The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 2, 1926, Page 2

eer Se badbul 7 WELSH MINERS LAY ON BAGK WHEN DIGGING French Writer Describes Working Conditions Miming is hard work in America, but in most of our fields ¢ compared with some of the min Wales, as many of our Welsh brothers here know. Miners are frequently compelled to work on their backs in the mud in some of the Welsh mines with 32-inch vei conditions ns, These were recently described by a French writer, Andree Viollis, in “L’Europe Nouvelle.” It follows in part: “We climbed up to a little platform, which was as black as inferno (Car- diff, Wales), Above us invisible ma- chiuery grumbied and groaned. To one side.a gigantic wheel was turning; alternately lifting and thrusting down the long arm that moved the pumps Equipped with httle lamps, we enter- ed a black, slippery cage. Minutes Seemed Hours. “& big black hole seemed to inhale us, during»our dizzy descent, while the minutes seemed.as long as hours. Fin- ally wewtopped, a thousand feet below the surface. My ears roared, my eyes smarted, and, quite contrary to my pectation, I was chilled by an breeze. “Ordinarily six hundred: miners get out of the cage here every morning at 7 o'clock, each with his little pail of tea and piece of bread. Here they separate, going down narrow, inter- minable, steeply sloping tunnels, Stumbling ‘over rails to avoid passing coal trucks,,receiving douches of cold water down their necks, and dodging falling stones, often of latge size that are constantly detaching themselves from the roof:above. Crushed in Front of Him. “My first day in the mine, when L was 14 years-old,” said my companion, “g man was crushed immediately in front of me. I turned around and ran back to the cage like a crazy rabbit.” “When we left the-cage I was chilly, but as we advanced! down the gallery we kept setting lower and opening and shutting doors, and the galleries themselves grew narrower and lower. The air became thin, with a heavy, tarlike odor. We had to bend half over to avoid hitting the roof. Soon I was panting like a fish out of water, and I saw the perspiration tracing pale streaks down.the etal black faces of my companions, Walked Three Miles. “It was a walk of two or three miles to she veins. As we painfully made our way*forward my companions explained to me how ithe trams were. maneuvered, how the timbering was put up, and, when we finally did reach the glistening face, how the coal was. undercut with a pick. I cut out my little piece of coal just to qualify as & miner, “In certain veins you can sit up, but this one is only thirty-two inches high, and the miner has to work lying on his back in the mud—for six hours steady in the noise and the dust, Loved Their Trade. Nevertheless, I could see that these men loved their rude trade. How at- fectionately they spoke of it! How proudly they pointed out a filme piece of timbering or a well arched gallery! They patted the smooth blocks of coal as affectionately as a peasant pats his cow. “As for the dangers, they scorned them. Nevertheless, they will admit that on an average twelve hundred men are killed in the British coal mines every year, without counting the big catastrophies. “] noticed also that my two mine leader companions were vigilantly ob- servant every moment. There had not been a single act of sabotage. The pumps were working; the mine was ready to start tomorrow. Mice and Ponies “J saw a few horses still down below —plump, shiny animals with little black mice scampering around their feet, When we were going up, Mr. Jones said: ‘But you ought to have een the others when we took them top. They rolled in the grass with air forefeet in the air as if they had sone grazy,’ “And I could understand it. I hhd been down three hours, but it seemed three centuries. “On our return, saturated with per- spiration, the cold breeze chilled us to the bone, I thought ‘o myself how the miners had to trudge back home in the winter, often some distance, in their dirty, wet garments. For these mines have no baths or drying rooms, such as are provided in America and Germany and in most of the mines in France. Is it surprising, then, that so many miners are old and out of the running at 50?” Send The DAILY WORKER for one month to your shop-mate. icy tcl Alt ee oe ce EO Emit. ein eR ee ER uk RS iat eneins ates lagen St Scns eee nn ne a RY CHEMICAL ENGINEERING EXPERT CHARGES GOVERNMENT WHITEWASH OF JERSEY MUNITIONS EXPLOSION NEW YORK, Aug. 31.