The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 20, 1926, Page 6

Page Six ie iy THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 2118 W. Washington Blyd., Chicago, I. Phone Monroe 4713 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mali (in Chicago only): By mail (outelde of Chicage): 96.00 per year $4.50 six monthe | $6.00 per year $3.50 six menths $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, MOUIS BNGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNND MORITZ J. LOEB. eimunneminnen Business Manager aR tered as second-class matl September 21, 1928, at the postoffice at Chi - cago, Iil., under the act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application. By H. M. WICKS. ANY workers who are taught by Communists to look upon the en- tire capitalist press, without excep- tion, as the bitter enemy of the work- ing class are prone to consider our position refuted by the attitude of cer- tain New York newspapers toward the Passaic strike. Day after day the Hearst papers, and the News, which is published by the Chicago Tribune con- cern, and the Graphic, the so-called “independent” organ of Bernard Mac- Fadden, the physical culture capital- list, appear with screeching headlines |exposing in spectacular detail every Tariff Revision Haunts Passaic Bosses | assault by the police against the strik- Altho still confined to the vicinity of Passaic the strike in,the| surely this appears to be a. re- textile industry has already grown to national proportions. The | versai of the familiar role of the rep- visit to Washington of the delegation of strikers and, their sym- | tile press. pathizers has set on foot a movement that bids fair to.culminate in| The Marxian, using the method of a sweeping investigation of the whole industry. Before the adop- | historical var anape Tt ber tion of the Fordney-McCumber tariff law the bestial conditions in Siok: oot egduon eek aanien s this industry were known and were everywhere considered a na-|tnat embracing Passaic without con- tional disgrace. Every capitalist country in the world has varied | sidering all! the currents of present industries in which there are wide disparities in the standard of |day society in their ebb and flow. living: There is usually, however, a level below which workers do ad womanly pha pr eak a oe not sink in the abyss of poverty and misery. But in the whole tex- bee alba, th ssauine peas tile industry, with a few pronounced local exceptions, the standard jj js not by any means a mere acct- of living of the workers is far below that of workers in all other |dent that a portion of the capitalist industries. ‘ 4 press in New York plays up the news Whole families are chained to the dismal mills long hours and ri Dae oe ene re at night’they live in hovels that their masters would not shelter the struggls. thai dlatingtians it thom their dogs in. Their bodies are so exhausted that they cannot enjoy | other strikes. even that heathful sleep that is experienced by the lowest of the] portion of the New York press has beasts of burden. Like the workers of the mill towns of England at] ational political significance and is the time Frederick Engels wrote of their condition in 1844, they can- panier Sg enc the coming not sleep—they simply fall into a stupor from which they arouse ~ themselves to slave another day. Exposes Tariff Fake. The republican politicians who backed the high tariff policy |" [2 notorious FordneysMcCumber recited the condition of the mill workers and declared that a high |" en Ain nici nad sue Hee protective tariff would enable the workers to raise their standard cattis the Roald ai ar olin of living. As revolutionists and Marxians we pointed to the fact|mins of the nation. The principal that such a tariff would only enable the employers to pile up still | beneficiaries of this tariff were the greater profits by ‘shutting out European competition; that the workers would be forced to pay higher prices for their clothing and that it would force the poor farmers to pay more for manufactured articles. In fact we proved that it would benefit only the textile <> 190 magnates of the woolen trust of the nation. The Passaic strike has far- reaching national political significance for the reason that it dramatizes. be- fore the whole nation the fraud of the magnates. Every prediction we made has been vindicated by his-|republican claims, ‘that the tariff tory. Instead of raising the pay of the textile workers, wage cuts | Would aid labor, 9 4 ‘When those workers} who were have been the order: of the day»ever since the law was enacted. Greater profits have been piled up to enable the employers to grow richer and at the same time set aside a greater amount to hire armies of spies and “efficiency” experts to devise new methods of terror and agonizing toil in order to squeeze the last bit of vitality from the bodies: of the workers. Instead of consuming the energy of the workers over a period of thirty years, the average textile worker is a wreck at the end of fifteen years’ servitude. In the investigation that is being insistently demanded by every person familiar with the facts who is not directly connected with the textile industry the real fraud of the tariff will come out. Of course, we, as revolutionists, know