The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 3, 1926, Page 6

= Fe at be " 2 THE DAILY WORKER r BSS IEIOIERI AAA OA \hegeernammmamsce vue rs oo Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 2118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Mm. Phone Monroe 4713 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mall (outelde of Chicage): $6.00 per year $4.50 stx monthe | $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 TD J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE MORITZ J. LODB.......umennmennen Business Manager Butered as second-class mat] September 21, 1923, at the postoffice at Chi- cago, lil, under the act of March 8, 1879. = Advertising rates on application. Storm Signals on Wall Street The collapse of the stock market Wednesday, following more than a month of almost uninterrupted decline, caught many of the | small speculators off their guard and in the liquidation many heavy | losses were suffered. A wild scramble ensued to turn all market- able stocks into cash. This panicky feeling that causes the Wall Street gamblers to hasten to convert all available stocks into money is always one of the storm signals of an impending crisis. Artificial means were used a few, weeks. ago when the first spectacular slump occurred, but the trend remained definitely down- ward. Tie second crash within a month is symptomatic of a deep- going economic cause. Virst, and foremost, is. the failure to realize the profits anticipated thru mergers. When reorganization of a given industrial line thru consolidating a number of units takes place, new stock issues are placed ugon the market. These issues are not based upon the physical valuation of the property, but upon the an- ticipated increase in “earnings”—that is upon the belief that labor will produce greater profits or in expectation of favorable advan- tages gained thru monopolistic prices, or both. The failure of the mergers to meet expectations is responsible for the slump in the leading stocks, like General Motors, Hudson Motors, rails, steels, munitions and chemicals. The big guns will not seriously suffer, but will contrive to buy up the stocks of the small fry in a falling mar- ket and endeavor to dispose of them later in a rising market. Those with unlimited capital back of them will not lose much, if anything, while the lesser lights will be crushed in the liquidating process. Then there is the vast selling on the installment plan that is particularly prevalent in motors. The fact that this line igs hit for ‘the first time indicates widespread failure to meet payments on pro- ducts purchased on the credit plan. The next step will be the failure of the banks to market-new industrial stock issues, followed by a tightening up.of loans to in- dustrialists and then we will again be in the midst of a fuil-fledged depression where millions of workers will be thrown out onto the streets to exist as best they can until the surplus they have pro- duced during the “boom” period is disposed of. The bankers on Wall Street as well as the. professional specu- lators, are gambling with the surplus produced by the working class. When the products: of this dead labor can no longer function to ex- tract living labor from the working class, then the working class itself must starve until such time as the capitalists. can again realize a surplus off its labor, or take matters into its own hands. The only way to. escape these ever-recurring periods of misery, suffering and degradations for the working class is to destroy cap- italism thru the proletarian revolution. Then, and.only then, will labor power cease to be a commodity and the living carrier of that labor power—the worker—cease to suffer because of ®conomic disturbances in-this system of wealth production. When Thieves Fall Out, Mr. William H. Anderson, erstwhile head of the New York state anti-saloon league who just obtained his final:release from the au- thorities of Sing Sing penitentiary, has launched.a crusade against his former associates, claiming they owe him some $45,000 of which they are trying to defraud him. They, in turn, counter with the charge that Anderson’s books were in such condition that it was not pos- sible to determine the accuracy of any accounts. Mr. Anderson hag launched an organization called the “Ameri- ean protestant alliance,” to which he hopes to rally the protestant preachers and their supporters for an attack upon “wet political Romanism.” He uses this organization as a forum from which to challenge the anti-saloon league to.a public hearing regarding its business methods. He asserts that even tho there was a mysterious Mr. John C. King who contributed large sums to the league while he was its leader there are other mysterious indiyiduals who dare not permit their names to be divulged who. still contribute to the support of the league, Thus we have the spectacle of the holier-than-thou reformers, the wplifters and defenders to the public morals mutually berating each tether. Each group aceuses the other of sundry crimes and misde- mieanors.’ We are inclined to believe them both: The farce of prohi- bition enforcement is tainted with all the filth.and corruption of capitalism itself and it is our guess that something will have to be done to palliate Mr. Anderson or he will spill. the beans and prove that the real backers of the anti-saloon league are the bootleggers. . A Dangerous Policy patches from Moroeco dealing with the opening of the spring campaigu in the imperialist war being waged. against the Riffians hy the French and Spanish state that certain French newspapers pub- Jished in that country charge that British material and “moral” sup- port are given the Riff country and that the ultimate aim is a Riffian republic under British “protection.” ‘ Unquestionably Britain will take advantage of every opportun- ity to increase its imperialist power and it is no secret that Britain would welcome the defeat of France in Moroceo, Last summer re- ports were current that while the Riffians were fighting against Spain the French furnished them with guns and munitions in order that they might later have an excuse to “intervene” on the side of Spain and eventually hog the whole territory. It is quite probable that Britain is playing the same game against France. But just as the adventure of France reacted against her, so the adventure of Britain will likely result in British imperialist troops facing the identical guns the British traffickers in arms and muni- tions have placed in the hands of the Riffians. No one ci blame the colonials for accepting arms from any country that will farnish them. iver We hope and believe, however, that the Rifflanis will in the fu- ture, as they hayetin:the past, use these weapons against every im- perialist nation that tries to subdue them. If the Rifflans in Africa and the Syrians in Asia can hold out a while longer against their imperialist oppressors they will be joined by other ‘colonials who are aygaiting the first opportunity to rise and strike to the earth the placed upon them by the great powers. The Fight for Unity and the British Struggle (International Press Correspondence.) OSCOW, U. S. S, R., March 2 (By Mail).—The twelfth session of the enlarged executive of/the Communist International was opened under the chairmanship of Comrade Smeral. Comrade M. Tomsk, secretary of the All-Russian trade unions, who Was received with great applause, spoke as the first in the discussion upon the trade union question: “In the presemt period the struggle for unity is taking on a difficult char acter, Negotiations between the Rus sian unions and Amsterdam in the near future are not to be expected as the previous course of the negotia- tions has shown that the Amsterdam- mers wish to draw out the question until the next trade union interna- tional congress, which is due only in 1927, ‘In this way the attention of the English comrades will be drawn away from the international questions to the coming great struggle of the min- ers. The situation is such that Am- sterdam is unwilling to move forward and the Red International of Labor Unions is not able to make any fur- ther concessions. We have already formally abandoned any claim that the internationals stand face to face and have agreed that the Russian unions should conduct the negotiations with Amsterdam, “Naturally, this has been done in complete agreement with the Red In- ternational of Labor Unions. It rep- resents a compromise conceded in or- der to approach our aim more speed- ily’ The English comrades of the unity committee have made still an- other compromise by modifying their tone towards Amsterdam. “At the last session of the Anglo- Russian committee we showed our im- patience and declared that if the Am- sterdammers continued to sabotage the affair we should alter our tone. The English comrades, however, re- quested us to wait still a little longer. The last resolution adopted by the Anglo-Russian unity committee de- clared that we could not much longer ignore the attacks which the Am&ster- dammers were making against us, de- spite our correct attitude. | Must Force Unity | “TA\URTHER concessions are not pos- sible. We cannot regard unity as a one-sided obeisance before Amster- dam. Without forming a new interna- tional we cannot let the old one down; that would be treachery. “This situation of waiting and pro- traction represents a partial success for Amsterdam, for any halting of the movement is dangerous, for it can giye rise to disappointment and skepticism. For this reason demands a special patience upon the part of the Com- munist Parties, a special perseverance and a mobilization of all possible forces in favor of the cause of unity. “We must