The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 24, 1926, Page 6

fence Six ~~~ THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. ; 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By maii (in Chicago only): By mall (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 months a Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Ilinols J, LOUIS ENGDAHL \ Adit WILLIAM F, DUNNE Editors MORITZ J. MOEB.. -Business Manager | ' Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chie | cago, Ill., under the act of March 3, 1879. <p 290 Advertising rates on application. ———) British Capitalism’s Internal Conflict | \ | Conflict has broken out openly in the ranks of the Baldwin gov- | | ernment. The die-hards, led by Winston Churchill and Lord Birkenhead, | } have broken cabinet discipline and are making public speeches urg- | | ing-severance of relations with Soviet Russia. Baldwin, altho encouraging the campaign against Soviet Rus- sia in the first instance, now is forced to call a halt. The landlord and big banking groups want the Anglo-Russian ; treaty abrogated but Baldwin, tied up with industry and com- merce, cannot afford to take the responsibility of a further de- crease in British foreign trade that would result from a breaking | off of relations. | It probably needs only some such a typically tory act as the, abrogation of the treaty on the flimsy and discredited pretext that the Soviet government and not the Russian unions are backing the strike of the British miners, to produce a deep-going political crisis comparable to that which occurred during the general strike. The economic crisis is becoming worse daily. | A general election will follow a defeat for the Baldwin cabinet which the Churchill-Birkenhead wing is working for. But unless | the die-hards are figuring on a more open dictatorship than has ap- | peared as yet\in England, their policy is an insane one. | Recent municipal elections have shown that the labor policy of | the government has been made a burning issue by the general strike and the miners’ strike. In Chiswick a tory majority of 472 was turned into a labor | majority of 541. In Hammersmith a tory majority of 1,955 was | ‘turned into a labor majority of 1,687. In Ladysmith a tory majority | of 1,072 became a labor majority of 1,146. In all these districts a larger number of voters went to the polls than in previous elections, and the majority of the population | ‘is of a lower middle class character. Commenting on this significant development, the Workers’ | Weekly says: | “The general strike has crystallized class consciousness in} scores, perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers who previously were, at best, craft conscious That experience taught the} workers more in ten days than ten years of Communist propaganda.” In this situation defeat for the Baldwin cabinet and a general | election means a tremendous increase in the labor party representa- | tion. | It means also that such schemes as the forged “Zinoviev letter” | and the Daily Mail’s campaign against Soviet Russia because of the | aid sent by the Russian unions to the miners, are falling rather | flat in a country where millions of workers are learning rapidly the | lessons of their first great preliminary struggle with British cap-| italism. Then Keep Them At Home Lynn J. Frazier, the farmer senator from North Dakota, is the | first to respond to The DAILY WORKER’S demand that congress | investigate the death blast in the Gary steel mills that brought death to 14 (official report) and grave injuries to scores more. Frazier does not hold out great hopes for an investigation. The senators and representatives are in a hurry to return home and get into the political campaigns locally. On such occasions it is the interests of the workers and farmers that receive least attention. But the present congress has shown no desire to concern itself | with labor’s problems under any conditions. It has had plenty of time to investigate the strike of the Passaic textile workers. Yet it has carefully shelved every attempt to bring to light the facts sur- rounding this struggle. Even had the Gary disaster taken place during the beginning | of the present congressional session, some excuse would have been found to push it aside. This should not stop the workers, however, in their demands on these agents of the exploiters. Every possible pressure must be brought to bear on them while in session. Then when they fail to respond to the demands of labor, as they will, it will be easier to convince the masses of workers to forget to vote for them at the next election. When they come home, they will be kept home. Some labor spokesman will be sent to Washington instead to raise the voice of the working class in this den of parliamentarians protecting the interests of Wall Street thieves. Frame-Ups