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

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1927 Coal Miners Must Build The Union and Also Help) Organize the Labor Party By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL T Sea, Aboard the United States Liner President Roosevelt, Saturday, April 9.—(By Mail from Ply-| mouth, England.)—There is no indication anywhere on| this ship that the men are organized, or that they have the least semblance of a union, Andrew Furuseth, head of the International Seamen’s Union, has great faith in the United States government. | Instead of spending his time and energies organizing the seamen, however, he has been a perpetual lobbyist in | Washington, trying to get favorable legislation from congress these many years. Among the results have been that entirely satisfac- tory legislation has not been forthcoming and the union | has been practically banished from the high seas, just as the Lake Seamen’s Union has lost its hold on the Great Lakes, where it faced the giant fist of the United States Steel Corporation. The fact that the United | States Lines are government-owned hasn’t helped Furv- | seth or the seamen. * Here is a warning to the coal miners who, disgusted | and discouraged thru the repeated betrayals of the ad- ministration of President John L. Lewis, may turn to} legislative action alone as a forlorn hope, thus forget- ting to rebuild and strengthen the union where it has been weakened. Thru long experience, however, the miners he learned that they must develop their politi- eal as well as their economic power, so that the danger is not so great here, as in other industries, that either | will be neglected. The present crisis must be no ex- ception. * % The present period of struggle thru which the coat | miners are passing cannot help but sharpen and de-| velop the cl: consciousness of these workers. They | see not only the employers, but many of their own of-| ficials as well, openly arrayed against them. Those of- | ficials who have been most loyal to them, like Alex | Howat, in Kansas, they see outlawed by the Lewis ad- | ministration. | Evans, in his “History of the United Mine Workers | of America,” writes of the early struggles of the coal miners that: | “The failure of the miners to gain recognition and the | right to organize and bargain collectively furnished in- | centive for the growth of class consciousness. The min- ers were of the opinion that wealthy interests were fast becoming the dominating influence in the country, that large corporations were gaining ascendancy in the coal market, and that, when the price of coal rose, it was of very little advantage to independent (smaller) operators Vecause the railroads took the lion’s share by increas- ing freight rates.” | This was especia!ly true in the anthracite field where | the so-called “Morgan Pool” united the big mine owners | in the fight for their interests. * Thus, in the early history of their attempts at organi- zation, when the miners found that their collective ac- tion was not sufficiently effective to gain them recog- nition and rectify the conditions of which they com- plained they turned to state legislatures for relief. Altho | the miners, in this manner, succeeded in getting the Pennsylvania legislature to pass an eight-hour law in 1968, its effectiveness was nullified by a clause in- serted at the instigation of mine owners which made eight hours a legal workday only where “there was no agreement to the contrary.” Unless a union was power- ful enough to gain recegnition dnd collective bargaining there naturally would be an “agreement to the contrary.” Nothing better’ illustrates the necéssity of economic power to force and bulwark legislative gains. Just as in the industrial struggle, however, where the reactionary officialdom continually cripples the class ac- tion of the workers, so in “politics” these same officials continue to function thru the old parties, fighting every effort of the workers to build their own independent po- litieal action. The present struggle will effectually expose this double treason of the union bureaucracy. Already the | “Cossacks” (state constabulary) in Pennsylvania has | been turned loose against the union pickets at the Gal- latin mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Pennsyl- | vania is in the grip of the republican party machine that ; President Lewis supports. } * The statement of the Trade Union Educational League | entitled, “Win the Miners’ Strike!” truly says: “The government is making preparations to enter into the strike in its traditional role of strikebreaker to | crush the workers and help the employers. The miners | must be fully conscious of the nature of the class strug- gle in which they are engaged and which must be prose- cuted with the utmost determination and political con- | sciousness in order to secure victory for the miners. | This is a struggle which must heighten the political un- | derstanding of the workers, accelerate the movement for a Labor Party, and pave the way for an energetic struggle for the nationalization of the coal mines.” * * * * * William Green, former international secretary of the Miners’ Union, but now the Bolshevik-baiting head of | the American Federation of Labor, was at one time a| democratic state senator in Ohio, while over in