The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 17, 1925, Page 2

ee a ate i bi te , The Page Two IN WOMEN'S DAY DRIVE, MARGH 8 Plan to Organize the Women for Communism On March 8, International Women's Day, the Communists the world over will conduct a campaign to enlist the women workers in the fight against the exploiters of their womanhood. The working class women of the United States will be shown, thru the Communist press, by means of mass meetings and the distribution of lit- erature, that child and women slavery will be abolished only thru the victory of the working class. The Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party has issued a statement outlining the pro- gram for International Women’s Day. A further statement will be issued by the Central Executive Committee which will be printed in leaflet form and distributed by the hundreds of thousands to working class women. This statement will be entitled “Work ing Class Women and the Communist Movement.” resolution on International Women’s Day, as passed by the Cen- tral Executive Committee, follows. “In view of the fact that March 8 has ben set aside as International Women’s Day to be devoted to a con- centrate Communist campaign among working class women, the Central Exeeutive Committee of the Workers Party adopts the following decisions: “1. The Central Executive Com- mittee is issuing a statement on the subject: Working Class Women and the Communist Movement. This statement to be published in leaflet form and distributed widely among proletarian women, particularly those engaged in industry. “2. The party press shall be in- structed to print special editions or sections in their papers on Women’s Day, carrying appropriate articles, pictures and other material. “3. Mass meetings shall be held on or about that day under the auspices of the Workers Party Women’s Com- mittees. “4. A special effort shall be made by each party unit to have their Women's Committees elected and in functioning order not later than March 8. “5, The industrial department of the party shall utilize Women’s Day for a special appeal to women in in- dustry under the slogan: Join the Union. “6. The International Women’s Day shall be carried on under the fol- lowing slogans: “The Working Class Woman—A Fighter in the Cause of the Working Class. “Down with Child Labor Exploita- tion. “Down with Imperialism, Militarism and War. “Demand Recognition of Soviet Rus- sia. “Join the Workers Party. “Follow the Leadership of the Com munist International. “7, At each of the mass meetings to be held on International Women’s Day resolutions shall be submitted in- corporating the above slogans and car rying greetings to the working class women of the world and to the Wo- men’s Secretariat of the C, I. “8. Special efforts shall be made to enroll new members into the party.” General Membership, Local Chicago, Meets Tuesday, February 24 The next general membership meet- ing of Local Chicago, Workers Par- ty of America, will be held at the Northwest Hail, corner of North and Western avenues, on Tuesday even- ing, Feb. 24. The meeting will take up on the agenda the present united front activities of the Workers Party. (Communist) ” Protest Anglo-Persian Oi! Rights LONDON, Feb. 15.—The United States, France and Italy have protest- ed to Albania over the oil concessions to the Anglo-Persian combination, the London Express asserted today. Of- ficials of the Anglo-Persian combine claimed the concession does not in- clude monopolistic rights and does not restrict the rights of other nations to exploit the Albanian oil fields. Moors Kill Train Passenger, GIBRALTAR.— A passenger was killed when Moors attacked the Ceu- tatetuan train in Morocco, according to a dispatch received here today. SALZMAN TOUR IN DIST. 5 Feb. 21—Pittsburgh, general mem- bership meeting. Feb, 25-26—Wheeling, W. Va. Feb. 27—Bellaire, Ohio. Feb. 28—Powhatan Point, Ohio. March 1—Neffs, Ohio. March 2—Yorkville, Ohio. March 8—Martin'’s Ferry, Ohio. March 4-6—Dillonvale. March 8—Pittsburgh. g@anizational conference. District or- EE —————————_——_— — WORKERS PARTY _ GOOD SPIRIT IN (Continued trom page 1) Nemasket Worsted Mills. Nearly all of the present sporadic cotton mill strikes began in a manner more or less like this one in the Mid- dleboro woolen mill, On the part of the employers we find always the same trickery, sneaking, deception and double-crossing—always charac- terized with whining pleas of “pov- erty” on the part of the multimillion- aire textile kings, and always ending in squeezing a few more dollars of profit per day out of the impoverished workers. Isolation and Betrayal. And also every incident of this sort in a mill town has been characterized by isolation, Nowhere have the tex tile workers been encouraged to look at their problem as extending” beyond the narrow confines of their own vil- lage. It has always been, 200 out here, 100 out there, 500 out somewhere else, usually on craft out and the other crafts in, with the vast majority left untouched by anything but spontane- ous discontent, smoldering with no ac- tion and no leadership. Most of the labor leaders, leading nothing but pitiful fragments of by- gone glory, have had nothing on their minds but trying hastily to “get a set- tlement” on a petty scale on the