The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 12, 1926, Page 6

% bf Page Six ee THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1118 W. Washington Biyd., Chicago, It. Phone Monroe 4713 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mail (eutelde of Chicago): $8.00 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, IIlinele _—_—— $$$ $$$ $$$ J, LOUIS ENGDAHL | WILLIAM F, DUNNE {—— fai MORITZ J, LOEB....... Business Manager’ a Entered an second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, lil, under the act of March 3, 1879. gets Sane aanahitboe ai acadttbiied Advertising rates on application. EE <i 390 France’s Emergency Cabinet Aristide Briand, deposed as premier last Saturday after losing a vote of confidence in the French chamber of deputies, has, for the ninth time in his career, organized a new cabinet. But so stormy are the political seas of Europe that he dare not venture-before the chamber until after he attends the special extraordinary, assembly of the league of nations at Geneya,-where the question of enlarging the league threatens further to liquidate the conspiracy of Versailles and destroy the work of the Locarno conference. The new cabinet has as its finance minister Raoul Peret, an un- known quantity, succeedit 2ul Doumer, who, like ‘his predeces- sors, failed to solve the financial problem. The new: cabinet is the same as the old with the exception of three other changes which eliminated members of the “left.” Briand rushed off to Geneva in order to defend the shattered structure of French imperialism built upon the intrigue of Versailes. The internal situation in France will force Briand to consent to any form of patchwork in the league in order to bridge over the acute crisis. It looks as ‘tho Germany will be admitted) alone and that the question of further enlargement of the league council will be put over until the regular embly next September. Meanwhile France faces the increasing financial crisis. Efforts further to beat down the standard of living of the workers by {heavy taxation will increase the bitter resentment against the imperialist colonial wars in Syria and Morocco and | furnish fuel for the flame the Communists are fanning beneath the structure of capitalist France. To impose heavier taxation upon| ihe middle class will drive them toward the left. The repudiated policy of trying to wipe out the internal debt thru inflation of cur- rency resulted in many French capitalists withdrawing their bank- ing power from Paris to other capitals of the financial world. No cabinet can last for long in this milieu. The confused:econ- omic condition has its reflex in French political life. There is no party with a majority in the chamber, hence no government: can be other than a thing of shreds and patches. Each party, except} the Communist Party, fears new elections, because none of the cap-| italist parties can defend its course before the assaults of the work- ing class spokesmen in the Communist Party. The French situation exposes again the complete debacle of parliamentafism in Europe today. . . . . . Capitalist Antagonisms Aid Russia Not the least important factor enabling the Soviet Unien to survive in a world of capitalist brigands is the irreconcilable con- flict between the two great imperialist powers, the United States and England. Inexorable economic forees compel these two nations to struggle for supremacy in every rt of the world. Each tries to gain ad- vantages over the other. In the struggle for oil the American trust, Standard Oil, has been forced to sign a pact with the head of the Soviet government oil trust, in order to prevent its mortal com- petitor, the British Royal Dutch Shell, obtaining the advantage. A éontract signed in Paris the other day provides that the Vacttum Oil company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil, shall become the selling agent for Soviet kerosene abroad. The American con- cern agr to purchase from sixty thousand to one hundred thou- sand tons of kerosene a year at a price several dollars below the world market. This is very significant. It enables the Soviet Union to obtain cold cash for its kerosene which is a distinct ad- vantage. It also repudiates the American state department’s polity of refusing the recognize Russia. At the same time it is a terrific blow against the British oil trust and a slap in the face of the tory so persistently endeavored to stimulate anti- Soviet cons) surope. In this instance, as in a number of others, in the great three- cornered fight between Soviet Russia, England and the United Kevernment that The THE DAILY WORKER NOTES OFAN INTERNATIONALIST. ‘The Will to Action’ and ‘The Will to Poverty’ that he might make as much trouble By MANUEL GOMEZ, Secretary All-|for Carranza as possible. The impor America Anti-Imperialist League. BY subtle trickery and distortion of news, thru the complete domina- tion®of Wall Street and Washington over all the avenues of publicity, one of the most flagrant. acts in the re- cent history of American foreign pol- icy has been allowed to go unmarked. This was the wanton wrecking by the U. S. representative a few days ago of a special U. S.