The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 15, 1926, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 2113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mall (outelde 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 mafl and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Il, J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE BERT MILLER ... | nnn Editors -Business Manager AES ER TEESE aE OEE ee AS SNS Entered as second-class mai] September 21, 1923, at the post-office at Chi- cago, Ill, under the act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application, A Stool pigeon Takes the Stand The Minneapolis Daily Star, of Nov. 9, carries an editorial en- titled, “A Disillusioned Bolshevist” and the.:“‘Bolshevist’. is none other than the stoolpigeon Morris Gordon who went to Russia after the war, ostensibly to render service to the revolution, but actually on the instructions of the intelligence department of the United States. government. The Minneapolis Daily Star, which features at its masthead Samuel Gompers’ slogan: “God bless our American institutions. May they grow better day by day,” was founded with the funds of the farmers and workers of the northwest and its former editor, Thomas Van Lear, was once elected mayor of Minneapolis on the t ticket. The Star took the money and left the farmers hold- the bag. The Star fears that congress, when it gets into swing, will be agitated for Soviet recognition by Senator Borah and others who that American interests will be best served by having » and commercial relations with a government that holds sway over one-sixth of the earth’s surface. The editorial in the renegade Star is no accident. It is part of the propaganda sent out by the underground reactionary organiza- tions in their campaign to block recognition of the Soviet Union by the United States. All the forces of reaction, from the fink agencies to the officialdom of the American Federation of Labor are in a united front for this purpose. And none are more vicious than the renegades who once professed their devotion to the social revo- lution and their loyalty to the international army of labor. The word of a stoolpigeon is a weak reed to lean on. Morris Gordon received his thirty pieces of silver. He is only one of the many sewer rats who have sought to make money out of their per- fidy. But despite the worst that could be done by the stoolpigeons, even when they were backed by the gold and armaments of the most powerful imperialists of the world, the Soviet Union survives and was never more powerful than today. The workers and peasants of the Soviet Union are behind their own governments. Bayonets and guns are not needed to keep them loyal. This is more than can be said for capitalist governments that are propped up by the sword. The American working class are not going to be fooled by the hired lies of stoolpigeons. There is ample evidence from men and women of reliability that the living conditions of the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union is improving while the condition of the workers in every country in Europe is on the downgrade. It is clear to all that the Soviet Union is a factor for ‘peace in world polities and a tower of strength to the struggling masses of op- pressed peoples everywhere. The Political Prisoners’ Holiday Fund The International Labor Defense is collecting a Christmas fund for political prisoners in Americasi jails and penitentiaries. It is planned to send each of them $25. This small sum will be a sort of payment—a very meager one on account of the debt owed by the working class to its most fearless fighters. Sacco and Vanzetti, still in the shadow of the electric chair,| Tom Mooney, buried for more than ten years behind the dismal walls | of San Quentin; Warren Billings wearing his life away in Folsom; the Centralia fighters in Walla Walla, serving forty years for de- fending their hall against the attack of the American Legion and/| other tools of the lumber. trust; the I. W. W. prisoners in Cali-| fornia. sentenced under the vicious criminal syndicalism law of that state for the crime of trying to organize workers, the framed-up textile strikers in Pass’aic—these are a few of the workers to whom, the holiday gift of the American working class made thru the In| ternational Labor Defense will be sent. Poorly situated as a worker may be, engaged in a heart- break- | ing struggle both for a livelihood and against capitaliet oppression, | he can still spare something out of his scant store for a cause such | as this for these contributions are a pledge made by the working class that those who have been taken prisoner by the enemy have not been forgotten by their comrades-in-arms, Do not forget your comrades in jail as the holiday season rolls around. There are no holidays in jail. Support the campaign