The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 17, 1924, Page 6

Page Six 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 By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50...6 months $2.60....3 montus $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 Bs J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE Ne MORITZ J. LOEB. .. Editors jusiness Manager 2 f Entered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1923 at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. SB 250 Advertising rates on application. Gompers’ Victories The American Federation of Labor maintains a costly and useless instrument labelled “The Leg- { islative Committee.” Periodically this department, consisting usually of lame duck labor leaders or lackeys who were rewarded by Gompers with this do-nothing job for services rendered, issues glowing reports on the legislative achievements of American organized labor. Of course, when this committee speaks of organized labor, it has only the American Federa- tion of Labor in mind. : The report issued by the Legislative Committee on the first session of the 68th congress just ad- journed, is a highly eloquent and an even more highly sad tribute to the impotency of Gompers’ “non-partisan” politics. “Labor has no fault to find with the rank and file of Congress,” is the keynote of the report just issued by Gompers’ Legislative Committee. We wonder whether Mr. Gompers has forgotten the fact that 286,000 postal employes were denied an increase in wages. Why did not the rank and file of Congress, with whom Gompers has no fault to find, overide Coolidge’s veto on this question? Why did not this same rank and file enact any remedial legislation for the bankrupt farmers and the growing army of unemployed industrial work- ers? As usual, the Gompers legislative wizards have perennially been finding cause for jubilation in the record of every deceased congress. This year, Mr. Gompers boasts of two extraordinary victor- jes. Victory number one: this field marshal of big business in the ranks 6f organized labor re- joices over the fact that the last Congress did not recognize Soviet Russia. Mr. Gompers monop- olizes the discredit for this policy pursued by the United States government against the first work- ers and farmers republic of the world. The other big victory won by Gompers is the enactment of the new Immigration Law admitting only two per cent of any nationality, based on the ‘ number of its foreign born residents in this coun- try in 1890. The emptiness and costliness of such victories to the workers need no emphasis. The net effect of the new Immigration Law is an in- crease in the power of our strikebreaking govern- : ment to control and determine the movements of millions of workers. When will the American workers rid themselves of the scourge of such Gomperism victories? Deadly Efficiency The United States boasts of having the most efficient coal miners in the werld. The American miner has the greatest capita output of any miner in the world. The production per man in 1918 was 942 tons. At the same time the British miner managed to dig only 250 tons per year. There are many clouds to this silver lining of American efficiency that one seldom sees in print. The United States Geological Survey, in making reports on the status of the coal industry, rarely utters a word. regarding the intolerable working conditions most of the miners are subject to. The sundry private investigating agencies are in the main mum on the same matter. Welcome light is shed on another dark phase of this deadly efficiency by a recent investigation on coal mining fatalities made by Mr. W. W. Adams, industrial countries of Europe. Assuming three hundred days in a full working year, Mr, Adams has found that the number of miners killed per thousand employed in 1922, was 4.89. In’Great Britain, where the miners do not turn out such huge profits fpr their bosses as the Americans do, the number killed per thousand em- ployed was only 1.09, The 1920 figures, affording a comparison with France, Belgium, and Prussia are even more instructive. For every thousand miners digging coal in 1920 3.78 were killed in the United States; 1.11 in Great Britain; 1.18 in France; 1,12 in Belgium; and 2.16 in Prussia. American capitalists have a decisive lead over their competitors—in the number of miners killed while digging profits and coal. A similar condi- tion prevails in other industries. Approximately cur annually in American industry. of industrial accidents to profits. preserve and enhance industrial efficiency with- out destroying the workers. THE DAILY WORKER t _—_——— THE DAILY WORKER. | Haunting the American Legion The spectre of Communism is haunting the American Legion, which is the reason that or: ganization is conducting contests over the coun- try for the best “essays” telling why “Communism is a menace to Americanism.” We received a copy of the prize-winning effort produced at Port Clinton, Ohio, which is really a gem. Here are a few extracts, to show what it takes to win prizes in the Legion, and to help us understand what an abyss of ignorance yawns beneath that organiza- tion: “In Athens there was almost a perfect form of Communism; the slaves did the common labor.” “The ‘Communists