The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 27, 1927, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1927 EAA NSE alate bel sei nh Bb at Ae i sions hedacneningnte enetiateasontceeteptensnon eee ace Miners’ Officials Called] “Agitators’, “Demagogues” By Capitalists in 1874 By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL net T SEA, Aboard the United States Liner, President Roo: elt, April 8 (By Mail from Plymouth, Eng- land). in am oil burning ship. There are no ever- busy shovels down in the bowels of the liner, shifting coal from the bunkers into hungry furnaces. Ins‘ the liquid fuel flows easily and unceasingly to alive the fires beneath power-generating boilers. That means that back in “The States” coal mines are | thrown idle by the diminishing demand for coal, thus | aggravating the problem of over-production and under- | employment in this basic industry. But this has never been the biggest problem of the coal miner The greatest concern of the workers in| the industry, since the desire for organization first en- | tered the minds of the coal diggers, has been how to} develop the union on a national scale, to function ef-| fectively on a nation-wide front, thus ensuring victory | for all their demands. The periods of greatest pro-| gress by the union have been characterized by national, | centralized, disciplined action. Periods of setback have been featured by decentralization, separate action | against the employers by district, sub-district and even | local organizations, always leading to disintégration | and decay, sometimes even to annihilation. | Thus the policies invoked by the regime of President | John L. Lewis, in the present struggle, merely repeat | the mistaken policies in the past when, on numerous eccasions, the miners’ union presented a broken, dis- | organized front to the employers. 4 there are big differences, however, between the pres-| A bust of Lenin by a ent and the past, which constitute a black indictment) against the Lewis regime. Some of these are as fol- | LETTERS FROM lows: | First:—-The first national organization of the miners, | fer instance, The American Miners’ Association, organ- | ized January 28, 1861, disappeared in 1868, largely as a | Editor, The DAILY WORKER: result of the general depression following the Civil War.| . A. de Witt in this week’s Leader The Lewis administration:has crippled the Miners’ Union | sneers at those enthusiastic indi- and made it well-nigh helpless in the years 1926-27, two| viduals who, fired by the Russian of the most prosperous years in the whole history of | Revolution and disgusted with the American capitalism. Socialist Party, withdrew and joined Second:—In 1868 industrialism in America was just! the Communist Party. He deplores beginning to find itself. Capitalism was only getting a| the activities of the latter, especially foothold, with competition prevailing extensively, espe-| when they picture the S. P. as a group cially in the coal industry. The machine age was just|of renegades who are known to the beginning to throb audibly over the land. Under these | world at large as socialists only be- conditions the necessity of a national organization and/ cause they ‘kept their old label—the national action could not have been as clear to the coal| Socialist Party of America. Mr. de miners as it should be today, with industrialism at its/ Witt phrases it differently—the at- highest stage of development anywhere in the world,|tempt by the Communists to destroy with competition well-nigh eliminated among the em-| ployers, who are united in their Operators’ (Owners) | Associations. * * * It is only when these facts are rightly understood that the monstrous crime committed by President Lewis and his administration, in failing to prepare for the present | the laboring He admits the effectiveness of groups in this country. | the existence, in the S.P., of several officials who are in it, hot for the good of the movement but for their own good. He goes on to say that to destroy a perfectly good radical or-| Proletarian Sculptor. OUR READERS telegram I am sending you a check! |for $77 Which I collected among | our members and sympathizers. | When I receive a telegram that | The DAILY WORKER is in danger I work day and night to get money. We know that the reactionary for- ces try to crush The DAILY | WORKER, but the day is coming when we are going to crush them. The DAILY WORKER is our weapon and we are going defend it. |Comradely yours, — D. Fedarok, Scranton, Pa.. My Country "Tis of Thee By NAT KAPLAN. VOSA STE sa AM | The New Leader. The New Leader is a weekly news-| | SABOTAGE SACCO AND VANZETTI DEFENSE IN PHILADELPHIA | By VERA BUSH. ({GEAMELESS disruptive tactics of a right wing ma- |“ chine broke up what might have been a