—Need for © ditions surrounding the Lake Denmar! ma. court Parmelee, editor of Chemical failure to fix the responsibility xplaining to the public the vicious con- k, N. J ster remains despite the dis: t-of-god” whitewash of the navy’s own court of inquiry, according to Dr. and Metallurgical Engineering, “The for the disaster on any human being,” he said, “must not deter others from a thorough study of all the facts. Public interest demands the effective effort to prevent a possible recurrence of this tragedy.” “Act of God” No Excuse, “The chemical engineering profes- sion,” said Dr, Parmeleée, “cannot ac- cept an “act-of-god” explanation as the last word in a situation that appar- ently involved many human violations of recognized engineering practice in the storage and handling of high ex plosives. “In an area considerably less than one mile square there were crowded 200 buildings in which were stored $84,399,506 worth of munitions consist ing of loaded and fused shells, depth charges, aerial bombs, mines and tor- does in addition to tremendous tores of T. N. T., ammonium picrate, black powder, picmric acid and smoke- less powder. 3 War Department to Blame. “The court reported that this ammu- uition was segregated in various mag- wzines in accordance with bureau of ordinance instructions. But is it con- ceivable that these instructions should contemplate the conditions that ac- tually existed at Lake Denmark? “The testimony showed that tem- porary magazine No. 8, the first to ex- plode, contained in addition to bulk explosives more than 1,000,000 pounds of cast T, N. T. in depth bombs and that fifty feet away 2,000,000 pounds of the same explosive was in maga- zine No, 9, which exploded a few sec- onds later. Hight other magazines contained from 700,000 pounds to 2,- 500,000 pounds of explosives in bulk, as well as aerial bombs and loaded and fused projectiles, nest ———— Government Violated Law. “The appalling threat of such over- crowding is better appreciated when it is recalled that the New Jersey aw—which is accepted by the aS a reasonable re in any one magazine more ,000 pounds of loose or more than 20,000 pounds of packaged ex- plosives such as T. N. T. Are Government Officials Above Law? “The same law further provides that magazines which contain 20,000 pounds may be distanced from other explosives by at least 800 feet. ‘Ex- erritoriality’ is the legal loophole which permitted the United States navy to indulge in practices which would have landed a private manufac- turer in jail, Navy Officers Criminally Careless, “Had the precautions, with which the navy was undoubtedly familiar, been carefully observed, there would have been no disaster at Lake Den- mark, In fact that depot would have been the instgnificant storage place for a comparatively small quantity of carefully segregated explosives. Congress Should Investigate. “The president has it within his power to appoint an impartial board, properly qualified to study the disas- ter itself, the conditions that existed at Lake Denmark and which now ob- tain at other governmental arsenals, and, what is more important, the un- derlying faults in the departmental machinery that permitted flagrant vio- lations of established engineering practices. Congress, too, must take a veal interest in such an inquiry.” MORGAN'S MAN ORDERS POLISH RULERS AROUND Kemmerer Settles With Cabinet Bank’s Fate WARSAW, Aug. 31.—Poland’s finan- ‘ial situation, in spite of the contin- ued assurances of the cabinet, distin- guished foreign “visitors,” etc., keeps the local markets and all governmeat officials uncertain, The Polish-American “Kemmerer commission” investigating the indus- trial banking situation here for the purpose of making recommendations about a loan from Wall Street to the Pilsudski government held a meeting last week with the cabinet. The plan of Minister of Finance Klarner to liquidate the agricultural bank and two other government banks and found instead a bank dedling in foreign currency met with the sharpest opposition. During the debate the lie was passed by Kemmerer concerning promises he was quoted as having made. Kemmerer now insists that he is still investigating. Minister Klarner is under a very hot attack by the Courier Czerwony and the Courier Poranny, two organs of Pilsudski, altho the finance minister seems to be so much entangled in the Kemmerer negotiations that his down- fall will at least temporarily end them, and Pilsudski needs money. In spite of the starving industrial proletariat in the Polish cities, the minister of agriculture, Raczynski, boasted at the meeting that he ex- pected to see grain exports this year amount to 90,000,000 carloads, As a result of the conference the government finally decided to repeal the law against commercial transac- tions in foreign currenci New York Section, I. L. D., Demands Polish Amnesty NEW YORK, Aug. 31.