The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1927, Page 2

‘Page Two Marine Fireman Bares Tale of ~~ Cruelty at Sea John Hansen, a firem: S. Steelmaker of the Isthmian Line,| Service Co. which plies between this port and/ests, have repudiated their agree- | Yokohama and other oriental ports,/ment to join in limiting production was badly beaten at the hands of the! in the Seminole district of Oklahoma. ‘Greedy Oi! Men Break Word On first engineer, E. Erwin, a typical] Big oil interests, meeting here last bully of the company slave driver} week, decide to limit drilling of new | type. | well or 15 days in the Seminole The incident took place on the sec-| field, whose great output has totally ond engineer’s watch while Hansen} disorganized the market so far as was down in the fire pit cleaning oil profit is concerned. | burners, He had just cleaned out} The independents and the two nine burners and was about to begin) groups named however refuse to ad- | on the stokehole floor, which was} he to the program controlling a covered with paint and kerosene,| substantial minority of the field, they when the second engineer approached| can easily disrupt the entire plan him and asked him whether he had} and continue the senseless waste of cleaned out the bilges. Hansen an-/| the nation’s limited oil resources, due swered him that as soon as he would | to be exhausted within six years, ac- | Curtail Program an on thé S.| Two big old producers, the Cities | and the Barnsdall inter- | —— } Oe es ct nna enn mien teeta be thru on the stokehole floor he! gording to the Federal Oil Conser- would begin on the bilges. He then! vation Board. | went away and Hansen returned to the nauseating job of working in| paint and kerosene on the steel floor. | j He After a little time had passed and § e I@10n all Hansen was still on the floor, the bullying first engineer came into the | . a stoke compartment and after cyni-| Booze Worrying His | cally surveying Hansen’s labor he ap-} | proached him and asked him the same| question that the second engineer had} asked him a short time before. He} answered him in the same manner View of business section of Poplar Bluffs, Mo., virtually wrecked by a tornado that took more than 100 lives in this city alone, BROWNSVILLE MINERS APPEAL TO NON-UNION MEN TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LOCK-OUT AND ORGANIZE BROWNSVILLE, Pa., May 15. —|Men-do not get paid for slate remov- THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MAY 16, 1927 that he had answered the second en- gineer. Beaten Badly. The first engineer thereupon in- sulted him and lashed out at him with his fists, knocking him about the face and body. Hansen was badly beaten. When he asked to be taken to the captain, the first engineer emphati- eally refused to do this, saying that there was no reason to do so. When Hansen made a broken at- tempt to climb up the ladder the first engineer knocked him down the iron rungs injuring him still further. He ®entinued his brutalities knocking out one of Hansen’s teeth and otherwise injuring him. He also threatened to murder him if he reported it and didn’t go back to the stokehole. Consequently Hansen was forced to drag his beaten body back into the stokehole and forced to finish his watch despite the terrible beating which he had received. A Spanish oiler by the name of June was wit- ness to the proceedings but was help- less to interfere. Supporters Stiff Worried stiff by the religious is- sue, Al Smith’s managers are debat- | ing whether to send the leading dem- |ocratie presidential candidate out into the sticks, or keep him at home in the Tammany cage. Whether the heavy-drinking, pro- catholic Al will win any votes by exhibiting himself in Columbus, | Kokomo and Decatur to the dry Ku | Klux elements is the big question. | | Although Al goes well along the side-!| walks of New York, he might lose some of his slim chances of inhabit- ing the White House as Cal Cool- | | idge’s successor if he is paraded| | around the country too much. The democratic politicians finr | themselves in a tantalizing position with the best vote-catcher in all America apparently barred from beating Cal because he genuflects be- fore the cardinal-and has no aversion to admitting that he drinks’em! | straight. In the meantime Al is tak- | ing a leaf from Cal’s notebook a: | The miners of Brownsville have been | waking to the effect of the attempts | to spread the non-union field in their vicinity. A progressive miners’ group} here issues the following statement to the non-union miners. ee oe The miners of the union field have been locked out since April 1. The Vesta Coal Co., and Jones and Lough- lin are trying to