The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 9, 1925, Page 6

THE DAILY 7 WORKER.| ee te Publisied by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, ML. (Phone: Munroe 4712) SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail: $3.50....6 months $2.00...8 months By mail (in Chicago only): $4.50....6 months $2.50....3 months 96.00 per year $8.00 per year A@dress all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER 1113 W. Washington Bivd. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL t WILLIAM F. DUNNE oe AILOFS MORITZ J. LOEB.....srsesmmes Business Manager Chicago, Mlinois ——— Entered as second-class mat] Sept. 21, 1923, at the Post- Office at Chicago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879, ip 230 Advertising rates on application The Lenin Memorial Meetings The Lenin memorial meeting, to be held on Sun- day afternoon, February 1, at Madison Square Garden, New York, with similar meetings over the whole nation, will be the answer of America’s work- ers to the black stream of lies pouring from the plute press against Soviet Russia. Experience in the past has shown that this. barrage of vicious propaganda is but the opening gun of a powerful mobilization of the forces of international capital- ism for a combined assault on the Soviet Republic. Preparatory to this coming onslaught, the plute press is trying to give the impression that insur- rection and rebellion are rife in Russia. The so- called revolution in Georgia was hailed with glee and later with disappointment when it proved to be an empty farce, engineered by foreign capital. More recently, the differences betwen Trotsky and the Communist Party of Russia have been pointed out as a sure sign of the hoped-for dissolution of the first workers’ republic. The kept press brings daily reports of mutinies, riots, the jailing of Trots- ky by Stalin, Stalin by Trotsky, and of both by Rykov, etc. ad nauseum. The little entente in the Balkans have completed an alliance whose main purpose is frankly, united action against Soviet Russia. Of course, this al- liance is subsidized and sponsored by England, France and the United States, the strongholds of international capitalism. Even Germany is being: coaxed to join this unholy alliance. Herbert Hoover, who was highly instrumental in overthrowing the Soviet government of Hungary in favor of the present fascist regime, sings a hymn of praise to the prosperity of all countries except Rus- sia and China, the only two countries which have refused to bow to the mandates of international capital. He, of course, does not mention the fact that the workers of Germany, Italy and Japan, three of the leading capitalist countries, are suffer- ing most terribly today, from low living stand- ‘ards due to low wages, long hours and the attacks on their organizations. In mighty England there are millions of unemployed and the price of bread is rising steadily. And in “happy” America the era of unemployment and wage cuts is just begin- ning. But the workers of the world understand these attacks on the first workers’ republic. They un- derstand that Soviet Russia today stands as the mighty bulwark against the sweeping tide of reac- tion which the employing class desires to let loose. And the Lenin memorial meeting on Sunday after- awoon, February 1, at Madison Square Garden will draw the workers from every part of Greater New York and they will seize this opportunity to pledge their faith and loyalty to the first Soviet Republic and to the principles of Lenin. Send in that new “sub” today! Blood on Cappellini’s Hands It is bad enough to know of the hundreds of deaths of coal miners resulting from preventable “accidents” thru the fault of the coal operators of this country, a slaughter which stains every lump of coal with the blood of the workers. But in Pennsylvania the anthracite mine operators are not ‘satisfied with mere occupational murder of its miners. In the last 48 hours two leaders of the “out- law” strike, called against the operators and their servile tools in the district office of the U. M. W. of A., have been shot down on the street by asses- sins. It is a safe bet that Rinaldo Cappellini, agent of the operators in the office of district presi- dent of the union, who fought the miners at every step, knows as well as anyone who are the murder- ers of Samuel Pace and Steve Frely. The Pennsylvania cossacks—the “coal and iron police”—are a murderous lot. They have a reputa- tion for just such assassinations. But they would never undertake them unless the coal operators had ordered