splendid | Sacco and Vanzetti: confererite called by the Amal- ;gamated Clothing Workers at Labor Institute, Phila- | delphia, Wednesday evening. Credentialled delegates | of invited organizations were refused seats by a creden- tials committee arbitrarily selected by the machine, | proceedings needlessly dragged out, abusive language | hurled without provocation from the chair, a vote on the report of the credentials committee refused, questions | from the floor ruthlessly silenced, policemen summoned, |in short, whatever could be done to kill the efforts of | sincere labor elements to unite in support of Sacco and | Vanzetti was done by the Forward gang in control of | this conference. + * © In response to a rather hasty call issued by the Amal- gamated, three hundred workers, representative of labor, political defense and other organizations, packed |a room at the Labor Institute. | The policy of the initiators of the conference was | foreshadowed immediately in a lengthy caucus preced- ing the opening. The first words of Chairman Rudow | of the Amalgamated left no doubt as to what the char- |acter of the gathering would be. “This niob’—so he |characterized the splendid representation—could not be expected to make arrangements. Eighteen delegates |had appeared from the International Labor Defense. | Was there one or eighteen I. L. D.’s in Philadelphia? | Functioning, legitimate organizations only would be al- lowed to participate. * * * These insinuations, shamelessly made in the face of invitations for “organizations and branches” sent to the International Labor Defense as well as to other | organizations, provoked a -general stir of protest. Rudow nevertheless smugly continued. Only delegates representing trade unions would be seated. The cre- dentials committee would be as follows. A spontaneous protest from the’ floor was ruthlessly quelled, and a delegate who had risen to question the procedure of the machine told to “either sit down and shut up and get the h— out of here.” Amid a storm of boos and hisses Rudow read off un- | blushingly the names of his committee. All questions | from the floor he shoved aside. Having thus insured the ruling out of all elements | not to its liking, the machine then proceeded to drag out the work of the credentials committee until nearly eleven o’clock. Although the delegates were workers | who had the prospect of getting up at five o’clock the next morningynot one of them left the hall. Still hop- | ing to see some action taken to save the lives of their fellow workers, Sacco and Vanzetti, they hung on. ' * * * | The report of the committee was as could be ex- Such “trade unions” as the Radical Library (let us hope the books represented were at least radi- |cal) and the Modern Home Association were permitted | full representation. The International Labor Defense with its splendid record of aid to class struggle prison- ers, was limited to two delegates only, and these not | representative of its Central Committee. The Workers |Party was accorded the same treatment. By this time all elements of the conference not com- pected. | ; pay dearly for their blood lust. struggle theu the adoption and carrying out of correct ganization in order to get rid of some policies, can be clearly visualized. | “labor lieutenants” is absurd. -And It is such misleaders as John L. Lewis, Phil Murray,/he is right. Just because there are Van Bittner and others, not to mention the recently dis-| Communists in Russia who are not credited Frank Farrington, that have made it difficult | really Communists is not a reason to | to build the miners’ union and make it function as an! condemn the system. The test is to That such| see how the movement as a whole treason has existed in the past, as it exists today, has|works. And that is why the S.P. made it possible for Arthur E. Suffern, in his book, “The! must be condemned. Whereas, the Coal Miners’ Struggle for Industrial Status,” to say | Socialist Party, not content with per- that: “Altho the idea of extending organization coextensive | within the organization, actually al- with the areas needing control was conceived relatively | lows them to rule the movement, to early, the path of development to 1885 (and even up to/ dictate its policies, the Communist present time—JLE) is strewn with the wrecks of organ- | Party of Russia not only ejects these! izations to attain that end. Indeed the attainment of|but executes them. The Sigmans such an end remains to this day a major problem for and Schactmans would not last long organized labor in the coal industry.” |in that country. This should be a warning, even if it does come from a} Jt jg well to remember that when a non-working class source. There is no gift of god that) socialist organization comes under will make it