The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 28, 1926, Page 3

4 ee F WHIPPING-POS LEGALIZED IN| NORTH CAROLINA Jail Superintendent Lashes Men to Death By ART SHIELDS, (Federated Press.) NEW YORK, Jan, 26,—North Caro- lina laws expressly authorize the lash-" Ing of road gang prisoners of that state, Thus that commonwealth must bear its.share of responsibility for the murder of the two Negro prisoners that led to murder _ indictments against N. C. Cranford, superinten- dent of the Stanley county convict system. Infllet Tortures, The investigating committee of the state board of charities and public welfare returned a report stating that there had been hundreds of cases of floggings; that men had been strung up by the heels and hands, that pris- oners had been knifed, had their hands broken or dragged, shackled be- hind trucks. This report bates the important fact that Cranford tho ex- ceeding the brutality officially author- ized, was yet permitted by state law to lash prisoners. The convict superintendent was giv- en written authorization by the Stan- ley county road commissioners to ap- ply “reasonable corporal punishing for disobedience, refusal to work, or other infraction of the rules laid down by such superintendent for the gov- erning of the chain gang, by whipping such prisoner or prisoners with a single ply strap, striking him not more than twenty licks, in such man- ner as not to inflict serious damage on the body of such prisoner or pris- oners,.” . “This order,” says thé in- vestigating committee, “was made in compliance with Chapter 330, Public- Local Laws 1923.” Treated Like Mules, G. D: Troutman, chairman of the road commission, told an investigator of the charities board that he was satisfied as long as the men received the same treatment as the mules. Both he and County Attorney W. E. Smith, said, that “the only way to appeal to a nigger is thru his hide.” Convict laborers are either worked directly under county supervision or farmed out to road contpactors. The contractors get county prisoners for as little as 50 cents a day—depending on the price fixed by the commis- sioners. State prisoners, at last re- ports, fetch $2 a day. Convict-Made Roads. North Carolina motor clubs are ad- vertising their fine roadways for the purpose of attracting northern travel- ers. It is well for the labor move- “ment to realize that these highways they sée pictured in motorlogue sec- tions of the newspapers are built with unpaid labor, driven by the lash. The brief digest of atrocities given above cannot do justice tothe brutalities catalogued in the state charities re port. And it is well for the labor movement also to realize that unem- ployed workers who in other states find relief by highway jobs in North Carolina and in all the state where the chain gang system prevails soe their places taken by penal slaves. Syrup Concern Is Liquor Distillery Prohibition agents after a year’s search seized an olcohol distillery in Chicago which, posing as a syrup con- cern, is alleged to have turned out , 3,000 gallons of outlaw liquor daily for the last year. “The proletariat struggles for the conquest of power.”—Lenin. How Lenin lived this struggle will be told at the Lenin Memorial meetings. eee eeeieere * In Los Angeles! First Annual Concert ; given by the A. R. Freiheit Mandolin Club SATURDAY EVE., JAN. 30, 1926 ‘ at 8:15 tive Center Hall 2706 Brooklyn Ave. 40 Mandolin Players on the Stage. The following prominent artists . will participate: Gloria Blackstone Coloratura Soprano I. Blumenthal Alexander Rivlin _ Planist. Admission 50 Cents, ANDY MELLON’S ALUMINUM TRUST HAS WORLD MONOPOLY OF INGOT PRODUCTION; LELAND OLDS, Federated Press. A 1925 profit of more than 200% on his common stock in the Aluminum Co. of America is what Secretary of the Treasury Mellon gets out of the government protected monopoly with which he milks households to the tune of over $10,000,000 a year, and he appears to have the assurance that a brother cabinet member will not hasten to persecute the country’s richest PE Se Sat ee corer eS Jawbreaker. Hide Profits. Recent juggling of the capitaliza- tion of Aluminum Co. of America con- ceals the exhorbitant profits, Within the last year the Mellon brothers have reduced the par value of the common stock from $100 to $5. For each original $100 share they issued seven preferred shares of $100 par paying 6 per cent and 6 of the new common shares which have been changed to no par. As the common shares now have a market value of over $60, the owner of the original shares have securities worth over $1,060 for each $100 invested. This year’s profit after payment of preferred dividends will mean at least $10 a share for the $5 par common stock or $60 on the 6 shares held for each original $100 share,, Has World Monopoly. The Aluminum Co, of America man- ufactures approximately 90 per cent| of