “Can the Workers Gain their Freedom by Political Action Alone,” the part which force played in the class struggle thru reading the “Thesis of the Third Congress of the Communist International and the “Strategy of the Communists” and the “Communist Manifesto of 1847,” excerpts dealing with this question. It appears further that the City Cen- tral Committee of Portland had for- bidden any Party member to raise the question before an open meeting. Political Action 1. The first point which the Cen- tral Executive Committee desires to bring to your attention is the com- plete misapprehension of the term “political action” as indicated in both your letter and also the part of Com- rade Newman. Both you and he use the term “political action” as if it were synonymous with “parliament- ary action.” As Communists, we do not believe that to be true. For us, political action means any form of action thru which a class struggle for political power is manifested, that is for control of the state power. Political action for us does not mean merely voting and electing represent- atives to legislative bodies and other public offices. Mass meetings intend- ed to exert. pressure upon the cap- italist government may be a form of political action. Similarly a strike with political aims is a form of poli- tical action. A civil war such as recently took place in Mexico between the Obregons and De La Huerta forc- es is as much a form of political action as going to the ballot box to vote for certain candidates for pub- lic office, Understanding political action, in this, the Communist sense, the answer to the question propounded at the Forum meeting should have been unhesitatingly on the part of all Com- munists that the workers will achieve their freedom by political action. It is exactly this which is the essential thing about our Com- munist principles. Wé?say that the workers must enter into political actions against the capitalist state and achieve control of the state power and use this as a class in their in- terests, and that this is the only road to the social revolution and the abol- ishing of the capitalist system. A centralized Party 2. In a letter from Comrade King, the secretary of the English branch bearing on the expulsion of Comrade Newman, the question of the jurisdic- tion of the Centra? Executive Com- mittee and its right to intervene are raised. This letter we believe re- quires a statement from the Central Executive Committee. Our Party is a centralized Communist Party. The constitution of the Party therefore, gives the Central Executive Commit- tee full power to carry on the work of the Party between its convention. In a centralized Communist Party, the Central Executive Committee must have full authority to review any act of any unit of the Party and to mo- dity or change this act. It must have full power to mobilize every unit of the Party policies or Party ‘work There are no autonomous groups in a Communist Party, The Party is and myst be one unit. It must act and it as a unit and it must have a leading body, the Central Executive Committee with full power to direct the activities of the organization as a whole, which means to direct the activity of any unit of the Party. It is only by establishing a leading organ and maintainting a firm dis cipline in the Party that a Com- mnist Party can fit itself for struggles and conflicts which it must pass thru in order to lead the workers victori- ously to the proletarian revolution. Force and The Class Struggle 8. The Central Executive Com- mittee is of the opinion that the at titude of the City Central Committee on the question of the part which force plays in the clasg struggle in in- correct. We cannot as a Communist Party hide our views on this question from the working masses. We must, where the issue is raised, frankly, present our viewpoint. We cannot stultify ourselves because of the pressure of the capitalist state power. What then, is our viewpoint on the question of the part that force will Play in the class struggle, betweeb the workers and the capitalists. Our Party does not advocate the use of force by the workers today. The whole strength of our Party is being given to the campaign to build @ mass political party, that is a Far. mer-Labor Party, thru which the workers and farmers will enter into the political struggle against the capitalist ruling parties. We believe that it is thru the formation of such a mass Farmer Labor Party that the cause of the revolutionary movement tn the United States can best be served, Does this mean that we be- lieve that the workers and farmers of this country will thru such a Farmer Labor Party elect their re presentatives to public office and than win control of the governmental power and proceed by legislative action of the parliamentary institu- tions of che capitalist government to the abolition of the Capitalist Sys- tem? Such a viewpoint is an illusion. The history of the past shows that such a viewpoint is an illusion. No privileged class in past history has given up its privileged position upon the demand of the exploited