The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 20, 1925, Page 4

‘Special : tide at work accomplished, HIBBING, Minn, June 17.—By ®ealp’ cutting the already reduced es of the miners in Northern yt Page Four NORTHERN MINN, MINERS WORK FOR STARVATION WAGE By GEO, ZAICKOV. (Special to The Dally Worker) innesota and shutting down mines the united front of the steel magnates is hitting the workers here pretty hard. One after another mines are _ shutting down and workers are run- ning from employment office to office in. search of jobs. The Jobless Army Grows. ‘The Albany mine was shut down entirely and all workers were laid off. At the same time Leonard and two other mines in Chisholm were closed. Oliver Iron Mining company, the larg- est in the Mesabi range and unsur- passed in its brutality laid off all those suspected of radical tendencies. The attack is directed chiefly against the militant workers because they suc- ceeded in getting one thousand strong to answer the Workers Party slogan: Down Tools on May Day and come out to hear the Communist speaker, Robert Minor. Two workers came here fro; Washington in answer to an adv tisement which offered $5 a day f hours’ work in the Oliver Iron } ing Company, Hibbing, Minn. The facts are the above company pags $4.20 for ten hours work while Wis- ton-Dear company has cut wages to $3.60 a day for ten hours of unbear- able hard labor. Our Readers’ Views The Co-operative Movement. To the DAILY WORKER:—The co- operative movement among the Fin- nish workers and farmers in the north- ern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan is becoming more and more a mass movement. Every month Shows a big increase in membership | and in the sales of the co-operative | stores. Over sixty of these stores are affiliated with the Co-operative Central Exchange, the wholesale owned by the co-operatives. About the same number of the stores more are purchasers from this co-operative wholesale. »—~ Bfthe same time when we are wit- nessing the continuous growth of the Finnish co-operative stores, there are | many fallures in the co-operative field | run by American workers, When an analysis is made, the fault is found to be, that generally those | _ stores are successful which are not only “good” stores, but which inj reality are part of the working class | Movement. The co-operative store does not fulfil its duty simply by try- ing to sell cheaper and better goods, because this will not make the store _©ne which the workers really recog- nize as their own. Some department | store or chain store may undersell the co-operative in order to kill it and! when it has seemingly “cheaper” goods, it becomes to the average| worker a “cheaper and better store.” | Tho result is that the co-operative store is weakened or killed. | A co-operative store is the store only, if it takes part in the workers’ everyday struggle by the special) means it has at its command. When| the workers feel by actual experience | that the co-operative store is their Own store, then the co-operative! movement becomes a mass movement/| and the business side of it will also! increase. | _ The co-operative movement fulfils | ‘ita duty only by being part of the} “working class movement, recruiting | masses to the class struggle.—| / | ;|the young workers’ jinstinctive, gravitation towards 6 Head-of-the- ‘ sania Political Outlook in the “Heéad-of-the-Lakes” District By HENRY ASKELI. HE space at my disposal will not allow me to enter into a detailed analysis of the political outlook in the Head-of-the-Lakes district. There- fore, I have to confine myself tq a brief sketch of what the political situ- ation is at present in this district. Some years ago Duluth-Superior and the vicinity was considered a Gibraltar of radical socialism in the central northwestern ‘states. Duluth, Cloquet, and other municipalities even elected. socialist public officials. Campaigns and general propaganda were effective; branches quite large, and generally speaking the future for a socialist movement looked rather bright. The membership was, sad to say, about three-fourths foreigners, Scandinavians, Finnish, Jewish and German. Only a small part of Ame- ricans were politically organized. Had a Paper, The Truth.” Comrades in juth published a |met by Scandinavian comrades. |torially The Truth suffered also. exercised a strong influence in the political life of the district. It could have been made permanent if its edi- torial policy and also its business end had been properly and definitely man- aged. These, however, were not giv- en a due consideration and sometimes they were sadly neglected. The re- sult of that was continual financial loss which for the most part was Edi- It never was, strictly speaking, a pa- |per for the party. It had personal and not the party characteristics. It | denounced the conditions and offered a remedy in the organization, but it did not put forth the party, its prob- lems and struggles as it should have done. Especially was this noticeable in the last period of its existence. Branches Disbanded. There were strong ‘branches in Du- luth and Superior. The Scandinavian branch in Duluth was the largest and most influential. Also there was a large Finnish branch. The Jewish branch was not largé, but it was fairly active. Combined “efforts of these branches