The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 23, 1925, Page 5

CORRES PONDENCE U. P?SPEEDIN UP CUTS WAGES OF R. R. CLERKS Company Union Aids Bosses’ Trick (By Worker Correspondenty COUNCIL BLUFFS, fa., Sept. 21— The August report of the yardmaster at the Union Pacific terminal at Coun- cll Bluffs showed that 200,000 tons more was hauled in August, 1925, THE DAIL¥5WORKER | MUCH HELPFUL CRITICISM SOME:HIGH PRAISE CONT. BY READERS OF DAILY WORKER Much mt criticism and a ‘iid of € lope and support is evidenced than In the same month a year ago. This additional tonnage is golng thru the terminal with about 20 clerks and two engine crews less than last year. Last year, engine crews hauled from 70 to 80 care. This has been Increased to from 100 to 105 cars dur Ing 1926. This company is hiring many ap- prentices in the shops, calling them helpers. These boys are doing the work formerly done by the skilled LONG HOURS, SEVEN-DAY WEEx, AND “ ROBBERY OF EMPLOYMENT SHARKS BESET GREEK RESTAURANT WORKERS By JOHN OHN PERRIDES, (Worker Correspondent.) We cooks, bearable conditions. waiters and dishwashers in Greek restaurants. live in un- We work twelve hours a day, without any rest, as we work seyen days a week. Not only that, but we are unorganized and that is the reason the bosses exploit us mercilessly. It seems the workers are asleep and don’t try to build a strong union, as other fellow workers did in New York, San Francisco and lately in Detroit. But the worst of all, I believe, are the three employment agencies of Arminakis, Colias and Papoutsidakis, on South Halsted street. and exploit the workers, charging high fees, as high as 5, 8 and 10 dol- lars for each job they give, and then the slaves aren’t able to keep the jobs more than three days. The workers thus pothbtniie to float back and forth between the employ- ment agencies and these poor jobs, two or three times a week. They pay the bloody dollars to these sharks. T hope to see somebody come across and organize these slaves on a solid rock foundation this time and free us of all these miseries.’ Most of these agents often refuse to refund the mon- ey, and one of them received a punch in the eye and on the jaw last win- ter for his thievery. T would like to know what is going to happen to us this coming winter if somebody isn’t going to hurry and do something for the Greek workers’ in the Greek restaurants. The time is ripe to organize a mighty strong union and fight the exploiters and par- asites of the Chicago Greek restau- rant keepers. MY FLIGHT FROM SIBERIA LEON ThoTsky $1.00 A story of escape They rob WESTERN PENN. DEFENSE BODY LAUNCHES 1; LD. To Concentrate on Pitts- burgh Cases, ; (Special to The Dally Wérker) PITTSBURGH, Sept. 21—Twenty- three delegates were present’ at the Western Pennsylvania Labor Defense and Free Speech Council conference held last Sufday, Sept. 13th, of which ‘10 represented trade unions and other organizations and the balance. labor defense branches. After a report of the conference , of International Labor Defense-held in Chicago June 28 and of the,,Zeigler, Illinofs miners cases the council:voted unanimously to affiliate to the Interna- tional Labor Defense as an organic and component part. 3 Pittsburgh Cases The conference then took action to initiate an immediate campaign to get trade unions to affiliate and to rally the workers jn a united front for the defense of all labor prisoners. Along with this plans were laid to as quick- ly as possible make the necessary pre- parations to gather funds for the de- fense of the Pittsburgh cases which have been listed for hearing in Octo- ber. Resolutions were adopted in defense of Zeigler miners, against the perse- eution of Crouch and Trumbull, against the Polish white terror and against the trial of the 500 Bessara- mechanics. There is a company un- jon in the U. P. shops and ratings are made according to the efficiency ideas of the foremen and superintend- ents. Clerks to Give Up $245.14 a Year The railroad clerks have been work- ing on an hourly and daily rate basis. The U. P. proposes to change this to a monthly rate after Jan. 1. The clerks work only six days a week now, but after the new rule gées into effect it will be seven days when wanted, and perhaps two days a week when you are not needed. Of course, you are not paid for the time you are laid off. The plan is this: The company union clerk is told that the company intends to multiply his daily rate by 305 and divide by 12 to* get the monthly rating. This looks fair until you find out that it means seven days la week and working seven holidays free of charge to the, company. The clerks work 305 days now but under the new plan they will work 365 for the same pay yearly, when paid on a monthly rating basis. This will save the company $245.14 a year on the average clerk’s wages. Reactionary Union Officials to Blame. An intense struggle has been car- ried on by the Railway Clerks’ Union against the “company” union on the U. P. At one time the clerk’s union, including freight handlers and ex- pressmen, numbered