The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 4, 1927, Page 2

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE AGENT IN ~ GOOD POSITION TO REACH PUBLIC By CHARLES YALE HARRISON ARTICLE X This article brings to a close this series which has been ad- dressed specifically to the field surance trust. be seen. tion there is no doubt. then a definite purpose will cer There is no doubt that the condi- tions which exist in the weekly pre- mium life insurance business are such as to make every field worker feel that a radical change is necessary. As long as the present economic situa- tion prevails industrial life uranee will continue to be worker insur- ance, From an experimen ife involving only a few thousand do! it has grown to be a factor in finance capital which controls upwards of 4 billions of dol- lars. This is more than the entire U. S. currency in circulation. Few Control It. At present, as has been repeatedly pointed out, this enormous economic power is vested in the hands of a few unscrupulous Wall Street manipula- tors who have used it in enslaving the American worker and furthering imperialistic schemes abroad. The “Big Four” are mutual com- panies, that is to say, the machinery exists whereby the workers who sub- scribe to this form of life insurance may take over the management and direction of these organizations and use them to their own advantage. Not Free. To this end the field worker must lend himself. At present his use is the use of a controlled creature. He is used as an implement of fraud and coercion. If he would free himself from the position in which he now finds himself it is imperative that he organize a protective union not only for the benefits which will accrue to his own advantage but in the interest of the 40 million policyholders who are victimized by the same system, The right to organize is given to those groups of workers who effec- tively do organize. After the organ- ization is completed all talk of “right” disappears. Can Meet Public. The industrial field worker enjoys a condition which exists in no other industry or business, He has con- tact with practically the entire “pub- lic.” Each agent calls at about 200 families every week. In each family there are an average of four adults. His customers are mostly workers who- understand the value of trade unions, if they themselves are not union members they are sympathetic to unionization. The first move towards organizing an insurance field workers’ union is te acquaint the insuring public that such a move would be in the interest of the policyholder. Thrice Too High. Every agent of the “Big Four” knows that the premium rates charged by these companies are ex- orbitant. In some cases they are more than 300 per cent too high. Every agent knows that the ten year surrender clause is murderous in its application. It should be granted after two years. If the insuring public were acquainted with these facts via the agent, there would be an imme- diate wave of sympathy in his direc- tion. : In his own interest the gent must organize to abolish the “lapse and charge” system by means of which he is penalized and fined for condi- tions over which he has little con- trol. Abolish “Times” System. When the “times” system is done away with practically all of the evils to which he is subjected will auto- matically disappear. The fear of the lapse charge gone he will no longer work at night to maintain insurance in force which was written years ago by other agents and on which he re- ceived no salary. worker in the employ of the in- What good they have accomplished remains to} That it has created the occasion for talk about unioniza- If thisetalk develops into concrete action | tainly have been served. co will be ervation of in: n care of by e {appointed for that ¥ | when rates } will fall c y then be within the me of all to maintain the necessary amount of | protection without hardship. To all readers of The DAILY | WORKER who are field workers for | that you agitate among your fellow- workers for the creation of a power- |rades have, because only through or- ganization can the exploited insur- ance worker better his working con- ditions and wrest control of this “co- operative” business from the hands of Wall Street who now vulture-like con- trol it. Needle Trade Defense Help the Furriers Win Their Strike The Furriers are out on strike. The further developments of the Union depend on this strike. Every class conscious worker and progressive must help the Furriers, The Joint Defense Committee is ar- ranging a Concert for Saturday, July 16th in the Coney Island Stadium. The entire profit of this concert will go to help the Furriers in their strug-| gle. The participants in the program will be the New York Symphony Orchestra, of 100, the largest Ballet in New York and a number of famous epera singers and dancers. Tickets for the Concert are One Dollar and Two Dollars. They can already be gotten at the Joint De- fense and Relief Committee, 41 Union Square; Freiheit, Square; Furriers Joint Board, 22 East 22nd St.; Cloakmakers Joint Board, 130 FE. 25th Street. Hurry and. get your tickets as we need the money for relief for the Furriers. * * * A Defense: Journal Defense Committee will issue a spe- cial