The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 14, 1925, Page 2

Page Two AGREEMENT ON ITALIAN DEBT THE DAILY? WORKER NLANDLORDS WHO CHARGE HiGH RENTS |PURCELL GIVEN FOR DISEASE-LADEN APARTMENTS ME ADTY (VATION NEW YORK, Noy, 12.—The commission on housing and regional planning that is now “investigating” the housing conditions of New York City had all it could do when more than forty witnesses that have appeared before it, LW.WVOTES TORETAINTS | Soviet Report Shows the Workers’ Republic Is ve SAVES TYRANT Morgan Stands Back of Mussolini (Special to The Dally Worker) WASHINGTON, Nov. 12,—Musso- lini’s debt commission has reached an agreement with the agents of Wall Street, known as the United States debt commission. This means that the obligations to the United States of the third largest debtor nation has been settled on terms that will enable Italy to establish its credit with the House of Morgan so that it can ab- sorb some of the enormous surplus of gold that has accumulated in the United States and is piling ever higher, until desperate measures are Necessary in order to dispose of it. It furthermore means that Musso- ini and his bandit government is to be subsidized by American imperial- fsm, and the fascist leader and . his predatory bands of cutthroats will become the official agents of American bank capital. Coolidge Sits In. Announcement that an agreement had been reached was made shortly after noon, following a conference be- tween Coolidge and members of the American debt commission, which was followed, in turn, by a joint session of the two full commissions. Secre- tary of the Treasury Mellon an- nounced the agreement. The actual terms will be announced late this afternoon after the experts of the two countries have worked out the figures involved in the huge mass of documents submitted. It is definitely known tho, that they are the most liberal terms granted to any debtor nation under the pretext that the Italian internal situation is far worse than that of any other gov- ernment in Europe, Saves Fascismo. The Italian currency would have fallen to nothing on the exchanges of the world had it not been for a satis- factory agreement having been reach- ed. The terror of Mussolini and the frame-up against the yellow social- ists and free masons on the charge of conspiring to assassinate Mussolini combined with the fall of the lira would have wrecked the government of the tyrant. Only the conclusion of the agree- ment saved the ‘situation. This desperate_position of the fascist gov- ernment gives the lie to the claims that Mussolini has re-established the economic system of Italy on a firm basis. Sculptor Dies. MILFORD, Conn., Nov, 12.—Charles A. Bartelli, one of the nation’s lead- ing scuptors, died at his home here during the night of heart failure. He was 42 years old. Unmasked Bandits Busy. MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 12—Two un- masked bandits today entered the fifth floor store of B, M. Kaufman, dia- mond merchant, and escaped with $40,000 in gems. EVEREST F. told of the miserable apartments they must live in and the amounts they are forced to pay. $12.50 a room, The witnesses described how their homes were overrun by mice, rats and vermin and that the landlords were making no attempt to clean up these conditions. Letter carriers testified that due to the low wage that,they receive, their wives and young ¢hildren are forced to accept employmént.in industries or in buildings doing chore-woman work in order to be able tO pay the rent. Some of the .letter carriers have to work in movie\and music halls as ushers at night ‘in order to make ends meet. Rents Increase, Wages Decrease. Other workers that appeared point- ed out that their wages were lower than they were making in 1920, but they are forced to pay higher rents than when’they paid in 1920, and that inadlords are still boosting the rents. In the Negro section of Harlem, landlords refuse to keep. light burn- ing in the dark*hallways. Many of these hallways are, pitch dark with winding stairs and the Negro workers living in these houses often injure themselves by falling down stairs. Evictions Increase. The clerk of the seventh district municipal court testified that there has been an increase of over 2,500 dispossess proceedings in the past year over the number in the same period last year. In 1924, in Har- lem, which is a working class dis- trict and where this court is located, there were 29,490 dispossess cases. So far this year, with the months of November and December lacking, there have been 31,500 cases where workers’ belongings have been moved onto the street. The