upwards of 2,400 in Omaha. Today, owing to “the funeral procession” of the railroad labor board, and the class collabora- tion, banking and bunco schemes of Fitzgerald and his retainers; thé work- ers have lost all faith in the Brother- hood. The union ig now a mere shadow of its former self. Official of Russian Theater Season Is Success The official opening of the Russian theater season Saturday night at the Workers’ House was a big success, The hot weather ‘did not stop the crowd from packing the hall at 1902 W. Division St. ‘The actors were all in high spirits and played well. Many of them surprised the audience by their art. As a result the Workers’ House made some money which comes in so handy after the dull sum- mer season, A string orchestra of balalaikas, guitars, etc., is being organized at the Workers’ House. All who want to join in the letter feature of InterMational Press Day. One of the best letters was sent in by Israel Josephson, of Brooklyn, who says, “I read the DAILY WORKER because it has the only real labor news, believes in workers’ control of industry, a labor party, and fights the battles the basis of the class struggle. ought to rin @ few articles on science, evolution and more’ working class of the workers 0) poetry.” Differences of opinion with regard to the DAILY WORKER are striking in some cases. “Truthful account of facts without unnecessary fanciful trimming by reporters,” says Morris Kahn, of New ‘York City, “is what is needed.” Likes Our Accuracy. A. B. David, of Toronto, on the other hand, says, “I read the DAILY WORKER because of the accuracy and the revealing character of its news. I will be only too glad to re- new my subseription when it expires.” Dr, David also says that not enuf labor news of Toronto is printed in the DAILY WORKER. Special Feature Sections. Comrade Sonya Walday, of the West Side Bnglish branch of New York, believes. that the paper should be more departmentalized. “I would like to see the paper less scattered in news items and better classified,” says Comrade Sonya. “One-half of the third page should be a daily feat- ure page, on Monday a women’s page; Tuesday, @ youth page; Wednes, edu- cational articles; Thursday, a lite- rary page and Friday, letters from readers. We should also have a ‘News In Brief’ index on the first page,” Comrade Walday thinks. / Comrade Morris Kahn sends a sec- ond letter declaring that the DAILY WORKER ignores the important prob- lem of co-operatives. Working Class Sports, “K comrade from Los Angeles writes | that we should pay much more atten- tion to working cl sports, in order to gain thé attent: of the masses. More S. A, News. H. M. L’Almeida, of New York City, believes we should pay more at- tention to»Central and South Ameri- can probleme and to Mexico. L’Al- meida donates one dollar to the DAILY WORKER fund. “I read| the DAILY WORKER to know the class struggle, and also co-operate with the class conscious workers toward the overthrow of capitalism,” says “A Militant Com- munist” from Los Angeles. J. D. Reedy of Bickmore, W. Va., says “Bei a Communist, I read the DAILY WORKER fof correct inform- ation.” A reader from Madrid, lowa, Albert Gerling, Writes, “I tead the DAILY WORKER’ ‘because I am intensely interested in human ‘progress, and the development that is going on in all parts: of «the: world toward a high- er civilization’ \that signifies the ob- literation of capitalism. I have no criticism to offer and no shortcomings in mind.” Letters from Misleaders of Workers. To The DAILY WORKER:—Some- time ago the Union Colliery Coal com- pany put in a ruling that the men were to remain in their working places until quitting time. But as some of the territories were ahead of turn, the company would take the mo- tor away at dinner time to be placed in some other territories. This would leave the miners hanging around in- side the damp mine inhaling foul air for no reason at all. The men decided that they would may send in their names to the Work- bian peasants. IHERE are two magazines lying on the table. One is the Saturday Evening Post, published in Philadel- phia, Pa. U. S. A. The other is Bez- Dozhnik, published in Moscow, Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. “Bach of these papers is the finest téchnical product of its kind that modern mechanical invention can pro- duce. Hundreds of men and women _ are giving their entire working lives produce these two publications— printers and engravers, highly oped intellectual specialists, } of business employes and man- and— Artists. Centuries of slowly developed cul- ture Me behind each of these men and women of the pen and brush. Into each of them has been poured some- thing of the cultural accumulation from the forgotten ages of the men who carved images of the buffalo on the walls of their cave-dwellings, of the golden ages of Egypt, Assyria, China, Greece, Carthage and Rome, of the Middle Ages and of—~ Modern times. In the great and powerful United States, all of this cultural accumula- tion that can be adapted to the pur- pose is drawn out of these