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

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1927 to + | THE DAILY WORKER ——. Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, Daily, Except Sunday ag $8 First Street, New York, Phons, Orchard 1680 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in New York only): By mail (outside of New York): 68.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year 38.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three morths Address all mail and make out checks to | THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. | J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE BEPT MILLER ..- Business Manager | ————$—____———— Entered as second-class mai! at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, i879. — S.. Adver tising rates on applicatiom a erm Deflating Trade Union Capitalism in the Brotherhood | of Locomotive Engineers. | The boom period is over for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and while it is yet too early for us to be able to es-| timate accurately the extent of the damage done to the theory and| practice of “trade union vitalism”’ in the American labor move- ment aga whole, it is obvious that it has received a severe blow. | The Cleveland Brotherhood bank was “the daddy of them| all.” Organized in 1920 with a capital of $1,000,000, it had at the| end of 1925 deposits totalling $26,414,496. It was the shining example to which the officialdom of other unions pointed to in-| spire their followers to come and do likewise. | In 1926 the Brotherhood, in addition to the parent Cleveland institution, had banks in Hammond, Ind., Nottingham, Ohio, Three Forks, Mont., Boston, Portland, Ore., mingham, Ala., Spokane, | Wash., Philadelphia, Tacoma, Wash., Seattle, Wash. “Labor investment”? companies were organized as follows: Brotherhood Holding Company, Cleveland, Brotherhood In- vestment Company, Cleveland, Pacific Brotherhood Investment| Company, Portland, Ore., New York Empire Trust Company, Inc., Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Securities Corporation, | New York City, Southern Securities Corporation, Birmingham, | another securities corporation in Philadelphia ‘and the California} Brotherhood Investment Corporation, San Francisco. | The total capital of the institutions was $23,500,000. The} total capital of the Brotherhood banks was approximately $4,-| 000,000. | The Brotherhood also bought and operated three mines in the Kanawha district of West Virginia and one in Kentucky. These enterprises were capitalised at $3,000,000. The management re- fused to sign an agreement with the United Mine Workers and a long controversy ensued. It will be seen that the total capital of the various concerns organized by the Brotherhood amounted in round figures to $30,- 000,000—no mean figure even for wealthy America. The retreat ofthe Brotherhood at its Cleveland convention from the policy of trade union capitalism represented by the| liquidation of the union machinery by which it was operated, is| therefore an event of major significance for the American labor | movement. | The financial enterprises of the Brotherhood were disas- | trous failures for the most part—in spite of the huge sums of| liquid capital at their disposal and the magnitude of their opera-| tions. The failures occur—and this is of additional import—not in| a period of depression, but in a period when the expansion of American finance and industry has astounded the world. The theory of the officials who put over the gigantic frauds} upon the Brotherhood membership was that the class struggle! was non-existent and that by becoming capitalists members of | the union could solve all social, economic and political questions for themselves. Said H. V. Boswell, vice president of one of the Brotherhcod’s New York enterprises: “Instead of standing on a corner soapbox, screaming with rage because the capitalists own real estate, bank accounts and automobiles, the engineer has turned in and become a capitalist himself. Now it stands to reason, doesn’t it, that such men won’t start any movement to destroy property or ruin big business? | Why, oniy last spring we bought a substantial interest in the Empire Trust Company of New York City. If you could have seen Schwab, Heckscher, and the Iccomotive engineers seated around the directors’ table, you’d have recognized the whole scene} as an entirely new turn in what used to be called a fight between capital and Jabor.” (Emphasis ours.) | This does not sound quite so well in the light of recent de-| lution and in a short time they will be identified organizationally | velopments. ‘The “substantial interest’ in the Empire Trust| Company had to be peddled at a ruinous discount in order to! WHAT MADE THE FEDERAL GRAND JURY WILD ‘ es Hy International Labor Defense Red Cartoons. WORKER Staff when the Federal Grand Jury indicted it this week. Sacco and Vanzetti have This book was specifically cited as part of the been transferred to Massachusetts State Prison to be near the death house. for their release must go on in spite of grand juries. Cartoon appearing in The DAILY WORKER and the book of By G. S. 5S, For a Labor Ticket in 1927 Elections. All