The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 29, 1927, Page 6

Page Six, THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1927 “One of the Best Friends That China Has Ever Had” By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL, l HE Rev. Dr. A. Edwin Kelgwin, pastor of the West End Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, devoted his Sunday sermon to the death of the Rev. Dr John E. the lone American killed in the much exploited that was supposed to have taken place last ‘Thursday when the People’s Army took over Nanking. Tn fact this “massacre” took place only on the pages of the world imperialist press, The Rev, Dv. Kelgwin is reported to have said that, “The man who shot to death the Rev. Dr. John E. Wil- liams, Vice Presdent of Nanking University, shot one of the best friends China ever had.” * * * The New York Times publishes more than a column! Feport of the sermon. It is difficult to discover from | this report how Williams had befriended the Chinese | people. No attempt is made to differentiate between | him and other missionaries, to show that he did not also | try to keep the eyes of the Chinese workers and peas- ants on a promised happy future in the sky, while the| Profiteers were going thru their pockets, picking them/ clean of the necessary wherewithal for providing food, clothing and shelter on earth. In fact the sermon was conclusive testimony proving | that Williams was an excellent agent of imperialism, | the kind that Cecil Rhodes was glad to invite into South | Africa. to make native labor feel content under the | worst conditions imposed on them in the diamond mines owned by Britain’s ruthless capitalist overlord. * * . It was Sir Frederick Lugard, one of England’s fore- most “empire builders,” who wrote in 1905 eulogizing the part played consciously or unconsciously by mis- sionaries in preparing the way for capitalist develop- ment of the so-called “backward” elements among the peoples of the earth. Sir Frederick spoke especially of the “heathen” of South Africa, but what he had to say is equally applicable to similar efforts in China. It is| applicable to Williams. Sir Frederick said: “There is one agency which has done more, perhaps, than any other for the development of British posses- sions. This is the pioneer work of the missionaries— of such men as Livingstone and Moffatt. I put aside the spiritual aspect of such work, and am now looking at its economic advantages to a State. | “Missionaries are usually active agents in teaching| industrial work among the natives and in creating within them new habits and desires, all of which tend to the| increase of commerce. In missionary enterprises of to- day the necessity of teaching the native some industry whereby he can obtain his living after conversion, is more and more recognized. “I feel convinced that that government is wise that will foster and encourage missionary effort for the sake, not only of spiritual advantages, but also of tem- poral. Under these conditions the best type of missionary is one who has two qualities: First:-He does not interfere with or question the nature of the profit social system that he serves, espe- sially.as.it_exploits the subject peoples with whom he comes directly in contact. Second:—He does not concern himself with the poli- tics of the government to which he gives his allegiance. In other words, he is perfectly servile, christianlike | in his non-resistance, with hands clasped meekly and eyes turned solemnly heavenward. If what the Rev. Dr. Kelgwin, said is to be believed then the Rev. Dr- Williams was such a missionary of im- perialism. Kelgwin said: First. “Williams never allowed himself to be entan- gled in the commercial structure in China.” ° *. ° Imperialism could not want a more abject slave. | China’s whole struggle grows out of the efforts of | other nations to dominate it politically, in order that} the commercial interests of the various capitalist states may be advanced satisfactorily. According to his friend Kelgwin, whose church pro- vided Williams with the necessary funds to carry on his} “work” in the Orient, Williams had nothing to say about the bludgeoning of China by “The Powers” these manyT years. The opium war was to him a matter of no con- cern. The ruthless suppression of the so-called “Boxer Uprising” concerned somebody else. If the bayonets of | the imperialist soldiers dripped the blood of the Chinese | workers, Williams evidently felt his hands were clean because he turned his face the other way. It was not| for him to question the police power of the capitalist state. Similarly, Williams held aloof, it is claimed, from the “commercial structure.” Business might be a sordid af- fair. But Williams would not say so. Women and chil- dren might be-enslaved in industry, crushed in the capi- . talist industrial machine. Williams did not allow him- self to become “entangled.” The striking Shanghai tex- tile workers might be slaughtered in the streets. But| that was no concern to the Reverend Doctor, except that | he might offer up a prayer to the christian god, in whose name the murders were originally committed, the | military and naval forces being well supplied with god-| fearing chaplains, Thus Williams was the best. type of tool of imperial- ism in the Orient. He helped give the looting of the bandit profiteers a respectable face that even fooled some