The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 9, 1926, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER > THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING 00, 3428 W, Washington Bivd., Chicage, Il, Phone Monroe éT13 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chiongo): $0.00 per year $4.60 six months | $6.00 per vear $3.50 stx months $3.50 three months $3.00 three months Address all matl and make ont checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicage, Il!nots J, LOUIS ENGDAHL ; Raditors ‘ WILLIAM F. DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB —.....nnmemmnne- Business Manager —————— Eautered ag second-class mail September #1, 1928, at the post-office at Chi- @ago, Ill, under the act of March 8, 1879, << 0 ~ Advertising rates on application. Rents in the Veil Not since the overthrow of czarism followed by the rise of the workera and peasants to power in Russia has the capitalist world been shaken as by the British strike. The reasons are easily found. Britain’s parliamentary system has been the model for all parliamentary governments, British nespect for “law and order” has been taken for granted in the cap- italist household and the British working class always has been com- pared to the toilers of continental nations te the disadvantage of the latter. What the American capitalist press quite obviously fails to un- @eestand is that institutions, classes, systems of government and na- thomal viewpoints are products of certain periods with certain methods of production giving rise to certain relationships. The belief of the British workers in their ability to solve their diMeulties thru parliamentary process was unshakable so long as the capitalist parliamentary machine gave legal color to the rob- bery of colorial peoples and the British workers shared in the pro- ceeds of this robbery. As long as parliament could retain a sub- stantial measure of impartial color in the eyes of British workers, ag long as it could appear to some extent as an arbiter of class con- filets, British labor accepted capitalist democracy as inevitable. But the British labor movement has had its “labor govern- ment” and it found that not parliament but the tremendous bureau- evatic machine of capitalism—army, navy, police forces, civil servants, courts—is the real governing power. Monopoly has replaced competition in British industry, col- onial revolts are the order of the day with a consequent decrease in the surplus which the British rulers have for purposes of sub- sidising privileged groups of workers, British trade is on the down- grade—in a word Britain has lost her premier world position. To regain it she must intensify the robbery of the workers at home. Parliament appears, especially in the present situation, as the spokesmen of a robber class. Parliaments veil the dictatorship of the capitalist elass. The ruthless march of history has torn great rents in the vesture of British capitalism. When 5,000,000 workers, numbering with their families more than half the population of England, Scotland and Wales, decide as they have, to apply in the struggle for a decent livelihood the might of their class organizations in aid of their parliamentary representatives, it means that they have seen thru capitalism’s camouflage, have torn a mighty breach in the defenses of the enemy and are adjusting their policy and tactics to the new conditions, get- ting ready for greater struggles and greater victories. It is this adjustment which capitalism fears the most and which accounts for the incoherent fury of its press. The Watson Victory in Indiana Senator James E. Watson of Indiana, one of the “yes-men” of the Morgan coalition of republicans and democrats at Washington, won the republican senatorial nomination by an unprecedented majority over other aspirants. The middle-west anti-league and anti-court sentiment claims this was another defeat for the Coolidge regime. Much as we desire the political annihilation of Coolidge and all that he represents we refuse to fool ourselves by accepting the popular interpretation of the Indiana primaries. The public record of Watson as one of the Mellon-Ooolidge stalwarts is consistent, with the exception of his vote on the world court. He even sup- ported that administration on that proposition until rumblings from the ku kluxers of his home state began to reverberate to the capitol. The politicians in control of the machine realized that his defeat was inevitable if he voted for the court and might prove dis- astrous to the administration. Hence Watson was permitted to cast his vote against the court only in order that he might be re- elected and return to Washington as a part of the Coolidge machine. It was that maneuver that befuddled the ku klux republicans of the Hoosier state who believed that a senator could support Coo- lidge on everything except the world court and still remain a de- fender of the interests of the small bourgeoisie. They are still so unsophisticated they believe politicians always mean what they say. Professor Fisher’s Statistics Professor Irving Fisher, economist of Yale, and one of the most pampered of the bourgeois sooth-sayers, who devotes his talents to proving statistically that capitalism will last forever and that uo other system can possibly work, has been given the horse laugh by the scions of the nabobs who attend the New Haven university. The professor, in his most austere, manner, recently testified before a senate committee to the effect that Yale was virtually dry and that drinking among the students had disappeared since Vol- steadism showered its blessings upon the nation. He tried to refute the claim of the student paper, the Yale News, that there was more drinking than before. The precious editors of the News took this as a