The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 11, 1925, Page 2

ae eran, ne i ee TORIES READY — TO SPRING DROP ON PEACE’ PACT France Is Raisay an Aw- ful Howl GENEVA, M touncil of the le h 9.—When the e of nations meets here next Thu Austen Chamber: lain is expected to make things so un. comfortable for the ‘tpeace protocol” that it will fade away and die Originally concocted by Ramsay MacDonald and Herriot its death war fant v drawn tho not signed when the British. dominions looked on it With a cold and unfriendly eye, as a result of the military adventures it Promised to drag its signatories into. Chamberlain is reported to have faid that agreement could be reached provided France accepts the Anglo- German pact, proposed recently by the German government. Britain wants Poland, Rumania and Checko- 2 to sign the agreement. This 4s just what the British dominions fio not want. Perhaps Chamberlain feels quite safe in dangling this bait before the French snout, knowing that Paris will not bite. PULLMAN BRANCHES HOLD SUCCESSFUL WOMEN’S DAY MEETING The Pullman city central commit- tee of the Workers (Communist) Party held. a very successful enter- tainment Sunday night to comem- forate International Women’s Day. Stancik’s Hall, east 115th Street, ‘was crowded with over two hundred Communists and their friends who listened to the music, drama and Speeches with evident appreciation. The Junior group of Pullman took @ prominent part in the entartain- ment, Karl Reeve, reporter for the DAILY WORKER spoke on the ef- fect of the Coolidge election and the Dawes plan on the working class of America. He told of the ultimate aim of the Workers Party and the Communist International, and gave the immediate united front demands of the Workers Party on behalf of the American workers. Reeve told of the work of the Communists to telebrate International Women’s Day. Comrade Yuris acted as chairman. 8-Hour Day for Women Up Before Committee at Springfield Today SPRINGFIELD, Ill. March 9.—Miss dane Addams is expected to auswer tomorrow as the principal speaker to @efend the womea’s &-hour day bil) before the Illinois general assembly. This measure was introduced in the upper branch by Senator W. S. Jewell Lewistown, and in the house by Mrs. Lottie Holman O'Neill of Downers Grove. Senator William Sneed of Her- fin is chairman of the senate commit- tee and Representative Charles W. La Parte of Peoria of the house com- (mittee hearing the measures. The speaking program for the mes- frre includes Agnes Nestor of the Chi- ago Women’s Trade Union League and Mrs. O’Neill. The Illinois Manu- facturer’s association together with pther employers will speak against the bill. Soolidge Extends Power of Plutes in South America WASHINGTON, March 9.—In his fapacity as arbitrator of the long ftanding boundary dispute between Phile and Peru, President Coolidge fook occasion to extend the influence f American imperialism in the South @merican countries. Coolidge decided the norihora boundary question out- fight in favor ct Peru. However, Coolidge decided that a plebiscite should be held in Tacna and Arica to determine whica of the two nations shall acquire control of these provinces. In this plebiscite, America will take a prominent part, and wil) award the disputed provinces to the country giving the most favorable terms to American capitalists Navy Officers To Dissipate MELBOURNE, Australia, March 9, »-An extensive program of feasting, @ancing and parties has been ar- ranged for the officers of the Amer- NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF T.U.E.L. _ ISSUES STATEMENT ON STRUGGLE OF NOVA SCOTIA COAL MINERS Twelve thousand Nova Scotia miners, hungry, desperate, but determined that their living standard shall be raised instead of lowered, are on strike | against the powerful British Empire Steel corporation (BESCO), The Nova Scotia miners are among the worst exploited slaves in the mining industry of America. poration, betrayed time and time again of the O. B. U., it is a real achieve- ment for the officials of District 26, who, following the united front pro- m of the Communist Party of Can- | ada and the Trade Union Educational League, have been able to overcome these difficulties and to weld the 12,- 000 miners of that district together on a common program and to fight the common enemy. The class struggle is the basis up- on which the Nova Scotia miners and their officials enter the strike. The representatives of the Lewis ma- chine, following their ruinous and disruptive class collaboration policy, left District 26 sometime ago when in- formed by the Besco, British Empire Steel corporation, that a wage cut was going to be demanded. It was thought then that Lewis had so thoroly