operate their mines here on a non-union basis, and altho they have on their side the aid of the state police, the yellow dogs; etc., are meeting with a great deal of resistance. They would not be able to work their mines for any length of time, this way. The Unorganized. But near the scene of the struggle, there are a great number of unor- ganized mines. These miners should stop and think what will happen to them if they help to crush the min- ers’ union. Of course, their wages were raised for a short time by the Pittsburgh Coal Co., the Rainey Coal Co., the Hillman Coal Co., and other non- ed, track laid, or cross bars under ten feet. If they tell the boss there is too much water in their rooms, what does he say? He swears at them, and shouts, “go ahead and load that coal out, or take your tools out!” And the workers have to stand for his howling. Bosses Separate Men. They are kept separated as much as possible. If the boss comes and finds three or four of them gathered in one working place, talking he tells them to scatter ovt, as the superin- tendent doesn’t like to have them gather in crowds that way. The bosses and superintendents are afraid the men will begin to organize. It is only by organization that these men will be able to remedy such conditions, and raise the wages. The time to do it is now, while the union men are out. If the non-union miners help to break the union, they will find it just that much harder to organize themselves, later. Or- ganize now—and all win together! ¢ | | ‘Doheny Boasts He Gives Quarters to Keep Workers Happy By L. P. RINDAL (Worker Correspondent) LOS ANGELES, Cal.—At a break- fast in the county jail the other day, Doheny, oil magnate, handed Sheriff Traeger a $5,000 donation toward the “salvaging of humans” (help to re- leased prisoners). Class war prison- ers, however, need not apply. One must be a law-breaker of the Teapot Dome variety, no doubt, in order to qualify. Doheny’s Goats and Sheep “Every week dozens of men come to my home seeking aid,” Doheny said. “They are never turned away. I have instructed the watchman to| weed them out and, on his sugges-| tions, Mrs. Doheny and I give them what he thinks they deserve. Some-| times it is a dollar, sometimes it is) but a quarter.” | So, in the words of Mayor Cryer,| | POPLAR BLUFFS’ BUSINESS SECTION a WRECK | (Expect Power Lords To Fight Reservoir Flood Safety Plans WASHINGTON, (FP).—Conserva- tion engineers in and outside govern- ment service declare that the failure of the levees to hold the floods along the Mississippi and its tributary streams this year has made it certain that congress will revive next winter the whole controversy as to adequate methods of harnessing the rivers, Army Mislead People. Influential newspapers in cities along the course of the flood are de- claring that the army engineers have misled the country by their claims in past years that levees along the low- er course of the river would meet all needs of flood periods. They demand a study of flood control by construc- tion of dams and reservoirs on the upper reaches of the rivers. Floods on the Nile have been stop- ped, and irrigation has been greatly enlarged, by the construction of the great Assuan dam. In the Sacra- mento and San, Joaquin valleys in California a state commission has constructed reservoirs that stop floods at the source, and that regulate stream flow during the entire year. On the Ohio River a similar project has been worked out. Civil engineer- ing societies are now sending resolu- tions to Washington, pointing out that reservoir construction is the only sane solution of the Mississippi valley flood problem. Would Make Cheap Power. These reservoirs, held back by ‘great dams, would be the means of | generating quantities of electric pow- er, which could be distributed to con- sumers by the government at low rates, and thereby promote develop- |ment of many regions now in need of power. It is this feature of all reser- voir construction which arouses the opposition of the General Electric power lobby. The power trust will back the army engineers in insisting that more levees be built, and that reservoirs be left to private specula- tive enterprise. Every time a levee is built higher, the silt in the stream builds the bed of the river higher, and the danger of breaks and widespread destruction ‘from flood is increased. | But levees do not bring the govern- ment into competition with the power trust. Finally Hansen was able to see the| ®t saying a thing. captain. This availed him little so far as satisfaction for his injuries was concerned. The captain told him to wait till they arrived in Philadel-| Hamburg Forgers Sell phia and then to see the shipping commissioner. The shipping commissioner sent him to the seamen’s doctor at the port barge office. Here he received a letter to pay him off at New York as he no longer wanted to sail on the SS. Steelmaker. Forced To Stay On Boat. The captain, however, tried to force him to remain on the boat until they reached Providence despite his weakened condition after the beating. When he got back to New York he was told that he would be paid off Friday. He received but five dollars from the shipping commissioner for maintenance till the ship returns. These conditions of brutality and mistreatment of sailors and firemen are not unusual or out of the way and will continue to be so until the men are organized into a strong body able to fight and gain their economic and social demands. If all the sea- men were organized in one strong union able to fight for and protect the rights of the men while on the job such conditions would be a nightmare | of the distant past. As it is, they still occur, not al- ‘ways as in the case of Hansen to the extent of a brutal display of physical force on the part of the company of- ficials, but in the removal of the basic rights of the marine workers, to the mercenary advantage of the com- panies employing them. The obvious solution is in organiza- tion. The class consciousness of the seafarer must be raised to the stage | where he will naturally respond to the stimulus of organization into a strong union. $500,000 Stamps HAMBURG, May 15.—The forged cigarette revenue stamps turned out | by a professional band of counter- | \feiters here is considered slightly bet- | |ter in appearance and printing than | that done by the regular government | printing office. It was this perfection | of work which finally led to this dis- covery. Their product was otherwise | |indistinguishable from the real ar- ticle. They are thought to have put} into the market at least half a mil- lion dollars worth of stamps. Feng Yu-hsing Takes Two More Cities (Continued from Page One) of the northern military divisions in. corporated into the Nanking army,} the extreme right wing of the Kuo-| mintang and the Shanghai bankers, compraderes and industrialists, Boro- din told Sheean. Workers and Peasants’ Revolution. Describing the nature of the Chin-| jese revolution Borodin said, “You) must khow that a straight republi-| jcan Nationalist movement is impos-| | sible, or at least ineffective in China. | | While I have. never attempted to) ‘change the essentials of the Chinese | revolution I have always been con- |vinced jt would never succeed unless | } made Mito an agrarian revolution—a| |thoro going social economic move-| | ment. | “We base our whole revolution on the peasants and workers, Without | these no nationalist revolution could| ‘take place. Our labor policy is based | *- on these essential concepts of revolu- \tionary technic and it has been emi-| {struggle between New York Central- Business Men Kid Farmers by Study nently successful as the Britigh in| Hongkong disciovered.” * Of Their Problems Boys and girls clubs on the farms sppear to be the solution of the agri- cultural problem, in the eyes of the - National Industrial Conference Board, which has just made public a report of its Business Men’s Commission on Agriculture, The board is maintained by big em- hg to handle their research prob- «lems and to mold public opinion thru “factural” studies. Under Charles Nagel, it has been studying the farm problem with the idea of letting the farmers see how interested business men are in their wretched lot and how willing they are to lead the agrarians out of the economic desert. But no legislation of lasting worth will be recommended, the board in- timates, inasmuch as agricultural groups were found to be badly split on the question. SACCO and VANZETTI SHALL NOT DIE! a) \ a Open Peasants’ School. HANKOW) April 14 (By Mail).—A) Central Peasants’ training school has been opened at Wuchang for the pur- pose of training leaders for directing |the peasants’ movement. | The school has been organized by- Teng Yen-ta, head of the Peasants’ Department of the Central Executive | |Committee of the Kuomintang. The school gives a four months’ course, lineluding subjects on Chinese econ- {omie conditions and rural conditions and problems. duates will be sent |to the various provincial Kuomintang jorganizations to help the peasants’| ; movement, | 751 Students. | The school already has an enroll-| |ment of 751 students: 151 from} | Hunan; 206 from Hupeh, 206 from | Kiangsi, 36 from Honan, 24 from, Anhwei, 13 from Kiangsu, 26 from) Szechuen, 1 from Kweichow, 4 from| Shensi, 4 from Shansi, 5 from Feng- | | tien, 10 from Chihli, 6 from Fukien, 5 from Chekiang, 