The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 10, 1926, Page 6

Aebitsisartcsas .tight to hire and fire—especially fire Page Six RED Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, i 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ul, Phone Monroe 4713 | Oo Be sl ol abe aa THE DRILY WC SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $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 Blvd., Chicago, Hil, ences J. LOUIS ENGDAHL \ WILLIAM F, DUNNE SS Se Entered as second-class mail Septemb@r 21, 192 Editors Business Manager BERT MILLER .... , at the post-office at Chi- cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. <= 290 ‘Advertising rates on application, Amalgamation and the Cloak and Suit Contractors’ Lockout The American Cloak and Suit Manufacturers’ Association, which is the grandiloquent title by which 800 cockroach capitalists who do work by contract for the big bosses.in the industry are known, is trying to smash the union and force 20,000 workers back to slavery in the fetid atmosphere of their lofts. These lesser lords of cloaks and suits are demanding that the| International Ladies’ Garment Worke Union concede them the s they see fit. With rigid ions—providing that this policy could. not be carried out in shops employing less than 35 workers and that the reorganization must take place only at the beginning of the season—the union made this concession to the industrial council representing the large It was provided further that workers who are dis- ‘d at the beginning of the son by some employers shall be d in some other shop. Blacklisting is prevented. But the fly-by-night contractors cannot be held in line by these With the right to’hire and fire indiscriminately and the restric manufacturers, charg plac i methods. speed-up system for which this would afford a perfect base, the contract shops would inevitably take on the most loathsome char- cs of the old sweat shop system. ‘tors have threatened to lock out the workers. They are backed by the big bosses, who see in this struggle the possibility of striously weakening the union, and are aso getting aid from the | right wing leadership of the union which is fattening on every dif- fieulty with which the left wing leadership is faced. | It was no aceident that meetings of the right wing officials—| man, Dubinsky, Ninfo and their following, manufacturers, con- tractors and strong-arm underworld squa¢ s<-were held simultane- | ously and that the capitalist and socialist press of New York began | the attack on the union together. No good purpose is served by trying to minimize the seriousness of the situation which the union confronts. The right wing is de- sirous of a defeat for the union in the present struggle. It is willing and ready, and has been doing so ever since the strike was called twenty-seven weeks ago, to hamper the struggle in every way pos- sible, even to the extent of a united front with the bosses and the police. The needle trade unions are in a ‘fight for their existence. Special conditions in the industry, with which we do not need to deal here, have created a crisis in the ind@stry. The signing of the recent agreement by the New York section of the Amalgamated lothing Workers in no way challenges this statement for the reason that precisely while a condition of nominal peace.prevails in the men’s clothing industry the union is being tindermined. The left wing has raised the issue of amalgamation of all the ueedle trades unions into one powerful union ‘for the industry. This is the only effective reply the unions can make to the challenge of the bosses, but it is now clear that the right wing leadership of all the unions is willing to see the organization destroyed before they will consent to this logical and necessary step. The threatened lockout by the contractors places the question igamation first on the order of business of the needle trades s and altho to those who view the situation superficially it appear to have little connection with the present struggle, it is ally the one and only way of assuring ‘victory for the Interna- tional Ladies’ Garment Workers and the rest of the unions in the in- dustry. CURRENT EVENTS 1.) By T. J. O'FLAHERTY Page It is wéll illustrated and well written. But it is shot righi thru with a cynicism of which the edi tor Salutsky is the chief exponeni. “What's the use?” seems to be the mes- gotten up. Continued from and third for at least one week, be- e murder has a sex angle. A scer shot himself because a mor | political By ‘JAMES P. CANNON. Sec'y., International Labor Defense. N recent months the department of labor of the Unitéd States has tracked down a number of Italian workers who have fled their home land and come to the United States. Many of them_have been in the fore- front of the struggle for liberation trom the iron heel of Mussolini and fascism, Among them are some of the best representatives of the suffer- ing people of Italy. They