The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 12, 1924, Page 5

s Monday, May 12, 1924 “WHAT IS TREASON,” QUERY OF CAPTAIN MARTIN, AIR EXPERT, IN TALE OF GIGANTIC FRAUDS (Special to the Daily Worker.) WASHINGTON, May 11.—What is treason to one’s country, under the rules of modern capitalist society? Is it treason, for instance, to seize control of the essential weapon needed in a war already in progress, and bleed the public treasury to the bottom in return for false promises of quantity pro- duction of this weapon? Is it treason to make a billion dollars in profit from thus de- frauding a nation at war? is it, indeed, the mere logical ap- plication of the ordinary rules of the game of profits, that plays bandit against one’s own govern- ‘ment while that government is supposed to be defending the life of, the nation? Captain James V. Martin wants to know. He is a pioneer airman, and he is trying to interest the congress of the United States in the fact that the wholesale frauds, thefts and eriminal conspiracies of the aircraft ring, whose friends now dominate the air policy and air force of the govern- ment, have gone unpunished, laden down with gold. “A particular group of men knew, and we have it over their own signa- tures, that they knew, that the air- plane was the most important weapon possessed by the United States when it entered the world war,” he told the DAILY WORKER, in a special in- terview. “These men were BH. A. Deeds and H. BE. Talbot, of Dayton, Howard Coffin, Sidney W. Waldron, J. G. Vincent of the Packard Motor Co., and others. Deeds had ‘been con- victed under the Sherman act of the crime of conspiracy, and sentenced to a year in jail, at Miami, Ohio, but never served. Charles HE. Hughes, when he investigated the aircraft frauds for President Wilson, recom- mended that Deeds be courtmartialed, but he wasn’t. “Here is the story that never has been published: “1. The pioneers of airplane ‘work had the fighter plane, the bomber plane and the training plane already developed and flying at the beginning of American participation in the world ‘ war. They offered these types free of expense to the government. “2. This particular group of men, who had never successfully built nor flown planes, proceeded to destroy these weapons already offered to the government. I charge that they bribed public officials, forged minutes of the meeting of the Council of cs tional Defense, and usurped them. selves into the Aircraft Board. . "They bought the fighter plane, dis- Or mantled it and stored it. “They got rid of the trainer plane by direct suppression of the plane it- self and by depriving its projectors of motors for the planes, under the powers of the emergency act for the Aircraft Board. “They destroyed the bomber by de- laying and suppressing its introduc- tion and finally by shooting incen- diary darts into its gasoline tank. “3. ‘They then received one billion dollars, and in spite of having de- stroyed something already in exist- ence, which they knew to be the es- sential weapon of the United States in the war, they did not even make an effort to supply a substitute. Not even one fighting plane made by them was in commission when the war ended.” Martin sketched the early years of flying in this country, and the com- ing upon the scene of Coffin, Waldron and others interested only in making a@ huge profit from control of the in- vention. Russell A. Alger, Jr., son of “Canned Beef” Alger, who was secretary of war during the McKinley administration, was one of the group. They saw American participation in the war coming, and they organized to make the most of the opportunity. By talking a great deal, and formfig companies of big capitalization—on paper—they captured the limelight just before 1917. When the war decla- ration was signed they were ready to form the Aircraft Board which lob- bied its way triumphantly to the pub- lic treasury and grabbed an initial appropriation of $640,000,000 for its advertised program of “winning the war” in the air. “There were at that time in this country,” said Martin, Yeight pioneer fliers who had designed, built and flown airplanes with success. These men were ready, as I have said, and they proceeded to enlist financial backing and to propose to the govern- ment that they be given the chance to build planes of the types they had proven. But Deeds, Coffin and their group simply eliminated all of these pioneers from the situation. Deeds was made a colonel and placed in charge of the air service. He then Coolidge And Cox, Ohio’s Selections For The Presidency COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 11.—Presi- dent Calvin Coolidge and former Gov- ernor James M. Cox are Ohio's selec- tions for the republican democratic nominations for president. Voters of Ohio, in the recent presi- dential primaries, gave decisive ma- jorities for Coolidge and Cox in the preferential vote, and gave to each, the state’s delegations to their re- spective national party conventions. Coolidge’s victory over Senator Hi- ram Johnson was overwhelming. In- complete returns indicate the presi- dent won by 4 majority of more than six to one. Cox apparently defeated William G. McAdoo by nearly three to one. dictated to whom the contracts for airplanes should go. Not only were the pioneers shut out, but they ‘were banned from any post where they might advise the government as to its aircraft policy. Coffin and Wald- ron, with Deeds, made up the Air- craft Board. When the Council of National Defense refused to give them power to direct the alr program, they illegally assumed that power within 24 hours, and retained it until the close of the