The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 18, 1926, Page 6

Page Six ‘ THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKKER PUBLISHING CO. 41118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, I. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): 98.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year , $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1118 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Ilinole J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM ¥F. DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB... Bntered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, IiL, under the act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application. | Se Arbitration Demand Granted | For years the arbitration illusion has been officially opposed | GaP» 290 by the United Mine Workers of America. The well established‘fact | that there is no living person who can possibly be neutral in a struggle between captal and labor has kept that magnificent union out of the slimy clutches of arbitration. Even the arch-traitor, John L, Lewis, said during the anthracite struggle that one cannot arbitrate the question of food and clothing and shelter for the} In spite of that statement and the declaration of the slimy Father Curran, who was placed on the platform at Scranton yesterday to aid Lewis complete the betrayal of the anthra miners, that the arbitration demand of the mine owners*“is not granted, an analysis of the agreement proves the contrary to be the fact. Articles three and four of that pact which will stand as a monument of shame to Lewis provide for a board of two men “with full power without reservation or restrictions,” and the parties to the agreement (miners and operators) agree to abide by any deci- sions of this board. Unless otherwise agreed the two men shall not be connected with efther! the operators or miners. That means only one thing: the destinies of the miners are to be placed in the hands of two individuals with dictatorial powers, whose word is law and from whose decision there can be no appeal. In ease these ‘two can- not agree they have the power to choose a third person referred to in article four of the pact as “umpire.” The vote of the-third person then becomes decisive. Every semblance of power of the miners is to be destroyed and their organization is to become an adjunct of the bosses in a drive to increase production along the lines of the “B. & O.” and other class collaboration, plans. This is clearly set forth in article four of the pact: 4—The demands of the operators and the mine workers on the question of CO-OPERATION and EFFICIENCY ‘are referred to the board of conciliation, exclusive of the umpire, which shall work out a reciprocal program of CO-OPERATION and EFFICRENCY. (Our emphasis.) Not only will this arbitration board regulate wages and condi- tions of labor in the anthracite, but it will devise schemes to cut down labor time, thereby causing an increase of unemployment which will enable the anthracite trust more easily to impose wage cuts upon the miners. One hundred and sixty thousand miners, already miserably un- lerpaid, face the darkest years in the history of their organization, unless they are able to crush the power of the infamous Lewis ma- chine and repudiate the “Black Friday” agreement conceived in treachery at Philadelphia last week. Mellon Trast Defies Commission The federal trade commission, delving into the monopolistic practices of the Mellon-owned Aluminum Company of America, finds itself impotent before the attorneys for the trust. When this commission, already rendered practically impotent by the Coolidge administration in its effort to smash every impediment to the’mighty power of big business, asked for a list of those holding more than three per cent of the stock in the concern they were plainly told to go to hell. Mr. W. W. Smith of the company: said the names would not be produced because they were highly confidential. With \the abandon of one who is confident of his powerful backing this lackey of Mellon—the real boss of the Coolidge administration— defied a government commission. His attitude is expressed by the Roman pimp, Marcus, in the “Lay of Virginius’ who threatened his master’s enemies with the admonition: “I wait on Appius Claudius, sir, I waited on his sire, Let him who works his client wrong Beware his master’s ire!” Maj. W. W. Sheppard, commission examiner, had no power to force the agent of Mellon to reyeal the names of the stockholders in the aluminum trust. The federal trade commission itself exists only by sufferance of the Coolidge administration, that considers the attempted investigation of Mellon, who is plainly holding his ‘position as secretary of the treasury in plain violation of the legal code of the United States, a piece of intolerable impudence. So stripped of power is this, commission that the most insignificant of corporation scullions can with impunity flaunt his defiance in its face. To try to investigate the aluminum trust is tantamount to de- manding that Mellon, the oulaw, take his, clutches off the United States treasury department and cease using it as a means of in- creasing his gigantic momepoly that extends its tentacles to hun- dreds of industries all over the two American continents. Daugherty, Denby, Fall and young Roosevelt got the gate be- cause of the corruption that exploded at Washington two years ago, but Mellon, immune then, still retains his position, tho he is the most flagrant law violator and consummate scoundrel of them all. Others may be sacrificed, but he is the boss of the ship of state. The United States government is the executive committee of big capital. It exists in order that Mellon and his class may con- tinue to exploit the