The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 26, 1924, Page 6

"been i t » Page Six THE DAILY WORKER. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months $2.00....3 monthe By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50....6. months $2.50....3 mont'ss $6.00 per year $8.00. per year Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd. Chicago, Illinois = J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ) WILLIAM F. DUNNE) “ MORITZ J. LOEB. Editors Business Manager “ntered 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. <i 290 Crisis in Garment Industry Why has it been possible for the officials of the) International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union to get away with their disgraceful expulsion of rank and file leaders, which culminated in the Boston conyention, while the great bulk of the member- ship stands unalterably opposed? One of the prin- cipal explanations is found in the news from New York on Saturday that a general strike is looming, | due to the refusal of the Manufacturers’ Associa- tion. to consider the union’s basic demands. The 40-hour’ week, guaranteed period of employment, unemployment insurance, and a minimum wage, are the outstanding demands formulated by the union: For several years the left wing has been agitating for these things; now they have finally been incorporated in the union program. But it is no accident that this occurs at the very time when the left wingers are being expelled. The reactionary officials did not dare carry thru the expulsions and at the same time reject these demands. The rank and file will do well to watch their officials closely in this strike situation. The deliberate provocation of the membership, by the outrageous expulsions, was evidently intended to stir up a revolt against the union office-holders, that could be made an excuse for accepting defeat, and for bowing to the bosses’ terms. The militants in the I. L.. G. W. U., however, are keeping their heads cool. This strike situation is in the hands of the reactionaries, and the responsi- bility ‘for its successful issue is theirs. The left wing, under the leadership of the Trade Union Educational League, has already shown by its services in the Chicago and Boston strikes, that even when it is expelled and disfranchised, it is “We Were All Stealing” The old Biblical saying that honest confession is good for the soul is today truer than ever. This truth is particularly timely in the present graft, corruption, and thievery crimes being revealed in the Klan investigation now proceeding in Wash- ington. One of the star witnesses before the Senate Com- mittee looking into the election of Mayfield. from Texas frankly confessed, as a Klan member of the innermost ring, that “we were all stealing.’ The witness declared under oath that.the Imperial Wiz- ard Evans had his little graft also. At least $25,- 000 were spent in “educating” the Texas voters to write in the name of Mayfield in the last Senatori- al contest. Representative Upshau, one of the self-appointed guardians of the morals of the House, was shown to have been in the pay of the nation and one of the ardent prohibitionists of the Klan for Congressional services rendered. We welcome the evidence adduced which sub- stantiates the estimate we have been making of the Klan. The Communists have never for a mo- ment seen in the Klan, as an organization, any- THE DAILY WORKER Monday, May 26, 1924 The World Trade Union Movement «By JAY LOVESTONE. HE yellow Amsterdam Interna- tional of Trade Unions has just issued a Year Book which contains a good deal of valuable information about various internationak workers’ organizations. One of the most instructive sections of this book is the part dealing with the present strength of the trade union movement in different coun- tries. According to the findings of the Amsterdam International, there were organized in sundry trade unions thruout the world, at the end of 1922, approximately 41,000,000 workers. In every country of the world, with the exception of Hungary, Germany, Poland and Soviet Russia, the tenden- cy has been for a decrease in trade union membership. The greatest gain was made by the trade union move- ment in Soviet Russia. On the basis of the findings of the Amsterdam International the strength of the national organizations at the thing but an extra-legal agency of the reac- tionary interests, an integral part of the vast and complicated strike-breaking machinery of the cap- italist class having its ramifications in the govern- ment, in the church, in the press, in the schools. All the noise made by the cyclopes, wizards, em perors, kleagles and ambassadors has never deceiv- ed. We have always viewed the excitement about honesty, pure Americanism, unadulterated woman- hood, and other impotent abstractions and vagar- ies peddled by the masked gangman as merely smoke screen behind which the vilest of crimes against the best working class fighters were hid- den, as an organized effort to mislead and divide the masses of this country in their struggle for better working and living coriditions. Yes, “we were all stealing,” is a timely confes- sion for the’Klan authority to make when caught red-handed. When hooded honesty confesses about stealing a little it is as clear as broad daylight that only a fraction of the truth has been allowed to escape, and that stealing has been going on wholesale by the Klan the country over. Especially