The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 5, 1926, Page 5

MANY BUILDING TRADES WORKERS ARE UNEMPLOYED Union Officials Betray Rank and File By MARTENS. (Worker Correspondent) | PITTSBURGH, Pa, Feb, 8—Car- penters are usually considered as get- ting high wages but there are about 16,000 union carpenters here and out of this.number 3,000 are conitnually hunting, for work, any kind of, work just to make a living. Those who are fortunate enuf to have a job only work one-fourth of the time. Many union carpenters are washing dishes and wish that it would snow heavily 8o that they can get a job cleaning the streets in order to make enuf money to eat. On cold zero days it is impossible to work thru the day. To leave the job to go home means someone is always ready to take the.work. Yes, even ready to climb and slide and break their necks. , Betray Rank and File, When the time came to settle for the 1926 agreement most of the rank and file supported the five-day week @s a real move towards solving the unemployment problem. The officials of the unions came out and declared it was not the right policy, because the “contractors would@i’t like it.” The rank and file were then forced to accept the same terms as they had last year, No Time for Organization. The officials have no time to organ- ize for a strike. But they have enuf time and money to engage in the real estate business and to buy ‘a bank building. The business agents spend most of their time conferring with the district secretary, Kelly, as to the price of stocks instead of putting forth demands for the benefit of the membership. In this same bank build- ing hundreds of carpenters are found (Continued from page 1.) such a way as to arouse suspicion and alarm thruout South America. The plebiscite is still a long way off. Questions hgve arisen on every hand as to what the purposes of the United States government really are —for it is plain that Pershing has been merely carrying out instructions from higher up. The general has pursued consistently dilatory tactics, There has been postponement after postponement in the program of the plebiscitary commission. And now General Pershing is returning to the United States “to have. hiss teeth fixed,” and his place is taken by an- other general—General William Las- siter, erstwhile military governor of the Canal Zone, the man who a few months ago directed the strikebreak- ing occupation of the city of Panama by U. 8. troops. It is apparent that there is to be still more’ fr and delay. N Noy. 26, Senor ‘Giviaite Ed- wards, Chilean representative on the commission, sent General Persh- ing the following note: “I shall not resume my attendance at the meetings of the plebiscitary commission until they shall include in their agenda the registration and election regulations and the dates for the opening of the registration bo for the holding of the plebiscite. “The arbitral award provides that the primary duty of the commission shall’ be to formulate the regulations governing the plebiscite and to’ fix the date thereof, and nearly. four months have elapsed since the plebis- citary commission began to function, a term’ which corresponds to that fixed by the arbitrator (President Coolidge) for the appointment, of its members, “The plebiscitary commission re- eived on Aug. 12, nearly four, months {ago, the draft of the registration and election regulations presented by the the Chilean member. In the first days of October, nearly two months ago, it received the draft presented by the Peruvian member. The member. rep- resenting the arbitrator has, there- fore, had ample time to examine the election regulations that will guaran- tee the rights of both.” ERSHING did not deign to answer the statement of facts in Senor Edwards’ letter, He maintained a “hard-boiled” attitude, in accordance with the best military traditions of how @ general ought to act. The Chilean allowed himself to be bluffed into resuming his seat on the com- mission, meantime appealing to Presi- dent Coolidge! Of course, Coolidge up- his own appointee. Reports are oe rrent of an appeal to the league at! fons. North American newspa- re indignant. The principle of the Monroe Doctrine is involved, they say. In other words, Chile and Peru, at issue over the question of sover- eignty in the Tacna-Arica district, . Prizes for Contributions Every week valuable books are offered as prizes for the best worker correspondents’ contributions. These prizes go to the worker whose work shows an effort to produce an article that will Interest other workers, The article should preferably point out the conditions of labor in factory, mill or mine, The winners’ articles appear in the Friday issue every week. Read them. They will give you ideas as well as show you what splendid articles are written by workers. » This Week’s Prizes! FIRST PRIZE: “Historical Materialism—A System of Sociology” by Nikolai Bukharin. In this valuable book all the social sclences are closely scrutinized and interpreted from the materialist viewpoint. SECOND PRIZE: “Capital,” by Karl Marx, 1st volume, THIRD PRIZE: “Russia Today,” Report of the British Trade Union. Delegation. All threé ate valuable books for every worker's library, MINNEAPOLIS PAINTERS DONATE $25 TO MINERS; PLAN EDUCATION WORK By a Worker Correspondent. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Feb. 3.— Painters’ Union No. 186 at their last meeting donated $25.00 to the striking anthracite miners and passed a motion expressing their olidarity with the miners In all their struggles. This makes $50.00 that this union has glven the min- ers since the strike started. every day waiting and hoping for jobs. Jurisdictional Fights, At nearly every meeting of thé local nions, the business agerits make re- ports about jurtsdietional disputes be- tween the metal) workers and carpent- ers over jobs. After a struggle be- tween the two the result.is that the non-union men Step in’ and take the job. The above are some of the factors with which the’ carpenters and build- ing trades workers. in général must contend with and “anyone suffering from the illusion What these workers are heaping up piles. of’ money should think over these fatts: THE DAILY WORKER Many Jobless In Bellaire, 0. By a Worker Correspondent, SHADYSIDE, O., Feb. 83+-The indus- trial conditions around Bellaire, Ohio, are worse than even hefpre.. More than half.of the mills and mines are idle. The boy glass workers who went on strike in Bellaire seem to have lost. The fault, I believe, is in the work A class in shop economics will be started by the Painters’ Union No, 186 shortly, fifteen members having registered for this course and more coming in, Meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of each month are educa- tional and speakers are secured to address the union on the vital prob- are told plainly that the ultimate sovereign is not one nor the other, but the government of the United States, bit wi official “arbiter” -in':the Taena-Arica is rather to create’a’solid Latin-Amer- jean front against°the menace of American imperialism, which has: be« come the outstanding feature of the Tacna-Arica situation: perspective so. General Pers ening the ple! game of the Renuv involuntarily th Peruvian obstr 5 surd as the earlier charge of the Peruvian government that the United States was favoring Chile by deciding for the holding of a plebiscuite in the first place. ficiently obvious is that the. govern-|- ment of Wall Street is playing no game but its own. Any apparent Chile against Peru are quite illusory and only serve to obscure the essen- tial fact of/the continued mainten- ance of North American authority in Tacna and Arica, leading South American papers show that they understan APPEALING, to | Coolidge “against tion that Peru js the real sinner and Pershing just an;involuntary accom: Plice, the is of the sort t) irresponsibility regarding the real pur-| 4 lems of. the labor movement. On next Tuesday evening Miss Dorothy Gary, instructor in sociology at the University of Minnesota, will ad- dress the meetng and outline the work for the class on shop econom- less depression, Why a worker correspondent? Why not? Is there nothing of interest hap- pening around you? Write it up and send it in! poses | “Black Jack"! Pershing | the strong arm of American imperial- ism can assure order in “the troubled region.” The history of the Tacna- Arica affair from the very, beginning indicates what grave dangers lie in losing sight of the real enemy in the midst of petty squabbles, Before the war of 1878-82 between Chile on the one side and Peru and Bolivia on the other, there was no “Tacna-Arica question.” These prov- inces were a recognized part of Peru. The richly prized nitrate territory im- mediately to the south of them be- longed at that time to Peru and Bolivia. War was fomented by Amer- ican nitrate interests, in connection with their determination not to pay the duty of 10 cents per hundred- weight levied by the Bolivian gov- ernment on all nitrate exported thru the port of Antofagasta, Peru war drawn into the war as an ally of Bolivia. Chile was victorious over th: allies and annexed all of the nitrat: territory. Furthermore, according to the Ancon peace treaty, the Peruviar province of Tacna and Arica were’ te go under Chilean administration for period of ten’ years, after which th: inhabitants were to choose in + affair, we do not wish for a moment» plebiscite between. the sovereignty 0 to be placed in the»position of sup-| Chile and Peru. porting Chile against Peru. Our aim & U. S. Spokesman in South America. While attacking the attitude ‘ot the HE Chilean government maintaine that the understanding as actual!: reached at Ancon was that Taena an Arica should belong permanently ¢ Chile, as the victor in the war,.an that the provision for a plebiscite wa written into the treaty only as a blind to obscure the cession, thus helping the Peruvian government to keep some of its prestige in the eyes of its own. people. The Peruvian government declared, in turn, that Chile was mere- ly seeking excuses to deport Peruvians from Tacna-Arica and transplant Chileans there, for the purpose of cheating an eventual pfebiscite by king the territory de facto Chilean, Anyway the plebiscite was never held, _ North American interests took s tematic advantage of the long-continu- ed differences between the two, South American nations, National jealousies were played upon and stimulated, Costly armaments were