Chinese workers and peasants. It is no more possible to be neutral in the class strug- gle in Shanghai anking or Canton, than it is to insti- tute “class peace” in New York, Chicago or San Fran- cisco. | When Williams did not attack the imperialist system | for the pillage of subject peoples, he supported it pas- | sively, which is none the less effectively, which is the mission of the missionary- Rev. Dr. Williams Was Not | eta in. the Wie suey HE power of the United Mine Workers will again be felt by the country provided the 100,000 former union miners now working for non- union mines walk out if the union strikes April 1, That is the view of government circles according to Paul Wooton, Washington correspondent of Coal Age. The big question, he says, is, will they go out if a general suspension is ordered. If not the strike will mean a drop of only 1,000,000 tons a week in coal production and with present re- serves the country can stand that for 10 weeks before reaching the danger point. But many thousands of non- union miners walked out in the Con- nellsville, Somerset and adjacent Fennsylvania districts in 1922, Joining Forces Union activities in certain non-union | fields are noted by Coal Age and the Chicago Journal of Commerce. Coal Age speaks of considerable headway in reorganizing western Kentucky. The journal cites a report that Muhlenburg county miners in this section have voted to strike in the | event of a suspension in the central competitive field. In southern West Virginia, also, according to Coal Age, unionization drive gets under way after April 1. “Nonunion” Means Low Wage A sympathetic walkout of nonunion | miners would be assured if they took | territory being very small. | to heart a recent statement by the | since i898 Ohio has increased her ton- |Ohio operators association which |nage 100 per ¢ent. Indiana 865 per shows historically that periods of non- |union operation have been synonymous |with low prices, low wages, low profits j and irregular employment. Going far | back in their history of negotiations the operators say: “In 1885 the condition of the miners in the mining camps of America was almost unbearable, Wages were low, hours of labor long and employment intermittent. The average coal com- | {pany in the central competitive field was earning little if any dividends | and the general situation to all parties at interest was most unsatisfactory.” | There followed a short period of col- lective bargaining in the central com- | petitive field, 1886 to 1889, but this | broke down as a result of keen com- | Kerensky And His Uncle. petition and the weakness of the union, Then, “beginning 1890 and | continuing during the depression up | to the strike of July 4, 1897, chaos yeigned, wages were low with little | | employment and great loss to the coal | companies,” | Must Unite “In January 1898,” continues the brief history, “the operators and/| ininers of the central competitive field “\again reestablished joint bargaining, | | which resulted in the Chicago and Col- | |umbus agreement. The Chicago | agreement covered tonnage rates and hours of labor, the Columbus agree- | ment the day-wage rates. Since this agreement day rates have increased | from $1.75 to $7.b0° per day in the| \central competitive field. During these | jyears the United Mine Workers of | America have developed from an or- | ganization of 10,000 members to one “The miners’ union,” say the opera- tors, “has been unable to exercise any jeonsiderable influence upon the wages and warking conditions south of the | Ohio river, their .»embership in that Hence cent., [llinois 271 per cent., while the territory known as West Virginia and Kentucky have increased their ton- nage 786 per cent. and 1530 per cent. respectively.” The statement makes clear the in- | terest of all miners in extending union | control until coal will be mined only | for decent wages and in reasonable | hours. Job Hunting on a Rainy Day By FRED HARRIS. ‘HESE few lines are written in my “furnished room” at 8 o’clock, Monday morning, possibly one of fhe most unprosaic of places and unusual of hours imaginable for writing an article. And yet, there is a logical reason for this, for altho most peo- ple are still sleeping or are just about to be awakened by the melodious ring of an alarm clock, I have already at this early hour had an adventure war- ranting the penning of these lines. * * * “Man is the subject (and victim too) of his environment.” The ver- acity of this maxim is obvious. My environment at the present time is “rainy,” hence instead of working at my trade on some job, I am sitting in my furnished room and scribbling. I have been “up” since 6 o'clock, | and have gone thru the usual routine preparatory to putting in a day’s| work. I am somewhat eager too, for this is to be my first job since No- vember, some four months ago. It has been a tough winter, with jobs at a minimum. Friday I applied for work at the Browning Painting Co., and was told to “come around” on Monday morning. To be sure, I got no definite promise, but had reason to believe that if the boss would féel |@ painter is sometimes sent to a job so an effort had to be made to land | among the clover. However, within | an hour I am home again in my fur- | nished room, sadder but wiser. The old tradition of “no sunshine — no work” still holds good. My inquiry for work was answered in the