clerk pointed out that most of these cases were the result of non-payment of fent. Other tenants before the commis- sion brot out that the landlords had sealed up dumb waiters in many plac- Soft Coal Strike, Too| (ontinuedsfrom page 1) demanding the removal of the host of armed guards. At the hall where Papcun: was speaking the state police searched the assembly, but Papcuti was gone. At the big meeting last night where Tom Ray and- Papcun spoke, the sheriff and state police issued a pro- clamation prohibiting picketing and marching. Papcun in his speech called on the striking miners to defy the proclama- tion and the injunctions. This met with the hearty ‘approval of the strik- ers, The Royal mine was picketed to- day. Various pickets were held up with guns, strikers were shot at and gas bombs thrown among the pickets. The companies are getting desper- ate. Tom Ray and Papcun are lead- ing the picket lines. Big mass meet- 1893—1925 ings are to be held all over the coke region on Sunday. BALCHUNAS ar ree spending three years in traveling from one section to another in an attempt fo effect a cure of consumption, Comrade Ev- erest F. Balchunas died at the Cook county hospital. Comrade Balchunas was very ac- tive among the Lithuanian workers in Lithuania and when he arrived in this country in 1913, to escape the military laws of the czar, he joined the Lithuanian socialist federation. In Left-Wing Fight. During the left-wing split, Bal- chunas fought the reactionaries in the federation and aided Comrade Stellson and others to organize the Lithuanian Communist Federation. He attended every convention that the Communist Party held and escaped the department of justice at the Bridgman convention. He was jo active in the organ- ization of the American Lithuanian Workers’ Literature Association, which is today controlled by the Lithuanian Communists. Following the Bridgman conven- tion he contracted a cold which de- veloped into a slight form of con- sumption, His doctor advised him to leave the machine shop that he was working in and also to leave the city. Goes West for Cure. Balchunas left Chicago and went to California, then Arizona, New Mexico and then to Denver, Colo- rado, in his attempt to effect a cure. Unable to find work and hav- ing used up what little savings he had, he returned to Chicago. Fail-, Ing to find work In Chicago and un- able to pay a dootor for consulta- tlon: entered the Cook county where he died after eight months’ treatment. As Comrade Balchunas died with- out any relatives In this country, the District Eight Committee, Lith- uanian Section, Workers (Commun- ist) Party and the American Lithu- anian Workers’ Literature associa- tion are arranging his funeral which will take place Saturday af- ternoon, Nov. 14. Funeral Saturday: Afternoon. All Workers (Communist) Party members are requested to partici- pate in the funeral of Comrade Bal- chunas, which will leave the Par lanicia chapel, 3238 So. Halsted St., at 2 o'clock sharp, Satunday after- oon for the Lithuanian National Cemetery, Justice Park, IIl., where he will be buries Use Coal Bins for Rooms, Coal bins and storerooms in cellars have been converted into apartments by the landlords by the use of beaver board for wallg and are being rented out at present for an average rent of ¢— »s forcing those living on the top loors to carry pails of garbage and waste down many flights of stairs. Unsanitary Conditions. Others ‘told of faulty plumbing, un- sanitary apartments where the light of day never penetrates for which they»must pay exhorbitant rents. Renting ‘agencies brot in’ showed that there were many apartments va- cant, but that the landlords demand- ed that they collect such high rents that it wag impossible to find tenants to move into the apartments. Politicians Refuse Co-operation, Tenants complained that when they called at the tenement house de- partment, fire department and health department to have them remedy con- ditions in many of the houses, these comnmiissions refused to co-operate with them in any way whatsoever. The testimony brot out that many landlords were charging 288 per cent fore for their rooms now than they did in 1920 and that these landlords had made few repairs in the apart- ments during that period. Threaten Rent Riots. Threats of rent riots were made if the present rent law, which is far from adequate and is merely a ges- ture towards protecting the tenant, was repealed. Most of the witnesses urged the commission to extend the law and if possible to make the law more, stringent in its protection of the tenants. Liftle can b& expected from the commission appointed by the city