personal insult and so they conducted a referendum on the question among the 2,500 students and the result was four to one in support of the assertion that drinking had increased rather than decreased since prohibition. Such will also be the faté of Fisher’s better known prognostica- tions, wherein he proves by the most elaborate statistical analysis that the system for which he speaks is imperishable, when he is confronted with realities. Lamentable effect of British strike upon the ladies of the newly- rich American bourgeoisie: King George postponed holding court, thereby depriving the elegant Americans of an opportunity to grovel before the throne of the royal pee-wee. ; “God save the king! was the conclusion of the “emergency declaration” of the ruling class of Britain on the eve of the general strike. Tho czar used to use similar words, but his invocation was unanswered . rr BRITISH LEFT WING PLAYS A DECISIVE ROLE Rise of .the Minority Movement By WILLIAM F, DUNNE FOURTH ARTIOLD The attack on the living standards of the British workers, particularly those in decisive industries like coal mining end metal, coupled with the apathy of the official labor party and trade union leadership, formed the basis for a left wing movement whose rapid rise to a position of influence is one of the outstanding features of the British situation, At the head of the Minority Move ment is Harry Pollitt, member of the Boilermakers Union and also a mem- ber of the Communist Party of Great Britain, now in Wandsworth prison following his conviction on a charge of “fomenting mutiny in the armed forces of the crown” brot under an act passed in 1797. Nat Watkins of the South Wales Miners Federation and George Hardy, well-known member of the I. W. W. who served a sentence in i savenworth for anti-war activities and was then deported from the United States, are now in charge of the work of the national office of the Minority Move- ment, The British capitalist class has a legitimate grievance against our rulers for sending Hardy back home. Active on the executive are such well- known fighters as Tom Quelch and Tom Mann. For a Militant Program. The aim of the Minority movement was amd is to give to the trade unions a militant program, to bu'd them real weapons of the Britisn fasses. Prac- tical work to this end is the chief feature of the movement. Nat Watkins, for instance, went in- to the Forest of Dean mining district with A:Purcell, since he was elected to parliament from that constituency, and conducted what the British movement calls an “All In Campaign,” 1. 6. an organization drive which brot the per- centage of union organization from 30 per cent up to 90 per cent. In the recent strike of seamen the Minority Movement actually had the leadership in the person of George Hardy. Hundreds of minor trade union of- ficials—branch secretaries, local or- ganizers, etc.—are members of the Minority Movement and together with the rank and file militants are doing much of the routine work by which a trade union movement is built. The program of the Minority Move- ment for support of the the coal miners was simple. It was: 1. Rejection of the coal commis- sion’s report—nationalization, 2. All unions behind the miners. 3. A national council of action with corresponding local bodies in every industrial district. 950,000 Workers. At the first National Minority con- ference held in Battersea last fall, some 600,000 workers were repres- ented. At the special conference held last march 950,000 workers were repres- ented. In other words about 20 per cent of the British trade union mem- bership were actively supporting the program of the National Minority Movement. Distinct from the Minority Move- ment is the still broader left wing personified by such men as Wheatley, Maxton, Hicks, Bromley, Williams and other trade union officials and labor members of parliament influenced by strong left pressure, from their fol- | lowers and who follow a policy much more to the left than that of Mac- Donald, Henderson, .Clynes and ‘Thomas. The pressure of these two powerful groups upon the executive of the miners in support of A, J. Cook brot the leading committee of the Miners Federation into line. The immediate policy as formulated by the Miners National Minority Movement in a conference held March 22, was as follows: We call upon the miners to con- centrate upon securing 100 per cent organization and to prepare to fight for the guaranteed weekly minimum wage commensurate with the in- creased cost of living whilst recogn- izing that the necessary reorganiza- tion, so as to permit this, is only possible by the nationalization of the mining industry without com- pensation and with workers’ control. Movement Aided General Strike. We have seen how the miners rallied behind Cook and came to the Trade Union Congress prepared for struggle. In the other unions similar cam- paigns for support of the miners carried on with the slogan that, “the attack on the miners {is an attack on the whole trade union movement.” How well the Minority Movement did its work is shown by the general strike in support of the miners which has astounded and frightened the cap- italist. worid. The capitalists press is loud in its protests against the challenge to par- Mament and the use of such drastic measures in a wage struggle. The British strike is a wage struggle true enuf but its implications are far wider than the immediate causes which pro- duced it. (Fifth Article Monday) Defenders of British Capitalism science! for England hangs on mass production and high wages. Riley’s Return, President Riley of the British manu- factures’ association, returns to Lon- don as an apostle of the new capital- ism exuding the familiar phrases elimination of waste, industrial con- solidation, higher wages, payment by