The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 21, 1926, Page 5

= ] Workers Write A HERE IS A UNION” THAT WE'RE GLAD TO WRITE ABOUT Paper ia Workers to Entertain Jan. 23 By HYMAN GORDON, By A Worker Correspondent NEW YORK CITY, Jan. 19,--, The Paper Plate and Bag Makers’ Local No, .107,, was, organized a few years ago and is affiliated with the Interna- tional of Pulp Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. There are more than a thou sand workers employed in the paper bag factories of New York, but’ only something over a hundred workers ber long to the local. The local is' progressive. All the members are heart and soul. with the progressive labor movement, We have fifteen subscribers for The DAILY WORKER. Our workers are beginning to understand that they have nothing in common with the pic- ture sheets of the’ ruling class.. The DAILY WORKER is the only news- baper that takes an interest in, their daily struggles, in their efforts to or- Banize the trade, Actually Organizing. The local is doing its utmost in the organization’ campaign. Pres. John Burke of the International is giving us every possible help. He appointed for us as special organizer, Alex. Marks, and sent Vice-President Sulli- van to help us in our campaign. On the other side the bosses of the unorganized shops are taking meas- ures to stop their slaves from joining the union. They are surrounding the factories with police, they are inti- midating their workers. Come to This Entertainment. Our local is organizing at our own expense an entertainment and dance on Saturday, 8:30 p. m., January 23, 1926, at School Settlement Association House, 120 Jackson street, corner Manhattan ‘avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. We are sending out free admission tickets to all the paper bag workers of New York to come to our affair, where they will be urged to join our local. I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, paper bag workers. It is time for you to better your conditions, to change the 50-hour week for a 44-hour This contributions Week’s Prizes! Every week The DAILY’ WORKER offers prizes for the three best nt in by worker correspondents. Last week's prizes were won by a stockyard worker, a garment worker and a domestic worker. Send in your stories about the conditions in your factory, mill or mine, You may win one of these valuable prizes. First Prize: Second Prize: “Capital,” by Karl Marx, first volume, “Ancient Society,” by Morgan. This book ex- plains the development of society from savagery thru barbarism to civilization, It was acclaimed as a masterpiece by both Marx and Engels at the time of its publication. Third Prize: framed. ‘ A DAILY WORKER cartoon, original drawing. PARTNERSHIP BUNK KEEPS A. & P. MEN CHAINED BEHIND COUNTERS By H, G, FILLMORE, Worker Correspondent, TRAUNTON, Mass., Jan, 19.—I interviewed a friend of mine, who is everything from manager to janitor in here, an Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co, store After working there ten years he was forced to reckon up before he could tell me how many, hours he worked weekly. He has to keep the, store open 644——__—_—__———————————— hours, lunch during his. own time, and do five or six hours, bookkeeping on Sunday, : I said: “It seems to me you fellows need a union ;if you were organized you would stand @ ‘chance to force your working hours down nearer civil- ized standards.” “Well,” he answered, “the company wouldn’t hire a union man.” (How ex- traordinary!) The company works the “partner- ship” gag to the tune of “1% on sales, call the firm ours, know a little psy- chology and apply it.” He said he hadn’t time to’ read much, and his understanding bears this out. The never-ending boxes and crates, containing the fake, denatured food have to be brought out of the back room, unpacked and the cans pyram- ided; a never-ending to be done when customers arg slack? For 70 hours. of Steady work (and if one doesn’t stick’ to dt he gets be- hind and is droppéd),' the pay is $27 the first year, withra pearly increase of $2 weekly, up tosa maximum of $39.00, 1a 6 I suppose the thought of $40 was too much for the directors’ nerves so they stopped just short of it. My friend thought all this was pret- ty good, but I eticouraged him to week; to increase your miserable wage. All this will be possible only when you join the organization, When you are alone you are lost. Only in unity is there power. Be a real worker. Have self-respect. You are the one that roduces; builds this world and you are entitled to a better share. Organize! Come to our affair. Join us and help us to put the conditions .of our trade on the same level as the painters, plumbers, furriers, tailors, and other organized workers, “Stand by Lenin’s Russia.” Pledge yourself to the defence and recogni- tion of the Soviet Union at the big Lenin Memorial meetings. Read—Write—distribute The DAILY WORKER. figure it on an hotly “basis, to look up A. & P. profits ‘and to'conside? how little influence he andithe other clerks have in shaping the policy of the com- pany they are building, Surely the “product, rules the pro- ducers” so long as they remain unor- ganized. This moloch they have built with their labor controls their life. Silk Workers’ Union Protests . Injunction Against Mill Strike PATERSON, N, J., Jan. 19.