class without resorting to force to main- tain its privileged position and its right to exploit the oppressed class. Even American history shows that when a privileged class is attacked it resorts to force in order to protect its privileged position. The South- ern slave-owners resorted to civil war in order to prevent their right to profit from the labor of slaves from being taken from them. As Communists, we therefore frank- ly declare our viewpoint that the class struggle between workers and cap- italists will inevitably in its future development take the form of a struggle in which force will be used. The exact form of this struggle is a matter of historical development which we cannot predict today. All that we can say is that it will be a struggle between the organs of the state power of the workers and the organs of capitalist state power. We have seen in Russia, in Hungary and in Bavaria that the forms which ex- pressed the workers’ struggle for state power are the Soviets and that the struggle takes the form of a struggle between a capitalist parlia- mentary government and the Soviets which are the expression of the work- ers’ government. It is this fact which we believe that Comrade Newman tried to bring out in reading from the various pamphlets at the forum meet- ing. The Central Executive Committee believes that the rule laid down by the City Central Committee of Port- land forbidding the branches discus- sion of the whole question with such a subject as, “Can the Workers Gain Their Freedom Thru Political Action Alone?” was wrong. While it is the duty of Party members to carry out the decisions of the governing body of the Party, when the body is wrong, the Central Executive Committee can- not sustain the action of the City Central Committee in expelling Com- rade Newman for éndeavoring to present the Communist position by reading from Communist literature at the forum meeting in question, The effect of sustaining this expulsion would be to support an erroneous po- sition of the question discussed above, and it is more important that the question of principle be clear than the issue of discipline involved in this case. In view of all of the foregoing, the Central Executive Committee in- structs the C. C, C. and the English Branch of Portland to reinstate Com- rade Newman as a member of the Party. The Central Executive Committee further instructs that this letter be read in full both at the City Committee meeting and at the ing of the English branch so that the principle set forth may be under- stood by all the Party members in Portland. We feel certain that the result of this incident will be to greatly strengthen the Portland Party organization thru a clear grasp of the underlying principles of a Communist Party. (Signed) C. E. RUTHENBERG) Party Activities Of Local Chicago REGULAR BRANCH MEETINGS, Wednesday, May 7th, Czecho Slovak Cicero, Masarijk School, 57th Avenue and 22nd Place, Cicero. Mid-City English, Emmet Memorial Hall, Taylor and Ogden. Douglas Park, Jewish Branch, Li- berty House, 3420 W. Roosevelt Road. Englewood Branch, 6414 S. Halsted St., downstairs. Roumanian Branch, 2254 Clybourn Ave. Thursday, May 9th. Czecho Slovak Women’s No. 2, Vojt Napristok School, 2550 S. Homan Ave., corner 26th Street. Scandinavian, Lake View, 3206 N. Wilton, Cafe Idrott. Scandinanvian West Side, Zeich’s Hall, corner of Cicero and Superior Street West. Czecho Slovak North Berwin, Sokel Hall Park, Roosevelt Road and Union Avenue. Italian W. S. No. 1, 19th Ward, 1103 8S. Loomis St. Italian W. S. No. 2, lith Ward, 2489 S. Oakley (downstairs). Scandinavian Karl Marx, 2733 Hirsh Bivd., Workers’ Lyceum. Mass Meeting. ON FRIDAY MAY 9TH, at 8 p. m. jat the Douglas Park Auditorium, Ogden and Kedzie Ave., there will be a mass meeting held under the aus- pices of the Chicago Council for the protection of Foreign Born Workers, to protest against the passage of the Johnson Bill. Speakers have been invited from the Chicago Federation of Labor, Socialist Party and Workers Party. Trachtenberg Tour List of Western Dat: The list of Trachtenberg’s western dates follows. Addresses of halls and hours of meetings will be pub- lished later where they are not given here: Friday, May 9, Oakland, Cal., Root Garden, Pacific Building. Saturday, May 10, Palo Alto, Uni- tarian Hall, Channing and Cooper streets. Wednesday, Ore. Friday, May 16, Tacoma, Wash. Saturday, May 17, Seattle, Wash. Sunday, May 18, Vancouver, B. C., Canada. Monday, May 19, Spokane, Wash, Tuesday, May 20, Butte, Mont. Saturday, May 24, Superior, Wis. Sunday, May 25, St. Paul, Minn. Monday, May 26, Minneapolis, Minn. May 14, Portland, Boost The DAILY WORKER. If you are a worker, It is your paper. ATTENTION, MILWAUKEE READERS! C. E. Ruthenberg National Executive Secretary, Workers Party of Se: will speak on the subject of “Farmer-Labor Party and the Historic Signif- icance of Minnesota, June 17th Convention” TUESDAY, MA MILLER HALL, Admission Free. ALA Y 6, At 8 P. M. 802 State Street Auspices, Workers Party of America MAREN UA Bu eA To) UGH FOR THE CHILDREN Executive Secretary. \