culture- bearers and fitted into the pages of the great and typical journal of this civilization—the paper which lies on my table. In the very printing of its title, “Saturday Evening Post’'—is,ex- ers’ House, 1902 W. Division St. pressed every possible device for the maximum of effect, On the other hand Mes this other journal with the strange Russian characters spelling out the word “Bez- bozhnik.” The very title of it is Startling; it means. “The Atheist.” The pictures and words thruout the pages are startling, and marvelously beautiful as well as ingenious, Equal- ly here, every device of human ingen- uity is used for technical perfection; the technical craft of Moscow in this respect seems to be even better than that of the American city. And also here all of the cultural accumulation of past ages—and of modern times— that could be adapted to the purpose, is poured out in blazing brilliance of the artists. Only, it seems that to the purposes of this magazine vastly more of the cultural accumulation of mankind has been adaptable, In theme and execution the work of the artists has a thunderous boldness, de- Structive as, fire and sword to the current standards of thought and the concept of life that we find in The Saturday Evening Post, Two sets of artists are at work. An enormous gulf is between them. N the days before the revolution that made the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, dd made such as Bezbozhnik in its present magnificent form possible, there existed revolu- tionary papers, as there are revolu- tionary papers now in capitalist coun- tries. And artists wrote and drew for revolutionary, papers and for capital- ist papers. From the beginning of modern times»there was a gulf be- tween the work that was done for the capitalist press and that which was done for the revolutionary workers’ press. The gulf widened in propor- tion as the class struggle developed. Nothing is clearer today than the fact that Communist society is the legitimate heir to the cultural accu- mulation of the ages which finds lodgement in the artist, just as the Marxian science is the unbroken con- tinuation of the trunk of scientific development of all the past. The ef- fort to preserve capitalism in perman- ence, constitutes a preversion and constriction of science, on the field of political economy, Also art {in all of its phases is perverted and constrict- ed within the frame of capitalist so- ciety. “The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with rever- ent. awe. It has converted the physi- cian, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage- laborers.” And it has “left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment.’” It has resolved ar- tistic talent no less than personal worth “into exchange value.” Quo- tations from the Communist Mani- festo). In capitalist society the cultural ac- cumulation of the ages is subjected to the test of its value as a means of enrichment, preservation and defense of capitalist society and of individual capitalists, The capacities of the art- ist are sifted, out, and only that por- tion of those capacities which are adaptable to the interests of capital rae , not tolerate such a conditioh and went are developed, into the artists’ profes- sions. The more sensitive—the more able artists tend to chafe under this re- striction, this prostitution. The workers’ revolutionary move- ment has not the same interests to preserve—bufi the reverse. For this reason the. workers’ revolutionary movement hag, always exercised a magnetic influence upon artists. The definitive charaéter of the artist is in that he to a high degree responds to and expresses, in harmonious, unify- ing form the stimuli of life’s experi- ence, The impulse of the artist is the hunger to bring incoherent things into focus with a unifying concept. Capitalism, im its necessity to shut off, smother and obscure the meaning of life, becomes a nightmare to the artist. Communism, which has no such necessity, becomes a beautiful prospect to the artist who dares to look upon it. In order to obtain the cash pay- ment that enables him to live (and which may even exalt him into luxur- fous wealth), the artist in capitalist society must subject himself to a process of elimination of artistic qualities, comparable to the process thru which a stréet-walker is gubject- ed by long practice of her profession of mock-love. ‘The prostituted artist becomes sleek and witty, but never- theless remains a flatulent mock-art- ist, ra Look at these two magazines on the table again, and you will see the la- borious, unjoyfwljtensely skilful work ot the mock artists in the Saturday ich have been received by the DAILY WORKER ag a special | lto Joe Hurley, a representative of|ting time—A Coal Miner. rt As a Weapon In the Class Stru The DAILY WORKER MINERS STRIKE UNORGANIZED COKE REGION Betrayed Workers Wel- come Progressives By WORKER CORRESPONDENT PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 21—Be- tween 600 and 600 coal miners em- ployed by the Washington Coal and Coke Co, at the Star Junction, Pa., mine