over the country, and particu- larly in New England there is a con- certed drive against the labor move- men in the attempt to destroy the trade unions and to still further lower the standard of living of the workers. This drive has extended: into practi- cally every important industry in New England and is affecting the life of each and every worker. The Sacco and Vanzetti Case. Behind the gray walls of Dedham jail awaiting execution on August 10, are two innocent Italian workers, Sac- leo and Vanzetti, whose only crime was their activities on behalf of Salsedo and the organization of the workers of Massachusetts. There is a deep significance in the Sacco and | Vanzetti case. These Italian workers represent a militant section of the labor movement in New England. Sacco and Vanzetti were selected by the manufacturers of New England to strike terror into the hearts of the militant foreign born workers. The dark shadow of the electric chair is chosen to terrify the workers of New England and prevent them from mili- tant struggle. Anti-Labor Legislation. At no time has there been so many anti-labor bills introduced in the state legislatures as during the current month. The labor movement had a difficult struggle on the bills effect- ing workman compensation. Bills in- troduced by the Arkwright Club rep- resenting the cotton manufacturers of New England, proposed the increase of working hours for women from 48 to 54 hours, There were bills in- troduced and aimed against the legal existence of the Workers (Commun- ist) Party. There were bills dealing with criminal syndicalism, as well as bills affecting the question of sympa- thetic strikes and the right to strike. A bill prohibiting the intermarriage of Negroes and whites sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan, was a clear at- tempt to divide the negro and white workers and to use the race prejudice in still further cutting down the stan- dard of living. On all these bills the representatives of the union of the patriotic organizations and of the manufacturers clubs, were outspoken in their hatred for labor and the de- mand for total submission of the labor movement. Cutting Down of Wages and Destruction of Unions. The textile industry, which at the present time-is of unstable condition and where the labor market is de- r moralized, due to the partial moving The campaign of the mills to the South, has suf- fered the most from this attack. The ea P evidence against The DAILY tion during the past few months, since the first victorious north-{ the working class, will find means of arming a real revolutionary to arrest the revolution at a stage most favorable for their goal— an alliance with the imperialists against the workers and peasants. Playing directly into the hands of this counter-revolutionary element was the fact that the movement thus far has had to de- pend for experienced military leadership upon leaders who rose to prominence in feudal militaristic surroundings. So rapid was the development of the revolution that, although the workers and | peasants organized powerful unions they were not able to build} sufficiently powerful military forces to liberate them from de-! pendence upon such vacillating and treacherous elements as the old military leaders. The defection of Feng Yu-Siang to the camp of Chiang Kai- Shek, means a military bloc of the liberal bourgeoisie that has} gone definitely over to the counter-revolution. Already Feng, for- merly calved the “christian general,” has completely identified him-) self with Chiang in his bestial attacks against the unions of work-| ers and peasants. Although still opposing the feudal militarist, | Chang Tso-Lin, both these traitors are aiding the counter-revolu- tion by striving to destroy the Hankow government. Objectively | they are fighting the battle of the imperialists against the revo-) with the imperialist plunderers of China. The effect upon the Hankow government of the treachery of \ern advance, has been the efforts of the big bourgeoisie of China| army, a people’s army, that will develop its own officers and revo- lutionary military strategists and will initiate the “Jacobin” period, the most extreme revolutionary phase of the movement. During the interim while the infamous combination of traitors is carrying on its outrages against the revolution, the imperialist forces in China will cease their open aggressiveness and will lie in | wait for the opportunity to again resume their open warfare on the revolution, when their Chinese military lackeys face the armed workers and peasants. Through the changing situations in China there is one de- mand that the American workers must keep incessantly to the |fore and that is that the Wall Street bandit government at Wash- ington get its gun-men of imperialism out of China and keep them out, so that the Chinese may be free to complete their revolution. The Massachusetts Hangmen Cannot Tire the Mass Defense of Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti have been taken to the penitentiary. This means that they have been taken to the death-cell. The reprieve authorized by Governor Fuller has not served |to prevent a tightening of the thumbscrews and a few more twirls bolster up shaking