The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 5, 1926, Page 1

The DAILY WORKER Raises the Standard for a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government Shek g =m OV Vol. Ill. No. 174. Subscription Rates: Bustic . OBREGON DECLARES AGAINST CHU FRED LUNDIN, 6, 0. P, BOSS FOR LEN SMALL, SAYS SMITH SWITCHED HIS POSITION ON WORLD COURT ISSUE Frederick Lundin, reputed organizer and brains of the former Small-Lundin- “Thompson machine, is not a politician but a farmer who does a little thinking on the side, according to his testimony at esterday’ 's afternoon session of the senate slush fund investigation. —— By THOMAS J, O’FLAHERTY HICAGO police had been search- ing for Al (Scarface) Capone for months on»suspicion that he was re- sponsible for the murder of Assistant State’s Attorney William McSwiggin. In fact, the police publicity charged him with the murder, and a special writer for a nationally known maga- zine, in a series of articles on the thrilling doings of Chicago’s gangland, minutely described the movements of Scarface immediately before the mur- der, even to the extent of telling how he opened a little door in the wall of a Cicero restaurant, from which he took”the Thompson machine gun that slaughtered McSwiggin and his twd gangster companions, ie HIS was putting the finger on the sore spot. Sleuths were supposed to be exploring every nook and cranny of the underworlds of six of Amer- ica’s largest cities, but still the elu- sive Al could not be located. Finally, in the midst of the slush fund inves- tigation, as if jealous of the competi- tion for front page publicity, Al de- cided to surrender, on terms. He walked into the federal building as the state's attorney was about to take the stand in the slush probe. Al was treated very much like a predigal son, he a E was booked on some contempti- ble charge of violating the Vol- stead law by the federal governmeat and then turned over to his friends in the state’s attorney's, office. He ap- peared in court the following day and the judge turned him loose. The state had nothing on him, Al was much relieved. It was a terrible thing, he observed, to have the public believe that he would have killed his “good friend .Bill McSwiggiy.” Justice is very simple. As a cartoonist ob- served, perhaps Al contributed to somebody's campaign fund. Perhaps his nickles went into that total of $171,500 for the Crowe-Barrett county ticket: Or perhaps he raised that $15,000 that went to win the county judgeship for Assistant State’s Attor- ney Joseph Savage, one of Crowe’s pets. It might be a good investment for Al, #8 HE wolves are now howling in chorus for the infliction of punish- ment on Mexico for that country’s temerity in putting the screws on the | catholic church. . I picked up an Irish- American catholic-nationalist weekly yesterday and found the greater part of one page devoted to anti-Mexican propaganda. Of course the paper is subsidized by the church. It is De Valera’s chief mouthpiece in America, And De Valera is strong for Irish in- dependence, from England, but not | from Rome. Judge Talley of New York, a prominent spokesman for Irish freedom, demands of Washington the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Mexico. Real friends of Irish freedom should warn those self-ap- pointed spokesmen for Irish independ- ence that their anti-Mexican fulmina- tions are resented by all people who believe that Mexico has as much right to run her own affairs as any other country. is oe \VIDENTLY angry because Paris butted in on its monopoly of fa- bles about Russia, Riga came across last Saturday with the prize winner to date. Afraid that the red army would become disorganized Leon — Trot- sky took a trip out of Moscow to rally a battalion with the object of seizing the Kremlin. He changed his mind for some reason or other and returned. Then the funny conclusion. The authorities are considering Trotsky's arrest, Another tale from London at- tributes Zinoviev’s removal from the political bureau to the wishes of For- eign Minister Streseman of Germany. You will hear many more fables of this kind until after the next annual congress of the All-Union Communist (Continued from page 2) FRANC RAISES AS BANKS WIN RATIFICATION National Assembly (Special to The Daily Worker) PARIS, Aug. 3, — The Poincare gov- ernment having surrendered, perhaps willingly, to the pressure of financiers demanding that the Mellon-Berenger debt agreement be ratified at once, the franc yesterday began rising again, going up during the day from 40.13 to 37.95 to the