30 from Ricans | iil, | would shorten the anthracite route to! The report makes it-clear that there Walkout Wins Reinstatement, A four hour walkout of A400 pocketbook makers forced the rein- statement of Shop Chairman vid Wax, who had been discharged by the Morris White Co. Ossin Walin- sky, the superintendent who quarrels with the union, was for ‘years the manager of the local. union concerns, while the English miners were out on strike, but that raise did not last very long. Bosses Cut Wages. Since January Ist, and 15th, these wages were again cut; in some places you will find any men working for as low as $3.85 and $4.25. The working conditions are unbearable. BATTLE BETWEEN FINANCIAL GIANTS RUINS ALL HOPE OF ECONOMIES IN RAILROAD HAUL By LELAND OLDS (Federated Press). The attempt of J. P. Morgan & Co. to unify the flow of anthracite into New England via the Poughkeepsie bridge gateway has been checked. Morgan’s plan to lease the Lehigh & New England railroad to the Reading for 99 years is blocked by the interstate commerce commission. The com- mission’s report reveals how complications due to private operation prevent the routing of traffic on the most economical basis. Where unification is worked out under private control all gains go to the owners. The fight over this lease appears as one engagement in the widespread|The Reading controls the Central |Railroad of New Jersey through stock ownership. 1 Baltimore & Ohio interests and the It is party to an Pennsylvania interests for dominance iance between the Central of New east of the Mississippi and north of/ Jersey and the Lehigh Coal & Navi- the Ohio river. The New York Cen-|@ition Co, The Lehigh Coal & Navi- tral and Baltimore & Ohio each owns! gation controls the Lehigh & New 25% of the stock of the Reading. The| England through stock ownership. Reading, with E, T. Stotesbury of J.| Finally the Reading, the Central of P. Morgan & Co. as chairman of its| New Jersey and the Lehigh Coal & board, is the leading Morgan factor | Navigation together own 23,546 of the in the anthracite industry. |47,070 outstanding shares of the The Inside Hold. Lehigh & Hudson. The Lehigh & The Reading combine informally| Hudson and the Lehigh and New Eng- controls the Lehigh & New England, land between them control the bridge Here’s how the combination works.! connection to New England. This combination controls about a third of the anthracite production in the United States. The commission shows for the years 1920 and 1921 the tonnage of anthracite coal originating on the principal lines as follows: Anthracite tonnage originating on 1920 1921 Reading 14,188,000 , 13,096,000 Central of New Jersey . 5,550,000 6,424,000 Lehigh & New England . 3,254,000 2,808,000 Lehigh Valley ......... + 12,412,000 11,946,000 Delaware, Lackawanna & Western . 9,986,000 10,521,000 Delaware & Hudson .. 9,937,000 9,264,000 Pennsylvania .. 5,229,000 4,881,000 Erie ... 6,504,000 7,069,000 N. Y. Onta 2,012,000 1,604,000 Total + 69,028,000 67,613,000 Morgan interests, probably includ-|consolidation would save about ing the Van Sweringens, also control $500,000 a year in expenses due to the Erie. {consolidation of staffs, ete. But, as The Reading contended that the the commission points out, “It is pro- lease would open new through routes | posed to surrender to the owners of | from the anthracite fields to New the leased property a large proportion | England via the Lehigh & New Eng- jot the financial benefit which the con- land. The proposed routing would |solidation plan contemplates should save 27 to 73 miles in shipments from | accrue to the carriers for the benefit. 15 ‘representative Reading points to| of the publig through reduced rates 14 points on the Boston & Maine. It and improved service.” Boston 200 miles. In the view of the|are large savings both in length of commission the longer routes are at|haul and in expense of operation present used to give the Reading a|which would benefit the consumers of longer haul and more freigh® revenue. | anthracite in New England if the en- Would Save Money. itive transportation system were uni- The Reading also contends that the/ fied under public control. Los Angeles is really an “oasis of John Brophy Shows Up abundance.” Wonderful generosity! | : . . But the poor creatures handy need District Machine a big, black satchel to carry suth| See huge sums of money away. A round-| (Continued from Page One) trip ticket to Doheny’s home on the | election, warned the convention of the trust-owned street car lines cests more Serious predicament, confronting the than a quarter, anyhow, to say no-| national union, outlified his own pro- thing about the repair of shoes, ete.,,gram and reiterated