The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1927, Page 6

Annee Page Six New York Daily Beating| the Tom Toms for Coolidge Can’t Drown Farmers’ Woes By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. the British Miners’ Strike By CATHERINE B, H. CANT. ese in this and in all the other| HE most important event, for the| @veas, led by the women of the labor whole labor movement, of the| Party and the Communist Party, wo- | year that has passed since last wo- | men took charge of certain defined | men’s day has been the seven months’ | and important tasks. be lockout of the British miners, But} The raising of money tho the chief when we are marshalling the lessons | #¢tivity in the non-mining areas, was | of the past year to teach us what| ot of such importance in the coal must be our tasks in the future we|fields, The feeding of the striking | WO pub ions arrive with @onflicting viewpoints i c ; rf " of the problems on the land. The New York Herald- should consider how women have en-} men and the children in kitchens and Tribune f-satisfied with conditions as they are and tered not only into the recent strike, | ells a rn a ae behou Laeui works energetically for the re-election of Cal Coolidge but into the coal industry every: | yeh abe atin Foe money aie as “the best president big business ever had.” But The where. f vat és v ht Pipe Aitabia « vibes one 0} Progressive Farmer, “Printed in the Interest of the| In its early days thé industry em-j*he chief women's activities. | Holding the men together by) neans of concerts and amusements | other. The most important ies, however, were the demon-| ployed thousands of women under- ground, In-some pits it was neces- | sary for them to work almost naked | V —crawling in 24-inch passage: drawing the heavy trucks of coal b: Organization of All Times, the Progres- ers of America,” breathes the discontent of the nd gives the lie to the smug organ of rests in the eastern metropolis. * * * ‘The Role of Women in | THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1927 Mi COUNTRY ’TIS OF THEE By NAT KAPLAN. Wall Street’s Confession Of Faith. | TT was to be expected that Bruce Barton’s discovery of Jesus as the prophet of profit would be followed yy an extensive advertising campaign to sell the idea. And, as ever, the Wall Street wolves who adopt the garb of the gentle lamb of god have had no difficulty in gathering within their fold a group of ecclesiastic press agents—as manly as amasculated Augustan priests, as honest as Judas and as Christ-like as Mary Magdalene’s pimp. Thru the church advertising department of the In- ternational Advertising Association comes an expression of the substance of religious faith held in common by 100 reverend gentlemen, representing all of the 57 or more garden varieties of christian doctrine so notably travestied thruout the world—an expression that will please their masters because of the bland assurance with which it attempts to salve human suffering and ques- tioning. An excerpt follows: “Religion breaks down the wall or partition between | class and peoples and fosters good will, because it lifts It makes the spirit of human brotherhood man’s domi- nant social passion. the abundance of the things which he possesseth’.” * * * Metropolitan Note. trations and propaganda connected | one hand to god and reaches the other across to man. | It gives men a true standard of) |Communist Party worked without values, It shows that ‘a man’s life consisteth not in| American Economic Life By WALLPROL. COAL AND COTTON WEAK PROPS FOR PROSPERITY BLAH Iron, Steel and Autos Still Below Normal The business prophets are kidding either themselves or the public. In view of the apparent chronic nature of professional American optimism, Significant is the nickname given the N. Y. Police In-| they may: be doing both. * * * Religious Humility. The Herald-Tribune is one of the nation’s powerful /a chain fastened to a belt round their | With all questions of relief. capitalist dailies, and it has a thousand allies, some) waists. In this matter the women of the greater ome smaller than itself. The Progressive Work Underground in Bengal. ss . Farme 1, only four pages of six short columns} These conditions have been abol-| ceasing to get all that was possible | each. hed in far off Glendale, Arizona. But|ished by the struggles of the work- | Ut of the authorities as relief. Cases it is born to fight and speaks for an organization that| ers from British pits. Nowadays, | We" mown in Fife and Nottingham- has grown out of the farmers’ struggle and it will con-| the only women actually employed in | Shite where women with tiny children tinue to win influence. The United States government | the industry are the 10,000 or so “pit | ¥ D a itself tells \ the victory rests ultimately on its side,| head girls” who sort and “trim” the hills to protest against the pitiful | sluggers.” fn literature just issued by its department of agriculture. | o9a}), Women must never forget, and|S¥ms given out as relief. _ Such | ; ie sft .