-Mexican claims commission, The commission consisted of the Mexican and U. S. representatives and a neutral chairman, Dr. Rodrigo Octavio of Brazil. It was created to settld the question of responsibility for the murder of fifteen American mining engineers by the followers of the notorious “Pancho Villa some years ago, during the regime of Car- ranza, The U. S. government has maintained that the present adminis- tration of Mexico must make finan- cial amends for the massacre. Presi- dent Calles, on the @tber hand, has insisted that Villa was a bandit and outside the. law. Last Saturday’s newspapers came out with a mysterious report that the special claims commission had “failed,” that it had “broken down.” The truth about the “failure” did not appear in a single headline. Not an editorial writer referred to it. It was buried away in an obscure para- graph at the tail end of the Associ- ated Press“dispatch. The paragraph is as follows: “Dr. Rodrigo Octavio, of Brazil, the neutral member of the commission, upheld the Mexican ¢gntention with the result that the body decided to disband after a violent controversy. Octavio has léft for Havana and Judge Earnegt D. Perry, the Ameri- can member, is on his way home to report to: President Coolidge. Thus we see that the commission did not “fail” in the sense of failure to come to a decision. A decision was plainly reached, for the neutral chair- man supported the position of the Mexican government. However, the U. S. representative refused to accept the decision, notwithstanding the }fact that the personnel of the com- mission had been approved by the state department. Obviously there was nothing left to do but disband. Dr. Rodrigo “left for Havana in dis- gust, declaring that the attempt to arbitrate had “failed.” One does not have to go deeply into the merits of the case itself. Anyone who has been following Mex- ican events at all closely knows that Villa was a common bandit at the time of the murders, and that, more- over, he was receiving arms and sup- Plies from the United States in order tant thing is that a special claims commission has met and rendered a decision, and that the United States government refuses to abide by that decision. By its deliberately_provocative ac- tion in the special claims case, the U. S. government has taken a stand which belies all its pretenses that it is striving to reach an amicable solu- tion of the U. S.-Mexiean crisis, that ithe U. S. state department is patient and reasonable but that Mexico in- sists upon trouble. The action makes a mock of arbitration/on the Ameri- can continnent. It strips the rulers of the United States, of their hypo- critical democratic-pacifist phrase- ology and reveals their cynical deter- mination to make American imperial- ism the absolute arbiter of the west- ern world. Lt There is reason why such great care was used to distort the story in the reports of the capitalist press. Wall Street and Washington’ are moving toward a definite break with Mexico over the anti-imperialigt oil and land laws which that country has adopted as a measure of self‘pteservation. It ‘s necessary to fool the unsuspecting workers with news of the “failure” of aegotiations of all kfnds—but in this America Anti-Imperjaliet heague in Mexico City. Slavery in By “OBSCURUS.” HERE is probably nowhere in this heppy hunting ground for capital- ism known as the United States of America where workers are more sys- tematically and scientifically exploited than in the gloomy bastile-like build- ing at Dearborn and Adams streets in the city of Chicago. What is true in this office is, of course, true of the entire postal system, with here and there a minor concession. In order to become a clerk here an incredible ordeal must be undergone The sheep are separated from the goats in a long-drawn-out mental ex- amination; a test that is ludicrously , we find the United States and Russia following identical that are a challenge to the interests of England. Of course, these identical polici pursued with different motives. Russia, in the present instance, can strengthen its economic structure with- out risk to itself as the Standard Oil concern acts as the mere agent of the government trust. On the other