The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 1, 1926, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill, Phone Monroe 4713 pins: Miblieenesitanaatreststriee Sater ers 6 ist SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mali (in Chicago only): By mall (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months | $6.00 per voar $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 Bivd., Chicago, II!Inols J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE MORITZ J, LOES... aesiatesianosidipeenetertermsnenansipaniaoesaersomenas yerioene oremereomeneeeteminerorameanesiete eons Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, lil, under the act of March 3, 1879. Epo 290 oven Editors Business Manager Advertising rates on application. A New Threat Against Mexico If we are to believe the correspondents who have’ removed with the president to White Pines to hang on the gate of the summer White House for the golden words that drop ever so seldom from the lips of the great man and much more often from someone “high in the councils, ete,” the administration believes there is no senti- ment in this country for intervention in Mexico. And, we might add, there has never been any. But it is a simple matter to start the propaganda mill going to. create the semblence of it to serve as a smoke sereen for intervention whenever it is desired. This is what happened in 1916 when United States troops played hide and seek in the Mexican desert with Pancho Villa. And yet it is quite probable that the administration will think twice ‘about direct interyention. ,The anti-catholic sentiment in this country is a little too strong to make it altogether safe to exploit the present Mexican conflict as an excuse. Then there is the flame of protest that would sweep thru Latin America. But there are other means. One of them is not withdrawal of recognition. It is generally agreed that Calles and his followers would not lose sleep over the withdrawal of Sheffield who must cer- tainly be a nuisance anyhow. There is a much more sinister way to bring pressure on the Mexican government by way of protecting the oil and mining properties of Wall Street. The withdrawal of the embargo on arms will mean the precipitation of Mexico into another internecine war that will so severely weaken the labor movement and the Calles government that American claims can be pressed with much more assurance of success than at present. The gate hangers at White Pines are making open statements, no doubt of some official foundation, concerning the lifting of the embargo on arms. “As soon as the religious fight subsides,” said one. There is no doubt that Ambassador Sheffield has become very much irked at his inability to exact as much consideration for Amer- ican investments in Mexico as his predecessors. And no doubt the interests that he represents are even more irked than their servant. It is high time, now that the lackey has come home to report to his masters, for both American and Mexican workers to be on the alert for some such move as the lifting of the arms embargo, AnElastic Policy. _- Carmi Thompson, President Coolidge’s special envoy in the Philippine Islands, reports that he is quite enthusiastic over the prospects for a tremendous development of the rubber industry in the Oriental possessions of the United States. This means that the Filipinos can go whistle for their inde- pendence so far as the United States is able to prevent it. Had the islands been barren and devoid of anything under ground or above that would tempt the acquisitive instincts of our capitalists it is more than likely than our government would free the Filipinos without much ado. The Filipinos, however, are as unfortunate in being natives of 1 country that promises to be a fertile rubber producer, as the people of Trak are in inhabiting a land where oil gushes forth when one stabs the earth with his walking stick. Now we can understand why the poet sang of the savage who loved his native home regard- less of how barren the soil was. In fact that’s why he liked it. He knew nobody would come and take it away from him. Wise savage. Various reasons might have been given a few years ago for the determination of the United States to hold on to the Philippines. It would be to save the natives from some horrid and brutal con- queror. But American imperialism is so fat that it has lost what- ever little delicacy it ever possessed. American envoys and govern- ors now talk rubber. And they threaten to make the Filipinos hop unless they accept their fate in a truly christian manner. There is one old tried and trusty maneuver that the American imperialists have added to their bag of tricks. It is the creation of fake divisions among those they are in the process of robbing. “Ivory Soap” Wood, governor general of the islands, got hold of a band of Moros, injected doses of every conceivable prejudice into their systems and turned them loose on the more advanced sections of the