__|international women’s day is the day | @emonstrations were general in all) After writing five different articles about. farming for remembering, that tho the efforts | districts. The organization of mass | eonditions in the middle west, Edwin S. McIntosh, the staff correspondent of the New York Herald-Tribune wanders into Fort Dodge, Iowa, and turns loose his sixth Britain, women’ and.. ile mee o i a tog ae Beaigritiy ay following out instructions from |children are still slavinb under, even H ce ee a ell apr his iditor ‘found that pte both local and foreign, ig| Wore for the same cepitalists,;in the | voreed to te sn yn asl investing ‘in Iowa. He says, “Take public utilities for| pits of India and China. (For es Pr : fe Ww eee cid in her arms 4S example”: i * |stance, of over 250,000 miners of < . “The Central Towa Power and Light Company, I am Bengal who tried to organize a strike | Meetings For Women Held. informed, has spent $2,000,000 in improvements in the |™ aid of the British miners, over | Meetings for women—for wives of 60,000 were women working under-' strikers, were held regularly through- of the organized workers have abol- | Great last 18 months. walked as much as 20 miles over the qustrial Squad by one of the rank and file—‘Picket- | Right now they’re pointing to the index of business activity as a sure sign that things are humming in America. They fail however to an- Take a glance at the controversy between the very |alyze the factors making for the re- pickets where these were necessary | Reverend Monsignor Father Belford, of Brooklyn, and|iurn of business activity. Otherwise ished such work in the mines of | ¥@S another important task of wo-|the gentleman from Alabama, Senator Heflin, duly re-| they would pipe down a bit on some | } For this many women were ar-| corded by the Brooklyn Tablet. oY th more blatant blah. Let’s Said Hefflin, from the Senate floor: “I could squeeze | take a look at the figgers ourselves. his brains out between my thumb and forefinger.” Part of the reverend father’s answer included this: “Why, we have bigger hogs right here on Long Island.” * * * Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here! Even Josephine Josephus Daniels, ex-secretary of the “The Iowa Power and Light Company, thru the Des} Moines Electric Company, has spent $8,000,000 on im-} provements in Des Moines in the last 18 months. i “The Sioux City Gas and Electric Company has spent | $4,000,000 in improvements recently. | The writer’s conclusion is that, “Business men here} argue that such figures as these indicate capital has con- | fidence in Iowa.” | . * * | ground in the pits. The mine owners make them work sometimes 30 hours at a stretch to save the cost of bringing them up and sending them down the shaft. These women out of their wages of something like 16 cents per day con- tributed more than $3,750 to the re- |lief of the miners in the strike. }out the coal areas. In some cases these regular meetings held to ex- plain the situation of the strike and to see that all the difficulties con- cerning relief, feeding, etc. were cleared up as far as possible, have crystallized into permanent forms, of Guilds of the miners’ wives, to bring them into closer contact with the af- But the interests of the mortgaged and tenant farmers) In 192i a long strike resulted in|fairs of the trade union. All these and of the farm workers clash with the interests of cap-| the bringing down of the standard of | activities grew out of and were sus- ital. If big business is happy over the conditions in|the miners to a bare subsistence | tained by the indomitable spirit of Iowa, that means an unhappy conditton for labor. Cap-|level. Since then the conditions un-|the great mass of the miners’ wives. ital invades districts where it is possible to take high|der which the miners and their wives | It was admitted by capitalist news-| profits, where the plundering is good and the haul rich. | have had to live have been a disgrace! papers that without this spirit and | Capital does not go where the return is small, if it can|to civilization. Their average wage| determination which animated the| possibly help it. The investment therefore of more cap-|in the best districts was $12.15 per| women that the solidarity of the men | ital in Iowa indicates that profiteering on a good scale|week—in the worst which were the| would have been broke long before it. in Nicaragua is not yet built? protected.” |mavy, has joined the foes of imperialism—with limita- |tions. In his Raleigh News and Observer, Daniels says: “The purchase of an oil well in Mexico does not carry the right to a warship from Uncle Sam to control the government of that country . . . They (the imperial- ists) are determined that American investors in Latin- American countries shall dictate the policies of the United States with referencé to those governments. They put their dollars above the lives of young Americans.” And the Detroit News dsks and answers a pertinent question: “Why complain if the canal our marines are guarding The blue-prints must be While the San Diego Union joins our qerty party with this sage observance: “Secretary Kellogg asks the colleges to do all they is rampant. This means that somebody is being robbed. | largest, $7.27. Out of this the wife | was finally defeated. can to promote Latin-American friendship for America. |The average of activity since 1919 is 100. Here’s the table: Dec., Jan, Feb., 1926. 