The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 22, 1924, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER RAISES THE STANDARD FOR A WORKERS AND FARMERS’ GOVERNMENT Vol. Il. No. 133. Vol. Il. No. 133. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: outsias cnicnso, by’ ma THE in. Chicago, by mail, $8.00 per year, Outside Chicago, by mail, $6.00 per year. DAI WORKER. Entered as Second-class matter September 21, 1923, at the Post Office at Chicago, Illimois under the Act of March 38, FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1924 Published Daily except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO., 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, IL Communist Candidates For President: WILLIAM Z. FOSTER, For Vice-President: BENJAMIN GITLOW. Price 3 Cents COAL BARONS PLOT WAGE SLASH AS WE SEE IT By T. J. O'}FLAHERTY, 0 'HE leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in Texas are on the anxious seat. Faced with rebellion in their own ranks and the aroused opposition of those who have in the past cowed be- fore the invisible night prowlers, the Grand Wizards of the Klan are flood- ing the state with money in an elev- enth-hour\ attempt to avert disaster. | | Even Klan leaders admit that prac- tically every state office will go to the anti-Klan forces with the excep- tion of the. governorship. They still have hopes that Robert, the Klan candidate, will beat Mrs. Ferguson, who is making a strenuous campaign against the Klan. aie ee T appears that the hooded order has passed the high point of its career. The defeat of the Klan in Oklahoma by even such a disreputable politician as J. C. Walton, former governor of the state, the civil war in the Klan of Indiana and the unfavorable pub- licity received by the Klan during the Democratic convention, put the hooded order on the defensive. In Texas, the propaganda of the Klan was directed against Catholics, Jews, and Negroes. Now, they appeal for the Jewish vote and claim they have nothing’ against anybody’s religion. The new foe of Americanism is liquor, according to the Klan. The change in policy followed a visit from Hiram W. Evans, Imperial Wizard. If the Klan suffers defeat in Texas, it will affect the fortunes of the organiza- tions thruout the country. * * . ITY the poor Baroness Ottily de Ropp, Russian noblewoman, who is noble no longer because. the wicked Bolsheviks took away her title and told her to work or fight. Her be- loved country is now ground down under the atheistic and’Godless heels of Bolshevism. And unless we look out, sobbed the Baroness, our. society ladies will have to go to work and , will have no.one to play with. Poodle dogs have to be sent to the Home for the Protection of Homeless Canines and romance will be shorn of its wool. This sorrowful lecture was delivered to the hard-boiled members ,of the Inglewood Chamber of Com- imerce, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The reporter did mot say whether the Baroness was pretty or much worse for wear, so we assume for lack of better evidence that ker pulchritude went by default. . . . PORTERS as a rule are more concerned with appearances than with fundamentals, and failure to de- scribe the lady's figure leads us to the conclusion that no wicked Bolshe- vik threatened to turn over the Red Army to Grand Duke Nicholavitch in return for her smiles. She took a wicked wallop at the American Com- munists which is quite unfair of the lady, as we never bothered her much. ‘We spend $1,000,000 a week pumping (Continued on Page 4.) ACTORS’ EQUITY TO JOIN STRIKE OF MUSICIANS Managers to Get More Than They Bargain For LABOR DAY, Sept. 1, will see the closing down of all the musical comedy and drama theaters in Chi- cagoo unless a ten per cent increase in wages will be granted to the musi- cians, The actors in these theaters, all members of the Actors Equity Asso- ciation will come out in one solid’ United Front to help the musicians. Musicians Stand Pat. Traveling musicians, members of the National Musicians’ Union, will be ordered to keep away from the Chi- cago theaters during the strike. James C, Petrilla in s; of the impending strike said: “Wonderful spirit and determination is shown by our members to carry on this fight a finish. The statemént in the bosses’ press that a break is expected in our ranks is only a hope fostered in the minds of the managers. There is no basis for this. All our members are in the fight and will stick tight until we get our incre Houses That Have Settled. The Chicago Theater, the Roose- volt, the Senate, McVickers, in fact all two-a-day moving picture houses have settled with the union granting the 10 per cent increase in wages, BOB'S STATE GIVES LABOR POOR WAGES