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

‘Page Four sed DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, JULY 4, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday 8S First Street, New York, N. Y. Cablo 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 $8.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three morths “Daiwork” Address ali mail and make out cnecks to THE DAILY WORKER, 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DUNNE - Raltors BERT MILLER Business Manager ——— Entered as second-class mai! at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 8, 1879. >. Advertising rates on = silentons ER . Se : . Replace “Trade Union Capitalism” by Genuine Co-operatives The carefully worded reports tive Engineers’ convention fail, however, “high finance” which was carried on by the inner Brotherhood officialdom. In order to save something from the wreckage the conv ention | has voted a two-year assessment which, s estimated, will bring | in $7,200,000. This assessment has been used as security for a| loan, replacing securities which were either worthless or of a value far below amounts loaned upon them. A paragraph in the New York Times’ story dealing with this phase of the matter is illuminating. It says “Officials explained that the paper in question was “good | paper” but that the Controller had not considered it “good paper | for the bank because it represented other Brotherhood invest-| ments.”’ (Emphasis ours.) The “trade union capitalists’ who were in charge of the| Brotherhood’s financial affairs seem to have learned quickly the| crooked methods of the banking fraternity. They organized div: ers| subsidiary and auxiliary financial institutions (a list of which we published on this page Saturday) and then proceeded to loan the! money of the parent Cleveland institution to these concerns on the bonds issued by them. ' This is a favorite device of the J. Rufus) Wallingford fraternity but for a labor organization it can pi | only disaster. The officials of the Brotherhood not only went in for taal union capitalism but for trade union capitalism which was of so shady a nature that it is barred even by the very elastic ethical code of the capitalists themselves. | The membership of the Brotherhood, now assessing itself for) millions of dollars with which to pay the debts contracted in the name of the union by the advocates of worker-employer co-opera- | tion will think twice before they are lured again into similar anti- working class schemes. | The experience of the Brotherhood, a damning indictment of | the whole theory of trade union capitalism, can be utilized to great | advantage by the left wing in securing repudiation of this whole) policy by the labor movement and in turning these “labor capital- ist” enterprises into genuine co-operative institutions with control ous held by the rank and file. Graphic Is Cleared-DAILY WORKER Is Indicted The DAILY WORKER has published a poem attacking the capitalist institutions of America, in language which jars the} circle of the Phons, Orchard 1680 | of the Brotherhood of Locomo- | to conceal the orgy of | | vicinity. ANOTHER C: ARTOON THE GRAND JURY HATES | “Capitalism Steals Mexican Oil”—and hides behind the American flag while doing so. peared in the book of Red Cartoons, published by The DAILY WORKER Publishing Co. This cartoon ap- It was laid before the Federal Gand Jury a few days ago, and they brot indictments against The DAILY WORKER Staff. The Progressive Movement in the Shoe and Leather Industry ee progressive movement in the shoe and leather industry in Massa- chusetts is a young movement, but it \has already much to its credit. After the decline of the Knights of Labor the Boot and Shoe Workers Union gained a foothold in Lynn and In 1903-05 the shoe makers| of Lynn rebelled against the BSWU. | As the result of the “revolt” the BS; WU was driven out of Lynn. Out of | this fight a new union, the United} Shoe Workers of America was born. | This union during its existence im-| proved the conditions of the Lynn workers. Lynn was 95% organized, a 44 hour week and five-day week during the |summer months were secured. In 1922-23 a serious attempt was made ‘to amalgamate all existing indepen-| | dent unions into one powerful union, |the Amalgamated Shoe Workers a America. delicate sensibilities of the degenerate bourgeoisie. the staff of The DAILY WORKER is held under a Federal Gramd | Jury indictment subject to fines aggregating $120,000 and ten} lof Haverhill, Mass. who refused to} actionary leadership of the BSWU las well as that of the Shoe Workers years’ imprisonment each, or both. The Graphic, an evening tabloid newspaper, owned by the McFadden Publications, a millionaire concern, same section under which The DAILY WORKER was prosecuted. | The Court of Special Sessions, the same court which sentenced | William F. Dunne to thirty days in jail, Bert Miller to seven days, | and fined the paper five hundred dollars, declared in the case of | the Graphic, “In our opinion, and therefore on all the grounds, the MacFadden Publications, Inc., will be acquitted and discharged.” The line here is clearly drawn. The full limit of the law is invoked against The DAILY WORKER, because’ it is a working | class paper, fighting against the employers, fighting for Sacco! and Vanzetti, fighting against war. The utmost clemency and consideration is shown to a capitalist newspaper, which has become notorious for the