instructive to the workers and farm- ers is the outright refusal of the Senatorial Com- mittee to delve into the connections between the Klan and Congressman Upshaw. * There is no mystery about the fact that no official body, no Congressional sub-comiittee has ever.dared ¢xam- ine the relations between government officiais and the Klan. Neither capitalist party dares make an honest, fearless investigation of the Klan, because the democratic and republican parties are both closely tied up with the Klan in many states. Is any better proof needed to show that the govern- the only dependable fighting force in the I. L. G. W. U. It will continue to fight for the protection active ur tie e3d-itedaman: nd..will_not_allow OS ar erga the, Workers Party the reactionaries to succeed with their disruption. If the strike facing the 50,000 New York garment workers is won, it will be by the fighting spirit and courageous self-sacrifice of the membership with the left wing in the front lines. If it is not won—and won fully—the responsibility will be on the heads of the mad men at the top, who have done their utmost to demoralize and defeat the union just before it goes into battle. The -militant garment workers will not allow their solidarity to be broken. They will defeat the autocratic officials: and at the same time they will defeat the clothing bosses, winning the union demands. “Cal” Coolidge Squirms “Cautious Cal” Coolidge has been forced to come to the defense of the remaining political bandits that he harbors in his “cabinet of crooks.” He announces that neither Secretary of State Hughes, nor Secretary of the Treasury Mellon is going to resign. And the president adds that he has no intention of quitting himself. These are brave ‘words. But brave words: are often spoken imme- diately before a downfall. If Coolidge were head of any government in _ Europe, and reversed on any one of the many issues on which his administration ha& been repudi- ‘ated, he would have been kicked out long ago. How different in the United States! In Europe, when’ a government loses the confidence of par- liament, it sends in its resignation and .a new election is ordered. Here the president just issues a statement that he has no intention of resigning. But it is significant that “Silent Cal” has been forced into the open. Hughes was repudiated by congress on the question of Japanese exclusion. But this is only mild zephyr compared to the storm that has been howling about the head of the secre- tary of state, especially since it has been shown _ that he is only a spokesman of Standard Oil in * governmental high places. ¥ Coolidge also states that Mellon will remain even if he doesn’t like the tax reduction bill: But how ‘about Mellon’s bootlegging activities, his aid in many forms to millionaire tax dodgers, and numer- ous other high crimes and misdemeanors? But Coolidge was not in any great hurry to put either Denby or Daugherty out of his cabinet. _ But they had to go. The fight will go on to drive Hughes, Mellon _ Hoover, Davis, Wallace and the other Wall Street agents out of Coolidge’s cabinet. The demand to i “Impeach Coolidge” himself will gain in strength. Capitalist rule in Washington will be exposed, con- -demned and finally thrown into the discard by the nation’s awakened workers and farmers. "Illinois has gone for Alex Howat. Which is the next district organization of the United Mine ‘Workers Union to take its stand with the cour- *~ ~ageous fighter from the Kansas coal fields, — ment secretly is aiding and abetting the Klan out- rages while it pretends to oppose it? The Cost of Prohts Millions of workers are crippled every year while at work grinding out profits for their em- ployers. Thousands are killed producing dividends for the capitalist class. Recently a survey was made of the number of workers wounded and killed annually in the wealthiest state of the country, New York. It was then found that the totals were ghastly enough to compare with the casualties. suffered in nlajor military operations of big wars. Capitalist industry not only robs the workers of a large portion of their product, but in its effort to pile up huge profits the employing, class has very little regard for the life and limb of the workingman. The latest investigation made by the American Association for Labor Legislation of the extent of industrial accidents in the United States sheds illuminating information on the price paid by the working class in producing fabulous dividends for the ruling class. During the last year industrial accidents have increased on the average at least 30 per cent. In more than half of the states having compensa- tion laws the increase of industrial accidents ranged from six to fifty-three per cent. We can account for some of the increase perhaps by the fact that industry has developed in the past year. Then there are also certain unavoidable accidents incurred in the operation of machinery. But it has never been denied that a great number of accidents can be prevented thru the installa- tion of safety appliances, thru a more scientific organization of production, thru the abolition of speeding up systems, and other measures of this character. All of.these measures are taboo to the bosses because they tend to lower the immediate profits, the garnering of which alone serve as the basis of capitalist production. Hence, the work- ing class pays. Another and even more significant, phase of this problem is the fact that in a large