ba- sis of partial or complete surrender. Or, in the case of Mr. McMahon, presi- dent of the United Textile Workers, to prevent a strike by every possible means, prevent any co-ordination be- tween the workers of one mill and those of another mill, or between any one fragmentary union and any other. Division of Workers, Solidarity of Bosses. The general rule has been, every seperate craft, for itself—complete is- olation of small handfuls of workers in this thickly settled New England community which is geographically al- most as solid as one huge city. At the same time the employers act as one man. The unity of the bosses has enabled them to maneuver with incredible skill to preven unity of the workers. One explanation is the press, A working class press simply does not exist here, All the small and large town papers are as branches of one concern, and that an adjunct of the cotton maunfacturers’ association. ;Never a word does a textile worker learn of anything in another town that would be of interest to him in this struggle, except what is feverish. 'y distorted and puffed into propa- ganda form for the mill owners. Sel- dom if ever does one isolated union communicate with another, or have any other means of information than the mill-owners’ press or drifting ru- mor. (A systematic distribution ma- chinery for the DAILY WORKER is more badly needed in this community, I think, than in any other that I know.) If this condition continues there is no doubt that all of New England will soon be choked into a condition of open shop slavery and suppression equal to that of Don Chafin’s West Virginia coal region. Of openly vio- lent suppression of the workers, there is little in evidence as yet. But us- ually and nearly everywhere the sys- tem of invisible, silk-gloved coercion and chicanery is the method pursued. This method has sufficed up to the present for a gradual and silent, and cheap, strangulation of labor in the textile mills. Cotton Barons Clean Up. But a few weeks ago the price of raw cotton fell about one-third. The cotton-mill conmbine saw a chance to make a quick killing on supplying th« domestic market. (They even claimec to think the Dawes plan was going tc give them a European market.) The big wholesale wage slashing, combin ed with an intensive open shop drive, was begun on an accelerated speed— and then came resistance, with spor- adic strikes, But to return to the Middleboro | strike. In the case of Middleboro it is a woolen weavers’ strike, and the woolen mills are not much involved as yet. As soon as the Nemasket Mill bosses saw that their bluff of “let’s call it a general strike” was called, they began trying to confine it to the weavers, and trying to win the weav- ers back, one by one. A certain man, working in the guise of a “designer” but really functioning as a stoolpig- eon for the superintendent, became a propagandist for winning the weavers back individually. This man, Martin t, was sent around quietly to in- terview the strikers, one by one. A sly, ingratiating fellow, Eckert always plays the part of the “secret friend” who is going to advise each worker in his own interest. But in a few hours the “secret friend” stuff became & public joke. Now every meeting of the strikers has on the regular order of business the question: “Whom has Martin Eckert been talking to since last meeting? ” And each striker who has been approched gets up and re- cites his story. Spy Becomes Strikebreaker, But advicg didn’t work, and Martin Eckert went to Lawrence and brot back some thirty-odd scabs. They landed in Middleboro full of booze, and were hauled in automobiles to a hotel. The strikebreakers are mostly if not exclusively Syrians—it is an at- tempt to play race against race, the old game, ‘The strikers immediately set about ee ee oa } THE DAILY WORKER TEXTILE STRIKE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION HAILS DAILY WORKER Meeting In New York of the Rus sian Federation has sent the follow- ing wire to the DAILY WORKER: National convention Russian seo- tion Workers Party heartily greets the efforts of central executive com- mittee in DAILY WORKER cam. paign, We unanimously pledge our full support and the support of our entire section to DAILY WORKER. Long live the DAILY WORKER! visiting the scabs, and the company gunmen are having a hard time keep- ing their guests isolated. The scabs receive $30 a week in wages, $18 for board and a $4.64 ticket, round-trip, to Lawrence and return every Satur- day. Their job consists in keeping the mills in the outward apearance of working. A few days ago two of the scabs were seen walking into town from the mill with their baggage on their backs. “We thru,” they told the strik- ers. “No good job. Pretty soon all be thru.” And since then many more are believed to have slipped away The company carries them to and fro in automobiles as long as they stick. but when they quit lets them walk the long distance from the mill to the railroad station. Strikers Stand Firm. All of the breaks have been in the ranks of the scabs. Not a single strik- er has quit. Company agents, trying to persuade some of the worekrs that it is a “weavers‘ strike” and not ap- plicable to other workers, succeeded in keeping a few of the women work- ers from going out. So strong is the morale of