that the remoyal of the high tariff will not raise the wages of the workers in the textile industry, but the facts brot to light during such an investigation will focus the attention of the advanced section of the*labor move- ment upon the necessity for organizing that industry and forcing ipuas: cits Mitt chisaetien Rocio the employers to disgorge some of the surplus that they plunder] ine passaic textlleiswthers. “ Over from the workers in the most frightful exploitation known in this! ‘2,000 of them have®-quit the mills. country: | The gigantic mills are silent and in- Workers in the textile industry will learn in the strife of the Siediel eee tas the bitter industrial battle the necessity for effective industrial organization. ound them, ‘This is the Jb eatiees This agitation for an investigation of the whole industry ought to be a strike that willrgo down in his- accompanied by an intensive drive to bring all the workers into ay as one of American labors’ big union embracing the whole industry. Any local textile union that “important. struggles, Thus far eokee * * 5 ery attempt of the mill owners to stands in the way of such an organization of the industry is playing...) ana defeat tne workers has ie game of the bosses and the workers suulia repuuiare Uy ieaucs | ailed, ship that does not wholeheartedly get behind a drive to consolidate | the power of the wor 1» industrial union. The: struggle cal characteristics that any worker Comsncks, fat guns od. baa’ beekbe, can understand, which emphasizes the necessity for independent] Every day finds thousands of work- politieal action on the part. of the working class against all cle on the picket lines. On bitter promised that the grievances that led to the great textile “strike that in- volved 200,000 workers ins the strike wave of 1922 would never recur under the blessings of the ‘new’ tariff law, go out on strike because more than 90 per cent of them are unable to earn what passed for the shabbilest sort of By BEN GITLOW, NHUMAN conditions, : starvation wages, savage exploitation and Picket Line Firm, The picket line holds firm in the face of brutal police arrests, mounted ‘ers into has also developed distinet poli of capitalism. So, on the order of the day in the textile industry Sea ie, ish tiea ehae ThA hare . . jad wi! are two demands that the Communists constantly emphasize—amal-|P°''Y © ee coe mas see 2 : . : . zi +.,|@ cup of coffee and a bun for break- gamation of the various crafts and, localized unions into industrial] fast, you can see men, women and unions and a labor party. children strikers picketing the mills, shouting and singing with a spirit of determination that cannot be con- quered, eb batheatelng er areeiorhceebeieidiel Tammany Arrests Passaic Strikers Thirty-three I ic strikers. were arrested in New York City k for endeavoring to conduct a tag-day drive for strike re- - 6 police arrested themoon orders from. the office gf Bird 8. . 8.) Coler, commissioner of. public welfare, who insisted that no days could be held without; his:consent. Coler is a part of the alimany- Hall machine, that. superlative. organization for extor: tion that enables it to survive ag the best organized group of political grafters in the country. Even f ar United States government, like all clipitalist states, is the organ and instrument of a minority of so ciety dgainst all the rest of society— the agent and defender of the big bourgeoisie against all other classes in this: nation. But it dare not openly stand) forth before the whole popu- lation as the instrument of the small- est strata, but withal the most eco- nomically powerful, of the capitalist class.of the United States. Thru the deception of parliamentarism, the practice of chicanery, fraud and vio- lence, the government of the ruling class retains power from election {fo election. It is this necessity for con- cealing its;real character as a class government that frequently prevents its immediate response to the chang: collections forecharitable institutions haye been brot into the sphere of plunder. Special permits are granted by the Tam- nany nia¢hine for “tag days” and those favored institutions must the proper Tammany connection and pay, him his graft in to secure the permit. This small, but essential, prelimtnary looked by the strikers, hence Coler, of Bathmany Hall, at the head-of which is Al Smith, supported by most of the labor fakers in York, ordered ing girls thrown in jail because they 5 didn’t kick in with the graft. Again we have a concrete example ; of the folly of supporting “friends” of labor because the labor of- icials who devote their lives to selling out the working class endorse such candidate Hereafter order was ove if labor tries to conduct tag days they will have to 4 ieeognize the fact that Tammany has all privileges for sale; even |!"