have fled in desperation to the United States since it means assassination instantly for some of them were they to remain in the land of Mussolini any longer. In the United States the ferocious | blackshirts of Mussolini cannot put their prospective victims into prison cells, to be tortured or murdered. | They cannot conveniently repeat the assassination of Matteotti, But in the department of labor of the govern- ment of the United States they have found a bloodhound to run down the refugees who have sought asylumn In America from the hang- men of Mussolini! The machinery of the department is servilely placed at the disposal of Mussolini, It is used to run down these hunted workers, to find some super-legal pretext of false entry, to destroy completely the tradi- tion of the right of asylum which the United States has accorded to so many distinguished rebels in the past. This machinery, under the direction of Mr, James J. Davis, the secretary of labor, is being utilized to, deport workers who have been active in the struggle against fascfsm in Italy and port them to Italy to be turned over to the bloodthirsty executioners of the Mussolini dictatorship! PIES of the fascist government of Italy swarm through the Italian population in America. During recent months the department of labor act- By VERA BUCH ‘OVED by the occurrence of a series of terrible fires in ancient New York tenement houses in which workers and their children have re- cently lost their lives, the Housewives Counetl of Harlem, Branch No. 1, call- ed a protest meeting Wednesday even- ing, Dec, 1st, at 212 Bast 104th St. Workers and housewives of the neigh- borhood flocked in to the meeting which was very well attended. Those who were not yet familiar with the work of the United Council of Work- ing Clas’ Housewives, of which the Harlem Council is a branch, expressed great enthusiasm for this organisation of housewives and working women which is everywhere fighting for the workers’ rights. Mrs, Fabricant, one of the members of the council, acting as chairman, ex- pressed the purpose of the meeting. It was called to protest against the loss of workers’ lives in fires, and to take action to force the city to erect better homes. The first speaker, Vera Buch, organizer of the Working Wo- men’s Councils is New Jersey and one of the workers in the Passaic strike, explained the significance of the bad housing conditions which make the lives of the workers miserable not only in big cities like New York, but as well in the smaller industrial cities like Passaic. The Contrast, HY is it that on one side of New York City we have splendid mansions and magnificent apartment gage on his home was falling due and ied himself into insanity over sage that Salutsky wants to convey to his readers, outside of the necessary ncial condition. The acciden Ca tal death of an ironworker goes unno- See ia toes bund esi ne Rhea sey ticed unless he falls on a passing po- eee ith ies prolly pear git liceman, but let a wealthy parasite pie . . Sane z pe diacsadeal x have a stomachache and see what. litany. ee ar} will happen. OMMENTING on a new item the \ i is not hard to prove that all men are fools and all women for that ppeared in the press. Academy has been op- ened in Moscow, J. B. Salutsky, editor of The Advance, official organ of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of matter, provided one has assimilated a respectable dictionary. Words can work miracles. But people must eat. A man drawing a salary of $125 a America, remarked that the Russians are taking the humor business seri- ously and follows with a ggestion that if the workers and peasants, who are—thru their representatives—con- structing a socialist society in an area comprising one-sixth of the earth, did not take themselves so seriously, they would be more popular. F course Salutsky is of the opinion that most of the sins attributed by less precocious people to the Rus sians that live in Russia have been committed by the Communists of the United States. Which might convince the average reader of The Advance that the paper was friendly to Russia but critical of the active friends of the Soviet Union. I once knew a man who could ndt tolerate the Commu- nist Party of whatever country he hap- pened to be in, but was quite loyal to the Communist International until he found himself obliged to live up to de- cisions of the Comintern. Those who profess devotion to the Soviet Union ~-the base of 6perations of the world revolution—but at the same time jibe at the very men whose leadership made success possihle are only false friends of the Workers’ Republic. 