workers and farmers of this‘country. He and his kind will never answer for their crimes before courts created to defend them, but only before the revolutionary tribunals of the working class after the establishment of a workerg’ government in this country: Lady Catheart and Lord Craven who are having. difficulties with the immigration authorities because of a spree the two of them had in-Africa are among the British nabob’ who delight in relating the manner in which Communism would destroy the family. Like wil the bourgeoisie they accuse the revolutionary. workers of the identical viees to which they themselves are secretly addicted. Phe wnions are mass organizations and their. stroggles’ are practice Maneuvers preparatory to the revolution. Unless Com- munists get into the unions and endeavor to direct the struggle inf proper channels the revolution may be retarted, ' (international Press Correspondence) e leading article in the Pravda for nuary 15 stresses the necessity of the informatory letter of the cen- tral committee of the Commupist | Party of the Soviet Union to the | sister parties, It was necessary for the central committee to give comrades outside of Russia a number of explanations with reference to the discussion which took place at the fourteenth party congress, The press hostile, to the Soviet Union | and to the Comintern in all capitalist countries managed in a very short time to produce a tremendous number of various legends with regard to the discussions at the party congress, it aggerated the differences of opinion into tremendous dimensions and believed that the split and the col- lapse of Communism was at hand. Capitalists Seek to Destroy Unity. In the interests of their own strug- le against the international Commun- movement the bourgeoisie adopted new tactical and strategical maneu- ver in order to deceive the sister parties, It consisted in an attempt to jcreate dissension between the Com- munist Party of the Soviet Union and the other sections of the Comintern by false reports upon an alleged na- tional limitation of the @ommunist , Party of the Soviet Union which al- legedly buried all hopes of the world volution at its fourteenth party con- . Our enemies have always hoped to break up the Communist Parties, to smash the unity of world Communism. We are equally convinced as the other parties that these illusions of the bourgeoisie will go up in smoke. The bourgeoisie will not be able to deceive | THE DAILY WORKER The Russian P tb y the nature of ion which show- = party congress. our sister parties! the differences of oj ed themselves at o This, however, makes no difference to the necessity that our sister parties are basically and topically informed upon the problems facing the Com- munist Party of the Soviet Union. The sister parties must carefully study our discussion upon the basis of the existing documents, The most impor- tant condition for an understanding of the decisions of the fourteenth party congress on the part of the sister parties is that they should always take into consideration, the essential difference between the circumstanees in which they struggle and work and the circumstances ini which the Com- munist Party of Soviet Unjon works. This essentfal difference is that while our party*is in power and builds up socialism, the sister parties still stand before” fhe conquest of power and cannot raise the question of the socialist reconstruction before the seizure of power- without falling into reformism. The stronger the. So- viet Union becomes, the greater will its successes in the building up of so- cialism become and the greater will the difference in the objective situa- tion be, Russian Problems Different. This difference méans that our prob- lems are quite differént from those of our comrades abroad. Occasionally, for instance, one and the same prob- lem may inevitably be regarded from different angles, “It can hardly be otherwise: a party ‘which is strug- gling for power and a party which is in power cannot have the same point of view. Our comrades abroad are chiefly concerned’ with the organiza- NE ty Discussion and the C. tion of the masses, the struggle against the reformists, the parlia- mentary work, agitation and propa- ganda, We, however, have also to see to the organization of our economy, We are faced with tasks of reconstruction which naturally in the present mo- ment could not face our sister parties, This one must not leave out of con- sideration. -In the meantime it is not always as easy as it appears, : In order that our comrades abroad may forma correct judgement upon the burning questions of our party, upon the new economic policy, state capitalism, state industry, the middle peasantry, the composition of the party, etc., they must imagine quite clearly, at least in its chief character istics, our situation, Otherwise should one commence a discussion upon’ the Russian question, this could not only lead to a purely formal and mechan- ical solution of. the problem instead of clearly revealing its essense. For this reason the central committee of the Soviet Union has unanimously de- clared that a discussion in the foreign parties is inadvisable. For this reason the central committee has recom- mended to the sister parties a thoro study of the differences of opinion which showed themselves on the party congress, upon the basis of the most important material, Capitalist Hopes Blasted. In teenth party congress adopted definite decisions. The whole Communist out these decisions unanimously. The Leningrad organization is also in com- plete agreement with these decisions. The majority of the party in Lenin- By A. LOZOVSKY, (Continued from previous issue) (Editor's Note.