resulted in large gatherings and meetings which were held occa- sionally. | Now the Scandinavian branches in| Duluth and Superior have ceased to| exist. During the left, wing contro- versy the Duluth branch went with | the left wing organization, only to) diminish in size and importance soon | after. Finally it became nothing more | |than a dancing and ae or: | | ganization. The Superior Scandinavi- | an branch has a parallel history. There are quite a pumber of Fin- nish branches in this district. They | have just about held their own. Their | influence in local as well as national politics has diminished to a minimum and their propaganda and agitation has suffered noticeably. Foreign-born’ Workers. This district has a large number of foreign-born workers, who work most- ly in the mining and lumber industry. They are the ones who do the most | heavy work and are poorly paid. They | live from hand to mouth and are more |alert for Communistic propaganda than Yankee workers. With proper organizational measures they could be lined up. Also this district has about one- third of the total number of foreign- born farmers in the United States. All are practically poor and helpless in the grip of the capitalist system. Most of them work in the cities or in the woods for a part of the time. A large per cent of them are so-called mortgage farmers, heavily in debt and this mortgage is hanging above their heads like the sword of Damocles. This is ripe material for Communism and with a proper agrarian program they will flock into the party. Effects of The effects of the immigration re- strictions can be seen here already. Now it is very common to see a “free- born American” working in the Immigration Restrictions. mines; in those same hells were for- eigners used to toil before the war almost exclusively. There they are now. Post-war conditions have forced also the American worker there. His education, national pride and knowl- edge of language did not rescue him from those hell holes. The American- | born worker is getting his proletarian | training now. Realities of life are ex- tinguishing his patriotism. Soon he will be proletarianized. This is a hopeful sign. American- born worker, proletarianized, will soon look at foreign-born workers’ ef- forts to organize the workers with a different kind of feeling. Yesterday they said: “Damn those foreigners. They are teaching Communism, which is un-American.” Today they do not say much. They have nothing to say. They, are just beginning to see the horrible nightmare of capitalism in full light. We can be positive that tomorrow they will say: “Comrades, let's pull together.” paper, The Trach which at one time By A. J. HAYES. ‘ORE than 50 applicants have al- ready been accepted to attend summer educa- tional courses that will be held at |Waino, near Brule, Wisconsin, begin- ning June 22nd and lasting until Au- gust first. The applicants are young workers or working class students of both sexes, their ages ranging from 16 to 23, the majority of them coming from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. For six weeks these young workers will study the outstanding facts and theories of the class struggle. In these six weeks they will have arrived at a fairly clear general understanding of these present day social cleavage. They are coming to the school equip- ped with some knowledge of the task before the working class and the pur- pose of the revolutionary movement, but this understanding with many of them is still scarcely more than an the ranks of the militant workers. This not only for their own moral and in- tellectual growth but for the enrich- ment of the entire labor movement. T would be a mistake to assume that in a brief period of six weeks these young men and women could-be transformed into adept theoreticians and leaders. And that is not being attempted. The courses are intended for a sound preparation to more ad- vanced study of capitalist society and the role of the revolutionary working class, And since no education is in itself worthy of the title unless it translates itself into action and is reflected in the everyday conduct of the individual, these young workers will learn also the methods of practic- al organization, propagenda and the value of performing with conscien- tious precision and promptness even those seemingly unimportant routine functions that are so necessary for the efficiency and even the very exist- ence of organized group activity. ly W. L. SUMMER courses| The Head-of-the-Lakes District Com- mittee of the Young Workers League, in co-operation with other labor org- anizations, began the preparations for these courses early in the year. The initiative for the venture is properly credited to the Finnish Federation membership of the Workers Party in the Head-of-the-Lakes or ninth W. P. district. Among the supporting organ- izations are numerous co-operatives, ‘ator. workers’ circles, local unions and (G0-OPERATION- IGING “just stores” into a live movement has been the work of the Cooperative Central Exchange during the seven years of its exist- ence, Formed by 20 Finnish co-operative ‘stores located in Minnesota, Michigan ‘and Wisconsin to act as a sort of buy- mg center, it has steadily developed Muto a regular wholesale, Like all ‘enterprises started by the Finns, its has not been