war. They put J. G. Vincent, of the Packard concern, in charge of all motor and airplane de- sign work, and various other co-con- spirators or lieutenants into the other positions of authority. “Their ban against experienced con structors and fliers was carried t the point Where experienced fliers ha to pretend to learn over again, in o: der to get a chance in the service o ganization. The fearless pioneer typ: that went in for flying before an} Money could be had or safety known were unwilling to doublecross the government, but they hadn’t a chance against the Deeds-Coffin crowd, which had allied itself with Stettinius of Morgon & Co, Stettinius was put in charge of aircraft work in the war de- partment, and the Morgan interests helped the rest of the ring to get gov- ernment jobs. Then it shared in the big clean-up. The treasury paid all the bills. “The Dayton Wright Co. was or- ganized by Deeds, and was first owned by the Dayton Metal Products Co., in. which Deeds and one Kettering were chief stockholders. Deeds passed his stock over to his wife, took his job in the government, and handed to this company some millions of dol lars of public money as advances on the manufacture of planes. There wasn’t a man in the whole Dayton Wright concern who had even been responsible for building a successful plane. Orville Wright had nothing There Are About Thirty Million Workers In the United States who ought to “AMERICA’S GREAT LABOR DAILY” It is up to the present readers to GET THOSE THIRTY MILLION How many will YOU get at the special reduced price before June 15th? _ Read THE DAILY WORKER Set a mark—say two a week from now until June 15th. That’s six weeks or twelve new readers. 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The over- payments made to these mushroom companies without responsible tech- nical men ran into many millions. ‘There was the Lincoln Motors Corpo- ration, the airplane division of the Fisher Body Co., and the airplane division of the Packard Motor Co. Vin- cent, Waldron, Deeds, and their friends held stock. The Guaranty Trust Co. extended aid to them in launching their plans. The game was 80 good that they soon came back to Congress and reported that their first $640,000,000 was not enough. They finally absorbed $1,600,000,000. “When the pioneers saw Deeds, Coffin and Waldron in control, they got together financial backing, on the basis of their years of scientific achievement, and went to the Board, saying, “We will build you thousands of planes on our own responsibility, on our Own money. We guaranty per- formance of our planes. We ask only contracts on that basis, and we will put up bond.” “The scoundrels who refused these offers turned around and gave the mil- lions to their own confederates who never delivered a plane in all that 18 months of war. “Benedict Crowell, assistant secre- tary of war, side-tracked two separate investigations which President Wil- son ordered made after I had talked with him. Deeds, instead of being courtmartialed, was given a banquet here in Washington by his crowd, and then they pinned a gold medal on him.” Martin’s inventions chiefly valuable luring the war period were a form of lateral control and an aerodynamic ontrol—devices which removed much of the danger of accidents and gave he flier more freedom of action in battle, His patents stood in the way of the Deeds-Coffin crowd. When they took power as the Aircraft Board they stopped all tests of his devices, which had been placed on army planes in 1916. Records in the war department relating to thesg devices disappeared. The inventor was then advised that he had better stop experimenting along those lines. Martin protested, but to no effect. He asked for credentials for flying, but was refused, gltho a month earlier he had beén refused on the ground that his services in a scientific capa- city were indispensable to the govern- ment, Discouraged, he went to Eng- land," where years earlier he had taught the first British army men to fly. He was welcomed, and the French government also. sought his help. His aerodynamic control was at once adopted by the British war planes. .~ But the Aircraft Board profiteers followed him. An order was sent to London, to an American agent, who notified ‘the British government that Martin was discredited at home and “no good.” He was told by the Bri- tish that they had faith in him,: and needed only permission of the Wash- ington government to continue him as their adviser. He ‘went to Chipps Drexel, one of the Philadelphia Drex- els, who had been his pupil and who now represented the Aircraft Board in London. Drexel begged him not to ask questions; he could not give the inventor the credentials or character that would allow the British to keep him in their service. Seven of his inventions, then under trial by the British, were dropped. Details of the persecution of his fel- low pioneers he does not claim to know. The Deeds-Coffin group, with Morgan & Co, and the Guaranty Trust Co. as their allies and many of the ruling clique in the war depart- ment organization as their friends, went boldly on with the looting of the aircraft funds and the piling up of excuses for non-delivery of airplanes. How many hundreds of thousands of men on both sides died, because the war was thereby prelonged to the de- gree it was, nobody will ever know. The airplane companies were stowing away their billion dollars in profits. Martin finally came home ang got command of a ship, and in 1919 made a voyage to Reval with supplies sent by Hoover to Yudenitch—but that is a story familiar to readers of the DAILY WORKER. He is now trying to break thru the barricade of indif- ference and of organized loot in Wash- ington, to get the aircraft scandal so aired that the crowd which has clung to control in the army and navy air services on the one hand, and in the manufacturing plants on the other, will be forced to give away to men who seek development of the science of flying. Bandits Rob Baker ' NEW YORK, May 11.