Progressivism Proves Delusion for Toilers By JAY LOVESTONE. (Seventh Article.) For years the liberals, social reformers, and purifiers of capi- talism have held up Wisconsin as the outstanding experiment in American pure democracy. Today Senator LafFollette points with pride to his achieve- ments in Wisconsin, his “Model Commonwealth.” He is fighting to win the presidency in order to extend the progressivism and blessings of his heralded “Wisconsin Plan.” But Wisconsin’s “pure” democracy and “genuine” progressivism have failed dismally in doing away ,with the. suffering and hardships of the working men and poor farmers. Wisconsin’s workers are amongst the worst underpaid in the country. Here the workers suffer from long hours more than in most of the oth- er states. The Badger state is one of the most powerful strongholds of the open shop movement. Here, where LaFollette is the uncrowned king, the trade union movement is very weak. Low Wages and Long Hours. If working conditions are to be ac- cepted as a sound criterion of gen- uine progressivism, then LaFollette’s Wisconsin experiment is a sham and a delusion to the laboring masses. According to the findings of the latest 1919 census of manufactur the average monthly cost of lal or wage per month, in the manufac- turing. industries in the United States is $96.50. But Wisconsin falls well below this average wage for the coun- try as a whole, with an average monthly wage of only $91.69. Thus (Continued on Page 6.) Send In that Subscription Today. POWER COMPANY GIVES CONTRACT TO SCAB MINES Union ‘to Feel Need of Complete Union Field MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 21.—Con tracts for 350,000 tons of coal to he consumed during the coming year by the Northern States Power Company will not bring work to union miners of Illinois, but to miners in the open shop territory of the east, according to contracts awarded by the company. Northern States Power is the large est public utility in the northwest, and with the exception of the rail- roads the biggest consumer of steam coal in that region. Its contracts for 300,000 tons of screenings go to four dock companies importing eastern bi- tuminous coal via Duluth and Supe- rior, chief among them the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Illinois Miners Will Feel Blow. A recent order of the interstate commerce commission raised freight rates on Illinois union-mined coal by 28 cents in order to give coal imported via the lakes a better chance to com- pete. The new rates, which favor nonunion eastern coal, go into effect Sept. 10 and are expected to render it more difficult for Illinois mines to keep going. States as a whole. in these industries. paratively speaking, weak. LAFOLLETTE’S STATE FAR BEHIND HE average monthly wage in Wisconsin monthly wage in the manufacturing industries of the United Wisconsin, which is FOURTH In the proportion of workers em- ployed in corporation-controlled manufacturing industries is TWENTY- NINTA in the monthly wage earned by the working men employed The proportion of workers employed forty-eight hours a week or less in Wisconsin is smaller than in the United State: In the Badger*state, where LaFollette has for years engaged in tirades against the evils of monopolized industry, the open shop movement is most powerful and the trade union movement is, com: MINERS DEMAND STAND ON UNEMPLOYMENT BUT LA FOLLETTE IS QUIET (Special to the Daily Worker.) BELLEVILLE, IIl., Aug. 20.—Over half the mines in the Belleville coal district are shut down, with 7,000 miners out of work. Due to the shutdown in the mines of the Belle- ville Sub-District 7, the sentiment of the miners is swinging away from Robert M. LaFollette, who completely ignores the unemploy- ment crisis, toward the clear-cut Werkers Party program to elimi- nate unemployment. Wives of the miners In some cases here are taking in washing in | order to keep their suffering chil- dren alive. “I don’t know what the poor devils do,” the proprietor of a shoe store on Main street here told the DAILY WORKER. “We can't advance them any more credit, be- cause the wholesale houses have shut down on us. The miners are going heavily into debt. Some of them have enlisted in the army camp near by—Scott Field. But the married men are so heavily in debt to the stores’ and their land- lords that they can’t pull up and leave. Besides, unemployment pre- vails thruout the country, and it would do no good to move.” Frank Farrington is in St. Louis, stopping at. the luxurious American Hotel. He is said to be touring nearby Illinois mining towns in the interest of LaFollette, but every- where the sentiment expressed is, “What is your stand on unemploy- ment?” Farrington will have some tall explaining to do when confront- ed with the silence of LaFollette on unemployment. ASK REMOVAL OF COLOR BARRIERS IN LABOR UNION Police Fiiction Said to Be the Result TRENTON, N. J., August 21.