—Abolition of the reign of white terror and general amnesty for the 6,000 political pris- oners in Poland is demanded in a res- olution forwarded to Prime Minister Bartell, Inter-Party Secretariat, and the Polish Consul General by a Conference of delegates from the In- ternational Labor Defense branches and affiliated organizations represent- ing 50,000 organized workers, which was held Thursday evening, Aug. 26, at 799 Broadway. The size of The DAILY WORK- ER depends on you. Send a sub. the Detroit |. W. W. General Defense PIC NIC Sunday, September 5, 1926 t “DEQUINDRE PARK,” 9-Mile Road and Dequindre St. J. MARGOLIS will speak ‘oceeds for the Defense and Support of Working Class Victims and their Families inging by an |, W, W. Tenor, Dancing, Sport Games of all kinds; Rofreshments, Etc., Ete, tions: Take 9 mile Dequindre ik plant, and get off at end of the line. bus in front of the Ford Highland The Committee FLYNN WILL SPEAK AT MASS MEETING OF LABOR DEFENSE Cannon, Ruthenberg and Peters on Program Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, one of the most active leaders in the big strike of the Passaic textile workers, who is known to American workers in all parts of the country for her work in the interests of labor, will be the chief speaker at a mass rally for labor de- fensé to be held here on September 6 at the Ashland Boulevard Auditorium. The meeting is under the auspices of International Labor Defense which concludes its second annual confer- ence on the same day, Miss Flynn will relate the experi- ences that the fifteen thousand Pas- saic strikers have had with the police and the courts during their bitter bat- tle for union and for better working conditions. The story of the mass ar- rests and police terrorism in Passaic will be told by her in detail. °. E, Ruthenberg, secretary of the Workers Party, whose case arising out of the famous Michigan Communist ar- rests is now before the United States supreme court on appeal, will speak at the meeting. Dr. J, J. Peters, third assistant pres- ident-general of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, will also ap- pear at the meeting to speak especial- ly about discrimination against Negro workers and farmers, their incessant persecution in many parts of the coun- try, and about the number of Negro workers and soldiers who are still in prison today for defending their civil and political rights. James P, Cannon, secretary of In- ternational Labor Defense, will speak at the meeting on the progress made in the past year of the work of the organization, and the need of labor unity in the question of defense of labor prisoners. German Swimmer Sets New Record in Swim Across the Channel Dover, Aug. 31.—Otto Vierkoetten, a German swimmer, is the third person to swim the channel this month and is now the record holder for time in making the treacherous swim, Vierkoetten started from Cape Griz Nez at 1:35 this morning and accom- plished the swim in 12 hours and 35 minutes, which is the fastest ever made in a channel swim, Gertrude Ederle having held the previous rec- ord of 14 hours and 32 minutes, The German swimmer made his landing at Langdon Stairs, a mile and half north of Dover. Vierkoetten was accompanied on the swim by a tug. A subscription to The DAILY WORKER for one month to the members of your union is a good way. Try it. It is the duty of all DAILY WORKER readers to help clasa- war prisoners. Demonstrate for their re e+-Sept. 6, 8 p. m., at Ashland Blvd. Auditorium, a THE DAILY WORKER MINORITY MEET IN BRITAIN IS EPOCH-MAKING Third Conference of His- toric Import By TOM FLEMING. LONDON, Aug, 13—(By Mail)—The 8rd annual conference of the National Minority Movement which is to be held Aug. 28th and 29th has every indication of being a historic gather- ing. The British workers have just passed thru the greatest strike that labor has yet experienced, a strike in which labor's strength was stapped by cowardly and traitorous leaders who paved the way to and perpetrated the great betrayal of May 12. First To Warn. The minority movement and the Communist Party alone foresaw the coming of the capitalist offensive and warned the whole working class of Britain of the preparations the gov- ernment were making for the strug- gle. T. U. C, Leaders, The