dollar. Got It Without Fighting. Ambassador Berenger, who was one of those who a month ago sat in a conspiratory meeting to overthrow the constitutional government and dis- solve parliament by the use of troops in order to get the debt agreement ratified, has accomplished that object without such military action. After being informed yesterday officially by Poincare, that the debt agreement will be presented for ratification, he an- nounced he would return te his be at~Weshington, ee = To Call National ‘Assembly, The French cabinet has approved Poincare’s project to establish a great sinking fund to retire the national.de- fense bonds totaling $1,215,000,000. It is intended to get the approval of this as a fundamental law of the national assembly, by having the senate and the chamber of deputies meet jointly |at Versailles, The national assembly, which meets at Versailles, consists of the senate and the chamber of deputies in joint session. If they sit at Paris, these two bodies must act within the constitu- tion, but meeting jointly at Versailles as the national assembly, they have no restrictions whatever, and may | change, modify and even set aside the constitution. It may well be that if Poincare has the deputies and sen- ators well in hand when they meet at Versailles, that something more than technical problems will be urged upon it, e's Pays Installment. WASHINGTON, Aug. 3. — France yesterday paid $10,000,000 to the United States as an installment on the $400,000,000 owing for war supplies sold to France at a great discount after the war was over. This sum was included in the whole debt funded un- der the Mellon-Berenger agreement, but because that agreement is not yet ratified, the payment was made on the war supplies purchase, ROUMANIA DECLARES A MARTIAL LAW REGIME ON BULGAR FRONTIER LONDON, Aug, 3-—The Romanian “government has declared martial law for a distance of thirty kilo- meters along Dobrudja frontier to prevent incursions from Bulgarian comitadji, according to a Vienna dis- patch to the Exchange Telegraph, HUNGARIAN PRESS IS FORCED INTO SILENCE ON TRIAL OF 58 WORKERS BY LETTER FROM PRIME MINISTER VIBNNA; July 16.—(By Imprecorr)—-All the Hungarian press received a confidential letter from the Press bureau of the prime minister in which they are instructed to report the Ragosi trial as laconically as possible. It is an impossible state of affairs, according to the letter, to inform public op- inion on a trial in which the defendants frankly admit that their stand in court is being made with the sole propaganda, In accordance with these instruc: ons, the bourgeois papers have viven very little space to the trial. Yontrary to their attitude during the past week they confined their reports to a few lines on the proceedings and even these reports were printed in an unobtrusive part of the paper. The powspapers went even further, Thav * purpose of carrying on Communist constructed reports tending to dis- credit the Communists in the eyes of the public. A progrom atmosphere is being created preparatory to handing out heavy jail sentences, ose NOTH: —Additional news of trial on Page Six, Poincare to Console the |with changing his position on the! db ered at Second-class matter September dl, 1923, at the Post Office at Chicago. Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 187%. $8.00 per year. mail, $6.00 per year. Lundin gave expression to his opinions in a loud voice. He de- nied having any profitable busi- ness connections with politicians. He opposed McKinley because he voted for thegrar, for the “Cos- sack espio aw,” for conscrip- THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1926 Put ee" SS 290 PUBLISHING CO., ER. 1 Daily except Sunday by THE DAIL 1113 W. Washington Bivd., i NEW YORK EDITION Y WORKE! Ciicago, iL tion and fe the world court. Smith Changes Position. “I would not support Frank Smith because in 1920 he would not stand up for our platform which resolved against all foreign entanglements. In 1924 when the republican party fav- }Ored the world court he supported the whole republican ticket and I voted for Senator LaFollette because he voted against the war, conscription and espionage law.” Lundin virtually charged Smith world court. In 1917, Lundin said, | Smith opposed a plank attacking “all foreign alliances” at a republican state convention in Springfield. The senate slush fund committee will extend its Illinois inquiry to in-} clude all-anti-saloon league activities in behalf of any candidates in the re- cent million-dollar Illinois campaign, it was definitely announced