hall crowd as these politicians work hand in glove with the landlords who main- tain filthy apartments. Many dollars are placed in the clammy palms of health, fire, and other inspectors thru the year by renting agencies and landlords so that they would emulate the three monkeys: Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, of the land- lords and their servants. WORKERS PARTY. CIRCUIT SCHOOL STARTS MONDAY First Class to Open in Milwaukee Opportunity for the workers of Mil- waukee, Wis., Waukegan, Ill, Gary and South Bend, Ind., to acquire a good knowledge of the elements of Communism opens Monday, Oct. 16, with the beginning of the circuit school conducted by the district agitprop department of the Workers Communist) Party. The course of study is so organized as to cover all the essentials of ele- mentary Communist theory—including Marxian economics, Leninism, and the practical problems of the struggle of the workers for the overthrow of cap- italism. The classes in each of the cities mentioned will meet once a week, at 8p. m. Instruction will be in charge of Oliver Carlson, of Chi- cago, who will visit each of the cities in the cireuit regularly every week. Opens in Milwaukee, The circuit opens in Milwaukee on Monday night. There is still time to register for the classes. Prospective students may enroll now, or on the opening night of the school in their respective locality. The fee for the eight weeks’ course of study is $1.50. Those in charge of the classes an- nounce that they will in no case be limited to members of the Workers (Communist) Party, but will be open to anyone interested in acquiring a knowledge of the elements of Com- munist theory. Some twenty work- ers have already enrolled for the Mil- waukee class and it is expected that the number will be considerably in- creased before the school opens on Monday, Read—Write—distribute The DAILY WORKER. Many Rumors in the Anthracite (Continued from page 1) ers from their paralyzing influence. In this connection of the miners’ union officialdom -with the parties of American capitalism is to be found_ the principal reason for the sudden onslaught upon the left wing and its activities in the strike as personified in the persons of Alex Reid and Pat Toohey-——-both members of the United Mine Workers of America. An additional reason is the fear that in the anthracite, the most pow- erful stronghold of the Lewis ma- chine, the internal program of the left wing, expressing as it does the basic needs of the miners, would alienate thousands of the coal diggers who, for lack of better leadership, now fol- low Lewis blindly. Holding Down the Lid, Dissatisfaction with the Lewis pol- icy of mere cessation of work by the miners while the maintenance men are left on the job, which is now only sporadic and somewhat feeble, is bound to develop as the strike drags on, There will be scandals over the enormous sums made by the operat- ors out of their huge piles of culm which are being disposed of at fancy prices without any attempt by the Lewis machine to stop this source of profit for the operators. There will be increasing demands for strike re- lef. Without left wing leadership and the miners terrorized and afraid to incur the anger of both Lewis and the local authorities, the machine can and will crush any opposition. The anthracite miners are well dis- ciplined, as has been said. But it is not a class dfgcipline. It works today in favor of the coal operators—not for the strikyy. ic AT CLEVELAND, 0 Federation of Labor Is Sponsor for Meeting (Continued from page 1) entitled to it than the workers who furnish the means whereby the para- sites live. Purcell painted. the misery and the exploitation that the workers suffer in China and India. He pointed out that these Chinese and Indian work- ers are competing with the American, British, French and Japanese work- ers, whose masters, the British, Amer- ican, French and Japanese capitalists, have invested their surplus proflts— that they have wrung from the toil of the workers of their own countries— in factories in China and India. It is the duty—in self-protection—of the organized workers of the capital- ist countries to help the workers of these’ countries to organize. Without this organization, the capitalists will drive down the conditions of the work- ers of their own countries. In some instances this has already happened, and the prospect is that it will con- tinue. Soviet Russia's Unions. Purcell then spoke of the trade unions of Soviet Russia. The mention of Russia brought forth a peal of ap- plause. He explained that in 1920 he had gone to Soviet Russia, and saw the