have a great deal to do with revolutions. They say all men are created equal. This brings about social revolutions, which are— a lurch backward to a lower plane. If there is ever a revolution in the United States, we will have to beware of the social forces.” “The Communists are very cruel to the promi- nent leaders in Russia. The younger generation and the intelligent people have left and gone to different countries.” “Two reasons why Communism will not succeed are, first, it is not successful, and second, if the state attempted to set in operation in the U. 8. there would be civil war.” “The conclusion of the whole matter is that Communism is only a dream.” ‘ There you have it, Ana right from the American Legion. Communism failed about 500 B. C. in Athens because it wasn’t Communism; to say men are created equal brings revolution; revolutions are lurches backward; we must beware of the so- cial forces; “prominent leaders” (we suppose this includes the Czar) get treated cruelly in Russia, so the “younger generation” has gone away to other countries leaving, presumably, only the ing at all. Finally, to clinch the whole argument, we are told that Communism will not succeed because it is not succesful. That out to settle it forever. This “prize essay” has been entered in the: State contest of the American Legion, and will doubtless take the prize tliere also. From Ohio it should march triumphantly into the national contest, and thereby become the Lord’s Prayer of the American Legion, the K. K. K., the 100 percenters, and Sam Gompers. Converting Capitalism It seems that the capitalists are becoming con- verted to the British Labor Party, while the en- thusiasm of the workers is being distinctly cooled. The masters of Britain find that the policies, in- cluding the most orthodox Imperialism, are being administered just as conscientiously as they form- erly were by Lloyd George, while the masses are more quiet becavise they think they have made a change in government. MacDonald and his cabi- net are converting the British capitalists to so- cialism, by converting sociaism into a mask for the most brazen imperialism on earth. This kind of “socialism” also takes well with our own Wall Street imperialists. A recent issue of the “Monthly Economic Review” of the National City Bank of New York, gives a long quotation from a speech of “J. H. Thomas, head of the Na< tional Union of Railwaymen, England, a member of Parliament, and one of the leaders of the Labor Party.” “Of course nothing but commendation can {be given to the sentiments it expresses,” says the National City Bank. It is the same sort of “conversion” that the offi- \cials of the shop unions of the American movement jachieved, when they converted the Baltimore and Ohio railway to their “co-operative” plan. They convert the bosses to unionism by surrendering unionism to the bosses, just as the British Labor Party leaders are converting their masters by carrying out their masters’ policies. They may call it “conversion,” but another and more frank name for it would be “treason to the workers.” . . Misleading the Negro A Chicago Negro paper, The Whip, carries an advertisement signed by the “Allied Economic Al- liance,” which indicates the vicious forces divid- ing the workers and delivering them, white and black, to the mercies of the capitalists. It is more statistician of the United States Bureau of Mines.}open and frank than such an appeal could possi- This survey indicates that more miners are killed] bly be if addressed to white workers, and contains by accidents in the United States in proportion to] threat to the labor movement that requires ser- the number of men emptoyed than in any of the]ious attention. It says: “The safety ‘and future of the colored workers has always been on the side of the capitalists.” This flat statement is the culminating point of an argument against the unions, against the “bol- sheviks,” and in favor of the Negroes “Jim Crow- ing” themselves in the interests of the capitalist class, hoping thereby to scrape a few crumbs from the capitalist table. Nothing can overcome the baleful effects of such propaganda, except the education of the Negro workers by the more advanced of their own race in co-operation with the class-conscious white workers. The Workers Party offers this eo-opera- tion, is carrying out this work, and should have the intensified assistance from all who would fight against racial prejudices and discrimination. two hundred thousand eye accidents, of which fif-] ‘the New Republic, liberal weekly, is supposed teen thousand result in permanent blindness, 0¢-|{9 pe edited by alert and intelligent bourgeois gentlemen, But it is so far behind the times that The anti-social, the destructive character of capi-| jt says in the current issue, that the Communists talism is reflected most gruesomely in the relation] are “virtually underground” and “will not appear Only the Com-|a¢ all” on the November ballots. munist ownership and operation of industry can] ppothers! Guess again, Send In that Subscription Today. . 