demoralized’ the district that the miners would be in no posi- tion to fight against the wage cut. But the militant miners of Nova Scotia, with true revolutionary spirit, have rallied their forces, shattered tempo- rarily by the traitorous conduct of John L. Lewis, and are determined that not a ton of coal shall be mined or a pail of water pumped until every demand made by them has been won. The excuse advanced by the coal operators for cutting the wages of the Nova Scotia miners is the old hoary one that they can’t: compete with the coal mined in the United States. Can- ada can’t compete with the United States, Germany can’t compete with France, England can’t compete with France, Germany,’ Italy, or Belgtum, and then within the nationdl bound- aries, Illinois can’t compete with the non-union fields in Kentucky and W. Virginia—so therefore, the solution is, according to coal operators, a wage reduction all around. And when this vicious circle has been completed they begin all over again. The wage cut proposed by the Brit- ish Empire Steel corporation is a part of the “open shop” drive now being started in the coal mining industry of North America. The employers believe that if they can crush the Nova Scotia miners and add this district to the growing number of the non-union coal fields, that they will then be in a bet- ter position to launch a general cam- paign against the union fields. Already we see conferences being held by the powerful coal operators of Illinois, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kansas for the purpose of repu- diating the Jacksonville agreement and enforcing a general wage cut in the mining industry. The progressive miners know that the signing of the Jacksonville agreement was engineer- ed by the coal operators thru their union representatives, John L. Lewis, et al, for the purpose of expelling from the industry “200,000 surplus miners.” It was the rankest betray- al ever recorded in American labor history. Wage cuts, yellow dog contracts, closing down of mines, open viola tions of working agreements, have. been the lot of the miners under the THE DAILY W Revolutionary and militant in all their struggles against this giant cor- by the treachery of the John L, Lewis administration, harrassed continuously by governmental interference in be- half of the coal operators, and having to contend with the dualistic theory Jacksonville agreement. Wherever the miners have tried to compel the coal operators to live up to the agree- ment, their efforts have always been blocked by the reactionary Lewis dis- trict machinery. Expulsion from the union, revocation of charters such as happened in District 1, have been the methods used by Lewis to aid the coal operators to enforce their will upon the miners. The only hope of the miners is the spirit shown and expressed in District 26, Nova Scotia. This strike must be broadened out to cover the entire min- ing industry of the Unred States and Canada. A united front of the miners and the railroad workers against the united front ‘of industrial and finance capi- tal. Nationalization of the mines, with management by the miners’ union. Against wage cuts—For wage in- creases. A national agreement to cover the entire coal industry. Unemployment insurance to be paid out of the profits of the industry and administered by a committee of miners, The six-hour day and five-day week. These slogans should be the basis of a nation-wide strike and upon which there should be no compromise. The boldness which the coal operators show in their wage-slashing “open shop” campaign must be met by de- termined effort on the part of the pro- gressive rank and ‘file. To expect the Lewis administration to start the fight against the coal operators without tre. mendous pressure from the member- ship is expecting the impossible. Ev- ery local union must demand from the executive boards of their sub-district, district, and the international that pre- parations be made for a nation-wide strike against wage cuts, and that the strike be conducted upon the basis of the class struggle. Set Income Tax Publicity Case. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 9.— The test case to determine the legali- ty or illegality of publishing income tax returns was set for argument on April 13, by the supreme court to- day. The case to be argued is against the Baltimore Post. Sears Tower Kitts Worker. KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 9.—One man was killed and two others badly hurt and may die, when a steel con- struction tower fell on them today at the $5,000,000 Sears, Roebuck plant under construction here. The tower fell 80 feet. 100 Marooned on Barge, LOS ANGELES, March 9.