The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 26, 1926, Page 4

4 } Page Four THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. _ 113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill, Phone Monroe 4732 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall (In Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per year $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 Blvd., Chicago, IIlinols J. LOUIS ENGDAHL \. WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J. LOEB... ——— eS Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Cht- cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editors Business Manager <i 290 Advertising rates on application. <== ——— The Gary Investigation The Gary coroner’s investigation into the causes of the deaths of the workers killed in the recent Gary disaster is typical of all such inquiries conducted under the auspices of the corporations in whose employ men have been killed when the workers are without organization of any kind. The first and primary rule in all such investigations is that no blame shall attach to the corporation involved. The second rule is that the dead workers, or some of them, shall be blamed for their own deaths. . With these two simple rules in mind the Gary coroner, after listening to the testimony of company officials, decided that the ex- plosion occurred because some worker carelessly opened a gas valve. But this is one of those explanations which explains nothing. If it is possible for gas valyes to be opened accidentally and cause explosions which result in death and injury to scores of workers, it would seem to be what lawyers call prima facie evidence that the boasted safety provisions of the steel company are honored rather in the breach than in the observance. We have only to recall the long series of recent disasters in non-union coal mines, particularly in the south where no organiza- tion of any kind exists, to see that the percentage of workers killed and maimed in industry rises steadily as the percentage of unioniza- tion decreases. In centers like Gary where one industry is supreme and a union hag never been able to establish itself to any extent, workers are the cheapest material the company buys. Had the explosion destroyed property, the officials of the steel company would have conducted a much more searching investiga- tion. The fact that workers were killed and injured is the best of reasons for the steel trust henchmen to make the investigation pure- ly formal. But this is also the best reason for a demand for a real in- vestigation which will give the publicity the steel trust dreads so much to the Gary disaster, in itself only a magnified form of the slaughter of workers which goes on every day in every plant of the huge profit-making machine of the United States Steel corporation. . . The Trades Congress and the Parliamentarians Labor party members in the house of commons have been making overtures to the Baldwin government for a “round table confer- ence” of government spokesmen and labor members to take up the . settlement of the coal strike. The proposal for the conference follows the announcement of Premiggt Baldwin’s scheme of increasing the length of the miners’ “workday by one hour and the postponement of the question of wage reductions pending reorganization of the industry as a basis of settlement. The miners’ union has alreay repudiated this proposal. “It appears from this distance that the parliamentary bloc is getting ready to present the conference of the general council of the Trades Union Congress which begins today, with a ready-made set- tlement of the coal strike. In other words the parliamentary group are trying to effect a settlement oyer the heads of the trade union officials and trade unions directly involved. Such a course will serve only to divide the labor movement in the face of the enemy. What is needed now is not parliamentary dickering, but the full support by the trade unions, especially the transport unions, of the striking miners. This is the proposal of the miners’ executive and anything less han this is a repetition of the blunders and betrayals which re- sulted in calling off the general strike before it had even reached its maximum strength. Attack Begins on Minnesota F.-L. P. The campaign against the farmer-labor ticket in Minnesota be- gan the moment the primary election was over and the fear of the reactionaries is reflected in their sneering remarks in the press relative to the strength of the farmer-labor party as shown in its primary vote. { Approximately 150,000 votes were cast in the farmer-labor primary as against some 350,000 in the republicam contest. The vote in the republican primary is undoubtedly close to its maximum because of the strenuous eflorts made by both candidates to get their supporters out, but this does not hold true for the farmer- dabor vote. In the first place thousands of farmers are disgusted with the primary election method of selecting candidates and took no part whatsoever in the campaign. Others, who will vote the farmer-labor ticket in the fall when the issue is clear cut, considered that Magnus _ Johnson was certain of nomination after his endorsement by the convention and did not participate in the primary for that reason. One thing is certain. With the growing discontent in the agri- eultural regions, with Christiansen, the present governor, an open supporter of Coolidge, opposing Magnus Johnson in the fall elec- tion, with the farmer-labor party the second party in size in Min- nesota, the capitalist politicians of that state are already nervous as shown by their launching of the fall campaign before all the re- turns of the primary election are in. _ BOSTON COUNCIL FOR PROTECTION OF THE FOREIGN-BORN ISSUES A _ CALL FOR A STATE-WIDE CONFERENCE BOSTON, Ma: June 24.