The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 7, 1926, Page 6

Page Six 7 THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WCRKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill, Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By: mail (in Chicago only): By mall (outsids of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per vear $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Illinois J, LOUIS ENGDAHL { WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB... ———<—<—$— eee eee Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, Ill, under the act of March 8, 1879. Advertising rates on application. —————<—— A Shameful Exhibition The courts have long been recognized as most malignant enemies of organized labor. In fact all honest labor leadership will strive to keep the affairs of the union out of the hands of courts and all progressive elements have long fought against the interference of courts in labor disputes. While not all those who oppose the inter- vention of courts understand fully the character of these institu- iions as class weapons used for the purpose of crushing labor, ex- perience has taught them that the courts are their enemy and will never leave a stone unturned to crush unionism. In face of this knowledge it is regrettable that the officials of New York Typographical Union No, 6 should start a law suit against the executive council of the International Typographical Union and drag its affairs into the slimy clutches of the federal courts. There are certainly ample means of redress for any grievances within the Jaws of the union itself and, at least until every means within the Jaws of the union have been exhausted no outside agency should be“€alled upon to settle an internal controversy. The controversy arose out of the executive council placing a one and one-half per cent assessment upon the membership because it claimed that the pension fund was in serious danger. The merits of this contention are contested. A convention approved the action of the executive council. There yet remained a referendum of the membership if those who opposed the assessment wanted. to reverse it. But, instead of utilizing the machinery provided for by the laws of the organization, the whole matter has been thrown into a fed- eral court. This means that the affairs of the union are now out of its own hands and that a classsenemy of organized labor is empowered, upon the demand of the largest local union in-its jurisdiction, to dictate its policy in conducting its affairs. We hold no brief for any one who indulges in autocratic methods in administering the affairs of a labor union. On the con- trary we condemn such tactics in the-strongest terms. But we do insist there is one thing worse and that is placing the destinies of a labor organization in the hands of. the. agents of the capitalist state. ‘ Mr. Leon H. Rouse and his associates in New York who are responsible for this shameful act should. be repudiated at the first yosseneensonsseveconnesensenesese Editors ..Business Manager <Ee 290 piles Coolidge Regime Defends the Food Trust | (Continued from page 1). investigation of the textile industry, “I believe,” said Walsh, “that we are facing an economic menace of such proportions that unless the mass of the people are aroused from coast to coast we will be confronted with the greatest calamity that ever befell our country.” Dealing with the ramifications df the Ward outfit, Walsh explained how in 1916 the General Baking company was practically moribund, with stock at only $2 a share.’ During the war the profits which were turned into stock dividends increased to enormous proportions, so that the stock is now $1,350 a share. Walsh explained how the bread trust was created thru the unity of the “Big Three,” the Ward Baking company, with a capitalization of $150,- 000,000; the Continental Baking com- pany, capitalized at $600,000,000, and the General Baking company, with $1,- 000,000,000 capitalization. Smash Competition, This giant combination, said Walsh, is ruthless in its fight to crush inde- pendent competition. It enters the field of the small producer, cuts prices below the cost of production and bank- rupts the competitor, forcing him to sell out to the trust or go out of busi- ness. Profits made by other plans of the trust are used to cover the loss of such temporary price cutting. Then, when all competition is destroyed, the trust charges monopolistic prices. In dealing with the cut-throat com- petition conducted against smaller concerns, Walsh quoted from statistics prepared by Basil M. Manley, director of the people's legislative service. He explained that the organization under whose auspices the meeting was held was created for the purpose of com- bating the lobbyists of the great cor- porations in Washington. “This is the beginning of a great fight,” asserted Walsh, “and we in- tend to continue the fight until the people of this country are aware of the menace of this two-billion-dollar food trust, which not only strives to control products, but is the bitter enemy of organized labor and wages a terrific fight against the unigns.” Morrison Speaks. In the absence of William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, who was advertised to speak, Frank Morrison, secretary of that or- ganization, was introduced, and read a speech that had been prepared, He viewed the problem as one that was of vital concern to the workers alone and not of so much importance to farmers, because, he said, the farm- ers largely bake their own bread. “The American Federation of Labor is