4 i hardened old Bolshevik sinners to keep Russia go-| Russ (Continued from Page Ons) In Russia the sun of the new social order has the world. dawned. The Dark Days of 1921. In order to give you concrete proofs of the success of the Russian revolution and to show you the indisputable ear- marks of its victory, it will be well to recall to your mind the tragic state of affairs prevailing in Russia in 1921, at the time of my last visit. Those were, indeed, days to try men’s souls. The people today look back upon them with a shud- der. Industry and agriculture were at a standstill. The long years of the world war, the civil war, the blockade, the capitalist sabotage, and all the other upheavals accompany- ing the revolution, had done their deadly work to such an extent that the mass of the population, agricultural as well as industrial, were starving. Never in modern times has a people been confronted with such a desperate situation. Anyone who lived in Russia at thpt critical period could not help but see the pinch of hunger and general poverty on all sides. Indeed, he was bound to feel it himself. I knew it from first hand information. Although a visitor to the country and living on the so-called “diplomatic ration,” which was far superior to what the average Russian got, yet I found it inadequate enough, as I lost no less than 25 pounds ‘in weight. Much worse, of course, was the fate of the masses in Russia at that time. All were thin, haggard, and worn out. Diseases made ravages on all sides. No one was getting suffi- cient food. To be fat or even “well kept” was prima facie evidence that one was cheating and getting more than one’s share of the famine rations. The workers lived on a diet that would terrify Americans or-west Europeans. They were lucky indeed if they got re- gularly one-half to one pound of black bread daily. Many times I visited them in factories and watched them eat their horrible fare. I have seen the “soup”, which was cooked in community fashion, so foul that one could smell the stench of it cooking in the great pot long before coming into the factory. Often, after the workers had worked, there was nothing whatever to give them, not even the miserable payok (ration). I myself saw, right in a key government office, where every effort was made to keep things going, when they had to tell the workers at the end of the week’s work that they had no bread to give them. The result was demorali- iA iN 1924 m= om By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER eaeeerrons Cor coetiad Thursday, July 17, 1924 zation of the working force. In the same important office T saw carpenters, called to put in a job of shelving, beg first to be given some bread before they would go to work. Imagine the demoralizing effects of such a terrific food shortage, which ran all through the industries. The shortage of other néces- sities was just as bad. Clothes and shoes were practically unprocurable. Many people had not had a single new gar- ment for several years. Particularly vivid in my mind were the conditions of privation which I saw at a normal school in Moscow. The professors were hungry and in rags, likewise the students. Some even had the soles of their shoes tied to the uppers with strings.But they were going ahead gamély, reorganizing the whole method of teaching. Their only parti- cular complaint was that their new methods laid more stress upon the use of apparatus and materials than upon books, and such things were unbelievable scarce. Those on hand were ir- replaceable. To break even a pane of glasss, which could not be produced‘ by the wrecked indutsries, was almost a crime. Housing conditions were frightful. In many places the people were literally tearing the houses to pieces and burning them for fuel. In 1921, the Russian city workers were starving, freezing, and generally impoverished; and as for the peasants, many millions of them were just sinking into what was des- tined to be one of the most terrible famines of modern times. It was a desparate situation for the revolution and an acid test of the Russian working class. The capitalists of the world did not think the Workers’ Government could withstand it. Like vultures they flocked around, awaiting the unholy feast which they felt sure would come with the approaching col- lapse of the Soviet regime. But they reckoned without their host. The Communist Party proved equal to the impossible task.. It was not only the vanguard, but also the rear and flanking guards of the proletariat. It was a great iron band which held the discouraged masses together and made them fight on long after they had lost heart and would have quit. In this great crisis the Party was the brains, and sinews and nerves and bones of the working class. It fought on doggedly and successfully when only those militants of the most un- flinching courage and far-seeing idealism could sense anything but disaster in the desperate.situation. Resistlessly and re- lentlessly, it carried the struggle on in spite of the most-crush- ing obstacles. : a (To Be Continued Tomorrow), Pits By JAY LOVESTONE (Continued from yesterday.) PART Il. Financing. the New York Convention. 