—Wal- ter White, assistant secretary for the National Association for the Advance- ment of the Colored People, says that an appeal is being made to the leaders of organized labor in Trenton to take part in an interracial conference for the purpose of removing the present police and industrial discrimination against the Negroes. White said that the color barrier which exists in some of the Trenton Jabor unions, as in other cities, was partly responsible for the friction here. The N. A. A. C. P. recently urged the American Federation of La- bor to act on its former declaration for equality in the labor unions, re- gardless of color. Davis Recuperating from Speech. NEW YORK, Aug. 20.—John W. Da- vis is spending the morning at his home, Locust Valley, Long Island. He is said to be recuperating from the speech Which he inflicted on the ears of radio fans when he was “notified” of his nomination. Distribute a bundle of the DAILY WORKER'S first Special Campaign Edi- tion, dated Saturday, August 30. isc S70 | [MINERS LIVE IN DECREPIT OLD HOUSES Stories About Lovely| omes Are Untrue * By KARL REEVE (Bpeciat to The Daily Worker) : DIVERNON, lll., August 20.— The cry of the enemies of labor that Illinois coal miners are attractively and comfortably housed was exploded here in a/ talk with Tom Parry, delegate | from local union 146 of the Illi- nois miners’ union and many other miners. “The company owned houses here,” said Parry, “are typical company houses in the eld and Belleville coal towns. The houses are ‘shells of one story, with two Small rooms. In Divernon these houses. were erected wholesale on a contract basis. They contain no plumbing, no running water,.no bathroom of any kind. We use backyard toilets and backyard pumps.” Why They Appear Good. “The casual visitor,” continued Par- ry, “Coming into Divernon looks at the well kept lawns and says, ‘My, isn’t lovely to be a miner!’ But the houses are made of unfinished lum- ber. The people who look over our flower and vegetable gardens do not realize that we pay $13.50 a month for these little shacks. They do not know that the Madison Coal Company offers a bonus to the miner who keeps: lawn and the outside of his hov ~Most attractive. “This monthly bonus is paid for by the miners many times over in higher rents which the company charges on the strength of the attractive ex- terior. By means of the monthly bonus the company keeps up. the show for outsiders and establishes the reputa- tion of supplying good houses to the miners. But in reality it is a damn- able scheme to make the miners keep their own rents high, and create a false impression among the general public. Mine Shut Down. The Madison Coal Co., fermerly em- Ploying every able bodied male in Divernon, has not only beén shut down for three years almost steadily, but has sealed up the mine so that no work is in prospect for the im- mediate future. This mine is one of the biggest mines in the Springfield district. Miners here complained to the DAILY WORKER reporter that when the mine was working they were classed as wild agitators when they demanded that the unsafe squib method of blasting, which kills many men yearly who could be saved by sdfe methods, be eliminated. They asked for the fuse system, which is not much more expensive but which is safer for the miner. The company for a long time refused the request until forced to give in. Now they arbitrarily seal their mine without deigning to notify the miners when they will start up, and without paying unemployment benefits. SUGAR MILLIONAIRE CALLS ON RICH TO SUPPORT LAFOLLETTE AND WARD OFF RULE OF LABOR PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 20.—At a gathering of 2,000 wealthy citizens of Pasadena, Rudolph Spreckels, sugar millionaire backer of LaFollette, made some interesting disclosures of the exploiters who fatten on the ignorance of the masses in his appeal to them “to be good masters lest their slaves revolt.” “History has taught us,” he said, “that when the ruling classes ‘become arrogant and greedy and unmindful of the masses who toil ‘for them’ the is below the average a whole, masses rise in their wrath, wipe out their oppressors’ institutions and confiscate their wealth.” He called the republican and demo- cratic parties one party thet was operated from the central station in Wall Street. He told how Requa, former dollar a year oll administrator, had grad- uated into the vice-presidency of the Sinclair» Ol Company at $50,000 a year salary. In his speech he proved conclu- sively that LaFollette was