The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 28, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by (ae DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO, ily, Except Sunday 65 Firet Street, New Yo: 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 98.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months ee Address ali mail and make out cnecks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. ¥. J. LOUIS EX : WILLIAM I caer BEPT MII business Manager ee ae ost-office at New York, N. Y., under Entered as second 1 e pi the act of Merch 8, 1879, >. Advertising rates on applicatiomh Industrial Freedom versus Industrial Serfdom for 26,000 Traction Workers---This is Still the Main Issue! The traction barons, with Messrs. Hedley and Quackenbush of the Interborough acting as spokesmen, declared that they would risk the life of every passenger rather than allow the trac- tion workers to escape from the serfdom of the company union. This is the meaning of the defiant statements which they gave to the press. That they meant to carry out their threats is shown by fact that they recruited thousands of potential scabs from the underworlds of half a dozen cities to replace work- ers whose lives have been spent in the traction industry. Upon the head of the traction barons we must place the re- sponsibility for whatever loss of life and injury would have oc- curred in the operation of New York’s transit lines when the trac- tion workers refused any longer to sell themselves body and soul to the traction lords. Mr. Samuel Untermyer, whose favorite pose has been that of a friend of labor, saw fit to come to the aid of the traction barens. He is against strikes on public utilities, he is against the demand for the right to organize “at this time,” he is for delaying action by the labor movement, he accepts the “yellow dog” contracts as an expression of the sentiment of the traction workers—in other words, he takes just about the same position that the traction barons assume. Untermyer is AGAINST the establishment of an effective union among traction workers and especially because he has from time to time pretended to favor the organized labor movement, and because he has access to all sections of the capitalist press, his real role must be made clear to the traction workers and to the labor movement. The same applies to other so-called friends of labor. They must not be allowed to hide behind vague phrases relative to “pub- lic welfare.” It is upon the traction workers first and the labor movement second that the main burden of this struggle falls. *Untermyer himself has shown in the recent investigation that the traction interests are making huge profits. That the unioniza- tion of the traction industry will cut into their profits goes with- out saying. That they are able to pay better wages and bear the increased cost of better working conditions is just as true. If they were not it would not alter the fact that the traction workers deserve and are determined to have higher living standards. If Untermyer and others who are so exercised over the “welfare of the public”’—of which the 26,000 traction workers and their families are a part—let them point out that no raise in fares is necessary to compensate for the loss of the traction barons’ company union and that better wages and working conditions can be paid for by cutting down the dividends of the traction barons. For the labor movement and the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes, for the traction workers themselves, the main issue is the right to organize. Serfdom in the clutches of the traction barons or the greatest possible measure of freedom as part of the American labor move- ment—this still remains the issue in the present struggle and it is upon this basis that all the forces of laber must be mobilized be- hind the traction workers—to win in spite of official cowardice and treachery. How Socialists Defeat Fascists. A new article should be incorporated in the “principles” of the second international, the international of the great betrayal at the outbreak of the world war in 1914, the international that slaugh-| tered the flower of the working class after the war in order that capitalism might remain dominant in the world, the international strike-breaker, the yellow socialist international. This article should read: ‘The proper way to fight fascists is to be better ex- ponents in action of fascismo than the hirelings of Mussolini.” Altho not formulated, this article was put to the test in the revolutionary mass uprising in Vienna. The socialists, under the leadership of those heroes of “left social-democracy,” Otto Bauer and Frederich Adler, had created an army in Vienna for the pur- pose of fighting fascismo. During the strike and street fighting the world was treated to the spectacle of this army in action against the fascisti. They did not conquer their alleged enemies by fighting AGAINST tke fascisti, but by proving to the capitalist government that they were ready, willing andanxious to sink even lower than the fascisti in fighting FOR capitalism AGAINST the WORKERS, and using its army for that purpose. No wonder the Seipel government viewed with indifference the building of this army—they knew it would dono harm totheir cause, the cause of the master-class. Otto Bauer and Frederick Adler and the rest of the “Austro- Marxists,” who defame the name and pollute the writings of Marx, only pretended to be more radical than the Scheidemanns, the Noskes, the Vanderveldes, the MacDonalds, because the work- ers were more radical. They had to pretend to endorse the de- mands of the workers in order to remain at their head so they could be in a position to betray them at the first opportunity. 