Must Stop! The workers of the entire world are registering their anger at the persistent efforts of the Massachusetts authorities to send Sacco and Vanzetti to their death in spite of the overwhelming proof that | they are innocent. The chief “crime’ of these two workers in the eyes of the cap- falists and their government is that they uncovered the crimes of the department of justice against two other workers, Elia and Sal- sedo. Now the workers of America and the world are responding to the call of Sacco and Vanzetti, and it is a fitting tribute to the | determination of Jabor that Sacco and Vanzetti shall not die that the Mexican workers have picketed the United States consulate at Mexico City, demanding life and freedom for the two intended vie- tims. Among fhe demonstrators in Mexico City was Julio Mella, a Cuban whose persecution, like these others, was flamed across the labor movement by workers’ demonstrations that forced his re- lease. He may, it is said, be returned to Cuba and again subjected to persecution. If so, the world solidarity of labor must again’ be invoked. Not only are the world’s workers, particularly those of America, showing by their mass demonstrations that Sacco and Vanzetti shall not die, but they are showing in the doing of this duty, that the few timid leaders in the labor movement who try to make them be- lieve that the day of demonstrations are past, are wrong, and that | ifthe day of demonstrations in this country is SUBSCRIBE, 70 THE DAILY ee ne eh |tion were show" by | Mediation, |son-Parker bill, were made public. junion heads makes | which have been fooled into believing T ss Ga WRI era The By WILLIAM F, DUNNE, WASHINGTON dispatch sent out by the Federated Press informs us that “astditishment and indigna- rail offictals” when the names of the Coolidge ap- pointees™ to the Railroad Board of provided for by the Wat- The disappointment shown by the railway union officials seems to be commensurate with their belief in the | Watson-Parker bill as a “labor” meas- ure, may ‘be that the arrogance of the Coolidge administration and the be- lief of the industrial and financial lords whose agent he is, that the re- cent supine attitude of the railway it possible to force them to swallow anything, will be the salvation of the railway unions | that the Watson-Parker bill has any other essential purpose than to, “companyize” the existing unions and make them mere efficiency and wel- fare adjuncts of the great transporta- tion systems. Te record of the Coolidge ap- pointees certainly smells to high heaven when measured even by con- servative labor standards, The general counsel of the Associa- tion of Railway Executives, which united with the heads of the railway unions to boost the Watson-Parker bill, states that the appointments were “a complete surprise” and the Federated Press correspondent: goes on to state that railway executives had expected a different RE of men to be appointed. It is not likely that ie railway managers are disappointed altho they may be surprised. ’ ike Welieve that the rail executives are anxious for the appointment of men who would be favorable to rail- way labor is to believe that the mil- lenium has arrived. AMUEL Winslow, who fought the Berkeley railWay labor bill as chair- man of the house committee on in- | terstate and foreign commerce, is the Coolidge choice for chairman of the mediation board. HE DAILY WORKER Ex-Governor Morrow. ot Kentucky is the second Coolidge appointee. He is a former member of the defunct rail- way labor board. He is a labor-hater of the fire-eating southern variety. While governor he sent state troops against the steel strikers in Newport, allowed a military reign of terror to be established there and in Coving- ton, The Kentucky coal miners know Morrow well, The militia was always held in readiness for duty An the coal camps during his term in of- fice. "ALLACE W. HANGER, another member of the old rail: labor board, is the third appointee. Hanger is one of those Washington hangers- on, frequently seen insclose consulta- tion with legislators when railroad matters are under consideration and whose connections with irailway inter- ests are more than suspected. The fourth appoififeé’is Hymel Davies, one of the conciliators of the department of labor. ‘? © The fifth appointment ‘has not been made as yet. ee: railway union heads seem to have adopted a weak and humble “trying-to-get-along” attitude follow- ing the passage of the, Watson-Parker bill, According to W,M. Clark, vice- president of the Railway, Conductors, the rail union heads»praposed no one for the mediation board; contenting themselves with telling Coolidge that they insisted only that!no former anti- labor members of the’6l@ railway la- bor board be appointed.