The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 10, 1925, Page 3

—— FORD WORKERS GREET DAILY AS THEIR ALLY Welcome Expose of Henry Ford By LENA ROSENBERG. (Worker Correspondent) PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 8—As the afternoon shift at the Ford plant is about to leave at 4:30, the whistle blows and the guards at the main entrance lock the doors and search the workers as they go out. They look into the dinner-pails, them the sleeves, then the ‘pockets and after they have searched the workers they make them wait in the lobby until all have been searched. When the doors open the workers rush out, glad to get away from the flunkies, who would not hesitate to steal them- selves, but are detailed to search them. As the workers came out of the factory one day, ‘and saw us there with the special Ford edition of the DAILY WORKER, their faces bright- ened when they saw that Henry Ford ‘was being exposed for what he really is. From the remarks that we heard, we knew that they considered the DAILY WORKER their friend. When we got there the next day with the second special Ford edition, the workers were very eager to get copies. A number of Ford stoolpigeons tried to scare us away by showing us K, K. K. membership cards. The other comrade that was with me was not a member of the party, but she refused to be frightened. She was carried away by the enthusiasm shown by the workers for the DAILY WORKER. One thing that is very noticeable is the number of workers that leave with fingers bandaged. Some leave the shop with a handkerchief wrapped around their fingers. Under the speedup system that operates in the factory, many of the workers are in- jured and have no time to go to the emergenc$ hospital. Spearmint Magnate in New $25,000,000 Coal and Chemical Trust ' CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Nov. 8.— ‘The $25,000,000 merger of the Bon Air Coal and Iron corporation, the Ten- nessee Consolidated Coal company of ‘Chattanooga has been consummated, it was announced here to-day by T. R. Preston, a director. The combined interests will be known as the Tenn- By-Products company. The new corporation will be headed by R. J. Immerfall, formerly of the Victor Chemical Works. “It will manu- facture charcoal, pig fron, methanol (synthetic wood alcohol), acetate of lime, wood oils, pitch, tar, ferro- phospatus and mine extensively coal and iron. The board of directors of the new company are: William Wrigley, Jr., Chicago; James R. Offfeld, Chicago; John McE. Bowman, New York; Col. Jacob Rupprecht, New York; William Cummings, Nashville; R. J. Immer- fall, Nashville; Frederick Leake, Nashville; J. J. Gray, Nashville; Paul M. Davis, Nashville; T. R. Pres- ton, Chattanooga. ee ——- KU-KLUX, HEADQUARTERS IN DETROIT STORMED AFTER VOTES COME IN DETROIT, Mich., Nov. 8—More than a score of policemen responded to a riot call here to disperse a mob of several hundred election enthus- jasts who stormed the ku klux klan headquarters following the tion of the anti-klan candidate at the mayoralty of Detroit by an estimat- ed majority of 33,000 votes. The crowd, which paraded to the klan offices in automobiles, stoned the windows and building until police dispersed them. Patrols are stil! on guard. LOS ANGELES CIGAR MAKERS IN BIG DRIVE Seek to Organize the Present Open Shops LOS ANGHLES, Cal., Nov. 8.—Infer- national Cigar Makers’ Union, Local 225, of Los Angeles, is inaugurating an active campaign to organize the hundreds of cigar makers in the fac- tories of this city, where the most un- speakable, intolerable conditions are prevailing, Many cigar manufacturers who have operated union shops in San Francisco and San Diego have moved to this city because they were told by the chamber of commerce that Los Angeles is the white spot of the country, and that here they need not fear to exploit workers freely with- out the interference of the Cigar Makers’ Union. However, organized labor in gene- ral does not think that Los Angeles is going to become the safest nest of open shop profiteers. With the backing of organfted 1a- bor of Los Angeles, the Cigat’ Makers’ Union intends to organize every ‘cigar factory in the city. ! A cigar maker in Los Angeles dg the most underpaid worker in this\¢oun- try; his average wage is not to exceed $20 per week. ‘ Such conditions cannot be engured any longer. The Cigar Makers’ Union has elected a special organzation committee to carry on the work. A big mass meeting of all cigar makers, rollers, bunch breaker! and cigar packets has been calléti: for Thursday evening, Nov. 12,, ativthe Labor Temple, Speakers in English and Spanish will make addresses. Representatives of the Central Labor Council will also speak. eeod oF Teachers Told “Sports” Are Biggest Thing Today KANSAS CITY, Kan., Nov. '§.