of the International, Labor Defense by yiving yourself and getting your fellow workers ‘to do the same. Build a united front of working class comradeship for the im- prisoned fighters of the working class. DR. JOHNSON, COLORED PRESIDENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, TALKS OF NEGRO Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, first Ne- Gem 290 sociali believe heels,” said Dr. Johnson. “So much gro president of Howard University of|has already come out of our heads Washington, a race institution, who|that you will tearm nothing from our spoke Sunday before the ‘Chicago|heefs.” Forum, indicated afterwards in @! He pleaded not for equality for the private conversation that he heartily |Negro, but»tor equality of opportunity, approved of the American Negro La-|“Give every Negro an equal chance bor Congress. with the whites, and then let him be In the question period, he was asked | consigned to any status that he shows if 4 was not true that the Negro acted |himself fit for, ‘but no more.” frequently as a strikebreaker. He sald in repl “What can you expect if the Negro is excluded from your unions and he and his family are hungry be- cause of lack of opportunity of em- ployment? The unions should be in- terested in a high wage—not merely in a high white wage. Admit the Ne- gro to your unions, then strike—and see what will happen.” He cited five thitigs that the Negro wishes: Education; admission to in- dustry; a place at the council table, meaning a free ballot; to be called on for a share of community work, such as was afforded him during the war, and the removal of the neg of im-/this contact. "This mere justice wan ferlority. not enough; «what we craved was the, "It will do no good - oar | orisinat aiantty ot @ human boing.” race since its emancipation, he said they owned property to the value of $1,800,000,000, had acquired 34,000 square miles of land, and had sent 10,000 of their number thru college. He pictured the struggles of the emancipated Negro, divided by a so- cial line from the whites of the South and thus cut off from a cultural con- tact that they needed. He told of the courageous northerners who faced ostracism to come to live among them and give them a cultural background, While many southerners treated them justly in a business way, they refused THE DAILY WORKER The Facts About “Red Gold” STATEMENT OF A, J. COOK ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE DATA BY THE LABOR RESEARCH DEPT., LONDON. In recognition of the wonderful services rendered to the miners dur- ing this very great struggle for the right to live, | recommend and urge all the workers of this country to read this pamphlet and to under- stand that it is written to supply to the workers information in regard to our comrades in Russia and their viewpoint on the situation. It con- tains information of the British gov- ernment, supported by some reac- tionary political and industria! lead- ers who are desirous of breaking the bond of friendship existing be- tween the two countries as a result of the support received from the Russian workers to help the miners and their families in their struggle. It is now impossible tO break that Recounting the achievements of the, bond of friendship, but it is neces- sary for the workers to remember their true ‘friends in time of need. You have before you in this pam- phlet the method adopted by the Russian workers in collecting funds to aid the miners. They have noth- ing to hide, but welcome the fullest investigation into their methods. The refusal of the T. U. C. to accept aid from the Russian workers while they were accepting funds from every other organization created a bad impression among the Russian workers, but it must be said that the action of the T. U. C. does not represent the viewpoint of the Brit- ish working class. I make no apol- ogy for urging the workers to study the contents of this report and to recommend to the workers to form an Anglo-Russian committee which will cement the bond of friendship. I hope the miners will form an Anglo-Russian miners’ committee so that we may keep in touch one with the other to help forward the object which we have in view, A. J, COOK, Secretary, Miners’ Federation of Great Britain. ee HE general strike and the miners’ lock-out in Great Britain are events of world-wide importance. They have evoked a response in the working class of every land. Nowhere has that response been heartier and more ex- tensive than in Russia, where the workers had to fight so flercely for freedom, and where with titanic effort they have established the only social- ist state that yet exists, The British bourgeoisie, unable. to crush the British workers and unable !to break the heroic will of the miners, |has everywhere raised the ery of | “Russian gold.” Tweed, the chief of the British shy- }locks, and with him all