the workers, however, that those whos tayed at work sent an offi- cial request to the Amalgamated Tex- tile Council that they be given a state- ment in writing that they were not scabe, because they claimed, it was a weavers’ strike only. The union ab- solutely refused, and proclaimed that this is a whole mill strike covering every worker, It is believed that the few individuals remaining will there- fore soon come out, An Appeal for Relief. The secretary-treasurer of the Ne masket Textile Council, Matt H. /Hathaway, has issued a call to all mill workers everywhere to send re- lief funds, as the strikers have been out five months and their splendid morale persists in the face of the most severe deprivation of necessities. Committees visit the mill gates to col- lect the funds. The appeal meets with considerable response, and smal’ strike benefits are being paid where absolute necessity requires. More im- portant still, Middleboro strikers and their Textile Council are enthusiastic supporters of the movement inititatec by the Workrs Part and Trade Union Education League for an all-New Eng- land united front conference. Further encouragement for the united front proposal has been found by the Workers Party and the Trade Union Educational League in at least @ score of mill towns ranging from New Hampshire to the Fall River dis- trict. World Labor Briefs | AUSTRALIA—Seamen’s Strike. Thirty-eight ships, representing a gross tonnage of sixty-thousand, have ‘een recently tied up in various Aus- valian ports by the strike of the Aus- ralian Seamen’s Union. CANADA—Eight-Hour Day. On January 1, 1925, the hours of work act, 1928, became effective: :in British Columbia. The terms of the law apply principally to employes in manufacturing establishments, whose hours of work are limited to eight hours a day or fifty-eight hours a week, FRANCE—Douarnenez. Before settlement, on January 8, 1925, the strike of men and women workers in the fish preserving estab- lishments and metal-can factories had practically involved the entire popu- lation of Douarnenez. It was the first instance of an en- tire community on strike. GERMANY—Unemployment in Bremen. On January 3, 1925, 4,180 persons were registered in Bremen as unem- ployed, this number befng approxim- ately one-half of the total of one year ago. MEXICO—Skilled Labor Shortage. Foundries and machine shops of Mexico are reported to have been handicapped by lack of competent, skilled laborers, many of whom have been drawn into transportation occu- pations paying higher wages. POLAND—Unemployment. Latest unemployment reports from Poland show an increase. In one month the number of idle rose from 144,860 to 150,180. Douglas Park Branch Notice. The Douglas Park English Branch meets tonight at 3118 W. Roosevelt Road, at 8 p. m. Tom Bell will speak on “The Dawes Plan.” Everybody is welcome. Get your tickets for Red Revel Ball, February 28, BAKERY TRUST SWALLOWING UP |/Was Imperialist War COMPETITORS |Slogan 27 Years Ago By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL Amalgamation Plea Is Made by Delegate + The outstanding feature of a rath- er dull session ofthe Chicago Feder- ation of Labor yestérday was the re- port of a delegate'from Bakers’ Union Local No. 2, on the ‘speedy trustifica- tion of the baking industry and the increased power Of ‘the trust and the inevitable unemployment among bak- ery workers and drivers caused by the greater concentration of the industry. It was an excéllént argument for the amalgamation ofthe craft untons and the organization of labor on in- dustrial lines. The!delegate, tho he did not mention the'now hated word amalgamation, névertheless pleaded for unity betwee the bakery driv- ers and bakers a a necessary move in the struggle between those who manufacture and distribute bread and those who own the machinery of pro- duction and distribytion. Swallowing, Up Rivals. The Continental ‘Raking company, the delegate informed the federation has now absorbed 85 of the largest baking establishments in the United States including the Ward Baking company. In the city of St. Louis, this industrial octopus took over six baking factories, and shut down four of them after a few weeks, throwing 40 bakers and 20 drivers out of work. Formerly the drivers were classi- fled as salesmen, and made a fairly good salary even tho they worked hard, but under the new rules of the trust, the drivers are to be delivery men and all commissions for sales will be abolished.; The concentration of capital in the baking industry, not alone has hit the rank and file but even vice-presidents,.were sacrificed in the interests of greater profits. A local manager of,the Ward Baking interests, a vice-president of that con- cern lost his job when the Continental swallowed up the Ward bread cor- poration. : Must Get: Together. “The drivers as! well as the bakers must get together and forget their technical differentes if they are to successfully fight the bread trust,” de- clared the bakers’ delegate. The perniciouse ‘tendency among trade union leaders to look on the unions as busi sitions and responsible agencies in helping to in- crease the profits of business for the employers was demonstrated when a delegate from the auto. painters re- ported that more than one firm sign- ed up their shops with the union be- cause of union label agitation. “This is a business proposition’ today, the labor movement is,’ .he declared and went on to say that if the employers could be shown that they could make more profits by haying their employ- es in the unions, they would be anxi- ous to get their shops organized. Clinton S. Golden, field organizer for Brookwood Coolege, Katonah, New York, was given the floor and made a@ report on the work of that organ- ization. Golden ig. former district president of the I..A. M. in Pennsyl- vania. r NEW REACTION GRIPS ST. PAUL LABOR ASSENBLY ‘Mahoney Treachery in , Full | Bloom ST. PAUL, Minni"Feb. 15.