The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 24, 1926, Page 9

Ww print below the text of the re- cent “apostolic letter” sent by the Pope to the archbishop of Mexico City and to the Roman catholic bishops generally in the territory of the Mex- ican republic. It is a remarkable doc- ument revealing the methods of the archaic feudal church in alliance with modern capitalist-imperialists. At the present time the struggle is for the conquest “of Mexico by the United States government for the benefit of the American exploiters of Mexican labor and resources. In this situation his holiness may be said to have found a job with American oil companies. The peasant economy in a large part of Mexico lies left the Roman catholic church still a considerable influence upon the least advanced of Mexico’s population. This makes it possible for the holy church to trade off its power of stirring up superstitious hysteria; so the archaic church still has a func- tion, ' The text of the “apostolic letter” is as follows: Pee * The Pope’s Letter “To His Venerable Brothers “Joseph, archbishop of Mexico City, “And the other archbishops and bishops of Mexico: “Pius sends greetings and apostolic blessing. ; “Venerable Brothers— “The fatherly solicitude with which we, who, by reason of the high office bestowed upon us thru the will of God, follow all the faithful of the whole world, demands in a very special man- ner that we love with a singular love those whom we see stricken with graver ills, and who, therefore, need all the more the zealous care of their common father, “Hardly had we ben raised to the chair of St. Peter before we very glad- ly directed toward you venerable brothers, our most considerate and loving attention, as we realized that you were beset by such afflictions as certainly bring shame to a people al- By A. Serafimovich. Translated from the Russian by Eden and Cedar Paul, hig! the outskirts of a great town, high above the river, was a fine, white mansion, many-storied and containing @ number of dwellings. Below, on the river bank, was a factory, blackened . With smoke. In the second story of the white house, in huge rooms flooded with sun- shine, lived the factory owner with his family. The basement of the white house contained cellar-tenements, dark and damp, and in one of these lived a working man and his wife, both weavers in the factory. if have factory owner’s lady gave birth to a daughter, and on the same day the weaver’s wife bore a girl. In the splendi@ bedroom on the second story an ikon hung on the wall, @ figure of the Virgin Mary, framed in gold. The lady was religiously in- clined, but she knew that the Mother of God on the panel was nothing more than a painted image, and she knew likewise that the Virgin Mary was not lavish of gifts except to wealthy per- sons of rank and station. Beneath the cobwebs in a corner of the cellar dwelling hung another ikon, a smoke- grimed image of the Virgin Mary. To this image the weaver woman prayed with unquestioning faith, believing that the Mother of God in person was looking down on her from the wall. — child of the rich woman had a nurse and an under-nurse. She was suckled, not by her mother, but by a young woman whom poverty had forced to accept the post of wet-nurse, while her own child, unskilfully brought up by hand in her village home, pined and died, The child of the weaver woman spent the weary days screaming and hungry, lying wet and untended. The mother, like the father, had to work long hours at the noisy loom in the factory, and the distressing thought of her little one at home never gave her a@ moment's peace, - The lady's daughter blossomed like a flower. Her cheeks were rosy, She Pope Knifes Mexico The Two Ikons” most totally catholic, and who, at the same time, make up a civil society cul- tured and adorned with all the arts of civilization. “It is scarcely necessary for us to tell you how wicked are the regula- tions and laws invoked against the catholic citizens of Mexico which have been sanctioned by officials hostile to the church and which by their enforce- ment long have oppressed you. “You are fully aware that these laws are far from being reasonable laws, nor are they useful and necessary for the common good as assuredly ll laws should be. On the contrary, they do not seem to merit even the name of laws, “Our. predecessor, Benedict XV, of happy memory, accorded you deserved praise _because you rightly, and moved by your religious beliefs, took exception to these laws by solemnly protesting against them, which action of Pope Benedict we by this our let- ter, do not only ratify but make our very own. “Indeed, we are moved all the more insistently to utter this public protest and condemnation of such laws see- ing that, day after day, the warfare against the catholic religion is being waged more bitterly by the rulers of the republic, so that assuredly what- soever lies within our power to aid the people of Mexico toward the estab- lishment. of peace, even that now be- comes both