hand the Standard:Oil con- cern benefits by gaining an adyantage over the British concern. When Standard Oil finds it necessary to deal with Bolshevik Russia to gain advantages over its competitors in Britain the stupid moral pretenses of Kellogg, Hoover and the rest of the Mellon-Coo- lidge spoils politicians fall flat. Not Confined to Passaic The New York City yellow tabloid sheets make much of the ferocity of the police thugs of Passaic, Clifton and other points in the New Jersey strike zone, birt they are utterly ineapable of per- ceiving the same thing under their very eyes in their own city. Hearst's Mirror, MacPadden’s Graphic, and the Chicago Trib- une’s New York tabloid called the News carry scare heads about the Passaaic mill strike, in an effort to increase their circulations and incidentally advance the political interests of Governor A. Har- ry Moore, the political puppet of the Frank Hague machine (Jersey City’s Tammany Hall), by alternately appealing to him to try to mediate the strike and call out the state militia, but when similar atrocities are perpetrated by the fur manufacturers against their strikers in New York they remain silent, When, the other day, on 27th street betwen 6th and 7th avenues, police thugs assaulted and frightfully beat some of the eight thou- sand fur strikers, there were no pictures on the front pages of these magazines; no scare heads, no appeals to Al Smith or to his pigmy mayor, Jimmy Walker, he-butterfly of Broadway. Only a con- spiracy of silence! ‘ ‘ ‘ Assaulted by police thugs, held prisoners in-ballways far hours, afterward arraigned in the Jefferson street Kangaroo court +and fined for daring to picket the scab shops in New York, these work- ers were defended only by the working class, the Gommunist, press, he Passaic strikers should note this and remember that even tho, _for reasons of its own, the reptile press gives them favorable pub- : id today, tomorrow it wilt stab them in the*back, “ out of proportion to the mental re- quirements of a prospective clerkship. Ht the applicant can show that he has participated in the recent Euro- pean blood bath he is allowed five points. And if he can prove that he was sufficiently zealous in defense of his master's foreign investments to have personally stopped a German shell directed thereat, he is allowed ten points, In the physical examination the doc- tor determines whether or not the ap- plicant’s anatomy is worth the 6h cents per hour that a clerk draws. At this point victims of physiological im- pairments incurred in the services of previous. masters are dumped on the social scrap heap, and the cream is retained for the extraction of what exploitable elements it may yet con tain, Before a clerk has made his debut, an initial expense of $12 is unavoid- able, This consists of the price of his photograph that must be filed with his fingerprints, notary fee, and purchase of a thousand dollar bond. In addi- tion to the foregoing there is an elab- orate conglomeration of accessories in conjunction with the study in intricate postal routing. The latter not only constitutes a formidable personal ex- pense, but will require upwards of two years’ study, References must be submitted which must not only be from business men but are accepted only on letterheads, A year is required to get from the substitute into the regular class with its coveted seventeen hundred dojlars per year. During this time a “sub” may get three“hours work per twenty- four or he may get none, but he must report Sunday night whether he wants to or moteHe may have upwards of a dollantransportation on Sunday night and a return of one dollar thirty cents for a probable four hours, going and-comingyeplus work and time, Breaking the'Chains of American I mperialism The work of a noted Mexican artist, used now as a symbol of the All- news the good intentions of the U. 8. government must be always insisted upon, or at least implied. That an open rupture with Mexico s being planned is no longer open to doubt. The wrecking of the’ special claims commission means that the at- titude of Wall Street and Washington is about as follows: Our plans are, made up: we know that a break is coming soon anyway. Why should we let an impartial com- mission decide our right to collect damages when we shall soon be in a position to collect them by forcible means? ss The attitute of the U. 8, represen- tative on the special claims commis: sion have only that meaning, “A new strain has been thrown on the already none too firm tie that unites diplomatically the United States and Mexico,” editoralizes the Chicago Tribune. “The sudden desertion » by Dr. Rodrigo Octavio of Brazil of his post as neutral chairman of the ¢om- mission called to adjudicate American losses in Mexican revolutions comes at an inauspicious moment.” No one can deny that the episode of the claims commission constitutes a new strain on U. S.