& demands of the class it serves. Hy ef the whole city if it ean get enough pelf for it. One must bribe offi-] As @ concrete illustration, take the " vials to get permits for tag days, to erect a, building, for chauffeurs’ eee BR ey cuit idiay or sok 9 2 licenses, auto-drivers’ licenses, to operate a fire-trap tenement, co policy of the: government was to re- i duct unsanitary restaurants, operate vermin-infested rooming |fuse to have any dealings with Ru sia; to endeavor to isola starve and eventually to crush the revolu tion.” That policy was realistic for i jalism just so long it was parent to thé statesmen of the a wers that the revolution was invinkible, that it could defend and tuate itself against the capital ‘Id because of its own power and the many favorable historical i hoiises or filthy food stores. In fact everything is reduced to plain und faney graft. To do anything in New York’City one must pay tribote- to the Tammany slush fund and hel sapport its army of ward heelers whose allegiance to the machine is based upon their “privileged positions as grafters and pett thieves. Labor in New York, as well as in “other places, will be able to conduct its struggles uninterrupted by otttfal despotism whene creates its own political party and supports it and not before. ~~ oe Furthermore The attitude of this] living wage, the opponent§/of the re-| It is because of tp The Passaic’ THE DAILY, WORKER National Politics and “Fri publican party. have powerful political ammunition in their hands. Add to this situation in the woolen mills the agricultural crisis in the middle west and the south and the democrats have the objective condi- tions at hand for a campaign that will, from the beginning, keep the republi- can senators and congressmen, seek- ing re-election on the republican pro- gram, on the defensive, Why the Papers Howl. _ HE fact that the strike hits the woolen industry, added to the fact that this is thesyear in which congtes- sional elections, are to be held, fur- nishes the incentive for William Ran- doph Hearst and his democratic party papers to give the utmost publicity to the strike in order'to discredit the re- publican tariff. ‘Phen the News, the tabloid paper published by the Chi- cago Tribune otitfit, which speaks for the middle west capitalist gang, altho favoring the prificiple of the high pro- tective tariff, entérs the ranks of the papers exposing the manner in which the tariff operat to favor certain sections of the capitalist class instead of all of them. This is good campaign materia] for th publican party. % As to Bernard MacFadden and his “Independent” Gaphic, his motive is to extend the influence of his publish ing concern which tries to secure a monopoly on the cheap, sensational literature that was formerly dissem- inated by many publishing houses. Conflicts Aid.Workers. O, we see that it is quite possible for the capitalist press, under cer- tain conditions, to appear to defend the interests of a certain section of the working class, while in reality playing their own particular political game. The democratic party is the party of the House of Morgan and the steady penetration of American bank capital into Europe, wherezit is used to re- habilitate European industries makes necessary the liftingwf the tariff bar- Tiers in order that:these European products may findj/buyers in the American market. ‘Even the republi- can party which was responsible for |the tariff, and which‘lalso serves the | House of Morgan is’hot averse to a | Modification of the tariff on iniports, |but its leaders from Massachusetts, |such as Senator WilHam H. Butler, do jnot want the tariff "dh woolens re- “Don Your Gas Masks!” “Don your gas masks! The police are hurling tear*gas!” has become a familiar shout on the Passalc textile strikers’ picket lines. When the police asked for an appropriation to purchase tear gas bombs and learn how to use them, they shouted that these bombs be used against criminals only. Militant workers pointed out that these bombs would be used not so much against gangsters, gunmen: and their ilk as against striking workers. Today the Passaic workers see the police using tear gas against them and those who were overseas find that when they have returned from the “war for democ- racy” they must still use their steel helmets and gas masks to protect them- selves from the upholders of “democracy” when they fight to better their’ eonepereng emerncansmenennneersereeeee endly” Newspapers in Passaic Strike condition. two sections of the capitalist class that certain papers /publish favorable reports about the. present strike, The workers, however, do not resent such reports. On the contrary intel- ligent workers welcome such public ity as it aids in calling nation-wide | duced. This the detiigerats know, so |it is to their politi al advantage to jconcentrate on the Alen tariff. | vonflict between iC o The heroic struggl8 6f these abused, underpaid toilers is tétusing on them the attention of thé”entire country. These textile strikers are inspiring and arousing the workers in the Uni- ted States, particularly the unorgan- ized and especially those working in the textile industryjé The significance ofthe Passaic tex- tile strike Nes in the fact that it is a strike of unorganiged workers in an industry that is almost wholly unor- ganized and employg:almost 1,000,000 workers. The Passaic workers are the ones who haye challenged the wage-cutting campaign of the textile barons. Every one of the million un- organized textile ‘workers knows this. The abominable conditions that pre- vail in Passaic prevail in the textile industry generally. Wage cuts have not been confined to Passaic. \ This fight is, therefore, a fight against