— Caught in high seas, 100 men and women, all deathly seasick, were marooned today two miles off Redondo Beach on a fishing barge, where they had been held prisoner by rough waters since Sunday afternoon. KIRKWOOD’S SUSPENSION MAY BE LIFTED IN BRITISH COMMONS IF CENSURE MOTION IS WITHDRAWN (Special to The Daily Worker) LONDON, March 9.—If the motion of censure offered against the speaker of commons for his action in suspending David Kirkwood, laborite member from Dumbarton, Premier Baldwin will recommend the dropping of Kirk- wood’s suspension, the premier said today. West Virginia Coal Miners Are Betrayed By Lewis “We have won the fight. The cause of labor is holy.” And, ete., (Continued from page 1) as they are in West Virginia today? What could they say? The situa- tion is enough to make them turn over in their graves! Are we going to stand to one side and let John L. Lewis and the coal operators take away from us what we have fought for? Union Can Be Destroyed Only From Inside. It is almost impossible for the coal operators to destroy or cripple the U. M. W. of A. without the aid of John L. Lewis and company. Lewis has done more harm to the ican fleet on their arrival here next | organization since he became presi- summer. The fleet is to manuever in Pacific waters to impress the English, Japan. ese and South American countries ‘with the power of the United States fm the Pacific. No entertainments have been aranged for the common sailors. Would Repeal Direct Primaries SPRINGFIELD, IL, March 9-—-A bill now before the house would abo- lish the direct primary law and revert to the system of selecting state can- @idates at stue convention of politic: al parites, Get a sub—make another Com- ! dent than the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency ever did do or could do. Lewis Busy Destroying U. M. W. of A, The whole history of Lewis’ activi- ties in the U. M. W. of A. is one of betrayals to the miners; he has work- ed in the interest of the operators ever since he became president. Lewis was never elected to any of- fice In the U. M. W. of A. Every po- sition he has held, including his pres- ent position, he got by being appoint- ed, not elected by the miners. Be- cause, where he was known, he could not be elected for president of a lo- cal, Never Elected—Always Appointed. For years in his home state, Illi- to elect him to office, but each time he was defeated. Three times he asked thé membership of District 12 to elect him secretary, and each time Ai caicsar manna BY UN ht CaSO COUN Ui eantantpesder eine hints > ORKER GERMAN GENERAL RAIL STRIKE IS SPREADING FAST Rank and File Against Dawes Plan Slavery (Special to The DAILY WORKER.) BERLIN, March 9.—The stubborn attitude of the Dawes’ plan railway administration, which has granted big increases in salary to themselves— the higher administration officials of the railways, while grinding the wages of the real workers down to starva- tion and discharging tnem by the tens of thousands, making the other speed up—all this is causing the strike of the freight handlers to grow rapidly into a general strike. Why Not Reparations to Working Class? The workers are inodest in their de- mands, asking only’a 10 per cent in- crease, but the Dawes’ plan manage- ment refuses even to drscuss the mat- ter, In spite of this, the treacherous yel- low socialists trade union leaders are urging the strikers to go back to work, then “talk about it afterward.” They sharply conflict with the Com- munists in the unions who are urging that a general strike be declared at once by all railroad workers in Ger- many. Even Soclalists Admit General Strike Near. This seems probable, as even the socialist daily Vorwarts admits that a general rail strike is coming soon, Practically every Ber:m freight yard is tied up and train service is ‘crip- pled. Berlin union meetings. show strong rank and file demand to ig- nore the reactionary union officials and support a general strike, even against the orders of the officials. About 11,000 men joined the strike in Saxony during the day. The strik- ers held secret meetings and held de- monstrations in Dresden and other Saxon towns. Suppress Communist Daily The Communist daily paper, the Rote Fahne (Red Flag) has been sus- pended for two weeks as the German capitalists fear that its call for 2 general strike would further the cause of the railway workers. The govern- ment announces that the Rote Fahne is suppressed because it attacked the dead socialist president, Fritz Ebert. But the fact that the monarchist papers are not touched, although they attack Ebert in very insulting terms, shows that it is not a dead president, but a live general strike situation, that moves the* German capitalist government to siifbress the! Commun- ist daily. ° Coolidge Lies to Bankrupt Farmers, Listens to Profiteers WASHINGTON, March 9.