Illinois, | Frank Farrington, while president of the Illinois dis- | trict, was always a cog in the republican party machine, being finally involved in the huge corruption fund raised to put Frank Smith in the United States senate. | President John L. Lewis, also from Illinois, has al- | ways been a petted child of the republican party, being | mentioned as a vice-presidential candidate in 1924, and | later as likely timber to succeed Secretary of Labor Da- | vis in the president’s cabinet. Yet miners need but sur- | vey the pathetic condition of their union today, with | John L. Lewis as president, to know that John L. Lewis | as vice-president or secretary of labor in the capitalist | state, would be of no benefit, but instead only another | handicap for them. ‘ | * * Miners’ conventions have repeatedly gone on record | in favor of independent political action, but the official- dom allied with the capitalist parties has continually | @abotaged all steps in this direction. Efforts of the coal miners to act locally have been frowned upon. — | Expensive lobbies have been maintained during the session of the various state legislatures, and in Wash- ington, to watch and cajole the old party legislators rather than elect coal miners or workers from other in- dustries as the spokesmen of a iat Labor Party. * * The continuous and vicious use of the police power of the state against striking coal miners, in all sections of the country, developed a strong socialist sentiment among the cogl diggers in the pre-war days. This was effectually squelched during the war, but again raised its head when the militarist spirit had somewhat gub- sided. Later, however, it again ran counter to the red- baiting hysteria that has become one of the weapons used by the Lewis aomime to keep itself in power. ' oe AGGRESSIVE PAINTERS FIGHTING TO IMPROVE UN By L. MARGULIS. A movement of great vitality and importance is spreading among the |membership of the Brotherhood of Painters in the city of New York. The rank and file is awakening; they are beginning to realize that their des- tiny lies in their own hands. What is the cause of this awaken- ing? What is prompting them to or- ganize on a broad inter-local basis (Inter-local Clubs)? What is it that must drive the rank and file to change the conditions as they exist today? The men in the trade are today subjects to an unbearable speed-up system. They work with the most poisonous material. All health rules are grossly violated. On the job the boss is the almighty ruler. There is no protection whatsoever. Men are fired anytime the boss feels like do- ing so. If a man does not produce as much as the boss wants him to, he is immediately fired. The result is that the men, fearing | to lose their jobs, are compelled to | drive each other, drive the life out of each other in the unbearable, speed- up, sweat dance. This means ruin of their lives, ruin of their family, and less employment. Those who are supposed to repre- sent us in the district council, and whose duty it is to create good work- ing conditions and improvement in the trade all around, in whose hands we have entrusted the destiny of many thousands of painters, these men do not represent us, the rank and file. They represent their own personal interest and the interest of a clique of corrupt politicians. They do not work for the interest of the organization. Facts prove this. They | betray us at every occasion, they rob IONS IN NEW YORK our treasury and sell us out to the bosses. What is the rank and file going to do about it. We cannot and will not bear it any longer. The broad mem- bership must begin to act. In the past }the members have shown what they can do. They have rid themselves from the grafters and betrayers, the } Zausners and Koenigs, but there is still a strong opposition in the Dis- trict Council, who is blocking every progress, and who make it impossible for the newly elected progressive dele- gates to bring about better working conditions. The general membership must wake up to: the facts, and must begin to take a more active part in their union work. We must make the Brotherhood function for its real aim and purpose, the protection of the trade and its followers. For this purpose a move has been started to concentrate and intensify organization work, This work is not |carried on on a weak and sectarian |basis, but on a broad scale, namely the Inter-local Club, The club is the {central body where members from every local union are represented. Thru this body the membership of every local will be informed of the situation in the trade and of all the tasks with which we are confronted with. Here the members will be in- structed as to how to act and what proposition to defend and to fight for in their respective locals. The Inter-locai Club, joined and supported by all rank and file mem- bers, will be a paramount factor in the heroic effort for a clean and mili- tant paitners’ union. All our support should go to the Inter-local Club of the Painters’ Brotherhood in the City of New York. 4 Passaic Prepares To Go To The Polls By SYLVAN A. POLLACK In a little over a week Passaic goes to the polls. The election of five city commissioners will be in the hands of the citizens of that city which in- cludes a substantial number of for- mer textile strikers. Practically without exception all the ex-strikers