spectatcular, ‘but a steady one, for the Finns are a but a thorough going people. { build slow but firm. | Before the inspection of this central wganization the co-operative stores vere all isolated from each other, wach one solved its own problems, ad cared nothing for the fate of its weighbors. Tho stores were misman- ged, accéunting systems were if not ‘tally lacking at least woefully inet- lefent, The boards of directors knew ‘ery little about controlling the af- airs of their society. The stores fere mostly organized to get “cheap” } work cut out for the central © organization was a manifold one, “nd one that taxed even the patience f the patient Finns. But they set to ‘ork, and today they can point with To eliminate the evil of mismanage- ment, they organized a school where they trainéd their own executives, clerks, bookkeepers, and drivers, To- day over 75 per cent of all the Finnish co-operative stores in their territory are managed by their own students. The next step was the standardizing of accounting and this problem was very effectively solved, so that now practically every store makes it a condition for electing a manager that he be acquainted with the standardiz- ing accounting of the central organ- ization. Auditing in most stores was an un- known factor, in others some of the members of the society who knew lit- tle or nothing about bookkeeping audited the books, while in the most advanced stores books were audited by some local banker who again knew nothing about co-operation, An audit. ing department employing trained auditors who also were co-operators was the next big step in the chain of progress, Result—many a shady deal unearthed and their perpetrators oust- ed from the movement, not to say anything about the other improve- ments in systems of eontrol, eto. in- stalled by the auditing department. wits this work done, there still remained one requiring still more’! class consciousness can be made dyn-| jamic—a positive force in their lives WORKERS’ SCHOOL IN WISCONSIN working women’s groups. Applicants to these courses have all been chosen and recommended by |these organizations and from all in- |dications we have been successful in | getting togther a sincere, willing and |capable student group. 'N many respects these courses stand for pioneer effort in this’ sort of educational work in our district, while at the same time they must be consi- dered as the outgrowth of accumulat- |ed experience in similar activity part- licularly by the Finnish Federation. |The Finnish Federation has for years conducted educational courses of this |kind, but as a rule for only older com- jrades and in the Finnish language. |The Y. W. L. courses this summer are a new departure in that the school will be conducted thruout in English and for the youth section of the work- jers. And the students themselves are, | for the greater part, sons and daught- jers of these foreign born comrades. Thus the Finnish section of our party is in a very material way transmit- ting of its own fund of class struggle knowledge and ripe experience into the American labor movement thru the support of this kind of educa- tional work. It has required no small amount of financial sacrifice and effort to carry thru the original plan that this school shall be free to every participant, so that to that extent an even chance is given to every boy and girl qualified to attend to pay all expenses of the students and instructors during the entire six weeks. * And the pioneer character of this venture in educating the young work- ers of our district is further carried out by the fact that this is the first attempt of the kind at the Head-of- the-Lakes under the auspices of the Young Workers League and with the purpose of initiating a more thorogo- ing organizational drive among the young workers of these states. | THE WORK PLANNED | The teaching staff for these courses includes comrade Harry Gannes of the Young Workers League from Chi- cago, com. C. E. Hathaway, organizer of the Workers Party ninth district, and A, J. Hayes of Superior, Wis. In addition competent lecturers on the co-operative movement, trade union- ism and other phases of workers’ act- ivity will give special lectures. The outline of subjects to be taken up in- cludes sociology, theories of class struggle, Marxian economics, trade union history and tactics, shop nuclei organization, American history from “A CENTRALIZED MOVEMENT members of the co-operative stores to understand that to conduct their stores merely for the sake of getting “cheaper” prices should not be their aim, but to make the co-operative movement one whose aim was the total elimination of the present profit system of society, An educational department was organized, and large strides have been made: towards this end, At each convention resolutions are adopted urging a united front with all other working class organiza- tions for the realization of this aim. From the original twenty members the central organization has now grown so that it has about 65 mem- bers affiliated with it, and sells mer- chandise to an equal number of others not yet affiliated. The volume of business has grown every year and 1925 sales will near the million dollar mark, In addition to the wholesale, a bakery is conduct- ed that is also steadily growing. Many times has this organization