possible for the miners’ union to live in| the control of certain individuals it spite of Lewis, Murray and Bittner. If the coal miners|pecomes not only worthless but will look around in the other great industries, the steel, | dangerous, insofar as (1) it deludes automobile, rubber, textile, shoe, metal mining and even |the workers. into joining their party the railroad industry, they cannot help but see how the! instead of the one that honestly sets effective organization of the mine workers. | mitting the sabotageurs to remain | paper “devoted to the interests of| mitted to support of the group in control had been the socialist and labor movement.” | aroused to indignation at this shameless flaunting of Of late its “exposure” of the Com-| the purpose of the gathering. When Albert Weisbord, | munist “use of gangsters” in the | a delegate of the District Committee of the Workers |fur trades strongly recommends | (Communist) Party, arose to protest the disgraceful editors and supporters for honorary| tactics of the conference and the “severe setback” | membership in the secret service of | thereby given the cause of Sacco and Vanzetti, he was |the United States, the Key Men of| greeted with a spontaneous demonstration of several | America and similar patriotic organ-| minutes which swept in nearly the whole hall. | izations. | * * & _S. A. de Witt has a heluva good! ‘The lateness of the hour was then taken as an ex- | time functioning as an East Broad-| cuse for adjourning the meeting without a single action | way Heywood Broun. A droll fellow,| having been taken to further the defense of the two | this de Witt. For instance, he refers} Massachusetts workers who are in such desperate |to a mock debate and “Communist plight, Delegates whom it pleased the conference to jean ries as nae sencken"| accept would be notified of further meetings. ike others who received training in| Finding it could neither clear the hall of delegates art and life at the Rand School he| nor quell the outbursts of spontaneous indignation and | probably calls Second avenue resi-| protest the right wing finally bolted its own conference, | dents. “kikes’. filed out of the hall and put out the lights. | * * * James Oneal, the paper’s guiding | : ¥ é | genius, persistently Teeposee” ied There is no denying that a splendid opportunity has left wing. On one page he raps force | been lost for a union of broad elements of labor in narrow craft viewpoint, aided by the policy of local struggle as against nation-wide action, has wrought havoc with all attempts to build powerful unions in these industries. be + * It is of the period, 1860 to 1884 that Suffern writes: | “Four years of Civil War, four years of severe busi- | ness depression from 1866 to 1870, six years of acute out to accomplish its purpose. (2) It sets out, as a defense mechanism to destroy the group that is sincere and (3) the party confronted by the Left Wing veers sharply to the Right carrying with it many who other-| wise: might have been won over to a} |and sabotage as ardently as Martin Littleton addressing a reserve offic- | ers’ association and on another he| boasts of having said in 1920 that| “the American revolution was not a pink tea affair which followed a course prescribed by social etiquette.” For once in a long time the New common struggle, and the cause of Sacco and Vanzetti | given a blow in this city. However, the eyes of all sincere and honest workers attending this conference have been opened as to the true nature of the machine in control of the Amalgamated, the Jewish Daily For- ward, and the socialist party, which organizations made |a common front in this disgraceful smashing policy. It seems these gentlemen not only expel Communists depression from 1873 to 1879, a depression again in| 1883-84; interspersed by two relatively brief but intense periods of prosperity in the early Seventies and the | early Eighties; such was the general industrial setting in which the struggle for collective bargaining in the ¢oal industry took place.” * * policy of militancy. To these more could be added. These men may be so entrenched in power that it is impossible to up- root them. And, in the meantime, | they continue their mischief. In that ; nee case it is better that the party suffer When the American Miners’ Association was destroyed | destruction than to permit it to remain in 1868, the local union had to carry on their struggles! a; g cloak about these men. Those individually. could, in both the bituminous and the anthracite fields, awaiting the building of another national organization, The weakness of the miners, that developed thru indi- vidual action, was the strength of the mine owners. The employers refused to recognize the union or negotiate wage scales, When the miners resorted