measure the number of accidents is swelled thru the employ- ment of inefficient, untrained workers during strikes. The hiring of strikebreakers not only tends to cripple and kill the misled. workingmen but also makes for a deterioration of the machinery which has a disastrous effect on the normally employed workers. This practice of the masses takes root in the same profit system responsible for the losses of workers in many other ways. The cost to the workers of piling up the gigantic profits for the bosses is terrific. The price the working class is paying for the maintenance of capitalism is increasing. It is time to stop paying. close of 1922 were as fololws: Austria—The tyear 1922 saw a loss of 29,828 members by the General Fed- eration of Trade Unions, or a total number of 1,049,949 members, In’ the period 1919 to 1923 there was an in- tensification in the tendency towards amalgamatiog various crafts. Belgium—The Trade Union oCmmit- tee of Belgium reported a membership of 618,871 on January 1, 1923. This was a decrease of 79,000 from the pre- ceding year. The heaviest losers were the building trades, the miners, the trade union centralization could not counteract the disastrous effects of the severe economic depression and the reactionary leadership-on the Bel- gian trade union movement. Canada—In Canada the number of: affiliated organizations remained sta- tionary, At the same time the mem- bership of the Trades and Labor Con- gress declined from 164,883, in 1921 to 117,814 on the last day of December, 1922. Czecho-Slovakia—On January 1, 1923, there were 388,294 members in the Federation of Czechoslovakian trade unions. In 1923 ten powerful trade unions totaling a membership of 167,078 iwthdrew from the Amster- dam Federation and affiliated them- selves with the Red Labor Interna- tional. Denmark—At the close of 1922 the Federation of Trade Unions had a to- tal membership of 232,574. This was 9,971 less than in the preceding year. There are 52 separate unions affili- ated with the Danish Federation. France—The membership of the General Confederation of Labor re- mained practically stationary during the year. On December 31, 1922, its membership was 757,847. In the same year there were several amalgama- tions. The General Confederation of Labor Unified, which is the Commun- ist Federation, affiliated with the Profintern, showed increased. strength, according to the last convention. Germany—In 1922 the General Fed- eration of Trade Unions increased its membership by 150,000, rising to a to- by 25,000 to a total of 667,898. In 1923 the Communists made marked ad- vances in the German trade union movement, particularly amongst the metal workers and’ coal’ miners. Great Britain—Compared with 1921 the membership of the Trade Union Congress dropped from 6,59,9-3 to 4,- 369,268. The economic crisis, the se- vere unemployment, made heavy in- roads on the trade union membership. Strong efforts were made in’ this pe- riod to ‘secure amalgamation of sey- eral organizations dealing with the same branches of industry. Towards this end, national federations were formed in industries dealing with printing and allied trades, textiles machinery and ship building, trans- port,, building and also technical em- ployees and unskilled workers. There is also a notable tendency towards standardization union dues and rules, Hungary—At the close of 1922) the Council of Trade Unions had a total membership of 202,956. This was an increase of $0,000 and indicates the fact that the*trade union movement is beginning to recover from the heavy assaults launched against it by the Horthy government. The union show- ing the greatest increases were those of the building trade, metal: workers, tural workers. Italy—The membership of the Gen- eral Confederation of Labor fell from 1,200,000 in 1921 to 401,054 on Decem- ber 31, 1922. This collapse was due to the ravages of the Fascisti. The latter now ~have’ their. own’ organiza- metal workers, railway men and the textile workers. It is interesting to note that even the almost complete Food Workers’ Great Fight It was a great tribute to the Amalgamated Food Workers in Chicago, when Judge Hugo Friend issued an injunction covering 170 Greek restaur- ants, prohibiting that organization from organ- izing the exploited workers in those places. And it was not a score against this independent union, when the lawyers for the bosses pointed out that it is not connected with the American Federation of Labor. Rather should it make all members of the greater body of organized labor ask themselves, why should the relief of the Greek workers, among the most exploited in the city, have been left to a small, independent body, rather than having been undertaken by those who have the big tal of 7,908,516. In the same period the Federation of Unions of salaried employees increased its membership treasuries and powerful connections. . That the Amalgamated Food Workers should enter the struggle for the eight-hour day, and decent wages, in the Greek restaurants, throwing all their ener- gies into the fight, is proof that it is animated by nel yon 1 ; ener When workers are in battle against the bosses, no real union man will quibble about technicalities of affiliations. Rather every union man in Chi- cago, American Federation of Labor or otherwise, will cheer on the campaign among the Greek restaurant workers, and will render every as- sistance possible. Organize the restaurants of Chi- cago, the Greeks now and then the others. Abolish the 10 and 12-hour day. Establish a decent wage. These are the immediate problems in the hotel and restaurant industry. The Amalgamated Food Workers are making a good start. More power to these efforts. LaF ollette Is Trimming Persistent statements come from friends of Senator LaFollette to the effect that he is not going to make the break from the republican party. Perhaps, they say, he will run independently, ask- ing for support from thé republican party in some states, from democrats in others, from the Farmer- Labor Party in others, and pledging himself to no organized party as a whole. He will not, they pre- dict, even go so far as did Roosevelt in 1912, characterizing such a break as a “great mistake.” This must give food for serious thought to all the LaFollette’ enthusiasts in the Farmer-Labor ‘Party movement. Such clinging to “regularity” and respectability, such evasion and cowardice, is not the stuff upon which a Farmer-Labor Party can be built. K It is not the spirit that can go with the workers and oppressed farmers in. their present struggle against the domination of the Wall Street blood- suckers. It does not fit into the picture of a stern and earnest effort to establish the political power of the conscious workers and farmers. | LaFollette seems to be allowing his “friends” to sever, as rapidly as they find it possible to do so, even those sentimental connections that have existed between him and the growing movement for a class party of the producers in the coming presidential election. ; Preparing For Revolution If the workers of Germany wish to struggle against slavery and starvation: they must go side by side with the Communists. That is the great lesson that events teach, day by day, to the work- ing masses of that unhappy country. Dispatches from Berlin on May 24th, tell of ‘the Communists in the Ruhr forcing merchants to grant food credits for relief of the starving. The strike now A Senate investigating committee heard the]going on is led by the Communists. In the elec- other day that an Alabama miss tried to buy the|tions of May 4th, the Communists carried the support of Senator ‘Norris, Nebraska, for the/Ruhr district over all other parties Muscle Shoals delivery to Henry Ford with a kiss. But the senator insisted that wasn’t his price, Still it is an indication of the methods that are used to get some of the sedate solons on senate combined, in addition to multiplying their vote ten-fold in the country at large. This enormous increase in power of the German Communist Party, its growing leadership of ever greater masses of workers, is the inevitable consequence of this fact—that the tions for labor, their. own ‘so-called unions which have an approximate membership of 2,000,000, according to Communist Party is the only Party that is fighting against the crushing of Germany, against the en- slavement of the German working class, against starvation and unemployment. The German work- ers, faced with the alternative which ‘will soon present itself to the entire working class—the dic- tatorship of the proletariat or submission, starva- tion and death—is finally breaking the chains of the treacherous Social-Democracy completely. The German revolution cannot be much longer delayed. Klan Wars Again Jack Skelcher, anti-Klansman, was killed at Herrin, Il., Saturday, “on suspicion” that he was implicated in the shooting of Glenn Young, Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, ex-prohibition agent, and the Mussolini of Williamson County, who took over the goverhment there some mor.ths ago by id and violence. Thus does the struggle, Fascisti claims. Latvia—The Latvian Federation of Trade Unions lost 10,000 members in 1922. On January 1, 1923, its total] membership was only 12,350. Luxemburg—Here the Trade Unions lost 8,000 members in 1922, On Janu- ary 1, 1923, its total membership was 12,100. Netherlands—The membership of the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions declined from 223,718 on Janu- ary 1, 1922, to 201,045.0n January 1, 1923. Here unemployment was one of the principal causes making for the fall in membership. The clothing trades, the agricultural workers, tke metal and transport workers were the principal sufferers in this respect. Poland—The Central Trade Union Federation membership rose from 365,190 on January 1, 1922, to 411,056 on January 1, 1923. The Communists made considerable headway in the ranks of the trade unions during this period. Serb-Croat-Slovene Kingdom — Thi membership of the General Federal ttion of Labor remained practicall: stationary during the year. On Janu- ary 1, 1923, its total was 66,166, Spain—Despite the establishment of a Fascist government, the member- ship of the Federation of Trade Un- ions remained practically the same as in the preceding year. On December 31, 1922, the total members was 238,- 861. Sweden—The Federation of Trade Unions showed a decline tn its mem- bership from 313,208 in 1921 to 292, 917 at the close of December, 1922. Switzerland—The Swiss Federation of Trade Unions lost almost 60,000 members in 1921. The total member- ship fell from 225,822 to 162,192 on January 1, 1923. The heaviest losera were the banking employes who Jost 41 per cent of their total membership; the leather workers who lost 28 per cent; the textile workers with a loss of 25 per cent; the metal workers and clock makers with a loss of 24 per cent; the building workers, 17 per cent; employes of the