have come out and joined their fellow workers from the two mines owned by the Jamison Coal and Coke Co. at Perryopolis in a strike against the attempts to reduce wages. Wages Below 1917 Scale. What is being offered to these miners is even below the 1917 scale. Machine coal would be paid at $1.20 per car and pick coal $1.65 per car and it takes 105 bushels to a car altho the operators and their mine bosses claim the cars contain, when loaded, only 65 bushels of coal. On this wage the miners cannot live and they de- mand $1.75 per car for machine coal and $2.25 for pick coal. These mines are unorganized, left to their own fate after the strike in 1922 by the union officialdom, the same as the rest of the coke region, Welcome Progressive Leadership. When the first miners came ,out-a few days ago Board Member Haynes of District Five and Organizer Robert- son appeared to speak to the strikers, but were told that they had. better leave as the men, who had’ been taught a bitter lesson by their former experiences, would not trust ,them. They left, and the striking, miners organized their own strike committee receiving assistance and guidance from the Progressive Miners’, Com- mittee of District Five: Strike meetings are being héld reg- ularly and despite the great hustility toward the official representatives of the United Mine Workers;® dating back to the 1922 betrayals, the ‘teed of organization is being discussed. The progressives under diréction of Tom Ray are showing the way. Our Readers their union executive board with their grievance. This is the kind of an answer we got: “It would be unjust for the miners to leave their working place before quitting time, no matter if the com- pany had taken the motor away.» For there is no telling what might hap- pen in the territories where the com- pany had transferred the motor.” The miners not a bit satisfied with such an answer, went to the mine manager and explained the case to him and the mine manager agreed to \FAKERS’ FIGHT ON REDS ONLY AIDS EMPLOYERS Fagan Has to Listen to Sound Advice By IRWIN, (Worker Correspondent) PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 21—While the attempts of the coal operators to establish the 1917 scale in District 5, U. M. W. of A, are becoming ever more bold the militants are the only ones to sound a note of working class solidarity to defeat their aims. For some time a consistent propa- ganda has been carried on under the auspices of the Pittsburgh chamber of commerce to induce the district to se- cede from the United Mine Workers while simultaneously open support is being given to smash the union. The district officials, who have deliberately neglected to take the measures neces- sary to energetically oppose this cam- paign and prepare the membership for the inevitable fight, at last found themselves compelled to let up on their fight on the progressives and ap- pear before the Pittsburgh Central Labor Union with a plea for assist- ance, Fagan “Appeals.” At the last meeting of this body Pat Fagan, the district president, de- scribed this campaign, stating that so far, at two mines, at Whittset and Banning, attempts had been made to operate under the 1917 scale with the result that a few scabs were working producing coal at a cost to the op- erators of $50.00 a ton, while from 300 to 400 miners were picketing the premises. He appealed for what ever support could be given. No delegate seemed to know what to propose to make such a fight until J. S, Otis, who is a member of the Workers Party and a delegate from the Machinists’ Union, now threatened with expulsion by “B. & O. Bill,” arose to show the way out. Comrade Otis. reminded the dele- ing crafts had been able to maintain let the miners go home before quit- Evening Post; and you will see on the other hand the comparatively re- leased and happy vigor of the true artist in the Bezbozhnik. (This is comparative. The Communist artists have not yet been free long enough to attain full power. I have chosen these two magazines only as ex- amples; you will find the same to be true in more or less tangible degree of all the capitalist and the Russian Communist press.) 1 Stake the great (Proportion of world is not liberated Russia, We must have the workers’ Com- munist press in the capitalist coun- tries. In these it is necessary to struggle against the conditions of all sorts which hamper the development of the workers’ press. It is clear that there comes a com- petition between the powerful capital- ist press and the impoverished, pre- cariously-living revolutionary press. This is in a certain degree (tho this must not be misunderstood as the liberals misunderstand it) a competi- tion in effective éxpression. Its horde of prostituted artists is a pow- erful army of capitalist society. It be- comes absolutely necessary to obtain the greatest possible degree of artistic expression in the workers’ revolu- tionary press. The Communist press in a capital- ist country cannot offer the artist the easy prosperity, tor the finest techni- cal service of reproduction, which the