6 ieg e organ of the Amalgamat- ed Clothiig Workers is splendidly [coset cM week can afford to be more philosoph- ‘eal in the Will Durant sense that the | democrats or republicans will do this poor devil who has to put on a guess- every pay day as to whether he gets full pay, half pay or ing contest no pay. But stern necessity drives the masses into action, when neces- sity becomes sufficiently stern, and it is then that the leaders who have spurned the philosophy of doubt march at the head of the profession while the word ticklers retire to their fastnesses and are forgotter unless they get too hungry, too thirsty or too serious. $ HE issue of The Advance that I am commenting on is of December 3. There is a big garment strike on in New York. There is a_ textile strike in New Jersey, There is an im- portant election campaign in the United Mine Workers of America. | did not notice a single reference to any of these outstanding labor strug: gles in The Advance, tho Mr. Salut- sky indulges in facile abstractions about the civilization that will be born when labor in some vague way that Salutsky has not yet juggled out of his wordy head, will bring Greenwich Village into every proletarian home, ; They will find by experience that houses, and afew blocks away, on the East Side, old tenement houses not fit for dogs, houses literally falling down, but in which the workers are forced to live? The explanation lies in the roots of the economic system under which we live. The capitalists own the shops and other means of production, The workers slave for them. The workers produce all wealth and get a miserable wage while tie boss heaps up profits from their labor, Why is it that the city governments do not provide good houses for the workers? If the workers think either for them, let them try these parties. these the bosses. parties are supporting Minimum of Safety, N the shops and mines, the workers are losing their lives daily be- cause the bosses will not put in safety devices to protect them, In the same way, workers and their little children its agents in the United States, to de- | THE DAILY WORKER Stiall the U. S. Government Be Mus ing in cooperatiof With this vermin and on information furnished by them, has been arresting many of the Italian refugees on deportation warrants. Many Italian workers have already been deported to Italy. Only recently Vincenzo Vacirca, formerly a deputy of the Itallan chamber, upon whose head’ Mussolini has placed a price, was threatened with deportation to Italy, The menace of deportation is still held over him by Mr. Davis of the department of labor. Now Enea Sormenti, one of out- standing leaders of the anti-fascist movement in the United States, has been arrested at the direct instigation of the fascist ambassador and is being held for deportation into the hands of Mussolini. To be sent back to Italy means for Sormenti; as for his many Italian brothers who have been de- ported, certain imprisonment, torture or death! IHE department of labor is acting as the bloodhound and ‘agent for a government which is looked upon with abhorrence by ‘workers in every part of the world. Who does not know the bloody record ‘of fascism? Every one is acquainted with it. Under fascism in Italy, the life of the work- ers has become a nightmare of terror. Their homes: have been destroyed. Their families have been murdered or broken up. The trade union move- ment has been wiped out and its or- ganization made illegal. Only the fake, emasculated “fascist labor, un- ions” which are the instruments of the fascist bosses, are permitted. The splendid co-operative movement of the Italian workers has been demolished. |Not only the homes of the workers, but their trade union and labor cent- ers have been burned down. Their press has been made illegal and their political organizations smashed or driven underground. Thousands of the flower of the Italian working class have been brutally murdered by the fascisti. Thousands more have been tortured and imprisoned for long [ brought home very” forcibly to the audience the horror of this ‘accident.” On that very day, Brooklyn, three little colored children had met their death thru a fire in their tenement home. These are only a few of many such atrocities which are an every day thing in the lives of the workers. The following resolution was then Proposed to the Roping and unani- mously adopted: a “WJHEREAS the .workers of New York City are.forced to live in miserable tenements, most of which are so old that they do not conform to the present housing laws and are & menace to the lives and health of the families in them, and “WHEREAS it is of frequent oc- currence in this city that terrible fires break out in these tenements, burning the homes and injuting the families solini’s terms solely because of their devotion to the cause of labor, Hours of labor have been increased by fascist decree. Wages have fallen, while the cost of living -has gone up. No strikes for improved conditions are permitted un- der Mussolini's rule, and the workers know the frightful penalties that await them if they dare to express their organized power—or their opin- ions, Italy under fascism has become a living hell for the workers and the poor peasants. Every semblance of “democracy” has been