T. U. C, leaders refused to be warned, in fact experience has taught now that they were entirely against the idea of concerted working class action and sabotaged it right to the last. The working class of Great Brit- ain have been taught great lessons in the last few months. The yellow so- clalist slogan of “Trust Your Leaders” has been knocked to the ground. The lessons of the general strike are taking hold of the workers. “never, never again” advocates are for the present silenced by the blows from the Minority Movement and the Communist Party of Great Britain, Program of Struggle. The Minority Movement has set it- self the task of preparing the neces- sary program for struggle in the trade union movement. At the coming con- ference all urgent questions facing the labor movement will be discussed in the light of recent happenings. A line of action will be formulated for the future struggle against the reaction- ary leaders. The Agenda, The agenda of the conference is as follows: 1. The General Strike and Its Lessons. (a) The strike leadership. (b) The strike machinery. (c) The state and the strikers. (4) The law and the strikers. (e) The future of mass strikes, 2, The Reorganization of the Trade Union Movement. (a) A better leadéship, (b) Greater power to the General Council. (c) Speeding up union amalgama- tions. . (d) Relations between Trade Un- ions and Cooperatives. (e) Development of Trades Coun- cils and their affiliation to the T. D.C. (f) How to secure 100 per cent Trade Unionism, 8. International Unity. (a) The Russian Workers’ Aid. (b) The reconstitution of the Anglo-Russian, Committee. (c) Next steps for securing Inter- national Unity. 4. Anti-Labor Legislation. (a) The Emergency Powers Act and the workers. (b) Seditious laws and the work- ers, (c) Judge-made law and the trade unions. Amnesty for all political pris- oners, Alex Bittelman to be Speaker at T. U. E. L. Needle Trades Party Alex Bittelman, editor of the Satur- day Magazine of the DAILY WORK- ER, well known to Chicago needle trades workers, will be the speaker at a package party to be given by tho needle trades section of the Trade Union Educational Léague, The affair will be held at the Work- ers’ Lyceum, 2733 Hirsch Blvd., on Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. Asurprise is prom- ised by the committee. Admission is 2c. (d) $$ Thrilling Garage Hold-Up. STERLING, Ill, \Aug. 81.—Three bandits entered the best garage here shortly after midnight yesterday, rified the safe of $100 in bills and a quantity of silver, kidnapped three men in the garage and escaped after leaving the victims bound on a,highway several miles outside the city, Dancing Ticket 50 cents Dancing Floor Under Roof bus to pienic unds, a na ans ser Former Socialists Now Found in the LaFollette ~ethgal 2. Ps ee (Special to The Daily Worker) LOOMVILLE, WISC., (By Mail). —Inquiry is often made about the members and active workers of the socialist party in years gone. As if this were a mystery, There were several of these form- er socialists at our meeting here at The- the Town Hall in Schley township. They were among those most eager to ask questions. To be sure, they were those most easily answered. se * Invariably they had gone over to the LaFollette movement, when they had not been won for the Commun- ist movement. Without exception they are now to be found in the right wing of the LaFollette move- ment, some even elected to office on the LaFollette ticket, They are now supporting the LaFollette conserva- tives, Blaine for United States sen- ator, and Ekern for governor. As for the socialist party, it has completely disappeared up here in Lincoln county, where it once had a foothold. Victor Berger, socialist congressman, and Daniel W. Hoan, socialist mayor of Milwaukee, told the workers and farmers to support the LaFollette ticket in 1924, They did to such an extent that the so- cialist party was completely gutted of its own members and sympa- thizers, It must be so over other great sections of the state. CAS -’ Of course, these socialists who have found a place at the capitalist fleshpots, even tho they bear the La- Good Time! Come! Grand Defense Picnic Labor Day, Monday September 6 Unity Camp, Saugus, Mass. Sports BRUNO’S UNION ORCHESTRA Follette label, try to justify them- selves. “What reason have we to believe that the Communists will not go the Same way as the socialists?” was asked, for instance, by one of these former socialists, who is now a La- Follette county supervisor, All of which necessitated a care- ful explanation of the