negative. The boss certainly knows how to say an emphatic “no.” Myself and other fifty fellow work- ers, who stood in line with me are vitness of that. I am just now count- ting the expenses which I incurred during the extravagance of looking for work. I have shortened my mern- ing slumber by about four hours, and as “time is money” a considerable ex- pense item falls on the debit side of the ledger. I have choked down at 6.30 a. m. a 40 cent breakfast, when T wasn’t hungry yet, but had to eat in preparation to getting a job. Since outside of the radius of restraurants, I also bought a 60 cent lunch and finally had to spend ten cents for fare. Thus my folly of looking for work this morning cost me four hours of peace- ful rest and one dollar in cash. rig ses Right now I am meditating on what to do next. If this sort of thing keeps up then I may have to change my alright, if the weather be permissable, | if I'd come early enough to be at the| head of the waiting line and if T} should strike the boss’s fancy at that time, that there would then be a job | for me on Monday morning. The] many “if’s” seemed to be insurmount- | able, still there was a fighting chance. 050) It is a well known fact that an old-time sea captain, of the windjam- mer type, will avoid going to sea on 2 Friday, which factor can be ex- plained by the religion of the ancient Norsemen. Friday was the day of Frya, the goddess of the sea, and the religious services rendered to that lady on Fridays usually kept the Norsemen in port. Altho the religious ceremonies have ceased long ago, yet the tradition of not going to sea on a Friday remains. The same principle, tho of a differ- ent nature, prevails among painter bosses, who, because of the interfer- ence of rain with outside housepaint- ing, will not hire men on a wet day, altho most of the work today is in- side of the buildings, unmolested by outside weather perce ca * This morning it is raining. My intelligence should have told me to trade to that of a professional, poli- tician, a bootlegger, burglar or some other honest oceupation; for it is ob- vious that my present calling will bring me to a stage of bankruptcy. If my conscience should bother me and say that work is honest and that burglars sometimes go to jail, then T shall answer such tender admoni- tions by firmly reminding my subtle “better self” that workers sometimes fall from the scaffolding, break their neck and get buried in a grave. Odds indeed seem to favor burglary. As soon as that trade gets organized T shall ditch the futile and expensive passion of looking for a painter’s job to that of an easier and more remun- erative burglar profession. Structural Steel Board Still Fighting Workers NEW YORK (FP)—Continuance of the Iron League’s open shop pol- icy toward structural iron workers is announced by the Structural Steel Board of Trade of New York, which replaces the Iron League after April 1. The latter organization is super- seded. The steel board of trade is composed of steel construction con- | stay home, but I had a vague promise | tractors who do not employ union | ironworkers. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY. An Outline of Economic Geography. League, London, $.75. the world.” herent in the work and developed consistently. | | | Uncle Sam to Kerensky: Here is a little contribution | | union officials claim about 5000 mem- | of 400,000 and have exercised control |to the cause of democracy and if you ever strike oil,| Revoluti |bers, with many nonunion miners jin the central competitive field. ready to follow the union lead if the | don’t forget your uncle. PROFESSOR MUMBLES the old professor mumbles on while barricades are growing up | and the youth wonders | will these pedants be like seared cockroaches scuttling before a human tread peeking white-faced at the thundering world from their ivory towers and will they when a pure clean steel-jacketed little bullet bores them thru leak sawdust faster america faster for the young man wants to see how mumbling old professors will act when they are confronted with the realities of the revolutionary machine age will they scuttle like cockroaches at human tread and when bored by a revolutionary bullet will they leak sawdust —SIMMONS GUINNE. Lewis Hugs’ His Swag. This Faker’s salary was raised $4,000 at the last U-| M. of A. convention, bu} he believes the miners should} be satisfied with what they have. THE PERFECT POEM (To An Electrical Wizard Now Dead) These spindly fellows strut on this new stage With smiles of cynical morbidity, With warped intelligences bathing angrily In the modern sea of sordidness, With rage Titanic they hear the continuous steely clang Of the smoothly oiled machines, and grind Their colgated teeth in derision against the mind That set forth the machines that bang So rudely on the drum of their esthetic ear. And you old fellow, with contorted shape Plying with skilled hands did rape That muse the poets call their own sweet dear. Listen, old fellow, hunching over your deity, Gazing with loving eyes on the lurid spark Created by your hand shoot through the dark, Oblivious to all except this, your ecstacy, Flaunt your poem in the highest sky, And hurl to all eyes your flaming jagged “I.” Joseph Kalar | ON PULLING NAILS OUT OF A earliest times up to the present day. Some criticisms can undoubtedly be made. as soviet) seems to be a little too static. Plebs