—No spe- cial session of congress for legislation in the interest of the farmers will be summoned by President Coolidge, be- cause he is convinced that the enemies of the “best interests” of the farming industry now control the majority opinion in congress. That is the latest suggestion from the White House. Once more the farmers are told that the president’s special commission which reported, a few weeks before 2S ESE AI ch LA EW Se Me MRE Sr ne ce ea aN to eR ee t= cA eee nth coe A »|the old congress died, that American agriculture should cultivate the home market and help the manufacturers to build up a higher tariff wall, was their wisest counselor. Indeed, the president will listen to no other plan. Until congress is ready to surrender its own views and accept the views outlined by this special commission, he will do nothing. All other advice, he holds, comes from selfish sources, and is aimed to help the promoters of farm organizations and the middle- men, jon miner, a man who cannot be bought off by the coal operators.” The operators tried to bay him, but he wasn't for sale so they had their tool, kind of times without kicking, we ‘can stand most anything. imported hundreds of gunmen and By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ‘ODAY, it isn’t difficult to follow the omnipresent class struggle thru the unfathomable muck that engulfs the principals in the defamation suit brought by Helen Elwood Stokes against her multi-millionaire, aged husband, W. E. D. Stokes. : The kept press presents only the salacious side of it. It slavers the redlight filth over its pages. It narrates to the minutest detail Stokes’ sordid attack on the young mother of his two children, Just like the prostitute press of his own class, Stokes glories in the social mire in which he wallows. The stench stirred up is perfume alike to his aristocratic nostrils, and to the nose for news of the brass check editors who are his friends. ; * oe @ The capitalist press is loyal to Stokes. So is the capital- ist court, threatening at one stage of the proceedings to dis- miss the case, throwing Stokes into a fit of joy. Stokes, the man of millions, drooling hic putrid spittle, and no matter how diseased his mind, must needs be wor- shipped, to ihe publication of his blackest thought, for is he not faigee by the almighty mark of the sacred dollar! And the victim, the wife, came out of the working class, in which Stokes claims he did not find the “fine people” with whom he likes to associate. But that wasn’t sufficient crime to merit complete ostracism when he tired of her. So the aristocratic blue blood must needs drag her name thru the underworld mire of Chicago's “segregated district,” especially thru the exclusive Everleigh Club, vice haunt of the great rich, being careful, however, to cover up any retelling of the murder here of young Marshall Field, Jr., first heir of Chi- cago’s richest merchant prinde, and the untimely deaths of the two sons of George Pullman, the czarist, labor-baitin, head of the Pullman Sleeping Car trust, who spent an ended their parasitic lives in the same surroundings. * * * * Helen Elwood Stokes gets more space in the yellow press than did “Cautious Cal” during his inauguration. The problem of this once daughter of the working class is fea- tured more prominently than the great political issues now shaking Europe and the world. For the Stokes’ story is the sequel in real life of the so- called romance that makes “best sellers,” crowds theaters, turns ‘‘movies” into winners, and has the most columns allotted to it in capitalist newspapers and magazines. * * * @ Capitalism holds out its lures; some to all its down- trodden ‘subjects. To the growing boy the opportunity to become president, a fable that never dies. His life is poisoned with it. Or he is flooded with the whole literature of ‘“‘suc- cess”; how to succeed in business.’ He is not allowed to behold in Coolidge, for instance, a sample of utter sub- servience to big business; or in Rockefeller, the murderer of workers in giant strikes, whether in the coal fields of Colorado, or the oil refineries of Bayonne, New Jersey. So the bosses’ propaganda, thru books, newspapers, magazines, movies, the drama, holds out to growing girls the alluring possibilities offered them thru marriage. This vision is supposed to brighten life on the factory treadmill, lighten the crushing toil of a great pe poco rate store or of- fice; to soothe the excruciating pain of excessive labor. The story of the fall of a Helen Elwood Stokes doesn’t blur these possibilities to rise thru marriage; to escape from the dread monotony of a toil-burdened life. It only convinces the