demonstrated its power, by. taking part In the various drives conducted by: the class conscious workers, ‘hey took active part in the Russian Fam- ine Relief, Karelian Reliet, ete. At their meetings they talk a lot, but the funny part of it Is, that when they leave thelr meetings out and de what they talked abou” the workers viewpoint, public speak- ing and other allied subjects. Special attention will be given to organiza- tional work and instruction in the es- sentials of procedure and group func- tions. In addititon to these more formal subjects students will partic- ipate in educational activities, enter- tainments, sports, etc. Classes will be conducted five and one half days per week, Saturday forenoons being allotted to the meet- ings of the student branch. Classes will begin at nine in the morning, ar- ranged so that four periods are as- signed for the forenoon and three periods for the afternoon. Lecture periods are forty minutes with ten minute intermissions, one hour being given for lunch. The last formal cl: ends three thirty in the afternoon, after which one hour Will be taken up in various group activities. OCAL comrades aré furnishing liv- ing accomodations to students and teachers, but the school furnishes board for all, a capable cook with voluntary help from local comrades taking care of the food problem. The location for the school is an ideal country se¢tion where the hall of the local W. P. Finnish branch provides suitable facilities. The courses promise to bea success in themselves in addition to providing us much needed oxperience in arrang- ing sim{icr young workers’ schools in the future. 5 RR 9 Plan to Curb Home Work Under Sweatshop Condition in Pa. HARRISBURG, Pa,, June 17.—Un- regulated home work resulting in Sweat shop conditions is to be curbed bby the regulations adopted by the in- dustrial board, department of labor and industry of Pennsylvania. The new rules become effective Sept. 1, 1925. They are designed to check violations of the child labor .and woman's work law which have oc- curred under unregulated home Work, Certain manufacturers have main- tained no factory at all, but given work to women and children to do at home without any supervision as to hours of labor, age of workers, or sanitary condition of the home. The new system provides that employers giving out home work be licensed and assume responsibility for sanitary condition of the home and com- pliance with the child labor and woman's law. Homework is defined as manufac- turing, finishing, repairing, altering or handling in a home of any article or articles, the material of which has been furnished by the employer. Em- ployers who employ agents in Penn- sylvania must license their agents and have them share responsibility for compliance with the rules. A list of all home workers employed by each employer shall be forwarded every three months to the state department of labor, giving age of each home worker and other data. In each home @ person over 21 is to be designated as the responsible head to assist in rns out the provisions of the aw. i ener ey hy “Small Biz” Kicks Suppressed. WASHINGTON—(FP)— How Hum- phrey, Hunt and VanFleet, controlling the federal trade commis: damming back and suppre: complaints of consumers and small business concerns against unfair practi by big busthess, is shown in the May summary of the commission's work. There were pending 493 appli- cations for formal complaint on May 1, and 501 on June 1, During May, 41 applications came in, 22 were dis- missed, and 11 complaints ordered. Receipt of applications has been sharply cut. ass Can't Agree on Machines, BOSTON.—Hoisting engines to pull up nets full of fish are recommended by James H. Nickerson of the Fisher- man’s Union. Nickerson told the con- ference of ® fisheries officials, captains of ings fleets and fish packers and dealers that much labor and time is ‘saved otithe Pacific coast by use of the mac! but that the| soon accumulated enuf funds so that workers and shipow: cannot agree| their own “ in the east as to should pay for] make the-Joans on their halls: ) STATUS OF THE By ARVID NELSON. ILLERS of the soil in northern Wis- consin, tributary to the Head-of- the-Lakes, are, for the most part, so- called small holders. do not take into consideration the in- terests of the mortgagees in the titles to the lands. These little farmers are engaged in clearing off and farm- ing the logged-off or cut over lands left by the lumber corporations, who exploited the forests of magnificent timber from these areas during the not employed to any great extent on these farms, the actual operator of the farm, with the aid of his family, performing the necessary labor. As the farming communities here, to a great extent, are of. a compara- tively recent origin, agriculture has not developed to as high a degree and efficiency as in some of the older ag- ricultural sections of the country. The principal efforts of many of the settlers are still devoted to clearing off their lands and paying for the properties they have purchased. NOTHER factor, which has doubt- less tended to hold back the greater development of'this section in the agricultural line, is the fact that # is not immediately adjacent to any very great industrial centér. Such a center naturally hastens the develop- ment of agriculture invits