> Apparently they ‘tfuéted to the “fairness” of the president believing, it seems, that they had by their sup- port of the Watson-Parker bill shown enough conservatism to be favored. HE railway union heads, and espe ially the theads of the four brother hoods, have acted. thruout on the be- lief that the railway managers and the railway workers have special inter- ests in common that can make a unit- ed front possible with both forces gaining from the agreement. For the union heads this may be true but certainly it does’ not hold true for the majority of ‘the’ “brotherhood membership or for the miéinbership of | the shop craft and other. railway un- ions. hie IKE all other arbitration and’ ¢on- ciliation measures, the Watson- Parker bill, to function for the work- ers, must be administered by a work- ers’ government, Its mediation provisions, under ex- isting circumstances, serve only to delay and hamper the exercise of the organized power of the unions. Peace in the industry is paramount, Once having accepted this theory, the rafl- way unions must reject strike action or place themselves in opposition to the law, In favoring the Watson-Parker bill the rail union heads have stressed, time and time again, their desire for Peace. They have evidently convinc- ed Coolidge that they want peace so badly that they will stand for any- thing. Consequently, Coolidge /has ap- Pointed open enemies of the rail labor unions who will pass on the wage de- mands of the brotherhoods béfore the ink on the Watson-Parker bill is dry. ELDOM has there been such an ex- hibition of concentrated stupidity as that found in the railway union journals while the passage of the Wat- son-Parker bill was pending and since its ratification. Even Atbert Coyle, editor of the Lo- comotive Engineers Journal, usually a little saner than the average run of trade union editors, gets off this choice bit of piffle in the June num- ber: The most significant fact about the Railroad Labor Act is that the majority of railway executives have decided to quit fighting the labor unions and recognize them as a vi- tal part of industry. tn other words, the railroad unions have won their century-old struggle for the right to exist and protect thelr members’ welfare as workers. AILWAY executives, or any other group of employers, never cease fighting unions as long as the unions are fighting for the right “to exist and protect their members’ welfare as workers.” If unions cease to be unions and be- come what the Watson-Parker bill in- tends that they shall—efficiency or- ganizations of the railroads interested in boosting the profits of the industry lita cerned reeelin egg ramets Pesan: ae tae ese in return for some slight share in these profits—then of course the em- ployers will stop fighting because they, the employers, have won, poet how a distinction can be: made by rail union heads between the Coolidge administration, which has given the railways everything they have asked for, and the railway exe- cutives who have asked for and re- ceived from the Coolidge administra- tion practically everything they could think of asking for, is hard to under- stand. The complaint made by the rail union heads amounts to saying that Coolidge has not appointed men who are “fair” to the railway unions to ad- minister the Watson-Parker bill. But this is the same as saying that Wat- son-Parker bill is a good law which it is not and which. the. Locomotive Engineers Journal is forced to ac- knowledge it is not whefi it says the bill “does not give them that more trol of the industry in which they labor and their lives.” OW explain then-the support of the Watson-Parker bill by the rail union heads? It secured their support because they are weak in two directions: 1. They believe, or profess to be- lieve, that railway managers, the spokesmen of the big banks which control the railways, have interests in common with the union membership. 2. These rail union heads are awed by the power of the railway capital- ists and have lost.confidence-in the will of the workers to struggle. HEY want peace even if it means the extinction of the unions as fighting organizations. These rail union heads have come to the point where they fear strikes just as much as do the railway managers. They are businessmen, not labor men. But American railway capitalism is not; content merely with a law which will slowly throttle the labor unions. It insists upon further guarantees in the persons of known agents of the railways like Winslow and Morrow. (HE enthusiasm of the rail union heads for the Railway Labor Board was just as feverish when this anti- The Struggle in Great Britain By EARL R. BROWDER. (Part VI.) Forging a Left Wing. 1O some extent the deep ferment going on among the British masses is reflected by Lansbury’s Weekly. A few quotations from the issue of May 22 will show the process at work. jAfter a critical review of events, it | concludes: “The fight itself was the victory, - Not to