The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 20, 1927, Page 4

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY » JUNE 20, 1927 Page Four jl THE DAILY WORKER Published by tie DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday $5 First Street, New York, N. Y. Phone, Orchard 1680 Cable Addrezs: SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year 98.50 six months $2.60 three months $2.00 three months heir RE PE IE RG Address all mail and make out checks to | THE DAILY WORKER, 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. | J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE BERT MILLER..........0+ Cp ree business Manager “Dalwork” TD Entered as second-class rail at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 8, 1879. | >, Advertising rates on application. _ No Strikebreaking for New York Trade Unionists. The failure of the Woll-McGrady-Frayne trio of scabherders to induce local trade unionists to go out on the picket lines thrown | by the Furriers’ Union around struck shops and help the bosses break their strike is one of the most ignominious defeats ever in- flicted on such characters in the history of the American labor movement. The refusal of the members of the unions affiliated with the New York Central Trades and Labor Council to play the role of strikebreakers is just what we expected. After all, those men know from experience that the employers make no distinction be- tween lefts and rights when it is a question of loosening up on} their cash. They have experienced the rigors of class warfare und know that the clubs of the police have no more regard for the | heads of the conservative trade unionists than they have for the} heads of the radical unionists. They hold the scab in contempt and have imprinted this feeling on many a scabby anatomy. It was therefore not surprising that when this unholy trinity of strikebreakers sent out a letter to the local unions affiliated with the central labor body of this city urging the members to supplement the efforts of the police in breaking up the furriers’ picket lines that a roar of indignant protest should be the reply.| ‘This indignation found vigorous expression at the last meeting of the central body when even its conservative president Joseph Ryan, because of the rank and file attitude towards Woll’s scab- hing policy and for other reasons, urged the delegates present and thru them the mernbers of the local unions to ignore the letter sent | out by Woll, the vice-president of the National Civil Federation | and his two. errand boys, McGrady and Frayne. This well-merited rebuke should serve notice on those rene- gade labor leaders that it is time for them to call a halt on their strikebreaking policy or else quit the labor movement. It is also a warning to the yellow socialists that their belly- crawling to the extreme right wing of the A. F. of L. has not met with the approval of the rank and file of that organization. Honest | workers may be conservative in their political views but they loathe the fink and the agent provocateur. In the long run the political party and.the industrial organization that fights for the | masses will receive the support of the masses. The action of the New York Central Trades and Labor Coun- cit in repudiating the-activities of Woll, Frayne and McGrady ‘should serve to encourage the furriers in the gallant fight they are putting up for militant trade unionism. It indicates a revival of militancy in the labor movement in general and shows that the fog of misrepresentation and prejudice that has been spread over the trade union movement by the agents of the employers is being dispelled and that the workers of different affiliation are begin- ning to realize that solidarity on the industrial battlefront.is nec- essary and vital to the needs of the members of the trade unions. 4 Coolidge’s Black Hills Fishing Expedition. $ Batteries of cameramen and mobs of hack writers overrun the Black Hills as did the Indians in days of yore, bent upon record- ing every gesture of the president of the United States who is spending his summer on a fishing expedition in those parts. His first day’s catch of seven trout, with worms as bait, aroused the majestic scorn of Senators Borah and Reed. The Idaho senator, commenting upon the possibilities of a presidential order for a special session of congress, frankly admitted that he was puzzled. “There’s no tellings what a man who will catch trout with a worm will do,” said Borah. ‘Any trout that would lie on the bottom and bite at a worm is a degenerate trout,” affirmed Reed. The gen- eral impression is that it is unpardonable to use worms to catch trout, and certain sceptics suggest that they probably were cat- fish instead of trout and that Coolidge doesn’t know the difference. Be that as it may, the republican national committee is doing 2 bit of fishing on its own hook and is not averse to using one whom as vice president it regarded with the disdain usually ac- corded worms. While Cal uses worms as fish bait, he is himself in turn used as political bait. Perhaps his republican and demo- cratic detractors will insist that only degenerate politicians will bite at such bait. On the same day the president performed his incredible feat with worm-biting