population. Some renegade Moro. leaders were paid to say that they wanted to stay under United States protection and would not be happy if good daddy Sammy went away and left them. The wicked christian Filipinos would eat poor little Moros. So on and so forth. That’s not a bum dodge tho it is as old as the Roman empire. Divide and conquer. Oh, yes! We have a moral reason for growing rubber in the Philippines. We must protect the heathen Moros from the savage christians! Good News From the Soviet Union. Friends of the workers’ republic will be glad to learn that this year’s grain crop in the Soviet Union is estimated at 2,820,000,000 | bushels, or 240,000,000 more than last year. The news is gleaned from the columns of The United States Daily, a journal that presents without comment “the official aets | of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the govern- ment.” The information is based on a report made to the depart- ment of commerce of the United States by Carl J. Mayer, commercial attache at Riga. After deducting the requirements of the country, the Soviet | government will have a surplus of 420,000,000 bushels left for ex- | portation. The money realized on the sale of this grain will be used to purchase machinery badly needed in Russia so that the tremendous resources of that mighty country can be better developed and its raw products turned into manufactured goods for the masses, so they will not be dependent on hostile capitalist countries for their requirements. This is the kind of Russian news that will not be featured on the front pages of the capitalist press. SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY WORKER} THE DAILY WORKER Cuba Has Case Like Murder of Matteotti (By A Cuban Worker) A Ihde reaction of Cuban fascism is de- |* veloping its white terror to the highest degree. Alfredo Lopez, the secretary of the local Federation of |Labor of Havana, has been the latest | victim of Cuban fascism. | Alfredo Lopez, secretary of the lo- |cal Federation of Labor ever since its foundation in 1921, when there was | more freedom in Cuba than there is at | present, disappeared mysteriously on the 20th day of July, 1926, OPEZ’'S disappearance has caused horror in the ranks of labor, but little surprise. Cuban workers are fully aware of Cuban fascism and its white terror and well know the names of its victims, names we have engraved in our hearts, and also know that Lopez was not the first victim of Cuban fascism, neither will he be the last one. That is why one more victim is no surprise to any of us, Alfredo Lopez was a Cuban, native born, and so is his wife and his five children. Lopez was a typographical worker. During the latter part of 1916 when the Havana workers began to see the necessity of an organization, Lopez organized a printers’ union, of which he became the president and re- mained in that office for four years. 'N the first part of 1924, during the presidential term of Alfredo LX Zayes, when there was more freedom of the press, speech and assembly, the labor movement started to develop and the different unions formed what is now known as the Havana Federa- tion of Labor, of which Alfredo Lopez, became secretary, due to his good con- duct and his activities in the labor movement. He was re-elected to the secretariat ever year, and every night —except the nights he passed in jail—- after eight o’clock he was in his office at the Labor Temple doing his duty until the night of his assassination. Lopez. had been arrested several times, on framed charges and two or three imaginary charges as well | were placed against him. Three life sentences‘ were asked by the prosecu- tion in one of the cases, but he fought this case°and won it just the same as the others. In some, the charges were dismissed and in others he was tried and got'ati acquittal. The ‘last’ persecution and incarcera- tion he! suffered was last August, a year ago, when the Cuban fascist gov- ernment ‘started an open shop drive against ‘tlie factory union. This fac- tory uni Was organized 100 per cent strong fn’ all the beer and refreshment manufacturing plants, and the govern- ment statted a series of atrocities against’ the members of this union which ‘I will describe later on. OPEZ never was a member of the factory union. Neither had he anything to do with the said union ex- cept that the factory union was a member of the Local Federation of Labor of which he was secretary. Nevertheless, Alfredo Lopez was ar- rested with the leaders of the factory union and charged with the same ima- ginary charges, and so was Julio An- tonio Mella, a student of the univer- U. S. Tourists Spending $500,000,000 Abroad this Y ear = Here is shown a bird’s-eye view of Monaco, where Monte Carlo is; American tourists at Deauville, the arle- tocratic French resort; and St, Paul’s, London, all places where tourists from the U. S. are to be found. The de- partment of commerce estimates that $500,000,000 will be spent abroad this year by tourists from the United