Textbooks Number 4. Plebs Any worker who wishes to understand the actual practice of imperialism | must begin by studying geography. Only by studying the map of the world, by studying geographical locations, climate, distribution of natural resources, and trade routes can one understand why it is that the U. S, Marines “see The Plebs “Outline of Economic Geography” covers a very important field and does it, even from the purely technical point of view, much better than most of the more pretentious bourgeois texts on this subject. It is very interestingly, simply, and clearly written, and no worker need fear that he | will find it above his head. The book does not attempt to be impartial but |has a decided working class viewpoint, not dragged in by the neck, but in- The book falls into two main sections: first, an analysis of geographic factors in their influence on history and second, the world today. Particular attention is; paid to the growth of world economic inter-dependence from The treatment of the world divided among five mutually opposing groups (four imperialist and one Then, too, the following statements | should not be passed without challenge: “The failure of the revolution in | Hungary should be a standing warning to revolutionists against ignoring | geographical factors”; and, in another portion of the book, “The problem of | the food supply, the problem of communications and of access to raw mate- rials—these and other such questions have to be faced and solved before the workers can successfully take over, and maintain, control.” Both these state- factor. | ments represent a serious exaggeration of the importance of the geographical Many reasons may be- advanced for the failure of the Hungarian ion:—the extreme treachery of the Social Democrats, the lack of a clear-cut Communist Party, the failure to secure a firm alliance with the | peasantry by dividing up the big estates and giving the peasants the land— and so on, solved before taking over control. an indefinite postponement of all attempts at revolution. But one thing is sure: the Hungarian Revolution was not fore- | doomed by geographical factors. The second statement is open to a similar | criticism. The geographical problems have to be faced by the workers (just | as all other problems must be faced) but they do not necessarily have to be This would in nine cases out of ten mean It is interesting to note that although the book is marked “Reprinted with corrections” as late as January 1926, the Chinese question’ is put as “Who is to exploit China?” Things have moved fast in the past year and it seems reasonably sure today that China is going to be exploited by nobody lut the Chinese. The reader must make his own additions to the chapter on the Far East. However, the few errors stand out only by contrast with the rest of the book which maintains an unusually high level as regards reliability and accuracy. The large number of maps illustrating every important point in the text make the book especially easy to follow. book for workers and should be recommended unreservedly. It is essentially a text- —N. SPARKS. “THE HAMMER.” “The Hammer,” the Yiddish Communist monthly, seems determined to be a serious magazine at any cost. This is decidedly ingenious. Most maga- zines are only pseudo-serious. chronic mental indigestion. It is assumed that the readers suffer from Hence the tough, solid, marrowy stuff is care- fully refined, pulverized, attenuated until it becomes a soft, soothing zero. Or else it is camouflaged with spices, floral decorations and lots of soda water. The current number of “The Hammer” continues the serious tempo that the magazine set from the start. Its 64 large, double-column pages ex- emplify a variety that makes no sacrifice of depth. There is, for example, an article called “The Economic Life of the United States in 1926,” by A. G. Bosse. It is the sort of thing which “The Nation” might have done very entertainingly in about 1,500 words, with lots of billowy generalizations to fill the gaps. In “The Hammer” it becomes | a thing of almost forbidding aspect. Divisions and sub-divisons: Industrial production, employment, industrialization of the South, the building industry, railroads, agriculture, foreign and domestic commerce, etc. Bare, meaningful sentences, figures, facts. This is not for the tired business man, but for the thinking worker and student who want to know what is hiding behind the great blank mask, Prosperity. An article of a similar sort is one on “The Problem of the Aliens in France and the Condition of the Jewish Workers,” by Simchah Liev. v * * * \ The contemporary scene is, however, not the only céncern of “The Hammer.” Vividly written articles such as “The Paris Commune,” by M. ‘Garvit, and “Ludlow,” by I. Sultan, present the history of great revolutionary struggles of the past against the background of the social, economic and political conditions that molded their course. The same distinction may be found in the department devoted to the arts. One of the features of the present issue is a remarkable series of peasant poems by Ch. Weinerman, one of an interesting group of poets that have sprung up in the Jewish colonies in Soviet Russia. There are also many other poems, short stories and essays, both original and translated, and a number of reproductions of woodcuts and paintings. * * * My chief criticisms are