-Mexican rela- tions. But it also constitutes a very severe strain upon the credulity of the American workers, its organ, El Libertador, issued in| Chicago Post Office Going to work or.gg*tunch the clock is punched; returifing involves the same procedure. In addition working numbers are checked going and com- ing from work. This-does not include numerous checks-tpé& at work to de- termine ff anyone paying an arbi- trary visit to the wash room. Fifteen minutes per four hours of work time is allowed for the latter purpose, same being checked in and out on the book and by the clock. If nature should make an intermediate demand the manner in which it would be satis- fied may better be left to the imagina- tion. Unless a clerk is ‘working on weight he dare not speak to his co-worker. Under this system; he is expected to handle certain weight pf mail per hour or take his money “get.” If the detail is switched to.one on which it isn’t possible to keep a precise mathe- matical record of Wofk done, the spy system is brought into play. The “observer” Watches a group frem a hidden poéftion and* grades them according to™the one who is going at the highést' speed, and the paymaster is, in alf Probability, wait- ing to accomodate‘the ones who ap- pear to be conse: their energies. A supervisor is at liberty to walk up to a clerk and haiwss him or “write aim up” for some trivial error, but to speak back to him by way of defense s economic suicides, Although there two, so-called, -nions in the office q great part of the ‘orce continues ungrganized. The “As- sociation of Chicago, Postal Clerks” consists of the strawbosses, super visors, stoolpi; and. others who are perfectly sure they will some day be president of the United States. The other (dis)organization, the “Na- tional Union of Postal Clerks,” is made up of those who are not so sure that they will yet occupy the White House but think their chances are good, Strike! No indeed. We are a dis- ciplined force, Furthermore, a clause in our by-laws specifies such un- American and sordid procedure as be- ing the method of common overalled trash. Going to the slimy politicians with their hats in their hands and tears in their eyes not is their method but accounts for plight. When it is reali hat fully 60 per cent of appointees give up the strug: gle err the sixth ir and the pros- pectivé forty-two lars and fifty cents per week ig Won, it can be seen that only those uperior constitu- tion can endure, The duty is nerve wrecking and physically devastating. Ventilation is antiquated and the lighting arrangement coupled with the strain very soon develops impaired vision, 2 : The only humorous angle is the so- called pension arrangement. This is, of course, but deferred pay, pure and simple; although it is looked upon fa- vorably by those who can’t detect the ruse. If at the age of sixty-five a clerk hasn’t entirely disintegrated from hard usage he is allowed a pen- sion. This pittance—not more than tifty dollars per month—if judiciously handled might cover the rent on a hall room in Hogan’s alley—and it might not. The travesty called a pension rep- resents the accumulation of deduc- tions from the employe’s pay at the rate of two and one-half cents from every dollar that accrued to him as wages over hig entire life as a postal worker, Federal Employes Seek Minimum Wage of $1,500 Per Year WASHINGTON, March 10.~-A-min- imum wage of $1,500 a year for all fulltime adult employes in» the) fed- eral service is the object of ‘avcam- paign which the National Federation of Federal Employes aie now launch- ing. a ¢ In the low-paid group of employes of the government are charwomen, men and women cleaners, watchmen, guards, elevator operators and others engaged in the maintenance lic buildings. Charwomen paid 60 cents an hour, except that the head charwoman gets 65 cents. This measure does not change the rate of pay of men and women in the professional service and other high- er grades, “f National City Bank Buys People’s Trust (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, March 10—The Na- tional City Bank has consolidated its position as America’s largest bank by taking over the People’s Trust com- oany of Brooklyn, The deal involved $16,700,000 and will give the bank, to- tal resources of $1,291, with leposits of $989,430,000, jolders xt the People’s Trust received $835 a share for their ane i “Failure” of the Mexican Claims Commission | | tons: in eight hours. ‘| men-are-employed in the mines. Many ) yw ' By JOHN A bape