— Speaking before the sixty-second’an- nual convention of the northeast ‘dis- trict of Kansas State Teachers’ Asso- ciation, Branch Rickey, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, told the teachers that “sport is the, biggest thing in national life today.” _Teach- ers crowded the auditorium to over- flowing to listen to Edwin Markham, author of “The Man with the Hoe,” speak on “Poetry.” THE DAILY WORKER The Drive for*World Trade ,applies the policy of ‘“‘non-partizan” endorsement of candidates (Continued from’ page 1) 4 system of production which is chronic, and definitely shows that capitalism is in the period of disintegration and decay. The end of war brought the capitalists face to face with the problem of reconstructing their ruined economic system, and they imme- diately set about accomplishing this at the expense of the work- ing class. x For two years after the war an industrial boom prevailed and then a crisis of great magnitude developed. First in Japan, then reaching every other capitalist country, factories were closed, millions of workers were thrown out of work. In the U. S. over six million workers were unemployed in the winter of 1921-22. The capitalists seized upon this as the-proper time to deflate the war-time gains of the workers, to wrest from the workers the comparatively high wages they had succeeded in securing owing to the war necessity, and to smash the unions which had grown enormously during the war period. The capitalists set out to place the full burden of the war on the backs of the workers by means of wage reductions, longer hours, unemployment, in a word, by reducing the workers‘ standard of living. The capital- ists seeing their profits reduced by war debts and the economic crisis, set out to reduce the standard of living of the workers as a means of recouping themselves. The trade unions led by devoted servants of the capitalists, corrupted by the patriotism of the war period were unable to stem the attack of the bosses. Unions were smashed, wages cut, hours lengthened—the workers lost nearly all they had gained during the war period. The chief factors causing this defeat were: 1. The post-war economic crisis was not an ordinary crisis of capitalist economy, but one of the crises of the period of dissol- ution in which capitalism has entered. Two methods of solving the crisis presented themselves: Either that the workers would be driven to accept a coolie standard of living and allow capitalist production to continue, or the destruction of capitalism and the reorganization of production on a socialist basis. In other words, the workers were faced with the alternative of overthrowing cap- italism or submitting to a lower standard of living to allow of the continuance of capitalist production. 2. The old forms of struggle were useless in face of such a situation. The trade union movement split up into national sec- tions, into craft divisions in the various countries, and pursuing a policy of class collaboration instead of class struggle could not combat the capitalist offensive. Not only the antiquated forms of the trade union movement, but also the millions of workers still unorganized in the basic industries prevented any real opposition to the capitalists. t 3. The treacherous leadership of the unions, men who had recruited the workers for the slaughter during the war, continued to serve the bosses after the war by opposing all atempts to fight the capitalist attack. m1 The lessons of this period are clear; Only by uniting the forces of the workers nationally and internationally on the basis of a class struggle policy can the wor! jope ‘to even defend themselves from the attacks of the The disunity of the trade union m ent to every worker. Not only are craft workers of one industry, but in many inst unions exist side by side. In the United craft unionism has vicious effects on the ers. In an industry where the workers other trades remain at work while the pieces by filling their places with scabs, These craft: unions with their hidebound craft prejudices, letional squabbles and isolation enable the bosses to defeat the workers. The American Federation of Labor 107 International Unions affiliated to it. But this does not bring unity into the trade union movement. The A. F, of L. has never acted as a co- ordinating center for the unions in this country... Its function is to settle jurisdictional disputes between rival.unions, and in many cases its decisions are flouted. The. 107 International Unions keep up a semblance of unity by affiliation with the A, F. of L. The A. F. of L. dare not attempt the organization of the unorgan- ized because of the tangle ‘of jurisdictional disputes that would ensue, : The Executive Council of the A. F. of, .L, is merely a propa- ganda machine maintained by the reactionary leaders of the In- ternational Unions to combat any deviations from the path of “safe and sane” craft unionism. In politics the Executive Council ntidhould be appar- ons,gplitting up the s Sévéral competing tates the system of ditions of the work- Union Unity of the democratic and republican parties. But these political decisions have no weight with the International Union leaders. In 1924, when the Executive Council endorsed LaFollette’s can- didacy for president, President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers was a member of the republican campaign committee, while Wm. Green, secretary-treasurer of the same union, was prominent in the democratic party campaign. Measured by any working class standard the American Fed- eration of Labor cannot be said to be a real national center for the trade union movement in this country. In other countries similar disunity is met. In France, Ger- marty, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia the reactionary officialdom has split the movment by mass expulsions of elements opposed to their policy of cooperation with the capitalists. In Holland there are six trade union federations competing. Out of_a total membership in all unions of about 300,000 there are federations consisting of reformist, catholic, protestant, democratic, syn- dicalist and anarcho-syndicalist unions. These divisions in the ranks of the trade union movements all translate themselves into defeats for the workers, because the bosses take advantage of them to lower the standard of living of the entire working class. So far as international trade union centers are concerned the two