The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 25, 1924, Page 6

' » Six THE DAILY WORKER. ——— Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. (Phone: Monroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mali: $3.50....6 months $2.00..3 months By mail (in Chicago only) $4.50..,.6 months $2.50. $6.00 per year $8.00 per year montus Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, Iilinols st J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE (wenn Eitltore MORITZ J. LOE ...Businese Manager ——<————————— Batered as second-class mail Sept. 21, 1928 at the Post: Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. <> 250 Advertising rates on application. Dawes, Friend of K. K. K. “They were brave men,” said Charles G. Dawes, republican candidate for vice-president, speaking of the K. K. K. murderers of Willimason County, Illinois, where Glenn Young, fake prohibition agent and gunman set up a Chamber of € THE DAILY WORKER * Get Out Your Old Clothes The Chicago Christian Industrial League, one of the innumerable charity organizations that gathers up the crumbs from the table of capitalism, and uses them to ease the strain of the human wreckage raused by the system, has caught an inkling of what may be expected by the workers during the coming winter to witness extensive unemployment. wealthy families of Chicago, asking for a round- up of all the “cast-off clothing, furniture, cooking utensils, and anything else that is lying around useless.” The Christian League says that it expects the coming winter to witnes sextensive unemployment. It will use the cast-off articles it collects to give work to some jobless and homeless men and women who would otherwise starve or freeze. Those who are thrown helpless into the arms of the Christian League will repair the old clothing, ete., and in return receive “voard and lodging.” No one will accuse these Christians of arriving at the conclusion of threatening unemployment this winter, thru any economic analysis of capital- ism. It has become rather an accepted idea that this is going to be a bad winter. The Communists d Jommerce| pointed out the inevitable crisis a year ago, and dictatorship under the K. K. K, hood. Thus does again, particularly, last March. Now that the Dawes, speaking in the Klan-ridden state of Maine, pinch is being felt so strong that the Christian take a stand for “law enforcement.” Every Klans- Leagues are issuing an 8. O. 8. for all the old man in the country will be delighted with such] ¢jothes from the bourgeois cellars, to keep the un- a “denunciation.” Dawes has won the Klan vote. Dawes went about as far as he could in putting his stamp of approval upon the Klan, without acutally proclaiming himself a member of it. He justified the Klan in its Oklahoma war, he praised the “motives” of the Klansmen, he credited them with being “law enforcers.” In fact there has not been so open a bid for the K. K. K. vote in the national campaign as that made by Dawes. Perhaps Dawes would have even endorsed the organization, but for the organizational patriotism for his own Fascist gang, the “Minute Men of the Constitution.” This is a sort of “super-Klan,” be- ing a picked body, carefully excluding the hoi- polloi that give bulk to the Klan, and confining} itself to our “best people” who thus constitute the general staff of such organizations of the boobery as the K. K. K. But the boobery must be given a little recognition, to ensure that it,votes right. So Nawes gives them a decoration for law enforce- ment and “bravery.” Coolidge and Dawes; Davis and Bryan; LaFol- lette and Wheeler—none of these sets of candidates has any fundamental quarrel with the Klan. None of them would speak out against the Klan in their ‘cial pronouncements. All of them covertly solicit ypport. That is because all of them stand upon same belief in the sacredness of capitalism, and of the capitalist constitution. They are all agreed that the dictatorship must be of capitalism over Only the revolutionary workers, un- he worke the leadership of the Communists, really tight inst the Klan, because only they really fight ist the capitalist system, for the protection of which the Klan is the illegal armed force today. Rewarding Virtue The city of Columbus, South Carolina, ~com- memorated, the other day, the death of a Negro reacher who served the Lord and his earthly mas- s ofr seventy-five years. In honor of the Negro messenger’ of God, the mayor of the town. ordered all work stopped while the funeral procession was on. We suppose the cynics and skeptics will now be asked to stop all their unfounded talk about mal- treatment of the Negroes in the United States. This little event will be pointed out as living proof that even in death the Negroes are accorded equality even by the much-maligned South. And the press makes particular mention of the fact that the preacher worked for one cent a year. This fact is cited as proof par excellence that the Negro was virtuous. What more could one ask from a mere human being than praying to the Lord and serving Him at the munificent sum of a penny a year! * It is interesting to observe what is virtue and what is vice in the eyes of the exploiting class. That which, if on a grand seale, tends to enhance the profits and political power of the capitalists is virtue. That which tends to undermine the em- ployers’ power is vice, a crime, a blow struck at society. In short that which helps the ruling class maintain itself in power is supposed to be in the interest of all society. . The student of historical materialism can readily grasp how concepts of virtue