The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 19, 1926, Page 2

Page Two THE DAILY! WORKER From “Black Friday” to “Red Friday By TOM BELL. The tri-district convention of the three anthracite districts of the Unit- ed Mine Workers of America has ratified the agreement signed last Friday with the operators. This means that as yet the hard coal miners are fooled and forced to follow the lead- ership of John L. Lewis, and to ac- cept even this agreement which ties them up for five years without a raise in wages, The strike of the miners for over five months was an indication of the stubborness of the rank and file of the miners’ union. Even tho the main- tainence men remained at work re- lieving the operators of all worry over their property, and the miners in the bituminous fields were working pro- ducing coal which was used to render ineffective the strike in the anthra- cite—all this did not weaken the will- ingness of the miners to remain on strike without funds and with relief barely organized at all. More Strikes Coming. The triumph of the operators thru their good friend Lewis and his ma- chine in the union appears to be over- whelming to many, But the five-year contract is not worth the paper it is written on as soon as the miners see that to observe it means to sacrifice their wages and conditions of work. The history of the anthracite is the history of thousands of strikes in the various localities, and the same will occur during the coming five years in spite of the contract. This victory of the operators does not end the fight of the miners against their operators. On the contrary, it will become an incentive to greater struggles as the implications of the new contract are put into effect. Two “Black Fridays.” The day of the signing of the agree- ment has been labeled “Black Friday” quite correctly. It is just as much a defeat for the American miners as “Black Friday” in 1921 was for the Br h miners when the triple alliance of miners, railroad men and transport workers was smashed thru the betrayal of Thomas, Hodges and Williams in refusing to call a general strike to aid the miners. At that time the bosses in Britain gleefully predict- ed that this defeat meant the end of trouble in the mine fields. The labor fakers hailed the dawning of “peace in industry” and Hodges, secretary of the miners’ union, actually proposed a ten-year truce between labor and capital, “Black Friday” seemed to be a decisive defeat for the miners and other workers. But the further development of the class struggle in Britain smashed these predictions, The miners learn- ed the lesson of “Black Friday” and saw the necessity of removing Hodges from official position in their union to prevent a recurrance of this defeat with the result that A. J. Cook, a left winger, was elected secretary in the next election against Hodges as a re- presentative of the left wing. The election of Cook was a symbol that the British miners had turned to the road of class struggle instead of co- operation with the operators, The British “Red Friday.” In 1925 the British operators sought to repeat the performance of 1921 by | Teducing wages. They were met with the determination of the miners’ union ‘mot to accept a penny reduction. Not only that, the officials of the union ‘were the most militant and rallied the membership for a real struggle against the bosses. They called for a united front of the railroad, transport and mine workers against the bosses, They visited Germany and other Eur- opean countries and secured the H. M. WICKS Lecturer and Editorial Writer for The Daily Worker IMPERIAL HALL, Corner Halsted and Fullerton agreement of the miners, railroad and transport workers there to not ship coal into Britain in event of a strike. In other words, they applied the methods of class struggle. The result was that the British goy- ernment was forced to intervene to prevent the threatened reduction of wages being put into effect, Last July the British miners were able to cele. brate their “Red Friday” and wipe out the memory of the “Black Friday” of 1921. This was accomplished by the rank and file determination to rid the union of all elements in official position who would line up with the bosses against them, and by taking the road of de- termined struggle against the bosses. A Temporary Defeat. The same task lies miners in the anthracite. This defeat is a temporary one. They can wire out this defeat by organizing against those who put it over—Lewis and company inside their union. Lewis is able to triumph because there is no real stubborn opposition to him in the rank and file. Of course, the sentiment against the Lewis policy is there, The sixty-six thousand votes for the progressive slate in the last international election proves that. What is lacking is the organization of these opposition elements for the pur- pose of clearing the union of traitor- ous leaders, before the (Continued from page 1) more, but Scharfenberg went on, “I am in compliance with the laws of our organization.” “Are you in accord with what ap- pears in this leaflet?” asked Lewis again. “Read it off to the delegates,” chal- lenged Scharfenberg, again putting Lewis on the defensive, while his henchmen