technical. I think the editors ought to indicate | | whenever an article, poem or story is translated and give the name of the | translator. Slim Martin, for example, would be surprised to discover that | he has learned how to write Yiddish. My second criticism is more in the nature of a plea to the editors to improve the typography and paper. The eyesight of Jewish workers is notoriously bad. And the print is so funereal and foggy that it at times requires courage to read through a long article. I know. “The Hammer” is poor, So poor that it can’t even afford to pay its writers, all of whom are voluntary contributors. But typography and the general appearance of a magazine are, I think, important. * * “The Hammer,” it seems to me, is fulfilling three important functions. presenting pictures of the contemporary social, economic and political scene throughout the world with special reference to the United States, and | applying throughout a Marxist interpretation; it is showing the historic continuity of the revoluticnary movement by descriptions of great working class struggles of the past; and it is attempting to integrate the struggle It is for a new social and economic order with the efforts to evolve a working class culture by offering examples of literature and the fundamental interests and aspirations of the workers. that are close to To fulfill these three functions is to become one of the most important weapons of the class- conscious Jewish proletariat of America. * BEAUTY IN THE RAND SCHOOL. —A. B. MAGIL. Several weeks ago in an essay called, “The Rand School: A Memory,” — I implied that this former workers’ institution was very much on the decline. that the directors of the school had struggle. * * * In a spirited bit of correspondence in a current issue of “The T also departed from the original 8 of the school, which was founded to train workers for the class * * * | for the job and jobs are very scarce, Mercury,” Algernon Lee, director of the Rand School, in leaping to he. Williams was a “good” missionary. In addition he WOODEN CASE fense of beauties in the Socialist Party, offers an illuminating clue to had ability. This was plainly shown by the fact that PRUDENCE IS THE MOTHER OF SECURITY. mi Pe I : some of the school’s most recent “revolutionary” activities. It that he was repeatedly offered positions as director of mer- cantile agencies at fabulous salaries, according to Kel- gwin. Big business, seeking profits in a foreign land, does Two steel hands closing in and ever in, A long drawn-out squeal. A body twisted and racked like one of Dante’s tortured “The Mercury” had bemoaned the alleged laék of personal charms) among the young women in the Socialist movement, etc. * % * Here’s Lee’s vigorous reply: I not pick those as its servants who criticise it, who dif- souls in Hell... “That ‘distinguished journalist’ is an old fraud: The af he f | fer with its policies, who are hostile to the capitalist Finally stillness and consignment to the scrap-heap never poked his nose’ inside the Rand School. If he had, not even \ state at home that protects it, with army and navy, even With the rest of your fellows.... a plea of jaundice, strabismus, and chronic indigestion wi be wo tne waging of war. The “commercial structure” had It is beautiful. sufficient to excuse his failure to admire the personal charms of taken inventory of the Rev. Dr, John E. Williams, as| How you shriek when I throttle you in my steel grip! our girls. I know where he got his grouch. vice president of Nanking University, and it had not How you scream when I pull you from your nesting “Being a self-conscious Tory, he once started out on what found him wanting. place! thought was a slumming expedition, happened into the ‘New Leader’ i —SIMMONS GUINNE. ball, and couldn’t find a partner, because all the lassies had laddies more to their taste—and their taste is discriminating, do ye mind— so the only way he can save face for himself is to libel the faces of the Daughters of the Coming Revolution.” | cele Minimum Wages.—Court decisions in recent years have stricken mini- Arkansas, the District of Columbla, and Kansss; Sesh tayo therefore apm jum| a now exist in only it roe a wo gh Wa nnesots ota, be ep ‘orto pee Wisconsin-—-out of the 1 had them, Wi limited to children, Hes cents ie tho Oitdation lovaried txt * “+ } As the favored son, therefore, of American imperial- | ism, the Rev. Dr. Williams could not have been, in any sense of the word, one of the “best friends that China ever had.” He was one of its worst enemies, in that ‘ the bloodier deeds of the capitalist state could be bes shrouded somewhat successfully under his coat that seemed clean. It is because the Chinese workers and peasants have discovered the blood shed by imperialism under the white cloak of christianity, that they have been able to ong their eyes and see the real nature of the struggle confronts them. SEND IN YOUR LETTERS The DAILY WORKER is anxious to receive letters from its readers stating their views on the issues con- fronting the labor movement. It is our hope to de- velop a “Letter Box” department that will be of wide Sottgetd to all ee sot Hy denen heb family. Geese warned ancient Rome of approaching danger but they bedevill ‘our letter y Letter Box,” The Mussolini’s sleeping hours. DAILY WORKER, 33 First street, New York City. (Der Yoetz, Vienna) ai a $$$ $s 7 NP bi * ea :