arise and take root in the economic conditions, in the system of pro- duction and exchange, in the class relationship growing out of the organized industrial order. We need but look at the capitalists of the various countries glorifying the umtold sacrifices of the working masses in the war to make the world safe for plutocracy by resorting to that hollow mockery, to that vile fraud on the sacredness of the lives of the workers—the “unknown soldier” celebrations. The very acme of virtue is reached in the eyes of the employers when a working man, an expropri- ated inhabitant of any country, has sacrificed so much to the cause of the perpetuity of the profit system that even the remains of his body cannot be identified. Yet we are sometimes incited to question why it is that the bosses always seek to reward and honor the virtues of the workers, as a class, when they are dead. We are even more often driven to ask why it is that the ruling class always makes sure to reward its own virtues here ©, this earth, where and when they live. The _ Negro employed alive, perhaps more workers will begin to set up and take notice. But, of course, this is not “important” enough for presidential candidates to take note of. It isa beautiful system that we have, and so much better than that of the terrible Bolsheviks of Russia, who took the houses, factories, railroads, and govern- ment away from the capitalists, instead of taking their old clothes. But there is one presidential can- didate, William Z. Foster, who says we should for- get about the old clothes. Take over the govern- ment, nationalize the big industries, and put all the unemployed to work, is the message to the working class of the Communist presidential cam- paign. Thicker Than Blood In the realm of political and industrial relations el interests are thicker than blood. In the last instance the interests of the employers, as a class, exploiting the working men rise above the arti- ficial and social differences of color, race or creed. Just now our well-kept Chicago press is going out of its way to boost a conference of Negro busi- ness men representing an insignificant minority of the ten million Negroes sweating blood and profits for the American capitalists. This handful of menials, seeking to ape the customs and man- ners, seeking to swallow in, whole the philosophy and arrogance of the white business men, is being deified as the one group that will and can bring salvation to the very much oppressed Negro people in the United States. Compare this rousing welcome accorded a few Negro bosses, petty business men, and aspiring exploiters, the National Negro Business League, with the cold reception that greeted the convention of even the Sanhedrin, held a few months ago in Chicago. Why the enthusiastic applause for the one and the cold shoulder to the other? Both are Negro organizations. Wherein is the difference? Merely to ask these questions is to answer them. In the gathering of the Sanhedrin there were work- ing class elements. In the confab of the Business League there are no such flies in the capitalist amber. In the conference of the Sanhedrin an at- tempt was made to discuss the liberation of the Negro masses from all forms of exploitation, by black as well as by white bosses. In the sessions of the Business League convention only ways and means to enhance the profits of exploiters are dis- cussed. And while this unrepresentative gathering of Negroes is in session and being given the widest and most favorable publicity, a far more represent- ative Negro gathering is at work in New York, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and is being almost ignored and at best maligned by the same well-kept press the country over. The same reason for the difference in treatment prevails here. In the sessions of the Universal Negro Improve- ment Association there are even more working class elements represented than there were in the Sanhedrin and an even stronger attempt was made by the Communists to unify the struggles of the exploited workers regardless of their color. The Negro Business League is an adjunct and an auxiliary to the powerful white capitalist clique. Its purpose is to advance a few Negro ex- ploiters at the expense of the millions of poor Ne- gro working men and women. This organization is held up as a model because its activities tend to strengthen the capitalist system as a whole and make for the enhancement of all employing class interests. Indeed class interests are thicker than blood and, in tlie last instance, in political and economic struggles, rise far and above all other interests. “Hell an’ Maria” Dawes denounces socialists for their designs on the capitalist system. Nobody knows better than Dawes that the capitalist system is perfectly safe from the socialists. The, best friends his “expert report” had in Europe were the socialist presidents and premiers. Seer UA ah fai 8 | The only revolutionary ticket in the field this year is the Workers Party ticket. A vote for Foster and Gitlow is a yote for Communism. A fote for any of the other parties is a vote for capi- preacher, like the forsaken white unknown soldier, | talism. is a monument to the avarice and greed of the capi- i Get a “sub” for the DAILY WORKER. AS WE SEE IT = = ar (Continued from page 1) held’ Dawes responsible for this loan. Yes, Dawes can keep his mouth shut, tho it is open many times too often. T is interesting to watch the cap- italist politicians trim on the Ku Klux issue. The Republican conven- tion in Cleveland was dumb on the question. “At the Democratic conven- tion, the anti-Klux