the “hard- |faced” bourgeois and the whole bour- | geois press, are continually slandering | the Russian workers. The contention lis that money has been sent to aid | the strgugling British niiners, not by |the Russian workers, but by the, So- | viet government—which, of course, {has nothing better to do than to in- |terfere in the international affairs of Great Britain! Tho not even the | Baldwin government has ventured to {support Tweed’s fable to the effect that the money was sent by the Soviet | government, the capitalists continue to repeat it, and to utter slanders |against Soviet Russia. Let Them Rail. ET them rail; let them ask ques- tions in parliament; let Churchill and Birkenhead vent their spleen ‘against the working class and the | Soviet government. History will con- temptuously ignore the clamorous cries of these usurers, who are |alarmed at the prospect of losing their privileges and forfeiting their domin- *}fon. But the fact that five millions of the organized British workers, with perfect unity of spirit, raised the jstandard of revolt against capitalism, and were ready to fight-to the end; and the fact that, after the support of the general strike had been with- drawn, the British miners were not discouraged, but have continued for three months (at the time of this writ- ing), to carry on an unequal struggle for a living wage and for decent work- ing conditions—these facts will be forever recorded in the annals of the working class movement. They are food for rejoicing, even tho the gen- eral strike was so badly led, even tho in the end it was criminally betrayed. Furthermore, we must note, as a new and significant phenomenon in the history of the working-class move- ment, that this strike, originating in ; Britain, tended to assume an interna- tional character, But for the obsta- cles imposed by the contemptible and cowardly reformist leaders, in Britain and on the continent, the strike might have become international in the full- est sense of the word, and might have seriously shaken the whole capitalist world, When the unity of the prole- |tariat in the class war became not ' merely objectively necessary but (this is the important point) a realizable possibility, the international working- class movement entered upon a hew phase, An example of this unity, not verbal on'y but actual, was given by the workers of the Soviet Union, The fact cannot be shuffled out of the world by. slanders, but threatening notes, by the rattling of swords, or by talk off Ru golds rs Sa The All-Russiit Council of Trade Unions Tells the Facts of the Financial Assistance Rendered by the Workers of the Soviet Union to Their Striking British Brothers HERE has been much talk about “Russian gold,” not only during the great British strike when millions of dollars raised by the Russian workers were sent to help their struggling British broteers, but before this In England and elsewhere, no less than in America where every milltant movement is charged with being financed by “Russian gold.” The story that runs in the adjoining columns is more than a mere statement of the truth concerning the origin of the money sent from the Soviet Union to help the British strikers—it is a tale of working-class solidarity, the spirit of which swept the victorious working class of the Soviet Republic in, a vast, all-embracing movement unequalled in the whole history of labor, There is something romantic about this report of the All-Russian ,Gouncil of. Trade Unions—the crumpled note of the old working woman; the ringing challenge to capitalism contained in the plain-speaking resolutions of the workers in the factory, the insist- ence of the workers to pay a full day’s wages into the strike fund when they were solicited to pay only a quarter. The ready self-sacrifice which the as yet none too well-paid workers of the Soviet Union (because their struggle for economic independence from the capitalist encirclement and the heritage of the czars is a slow and tortuous one) is told in this report and constitutes a real working class epic. The account here republished is a number of extracts from a more exhaustive study igsued by the Labor Research Department of London. It was translated from the report of the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions by Eden and Cedar Paul, well-known English translators. The foreword by A, J. Cook is also the foreword to the original publication and the two state notes that appear in the box are taken from a fly leaf of the pamphiet. Spontaneous Reaction to the General Strike, HE news of the general strike in Britain aroused thruout Russia a tremendous and elemental outburst of enthusiasm, a primary manifestation of working-class solidarity. No words can describe the excitement that pre- vailed in the streets and squares, and wherever men and women were gath- ered together at