The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 15, 1926, Page 4

for Dun Dairy Workes ri Page} THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1118 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Il. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mali (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 | Address’ all:mail and make out checks to | THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Blivd., Chicago, HlInols J, LOUIS ENGDAF WILLIAM F. DUNN: MORITZ J. LOEB. Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, lil, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editors .. Business Manager Advertising rates on application. ——y ey) So eat Where Are the A. F. of L. Officials in the I. R. T. Strike? How is it that a strike of such actual and potential importance | as that of the motormen and switchmen against the Interborough | Rapid Transit company, can occur without enlisting the active sup- | port of the leadership of the American Federation of Labor? Here is a gigantic concern that has organized a company union —a form of organization whose menace to the trade union move- ment is knowm and admitted by even the most conservative labor official. The Interborough strikers have quit the Interborough’s house- broken union and this is an indication of a deep-going dissatisfac- tion on the part of large numbers of workers in this section of the transportation industry with boss-controlled .. organizations. ‘These men have shown their courage and sincerity by leaving their jobs and challenging the full power of this.great corporation, able to demand and secure unstinted aid from the New York City gov- ernment, able to hire as many detectives, spies and scabs as it may need. Here is a situation that should put the leadership of the Amer- ican labor movement on its mettle. The labor movement could well afford to send a corps of or-| ganizers into this field while the workers are in a receptive mood | and certainly it would cost little to issue a public statement sup- porting the Interborough workers against the company and calling upon them to break with the company union en masse and join the Amalgamated Association and Electric Railway Employes. But nothing of this kind has been done. The striking workers have formed an independent union and there appears to be some | friction between it and the A. F. of L. union. Probably unsuccess- | ful attempts at organization in the past have left a bad feeling and, | of course, the company stoolpigeons are busy always keeping. old | suspicions alive and creating new ones. This, however, is nothing new. Every labor organizer is familiar with the general conditions which prevail in unorganized industries. | Upon the American Federation of Labor ‘officials, the officials | of the Amalgamated, and upon the strike leaders is the responsibility | for giving proper direction to the struggle of the strikers and of | those workers who are yet not conscious enough to quit the com- pany union. | Such opportunities do not come often. | The continual failure to take advantage of them by respon- sible union officials is one of the chief reasons why the basic indus- tries of America remain unorganized and a distrust of unions as such grows up among the unorganized who cannot be expected to draw always fine distinctions between the labor movement and its leadership. China Rises as a Nation China has regained her control of her courts, Foreigners com- ing in conflict with Chinese law from now on will be subject to Chinese legal procedure instead of being able to claim trial by @ judge of and under the legal processes of their respective nations. A powerful weapon in the hands of the imperialist nations, the former arrangement, in existence since the first revolution in 1911, has made it possible for representatives of foreign capitalist con- cerns, missionaries and the international riffraff which collects along the Chinese coast, to perpetrate intolerable outrages on the ‘Chinese people. Its abolition is an indication of growing strength of China as a-nation and also an indication of the growing strength of the United States in the Chinese international commission. Full sover- eignty for China is the American policy based on the fact’ that she has no extra-territoriality rights in China. American imperialism ‘has nothing to lose by such a concession while her imperialist rivals have. Jurisdiction over foreigners in Chinese courts benefits, directly the Chinese commercial and employing groups and it is hoped un- doubtedly that this will tend to weaken the anti-imperialist move- ment by placating the upper section of it. But the workers and peasants of China are the driving force of the Chinese revolution; the young Chinese labor movement and the Kuomintang have grown up in the struggle against beth im- yerialists and native exploiters. The abolition of foreign courts comes as a result of the struggles of the masses and not because imperialism has suddenly developed a conscience and.a love. for its Chinese business competitors. .. . 