that are eligible will cast their ballot for the labor slate— | Albert Weisbord, Simon Smelkinson {and Simon Bambach, who are run- ning in the non-partisan elections with the endoysement of the Passaic Branch of the Workers (Communist) Party. In previous articles I have referred to the fact that the labor candidates have the old party men worried. And here is the important point that should not be overlooked. The labor bloc is running with a definite labor program that calls for independent working class political action, a labor party and many im- mediate tasks that confront the workers. After The Strike. The strike is over. The textile workers have a union; the workers in the other trades who were interested in the strike and watched it so care- fully and gave funds so it could con- | tinue are not organized as yet. But} they have hopes of being unionized | and until that time comes, they are listening to speeches by the workers who put fear into every boss in Pas- saic, Garfield, etc. And they are going to do more than that. They will vote for them in the local elec- tion that takes place on May 10. Will Support Weisbord. Yes. These workers are going to vote for Weisbord, Smelkinson and Bambach—Communists who have shown that they stand for the inter- ests ,of labor. That they favor the | organization of all workers who to- day are toiling long hours for low} wages. | These workers know that Preskiel | and his clique jare not their candi-| dates. The strike bears testimony to | that. And then Judge Cabell who “supported” the strike. He is an em- ployer of scab labor—an owner of an open shop. These men are not their | candidates so they are rallying to the support of the labor candidates who| have the only logical program for | any working man or working woman | in Passaic. A JOB-HUNTER’S LAMENT | Our Calvin says we're prosperous— To doubt is most pre: posterous; i Kerensky says we’re beau ideal— | Before such knowledge I must kneel. I’m out of work; But, woe is me! I might as well beon born a Turk As citizen of the U. For all the wealth The bosses say we must produce; I offer help but it’s With walking miles, But still I’m out and I know that God is good and kind, And Cadman says the doubter’s blind; I do not doubt, I onl I’m out of work, alack-a-day! The bible says we'll If we are meck from day of birth; T’'ve aye been meek, There must be some I know that up above the sky, We'll live in mansions when we die; It will be grand, but—oh dear, dear! I’m living in a hovel here. Get Your Raise in Wages— But Then Go After the Rest! THE DAWN OF THE MILLeNiln AT LAST THE AF OHL, ISORGANIZED 100 sarees Gi | BUNAING A See DOr! 8..A., | that comes my way. no use: } my shoes are thin, | can’t get in. | iy say get the earth but I am poor; mistake I’m sure. DONALD McKILLOF. 1M GOING NOW TD DEMAN I? A RABE IN WAGES AND THE POSES WILL HAVE Bane IT, Dus Cecpuse We CAN UP eNeeY JOB IN THE WHOLE COYVRY! ‘Yellow Socialist Sheet Yelps for Aid from Dupes The decrepit and discredited remnants of the yellow {socialist party leadership is desperately striving to maintain its English language weekly publication, “The New Leader,” edited by the lying “historian,” James Oneal, and is sending out appeals to all the “faithful,” but is meeting with but meagre. response. The, honest proletarian elements that have re- mained in the socialist party are disgusted with the shameful alliance of the Jewish Daily Forward (the godfather of the New Leader), the Woll-Civic Federa- tion, employers and police that is endeavoring to wreck the New York labor movement in order to maintain power against the will of the membership and are now deserting wholesale. Faces “Immediate Suspension.” The revulsion of feeling against :the traitorous role of the New Leader has been instantaneous. One of those upon whom the New Leader| has heretofore depended in emergencies declares that he no longer will support it and has given The DAILY WORKER the following appeal that speaks for itself: “April 22, 1927. “Dear Comrade: “THE NEW LEADER IS IN IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION! “There, without mincing words, is the situation in which your paper finds itself today, “A combination of circumstances beyond the con- trol of any of the loyal comrades who have helped build the New Leader make it necessary to sus- pend publication at once unless— “Unless you and the other readers of the New Leader respond immediately to this most urgent appeal. “There is no need here to stress the service that the New Leader is rendering the socialist cause in this country. At a time when all forward looking movements are suffering financial distress, the New Leader has valiantly kept alive the fine spirit of idealistic revolt. By the enemies that it has made in capitalist ranks, and the following it has won among the workers, it has more than justified its existence. “But we cannot go on without your help. We are facing a financial crisis where every dollar that you send will do yeoman’s service, The next few issues of your paper may be the last you will re- ceive, if at this time you do not answer our call to you for comradely aid. We know that you will not abandon us in the thick of the fight. But do not delay, send your check or money »rder today. “Emergency Committee of the New Leader. “S. A. De WITT. “MEYER GILLIS. “ADOLPH WARSHAW.” Completely Discredited. In spite of its known record of treachery and betrayal of the working class into the hands of a combination of bosses and union wreckers masquerading’ as “labor leaders” that vile sheet still has the audacity to appeal for working class support because it has “valiantly kept alive the fine spirit of idealistic. revolt.” It probably refers to its aid to Woll, the Civic Federation, the stool pigeons and bosses in endeavoring to railroad to the penitentiary the leaders of the rank and file in- the Furriers’ Union. ranks is mere camouflage, as the capitalists themselves DANGER OF who are fighting militant unionism recognize it as their | defender. The worker who sent us the “appeal” from the New |Leader suggests that they get their sustaining fund from those whom they serve—the enemies of labor. COLLEGE MAY PRINT PRICE FOR ATHLETES IN FRANK CATALOGUE Frankly admitting that his institution had been “dis- graced” in 1925 by having men on its football team who had violated the amateur code, President Hamil- ton Holt, of Rollins College, a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, yesterday threat- }ened to expose out and out professionalism in college! athletics unless rival schools abandoned all “athletic hypocrisy.” “If it is impossible,” says Holt, “to find enough col- leges geographically proximate to play with under purely amateur conditions,'‘I am ready to suggest. that we abandon our pretense of amateurism and come out open and above board for professionalism. I would be | perfectly willing to print in our catalogue just how) much we pay our pitcher, our quarterback and high jumper. Bricklayer Shows He Is Great Athlete }| wee | (owed wee wee || Aga THEyCAN | OBR ON O37 J09T RAISE CN WAGES (WP NCTTHIN LIRE. THAT BROTHER APL. WHEN you DO THAT" | Here is an athlete testing a machine designed to measure the energy expended by ath- letes. The experiments are being made on the entire Cornell University track team. The apparatus is the handiwork of Professor A. V. Hill, distinguished British scientist and winner of the Nobel prize in 1922, Its boast of enemies in the capitalist | THE “POLITICAL NEBULA” THAT IS'CHINA. China and 14 Powers, by Henry Kittredge Norton. The John Day Com- pany. 6 Mr. Norton, one time journalist in China, has contributed to that mass of superficial quackery that is accepted by capitalist publishers as infor- mation regarding that country, Having been away from China since long before the nationalist liberation movement developed to its present pro- portions, he knows nothing of what is happening there at this time, but the fact that he was once there was evidently considered by the publish- ers sufficient cause to publish his diatribe. “The Chinese republic,” says Mr. Norton, “is a political nebula.” It has not the “slightest tendency in the direction of the establishment of a republic in which there is popular participation.” * After this profound political observation the author devotes his talents to an apology for the rights of foreign investors in China. These imperialist plunderers have rights “upon which hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested, a vast commerce built up, and the lives of thousands of for- eigners planned.” Of course, it is extremely rude, not to say ungrateful of the benighted Chinese masses to disturb the planful lives of these parasitic owners of investment capital by throwing them off their backs. Many of the Chinese are so backward that they cannot appreciate the irreparable injury they do their Christian benefactors by indulging in anti-imperialist struggles. Then, too, the Chinese revolutionists are too rude; they do not follow the peaceful, gradual, legal forms of civilized nationalist movements, but ac- tually indulge in revolutionary activity. They should learn from the his- torico-political oracle, Mr. Norton, and only indulge in sweet persuasion. * * * Perhaps the nationalist movement was “nebulous” when Mr. Norton last rubbed shoulders with it. But while using astronomical terminology to describe a political movement, Mr. Norton ought to carry the analogy a bit farther. Emanuel Kant stated hypothetically and Laplace mathe- | matically proved a number of facts about nebulous things, the most im- portant for the present discussion being the fact that through motion— through condensation and rotation the gaseous substances crystallized and eventually formed new worlds and even solar systems. Even accepting Mr. Norton’s estimation of the state of the movement at the time he was in China there is now unquestionably sufficient action to convince even the most skeptical that something solid will come of it—and it wilt require no astronomical age to solidify it either. —H. M. WICKS. * * AN AMERICAN UTOPIAN. Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy. Vanguard Press, New York. 50 cents, Had this book been written in 1927 instead of 1888 it would have been received with great bellows of enthusiasm by the optimistic liberal jour- nals, the Nation and’ New Republic and Survey Graphic, and by such zeal- ous foes of capitalism as Albert Jay Nock, Calvin Coolidge, James Oneal, William Green, and Henry Ford. It would have been. reviewed as a very important scientific work and could have been found on the chaste shelves of all public libraries. * Briefly, the thesis propounded in this revived classic is that eventually, maybe a few quatrillions of years (Bellamy places the evolution one hun- | dred years from 1888), man will see the error of his ways and reform, and we shall have a clearer, bigger, happier world. If Edward Bellamy | were alive today he would see in the company unions and class collabora- !tion schemes the fulfillment of his evolutional predictions. I have no quar- rel with the state he outlines after the supposed social evolution would have taken place. The book is very valuable if only. for this reason, that lit paints a realistic picture of what the final state will be like. I have, | however, a quarrel with his belief that this new society would be the cul- * * | mination of a hundred years gradual and peaceful evolution. + ‘This is in effect, an attempt to make us believe that there is no class struggle, that strikes and picket lines are useless, and that the Rottenfel- lers, Morgans, Mellons, anl Fords that at present pull the strings that make puppet Cal and his henchmen in congress dance to the overture of clink- ing kale, would be visited by the divine spirit of God and made to see the light. To those of us who believe that the capitalistic system now passing for government is too pachydermatous to be so easily pricked into evolution, this belief is rather naive. How did this evolution take place? Bellamy says “the popular sentiment toward the corporations and those identified with them had ceased to be one of bitterness (O worker—give up your unions!), as they came to realize their necessity as a link, a transition | phase in the evolution of the true industrial system.” In spite of Bellamy’s belief that there would be no bloodshed he pre- viously stated that “the epoch of trusts had ended in the Great Trust, In a word, the people of the United States concluded to assume the conduct of their own business; just as one hundred years before they had assumed the conduct of their own government, organizing now for industrial pur- poses on precisely the same grounds that they had then organized for poli- tical purposes.” Mr. Bellamy, the son of a parson, and no doubt permeated with the philosophy of the Christ, conveniently forgot that when the people of the United States assumed the conduct of their own government it was not because King George III had been convinced of the error of his ways by the Holy Spirit. Unless I am greatly mistaken the people achieved their political liberty (7) by force. Mr. Bellamy also naively believed that the “Reds” of 1888 were subsi- dized by the capitalists to discredit the labor movement. Mr. Bellamy had evidently paid too much attention to the capitalistic press of his day. Even today the Reds are charged with throwing bombs, undermining fam- ily and religious life. And even .today the liberals fall for that bunk, as witness the Nation, when it deplored the use of violence in a certain frame- up in New York. The social economics of the species propounded by Messrs. Kautsky, Nock, Bellamy, James Oneal, and the New Republic, degenerates the so- cial movement to a parlor pastime, on the same level with Mah Jong. When the people (and the proletariat have not yet evolved, apparently, to the status of people), that is, the middle class, are oppressed too ferociously by the big’ capitalists, these men, and these journals, will make a great hue and cry, calling on God to give them legislation, and investigation. May I ask what has legislation ever accomplished, especially legislation hampering the inalienable rights of capitalists to exploit the workers? What exactly, did the Teapot Dome investigation accomplish? Mr. Nock is even more passive than the evolutionists, as he doesn’t believe in legiz- lation, or even education, but does believe that to merely think the present social order is putrid is far more effective. And no doubt Mr. Nock (sex his Anarchist’s Progress in the March American Mercury) believes that the eight-hour day and higher wages were accomplished by peaceful evo lution. * * * * * One of the respectable red herrings still in good standing among his- torians and evolutional radicals is that not every revolution was effected by blocished. I have diligently examined histories and can find no men- tion of any such important revelution. What about the Colonial Revolu, tion? The French Revolution? The Russian Revolution? The revolutions? The present Chinese revolutions? | When capitalism develops to sich an cxtent that it can no longer f its slaves, we shall have a revolution. J Yes, say the evolitional radicals, you workers are getting a hell of 'a- deal. But wait—Time and God will intervene in your behalf. In the | meantime, work, starve, and go to church. Obey the laws, be peaceful (that Ais, don’t strike) and venerate Cautious Cal. Blah... . blah... , Because “Looking Backward” propounds such a philosophy is why most | of: the above named journals and gentlemen would have acclaimed it as the ‘new Messiah had it been written today, It is a perfectly harmless theory, containing about as much T’, N, T. as the belief that black is white. Capital. ists should welcome the revival of this human document since it gives them potentialities of promulgating a future perfect social order, * * * _ But God help the worker who falls for this evolutional, co: = ism, class collaboration, bunk! Perey ide JOSEPH KALAR.