—Four band- its, only two of whom were armed, eld up Henry S. Levy in front of his bakery in Brooklyn today and robbed him of $5,000. Party Activities Of Local Chicago REGULAR BRANCH MEETINGS. Monday, May 12, fferman Branch, at Workers’ Dra- matic Club, 1665 Bissel St. down- stairs. Comrade J. Schaefer will speak on the Anti-Alien Laws, the menace of a super-blacklist. Comrade Schaefer is well-equipped to handle the subject and a most interesting talk can be ex- pected. Meetings are open to the gen- eral public. Hungarian Branch, at 1500 North Sedgewick St., second floor, Italian 19th Ward (W. S. No. 1) at 1103 S. Loomis St. Tuesday, May 13. Ukranian Branch No. 1, at Ukranian Club, 1532 W. Chicago, tntra floor. Irving Park English, at 4021 N. Drake Ave. The Third Annual Picnic of the Workers Party, Local Chicago, will be held on Friday, July 4, at Stickney’s Grove. Speakers, dancing, games, re- freshments, etc., are being. provided. Sympathetic organizations are re- quested not to arrange any other af- fair, but to give all possible support to the July 4th picnic. Trachtenberg Tour List of Western Dates. 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: 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, NEW YORK CITY. ORGANIZATIONS, ATTENTION! District No. 2, Workers Party, has arranged a grand excursion and moonlight dance on the Hud- son river for Saturday, June 28th. Cler- The commodious steamer mont, having a capacity of 3,000, has been chartered for this occa- sion. Friendly organizations are urged to keep this date in mind and not arrange for any affairs that week. Czarists Tumble Out Of The Sky; Russia Is Safe (By The Federated Press) NEW YORK, May 11.—The Russian Communist government is safe—at least for awhile longer—because of the collapse of certain monarchist plans. The collapse consists in the wreck of the lone biplane of the Ski- korsky Aero Engineering company, New York. The company consists of sundry ezarist generals and counts who live in New York and support themselves by providing swank for swell parties of the rich, or at worst, by peddling papers and waiting on table. One of them is Igo Sikorsky, for- mer captain in the czar’s army, avia- tion section. Gen. Theodore Lodijen- sk¥"who runs a restaurant, put up a little money, Sikorsky furnished the design, and the rank and file of the monarchist colony gave their odd time—result, one airplane. It was to break all records, for weight, distance, endurance, speed, cheapness, and bafety. The company would get rich and proceed to drive the wicked Bol- shevists out of Russia. Eight of them got into the machine with Sikorsky for the test flight at Roosevelt Field, Long Island. They woke up a few minutes later on the Salisbury golf links. Nobody wa: killed. But the czarists were so bad- ly bruised that amused spectators had to call in a near-by Dobbin and shay to cart home the pieces. How many of your shop-mates read THE DAILY WORKER. Get one of them to subscribe today. UNCLE WIGGLY’S TRICKS The Workers Party in Action WORKERS PARTY MAKES STATEMENT ON THE PULLMAN STRIKE DRAWING ATTENTION TO THE ISSUES INVOLVED (Statement Issued by the Workers Party, Local Chicago.) TO THE WORKERS AND Dear Sirs and Brothers:— standard of living. heaters, reamers, vestibule and cut wages. The company has refused to deal with the carmen. Instead, the com- pany has put over what it calls the “Pullman Plan of Employee Repres- entation,” a fake union game in which the EMPLOYERS have their own representatives on the so-called Gen- eral Employes’ Committee, and the WORKERS HAVE NO REPRESENT- ATION WHATEVER on the Com- pany’s committee. The steel carmen struck. Carry On Militant Struggle. You must understand that the action of the Pullman corporation is but the beginning of another systematic wage- cutting and longer hour campaign. What the Pullman corporation is try- ing to sneak over on the carmen, it will, if it succeeds now, attempt on all the workers employed by it. But the Pullman Company will not succeed if YOU WORKERS are organized and carry on a militant struggle to prevent it. In 1894, in the great Pullman strike, the workers put up a remarkable fight which frightened the bosses and near- ly brought them to terms, During the next strike, the men organized in the Railway Employees Department of the American Federation of Labor. They forced the Puilman vorporation to an agreement which brought also union recognition and representation. Even thru this small organization the work- ers brought about the abolition of time and a half for overtime, and secured proper classification of em- ployes, besides improving tremend- ously the working conditions. In the present strike, the striking carmen have been putting up a fine and courageous battle against the Pull- man bosses. The. picketing of the strikers has been great stuff and in- spiring to workers everywhere and al- ready is causing the powerful Pullman corporation to want to talk “agree- ments” with the Strikers’ Committee. The Workers Party of Chicago and its Pullman Section are with the strik- ers 100 per cent and stand ready to help in every way they are called upon. Your battle is our battle, is the struggle of all workers against op- pression and exploitation by the capi- talist robber system. Organize the Union. In this strike, the