not permit any demorali- zation, we must make it clear to all workers that even when Amsterdam does not want unity we will force it to have unity. This demands the fulfill- ment of various taks. The most im- portant of these tasks is to become clear upon the nature of the struggle for unity. It is not a maneuver in a bad sense, it is not a trap for the pur- pose of exposing our enemies, but it is a means for uniting all the forces of the working class against the bour- geoisie, “In this sense the movement for unity is a maneuver, it is a class maneuver of the proletariat against its class enemy, the bourgeoisie. De- spite the protracted nature of the struggle we must not change the great tasks of the struggle and perhaps surrender the main objective in the interests of small and local successes. “The struggle for unity is a ‘strug- gle for the leadership of the intayna- tional proletariat. The struggle the united front represents by no means the abandonment of the strug- gle against reformism. It is a contin- uation of this struggle with more ef- fective means. " “We have another task. That is to organize the great masses of the un- organized into the already existing independent trade unions, The strug- gle for unity does not mean the disso- lution of the independent unions. As long as the Red International of Labor Unions exists we must fight to strengthen it, for the stronger we are the easier we shall be able to force the enemies of unity to accept unity, “Our next task is the mobilization of all the supporters of unity around our slogans. First the Communists, then the best elements amongst the left social-democrats and then the non- party masses. We must prove the importance of international unity upon the basis of concrete events. For in- stance, the coming struggle of the British miners would not be so dan- serous if an honest, powerful and united trade union international sup- ported them, “In this case the miners could put forward very different demands. Such examples presentoithemselves dally, and the workers are beginning to grasp the meaning of unity. This is also shown by the stream of worker delegations to the Soviet Union. With a correct support from the Communist Parties the workers’ delegations can be very useful, In mobilizing the non- party masses we must not immediately set up extreme slogans, but slogans which can. ier gpasermna understood and appreciated by the masses of th workers, We must then awaken tho gradually. ad.) Participate in Smallest Union Tasks (HE comrades have not yet every- where realized that the winning of these non-party masses is not merely an agitational and propagandistic question, but a question of the petty work in the trade unions and in the other non-party working class organ- izations, We cannot win the trade unions by good speeches upon the Dawes plan or the Locarno pact. The workers must be able to see that Better Fractions, Less Talk HE question whether it is really necessary to conquer the trade union leaderships and the trade union apparatus has often been raised. To this question there can only be one answer; just try to win the German trade unions as long as the leadership remains in the hands of the reformists! You will have sympathy, but no leadership, Apart from the petty work however, we must naturally not neglect the propa- Unity—-In Spite of Jouhaux & Co. Oudegeest, Mertens, Leipart, Jouhaua, all the reformist leaders *of the Amsterdam International, have demonstrated that they do not avant unity, have done everything possible to avoid it. They were terrified when the Hull congress of the British Trade Union Congress initiated the Anglo-Russian Unity Committeé-as a first step towards an all-in trade union international dnd redoubled their conspiratorial efforts to wreck the committee when the Scarborough conference further endorsed its work. In the negotiations with Amsterdam, the Russian unions, speaking thru the sympathetic British on the Anglo-Russian Committee, made all possible concessions to achieve unity... But Amsterdam, working hand in glove with the labor office:of the league of nations, sabotaged every effort of the British ond Russian-trade union leaders to find a com- mon base for international trade union co-operation against the rising tide of fascism. The British workers are facing the greatest struggle in their history in the coal mining crisis, fascism rears its head in France, the Dawes plan is making slaves of the German workers, and yet, the Amsterdam leaders have treacherously blocked the consummation of wnity—a unity that would make the European trade wnion movement stronger by the addition of 7,000,000 Russian workers to the solidified ranks of the now divided unions of most countries of the continent. But the last word will not be said by Oude- geest, Jouhaua & Co. It will be said by the masses of workers who