States. In practically every European country the standard of living of the workers is far below, normal, It Is very an- noying to exploited European workers to see American coupon clippers spending European currency like water. The extravagances of plutocratic Americans at Lido and Deauville is the scandal of Europe, sity in his fourth year and president of the Students’ Federation. Alfredo Lopez, as all the rest of the prisoners at that time, was kept in jail and denied all bail until the 18th day of the hunger strike of Julio An- tonio Mella, who thns forced the pro- secution to set bail for him, After this long struggle of Mella for liderty, Alfredo Lopéz and all the rest of the prisoners got out on $1,000 bonds each. In the latter part of April, 1926, they alb-went on trial and received an acquittal. HE courts declared the function of the factory union legal and de- clared that the syndicate did not violate any law of the republic, there- fore reversing the decree of the sec- retary of the interior, Zeyas Barzau, who had previously declared the func- tion of the union illegal. After the decision handed down by the court in favor of the factory union the local Federation met and decided to reorganize the union (which was a member of the Federation) and ap- pointed Alfredo Lopez to do the work. This Lopez at once started. But, should Alfredo Lopez destroy all the work done by the fascist. gov- ernment of Cuba? Should all, the thousand of dollars the beer magnates paid to the fascist government for the destruction of the union be lost? Should Alfredo Lopez hays, more power than the fascist government with all its tools of degenerate mil- itarists, assassins, and the rest of its hungry horde? No and a thousand times No! “Lopez’s head first”. —s0 said the fascist government. 3 UE to the government’s repres- sion against the railroad brother- hood of Camaguey, repression..which culminated in the complete destruc- tion of the railroad workers’, organ- ization, destroying its locals and in- carcerating its members in a similar manner to that of the destruction of the factory union, the railroad labor leaders, who have been in jail since last May, published and circulated # pamphlet—(this was discovered after the murder of Lopez) against the Pres- ident Machado, This pamphlet appear- ed on the 15th of July, and as I said above, the government always blam- Ee SLs oR ey ed these pamphlets on Lopez and they did this time, as well, After the circulation of this pam- phlet, the government arrested Lopez and took him to the judiclal police headquarters before the Chief Detec- tive, Alphonse L. Fors (the William J. Burns of Cuba) where he was ques- tioned about the: pamphlet and after he had been told to quit his activi- ties—otherwise his head would “smell powder” he was taken before the Sec- cretary of the Interior where the au- thorities held the same ceremonies that had taken place in the police headquarters. Lopez’s answer in re- gard to the pamphlet was in the ne- gative and in view of his negative answer, Lopez was turned loose—but only for a short time. (To be continued.) Eight Killed In Roumanian Crash. LONDON, Aug. 30.—A train crashed into a motorbus at a grade crossing near Bacsu and killed eight, injuring many others seriously, according to a Central News dispatch from Burchar- est, Life and Work in the Soviet Union By ANISE. (Special to The Daily Worker) 6. Behind the Scenes of the Russian Communists, ULY 29. What are the Russian Communists doing among them- selves? What do they talk about in -heir closed assemblies? Outside Rus- ‘ja it is often assumed that this is dif- leult to know, that their plans are iysterious and hidden. But actually he problems, intentions, efforts, achievements and even failures of the Russian Communists are an open book to anyone who takes the trouble to read it. A book printed in editions of 35,000 copies and sent out broad- |cast. It is the book I have chosen |for Soviet Primer No, 6, and is called “From the 13th to the 14th Congress.” It sums up what the Communists were doing all that ‘time. In spite of the difficulties of enter ing the party, its membership has more than doubled in the year and a half since the last “cleaning.” At the |14th Congress, held last December, there were more than a million mem- bers, of whom 643,000 were fully ad- mitted members, and 445,000 were can- didates. The Young Communists form another block of 1,800,000 members, and the Pioneers, budding Commu- nists in their early teens, number 500,000. 