have called the general strike in the miners’ aid would have killed trade unionism in eternal dis- honor. . ... What, then, of the Gen- eral Council? In view of their avowed attitude it is idle to reproach them for not having carried out a successful revolution. This was an object for which they never aimed. ~ +. They hoped to carry thru a | strike for a limited aim—a’ strike within the framework of capitalism. This hope was clearly vain as soon as the government had decided to use all the forces of the.capitalist state to crush it. ... In the fright | and flurry of the end the council failed. . . . Our job is to overhaul our own machine, to make certain that when we march out again, as before long we shail, there shall be no failure of courage, or organiza- tion, or leadership to deny to the workers the socialist commonwealth whose achievement alone ‘will be peace, “The determination to keep the issue purely ‘industrial’ meant that the strike was never intended to be won. The capitalist state dis- played all its forces against the strik- ers; but the strikers were only using half their forces against the state. . . . You cannot fight the state with kid gloves on. . . . Never again must we make the mistake of enter- ing the struggle unprepared. . . There are no ‘industrial’ or ‘politicar questions; there is only the labor question. And the labor question is socialism.” HE NEW LEADER, the official or- gan of the Independent Labor Party, edited by H. N. Brailsford, is much more clear spoken, tho less emo- tlonally left, than Lansburg’s. We pick the following sentences from the issue of May 21: “The end was a surrender, It finds us sore and indignant, because/the General Council has left the miners to fight on, under the lash of hunger and alone, ... “Above all, it. (the movement) must seek out ledders who will fear- lessly carry out its will. We are not defeated—unless we are weak enough to acquiesce in this defeat whieh our leaders inflicted upon us. “We are told that our action was unconstitutional. The charge falls upon those who make it. The con- stitution wi# not functioning. . . . In such # situation, if parlia- ment fails this great body of men, they must resort to self-help. No constitution will stand unshaken while industry resists the demand plete lack of definition:as to its in- tended effect_. . . u “The events ‘of the past fortnight will have strengthened the feeling in the movement that in al} serious dis- putes the general. strike must be frankly used as a political weapon. . The two historiqyeases of its successful use have left their mark upon labor’s education. ‘The Russian general strike in 1905r-forced the ezar to create the duma, and the German strike of 192idecisively de- feated the Kapp putsch, . “We must realize t strike is based just_as sues of life and death kind of warfare. foe “The nerve of the leaders failed them, and in their anxious haste to end a struggle which was too big for them they snatched at the straw of the Samuel settlement; nd sank.” TTtHE GLASGOW FORWARD carries two opposite judgments on the strike, one from Mr. John Wheatley, and the other from Ramsey MacDon- ald. Wheatley says, in part:* “Not only had the T. U. C. de- serted the miners, but they had gra- tuitously thrown their own members to the wolves. The T. U. C. had given Mr. Baldwin more than he asked, and surely a great deal more than he expected. Even now their conduct is incomprehensible, . . . I have no doubt that when every- thing is known, cowaréi¢e will oc- cupy a prominent plade. ... “From the first mément of the struggte, and, indeed/¢before that, prominent labor leadérg were whin- ing and groveling. ‘The day before the general strike wasndeclared we were told by one ofthe men who were going out to lea@ us that de- feat was certain, Othegs-of great in- fluence, instead of g: out to pro- claim the justice of,.the workers’ cause, spent their time damping the ardor of the courageous by wringing their hands and talking about the ‘tragedy.’ The real tragedy was that in its hour of trial the labor move- ment was deserted by’ tose in whom it had placed its gredf@st trust.” Mr. MacDonald, in W°eontused arti- cle, comes to but one @lear conclusion, namely, that the generul strike is no good. He says: Aye “The general strikejean only be a demonstration, and fortreal help in a long and enduring s le the best help that unions can give each other is money. . We shall hear less in our generation now of alliances for fight- ing purposes,” NE more quotation from an out- standing right-wing leader will complete the picture of crystallizing differences within the Labor Party as reflected in the leadership. Speaking at Bournemouth Friday, May 21, Mr. J. R. Clynes, M. P., declared: “The whole idea of trying to settle anything by such a method (as the general strike) wi delusion, .. . National progress ,would not