removed and a naked capitalist dictatorship rules the land. No. fearful of the great and sup- pressed power that is inherent in the working class, Mussolini has taken the most desperate measures to re- move all possibilities of revolt and to insure his tottering power New re- pressive laws have been passed by the fascist chamber of deputies. No oppo- sition parties are permitted to occupy seats in the chamber or in the senate, These are reserved exclusively for the fascisti. Mussolini personally now ap- points half of the members of the chamber, A new series of arrests of workers and labor leaders has taken Place in every center in the country. Attacks upon workers are the order of the day. Fascist raids upon the remnants of the workers’ press take place with renewed frequency, Italy is swept by one wave of terror after another. The American labor movement has made clear its position towards fasc- ism and the rule of Mussolini. The conventions of the American Federa- tion of Labor at Portland and Atlantic City passed resolutions denouncing the rule of the blackshirts, The re- cent Detroit convention of the A. F. of L. reiterated this position. The workers of America, of all shades of opinion, are a united whole in their opposition to fascism. They recoil with horror from the frightfully in- credible fascist record of murder and of workers and in many cases which have happened recently, even causing the death of some members of the families, and ; Talk, Not Action. “WHEREAS there has been a great deal of talk and many propositions brought forth on this subject on the part of the governor and other of- ficials of the city and state, but no action has been forthcoming to relieve the situation, be it therefore “RESOLVED, that the workers of New York and particularly the women of Harlem here assembled this first day of December, 1926, protest against the burning to death on Nov. 29th, 1926, of Samuel Weiner and his two young sons in a Cherry St. tenement, and against all other such atrocities | which have happened recently in this city. Be it further League of New York. The play is about a group of weavers, who foolishly allow all the profits of their hard labor to be stolen by a scoundrel and used for his own Pleasure. The play was written in Ger- man, by the Communist playwright, Karl Wittfogel, and it has been trans- lated by Rudolph Liebich and adapted by Michael Gold. Local Touches Added. : In the adaptation, many local touches have been introduced which were greatly appreciated by Saturday night's audience. Phe action of the two prologues takes place in Passaic, New Jersey, and’ ‘every time the weavers mentioned their home town there was loud applause. Another touch that met with enth: sm and hearty laughter was the “Fierce Bull Dog” whose name was Gompers and who helped guard the apples belong- ing to the wicked capitalist, Hunt Biggest Boob. The fact that the story is about Pas- saic weavers does not limit the action to that city, for two%of the weavers: go are burned to death in their homes, because they live in decayed old tene- ments with wooden stairs, with rusty fire-escapes and, narrow halls such that they cannot escape from, The landlords are responsible just as the bosses are responsible for the deaths in the shops, The second speaker, Bonchi Fried- man of the Amalgamated Food Work- ers, gave a moving talk in Jewish along the same lines, » He told how only the day before, in Cherry St, on the lower Bast Side, a young worker named Samuel Weiner had been burned to death with his two young sons, leaving be- hind him a wife and one child. The brother” jamuel Weiner, who was present, le meeting, sitting there with tigi ic, grief-stricken face, if oo nenaened ied traveling to hunt the biggest boob in the world, and their journey take them to Africa “among real cannibal and to China to a Buddhist temple. Actors Are Workers. The actors were all workers, many of them members of the Young Work- ers League, and they proved them- selves just as capable of appearing be- fore the footlights as of other more serious tasks, A few of those who took leading parts had had a good deal of experience which was evident in their excellent performance, But after the caste recovered from a@ bit of nervous- when the curtain ,first opened not only the leads but every single weaver, cannibal and Chinaman played his part well, It not be fair to pick out the four, ve principals tor special praise, was no one + TO FIND “BIGGEST BOOB” SEE PLAY AT WORKERS’ THEATER IN NEW YORK Pt By HELEN BLACK. ~) (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, Dec. 8.