yesterday afternoon. To Probe Wet and Dry Issue. Senator James A. Reed, democrat of Missouri, chairman of the committee, announced whe wet and dry question would be delved into because reports had reached him of activities of the league in the recent Illinois campaign. | Frank Smith, winner in the cam- ign, and William B. McKinley, the} loser, were both en@orsed by the! league, A supoena was issued this after- noon for the “league’s state paymas-| ter,” his name was not revealed. Small Is “Soulful.” Lundin gave an “inside story” of| his relations with Governor Small. “Gov. Small is an old man,” the| witness declared. “So ami. I’ known him for over 39 years. He’s a wonderful fine soulful man. But I only support him when I think he is right. I have no alliance with him or any man or any set of men. I can't go along with them all the time, be- cause they are politicians and they must have the support of a majority of the voters.” Lundin said his only expenditures in the campaign were for the circula- tion of a political paper. This cost him between $1,500 and $2,000. He) knew nothing of other finances in the campaign. William Hale Thompson, former mayor of Chicago, was the star wit-| ness at yesterday morning's session of the senate slush fund investigation in the federal building. Thompson returned from William | Randolph Hearst’s ranch in California (Continued on page 2) | MEXICAN LABOR PARTY CONTROLS LOWER CHAMBER All Credentials Were Contested (Special to The Daily Worker) MEXICO CITY, Aug. 3.—With the contest on credentials to the Mexican chamber of deputies half over, the lower house of the Mexican parlia- ment will without doubt be controlled by the labor party and its allies in the coming term, Nearly every credential Was contested. After trying to take forcible control of the green room of the chamber, the opposition bloc has not returned to the chamber. Only the representa- tives of the “Labor Party-Socialist Al- liance” were present when the creden- tials of the newly-elected deputies were examined. Support Calles. The government bloc is not a strictly socialist bloc in the European sense of the word. It is rather a sort of loose confederation of many de- centralized parties calling themselves socialist. The only genuine mass party is the “Patriotic Laborista,” which is controlled by Morones, min- ister of labor, and his colleagues of the Mexican Federation of Labor, This ysis, to the government. mittees of aitizens appointed by the is worth billions of dollars. — By MANUEL GOMEZ. ; SSATICLE I. EARLY 100,000 workers paraded thru the streets of Mexico City a | few days ago, demonstrating their sup- flict with the Roman catholic hier- archy. The capitalist press represents the number of marchers as 50,000, but even the latter figure is large enough. It must have made a lot of people think. The demonstration, or- ganized by the Regional Confederation of Labor (C. R. O. M.), will help to throw light on ‘the question of the present line-up’of forces in Mexico. What everyone is asking about the Mexican situation is: Where do the Mexican people stand? American workers have read in the newspapers that there are 10,000,000 catholics in Mexico, and some of them must be frankly puzzled as to how the Mexi- can government can proceed so con-| fidently with its anti-clerical program) when apparently two-thirds of the} Mexican population is against it. The) truth is, of course that like many or-| ganizations, the church does consider-| able padding of its membership rolls.| Nevertheless, Mexico is undeniably! still a “catholic country.” Catholicism | embraces undeniably wide sections of the population, and no other denomin-| ational creed. has succeeded in sup-| planting it. | How does it happen then that in a/ “catholic country” the government} should dare embark on an anti-clerical' campaign? @.@-6 Decisive Areas Lost to the Church, HE answer’ to that is two-fold: First, many of the decisive areas of catholic strength have been lost to the church; and second, there are deep class antagonisms within the ranks of “the faithful” themselves. One reads much these days of cath- olic riots against government author- ity. These are-magnified many times over for publicity purposes but they do happen. They happen particularly in. the Federal District, in Puebla, in Guadalajara, in the states of Guana- juato and Michoacan—where the clerical power is concentrated, But g0 into the states of the north or along the coastline, where the revolu- tionary struggles of the past 15 years have been fought out, and you find a totally