The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 12, 1927, Page 7

Cotton Slaves in the.South — HE Department of Agriculture publishes a list of food values. From that list you will find that the cheapest food on which life may be sustained is corn meal and bacon, That is exactly what the cotton slave in the sonth eats—-home grown corn, ground in a small, filthy neighborhood mill and the cheapest imaginable bacon—fat back, butts meat or belly. This constitutes his food day in and day cut, summer and winter, week days, Sundays and Christmas. The U. S. Census Bureau discloses the fact that over fifty per cent of the farmers haven’t a cow. They sometimes raise chickens on a farm, but that Gelicacy is for sale and not to be eaten. Likewise eggs are never,eaten on the majority of farms. The only variety the farmers have from the universal diet of fat bacon and corn bread is the occasional addition of collard leaves, field beans or sweet po- tatoes. The art of cooking did not progress to any ex- tent on the southern farms. The only cooking uten- sil known is the frying pan. Corn bread is merely adough made of corn meal, water and lard warmed in a fry pan. The center of the corn bread is raw. The fat bacon is not .cut into strips but is merely warmed in a fry pan. When field peas or collard leaves. are prepared for the table, they are also warmed in a fry pan together with the bacon. Sweet potatoes are baked on the hearth cf an open fire- place. What neither the Devartment of Agriculture nor the Census Bureau publish, however, is the low wage scale which prevails in the cotton belt. Labor is hired by the year and a whole family is hired at the time. The usual rate for a family is $300 a year. Since this sum is paid in the form of credit extended in a commissary or general store, and since these lien stores are well noted for their long profits, the cash equivalent would be nearer $200, \ This sum must be sufficient for food, clothes, furni- ture, medicine and everything except living quarters, which is furnished by the owner. The house is a dilapidated shack containing two rooms. In some localities tenant houses are built with mud chimneys. These ¢himneys are forever falling in and setting the houses on fire, but it is very easy to extinguish a fire when it starts and it only takes a day to repair a fallen mud chimney. WAR! We must have war. Down with the snicraties! Let hatred wake, and murder walk the land. The Moscow dogs must go! Say what you please, Our standard Oil we'll safeguard with the brand. Up with the flags and let the boy-scouts drill; Call out the citizens and beat the drum; Put Old Abe’s picture on the screen, and thrill The patriotic hearts of all the dumb. On to Berlin! Excuse me, Mexico! Wipe out the yeller heathen—cursed race! Conscript the husky morons—let us go— You bet we'll keep “Ma Kellogg” in his place. Slay, tar and feather. lynch and jail the reds, Burn, beat, and murder all the pacifists, Behind bars with the workers, bréak their heads —We'll make a dozen fortunes out of this! Coose-step the willing heroes to the fray, (We ought to lose a million dubs or more), Down with the Tools of Moscaw! Candy? Say, On to the front! we must—we must have war! —HENRY GEORGE WEISS. By NORMAN SILBER Windows and doors are hand-made. The floor is made of rough boards with large cracks between them. The walls are also made of rough boards and alse contain cracks through which the wind enters, There is no ceiling and the roof is mee of shingles through which the stars shine. When it rains, the shingles swell rapidly and the rain enters only through the larger cracks. No pretense of paint or whitewash is in evidence and there is nothing by way of decoration or ornament except that the walls are covered with old calendars, circus posters and other picture advertisements. The family portraits hang on the walls. of course. No attempt is made to keep the house or yard tidy. Everything wallows in filth. Very often the outhouse is adjacent to the well and since the well is deeper it tokes only a few seconds for the filthy seepage to reach the drinking water. Malaria fever is the pet complaint and a farmer spends one-third ef his life in bed. Doctors are scarce and money with which to pay them still more so. Faith is pinned to one of the numerous brands of patent medicines with which the country abounds. The social life of these farmérs is zero. They never go to church. They do net take any active part in politics and show no interest in any events. Their main topics of conversation are hunting, fish- ing, circulated rumors concernine shooting scrapes and herd times. Their deplorable. plight they lay at the deor of progress which brings the automo- bile, the good roads, and a disbelief in god. I am afraid that the peasantry in the south will be harder to organize than were the peasants of Russia. Certainly, they are just as illiterate and their physice!l courage is not very substantial. Even the kn klux klan foundit hard to reach them with their propaganda, because they cre tired and dis- interested—in everything. Horrors of Prison Life in Poland Report of the I. C. W. P. A. Delegation te Poland to Investigate Into the Conditions ef the Political Petsoners. N the initiative of the International Class War Prisoners Aid (British section of the Internation- al Red Aid) a delegation of British Members of Par- liament visited Poland in the end of November, 1926, in order to investigate into the conditions of the political prisoners. The delegation consisted of J. Beckett, M. P., and A. Shepherd, M. P. Mrs, Horrabin was secretary to the delegation. It re- ported to a meeting of pressmen on Friday, Decem- ber 17th, 1926. Mr. J. Beckett, M. P.: Ladies and gentlemen, whilst