—The St. Paul Trades and Dabor assembly and board members la#t night installed the most reactio! group of offi- cials that has held"office in that body for many years. Thé vicious campaign conducted by the reactionaries among the local unions did in The Union Advocate, resulted4in the appeal of the Emme-Votaw efpulston case being lost. sah Comrades Fmml/and Votaw had been previously expelled as delegates from Machinists’ Union No, 459 by the most high hailed methods and had appealed thi jase to the unions affiliated with the assembly for a vote. Last night's resul@twas the vote to sustain the assembly’s action, Refuse Locals ight of Floor. To accomplish this result Willfam Mahoney had to carry on in The Un- fon Advocate a vicious campaign of misrepresentation, and the reaction- aries manifested such activity among the unions as hag not been known be- fore., So prejudiced by this barrage were some locals that they refused the courtesy of the floor to 2 dele- gation from the machinists’ local who desired to speak in behalf of their delegates, Emme Votaw. Many unions with progressive tend- encles responded in a splendid man- ner with protests and resolutions con- demning the attempt of the assem- bly to determine for them the kind of delegates that unions may send. While Mahoney ‘was compelled to print some of these in The Union Ad- vocate, he generally gave them incon- | spicuous positiong, while the reports “Remember Harbor, Cuba. been blown up by an exterior ‘ODAY, there is little noise to the slogan “Remember the Maine!” as scant attention is given the 27th annivers- ary of the sinking of the United States battleship in Havana the Maine!” The question of whether the battleship Maine was blown up from the inside, as part of a frame-up to bring.on war with Spain, or from the outside in a Spanish “plot” against the United States, was never definitely established, so far as the officialdom at Washington is concerned. The only thing that mattered 27 years ago was that the Maine was blown up and it offered a good excuse for launching hostilities, really the beginning of American imperialist ex- pansion. “Remember the Maine” was the 1898 version of its 1917 counter part of “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” To be sure a hastily ordered inquiry reported on March 21, 1898, a few weeks after the blast, that the Maine had mine, which resulted in Pres- ident McKinley ordering the Spaniards to leave Cuba. This they refused to do, as was expected, and the war was on in April. Histories of wars are more carefully written as war hysteria subsides. It is, therefore, interesting to note that the Encyclopedia Britannica informs us that the United States began in January, 1898, a month before the Maine was blown up, to prepare definitely for the pending war. It states: “The American gvernment had begun to prepare for war as early as January. ships in several foreign stations had been drawn nearer home, and those In Chinese waters were collected at Hong-Kong (China); the North Atlantic Squadron, the only powerful one, had been sent from Hampton Roads into the water of Florida for maneuvers.” Washington was out to protect expanding American imperialist interests; especially those of the sugar trust. The war was not fought because the Maine was blown up. The blowing up of the Maine was merely an excuse for start- ing the war already in preparation. The Spanish frontier was withdrawn from Cuba and the Philippines, and is now seen straggling across a few miles of desert in northern Africa. While the Spaniards are mak- ing a last stand against the Moors, with the workers’ revolu- tion gaining strength at home, American imperialism feels itself firmly and comfortably established, not only in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, but in practically all the coun- tries of the world outside Soviet Russia. se R: The question of bolstering up west European capital- ism, so Morgan’s government as well as Wall Street can collect the war debts, becomes, more important than wasting time on an imperialist venture that is buried a quarter cent- ury in history. In the schools the children will be told how the Spanish- American war brought the civilizing influences of the United States to the Cubans, the Porto Ricans and the Filippinos. They will be taught that this is the object of all wars de- clared by the United States, thereby justifying them. The thunderous protests of the subject peoples of these islands, voiced before the American, government at Washington, year after year, would indicate however that the lash of United States capitalism falls as heavily as that of the Spanish taskmaster. *. * One