the existing state of affairs in the textile industry as'a whole. It is a fight that concerns every worker in the indus; try, Already the strike is spreading} More and more workers ate daily being drawn into it. The strike first started in the Botany mills, then it spread to other ‘fills in Passaic and tors that creatéq great reserve forces of the revolution in every part of the world, But when even the most rabid of the white guard adventurers had to admit that the Bolshevik govern- ment possess incalculable vitality then the impérialist statesmen of most countrie¥/fared face the reality of the situatiéh and proceeded to recognize the government of Russia and to ended¥br to conduct business with that power, government of the United States was ‘blessed withethe administration of the late Harding, with the eminent baptist layman, Mr, Charles Evans Hughes, as secretary of state. Hughes adopted, without ryhme or reason, the policy of Woodrow Wilson and pro- ceeded, parrot-like, to repeat all the banalities against recognition of the Soviets, while other countries were more or less openly obtaining access to the inexhaustible supplies of raw materials in Russia and disposing of millions of dollars worth of manufac- tured products. Meanwhile the Amer- ican capitalists, who were, finding it profitable to trade with Russia, had to devise indirect methods. Then when Hug! stepped out and the present in nt, Kellogg, came into the office secretary of state, the lind and stupid policy was continued. The cautigus politicians thot this was set nt Ree meatal tie attention to their struggles and helps pave the way forsintensive organiza- tional drives thfudut the whole indus- try. In such cases the conflicts be- vicinity. Now it is spreading to the silk dyeing plants of Paterson and_vi- cinity, that employ approximately 10,000 workers, *~ ‘! To Extend’ Strike, There is every! likelihood that if the strike is prolonged that workers from Lawrence, Providence, Philadel- phia and other textile centers will be drawn in because the workers in these centers already realize that the struggle of the Pavysaic strikers is their fight. The Passaic textile workers are winning the support and sympathy of all the textile workers, The strike is creating that kinship ,and solidarity among textile workers that will make possible their permanent organization into a mighty textile union, The strike of the Passaic textile workers is not only a strike against the mediaeval despotism maintained by the mills, but also the beginning of a move to organize all the unorgan- ized workers in the textile industry. The strike is being. conducted by the united front committee of textile workers. This organization’maintafhs When that,,change came about the | that the textile workers must be or- ganized into one big, powerful textile In Spite of Secretary Kellogg Secretary of State in the Coolidge Cabinet. government were based not upon the economic and political facts in the case, but upon abstract moral grounds, It is indeed a precarious position as it ig not easy to explain why at one time the most exalted moral objec: tions are raised and at another time the objections are looked. This predicament of the ronment is due to the fact that @ most snivel- objections to recognizing the Soviet 7 tween the opposing groups within the capitalist class aid the working class. The Menace of Such Support. N utilizing the strike for their own Political purposes this branch of the reptile press mitist be carefully watched and under no conditions should its expressed opinions or its flamboyant publicity stunts be permit- ted to influence the course of the struggle. For example the Graphic offered its services as mediator in the strike; the Hearst paper, the Mirror, called upon the Tammany Hall demo- cratic governor of the state to send in the militia as a pretext for sup- pressing the violence on the part of the police. All this was good capital- ist party politics as the new governor of New Jersey, A. Harry Moore, is one of the pets of the old guard in the democratic party and hopes to go to the senate from the governor's chair. He can play his own political game and at the same tithe pose as a friend of labor, Nothing would be more disastrous than the calling out of the militia, as the state executive would soon step in and force the workers to yield while some sort of spurious agree- ment were put into effect thru nego- tiations conducted to the disadvantage of the workers and which would leave them without a union and defenseless before the employers, There would be no press but the workers’ papers to defend them against the governor of New Jersey. The textile strikers, iy the process of the struggle must come to learn that only the revolutionary working class press defends their in- terests at all times. Other papers defend certain inter- ests of the capitalist class and, in the last analysis, they are all enemies of the workers. So long as the strug- gles of the workers can be used to further their sectional political aims so long do they print favorable re- ports regarding workers’ struggles, but’ when workers go on strike in in- dustries which these papers must pro- tect they change their tune and join in the general anvil chorus against us, Of all the ‘daily