Souvenir Journal for the Big Con- cert at the Coney Island Stadium, July 16th. The Journal will contain many articles by prominent writers on the present situation in the Needle Trades and on the Defense Work. It will also contain many greetings and advertisements. The Journal will be read by over 40,000 people and will be one of the biggest advertising me- diums. All those who wish to adver- tise or have greetings in the Journal, should send it in immediately to the Joint Defense and Relief Committee, Room .714, 41 Union Square. * * * “Breaking Chains” in Paterson “Breaking Chains” the famous pic- ture of life in the Soviet Union, will be shown in Paterson on June 17th, in and Hamilton Avenue. “Breaking Chains” shown in New York and made a hit. 17th, No on picture. ¥ “The Ready Laundry,” Bronx Park, mld fail to see this e sho * > poouncil of the Cooperative House of ;the Bronx, for the arrested Cloak- makers and Furriers, with a promise to send in $100 more next week and also assist in the future work for the release of the prisoners, The money was turned over to Mrs. | Lillienstein, Council No, 1, Bronx Co- AT PEC! RUSSIA . Soviet Russia today. communism, factories, etc. British Trade Unions. included and attractiv Fred Ellis. NOW 50 Add 5 cents Rooks of in tigited ered NOTE: The Report of the British’ Trade Union Delegation to Soviet Russia This book is the most complete book on life is reported on: trade unions, peasantry, It is a report of an official body of the quantities, im turn as received. operatives. AL PRICE? TODAY | Every phase of soviet conditions of workers, Maps of Russia are ye decorations are by CENTS for postage. fn this column on hand All orders cash 4 |the insuranee trust I sincerely urge! |ful union such as our English com-| 30 Union | The office of the Joint Relief and| | One-Hour Public School No. 6, Cornell Street | was recently | The workers of Paterson will have | | the only opportunity to see it on June | has turned over $100 to the Women’s | THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1927, CHINA’S ARMIES MOVE NORTH | | 3 \y s./ FENG YU-HSIANG Chang Tso-lin is the bandit leader Japan raised to power over first | Manchuria and then ail Northwest China. He is the commander-in-chief of the alliance of militarists formed some -.onths ago to combat the Chinese Nationalists. His chief supporter is Chang Tsung-chang, overlord of Shan- tung province. The retreating rear guard of his armies lies about where the point of the arrow reaching down from Peking shows on the map. His |Shantung supporters are dropping back before Chiang Kai-shek's Nanking army, and there is desultory fighting in northern Kiangsu province. arrow points. Feng Yu-hsiang is commander-in-chief of the Nationalist armies driving rthward from Hankow, and eastward out of Shensi provinces They have | just reached the important railroad center of Chengchow, at which another | (Continued from Page One) | he remarked as we said good-by, “but | it is very hard to live in America.” | | His last ten days in the United/ States certainly had been tough enough but of course no one with the }makings of a good American citizen ever gets into the Tombs, * o «#4 The Tombs edition of The DAILY | WORKER has made its appearance. According to the oldest keeper, this} jis the first event of its kind in the history of the prison, and the editor} and business manager are the reci- |pients of warm congratulations. The general program of the Tombs |DAILY WORKER is “Liberty, (in | caps) Life and Pursuit of Happiness.” | Among its immediate demands is a Day for keepers and | jailers—from 12 Noon to1 P. M. It is stipulated that this period shall |also be their lunch hour ant that during this time all gates, doors and turnstiles of the prison shall be un- locked. A penalty of fine or im- | prisonment, or both, is to be enforced against any keeper or jailer who eats his lunch within one mile of the) Tombs. The attempted suicide by hanging of fellow-prisoner furnished the first |number with a story which Harvey | | O’Connor would have characterized as | “great stuff.” Application for police jeards having not yet been O. K.’d, the editor was unable to be on the; |scene, but a trusty whose nose for | news is as keen as Sylvan Pollack’s, |but who lacks his long and varied journalistic training, covered the story for us in a very satisfactory manner. We were moved to compliment this |young Cub (a “dip” of uncanny | skill) for the enterprise he displayed lin securing a picture of the hangie— hangor, which had been taken in Sing Sing, by frisking him before he had recovered consciousness. i Thanks to this triumph of repor- torial energy, the Tombs edition came into the corridor with the lifelike likeness of the principal actor in this |tragic drama proudly pasted on its first page, scooping every other paper {in the city Some criticism was caused by the fact that in the rush of getting to | press we inadvertently left the Ro- | gue’s gallery number on the photo- graph, but these few complaints | quickly were drowned in a great | wave of approval of the masterly way lin which the Tombs edition of The DAILY WORKER had handled this great human interest story. The bitterest criticism, strangely }enough, came from the man