most important are the International Federation of Trade Unions (Amsterdam) and the Red International of Labor Unions (Moscow). The Amsterdam International claims a mem- bership of between 14,000,000 and 15,000,000. The Red Inter- national of Labor Unions has between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000. Amsterdam has as its base the British and German unions. The R. L. L. U. has a firm foundation in the 6,000,000 trade unionists of Soviet Russia. The A. F. of L. is not affiliated with either. Even Amsterdam was too radical for Gompers, and the same ap- plies to his successor Green. International trade union unity is a burning necessity for the working class. The R. I. L. U. proposes the calling of a world congrss for the establishment of a united trade union inter- national embracing all trade union movements so that the work- ers will be able to meet the atacks of the bosses.. The British trade unions have united with the Russian unions for this aim. The Amsterdam International bitterly opposes this proposal for unity and thus takes upon itself the responsibility for the con- tinuance of the divisions in the trade union movement. The A. F. of L., on the one hand, stands for the isolation of the Amer- ican trade union movement and preaches a so-called “Munro Doctrine of Labor” as being most in keeping with the policy of the United States government, and on the other hand displays a tendency to aid the reactionaries of the Amsterdam Internation- al in their fight against the movement for unity conducted by the British and Russian unions. Tomorrow: The International Federation of Trade Unions (Amsterdam). ‘ Elements of Communism Max Bedacht, Instructor. Thursday,’ 8 p. m. Public Spe: H. M. Wicks, Instructor. Friday, 8:30 P. M. Aims artd Purposes of Y. WL. J. Williamson, Instructor. Sunday, 10:30 A. M. Enroll for classes now. Registration fee, $1.00. For each additional class 50 cents. All classes begin week of November 15. Send enrollments to Earl Browder, director of Workers’ School, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., or Oliver Carlson, Secretary, 19 S. Lincoln street. Page Three SOVIET'S LIVE WIRES ASTONISH SWEDISH FIRMS. |Get Phone Rights in { Border Countries a i (Special to The Dally Worker) | STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 8— |The statement in an official telegram from ‘the Moscow Soviet news agency concerning an agreement between the Ericsson and Svagtsroem factory trust for the exploitation of Hricsson’s tele- phone system is causing much com ment e. According to the Moscow statement the Russian trust is to have exclu- sive rights to Ericsson’s automatic telephones within the Soviet Union as |well as in Persia, Afghanistan and Mongolia and the exclusive conces- sion of Ericsson patents in Latvia, Ba- |thonia and Lithuania, | Pending Since July. The announcement adds thet the sson company will supply Russia the necessary plant, including with automatic telephone stations, on long credit terms. Mr. Sandberg, director of the Ericsson factory, declares that negotiations have been proceeding since July. Sweden, alone, he said, would be unable to. provide Russia with all the ry, equipment nece: altho any agree- ment on the lines suggested would necessarily bring great activity to the Swedish telephone industry. Enterprising Reds. Ministers, representing the border states assure the correspondent that the Moscow announcement, if true, does not mean Russian domination over their telephone systems, but sim- ply that those’ states must purchase Ericsson material thru Moscow in- stead of Stockholm. Dagens Nyheter makes the com- ment that the Russian state trust must be animated by a remarkably ac- tive and enterprising spirit in view of the fact that it has obtained exclusive Tights to Hricsson’s automatic tele- phones not only within the Soviet Union, but in six other autonomous states. Board of Aldermen Committee to Probe Shady Sidewalk Bids Attempts by John J. Sloan, presi- dent of the board of local improve- ments and formerly head of the Wis- consin Granite company, to exclude all bids for paving Chicago sidewalks except those using cement, were nip- ped at the meeting of the board of aldermen’s council committee on lo- cal jadustries and streets and alleys. Before the council committee meet- ing it was brot out that Sloan had ex- cluded all other bids for paving side- walks except those using cement. In the course of the discussion it was brot. out that sidewalks that were made of cement were not able to with- stand climatic changes as well as those constructed of asphalt and it was decided to appoint a sub-commit- tee to investigate the connections of Sloan with the cement company, that he was once head of, and the bidding on the $2,300,000 worth of sidewalk construction, Workers’ Education in the Union of Soviet Republics Soviet Primer No. 5—From the little booklets in which the Soviet government tells its own folks what is going on in the country. HE three and a half cent booklet on education is written by Hodor- ovsky, assistant head of education and a niuch more methodical man than Lunacharsky. He is a bit‘ dry in style, too much like a catalogue, bnt he gives the first coherent picture of Russian education in all it ramifi- cations. Only, unfortunately, his fig- ures are already old; education moves fast these days, and the new figures for 1925-26 have made a bigger in- crease than ever over the year be- fore, With this correction, that he doesn’t tell all the latest’ progress, we'll let it stand. Slowly, he says, but without a break rows and rises the, industry of our nd and