to strikes they were faced by the imported strike-breakers and gunmen of the mine owners, blacklisted or forced to signed dec- larations of non-affiliation with the union, The miners gradually thoroly realized their helpless condition and new efforts were made to extend the or- ganization over larger areas. The Miners’ and Laborers’ Association organized in 1872 established branches among anthracite and bituminous miners in Pennsylva- nia and extended its activities to Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Michigan. About the same time the Miners’ Benevolent and Protective Association was organized in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. In tthe following year, 1878, a number of prominent * |by being corrupted by the leaders, |Mr. H. G. Wells who, after his first ‘enthusiasm for the League of Na- tions said, it would be better for humanity if the League disappeared | since its actuality causes many peo- ple to believe that the problem of how to end war has been solved and ,80 lulls them into a false sense of security, causing them to withdraw from actual participation in the fight. When we examine the nanies and | Policies of the S.P. and its approach- jing ally, the A. F. of L., we see that ‘here is one organization that ought ‘to die. Their names: Sigman, !O’Neal, Hillquit; those of there This they did, of course, as best they| who stay within the party in an at-| | Leader has something with which it |ean be safely militant—the Sacco- | Vanzetti situation. In fact, it be- comes as militant as the New York Times. |, As an indication of the facilities of imagination of itsseditorial board |note that the issues of April 16 said | that “Ramsay MacDonald will arrive in New York on April 15.” A timely |tempt to reform the leaders will end! sheet of inestimable value to the la-| chair. |bor movement. * But lest you imagine that the New | Leader is hopelessly out of accord | with the best journalistic traditions | of the day, remember that it suffers | the loss of Ed Sullivan, now sports editor of the Graphic, and Ryan Wal- \ker, “art” editor of Mr. MacFadden’s | delightful home newspaper. | * * | Also observe that David P. Beren- | berg, eminent socialist historian and \literateur, recently had an Easter |poem in. Walter Winchell’s Graphic j column. ON oe | Shipley’s dramatic notes before we |become convinced thathe is a one We never get very far along with | (present at their own invitation), they wish also to jerush non-partisan, fighting class organizations such | as the International Labor Defense. They do not hesi- tate to sacrifice the most vital interests of the working | class, if they feel the slightest challenge to their own mechanical rule. The honest labor elements of the city will not allow their efforts to be thwarted in this manner and will | persist in the determined and united struggle which alone will save Sacco and Vanzetti from the deadly | TO JOHN BULL, ET AL. Plain Talk in Free Verse | By ADOLPH WOLF | | Get the hell out of China’ | | You blustering bullying bandits! | | Clear out with your murder ships | Your gangsters in uniform | Your insolent meddlesome agents. ‘You have a god damned nerve | To hang around in another people's country | Armed to the teeth like pirates that you are. Your sanctimonious mouthings About protecting life Imperialist to Chinese work HE HELPLESS ROBBER! oh ae er: Drop this dangerous weapon or I may have to take steps to defend myself. TS short years after Mr. Wilson led this country into the European slaughter to assure the reign of jus- tice and humanity, every indication points to the fact that foul prepara- tions are in full swing to drench Americans with another shower blood. The sordidness of the Nanking bombardment cannot be glossed over by diplomatic reports from American imperialistic consular agents intent on excusing the wanton slaughter of Nanking’s civilian population. When all the facts of American naval participation in that wilful carnage are made known to the American people those responsible for it will In the light of Secretary of State Kel- logg’s miserable intrigues in Mexico and Nicaragua his representations of the Chinese situation fail to convince. Eugene Chen, foreign minister of the Nationalist Government states that the looting charged against the Southern army was done by the de- feated northern soldiers. General Tsiang Kai-Shek, commander in chief White Russians are responsible, “The Powers,” continued Gen. Tsiang in his statement to the American corre- spondents in Shanghai, “cannot sup- press the Chinese by means of war- ships, no matter how numerous.” Britain is again giving the lead to America’s foreign policy. State Department and the British Foreign Office are dominated by the same interests. These international