work. At the end of the day’s work, from every public building, from every factory and work- shop, there poured forth columns of demonstrators with gags flying, bands playing, and slogans streaming in the wind—all wending their way towards the trade union headquarters of the city. There was no room in the great square for even a fifth part of the demonstrators. At the most modest estimate, more than one hundred thou- sand persons must have taken part in it. While the meeting was “in progress, | the central areas of the city, where | the speeches were being reported by | loud speakers, were so greatly con- gested that the buses and trams had to be stopped. Comrade Oliver, the chairman of the Britigh delegation of railway men, who was in Kharkov at the time, took part i the demonstra- tion, Be it noted that this demonstra- tion was on May 5, the day before the decision of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions to send finan- cial support to the British strikers was made public. On, their own initia- tive, the Kharkoy workers had made banners bearing the slogan: “Broth- ers! Expect from us not only words of cheer, but also material aid.” This affords the best possible evidence of what the Russian workers were think- ing and feeling during the first days of the general strike, Similar spontaneous demonstrations occurred in a great many towns, such as Tomsk, Tamboy, Vladimir, etc., etc, Everywhere workers and emplpyes participated in their thousands, and everywhere on their own initiative the masses raised the question of sending material aid. Thousands of Meetings. HUS, there were street demonstra- tions in a good many places, but indoor meetings were practically uni- versal, There was not a factory or workshop, there was not a govern- ment or municipal institution thruout the vast territories of the Soviet Re public, in which there was not held, thanks to the impetus of the masses, a meeting, large or small, to discuss what was happening in Britain. In a quite unprecedented way, the general strike monopolized public interest, The meetings were packed as they never had been before, and were sig- nalized by unwonted stir and enthu- siasm. Here, there, and everywhere, the same sentiments were voiced: “The British workers’ cause is ours,” and “We must not only show sympa- thy, but must give practical help.” We wish once more to emphasize the fact that the workers were using these phrases among themselves be- foreany appeal had been issued from the trade union centers. They were The Bri The people's commissariat for ments to the British mission and the reply of the Soviet government government of June 12th. Having perused the memorandu government considers it necessary ment that in the Soviet Union the: a permit in each individual case. Text of the Notes Exchanged Between the British Government and the Soviet Government, June 12th, 1926 the expression of class consciousness, The trade union organizations merely voiced the general sentiments of the working masses. This is proved by thousands, nay by tens of thousands, of resolutions, passed without a dissentient, one and all relating to the need for a levy on wages in aid of the British strikers. ERE is an almost literal transla- tion of the terms in which the workers embodied their determination to send monetary aid. The incident took place at the largest of all the factories in Moscow—the Sickle and Hammer, where several thousand workers are employed, The secretary of the factory com- mittee, at a general meeting de- voted to the discussion of the Brit- ish general strike, spoke as follows after the resolution had been adopted: “Comrades, since we have decided to give material as well as moral aid, I propose that we should’ send to the British workers a quarter of a day’s earnings.” “Not enough!” “Half a day's earnings would be better.” “A day’s earnings,” the cry came from all sides. Then one of the workers mounted the platform and made the follow- ing proposal: “For the period from the Ist of May to 5th, let us send & quarter day’s pay; from the 6th to the 9th, halt a day's pay; and from the 10th onwards, a whole day’s pay.” “Good! Vote!” “Thosé in favor?” Fifteen hundred hands were tumul- tuously flung into the air, “Against?” “What are you talkitg about?” someone angrily exclaimed. —(Pravda, May 13, 1926.) Such was the Russian workers’ mood everywhere. Even after the All-Russian Central: Council of Trade Unions had issued its circular impos- ing a levy of one-quarter of a day’s pay upon all the organized workers, many of the meetings voted consid- erably larger contributions. h Government Note. His majesty’s government regrets that it cannot’ maintain silence about the actions of the Soviet government especially in allowing the remittance to England of sums intended to support the general strike. The general strike was an illegal, unconstitutional