parctical beginnings of the trade union movement. They were still roping, method of building them up. Again in 1924, Purcell, together with other prominent leaders of the British trade union movement, such as Bramley, Smith and others, went as a delega- tion to Soviet Russia, where they were shown whatever they desired. They saw the union machinery—they visited the clubs. Purcell described that the clubs are schools for train- ing trade unionists into becoming bet- ter trade unionists and to fit them for the work of reconstruction. “They use the palaces and villas that they “The British labor movém congress at Scarborough. fecid it is none of our business what poli- itty,” i 5 G inherited to teach the illiterate. That is part of their function—a function that, of course, we og? ga to per- from, being that We aré so much more intelligent—only''the workers of Russia have got ri of their masters, which we have not.’ He spoke..of the miners’ federation, and the unions of the other industries, ent at its ed that tical belief a worker has—-whether he is republican, syndicalist, socialist, or Communist. All want to know is whether he is a ‘ker, then we know that he is part ofthe movement. “Tt is time that Workers are getting out of their insularity. It is time that they see beyond their own distrigt council, their own' state feder- ation. They must look upon the ques- tion as a world question,” Against Capitalist Wars. Purcell then showed the horrors that confront the workers of the world after the “war to end all wars.” “Why are they preparing mor@ dangerous and powerful gases and’ chemicals, airplanes and bombs? Is it because war will never come again, as they said? It is not. They are preparing these death-dealing machines because they know that we are further from peace than before. These chemicals will not be used against the bellig- erents, but against the women and children. It is time that the workers of the world tell the masters in un- mistakeable terms that they will not go along in this war game. That we can do only if we have world trade union unity.” : Purcell ended with an eloquent ap- peal to the workers of this country to consider the suggestions of the British Trade Union Congress. He asked them to go beyond the confines of their immediate situation and to en-: visage the problems that confront the entire labor movement of the world. “Even if we cannot prevent war, we will make the masters, the financiers, who are interested in war, the vested interests, which have something to gain by the war, be cafeful in their war talk. We will be able to tell these war gourmands that if they are interested in war, they may go out and fight them themselves. The speaker was interrupted by rounds of applause. His appeal met with @ most hearty response from the 1,000 workers present. Meeting Has Great Portent. Unquestionably the coming of Pur- cell has been of inestimable signi- ficance tu the trade union movement of this city, If the workers—and par- ticularly the trade union leaders—of this city respond only in a small measure to his appeal, the movement in Cleveland will look forward. Per- haps it may not be too much to sug- gest that the Cleveland Federation of Labor, or some of the progressive elements in the federation sponsor a move to send a trade union delegation to Soviet Russia, so, that representa- tive American workers may see with their own eyes what is taking place in] women appeals to all the working » and may see, as Pur-|class women in the house, shop, and Soviet Ri not yet having found the; oT ORRY: Number Eleven of the series of reports headed “Social and Political Facts on the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics,” arrives from Moscow. the unemployed problem here, no talk of crushing war debts, no speculations about fake “peace pacts,” these troubles are for the capitalist world. Communists in the Soviet Union, as in the anti-Soviet nations, deal with these problems as aspects of the developing world revolutionary situation. But Report Number Eleven shows that the Soviet Union is deal- ing with the future, growing ever brighter, with “Plans and Perspectives” for the days immediately ahead. These facts, persistently presenting themselves, in. in- » creasingly brilliant colors, to, the oppressed of the world, must ultimately convince the victims of capitalism that their only escape lies along the road that the workers and peas- ants of Russia have already trod. * * New blast furnaces ‘are being built and ovens repaired in the Southern Urals that will turn out steel now obtained in London. The Miassky File Factory is being extended and during