publication of filth, Browning and Thaw cases. It shows that a workers’ paper can expect consideration from! a capitalist court only if labor manifests its power in our defens We must build up a powerful legal defense which requires the ex- penditure of thousands of dollars. imposition of heavy fines and jail sentences against the comrades on the staff. We must fight against the revocation of mailing | privileges. For this fight we need money. Our lawyer estimates | that the defense will take not less than $25,000. It is the duty of | every comrade to help us meet this new and more dangerous attack | on The DAILY WORKER by vigorous and immediate support of | the Defense Fund. Kerensky’s Host and the Drive on the Soviet Union. | Alexander Kerensky, avowed enemy of the Soviet Union and its workers’ and peasants’ government, has sailed for Europe. According to the New York Times, Kerensky’s host while in New, ‘York was Assistant United States District Attorney Simpson. | In view of the present drive against the Soviet Union openly | (engineered by Great Britain but which American imperialism is ' furnishing with the sinews of war bysmaking a series of loans to the fascist and semi-fascist nations on the Su-iet Union frontier, | extended comment is unneces O'FLAHERTY Cc urrent Events (Continued from Page One) of the ¥rench from the Rhur in return for German support for the policy of isolation of the U.S.S.R. and the opening up of American credit to France. * United States saved European capitalism from destruction after the world war. European capitalism is somewhat healthier now than it was at tha® time, but there is a rotten apple in the capitalist barrel,| Ruhr. Uncle Sam’s payment would represented by the precarious condf-| very likely have to come out of John tion of British imperialism, chiefly' Bull’s pocket. cad C7 due to the turbulent condition in her| Oriental colonial and semi-dependen-| cies, bribe France into making the conces- sions to Germany necessary to draw the latter country into the anti-Soviet bloc, which England is trying to or- ganize. But if the United States, in return for some other considerations, opens her treasury to France, the French. government might be willing to withdraw her troops from the ( * * For this crime | and Emile H.}| Gouvreau, managing editor, have just been cleared of all charges | self by force in the city of Lynn. What) shops. In other words the reactionary brought against them under Section 1141 of the Penal Code, the| were the methods of the BSWU in| officialdom is glad to have such an in connection with the} We must fight against the} England is not in a position to} Due to the treachery of the leaders |in the Shoe Workers Protective Union | jenter the union, this attempt failed. |In 1923-25 the BSWU spent large sums of money to capture Lynn. In 1925 the BSWU established it- | gaining control of Lynn? The BSWU} knows well that the shoe workers of | |the country dislike their methods and| |policies. For two years the BSWU | carried on a campaign thru the DESEe land spies in the local. * ® «| HOw EVER, this time the BSWU and| the Lynn Shoe Manufacturers As-| | sociation of Lynn did not reckon with | the militancy of the Lynn shoe work-| ers. This “buy and sell” proposition| of the BSWU and the shoe manufac- turers aroused the fighting spirit of |the Lynn shoe workers. A progres- |sive movement to stop the cuts in wages and the lengthening of hours was organized. The joint council of the Lynn shoe workers became the center of the fight. When the bosses, thra the socalled shoe agents, ap- pealed to the union for the reduction of wages, the progressives put for-| |ward a counter demand for an in- crease in wages and in certain in- | stances threatened the shoe manu-| facturers with strikes. The shoe man- | ufacturers have learned to fear the | resistance of the Lynn shoe workers, altho they now had their union, the |BSWU. Seeing that they could not control the Lynn shoe workers, they moved their factories to Boston where they could get 100% protection. 7 * * OSTON is only ten miles from Lynn and the same union. Still it cost it the shoe manufacturers to produce peabee 25 to 35% less than in Lynn. It is true that the BSWU constitu- \éton has a provision where it says “if |” | any manufactu has a union con- |tract, and if t firm moves to an- Jother city the highest price for labor shall be paid.” The Lynn council and \the six executive boards went to the | general o of the BSWU_ to eliminate this emigration to escape | | paying state board prices and condi- |tions. The reply of the general office |was, “We have no right to interfere with Boston, That is we have local |autonomy.” After this remarkable cooperation which the Lynn shoe workers received from their gen- eral office, the Lynn progressives frealized that the only salvation for the shoe workers of Lynn was to or- ganize the shoe workers of Boston. Consequently a gigantic progressive | | movement was organized in Boston on the same lines as the one in Lynn. | The next move of the Lynn shoe ; lit helps in certain instances to es- | tablish the golden rule system. . manufacturers was the introduction of the Golden Rule system and in- dividual contracts (yellow dog con- tract), selling shares and the like.)} This golden rule, etc., introduction is| a very important phenomenon in the) shoe industry. It means that a work-j} er must buy a job for not less than a hundred dollars, and sign a con- tract that he ‘will agree to everything laid down by the committee of the concern. No strikes, no walkouts, | overtime, work on holidays, not even | thinking of unionization, and surely | no organization—this is the meaning of the golden rule system. Would| the management find out that a work- | er even thinks of joining a union, not | only would the worker lose his job} but also the money paid in for the shares. The union makes no attempt to stop this golden rule movement. In fact It is a logical thing for the present re- Protective Union to point to the Golden Rule shop conditions as being worse than the conditions in the union organization as the Golden Rule sys- tem and uses the comparison between jit and the union shops to maintain | themselves in office. ies tragedy of the twelve thousand Brockton shoe workers is not only a black spot for the shoe and leather | workers, but for the entire labor | movement. Four years ago, when the Brockton shoe workers revolted’ against both oppressors, the bosses and the union policy, when they were met with the strong arm of both ene- mies, both the shoe.manufacturer and the union officialdom united for one purpose to crush down the rebellion. With the aid of the courts and the “cossacks” the shoe manufacturers ’ and the officialdom of the BSWU broke the ranks of the Brockton shoe workers. After the defeat the union imposed a fine of twenty-five or more dollars upon each striker. They took away the charters of practically every local and appointed a governing} board to supervise the work of the! Brockton ‘shoe workers. That means that the Brockton shoe workers were put in local O. Some of the heads of | the governing board are members of the Brockton Chamber of Commerce. | It is four years since the strike and the Brockton shoe workers have no} about their working conditions as yet. Boston was the backbone of reac-{ tion. The Boston local has a member- ship of four thousand and until the recent election there were two unlim- ited dictators in office for the past sibeaiemionh rs. There are reports from the shoe} workers of St. Louis and Canada about their conditions, which are similar to ours under the same union. There are about two hundred and ten thous- and shoe workers in the country, and {two unions in the field, The Shoe Workers Protective Union (indepen- dent) and with a membership of about twelve thousand and the Boot and Shoe Workers Union with a member- ship of about forty to-forty-five thou- sand. * * * CONFERENCE of representatives from all over the country was held in Boston on Nov. 26, 1926. This was the first real move to bring an} end to the present conditions in the shoe and leather industry. A plan for carrying on constructive work in every shoe city was adopted, After a discussion the conference unani- mously adopted a resolution for one mighty union in the shoe and leather industry. Another important conference was held on June 5th, 1927 in Boston. This conference was a state confer- ence with representatives from each large shoe city. At the conference a lengthy report of the progress made since the last conference, was made. It was pointed out that since the last conference in Nov. 1926 cuts in wages were stopped. The biggest feature was the lively discussion by the dele- gates, on how to organize the unor- ganized. The conference went on rec- ord in favor of one powerful union in the shoe and leather industry and the amalgamation of both existing shoe unions into one union. The con- ference instructed the delegates that when they go back they should or- ganize progressive committees to elect progressive slates to the various local offices. Especially was it pointed out that as the history of the shoe indus- try shows it was the constant seces- sions from the recognized unions that | destroyed the power of the shoe work- ers. It was the unanimous opinion that the amalgamation of all the ex- isting shoe and leather unions into one powerful shoe and leather union was imperative. An executive committee of two from each city was elected to carry on the! | Leather Bulletin of America.” The shoe and leather workers are badly paid and work under the worst conditions. The conditions. shoe workers had enough lessons by being divided into | There- | various independent unions. fore the policy of the progressives is | correct, and will lead the shoe and! leather workers to victory. FIGHT WATSON-PARKER BILL; BOARD REFUSES TRAINMEN WAGE INCREASE By CARL HAESSLER. The doom of the Watson-Parker rail labor act was probably sounded when the arbitration board sitting on the wage case of the 50,000 con- ductors and trainmen ofs the western railroads refused to grant any in- crease in wages. About 25,000 switchmen and yardmen received a 7% per cent raise which was dated back to March 1, Switchmen will now receive a minimum of $5.07 a lay. month of hearings in Chicago, upset all the dope, both company and union. Ever) body expected that the 7% per cent raise obtained éarlier in the year on the eastern and the southeastern roads would be extended to the west- ern train service workers also. Higher-ups among the officials of the Order of Railway Conductors and the Brotherhood of Railroad Train- men almost regarded the arbitration proceedings as cut and dried pre- liminaries to the anticipated increase. Railroad presidents seemed to think The award, made after clmost a the same ~~@ President Gorman of lowing players headlining its vaude-| clair Frank Fay is