The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 18, 1926, Page 6

Page Six ‘ THE DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Washington Blvd, Chicago, Ill. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By maii (in Chicago only): { By mail (outside 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 mouths 1113 W. Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY Rad Abies 1113 W. Washington 'Bivd., Chicago, IIlinols ..Editors WwW TLL IAM F, MORITZ J. LOEB Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Nh cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. = : | Gary Paper Consoles Steel Trust | There may be more self-debasing subserviency than that dis-| played by the lone daily paper in Gary, the Post-Tribune, in its comment upon-the frightful disaster of last Monday, but we have} never come in contact with it. In a brief editorial commenting upon the havoc wrought in the community by the explosion of the by- products plant the paper ex- presses its sympathy with the families of the dead and injured, and also to the “officials of the mill which (sic) must bear the brunt of the worst industrial accident in Gary’s history.” The Post-Tribune does not consider that the wives, parents and children of the dead ang dying bear the brunt of the disaster, but | the brunt of the disaster is borne by the officials of the steel corpora-| tion, not dne of whom had so much as a hair on his head harmed by the blast that blew into fragments possibly scores of human beings and blinded and maimed others for life. In order to prepare public opinion for a report that the blast was caused by unknown factors or in order to blame the workmen who were slaughtered in the inferno, this reptile press says: “It is too early to place the blame, but we have no doubt the coroner and officials of the steel company will do all in their power to locate the cause of this disaster. If a cartless match thrower was responsible, he doubtless paid for his carelessness with his life and so the truth may never be known.” That is the most probable whitew ash of the company—blame it) on one of the dead men. The Post-Tribune goes even further and | indicates that the company is blameless “Safety first has long been one of the guiding principles of the steel corporation and it is not likely any known safety device was ignored by the management.” Survivors in the by-products plant where the explosion occurred declare that for weeks the gaseous fumes were so heavy in the plant | that workers became ill and that protests were made in vain to| Advertising rates on application. eEBSxe 290 Ra ci those responsible. It is plain that there will be no honest investigation by the local officials, all of whom are agents of the steel trust. Certainly a congressional investigation into the disaster should } be launched immediately, to determine just to what degree a greedy | corporation is permitted to operate a human slaughter house with out interference by the authorities. Newberryism in Illinois After the senate committee investigating slush fund expendi- tures in the Pennsylvania primaries gets thru with examination of facts regarding the corruption practiced by the machines of Governor Pinchot, Senator Pepper and Congressman Vare, they will turn their guns on the Illinois primary contest and investigate the two traction candidates, Senator William B. McKinley and Col. Frank L. Smith, the opponents in the recent republican primary in this state. The connection between Samuel Insull’s scab public utilities combine and Col. Smith, first exposed in The DAILY WORKER, will come under the fire of Senator Reed and his committee. There was little choice between the two candidates. McKinley is the head of the powerful down-state traction system bearing his name, while Smith, as chairman of the public utilities commission aided the Insull combine raise fares and buy railroads for a song. Newberryism, the policy of spending enormous slush funds to corrupt the electorate, has become the regularly established pro- cedure in old party polities, and ought to be sufficient to convince many workers of the fraud of parliamentary democracy. The vast majority, however, only learn thru long experience, and the slush fund investigations, if good for nothing else, will serve forcefully to bring out some facts regarding the capitalist backers of the old party candidates and contribute toward bringing the gov- | ernment of the United States, administered by either of the old into contempt. parties, President William Green—Rotarian William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, has trekked to Denver to address the national convention of Rotary Clubs. , The memorial anniversary of the Ludlow massacre, in which striking union miners, their wives and children, were shot and burned to death by the Colorado state militia, acting under ‘orders from the Rockefeller-owned government of that state, occurred while President Green was on his way to Denver. He turned down an invitation to address the memorial meeting and hurried on to join his Rotarian friends, pausing only long enough | to speak to a gathering of Baptist Sunday school ladies and near- males, In case our readers have forgotten the fact, we state for their benefit that President Green is a member of the United Mine Work- ers of America which conducted the Ludlow strike. In case it has slipped their memory we also would like to re- mind them that the British miners are on strike, that they have asked President Green to collect money to aid them. President Green, howev movement in every city where the organization exists. Where is the valiant Mr. Bok, former editor of the Ladies Home Journal, who handled the slush fund for Morgan that induced the Mellon-Coolidge senate to yote adherence to the world court, as the political slaughter of his heroes proceeds unabated? The limit of denunciation has been reached by a Washington correspondent who writes that Vare probably will be unseated be- cause “he is conceded to be mentally and morally below the level of the great mle. of senators.” one j use ..Business Manager 14 |promise of more to follow. chooses to speak to the National) Convention of Rotary Clubs—the spiritual leader of the open shop | The Struggle in By EARL R. BROWDER, (Part 11.) ROM the beginning of the British general strike the right-wing lead- ers of the council and’ of the labor |party had begged the government