concerned because it is the great- est organization of bread consumers in the United States, We want good bread—and at fair prices,” said Morri- son, “Since most “workers live in cities and occupy apartments and tenements it is not possible for them to bake bread, so they are dependent upon the bakeries. Also many ‘women have to work in order that thé income of the family may be sufiicient to enable them to live, “How can women who! work all day bake their bread?” askett the speaker. “It is to safeguard-our homes from exploitation that we must oppose the formation of this trust.” Most of Morrison’s ‘speech was de- voted to assaults of thé Ward outfit on organized labor. He ‘explained that altho there were a few bakeries in the trust working under union conditions, it was due only to thé fact that these unites had union cotittacts when they were absorbed by thé trust and that as soon as the contracts expired the trust refused to have any further deal- ings with the union. Morrison did not say what, if any- thing, the American Federation of La- bor was doing to combat this union- smashing campaign of the food trust, and concluded with a plea to organize the “purchasing power” of labor by refusing to buy bread other than that bearing the union label. In forward- ing this campaign he urged that all affected join together, “housewives, workers, “farmers, and pledge our- selves that we will not rest until the bread trust has been destroyed.” Syndicalist Argument. The final words of Secretary Morri- son might have been the utterances of an avowed syndicalist. He said: “The American Federation of Labor has no faith in anti-trust laws;Naving learned that such laws were yséd to aid trusts and have even been ‘sed against la- bor. Labor is coming more and more to doubt the power of government to Easter Season opportunity by the membership of Big Six, who too long have en- dured the arrogant despotism of that apostle of Tammany Hall. Develop the Solidarity of Labor American capitalism never restg.in its efforts to create and mag- nify divisions in the ranks of its subject working class. Deep cleavages in labor’s solidarity haye often been effected thru the employers’ exploitation of racial, religious and nationality prejudices among workers. Now the clever exploiter, thru his gov- ernment, seeks to separate the laboring masses into the foreign- born and native-born, in order to easier maintain his dominant posi- tion over the whole working class. The war brought its new ruling class weapons for fighting the workers in the open field of struggle... Where labor has gone on strike and attempted to display its strength on the picket line, it has been faced with the tear gas, the armored tanks and even air- planes brought into action in defense of swollen profits. Similarly in the field of legislation, in all the branches of the profiteers’ government. So-called sedition laws, special deportation decrees and restriction of immigration measures become new methods of oppression quite unfamiliar to American labor before the Wall Street dollar joined the British pound sterling, the French france and the Italian lire in the much advertised holy crusade “to make Shooting the World Full of Bunk. BOSSES WELCOME “OUTSIDE” FORCE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LEAGUE protect labor and has come to ‘rely upon its economic power.” Ovation for LaFollette. After Morrison’s speech Chairman Walsh, referred briefly to the fight of the elder LaFollette against the trusts and asserted that the present Senator LaFollette, the son, was proving that he was worthy “to follow in the foot- steps of his great father.” As young LaFollette stepped to the rostrum the audience of a thousand or more gave him a long ovation, dur- ing which time the military band that had played at intervals during the evening struck up “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” while the audience stood up. It was a well-staged politi- cal demonstration. In his opening remarks the senator recalled that it was in the same hall that his father made his first New York address in 1912 and that at that time, when the elder LaFollette was a candidate for the republican presiden- tial nomination, he was assailing the great trusts of his day that were in process of formation. The son pointed out that his father was defeated in that campaign, “but he was not dis- couraged.” “In 1924 my father said the para- mount issue was to bréak the power of monopoly. He was defeated, but was not discouraged. It is a gratify- ing coincidence that I should make my first speech from a New York plat- form on the same spot where my father made his.” Describing how his father, 25 months ago, had introduced in the senate resolution to investigateythe bread trust, and relating how that investiga- tion had been deliberately stified by the Coolidge administration, LaFollette related in detail the steps taken by the administration agents on the fed- | eral trade commission to “whitewash” the Ward outfit. “Individual initiative is supposed to be made thot of in America and Coo- lidge proclaims it a virtue, but. during all the time that individual initiative was being crushed by the bread ‘ti not a finger was raised to prosec the investigation,” declared Follette. In a plea for the small town bakers he asserted that they were good citi- zens, who practiced the virtues of in- dustry and thrift, that they had happy families and were content with their lot, until along came the octopus and crushed them by “unfair methods of competition.” The trust gives bread to grocers free of charge in order