in Poland, we have been trying to find out the truth of the various allegations of political per- secution there. We arrived back last Wednesday morning and felt that-it would be desirous to get some of the things we wanted to say, into press as soon as possible. We have not yet had time to prepare any detailed statement that could be cir- culated, but will just give, on behalf of the three of us, a short statement on the more important things we have to say about Poland, and then there can be questions which we shall be glad to answer in order to bring out anything that we might have missed. * Large Numbers. Protested. In 1922, conditions were so bad that a very large number of French writers, professors, doctors, and professional people generally, issued their protest to the Polish government about the conditions of the prisons and treatment of political prisoners. This protest caused a very great scandal, and as a result the Polish Parliament set up an Investiga- tion Committee of representatives of various par- ties, and a radical deputy, named M. Thugutt, was the chairman. This committee was granted com- plete. facilities for its work and carried on, for two years after which it presented its réport. On the report being issued, it was found that all repre- sented parties were very strongly unanimous against the conditions in the prisons, ° The report is too lengthy to quote just now, but the report has been practically confirmed by vari- ous authorities, although sometimes the allegations against the Polish government are made in moder- ate language. This Committee of Investigation made 10 recommendations as to the methods that Should be used to ensure the necessary safeguards being given to citizens against arrest and to the press against suppression, and to all against unfair treatment generally. When approached on the mat- ter, the answer of the government was: “Yes, we know things were bad when that Committee re- ported, but they are quite all right now.” One of the first things we felt it would be use- ful to do, was to interview Mr. Thugutt and get his opinions, Mr, Thugutt is not influenced by any party. We saw him in the Polish Parliament (known as the “Seym”) on 10th December. He told us that conditions were little, if any, different from when the report was issued. Not one of the 10 recommendations has been carried out, and although it was hoped that the new government would ‘have given a political amnesty and improved conditions, in his opinion there had been no improvement o: reform of any kind. ; International Figure. 3 These things were further born out by an open letier which was issued in September, 1926, by Madam Sempolovska, and addressed to Marshal Pilsudski. Madam Sempolovska is a well-known international figure in prison reform circles. She belongs to no party and is a sort of semi-official person, entrusted by the government with the task of carrying out the transfer of prisoners between Poland and Russia, and therefore she has certain limited facilities, She has worked among political prisoners for 31 years, and in her open letter she points out that she therefore considers that she has not only the right, but the duty to say publicly what she thinks on this question of the conditions of the prisoners which she considers are in a seri- ous and sad state. She reminds Pilsudski of the service she rendered him when he was in Russian prisons years ago under the Czarist regime for being a rebel against Czardom. She gives some startling facts. We interviewed her both at the beginning and at the end of our visit. The facts we are going to give you are from our own personal observation, mostly confirmed by her, and largely also, by Mr. Thugutt. Letters To Pilsudski. Mrs. Horrabin: When the Czarist regime ezisted -in Russia, Madam Sempolovska rendered aid to Pilsudski and various Polish patriots who were im- prisoned, and on the strength of her work she wrote this open letter calling upon Pilsudski to help the political prisoners. In this letter she stresses the need for a political amnesty. THE CHURCH Whether in Jerusalem two Chiou years ago or in Mexico today, the Church has always been the enemy of progress, the foe of freedom, the strangler of truth. Now, as of old, its God drives Man out of Eden, lest, having eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he also eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life. The “light” of the Church is darkness and, wherever it has had the power, “How great has been the darkness thereof.”—Covami. 2 The Church gets up at midnight when the Race in sleep is thralled, And, ere the slumb’rers waken, it the way to life has walled; Illuming facts are taken from accusing history’s page, And love’s torch-bearers murdered by the priesthoods in their rage. The Church fights never fairly, never on the open plain, But tigerlike and steathily, with gibbet, dirk and chain; Up thru the gloom of ignorance, unseen, unheard, felt-shod, It creeps upon its victim, and strikes “in the name of God.” The Church will swear ‘allegiance unto any cause that lives, Teach anything, preach anything, serve any cause that gives; Will, for a price, robe right in sackcloth, wrong in silk array, Will crown a Constantine and cheer a Calvin on his way. The Church spreads like a upas over heart and soul and mind, Grows powerful and fattens as the Race grows lean and blind; Forever and forever it is siding with the kings, Is at the throat of Labor and is breaking Freedom's wings. The Church still strives to rule us now as in the yesteryear, To keep the Race on knee before the wizened God of Fear; The Priest still serves the Slave Lord, and the Slave Lord serves the Priest, And Truth is ever warring with the ever-hungry Beast.