financiers fatten on foreign conces- sions. The British Foreign Office has given America a free hand to do as it sees fit in Mexico, Central, and South America. And in return Mr. Kellogg and the Coolidge adminis- tration appear to be prepared to back Great Britain in its exploitation and oppression of China. But it is the young men of this country, who have no reason to hate but every reason to support the Chi- nese masses in their struggle for freedom, who will be called upon to pay with their lives for the right of their imperialistic masters to exploit the Chinese. The blood bath is being prepared. Will America’s young men be forced to take the plunge? They Pray For “Splits.” Splits in the Kuo Min Tang Party in China are reported with great fre- quency in the daily press. We can say that these reports are inspired by the hopes of the imperialistic op- pressors of China rather than on ac- tual facts. Those who have followed the great sweep of victories that have come to the Cantonese will have noted that the reports of “splits” have become more insistent and numerous as the Southern army drew close to Shanghai. Certainly there are differences in- side the ranks of the Kuo Min Tang. The Nationalist Movement has drawn into the scope of its influence all ele- ments in Chinese life—merchants, workers, peasants and students. But the aspirations of some of these ele- ments are satisfied early in the revo- lutionary struggle. The big mer- chants, for instance, are primarily concerned with the removal of im- perialistic exploitation. The workers and peasants, however, are concerned with the abolition of all exploitation. America’s And these various and sometimes op- posing interests and aspirations ex- press themselves in the struggle to dominate the policies of the Kuo Ming Tang. As the Chinese masses are drawn into the struggle, and their aspira- tions become articulate, the National- of | of the Cantonese Armies declares that | The Blood Bath Is Being Prepared | and peasants who lay down their tools |and scythes to take up arms for the wiping out of exploitation, Quite naturally the more moderate elements in the Kuo Min Targ at- | tempt to split the movement and to isolate the more determined elements. But their attempts are bound to fail for the simple reason that the two and a half million organized workers and peasants, whose numbers are | growing by the thousands daily, are | strong enough to maintain the or- | ganization and to determine its pol- jicies, Leaders who cannot adjust | themselves to this new situation are | sloughed off. Since this article was | written General Chiang-Kai-Shek split with the Nationalist movement and is now for the imperialists, | That this sort of thing has been taking place within the Kuo Min | Tang is inevitable and necessary. But | it gives small hope to the imperialists {who pray for its destruction. The splitters merely find themselves stripped of their power to interfere with the sweep towards victory. | That Soviet Orientation. More than forty years of intense | revolutionary experience shaped the | life of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, From 1895 |to 1910 ‘he took a leading part in } ten unsuccessful attempts to over- throw the Manchu dynasty aad to sct | up a government patterned after the | western democracies. Finally in 1921 the Manchus were overthrown and jon January ist, 1912, Dr. Sun was |elected Provisional President of tne | Chinese Republic. Here was the most numerous peo- ple in the world brought into the |family of democratic nations. And |the treatment accorded New China by the western democracies was, in the words of the late President Wil- son, the “acid test,” applied to thgir sincerity. And the “acid test” has proved the baseness of the “demo- cratic metal.” “Democratic” pretensions masked the most inhuman examples of brigandage. England, France, Japan, the United States, and the other im- perialistic powers, with “democratic” flags flying over their pirate ships have engaged in expeditions in China besides which the exploits of the buccaneers Kidd and Morgan appear as Sunday School picnics. Unequal | treaties, extra-territoriality, forced |concessions; Hongkong, Shanghai, Tien Tsin, Amoy, Nanking, Hankow, ete., “internationalized,” that is, made the property of the imperialistic in- vaders; alien governments set up within the borders of China—these are merely some of the indignities heaped upon defenseless China by her sister “democracies.” British diplomacy failed to see that with the revolution it would have to change its methods or invite for itself a swift kick in its ample posterior. 