to them for its purposes. Mr. Thomas, himself, described his own at- titude in the house of commons as groveling for peace.” Mr, Arthur Henderson,with others, made a trip to the government, their mission being to “find a formula” for the surrender, shortly after the strike was called; they were met by Churchill, with the |question: “Have you come to say that the strike notices are withdrawn?” “No, we . .” “Then there is no |reason to continue this discussion,” id Churchill, Yes, the government knew with whom it had to deal! As even that kind-hearted, muddle-headed pacifist, Lansbury, remarks: “The government felt that these were not the men to conduct a successful strike.” The gov- ernment was correct! In the first days of the strike the council took another backward step | when it responded to Baldwin's chal- lenge of “unconstitutional, illegal and revolutionary,” with the declaration which they repeated every day, that the strike was nothing by an economic struggle directed against the mine- | owners. LTHOUGH it was obvious that gov- ernment had come into the open as the executive committee of the bourgeoisie, including the mine-owners whose cause it made its own, and that therefore to fight against the mine owner§ must necessarily mean to fight also against the mine owners’ govern- ment—yet the General Council delib- erately shut its eyes to this funda- |mental fact, and tried to prevent the membership from seeing it. In that slogan of “only an industrial struggle” was written the final surrender. A few days later, among the demon- strations from abroad of the interna- tional solidarity of labor with the British workers, came the financial confribution of the Russian ynions of $1,300,000 (2,600,000 roubles), with the Surely here was, even apart from its practi- cal value, a splendid symbol of the in- ternational solidarity of labor that would build up even higher the morale What Is the Farmer- ~By WILLIAM F. DUNNE. Fourth Article. HE Minnesota farmer-labor clubs, altho less important units than the unions which endorse the Farmer-La- bor Party in the industrial distrticts, and altho they will be superseded by joint union committees as the party develops, in the rural regions are the real organizational basis of the party and will remain so. ‘They represent the only organiza- tional form by which farmers have been enabled to rid themselves of the political buzzards which have fastened themselves upon the farmer movement since farmers began to venture into the political arena as an economic group. HE granges, farm bureaus and the non-partisan league, all had an or- ganizational form in which the shyster lawyers and others of that ilk could control, All of these organizations were controlled from the top exclu- sively, but the farmer-labor clubs have managed to obtain organizational co- | herence while also allowing far more inner part democracy. The failure of the old non-partisan league beaureaucrats to capture the farmer-labor movement in Minnesota is due to two causes: 1. The increasing consciousness of the farmers and workers. 2. The rank and file character of the organization based on the clubs. The best the old officialdom of the non-partisan league could do was to recruit thirty or forty alleged farmers into a convention for which Johnson’s opponent, Davis, paid all expenses, Inside the Farmer-Labor Party the old officialdom was powerless. NSIDE the trade union movement the process of clarification on the farmer-labor question has not pro- ceeded as rapidly as it has among the farmers, The reason for this is probably be- cause of the fact that the labor unions still have a tendency to depend ex- clusively upon their economic strength and look upon politics rather as a tributary stream than as the main current of the labor movement, They do not see the two movements as an indivisible whole as yet. The farmers rely only on securing | control of the state apparatus for mar- keting, etc., and a much higher per- | centage of farmers have thrown them- selves into the farmer-labor movement than have the workers, Be the process is at work and al- ready some substantial gains have been made, The split between the of- ficialdom and the rank and file of the unions on the issue of support of the convention decision of the Farmer-La- bor Party convention has been men- tioned already and other developments of a favorable nature can be recorded, The connection between them and the agiiation for support of the Farmer- Labor Party andtts authorized cangi- | |secure and exercise organizational | eee neers ee NTN ot British workers, w have an of- ficial alliance with the Russian unions. But no, the General Council bowed to the corrupt, hypocritical, bourgeois “public opinion” which says that as- sistance’cannot be accepted from the revolutionary Russian“ workers; they refused the contribution of the seven million trade unionists of the Workers’ Republic. Another unmistakable sign that the general staff was looking for means of losing the war, rather than of winning. HEN came the news that the gov- ernment was about to strike at the General Council. Immediately Mr. Thomas and his friends overwhelmed the timid council members with pros- pects of “the streets, running with blood,” with tales of strikers already returning to work, Of ‘thousands of trains being restored t6 service by the government and the 6,'M. S., of the unions being smashed. All the gov- ernment propaganda” “suddenly ap- peared within the General Council it- self,as the basis upon Which decisions affecting the millions of‘striking work- ers should be based. © * These were the. conditions within the General Council,‘this was the foundation it had built for its leader- ship, at the opening 6f the second week of the general strike. The Betrayal of the Miners. HRUOUT the country the workers were unanimously, solidly, deter- mined to fight the battle to a finish. Those trades still at‘ work were de- manding that their leaders call them out. The only complaints heard from anywhere in the ranks of the workers were complaints that the General Council was not aggressive enough. Every call, every demand made upon the masses, was instantly complied with and even anticipated. A thousand testimonials to this fact could be quot- ed from every camp in the labor move- ment from extreme right to left, and even from the camp of the bourgeoisie. ‘There was absolutely not the. slight- est excuse for a General