different roles Played by the Second (Socialist) International and the Communist. International, the latter the heir of the First International, of the Inter. national Workingmen’s Association of Karl Marx. This ex-socialist didn’t mind severe criticism of the socialists. In fact, he seemed to feel that it justified his present renegade position. He tried to but- tress that position by attempting to drag the Communists into the mire with the socialists. Thus, for in- stance, after he had been completely silenced on the question of Com- munist loyalty to the working class, he came back with the question, “What is going to stop another ruling class from developing its rule over the workers of Russia?” It was a little difficult to discover just what he was driving at. But it seemed that he was under the il- lusion that those holding official position in that Union of Soviet Re- public would develop into a new ruling class to oppress the workers, It was only a hazy and ignorant way of restating the charge of the social- democracy that the dictatorship in the Soviet Union is the dictatorship of the Communist Party and not a genuine proletarian dictatorship. But it did not take long to convince that audience of farmers and lumber workers that the workers and farm- ers constitute the class in power in the Soviet Union today, that they are building the Communist society that is abolishing all classes. All of which shoved the ex-social- ist into a corner and he resorted to some of the arguments of the cap- italist politicians. Thus he urged that supporting the LaFollette pro- gram and ticket would “get some- thing now,” whereas nothing could be expected immediately from sup- port given to the Communists, This, of course, was also effectually shat- tered by showing that the LaFollette movement is but part of the capital- ist political game, trying to give voice to the interests of the small bankers, the rich farmers and the little business men. Since none of these elements was represented at the meeting, the ex-socialist did not get any support for his views, oe 8 Another questioner, showing that the British coal strike is being close- ly followed up here among the farm- ers, wanted to know why it was that scab coal was being sent to England from the United States. It was easy P Refreshments Grounds open 12 o'clock Rainy Weather Will Not Interfere Auspices International Labor Defense Direotions: Takajelevated to Hvorett, car to Malden Square; from there By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. Movement in Wisconsin to point oit that this was due to Jack of international solidarity among the workers of the world, especially between the workers of America and Great Britain. It of- fered an opportunity to point out the role that the workers of the Soviet Union are playing in this great struggle. But this let loose a flood of ex- periences from a woman comrade of the coal mines, who had seen struggle after struggle betrayed by the Lewis regime in the United Mine Workers’ of America, She had fimally come to this agricultural sec- tion of Wisconsin convinced that the Jabor unions were no good. “I don’t believe in them,” she declared rather vehemently, But her resistance melted before an explanation of the role of the trade unions in the struggle of the working. class for power, and their status in the United States at the present time. When thoroly satisfied on this question, she was just as energetic in her efforts to learn the position of the Soviet Union, and of the Com- munist Party in the United States, on the liguor problem. The declara- tion in the congressional program of the Workers (Communist) Party was explained and she was satisfied, stating that she was going to fight against the evils of alcohol on the basis of the Communist position, eo 2.2 This comrade breathed the spirit that was to be found in the first let- ter that I read upon returning to Chicago, It was headed “Lost Youth” and read as follows: “This is a farming community in northern Wisconsin called Marengo. Here a large percentage of the youth are poisoned or poison themselves with moonshine, a pleasant beverage that anyone can cook without break- ing the prohibition law. This liquor is sold here even to minors. “We have here at Marengo an ac- , tive Young Workers’ League branch, a Workers (Communist) Party branch (Finnish) and a Woman's Club (Finnish), The Workers Party, the Woman's Club and the Y. W. L. branch all fight against the poison- ers of the youth, and teach the youth at large’ which path to take