his faith in the after the long, up-grade walk over) miners. the steep hills, owned by parasites of | Coke Workers Deserted. the Hollywood plunderbund. |. He pinned his main attack on The watchman weeds out the goats | Lewis’ policy in District 2 onthe de- from the sheep. The latter only get|sertion of the 100,000 miners in the the quarters, and “sometimes it is per fields in the 1922. strike. By dollar.” How, then, can Doheny, the| sacrificing them, union miners in churchman, “humanitarian” and city | Pennsylvania and West Virginia were patriot for the sake of dollars, truth-| left exposed to the operators and anyone from his home without a|crumble. quarter, at least, for cagfare—to be) spent for the enrichment of labor--| signed separate contracts with opera- baiting corporations. Doheny’s place tors, as Nanty-Glo, allowing them to is always guarded to keep the poor run their mines part union. and part as well as dogs, etc., out. But the! scab. priests, the Falls and the Sinelairs! Brophy criticized. Lewis’ sole at- are always welcome to help them-| tention to obtaining contracts for the selves all around. Doheny, the pay-| union fields while neglecting the or- triotic protector against an invasion | ganization of the non-union miners. of Hawaii Islands by the Japs, calls; “Organization of the non-union such doubtful generosity the “salvag-/ fields and the securing of contracts ing of humans.” for them must be made of equal im- Oh Those “Humanitarians” portance to the securing of contracts Louis B. Mayer, .motion picture|of the older fields,” Brophy empha- ‘magnate, and other big business men sized. present at the breakfast table in the) $8,000,000 jail building (where pri-| soners come and go at will, provided Three Big Issues. Nationalization, the Labor Party and democracy in the union were also fully say that he “never turned away” | gradually union conditions began to | Lewis himself then stepped in and | they have the——) also expressed themselves as being sympathetic to the sheriff’s plan of helping the poor | prisoners to get on their feet again! after their release from jail. They promised to furnish released prison- ers with work—‘whenever possible.” | At the hearings of the industrial) commission, a year or so ago, Mr./ Mayer made all kinds of promises to} female movie extras, in behalf of the overlords in the motion picture in- dustry, but up till this day nothing came out of it. It wasn’t “possible” | stressed as major union issues, Replying to Lewis’ statement at the Indianapolis convention that he had been responsible for the loss of thou- sands of members in his own district, Brophy offered an analysis of mem- bership figures showing that other districts had suffered even more heav- ily. District 2 is a buffer district, he pointed out, exposed to greater dan- gers and receiving less international support than other districts. For example in the last three years District 2 has paid $549,000 to the In- to do anything, of course, except to ternational treasury and received in flatter the exploited aspirants to return a donation of $7,000 for the stardom by changing their title from) victims of two mine explosions and a “extras” to “artists.” Labor Party | Said oil-stained $6,000 check is really a good advertising stunt just now for a near jail-bird. Besides, the gasoline went up six cents a gal-_ lon yesterday. So Doheny is richer! today than he was at the time he handed over 5,000 bucks to a crook- ‘catcher. ; Released prisoners? Weill, they will) have to get along the best they can. Gifts in form of quarters, along with false promises, concerning bet- terment of the conditions on the slave! market, may look and sound good io the sheep-like element in society; but class-conscious workers demand the full product of their labor. They de- mand a Labor Party of their own for a start. First Coney Island Sunday, Luna Park (Coney Island) was open yesterday for the Sunday of the year. About 75,000 persons attended and all the niekle gr ae reported well oiled and in ex- cellent working order. Joan of $20,000. Districts Losses. Membership losses in various dis- triets were noted as follows: 1923 1926 Central Pennsylvania Dist, 2 .......39,900 17,000 22,800 Western Pensylvania Dist. 5 .......39,000.18,700 20,200 Ohio, Dist. 6....40,900 20,900 20,000 Northern West Virginia Dist. 17 ......24,600 1,811 23,500 Southern West Virginia Dist. 18 6,100 1,300 4,800 Loss Commons Argues Lipstick, LONDON, May 15.-~The lipstick is under fire in the House of Com- mons, Colonel Day has queried the min- ister of health as to what steps he will take to prevent women from be- ing poisoned by the use of cheap lipsticks, that lipsticks be entirely forbidden. bing devices|, The minister of health is not pre- pared, to announce a definite course of action. Another thember proposed | collect JERSEY PLAYING BOTH OF PARTIES BAYONNE, N. J., May 15.