inffective and useless, all of which will result to the great detri- ment of our beloved country. “Who is there that does not know that our apostolic delegate whom you two years ago received with such marks of appreciation and joy, was expelled from Mexico City as if he were a common enemy of the repub- lic? This act not only betrayed lack of a sense of justice and a breach of good faith, but was likewise a most grievous insult both to us, to the hier- archy and the whole people of Mex- ico, “PIUS.” Y UBAORTS Ost STrtethate 5 modw i was sturdy and vigorous. As she gTew the eyes of the Virgin Mary looked down on her from the golden frame. The weaver’s little daughter was not rosy-cheeked, but sallow. Her face was prematurely old, and her thin legs were crooked. In the dark cellar- dwelling she was like a blade of grass that is sickly and colorless for lack of light. Uupon her growth there looked down the eyes in the blackened face drawn upon a split panel, Nevertheless, the daughter of the factory owner’s lady fell ill. But she was well cared for. The best doctors {vere summoned, regardless of expense, and they cured the little girl. Once more she was rosy-cheeked and lively, twittering like a bird, full of the joy of life. And still, as she grew, the eyes of the Virgin Mary looked down on her from the golden frame, The weaver woman’s daughter, who had never been well and strong, fell sick in her turn. Her arms and legs, thin already, shrivelled away to nothing; her ale face grew dusky, her mouth was drawn, and her lips were blue. In anguish, the mother tore her hair, threw herself on her knees, pas- sionately praying, beating her breast in agony, and ecstatically invoking the figure on the blackened panel, in, frenzied alternations of hope and despair. . “Holy Mother, Mother of God, Vir- gin unspotted, pray for us. Save my little girl. Bring her back to health. Watch over her and keep her from harm, Why should she suffer so? Most holy Mother, . . .” The factory whistle sounded. ‘The mother had to gulp down her tears. She must hasten to work for the rich folk who dwelt on the second story. ‘The father, too, had to obey the same signal, and went to this daily task, anguish in his eyes, E little daughter died. She lay in the dark basement, looking like a withered leaf, and in the corner above hér hung the blackened panel. The priest who buried her had no timé to spare. He wanted to get the job over as quickly as possible, and his phrasing of the burial service was Httle more than an unmeaning gabble. By ROBERT MINOR " Ww. reprint here a letter written by a Negro to the Negro-baiting cap- italist newspaper, the Chicago Trib- une, dated April 9 and appearing in that paper on April 13. That the let- ter was held for a day or two and carefully considered and reconsidered by the editors before publication, is a thought which arises from a reading of its contents: THE VERDICT IN KENTUCKY Chicago, April 9.—1 would like to know what is America’s sense of justice. Your paper put it well. “Kentucky had a true test of its own law.” And it has failed. But who is surprised? Nobody. 1 don’t know of any place in the world where there is as much immunity for any one as there is for an Amer ican white man. That white brute that attacked that child in Kentucky is adjudged insane, and so is every white criminal, O, sure, we don’t need a law to prevent lynching; the army was called out to give a judge the op- portunity to do the lynching. But when a Negro child was most brutal- ly attacked we were told the attack- er was the son of rich parents. His father, no doubt, and his forefathers have abused Negroes so much until he cannot help it. Well, of all the pitiless animals, | think the Amer- ican white-man is the greatest, Three times I have pledged to sup- port the* American constitution and the laws of the state. Many a day | have pledged my allegiance, but when I see the abuse of my people | wonder if I can live up to that pledge. If God still answers prayer, | will pray that the next human dog in Kentucky clothed in white skin will rape a white woman, so we can see if he is also insane. | hope that this will occur at once, George W. Lawrence. This letter is a social document. It is one of many small indications of a big social current that is now moving almost silently but swiftly and with corrosive effect under the soilof this capitalist society. A Negro, apparently 4 worker, writes his individual opinion about one of the proudest efforts of capitalist society to cover up its sys- tem of terror-supported exploitation with a “reform” which this Negro But he ended with a personal exhorta- tion to the parents. “The ways of the Lord are past find- ing out. . . . It will be better for her there—in the other world.” “Even so, Father, even so. . . But why could she not live out her short hour in this world?”»asked the mother, bitterly. The priest exclaimed against her impiety. “Do not anger the Lord by ques- tioning his judgment. God sends to each one of us his cross, and we must bear what