it. And the coal operators. in turn, would never order such provocative acts, if they did not feel assured that their agents dn the of- fice of the union could hold down the storm that would follow. Cappellini has long prevented the anthracite miners from forcing adjustment of their grievances against the operators. They depend upon him to stop the floodgates of wrath ut this new “grievance” of the coal diggers, or to divert it into channels harmful to the strike. The miners of the anthracite region will do well to clench their fists for struggle, and to find a way to stop assassination of their comrades without yielding to the provocative acts of the assassins, and the first step in any plan of protection should be to hold Cappellini personally responsible for the safety of every striker. The “Front Factory” Falls The busybodies, reformers, liberals and sister fraternities in New York are disconsolate. “Mr. Zero” has been ordered out of the church. Great gobs of tears for the unemployed will doubt- less course the cheeks of many a philistine as he— or she—will wipe away thé brine to keep it from falling into the dessert while,the lecturer at the civic club expatiates 6n the decadence of christian- ity. The “front factory” has closed its doors. Another lockout. This is how it came about: An enterprising and forward-looking hombre with a bent for religion and a record of working valiantly to get every spare worker into the trenches during the war, |became, after the war, suddenly compassionate for the “under dog.” This hombre, Urbain Ledoux, |preserved his religion intact thru the war, not having gotten closer to it than the Brooklyn navy yards. “When he saw the millions of unemployed swarming the streets in 1921 he thought of what Jesus would do, presumably, and figured out that Jesus would start a flop-house. Having an eye for publicity, he advertised him- self for sale as a slave, tried to auction unem- ployed. workers off a block, and after attracting attention from the press as “Mr. Zero,” he used the proceeds of the milk of human kindness to provide a sort of Gorky’s “Night’s Lodging,” thin soup and stale bread for the homeless and jobless. Not that we object to these miserable victims of capitalism getting something to eat and a place to stay. But is soup and stale bread something to eat, or a flop on the hard church benches, even tho polished by pious pants, the equivalent of a real bed in a real home? The Communist believes that the jobless worker is entitled to more than a crust and a shift for the night ona pine plank. “Work or wages—union wages at that!” This is the slogan of the Communists. This begging at back doors is a relic of slavery. This going, hat if hand, to long-faced hypocrites, ministers and churchmen, merchant and banker, whining for thin soup and stale bread is not the heritage of a class which built the world of in- dustry and now stands homeless and starving, held back from revolt only by lack of organization which makes each individual fear the priest and the police more than the coroner. No! The Com- munists say that without organization and united action with the employed workers whose standard is threatened, the unemployed are not playing the part of men willing to strive for something, but the part of social wreckage, pitiful but helpless. Anyhow, “Mr. Zero” invaded the Camp memorial congregational church in New York City, and for a time held forth with a “front factory,’ where rough barbering and tailoring was done, to make the unemployed presentable to prospective masters. \But hope was shortlived. God is incorporated, and “the Congregational Conference, Incorporated,” annownces that “Mr. Zero” must get out and stay out. Superintendent Rollins, heaven’s butler in this corporation, says that if Ledoux sets foot across the threshold, he will call the bluecoats and have “Mr. Zero” put in the cooler for trespass. The unemployed are thrust out with “Mr. Zero” to keep cool with Coolidge and the “front factory” has declared a lockout. Textile Wage Cuts The Commercial and Financial Chronicle an- nounces with unconcealed glee that fully 30 per cent of the 190,000 cotton mill operatives in New England are working under reduced wage scales as a result of the wage cutting movement after the election of President Coolidge. The prevailing cut is 10 per cent altho in some mills it has run to 12 and 15 per cent. Recent cuts include 750 workers in the Linwood and Saundersville cotton mills at Whitinsville, Mass., 1,400 workers in the Renfrew Mfg. Co.’s mills in Adams, Mass., 300 employes of the Methuen