1t is notorious that Britain refused the assistance so necessary for the solution of Young China’s problems. And it is further notorious that the British attitude dictated the policy of the United States. The Russian Revolution introduced a new factor. Revolutionary Russia abolished the unequal treaties. Revo- lutionary Russia treated the Chinese as equals. All the concessions forced from China by the old Russia were returned. The “acid test” proved the metal of the New Russia to be pure and unalloyed. And basing his con- clusions on these } obvious facts Dr. Sun, just before he died, wrote to the Central Executive com- mittee of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1925 “. .. By the will of fate I leave my work unfinished, miners from Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania requested |neat-allies: Woll, Green, Frayne and | hundred per cent dramatic critic. He Are nothing but a bloody fraud ‘ist Movement naturally swings to the the local unions to send representatives to a convention on October 13th, The purpose of the convention was, | (1) to consolidate the entire body of miners for self- protection; (2) to afford pecuniary and moral support to the districts “forced to the alternative of a strike”; and (3) to discuss their grievances and advocate the passage of laws in the several states which would pro- vide for the safety and welfare of the miners. By 1874 there were 224 lodges with a membership of 24,000 represented in the convention, according to Evans’ “History of the United Mine Workers of America.” Here was a movement in the right direction. It was not fawned on by the employers and politicians, as Lewis and his officialdom is fawned on today. Instead the capitalist press and capitalist spokesmen turned their most bitter attacks on the union and denounced the offi- cials of the union as “agitators” and “demagogues.” Evans writes: The fact that no such bitter invective is today hurled at President Lewis and his fellow officials, should be food for thought for the coal miners. Grady need no introduction and no | comment. Their policies support of | in the needle trades dispute, shows | their nature cleary. | One other point: Mr. de Witt, sar- fact that many former fiery “lefts”| have became reactionaries, Rinaldo | Capellini is a case in point. But this | jis a phenomenon not peculiar to the jtonic, Lydia Pinkham’s preferred. I iV Comntunists—-the Socialists also have their full share: John Spargo, Walling, Russell and others. Those who live in glass houses should build protecting walls of granite.—Robert Julien Kenton, Sends $77 to the DAILY WORKER. Dear Comrades:—Replying to your begins with the inevitable “with deft and rapid strokes” and throws “good | Chiang in China, of the Right Wing | theatre” here and there. Even at the cost of boosting the New Leader’s circulation here’s a heartfelt testimonial—I get as many |castically, points out the undoubted laughs out of the New Leader as I do out of Life, Judge or both, And I do hope that its editorial) staff takes a good dose of spring am rooting for the New Leader. want to see it emerge more complete, ly as a real, vital paper of the Amer- ican socialist party, olav hasholom,’ And, as a final suggestion—its business department ought to add to its prestige as an American news. paper by subscribing to the Graphirs feature syndicate. i 2 oe That you may put over on your babbits. You're not in China to protect life But to destroy life Your provocative presence . Is bound to result in wholesale murder. | Your one and only purpose Is to prevent four hundred million people From being lost as potential wage slaves. To your rapacious cap‘talist system. But you are doomed to fail In spite of the traitors you have brought Those head chopping “moderates” of yours. The peasants and workers of China Are ec to triumph sooner or later And the price of blood it will have cost them Will be on your bloody heads, left. But this is the best guarantee that the revolution will not be be- trayed. The Nationalist Movement becomes more and more a people’s movement, The army becomes more and more a people’s army. Its political education is of even greater impor- tance that its prowess with arms, It becomes a revolutionary army that sweeps forward with a fervor forged in the heat of revolution. Its: rank and file are not the mercenary hordes who go to make up the brigand for- ces of a Chang Tso Lin, but workers Your bloody christian heads! hand it over to those who, i a ing faithful to the principles teachings of the Party (Kuo /Min Tang) will thereby be my true fol- lowers, ... { “Taking leave of you, dear rades, I want to express the that the day will the U. S. 8S. R. friend and ally in a mighty China and that in the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed peoples of the world both these allies will go forward to victory hand in hand,” (From the Chinese Guide In America) com~ Kind Vile Laut, rvrthns