the world’s production of aluminum and owns vast aluminum ore deposits. It is one of the greatest owners of hydro-electric property in the world, controlling 1,500,000 horsepower with increasing expansion. The Saguenay plant in Canada will have 10 turbines generating about 800,000 horsepower. The company’s present capacity to manufacture 300,000,000 pounds of HIDE BIG PROFITS aluminum a year is being rapidly in- creased. Controls Other Countries. It is. the sole producer of virgin aluminum ingots in the United States and since March, 1923, has produced over 95 per cent of the virgin sheet aluminum manufactured in the Unit- ed States; owns 36 per cent of the stock of the Aluminum Goods Manu- facturing Co., the largest manufactur- er of aluminum cooking utensils in the United States, and 100 per cent of the stock of the United States Alu- minum Co,, the second largest man- ufacturer of aluminum cooking uten- sils. These two companies produce 65 per cent of the total output of cooking utensils in the United States. The trust owns altogether 100 per cent of the stock of 34 corporations, more than 50 per cent of the stock of nine corporations and less than 50 per cent of the stock of 17 corpora- tions. Included is the Northern Alu- minum Co. of Canada, the only other maker of virgin aluminum ingots in North America. The chief use of aluminum, accord- ing to The Wall Street Journal, is in purifying steel. It is also essential in the automobile and railroad indus- try. (Continued fiom page 1) has been reduced from 2,300 in 1922, to 600 and the cars are now run by scabs as the result of the campaign waged by the company, Two Men Already in Prison. In acquitting the men;''the jury showed that it placed no‘ vonfidence in the testimony of the witnesses for the government. The defense proved these witnesses to be stoolpigeons of the company and showed; that these stoolpigeons had perjured themselves at either this or previous trials; since the testimony they gave ‘at this trial was diametrically the opposite of testimony which they gave-at previous trials. It is on the basis of the testi- mony of these very witnesses that the two members of the union now serv- ing’ sentence in state prison: were con- victed. . aT Thru these perjured stool pigeons Buffalo Unionists Escape Frame-up shortly in The DAILY WORKER or the Labor Defender, copies of which were also distributed around the court room, they all urged that your correspondent take their addresses and send them such copies. Plan Protest Meet. Many of them also expressed them- selves ag favorable to the idea of hold- ing a mass protest meeting against the use of the frame-up and provoca- teurs against active trade unionists. The International Labor Defense of this city is making arrangements for such @ meeting to be held Friday, Feb. 5, in the Engineers’ Hall, 36 W. Huron St. Representatives of local unions of the International Labor Defense and of the Workers Party will address this protest meeting, at which the true story of this and similar frame- ups against militant workers will be and provocateurs, the government at-| told, tempted to prove that the men on trial were guilty of conspiracy and participation in the blowing up by dynamite of the tracks of the Inter- national Railway company during the 1922 strike against this company. Regular Frame-Up. | The government based its case on the “confession” of George.Galloway who testified to having planned and actually participated in the placing of five cases of dynamite on the. car tracks, a few minutes before an excur- sion train carrying passetigers from the Niagara Falls passed over the spot.and was wrecked, ‘ The defense showed by readin; from previous testimony by the same witness, that he had sworn that he knew nothing about any plans to dyna- mite the tracks; that he never heard of anyone planning this and that no member of the union now on trial had ever suggested to him that he do any- thing wrong, Confronted by this testimony he sud- denly began to “forget.” The defense compelled him to admit tho that if he had given this testimony that it was true. From the records of the prev- ious trial it was easy to prove that he had given this testimony, A Fine Specimen! Another witness for the government was forced to admit undér cross-ex- amination that during the entire per- iod of the strike he was acting as under-cover-man for the company. That he received from the company in return for selling out the strikers, a weekly wage of $52.50, This witness further admitted that despite the fact that he was receiving these wages from the company, he continued to draw strike benefits of $10 per week from the union and had received over $500 in such benefits, From the testimony of these paid agents of the company, it now appears certain that the dynamiting was car- ried out by provocateura in the em- ploy of the company for