57 Per Cent Industrial, HIS growth has been largely from the entrance of industrial workers, following the death of Lenin. At pres- ent 67 per cent are industrial work- ers, 25 per cent peasants and 18 per cent other classes. There was an at- tempt made in the last congress by the Leningrad delegation to raise the percentage of industrial workers to 90 per cent, but this was declared not only absurd, but impossible, as it would involve either a cleaning out of the majority of peasant and intellect: ual elements, or else such a sudden expansion to a membership of five or six million, b¥ the admission of al- most all the industrial workers in the WD: i ( EREWITH is published the sixth of a series of stories being sent specially to The DAILY WORKER by Anne Louise Strong, who at this time in the Soviet Union making a thoro study of conditions re. Miss Strong, whose pen-name is “Anise” is a credited authority on the Soviet Union having spent the better part of the past five years in that country. She Is the author of a book, “First Time in History” and semerovs magazine and newspaper stories on the Soviet Union, Soviet Union, large Dumbers of whom are still completely” unqualified for party duty. None the less, it will con- tinue to be the pol to keep indus- trial workers in majority. The party contains al Per cent of all the trade union bership in its ranks, and 25 per of the workers in the heavy industries, which con- stitute the cen! of Communist strength in Russia @§ elsewhere, Success among ~ Peasants has been small, only 202,000 peasant Comm only one in every 250 adults in the rural districts, and one Communist villages. This is problem and is into the villages responsible Comm fluence the pea Their work, however, has not proved very suc- cessful, as they lacked all contact with village ideas. Hence the method adopted by the past congress was to give special training to young, bud- ding village Communists in party schools, rather than to rely exclu- sively on town workers sent to the villages,‘ In spite of the need of influencing the village, the Communist Party scru | tinizes peasant applicants for member- ship much more carefully than indus- trial workers, on the ground that “the peasant ig an individnalistic owner of property, conneeted With the market Jn trade relations, much less or- ganized than the — the peasant elemet party are the de diers, who are goin; \ st workers to in- |them being the young v. districts in increasing numbers, al- ready imbued with some _ political knowledge, and the farm laborers, and to a limited extent the middle-class type of peasant, Picking and Training Members, HE party makes no secret of the fact that the direction in which its membership shall grow is not left to chance, or to individual applica- tion, but is carefully directed by the central committee in order to control the type of elements that shall be in the party. Such has been the special attempt to enlist factory members and the special bars placed against mem- bers from office employe groups, But far more important than growth in numbers is considered the growth in quality of members. Every Com- munist is expected to continue con- stantly expanding his knowledge and training in politics and economics, so as to be able to answer all kinds of questions and do all kinds of “party work.” At present there are 27,000 special party schools and courses with nearly 700,000 students; in other words, almost three-fourths of all members are enrolled in_ political courses, Every Communist group in a factory or mine or even on a river steamer maintains such courses, Special “party schools” for Yonger training are maintained in county cen- ters, and members showing that they can make use of such training a sent to these schools on scholarships which pay their living expenses, This past year 25,000 students were taking the work of these scho many of 6 Commu: 4 nists who are expected to go back for work in rural districts. Besides this, 8,000 students are attending special Communist universities, organized for the special purpose of training higher organizers for party and aha tsa work, / Nor is this education. merely handed down from above to-passive hearers. The general lines of it are indeed pre- determined, but avery large element of the education consists in. stimulat- ing self-expression, not omy | among. Communists but ‘among all elements of the working class and peasantry. ‘Thus one of the things 6n which the Communist Party prides ‘itself is the growth of the “workers press,” mean- ing not a press written for the work- ers, but a press written by the work- ers themselves. There are now 200,000 worker and peasant correspondents scattered all over the land, investigating, observ- ing, writing about good work or abuses, making exposes, ‘suggestions thru the various printed organs. Only some 40 per cent of these are Commu- nists, and the party is making no attempt to increase its percentage in this field, but, on the contrary, to draw as many non-partisan. workers and peasants as possible into this work of self-expression regarding public conditions. The young correspondent starts by writing for his factory wall newspaper, of which there are tens of thousands; a8 he gains confidence and self-expression he produces some- thing worth sending to his trade union newspaper, Already these worker cor respondents are passing into the fleld of book production, and there are now hundreds of new authors who do not leave