striking workmen are making some headway in organiz- ing into the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen. At all costs you must en- deavor to hold this nucleus of a union organization together after this strike is over and continually to bring in more and more of the workers for future inevitable attacks. Unions are the economic organizations by which the workers can defend themselves from the attacks of the bosses. Bosses fear organized workers and their unions; they are not disturbed a bit if you are not organized. But the or- ganized strength of the workers makes them talk “turkey” to you. Because workers have struck in some shops in Pullman, other workmen have also had to lay down their tools. We say, this is the time to bring all these workers together, to make com- mon cause with them. Unite your forces. The Pullman Company of bos- ses is organized 100 per cent against the workers. The workers must or- ganize 100 per cent against the Pull- man bosses and then you will be able to lick them and prevent 40 per cent wage cuts, the Taylor speed-up sys- tem and even worse slave conditions. During this strike, the workers of Pullman have had an opportunity to see how the Workers Party is ready to give. the strikers all possible as- sistance. The DAILY WORKER, of- ficial organ of the Worxers (Com- munist) Party, is the only daily paper that has told the facts and the work- ers’ side, the only true side, of the strike. The DAILY WORKER and the Workers Party are always at the com- the Pullman corporation struck. tempted to put over a 10 to 40 per cent cut on the employes. top of that, the Pullman Company was enforcing the terrific and murderous Taylor or speed up system and thus sucking the last ounce of energy out of the bodies of the workers. living has gone up and yet the % Page Five STRIKERS OF PULLMAN! The Pullman strikers are now engaged in a life and death struggle with the Pullman corporation to maintain a human On April 14, the riveters, buckers, fitters, steel shop car building forces of The profit-greedy Pullman at- On The cost of Pullman Company attempts to mand of the workers In their strug- gles. ‘ No Language or Race Division— Workers United. In this strike, foreign-lYorn workers of many lands are out with American workers. The Workers Party of Chi- cago is glad to see the unity of in- terest that pre $s among the strik- ing workmen, and that they are not divided, as the Puliman capitalists would like to have them, along race and language lines. The Workers Par- ty of America, a political party ofthe exploited masses has no color line, no race line. All workers accepting its program are welcome into its ranks. The Workers Party, supporting the striking workmen in all ways, points out at the same time, that the struggle of the workers is a wider and bigger one than that of the Pullman workers against the Pullman bosses. This is only a skirmish of the world’s working class against the capitalist class. Government Protects the Bosses. Tn this struggle between the work- ers and employers in Pullman and elsewhere in America, you will note that the bosses depend also upon pro- tection from the Government, the State forces, the police, militia, etc. You have seen how well and easily the Wall Street interests control the Republican and Democratic parties. You are beginning to realize that the Government and the Republican and piece-work, established the 8-hour day,4 nemocratic parties are but tools of the American capitalist class. You have seen how powerfully the privileged capitalist class uses the Government it owns body and soul against the workers in many strikes, thru injunc- tions, etc. Your pickets, too, have been arrested and thus again you see that the government protection is only pro- tection of the bosses, in this instanee- the owners of the Pullman plant. Workers Must Own and Manage In- dustries and Government. The Workers Party of Chicago declares that the only real remedy against capitalist oppression, wage cuts, long hours of toil, speed-up sys- tem and many other ills, is a united struggle of the exploited workers to do away with Capitalist society and Captalist government. The Workers Party, Local Chicago, declares that the workers must organize into their unions and other economic organiza- tions of the working class against the bosses. But they must also join the political party of the working masses and then engage in a struggle to dis- place the capitalist class and its pro- tector, capitalist government, with po- litical rule and power by the workers, in order that the\workers who produce all, may take over, own, operate and manage the factories, mills, fields, shops, etc. The Workers Party of America is organized to do away with capitalist Tea Pot Dome Government and to re- place it by a government of Workers’ councils, Soviets. The Workers Party is the only political party of the work- ing class which actively participates in the struggles of the workers at any and all times, and thus proves its right to be the acknowledged repres- entative of the interests of the work- ers. As before, so in the future, we stand ready to work with you in closest harmony and co-operation. We are with you 100 per cent on the strug- gle against the Pullman corporation. We will work with you to effect a strong union organization for the future and to win the strike today. Fight the attacks of the Pullman Corporation! Hail the Pullman Strikers! Hail the Solidarity of the Workers! WORKERS PARTY OF CHICAGO, Martin Abern, City Secretary. Sec'y Pullman Section, A. Yuris. How many of your shop-mates read THE DAILY WORKER. Get one of them to subscribe today.