the last few months turned out 10,000 dozen files, amounts to 145 per cent of the program. Two big facts there. A basic industry shows continual improvement, while a factory outstrips by half what was de- manded of it. Rich accumulations of new radium deposits have been discovered in two places along the White Sea coast. This is merely one of the many incidents showing the growing success met with in the search for new fields for the exploitation of the Soviet Union's. untold wealth in na- tural resources. * . One paragraph says: “Since the commencement of the campaign up to Oct. 1, 153,318,- 300,000 poods (pood is 36 pounds) of wheat products were purchased and stored, which amounts to 90.7 per cent of the program. of grain is proceeding without interruption.” Sufficient reply to the Chicago Tribune's fake reports from Riga, Latvia, of a new famine. * * Good news from the valley of the Volga (the Mississippi River of the Soviet Union) that was hardest hit by the 1921 famine. Here it is: “Traffic on the Volga has increased by 170 per cent as compared wjth Demands for the coming year indicate a further incre In connection with this the merchant fleet will be increased by 80 units.” And Chicago only talks about the “lakes-to-the-gulf” last .year. waterway. * * That the funds with which to build for the New Day in the Soviet Union are increasing is shown by this statement: “The general total for the state and all local budgets amounts dur- ing 1925-26 to about five milliard roubles, which is an increase of about 40 per cent on the total figures of the present 1924-25 budget.” Then this is very important: “Donetz caal is rapidly conquering a place on the French market by its quality and cheapness,” This snows that Russian coal, which is being mined in resulting in over-production at home, ng with German and British coal in ever greater quantit is successfully comp: France. And again: “The sale of Soviet oil on the Constantinople market has increased The first consignment of 40 ploughs, manufactured in the factories of the Soviet agricultural machine trust, has been sent five-fold. . . to Constantinople.” Thus the oil riches of the Soviet Union find an ever-in- creasing market. While the news that Soviet Russia is ex- porting farm machinery to the Near East shows that the problem of modernizing agriculture at home is being rapidly solved. * * And just to tell the world that Soviet rule is here to stay, a five-year program for tea growing in the Soviet Republic of Georgia is announced that will tend to make the Soviet Union entirely independent of the rest of the tea producing world. * * All progress.in building the Soviet Union! An advance for the world social revolution! Working Women in Demands on N. Y. City Government (Continued from page 1). Even in these firetrap tenements, by the commission's report, families with young and old boarders “crowd as many as 14 into the small space of three and four rooms. Such conditions undermine the fam- ily life of the workers, when a worker has to rent an apartment he is asked to pay one and two months rent in-ad- vance, which he cannot do. The old apartments which rent for four and five dollars a room, are made over into costly apartments, and the work- ers who cannot pay more than five dollars per room must share apart- ments and undergo special hardships. In view of these outstanding fact: the United Council of Working Class women proposes: In order to relieve the great masses of workers’ families with their young the United Council of Working Class Women, consisting mostly of housewives and affiliated with neigh- borhood housewife councils in every horough and other housewives’ organ- fzations, proposes the following: That the city build houses or rent them to the workers at prices within their means not above cost. ‘The united council of working class cell said, “that the Russian trade| factory to support the demands of the union is a bonafide bonafide as the move: ica, Great Britain or fj , union, a8] United Coung{l,of Working Class Wo- ts in Amer-| men, only unity of all the work- other coun-| ers, men an Oba betkox thelr omen, will the work- sonditiqns ene airs. Nanay Brightest Spot on Earth By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. clase collaboration polices) which are No worry about which The loading * * py ‘ . * * I MOSER CSET OTN AO a SINS NEE Nee Pee PO mT I ERP EC SEB CORE SR a NORE a Rn Sa ED DE eS Se Os De ne OR RS A Re STE EIET NEW BUILDING Forms Union Branch in Germany, Report The 17th general convention of the |, W. W. yesterday voted against the proposal to sell the building recently purchased and also