even now are moving in the direction of the English work- ers, towards unity—in spite of Amsterdam. when the Communists demand any- thing they, can and will carry it thru. The transformation, of the trade unions into fighting Organizations for the cause of Commtnism is only possible by a participation in the monotonous daily work. The Bol- sheviki also learnt this from their own experence after: the London con- ference in 1907. Leadership Thru Con Wo. the reformists say that our trade unions depend upon the party, then we must wer that such a thing as an inde} it union does not and never did, it. There are trade unions which ag influenced by parsons, the socialgemocrats call that influencing, we call it leading. A still further question-is-how we carry out the leadership. fp no way thru commands, but thru_gonviction, thru the good work of the Communist trade union fractions. This is, how- ever, only possible it ‘the Communists know the trade unidh work in its smallest details and ute able to take the lead in the smallest questions. We must choose oui ‘best comrades for the trade union Work, those com- rades who like Lenin, do not idealize the workers, do not fear their preju- dices, but who educaté them patientiy and win their confidence by a com- radely attitude in all questions. Nat- urally, the party must see to it that the danger-of running in the wake of thé masses is avoided, ion ganda. It is of first rate importance to carry on the petty work in connec- tion with the questions of the class struggle as a whole. We can only con- quer the trade unions if we work in this way. + “Our next tasks are therefore: more petty work, a, better formation of the fractions, and not so much talk. If the movement for international] trade union unity has come to a standstill upon one section of the front, then we must find another upon which to or- ganize and mobilize the masses, If Amsterdam does not want unity, then we shall either force it to have unity thru the demands of the broad masses, or thru our goodvand patient trade union work we shall win the masses to establish trade union unity without Amsterdam.” (Applause), Hardy of the English Minority FTER the conclusion of Comrade Tomski’s speech, Comrade Hardy (England) spoke: “The policy of the Comintern in the trade union question is correct, This is proved by the great successes which the British Party has achieved with the aid of the Comintern tactic. The character- istic feature of the British trade union movement is its split-up nature, The General Council embrages 1,135 unions, and opposed to these is a united organization of the employers. It is therefore our task to create a similar united organization, “The 100 per cent participation of the party members in the trade union] must, however, not be pessimistic. work {s important, not have merely an agitational and propagandistic. character, but also a practical one, We must win the lower left wing trade union officials for the party. The programs of ac- tion must contain demands which really represent the needs of the masses, “Our organizational tasks are: (1) To draw the workers into the minor- ity movement thru individual mem- bership. (2) To win whole organiza- tions. (3) To form minority groups around the shop nuclei of the Com- munists, The reactionaries will strive like their colleagues on the continent, to destroy our organization, we must therefore retain:>a certain elasticity. The shop groups have the greatest power of resistance.. We must avoid extreme centralist. meth- ods and give the locals a certain de- sree of independence... We «must take the local circumstances into: consider- ation, y International and Daily Demands i political mass agitation we ays strive to connect the inter- national problems with the concrete laily problems of the British prole- arlat.. We showed fer instance, that avery worsening of the situation of the workers-in the colonies. had its in- svitable repurcussion upon the situa- jon of the British workers. In this way we have been successful in free- ing the British worker to a great ex- tent from his insularity. . . “The atittude of the party towards the so-called “unofficial” strikes is important. Naturally, the party must always, be with the workers whether the strike is official or not. Neverthe- less -we should not force such unoffi- cial strikes, for they usually end in failure and miglit result in @ loss of prestige for the ‘party, It is, how- ever, quite another thing when the strike has a political significance. Win the Syndicalists “A FURTHER important! task is the winning of the onest syndical- ist elements amongst the British working class. The necessity for the creation of a united trade union or- ganization is made still more pressing by the fact that the’ botiiZeoisie is in- creasing the strength” 6f‘its organiza- tion. The Federation ‘ot “British