elements led by Al Smith tried to condemn the Klan by name. It failed by two votes. John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee for president and Charles W. Bryan, the vice-presidential candidate, who were satisfactory to the Klan, were accept- ed as outstanding progressives by those who formerly opposed them. T the LaFollette convention in Cleveland, the politicians dare not mention the Klan by name. But recently LaFollette seeing that the Klan fortunes were ebbing and realiz- ing that he would receive a heavy Catholic vote in the East that was off the Democratic reservation temporar- ily at least, provided he gave the hooded order a piece of his mind. This he did. Walton beat the Klan in Oklahoma. Acording to reports the Klan has lost Texas. Then John W. Davis came out and flayed the Klan despite the fact that he has the endorsement of Imperial Wizard Evans. But Davis did not want to lose thé big Catholic vote and no doubt George Brennan of Illinois wants something to show his Irish nationalist followers who do not like the idea of voting for a good friend of England like Davis who in addition is considered a favored son of the in- visible Empire. ONE of these political fakers is sincere. While the Klan raped, burned and killed innocent people, they were silent. LaFollette did not utter a word against the outrages committed by the Klan during the past two years, Neither did the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties. As already pointed out ‘in previous issues Klansmen admit that the organization orders the murder. of its enemies and yet we have no prose- cutions by the government. ©All the capitalist parties, that now denounce the Klan, do so for reasons of ex- pediency, The Dawes speech is a play for the Klan vote. Dawes once said that the Klan as present. con- stituted, would not function efficient- ly, but he always has been in favor of the Klan principle. ‘HE Workers Party alone of all the political parties’ in the field has taken a decisive stand against the Klan and all its works and pomps. It is opposed to the Klan because that organization is a tool of capitalism, either big or little, but always the enemy of the workers. A combina- tion of the Klan, the American Legion, the Minute Men of the Constitution and kindred anti-labor bodies under the direction of Dawes would come as near to resembling the Italian Fascis- ti to anything we can think of. And until the fortunes of Fascism recently began to wane in Europe, those who know Mr. Dawes believe that he had some such role in the back of his head. AWES took a swat at labor in his Augusta speech. He flayed the 1S A RBA TTP CAI SIAR I RS NAAT SBR crooked labor leaders in Illinois who were opposed to him because he was against the kind of unionism that is enforced by gunmen and radical lead- ers who were attacking law enforcing judges. Now, it is a well-known fact that the ‘labor gunmen” are usually in cahoots with the capitalists. They are on a par morally. What both are after is graft and profit. The cap- italist calls it profit, and the gunman designates his share of the spoils as graft, at least to his cronies. Both are parasites living on the workers, The Dawes gang is not opposed to la- bor leaders who rule the roost in Illi- nois. Both the labor fakers and Dawes stand for the capitalist system, but as there is a constant conflict between groups of capitalists over the loot they squeeze out of the workers, some- times the bosses and their labor lieu- tenants disagree over the compensa- tion demanded by the labor fakers for services rendered. AW-ENFORCEMENT judges in the language of General Dawes, mean anti-labor, injunction issuing judges. States Attorney Crowe, Sul- livan and the others who grant injunc- tions to the capitalists on the slight- est provocation, are his idols. Work- ers are supposed to have a right to quit working for a boss when they de- sire, and also to try and induce others to refuse to work for a boss until he grants decent living conditions and better wages. But this kind of thing hurts the business of the bosses so they go to their capitalist judges and secure injunctions which bring the clubs of the policemen to the aid of the bosses. That is law enforcement according to Dawes. Monday, August 25, 1924 0’Flaherty HE workers of the United States will be coaxed and wheedled and lied to by the three capitalist parties now contesting the election. The only revolutionary party in the field that stands squarely for the interests of the workers is the Workers Party, And its two candidates, William Z, Foster and Benjamin Gitlow, did not begin to denounce the Klan yesterday’ or the day before. They did not be- gin to tell thg workers that they were for organized labor since the election campaign opened. Since their early manhood they have' participated in the class struggle. They have worked in shops, on ships, in mills and in mines. They have fought for the workers and with the workers as part of the workingclass. They have gone to jail for the workers and are willing to do so again. Both candidates are under indictment, not for stealing the Tea- pot Dome, or the funds appropriated to take care of the soldiers wounded in the world war but simply because they are loyal to their class, ILLIAM Z. FOSTER and Benja- min Gitlow are the candidates of the workers in this campaign. They are the candidates of the ex- ploited farmers. It is the duty of every class conscious worker to get on the job and from now on until election day do everything possible to get the program of the Workers (Communist) Party before his fellow workers. When