acting as Master of Ceremonies at the Palare Theatre this week. The bill also includes: Johnny Dooley with Cliff O’Rourke; Vaudeville debut of James Rennie in “The Gob,” a new comedy sketch, b; John V, A. Weaver, with Peggy War- ner, Helen Baxter and Thomas Cuth- bert; Joe Fejer’s Orchestra and Vivian Hart, prima donna, with Ted Trevor and Dina Harris; Charles Withers and Company in “Wither’s Op’ry”; Ted and Al Waldman in “Blu- -O-Logy”; Jack Hayes, Sally Marsh and Lucille Hayes and Jim Jam Jems. Moss’ Broadway will have the fol-| He program this week: Frank Sin-| Co.; Weston & Lyons; Elton} Rich and Girls and Marino and Mar- | tin. | the Rock Island was so quoted in the} financial columns of the leading | afternoon paper. “Neutral” Arbitrators. The refusal to grant what Presi- dent L. E. Sheppard of the conduc-} tors called adequate pay for re-| sponsible work was made effective by the socalled neutral arbitrators who rushed to the aid of the rail-| road nominees on the board. the big joker in the Watson-Parker act, under which the Yoads and the unions are to name their representa-| tives and to agree on neutral repre-| sentatives. But if they can’t agree! the neutrals are packed on the board by the’ permanent board of mediation and this is nominated by President Coolidge. _Thus the fraud of os- tensibly “public” representatives on the old rail labor board nominated by the president is succeeded by the fraud of “neutral” representatives also nominated by the president. In either case the unions after a little encouragement at the start get the raw deal thereafter. The neutrals in the western wage case were two men whose sympathies are naturally with the employing class and against the workers. They were President E. C. Brown of the National Live Stock, Exchange of Chicago and President W. M. W. Splawn of the University of Texas, a large employer of labor and a man whose salary and surroundings re- move him far from the life of the railroad brakeman, getting less than $5 for an_8-hour day. Oppose Watson-Parker Bill. The decision was based partly on the agricultural depression in the northwest, though this runs counter to the principle laid down by the in- terstate commerce commission in rate cases to the effect that the right of a company to charge certain rates does not depend on whether its cus- tomers are making or losing money thereby. Signs of opposition to the Watson- Parker law are increasing. The con- vention of the Switchmen’s Union of North America has demanded its re- peal. Vice-president Goff of the Locomotive Firemen is taking cracks at’ it and now the conductors and trainmen are expected to drop their former advocacy of it. Taken in con- nection with the demand of President Daniel Willard of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad that railroad employes drop the basic 8-hour day in favor of a flexible day of 8 to 10 hours, all at straight time, it appears that the railroad wolf masquerading these years in sheep’s clothing is about to have the hide torn off him. Worker Electrocuted at Work in Jersey Plant Ole Hanson, 48, of New Brighton, S. L, a mechanic employed by the United States Gypsum Co., was elec- troeuted Thursday afternoon when his body came in contact with an electric The} jy brotherhood nominees dissented. } > These alleged neutral arbitrators are|“ a atented artis. jays an im- portant role in “Streets of Sorrow,” Eeuropean film now showing at Moss’ Cameo Theatre. AMUSEMENTS, The LADDER nil! seats are reduced for the Best Seats $2.20, C 48 St. EB. of 2 inee Wednesday. Little Theatre GRAND 44th St. W. of B'way. STREET 2:30 FOLLIES B. S. Moss | Warner Bros. Present COLONY |“The First Auto” B'way at 58rd|with Barney Oldfield Continuous | Noon to - teh “ Midnite (NEW VITAPHONE B. MOSS |THE FILM SENSATION OF EUROPE CAMEO | “Streets of Sorrow” With GRETA GARBO & WERNER KRAUS 424 & B’ all Let’s Fight On! Join The Workers Party! In the ioss 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 Address Occupation Deen cee e ence eeee encores Union Affiliation..........esceasee 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 Bly., Chicago, Ill. Distribute the Ruthenberg pam- phlet, “The Workers’ (Communist) Party, What it Stands For and Why Workers Should Join.” This Ruthen- berg Hagpobict will be the basic pam- phlet thruout the Ruthenberg Drive, Every Party Nucleus must collect 50 cents from every member and will receive 20 pamphlets for every ment- 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. 33 East First Street, New York City, or to the National Office, Workers Party, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. wire near a generator at the com- pany’s plant. THINK OF THE SUSTAINING FUND AT EVERY MEETING! The present leadership in} | both unions is responsible for these work. It was decided that this com-| mittee publish a monthly bulletin, | called the “Progressive Shoe and! | to your shopmate. Wm. Z. Foster right to organize. Albert Weisbord STRIKE STRATEGY Wn. Z, Foster IMPERIALISM Jay Lovestone NOTE * and filled in 3 _AT PPECIAL PRICE ORGANIZE These four booklets at a reduced rate, will be a welcome, addition to any workers’ libra- ry. They are also excellent pampnlets to give ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED PASSAIC—The story of a struggle for the LABOR LIEUTENANTS OF AMERICAN All for 50 Cents Books offered in this column on hand * {n limited quantities. —.10 —15 —.25 —10 All orders cash turn as received.