their can- didate and aimed to retain a system of society that will keep them masters and the workers their slaves, States, yesterday was the scene of every coal miner in this state. wages. [llinois Coal Barons Begin Fight to Smash Union Wage Scale ERRIN, Illinois, the stamping ground of the infamous Ku Klux Klan and one of the great coal miniing centers of the United a conference that means much to This conference attended by coal operators and railroad magnates met to consider ways and means of inducing the union miners of Illinois to accept a reduction in Back of this plot is the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the organiza- tion that howled for the blood of the Herrin miners who settled ac- counts with murderous strikebreakers and gunmen in 1922. These profit-thirsty coal barons intend to make profits out of their mines if in doing so. Len Small, the capitalist candidate meeting to wage war on the union operators? Coal miners of Illinois! an adjoining column and decide for member. ous scheme of the coal barons. DEFY COURTS, ADVISE REDS TO WOBBLIES No- Judge, Only Mem- bers Can Name Officers An appeal to the I. W. W. membership to violate any in- junction that pretends to tell them who their officers shall be, was issued yesterday by the! Red International Affiliation Committee, composed of mem- bers of the I. W. W. who favor tional of Labor Unions. This document is of especial inter- est in view of the fact that on Monday the courts will be con- sidering the application for in- junction by Bowerman, Rowan, and others, asking that they be named officers of the Industrial Workers of the World. The ap- peal follows: Down with the Injunction and the Injunctionites! (An appeal to the rank and file of the 1. W. W. by the Red International Affiliation Committee.) The action of the Rowan- Bowerman faction of the I. W. W. in appealing to the capitalist courts to give them control over the organization, is one of the most reactionary deeds of any union in years. Their attempt to justify such reaction by pleading that there was no alternative is both ridiculous and dishonest. They ignored the remaining course, the only course for any revolutionist or even any union man, of appeal- ing to the membership. By this flouting of the membership and turning to the capitalist gov- ernment these injunctionites have destroyed themselves with every honest worker, The I, W. W. should and will expel them. Why An Immediate Convention? We recognize that there are two elements among the I. W. W. mem- they have to walk over the bedies of the union miners of this State While Frank Farrington and his henchmen are busy trying to elect for governor, the coal barons are of which Farrington is president. Why is not Frank Farrington holding a council of war with the of- ficlals of his organization to meet the challenge laid down by the coal Read the special dispatch from Herrin, in yourself whether or not a serious danger confronts you as a miner and the union of which you are a Write to THE DAJLY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chi- cago, Ill., and tell us what you think of this latest and most danger- Fight Injunction! Y: affiliation to the Red Interna-+ bership, the revolutionaries and the non-revolutionary job unionist ele- ment. We recognize that some’of the latter element, the workers who— however honest—do not perceive the whole class’ significance, the political import, of the whole clash’ between the two factions, nor see in the appli- cation for an injunction an action which brands any who are involved eesieaentnnteeetenines Send In that Subscriation Today, in it as disrupters and traitors, may (Continued on page 2.) } ' FOSTER URGES ILLINOIS MINERS TO FIGHT BOSS PLOT TO SLASH WAGES (Special to The Daily Worker) MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 24.— Will- iam Z. Foster, Communist candi. date for president of the United States on the Workers Party tick- et, arrived here today. He is sched- uled to speak tonight at a big open air meeting in this city. Comrade Foster was asked for his opinion on the conference of coal operators, railroad magnates and other capitalists held in Herrin, Illinois, to discuss ways and means of overcoming the crisis in the coal industry at the expense of the min- ers. Foster Said: “The conference held in Herrin marks the formal opening of a fight on the part of the coal operators backed by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce to break the union wage scale and ultimately smash the miners’ union. The at- tempt must be met by the most vig- orous opposition on the part of the union miners. “This is not an isolated instance. It is part of the gigantic conspiracy on the part of the capitalists to smash the unions and establish the open shop. In carrying out this plot they rely for assistance on the reactionary labor leaders who have already given ample evidence that they are perfectly willing to join the masters in a united front to save the capitalist system.” Foster speaks tomorrow night in Woodman's Hall, Duluth, and on the following evening in the Labor Temple, St. Paul. * * * GITLOY IN NEWARK. (Special to The Daily Worker) NEWARK, New Jersey, Aug. 21.