different state of affairs. The active clerical minority in.these areas is very small indeed for a “catholic country.” Among the toiling masses, and even amohg the petty-bourgeoisie, the back of the church has been broken, That could be seen several years ago in the reception accorded to the constitution of 1917. T have gone into church after church in the state of Sonora and found them deserted except for a few women. I party is the chief sipport of the Calles adminiateation. ‘ be have noticed the same thing in, Vera Port to President Calles in his con-| mayors of municipalities. |olicism has log¢ its hold during the ex-| Fs os of revolution and counter- ieerouitien is common gossip in these |parts, They. are important parts, for jevery successful fevolutionary move- ment in recent history has swept to-' |ward the center from one of then: ._ * Catholics But Not Too Seriously. HE convinced catholics, however, are by no means all clericals. Mexi- co, catholic Mexico, has a long record of struggle against the church. In- isurgewt soldiers of the anti-clerical revolution of 1854-56 died with an “Ave Maria” on their lips. Indignant at the swollen wealth of the catholic episcopate, its greed and its countless petty impositions, millions of bare- footed peons long ago began to har- STREET CARMEN TO SUPPORT T’ MEN'S DEMANDS Will Stick Te Together in’ Fight Against Insull Workers on Chicago surface lines have decided not to go into negotia- . | tions for a new agreement with the company until the elevated men, now, talking a new wagé scale over with tlement. William Quinlan, president of the Surface Lines division of the Amal- gamated Street and Electric Railway strategy in the present fight being waged by thé men both for gan in- crease and against a wage cut offered by the company as a counter proposal. All Have One Boss. The Insull interests control both the street lines and the elevated as well as the North Shore line, workers ‘on which are also in negotiations. The surface line men will ask for the gains the elevated men secure as the result of their negotiations. The North Shore men, who are get Meetings Continue. The surface line men met at Car- men’s Hall in their monthly meeting and came to the above decision, The elevated employes’ representatives will meet with the bosses today for the first tilt in the negotiations and their conversations, with Cruz, and in Tamaulipas, That cath- agents today and tomorrow. the bosses, have completed their set- Employes said that would be the union | Federal Troops on Duty at Mexican Churches According to the new Mexican constitution, the property of the churches in Mexico belong, in the last anal- When the clergy abandoned the churches on Sunday, they were taken over by com- | Church property, jewels and equipment in Mexico It has accumulated out of the meagre pockets of the mass of population and the con- tention of the Calles administration is that it rightfully belongs to them. Class Lines in the Mexican Church Conflict bor a resentment against the ehurch dignitaries. With the chufth eternal- ly on the side of their-enemies, they have-not hesitated to-take up arms against it time after time. }, Thus is explained the Ayutla revo- jlution, culminating in the reform jJaws and the constitution of 1857. |. Thus is explained the irresistable tpopular support behind Carranza, ' Zapata and the others in their revo- lutionary movement against Huerta, the federal army, landed aristocrats and the church, Thus is explained the mass repudia- tion of Adolfo de la Huerta in his abortive counter-revolution of 1924. Inside the very ranks of the ec- clesiastics there are divisions, tremen- dons divisions, which have helped to niake history and which are part of Mexican tradition. The great mass of poor prie: —most of them native Mexicans—are cruelly oppressed by the higher church dignitaries, the great | majority of whom happen to be for- eigners. The latter appropriate all the fat livings and sinecures to them- selves, with the result that a bitter jantagonism exists between the up per and lower layers of the priest- hood. The poor priests have some- times stood with the people against their superiors. Hidalgo and Moreles, | honored by every Mexican patriot as |fathers of the republic, were both | priests. Their fame has not been! | diminished by the fact that they were | both excommunicated from the cath- | jolie church for their activities on be-/ half of Mexican independence in de- |flance of the Spanish church digni- | taries. Largely on the basis of these divi- sions between