with it grows also education. et us see how it has improved in the past two years, rd tt r E funds for education come from two sources, the central govern- ment and the local. governments. From the central government 70 mil- lion was spent for education (in Russia proper) in 1922-23, but 115 million in 1924-25. from the local governments 62 million rubles was spent in 1922-23, but in 1924-25 they spent 234 million. Thus we see that the total amount spent for education’ is almost three times as great as two years ago, The largest expenses for public education have gone for bettering the condition of teachers, In January, 1923 the village teachers got on an average of 6 rubles, ($3) a month, A year later in March 1924 the average was 15 rubles. But the central’ gov- ernment realized that no teacher could live on this, and in June 1924 they advanced a special fund of five million rubles, which raised teachers’ wages from 20 to 26 ruble: ye A ES ict A EE EE al Aca Te ct enn tober of that year it was established that village teachers should not get less than 25 rubles, and the central government set aside 20 million rub- les to raise this still higher beginning with January of 1925. Now certainly, 28 or 30 rubles a month is not enuf to satisfy all needs. We do not intend to stop there. But every honest citizen must admit that under the conditions, only a worker and peasant government would in so short a time and in our poverty have made such a large proportionate raise. How People’s Education Is Organized. HE aim of our education, as stated in our party program, is to train up understanding citizens, capable of rebuilding all life on new socialist foundations. This means that our schools must produce workers, who understand the world of nature, and human society and industrial produc- tion, who are free from the task of destroying all chains and bondage, All our education is linked together, from the smallest child to the univers- ity graduate. First comes the kinder garten, from three to eight years; then the first form of the then the second form which has two divisions, from twelve to fifteen and from sixteen to seventeen. Above this comes the university and higher tech- nical schools. In the first form, which lasts four years, the children learn reading, writing arithmetic, and become ac- quainted with simplest facts of the working Hfe around them, the life of the family, social life and nature. In the second form they go deeper into their acquaintance with the life around them; they themselves make experiments with nature, become ac- quainted with her riches and forces, and with the use of these to enrich human ‘society; they learn the eco- De P which the children ask them. There is also a growing movement of Pioneers outside the school but working closely with it, introducing the child to social life. Professional-Technical Training. other lands, the history of our revolu- tion and the organization of our gov- ernment. LL this we teach not only by books. But in the large cities the schools of the second form must had multiplied four times, and in»)How our enemies laughed at this the depression which followed there|idea! But we have now in Russia still remained at the lowest ebb in|proper 75 worker faculties, with 1923, 241 agricultural schools with 20,000 students, or two and a half times the number in the czar's days. Since that time they have been again 35,000 students. And when the first graduates, 5,000 in number, entered the unjversities, they were found to regular school, from eight to twelve s month. Oc-' nomic organization of our land and | cannot bored baa I have some connection with a factory or mill; and in the village, with agri- cultural work; and as the children reach the upper grade of this form, they must themselves take sdme pro- ductive specialty, farming, or factory work or teaching. This is an absolute change from the old system under the czar where the gymnasium prepared officials, and was as remote as possible from life. In the towns and villages the peasants and workers were fighting for better conditions of life against landlords and capitalists, but the school was ‘supposed to remain deaf to all this struggle; worse yet, the chil- dren learned that poverty, misery, darkness and slavery were’ made by the lord god himself, and whoever raises his voice against them, sins against god. They learned the laws of god and the lives of the’saints, fill- ing their heads with useless stuff in- stead of what they needed to know— which is how and whence nature pro- duces her various phenomena, why and how the social life of man is built, what is human labor, why one man toils and another reaps the fruit, Of all these things the schools gave no information at all. But perhaps some peasant says: “The school in our village still teaches after the old fashion.” That is true; there are many such, Notat once do we find all the teachers need- ed for the new methods. But in the past two years there have been sum- mer courses attended by tens of thousands of teachers. The teachers themselves take these courses very seriously and wish to learn, for they ed othe now enswer the questions ESIDES the general schools, known as Schools of Social Instruction there are schools for® technical and professional tfaining. These are of three gradeslower, "middle and higher. The lowest trains workers, the middle traits the foremen, or as- sistant engineers of industry; the highest trains engineers and manag- ers of our growing industrial and po- litical and social life. Under the czar the method of train- ing workers was as follows: A boy in a worker's family