Co., Methuen, Mass., 600 employes of the Nyanza. mills, Woonsocket, R. I., and 2,500 workers in the Nashua and Jackson mills, Nashua, N. H. The Fall River cotton barons complain that their shares paid only a 6% per cent dividend last year. These mills worked half-time so that the 6% per cent means that earnings were at least on a 13 per cent basis. Of course, in 1920 these same mills paid a 20 per cent dividend and the present earnings represent a decrease, but it is not be- cause of increased wages and hours, but because of poor markets. ~ The textile workers have had to struggle thru the slack period as best they could and are now facing a further reduction in their incomes. They will find in the statement of the Workers (Communist) Party on the textile industries the method by which they can combat most effectively the new attack on their living standards that makes the Commercial and Financial Chronicle so jubilant. sob- The livest thing in the spring aldermanic elec- tions in Chicago will be the bunch of Communist candidates entered by the Workers Party. They alone will carry on a real battle against the bi- partisanship of the capitalist candidates. Mussolini claims he has disarineds all his enemies, but the red spectre of Communism keeps him awake nights just the same, Evidently Mussolini doesn’t believe the claims he makes. Only a few days more to order a bundle of our Special Birthday Edition, Tuesday, Jan. 13. Join the Workers Party and subscribe to the Ruthenberg is in prison; but that doesn’t make DAILY WORKER. capitalism feel any more comfortable, THE CPAILY WORKER TEXTILE BOSSES SLASH WAGES T0 STARVATION LINE Reaction Rithces at Fall River Poor (By The Federated Press) FALL RIVER, Mass., Jan. 8.—Fall River cotton manufacturers have an- nounced a 10 per cent wage reduction for their 25,000 employes, to go into effect Jan. 12. No promise is made that the workers will get more work in consequence of the reduction. Local unions affiliated with the American Federation of Textile Oper- atives.are voting on the question of accepting or rejecting the cut. The action they take will probably set the pace for the workers in the neighbor- ing cotton manufacturing city of New Bedford where the American Federa- tion of Textile Operatives is also func- tioning. Bosses United Against Workers. The announcement of the Fall River manufacturers is in line with action taken by leading cotton con- cerns of New England this fall and early winter. Cuts averaging 10 per cent have been forced thru in the Amoskeag mills at Manchester, New Hampshire; in the Everett mills in Lawrence, in most of the Lowell mills, in the numerous mills of the’ Manville- Jenckes and B. B. & R. Knight com- paniés in Rhode Island; in nearly all the Maine mills and in many small concerns in the several New England states. Most of the reductions took place following the Coolidge election. Fall River—Poverty. Fall River workers have suffered more from the textile depression than those in any other textile center. The Fall River mills produce cheap cotton print goods, for the most part, the kind of goods most readily produced in southern mills. For eighteen months most of the Fall River work- ers have been unemployed. During 1924 about two-thirds of a million dollars of charity was spent in par- tially relieving the hardships of unemployment. Waiting in Prison Leaves Its Imprint On Sacco-Vanzetti Looking at the photographs of Sacco and Vanzetti when they first were imprisoned almost five years ago and the pictures recently taken of them bring a story of persecution of inno- cent men bg loca any words can depict. The photographs bring to us fresif, energtic, young Sacco; aesthetic and philosophic Vanzetti. Tn the latter photographs in the face of the once buoyant Sacco we read suffering and dejection. In the face of the soft, Kindly Vanzetti we read defiance and bitterness. Thus have these two .fighters for their class, in those few but long years of waiting in prison, been broken and crushed by the rulers of the opposing class, the capitalists. * The last act of this tragic drama of life and death for these two work- ers was commenced, on Sept. 30, when Judge Thayer decided against a new trial for them, The shadow of the electric chair rests dark and heavy on Sacco and Vanzetti. Workers’ organizations everywhere are holding protest meetings and tak- ing up collections for the $25,000 fund which the Sacco-Vanzetti defense committee must raise to appeal the case to the Massachusetts supreme court and to the United States su- preme court. Rail Workers Pay Goes