be found along the line, of the domi- hance of any one class within the @ general urely on is- any other for for wage, ¥‘T! organization of the recent’ strike was weakened by ill- state. Without question overwhelming of the British majority of the n trade the left-wing leadership and agree most heartily with its criticisms. MacDonald and Thomas are in bad standing with the masses. That the left-wing leaders themselves are dangerously muddle- headed is not yet clear to the masses who are sure, for the time, to follow those in the highest places who criti- cize with sufficient vehemence the sur- render of the General Council. LREADY members of the General Council who sense this fact are preparing themselves for an “about \face” on their own actions. This be- |gan’on Friday, May 21, by a statement to the press, signed by members of the |General Council, A. B. Swales, George Hicks and Ben Tillett; in rather vague terms this statement points out the tremendous power demonstrated by \the strike, greets the assistance from the Russian unions, mildly rebukes Thomas for signing an admission that the strike was a “wrongful act,” and concludes that: “We feel assured that our class, having demonstrated its oneness, will again’prove a national and in- ternational oneness and courage in aim and purpose. The capitalists must realize that the right to live and the right to greater citizenship are above any pettyfogging law.” ‘On the following day three more members of the General Council issued a public statement, signed by Ernest Bevin, R. B. Walker and A. H. Find- lay, which indicates that these leaders “had been deceived.” It says in part: “Recognizing our responsibilities as members of the General Council, as well as the tremendous feeling roused by the calling off of the strike, and very natural desire for information concerning Mr. Bald- win’s repudiation of the Samuel Memorandum. . . . We therefore urge Mr. Samuel to speak without any reservation. Will he deny that consultations took place between himself and Mr. Baldwin on the terms of the Memorandum? The terms of the Memorandum were put forward to the General Council and finally accepted in good faith by them on the definite assurance that they would be accepted by the gov- ernment as a basis for negotiation. On that understanding the general strike would be declared off and the lockout notices withdrawn.” In today’s papers (May 24) Mr. Sam- uel very cynically denies ‘that M: Baldwin knew anything about the Memorandum until after the unions had already surrendered uncondition- ally, . ha ekep id these timid steps, by ‘by which signers of these state- ments wish to clear themselves of the stain of treachery before the labor movement, the general attitude of the membership is reflected in the Sunday e of May 23), It says: ‘We the statement issued by Swales, Hicks, and Tillett the other day, just as we do the . other declarations in today’s Sunday Worker, It is a sign that the tre- mendous volume of protest growlhg articulate amongst the workers | against the shocking collapse General Council on May 12, tefl “The workers must continue the pressure, in order to make the com- rades concerned realize that the bolder their attempts to reverse the shameful decision of May 12, the more resolute and enthusiastic, will be the mags support behind them.... “How can our friends on the Gen- eral Council correct their mistakes? By carrying the proposals put for- ward by the miners to the railway and transport unions regarding the transportation. of coal;..by making arrangements to feed the workers, by insisting that the conference of executives be held immediately, in- stead of at the end of June, and that it take emergency measures to re- deem the mistake, including the necessary changes in the General Council.” “That is the way to overcome weakness, And the workers will back you up, if-you ols them deeds, not words.” HE WORKERS WEEKLY: organ of the Communist Party, is more out- spoken in saying definitely what is on the minds of the workers. Under the heading of “Cashier the Cowards,” it makes the demand for an immediate meoting of the combined executives, which shall receive a reckoning from the General Council, and plans made for continuing the fight and backing up the miners. It closes by saying: “The principle of ‘All power to the General Council’ was more than vindicated by the promptness and AMSTERDAM STILL “CONSIDERS” vital right—a direct voice in the con-| have invested all that they have, their | Watson-Parker Bill Begins to Function labor machinery was organized. They went up and down the cunt'y tell- ing the workers that it was a great victory for labor. ~ But the railway labor board hamp- ered, fought and helped to plunder the railway workers. Them the rail union heads, togother with the rail- way oxecutises, conceived the brilli- ant scheme incorporated in