to induce them to handle its product in preference to the independents and charges it up to sales promotion; Supporters of the people’s legislative seryice and the members of the con- ference of retail bakers of the eastern Le }states, who, with the Bakery and Con fectionery Workers’ Union, sponsored the meeting, almost wept at this de- scription of the plight of the good American citizen, the small town baker, being crushed by the monopoly, The young senator had marshalled his facts so that he was able to pre- sent a horrifying picture of the fate of the small fry who are being driven into the ranks of the workers by the pressure of the great combines. The Food Trust. H Far more interesting than the fate of the small town bakers was the ex: posure of the fact that the Ward out- fit, not satisfied with their monopoly of bread, had incorporated the Ward Food Products corporation with /a TO HOLD MAY two-billion-dollar capitalization, with the object of controlling every article of food from the place in which it is raised, thru the manufacturing process to the consumer, Not only bread, but butter, milk, eggs, and every other article of food would be dominated by the food mo- nopoly. “If a housewife tried to escape the bread trust by ‘baking her own bread she would still have to pay tribute to the Ward outfit because they would control the flour mills, the yeast fac- tories and every other source of ma- terial to make bread.” The immense power of the food trust is $3,750,- 000,000—twice as great as the steel trust. LaFollette sarcastically referred to the pretenses of Ward and his fellow monopolists that all over 7 per cent profits would be used for charitable purposes ‘and. added that those who understood the practice of monopolists realize how contemptible such a prom- ise really is. “Ward and his associates,” said La- Follette, “have been permitted by the government to form the bread trust under the very noses of the Coolidge ‘administration. Not only has the ad- ministration taken.no effective action to protect ‘the-public interest, but the power of the government has actually been used to suppress the investiga-|. tion ordered by the senate. A civil suit was instituted by the department of justice against Ward and his asso- ciates, but altho the department of justice charges that Ward and his as- sociates have been, since 1921, guilty of an unlawful conspiracy in violation of the anti-trust laws, no steps have been taken to indict these conspirators and send them to the penitentiary.” This brot a-salvo of cheering from the audience. Futile Remedy. After his careful and conclusive in- dictment of the bread trust as the enemy of the worker, the farmer (whose prices of products the trust |tries to control), the small baker and other small business men—#in fact, after proving that the food trust was a conspiracy against all the rest of society and backed up by the United States government, LaFollette’s. rem- edy was only an admonition to “fight.” Some inkling of the futility of the old form of. trust-busting must have dawned upon the mind of the senator for he added: “This may not seem a very hopeful suggestion in view of th 30 years’ fight against monopolies, but it is the only one that is worth any- thing.” “The way to fight is to back up the progressive republicans and pro- gressive democrats in congress,” said LaFollette, “Hold mass meetings, and above all get into the campaign this summer and ¢lect men and women who will stand for the preservation of independent business.” In his peroration the senator from Wisconsin lambastéd Coolidge and Mellon and Hoover for their tax pro- gram that relieved the rich of their tax burdens. He denounced the leas- ing of Muscle Shoals to private con- cerns and assailed the administration for using the federal trade commls- sion, the interstate commerce commis- sion and the department of justice against the people and for the great combinations, 4] “We may yet refuse to permit cap- © tains of industry to be captains of our soul,” was one of his shibboleths, Another was “On election day every” citizen stands on a level with bean ¢ other citizen.” A resolution against the bread tetas and urging the prosecution of the con- spirators was introduced by F. H. La Guardia, a congressman from New York elected on the LaFollette third party ticket in 1924. It carried unani- mously, aa Passaic Strikers on Job, — * Three truck loads of strikers came wer to the meeting from the battle- field of Passaic and a number of women and young girls sat on the platform. None of the speakers. men- tioned the Passaic strike, but at the end of the meeting the women on the platform threw hundreds of copies of the strike bulletin into the audience and outside the doors _others dis-* tributed them. A capitalist press reporter asked Frank Morrison, secretary of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor, after the. meeting ifthe American Federation of. Labor had anything to do with the, Passaic strikers being there and Mor- rison stated that since it was a public meeting anyone had a right to be there, The people’s legislative service, which conducted the meeting, an, nounces that it Is going to hold similar meetings thruout the country for: the purpose of exposing the ramifications of the food trust. ~ Aid for Unemployed in Germany | The Workers Get the Bullets, the Nobllity—the Coin. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL BANK OF SOVIET UNION MAKES PROGRESS MOSCOW, U. S. S. R., April 5.