—The op- pression of capitalist’ ‘courts is strik- ing at the struggling textile workers of New Jerséy, and the Hillcrest Mills strikers are confronted with a drastic injunction, upon which the Associated An Analysis of Corrupt Labor Journalism By Jack Hardy Need Advance, official organ of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, in its issue of January 1, 1926, carries an article entitled “Sidelights on the I. L. G. W. U. Convention” which clas- sically illustrates the way for a labor, and supposedly radical organ to begin the new year wrong. Moreover, the writer of the article, an ambitious young man whose name appears with about equal frequency in the Advance and the New Leader, New York organ of the socialist party, illustrates typic- ally an attitude of mind of which all class conscious workers willbe wary. The article and the attitude it por- trays will therefore warrant examinay’ tion and discussion, The article recites with more or less exactitude that which occurred upon the floor of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Convention | No shade of interpretation is given to anything which took place there; no comment is passgd upon any of its decisions; no historical background (without which facts as such are worthless) is attempted for any of the issues that were there at stake, The bare external manifestations ef the * points at issue are merely recited as they appeared to one who does not know, or at any rate pretends not to be concerned with the deeper issues involved, Here then we have another of those always painful attempts at an unprejudiced recital of the “facts.” HIS sort of an attempt to refuse to face the realities of the class strug- gle is as old as certain among the bourgeois professors who, in spite of themselves, have come to und a the working of the social order, but who do not possess enough courage to take a radical stand, Their argument runs something like this: “The thing to do is not to take sides but to pre- sent facts—facts and facts alone.” Set , forth that which took place, without interpretation or comment, ahd be 4 sure to state both sides of the case.” Thus are they relieved of the neces- sity of having any ideas of their own. Like most soothing syrup their argu- ment sounds superficially fine, But analyze the ingredients of most such ‘syrups and you will. usually find a narcotic. Examine the. basis upon which this contention rests and. you'll )usually find a bourgeois apologist. Let us examine the account of our “im- partial” journalist in»the Advance, How impartial does. hig: attitude look when it has throw wpon it the spot- light of critical analysis? E quotes, for example, these words from a speech ‘delivered before the convention by © William -Green, president of the American Federation of Labor: “I have no qtiarrel with a member of our union ‘who may be classified as a radical. In fact, I am glad to see that spirit manifest itself. I would rather see that alive in every organization than I Would see it dried up with dry rot.” Present while Green was delivering himself of this palaver was William F, Dunne who was expelled from the A. F. of L. at its convention in 1928 for his known radical leanings. He was reporting the convention of the garment workers for The DAILY WORKER. Also present were Hyman, Zimmerman and many others who a few brief months previously had been intended victims of Sigman’s pre-con- vention expulsion rampage, These militant working class repre- sentatives must have either snickered or growled, according to their indi- vidual temperaments, while Green was handing out this kind of “soft soap.” But the reporter for the Ad- tand | vance could not go.,behind.the speak- ers words, He was reporting “facts” and nothing but “faets” and he there- fore had no room for ,nterpretation, He accordingly presentsjxthe labor leader's words “impartially” and a hundred thousand odd clothing work- ers are asked to peey at their prima facie value, PROLET-TRIBUNE TOBE | REPEATED FRIDAY AT DOUGLAS PARK SCHOOL The fourth issue of Prolet- Tri- bune, the Russian living newspaper of the Novy Mir workér correspond- ents met with tremendous success. The Workers’ House was crowded to capacity. At the invitation of the Douglas Park Russian Children’s School this issue of Prolet-Tribune will be repeated in the school, at 2734 W. 18th St., this Friday, Jan. 22, at 8 p. m. Silk Workers has issued the following statement over the signature of Fred Hoeschler, secretary-treasurer, “The members of the Broad Silk department and the joint executive board of Local Paterson, - Associated Silk Workers, in regular meetings assembled voice their protest against the injunction issued by Chancellor Walker against the strikers of the Hillerest Silk Mills of North Bergen. “We especially protest against the restrictions imposed regarding picket- ing and the setting of the day for a hearing at such a late date; all pick- eting being prohibited in the mean- time.” Correspondents’ Class to Be Organized in Pittsburgh, Thursday PITTSBURGH, Pa., Jan. 19.