the Wat- son-Parker bill. It also was hailed with enthusiasm which will show) a Striking decrease as the days pass and the real purpose of, the bill becomes plain to thousands of rank and. file railway workers who may not be. as well-acquainted with congressmen‘and senators as are their officials but who do not need anything else than the bill into a weapon for labor to don: | vince them that united fronts with the |bosses are poor methods to secure |higher wages and better working con- | ditions. HE trouble with the Watson-Parker bill is not that Coolidge gives ad- ditional gifts to Caesar by his appont- ments but that the bill itself was eon- ceived™in shame and is the fruits: of an illicit alilance between labor un jions and the exploiters of labor.’ «~.. When are the heads of the railway. unions going to learn that, ratlway capitalists do not favor legistation that will strengthen labor unions and that union officials who are so nalve as to believe that crying peace in a world of class struggle will earn: for their members anything but the Kind of kicks just administered by Coo- lidge, are playing into the hands of enemies. whom they alone believe | ‘te be friends? no the unfons into fighting in. struments is the only way to - swer the railway executives and finance capitalists whose agente i. are. Peace comes only when labor's organized power brings it. It cannot and doesynot come by making unions into bodies more afraid of strikes and more interested in profits than are the railroad managers themselves. \ c, for Coolidge the strikebreaker, his appointees to administer the Wat- son-Parker bill are the type one would expect him to choose but they are no worse than the bill itself. FAIRBANKS SAYS HE IS HIGHLY IMPRESSED. WITH SOVIET FILMS (Special to The Dally Worker) PARIS, June 22.—Douglas Fair banks told newspaper men here that he was very enthusiastic over sev- eral Russian films he has seen since he is In Europe. “One of them was - as fine as picture as | have ever” seen,” sald the movie star. “A” Soviet representative been ne-* gotlating with our organization for aid in developing Russla’s picture: industry,” he said. steadfastness of the rank and file.:: But clearly the composition of the, council must be changed and. that . at once, “Whether it is ‘conscience’, ‘con- stitutionalism’, or ‘cowardice’, that. caused them to do it—those Te, sponsible for the surrender must be removed from any position in. which these diseases operate to the gen- era] detriment of the massed mil- lions of the rank and file.” i The writer has tried to give ,in “ series of articles, the story of the. greatest strike, its history, its out’ come, its effect upon the movement, and the present situation on May 24th. Deep forces are at work, the miners are still out, and no one can yet say with certainty just how far the face of Britain may be changed betore struggle terminates, GIVING AID TO BRITISH LABOR MOSCOW (By Mail.)—The central organ of the Soviet labor unfons, “Trud,” expresses the hope that the loan of a million pounds which the Amsterdam International is considering lending for the benefit of the British workers who have in consequence of the general strike lost their work, Sen soon be put into practice. exhausted British workers, but thru international subscription or as it is done in the Soviet Union, thru a do- nation of a part of the wages. The “Trud” recalls, the words of Oudegeest at the beginning of the financial assistance from outside or- ganizations and that the question of financial support could only arise lat- er and that the strike would hardly last a month, Today w the miners have al- ready been locked out for seven weeks and the number of the unemployed after the general strf e has increased considerably, finally whether or not it is really pre- pared to lead an international support action, The working class of the So- viet Union is doing its best, but its help alone is not enough, No Coal to Britain. Apart from material assistance, it is necessary more than‘ever before to pesvent the export of coal to Great It 1s also Welieved that assistanee for ‘the British miners whose need: very great, is included. The repayment of this loan must, howeve: be placed upon the shoulders of the+ jam must show tional Miners’ Federation and th ternational Transport Workers’ Fi eration whose international action ‘of solidarity was, ruined by the treach- ery of the British railwaymen’s leaders, is silent on the point. must cal Great Britain and in other countries to boycott the transport of strike breaking coal. naa? The fighting slogan of the workers of all countries must be: “Not a ton of coal to Great Britain.” ae Worker Is Killed NEW YORK— (FP)— June — Henry White, employed by ‘the sell Dry Dock company on the J River, was killed when a rope futile, struggle to make an anti-ldbor | upon their members in ”