—The Boston Council for the Protection of Foreign-Born Workers, representing more than forty workers’ organizations, ig taking the initiative in calling a state-wide conference, Letters have been sent out to labor organizations calling on them to send two delegates to the conference which is to be held on Sunday after- hoon, July 11, at the American House, 66 Hanover St, Each delegate will be THE DAILY WORKER ee ee d Filer Views British General Strike Rank an The following is an excerpt from a letter of a Scottish worker, who participated in the general strike in Great Britain, in which he points out _the views of the rank and file of the British workers towards the un- timely ending of the British strike and the cowardice of the General Council of the Trade Union Con- gress: By a Worker Correspondent. S you will be aware, it has been increasingly evident during the last few years that the government was prepared to give every assist- ance to the employers in an attack on the standard of life of the workers. always been the case. Low Wages In Heavy Industry. The mass of workers in the steel trade receive from 25 shillings to 38 shillings a week.°In the coal industry wages were from 6 shillings six-pence to 9 shillings 6-pence a shift. It should be borne in mind that in most of the coal districts short time was the rule. Yet the bosses seek a longer day. Last July when the coal owners made the first move in this most ré- cent struggle, the General Council of the Trade Union Congress replied with the threat of a general strike. Commission is Scab Herder. The government which emphatically refused to subsidize the industry or to interfere further in the dispute, sud- denly recanted and offered a subsidy and set up a commission to consider the coal question. The commission was a blind in order to give the gov- ernment time to organize the Order of Mugs and Scabs (Order for the Maintenance of Supplies) against the unions, The commission issued its report, i. e. “We are ready now. Let the Of course, one might say, that has} battle proceed.” But the government was not just ready. Nothing was done until the eleventh hour, i, e. the notices for the expiration of mine workers’ agreements ‘were posted. Then true to the habits and customs of the ruling class of this country the usual tactics were employed to make it appear that the unions were the aggressors, Union Rally to Strike Call. The Trade Union Congress made it quite clear that the unions would rally to the help of the miners in the event the government sided with the own- ers, Negotiations were almost com- pleted for a peaceful settlement, when word was received that for once the printing workers had slpwn their power and refused to print an article entitled, “For King and Country,” a dirty attack by the Daily Mail editor on the organized workers. Baldwin and company took this as an excuse for breaking off all negotiations and demanded apologies and indemnities. The reply was startling to everyone, mostly for the government because their allies among the workers’ lead- ers had informed them—gquite confi- dentially—that the call for a mass strike would go unanswered. Few of our responsible leaders, even those on the left, had any great faith in the tactic of the general strike. So you can understand the position the gov- ernment was in. Rank and Files ‘ The reply of the rank and file was electrifying, it was instantaneous, spontaneous. With all their great faults the heart of the movement was sound, With- military precision the various sections came into line with their comrades, The railwaymen in the front rank, next the dockers and metal industries, next the transport workers. LOVESTONE WILL DEBATE SECURITY LEAGUER JULY 18 N. Y. Summer School Arranges Affair NEW YORK, June 24.—The na- tional summer training courses to be held in New York at the Workers’ School have been called in jest “the Americanization course of the Work- ers (Communist) Party,” because of the large amount of concrete Ameri- can contents that they contain. Suéh courses as America Today (in- structor, Jay Lovestone), History of the American Working Class (instruc- tor, Anton Bimba), American Eco- nomic and Social History (instructor, Alexander Trachtenberg), American Party History and Political Problems (instructor, Wm. W. Weinstone), American Organization Problems (in- structor, Jack Stachel), Theory and Practice of Work in the American Trade Unions (instructor, Bill Dunne), Organization Meetings Strike Organization. In every locality the unions appoint- ed a strike representative. These rep- resentatives formed a local strike committee, district strike committee and a central strike committee. No trouble, no necessity to argue with the workers to get them into line, They were prepared as if it had been re- hearsed a hundred times instead of being the first. The local committees controlled most of the transport. Permits were necessary. Everything was going fairly well, Nothing