1927. 1927. Pig iron prod. .. 964 94.6 96.5 Steel ingot prod. 96.9 94.0 98.2 Freight car load’s 102.4 97.9 101.1 Elee, power prody 103.7 102.8 Pr Bitum. coal prod. 123.3 $114.4 *125.0 Automobile prod. 65.9 792.9 195.0 Cotton consump- Hom) Kini ce 117.8 110.8 115.8 Wool consumption 94.0 88.1 os Boot and shoe a, See RY 100.0 95.7 as Zine production 108.0 101.3 97.9 Combined index 103.0 $100.2 *103.9 The first thing that’s proved by this index is that business is picking up after the bad slump of December and January. The combined index shows 103.9, or 3.9 per cent better than the average for the post-war years. BULK OF PROFITS IMPERILLING BOSS ECONOMY IN U. S. Don’t Know What to Do With Surplus Billions | Wallprol has been pointing out with- |out ceaze or letup that the burden of surplus values is lying heavily up- on American economic life. Workers {have been producing billions in re- }cent years, and getting only a part of it in return. The owners of indus- try have found it impossible to con- sume their profits made by exploit- ing labor. What to.do with the huge surplus, how to invest it, where to invest it? That's been the problem. | Part of the solution has been in im- perialism in Latin America and Asia. | Automobiles arid building, it has | been pointed out in this department, have taken up a good part of the slack since 1928. Repeated predictions of a saturation point in both industries have so far been disproved in fact and Annalist, the New York Times’ sage financial weekly, says that there will be even more expansion in build- ing. Why? Because of these surplus values pressing for investment, in any thing at all, whether needed or not, just so there’s some hope of a return on the investment. Continuing on the general theme of “easy money”, i.e. the billions of uninvested funds, | Annalist says: “There appears to be no present sign of any early and forced balanc- ing of the accounts which have been created in the last three or four years by the phenomenal abundance and cheapness cf money—-otherwise bank credit. But look at coal production, 25 per cent above normal. Look at cot- | ton consumption, nearly 16 per cent It is possible to do much to patch up specific unsound situations, Yet there is perhaps some not easily But so few of the colleges are equipped with marines.” The victims are to be found both on the land and in the|had to do everything—feed, clothe,| The miners’ wives of Great Britain ‘ = : - industries of the cities. | and house her family. The houses | jn spite of their heroic fight are now | which generally belong to the colliery i i The boast is made that Iowa leads the state of the ~! = ssh a hick pen ie te Ace id A Bourgeois Art. union in agricultural products with an annual total of | $1,500,000,000. | But th i nber of landless farmers, the percentage in 1920 | ing 41.7 percent, and in 1925, 44.7 percent, an increase | of three percent for the five-year period. This condition, | of growing tenantry, is peculiar to the Mississippi Val- | ley. The following table prepared by the United States government shows the percentage of farms operated by| tenants in 1920 and 1925 in 15 states in which tenantry | has been rapidly increasing: Percentage of farms operated by tenants 1925 1920 Arkansas 56.7% 51.38% | Colorado 30.9 23.0 Idaho 24.4 15.9 Towa 44.7 ALT Kansas 42.2 40.4 Louisiana 60.1 57.1 32.6 28.8 27.1 24.7 21.9 11.3 46.4 42.9 North Dakota 34.4 25.6 Oklahoma 58.6 51.0 South Dakota 41.5 34.9 Texas 60.4 53.3 Wyoming 17.9 12.5 . . . Thus the black plague of peasantry lays waste the hopes of toiling farmers thruout the richest section of the land. Thruout vast areas of Montana, the Da- kotas, Arkansas and Texas the five-year increase, 1920- 25, in the proportion of tenant farmers to owner farm- ers is more than 10 per cent. In other great areas the increase has been more than ten per cent. * * * Leland Olds, of the Federated Press, in reviewing the government’s. statistics, points out that, “The increase in tenant farming is very large in some of these states, particularly those where, prior to 1920 there was rela- tively little tenant farming. In Montana the propor- tion of tenants to all farmers increased 94 per cent between 1920 and 1925, in Idaho the increase was 53.5 per cent, in Colorado 34.3 per cent, in North Dakota 34.2 per cent and in South Dakota 30 per cent. In all these states (enumerated above) except Kansas, Louisiana and Minnesota, the increase was over 10 per cent. * * * Even so, the figures are bolstered up, on the side of the profit system by the fact that large numbers of wage workers ‘have been forced into the suburbs of the great cities to become small farmers, to work during their spare time and thus supplement their meager earnings in industry. In the mine areas, especially, an increasing number of coal miners are being forced to} take up farming as a side line in the struggle for| existence. * * * The New York Herald-Tribune writer contradicts | himself when, in the closing sentence of his article, he confesses: “There is considerable third party talk among poli- ticians, but no popular response has appeared.” The New York journalist, of course, came west too late to attend the gat at Minneapolis, Minnesota, in December, that orgs ed the Progressive Farmers of America in response to the popular demand of large numbers of discontented farmers. This gathering re- solved: Ra “That this convention of the Progressive Farmers of America go on record recommending the building of a Farmer-Labor Party, state and national, which stands for | independent political action of the farmers and workers, who now have to fight the oppressors not only outside but also inside their own ranks. | “That we urge the continued co-operation of farmers and workers of Minnesota politically.” It may be taken for granted that the harder the capi- talist daily organs of the East yell for Coolidge, the more they feel the growing strength of the drive of labor for independent political action. On that basis the screams of the New York Herald-Tribune should be sweet music indeed to the victims of greed in the Mis- sissippi Valley. The third party must be the Labor Party. fi company were left unrepaired, often nearly ruinous. In most cases they were overcrowded and very often s great wealth is being produced by an increas-| condemned as unfit for human habi!| tation but still inhabited because of the lack of others. The rent was usually $2.43 to $3.65 per week. Infant Mortality High. In such conditions, living on sich food as can be bought for such wages, after all deductions for rent, coal, hospital, etc., are made, it is no wonder that the infant mortality and the mortality of women in child- bed was higher by far in the coal fields than in any*other area,—that the rate of deaths from tuberculosis in these areas was so great. Such were the conditions in the coal fields before the strike of 1926. When it came, the women of the mining areas threw themselves into it with the en- ergy of despair. They were threaten- ed with the loss of from 20% to 33% of those starvation wages on which they were already existing and they simply could not face this prospect. The role which they played in the conduct of the strike could hardly be overestimated in importance. Last women’s day was remarkable for the holding in the centre of the Midland coal field at Mansfield of a big dele- gate meeting—one of the most im- portant recent developments of Com- munist work among women. Three hundred women. delegates from various organizations attended and after the position was discussed were given the task of preparing for the strike. When the strike actually before. The lessened wages of their men in many cases do not furnish enough for food alone. Their men in working the extra hour have to |have food and bath prepared for them at hours which mean a 16 or 17 hour day for a woman who has one or more miners in her home and has also children at school. Unem- ployment is prevalent in every coal |area. Yet the women are not show- ing that discouragement which has followed most strikes. They have not fallen into despair—and at this Women’s Day the Communist Party which at the 8th of March, 1926, numbered barely 600 women is now 3,000 strong in female members—at least 80 per cent of whom are miners’ wives. Must Develop Solidarity. Though the strike is over, the | women of every country in the world |should remember the wives of the | British miners with messages of solidarity and encouragement in the hour of defeat. They have come through this great struggle with al- most incredible courage and spirit. They have been defeated but only for a time—and they will fight again. The women of all lands must write not only to send messages of soli- darity but whenever occasion offers to act in solidarity with their suf- fering sisters everywhere—not only in Britain, but in the mines of In- dia, in the textile factories of China, in every land where the workers are ground down under capitalist im- perialist oppression. N. Y. TIMES—ORGA N OF BIG BUSINESS Editor: Daily Worker:—May we ask you to settle a friendly contro- versy about the merits of the New York Times? What is your opinion of the New York Times as a source of informa- tion for the general public? What also—is its capitalistic and imperial- istic trend if any?