whose | tersible plight we had trumpeted to | a sympathetic public. But as he had been handcuffed in his cell to pre- vent further suicide attempts, we ignored his verbal letter to the editor. We have a good working knowledge of picturesque profanity, but we | must confess that he used a number | of words and phrases which were new |to us and which we were unable to | translate. | With the exception of this re- | grettable incident the Tombs edition | went over big. 4 | Features of the first number in- | clude: Exclusive (in The Tombs) photo- Topics of the Tombs is capable of taking complete charge of this department. All applications must be made in person to the edi- tor.) A number of poems were sent in for the first edition, but all were re- jected by the editor with a shudder in which the business manager joined. The subscription rate to the Tombs Edition of The DAILY WORKER is one package of Camel cigarettes per week, No subscriptions for a penod of more than 99 years are accepfed. . * * The United Cigar Store Company paid him $24 per week for a work day of 10 to 11 hours with split shifts every other week. Pay day was two days ahead, he was 23 years old, it was June, he had a date with his girl, but no money, he failed to “ring up” forty-five cents, and—the com- pany spotter caught him, He has worked steadily for the United for two years, his record is clear, but here he is in the Tombs with bail fixed at $500—which he cannot raise. His girl came down to see him— then two thick. sergens in visitors’ row amid a devil’s din of visitors’ and prisoners’ voices—-and he came back to the cells sobbing his heart out and trembling in every muscle. If you work faithfully for the United Cigar Store Company (the re- tail wing of the tobacco trust) you may, after years and years, stand with your feet planted on the golden pinacle of $40 per week. That is, of course, if the “spotter” never catches you forty-five cents short. District. 2 Miners Preparing Now for Strike in Summer ALTOONA, Pa., . (FP).— Union miners in central Pennsylvania are talking of the strike that may be called in their field this summer. Coal cperators are saying that- they will press again for wage reductions when the bituminous operators asso- ciation of central Pennsylvania meets with the scale committee of District No, 2, United Mine Workers, at Phila- delphia, June 15. The truce between union and em- ployer in this region depends on con- tinuation of Jacksonville rates. Fight to Free Negroes Held As Slaves (Continued from Page One) deranged,” the general explained. Labor agents who solicit Negroes for other jobs are kept out of camp. Negro labor is at a premium now, be- cause of the wholesale migration to the North in-the last few years. . * * Recall Philips County “If there is such a thing as retribu- tion some of the southern plantation owners are getting it,” said White, He told of one plantation in Mississippi where the Negro lands have not seen 4 penny in 5 years. The owners’ properties were covered with raging waters, /flowing at many miles an graph of an anti-British imperialist demonstration in Moscow, pictures of “Lindy” and his fathef and mother with a news item stating the editor many meetings of farmers ard workers with Lindy’s father in Min- nesota, and a Women’s Page. (The Tombs Edition of The DAILY WORKER has a position open for} ( a young and of the Tombs Edition had spoken to qi hour when White passed through. And the waters were also over Phil- ips County, Arkansas, where a hun- Negro cotton farmers were killed in 1919 wher they formed a tenant farmors’ union. SACCO and VANZETTI SHALL NOT DIE! HIRSHFIELD IN | Writes Letter to His Friend, Hylan Magistrate David Hirshfield, com- missioner of accéunts in the John F, Hylan city administration, who was appointed to his present 10-year job just before Al Smith’s man Friday, Jimmy Walker, became mayor, is try- ing to revive the political corpse of Hylanism, Little Davie, between jobs of sending strike pickets to jail on trumped-up charges of Tammany’s policemen indulges in literary excur- sions by writing letters to his former" chief, Both Hylan and Hirshfield are grad- uates of the Tammany machine. Their only mistake was that they imagined themselves greater than the machine. From the dizzy heights of their ex- alted offices they lost all sense of | political perspective and imagined they could with impunity defy their | creator, Tammany Hall. | Get the Bum’s Rush | When Tammany made a deal with |the traction barons and tried to in- duce Mayor Hylan and his administra- tion to aid Governor Al Smith in a plot to raise the car fare of the mil- lions of city workers who have to travel in the subways, the mayor kicked over the traces and refused to be a party to the swindle. Hylan’s fight against Tammany was not because he is the servant of the “common people,” he loves to talk about, but because he and his boss, William Randolph Hearst, who really forced Tammany to accept Hylan, were the political agents of the land sharks, the suburban sub-division real estate agents who were opposed to higher fares because it would make it more difficult for them to sell their “model homes-for workmen,” to the slaves of the city. A bitter fight ensued in which the traction