their industrial job, “This is what we call ‘free press,’” says the report of Communist party, “that in our land every worker and peasant has the chance to take part in,his own press. This is differ: ont from the so-called free press of bourgeois countries, where only those rich enough to own néwapa are free to express chemeetvegens 1906). { Ernest Haeckel, on Evolution” on “Last Words (Continued from previous issue.) The character of Virchow’s speech at Munich is best seen in the delight with which it was at once received by the reactionaty and clerical papers, and the profound concern of all Liber+ al journals, either in the political or the religious ‘sense. When Darwin» read the English translation of the gp‘) speech he—generally so gentle in his Judgment—wrote: “Virchow’s conduct, is shameful, and I hope he will some day feel the shame.” In 1878, I made a full reply to it in my Free Science ‘Jand Free Teaching, in which I collect- ed the most important press opinions on the matter.* From this very decided turn at Mu- nich until his death, twenty-five years afterwards, Virchow was an indefatig- able and very influential opponent of evolution, In his annual appearance at congresses he has always contest ed it, and has obstinately clung to his statement that “it is quite certain that man does not descend from the ape or any other animal.” To the ques tion: “Whence; does he come, then?” he had no answer, and retired to the resigned position of the Agnostie, which was common before Darwin's time: ‘We do not know how life arose, and how the various species came into the world.” His son-in-law, Professor Rabl, has tried to draw at- tention once more to his earlier con- ception, and has declared that even in later years Virchow often recognia- ed the truth of evolution in private 4 conversation. This only makes it the. more regrettable that he always said the contrary in public. The fact re- mains that ever since, the opponents of evolution, especially the reaction. — aries and clericals, have appealed to * the authority of Virchow. The wholly reactionary system that a | this led to has been well described by Robert Drill (1902) in his “Vérchow as a Reactionary.” How little qualified the great pathologist was to appre- ciate the scientific based of the pithe coid theory is clear from the absur’ statement he made in the openir De of the. 4 S—— Vienna Congress of thropologists, in 1894, that man mi just as well be claimed to dese from a sheep or am elephant as fr an ape. Any competent zoologist ca see from this the little knowledge Vii chow had of systematic zoology ati comparative anatomy. ‘However, kh retained his authority as president o: the Germen: Anthropological Society which remained impervious to Dar winian ideas. Even such vigorou controversialists as Carl Vogt, anc such scientific partisans of . the ape-‘man of Neanderthal as Schaaf- hausen could make no impression. Virchow’s authority was equally great for twenty years in the’ Berlin press, both liberal and conserv- ative. The Kreutzzeitung and the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung were de. lighted that “the learned progressist — was conservative in the best sense of the word as regards evolution.” The ultra-montane Germania rejoiced that the powerful representative of pure science had, “with a few strokes of his cudgel, reduced to impotence” the absurd ape-theory and its chief pro- (agonist, Ernst Haeckel. The Na- tional-Zeitung could not sufficiently thank the free-thinking popular, leader ‘or having lifted from us forever the oppressive mountain of the theory, of iimian descent.. The editor of, Volks-Zeitung, Bernstein, who. } done so much for the spread of kno} edge in hig excellent popular ‘annals \ of science, obstinately refused, to ad- mit articles that ventured to ‘ese , the erroneous ape-theory “refuted” by Virchow, It would tdke up too much space | attempt to give even a general of the remarkable and enormous lit- erature of the subject that has cumulated in the last three inthe shape of thousands of le treatises and popular sg greater part of these works ‘have’ writfen under the influence of con’ tional religious prejudice, and © out the necessary acquaintance the subject} that can only be by a thoro training in biology. most curious feature of them ig most of the authors restrict — genealogical interest to the most like apes, and do not deal with thei origin, or. with the deeper roots of | had common ancestral tree. They do see the wood for the trees. Yet it. is tar easier and safer to Denehtnse aie] great mysteries of our animal if we look’ at the subject from higher standpoint of vertebrate phylo- geny and go deeper into the earlier records of the evolutionary history ot the vertebrates, (To be continued.) ~ *The ipt letter in which gentle expresses 80 seve, judgment on Virchow is printed my Cambridge lecture, The Last Lin My Answer to Virchow's 6 As contained in the second volume | Popular Lectures, and has lately peared in th 1» Wort ”