—If you have not learned who the biggest boob in the world is, you Ought to see the play by that name which was given its first production in this country Saturday night by the Workers’ Drama It is to be repeated on Wednesday, Dec. 8, and Friday, Dec, 10, at the Church of All Nations (2nd avenue near Houston Street) and every worker will certainly enjoy seeing it. — KARL WITTFOGEL Communist Playwright, Author of “The Biggest Boob” in the production who marred it by a bad performance, This is the first production given by the Workers’ Drama League, and as Michael Gold announced during the in- termission, it is the beginning of an attempt to build up a real workers’ theater..movement in this country, Those who took part in thig first production were Wifiam Lenson, Adele Kaminéer, Ann Chazick, John Vogel, Charles Yuro, Michael Lenson, I. Cohen, Jacob Wasserman Max Geld- man, Max Geltman, Manuel Granich, Simon Rady, Kopel Koplowitz, 8, Auer- bach Edwin Stanley, J, Palchik, Evans Winner, Adolph Bassen, Betty Wolfe, Olalre Swartz, Philip Wolfe, Sonya Winet, Madeleine Michaelson, ene) \ The beat ~subdscribe fs Why not by oF rie 3 DAILY WORKER sent ly to take to your trade Bloodhound? | terrorism. Progressive organizations and prom- inent public men have’ also’ added their voice of protest. Farmers’ or- ganizations have expressed their de- nunciation of the regime of blood and iron in Italy. ET, in the face of this, and of the cherished right of asylum to poli- tical refugees, which is one of the proudest traditions of America, the secretary of the American department of labor, Mr, James J, Davis, sinks to the lowest depths of servility to accomodate the assassin Mussolini. Mr, Davis searches out the refugees, arrests them, and deports them into the maw of fascism to be served up as the victims of that insatiable gang of butchers who rule Italy, Mr, Davis who permits the entry into this coun- try of the Queen of Roumania, in whose land the labor movement has been strangled, refuses to allow work- ers who have escaped the clutches of Mussolini to remain here. The International Labor Defense, a national non-partisan labor organiza- tion for the defense of the rights of workers, is defending the case. of Enea Sormenti, and maintains the right of asylum for all political re- fugees. We call upon the workers of America, and upon all people who be- lieve that America should be an asyl- um for political refugees and not a fascist trap, to join us in the fight for Enea Sormenti and his comrades. They are in the greatest danger. The Mussolini government is waiting eagerly to execute these courageous eres self-sacrificing fighters who are carrying the exposure of the infamous | fascist regime before the world, Hold mass mestings thruout Amer- ica in behalf of the Italian refugees! Adopt resolutions, send letters, tele- grams and petitions to Secretary of Labor James J. Davis and to the mem- bers of congress! Halt the plot of the assassins by an overwhelming Protest movement ot the American people! United Council of Working Class Housewives Protests Fire-traps “RESOLVED that a delegation be elected from among the workers of all localities in New York and from among organizations of workers in the city, to visit the Mayor-in City Hall on Dec, 13 at 2 p. m., to voice such protest and to demand that the city government take immediate ac- tion to remove all old-law tenements and to erect new teneménts which shall be safe to live in and ‘shall be rented without profit at* such low prices that the workers can afford to live in them.” fad pursuance of this resolution, a ula) The case establish 7] precedent in libel committee was elected from the floor to form part of the delegation mentioned. Other mass meetings are to held in different parts ‘of the city, similar to this one, from which dele- gates will be elected for the Visit to the City Hall on Dec. 18th: Books for the Worker’s Shelf NEW TACTICS IN SOCIAL CON. FLICT. A symposium, Edited by Harry W. Laidler and Norman Thomas, 230 pages. New York: Vanguard Press and League for In- dustrial Democracy, 1926. 50 cents. To the student of the labor and in- dustrial situation and to all anxious to keep in touch with the latest develop- ments of American capitalism, “New Tactacs in Social Conflict” will prove a source of keen satisfaction, for within this volume may be found the opinions, pithily expressed, of more than a score of students of labor and active leaders in the movement pre- sented by many of them, from diamet- rically opposed points of view. The subjects presented group them- selves in general under the headings, “Changing Relations Between Prop- erty Ownership and Control,” “Trade Unions Enter Business,” “Changing Tactics of Employers Toward the Workers,” “The Sweep of Industrial Combination,” | “American Economic Imperialism,” “The New Propaganda” and “Power, Coal and Forests.” But these titles give little idea of the im- mensely informative and stimulating symposium by thinkers and doers in the world of labor contained within the covers of this book. Newspapers Can Print Lawsuit News Without _ Libel, Is Court Rule NEW YORK, Dec, 8.