surround- | ing communities by -providing mar- kets, especially for the products of small farms. The difference in this respect can be readily noted by com- paring the partially developed farms of northern Wisconsin with those in the southern part of the state, where such centers as Milwaukee, Chicago and other cities are within an easy distance with their marketing possi- bilities. Wisconsin is chiefly a dairy state, and this holds true with the northern portion of the state also, in so far as THE WORKER By 1. KAUPPINEN . esting to readers of the DAILY WORKER to know that there exists a banking institution in the United States of which Communists are in full control, A Workers’ Bank. The Workers’ Mutual Savings Bank got its germ of life in the convention of the Central District of the social- ist party, in the early part of the year 1917. There it was deemed necessary for the socialist party to have an in- stitution which would be in a position to make loans to locals and aid them financially in their various needs, (The reader must bear in mind that there wasn’t any Communist Party a! the time, and that it was for that son that the project was begun under the auspices of the socialist party and a committee selected in the party convention.) 12, 1918, when the first deposit was made, It amounted to two dollars, By the end of January, 1918, the amount of $886.00 had accumulated in the “bank.” Thus was the beginni: le from the meager deposits which the comrades had been able to save during the years of toil in the indus- tries, 4 Iaaaet was an inducement which called upon the comradeg to make their deposits in their own banking institution, They had the knowledge that if their savings were deposited in the capitalistic banks, these same banks would be financing their own projects in various cities and towns. And also that whenever these banks made loans to the workers they would in every instance collect large com- missions for making the loan and in addition to this, a high rate of inter- est. Finances Workers’ Halls, Knowing these facts the comrades _ Be SMALL FARMERS the farming industry there has. ad- vanced. The soil, climatic and other conditions seem to be best adapted for this line of husbandry, and marketing That is, if you| facilities are most readily available for dairy farm products. HB great majority of the farmers of northern Wisconsin are small owners or proprietors. Farm tenantry the agricultural evil of many south- ern states, has not developed to any significant extent here. Conditions and the people here are not favorable past generation or two. Hired help is| to that method of farm operation, as in the south, where agriculture has been carried on longer, and economic conditions, the races and classes of people, and the nature of the crops raised have had a tendency toward the large plantaiton system of farming and the tenantry system in regard to ownership. But the settlers of northern Wiscon- sin stump-land acres, as well as of other northern states, are accursed with another evil, which is no less a burden than the tenantry system of the south and just as inherently a part of the prevailing social system in this country. And it is a burden that is ever increasing—the mort- gage burden, TATISTICS show that the mort- gage debt of American farmers is continually increasing. A majority of the small farmers in northern Wiscon- sin are mortgaged; a great partion of the farmers are so heavily weighed with mortgage debts, that they are beyond all hope of ever regaining a clear title to the fields they have cleared and the little homes they have built. Incomes from the little farms, under the present system of distribution, where middlemen and other profiteers exact the greater portion of the products of the framer’s toil, are so inadequate that he can not meet his obligations in addition to earning a meager living for himself and family. Mortgage foreclosures are, therefore, increasing in number; and voluntary or involuntary auction sales of the cattle, chattels and other goods of farmers hopelessly in debt are becom- ing almost an everyday occurrence in some communities. ND not only are the farmers unable to meet the payments on their mortgage loans, but the return on their investments and labor is not sufficient to allow the payment of taxes when due. Lists of delinquent taxpayers and sums of taxes remain- ing uncollected last year in some of the northern Wisconsin counties, as published by the county authorities, were greater than ever befoys in the history of the statvy. Some of the counties are virtually bankrupt and county development work, that is car- ried on with public funds, is at a standstill. The officials in some coun- tfes find it difficult to collect suffici- ent tax funds to be able to draw their salaries. One may ask, and with rea- son, what will soon become of the governing functionaries of these counties if the officials find it impos- sible to draw their pay? All this, of course, is_a result of the system under which we are all living. The condition will not be remedied even if the farmers are able to pay off their mortgages and meet their tax payments. Something more jfunda- mental, in the form of a change m the system, is necessary, oa among the farmers is in its first stages. Many farmers, under the préssure of their present