thing most to be remembered on this imperialist anniversary is that the jingo crying loudest for war in 1898 was William Randolph Hearst, who was then just starting his string of yellow dailies over the nation. It was Hearst, the jingo, who demanded most vehe- mently intervention in Mexico, forgetting to mention that he had a million acres of Mexican land in his possession that the landless peasants threatened to take from him. It is Hearst who now cries loudest for preparations for war, leading ultimately te war against Japan. There is this difference, 1925. In 1898 there were no however, between 1898 and Communist parties, either in Spain or the United States. It was comparatively easy to fan the flames of war. The jingo drive met little opposition. In 1925, there are strong and growing Communist parties in both the United States and in Japan, both ready to raise the cry of “War against the war of the capifalist masters.” “Remember the Maine” was a jingo slogan in 1898, to lure workers into the disease breeding swamps of Cuba to fight other workers. It was the slogan of an imperialist war. frorendiig numbers of workers are realizing this fact. When American imperialism springs its against Japan, or some other nation, let the exploited beng sort nf Las Magpt !” and know that it is n eir wi aor tem Their war is the war against capitalist war their oppressors. next war trap, whether or group of nations, “Remember the but the war of for the overthrow of capitalism and the creation of the Soviet Rule that leads on to Communism. of locals sustaining the expulsions , Carpenters’ Local No. 87. were smeared all over the front page. Expelled Will Fight Back. The next move is up to Machin- insts’ Union No. 459, and to Comrades Emme and Votaw. They may be re- lied upon for some vigorous action. The list of officers installed include George W. Lawson, president; HB. D. McKinnon, vice-president and Fred Siegel, secretary. The president appoints all commit- tees, and with one exception the chatr. manships were given to reactionaries, and few progressive delegates found places on committees. The one ex- ception is Miss Florence Rood, dele- gate from the Women Teachers’ Fed- eration, who was reappointed chair- man of the education committee. Her committee is, however, safely reac- tionary, \ The reactionaries were so frighten- ed over the prospects of the election that they had to get Lawson, who is secretary of the Minnesota State Fed- eration of Labor, and very popular, to run against the progressive die date, L. F, Krengel, business of r yf | a Promises Adherence to Reaction. In bis speech upon taking office, President Lawson plainly indicated that the administration will follow the A. F. of L policy “to the letter,” whieh’ means that no real progress, is’ in- cluded in his program. He stated that the treatment accorded the delegates would be dependent upon their treat- ment of the presiding officer, and in all cases in line with the well estab. lished policies of trade unionism, and “Americanism.” The administration of Frank T. Starkey, just ended, was probably the worst the assembly has ever had. No president ‘ever had so much money for organization purposes as Starkey, and none accomplished less. His supreme accomplishment was the ex- pulsion of Delegates Emme and Vo- taw, North Side Branch Notice. The North Side English Branch meets tonight at Imperial Hall, 2409 N. Halsted Street, at 8 p. m. Very important matters to come up. The Good Things The February Issue of THE WORKERS MONTHLY 1. The Left Wing in Trade Union Elections. by Wm. Z. Foster A birds-eye view of the pro- gress of the Left Wing move- ment in this country. 2. The Sixth Trade Union Congress of the U.S. S.R. by Chas. E. Johnson ‘What happened at the last trade union meet (with photo- graphs). 3. An Old Prison Speaks ’ by Robert Minor The famous cartoor.st gives new side-lights on the renewed Communist persecutions, 4. History of The Russian Com- munist Party by Gregory Zinoviev Another generous installment of a Communist classic by the president of the C»vamunist In- ternational. 5. A Conference of Progressive Re- actionaries by A. Bittelman On labor politics by a kean Political observer, 6. A Pan-American Fig Leaf by J. W. Johnstone A splendid, informative ar- ticle on the trade unions and their leaders in Latin America by an observer at the last Pan- American Labor congress in Mexico City. 7. The Fine Art of Grafting by T. J. O'Flaherty Who tells us in a keen, witty way why “graft is getting mon- otonous.” 8. Anthracite t by Joseph Manley A fine picture of the miners and their problems by a Left Wing organizer now in the field, 9. From Anarchism to Communism by Jay Fox By a leader of the Anarchist movement in this country for 30 years, 10. Employers As- sociations in The ‘United States by Louis Zoobock A store of essential informa- tion for militant workers on a little known subject, Beside other articles you will receive Cartoons Photographs Editorials International Review SINGLE COPY 25 CENTS SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $2.00 A Year $1.25 Six Mos. The Workers Monthly 1113 W. Washington Boulvard Chicago, Ill. me the WORKERS MONTHLY foF..........months, NAMB cccsssssssssssnssesnen STREET CITY ssssssrrvrssseseeeee STAT Besersseseee