—At the third annual meeting of the share- holders of the Commercial and Industrial Bank of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, the chairman of the board of directors, V, N, Ksandroff, in his report stated that during the year ended September 31, 1926, the general turn-over of the bank increased from 16,709,000,000 rubles to 38,266,000,000 rubles; the summary balance of the bank from 276,000,000 rubles to 541,000, 000 rubles. The bank’s capital rose from 33,900,000 rubles to 74,400,000 rubles and the current accounts and deposits from 106,000,000 rubles to 228,000,000. rubles. The whole basic liabilities of the bank increased from 164,000,000 the world safe for democracy.” Gradually also the way is paved for the passage of federal laws providing for the registration, finger- printing, photographing and classification of foreign-born workers. Numerous proposals with these objects in view are now before this congress, as was the case with the two congresses that preceded it. There is ho organized resistance to these dastardly measures of the ruling class except that being rallied by the Councils for the Protection of the Foreign-Born, These councils are springing up over the tation in al! the large industrial centers. They provide DAY MEETING IN COLISEUM Chicago Mobilizes for Big Demonstration By ESTHER LOWELL, Federated Press, PASSAIC, N. J., April 5—(FP)—The latest arrival in the Passaic woolen strike arena is the National Security League, backed by the country’s biggest business interests.—J: Robert O’Brien, who debated Scott Nearing on recog- nition of Russia for the benefit of the New Masses, is appearing before Passaic Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis and Exchange clubs and other, business groups to defend the brutalities of local police in attacking workerswho are striking peacefully for decent living and work-4———__++____—_ ing conditions. sure a congress packed for reconstruc- Mass meetings of the ~ Workers (Communist) Party in the city of Chi- the necessary centers for the mobilization of all elements anxious to shatter this plot of America’s employing class to divide and conquer American labor. This mobilization, must include all who toil, both foreign and native-born, under the lash of capitalist industry within the confines of the United States. The reply to the capitalist attack on the foreign-born must be the development of the complete solidarity of ‘the whole American working class. More Bunk on Italian Debt Senator Reed of Pennsylvania, one of the Mellon brigade, has attained the eminence of first assistant to the Mormon financier, Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, in his defense of administration pol- icies. Speaking the other day on the Italian debt settlement Reed admitted that of the 25 billion dollars raised thru the sale of liberty bonds during the war, 10 billions was used as loans to the allied powers. He further admits that “we now have to pay our people with interest $20,000,000,000.” Several billion of this was lopped off the Italian debt, a proce- dure which the Pennsylvania senator defends. But he deliberately falsifies the matter when he tries to create the illusion that these bonds are in the hands of “the people” and that the government must pay the interest and principal to the original holders. Long ago these bonds found their way to the vaults of the banking com- bine and the Italian debt cancellation means that burden will be transferred from the shoulders of Mussolini and his tyrannical gov- ernment to the American people whose taxes will be used ‘to pay interest to the bankers. This is the all-important fact to keep in mind and not all the{ camonflage of the agents of the House of Morgan in the senate can change the faet. Furthermore we, the, Communists, inténd to see to it that the masses of workers, poor farmers and other oppressed elements of this country are fully informed regarding the details League Is Strike-Breaker. While denying that the National Security League is attempting to act as strike-breaker in Passaic, O’Brien was the principal speaker at a meet- ing staged by a certain Jack (Salmon) Bryan, who has been attacking the strike since his deposition as picket leader. Bryan, who was drifting around New York docks during the Marine Transport Workers’ strike in support of British seamen and who later appeared on the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union picket line at the International Tailoring com- pany, was active in Passaic the first few weeks of the woolen strike, He then began attacking the Iéader- ship of tho strike and attempted to get the United Textile Workers and other American Federation of Labor unions to support his disruptive efforts. He came to Federated Press, among oth- ers, claiming that strikers were dis- satisfied and would follow him. His first mass meeting, attended by hun- dreds of strikers, booed him down and cheered the strike and its leaders, His second meeting, gxhere the Security League speaker appeared, charged ad- mission “to prevent packing by strik- ers” and proceeds were announced to be for the benefit of strikers not helped by the regular relief committee when they could show no picket card. oe * Big Business Backs League. The National Security League, be- gotten in late 1914 as a preparedness propaganda body after 8. Stanwood Menken had listened to a debate in the British house of commons, shifted to strenuow# political activity in the of the [talian débt cancellation in order that-they may-eome to hold ih coulempt the government responsible for it, 1) | ~~! United States during the war to. tion with the big business viewpoint. The league had reeéfved over