—Matthew R. Roth- berger, Los Angeles. oie The New York Times is the best capitalist newspaper in the country. It carries good varied news, which it presents from a capitalist point of view. Its bias, tho often veiled in sober and _ dispassionate-looking phrases, is implicit in every line. Anti-Russian Slanders There are innumerable illustrations of the Times’s capitalist-imperialist bias. News from Russia, until the last two or three years ago when business men became interested in Russian trade and concessions, came as a rule from Riga, and expressed the most vile and ridiculous slanders against the Soviet Republic. Chinese Sympathizer Fired A more timely illustration, perhaps, is the appointment of Frederick Moore, a rabid anti-Nationalist as China correspondent. T. F. Millard, who formerly held the job, and who was fairly sympathetic to a united bourgeois China was dropped for some mysterious reason as soon as the Nationalist movement assumed impressive proportions. In the fight between the militant workers and the labor fakers in the New York needle trades, the New York Times has consistently received its information from the reactionary labor fakers who are out to wreck the cloakmakers’ and furriers’ unions. News Biased These illustrations could be multi- plied ad infinitum. The New York Times relentlessly injects its bias into every piece of news which goes into the paper--sometimes consciously, more often unconsciously. It does so because it is the organ of big busi- ness and intentionally or unintention- ally expresses the big business point of view. Check Up With Labor Paper It is valuable, however, because of | its wide-spread sources and its facili- ties for news-gathering. The reader who wants to know what’s going on in the world should be careful to check up Times statements with the reports that appear in a working- class paper like the DAILY WORK- ER.—H. F.) Robt, Weiner Must Die. For his part in the Tombs escape plot last fall, in which a fatal battle was staged in the jail ard between conviets and guards, Robert Weiner, 25, must die in the electric chair, After deliberating six hours a j Sessions yesterday found Weiner guilty of murder in the first degree. He will be sentenced next Thursday. in Judge Mancuso’s part of General’ The “movies”—what is their lure? A sign on Ocean avenue (near H), Brooklyn, an- nounces as its bill: Shameful Behavior. An Hour Of Love. The First Night. Page Will Hays! * * f Labor Hath Its Rewards. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., has joined the ranks of the working class. He is now employed as a feature writer by the Hearst papers. The doubts we had concerning the authenticity of his authorship were dispelled when we recently invested in a Daily Mirror. Not even a | tabloid reporter could do worse. The hard-working author, receives $700 a week for his column called “Now,” vaguely similar to Arthur Brisbane’s “Today.” * * * Literary Note. Denounce the tabloids as you will, yet this observa- tion bears the weight of an axiom—none of them can hold a scandal to theatrical gossip sheets. The Daily Symposium Conducted by EGDAMLAT. THE QUESTION. Should the American people demand the withdrawal of our troops from China? THE PLACE. Mott and Pell streets, Chinatown. THE ANSWERS. Richard Hong, 1506 Broadway, restaurant employe: “Yes, American interests are well protected by the Nationalists. There is no reason why Americans should interfere in Chinese affairs. I have faith in the Kuomin- tang movement and believe that the Chinese people can take care of their country themselves.” Anthony Isoldi, 104 Bayard street, printer: “No. Why should we? We have Americans living there and they should be protected.” A Chinese student (who refused to reveal his name): “Yes. America should withdraw its troops. The people of China are in sympathy with the Nationalist move- ment. The only ones opposing it are the foreign busi- ness interests.” Mrs. Chu, 12 Cathham Square, storekeeper: “The United States should leave China alone. Let the Chinese fight it out themselves. It is a civil war and should not concern other countries.” L. Chong, 51 Mott street, laundry worker: “Yes. The presence of American troops might provoke trouble. Nothing has occurred in China yet to warrant America’s interference.” Letters From Our Readers Times Change. Editor, Daily Worker:—Times have certainly changed, it seems only like yesterday when speakers for. the so- cialist party were jeered and booed on the street corners where meetings were held—especially in some of the western cities and towns, where the large corporations control the municipal governments entirely. In those days spies, police, gangsters, ete., were em- ployed by those in power in breaking up meetings, ar- rest the speakers and persecuting radicals in general, but lo and behold the work done by these lackeys of the capitalists is now efficiently performed by adherents of the Second International, who have turned their backs against the class struggle and the co-operative common- wealth its final goal, and are showing their true colors by joining hands with the reactionary officials of the A. F, of L. and Wall Street in attempting to retard the work of the only true party of emancipation, the Work- ers (Communist) Party.