a Workers and Farmers government is established in the United States and the workers have all power in their hands, then the task of building up a sane civiliz- ation can be started but not till then, Fascist Pal of “Silent Cal” for K. K. K. (Continued from page 1.) teach the young men of that state some new fashioned doctrines which to say the least, are not those of con- stitutional Americanism. He then loosened upon the state of Oklahoma a horde of hardened criminals from the prison. For Secret Movements. “If there could be an excuse for law abiding citizens to band themselves together in secret organizations for law enforcement, it existed in Okla- homa, and the Klan became a power- ful organization. “What happened then? Then back stepped Gov. Walton to the American flag to which it seems to me, he had not kept very close up to that time— and called out the'militia of the state. Then it was that those who had joined the Klan in the interest of law and order, found themselves arrayed against their flag and laws of. Okla- homa. “And then what happened? There was the -application of the only method, with which our people can properly settle such differences—the procedure outlined by the*constitution and laws of. the state of Oklahoma. Walton was removed from the governorship by the vote of the people and quiet was re- stored under the orderly processes provided by the constitution and the laws. : The Herrin Riots. “Consider what happened in Will- famson county, Illinois, where the town of Herrin is situated. A reign of lawlessness existed. “It was marked by the terrible Her- rin massacre. It was marked by a general break down, in respect for law, which indicated that the officers of the county, including the sheriff had been intimidated by law breakers into inaction. A thousand members of the Ku Klux Klan without disguise —they were brave men—marched to the office of the sheriff of William- son county to protest against the lawlessness in that section. If a se- cret organization to uphold law and order is justifiable anywhere in our country, it was justifiable there. “But, what happened? Immediate- ly the lawless el¢ment formed the Knights of the Flaming Circle, and then both sides were afraid to go out at night and a condition was created which actually culminated in civil war and the loss of life. And how, again, was peace established? By the only proper way in the sending of the militia of the state of Illinois to the scene of the trouble, as provided by law in such cases. Legionaires and Kluxers. “There is much in the Ku Klux Klan which appeals to the adventur- ous youth. I rémember once, when travelling over Illinois, speaking for law enforcement, the constitution, and the American flag, some of the Ameri- can Legion men with me talked to other legion men who had joined the Ku Klux Klan at one of the towns vis- ited. “They told those who were with me what they were planning to do. They said, ‘There is a bootlegger in our county who is in cahoots with the sheriff and everybody knows it. Now, we are not going to hurt the man, but some night we are going for him and his still. We are going to gag him, carry him and the still up to the court house yard and tie him to it so.that the sheriff and the whole town will see him when they come down to their work in the morning.” To show his contempt for the work- ers, Dawes also took a wallop at or- ganized labor and praised the judges who have made a specialty of issuing injunctions in labor disputes. So far, Calvin Coolidge has nothing to say on the Klan and it is very doubtful if canny Cal will follow in the footsteps of the general, who has already snatched the leadership of the campaign from his chieftain. Klan Beaten in Texas. Down in Texas, the anti-Klan can- didate, Mrs. Ferguson, had a lead over her Klan opponent of 38,000 votes with only 46 counties to be heard from. The entire Klan ticket was swept clean out of office and ‘the Klan repudiated in one of the strong- est Klan states in the union. P From now on Klan-baiting will be a favorite sport for politicians. But General Dawes and Calvin Coolidge cannot very well slough off the Klan endorsement given at Augusta, Maine. World’s Largest Coal Mine Shuts Down (Continued from page 1.) “It was, but there is no occupation here now.” “i The men, according to this miner, are dissatisfied with the way Farring- ton’s lawyers haye handled the Gem company suit to recover the December payroll. They feel that the union, under Farrington’s regime, is falling to pieces and are discouraged about the future. “I don’t believe the mines will ever open again in Pinckneyville” Hawkins said. The Wren City mine of the Old Ben Coal company has been shut down for many months, and the 600 men employed there are desperate. Half of the houses lie empty like ghostly shells. All the single men have left town to “go on the bum” during the unemployment crisis. Some houses are being dismantled and others are decaying. Plenty of Mines—and Coal. There are four large mines in and around Christopher; the New North Mine, which has capacity for produc- ing more coal than any other mine in the world, the East Mine, the Old North Mine, and the Buckner Mine, two miles outside of Christopher. Of these, 550 miners have been out work for many months because of the complete shut-down of the East mine, 600 are out of work because of the long continued shut-down of the Old North Mine, 800 are working in the Buckner Mine three days a week at the most, and 1,000 men work an average of four days a week in the New North Mine. Miners here complain bitterly of the absolute lack