trout, State Senator Robinson came to the sum- mer white house and assured Cal his loyal support. Robinson is one who opposed the farm relief bill that Coolidge vetoed and knows that his game is up as far as reelection is concerned, Per- haps he will get a federal lame-duck appointment in case Qal re- mains in the white house another term. But the Robinsons are comparatively small fish; a judicious fisherman would throw them back into the stream. But ¢here are better catches than Robinson. For instance William Hale Thompson, recent victor in a spec- tacular Chicago mayoralty election, is to be one of the summer visitors. Thompson is the dominant figure in Illinois politics. And Illinois is the home state of Vice President Charles G, Dawes, candidate for president and his stalking horse, Frank O. Lowden. The chief capitalist newspaper of the Middle West, the Chicago ‘fribune, has for years reviled Thompson, while supporting Lowden and Dawes and other darlings of La Salle street. * It is not unlikely that “Big Bill” as Thompson is affection- tely called by the Chicago hooligans who constitute the back-bone _ of his corrupt political machine will, for a consideration, agree to deliver the Illinois delegation at the 1928 republican convention to _ Mr. Coolidge, which would be a stinging rebuke to Messrs. Dawes and Lowden. “Big Bill” is fair bait for the farmers also, As a stellar attraction at country fairs he can manipulate the political _ ‘shell game with the best of them. " All this cannot improve the distressful condition of the farm- ers. The presence of the presidential party will not raise the price of corn and wheat in the Middle West. The farmers will not be ‘ooled by the Coolidge bait. They have too long observed his se ‘substitute for a meal for them. I |5th Ave. LETTERS FROM OUR READERS ————— Editor, The DAILY WORKER: | hey were curious to know what All class conscious workers are} made the cadets jeer. Then I star- with you in your éffort to fight the| ted to sell the daily. I had to shout attacks of professional patriots who| out little fiery slogans under the do the bidding of the enemies of la-/ very noses of the cadets until one of bor. | the officers, a cowardly We know that you will be trium-} looking individual grabbed hold of me phant. We cannot afford to lose the! and shouted “Boys come and get him; only daily in the English language | he’s a Bolsheviki.” About six white whieh fights the struggles of the! gloved cowards came up and were too workers of the world. We must not} cowardly to even strike hard. They permit the voice that informs us of| gave me little taps on the back. The the wrongs perpetrated against the! crowd looked on and I saw a cop workers to be stilled, ltrying to beat it away but was We pledge our help to The DAILY | jammed in the crowd. He was forced WORKER, and enclose $20 to assist | to come to the reseue against his will. you in your fight.-Philip P. Fijan,| He told me to move along and forget Treasurer, Yugoslav Work Ath-| about it. In the seuffle I lost many letic and Educational Club of N. Y DAILY WORKERS and leaflets. But ® * * after all it was lot of fun—A Sea- A Seaman On Land Duty. man, 1 reported for duty at 9 A. M. yes- terday at headquarters. A comrade| Editor, DAILY WORKER: and I were assigned to Battery Park! Your paper does not represent the to distribute leaflets and sell DAILY] political and economic views of the WORKERS. We arrived in time to| Daily Jewish Forward—nor does it see regiment after regiment falling| represent my own. There is this dif- into ranks preparing to march up| ference to be noted, however: When I had a wonderful oppor-|the plainest civil liberties of William tunity and started right in with a) Dunne and Bert Miller are invaded, colored regiment and gave one to a! on a frivolous pretext, I feel that my colored private. He read the head-|own are put in Jeopardy, too— lines. Then I didn’t have any trouble) whereas the wellnigh inconceivable handing them out. took them from me like a lot of|“Forward” editors imagines that only hungry men. It looked like a bread-|two Communists have been attacked line in confusion. One of the officers|and that the “Forward” enjoys an seeing the commotion came to in-| everlasting immunity from like at- vestigate. It was too late. | tacks. Some were already read and were| I felt that I owe the Miller-Dunne being folded neatly and put away.| Appeal Fund five dollars. I scarcely This officer wanted to see one. He|need tell you that, like most workers read it, tore it up and told me to! making a living by their pen, I am shove off or I'll “get in trouble.” O; d up—and that the “Forward” the sidewalk were hundreds of colored |isn’t. I therefore resolved to make women and children from the Harlem |the “Forward” pay my debt to the districts. They saw what I had done| Appeal Fund, The English Supple- and literally stormed me for leaflets.| ment has been conducting for some I also managed to work in a few| weeks a definition contest, paying ten DAILY WORKERS to the colored] prizes of $5 each for the ten best troops. They were all looking at me) definitions of a word selected. Three with that warm broad Negro smile.