doing except the usual rumors. The workers were get- ting dug in. They were quite confident that they were going io achieve the greatest victory of all time. Strike Betrayal. And then on Wednesday noon, the wireless message was broadcasted, “Trade Union Congress General Com- mittee Strike off.” No details. Tele- grams began to arrive from trade union headquarters confirming the message. No details. On Thursday mornin; something wrong on the railways. By afternoon, railway men back out to defend their very existence and then by Friday their trouble is settled. Dockers settle up by Monday night, and so on. For Lynching Leaders, The greatest expression of working class solidarity in history. This was the result, Talk about curses, The most backward of the workers real- ized that a bloody mess had been made. They were all for lynching the Trade Union Congress General Council. ‘The central fact that the miners had not been settled up, made the situation worse. The workers should have gone back as they had come out, victorious and united instead of dis- united and confused. If it had not and the methods of applying Marxism and Leninism to American problems in the course of that name ‘Gastructor, Bert Wolfe) have earned for the sum- mer training school its Americaniza- tion nickname. In keeping with the wnole character of the school comes the anhouncement that the sessions will be dpened by @ “Sesqui-Centennial debate.” The sub- ject of the debate is: “Resdlved, that our present form of government is not, in the interest -of thé’ ‘American masses.” ‘This side of the question will be upheld by Jay Lovestone of the Workers’ Party, one of the ihstructors in the school. The opposite! side will be upheld by a speaker representing the National Security. League, and Scott Nearing will act ag, chairman of the debate. 98) The debate is to be heldson Friday, July 16, at 8 p. m, and will be the first event attended by the students -com- ing from all over the country to New York to take the summer courses, The Central Opera House at bith street and Third avenue has been engaged for the occasion. Admission 35 cents. fia tommcomal a tein atircmenisanlbesinic unit: Sa CHICAGO MEMBERSHIP MEETING .~ VOTES UNANIMOUS ENDORSEMENT OF WORK OF THE PARTY PLENUM A very well attended membership meeting of the Chicago district of the Workers (Communist) Party enthusiastically endorsed the report of comrade abstaining. In order to provide a basis for out- lining the immediate tasks of the party, Comrade Ruthenberg analyzed in considerable detail the economic and political situation on a world scale and in this country. Then he outlined the tasks before the party—trade union work, the labor party campaign, mem- bership recruiting, etc. Comrade Ruthenberg discussed in detail the question of unity within the party pointing out very clearly the ab- solute necessity for the liquidation of all factionalism and for the establish- ment of unity in the party. Hé also showed the great headway the party has already made in this direction. The significance of complete unanim- ity of agreement on party policies at the recent plenum of the central com- mittee was strongly emphagized. The discussion that followed was Comrade C, E. Ruthenberg, general secretary of the party, on the “Task8 of the Party in the Light of the C. I. Decision.” The resolution presented by Comrade Ruthenberg was unanimously adopted by all voting, with one lively and touched largely upon the questions involved in trade union work, At the end of the discussion the following resolution was adopted unanimously with one abstention: “The Chicago membership meeting, having heard the report éf Comrade Ruthenberg on the plenum of the cen- tral committee and its achievements in creating the basis for the unification of the party, declares its endorsement of the work of the plenumr “It particularly emphasizes its en- dorsement of the resolution on “The ‘task of the Party in the Might of the Communist International Decision.’ “It pledges its earnest support to the central committee ing mobilizing the whole party under the slogan “Unity and Mass Work’ for a forward movement for the upbuilding of the party and the development of a mass revolutionary movement.’":) District One Party Functionaries Meet on Sunday Morning BOSTON, Mass., June 24.—-All mem- bers of the district executive commit tee, candidates and alternatives, sec- tion, city and unit organizers, agit- prop directors, industrial organizers, fraction heads, and language bureau functionaries in District One, Workers Party, must be present at an impor- tant meeting to be held Sunday, June 27, at 36 Causeway street, promptly at 11 a, m. Mussolini Seeks to Arrange Marriage LONDON, June 24.