disposed of to both side: Diplomatic pressure was brought to bear, now apparently on the side of Chile, now on the side of Peru. For decades this went on, the situation becoming more and more hopeless. Meantime, the United States had blossomed out as a full- fledged imperialist power whose bold pretensinns'to Latin-American domina tion Wweretespressed in the new Roose- veltian interpretation of the Monroe] Cari Doctrine, eset Beery yos policy directed 4 ward establishing ists In not hast- 4 playing the and becoming collaborator of This is as ab- What should now be sut- ‘avors” to Peru as against Chile or Editorials in. the this, Peru, and conveying. the sugges- ‘Bt of Senor, Rdwards only blindness or Lot of the Stump Farmer Difficult on Pacific West By A Worker Correspondent OLYMPIA, Wash., Feb. 3, — The “farms” in this section of the state of Washington for the greater part, are tiny tracts of stumpland. They are sold to workers on monthly instal- ments by subsidiaries of the lumber trust. The army! of workers thus en- meshed helps"the trust beat down wages and forces'a lower standard of living.on all Workers. Under existing conditions note@ne stump rancher in ten is able-to’Make a living withhdéut working for*Wages in the logging camps or milisi~ The employers reduce wages in proportion to,wiat the farmer wage worker, by exploiting his family, is able to produce from the land. These farmers as a Tile are docile and sub- seryient to the.employers and sub- mit without protest to any condition and accept any .wage offer, for keep- ing. their Jobs, means keeping their homes. Their homes, are mere shacks and their, barns but Sheds. Their live stock consists. of 4 cow or two and a few chickens,which cost more to feed than the eggs bring in the mar- ket, for little or no egrdin is grown and nearly all feed including hay is of berries but the market product confiscated. So they struggle on piling up profits for the lumber trust. When flesh and blood can no longer endure the strain. they sacrifice “their possessions and | disappear in @ constantly ebbing and imported. Their main crop is the various kind | | flowing human tide. ‘that the only epaiblc solutions of the “antagonism Chile -and ‘Peru were in war,or intervention by the United Statesom INALLY, in'?'2928, Secretary of ‘ State Hughes dispatched notes to the two governnients inviting them to send representatives to Washington “to the end thaf ‘such representatives might settle existing difficulties or ar- ! range for arbitration.” Instead of refusing this offér and taking their case to a Latin‘American body for ar- bitration, the ambitious rival govern- ments walked” Mght into the lion’s den, The president of the United States was made sole arbiter. He de- clared that there could be no appeal from his decisions. Coolidge decided upon the holding of a plebiscite and forthwith appointed General Pershing to go to Tacna- Arica to head the plebiscitary com- mission. Peru's protest was over- ruled as curtly as Chile’s protest is overruled how. American imperialism was bent upon the plebiscite—or ‘ather, not so much upon the plebiscite s upon the plebiscitary commission. somehow or other the “stars and tripes” had to be raised on the Paci- ic coast of South America. For aonths now U.S. militarists have yeen the virtual rulers of Tacna and Arica, They have busied themselves establishing order” and “overcoming »bstacles.” The ‘plebiscite is not even n the agenda. HIS. is the “atatus of the Tacna- Arica situatian to date. Who can- ot. understand; the grim significance : the events. that have taken place? "ho cannot. sea that American im- »rialism is “playing its own game”, d not that of jeither Chile or Peru It is certainly: no accident that t two South Américan provinces ov whose destiny the U. S. governmen has ,become so deeply concerned, border directly. upon the famous Chilean nitrate.fields. These fields yield $173,000,000. worth of nitrate of soda yearly, which is 95 per cent of the word's total..mined supply. The recent declarations of U. S. Secretary of Commerce Hoover, in which ni- trates were mentioned along with rubber, sisal, mercury, coffee, etc., as a foreign “monopolized” commodity calling for special action by the U. 8, government, show this is no insigni- ficant factor in the situation, But the interest of American im- perialism is not limited to nitrates. Tacna-Arica constitutes a precedent for’ U. S. intervention which all of South America will yet learn to regret, If American imperialism succeeds in establishing a strong foothold on the Pacific coast of South America, it will be an opening wedge for further ahd syste: ve expansion, Virtually since the ela of the world wa' reste imperialism has made the “an Atherican lak It wie dedattely subjected all of Central America as well, It is an tmperialism is con-| trolled by the cannery trust which is| work, take your things and go.” As equivalent to: having their principal| INSTINCT HELPED GIRL MILLINERS TO CLASS UNITY AND HAPPINESS By ESTHER (Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK, N. Y., Feb. 3 — “Give me back. my scissors,” cried little Mary Ann teasingly to the girls at|! her table as her nimble fingers ran || quickly over the stiff hats, But little |, did she care whose scissors she used. || prolong the holiday spirit for this was || a great day in our shop. | A great day it sure was when our shop was organized, for among the || American-born millinery workers in || our shop the general reaction to the {| mention of “union” was one of oppo- sition. But this time, due to the harsh treatment of a little old lady, about ]/ 63 years of age, things have changed. She was forced to work on those stiff, hard hats such as we young girls worked on. For us it was very diffi- cult to work on those hats, for which we were not paid extra. But for her, it was very much more difficult. Class Sympathy Aroused. When the boss made his daily round, he sneeringly smiled at us hard-working girls. But one day he ; Stopped before old-lady Smith and | shouted “Do you call yourself a mil- |liner? If this is a\sample of your the old lady started to walk to the cloak room, the best in everyone of | US was roused, and up we stood and left with the old woman worker, |shouting “This must end!” And it did. The fight that had gone on for many weeks was at last brought to an end: Our shop was unionized! And that was the occasion for a great day in our shop. Is it worth while to write it up? Of course it is. Write it up and send It in, and then watch it In the paper. | Notice the corrections that have been | made by the editors. You will profit now throroly conscious and advancing “long clearly marked-out’ linés. Any- ome would be a fool who did not see that the entire American continent is threatened, For many years the Mon- roe Doctrine has been interpreted in the United States as a general claim of authority over the territories of the western hemisphere. In the wake of | i however, in the form that it assumes in Tacna-Arica, has been confined to Central America and other regions of the north. This is its first appearance fore, marks an important stage in the development of American imperialist policy. To ignore this or to neglect to draw the full implications from it would be criminal folly, It matters not that the step was taken with the connivance of the Chilean and Peruvian governments. They sent representatives to Wash- ington on the invitation of the U. 8. secretary of state, who in the language vantage of the outlook.” Immediately after the case was submitted for ar- bitration President Coolidge declared that his ruling must be regarded as final. When he decided upon a plebiscite he made provision for the widest possible extension of North American authority over the disputed territory up to the date when the vote should be taken, And the practice of the succeeding months has plainly followed the aim of perpetuating that authority, of utilizing pretext after pretext to extend it still further, so that the impress of American im- periafism may be left over the whole coastline of South America. a t the situation was excellently char- acterized by the appointment of Gen- eral Pershing to head the plebiscitary commission instead of a diplomat, or at least a civilian, The significance of his was partially blurred at first by he fact of Pershing’s prominence and high rank, which made it seem not unnatural that he should be selected even for a diplomatic post. That he was a military man might, it was thought, have been incidental, How- ever, the selection of General Las- siter to succeed him proves beyond a doubt that it was not incidental but part of a studied policy. Even the re- actionary Chicago Tribune declared (before the appointiient had been definitel announced) that General Las- sitre’s “whole character, training and method make him unsuitable for a post requiring the utmost diplomacy and tact.” No one could aver that Lassiter was chosen because of his prominence, He is an obscure milite- rist, a typical colonial administrator whose name first appeated in print during the miltary occu: city of Panama, His sel the Tacna-Arica position indicates more powerfully than words that American imperialism assumes a colonial or q Dp v jon. of the | — \ The fact was everyone was trying to ||| semi-colonial status for the territory have themselves situation. tures of the U. S. secretary of state and placing the disposition of Tacna this doctrine economic penetration,| to their respective peoples, and to all of Latin America, These governments are in no sense the legitimate repres- entatives of the Chilean and Peruvian people. in South America. Tacna-Arica, there-] an power from year to year by means of bribery, terror and assassination. He} U. S. has committed against the Peruvian masses and long ago sold out his country to the forces of American imperialism. ernment of Chile holds power only as a result of fraud and violence at the polls, the workers’ bloc ados”) having been cheated out of “4 election only a few weeks ago. This OF Wee erst purer: Journal, “too: at government, still dripping blood from ers at Tarapaca, Antofagasta, etc., etc. —where Chileans were imprisoned, de-| 3, ported, murdered, the foreign nitrate companies— this government appeals for support against the sister republic of| 4, Peru! f hag great Latin-American peoples the governments that have been for years inflaming them against each other in the name of patriotism. They