un- sophisticated that they can do better. If they fail, they blame only themselves, The absence of a mighty class consciousness among the workers in this country is testimony to the peng) suc- cess of this vile propaganda of the employing class. Yet the workers, men, women and children, will gradually learn, in spite of it, that their place is in the os class; that they = only win freedom thru the emancipation of their own class. “A president,” Coolidge or anyone else, is one in 110,- 000,000. Those who respond to Rockefeller’s lash may reach a million; condemned to perpetual toil as long as the system lasts. Helen Elwood Stokes is typical of those very, very few social moths, who are even able to invite the destruction of the flames. The lives of these three must be convincing testimony that there is no escape under capital- ism; not even for the individual. . Te * * ° Let all workers stay with their own class, suffer with it, fight with it, and triumph with it,—for a better civiliza- tion. He says: “Co-operate with the ete. He says that the, operators have sheriff, Workers Can Only Win Emancipation Under the Banners of Class Fight he was defeated by a large majority. | John L. Lewis to expel him. As I said before, Lewis was never electedy to any office. In 1917, John P. White, then president, appointed Lewis as statistician. Later he was appointed manager of the United Mine Workers’ Journal. In 1918, John P. White was induced to resign and take the job as advisor to the fuel administration of the gov- ernment. Frank Hayes then became president and he appointed Lewis vice-president. Examples of Trickery and Fraud. In a very short time, Lewis was in complete control of the international executive board. Hayes was soon dis- credited, and, thru an agreement with Lewis, Hayes received @ year’s sal- ary in advance and resigned, handing the presidency over to Lewis, So we see how Lewis reached the highest office in the U. M, W. of A. without ever being elected. An organization is in a pretty bad state of affairs when an appointed of- ficial has the power and authority to remove from office, and expel with- out trial, an official who was elected by rank and file members, as in the case of Alexander Howat of District 14, j Reinstate Alexander Howat. The very lealt we can do is to force Lewis to reinstate him to his former position ‘as president of Dis- trict 14. Howat! was in jail sacrific- ing his liberty in the interest of the Kansas miners at the time Lewis ex pelled him. Lewis then sent Van A. Bittner to take charge of District 14, at once the district dropped from 11,000 to 7,000 members in a very short time. Bittner is at present tn Fairmont, W. Va, serving his bosses. He was not elected to his pres position either. He was appointed. i Bittner has sent to the officers and members of local unions of northern W. Va. an official circular, which ap- pears to have been written by an at- torney for the coal operators. Van Bittner’s Craven Advice. It hae all the ear marks of a docu- ment that was written by a lawyer or @ professional politician. It states the miserable condition that the min- ers are in, and says that the opera- tors are trying to enslave “our peo- ple” and, “our membership is passing thro most trying times.” nois, he tried to induce the miners! Alexander Howat is a fighting un-, He is right, we can stand this erected forts’and have manned them with machine guns and high powered flashlights to keep the miners in subjection, arid also state that over four hundred miners ana fheir fami- lies have been evicted from their homes by these gunmen, Then he says, “There is only one thing to do in this crisis, and that is, keep our heads and depend upon the righteousness of our cause.” A very good tactic, indeed! How About the Country’s Duty to Miners? This flunkey of the coal opera- tors also has in his “official circular” such bunk as this: “Remember your duty to your courtry, and, bear your cross with patience, and be a good citizen,” ete. r He also advises, or rather instructs, the members to expel a member if he takes the floor in a local union meeting and advocates any progres- sive measures, claiming that anyone advocating ways and means of fight- ing the operators and their gunmen are “tools” of the coal operators. Faker Wants Miners to Help the : Sheriff. Well, Moundsville penitentiary has got several of these “tools” for guests, } “ay After writing all this stuff he has the nerve to sign his name to it as chief international representative of the U. M. W. of A. * Down With Class Collaboration! The only thing for us to do is to fight for the progressive miners’ pro- gram and put out of office these lack- eys of the coal operators and. elect real representatives of the