The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 8, 1924, Page 9

Th Being in Pittsburgh, close by which is located the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- way shops, at Glenwood, where the in- famous “co-operative plan” was first put across on the railroad shop un- ions, I thought it might be of value to get a first-hand impression of the workings of the Johnston-Beyer ver- sion of the arbeltsgemeinachaften. With the assistance of a local com- rade, one of the machinists working in’ the Glenwood shops was finally locat- ed. For the purpose of reporting we will call him “Smith.” Smith was not much interested in the subject of our question. He seem- ed to be a typical worker, one of the two thousand in the Glenwood shops, with nothing,to.mark him out from the others. Formerly an active un- fon member, he confessed that he has attended. but,.one union meeting in several months. “Why don’t you go to your. enion meetings?” : “What’s the use,” he answered, “with only 15 to 20 members there, nothing to be done, everybody sore and disgusted; and members dropping out every month. There are plenty of grievances to take up in the un- ion, but the union can’t do anything now. It’s hog tied by the ‘B. & O. Plan’ and can do nothing.” “What kind of grievances have you in the Glenwood shops?” “The management is systematically sowing division among the workers, A (Continued from Page 4) ploited by Anglo-Dutch capital are to “be found oil and rubber, and whither American capital has recently begun to strive. The prospect of a subsi- diary means of communication with Australia from Southern China was perhaps another bait to America, whose ambition is to be the first pow- er in the Pacific Ocean. Already great American merchant vessels regularly ply in the Pacific, and commercial connections are being established with the important centers of me Pacific. The lines between San Francisco, the Japanese ports, Shanghai, Hong- kong, and the Philippines and back, have been thoroly organized this year and America is now seeking a passage to the Chinese ports which is not sub- ject fo Japanese domination. In order to have a free hand in China, in order to be able to exploit her most advantageously as a mar- ket, a sphere for investment of eapi- tal and a base from which to extend her influence over the Southern Pa- cific, America after the world war was obliged figst to reduce the influence of Japan. ‘ In pursuance of this aim America first of all attempted to defeat Japan in China by means of the dollar. In the spring of 1920, Lamont, the representative of American and Brit- ish banks, came to China with plans for the formation of a consortium of bankers, i. @, a single international financial center for the exploitation of the wealth of China and for the industrialization of the country ac- cording to a general imperialist scheme, America, as the richest coun- try, would naturally play the first fiddle in the-consortium. This attempt at a “peaceful” solution of the Ameri- can-Japanese conflict in China suf- fered shipwreck at the very outset. parently at the Versailles conference gave its consent in principle to the formation of such a eonsortium in China, was in 1920 unable to fall in with the “public opinion” of the mon- opolists and militarists, she started a e B & O Plan at Work ‘by working some overtime while others cannot get in their regular eight hours. Systematic discriminations of all sorts are going into effect. Speed- ing up is getting worse all the time. Seniority has become a joke, and has gone by default — there is no such thing anymore. Snitching is encourag- ed and rewarded, and suspicion thus spread among the workers themselves. Oh, there are plenty, of grievances, and hundreds of them have been tak- en up in the union. But the union can't do anything. The complaints are all filed in committee, and nothing is heard from them. We can’t strike— we're co-operative you know—and the bosses laugh at us.” “Ig the uniom getting stronger for any fight that may develop?” “Hell, no! There are 1,400 men eligible to the International Associa- tion of Machinists im the Glenwood shops. A few years ago, before the strike, most of them were organized. When the B. & O. plan went into ef- fect we had about 800. Today there are less than 250, and they are drop- ping out by the dozens every month. Of these only a dozen or so ever at- ten union meetings. The union is being destroyed.” “Ig that the reason your local didn’t send a delegate. to the Detroit. conven. tion?” “The supporters of Johnston whc control the union offices didn’t want any delegates because, they were afraid some of the real facts about posing indirect taxation upon certain articles of general consumption. And since the government in China at that time was created by the vic- torious Japanophile group after the struggle between the armies of Tuan- Chi-Jui, who was supported by Japan, and Generals Tsao-Kum and Wu Pei Fu, who defended the interests of Britain and America, and therefore for a certain period acted more or “less independently, the revelations of Jap- an compelled the Peking government thru the minister of foreign affairs, W. W. Yen, to address an open letter to Lamont demanding the denial of the reports of the acquisitive schemes of the consortium. The reply was couched in such a form as to leave the Chinese with not the least doubt as to the true intentions of the im- perialists. After the scheme for a consortium broke down, America came forward demanding an “open door” in China and the maintenance of Chinese sov- ereignity: The Washington “peace” conference which was held during the second half of 1921, was summoned by America under the pretext of defending Chi- nese sovereignty and of limiting naval armaments. Its real object however, was to break the Anglo-Japanese treaty in order to isolate Japan in the Far East and weaken her influence in China. America as we know, only. partly achieved her purpose. The Washing- ton agreement of February, 1922, did in fact, weaken Japanese influence in China, but by no means to the extent which was formally proposed to the conference. . In order to create a situation in China which would correspond with the formal victory achieved by Ameri- ca at the Washington conference, it was necessary to break the real forc- es in China which were supported by Japan, and to set up a Central govern- ment in Peking which would hearken to Washington and London, and not Tokyo. And in fact, but a few months “ es @ @ ee the Glenwood shop conditions might leak out.” “Why didn’t you fellows who are