—In this town, largely dominated by the Stan- dard Oil ir#rests, citizens have just gone through a spirited election con- test. There were several sets of can- didates, one endorsed by the Hague machine Democrats, one set of oppo- sition Democrats, another Republican set and still another good government clique. The original five endorsed by Hague had to be withdrawn be- cause of the opposition to the silk hat slate and the fact that among them was the assistant superintend- ent of the Tidewater Oil Co., who is hostile to organized labor in Bergen County. The trade unionists opposed the ticket also. A new set was endorsed by the Hague machine which included Dr. Daly and others. As a result of the election four Hague men were elected and one oppositionist, Donehue. These men of the machine had the support of the Hudson County Labor Union. The great mass of workers in the Standard Oil and other large plants remain unorganized and any attempts at unionization are pre- vented by the city fathers, They railroaded organizers out of town who try to organize them. Class conscious workers and in a dilemma to understand how the trade unionists in Hudson County can be duped by the capitalist politicians of the de- mocratic party, Nevertheless the progressive work- ers thruout the state are carefully watching the trade union bureau- crats. In Passaic they approve re- publicans, in Hudson County they endorse democrats. When we con- sider the fact that 22 bills introduced in the last state legislature were killed gy the politicians of both par- ties, we know what we can expect from these betrayers of labor and supporters of big business. The only remedy is to clean out all the fake politicians and to organize a power- ful Farmer and Labor Party in New Jersey. Oppose 80 Cent Cut in Hibbing Common Labor Rate HIBBING, Minn., (FP)—May 15. —tThe recent cut by the village of Hibbing in the common labor rate from $5 a day to $4.20 for 8 hours is severely condemned by the Hibbing Central Labor Union, The central | body points out that the steel trust | will cut its own common labor rate still further if the village persists in its wage-shaving policy. The proposed change from Hib- bing’s 3-platoon system for city fire- men back to 2 platoons is’ scored by the central body as a backward step toward inefficiency in the depart- ment and unjust to the firemen. Lo- eal 173 of the Firefighters’ Union un- animously opposes the change. Heavy Patriot Gets His Proof All Right (Continued from Page One) gained his title of “major” as a mem- ber of the Army War College where he taught various branches of elec- trical engineering during the war. He has for years been a representative here, and abroad, of the Edison in- terests. G. O. P, Fraud Friend. The judge advocate-general of the Military Order, who is listed as “colonel” Reed is really United States Senator Reed from Pennsylvania, the senator from Pittsburgh who was ap- pointed to office during the great coal] strike. It was but ten days after his appointment that President Harding came forth with a strong afiti-miners’ declaration which urged the employ- ers to start mine operations under government protection, It was Gov- ernor Sproul of Pennsylvania, who appointed Reed, who sent soldiers to “protect” the mines. Reed defended the infamous boss, Vare, in the U. S. senate from investigation by a senate committee, i The commander-in-chief of / the Military Order has been an active aid in carrying out U. S. imperialistic ventures, He has twice se: in the Philippines; took part “in the Ver: Cruz Expedition” of 1914; served the world war and was with the Army of Occupation in Germany. His Hand in the Dough. One of the honorary command in-chief of the order is Major-Gen George H. Harries, who, beside: tary activities in Cuba, agains’ Indians, and in various parts of U. S. service, has been president of the Metropolitan Railroad Co. of Washington, D. C.; vice-president of the Washington Railway & Electric Co, and of all companies in that com- bination; president of the American Electric Railway Association, and of the Assotiation of Edison Mluminat- ing Companies. The Edison com- panies are well represented on this list of officers. Major Hammer is part of them too. After seeing the list of officers and staff, one does not need to examine the books of the Military Order of the World War to certify that “they will many thousands of dollars ighout the coun- for the frame-up of WORKER and all or indiv from employers titude cay radical