In- dustries has 53 members who are at the same time members of the British Parliament. This proves how neces- sary it is for us ald té: have a par- liamentary fraction, ani‘it'shows how ungrounded the objeétidhs®of the syn- dicalists are. b “We are faced with great struggles. The bourgeoisie is alfeady creating its army of strikebreakerg with the neces- sary technical apperetn’ for the pur- pose of insuring thé dontinuation of the food supply in case of a general strike. For this reason we must pay special attention to the co-operatives, The slogan: Every trade.union mem- ber must at the same.time be an ac- tive member of the co-operatives, is necesgary. “I am in agreement with Tomski when he says that the perspective for the cause of international trade union unity is for the present not very hopeful on account of the obstinate resistance of the. reformists. We This work must|Our agitation partially achieved its objects. We must continue or work so that all the workers’ organizations affillated to Amsterdam come over to our side in this question, and in way we shall be able to break the re- aistance of the Amsterdam executive. “We must connect the struggle for the united front with concrete de- mands. We must show the British miners how much their lot is bound up with that of the German miners, © We have raised the question of trade, union unity in all the local trades councils, Thanks to the pressure of these councils the Anglo-Russian unity committee was formed, The sending of workers’ delegations to the Soviet Union is of particular tmpor- tance for our work, The delegation of the trade union. congress assisted us very much by the publication of report, * Success of Minority ~ Movement “\X7E met with various difficulties in the organization of the minor- ity movement. Our trade union bu- reaucracy is the most cunning in the world. The work was also hindered by the political apathy of the working class itself. Nevertheless, we have been successful in achieving extraor- dinary success. Naturally, we have not yet been able to give the desire of the workers for-unity any organiza- tional form. We have created only the basis for such an organization, “One must nevertheless observe that a year ago there was no definite left wing in the trade union movement in Great Britain. The first step to the creation of such an organization was the creation of councils of action lo- cally and then a unification of them on a national scale, This cost ws some trouble, if Beas Speaker then pointed to the necessity of an energetic agite tion for the enlargement of the pow- ers of the general counctl of the trade union congress and for a greater amount of discipline and decentral- ization in the trade union work. If the general council were to use these extra powers for reactionary purposes, then we would fight against’ ft, but this possibility is not a Treason for not extending the principle of centraliza- tion. . On the occasion of the Inst crits in the National Union of Railwaymen, we saw for the first time a revolt of the members against Thomas, This is one of our greatest successes, just as the defeat of Thorias in Boar borough, when he voted against the resolution upon imperialism," ~~ Our next task is the organization of a national conference of the minor- ity movement to discuss the follow ing questions: The preparation of the defense against the forthcoming capitalist offensive; the struggle for the defense of the right of free speech and agitation in connection with the imprisonment of the Communist lead- ers, We must, answer the offensive of capitalism with a counter-offensive. In this struggle we need the active support of the executive committee of the Communist International and its affiliated parties. The Revolutionary Drama By S. V. AMTER. INGS, monarchs,“the church and the bourgeoisie “have rallied to their aid all the arts)!Music, painting, ncing, and drama ‘htve been used to beautify and embellish all the tyran- nies and- despotism :that have ever existed. Ne Kings and church, potentates and governments have understood full well the emotional and propaganda value of the arts and have‘never missed an opportunity to embli%on gory deeds und “holy” wars, Tigh church laws and state powers* with song, story, and color. Awe In all the ages, qntists and poets have painted and sung the glory of the rich and mighty ef the earth, and it paid, just as no jays, “it pays to advertise.” But today all over'the world there is an ever increasing group of singers, writers, and artists, Who will not hand themselves body and_soul to the bour- geoisie, but who’ are more and more taking their place with the oppressed of the earth, They do nq@t sing the glory of the king, the church and the bourgeoisie; they sing of the strength and power of labor and the revolu- tion, Revolutionary Art. Music and drama must be exploited for the revolutionary movement. It is a well-known fact that what ap- peals to the emotions has a more last- ing effect than the most caretul rea soning. » music and dancing appeal to the eye or the ear, These things win the masses, fact may be deplored or not, but it remains a fact, and must be reckoned with, Technique afd Message. Revolutionary avh may have two ary in technique, buf-have no revolu- tionary message; or it may have a revolutionary message and no partic- ular technique.’ Often the “message clothes itself in a new technique. The force of the message finds for itself a new method of expression—i, e,, revolutionary technique, There are cartoons that have propa- ganda, but no artistic value. There are pictures that express artistic forms but have no revolutionary value, And there are pictures like those of Robert Minor, Kata Kollwitz, Board- man Robinson, and many others that are revolutionary both as to technique and to content, in the highest degree. Reinhardt Versus Meyerholt. ‘The theatrical productions of Max Reinhardt have been revolutionary in form, color, and staging, but his plays have no working class message, T! “Miracle” and “Everyman” were mag- nificent; were more splendid than anything the stage had ever seen, but it was technique alone, Meyerholt of the Moscow Revolutionary Theater produced “Zimla Dibom,” a marvel of revolutionary technique, and at the same time a play coming out of the very heart of the revolutionary work- ers. Here are two classical examples. Reinhart has divorced himself from the old technique, but not from the old and decaying class. Meyerholt has used a new technique and with it has expressed the most extreme revolu- tionary ideas, sometimes dramatically, sometimes humorously, sometimes satirically, but always true to class, Little Revolutionary Drama. Outside of Soviet Russia practically nothing has been done in the field of revolutionary drama, “Man and the Ma: ” was a great attempt. - So was “The World We Live In,” and to interpretations, It may be revolution- my mind, in @ lesser deg), “R, U. RU” ’ There are, no doubt,.many sincere revolutionary actors on the stage but they have no word in. the, production of plays. And the theaters are out to make money. It is business like all other business. > ye It is up to the revolutionary artists of this country and their sympathizers, together with members of the Work- ers (Communist) Party, to stage revo- lutionary drama: to find new forms for its expression, = Develop Our Own, The “Paris Commune,” PRISONER DENIED RIGHT TO DONAT TO RUSS FAMI Would Give $1, Warden Refuses , The following from a letter received from a prisoner in Sing Sing prison is self-explanatory; While the news is somewhat late it is none the less staged last|enlightening on the class treatment year in Madison Square @arden, New jaccorded prisoners in the penitentia- York, deserves mention here as well as the remodeled pantomime staged in Cleveland, March 21, culminating in @ tableau of about forty people in the glare of red lights. pe The revolutionary theater must show the workers in the:struggle of today and the victories of tomorrow. The old staging gives the details of a house or landscape, The new form Suggests space, form, or color, Between the bourgeoisie theater and ‘the revolutionary theater is the same difference as betwen a Botticelli por- trait of two angels and a Moscow poster for the Red Ald, Let us develop the revolutionary theater, British Ships Gain Over WASHINGTON, April 1 rtish ships are rapidly gaining over Amer- jean vessels in carrying the foreign trade of the United States, Following @ substantial increase last season, the British merchant fleet again this year will take a commanding Jead the de- reins of commerce estimated to- A @ te Make your..slogan—“A auh week. This is a good issue to to yotir fellow worker, ~ a" shevistic, and for! ries of the land, “At the time of the Russian famine, I was one of the many who received an appeal fro mthe ‘Friends of Soviet ar om —_.. ly Russia,’ a circular informing me of a _ famine in Russia, resulting in rapid starvation of millions of children. Naturally, my financial condition while getting 1 1/3 cent for a day's here, was at its lowest ebb, and I got ities that I required trom » Wanted to Donate. At the time the appeal mentioned reached me, I had just received a * uple dollars, so I immediately re sted permission from our warden send $1.00 of my meager account help alleviate the suffering. True, the amount was insignificant, but then the small contributions are hi too, y Warden Refuses, The warden absolutely refused to send my contribution, giving as his reason, that the nature of it was Bol- me to have any- hing to do with cause.” j sword,” provided you know how to use it. Come down and learn how In the worker correspondent's olajees, “The pen is mightier than the J rs