reaches the age of eleven or twélve and shis parents, driven by need, sent him to the fac- tory. There he worked fifteen or more hours daily, at the most menial tasks, obeying everyone's orders, till after five or six years he was considered a workman. A more barbarous waste of youth can hardly be imagined. Our lower trade schools are located in big factories, or,.where there are many small factories, there is a dis- trict school. In the school itself is an educational work shop, where the boy works a certain number of hours daily, in connection with his school work, After two years of this he be- gins work for certain hours in the fac- tory itself, still spending, however, two to four hours of the working day in school, There are about 100,000 students in these factory schools in the, Soviet Union, GRICULTURAL schools come also under the head of professional training and are: rapidly growing. Under the czar im 1914, there were Russia proper 19% agricultural schools with 8,767 students, By 1921 these increasing. There are no schools for teachers but there are schools of middle rank, training teach- ers for the village schools. These middle schools are called technicums. Under the czar there were 20,000 teachers in such technicums, but we have 30,000 and are opening more schools, Higher Education. EFORE the revolution, higher edu- cation was practically closed to the children of workers, for one must pass thru’ the gymnasiums or church schools or have private tutors and none of these were possible to work- ers.. One minister of education, Delin- of, actually boasted that the govern- ment would never let into its universi- ties the children of serub-women,” and by this meant all children of workers and peasants, Our first task was to open the higher institutions of learning to work- ers and peasants, But how? Prelim- inary training is needed for these in- stitutions and this no worker pos-! So there were established | the worker faculties, or so-called rab. sessed. facs, These are not factory schools or trade sehools for teaching trades, | but general preparatory schools tak- ing workers direct from the bench and training them for higher institutions, They must know how to read and write and a little arithmetic—noth- ing more. The course in the rab-fac lasts three or, four years, and in these they are pposed to gain all*the knowledge essary for entering the university, A aeew ¥ mt da lower professional} be no worse prepared than those of the chosen gymnasiums of former days; indeed, in some ways they were better prepared. HE universities came to us, as we said, with quite a different type of student. But in the past three years this has greatly changed. By the spring of 1924, 15 per cent of all stu- dents were workers or children of workers, and 23 per cent were peas- ants or children of peasants. With each year’s entering class the pro- portion grows as the elder group of non-working elements leave school. But we have changed not only the type of student but the whole form of life. In place of being aloof trom life, every higher institution of learning must have vital connection with the economic life of the region where it is Placed. In our pedagogical institutes, even, we produce not only teachers, who know beoks but teachers who know the life surrounding them. One new measure in our higher schools is unique in the world. That is the government's material aid to students. Formerly students came from rich families, who sent them money ‘to live on, But our students are poor; they receive stipends from the government, from 15 to 29 rubles a month for their food, . Such partial support is given to 75,000 students by the government, which spent last year 25 million rubles for this pur- pose. Nowhere’else in the world is this done. Political Enlightenment. NDER the head of enlightenment of citizens must come first the fight with illiteracy. In 1920, 700 of every 1,000 of our population was il- ~ ves ay literate. During our first two years of work we taught five million people to read and write. But then this too fell during the famine. Since 1923 these classes have grown, and at the end of 1924 there are 22,450 classes teaching 600,000 © illiterates. down by Lenin to liquidate all ilit- eracy B¥ the.tenth anniversary of the revolution ig not entirely accomplish- ed, it -Will-be three-fourths of the way o fulfilment at least. The growth of reading huts has alse kept up with the growth of reading knowledge, and this is very important, for,an adult who has no practice soom forgets to read. Our reading huts grew im one year to 1923-24 from 4,511 to 10,417 and are still growing rapidly in number, NE special feature of our new edt cation is the teaching of the many non-Russian nationalities in the So viet Union, who formerly were not allowed schools in their own lam. guage. This barbarous suppression was especially true among the eastern people, Tartars, Kirghiz, Chuvash and Tf the plan laid others. Now among these people edu» cation is rapidly growing; tho in some cases they had no alphabet and no books, an dthese had to be first sreated. » y We know that the greater the snowledge and understanding intro- duced among all these backward peo- ples and among our own untaught | peasants and workers, the stronger will their mutual alliance grow, on | which our state is based. In this mu | tual alliance and understanding 1s the guarantee of our victory dver all foes; over foreign and Russian land- lords; over foreign and Russian capi- talists; and over economic ruin, bege gary and misery, over darkness and ve ignorance. « If you want to thoroug! 8 derstand Comm ‘ony