— An important meeting of all Workers’ Correspondents of this city will be held Thursday, Jan. 21, 8 p. m., at the party headquarters, 805 James street., N. S. All comrades who have regis- tered previously and those who wish to register now must attend this meet- ing without fail. The meeting will be conducted under direct supervision of Comrade Jakira, the district or- ganier. Each shop or street nucleus must have at least one comrade pres- ent at the meeting. R again, stuck off in an innocent looking corner of the page is re- corded the fact that the convention went on record in favor of recognition by the United States of the Soviet Republic. “Fime,” exclaims the rank and file worker who is unacquainted with the history of that decision, “the International and its leaders are on the correct road.” That is the only con- clusion such a reader could arrive at from this so-called “impartial” report, for nothing is added to throw light upon the fact that this was a purely left-wing issue, won thru hard fighting over the opposition of President Sig- man, who wrote in the pre-convention period (Justice, Nov. 27, 1925): “,.. No person who regards human freedom as the greatest conquest of our civilization, can recognize the Russian government, which is the embodiment of the greatest tyranny of our day and the most outspoken vio- lator of the idea of human freedom.” Once more, class conscious work- ers can see at a glance thru the “im- partiality” of the reporter for the Ad- vance. NOTHER reported decision in the same article is that the conven- tion “demanded liberation of political prisoners, including those in Russia,” The author could not draw the line between those prisoners in Western urope and America who are in prison for fighting their class battles, and those in Russia who are imprisoned because they would, if possible, be- tray the only workers’ and peasants republic into the hands of the inter- national militarists and bankers. He could not do this because on such matters he and the Advance must be —impartial,” Further, along we are informed that the Intérnatipnal “voted to support the formation 6f a labor party.” Once more, under the guise of the same kind ed ality” Mr, Sigman is indiree ited with @ grand coating? p Uiliowann. Presentation Polish Worker Is Page Five Jailed on Account of Union Activity (Continued from page 1.) Robotnicza, the organ of the Polish section of the Workers (Communist) Party, he showed how the company- owned sheriff, Don Chafin, murdered union miners and Kurowksi called upon the miners to organize and strike for better conditions, His articles had a great effect on the miners. The Polish miners read his story with “the greatest interest and sentime: it for union in Logan county was Created, The union miners in Ohio under, @ leadership of Com- rade K, Okragka of Neffs, demanded that the Lewis machine send organ- izers into the, Logan county district. The machine,,unable to resist this demand on the part of the miners that organizers be sent, sent organ- izers to Logan, These organizers stopped at one_of the hotels and did not get into connection with the miners immédjately. The day after they had a} ty jd in Logan they were served with an injunction restraining them from cafrying on union organ- ization work., The organizers allowed themselves to’e driven from Logan without organjzing a single man. « Refusg to Stop Work, Comrade Kurowski did not stop his work. He carried on with redoubled vigor calling on his fellow workers to fight against the bosses. The bosses seeing that thru the activities of Com- rade Kurowski, the sentiment for a union was increasing and that sooner or later the miners would strike for better condition, fired him. Not satis- fied with just throwing’ him out of his job, they arrested him, beat him up and then threw him into a filthy jail, Fight for Kurowski. It is the duty of the union miners to fight for Comrade Kurowski. Union miners, defentf "your fellow worker! Union miners;;:send organizers into the Logan edfihty district and organ- ize this non-union field! Have Com- rade Kurowsiti as one of the main organizers! er The Trybullg Robotnicza received the following, ,Jetter from Comrade Kurowski tething of how he is being persecuted in this hell hole of scab conditions bi ise of his activities for the United Mine Workers of America: Threaten to Kill Militant. “T have been discharged from my job and have been arrested. Before being put in‘Juil,the deputy sheriffs of Logan cowaty‘beat me up. The only crime