upper and lower clergy, |the schismatic church movement jlast year was organized. The “cisma- ticos” founded the “Mexican Catholic Apostolic Chur man Catholic.” Notwithstanding manifest aid of the government, “cismaticos” never were able to make (Continued on page 4) of | h” as against the “Ro- | the | the | —4 EX-PRESIDENT "BACKS CALLES: "TN CHURCH WAR Obregon’s Stand Averts | Civil War (Special to The Daity Worker) | MEXICO CITY, Aug. 3. — Breaking |the ring of doubt that surrounded his | position with regard to the preserit | controversy between church and state |in Mexico, former President Alvaro Obregon has issued a clear cut dec laration in support of the stand.of the | Calles administration. This brings consider ef to supporters of the gover nt. Obre | gon is still a man of much influence, {He is a likely presidential candidate Jin 1928, There had been rumors cir- | culating that Obregon r j Vantage of the fi |church &nd the © |throw his support to the church and {win k power, This would have | meant civil war. { Blames Ciergy. | Gen, Obregon was emphatic in his lenunciation of the clergy and placed the entire blame for the contest on the church. Obregon ment fol- lows: “It is evident that the high digni- taries of the catholic « h provoked ithis conflict, when, thru the mouth of its most exalted representative, Senor Mora y del Rio, the f declarations were made pub with an evident {rebellious spirit against the funda | mental laws in force. | Points To Foreign Plot. “These declarations, without any {previous incident that could have brought them coincided with the international cri: pri ked by the big foreign interests, which considered | themmetver injured by the promulga- tion of the petroleum and alien land laws. “All of us who know the proceed- ings of the clergy a the different armed political con s that Mexico has been obliged to wage in order to sustain its independence, know that it was not a mere coincidence, these ae tions of the clergy Alliance With Outside. “Fur rmor we know that these acts of the clergy were for the deliber- ate intention of accumulating a new difficulty and to demonstrate to discon- tented for that within our own frontiers they had a o combat our own constitution, thus placing at the service of the political interests the faith of the believer.” “Truce” Turned Down, A so-called truce, ev tly a piece of diplomatizing on the part of church dignitaries, was presented to the ad- minist on yest ay saying that certain foreign diplomats had offered their good offi to intercede in the dispute as arbitrators The episcops ter containing the offer was summarily turned down by President Calles with the announce- jment that it was th overnment’s im ge 4) (Continued on Section Three, New York City, to Meet en Thursday Night | NEW YORK, Aug. 3.--The section conference to work out the plans for the work in Section 3 and to elect @ ion € ative committee will take place Thursday, August 5, at 8 p. Mm, at'301 W. 29th street This conference was to be held last |Thursday but was postponed due to the Dzerzhinky memorial meeting that | was held on that day | The American Worker Correspond- ent is out. Did you get your copy? OHIO STATE FEDERATION FAILS . TO ACT ON LABOR’S IMPORTANT PROBLEMS, BUT DOES SOME GOOD AKRON, Ohio. | {outlaw union, etc. ete. | It declared itself for the union label, | but did not give.a moment's time to consideration of the orggnization of) the unorganized, which would render {the union label superfluous and unnec- jessary. Fundamental questions were -The convention of the Ohio State Federation of Labor went its usual way. It came together on Monday, July 26, to hear innumer+ petit remedy Tha conpaay ager able speeches that contained nothing but reminiscences and jokes and mane ing about a 3 cent reduction but it is | #&¢4 to keep the delegates interested and awake, and then rushed through known that it would be perfectly wil- | meaningless resolutions on jurisdictional disputes, slams of the United Gare ling to pay the old rate, | ment Workers, at the Amalgamated Clothing Workers as being a dualistic and are a menace.” Menace for Fogies, Maybe. The young men, however, wete not a menace, for altho some of them are progressives, their number was small and they were not organized, Hence they the North Shore men will continue | ignored, for the old men present dom: | they sat in the convention, angry and Insull's | {nated and as one of them said, “There | disgusted, and vowing to come baclg are too many young mon here, and) (Continued on page 4) pam — Price 3'Cents = s — >