capitalist press cif ‘6ffer. But the Communist press, With all these dis- advantages in the-wompetition for the artist's loyalty, has something of the supremely high value—outweighing all else for the most sensitive artists —the freedom from prostitution, and the positive value of a “Weltanschau- ung”—a unifying concept of the unt- verse, a thing which is destroyed in the choking process to which cap- italist service subjects all artists. Capitalist society cannot give any but a lame and patchéd-up “Weltanschau- ung”—a pitiful beggar of a god who must hide his sores behind tinsel rags. The artists who serve the capitalist press are propagandists. Any expres- sion of a coneept of the universe when there aré two concepts in rival- ry, becomes propaganda. The propa- ganda of the capitalist press (in fic- tion, poetry, pictures, all) is a propa- ganda against all that is compatible with a thriving art. But because they go “with the stream” the artists who do the capitalist propaganda every day imagine that they are “not propa- gandists,” The artists who serve the workers revolutionary press are also propa- gandists, of course. All unperverted art, in the face of perverted art, is propaganda for a unified concept of the universe. In the Communist press, of course, the needs of battle compel the artist to bring his work the satisfaction is great enough to attract a considerable and increasing number of artists to whom prostitu- tion is impossible, Art is an indispensible wéapon in jthe class struggle--on both sides. down to less glorified proportions, But, shop crafts fm 1922 by thefr struggles had withstood the rush to smash the unions at the time, even tho the lat ter had suffered heavily, He mentioned that other trades which had not as yet felt the attacks of the employers in enforcing the 1917 scale of wages and thus drive the first dangerous wedge into the ers’ union, He stated that mow the real test had come when fhe class as a whole must rally support, Straight Talk. “In giving full support to the \cannot be put to work, measures be taken to afford unemployment relief sustained by the industry, “If the coal operators ere unable or incompetent to reopen the mires, it is time to demand that the coal mines be nationalized, however, not to be con- trolled by the flunkeys of a capitalist government but to be put under work- ers’ control and management.” Comrade Otis stated further with particular emphasis that unless a campaign be undertaken in earnest and led by the union officials to make every coal mine in the country a un- fon mine, amy such demands, no mat- ter how necessary, would remafn only pious wishes. He said now that the attack has come out in the open it {s high time to begin fm earnest to strengthen the position of labor «ni bring the aims of the plutes to naught. A motion finalty prevailed to give moral and financial assitance to the coal miners and allow the execntive board to put it into effect. Bolivian President Departed ARICA, Chile, Sept. 21—Jose Ga- bino Villaneuve elected presffient of Bolivia in May, has been deported to Chile and a state of siege exists in the provinces of La Pas, Oruro and Chochabamba. Night Clinic for Crippted. NEW ‘YORK, Sept. 21. —- For the gates altho such trades as the build-|conventence of adult worker, the Hospital for Ruptured and Crtppied, a comparatively decent standard of |321 Hast 42nd street, N. ¥. C., Das wages it was primarily due to the fact | established night clinics every erent Wotan en Tet that the coal miners and the railroad | day and Wednesday from 7 to 9 ggle - By Robert Minor The Communist press must develop a clearer appreciation of this. Bx- perience shows that the workers give a value to art which {is far greater \than the “cultured” classes give ex cept in some special fields. The hun ger—the absolute necessity of the working class for art, is something which, under the influence of Amer- ican phillistinism, Communists are likely to forget. The immense power of the prostituted art propaganda for the capitalist “Weltanschauung”—as shown by picture shows, magasines, etc.—is evidence of a compeliing sort, But we, like the prostituted artists, are likely to forget that it IS propa- ganda... We slip into the habit of considering the capitalist press, movies, etc., as a neutral agent, as to the class struggle, to which the Com- munist press need but add a spe cialized corrective influence. If 0, we are already poisoned. The Communist press must become deeply, powerfully, artistic enough to make us understand this, To make an effective Communist press—-and to give a sounder “Welt- anschauung” to the membership of the revolutionary party of the work- ers—ate these not important parts of the process of Bolshevizing our par- ty? The essential characteristic of true art is exactly this: That it brings an incoherent mass of fact into @ funified concept. Hven the smallest good cartoon or verse does this! Let us speak a word for a higher development of art in the service of the Communist press} AS MILES A NES ACRE OOH ARE! SHEN mE nN ame Se ote MOS .