that I have committed is writing about the conditions of the coal miners }opTrybuna Robotnicza, in which I algo exposed Don Chafin. They threatén}to murder me. They take away all letters that come to me. Many copies of the Trybuna Robot- nicza never reach me. In this letter you will find my discharge slip. “I will tell the details of the whole thing as 8000, as I am,freed. I am still in the hands of the gang. “With Cofimunist Greetings, “Tadeusz J. Kurowski.” CHICAGO NUCLEI Every Member Must Get splendid “work in putting across the drive “Every Member a Subscriber” and in the nuclei represented nearly all of the scribers to The DAILY WORKER due BEHIND DAILY WORKER DRIVE Party Organ The following comrades have done members are now sub- to the splendid work of The DAILY WORKER agents: M. Auerbach, Street Nucleus 13; Robert Garver, Street Nucleus 14; Clara Lieberman, Street Nucleus 21; Hans Johnson, Street Nucleus 22; A. Pollack, Street Nucleus. 23; Anna Lawrence, Street Nucleus 27. Shop Nucleus No. 21 heads the list in the shop nuclei for percentage of subscribers, compared with member- ship. There are still many street and shop nuclei to be heard from on this drive and we hope in the next an- nouncement to be able to publish the names of DAILY WORKER agents who have made their nuclei 100% for The DAILY WORKER subscription drive. During the last week there have been a number of free distributions of The DAILY WORKER at large cloth- ing shops. This distribution is taking} place at 7:20 to 8:00 o'clock in the} morning and the following comrades} have done the job to perfection: Margaret "Dunne, Minne Lurye, Vera Friedman, Anna Leitchenger, John Hecker, Veleria Meltz, Helen Kaplan, Edith Friedman, Caddie Hill, Kitty Harris, Mrs. Rykovitch and Amos Maki. Please send in your name, address ‘and phone number as a volunteer in future DAILY WORKER shop dis- tributions. Quite often there are hur- ry-up calls for this work and I want to be in a position to be able to call on a dozen comrades in a few moments notice for distribution in the city. City Agent, Daily Worker, 19 South Lincoln Street. Canadian Unions Split pre-war mortality rate for infants un-+ very fine speech, INFANT MORTALITY RATE CUT IN TWO BY SOVIET RULE COMPARED TO DEATH RATE UNDER CZARISM MOSCOW—(By Mail.)—More than 500 delegates from all parts of the Union attended a national conferen®& of medical workers engaged in pro- tection of maternity and childhood, in connection with which an extensive health exhibition was maintained. The all-Russian annual physicians’ con- ference was held concurrently, Dr. Semashko, people’s commissar for health, told of the great strides forward that had already been made, and cited the cutting down of the der one year of age from 35 per cent | 5 to the present 17 per cent. Trotsky Need for Relief of also came up from the Caucusus to Anthracite Growing; attend this conference and made a Child G H uiadren Go Friungry A very considerable increase in the number of creches, infant homes, etc, was noted, as well as an extensive popular educational campaign by means of brightly colored posters, bedecked with rhymes and pictures. At the physicians’ conference an in- crease of 10 per cent in the total num- ber of county doctors ws noted, which benefitted mainly the villages since the county towns showed an increase of only 5 per cent. Clinics in- SCRANTON, Pa., Jan. 19, — Soup and bread are being served under- nourished children of striking anthra- cite miners in three Scranton public schools. More than 15 gallons of soup and over 24 loaves of bread are used | daily. The Scranton board of reports practically all schools short education creased from 3,208 to 3,896; while|°f fuel. Teachers and pupils are beds in hospitals in county towns in- | suffering from colds which often creased from 50,973 to 54,665. There develop into pneumonia. Three was a decdease in the total number ; schools in Dunmore are closed for treated of 7.4 per cent, and in the county towns of 6.6 per cent. lack of heat. Scranton teachers are seeking $10 a month increase, but the board reports the district so poor Worker Correspondence..will make | that little, if any, increase will be The DAILY WORKER a better paper | given. Where the taxes of the coal —send in a story about your shop. | companies go to heaven only knows. Two Years After On the second anniversary of the death of our leader Lenin— We can at least’ do this FOR LENINISM: Get one subscription for The Daily Worker to reach one worker. day after day with the principles of LENIN— With the message of LENINISM. f rom Internationals | Forming Independents, a | OTTAWA, Can—(FP)—The move-| ment for Canadian unions independent | of the A. F. of L. appears to be grow-| ing. The two recently reported splits | among the boilermakers and commer- cial telegraphers have borne fruit in new unions. The boilermakers are or- ganizing as locals of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employes. and two new charters are reported applied for, one in Montreal and the other in Sherbrooke, Que. The com mercial telegraphers have formed the Electrical Communication Workers of Canada. Henry Lynch, lately general chairman in the Canadian National Telegraph division of the C. T. U. A., is head of the new body. “The proletariat struggles for the conquest of power.”