—The appellate division court here has reversed the decision of the supreme court that publication of lawsuit news by tho’ press, which charges are not proved, constitutes Mbel. The case involved the Evening Post, that was sued for libel damages when it published the charges against a christian science practioner as filed. The charges were later dropped, The supreme court held the publication, was libelous. The appellate court declared that when a suit is filed the charges are public property and can be examined by anyone, thus it is not improper for a hewspaper to pu story. 4 mportant | DAILY WORKER to Anew f NOVEL Uplon Sinclair (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclair) Then a peculiar thing happened. Vee Tracy came to Bunny; she had just completed another picture—no propaganda this time, no, she had laid down’ the law to Schmolsky, she would never again have anything to do with Russia, or with strikes, or anything that might wound the sen- sibilities of her ofl prince. This time the billboards announce Yiola Tracy in “An Hight-Reel Comedy of College Capers, ntitled ‘Come Hither Eyes,’” Vee Was glorious as the flirt of the campus, breaking hearts of football stats by the eleven at a time, and incidentally foiling the plot of a band of bookmakers, who had bet a million dollars on the outcome of the big game, and sought to paralyze the team by kidnapping its mascot and darling. Bunny, hay- ing no sympathy with either book- makers or kidnappers, it had been all right for him to watch this pic- ture in the making, and supply local color out of his own experience with college capers, The “world premiere” of “Come- Hither Ey was to take place in New York, and the star had to at- tend. “Bunny,” she said, “why not come with me, and have a little fun?” Now Bunny had never been East, and the idea was tempting. He had two weeks’ Haster vacation, and if he missed a bit of college it could be made up., He said he would think it ov and later in the day—this was the Monastery—Annabelle at opened up on him, “Why don’t you go,with Vee, and take Dad along? The change would be the very thing for him.” He studied her ingenious coun- tenance, and a grin came over his own. “What's this, Annabelle—you and Verne trying to get us out of the way of the strike?” She answered, “If your friends really care for you, they'll wish you to be happy.” And when he sata something about it’s being cowardly to run away, she made a striking re- ply. “We're going to have roast spring lamb for dinner, but you didn’t consider it necessary to visit the slaughterhouse.” “Annabelle,” he replied, “you ate a social philosopher.” And she told him that people went to universities to learn long names for plain com- mon sense, Evidently the plot was deeply laid, ior when Bunny- got back home there was Dad, inquiring: “Did Verne say anything about what he wants me to do?” “No, Dad; what’s that?” “There's a conference in New York that somebody’s got to at- tend, and he wanted to know if 4 could get away. I was wondering If it would break you up at the uni- versity if you were to take a bit of vacation.” Bunny debated with himself. What could he accomplish by staying? In the first strike he had managed to keep the workers in their homes, but he couldn't do even that much now, for Verne would be in charge, and would not budge an inch, Anna- belle’s simile of the spring lamb ap- peared to fit exactly the position of the old workers’ union. The job of slaughtering might take weeks, or even months, but it would be done— and all that Bunny could do would be to torment his poor father, And then Bertie was called into the conspiracy. Bertie wanted him to go. She was to visit the fashton- able Woodbridge Riley’s and after that to be on Therma Norman’s yacht, and she didn’t want h brother getting mixed up in an oil strike and perhaps making another stink in the’ newspapers! Wouldn't he think about Dad for once, and get the old man to take a rest. Buany was tired of arguing, and said, all right, Vv. The proposed trip brought up a curious problem. How did one travel with one’s mistress, in this “land of the pilgrim’s pride?” Bunny remembered vaguely having heard of people being put out of hotels, because of the lack of marriage cer- tificates, Would he and Vee have to meet clandestinely? He asked her about it, assuming that her ex- perience would cover the question, and it did. On the trains one took a compartment, and no questions were asked. As for hotels, you went to the most fashionable, and let them know who you were, and they made no objection to putting you in ad- joining suites, with a connecting door, Look at Verne and Anna- belle, said Vee. When it suited their convenience they stayed quite openly at the most high-toned of Angel City's hotels, and there was never a peep from either the man- ~ agement or the newspapers. It had happened more than once that Mrs, Roscoe had been stopping at the same hotel, and the papers would report her doings on the society page, and Annabelle’s on the dra- matic page, so there, Ser ag Peon say clash, ft (Continued ‘tomorrow. a} Ty We will send send us name and !