Down as R. R. Co.’s Profits Go Up Savings of millions of dollars for railroad stockholders at the expense of railroad employes are reflected in interstate commerce commission sta- tistics showing unit costs of class 1 carriers in October, 1924. The figures show that train enginemen received only 14.8¢ per 1,000 gross ton miles compared with 16.4¢ in October, 1923, @ reduction of nearly 10 per cent. Similarly the amount paid railway trainmen per 1,000 ton miles fell from 18.8¢ in October, 1923, to 17.7¢ in 1924 and the expenditure for locomotive re- pairs from 28.6¢ to 24.4c per 1,000 ton miles. This last » involving the total wages io machinists, boiler. makers, sheet metal workers, etc. amounted to about 15 per cent. These results are possible because increased efficiency and technical improvement prdouce wholesale layoffs rather than shorter working hours for the men em: ployed. Kellogg Likes His "Job. LONDON, Jan. 8.—Stories in circu- lation that United States Ambassador Kellogg was to resign from his Lon- don post have made him “all the more determined to remain,” it was said at the American embassy today. This was the second denial in two day: from the embassy on the subject of Kellogg’s retirement. Kellogg is at tending the allied eo conference in Paris. ; asenaminntsnilaitiai JOINT BAZAAR OF INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ AID AND LABOR DEFENSE’ COUNCIL MAKING FINE HEADWAY INDUSTRY DOES Ce earagn ea, f NEW YORK CITY, Jan. 8.—The arrangements of the International Work- | N ‘ ORS ers’ Aid and the Labor Defense Council for the joint bazaar, which is to take place at the Lyceum, 86th St. and 3rd Ave., from Feb. 11 to 14, are pro- ceeding with great energy. The response that the call for support has met with is most encouraging. The renewed attacks on the revolutionaries in Europe and India, the ar- rests and brutal treatment of the revolutionary workers in Roumania, Pstho- nia, Lithuania—and-the flaring up of ¢—————___________ the bloody regime of Mussolini in It- aly, together with the persecution of the Communists in Germany, the at- tacks on the militant peasantry in Jugo-Slavia—are awakening the soli: darity of the American workers. The conviction of Comrade Ruthen- berg, secretary of the Workers (Com- munist) Party, and the announcement that Comrade Rober Minor will next stand before the capitalist court of Michigan; the arrestf Comrade Las. sen, editor of the Elore, Hungarian labor daily; and the arrest of Comrade Vajtauer, editor of the Obrana, the Czecho-Slovakian labor paper, which took place only a short time ago; the scores of other comrades who are soon to be tried in Michigan and the hundreds of revolutionary workers who face deportation—all of these facts are accelerating the co-opera- tion of all revolutionists in this coun- try and the sympathizers with their revolutionary movement. Up to the present, the following organizations have responded to the call: Amalgamated Food Workers’ Union, who will donate their services and food. Bakers’ Union No. 3, Brooklyn, do- nated $25. The following branches of the Work- ers Party will have booths: English Harlem, Finnish branches of New York City, Williamsburg English branch Brownsville section of the party, Bronx section of the party, Hungarian branches together, Russian Downtown branch, English Downtown branch. Greek and Armenian branches to- gether, English Westside branch— books and art pictures, Coney Island section of the party, Russian art booth, containing hand-woven linen and hand embroidery. The Lithuanian branches ed will probably have a booth. This is admirable—and PR the work has just begun. More and more organizations are taking a favorable attitude, and more branches of the Workers Party have still to act on the matter. No trade union, no workers’ organi. zation, no sympathizer dare fail to do their part in making this joint bazaar a huge success. The fate of innum- erable revolutionary workers in Eu- rope and the defense of our American comrades demand immediate action. Large sums of money are necessary. Comrades to work: get articles for the bazaar. Get contributions from labor organizations and sympathizers. Sign up on the Red honor roll. Get your organization to take a booth. ALL TOGETHBR FOR THE SAKE OF THE REVOLUIONISTS AND THEIR SUFFERING FAMILIES! BERLIN REPORT SAYS | TROTSKY IN CAUCASIAN SANITARIUM, VERY ILL BERLIN, Jan. 8— Direct news | have just received enables. me to state that Leon Trotsky, Soviet War Commisar, is actually sick. It can be stated on the authority of the president of one of the Caucasian republics that Trotsky is suffering from ulcer of the stomach and may die much sooner than is expected generally. He is not a prisoner in the Krem- lin, as has been reported, but is ac- tually in a sanitarium in Sukhum- Kale, on the Black Sea, about seven kilometers from Batum. The campaign against him is alto- gether “literary.” STEEL HOUSES MAKE WORKERS’ SKILL USELESS British Unions Facing Fight for Life (Special to The Daily Worker) LONDON, Jan. 8.