turned down the Proposal to dispose of ths printing plant, which had been, according to Manager Kohn, running at an expense that did not justify its being retained, he recommending that printing be done elsewhere. Kohn showed that the different print shop managers had varied in their efficiency, Under the ‘manage- ment of Anz, who adheres at present in ideology and organization to the emergency program, the costs of printing one dollar’s worth of matter was $1.04, under George Williams $1.84, and while Kohn had reduced the expenditure to 94 cents, his fail- ing health impelled him to offer his resignation, He asked that another be placed in his position. Fellow Worker Joseph O'Neil of the Agricultural Workers Industrial Un- ion retired from the convention and George Elsasser was seated as alter- nate. It was reported to the convention that the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, No, 510, has esta- blished a branch at Bremerhaven, Germany. Kip Rhinelander, Knew Before Marriage That Wife Had Negro Blood NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 12—A new angle developed in the Leonard Kip Rhinelander case when Attorney Lee Parsons Davis, attorney for the de- fense, showed that Kip knew that Alice was of the Negro race before he married her. Philip Rhinelander, the millionaire father, is seeking an- nulment of the marriage because the wife is a descendent of the Negro race. Davis charged that Philip Rhine- lander and his millions and not the husband are behind this move and he has used every contemptible meth- od for degrading the girl and her family to secure the annulment. Davis threatened to bring the old man's nasty letters written to the girl into court. He quoted young Rhinelander saying to Alice ‘when stories began appearing about the girl’s Negro ori- gin, “Never mind, Alice, I'm the one who should care and I don’t.” Sanitarium doctors have been brot as witnesses by the millionaire fath- er to show that his son is all but short of an imbecile and was irre- sponsible when he contracted the marriage. INDEPENDENT UNION FRACTION IN NEW YORK WILL MEET SATURDAY (Special to The Dally Worker) NEW YORK, Nov. 12—All party members who are members of the independent unions must attend the’ regular Independent Union Fract! meeting at the headquarters, 108 E. 14th St. New York City, Saturday, Nov. 14, at 3 p, m. The party policy of the independ- ent unions as decided by the Na tional Industrial Department will be considered and plans made for car- rying it out, (Continued from page 1) in South Norwalk, where it declares it won two dollar increases for mem- bers. But here the membership is. in revolt against the machine for a re- actionary agreement, which tied the union to a five-year agreement for a forty-eight hour week and no shop chairmen, ‘ Ignores New York. Nothing is said in the report of ac: tivities of the New York joint board, where 1,500 workers have just been added to the union in the militant strike of the Greek furriers; but much is told of their part in the La- Follette “progressive” movement, which betrayed the movement for a labor party, The report has nothing to say re- garding the betrayal, despite the fact that the union is on record as favor- ing a labor party. This is not sur- prising, since Kaufman's machine at the A. F. of L, convention just held, voted with Green and his cohorts to damn the labor party movement and keep labor tied to the kite of capital- ist politics, The report proudly endorses the in- Junction secured by the Boston local union against the firm of Isadore Mill- man, which aroused the opposition of every progressive worker in the union, Similar reactionary policies are endorsed, Left Wing Policy, ‘The left wingers will fight the adop- tion of the report and expose the A = ai Kaufman Machine Is Desperate The left wing has introduced re- solutions for a labor party, the re- cognition of Soviet Russia, amalga- mation of the needle trades unions, shop committees, the sending of a delegation of needle trades workers to Soviet Russia, class conscious edu- cational program, world trade union unity, endorsement of The DAILY WORKER and Fretheit, recognition ot the First of May as a holiday, demands for a fighting policy against class collaboration and for militant trade demands, “As We See It” Monday, Nov. 16 Beginning next week, “As We See It,” the column edited by T. J, O'Flaherty, will again appear in The DAILY WORKER as one of its regular features, This bright, analytiéal comment on the events of the day—graced with the keen wit of the well-known writer, is the very best reason to induce your friends to SUBSCRIBB! ~ ii