4 It is significant that the recognition of the jurisdiction of the Chinese courts comes at a time when the combined attack of Wu Pei-fu and Chang Tso-lin on the peoples’ armies north and west of ‘Pekin has been repulsed and also after the shooting of twenty-six Chinese workers by the British forces in Canton harbor.in an en- deavor to break the boycott on Hongkong, creating a new: wave of hostility to imperialism which its agents could not ignore. The F rence Ritiih Debt Settlement The Franco-British debt agreement is a clever moye on the part of two great nations, bot of whom are in conflict with the United | States in various fields of imperialist enterprise. It links together the two strongest powers in western Europe , and, by réason of the clause which provides for a cessation of French ; Payments to Great Britain in the event of German default on | ‘reparation obligations, brings Germany into the combination while ‘at the same time increasing British influence there. { The formation of an All-European bloc against American im-| perialism ix brought within the range of probabilities by this set- ‘tlement. That this agreement should have been negotiated by Caillanx, jed to about 2,200,000 in the first six jing the public favor. |the prices of cars. | mew cars are being introduced which THE IV ILY WORKE By |. AMTER, HE rubber industry is intimately related to the auto industry, Altho there are numerous rubber products outside of tires, mone the less the production of tires dominates the in- dustry. The production of new cars has a determinative effect on rubber, even tho the use of all cars necessi- tates plenty of tires. That auto production determines tire production may be gathered from the figures of production. Thus the production of cars and trucks amount- months of 1296, or about 14 per cent ahead of the same period of 1925. In May the production declined, but picked up again in June, This de- cline and revival was reflected in the production of tires, the situation be- ing due also in part to the abnormal climatic conditions, The auto facto- ries are curtailing production at the present time, owing, as is reported, to inventory taking and toithe prepara- tion of new models. LLOWING for the fact that in times of prosperity” atitos are bought and are again sold in times of decline, so that at the present time many own cars which they will dispose of when a depression begins, still it is a fact that the auto and truck have become a national institution. Hence, with ups and downs, the rubber, indus- try does and will keep pace with the auto industry—or better, with the in- creasing use of cars. The railroads are beginning to note the competition of bus lines, and many of them are installing lines of their owmy In recog- nition of the fact that bus lines and short hauling by auto trucks are catcn- HAT conditions are not what they “ should be from a capitalist point of view on profits, is to be noted in the fact that there has been a consid- erable reduction in the price of tires— corresponding with the reduction in Is this due to over-production—or to the fact that will mean a discarding of the old mod- els? Both may be the reasons, Suf- fice it to say the automobile manu- facturers are also complaining about the amount of Yoney is tied up in instalment buying: and about the num- ber of used car; in the hands of branches, HE same may be recorded about the tire indust;y. On May 1 there were 9,345,000 casings in the hands of the manufacturers as compared with 6,800,000 a year ago, and 6,600,000 two years ago. Over-production. What is happening in the rubber industry? Did the increased production necessi- tate more workers? It did not. The rubber industry has gone thru a reyo- lution—the same revolution as In the auto industry. Every day tere 1s an improvement in production, which means a new method of exploiting la- bor more effectually. New machinery, greater and more scientific division of work, efficiency in»every motion—and speed-up. This latter is the secret whereby the manufacturers have re- duced the*cost of produciton and have obtained more work out of the work- ers. gS pies the workers benefited by the greater production? They have not. They have given more lapor power—and have received nothing in return. Less men are being employed, but the production has increased. Profits rose in the past year from 35 to 100 per cent, but the workers have not received one penny more in return for their work. On the contrary, the spéed-up pro- cess eliminates many men, who form an army ever ready to take away the work of those on the job. The rubber industry is not a skilled industry. Practically any department of work may be learned in a few hours. The result is that one finds miners, steel workers and every other category of worker in the rubber factories, i Nass number of young workers and of women in the rubber factories is also very large. No skill being required, and as the mannfacturers are intent upon making the highest profit possible, young workers and women are employed, thus lowering the stand- ard of