| Sundays ago, it called for definitions They understood. of the term “bore”, Having had con- Then I moved along and got the|versational contacts, however slight, West Pointers. I passed out a few!with Algernon Lee, I naturally con- leaflets. After they read the head-|sidered myself experienced in the lines they started jeering me, but it; ways of bores. I wrote a definition,| did not discourage me, for the mem-| mailed it above the signature of a ory of the enthusiasm with which the| girl-friend of mine, Blanche Mascola| colored troops took and read the leaf-|—-and promptly was awarded a prize lets was fresh in my mind: So I jof five dollars, which I enclose, as the could only answer with a_ smile.|“Forward” contribution to your De- Again the bystanders stormed me for |fense Fund. | the leaflets which were eagerly read. * * * JAMES FUCHS. Bitter Sweets for. the Negro. “And yet they rose to high places—to become heads of uni- versities and banks and business—yes, and to sit in state legisla- tures,” raves the New York Sunday News in its review of ‘“Who’s Who in Colored America,” which attempts to give a biography of | the 2,181 most notable Negroes. Quoting the author of the biog- raphy the News goes on in the same strain, “From the most hum- ble beginnings, in many cases from log cabins and slave parents, these pioneers have blazed new trails, opened new fields of en- deavor, new hope, new faith for their sons and daughters.” Mean- while over one hundred thousand Negroes are being held as virtua! prisoners and chattel slaves in the inundated area of Mississippi and Arkansas under the most revolting conditions. Mr. Walter White in the June 22 issue of the Nation gives a | moving account of the situation he found on his tour of the flooded | districts. In spite Mr. White's very evident effort to be restrained and charitable to those in charge of flood relief, the true meaning of the appalling situation stares out from between the subdued lines of his report. “Army cots, for example, were often given to whites, first, and to Negroes only after the whites had been fully supplied. There were instances, too, where the choicest clothing was dis- tributed in the white camps and the left-overs given to Negroes.” “Particularly in the states of Mississippi and Arkansas, where these share croppers and tenant farmers are Negroes, it is rare for Negroes to obtain fair settlements from their landlords. They live in a state of virtual peonage, and the flood situation has been used to strengthen their chains. “Plantation owners in the flood area were highly apprehen- sive lest they lose their Negro labor when the flood caused aban- donment of plantations. “In many of the refugee camps Negroes are carefully guarded, and when the flood recedes and the land dries they are released only to the landlord from whose plantation they came.” Quoting from the Daily News of Jackson, Mississippi, an in- terview with Dr. Underwood, who with General Green of the Mis- sissippi National Guard is in charge of that area, the report says, “All labor (meaning Negro labor) in authorized camps will be held and not allowed to go to other sections of the state, and after the flood danger has passed and conditions are such that they can resume work, they will be taken back to their homes in the various sections of the delta from which they came.” Again according to the Vicksburg Evening Post, “Mr. Thomas was instructed not to release any family or persons from the camp except on written consent of the landlord from whose plantation the laborers came or on the personal request or authorization of the landlord.” Mr. White further goes on to say, “Negroes in hundreds of cases were forced to work at the point of guns on the levees long after it was certain that the levees would break, Conscripted Negro labor did practically all of the haré) and dangerous work in fighting the flood.” The situation disclosed by Mr. White’s report is a menace to all workers whether in the shop or on the farm. The fact that jabor in the South can be conscripted with the aid of the army and forced into conditions of virtual slavery, establishes a prece- dent, dangerous to the entire labor movement of this country. The cry of an emergency is an old familiar excuse, which has been used time and again, whether during a capitalist war, or during a miners’ strike to demand labor’s acceptance of degrading condi- tions. Labor must not permit the determination of its conditions wy violent and restrictive measures established by the employers w'th the aid of the government. This holds as true in Mississippi agit does in New York. This holds as true for the Negro as it does for the white worker. The fight against injunctions and in- ignorant} They came and | blindness, not to say stupidity, of the| ~ Signor Modigliani | and Fascism By A. K. | It is an old maneuver of the social} | democratic leaders to try to make the| | Communists responsible for the coun-| ter-revolutionary terrorist regimes. The rise of fascism in Italy, the forest of gallows in Bulgaria, ete.