'HE last democratic convention has cost from two to three million dollars. This sum is exclusive of the money spent by the various presiden- tial aspirants on organizing their pre- convention campaigns and of the funds expended for bribery, booze, and women during the convention sessions. An introduction to the personnel of the democratic finance committee charged with the task of raising the necessary funds for the holding of the convention sheds illuminating facts on the character of the whole party, on the supremacy of the big business interests in the organization. Among the financial wizards, in charge of putting over the convention were the mining, banking, aircraft and motor king Thomas L. Chad- bourne; the prominent banker and department store owner, Michael Friedsan; the United States Chamber of Commerce and the American Manu- facturers Export Association ‘director, Lewis E. Pierson; the millionaire newspaper publisher, Ralph -Pulitzer, and the multi-millionaire fountain pen manufacturer, Frank D. Waterman. The treasurer of the National Con- vention Committee was Mr. Alvin W. Krech, president of the Equitable Trust Company of New York and a directing officer of twenty-seven coal, railway, sugar, light and power, com- mercial chemical aid lumber corpora- tions. On the Executive Committee of the forces preparing the convention were the multi-millionaire theatrical mag- nate, Edward F. Albee; the millionaire pencil manufacturer, Philip Berolz- himer; the powerful commercial pub- lisher, A. C. Pearson, and the type- writer manufacturer, exporter, banker and director of the United States Chamber of Commerce, George E. Smith, Some Typical Convention Delegates. One need not burden the reader with an analysis of the financial and indus- trial connections of the thousands of delegates and alternates, congregated in the last convention to present an accurate view of the ownership and control of the democratic party. We need but examine the record of some of the leading and representative dele- gates at the New York convention to learn that the democratic party is firmly in the grip of big business. The following information substantiates our contention: VIRGINIA: Mr. Harry Ford . Byrd, chairman of the delegation from this state, is known as the “Apple King of the South.” His orchards yield about sixty thousand barrels of fruit annu- ally. Carter Glass: Senator Glass is the owner of two newspapers, The Daily News and The Daily Advance, pub- lished in Lynchburg, Va. Henry C. Stuart: Former Governor Stuart is the president of the Stuart Land and Cattle Co, He is the owner of the largest cattle ranch in the south, with an acreage of sixty thou- sand, He is also the president of the Buckhorn Coal Company and the First National Bank of Lebanon, Va. * of the St. Louis Coffin Company. He is known as “the millionaire Coffin King of the West.” Adolph Musser: Mr. Musser has been a member of the state committee for the last ten years. He is the owner of the biggest dry goods store in the country. MARYLAND: Emory L. Coblentz of the Maryland delegation was one of the wealthiest men at the conven- tion. He is the president of two insur- ance companies, one bank, three light and power companies, and two rail- roads. i ° FLORIDA: Mr. Edward Lambright, one of the leading spirits of the Flo- rida delegation, is the editor of the Tampa Tribune, and the Pensacola Journal, The last named paper is one of a chain of dailies owned by John H. Perry, president of the Amer- ican Press Association. KENTUCKY: Lieutenant Governor H. H. Denhardt, came to the conven- tion as the hero of one of the most notoious strike breaking feats in the country. It was Mr. Denhardt who crushed the steel workers in their brave struggle at Newport. Tank and machine guns were employed freely to break the strikers’ ranks. TEXAS: /One of the most active members of the Texas delegation was Frank Wilson Woozencraft of Dallas. Mr. Woozencraft is a director of the American Life Insurance Company. CALIFORNIA: The leader of the California delegation wds former United States Senator James D. Phelan. The latter nominated Wm. G. McAdoo for the presidency. Mr. Phelan is the president and director of four big western banks. WEST VIRGINIA: In the delega- tion from this state was found the arch-strikebreaker, Don Chafin, sheriff of Logan county. His fellow delegates nicknamed him “gunman.” Mr. Chafin, it will be recalled, was the leader of the military forces and the band of gunmen that broke up the famous “Iron March” of the striking miners The Poor Fish says: Debs is a fine fellow. Tho | am a Republi can, | have the greatest respect for a man who can see some good even in an enemy. Instead of being sore. over Hillquit tal on the capitalist LaFollette as his new God, instead of the old God Debs (they are both old in a sense), Gene sweetly said, “The party could not have dofe otherwise.” Indeed the kingdom of heaven is made up of s@ch as he. If the Communists would only take this MISSOURI: Hx-Governor Fred D. Gardner of Mispouri te the sole owner Pare eee thane point of view the class struggle would not pe so severe. a 4 in the state. ALABAMA: United States Senator Oscar W. Underwood, the guiding hand of the Alabama delegation, is one of the largest owners of stock in the Gulf States Steel Company. This corpora- tion is -notoriously antiunion and owns blast furnaces, rod wire and roll- ing mills, coal mines, and red ore mines. It is closely linked up with the Guarantee Trust Company of New York. : NEW YORK: The big boss of the New York delegation was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who