will see thru and thru the criminality of this vicious farce which has culmin- ated in the handing over of Tacna and HE North American approach to] Arica to American imperialism! intellectuals—upon the entire peoples of Chile as well as of Peru, to end the unnatural feud over Tacna-Arica, which is only kept up thru the arti- ficial stimulation of ties! The masses of Chile and Peru have no interests that should divide them! against common menace of American imperialism! Peru have still some self-respect left they will withdraw jean imperialism, countries must force them to act. The All-America Anti - Imperialist League has Chilean and Peruvian masses, confidence in the other Latin Amer- ican peoples as well and feels sure that they will ferences and aid in'the building up of the domination of Wall Street. o~neeteinp nailed aataaene nip nt NEW-COMERS srasarraal One of the splendid illustrations from THE GREAT NEGRO MIGRATION By Jay Lovestone. An article in the February | Lenin Memorial Number | | of The Workers Monthly 25 Cents a Copy | $1.25 Six Months | 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. $2.00 a Year — OKLAHOMA MINE DISASTER IS CAUSED BY OPERATOR NEGLIGENCE OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 3—Fallure of fire bosses to report the presence of gas, deficiencies in the ventilation system and the use of open carbide lamps caused the death of the 94 miners In the explosion at the Degnan+ McConnell mine at Wilburton. Ed Boyle, state mining inspector, lays the blame for the mine explosion at the doors of the coal company. The mine inspector declares that the explosion was caused by workers having open carbide lamps walking into a gas-filled chamber. ‘The Challenge of Tacna-Arica: to U. S. Workers and Farmers of American imperialism in Latin América-can explain—unléss it) it downright toadying to imperialism. It is picked up and repeated by the capitalist press in the United States to show that Chile and Peru cannot possibly get-along together, that only the United States itself there are valuable and trustworthy allfes of thé Latin American countries in their struggle against American imperial- ism. It knows that large numbers of the toiling masses in that country, who are themselves exploited by the monster of imperialist capitalism, have been carrying on a militant fight against the designs of Wall Street and Washington. The league calls upon them to intensify their struggle, to insist that the United States get out of Tacna-Arica, to press forward the demand they have already raised for the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Latin American soil, to wage a relentless war against American imperialism in all its phases! For the solution of the Tacna-Arica controversy, the All-America Anti- Imperialist League proposes the fol- lowing program: (“bloc de los asalari-| 1, Immediate withdrawal of all U. S. military and administrativé forces from the provinces of Tacna and Arica. he mass butcheries of nitrate work-| 2, n question” The governments of Chile and Peru to blame for the By listening to the over- und Arica at the mercy of American mperialism they committed treason President Leguia of Peru is irresponsible dictator, holding innumerable crimes The gov- candidates of the wage Recall of General Lassiter as head of the plebiscite commission. Abrogation of all authoriy from President Coolidge or the United States government as arbitrator in the Tacna-Arica question, Investigation by a Latin Amer. ican committee to be named by the Union Latinoamericana, the Feder- acion Obrera Regional Uruguaya, the Junta Iberno-Americana de Intelec- tuales and the All-America Anti-Im- perialist League. 5. Arbitration of the Tacna-Arica question by a Latin American body in accordance with the recommendations of the aforementioned committee, fol- lowing their investigation, HE menace of North American im- perialism is confronting the entire American continent. The peoples of Latin America, together with the ex- ploited workers in the United States must organize to fight it. The All- America Anti-Imperialist League calls upon all those countries where no sec- tions of the league now exist to or- ganize them without delay, and to communicate with the international headquarters, or with the office of the league’s monthly organ, E) Libertador, Apartado 613, Mexico, D. F., Mexico, ALL-AMERICA ANTI-IM- PERIALIST LEAGUE: Cuban Secretary, Julio Antonio .Mella; Porto Rican Secretary, Jaime N. Sager; Mexican Secretary, Enrique Flores M.; Colombian Secretary, Juan de Dios Romero; Ecuadorian Secretary, Juan F. Karolys; Venezuelan Secretary, Gustavo Machado; Brazilian Secretary, Eduardo Mattos; U. 8. Secretary, Manuel Gomes, in the interest of “patriotic” of Chile and Peru will understand he hypocrisy and the treaehery of ‘We call upon the workers, peasants, interested par- They must stand together If the governments of Chile and the Tacna-Arica juestion from “arbitration” by Amer- If they do not act t once the peoples of their respective full confidence in the It has continue to bring resure upon the Chilean and Peru- fan governments to settle their dif- solid antiimperialist front «against HE All-America Ant!-Imperialist League knows, moreover, that in