the industry owing to their ac- ceptance of lower wages. The rubber industry is one of the best fortified industries in the country. Whereas it is intimately bound up with the auto industry, ‘together they are on close financial relations with R Comigg in the Rubber Industry? EDISON'S INVENTIONS HAVE HELPED PROFITS IN RUBBER INDUSTRY but:the final word rests not in the as- sembly and senate, where their repre- sentatives, function, but in the hands of the board of directors of the com- pany. The word of the latter body is final. _ 0 entice the workers still more, the companies have provided tennis courts, ball grounds, ifbrartes, rest rooms, etc. Everything they will give the workers except higher ‘wages. Everything they may have—provided they do. not infringe upon any of the company rules, in case of which they may be disciplined: they may be forced to give up the homes they have erected on the ground that they have bought. from the company on. ‘splen- did” terms, because the company fa- vors its own workers, etc. Company unionism is believed by the manufac- turers a substitute for real unionism. HE companies know thatthe work: ers are becoming conscious -of the hypocrisy of the situation, and are de- manding -the right of organization. Proof? The workers are trying to form a union, Any worker talking union organization in the shops is re- ported to the’ office by the thousands of spies “in the “flying squads”—com- mon rats—in. the employ of.the com- pany, Workers joining the union are discharged if discovered. They .are followed round the town, sple@: upon and reported. . The company, therefore realizes that its plants are fake and that the workers know it. REAL trade: union is imperative in the rubber industry. There are some industries that are of long stand- ing and conditions have. only grad- ually been changed. But the rubber, like the auto industry, is an infant industry, and. js growing with the speed of achild. Rapid changes are made, new processes are adopted—and all of them mean greater and greater exploitation of the workers, A real tfade union is in the making in Akron.and is bound to embrace all of the workers. ‘It is the only hope of the rubber workers and the only safeguard against’ greater robhery. The rubber union is bound to come and -will-be one of thé ‘most powerful unions in the ‘country, being repre- sentative 6f the “workers Who are working in afi Industry ‘that has be- ‘essdritial™ industty. "THOMAS EDISON, the banks .of Wall Street. There is the same relation between all the rub- ber manufacturers as there is be- tween the steel manufacturers: a gen- tleman’s agreement as to. prices, etc. Hence, as far as the workers are con- cerned, they face one enemy in the rubber industry, even tho the different plants show divergences as regards modernity of plant, etc. A powerful | organization faces the practically un- organized workers, OME of the rubber barons, recogniz- ing that the workers are becoming conscious of this situation have taken time by the forelock. The workers feel that they are entitled to a word in the determination of their conditions. Good. We will establish an “indus- trial democracy” plan, wherein the workers will sit in consultation with us, thru their chosen representatives, and we will talk. The workers may think that they are making decisions, The Two Faces of the Steel Trust By B, BORISOFF. HE Steel Trust has two faces. It turhs to the world with a kindly smile and says: “I am the best friend of my work- ers. I do everything for them. They love me, too.” It turns to the workers gnashing its teeth like a beast, and says: “You s— of a bi—, work like hell or starve, and don’t dare start anything or I’ll crush the ‘life out of you.” ET us prove it by calling to the stand Mr. Gary, the head of the steel trust and asking him to tell us| what he thinks about the organization of his workers into a trade union. This is from the speech of Mr. Gary before the annual meeting of the stockholders on April 18, 1921. “As stated and repeated publicly, we do not combat, though we do not contract or deal with, labor unions, as such. Personally, | believe they may have been justified in the past, for 1 think the workmen were not always treated justly; that, because of their lack of experience or other- wise they were unable. to protect themselves; and therefore needed the assistance of outsiders, in order to secure their rights. “But whatever may have been the conditions of employment in the long past and whatever may have been the results of unionism, con- cerning which there is at least much uncertainty, there is at present in the opinion of the majority, of both employers and employees, no neces- sity for a labor union; and that no benefit or advantage thru them will accrue to any one except the labor leaders.’ i Bat is how Gary talks for the pub lic. He wants everybody to believe that he recognized “the right of his workers to belong to a union, and that he is against trade unfon organization because it is of no benefit to the workers. But as soon as Mr. Gary turns his face to the workers his language changes, No sooner was the United Steel Corporation organized than its execu- tive committee adopted the following resolution which appears in its min- utes under the date of June 17, 1901: “That we are UNALTERABLY OPPOSED to any. extension of union labor and advise subsidiary companies to take FIRM OPPOSI- TION when these questions come up and say that THEY ARE NOT Go- ING TO RECOGNIZE IT—that is, any extension of unions in milis where they do not now exist;. that great care should be used to prevent trouble, and that they promptly re- Port and confer with this corpora- tion.” (My emphasis). In plain language, this means a DECLARATION OF WAR UPON THE TRADE UNION ORGANIZA.- TION IN THE STEEL MILLS. shai war has been going on since the Steel Corporation was organ- ized. At first the Steel Corporation Gold Speaking to Strikers who hitherto has been more in favor of a Franco-German alliance, ‘is all the more significant. ; Get a member for the Workers Party and a new subserigition maton ** wee , oH A /, Ben Gold, leader of the New York fur workers, ag William Gropper, artist of the New York Daily Freiheil seen In action by!orm in any technical way and ‘can- went slow; as shown by the minutes| troubles-of any one, company must of the executive committee for April] be settled -by. that particular com- 20, 1901; pany as an individual company and “It is decided that the sense of a strike in one must be. settled in- this committee is that the general dependently of any other company.”, policy should be to TEMPORIZE HIS is again ‘the face that the Steel for the next six months, or a year Trust presented to the “public.” UNTIL WE GET FULLY ESTAB- |But the Steel Corporation was lying. LISHED,. and that the prevalent |In the meeting of its executive on condition of labor and labor unions | June 17, 1901,.the question of recog- at the different plants should be un- | nition of unions: in a. mill not. prev- disturbed, and that if any changes /{ously recognized was discussed. . do occur later, they can be handed The minutes of this meeting state: individually.” “It has been: suggested. in this But as the Steel Trust was getting | committee. that when, the question stronger and stronger, its fight against | comes up the president of the sub- the organization of the workers in the | sidiary ‘company ‘should reply that mills became more militant. he wished to consider and would HE executive committee of the| make “an answer the next day, and { Steel Corporation was giving or-| in the meantime, he could take it ders to the subsidiary’ companies not| up with the president of this com- to sign any agreements with the Am-| pany (the’ Stéel’ Corporation) and algamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. At the same time, it instructed its subsidiary companies to act in such a manner that the “public” would believe that they were acting as individual companies and not under instructions of the Steel Trust. dent had taken it up with this cor- Here is an excerpt from the minutes | poration.’ . on of the executive committee of the ¢ is clear fromthe examples which Steel Corporation of April 20, 1901: we have cited. that while the Steel “Mr. Edenborn thinks it expedient | Crust denied its. workers. the right to to inform the newspapers and the | organize, the Steel, Trust itse}f used public generally, that the United {all of its highly organized and cen- States Steel Corporation is not the |tralized power to fight against. the only employer, but that the individ- | workers, . é ual companles are distinct and sep- These facts should, set the steel arate for themselves; that the labor | ‘vorkers thinking. . COURTS KEEP MOONEY IN PRISON ~~ ON GROUND THAT THEIR “RECORD _- IS CLOSED” AND CASE IS OVER First place and the cover of the July Labor Defender are given to the Sacco-Vanzetti case which is of immediate urgency because the electric chair ion reached. . ; “To the last’ proposition the presi- dent commented that. it would then be perfectly ir that such presi- will follow jf'a new trial for the Massachusetts labor organizers is denied. But many Peaders will read with equal indignation of the Mooney case which Robert 5 ‘escribes in subsequent pages. bon Maes July. Ml mark the 10th anniversary of the San Francisco, prepared- ness ard ‘thiat killed 10 persons, for which:Tom Mooney. and. Warren Billings were , on testimony: that was letet, shown to be perjured fession of ‘the witnesses made after and which ‘Woodrow Wilson’s | the legal ‘record was closed. commissio: ted. Mooney’s mh wrest hanging commuted to fo ee cine lite by of California ut Raises when international protests tlooded in. It is one of the scandals of the alleged progressivism of Sen. Hiram Johnson that he has never dared to say @ word about, the’ case, i Minor gives the reason in his ar- ticle in the Labor Defender: “No one seriously claims any more that either Mooney or Billings are guilty of mur- der but only that they fought the chamber of commerce open shop drive. “There are only two arguments: one that Mooney is a bad fellow who ought to be in jail anYhow for the trouble that he’ made in the strug- gle between labor and capital in Cal- ifornia; the other is that there is no legal way to gét Mooney and, Bill- | Good ings out bi ‘the court did not » Over $12,000 for. pi} y . Passaic Relief NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 13.