investments in Florida real estate and other| Feng is disastrous indeed and may, probably will, result in the| being given to the wheel of the rack. unreliable commodities and, according to the latest reports, the | delegates to the Cleveland convention, altho they did not “seream | with rage” at the capitalists did some very plain and profane talking to the gang of fat-salaried officials who had cajoled them | into the smelly mess. There will be some heavy thinking done in the headquarters | of the American Federation of Labor as a result of the Brother- | hood’s action. The union membership will view with a cold eye! the many and varied schemes which are now in force and in| preparation for ushering in the era of “trade union capitalism.” Coupled with the recent refusal of the Watson-Parker law mediation board to grant an increase to trainmen and conductors | on 55 western railroads, and the open advocacy of the 10-hour day by B. and O. Willard, the arch-apostle of worker-employer co- operation, the Greens, Wolls, Lewises and others in official trade union circles certainly will curse “the slings and arrows of out- rageous fortune” which American capitalism hurls at their un- covered heads just at the time when they are doing their level best to smash the Communists and the left wing whose spokes- men have been telling American workers for years that safety and strength lies in militant trade union organization and a mass political party of workers and farmers ever struggling on the basis of the class divisions in society for the seizure of and the exercise of power by the working class. Trade union capitalism has been placed on the defensive and its advocates can now be exposed more effectively than ever be- , fore as enemies of the workers they are supposed to represent. The Treachery of Feng Yu Siang. The series of betrayals of the Chinese revolution by generals in command of the nationalist forces is indicative of the rapid de- velopment of the movement, Certain individuals thrown upon the stage of that great upheaval personify for the time being the | clash of cl: interests. The characteristic feature of the. revolu- » destruction of that government, for the simple reason that its| armed forces are weak in comparison with those of the new lib- eral bourgeois counter-revolutionary bloc. At the same time within the Koumintang and the government itself are agents of Chiang and Feng, spies and semi-spies who are trying to throttle the workers’ and peasants’ revolution, who should be summarily exposed and mercilessly exterminated. The betrayal of the revolution by Feng, following close upon the apostacy of Chiang and the denunciation of the Hankow unions py Teng Seng-shi, in direct command of the Hankow forces, which ndicates that he is following the footsteps of his predecessors in infamy, clarifies immensely the struggle in China. and the liberal bourgeoisie will merge in one reactionary group against the revolution. The third group is based upon the work- ers, the peasants and the small bourgeoisie. In an article in the Moscow “Pravda” N. Bukharin indicates the line of the revolution from now on. The conflict is between the working class and the liberal bourgeoisie for hegemony of the bourgeoisie democratic revolution; or, which amounts to the same thing, the development of the workers’ and peasants’ revolution, taking at first the form of an agrarian upheaval. At the earliest possible moment the forces of the agrarian revolution must be set in motion and at the same time the labor movement must fight mercilessly against the traitors and agents of the renegades, To compromise with either Feng or Chiang would be to abandon the revolution and liquidate it in favor of the imperialists bent upon the enslavement of the Chinese masses. In the struggle the agents of capitalism will have to reveal themselves more and more as the open agents of the imperialists and as the executioners of the Chinese people. Unable to arrest the mighty forces set in motion by the revolution the liberal bourgeoisie sells out to the imperialists in the hope that they will be privileged to share in the exploitation of the millions of work- ers and peasants in pillaging China of its great natural resources. | There are| | three distinet groupings at present. The feudal militarist clique] In Dedham jail they were allowed a few frugal comforts and at least the electric chair was not in the same building in which they were confined. Today they are treated as murderers whose fate is only a matter of time. There is no mercy in Massachusetts officialdom. There is only a cold contempt for the millions of liberty-loving persons who know that Sacco and Vanzetti are innocent and who demand that ‘he state of Massachusetts release them or at least grant the new trial it obviously fears, ‘ | The executioners who have plotted for seven_years to murder these two workingmen and to cover the crime with a shroud of legality are playing for time. They hope to tire out the multitude which stands at the prison gates and demands freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti. The reply must be that we never tire of defending those of our class who are endangered by the vicious conspiracy of