act, being a menace to the established order in Great Britain. the Soviet commissariat of finance is not conducive to a friendly settle- ment of the questions outstanding between the two states, which settle- ment the Soviet government professes to desire. The Soviet Reply. In particular, the activity of foreign affairs presents. its compli- has the honor to present herewith to the memorandum of the British m of the British government handed to the people’s commissariat for foreign affairs on June 12th, the Soviet to point out to the British govern- re is not a total prohibition of the export of currency but only a restriction of the export, which requires The Soviet government, expressing the will of the workmen and peasants of the U. S. S. R., could not forbid the trades unions which are organized by the millions of work- men of the U. S. S. R, to send money abroad to render support to the trade unions of another country, At the same time the Soviet government calls the attention of the British government to utterances not agreeing with the real fact and not in accordance with normal relations between governments, made by some members of the British government, who stated that the sum re- mitted to the general council of the British trade unions was sent by the Soviet government while in reality it was sent by the central council of the All-Russian Union of Trade Unions, in agreement with the Soviet trade union centers. CURRENT EVENTS By T. J. O'FLAHERTY (Continued from. page 1) money from them, painfully. But can you take blood out of a turnip? aces pemaay employes seem to be much the same the world over. Or should we say streetcar “leaders.” Be that as it may, the street railway workers of Tokio went on strike, but called it off on account of the illness of the emperor, who seems to be pull- ing off a “Ferdy of Réumania” stunt. The action of the Tokio streetcar men reminds us Of the Cléveland electric employes, who cancelled a strike lest it might inconvenienge a G. O, P. convention. Their yeward was the usual one. The employers refused to recognize their union and the courts declared that a union Jn a public ser- vice is illegal. We are waiting to hear what will happen to our Tokio brothers after the emperor passes away. OOLIDGE economy is now under fire from the big enthusta: is all very well to reduce tax inimum, but the patriots must have something for their trouble. The pro- fessional militarists must be able to look forward to a well-fed and well- groomed future, and what are the wives and deughters of our ruling classes going to do without a goodly supply of officers to grace their par lors? We have not one-tenth of the needed supply now, and the demand ig terrific, Yes, Cal, Jook out! You may be going a little far. If you were only as nice to navy lads as you are to the bootleggers and the anti-saloon league your chances of election would be brighter! OOLIDGE is not unmindful of all these requirements, Neither is he blind to the necesstty of a sufficient floating armada to defend the inter- ests of American capitalism from Nic- Aragua to China, Calvin is taking ‘good care of Wall Street's interests. But an election campaign is coming on and the lads who are hungry for more pork are making a_ noise. Wichels, in his book on political par- ties, explains quite satisfactory the meaning of the tricks employed by those who want to jimmy themselves into an inner circle. A vigorous at- tack is as good as any method yet discovered. A few chunks of pork thrown at the big navy boys will make them see reason. Shipyards must be kept busy, ‘O more encouraging piece of news came over the wires in many moons than the story of how a Rus- sian scientist succeeded in transplant- ing various organs of one monkey to six human patients. The patients and the monkey are doing fine, according to reports. What we are anxious to find out, is the effect of the trans- plantation on the intellectual facul- tles of the humans, Should there be a quickening of mentality observable after the operations perfect mon- keys will be rare in America, but, brainless human ings dvi | garand |the monkey supply is adeq | COMMUNIST AND FUTURE PEER WILL RUB ELBOWS IN HOUSE OF COMMONS (Special to The Daily Worker) LONDON, Dec, 13,—Communist Saklatvala, sitting on the Red third row of the benches in the house of commons, may soon rub elbow with Lieut, Commander the Hon. Joseph M. Kenworthy, heir to the ninth Baron Strabolgi, and hence destined ‘for a peerage. The rationalization of this fairy tale is this: Commander Kenworthy, who served in the royal navy from 1902 to 1920 and who was the box- ing champion of the fleet, carried his pugnacity into politics and en- tered parliament as a liberal. For some time he has been swinging more and more to the labor party, until he recently declared formally his switch in