—all this was a “natural reaction to the work of the Communists.” This old and rather worn out story was retailed once again a few days lago by the Italian reformist Modi- gliani in a speech delivered to the Berlin ‘social democratic workers. Modigliant and his bosom friends have received marching orders , from Mussolini, after having doné his work. Modigliani declared: Thus was fascism born! In the middle of 1919 the last efforts were| made. The factories were occupied by the workers. Who was the insti-| gator of this action? Mussolini! And what were its consequences? The workers were driven from the fac- tories and the peasants from the larg- er estates, And the worst was that the bourgeoisie was indirectly sup- ported by the Communists. Moscow dispatched ridiculous orders which had no sense for Italy. They made a united resistance impossible and as- sisted in the victory of fascism.” Flourished Because of Inaction. | This contention simply turns all the facts on their heads. It is generally known today that fascism became powerful in the state and finally be- came the state itself, not on account of any revolutionary action of the proletariat, but because, thanks to Modigliani and his friends, such revo- lutionary action did not materialize. Even Karl Kautsky, who certainly cannot be suspected of being a direct actionist, has to admit that. He writes in his foreword to the second} volume of his popular edition of Marx’s “Capital”, (translated from the “Volksausgabe des Kapital” 11% Band): “How little the proletariat has won when it has only gained control of production, was shown in 1920 in Italy when the revolutionary workers occupied the great works ‘without meeting with any resistance. They managed to maintain production for a while, but they were not able to maintain circulation: the supply of raw material and supplementary ma- terials, the disposal of the finished commodities. Very quickly, the pro- cess of production itself began to come to a halt, the workers exhausted | |their supplies and there remained {nothing for them to do but to bow | their shoulders once again under the} yoke which must have soomed te them to be their salvation. | “With this the working class had} suffered the most serious of all de- feats. Not a defeat met with in the struggle, such a defeat can have a | morally uplifting effect, but a defeat! without a struggle, caused by the col-| lapse of their own measures on ac-| count of their complete insufficiency. Didn’t Go On. | If We ignore the confusion which! is inevitable in Kautsky’s present} works, then we see that the above quotation declares that fascism only} became victorious because the revolu- tionary action of the proletariat was} not carried far enough. | This observation of Kautsky is also in accordance with everything that we} know about the chief cause of the vic- tory of fascism. The victory of fas-| cism was the punishment for the lack of courage to act in a revolutionary mamner, or rather to pursue the revo- lutionary action to its logical end. This fact is also to be seen from a} letter written by Modigliani himself to the Berlin “Vorwaerts”. At the time of the occupation of the fac-} tories, writes Modigliani, Mussolini was still undecided, Mussolini was) not the instigator of the occupation | of the factories, but declared himself ready to support the metal workers of Milan. (Modigliani corrects the fals® report of the “Vorwaerts”): | Reformists Befriend Benito. | That is not only a historical proces- | sion, but, as we have already shown) above, a logical train and consequence, | and the responsibility for it rests! solely with the reformists, the friends | of Signor Modigliani who sabotaged, | throttled and betrayed all the mass! movements of the proletariat after! the war, who paved the way for fas- cism by their complete passivity, who have offered to “Cooperate in a tech-| nical fashion” with Mussolini and who deliberately let the elementary indig- nation of all the toiling masses of the| oopulation, at the murder of Matteoti in 1924, run to seed, ' If the Communists had had the, possessed, then it would never have come as far as fascism, The Com-) munist movement is however, gradu- ally growing and today it is:the only . hope of all those who want a speedy, end of fascism. Signor Modigliani is! compelled to admit that himself, even if involuntarily. He writes in his letter already quoted from: “There . . . it has happened that) despite the fascist law to enslave the unions, strikes have occurred here and_ there. And one must never forget that every striker is threatened with imprisonment. Still there are move-| ments of protest in the shops and terference with strikers is part of the same front éf the class struggle as the Negroes’ fight against the yoke of peonage. The worm-like crawling before his Wall Street masters to mistake him] problem calls for immediate and unified action by the American labor movement and agricultural workers’ organizati anonymous leaflets are circulating there.” ‘ “Still there are movements of pro- test in the shops and anonymous leaf- late ove rirenlating there’! Thom a | will get their pamphlets from the Dis- power that Modigliani and his friends - Hauptmann’s ‘Weavers’ Produced in the’ Movies The German film producers have scored again! This time the subject is no less than that forceful and re- volutionary study of the workers, Gerhardt Hauptmann’s “The Weav- ers.” The German Film Syndicate is responsible for its production. It is interesting to note that the Ufa, the biggest film concern in , Germany, which produced such pictures as “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” “The Golem,” and ‘Variety,” has become decidedly anti-revolutionary in its tendency; working class stories are taboo in their present repertoire. According to the report from Ber- lin, where the film is now showing, it has scored'a genuine artistic success, Hauptmann’s story is a tense and tragic study of life and struggle among the Silesian weavers in the late 40’s, when the playwright’s father | ; was a boy, and worked at the looms | from early dawn to late at night at a miserable wage. The director, Fred- erick Zelnick, has shown much skill in the production and brings out many fine technical effects: Many close- ups, following the style of the Amer-} ican directors, are shown. This time, however, they do not show pretty doll- like faces, but~ emaciated men and women, worn out bodies crushed in the intense struggle for existence, There are many fine revolutionary scenes, particularly the fight between the military and the workers who are striking for decent living conditions. “The Weavers” was done in New York some years back at the Madison Square Theatre. The play received high praise from the many workers | who attended, Let’s Fight On! Join ‘The Workers Party! In the joss of Comrade Ruthen- WAt1X berg the Workers (Communist) Par- | ty has lost its foremost leader and | the American working class its! staunchest fighter. This loss can only be overcome by many militant: work. ers joining, the Party that he built. | Fill out the application -below and mail it. Become a member of the Workers (Communist). Party and carry forward the work of Comrade | Ruthenberg. | I want to become a member of the | Workers (Communist) Party. Name ... Address Occupation ..... Union Affiliation........s0e:se.00+ Mail this application to the Work-; ers Party, 108 East 14th Street, New! York City; or if in other city to Workers Party, 1113 W. Washington Blv., Chicago, Ill. Distribute the Ruthenberg pam- phlet, “The Workers’ (Communist) ‘arty, What it Stands For and Why Yorkers Should Join.” This Ruthen- berg pamphlet will be the basic pam- phlet thruout the Ruthenberg Drive. ivery. Party Nucleus must. collect 50 cents from every member and will receive 20 pamphlets for every mem- ber to sell or distribute. Nuclei in the New York District trict office—108 East 14th St, Nuclei outside of the New York District write to The DAILY WORK- R publishing Co,, 33 East First treet, New York City, or to the! National Office, Workers Party, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, II. true, but it is not thanks to the re- formist deserters, but the outward signs of the work of the despised Communists who have remained at their posts, who have built up the Italian trade union federation after the flight of the reformists, who are untiringly organizing the _ Italian working class, mobilizing all forces, inereasing the resistance and prepar- ing the great attack to sweep away Little Theatre pe In the Theatre Guild Production “The Second Man,” now in its third AMUSEMENTS, HBATRE GUILD ACTING CO—| The SECOND MAN Thea., W. 52 St. Evs, 8:30. GUILD Mats. Thurs, & Sat., 2:30 The SILVER CORD John GoldenTh.58,E.ofBwy.|Circle The LADDER Now in its 7th MONTH CORT, 48th St., East of B’way. MATINEE WEDNESDAY 44th St, W. of Biwa GRAND Svenings at 8:30. ~=STREET AND THURSDAY FOLLIES [ Broadway Briefs _| PALACE. Charlotte Greenwood, in “Why Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” a satire by Andy Rice with Lon Hascall, Les- ter Dorr, Sunny Dale and Martin Breenes will headline the Palace Theatre bill. The other acts include: Odali Careno; Fannie and Kitty Wat- son; Marion Saki, with Yelson Snow and Charles Columbus; Ethel Sinclair and Helen Eby Rock; “Tisano”; Frank Braidwood; Belleclaire Bros. and Co.; and Nama and Yama. ~ Marion Harris; Gracella & Theo- dore;. Edward Arnold and Patricia Collinge; Paul Mall; Harry & Grace Ellsworth; Torino; Beebe and Ruby- iate are playing at the Riverside Theatre this week. Vaudeville features at Moss’ Broad- way Theatre will include: Al, Trahan and Vesta E. Wallace in “The Cur- tain Speech” by Frank Fay; Sam Robbins and his Baltimoreans;. the Ford dancers, who occupy a con- spicuous spot; Wyeth and Nicholson Ruckert and Co. CURRENT EVENTS (Continued from Page One) coneerning the whereabouts of their favorite religious joss houses. This young man distinguished himself and did a good day’s work for the Scripps- Howard people by presenting Lind- bergh with an engraved blessing from the combined churches of New York. This is enough to make even the christian’ god scratch his bald head. With so many brands -of. religions, each claiming to be an insurance policy against hell fire, it is hard to see how unity in such a case would mean a darned thing. BUY THE DAILY WORKER fascism. AT. THE NEWSSTANDS gest you get them. EDUCATIONAL FRONTIERS By Scott Nearing EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION By Mark Fisher | FIFTH YEAR OF THE RUSSIAN. REVOLUTION By Jas P. Cannon Seventy cents worth of Add five cents. for postage. tea Med in 50 CENTS ered in this column on hand quanti AT SPECIAL PRICE? An Attractive Offer These three books, each in their field, offer interesting reading for the worker. At a special rate—if ordered together—we sug- 50 —10 —10 good reading for er