—J. J. M., Brooklyn, Read The Daily Worker Every Day above normal, representing in effect the misery of over-production which is pauperizing the southern cotton growers. And look at freight car loadings, slightly above normal be- cause of the enormous coal tonnage being carried in anticipation of the strike. Coal Production To Drop. Does anybody imagine that either coal production or car loadings will be above normal after April 1, strike or no strike? Wallprol has pointed out before that whether there is a strike or not in April, the coal indus- try will be in a bad way with surplus stocks estimated at 80,000,000 tons flooding the market. .In fact so far as coal production is concerned, things will be a good bit worse if there is no strike. Look again at the chart. Notice pig iron, steel ingots, automobile produc- tion. In addition, steel trust book- ings are still only 65 per cent of capacity, compared with 90 per cent last fall and shipments 83 per cent. Wallprol is not predicting any de- cided slump in industrial activity this year. While there are plenty of factors whch make a decline seem very probable, production may hold up, what with the stimulus of bil-| lions of dollars in surplus values crying for investment and thus stim- ulating activity. On the other hand, predictions of a continuance of 1926 conditions are plain bosh. The only thing’s that eertain is that sooner or later, and prebably not many moons away, we're due for a frightful crash. Gary Fighting Back At Steel Cartel by Threatening Wages The American Steel Trust is genu- inely frightened at the inroads on the domestic market made by the Steel Cartel of continental Europe. The French and German trust is now lay- ing down steel at Atlaytic and Gulf ports at quotations lower than Gary’s outfit had bid. Worse than that, European com- petition is cutting in badly on the steel trust’s export ’trade profits. It netted 2.82 a ton less last year than the year before although business in- creased 25 per cent to a total of $100,- 000,000, Gary blames it all on the “relatively high cost of labor” al- though this will all be news in and around Pittsburg to the low-paid steel workers, If the miners’ union is brok- en in western Pennsylvania and Ohio, the steel workers’ wages will follow the miners’ to even lower depths. Nearly 50,000 Auto Workers Are Jobless The slump in Detroit can be seen! half of at a glance here. In February, there were 228,000 reported on the payroll against 270,000 in February, 1926, Some 45,000 more workers looking for jobs in one city alone! A majority of the decline is in the Ford plants. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS specified foundation for thinking it probable that a considerable read- justment of this immense credit situ- ation will be forced upon us in the not distant future.” |Declining Prices | Giving Cat Fits to Economic Wizards Low prices, you would think, would be a boon to a country. But not un- der capitalism, | The portent that is making econ- |omists’ tongues wag nowadays is the |continuing decline in ‘the price level, coupled with firmness in the volume ‘of industrial activity.. Last week for ‘example, the index of commodity prices sank again. Wheat, cotton, textiles, fuels, metals. and building materials contributed to the reduc- | tion. To the economists, the continued drop means over-production. It means |that competition is depressing prices, that industrialists are undercutting each other. It is a warning signal, \like puffy breezes that run before the |summer storm. Normally it is considered that in- \dustrial activity is accompanied by an increase in the price level. The manufacturer estimates his goods will cost him so much to produce, but by the time they’re ready for the mar- ket, prices have gone up, representing a clear margin of extra profit to him. He keeps on expanding, in the hope that the increasing prices will agree- ably put more in his pocket than he had planned. And then when the whole machine is finally going top speed, there comes the crash. But the process in the last two years has been quite different, and the wise guys at Columbia and Harvard have not quit scratching their heads about it yet. Small Farm Banks Forced to Wall by Continued Slump This darned prosperity of ours has some funny quirks to it. Just glance if you want at the annual re the Federal Reserve Board, which can get by addressing the at Washington, D. C. You will findfthat positors of $285,000,000, or crease of $110,000,000 over 1 banks went bust, against 612 previous. The farm belt accounts of them. The board si states, all of them in the ~ Se RRENRRNA s RS