half & million dollars, see or $150,000 pledged by the Cariégie corporation, when the house of representatives in- vestigated it in 1919. Sugar, steel, arms and munitiors, rubber, oil, leather, sisal, packing, harvester, cop- per, banking and othr interests, rep- resented by the big it corporations, put money into the ‘énterprise. House report No.173, 65th con- gress, third session’ takes pains to mention excess war its of many of the league’s backers*in order to label the brand of patriotism the organiza- tion was propagating? Since the war the league has beed* active in anti- labor and _ particuléfly anti-radical propaganda. Much “Soiler-plate” copy is sent to newspapets and speakers are routed about the country. This O’Brien posed as William Z. Foster in a New Haven meeting, where he was scheduled to speak, and only revealed himself after delivering the flery sort of speech which he thought Foster would have given. He told his audience he wanted to scare them, Take this copy of the DAILY WORKER with you to the shop New Polish-Roumanian Treaty. BUCHAREST, April 5.—To replace the alliance between Poland and Ru- mania that was sigiied in 1921 and just recently exph representatives of both nations, meting here, have agreed upon a treaty of mujual guar- antees. This treaty will also run for five years, An arbitration convention - j will be signed later, yy cago are getting such a hold on the workers that nothing but the biggest hall in the city will do. Ashland Audi- torium used to be the May Day hall, but no more. The Lenin Memorial meeting in the Coliseum proved that the Workers (Communist) Party, de- spite all skeptics, could fill that mon- ster auditorium. And so it is decreed that the May Day demonstration ar- ranged by District 8 of the Workers (Communist) Party will take place in the Coliseum, ™ It Begins to Move., The party nuclei are being mobilized for the meeting. Greater efforts are needed than for the Lenin Memorial meeting, ‘because the ‘balcony is opened up, giving it a capacity, of 11,500. The sale of tickets is pro- ceeding at a rapid pace, Already great interest has been shown in the meet- ing by workers of many unions and other working-class organizations. The latter are postponing or cancelling their proposed May Day celebration in order to make the Coliseum meeting a howling success. Splendid Program. The May Day committee announces an array of speakers not heard in this city for many months, the best in the entire country. One-of the best work- ing-class singing societies will be en- gaged. In addition, there will be danc- ing by members of a well-known bal- let. The plans of the committee are for the best May Day miners presented in Chicago. Five thousand new subs in sthree weeks is a big job—but it can be done with your help. Send rubles to 361,000,000 rubles. Loans and discounts during this year totaled 1,300,000 rubles and clients’ indebtedness rose from 165,- 000,000 rubles to 222,000,000 rubles. his includes advances to nationalized industrial enterprises totaling 947,000,- 000 rubles and the indebtedness at the end of the year amounted to 269,- 900,000 rubles, ‘The chairman pointed to the activities of the Prombank in the financing of foreign trade; —ad- vances connected with these opera- tions amounted to 82,000,000 rubles, against 32,000,000 rubles in the pre- vious fiseal year, The work of the collection department showed impor- tant Increases; its turnover amounted to 772,000,000 rubles, ‘as against 387, 000,000 rubles for the previous year. The turnover of internal remittances exceeded 2,500,000,000 rubles, as against 900,000,000 rubles for the last year, The turnover of foreign remit- tances reached 65,000,000 rubles, The net profit of the bank during the year just closed totaled 8,698, 000 rubles. The auditing committee, in its re port, pointed to the marked improve- ment in the work of all departments of the bank, particttarly the improve- ment in the work of the bookkeeping department and in the department of administration governing the branches, The meeting Approved the vied of the board, ac the opening bal. ance for 1925-26 arid the account ot profits and and took cognizance of the invert improvement in the general growth of the bank's opera- igtg as well as a considerable in- crease in the bank's reserves and # de- + crease in cost ot credit operations. The meeting found further reinforce- ment of the bank's deposits necessary in view of the supposed granting of long-term credits to industry and de cided to request the peoples’ commis: sarlat of finance to authérize an in crease in the bank’s capital from 76, 000,000 rubles to 100,000,000 tubles, J According to the decision of the j eral meeting, 25 per cent of the profit of the bank is to. be d to the reserve fund and 20 per cent to be used as spécial funds for long-term industrial credits. A dividend of 6 per cent was declared. me The new council consists of 70 1 bers and 10 candidates under the idency of the vice-president of the Supreme Council of National Bcon- omy, G. L. Platakoff. Practically the entffe personnel of the bank’s board of directors has been re-elected, the only exception was the election of M. P. Zaikin (Ural metal industry) to the place vacated by the resignation of %, A, Heine. V.N, Ksandroff was re- elected as president of she ‘board sa directors, Can Go to Russia, ANDERSON, Ind., April 5.—John Newman, a resident here, has granted, permission by the Uae States immigration commission turn to Russia for his two chi aged 13 and 14, whom he Lain ie Newman, now nai vented from pi te © yon the World eon — wl his wife