¢Premier Mus- solini fs anxious to arrange a mar .daughter, Edda, Decorate Ku Khiners in Parade Numbers EMPORIA, Kan., June 24—Numer- als about the size of those worn by race horses, painted with phosphorous paint, will adorn the sheeted front of every ku kluxer who parades here to- night, as the result of an ordinance passed late this afternoon by the city commissioners, k Also, the numbers will correspond to the registry numbers which must be given to every parading member of the society by the police, Members of the klan have threaten- ed to parade in defiance of the ordin- ance, and have instituted\a legal at- tack on it. ¢ —————) That worker next door to you! bes may not have anything to do to- | Nuclei Busy with 5th Annual Party Picnic A committee composed of delegates from all Workers (Communist) Party nuclei is busy making arrangements for the fifth annual Chicago party pic- nic. Sub-committees have been ap- pointed to arrange for games and sports and for refreshments. The dance hall is-now completed an® a new large kitchen has een built on the Chernauska’s Grove, where the picnic is being held. The dance hall is 75x150 feet, Letch- inger’s orchestra has been engaged. The July 4th picnic generally brings a great tournout and plans are under way to attempt to charter special cars from the Archer avenue line to the grove. The fact that the legal holiday this year falls on Monday, July 5, the day of the picnic, should help swell the crowd. ee Comrades Ruthenberg and Bittel- man will be the speakers at the pic- nic, The admission is 50 cents. Se ae Press Picnic, The Chicago Workers Party press picnic will be held this year as usual in the Riverview Park one Sunday, August 1. Friendly organizations are asked to take not not to arrange any affairs on that date. This picnic will, as usual, be a combination affair for the benefit of The DAILY WORKER as well as the language press. In addition a great match will be played between a De- troit and Chicago labor soccer team. WORKERS PARTY FOURTH OF JULY MASS MEETINGS New York, New Jersey, Connecti- cut.—There will be a mass encamp- ment at a beautiful spot on Long Is- land. Jay Lovestone will speak on July 4 and J. Louis Engdahl, editor of The DAILY WORKER, on July 5. Boston, Mass, July 4.—Boston Com- mons, Bertram D. Wolfe. Binghampton and Endicott, N. Y., July 2.—Charles Krumbein. Utica, N. Y., July 3.—Charles Krum- bein. Albany and Schenectady, N. Y., July 4.—Charles Krumbetn. ¢ Niagara Falls, N. Y., July 4.—Ru dolph Katz. Jamestown, N. Y., July 5.—Herbert Benjamin, Syracuse, N. Y., Tuly 5.—S,. Essman, Philadelphia, Pa., July 3—Jay Love- stone. ° Baltimore, July 2—J. Louls Eng- dahl. Pittsburgh, Pa. July 5.—Robert Minor, at Gajdas Farm, Cheswich, Pa. McKeesport, Pa. July 4,—Robert Minor. ‘s Eric, Pa. July 4,—Herbert Benja- min. : Cleveland, Ohio, July 4.—Ben Git- low. Grand Rapids, Mich, July 2.—J. P. Cannon. Detroit, Mich. July 4.—J. P. Can- non, Chicago, Ill., July 6—C. EB Ruthen- St. Louis, Mo., July 4—C. enberg. been for the National Union of Rail- waymen in calling a strike of their members after the general strike, I don’t know what might have happened to the organized workers. Trade Union Congress, Let me give you my opinion of the position of the Trade Union Council right thru. All along, in spite of their big talk the Trade Union Congress never really believed that the position would arrive at a general strike, They had little faith in the rank and file response to such a call. -They were out of touch with the rank and file. They were quite nervous of the out- come, Workers For Real Fight. If they had got an opportunity earlier they would have been prepared to call off the strike, as they were quite satisfied that sufficient had been Rank and Filer Two done to attain the desired end when the threat was made.. Again the gen- eral strike was called in order te bring about the negotiations between the government, miners and owners. That end was achieved in a way, but the rank and file was prepared to fight not only for that, but for a complete and satisfactory settlement of the miners’ question. Thus the confusion, Excellent Lesson. However, a lesson has been given and no doubt, will have a great benefit when the next time comes along. Make no mistake there will be a next time, sooner than most _ people imagine, Strike Ties Up Nation. ‘What was the situation as it affect- ed us locally? No trains. No press. In a few days no general transport except for foodstuffs, Pickets stopping all conveyances unless they were pro- vided with Trade Union Congress per- mits. The local strike committee of which I was also a member always in Workers (Communist) Party| session. Mass meetings in the Walker Memorial Hall. Dispatch riders carry- ing messages and strike bulletins to all strike committees. Order of Mugs and Scabs a failure. Workers In Power, Workers really in power for nine glorious days. An experience we will never forget, but will profit from in days to come. Never again can it be said that the workers of this country won't act in a class conscious way. The experience of those nine days has. done more than 100 years of propa- ganda, Prepare For Next Battle. What is our immediate need, In- quiry into the whole position of the Trade Union Congress General Coun- cil. Plans made for another such con- tingency in the future. J As an example. The Daily Herald, which for the period of the strike be- came the British Worker, had no stock of paper on hand. All her stores being at the docks and in warehouses. The government commandeered these stocks. Lack of Strike News. In Glasgow the only official paper for the workers was The Scottish Worker. They were only able to pub- lish about 25,000 a day. Our share here was 15 to 20 papers. Arrange- ments should have been made prior to the strike for supplying the work- ers with the officials’ news. In Scot- land the only paper being issued was the Emergency News, a two-page af- fair produced by the higher officials of the various publishing firms in Glasgow. All our propaganda in the past has not been in