came to his support with more cries of, “Throw him out, throw him out,” while others yelled, “All he wants is publicity, he wants some free advertising.” Delegate William E. Williams was recognized by President Lewis as a life saver in the renewed tumult. “Don’t throw him out,” volunteered Delegate Williams, in an-ill concealed effort at humor. “I say have an of- ficer put him out” In another second Lewis had called | for a show of hands to all those in favor of unseating Scharfenberg. “He declared the motion carried, stating that, “The delegate \Scharfenberg can- not act as a delegate or ask any questions in this connection.” That was the beginning and the end of the discussion of the merits and demerits of Lewis’ surrender to the mine owners on “Black Friday” last at Philadelphia, Before the wage scale committee report came up the delegates had a tilt with the administration over the uestion of changing the representa- tion from one delegate to every 100 members to 500 members per dele- gate. This made the convention less a rank and file affair and more easily under the control of the machine, “Economy” was the only excuse for the change offered by Lewis. An attack was made on one dele- gate seated by the credentials com- mittee because it was charged he was selected at an irregularly called meet- ing and that he had mined coal and sold it for $10 per ton during the strike, This bootlegger of coal, how- ever, was seated, in the words of Secretary McAndrew, “according to the law.” It fell to the lot of International Secretary-Treasurer Kennedy to ex- SPEAKS IN CHICAGO TONIGHT Thursday, Feb. 18 “The World Court and Locarno” 8:15 P. FOURTH Workers (Communist) IN CHICAGO, ILL.! Hear This Splendid Speaker. ADMISSION FREE Meeting under auspices of Section 5, Local Chicago, Workers (Communist) Party, ANNUAL Red Revel MASQUERADE BALL Saturday, February 27, 1926 TEMPLE HALL, Marshfield Ave. and Van Buren St. CASH PRIZES FOR BEST MASQUES. Admission 50 Cents in Advance, 75 Cents at the Door. Party, Local Chicago. The worst thing that can happen to the miners now is that they will ac- cept defeat, that they will think that the end of the world has come be- cause of one defeat, It is the task of the progressive elements in the union to rally the miners to turn “Black Friday” into “Red Friday.” It will take hard work to do this, The Lewls machine will go to any lengths to stay in the union to continue their yals of the miners as agents of SOS. Organize the Opposition, The recent history of the British miners’ union shows that the Amer- ican miners can defeat Lewis and con- sequently defeat the operators. The International Progressive Miners’ Committee has a great task ahead of it. But they will succeed because the operators will take advantage of the Lewis betrayal to worsen working conditions, speed up production, and cut wages under all sorts of pretexts, The miners will have sffficient cause to fight—what is needed is a leader- ship to lead them against the bosses, and co-ordinate the thousands of local strikes that are bound to develop into a broad movement of the miners to turn “Black Friday” into “Red Fri- day.” Pessimism is not needed—hard work to organize the opposition to Lewis and company is the main task now. _ sna Lewis Jams Thru Betrayal Plain the .Philadelphia surrender, when the “Black ‘Friday” agreement finally came before the delegates. His analysis did not bring out anything new. He explained arbitration out of the agreement and read the check-off into it. The first question asked, indicating the temper and worry of the anthra- cite miners was, “Is there any pro- vision that the miners would have to take a reduction in wages?” Kennedy Lies About Wages. Kennedy replied, “absolutely, posi- tively and emphatically no,” but offer- ed no proof of his assertion, instead making the flat statement that, “there jis a possibility in the future of get- |ting an increase out of it.” The soft |coal miners, however, have had their Jexperience with the Jacksonville agreement, quite to the contrary. Most of the questions, however, dealt with working conditions. One delegate stated that the mine owners had admitted that it would cost them $3,000,000 if they paid for work that the men were now demanding re- muneration for. The delegate wanted to know when the demand for this payment could be made under the agreement as the miners did not want to do this work for nothing, He was assured that this detail would be at- tended to, Lay-Offs Begin, Another delegate declared that the mine owners were already putting into effect that section of the agree- ment calling for “efficiency and co-op- eration” by promising to lay off 24 men in one mine and 12 in another, and that they were threatening to cut down the number of engineers em- Ployed. The indication was that the mine owners were preparing to in- flict “efficiency” with a vengeance, An “Honorable” Document. It was at this point that Delegate Scharfenberg wanted to discuss the agreement. Following his unseating the questioning came to a quick end- ing and the officials turned loose an overwhelming attack against all dis- senters. Among the speakers were Chris J. Golden, president of district Nine; Vice-president