—Following is an- other instalment of the series of articles on the’ trade union con- gresses of the French, German and British trade union movements by A. Lozovsky, secretary of the Red international of Labor Unions.) ‘ee af Net: Breslau congress, which was at- tended by the majority of the most reactionary trade unionists, could not but take up a hostile attitude towards unity. The General Federation of German Trade Unions constituted last year the extreme right of the Amster- dam trade unions, The congress en- dorsed this policy and the reactionary bureaucracy issued from this congress stronger than before. It is a. well- known fact that the German General Federation of Trade Unions is the ideological leader of the entire right wing of the Amsterdam International. Supported by millions of members, the German trade union bureaucrats were continually bringing pressure to bear on Amsterdam so that the latter should not swerve from its anti-Com- munist policy. The problem of unity with all its complications was not even raised in Breslau. A few com- monplace declarations by Liepart to the effect that Amsterdam has always been and is now for unity, that the R. I. L. U. and the Russian trade unions do not want: unity and that the Communists are responsible for the split, etc, and that was all. This is an old story which we already heard at the French congress and it is not of any particular interest. It is sig- nificant that these self-satisfied and narrow bureaucrats never troubled about the question how to unite the trade union moyemefitt of all parts of the world and how a truly united in ternational is to be created. This is beyond their ken and beyond the lim- its of their narrow trade union Ger- man interests, i Yellows’ Destroy Unions To show how low was the level of the congress one need only say that no one attempted to explain why the trade unions have lost their former in- fluence. And yet it is obvious that the trade unions are playing a much less important role than before, Only a few years ago the bourgeoisie courted the General Federation of Trade Unions and took into consideration its in 1925 the ruling classes do not even think it necessary to observe the most ordinary decotum towards it. The stupid leaders of the General Federa- tion of Geyman Trade Unions have hot yet grasped that the bourgeoisie appreciated them only while they were the big stick against Bolshevism and enabled the bourgeoisie to occupy again its former positions. Now that the Moor has done hif*duty, the bour- seoisie hopes to be able to fight suc cessfully against Communism without the help of the trade union bureau- crats—the Moor can go, Hence the decline of the influence of the trade unions, No one thot of analyzing this phenomenon, just as not one of the bureaucrats attempted to explain why the German proletariat has lost every- thing which it achieved in the first years of the revolution and why it has become the European coolie, Nothing was sald about this because this’ would have implied stating the truth about the actual situation, which naturally is not in the interests of Lei- part and company, .~ : But the managerhent, or rather mis- management, of these gentlemen did not only lower the léver*of existen of the German proletariat, but ro! *% declarations and demands, whilst now| also the latter of its elementary achievements and brot about the catas- trophic deterioration of the Gernian trade unions; of the eight million trade union members in 1922 only four million are left. What has-become of the others? They left because tney had given up all hope of getitng any- thing thru the unions. I do not mean to say that the best elements left. Certainly not. There are passive ele- ments among those who left, but also active workers who got tired of being in an organization which does not justify its existence,- The majority of those who left the’ unions are rank and file workers Who have not enuf stamina, courage, @nergy and class consciousness to put up a fight for the transformation ‘of the unions from organs of reactii ito organs of so- cial-revolution. A: centive to this wholesale desertion"of the unions was also provided by the fact that tens of thousands of Comfiunists left the trade unions, making room for soclal- democrats. At the congress in Leip- ;zig the Communist fraction had 88 delegates whereas at this congress ponly two, , Need of Work in Unions, This does not mean that there has been a corresponding diminu- tion of Communist influence on the masses. But nevertheless our influ- ence has dwindled cotisiderably. The reason for this is that until quite re- cently the party did not consider work in the trade unions its foremost task; ! it considered this a secondary ques- tion and distributed its forces and means accordingly. The seconti rea- son is that the party showed itself in- capable of breaking down the wall Communist workers, There was much talk in Germany about Bolshevization, but it remained talk. In the disputes in the German Communist Party with respect fo the tradé unions’ loss of in- fluence the following argument is used: as the ‘trade’ unions have be- come weaker, so the influence of the Communists within’them has also be- come weaker,» This argument is fu- tile. If the Comm had remained in the trade unions;and had carried on their policy energetically, the fact that the membership dwindled to one-half of its fo ‘number should have increased our {nfluence consider- ably. This did happen because the German Commynist Party did not Three Trade Union Congresses carry out systematically and energet- ically enuf the policy laid down by the Fifth Congress of thé Comintern and the Third Congress of the R, I. the main questions the four * party of the Soviet Union will carry | grad has already adopted resolutions against the opposition and against the attitude of the Leningrad delegation. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has emerged united from the party congress. This unity of our party is the best guarantee that the hopes of our enemies for a “crisis in the Comintern” will similarly come to nothing like all their hopes in the past, Instructions to Leningrad Comrades The plenary session *6f the newly elected central committee of the Com- munist Party of the Soviet Union has decided in aszordance with the deci- sions of the party congress upon the political speech for the central com- mittee and in complete: agreement with the organizational traditions, of the party, that the discussion must not be continued. A communication I. Sections however, the plenum of the central committee considered it permissible and necessary that during the course of the reporting, the standpoint of the party minority and the attitude of the Leningrad delegation should be sub- jected to an objective criticism and that the members of the party have complete freedom to adopt such reso, lutions after having heard the speech- es upon the decisions of the party congress as they think fit, naturally within the limits of a complete sub- mission to the decisions of the party congress, O15 Letter From Comintern, The presidium of the executive of the central committee of the Commun‘ lowing accompanying letter to the informative letter of the central com- of the party congress to the Lenin- grad organization to this effect has al- yeady been sent. The plenary session of the central committee has acted from a nevessity to overcome the com- Plications caused by the attitude of the Leningrad delegation at the party: congress "as frictionless as possible. For this reason the plenary session of the central committee has ordered the speakers who represent the party policy to base their reports upon the party congress within the frame-work of its decisions and to explain these without any personal motives. The plenum of the central commit- tee considered it impossible that re- sponsible comrades in the minority, members and candidates of the cen- tral committee and the central control commission should continue to pro- pagate the opinions rejected at the party congress. On the other hand, ROYAL COMMISSION CORPORATION IN mittee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to all sections of the Comintern. } The letter was sent thru the Comintern to the sister parties and informed them upon the differ- ences of opinion in Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “Dear Comrades, the, central com- mittee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union sent the enclosed letter to the presidium of the executive com- mittee of the Communist Internation- al with the request that it should be forwarded to all the sister parties. The presidium of the executive com- mittee of the Communist International sends you the enclosed letter and sup ports the stand-point of the central committee of the Russian Communist Party that it is inadvisable to carry | over the discussion into the Comin- tern. (Signed) The President of the B. C.c. 1.” SUPPORTS ATTACK ON T. MILITANT NOVA SCOTIA MINERS EDITOR’S NOTE: The heroic L. U. The Comintern executive couldjtruggle of the miners of Nova Scotia, no longer tolerate such a state of af- fairs. Therefore, ‘it expressed itself openly on this question and pointed out the mistakes of the German Com- munist Party with respect tg trade union tactics. Yellows Destroy Unions. a In view of the negligible opposition, the Breslau blockheads felt, them- selves free to act as “they liked. The congress accordingly was of a trite and colorless character. All the great questions of politics and economics were beyond the limits of this con- gress, The “real” politicians of the German 0¢ial-democracy. destroyed the soul of the trade unions and con- verted the congress into a kind of dance macabre in the reformist, grave- yards, from which a putrid odor of corpses is exhaled. ' But we would be mistaken if we as- sumed that this graveyard character of the Breslau Congress is a testi- Canada, against the crushing down of their wages by the British Empire Steel Corporation, known as “Besco” to the workerg of Canada, resulted in the federal government appointing a commission to investigate the situa- tion. As was to be expected the com- migsion has upheld the corporation on every, point, and has issued a report that not only supports the corporation in reducing the miners’ wages but also threatens the existence of the United Mine Workers in that district. The following article written by Jim McLachlan, militant leader of the was right. And why? This commis- sion answers, that they had examined the financial position of the corpora- tion and that settled the question for them. It’s true that they did not examine the “financial condition” of the miners who before they ever went on strike were livitig on the charity of the people of this country and even if they had, that terrible plight of the miners would have had no weight with this highly advertised unprejudiced commission, This commission's report is a huge eruption of words. The ordinary coal miner is overwhelmed by thenfy What the miner wanted to know was how e,0n; what. Novi Scotia miners, should be of in he e was to get enough to liv terest. allworkers, and espectally}the report tells in three pages of or- the anthracite and bituminous miners who are struggling today in this coun- try agdinst the attacks of the opera- tors. eee By JIM McLACHLAN The bubble has burst, the bubble that ruined the Grit government of Nova Scotia last June and carried the as well as ‘‘sett- mony that German reformists have] Tories into power, lost influence over the masses. This ling” the coal miners’ strike of five is not the case. There are still mil-] months’ standing, The