predicament, are commencing to realize the value and significance of co-operative marketing associa- tions, and co-operative societies for supplying the farmer’s needs are making their appearance in many communities. In this manner the jfarmers are learning the great pos-. sibilities of organization; they are learning their first great lesson of or- ganized effort and ridding themselves of their individualism, nurtured for generations by the schools, churches and other organs of the existing sys- tem. And while we should not under- estimate nor belittle the value of the cO-operative movement, especially as a form of organization for the work- ing farmers, we should bear in mind, that it is only a means to an end, a stepping stone, so to say, to a more far-reaching purpose. The farmers must, in addition, organize their po- litical power, and they must learn to use both their economical and politi- cal power in conjunction with the organized workers of the industrial centers. This will in the end free them from the clutches of a soctal system, that, with all its inherent evils, must soon be relegated to the scrap-heap of the past. Piece Work in Boston, BOSTON.—The section piece work system of production is being put into force in pants shops dealing with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union in Boston. The system is ex- pected to reduce costs of production. The clothing cutters of the Amal- gamated are moving the union office to larger quarters at 885 Washington street. sides they now were able to finance their halls and enterprises without HE writer believes that it is inter-|#2Y Commissions and at a lower rate of interest. Up to the present time the Workers’ Mutual Savings Bank has saved thousands of dollars in the form of commissions and lower interest rates to labor organizations, Some comrade might say that bank- ing doesn’t match together with our party work. Altho it is different in its nature, however, the financing of the halls has been rather an expensive proposition for many of our locals and in many instances a difficult one. These problems were greatly simpli- fied by the aid our bank offered, Run by Communists, Altho the Communist Party hasn't any official direction over the affairs of the bank, the comrades who have the control of the bank in their hands make it their duty to assist the mili- tant labor movement. It has always Business actually was begun Jan.|been a rule of the comrades who are directing the bank’s affairs, to aid the party branches, co-operatives and fellow-comrades financially in their needs. The bank has kept apart from every nature of bonds which float on the markets and which are in many in- stances worthless not to say anything of the purpose for which they have been floated. In general, the bank has strived to be of service to the working man and their institutions and not merely a bussiness proposition, Now that the business of this so meagerly begun institution has ex- panded so that its resources are about $200,000.00, it is in a still better posi- tion to be of service to the workers, “Labor Banks,” f We of our comrades might think that our institution is too small to be of any benefit to the cause for which the Communists are struggling. And that there are in existence at the present day about 30 “Labor Banks” in the United States. It is true that " was in a position to| these “labor banks” have total re- ‘sources amounting to $160,000,000.00, S’ MUTUAL SAVINGS BANK doubt enormous. However, what can the militant Ta- bor movement expect from these in- stitutions? Who can point a single event where these “Labor Banks” with the enormous resources they pos- sess, have assisted the militant labor movement in any way? (With the ex- ception of the Amalgamated Trust & Savings Bank, of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, which has assisted the Russian workers thru organizing the Russian-American Industrial cor- poration, for aiding the reconstruction of that country.) ow However, even this “Labor Bank” later neglected to assist the project any further, but instead has denied any co-operation to the Russian work- ers which they so elaborately began. On the contrary We have ample evi- dence where the “Labor Banks” have ttilized their strnegth against the working class. It would be ridiculous to think that Warren 8. Stone, presi- dent of the Brotherhood of Locomo- tive Engineers’ bank would be fighting pfor the cause of the militant labor movement while participating in the meetings of the board of directors of the Empire Trust company of New ork of which he was a member before his death. The Empire Trust company is one of the units of the money trust of America, If any of our comrafles thinks so, it is high time to revise opinions on the subject. Aids Militant Labor, In making a comparison of these banks and the Workers’ Mutual Sav- ings Bank, one can readily determine which is doing its bit for promoting the cause of the working class, The Workers’ Mutual Savings Bank didn’t have the funds of any union and for that reason has not acquired such enormous strength. However, it {8 more pleasing to know that what strength it has accumulated, it was. utilized towards aiding the militant . labor movement instead of against it, Don’t you be a campaign shirken—_ }get subscriptions for the OAILY —