interests defeated the real es- tate interests. Politically it meant the defeat of Hylan by Walker. Revive the Traction Fight The traction fight has recently been revived, obviously for political effect. upon the fortunes of the boss of Tam- many, Governor Al Smith. One of the staunch Tammanyites, Mr. Samuel Untermeyer, investigator extraordin- ary, has had charge of the investiga- tion and Magistrate Hirshfield hastens to assure the public that the so-called “discoveries” of Untermeyer were un- earthed by him during his term of office, Casting about for the best means of placing himself and his pal, “Red Mike” Hylan again before the public, Magistrate Hirshfield writes a letter to Hylan praising the work of the latter’s administration and, ineident- ally, berating the Interborough, Untermeyer, Smith, Tammany and Walker, which follows: Enormous Dividend “New York, June 1, 1927. “Hon. John F. Hylan, 9 East 40th Street, New York, New York. “My dear Judge: “According to the press of to- day, Mr. Samuel Untermeyer just discovered that the Interborough Rapid Transit Company had be- tween the years 1915 and 1919 paid out subway dividends aggregating 18744 %, or within 12% %, twice as much as the Interborough Com- pany’s total investment. Figures Are Oli Ones “Nearly eight years ago, when the subway corporations made ap- plication for an increased fare, as Commissioner of Accounts, I fur- nished these figures to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and the same were made public at that time in the course of the pub- lic heariggs held by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment under your presidency, as Mayor. It was in that investigation that we found that the law firm Guggenheimer, Untermeyer and Marshall received from the Interborough Rapid Tran- sit Company $25,318.72 as counsel fee in the now famous Admiral Realty Company law suit, said to have been cooked up for the pur- pose of having the courts pass upon the legality of subway contract No. 3; the contract under which the I. R. T. received the city built sub- ways and the city thus far received nothing in return, Untermyer Was Bondholder. “I also remember that according to our records, Mr. Samuel Unter- myer, his son, his nephew, and his law partner owned an aggregate of $136,000 worth of Interborough bonds and that the estate of the late Andrew Friedman, of which Mr. Untermyer was executor, own- ed $988.091 worth of Interborough bonds. Washing Dirty Sinners, “Tt occurred to me that while this traction investigation is nowy, being conducted and Mr. Chadburn, the head and front of the B.-M. T., large stockholder in the I. R. T. and the reputed financial backer of Governor Smith’s presidential as- pirations, is being examined as a witness, it would be of interest to delve into the story of how you were forced out of the mayorality by Governor Smith because of your stand on the transit question and itl seshmsptsma states nan NON ptt HOT ATTACK ON TRACTION FRAUD { | | Editor Blames American Minister For Raids On USSR Embassy In Peking PEKING, June 3,—United States Minister to China, John V. A. Mac- Murray, was primarily responsible for Chang Tso-lin’s unprecedented |} raids on the Soviet Union embassy cempound, declared Charles Hames Fox, editor of the North China Star, and well-known law- yer, in a public statement. From the best information that T am able to obtain, Mr. Fox said, “it was the American Minister who took the most active part in in- ducing the Chinese in Peking to vaid the Soviet Union embassy, with the British Minister, the main instigator, remaining quietly behind the scenes, and the Dutch Minister giving the actual permis- sion.” American Minister MacMurray is the puppet of the British For- eign Office, Mr. Fox intimated, | } your insistence upon the five cent fare. In the summer of 1925, it was said, I do not now recall by whom, that before your decapita- tion had been decreed upon, a con- ference alleged to have been attend- ed by Mr. Chadburn, Boss Olvany of Tammany Hall, Tammany Sub- Boss Flynn of the Bronx, Walker and one or two others was had at a certain place. The Walker cam-' paign managers seemed to have plenty of cash during the primary fight against you and later in the general election; the corporation controlled republican legislature passed the amendment giving the Walker administration additional $300,000,000 to finish the subways you began to build, and everything seems to have been running along smoothly, according to Hoyle, when suddenly this investigation was started by Governor Smith’s State Transit Commission with the great inquisitor Untermyer as counsel, Does it mean war to the hilt, or is it simply shadow boxing? “The people would undoubtedly like to know whether the traction magnates were double crossed, or the reason for the apparent break between thé aforementioned worthy confreres, e “Yours truly, “(Signed) DAVID HIRSHFIELD.” More Tammany Graft. Although professing expert knowl- edge of the traction tangle, Hirsh- field missed the important point of the whole investigation—the enor-| mous graft that is involved in the| whole affair. As a result of new- est traction scandal both republicans and democrats at Albany have ap- Greek Police Shoot At Workers Demonstration Then Raid Communists ATHENS, June 8—Police today | raided the Communist Club in Salon- ika, seizing documents and beating members. Two Communist deputies are reported to have disappeared. The raid followed a police attack on a demonstration of left wing to- bacco workers in front of the gover+ nor’s palace at Salonika. The work- ers fled for protection to labor head- quarters where they barricaded them~ | selves, Breaking Chains, Movie Of Russia, In Newark NEWARK, N. J., June 3.