newspapers cover- ing the strike, The DAILY WORKER is the only one in the English lan- guage that can be relied upon to at all times defend the working class. ‘We have no interests except those of the working class as a whole, while the other publications, no matter how favorable they may appear today, will be forced tomorrow to stab the work- ers in the back. And in the Passaic strike the only branch of the labor press that has Played any role whatever is the Com- munist press, both English and for- eign-language. Hence when the strike ia over the workers who fought in the ranks ought to remember that the one branch of the press that consistently and persistently upheld their cause and that is to always be found in the front of the fray is that conducted by the vanguard of the working class of the whole world—the Communists, union in order to combat the ‘rich, PNisenyt textile combinations that dominate the industry, The united front committee of tex- tile workers is the one organization in the textile. industry that is desirous and works for the unification of all the existing textile: unions into one union. The united front committee is demonstrating in the Passai¢ strike that not only are the unorganized tex- tile workers prepared to battle against the wage cuts, but that they are ready for organization. There have been. other revolts on the part of the unorganized textile workers, but none of the revolts bear the significance of the Passaic strike. The Passaic strike marks a turning point in the history of textile labor. The post-war period and the restric- tion on immigration have created fa- vorable conditions for the unioniza- tion of the textile industry. The present revolt in Passaic will not terminate like the Lawrence strike and similar occurrences. The Passaic strike will lead definitely to organization. The united front com- mittee holds out a hand of fellowship to every existing union in-the textile Other r class statesmen are as- tute enuf’ to qualify: their denuncia- tory proclamations, in anticipation of changes that are bound always to take ; 1@ that the chang- a they serve e rative\ flexibility in gov: | icy, hence they abjure i world. This, howeve This very fact explains one of the basic demands of» imperialists for open dictatorship that ride rough-shod over all parliamentary prejudices in- stilled into the populace thru the years of growth of the present ruling class. Such governments, main- tained thru frightfumness, may openly avow themselves the agents of the dominant class and change its poli- cies with impunity, just so long as the workers haven't sufficient power and cohesion to throttle the dictator ship. The other orm of government is of sonia Rol lbcotelavicn governmen’ the dictatorship of the overwhelmin; ent on earth. fal in a rap-| | being established thru German Strike a Lesson in Solidarity / industry. It invites them to join with it in taking advantage of the favor- able opportunities that now exist for organizing the industry. The call of the united front committee for united action is the call of the heroic Pas- saic strikers. Every organized tex- tile worker, every existing textile union should take its stand on this question, Hither unity and orgahiza- tion of the workers, or dissension and the continued state of disorganization, United Organization Drive. The united front committee and the Passaic strikers call for a united front of all existing textile unions against wage cuts, for the organization of the unorganized, and for the amalgama- tion of all existing unions into one big union'for the entire textfle in- dustry. The victory of the Passaic strikers is not only a victory for bet- ter working conditions, but is also a victory for the progress of the united front committee. It will be the big- gest victory, therefore, for each and every one of the million textile work- ers in the United States. The Pas- saic strike, therefore, calls for the full- est support from each and every tex- tile worker in America. . ‘By H. Ml. Wicks interest of the majority. Governments openly representing the interests of given class have that flexibility es- sential to rapidly changing objective conditions and are, hence, in a transi- tion period, the most effective forms of state power. But, in spite of the inability of goy- rnments to respond to demands of the ruling class, other means are found, independently of the govern- ment, usually thru some other Boy- ernment, to carry on their affairs, Only’ recently, according to “Heo- nomic Life,” published in “Moscow, many millions of marks in ¢: dits are cerns, guaranteed by the German on ernment and by the separate Germar States. Most of these credits are backed by American capital, the Ger- mans simply acting as agents in the transaction because of the stupid an- achronistic policy of the United States government, So we see that in spite of Mr. Kel logg and his anti-soviet policy, which amounts almost to an obsession, American capital is ready, willing and anxious to do business with th Soviet Union. If Kellogg and others at the head of the government can learn anything from the facts of history hey ought to perceive that economic orces will soon blast their tand on the outworn Wilson relation to | the Soviet Unio t | | | 1 — ae ~ ~