—A way to put the building trade unions out of business and the building trade workers on the permanently unemployed list, is be- ing tried out by the Scottish firm of Weir and company, which is erecting steel cottages. The building trade unions are cir- culating a pamphlet showing that a steel house, such as is attempted, can- not be maintained in habitable shape for more than thirty-five years, while brick and stone houses last from 100 to 150 years. The steel houses also, are claim- ed to require more expense to main- tain than brick and stone houses, and as they last only 35 years, the union has quite a talking point in the faci that loans to build houses neafly.60 years, and the houses would be collapsed long before they were paid for, according to this theory. The steel houses are erected on a concrete foundation into which the framework is set. This is covered with sheets of steel plate lined with asbestos, and the inside walls are made of a composition like American wall boards, or stamped sheet steel like that used widely in America on ceilings. All by unskilled labor. 7,000 COTTON GOODS WORKERS GET 10 PER CENT WAGE REDUCTION HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 8.—Seven thousand more cotton goods workers are cut ten per cent by the wage reductions of the American Thread com- pany, beginning Jan. 12. plants at Williamantic, near here. Massachusetts workers. The cut in the American Thread plant at New Bedford, Ma: Three thousand are affected The remaining are Rhode Island and in the company’s first action of that kind in any large New Bedford mill since the general wage cutting movement began. — _ BR aie nc“ Friday, January 9, 1925 EVOLUTION OF Folly of Tinkering with Capitalism (By The Federated Press) NEW ‘YORK, Jan. 8.-— Altho radio broadcasting of first rank singers and performers by the Victor Talking Ma- chine Co. and the American Tele- graph and Telephone Co. arrangement does not directly concern the Actors’ Equity Association, the actors’ union is very much concerned over the en- croaching power of radio to keep peo- ple away from the theater. Frank Gillmore, executive secretary of the Equity, si “The Equity is unfortunately limited in any action it might take. It is distinctly the sense of our council tifit: radio is a terrible menace to the actor, but the actor’s time and talents belong to the man- agers, and it is from them that any real action must come.” To Fight Radio. Equity has provided “that if a radio microphone is placed in the footlights for the purpose of broadcasting the performance, the manager shall then be charged by the actor for an extra performance” with the idea of mak- extend /qn ing play broadcasting too expensive for managers. “Plays emerge badly over the radio,” Gillmore asserts, “and I am sure that such performances keep many people from the theater. An open meeting of the Actors’ Equity is scheduled for Jan. 26, to consider the danger of radio to actors and arouse the theaters to concerted action.” Morgan Tightens Hold on Phone and Telegraph Systems NEW YORK, Jan. 8.—J. P. Morgan has tightened his hold on the Ameri. can Telephone and Telegraph com- pany by purchasing $125,000,000, 35- year, five per cent sinking fund gold bonds of the company. The Ameri- can Telephone and Telegraph com- pany, in addition to controlling the Bell telephone system, the Western Union telegraph company and the Western Electric company, is connect. ed with numerous railroads and with the U. S. Steel corporation and the General Electric company thru inter- locking directorates. The company announces it will maintain a fund of $1,250,000 dollars a year for the purchase of these bonds the open market “if available.” The, money from the sale of the bonds will be used to purchase securi- ties held by subsidiary companies, it was announced. Population Increase 5 Per Cent Above Food Production Since 1912 Each person (capitalist class ex- empted) must eat five per cent less food than in 1912, according to the Sears Roebuck agricultural founda- tion’s statistics. Population has gain- ed on national agricultural production to the extent of five