disgusted with conditions go to your union meetings and elect a delegate to fight for a different policy?” “Oh, what’s the use? Those guys have all the money and the machinery of the union in their hands. Besides they have the support of the railroad officials. And any railroad worker who gets very prominent as a fighter against the B. & O. plan might just as well kiss his job goodbye. And we haven’t got anybody there to organ. ize our forces so as to beat these officials. They have the cards all stack- ed against us. What's the use?” “Have you not heard about the fight organized by the Trade Union Educa- tion League and the Communists against the B. & O. plan, which rallied a block of delegates at the Detroit convention? Why didn’t you fellows Hne up with them?” “Yeh, we heard about it, some of us, after the convention. It was a good fight. But us guys here, who are up against the buzz-saw, we've sort of lost heart. Maybe we'll get back our fighting spirit some of these days. It sure did cheer us up to hear about the fight in Detroit. But take it from me, there is only one way to keep us with any International Associa tion of Machinists at all, at least so far as the railroad shops are concern- ed, and that is to kick out the reac- tionary officials who have formed a Intervention in China From the summer of 1922 to the present time political life in China has been taken up with the struggle between the imperialists. The slight- est enfeeblement of Japan, either na- tionally or internationally, immediate- ly called forth an attack on the part of America. The success of our partisan forces and our red army agatnst the Japa- nese agents in the Russian Far East —Merkulov, Diederich, Kapelev, and others—and the. final liquidation of thé white and black governments in the Maritime Province, compelled Jap- an finally to evacuate our territories. This reflected on the relation between Japan and America in China. Ameri- ca became more aggressive, and in 1923, drove out the Chinese president, Li-Yuan-Hung, and placed in his stead the tool of American capitalism, Tsao-Kun. The earthquake in Japan last year, which considerably impoverished and enfeebled her, aroused American am- bitions to liquidate Japanese influence in China as rapidly as possible. She is now only awaiting a pretext. The events which occurred in China during the last few weeks are in fact a real war in China between Anglo- American and Japanese imperialism. The same Chinese militarists, Chang- Tso-Lin and Wu-Pei-Fu, are again the participants in the struggle. They are again fighting around Shanghai- Kwan where the territorial spheres of influence of Japan, in Manchuria and of America and Britain in the Prov- ince of Chili touch on each other. The present antagonism between the imperialists in China is far more acute than in 1922. If only for the reason that one side is much weaker than the other. At the same time the Chinese militarists themselves are far better armed and dispose of far larg- er armies than formerly. The present struggle is therefore pregnant of far greater dangers than any collisions which have occurred in China in re- cent times. Will the imperialists in China go as far as to make an open conflict be tween America and Japan in this pres- ent instance inevitable? We think that the struggle will not take such a form,. Japan, while doing her ut- most to protect her own interests, will avoid open conflict with America. The American government, which is facing a presidential election, will hardly care to test the attitude of the work- ers and farmers on the question of war. We imagine that the result. of the present struggle in China will be an armed truce in China with a certain By Earl R. Browder partnership with the railroad panies.” “What is there to all this propagan- da about how the bosses co-operate com- with you in ‘shop?” “Co-operate, hell! What the co- operation means, is that we have to work out labor gaving schemes, write out our suggestions for saving money for the bosses, and in return for them we get our name printed in the mag- azine the boss prints. Why, even the ‘economy union’ at the Westinghouse Electric plants nearby does more in a cooperative way than this damned ‘B. & O. plan.’ In the Glenwood shops we get ‘honorable mention’ for our contributions to the efficiency of the shop — in the ‘company union’ at Westinghouse Electric they pay mon- ey for such things, sometimes as much as $200 a month. That Westinghouse Hlectric ‘company union’ is a rotten lousy thing—but it is beaten by the ‘B. & O. plan.’” This is the way one union man sees the B. & O. plan after working un- der it for two years. The conditions he describes, the disintegration of the union, the unremedied grievances, the militant attitude of the bosses against the shopmen—all these things are factg-that cannot be hid, cannot be de- nied, and cannot be explained away. They are the bitter fruits of class col- laboration, of the desertion of the class struggle. advantage in favor of the Anglo- American imperialists, But allstruces will be based upon a readjustment of the spheres of influence and wilh be made at the expense of the inter- ests of the population of China and partly the U. S. S. R. inasfar as we are concerned in China. Each year the possibility of the im- perialists overcomiag their internal conflicts by means of peace confer- ences, armed truces, and groupings and balancing the political forces in the world arena become more remote. The events in China reveal to the proletariat of the world both the true ambitions of the imperialists and the tremendous danger of a new world war in the Patific Ocean, where the in- terests of world imperialism are more entangled and confused than any- where else. The slightest weakening of one of the parties which now con- tribute to the equilibrium in the Far East will inevitably call forth such a collision between the world imperial- ists as the world has never seen. The Communist proletariat of the west and the toiling masses of the East must zealously follow the events in the Far East and be prepared for a struggle against imperialism. —_—_—_——oooOO ee the International Learn “ Language IDO 16-page pamphlet, giving outline of language, showing its superiority over Esperanto, etc., sent free. The Workers Ido Federation Room 5, 805 James St., N. S. PITTSBURGH, PA. The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn Just South of Jackson) CHICAGO Furnishings LADIES’ Fe MEN'S INFANTS’ Trade Where Your Money Buys the Most o.. 9 Martin’s 651 West North Avenue East of Halsted St. the work, inside the