— Benjamin Gitlow, candidate for vice-president of the United States on the Workers Party ticket will speak here tomorrow evening. This will be the first of a series of meet- ings that will carry the Communist candidate for vice-president thru the important induStrial centers of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York, (COAL BARONS NEET TO FIGHT MINERS’ UNION ‘Demand Union Wage | Scale Must Be Slashed | (Special to The Daily Worker) | HERRIN, Ill, Aug. 21—The |first shot in the carefully plan- |néd campaign to slash the wage | scale of the Illinois miners was |fired here when a conference of |coal operators, business men |and railroad owners met under the auspices of the Herrin Lions Club. The shot, however, did not hit the mark, as the officials of the miners’ union did not put in an appearance, and their co- operation was considered of great importance. A fake investigation, insti- tuted by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, ‘was recently made of the coal situation in illinois. This investigation showed conclusively that the coal industry in Illinois is in bad shape and the only solution of the problem in the eyes of the Chamber of Commerce is to slash the wages of the coal dig- Bers. The DAILY WORKER has already discussed this bos: scheme and warned the miners against paying any heed to it. Bosses’ Argument. The argument of the operators is that the union wage scale enables the operators of the non-union mines jin Kentucky and West. Va., to drive jthem out of business, But if, the Hino miners submit to a wage cut there is nothing to prevent the non- {union coal owners from giving their |slaves a proportionate cut. | The coal operators attended the |Herrin conference in large numbers. |Judge A. D. Morgan was master of | ceremonies Mr. William Sneed, representative of the Miners’ union in the district, sent a letter to Judge Morgan, in which he refused to participate in any conference met to consider a reduc- tion in wages, but was willing to put up-a united front with the operators to secure lower freight rates on coal. A certain F. C. Honnold, was the chief spokesman for the coal opera- tors. Blames the Diggers. He told the audience that 200 of the Illinois mines were shut down and 197 only working two days a week. The cause of this was the high wage scale of the Illinois min- ers which prevented coal operators jfrom competing with bituminous op- jerators in territories where the min- \ers worked for a lower scale. It was not the part of wisdom, the |Doctor declared, to write a non-com- petitive wage rate into the contract. This of course should be left to the whim of the employer. What good is a high wage scale to a miner if he has no job? In the Interests of the community he should accept a reduc- | tion, Dr. Honnold came out clearly for war on the miners’ union, when he said that collective bargaining as now practiced had broken down and some other method must be adopted. “Joint collective bargaining,” he said’ “has proved to be an inadequate sys- tem. There would seem to be clear evidence of a need for another meth- od or some change of procedure.” According to the representatives of the coal operators, the railroads and the “public” the coal diggers were to blame for everything. “Take it out of the miners’ “hides,” was the slogan (Continued on page 2) HIRED ONE WEEK AND FIRED THE NEXT, WOMAN STEALS FUR COAT, CONFESSES AND DECLINES PAROLE SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20.—Her husband ill in the east, Mrs. “Billy” Welsh came to San Francisco and tried to secure work so that she could send for him. An employment agency got her a job at $75 a month. Ten dollars of this went to pay the agency's fee; $20 more to buy uniforms and aprons the employer demanded. —her employer had found another nurse at $10 |) dazed, Mrs. Welsh stole a fur coat she had recovered her balance, she coat and gave herself up. A few days later she was discharged a month. Desperate and belonging to the woman. As soon as realized her predicament, returned the Now, tho she is offered probation, she Insists on going to prison, as otherwise her young brother, who is struggling to make his way in the world, would woman refused to take back. have to pay for the coat, which the