our enemies, On July 7, in the New York City demonstration for Sacco and Vanzetti, there can be and there will be shown, by masses of work- ers striking and demonstrating, to the Massachusetts hangmen, who in this instance speak and act for American tmperialist reac- tion as a whole, the solid and unshakable determination of thou- sands of workers to fight for Sacco and Vanzetti as long as may be necessary. t The July 7 demonstration in Union Square and a number of huge halls will be concrete evidence that our class understands the strategy of those in Massachusetts who lead the bloody con- spiracy against two innocent workers and that there is no sign of weariness in the struggle to defeat it and liberate our comrades. Sacco and Vanzetti must be freed! - READ THE DAILY WORKER EVERY DAY As the new phase opens the Communists, as the vanguard of NE, CITIES NEED UNITED LABOR TICKET typical method, by means of which the manufacturers intimidate the workers and force the reduction in wages can be seen from the example of workers in Ware, Mass. The pic- ture of the situation there can be drawn best from the speech made by the representative of the Arkwright Club at the public hearing on the bill proposing increase of hours for working women. “Look at Ware, Mass.,” he stated, “the industries there are at a standstill and there is practically no unemployment. Ware, Mass., was a fertile field before, for an outside agitator. Not only workers, but the business’ men lend their ears to this kind of a talk and now you can see the results.” This is the brutal story as told by the represen- tative of the manufacturer. It is the story of the manufacturers, using their economic power in order to shut down the industry, wreck the eco- nomic life of the city and to throw hundreds of workers out of employ- ment. This story is repeated on a small or larger scale in a number of industrial establishments in the shoe, textile and metal industries thru- out New England. Using the tempo- rary crisis in industry, and the re- sultant unemployment, the manufac- turer raise the scare of the shutdown and ‘moving of the mills and on the basis of this receive subsidies from the city administrations, reduction of taxes and the cutting down of wages. This is the story of the hundreds of thousands of the workers of basic in- dustries of New England, at the utter mercy of greedy manufacturers. Ware, Mass., clearly indicates that the manufacturers will not stop even at the destruction of the economic life of the entire city in order to gain their aims. The barbaric cruelty in achieving the lowering of the stand- ards of the labor movement is prac- tically the same as the subjugation by the imperialist powers of the col- onial and semi-colonial people. And even as the battleships of imperial- ist powers shell and pour a rain of steel into the defenceless villages of colonial peoples when they show the slightest resistance, and level these villages to the ground, se with the same barbaric cruelty the imperial- | ists at home do not stop before the destruction of their own cities, even if this is done thru economic pres- sure. In every city there are a number of militant trade unionists and other prominent leaders of various labor organizations, wh» should form them- selves immediately into a commit- tee for the purpose of calling a labor conference to consider the question of a labor ticket. Conditions in ripe for independent political action of the workers. The experiences of past years clearly indicates the class character of the existing political party. Labor must and will answer the increased attacks, by a more act- ive participation in the political life of the country. This political cam- paign, coupled with the intensive drive of the organization of the un- organized, with the struggle for im- provement in the standard of living, with the organization of the unem- ployed, demanding relief from their unbearable conditions, would tend to strengthen and steel the labor move- ment and will be the only weapon by means of which the labor movement of New England will be able to beat back the attack of the manufactur- ers and to prevent the total degrada- tion of the labor movement in New England. Let’s Fight On! Join The Workers Party! In the loss of Comrade Ruthen- 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 Shane e enema eee eeetaeeerenes Address Sateen eeeeeeensereeenenes Occupation ane ee neem eenasenecsenne Union Affiliation...........se0s00+ 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, Il). Distribute the Ruthenberg pam- phlet, “The Workers’ {ona Party, What it Stands For and Why Workers Should Join.” This Ruthen- berg pamphlet will be the basic pam- phiet thruout the Ruthenberg Drive. Every Party Nucleus must collect 50 cents from every member and will receive 20 pamphlets for every men\- ber to sell or distribute. Nuclei in the New York District will get their pamphlets from the Dis- trict office—108 East 14th St. Nuclei outside of the New York District write to The DAILY WORK- ER publishing Co., 83 East Fit Street, New York City, or to the National Office, Workers Party, 1113 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, Ill, ~ “4 * 3 ( New. England..are. 4° 1