parties. © Under British law, this ne tated a bye-election, in which Ken- worthy stood on the labor ticket to succeed himself as a liberal, He won with 16,146 votes, against 11,466 for his conservative oppon- ent, with the liberal candidate as an also-ran with 2,885 votes, When Kenworthy succeeds his father as a peer he will automati- cally be barred from sitting among the commons, hence he is making hay while the sun shines. As an expert parliamentarian he is re- real gain to the labor sro inte aaa Cb NN se ARS MCRAE AEDS (Copyright, 1926, by Upton Sinclatr.) | One of the young fellows who had taught at Dan Irving’s labor college was in New York, and Bunny met him, and they talked about what was going on in the labor movement all over the world. Bunny would have liked to meet him again, and to go to meetings—there were 80 many exciting things in ths great city, headquarters of the radical movement as of everything else: But Vee found out about this, and set out to saye him—just as if he had wanted to smoke. opium or drink absinthe! She would make engagements for him, and claim his time, and question him, with an.anx- ious, “Where is my wandering. boy tonight,” sort of an air. Bunny knew, of course, that she was doing it for his soul’s salvation, and doubt- less at Dad’s direct request; but all the same it was a bore. He had one other acquaintance, to whom Vee-made no objection—his mother. She had married agaim some time ago, and her husband was rich, and she had a, lovely home, so she had written. - Bunny went to see her, and had to make an extreme effort not to reveal his com sternation at her appearance. . A dreadful example of what happened a woman who yielded to her crav- ing for a square meal! Mamma had filled out till she was round as @. ball of butter, and so soft that it was hard to keep together on a hot day like this. “Fair, fat, and forty,” runs the saying; the surgeons add, “and a bad gall bladder,” but Bunny didn’t know that, and neither did Mamma. She was dressed like a queen in his honor, and had a poodle dog—selected, as Vee would have said, to match her figure. Her husband was a dealer in jewelry, and apparently he used his wite instead of a safe. She insisted on giving Bunny a diamond ring, and when he told her about the strike, she gave him another to be sold for the strikers’ relief fund. Oi] men were cruel, said Mamma—she kne' VII. weg Dad was attending to the business which had brought him East. He didn’t say much about it, and that Was unusual, so Bunny knew it something off color. Presently he wormed it out of*his father, It had to do with those naval reserve leases they were planning to wot President Harding had been inaw- gurated, and had made gp 4 Brockway his attorney-general, — cording to schedule, and appoit Vernon Roscoe’s man as secretary of the interior, This was Senator Crisby, an old party hack who had served Roscoe and O'Reilly when they were occupied in turning out one Mexican administration and put- ting in another; they had held over the Mexicans’ heads the threat of American /intervention, and this Grisby, as senator from Texas, had clamored for war, and almost got:tt. | He couldn't let women alone, Dad | said, and so he was always busted, | and ready for any new job that came along. Now he was to give the oil men # whole string of valuable leases for practically nothing; but he had .to have more money, there were a lot of fellows that had to have a lot more money, That was the trouble in dealing with politicians; you bought them before election, and then you had to buy them again after election, They wouldn't “stay | put,” like business men. What Dad had come on here for was to con- sult a lawyer that Verne considered the greatest in the country, and fix up a little corporation for the pur- pose of buying government officials Jegally. Of course Dad didn’t put. it | in those crude words, but that was what it amounted to, Bunny insist- . ed, and how could it be done?..Dad answered that a real good lawyer could do anything. This was going to be a Canadian corporation, s0 that it wouldn't have to obey United States laws; and the men that took stock in it wére to get their leases in the end, But the trouble was, no- ff body could be sure just what the leases would be worth, and Pete O'Reilly and Fred Orpen were try- ing to make Dad and Verne put up too big a share of the money. Verne was made and said they could goto hell, and he wanted Dad to settle down and wait a while in New York, and bloff them out. Could Bunny make up his mint to skip the rest of his college term, and maybe do some studying with a tutor, and pass his examinations in the fall? (Continued tomorrow.) \ EFFICIENCY PLUS, Editor, DAILY WORKER— Now they won't have to come to meetings for three years, “Ww, sin hs wife are the typa | of soctalists lieve in party ganization, omirades have aia nd | eis. so