Council, if it were really concerned with winning its battle, to fall into pessimism at such a moment. On Tuesday of the second week, yielding to the“pressure of the members, the call had gone forth for the metal workers to,e9me out. The British Worker, No. %,Tuesday even- ing, May 11, says: “So far from ‘dribbling back,” as Mr. Churchill pretends, the men on hor Movement? ‘ dates does not appear y once, but it is there. The weakening of the local bureaucracy led by Paul Smith, by reason of its opposition to the Farmer- Labor Party and its orized candi- dates, the strengthen! of the Com; munists and the left (ng because oi their honest and militant support of the farmer-labor movement, are major contributory causes fop:such events as the defeat of Paul Smith and his co- horts on the question of support for the Sacco-Vanzetti defense in the Min- neapolis Central Labor,.Council two weeks ago. q be HIS is the first timé that the Cen- tral Labor Counéil reactionaries have been defeated in two years on a major question of policy, and it un- doubtedly indicates a serious decrease in both their ideological and organi- zational control. Another indication of a new and more progressive alignment in the Minneapolis labor movement is the be- ginning of the organization of a ‘build- ing trades bloc in opposition to the present leadership of the Central La- bor Council. Since the expulsion of the Commu- nists and the disruption of the left wing movement which followed it, the Minneapolis trade uitions have been going from bad to worse. HE recent defeat ot the Lathers’ Union because of the failure of the other unions to support it, the hostility of the Central Labof“Council leader- ship to the strike, their attempts to jockey the Lathers’ Union into a class collaboration agreement with the bosses, have disgusted the honest ele- ments in the building'trades and steps have been taken already to build an offensive and defensive’alliance which will make it possible for these unions to mobilize their fulPstréngth in sup- port of any building trades union which is attacked, | A harms: plan is in diréct contradiction with schemes of the Central Labor bureaucrats, whose rélations with the Citizens’ Alliance are under investi- gation, and whole policy is to keep the unions weak and divided, It is significant that the line of di- vision on this issue is, with a few ex- ceptions, the same as that on the question of supporting the convention candidates of the Farmer-Labor Party. Thedemarcations will become still clearer if Magnus Johnson wins the Farmer-Labor Party primary and the union reactionaries in the Leach and Davis camp are faced with the prob- lem of accepting and supporting him or supporting capitalist party candi- dates. — reat Britain strike are standing like a rock, and more are coming out. Tomorrow another jsection of the movement will be called Into action. The men have awaited the instructions im- patiently, and all over the country they have received their marching orders with enthusiasm and a sense of relief. ‘Not a single area has weakened,” is Mr. Cramps’ report.’” And yet the very next issue of the British Worker carried the big head- line, “Great Strike Terminated.” On Wednesday telegrams had gone out all over the country to return to work. What had happened? O the negotiating committee of the General Council, dominated by Mr. Thomas, had come Mr. Herbert Sam- uel, chairman of the coal commission, called back from Italy to render yet another service to the bourgeoisie in the war against the British working class, Samuel gave the trembling “leaders” to understand that Baldwin had sent him, to offer a private “gen- tlemen’s agreement” that if they called off the strike without conditions the government would secure the cancella- tion of the lockout on the miners, would extend the subsidy at least for a period of negotiations, and certain gains for the miners would be secured. A specific memorandum was drawn up of the proposals, which has become famous as the “Samuel Memorandum.” The miners’ leaders were called in. They questioned the authority of Sam- uel to bind the government. They pointed out that they were being called upon to surrender the basic principle of their struggle without even a guar- antee that the few crumbs offered would really be given them. They re- jected the Samuel Memorandum. Quite as if in a panic, the General Council proceeded, in violation of its solemn pledge to the miners, to act upon the Samuel Memorandum. It de- cided that the memorandum was suf- ficient basis for calling off the general strike. A committee was sent to Bald- win to announce, without any condi- tions, that the strike was terminated. After Baldwin was seen the miners were notified of what had been done. The General Council had broken rela- tions with the miners. After millions of workers had risked all to support the miners, the miners had been be- trayed. The general strike was over, but its object had not been won; it had been surrendered. SATURDAY LOOK FOR THESE FEATURES LENIN—A story of his life during the period of the world war, and the beginning of the Russian revolution in Feb- ruary on his return, OLGIN—This brilliant writer con- tributes “MASHURA—a pic- ture of a young Russian”— a delightful story that you will enjoy and one that will enable you to get more light on the new Russia. ELLis—Our splendid proletarian artist again will be seen in some of his unusual work. PARKER—Florence Parker writes her stories from England specially for The DAILY ORKER—and of great in- terest to women. You will find these features in the new MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT SATURDAY Texas governorship has been the center of a two year’s battle. Jim Ferguson, above left, forme® governor, was ousted by the legistature and his wife managed to get elected in his place. Moody, right center, is after ‘her job with the support of Lynch pictures show the governor's mansion and the “otate house in, below, Texas peltH any | The thor Looks Happy But He’s Not f You would think President Doumergue of France was having the time of his life, on his visit to Metz, where he is shown kissing a French maid. But he Is more worried about the falling franc than he appears to be. New Persian Shah Rheza Khan, Former Soldier, Friendly to Soviets. TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN WILL WITNESS BITTER CONTEST THIS YEAR Now the attorney general, Oen