the purpose of discrediting the strike aud thus de- feating the workers, Capitalist Press Concealed Truth, The trial aroused much interest among the workers here. The local “Brass-Check” press which continu- ally wages # vicious openshop cam- paign under the direction of the Buf- falo chamber of commerce, gave prom- inent space to the “confession” of the stoolpigeon, Galloway, and to all other Perjured testimony against the men. Not until the men were actually ac- quitted was anything favorable to the defendants mentioned in the local newspapers. ; The defendants and their friends were/therefore very much surprised and highly appreciative when shown copies of The DAILY WORKER ‘Leaders’ of Working Women Beg Coolidge for Labor Reforns WASHINGTON Jan. 26—Twenty- seven of the best-known trade union women in the United States went to the White House, during the national women’s industrial conference in Washington, and told President Cool- idge that they want eight-hour laws for working women. This definite statement was made in answer to the plea presented to Coo- lidge by the national women’s party, to the effect that he should help in the defeat and repeal of all laws giving industrial protection to women where the same protection is not given to men, This action was taken by the trade union delegates, to the industrial con- ference on the morning following a three-hour debate, granted by the con- ference to the woman’s party spokes- men, on the issue of the desirability of protective laws for women in in- dustry. Josephine Cosey of New York, at one time leader of a strike of the women ticket-choppers on tae subway system, now a woman's party ace, had attacked these laws as being a pos- itive injury to women wage earners. She declared that they gave an excuse to trade union organizers to do no- thing; that the organizers were get- ting old and lazy, and that employers used the protective laws as an ex- cuse to deny fair wages to women, The woman's party is of the great- est assistance to the open shop bosses in maintaining the low wages and bad shop conditions under which the mil- lions of women workers of this coun- try suffer, At the same time the so- called leaders of the working women are pursuing a policy of begging for reforms from the capitalists instead of organizing the women workers into the unions, Between these two sets of “leaders” the women workers are getting nowhere, Two Brotherhoods to — Ask for Wage Raises ‘CLEVELAND—(FP)—Members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Train- men and the Order of Railway Con- ductors will vote almost unanimously for a wage increase, according to referendum returns, made public in Cleveland by Trainmen officers. The vote means that officers must negoti- ate for substantial increases although the demands will not be made public until presented to the railway man- agements, The move is considered an answer to the formal demand of which carried the story of the trial.| the Switchmen’s Union of North Am- ‘When told that a further story giving] erica, am! A, F, of L. rival of the the history of the case would appear) Trainmey,-for & wage increase, all THE DAILY WORKER HISTORY DUNB, CONFOUNDED BY NAIL WHACKERS Eyewitness Bears Wit- ness to Tragic Farce By D. A. DROIT. DETROIT—One of the great writ- ers has remarked that “historical per- sonages and events occur twice in his- tory, first as tragedy and then as farce.” We have just witnessesd the enactment of the farce end of one of these historical combinations, its com- plement having occurred in a preced- ing “dark age.” In the early youth of the race, we are told, medicine men represented the ills from which the people suffer- ed as being due to the wrath of cer- tain dark: and remote beings, whose ire mightrhe appeased by the offering of humam sacrifices. These sacrifices were usually forthcoming, and whether or:not the promised results were obtained, the faith or fear ling- ered long athong the people, It has ¢ome to pass in this modern enlightened era, that certain medicine men having the confidence of some of the carpenters in Detroit (percentage doubtful); have promised that on the fulfillment of certain conditions, their privilege of electing delegates to a modern tribal council or “pow-wow,” known as the district council would be restored by certain dark powers whose anger had been aroused and whose wrath must be appeased, the conditions being that certain mem- bers of the tribe (or local), of whom the evil “red” spirits had taken pos- session, must be excluded from the fold. Now it is known that carpenters are strong in that quality which makes for faith,,and knowing that “Bishop” Botterill (who made these promises) was strongiin the grace of his omnipo- tence inidnudianapolis, and worthy of their respect and trust, they proceed- ed to purge the flock by excluding Brothers Joseph Koch and Oscar Freedland for their refusal to pledge fealty, obeflience and respect to the holy hocus pocus and his court in Indiana, Having{appeased the divine wrath by these human sacrifices, the faith- ful sat back in devout expectation of their reward, when lo and behold! in- stead of the expected district council, they ‘the representatives of the most hig and some of the local fledgling Medicine men welcoming back thesé outcasts still possessed of the “red” “devils, “unhumbled, unre- pentant dfid unreformed.” “God,” we are told, “works in a mysterioué way, his wonders to per- form. But the spectacle of these un- bending wilful ‘reds” back in the fold, enjoying ‘the gifts of office and the respect of the membets, leaves a doubt in the minds of the local faith- ful as to whether Hutcheson or the forces of ‘progress, in harmony with which thése “reds” act, is the real miracle worker, The followers of the lowly carpen- ter are beginning to question the messiah-anic role of Wm. L. Hutche- son et al and cogitation, deep and earnest, is wrinkling the brows of some not in the habit of questioning their superiors. What's next? is the question of the day, and Ozar Hutch had best restore the district council, for it is a matter of history that workers, struggling for “democratic” institutions, have swept forward to the Soviets! The Bolshie is no longer a bogey man! F armeti’ Paper Praises Work of I. L. D. and The Labor Defender 1. L. D. Press Service, That thé International Labor De- fense and’its organ, ‘The Labor De- fender aré‘reaching out among the wide masses of workers and exploited farmers is shown by the following editorial for the Producers’ News of Blentyw Montana, the most in- fluential ers’ paper in Montana with a rr 1 program, and indeed thruout th it northwest: “A new magazine has appeared in the labor find general radical move- ment. It ig the Labor Defender, the official organ of the International Labor Defense, a defense organization that stands in the front line trenches of the class struggle, defending in all possible ways, the men and women whom capitalism marks for the pris- ons because of their steadfastness to the cause of the workers and farmers of our country. It is a splendid and worthy organization, filling a long felt void in the American labor world. “Capitalism is now confronted with the real thing in the matter of work- ing class defense, in the shape of the f. L, D. It has already a glorious record. The Labor Defender chron- icles that record. It is the mirror of capitalist persecution, Nothing et capes it that is related to the persecu- tion of the’toilers. “Every worker and farmer who believes in the cause of the oppressed and downtrodden; who wants to see the victims'of capitalism properly de- fended and ‘their story broadly told, should subscribe to the Labor fender.” + Page Three SOVIET RUSSIA TO OPEN LANDS FOR MILLIONS OF FARMERS AND» RECLAIM USELESS WASTE LANDS By WILLIAM (Special Moscow Correspondent of The Daily Worker) MOSCOW—(By Mail.)—Another of the myriad signs development in Russia as contrasted land policy is such that it will attract as well as solve the current pressing problem of the land-poor peasant. According to a statement by the U. S. S. R. land settlement committee there are now in Soviet Russia and vacant land available for 2,698,000 sett for cultivation in Siberia, in the Far East, and in the northwest. Within ten years there will be available land allottments for almost six million farmers. To Reclaim Dry and Wet Land. Very serious efforts are being directed toward reducing and mitigat- ing the drought area which now com- prises 636 million dessatins, while the opposite condition, as found in the Siberian “Taiga,” or marsh land, are also being studied and experimented on toward the end of dealing with the surplus moisture, A number. of agricultural experimental stations are being established in connection with the campaign for agricultural colon- ization of Siberia. For anti-drought work alone 77 million rubles have been appropriated. The extent of Soviet Russia’s con- cern not only for the present but also for the distant future agricultural pro- duction of food and raw material, is seen in the far-flung search for new seeds and products to be raised un- der all of the unimaginably diverse soil and climatic conditions of this proletarian state that rules over one- sixth of the earth. World-Wide Search For Progress. Prof. Vavilov, director of the de- partment of field cultures, of the F. KRUSE. of the upgrade with the capitalist world is that its many millions of sturdy new settlers, the Ukraine 14,600,000 dessiatins of lers. Large tracts are also available | Leningrad Institute of Applied Botany, is proceeding to the Mediter- | ranean Archipelago, Egypt, Abyssinia, Syria and Palestine to investigate the | cultures of legumes, flax, cotton, ete. | Last year Prof, Vavilov imported 7,000 | different samples of seed from Afghan- istan. Prof. Burasov is at present studying the cultures of potatoes, tomatoes, maize, sun flowers, etc., in| the Western Andes of South America, | while his colleague, Prof. Voronov, is | at work in the Brazilian mountains seeking types of rubber trees that can survive @ somewhat rigorous climate, The fertilizer needs are also being foreseen and one of the dozens of economic-geological expeditions now at work for the various Soviet insti- tutions has discovered large layers of potasium cloride, a particularly val- uable chemical fertilizer, on the banks of the Kama river near the town of Solikamsk. The percentage of con- tent is very high, in some cases reach- ing 22%. Soviet Russia is engaged in show- ing the world that planned social ex- ploitation of natural resources will accomplish even’ greater results and shorter time for the masses than did capitalist exploitation in the older in- dustrial lands, BOSSES’ PRESS TELLS LIES OF SOVIET RUSSIA Seamen Has Been There and Seen for Himself By FRANK MORRISON, (Correspondent Steamship Boverton) I am not much of a writer, anyway good or bad, I wish to relate my ex- periences in the U. S. S. R., for the reason that I wish my fellow workers in other countries to know what is go- ing on there, and also to know that the capitalist press are liars. We arrived in port of Berdiansk on the 4th of November, and fortunately for us, we visited the Transport Work- ers’ club there, and tho none of us could speak Russian and none of the Russians could speak English, we were well received and made welcome. Can't Be Broken. On Nov. 7 we went among the farmers, and spent with them the an- niversary of the Russian revolution. This event shall never leave my mem- ory. I must say that the organization and brotherhood of the Russian farm- ers and workers can never be ,broken by the combined capitalist countries of the world. I have also seen the great effort in educating the workers, especially in the clubs during the evenings having courses in culture and art besides the usual elementary courses. I am sorry to say that we do not have these con- ditions in our country. Proud of Communists. What impressed me the most was the interest the workers took in the Communist Party, and how proud they were in pointing out to us the most active Communists, who seemed to me most capable and reliable. I do hope that the Soviet govern- ment will prosper and that the idea will be a fact in our country before long. I thank you, dear editor, in antici- pation for publishing this letter, and send my best wishes to all the Rus- sian workers. Long live the U. S. S. R. Hell and the Way Out Only Shows a Way In The league of nations as the crea- tor of a warless world is the theme of a movie film which is being sent thru Illinois under the startling title, Hell and the Way Out. The film is in two parts, the first showing the hor- rors of the past war and the second the alleged way out in the activities of the league. In five recent international war flare-ups the league dealt impartially only with the insignificant one be- tween Greece and Bulgaria, keeping hands off of Italy in Corfu, off France in Morocco and in Syria and off Eng- land in Egypt but handing over the Mosul oil region in the former Turk- ish empire to England. Fire In Airplane Shed, WASHINGTON, Jan, 26—Nine army airplanes, twelve liberty motors and other air service property were des- troyed this morning in a fire at Bolling Field, the capital's big airport on the outskirts of the city, —— HELP SAVE THE DAILY WORKER! CHURCHES HAVE SUPPORTED RICH: DOPED WORKERS Old Catholic Bishops Make Confessions NEW YORK, Jan. 26.—The church- es of America have supported the propertied interests against the work- ers, says the old catholic church in ar encyclical letter of its bishops that is probably one of the most unusual ecclesiastical statements ever issued. The letter is a humble confession of the failure of organized christianity and an appeal to the workers and the dispossed classes generally to forgive. It was adopted at the January synod of the church in New York and comes as a statement of denominational pol- icy. ‘Bishop William Montgomery Brown is the author. Brown, tho ousted from the house of bishops of the staid and wealthy protestant episcopal church, still has the rank of bishop thru the old catholic church which consecrated him last June. The churches have joined generally in a denunciation of revolution, ft adds and when the proletariat, goad- ed beyond endurance, has dared to suggest a different social order the leaders have been imprisoned and their meetings broken up by the po- FOR THE UNITY OF THE CITY AND LAND ILLINOIS FARM MEET 1S FRAUD TO AID LOWDEN Candidate to Speak on . “Issues” Today (Special to The Dally Worker) CHAMPAIGN, III, Jan, 26.