vain. The overwhelming evidence submitted shows that the workers of this country are not so selfish and backward as they were long thought to be by workers in other lands. Social Affairs Resolutions What The Daily Worker Is--- What It Must Become Ninth Article. By WILLIAM F, DUNNE. HE importance of special cam- paigns as a method of building cir- culation of our official organ and in- creasing the infiue: of our party cannot be overeating Especially are c: jigns in the various industries, when properly timed, carefully prepared and ener- getically carried out around specific issues, of the greatest value to both our party and the working class. But when a paper like ours, with perhaps the smallest staff of any Eng- lish language daily in the world and financial resources of the smallest kind, ventures into the gigantic basi¢ industries of America, it is confront- ed with a whole series of intricate problems on the correct solution of which depends the success of our campaigns, T the best. the great majority of i ‘workers are suspicious of Com- munists and Communists’ agitation; not altogether because they are not class conscious workers, but because they anticipate being asked to do ‘something which will get them in trouble with the boss. Unless we are able to prove to workers that we do not irresponsibly urge strikes and other actions for which no real pre- paration has been made, if we are unable to show them that we do not criticize capitalists and capitalism just for the sake of self-expression, if we are unable to~ show a detailed knowledge of their wages, working conditions and the general nature of the problems of the industry from their standpoint, our.campaigns will end impotently with workers more suspicious and unsympathetic than ever, HE manner in which we have chal- lenged the lords of big basic in- dustries in some of our past cam- paigns is more of a tribute to the hopefulness of our hearts than to the hardness of our heads. The truth of the matter is that The DAILY WORK- ER, as an institution, can no more carry on an exposure of working con- ditions in a big industry, conduct an organizing campaign, or even ral- ly any considerable number of work- ers on some quite popular issue, by itself, than Latvia can whip Soviet ‘ Russia, Some day WORKER will be powerful enough to do such thing: N the meantime every party campaign and for it the party, fected, must be mobilized. It must be mobilization in the full- est sense of the word—not a mere arrangement for distributing the pa- per. hose departments ‘whic! ize in the industries or in be placed at the disposal of The knowledge drawn on for the work, perhaps The DAILY DAILY WORKER campaign must be @ or that section of it immediately af- special- parti- cular field of activity selected, must DAILY WORKER and their expert ‘T is impossible for instance to con- 1 ceive of a well-planned campaign -y, the meat pack- the detailed material or of an anti- imperialist campaign which is not planned by the agitprop department. The organization department like- wise should have charge of the dis- tribution of the paper and be respon- sible for seeing that the campaign does not begin and end in the office of The DAILY WORKER. These seem-to be obvious details but perhaps because they seem so ob- vious they have been pretty generally overlooked. What is meant is that the party should begin to take its official organ seriously and exploit its possibilities by combined effort. ND now we are back at the be- ginning of the resolution on The DAILY WORKER adopted by the Plenum providing first of all for ac- tual and not nominal control of The DAILY WORKER by a sub-commit- tee of the political committee. IF The DAILY WORKER is to be a mass organ as well as the official or- gan of our party, and vice versa, the party must whloeheartedly support The DAILY WORKER in fulfilling these two tasks. R the sake of emphasis we give in conclusion a short summary of the needseof The DAILY WORKER in the present period: 1. Strict political control, 2. Popularization In the Commu- nist sense. (a) Elimination of shrieking and flamboyancy. (b) Accuracy. (c) Substitution of much of the heavy theoretical material which few read, by lighter and more read- able material. (d). More attention to the dally problems of the American working class as a whole. (e) More detailed study and re- porting of the developments In the trade unions. (f) Inclusion of material which appeals to the various strata and groups which make up the Amerl- ean population, (g) Drawing non-party workers and sympathizing intellectuals clos “er to our press by giving them an opportunity to write for It. (h) Development of the Work- er Correspondents into a competent staff of working class Journalists, (i) Short news stories free from editorializing. (k) Friendly and responsible at- titude towards the labor movement, (1) Elimination of abuse and in- vective and the substitution for it facts and a tone which shows confidence in the reasoning powers of workers. 3. The thoro understanditg by~ the party of the correctness of this policy and full co-operation in car rying it out. CHICAGO PIONEERS TO HOLD MEMBER MEETING A membership meeting of the Young Pioneers of Chicago will be held on Sunday, June 27, 10:30 a, m,, sharp, at 1902 W. Division St. All Pioneer leaders, assistant leaders and com- rades drafted be present, vba Pioneer work must. ianah