made the nomination speech for Al Smith. When Mr. Roose- velt accepted the vice-presidential nomination in 1920 he resigned several of his financial and industrial offices, Today Mr. Roosevelt is the vice-presi- dent of the Fidelity and Deposit Com- pany of Maryland. y Labor Lieutenants Present. The connection between the official democratic machine and the labor lieutenants of capital was evident in the fact that there were represnted at the convention about thirty-five dele- gates who were trade union officials. A roll call of these names would be most instructive. We will cite only a few of the outstanding characters_in this list. Chief among the so-called labor dele- gates to the convention were: William Green, treasurer of the United Mine Workers from the state of Ohio; P, T. Fagan, president of District Five of the United Mine Workers of America, from the state of Pennsylvania; J. A. Reardon, president of the Pacific States Allied Printing Trades Council; W. H. Young, secretary of the Denver Printing Trades Council; Mary B. Meehan of the International Union of Bookbinders, Massachusetts; George Curran, Theatrical and Stage Em- ployees, Massachusetts; A. O'Keefe, Machinists’ Union, New Orleans»La.; Wm. H. Maloney, of the Carmen’s Union of Butte, Montana; Frank K. MeNulty, of the Brotherhood of Elec- tric Workers, Newark, New Jersey; Who Owns The Democratic Party? M. J. Walsh, of the Carmen’s Union-of © Yorkers, New York; Thomas J. Duffy, of the Brotherhood of Potters, Ohio; O. A. Cargill, of the Building Trades of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; A. Dolan, and James Dunne, of the Brick- layers’ Union and the Brotherhood of Carpenters, Rhode Island, respective- ly; and George H. Slater, President of the State Federation of Labor, of Texas. The above mentioned labor-officials represent primarily the highest skilled crafts. Conclusion. ‘ In a word, our examination of ownership and control of the demo- cratic party affords an abundance of evidence showing that the democratic party is owned body and soul by the big capitalist interests. In the democratic party, unlike the republican party, there is still a sprinkling of small owning class in- terests. But the veto power, the abili- ty to make decisions, the control of the party machinery, and the formula-° tion of party policies, are all securely in the hands of capitalist interests that are as big in size and influence as those controlling the republican party. e In the coming campaign the demo- crats will undoubtedly make every ef- fort to mislead the working and farm- ing masses, to confuse the latter into the ridiculous and unfouned notion, that it is the party of the downtrodden masses, Nothing could be further from the truth. The governing com- mittees, the leading spirits, the im- Portant decisions, the platform and program of the democratic party will betray the organic and hopeless con- trol of its mechanism amd functions by the most powerful section of our bank- ing and manufacturing—our capitalist —class. All the progressive gestures and noise that the democratic polit icians will indulge in for the next few months cannot change this im- mutable feature of the party. whose standard bearer is the Morgan and Standard Oil attorney, John W. Davis. Putting It Over ‘HE recent “killing” made by Arthur W. Cutten, Chicago grain gambler, who sold 300,000 bushels of July corn at a profit of $1,500,000, will, no doubt be an inspiration to the farmer, Mr. Cutten’s “killing” is ascribed to his “faith in the rise of grain prices” and to his “patience” in holding on to his corn, The moral for the farmer, is, of course, “Go thou and do likewise,” ‘The same type of “go-getter,” “suc- cess” food is handed out by the plute press to the industrial workers as well as to dirt farmer. “From brake- man to railroad president.” “From dirt farmer to millionaire’—is the familiar cry. Let us analyze the sit- uation from the farmer's viewpoint. In February 1924, a month of heavy sales, July corn sold for about 80 cents a bushel. Forced by the de- mands for credit at this season of the year, the farmer is forced to sell at the current figure. Neither the banks, the equipment trusts, the tax collector, nor the grain buyer are in- On the Farmer terested in “faith”, or “patience” as far as the farmer is concerned. They are interested solely in cold cash, The farmer is “help-up” at the pistol point of necessity by the financial pirates and he is forced to deliver the goods, This corn costs him an average of 68 cents a bushel, and nets him a re turn of 13 cents per bushel. Having lost 3 cents on his oats and 26 cents on his wheat, the farmer is still 15 cents behind on each bushel of grain Cutten, on the other hand, has net ted a profit more than 40 cents per bushel. He has pocketed this sum not as a result of superior “patience? or “faith,” but rather as a result of hit unlimited credit facilities. It is this powerful weapon in the hands of th grain gamblers, which is causing tné ruin of many thousands of farmer: thruout the nation, This state of at fairs will continue, the farmer wil continue to toil and %e mulcted, only so long as he continues to tolerate the capitalist system of sen under which he groans in common with th industrial worker,