organ of the German basic in- dustry, Bergwerkszeitung, head- lines its programme article: ‘The Will to Action’—meaning thefeby the will for the erection of the open dic- tatorship of the bourgeoisie, One of the most important features of the entire German situation is this constantly strengthening tendency to- wards the establishment of the bour- geoisie’s confessed rule by force. The cabinet building is’ proceeding very laboriously, The bourgeois parties dare not form a government within the present parliamentary system without the Social-Democrats, be- cause they fear the crisis-inspired em- bitterment of the proletariat. But. the Social Democracy;:for the same Treason, dare not enter the ‘big: coali- tion with the bourgeoisie, It realizes full well tiat its entrance into a bour- geois government at this time would alienate from it the great masses of workers, i eae are multiplying that the bourgeoisie; are seeking to force the Social Democracy into the coalition government, that they are ever more frequently; threatening that unless the . bourgeois-Social Demo- cratic coalition 4s.effected they will destroy all. remnants of parliamen- tarism. The chairman of the Demo- eratic Party, Dr. Koch, directs a pub- PEPPER. publican “Berliner Tageblatt” terror- izes that “a renewed refusal of the +} Social Democracy would mean in fact a severe blow for German parliamen- tarism and, after everything that has =| gone before, it would represent the final attempt of the new government to form a*parliamentary regime.” ILDER and wilder rings the chorus) | of the bourgeois parties: unless the Social Democracy enters the bour- geois government that will be the open dictatorship of the bourgeoisie! The clerical “Germania” puts the ques- tion with cynical frankness: “The Social Democracy is compelled to choose between two evils: between the (crassly expressed)) temporary dis- s crediting of its own party,in the eyes} | of its followers and the dangerous d: erediting of the republic, democrac; | and parliamént, the results of which are difficult to predict.” #4 Hence, the bourgeoisie demands that, thé Social. Democracy sacrifice itself for the preservation of bourgeois so- clety, that even though it must alien- ate its mass support it shall come to the salvation of the rule of the bour- | geoisie,..The Social Democracy re- mains. reluctant—but sooner or later it will form the coalition government with the bourgeoisie and seek to beat down. every advance of the proleta- riat.”. The programme article in the “Bergwerszeitung” recommends & lic appeal to the Social Democracy: “In this hour we address the final ap- peal to the big Social Democratic Party not to desert us, and if, despite this, it refuses to co-operate, a deep wound will be delivered to parlia- mentarism,” The clerical “Germania” declares that now “parliamentarism’s decisive hour” has struck, and that the pres- ent parliamentary combination will forfeit its right to existence if, in the present critical situation, it shows it- self incapable of serving the interests of the people. Even the otherwise so strictly re- By ALEX REID. HE -rapid: introduction of machin- ‘+cery into the mines in Illinois, and ‘its effect an the miners’ employment, ‘is something that must receive the ‘immediate attention of the workers. The New Orient Mine No. 2 is one of the largest in the state, and is con- tinuously breaking its own. hoisting record; ,Last week it hoisted 13,000 Eleven hundred other large.mines in Illinois are pro- ducing around 10,000 tons per day. No doubt you will say, that this is a won- derful achievement. It is, in tons and dollars to the mine owners, but how |does it affect the miners? Thousands Unemployed. Let ustassume for a moment that there are-18 mines with the same ca- pacity im Illinois. “That would mean about 20,000 men employed and those men. worked 300 days per year. They would produce over 69,000,000 tons per year, or 1,000,000 more tons than was, mines in Mlinois, If such a state of efficiency came to pass in Illinois, and it is very likely, as many large mines are going down, and some of them are reported to have a hoisting capacity of 16,000 tons, in eight hours, it will result in the dis- placement of 70,000 miners perman- ently. 500,000 Look for Master. Not very pleasant outlook for 70,000 miners and their wives and children.’ It means that oné out of every 18 of the population in Mlinois will face starvation or move to some ther place, It means that 70,000 min- ers, with their, wives and families, to- talling approximately 500,000 will be- come. wanderers in, America looking (or new masters. Not only that, but it will mean the shutting down of over 400 mines, ‘It.will,.mean that the Stores, schogls. and homes in the min- ing towns ,will,be,left to rot and de- cay, and many, a@ life savings of the miners and, workers entirely lost. Officials’ Remedy. . This stituation, not only confronts Illinois, but: toa smaller extent af- fects all miners, in the other districts, as reports state the same process is going on in; other districts thruout the countrys). > gus as the program of ‘the Jabor officials to meet it? What do-John L. Lewis and, Frank Farrington-propose?: John 1.| Lewis states that there are 200,000 too! many coal minets: in the. industry, and proposes more efficiency. Frank Far- rington, at the last miners’ convention in Peorta, Ill, advised the men to load clean coal, lessen the cost of produc: tion, co-operate with the boss, and do not antagonize the boss, Progressive Program. The progressive min that it makes no difference what state of ef- ficiency is brot into the coal mining industry, they have a right to live and work. Human life is the first consid- eration of the progressive miners, We also preach ‘efficiency, but not at the expense of the lives of the min- ers, their wives and fuinilies, There is a remedy, The “progrossive miners demand that the coal mines be nation: alized, with controly the miners, and notiin the hands of « bunch of lawyers and politiclans, —— Leaders Join Enemies, © Run the mines in thetnterest of all ls hala Forcing the Miners Into Starvation produced in 1924 in all of the 488/ In view of this» situation, what is| “hands of |: “Will of Poverty” to the German peo- ple, in other words, the quiet resigna- tion to misery, to mass unemploy- ment, to pauperisation. And if the people become discontented, if the workers demand a reckoning, the bourgeoisie threatens with the “Will to Action.” The honorable capitalists forget only one thing—that there ex- ists a Communist Party, that in place of a “Will to Poverty” there wilt arise in the proletariat a “Will to Power,” and that not only in the bour- goisie but in the working class as well there will arise a “will to action.” the people instead of in the interests of the private few that own or control them now. Conventions Demand Nationalization. The United Mine’ Workers have at many conventions in the past_in- dorsed nationalization of the coal mines and at a late convention, ap- pointed a committee to investigate, and supply data, as a basis for the fight for nationalization. But the miners’ leaders have lined up with the miners’ enemies, and ditched the report of the committee, and gone/out of their way to repudiate nation diiié» oy tion, and insult those who have con- sistently fought for the miners’ pro- gressive policies, Fusion of Wall Street Tools. We are well aware of the fact that nationalization is a political question, and necessitates political action, hence the miners demand at their conventions the formation of @ political party of the working class. This labor party program of the |miners has also been repudiated by { |the miners’ leaders, and we again find - them lined up solidly with our enemies. John L. Lewis graced the republican party in 1924, as one of the campaign committeemen of the Wall Street 1 ticket of candidate Cal Coolidge. This i is the same Wall Street that is tfow \ crushing the anthracite miners, while | Frank Farrington is lined up with ; Gov. Small of Illinois, who stole the value of the Illinois state house, and has been ordered by the court to put it back. Not only the miners are demanding a labor party to look after their de- mand for nationalization of the coal mines, but thruout the whole of Am- erica, the workers are struggling for the formation of a labor party, and be it noticed, that the keenest opposi- tion we have, is that coming from the Wall Street crowd, thru their agents in,the labor movement, the fake Ja- bor leaders themselves, The workers will have a labor party in the near future, in spite of all the Greens, Lewises and Farringtons in America, * and nationalization of the mines will follow, ELECTRIC POWER NOT FERTILIZER, GOAL OF TRUST, Senator Explodes Yarn! ~ : of “Aid to Farmers” WASHINGTON, March 1o—-wieal power {is no longer an economical means of production of farm fertiliz- er, Sen, Howell of Nebraska, told the Senate, in an extended scientific an alysis of this argument on the Muscle Shoals leasing resotution. Howell hag made a special study of the chem ical and engineering features involy- ed in making fertilizer and in the utilization of waterpower. He | poses the giving away of the Plant, and wants the government operate it in competition with trust. r ee ‘, “The pen is mightier than sword,” provided you know how to it, Come down and learn how in worker correspondent’s classes, pate