is allotted. In his wisdom he has thought fit to visit you with this affliction. You must endure it patiently.” P HE daughter of the factory owner's lady grew and flourished. The daughter of the weaver woman rotted in the grave, and never did the tor- tured mother forget her sorrow. And still, in the great white build- ing on the hill, the two images of the Mother of God hung upon the walls. Upstairs, the well-drawn ikon in a golden frame, Downstairs, in the dark cellar-iwelling, the black and dis- colored image upon the split panel. A Strike Betrayed Fads April 10, in the sewer pipe works at Peerless, Ohio, (about ten miles west of East Liverpool, Ohio), the kiln drawers and kiln plac- ers were subjected to hard, unfair and bestial designs. Groups or crews of eight men (set- ting) filling the kilns and crews of eight men (drawing) emptying the kilns were reduced to seven men in a crew. The amount of work to be done, remained the same, but the amount of wages to be paid was seven-eighths of the previous amount. Now those who had not been too much debased in. spirit or intelligence by the present industrial system at once A Negro on Capitalist Suntcs worker intelligently sees was a case where “the army was called out to give a judge the opportunity to do the lynching.” Then he writes his indi- vidual opinion of an almost simultane- Ous case occurring in the same town, in which a young white ‘mah’ of the capitalist class was — senten¢ed’**to custody in a hospital for thée*raping in the most deliberate and cold-blood- ed manner of an eleven-year old Negro girl, But in each case the view expressed is something more than an individual opinion; it is a view which reflects the whole of a wide social phenom- enon—the rapid crystalization of a new ideology among the millions of exploited black people of the United States, The letter-writer’s view is not yet mature, any more than the broad phenomenon is yet mature. He still expects “God” to help him—an expec- tation which the slave master taught him so that he would not help himself, And he notices that the state-licensed Tape fiend “was the son of rich parents” and even sees that the im- munity was the continuation of a long established class privilege. But he still thinks automatically that the im- munity is for “the American white man” in general. He does not yet-see / that the immunity is for the American white man of the ruling class or those (of whatever class) who do the will of the ruling class. The mere mention of the frame-up in the Mooney case, that of Sacco and Vanzetti, the I. W. W. cases and hundreds of others, ought to bring him to the next stage of his thinking—to a’realization that the legal-and illegal terror on the one hand and the privileged position on the other have a relation to class ex- ploitation. But this Negro worker and a good part of 12,000,000 more like him ‘are well on the road toward un- derstanding that there is no outlet for the Negro masses from their pres- ent slavery except in the overturn of this capitalist class society. A new ideology is crystalizing fast among the Negro masses. It behooves the white workers to move fast in getting an understanding of the pro- found importance of the struggle “pt the Negro against a brutal race sup- pression which is inseparable from capitalist exploitation, recognized the injustice and hard terms of the new condition, One of the conscious, seeing, workers at once protested and refused to work under the new condition. He also induced the other workers to cease their la- bors until the matter could be rear- ranged. He also succeeded in con- vincing workers in other departments of the industry that the new condi- tion was unfair, and they pledged their allegiance to his cause and _ their cause in bringing about a just settle- ment in their wage dispute. The class conscious workers then summoned a speaker and organizer to help them form an effective body that would advise and lead their struggle against this obviously unfair condi- , tion. 4 The workers, gathered for the pur- pose of designing ways to fight for their rights, succeeded in forming a strike committee. This organizing was done at night, and they promised the next day that they would get their extra men back or they would shut the whole works down, The next day, the whole damn de generate gang went back to work un- der the degrading conditions, and they upheld conditions so vicious that the class conscious champion of their } rights had to leave town and seek em- | ployment elsewhere, i The bosses’ greed for profits ex- ceeds the desire to correctly manage humanity; for the upbuilding of hu- manity! The greed for profits im- pels only a desire to rule over a de- pra ignorant, spiritless autocratic mob capable of creating only material profit. oa The cowardly greed for profits de- sires only to keep the mob in this sub- merged condition where they cannot develop a spirit, where they cannot de- velop an intelligence to fight against any degrading condition imposed on A Worker Correspondent