tories have pro- lions of German workers who are! mised, if returned to power, to do under their influence and we must great things for the coal miners who reckon with this. Altho German s0-| were on strike at the time of the pro- cial-demogracy has suffered numerical|vincial election last June. Among losses during the last year, it has |other things, the miners were to get nevertheless still 844,000 members and | six days’ work per week in the sum- separating the social-democratic and| § this is a gigantic army which with good organization can work wonders. Frgm the national and international viewpoint alike, the congress of the General Federation of'the German trade unions isa serious retrograde tep. The congress was not willing to send a delegation to the U. S. S. R., but it decided on the other hand to send a delegation to the U. S. A., the trade union movement of that country having become the ideal of the German trade union bureaucrats. The German trade unions, whose posi- tion was all the time in the extreme right-wing, have confirmed this posi- tion by the decision of the congress and there is every Jeason to believe that’ they will carry on with the ut- most energy the struggle agaiifst our unity tacties, for these gentry stand only to lose by unity, Thus the trade «More Police Clubbing of Clifton, N. J., cossack: to break heroic struggle of Pas union movement of Germany in its backward development has traveled from Bebel to Gompers, mer, and five days in the winter; the tories promised to create a royal com- mission to inquire into causes of the continual trouble between the men and the coal operators, with the broad hint that this commission would re- establish the 1924 wage rates; at least, and perhaps do better than that. What. these tories‘ could not promise the miners..on the hustings was circulat- ed by ward heelers, Because of these promises the mi- ners’ hopes were raised to the high- est pitch. To secure fairly steady work at half decent wages the mi- ners would vote tory, or do anything else that’ promised relief from the grinding life that they had been fore- ed to live since Besco had been creat- ed. The royal commission was crea- ted according to promise and consist- ed of a real live “Sir” from England, a clergyman and an insurance promo- ter. ~ -|8a by Besco and the houses that dinary newspaper is how the ‘coal in- dustry cam be made profitable for Bes- co, They tell the miner for instance that the shack that Besco is allowing him to live in is not paying Besco, therefore co should sell the shack to the miner at the earliest possible date. Here is how the commissioners themselves described the shacks that they want Besco to sell to the work- ers and make a virtue out of the sell- ing: “Many of these houses are old— some of them having been erected by the General Mining Association more than fifty years ago, Others were built for thé purpose of housing men engaged on the, erection of portions of the operators’ plant or in opening up new mines; the latter are little |better than temporary shelters and are known and properly described as ‘shacks.’ Many families occupy hous- es that are much too small for their needs. The houses generally have no kitchen or eellar, and in certain districts, in default’ of waterworks, water is either delivered by the opera- tors in carts or has to be carried from a distance. Where water is piped into the house, there is an almost total absence of bathrooms or water- closets, due, we were informed, to the lack of sewers. There is much com- plaint of the leaky condition of the roofs, of ill-fitting doors and windows, of doors that are rotted or badly worn, and of walls on which paper and plaster are in shreds and patch- es.” These are the houses that are own- is True to form all working class in-|Commission is recommending fluence was barred from this commis-| ‘© sell to the miners “because it does sion, and-true to form the entire press | "°t Pay” Besco any longer to own the declared that this commission was|‘wmbledown shacks. utterly unprejudiced. Like the tory election promises the miners for this line of bunk too, Their hopes of what w! the commission was going to do for| q them rose ever higher with each day that the commission met over a pe- riod of two gn : The Bubble Bursts, On January 11th, the commission made public its report, and the bub- Whitewashing Capitalism. The commission™dealth at length ith the causes of unrest in the coal elds of Nova Scotia. They say that this unrest is not caused by any one thing, but is the result of the follow-— Jing. particulars: (1) The opposition which the op- erators have offered themselves in the U. M. W. of A. 4 ea (2) The introduction of Commu- ble that was inflated with tory pro- nistic theories and aims into ordina- mises is burst and the miners’ hopes of the 1924 rates of wages dashed to the ground. Here is what the com- mission says about these rates that the miners’ fought for and starved for and struck five long months of last year: “We find... that the re- scale proposed by the operators in. 1925 was amply justified... A larger reduction. would indeed be jusi but we limit our recommendation to a redi¢tion of ten per cent on the far as the ry industrial relationships, , (3) The reaction of factions with in the union, (4) The difficulties experienced in adjusting smaller grievances as they arise in the pit, (5) The difficulties also that have en experienced in the settlement of larger questions, particularly those relating to wage variations, (6) The abuse of conciliation achinery and the policy of “playing tactics” rather than attempting to un- dergtan -each other. ahi Yee i. 7) economic distress arising, particularly in certain districts, from very irregular employment, é ist International has directed the fol- ‘