and why. Young Workers! Come forth to the Young Workers League!” > The saloonkeeper here at the crossroads at Bloomville admitted that alcohol had a stronger grip on the population now than ever before. “Wine and beer are made in 100 per cent of the homes,” he said. “Fifty per cent of them cook ‘moon.’” He insisted that alcohol was con- quering the youth to a degree never dreamt of under the days of the saloon, Our meeting decided that the alcohol must be fought with the edu- cational propaganda of the Commun- ist Party, and that the youth must be won for the Young Workers League, and the children for the Pioneers. That was the lecture that our woman comrade was reading to what she called the “gray heads” who were present. She declared emphatically that we must win the young people. It was rapidly ap- proaching midnight when our meet- ing came to an end and the audience reluctantly dispersed, the men, wo- men and children departing for their various homes, That worker next door to you may not have anything to do to- night. Hand him this cony of the DAILY WORKER. Admission Free At The Workers’ SSeS errsssssr se, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Will speak in Youngstown, Ohio Friday, September 3, 8 P. M. at UKRAINIAN HALL 25/2 W. Rayen Avenue at the P Sacco-Vanzetti Protest Mass Meeting We Are Lefts, But We Will Treat You Right! at PACKAGE PARTY AND DANCE ; Given by the Needle Trade Section of the T. U. E. L., Chicago Saturday Evening, Sept. 4, 1926 at 8 P, M. aa 2733 Hirsch Blvd. MORE BOSSES SIGN UP WITH GARMENT UNON Jobbers Hide Behind In- dustrial Council NEW YORK CITY, Aug. 31. — ‘Twelve more cloak manufacturers and a jobber yesterday signed the new uinon agreements guaranteeing the 40-hour week, 36 weeks’ work per year, a 10 per cent increase in wages and limitation of the contractor evil, it has been announced. This brings the ‘total settlements to date with in- dependent manufacturers, jobbers and manufacturers who broke away from the Industrial Council to 181. Jacob Halpern, chairman, and -Philip Oretsky, organizer, of the strikers’ out of town committee announced the stop- page of three nonunion shops seeking to operate outside New York. Mr. Finder Twists Facts. Replying to a statement by Henry H, Finder, president of the industrial council of the cloak manufacturers’ association, challenging figures quoted by the union in its letter to Governor Smith bearing on the amount of work controlled by the council in the indus- try, Louis Hyman, chairman of the general strike committee, declared: “Mr, Finder may quote what appear to be official figures to prove that the industrial council, in addition to inde- pendent manufacturers, control more than 25 per cent of the industry and thus are sufficiently important for thé union to arbitrate with alone, disre- garding the jobber element whom we seek to make responsible to the in- dustry. He quotes figures supplied by the unemployment insurance fund which cannot be complete, for the rea- son that among the present strikers are a number of workers from former nonunion shops in Manhattan and out of town which were not registered with the fund, Jobbers the Important Bosses, “In addition, there are any number of manufacturers who, seeking to avoid making full payments to the fund, minimize the number of workers in their shops. Often these have some favorites among their workers, who, unfortunately, seek to avoid payment of their contributions to the fund, and so they are not listed, the submanu- facturer benefitting also by this om- mission. “But the more significant proof that the industrial council, considered strictly’ as inside manufacturers, do not contro] even 25 per cent of the in- dustry is evidenced by the fact that es: part of them, work for jobbers. The same is true of independent manufac- turers, That being the case, it is ab- surd for Mr, Finder to leave the im- pression that the industrial council, viewed as a group of exclusiva manu- facturers, is a force to contend with.” Every reader around New York should attend the Daily Worker Picnic SUNDAY, SEPT. 5 Edenwald Park, New York a (No admission charge) FE: SE Sp aan cereal Pe CRN Matar een D> ev OS <7 SERS 6 rene RN ns CE Pn SCAT RONDO Seon eS Take Third Ave, “L” to 133rd Street or Lexington Ave. Subway to 180th Street. Transfer to Westchester Rail road, Get off at Dyer Ave, (Fare 7c.) Auspices: Daily Worker Build- ers’ Club, 108 East 14th Street, New York City Auspices Local Branch I. L. D. Com. A. Bittelman, Speaker #f a good many of them, if not the great ~ “