rank and file miners that will organize the un- organized and construct the U. M. W. of A. to fit the needs of the coal miners. Down with class collaboration! Down, with the Lewis machine! Sn a z . i Dever Opposes Reduced Fare. Mayor Dever has admitted that pri- vate persons have already subscribed $3,000 toward his propaganda cam- paign to put the traction ordinance over on the voters. A downtown head- quarters will be opened. The C! cago Tribune has opened its guns ‘in the drive to give the bankers now controlling the traction lines a long term franchise on the car lines under the guise of the ‘‘Dever muntctpat or- dinance.” ° Dever, speaking at a methodist church, declared a “five cent fare is impossible, It is based on unsound ni Someta 4 ——————_ ae COPPER TRUST — STOLE BILLION ~ FROM TREASURY Government Accepted Crooked Tax List (Special to The Daily Worker) WASHINGTON, D. C., March 9,~— Testimony that the government has lost more than $850,000,000 in errone- ous tax deduct§ons to big copper in- terests has been presented by treas- ury experts before .the senate com- mittee investigating the bureau of in- ternal revenue, it was declared to- day. Heaviest losses’ to the government were from the Anaconda Copper com: pany and the, Inspiration Copper company, L. C, Manson, special com- mittee prosecutor testified. This resulted from the treasury ac cepting the copper company's valua- tion clajms. Copper Trust Dictates, In its tax returns ‘for 1917 and 1918, the Anaconda company claimed a valuation of $184,152,965, altho John A. Grimes, chief of the metal valua- tion section of the internal revenue bureau, said the amount should have been only $54,865,822. The company received a big saving in taxes when the treasury permitted a valuation of $188,713,192, Government Kind to Bosses, The Inspiration company claimed 4 valuation of $62,214,800. Grimes re ported it should have been only $17,- 292,074, but the treasury allowed $92,- 134,730 as a tax basis, said Manson. “In other words, they ignored Grimes’ valuation?” asked Senator Couzens. Manson replied in the af firmative. Valuing property at a greater fig. ure than it is actually worth, results in a tax saving in figuring depletion allowances. Manson also charged’ the treasury was losing vast sums annually thru unscientific methods in checking re- turns and allowing deductions for de- pletion, amortization and similar de- ductible items. Standard Oil Also Cheats. Similar losses to the government have resulted from larger of! com- panies, according to A. F. Fay, con- sulting engineer for the committee, who said oil concerns had “set up a valuation for depletion purposes which is absurd in the extreme.” Mellon Stole Millions. Evidence designed to show that the government lost millions of dollars in taxes from the United States Steel corporation and the Aluminum com- pany of America thru excessive amor- ‘ization allowances, has been laid be- fore the special senate committee in- vestigating the bureau of internal revenue, the committee’s records dis- clased today. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon is a heavy stockholder in the Aluminum company. L. C. Manson, counsel for the com- mittee declared that the Steel cor- poration was allowed an amortization over allowance of $27,926,014, and the Aluminum company, “at least $6,500,- 000.” Taxes collected from a corporation by the government decrease as amor- tization allowance increase. “The amount of amortization claim- ed by the United States Steel cor- Poration, was $83,482,061,” declared Manson. “The amortization allowed by the bureau of international reve- nue was $55,063,312. The:amount con- sidered proper by your counsel and engineers (the committee’s) is $27,- 186,987, The over allowance was $27,- 926,014. The tax difference was $21,- 438,313,” Indiana Democrats Double Crossed INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., March 9,— Without comment or debate the In- diana senate today passed the Pen- rod “Gerrymander” bill by a vote of 27 to 0, None of the democrats voted. This bill, transferring Lawr county from the third to the second congressional district, was respons- ible for the recent “strike” of the democratic minority, the senators fleeing to Ohio to avoid arrest for breaking a senate quorum., Mussolini Still Premier ROME, March 9.—Premier Musso- lini, recovering from an attack of in- fluenza, was kept from parliament by bad weather when the chamber of deputies reconvened today. It was)” thought inadvisable that he leave hig room. Los Angeles,” Notice! FIRST ANNUAL DANCE given by the FREIHEIT SOCIAL CLUB SATURDAY, MAR. 14 at the new Co-operative Centre, 2706 Brooklyn Ave, TICKETS 50 CENTS. + The Talk of the Town. Come and fee Yourvelf 9 ,