—An Im sipid and meaningless plea that the non-farming elements of the country join with agricultural Interests in a@ helpful spirit with a view to solving the farmer's problems was made here today in an address by Sam H. Thomp- |son of Quincy, retiring president of the Illinois Agricultural Association. He did not recommend that the farm ers @upport the workers in their strug- gles to better the condition of both exploited groups. Thompson, a banker spoke rather of agriculture as a whole than of the crisis over the disposal of surplus farm products. That, his speech seem- ed to indicate, was a matter which more appropriately might be discuss- ed in his capacity as the new presi- dent of the American Farm Bureau Faderation, He was to be followed by Secretary of the Agriculture William M. Jardine who, as spokesman for the national ad- ministration, was expected to reiter- ate opposition to the government tak- ing the lead in disposing of surplus products. Lowden Show Today. Tomorrow Frank O. Lowden, former governor of Illinois and one-time can- didate for the republican presidential nomination, will speak. His stand is expected to be in favor of a surplus export corporation. “Farmers,” Mr. Thompson said, “are concerned over the transfer of wealth to the cities from the country as a result of existing conditions. Ag- riculture’s share of the nation’s wealth dropped from 25 to 20 per cent be- tween 1912 and 1923, the decline be- ing due almost entirely to deflation of agricultural real estate and equip- ment, the farmer still lags behind with @ purchasing power that is only 87 per cent of what it was before the war.” More Political Clap Trap, The farm surplus, he declared, can- not be protected by a tariff wall alone. Prices for norma? consumption of such products are fixed by the amount of the surplus, an unfair condition, he argued. “When leaders of the great groups of our national life get together to study this problem unselfishly, then we may hope for accomplishment but not before,” he added. The whole affair here is a fraud de- signed to boost the presidential candi- dacy of Frank O. Lowden and Thomp- son and his cohorts are lined up sol- idly for that purpose. The farmers who come or who can afterwards be influenced will be simply pawns in the game of the harvester, grain, and other great trusts to further enslave them to big capital. Dispatchers’ Assn. Enters Investment Business for Profit Literature offering stock in the new Dispatchers’ Investment Co. carries lice, with the churchés either silent or acquescing. The old catholic church is credited with 30,000 members in America, chiefly among immigrants. It has ex- isted in several countries of northern Europe since 1871, parting from the Roman catholic church after the adop- tion by the latter of the doctrine of papal infallability. “Silentium,” the Word on Present Revolution Prof. Gaspare Nicotri of the uni- versity of Palermo in Sicily, who is touring the United States to speak on his archeological discoveries, takes a keen interest in social movements but has a keener eye to their menaces on the home grounds, Author of a book on Revolutions and Sicily, he was asked by The Fed- erated Press if his story was brot down to the present day, “IT begin with the earliest known uprising of the people in Sicily,” he explained. “I cover the early Greek, Roman, medieval and later periods, thru the revolution of Garibaldi, but as for the present moment, the situa- tion under Mussolini, the word Is mum, silentium,” Sympathy Strike Shuts Plant, NEWMARKET, N. H.—Fifteen hun- dred workers walked out of the New- market Manufacturing company plant in support of the spinners who struck several days before when they were told to do more work for the same wages, The plant is shut down. Finns Support Miners, NEW YORK—The Finnish Co-op- erative Trading Association of Brook- lyn has sent to the American Civil Liberties Union the sum of $200 to be forwarded to the anthracite strikers. profits ranging as high as 58% a year, The company, which is controlled by the American Train Dispatchers’ Association, one of the standard rail Toad unions, states thru its president that successful concerns of its type “show net earnings ranging all the way from 25% to 58% on their capital annually. We may not hope to show earnings like these immediately,, but there is no reason why we cannot do as well as the average in the same time.” J. G. Luhrsen, president of the Dis- patchers’ Union, is also president of their investment company. Put a copy of the DAILY WORKER in your pocket when you go to your union meeting. GOLD.-.- | Is one of the most pro- mising of the young pro- letarian writers in Amer- ica. Another unusual story from the pen of this bril- liant author will be a feature — among many others —- in next Satur- day's issue of Look for “The Damned Agitator’ by Michael Gold and pass it on to be neighbor to get his su