—Lenin. How If you waiit to thoroughly un- derstand Communism—study it of bare facts obviates the necessity | of recording, alongside of this, Mr. Sigman’s pre-convention opposition to the left-wing demand for a labor party with the false argument that “if all the workers afte to belong to one po- litical party .. . whoever would ven- ture to belongisto another political group or schoél would by the nature of this resolution be discriminated.” In the Advance we find neither a record of thig Sigman position, nor the fallacy behind it, Mr. Sigman, together with the left-wing, is by in- nuendo creditgf with the labor party Lenin lived this struggle will be told at the Lenin Memorial meetings. Sigman took a ‘leading part in con- tributing lessons from his long ex- perience with the union,” In spots, if we are careful, we find “impartiality” breaking down, and when it does we do not overlook whither it points, N the struggle of the working class against the established order, there can be but one of two positions—for or against. There can be no middle ground, there can be no half way or “impartial” position. He who does not take up the cudgels against the established order, by his very inactiv ity and failure to act, tacitly acquies- plank. 'N this fashfon, were it necessary, we could examine the article in the Advance paragraph by paragraph and expose the ngjure of its “impartial ity." But engugh has been cited to put the membeys of the Amalgamated and other workers on their guard, and to tmpress upop them what they may expect in the columns of their union's official organ while it is being domi- nated by the Hillman machine. Just one fonal thought. I say above that, sqatch the surface upon which the so-called “impartial fact” theory is built, and-you'll usually find a bourgeois apologist. The article we are examining bears this out when, in a brief and unguarded moment, its author lets the cat out of the bag. In discussing a class-conscious re- solution presented by the left-wing in favor of repudiation of the governor's commission on the ground that it is “composed of individuals who, ac- cording to their social position and in- terests, belong to the ruling class, and therefore, cannot make decisions in favor of the workers” our “impartial” reporter writes: , “It is In the discussion of this reso- lution that thel''rights’ revealed their superior knowledge, or at least con- sideration of practical affairs, In theory they have no objection to the idealistic position taken by the sup- porters of thdée declarations, were they workable? . .. President ces in its maintenance. This again is classically exemplified in the Advance. Our youthful and “impartial” reporter closes signifi- cantly: “Perhaps after all ‘Left-Right’ will be followed by ‘Forward March!'” (One is tempted to suspect that he means the Jewish Daily Forward.) But “Forward March” toward what? Toward the left or the right wing? The two are incompatible, and in the absence of an alternative position the plea for “Forward March” means to- ward the position of the party in office ~-ip this case the Sigman machine. LASS conscious workers are in no mood for “impartiality,” They have learned time and time again, thru bitter experience, that it leads but to the path of either their exploiters or their betrayers in the labor ranks (a la second international). They want frankly partiality—partiality in favor of the abolition of’ capitalism and the substitution of a workers’ re- public. They realize that this cannot be ac- THE LENIN DRIVE Aor Fite Thousand New dude to THE DAILY WORKER ‘ulssto promote these principles. To add ~ 5,000 new readers to add 5,000 more workers to the growing ranks of revolu- tionary labor. f LENIN SAYS: “Without a_polit- ical organ a move- ment deserving the name of a political movement is un- thinkable.” The American movement has its polit- ical organ— The Daily Worker How much it can do for the movement depends on its growth. The growth of The Daily Worker depends on YOU. On the second anniversary of the death of LENIN—contribute to the spread of LENINISM— With at Least One Sub! Enclosed $ RATES In Chicago: mos, subscription to The Daily Per year , Worker. Six months Three months .. complished in a day, but they also realize that the better organized they are toward their ultimate revolution- ary goal, the better equipped they automatically become to fight their immediate struggles in the shops. When they find anything short of this advocated in their union papers, they ea sho know howto meet it when it shows itself Name... 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