per cent in twelve years. Figures made public today show that the population of the United States has increased 18 per cent from 1913 to 1925, while.the total crop production has increased only 13 per cent. Patronize our advertisers. By ALFRED V. FRANKENSTEIN. A review of anything so completely Parisian as the opera “Louise,” given by the Chicago Civic Opera company last Wednesday, should be-written in French. For “Louise” is Paris, Paris perfectly rendered in terms of tone and action. The only distinctly Par- isian quality lacking in this perform: ance and this opéra was the smell. The composer, Gustav Charpentier, is a man known for only one work. Mr. Stock now and then plays his “Impressions of Italy,” but aside fro that only “Louise” has gained any recognition. Charpentier wrote both his book and his music. Louise is a seamstress living with her parents on Montmartre. She is in love with the poet Julien, Her parents object to their marriage. The first act is concerned with the quar rels of Louise and her parents over Julien, * Rather Fleshy Spirit. The Second act opens with one of the most curious of all opera scenes. It is a scene that Andreyev might have written, Before sunrise, at the junc. ture of two streets below Montmartre the rag pickers are sorting their catch. A coal picker and a street sweeper bemoan their fate, Enters a night prowler in evening dress who makes love to a little newspaper girl. Asked who he is he replies that he is the spirit of Paris. With the coming of the dawn these | 0) creatures ‘of night disappear. The| tow sunrise reveals the shop where Louise works. Her fellow workers arrive, and finally she herself. Julien is away with him. Quite a Mixture. The third act is taken up with o most spectacular scene. The poets, philosophers, grisettes and ruffians of Montmartre, come to crown Louise the muse of Montmartre. She is liv- ing with Julien in a cottage near the summit of the hill. The night prowle: is crowned King of Fools, and con- ducts an elaborate ceremony. Louise and Julien sing an apostrophe to Paris~and the spirit of Montmartre. (For Montmartre is the true Paris. Soaked with the blood of the Com- rhuniets of 1871, it is the home of the artists, the thinkers, the workers, the hoboes and the prostitutes of Paris. Surmounted with a glittering white jewel of a church, the basilica of the sacred heart, it stands up and domi- nates the city even more than the famous Eiffel tower across the town.) When the ceremony is over Louise's, mother arrives and tells Louise that her father is dying. Louise goes to her former home. In the last act Louise is kept practically a prisoner in her parents’ house. Her father tries to persuade her to leave Julien. She refuses. He becomes enraged, opens the door and tells her to go. Leaving the curtain down on an ar- tistically unfinished story. Plenty of Atmosphere. The plot is thus given in detail in order to get across the idea of the ered Parisian atmosphere of the Charpentier simply took his wn eh wrote it down in notes. He preabeaite with a truly Wagneriar sense of the possibilities of instru ments in conjunction with the stage. waiting for her, She promises to run|The musle of the entire opera is a colossal masterpiece,’ as Chaykovski would say, of atmosphere, Added to this one may eulogize the work of the company. It was as close to a perfect performance of oprea as can be given. The part of Louise seems made tc order for Mary Garden. She did it in approved Garden style, except that she. seemed troubled with a cold Georges Baklanoff, besides having one of the finest baritone voices in the company, is perhaps the best actor of all the male stars. He played the father. Maria Claessens, playing the mother, took the role of a relentless vixen witty considerable more genu- ine feeling than really exits in the role, Lucky It Wasn't Pink. Ferdinand Ansseau unfortunately had a brown tie with white polka dots wished on him as part of his costume for Julien. In spite of that he looked like a man. Nothing/more need be said. Jose Mojica, the ‘young Mexican tenor, a person of a high voice, firm and large in volume, who acts with considerable Spanish swagger, played the night prowler, and the king of fools. Costumes and scenery were, in the main, authentic. One backdrop showed Montmartre surmounted by. the unfinished scaffolding of the basi- lica of the sacred heart. Now Sacre Couer has been finished since the nineties, but the costumes of the peo- ple of the plgy were those of 1924, Another backdrop Paris rounded by high h ist. Outside of that were typical 2 oe. g