postal telegraph and telephone service, 16 per cent, and the embroiderers, 15 per cent. Soviet Russia—For the fiscal years 1922-1923 Soviet. Russia shows the greatest increase in membership. This is especially noteworthy because the famine and the severe economic crisis of the preceding year made heavy in- roads on the trade union organiza- tions of Soviet Russia. According to the last census there were 5,541,000 members in Soviet Russia trade un- ions on October 1, 1923. This com- pares with 4,546,000 on October 1, 1922; a gain of nearly a million mem- bers in one year. The extremely fa- yorable policy pursued by the Soviet going on openly and secretly since the Illinois Chamber of Commerce began pouring money into Williamson County to revenge them- selves for the loss of their scabs in 1922, again break out into open warfare.. When Young was attacked Friday night, the news reports say that he was riding in a big sedan car, presented to him for “cleaning up” William- son County. This sufficiently characterizes the forces behind the gang of desperados who mas- querade at one time as prohibition law enforcers (the Volstead Fascisti, as they have been well char- acterized), and at another as Ku Klux Klansmen. Their tools may be blindly ignorant and fanatical countryfolk, but their leadership and the money that pays for their wild adventures of murder and arson comes from the organized capitalists of the state. The killing of Skelcher. has all the appearance of another application of. the notorious “fugitive law;” long popular among bandit gangs like those of Glenn Young. He was “suspected,” and did not stop quickly enough when ordered to do so, and therefore was shot down. Southern Illinois seems destined to have more bitter struggles consequent upon the declaration of war made by the Chamber. of Commerce. Another Injunction Judge Let all workers know that one of the most sweep- ing injunctions ever issued against organized labor has just been handed down, in the war on the Amal- gamated Food Workers by Judge Hugo Freund. The big significance of this event is not that Government is principally responsible -for-the-great increase in membership. Amongst the organizations showing the greatest gains the following may be mentioned: the sugar workers, the lumber workers, the food workers, the building trades, the transport work- ers, government employes, metal workers, mining and textile workers. In industry the average increase in membership was 34.3 per cent. Thé greatest increase occurred in North Russia, the Ukraine and the Ural dis- trict. The workers in Leningrad and in the Donetz Basin showed great in- crease it trade union membership. The World Situation. The Amsterdam International Fed- eration admits heavy losses for the last-mentioned period. On January 1, 1922, it claimed a total affiliated mem- bership of 20,290,182. One year later —its last official figures—it reported a@ membership of 18,174373. The greatest losses suffered by the yel- low Amsterdam International were amongst the unskilled workers and factory workers. Nearly 25 per cent of the miners affiliated with the Am- sterdam. Federation in 1921 deserted it in 1922, mainly for the Red Labor Union International. Amongst the skilled workers of the building and printing industries, the Amsterdam In- ternational showed substantial in- creases for the period. These in- creases, however, were in most cases “due to fusions which took place in 1922.” . : Summing up, it is safe to conclud ~~ on the basis of the data in the year book of the Amsterdam International, that the total membership of the Judge Freund has come to the aidsof 170 Greek res- taurant bosses. That was expected of him. He is an elected republican judge and that is what he was elected to do. He lived up to the bosses’ expecta- tions. But the thing for the workers of Chicago to re- member is that their officials, 15 of ‘them, “The Labor Committee of 15 on Injunctions,” openly and actively advocated the election of Judge Hugo Freund at the elections last fall. bp The officials of labor, headed by John Fitzpat- rick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, urged the workers.to elect this judge who is now hitting them over the head with an injunction, after these same officials had righteously deolared that, “Government by injunction has become a menace to free citizenship.” i Fitzpatrick and the other members of the “In- junction Committee of 15,” helped elect Judge Foell, the foe of the garment strikers. They helped elect Judge Freund, the foe of the food strikers. And any one of the other 19 judicial candidates en- dorsed by the “Committee of 15,” at the Nov. 6, 1928, elections, will follow in the footsteps of Foell and Pam when they are called upon to serve their masters, the bosses: in some labor struggle. Watch out for the leaders of labor who ask you, the workers, to vote for such old party, bosses’ i Ets Ne ve trade unions of all descriptions thru- out the world was 40,928,610 on Janu- ary 1, 1923. This figure is inclusive of the strength of the American Fed- eration of Labor. The Poor Fish Says: It 1s no won- der our harassed president is taking to gas. | am surprised hi taken nitroglycerine. After being handed the presidential ination on the G. O. P, ticket, to have his veto: treated with no more respect poor rendering of “Yes, We Bananas,” would almost drive a man to moonshine. (Ed.—The Poor Fish has reference to Cooli gas treatments for sore throat.) » rr) ‘