Phil ' Murray, Secretary-Treasurer Kennedy; Rinal- do Cappellini, president of district One; Andrew Matty, president of district Seven, with Lewis closing the discussion. Their speeches were for the most part eulogies of each other, with a special assortment for Lewis and an- other assortment for Governor Pin- chot. Lewis concluded by declaring the “Black Friday” agreement “an honorable document.” ‘When the vote was put several dele- gates voted against the surrender much to the chagrin of the officials who were striving to make it unani- mous. They were not able to do it. Even with a standing vote the dissent- ing delegates sticking by their guns. The convention ended with a victory for the machine achieved thru whole sale terror beginning in the locals and concluding at Scrantion, “The trade unions .. . in the period of revolutionary preparation play a very big role, in the moment of social revolution they will fill the most im- portant tasks of solcalist construc- tlon, when, er the victory of the proletariat, they became the organs of proletarian dictatorship."—c, 1. Thi Toledo Debate Resolved: That Atheism Is the Road to Economic Emancipa- tion of the Workers, Karl E. Pauli Affirmative Alex Schwarzenfeld Negative Saturday, February 20, 8 P. M. 716 Jefferson Avenue. j NINERS FORMS FIGHTING FRONT Organizes to Seat Too- hey and Other Delegates (Special to The Daily Worker) SCRANTON, Pa, Feb. 17— The tank and file of the anthracite min- ers’ union have: organized for the fight to seat their spokesmen at the |. Tri-District ratification convention which opened yesterday for the pur- pose of either accepting or rejecting the Philadelphia agreement. The Lewis machine, fearing the presence of leaders of the;progressive miners’ committee at the, convention ag the floor leaders of the opposition dele- gation have resorted to an autocratic change in the basis of local union rep- resentation in an attempt to keep these miners away from the conven- tion. Representatives of scores of local unions of the Wilkes-Barre and Pitts¢ burgh territory met yesterday at Pau- xitas Hall, Edwardsville, where final plans for the left wing fight were made. The opening fight of the con- vention will be on the seating of Pat Toohey, ex-secretary of the Plains col- liery, and a delegate to the last Tri- District convention. At that conven- tion he incurred the wrath and en- mity of the machine by opposing the reports of the Lewis committees and advancing instead the program of the rank and file delegation. Fight Over Toohey’s Seating. The convention's hand-picked cred- entials committee will undoubtedly report unfavorably upon the creden- tials of Toohey and recommend he not be seated at the convention, Thus the Lewis machine will attempt to forestall the crystallization of oppo- sition upon the convention floor, The committee will doubtless report Too- hey an expelled member and conse- quently not privileged to attend as a delegate. Scores of delegates declar- ed their determinatiéu’ to fight for the seating of Toohey in the conven- tion. If they succeed in seating him it will considerably bolster the fore- es of the anti-Lewis opposition. Lewis and his henchmen, will resort to all despicable methods to prevent the seating of Toohey @t this convention, as they did at many previous miner conventions, district, tri-district and injernational, Ag It is noty kno’ when the lett-wi ton convention, lar faces immedia prisonment as 8 Lackawanna cou! bination of the the crooked Scrant Woodward Local The second big wing will be on t delegation of the lied Woodward jocal union at ‘dsville. Lewis expelled the entire)1,700 members of this local and “re nized the local” by placing it in thi of company stools, after deposing and expelling the militant local leaders for their refusal to bow in submission to Cap- pellini, the autocrat. The Woodward local will elect 17 delegates and in- sist upon their being seated at the convention. The Léwis machine will fight every inch of the way to prevent their being seated, foryif they are seat- ed it means the Lewis machine is whipped. Left Wing is Gaining. These two issues will undoubtedly divide the convention immediately in- to two definite groupings. Practically every local union in the Wilkes-Barre and Edwardsville area that has heard left wing speakers the past few days have unanimously repudiated the con- tract and instructed their delegates to fight for the seating of Pat Toohey and the other Plains’ delegates and the expelled delegation from the Wood- ward colliery, The organized left wing decided to hold regular meetings dur- ing the course of the convention and until its adjournment, ‘B. & O.’ Workers Want 20 Pct. Wage Increase BALTIMORE—(FP)—A 20% wage increase is requested by conductors and trainmen on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. When the B, & O, shopmen asked for a wage; increase of 2c an hour and time and:a half for sundays and holidays, their demands were re- jected. tl Net revenue of the B, & O. Railroad for 1925 exceeds 1924 by $7,000,000. According to financial writers, the in- crease is to go into raising the divi- dend rate on the stock. : will develop machine and politicians, ‘be Represented it by the left seating of the Plumbers’ Helpers’ Ball. The first annual ball of the Plumb- ers’ Helpers’ Club of Brooklyn, will be given on the eve of Washington's birthday, Feb. 21, at 8:30 at Browns- ville Labor Lyceum, 219 Sackman street, Brooklyn, All building trad: workers in general and all plumbers’ helpers in particular are invited to come to this affair, which promises to be one of the most interesting of the season, and eVerybody is assured @ fine time. The Plumbers’ Helpers are now fighting to get into the Plumbers’ Union and the proceeds of this ball will go toward getting a monthly bulletin called the Plumbers’ Helper. 2 | Pinchot Was Invited to Speak to Coal Miners at Scranton Convention - By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL, ERHAPS John L. Lewis will not find it very easy going over the backs of the coal miners to a seat in Coolidge’s cabinet. When Lewis joined the other officials of the Miners’ Union and the heads of the three anthracite districts in an invitation to address the Scranton convention, it could not have helped him with the reigning regime in the republican party. * > @ e It would ‘have been interesting’ to listen in on the dis- cussion that surely must have taken place incidental to the drawing up of the fulsome letter of praise, dripping honeyed words of adulation. : Chris J. Golden, president of District No. 9, and Thomas J. Kennedy, who has become secretary of the miners’ inter- national union, have differed before. President Lewis at one time rejected a report they had drawn up for the nationaliza- tion of the coal mines. Now they clash again, for the ambitions of John L. Lewis can only be realized by trailing with the most reactionary wing of the republican party. A * * e e Pinchot has a reputation as a “progressive” that should not delude the workers. Pinchot is safely on the side of the ruling class in one of the most corporation-ridden states in the whole nation. He first came into the limelight thru his campaign to reserve the national forests. There was no class issue ere. He quit the republican party with the Roosevelt reVolt in 1912. The split, however, did not take place over any economic issue of importance. Pinchot easily found his way back into, the republican party. As governor of Penn- sylvania he has put the wet and dry issue ahead of all the others. He is dry. But there are no indications that the state is any more arid because of his efforts. It is certain that the power of the steel and coal czars have not been clipped in the least. The power of the infamous Pennsylvania cossacks is as great as ever. Governor Pinchot kept Jacob Dolla in prison long after the steel strike had come to an end. The latest sedition trial against labor has taken place in Pinchot'’s own state. Yet the class collaboration schemes of some officials of the miners’ union fit in with the political ambitions of. this charlatan, while John L. Lewis must look to Secretary of Labor “Jim” Davis, who comes from Pittsburgh and is Pinchot's rival in politics. ey * ° To be sure, the coal miners must meet the situation by declaring a plague upon both their houses. The labor party movement in Pennsylvania is showing big signs of develop- ment. That way the energies of the miners must be directed. Bitter war must be declared and developed against those trade union officials who use the labor movement as a foot- stool to climb high in the old gpa parties. In this there is no difference between all t je present miners’ officials in the anthracite district. The fight for the labor party must be made over their hostility. Bentall, Daily Worker] Roumanian Government Correspondent, Arrested for Passaic Strike Work (Continued from page 1) it ridiculous that serious men’ should consider dealing with anyone but the officials of the United Front Commit- tee of Textile Workers. “The strikers are also well aware of the schemes of the bosses implied in the statement that the men must go back to work first before questions of wages, hours, etc., are settled. This is an utterly impossible condition and can be considered only as a maneuver and not in a serious light. Just the contrary is correct. The United Front Committee of Textile Workers consid- ers that now is the proper time, at the very moment when the bosses are weakening, when there is talk of settle- ment, that all the workers from all of the other mills in this city should walk out in order to come within the terms of any negotiations that are begun so that they may get the ben- efits of the victory. Now that the mill owners are weakening, now more than ever is the time for larger and larger masses of oppressed workers to strike, ‘We know that the successful struggle of the Passaic workers is stirring the textile workers in other cities and this is giving great concern to the mill owners, “The men on strike are confident of victory but they, too, desire a spee- dy termination of this struggle which affects the entire community, The United Front Committee of Textile Workers is ready at all times to enter into negotiations to settle this strike.” Tag day on Saturday brought about $2,500 and a _ benefit performance Sunday night netted nearly $1,500. A check of $1,000 was handed to the relief committee Saturday and other funds are added to the strikers relief, Tomorrow there will be sandwiches and coffee for all the pickets and there will be stores for needy families to get goods from, so no one will need to suffer. ‘ Economic Parley Set. GENEVA, Feb, 17. — The league of nations has announced that the first meeting of the preparatory commis- sion for its international economic conference will be held at Geneva, April 26, « “Trade unions are the reservoir of the majority of ‘the socially sive part of the proletariat.”"