—“Break- ing Chains,’, the motion picture that portrays life in the Soviet Union, will be shown here Saturday, June 4, at | Krueger’s Auditorium. Tllinois Wins Point Over Lakes. WASHINGTON, June 8—The supreme court today eliminated New York’s contention of sovereignty over water power rights on the Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers on the New York Boundary from the Chicago Lakes diversion case on motion of os- car E, Carlstrom, attorney general of Minois. exempt bond issue for the purpose of constructing more subways. These. subways will be built by the city and the traction grafters who obtained dividends to the amount of 18734 per cent in a period of four years will gain the benefits derived therefrom, The whole “investigation” is worse than shadow-boxing. The traction barons do not object to being called names if only they get what they want and in this case they are get- ting it. Tammany, in turn, will get nice fat campaign contributions from the corporations to boost Al. Smith for president. Don’t Mention Wages. In all the investigations thus far conducted nothing is said about the wages of the traction slaves. The strike of last year, which Jimmy Walker and his police force helped to break and whieh Tammany judges issued injunctions against, was the excuse for the traction barons to plead poverty. They declared that they could not pay the living wage demanded by the strikers. The facts again brought out by the investiga- tion proves that they can pay wages, and the workers on the subway and elevated lines should smash the com- pany union called the Brotherhood and organize a real union and again |put up a fight against the slave drivers who amass enormous ‘profits off the starvation wages of the trac- broved a three hundred million tax! tion workers, American $1000 Protection FOR FIRST No Medical Examination | SPECIAL DRIVE—$1.00 FOR MEMBERSHIP AND ASSESSMENT An Association organized. and incorporated under the strict laws of Guardian QUARTER Illinois, writing protection on a net cost basis, following the plan that | has proved sound for more than seven hundred years in England. The plan is as follows: (fk Members are formed in groups of 1200 each and when a member dies each member contributes $1.00, One careful selectiop of members, the death rate per group at ages taken by the American Guardian should not run more than three deaths to the group per year. No person, male or female, is eligible for membership under ten or over forty-five years of age. The rates are as follows: Certificate fee for all i ed inel tribution, $7.00 with the application. Ages are as follows: ered for total and permanent disabil: the same as in the event of the deat! AMERICAN GUARDIAN 134 North LaSalle St., Chicago, Ill. In this, my petition for membe hereby make er to the followin, the tacts ae I assert them are the for membership, What ts your full name? ....++re0s Street Address? ... CHP res svthiogs iovanud Height? ... see Weight? Race? ... + Where Month? Age? .. Give details as to occupat! jon Whom do you namo as benefictary? Relationship? Address? .... What iliness or fnjurl Have any of your family or relative Have you had any operation, disease peseies oll to or! an ICAN GUARDIAN, and t authority by me by notifying the Signature of Petitioner ... ‘Witnessed ..... I have careful ness 0 wane, 10 to Quarterly Expense Contribution, $1.25 reg 21 to io: Quarterly Expense Contribution, $1.50 | Age 31 to 45, Quarterly Expense Contribucton, $2.00 In addition to the death benefit, the certificate holder is also cov- The members will contribute the same amount per member, ($1.00 each) The American Guardian, in order to form a new group of 1200 members, will issue for $1.00—including the first quarterly expense contribution covering the first three months—to the first 600 applica- tions received and accepted, a regular membership certificate. By acting quickly, filling in, signing and sending in the enclosed application, you will save the Certificate Fee of $7.00. APPLICATION sees Day? . . Married? Have you ever been declined for Life Insurance?... I also appoint and constitute Mr. William @. Forde, of the Ame: be my lawful Attorney-ii empowered to cast my ertcan Gi two weeks prior to any meeting of the m rend (or heard read) ther ig aha stutements therein made, a1 uding first Quarterly Expense Con- lity, not to exeeed the sum of $1000. h of a member of their group. rehip in the American Guardian, I questions with full knowledge that asis for issuing to me a certificate - Apt? crores born? . had Tuberculosis or béeon Insanet or infirmity? . rican Vact, and in my stead he ts at any meeting of the AMER. tinue in foree until revoked mall at least t hall iardian by Foginto embers. net i 74 place te teeth