—The Connecticut State Committee for Pas- saic Strike Relief -has just completed a drive for $10,000 and has launched a new drive for an additional $5,000. Already $2,000 has been subscribed to the new $5,000 drive. t ‘ittee has arranged a ‘New Britain in which from New Haven and Hartford are to co-operate, In the $10,000 drive the following cities raised close to $1,000 each: not take legal eogniaance’ of the, com ‘ Being Things From Here and There Which Have Inspired Us to Folly or Frenzy The Higher—and Briefer —Criticism. “No other literary form,” con- tinies Mr. Bercovici, “ewacts 80 much intense concentration on subject and form. No other form permits such little padding. The inner life of the short story, the style, the value of the theme, and the construction of its characters must be of one piece with the di- reetness and the straightness of the. line .running.thru it’ With all due respect.to Mr. Bercoviei’s ewcellent stories; Piffte! —From THE NATION a me PLATITUDES AS A FINE ART An overworked member of the staff, looking thru a back number of the American Federationist by way of resting from thig exhausting labors found the following: A Standard Oil Advertisement. An: advertisement from the Botany Worsted Mills, where the Passaic i A poem: by «Berton icles by a half dozen cof. ors. An-article on bust pects for 1926.—And. an editorial purporting to fe ‘been written by William Green on :“Indus- trial Art” in which the following occurs: “Wage earners do not voluntarily choose ugliness and, darkness for liv- ing and working surroundings nor do they prefer to spend their workdays in creating unattractive objects.” Whereupon the already exhausted member of the staff went dead away until after press time. eee FOUND HIS VOCATION. * We found the prize guy for 2 school board occupying that position on the New York Board of Education. He was one of the five whose votes pre- vented the promotion of Dr. Abraham Lefkowitz, a teacher in the High School of,Commerce. It turng out that Lefkowitz 1s the legislative rep. resentative of the unton, and the un- jon had criticized these partioular five board ‘members. But, dang it all, this wasn’t what we started out to laugh about.. What we thought fun- ny wes that one of the memberg of the board of education had happily been nemed—Hdward B. Shallow, eee Distinction. How to get your name in. the company magazine is told by the one published by the INinois Oen- tral. It’s hard and complicated and requires time and. patienes, -— as you may see from the f. note printed under the photo of » girl: “ ee “Alberta Barnett, yegrs old, 1112 DeWitt eve- nue, Mattoon, Ill., is a Juntor whose name ‘appeared. on. the honor roll all the last term of. school. She is the. grand-. daughter of William Lincoln Thorpe, light man in the INi- nois Central yards. Mr. Thorpe has served the Illinois Central for thirty-two years. ‘ without loss of time, with the -e@ception of a four vaca- tion last phy vied i » We would like to know wot- inell Bill did ‘all those four days. : * Definition, A Massachusetts paper tells us the definition of taxation. me ‘The pro- cess by which money from lected the people to pay the salaries of t men who do the cottoctig: The surpli is used to pay the salaries of the men the people elect to decide how much shall be fig lant from them.” hi isn’t economically sound, haps, but it’s font, ain't it? x * per. _WHY NOT MOVE To) © AFGHANISTAN? The only pi 's safe to cross the street is in Afghanistan, where there ie only one jomobile to every 1,200,000. “statistics show that there 0 every six people, There are six of us on The DAILY WORKER car. Somebody's we're among All Right, Go to It! T suggest that you open a competi: tion, offering a prize for the limerick on the subject of Tt 0- mas-and the vanishing bathing ‘suit. A suitable prize would be a trans- parent fig leaf, or a rubber doormat, resembling a human being. I submit the following contributions for the next issue of the staff column, s _., Signed—t. J. 0! 4 f H. WS yh ‘of the tight little isle jad ‘nothing—not even a smile, “” To'Gover his shame , _ From each curious dame x Who ran—when they saw him—a mile; After selling the coal diggers, Jim, Son of Thomas, went in for a swim To cleanse him of sin— But, Oh, what a din When his togs were stolen from him. To make matters worse for J. T. A wave from the wild, angry sea . Took his bathrobe away " In the bright light of day, pe With the water not up to his knee, ; The staff takes up T. J.’s tdea oe J. T.’s dilemma, and solicits contribu.» tfons in limerick form from our read-; ers, As to prizes, it is a‘great honor to get your name in this exclustvo | space, but for especially good contri butions we will give a Gideon bible as wine TH THE STAFF| |