results, standardization, efficiency and diffusion of ownership. He says “The prosperity of the United States is the greatest vindication of the capitalist system.” Youngsters Explain, Messrs Austin and Lloyd, young technicians, return and write The Se- eret of High Wages, (referred to by Hditor Garvin of the Observer as “perhaps the most valuable little book upon Britain’s industrjal crisis which has appeared since the war.” They explain America’s prosperity on the | basis of promotion by merit, small profit margins on rapid turnover, sim- |plification and cheapening of pro- |cesses, high wages, elimination of waste, welfare work and research. Garvin sums up their conclusions for |England thus: “The very life of this country de- pends on two things—deliberate adop- tion by the employers of a policy of high wages and intelligent under- standing on part of the men that every mechanical aid to efficiency must be used to the utmost. The or- ganization of cheaper production on American lines must “be accepted and restrictions on individual output must be swept away.” 4 High Wage” Bunk, Last of all we hear that the so-call- ed British labor delegation paid and sent to America bygthe reactionary London Daily Mail has completed its short tour of American industrial cen- ters and sailed for home with the im- mortal words of President Coolidge ringing in its ears: “Well, American workers earn high wages because they work.” Of course even the Daily Mail representative was forced to admit that British workers also knew how to work, But he said for the delega- tion that they believed high wages in America were due to high production and high consumption, and that the high standards of living among Amer- ican workers were due to those condi- tions. “Harmony.” “They have been greatly impressed,” he said, “by the harmony they saw everywhere existing between working- man and employer, They have been also much struck by the perfect organ- ization they found in American work- shops.” Needless to say this perfect organ- ization does not refer to labor organ- ization, For the carefully chaperoned delegates were piloted to all the great nonunion plants like Ford and Gen- eral Electric, American Tune, So the American tune runs round and round again, High wages due to Above are members of the British constabulary charging a crowd of British workers. are mounted “Bobbies,” English cossacks, dispersing a demonstration. hia oc AB J 5 rt Below SAVING BRITAIN FROM CRISIS BY TALKING AMERICAN ‘PROSPERITY’ By LELAND OLDS, Federated Press. What a blessing is America to capitalist England and to the faint heart- ed British liberals who wish to cure the fatal illness of capitalism by christian British captains of industry, engineers, economists, trade unionists make quick personally conducted tours of American industry and go back with the glad tidings that industrial salvation¢é——@———————______ high production due to high consump- tion due to high wages due to high production, due to—etc., without énd. The vital question is whether Britain will apply it immediately as a solution of the mine crisis which hinges on wages, The British Miners. The Miners’ Federation of Great Britain has shown that if the govern- Amundsen Dirigible Is Well on Its Way to Spitzbergen LENINGRAD, May 7. — The Amund- sen-Elisworth Polar dirigible, which left Cadso at 3.56 yesterday afternoon, was reported well on its way to Kings Bay, Spitzbergen. Favorable weather is prevailing and the dirigible is mak- ing good progress, reports stated. es the wage reductions recommended by the coal commission put into effect wages in certain districts will fall close to the 1914 level. The cost of living is still 72 per cent above 1914. Such an attempt to reduce worker liy- ing standards will unquesitonably touch off a confli¢t, with a large part of public opinion lined up for the min- ment subsidy is withdrawn May 1 and |ers. FURRIERS’ UNION PICKET LEADER SENT TO JAIL New York Strikers Re- new Mass Picketing (Special to The Daily Werker) NEW YORK, May 7. — Another desperate attempt of the fur bosses te cripple the splendid fighting ranks of the striking furriers was shown in the 60-day sentence imposed om Samuel Mencher, chairman of the picket committee, who was tried im Essex Market court on a charge ef disorderly conduct, Jalil Three. Mencher, with two other workers, Mark Boerum and 8. Fischler, were arrested and altho they were charged merely with disorderly conduct they were all given 60-day sentences, An- other worker, Paul Esersky, received 30 days on the same charge. The response of the strikers to swah schemes. of the manufacturers was shown in @ telegram sent by the shop chairmen when news of Mencher’s sentence was announced to them in Manhattan Lyceum. They sent greet- ings from the strikers of all the shops represented and told Mencher to feel confident that others would take up his good work and the picket commit- tee would carry on more vigorously than ever, The. picket committee im- mediately called a meeting and laid plans for mass picket demmnstrations for next week, ‘ 1, L. @ W. Locals Ald Strike. Ben Gold announced to the shop chairmen that the strike is in better condition than ever, and that the union already has in hand the first part of a loan of $200,000 which will make it possible to continue to pay benefits and carry on all the activities of the strike. Thru the help of Locals 2, 9 and 22 of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union it has been possible to make these loans without the endorsement of the International which would give its endorsement only in such @ way as to handicap the con- duct of the strike and interfere with the work of the general picket commit- tee. The loans now arranged for will serve as a final warning to the employ- ers that they might as well give up hope that the union will compromise in dts strike demands. It is now well prepared to continue indefinitely until the strike%s won. Los Angeles ‘“News” in Receiver’s Hands LOS ANGELES, May 1.— Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., has thrown his Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News into the hands of Mayor Meredith P. Snyder as receiver to protect him- self from the creditors who want to force him into an insignificant sale. His other papers are still running at Miami and San Francisco, Russian Workers’ Delegation in China By VICTOR VAKSOV. 4. The Strikers’ Guard. It is the business of the guard to see to the enforcement of the Hong- kong blockade, to prevent strike- breaking and treachery. This guard has only recently been formed and represents more of a moral than mili- tary force. This does not at all mean that the guards neglect the military side of the business. They are care- fully trained under the guidance of commanders appointed by the strike committee, The labor guard of the south Chinese strike committee repre- sents the primary stage of the arming of the workers, a stage not to be missed by any of the section of the international proletariaj. The Canton labor guard ‘is commanded by Wong, a Hongkong butcher. Old Wong is now a general. Wong sold meat at Hongkong and now he wants to sell it no longer. In his opinion no one ought to sell anything at present, and no one ought to work. This is de- manded by the interests of the Chi- nese people as a whole, which are higher than those of the individual Chinese merchant. And since not everybody has realized this truth a labor guard is necessary to see to it that those who fail to see the inter- ests of the Chinese people do not stand in the way of those who’ have realized these interests and have put them above their own. This is old Wong's idea of what commanding the labor guard means. It is a true idea, even tho the imperialist press in China maintains that the Chinese workers need no guards of their own and that all the Wongs ought to be returned to their butcher shops and resume selling meat again, for, after all, how long can you live on canned goods, and is it really right to keep the proud British cruisers employed in the capacity of can drivers? The Labor Tribunal, Everybody knows of the existence in China of a mixed court in which the imperialists try the cases and one miserable Chinaman sits on it and signs the sentences, mixing himself and the interests of the Chinese peo- ple with dirt. That is what the mixed court is like. In the headquarters of the Canton strike committee we found another court which does not mix itself with anything or anybody. This is the labor tribunal, Here all those who mix the interests of the Chinese people with their own mercenary in- torests and those who sell themselves to the imperialists are tried and sen- tenced. Such is the tribunal. We wish that the workers of Europe and America learn something from it. It is a sim- ple court consisting of three repre- sentatives of the workers and acting without any pompous ceremony. It is not even cruel; it kills no one. But it is the conscience of a suffering and struggling people and—traitors be- ware! No joking here. We will not bother telling the things that the im- perialists say about this tribunal, They think about the tribunal the same as about the labor guard. They are opposed to the idea of labor trib- unals, but they believe in the mixed courts. The Path of Sun Yat Sen, The present ‘national emancipation movement follows the path blazed thru the old revolutionary Doctor Sun, Sun’s successors and followers have been constantly broadening out the path opened up by their dead chief and leading towards the emancipation of the Chinese people, and more and more armies are joining in the cru- sade. In the onward march of these armies organized labor is assuming ar: increasingly important place. The workers have decided not to limit themselves to the political path of emancipation from imperialism, They have begun to build a “physi- cal” road joining Canton with the deep port of Wampu. This road has been named the Road of Sun Yat Sen. Can- ton City cannot receive deep-lying ves- sels, while Wampu can. Heretofore, Hongkong has been considered the harbor for big vessels, whileCanton was in the position of a hinterland, ‘This condition made it impossible for Canton to maintain its foreign trade independently. Now Canton wants to free itself of this dependence and con- duct its foreign trade independently. The Canton and Hongkong workers do not work for the imperialists. They are ready to work and they are work- ing, however, in the name of libera- tiontion from the “guardianship” of Hongkong. 24 Kilometers In 40 Days. We visited the new construction works. Three thousand strikers went to work simultaneously. The strike committee gave them a task—24 Kilo- metres of road t® be completed in 40 days. And no doubt it will be completed, for these people realize that they are, working for themselves. Canton will become connected with Wampu by land. Of course, this move of the Canton strikers will also be interpreted by the imperialism as a blow to civilization. If the Hong- kong bankers and their Chinese hire- lings are the embodiment of civiliza- tion and culture, then it must be ad- mitted that the strikers are merely undermining “the foundation stones of civilization. However, F are unaware of this: you must tell it to them, but, more important, prove ft to them—else they will stick to their picks and shovels for all their worth, (The End.) FOURTH ANNUAL SPRING YOUTH BALL TONIGHT—Saturday, May 8 © a FREIHEIT SINGING SOCIETY HALL, 3837 W. Roosevelt Road Chicago, Ill. The Big Event of the Season! DON'T MISS IT! GOOD MUSIC REFRESHMENTS ADMISSION 50 CENTS the strikers: