The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 17, 1926, Page 5

| N News and Comment Labor Education Labor and Government Trade Union Politica WORKERS AIDED IN PURCHASING OF OWN HOMES Wales Labor Govern- ment Forms Plan By W. RANCIS AHERN Federated Press. S¥DNDPY, Australia, Nov, 15, — The labor government of the state ot New South Wales is about to launch out on a home-building scheme for the workers. The government will follow the Queensland example of advancing to the workers almost the full amount of the purchase money of the homes, repayable by instalments, and hold , a8 security a life polloy of the worker covering the amount owing to the state, In this way the government will be secured and the dependents of the worker assured of a home free of all encumbrance in the event of his death. Arrange Payments. It is proposed that a deposit shall be paid on a sliding scale in accord- ance with the amount earned yearly by the workers, as follows: Yearly earnings to $1,250, no deposit; yearly earnings from $1,250 to $2,000, 5 per cent deposit; yearly earnings from $2,000 to $2,500, 10 per cent deposit; $2,500 to $3,750, 15 per cent deposit; $3,750 to $5,000, 20 per cent deposit; over $5,000, 25 per cent deposit. It.is also proposed that government Jands shall be utilized as far as pos- sible to carry out the scheme, and, so that the purchaser shall not be overloaded by heavy commitments, he shall have the option of leasehold ten- ure, with the right to convert into free- hold at any time. New York I. L. D, to : : Give Reception for eae * -." Political Prisoner NEW YORK, Nov. 15. — Charles Cline, a member of the I. W. W. whose release from 13 years of imprisonment tm a Texas prison for participating in a Mexican rebel expedition to aid in the overthrow of the despotic rule-in Mexico, will speak at a reception and dance to be given in his honor by the New York section of the International Labor Defense on Friday evening, November 19 at Manhattan Lyceum, 66 East 4th Street, Everyone who attends this affair is assured of a good time. Dancing and refreshments until morning. Tickets at 50 cents are on sale at the I, L. D. office, 799 Broadway, Room 422, DAILY WORKER, 108 East 14th St., Room 32, and at the Jimmie Higg! Book Store, 127 University Place. Firemen Gassed. - Four firemen were rushed to the hospital in a serious condition today from illuminating gas fumes following a fire. * They were: Battalion Chief Chris Peterman, Capt. George Gubbins and Firemen John Sullivan and Adward- Halper. All are expected to recover. Why don't you write it up? It may be Interesting to other workers, Organized Labor—Trade Union Activities lPoRTER RISKS PENSION TO TELL TRUTH ABOUT P. R. COMPANY UNION \ By ROBERT W, DUNN, Federated Press, j Si Taylor, born a slave in Virginia near where Lee surrendered to Grant, @ porter for the Pullman Co. for nearly 40 years, has just been retired from service. He is one of the oldest and most militant members of the Brother- hood of Sleeping Car Porters. He joined after he failed to secure justice for Pullman porters within the company’s plan of “employe representation.” Since the plan began in 1920, Si has served in the local committee of Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal District” in NewYork City, He has- also served three years on the higher or Zone General Committee. He knows Pullman company unionism inside out, ¢————+—+.._4—_______—__—__ for he has served on company union committees longer than any other por- ter, ‘White-haired but’ vigorous, Si Tay- lor tells his experiences with the Pullman plan as interpreted and ad- ministered by superintendent, Jimmie Mitchell, whom the porters call the “Mussolini of the Pullman Co. in the Penn. Terminal District." Mitchell, according to a Brotherhood pamphlet, has long been known to “bulldoze, in- timidate and punish unoffending and defenseless porters and maids.” He once remarked that his ambition in life is “to keep the porters under his thumb.” “The company union committee and associates,” says Taylor. “If he didn’t like the conduct of a porter he would hammer on the table with his fist and tell the cringing committee- men the man couldn’t work for him any longer.” mitteemen Si Taylor would speak up. Many times he saved the porters their jobs. Many times he skated on the thin edge of discharge for his ac- tion. But being a veteran porter and popular with the men, the company hesitated to fire him, On one occas- fon the $12,000 a year head of the company’s Bureau of Industrial Rela- tions called him into his office and re- marked threateningly: “Some of our old men have turned damn fool and joined the union. It won't do them any good, I'll warn them.” @nce when Taylor circulated a petition signed by some 200 porters asking for a wage increase, Mitchell |told him: “You should have been re- tired long ago, instead of coming around asking for more “wages.” Mit- chell failed to send the petition to the Pullman office in Chicago, but Taylor took it there himself on his next run. “Were the ballots ever tampered with in company union elections?” I asked Taylor. “Well, we never got convincing legal proof, but we know that in one election where Roy Lan- caster (then company union commit- tee secretary, now Brotherhood secre- tary-treasurer). was running, 50 ballots bearing his name were erased and the name of his opponent—a company man ——written in and counted. We also know that after ballots are cast in Pennsylvania Terminal District, the ballot box is supposed to be put away in the locker of the assistant super- intendent while the key to the box re- sides in his desk. The company bosses could change as many ballots as they cared to.” As an active member of the Zone General committee, Tayler fought hard for the porters but in the min- utes of this company union commit- tee his remarks in their behalf were always deleted. Company union com- mittees never thought of holding a session unless the local company boss was present to open with prayer and steer decisions for the company. Tay- lor quickly learned that “superintend- ents don’t like plain talk, especially from colored porters” and hence the company union was a farce, Taylor fought hard against the dis- charge of Roy Lancascter when he meetings were controlled by Mitchell | was dropped from ‘service on a frame- up charge! after 17 years -without a blot on his card, “{ told the company then. {t was cutting off its nose to spite its face” in firing such in influ- ential and respected porter, The company didn’t listen. Lancaster was fired and a few weeks later the Pull- man Porters Brotherhood got under way. y When Si Taylor was retired this month before his full 40 years’ service were in, he told the company officials he expected it. “I've been here 39 years, 3 months and card.” He was informed that “the company has something against you,” and told that company executives could withhold his pension ef about | | $20 a month, In addition to this veil- ed threat, he was asked what he had to say about the charge that he had : Fi |played close to A, Philip Randolph, Alone among the com- general organizer for the Brotherhood. His reply was: “Don’t say Randolph. Say all the officers of the Brother- hood. proud of it.” Whether his pension comes or not, Si Taylor declares he will stand by the new union till death.” N. Y. Paper Box Strikers Appeal to Negro Scabs NEW YORK, Nov. 15. —(FP)— A special circular entitied An Appeal to All Colored Workers has been put out by the Paper Box Makers’ Union un- der Manager Fred Caiola. The union is striking for recognition in all shops and improved conditions. Colored strike-breakers have been brought in in some cases and even made to as- sault white and colored pickets. The union declares that is does not discriminate against colored workers in any way and protects them in their jobs in peace times fvhen employers’ urge the union to remove colored workers from shops. Colored members of the union are staunchjy fighting with the rest for union conditions, The union circular appeals to non-union colored workers ‘to consider that the employers will cast them aside when the strike is over, because they have no union to protect thems and urges all to join the union fight. . We will send sample copies of The DAILY WORKER to your friends— send us name and address, [ WCFL Radio Program| Chicago Federation of Labor radio broadcasting station WOFL is oh the air with regular programs. It is broadcasting on a 491.5 wave length from the Municipal Pier. TONIGHT, 6:00 p. m.—Chicago Federation of La- bor Hour; Hugh Willis, Security Super- visor of the Illinois Industrial Commis- ct: “Securing the Compensa- Cook, contralto; L Gerald Croissaint, Charlie White, Mi! Colucio, Harry Dream Daddy Davis, 6:30—The Brevoort Concert Triog 11:30—Alamo Entertainers., STRIKE STRATEGY By WILLIAM Z. ARTICLE XVI ‘ * ‘Tae Fieur Acainst The employers use many weapons to crush strikes; starvation, demoralizing propaganda, playing off one section of workers against another, bribing of leaders, etc., and to FOSTER THe Terror all these methods and interspersed with them they add sheer terrorism. With plain force they seek to break the workers’ ranks and drive them ba have their own private armies of teurs who systematically terrorize strikers. great reliance is on the state, The state is the strong right arm.of the capitalist class, the great guardian of their class interests. They control and dominate it from top their service, with its hostile, anti-labor legislation, its injunction breeding courts, its army, its state police, its deputy sheriffs, ete. The degree use this great instrument of legalized violence against the workers depends upon the urgency of their need, ~ If the strike is a small one they may confine their vio- _ lence fo the thuggery of their private plug-uglies and local police. If the strike is more important they will call in the courts, with their train of injunctions, jails, and the rest of it. And if the strike is a great jeal significance they will use the it. Ever and always when they want it they use. the state against the workers. Their use of its armed force is lim- ited only by the degree of their necessity. } The question of fully meeting by the capitalists against the workers in strikes and other , labor struggles raises the central problem of ‘the whole Benblenn 6 a pray, tf “abor movement, the A acdsee aa ck to work. They always plug-uglies and provoca- But their to bottom. It is ever at to which the employers one of far-reaching polit- troops if need be to crush. the use of the state power ot he B **Worker talist system. So long as the capitalists control the state just that long will they use its forces militantly against the workers and in defense of their profit-making system. Hence, the workers, to finally solve the problem, must get control of the state themselves. This will inevitably involve a bitter struggle for power between the two classes. Buta fundamental discussion of this basic problem lies beyond the scope of this booklet, which is to elaborate a system of strike strategy applicable under present conditions.** CouraGe aNp InTeLLiGENce Although the complete solution of the use of the state and the employers’ private forces against the workérs awaits the achievement of power by the latter, nevertheless much can be done under ‘present conditions to ward off, counter, prevent, and weaken such attacks by the employers. The strike strategist must learn to move courageously and intelligently in this, more erucial matter. The history of the American labor movement is replete with the militant defense made by workers driven desperate by fierce employ- ers’ attacks, such as in Homestead, Colorado, West Vir- ginia, MeKees Rocks, Herrin, ete. When confronted with such open ruptures, the left wing must stir the whole labor movement to its depths to land its maximum support, moral, financial, industrial, id political to the attacked workers, If this is done the capitalists will often not consider the game worth the candle, to provoke a costly upheaval among the broad ‘ masses for the sake of brutally oppressing ‘one small section. A skillfully cultivated “public opinion” will, under existing American conditions, help to meet such situations, Liberal organizations will help to create this. Passaic, for example, 1 police clubbings, in the face of a thorogoing exposure, learned that their 2 weeks—24 | years without a mark on my service | I'm a member of the union and | The employers “in yor ; % the role of THE DAILY WORKER Policies and Programs The Trade Union Press Strikes—Injunctions Labor and Imperialism WORKER THEATER ANNOUNCES FIRST PLAY IN GOTHAM “Biggest Boob” to Be _ Shown December 4 | NEW YORK, Nov, 15. — The first |English language proletarian theater jin America, the Workers’ Theater, an- nounced today that the opening date of its first production, “The Biggest Boob in the World,” a fantastic labor comedy translated from the German by Upton Sinclair, will be December 4. The play ‘will be given in the Church of All Nations, 9 Second Ave. The author is Karl Wittvoged, whose “Tragedy ‘of the Seven Telephone Calls” was’ prepared for production by. the Greenvich Village Theater last year and dropped at the eleventh hour. - ‘ Deeter Directs. Jasper Deeter, actor and producer of the Provincetown Players, is directing the ¢ast of workers. The Scenery, designed by Hugo Gellert, |Louis Loziwick, and William Gropper, j will be in the modern Russian style, \broad, simple and grotesque. Florence Rauh, executive secretary of the Workers’ Dramatic League, an- nounced that 100 seats a night will jbe given toethe strikers of New York and vicihity. The play will be .re- peated: in the Church of All Nations on Dec, 8 and 10, and will then be taken to the halls of various labor organizations in Greater New York. Started by Gold. The Workers’ Theater was organ- ized last spring with Michael Gold, of the New Masses, as the guiding spirit. A group of workers, actors, and stage technicians was assembled, and a studio at 64 Washington Square South secured for holding dancing and acting classes, as well as lectures by such celebrated critics, writers, and artists as John Howard, J. P. McEvoy, Mossaiye Olgin, Louis Loziwick, Hugo \Gellert and John Dos Passos. Spirit of Labor, The.aim of the theater, according to. Michael Gold, is to present to Amer- ican audiences the spirit of labor in drama that will touch closely the life of the workers, Gold contends that the American and, European , stage is decadent, that. it panders to the taste of a small wealthy and effete audi- ence, and therefore has no great in- fluence in the life of the nation. He Plans to model the Workers’ Theater here after some of the newer theaters of Russia, which, accordnig to Huntley Carter, noted British critic, are now the most vigorous and alive in the world. Among the plays which the workers’ group plans'to produce shortly in New York are Upton Sinclair's “Singing Jailbirds,” George Kaiser's “Gas,” Ernst Toller’s “Machine Wreckers,” Melerhold’s “China Roar,” and Scho- field’s “Men at War.” Denied New “Plot” on Benito. ROME, Nov. 15. — The government today denied absolutely that there was ,| any grounds for reports circulated in red /the United States yesterday that a new attempt had been made to assas- sinate Premier Mussolini. their virulence, alt in the clase stato { He har the play of militancy. KELLOGG DOESN'T GET RISE OUT OF AMERICAN LABOR Tried to Bring About | Mexican Break By LAURENCE TODD Federated Press, WASHINGTON, Noy, 15. — (FP)— Secretary of State Kellogg appears to have made no progress in alienating the support of the American Federa- tion of Labor from the Mexican Reg- ional Federation of Labor by his an- nouncement taht Mme. Kollontai, new Soviet minister to Mexico, wag too dangerous a Communist to be permit- ted to pass thru this country. Rela- tions between the A. F. of L. and the labor movement heyond the Rio Grande are. undisturbed. Reports that a new and threatening notg ha: been delivered by Kellogg to Prest- dent Calles have served only to renew the friendly co-operation between the labor movements in the two repub- lics. Such is the opinion at the of- fice of the Pan-American Federation of Labor. ’ No Investigation Yet. It is true that the recent conventior of the A. F. of L., striving to aver’ any discussion of the striggle b« tween church and state in Mexicc did adopt a resolution calling for in vestigation into the facts as to an} financial backing of the Mexican labo: movement by the Mexican govern ment. But that resolution did not specify any machinery for making th« inquiry, and up to date no step has ben taken to send an American in quiry committee to Mexico to scan the moral record of the “Crom.” Parallel an A. F. of L. Possible reasons—aside from com- mon sense and courtesy—for forget- ting this proposed investigation might include the record of the A. F. of L. itself during the world war. At that time its policies became so intertwin- ed with those of the Wilson adminis tration, and so many of its leaders be came members of government boards and commissions, that anti-labor em- ployers on the one hand and anti-war radicals on the other became alarmed at the extent of this alliance. There was even established an American Al liance for labor and headed by Samuel Gompers and con- nected with the president's secret war fund thru the committee on public in- formation. This organization fur- nished speakers from among labor un- ion officials, for all kinds of war-time efforts to mobilize public sentiment It wag especially active against the People’s Council movement, which sought to secure from the American government, upon its entrance into the war, a definite statement of war aims in order to hasten peace discus- sions. Sees Strategy. The A. F. of L. is accordingly In- clined to regard the relations of the “Crom” with the Mexican government as purely a domestic affair, to be con- sidered as local strategy, in the same way that the pro-war actions of ths | A. F. of L. in 1917-18 served its own strategy and the current sentiment of its