—C, I, Thesis, r; 4 Decrees Martial’ Law BUCHAREST, Feb, 17—Martial law has been declared in Roumania as a result of riots following the elections of last Sunday. Opposition leaders charge the government padded the voting lists, The dictatorship of the Bratiano brothers has been opposed to Prince Carol and his group and it has been long anticipated that serious events would occur as soon as the opposition could express itself. The Roumanian delegate to the conference of prime ministers of the Little Entente at Te- mesvar last week created a sensation at that time by announcing that its decisions could not be binding on his country because of the possible oyer- throw of its government. Carpenters Get Increase, HATTIESBURG, Miss. —(FR)—Ef- fective March 1, union eas will receive 85¢ an hour, Placing Hatties- burg in line wi sihine ith other Mississippi Elfrieda Boss .. Eleanore Rose Edith Segel . The Pioneers Daily Worker Builders’ CONCERT | ~ Sunday, February 21, at 2 P. M. ° at YORKVILLE CASINO 86th Street and Third Ave., New York. Program: Workers’ Amateur Orchestra, Speakers......Mossaye J. Olgin and J. Louis Engdahl t ae TICKETS 50 CENTS—Advance sale at Daily Worker New _ York Agency, 108 East 14th Street. BILLION DOLLAR BANK MERGER “INNEW YORK Chase National Assets will Be $1,025,000,000 NEW YORK, Feb, 17.—With the consolidation of the Chase National Bank and the Mechanics and Metals National Bank, one of the biggest banking mergers that has ever taken place in Wall street or the nation, has been completed. The combined banks will do busi- ness under the name of the Chase National Bank and their combined assets will total about $1,025,000,000. Second Billion Dollar Bank. This consolidation establishes an- other “billion dollar bank” in Wall street,—the second in the history of the country. The Chase National Bank will now rank second only to the National City Bank, whick has held first place in the banking world for many years. The main office of the consolidated bank will be at 57 Broadway—the present offices of the Chase National Bank, and the present offices of the Mechanics and Metals National Bank will be known as the Mechanics and Metals Branch of the Consolidated Chase National Bank. Foreign branch offices of the con- solidated bank are at Havana, Cuba, Cristobal, Canal Zone, Panama City, epublic of Panama, Board of Directors, The directorate of the consolidated institution will be one of the strongest in the country, and carries the names of some of the most prominent men in the world of finance and business. The list of directors as announced by Albert H. Wiggin, chairman of the consolidated bank, follows: Henry W. Cannon, Albert H. Wig- gin, John J. Mitchell, Guy EB. ‘Tripp, James N, Hill, Daniel ©. Jackling, Charles M. Schwab, Samuel H.,Miller, Edward R. Tinker, Edward T, Nichols, Newcomb Carlton, Frederick H. Ecker, Eugene V. R, Thayer; Carl J. Schmid- lapp, Gerhard M. Dahl, Reeve Schley, H. Wendell Endicott, Jeremiah Mil- bank, Henry Ollescheimer, Arthur G. Hoffman, F. Edson White, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Elisha Walker, Malcolm G. Chace, Thomas N. McCarter, Robert L, Clarkson, Amos L. Beaty, William H. Woodin, William\P. Holly, Gates W. McGarrah, John McHugh, William E. S. Griswold, Henry ©. Havemeyer, William A. Jamison, L. F. Loree, Theodore Pratt, Robert «C. Pruyn, Samuel F, Pryor, and Ferdinand W. Roebling, Jr. Expedition Explores Desert. MOSCOW, U. S. 8. R., Feb. 17.— An expedition headed by Academician Fersman, sent by the Academy of Sciences has for the first time pene- trated into the depths of the middle- Asiatic sandy desert Kara-Kum. Sixty kilometers to the north ot Gaek Tepe, the expedition found popu- lated oases. These oases are inhab- ited by races akin to the Turkmen and are engaged in cattle, camel, sheep and goat breeding. Two hundred fifty kilometers from Geok Tepe the expedition discovered sulphur beds of great wealth. Traces of ancient exploitation have been found there. The deposits of sulphur ore are rich, amounting to millions of tons. On the basis of the collected scientific materials, it is believed that sulphur ore may be found in other places in Kara Kum. These sulphur deposits are of great industrial im- Portance, and they can be reached by Paths, well known to the inhabitants of the desert. . Referendum On War. TOLEDO—(FP)—No war without @ popular referendum, the Toledo Central Labor Union asserts, backing Herbert Bigelow, Cincinnat§ preacher, in his campaign against -banker-made wars. The proposal in congress to “conscript wealth” with labor was de- nounced as a shallow fake, sreseeaseseseeneees VION. Piano srsteeeees DANCES soo Tableau