of consideration offered them by the coal operators and of the growing impotence of the miners’ union, under its reactionary leader- ship, to resist the companies’ mis- treatment. Demand Distribution of Work. Adrian Delforge pointed out to the DAILY WORKER that large coal com- panies owning more than one mine should be forced to operate each mine an equal number of days, thus ‘dis- tributing the work. “Instead,” said Delforge, “the Old Ben Coal company closes the East Mine, claiming they want to install ‘an electric hoist, while their Buckner Mine is kept open. One of the mine bosses told me the company intends to use the East Mine only as a fall back, when the Buckner Mine cannot produce all the coal they can sell. This is unfair to the miners living around and working in the East Mine.” “The Old North Mine was working only two and three days a week be- fore it closed down. They never give us warning when they close up a mine. The. simply pass around the word, ‘Close her down.’ We never know whether at the close of the day we are to be miners or bums on the road looking vainly for work.” Hits Little Business. The business houses in Christopher are closing down one after the other, demonstrating the final stage in the disintegration of the mining indus- try. Stein’s Grocery company here has closed its doors, the Krossberg ladies-outfitting store has not yet gone bankrupt, but the proprietor has an- nounced that he will soon have to suspend business, Medallins Dry Goods company has gone bankrupt, and the large W. D. Davis general store is running cut rate sales to keep itself going. Miners who have left Christopher hoping for jobs in the cities have re- turned disappointed and embittered, Tony Booban has returned from Chi- cago, where he scoured the city look- ing for a job that was not to be had. “You can’t buy a job now,” he said. Anton Bujan went to chicago and finally got a job in the Western Elec- tric company. Waiting the Long Wait. But he was laid off with the other low-paid -slaves there who got the gate, and is now back in Christopher, doing the same thing ten thousand other men in the country are doing, waiting for the mines to open. Luke Matosich has returned from St. Louis where he ined that in+ dustrial unemployment is about as severe as the unemployment in the coal fields. Amond Mundjureich hopped a freight train to St. Louis, couldn’t find work, came back. to Christopher, hopped another freight to Chicago, couldn’t get work, came back to Christopher, and then hop- ped a third freight and other try at St. Louis. He has just returned from St, Louis and thinks he’ll stay in Christopher a while. ‘Fire Starts in Mine. BLAINE, Ohio, Aug. 24.—Fire broke out in the Lansing mine of the Lorain Coal and Dock Company here this moring but was soon brought under control. Get a member for the Workers Party. CHIEF OF BRITISH LABOR UNIONS PLANS TO VISIT SOVIET RUSSIA (Special to The Daily Worker) LONDON, Aug. 22.—(By Mail.)—I a letter sent by Mr. Thomas Purcell, M. P., Chairman of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, to the Chairman of the Central Committee of Russian Woodworkers in response to an invitation to British trade unions to send a delegation to Riissia with a view to the establishment of closer relations between British and Russian labor, the labor leader declared, “I hope that next year we shall be able to pay attention to the organization of our international connection on a wider “I am sure that the Russian EEE oo, British trade union movements are on the way to a united front, principal task consists in how to re- left their positions for the more ‘/re- The|spectable” jobs in the government, British’ labor has taken a decided alize a united front in the lower|turn to the left. At the last meeting strata of all active branches in the European working class.” Since the extreme reactionaries in the British trade union movement ; j of the Amsterdam Interriational, the British delegates led the fight for a united front with the Russian trade uniers REPORT FRANCO-RUSS CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD IN NEAR FUTURE COPENHAGEN, Aug. 24.—George Chicherin, commissar of foreign af- fairs in the Soviet union; Christian Rakovsky, who recently represent. ed the workers’ republic in its nego- tiations with England, and Leonid Krassin have been appointed to represent Moscow in a proposed Franco-Russian conference accord- ing to a report received here today. It has not yet been officially con- firmed. Foot-Garment Workers Strike in Hartford, Conn. _ (Special to The Daily Worker) HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 24.—Over- shoe and Slipper Workers of Wiley Bickford & Sweet Co, went out on strike as a protest against a 30 per cent cut in piece work wages. One of the peacefully picketing strikers, C. Michael, was arrested “because,” ‘id the superintendent of the plant, “he threatened two or three employes with bodily injury if they return to work,” C. Michel said he was arrested not for threatened injury (which he did not do) but because he talked to workers about the strike. He was re- leased on $500 bond. : The working conditons in this plant are miserable and the wages are very poor, “Mother” Ferguson Leads, DALLAS, Texas, August 24.—Mrs. Miriam Ferguson, candidate for the democratic nomination for governor of the state, is practically assured of victory against her opponent. Primary returns from 223 out of 252 counties, 46 complete, gave Mrs, Fer- oR gaa and Felix, Robertson Distribute a bu of the DAILY WORKER'S first Special ign Edition, dated Saturday, August 7 > | 5 k —~