membership. In the same way, the presence in Mexico of a Soviet envoy will not drive the A. F. of L. chiefs to any break with Mexican la bor, but will be viewed as a necessary evil under Mexico’s political circum- stances. The A. F. of L. remains anti-Soviet, but it will continue to point out that the Communists have no influence in Mexico despite the presence of a Soviet envoy there for the past two years, determined strike leadership, were not breaking the strike | fleials or stockholders, but putting life into it. Strike INsun¢rions ann No-Srrixe Laws Arbitrary restrictions upon the right to strike, such as the issuance of injunctions, adoption of Industrial Court no-strike Jaws, ete., the workers can break down by a dis- Touch them lightly and they scorch you, but grasp them firmly and they lose These are nettles. Tine dere) The hesitating way the conservatives handle these is- sues only strengthens the evils, anti-strike legislation and ukases is the way to deal with them. No injunction denying the right of picketing can stand in the face of a rigid determination of strikers to picket notwithstanding. The collapse of the Kansas In- dustrial Court when Howat’s miners struck in spite of it was typical of what happens to such tyrannical laws gen- erally when confronted by a militant labor movement. The time was when the A. F. of L. advocated officially the application of such aggressive tactics in cases of in- junctions. But in these days of intensified class collabora- tion the bureaucratic policy grows weak and insipid. Now its fight against injunctions amounts to little more than sentimental protests and fruitless attempts to line’ up “Labor’s friends” In the two old parties to vote against the right of the courts to issue injunctions in labor disputes, Free Speece Similar militant tactics can be used with good effect when the companies, through their city government agenc- ies, attempt to prohibit free speech and th holding of public meetings during’ strikes or organizing campaigns. The thing to do is to hold them anyhow and to go to jail if necessary. A well-waged free speech fight is never lost. Not even in the black steel districts of Pennsylvania, town officials are usually alto steel company of 4 r Page Five ANEW NOVEL Uplon Sinclair ‘we Copyrigat, 1926, by Uptom Sinciair) “Js she insane?” ‘ . “It’s a reaction from her life with her husband; he was @& profligate, and so she’s a miser. They tell a story about him, he-used to pay his hands in cash, and would drive about the country in a buckboard with little canvas bags, each containing a thousand dollars in gold. One time he dropped one bag and didn’t miss it one of his hands brought it to him, and old Hank looked at the man with contempt, and put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a half dollar. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘here’s the price of a rope; go buy one and hang yourself’!” “So now she’s taking care of the money!” 3 She pays all her bills by registered mail, and preserves the receipts and insists on having a return receipt from the post office, and when that comes she files the two together and when the receipted bill comes back, she files and indexes that. She won’t let a book-keeper do it, because you can’t find any employes who can be trusted to attend to this properly. She spends hours poring over her business papers, and discovering people’s. ca ssness and incompetence. She employs lawyers, and then sfie employs other lawyers to check them up, and then a detective agency to find out how the lawyers are selling her out. She’s convinced the county authorities are persecuting her, nd that they’re all a lot of crooks—she mayn’t be so wrong in hat. She won’t let a book-keeper do it, because you can’t find oaming about the house, dusting the furniture and nagging at he servents because they won’t take care of things.” The two walked on down the beach. “Up over that hill,” democracy, | Mass violation of such aid Vee, “lives old Hank’s sister; he left her part of the estate, nd the two women have quarrelled about the boundary line and he water-rights. Tessie Thatcher’s an old rake—hires men to york for her, and makes them her lovers, and writes them toot- sie-wootsie letters, and then they try to blackmail her, and she cells them to go to hell, and they bring suit for unpaid salaries, ind sell the letters to the newspapers, and they’re all published; but Tessie doesn’t care, she knows that nothing can hurt her so- cial position, she’s too rich; and besides, she’s an old booze- fighter, and knows how to forget troubles.” “My God!” exclaimed Bunny. “What property does to people!”’ fs P “To women especially,” said Vee. “It’s too much for their nerves. I look at the old women I meet, and think, which of them do I want tobe? And I say, Oh, my God! and jump into my car and drive fifty miles an hour to get away from my troubles, and from the people who-waunt to tell me theirs!” “Is that what you were doing when the judge sent you to jail for a week?” laughed Bunny. “No,” she answered, “that was a publicity stunt, the bright idea of my advertising man.” CHAPTER XIV 2 The Star 1 Bunny went back to Angel City and discovered that if he wanted to follow Vee Tracy’s program of dodging other people’s troubles, he had made a fatal mistake to get interested in a labor college! He went to see Mr. Irving, and found the young instruct- or up to his ears in the growing pains and disputes of the labor € movement. All Summer long his job had been interviewing lead- ers and sympathizers, and trying to get them together on aspro- gram. He had managed to get the college started, with three teachers and about fifty pupils, mostly coming at night; but it was all precarious—the difficulties seemed overwhelming. There were a handful of progressive and clear-minded men and women in the labor movement; and then there wus the great mass of the bureaucracy, dead from the ears up; also a little bunch of extreme radicals, who would rather have no bread at all than half a loaf. The old line leaders would have nothing to do with the college if these “reds” got in; on the other hand, if you excluded the “reds,” they would set up a clamor, and a lot of genuine Iferals would say, what was the use of a new college that was so much Jike the old one? The labor movement had its traditions, having to do with getting shorter hours and more pay for the workers; and the old officials were bound by that point of view. The average union official’was a workingman who had escaped from day labor by the help of a political machine inside the union. Anything new meant to him the danger of losing his desk job, and having to go back to hard work. He had leartied to negotiate with the em- ployers and smoke their cigars, and in a large percentage of cases he was spending more money than his salary. Here m Angel City, the unions had a weekly paper, that lived by soliciting advertising from business men—and what was that but a re- spectacle form of graft? When you took any fighting news to an |editor of that sort, he would say the dread work, “Bolshevism,” and throw your copy into.the trash-basket. . (Continued Tomorrow.) am they prevent us from having meetings in the campaign of 1918-19. They prohibited them in Homestead, Braddock, Rankin, McKeesport, Duquesne, and other cities, but in each case we defeated them by tak- ing to the streets in spite of their official ukases. Free speech fights are an excellent means to unite and inspire the workers in such situations, provided the cam- paigns are conducted so that the workers realize theit direct connection with the wage struggle. Care must be taken not to precipitate such free speech fights prematurely, before the workers realize what is at stake, else they will not support them. The employers have a keen sense of the importance of militant working class leaders in the struggle., Hence, a settled policy of theirs is to arbitrarily remove these mili- tants wherever they get a chance. The railroading to jail of such labor fighters has long since been a favorite weapon of American employers. The frame-up and the fixed. jury are their means to this end. The cases of Tom Mooney, W. K. Billings, Sacco, Vanzetti, Cline, and Rangel are only a few of scores who have paid the penalty. This line of attack, the crippling of our leadership, is one that must not be allowed to go on unchecked, Under existing circumstances the best protection that can be the working class in their defense when any are taken. This agitation must not flag until they, are finally released. These outrageous arrests and imprisonments can be made the oceasions of such great upheavals and protests among the workers, that the capitalists will often’ be compelled to slow up if not abandon altogether their persecution plans, The labor movement must militantly defend. its fighting leaders. It must be organized definitely to this end. The organization best fitted for such purpose is the Interna: tional Labor Defense. — i 4% ite 4 thrown around them is a wide and bitter fight to arouse a 7 rig ik a i i