4 Their opportunity came and they fulfilled their duty as defenders ‘of the master class and plain, every-day scabs upon the fascisti. At least one thing is certain in the Austrian situation and that is that never again can these apostates, these socialists in words and assassins of the working class in action, pose as one Whit different from the rest of the menagerie comprising the lead- ‘ip of the second international. In New York City the socialists are trying to ape their Aus- m brethren by trying to organize fascist bands against the and file of the labor movement. ( Generally the post-war philosophy of the second international be summed up as follows: “We assassinate the working class battles and prepare for our historical role as murderers of the ¢ class in all countries not yet facing objective revolution- ions. sant countries where the capitalists are unable to fight their The “Amalgamated” Economics: By H. M. WICKS. NDER the guise of an attack upon the DAILY WORKER for prop- erly depicting in a cartoon the fright- | ful effect of piece avork upon the workers in the garment workers’ B. S. Hardman, known Salutsky, contributes to of the labor movement iews upon the “real basis The cartoon that evoked diatribe of Hardman showed a half-starved worker held in the grip f a bestial foreman who forced him to work at the most frightful speed. The title of the cartoon, drawn by Gropper, was “The Right Wing Beckerman Advocates Piece Since Beckerman, an official of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, is | guilty of advocating piece work for the slaves in the men’s garment in- dust: it became the duty of Hard- man, as editorial scullion for Beck- erman, to write an apology for this latest example of class collaboration between the Amalgamated machine and the employers. We can pass over without comment his low billingsgate and cheap sneers hurled at the DAILY WORKER, the | Workers (Communist) Party and the Trade Union Educational League and proceed to an analysis of Mr. Hard- man’s economics, “Fundamentally,” affirms Hard- man in his editorial in the “Advance” of July 22, 1927, “it is the quality and quantity of work, the output, that determines the pay for work.” For a half a column the apologist for Beckerman argues that “earnings of | people in an industry are related to {the kind of work and the quantity | of work that they turn out.” According to the “Advance” edi- {torial writer, time-wages (week- wages) are likely to prevail in in- dustries producing high-priced goods, | while piece-work is more likely branches engaged in cheap, mass pr duction, Again he reverts to his main theme and repeats that: “The question of wages is a question of earnings. It does not matter what one’s nominal wages are, it is the earnings that count.” | * * 8 | N° capitalist apologist could put up |" a more contemptible and servile argument for slave drivers. Hard- man signs the same song that is sung by all defenders of intensive exploita- tion of labor from Professor Nixon Carver to Matt Woll. The ridiculous assertion that production must in- crease before wages increase is tant- | amount to arguing that there is such a small margin of profit for. the capi- talist exploiter of labor that he can- not, under present conditions, pay j higher wages than he does. How | anyone professing to speak for labor |can put forth such a suggestion, in | view of the well-established fact that | industrial workers in the United States, on an average produce in | from two and a half to three hours} values equivalent to what they re- ceive in wages, and that the balance |of the day they expend in unpaid \labor for the employers is beyond |comprehension, except on plain | grounds of perfidy. Only an utter ignoramus or a | knave who indulges_in vicious apol- }ogies for the master class would claim that wages rise or fall in pro- portion as productivity varies. This assumption is not true on either a national scale, or on an industrial seale, say nothing of applying it, as does Hardman, to a certain section of a given industry (that is to say, the New York men’s garment indus- try or that part of it wherein the Beckerman machine plays a role). * * . Wwaces are determined not by the productivity of labor but by the value of labor-power—the s ocially necessary labor time required to pro- duce the food, clothing and shelter necessary to enable the worker to reproduce his labor-power—to live in a given social environment and raise a family. The productivity of the industry in which he works may |inerease or decrease without alter- |ing in the slightest his wages. The general movements of wages, | according to Karl Marx are “EX- | CLUSIVELY REGULATED BY THE | EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL RESERVE ARMY, AND THESE AGAIN COR- RESPOND TO THE PERIODIC | CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRIAL |CYCLE.” (Capital, Vol. 1, chapter XXV, page 699—Charles H. Kerr edition.) Now let us see, starting from this premises, where the disgusting soph- istry and sprious erudition of this jereature, Hardman, the miserable | apologist for Beckerman, leads us. In many industries piece-wages are | preferred by the capitalist to time- | wages because it enables him to get |more out of the workers, to sweat | them more, force from them labor of a higher intensity. A number of evils attend piece-work that do not exists to such a pronounced degree jin time-work. It is well-known that | wages by the piece are, generally, | nothing but the converted form of wages by time. In theory at least | piece-wages are so regulated that | workers receive the value of their labor-power. “It is not a question of measuring the value of the pieces by the working time incorporated in it, but on the contrary, of measur- ing the Working-time the laborer has {expended by the number of pieces he has produced.” (Capital, p. 604.) But there are certain very definite characteristics, peculiar to having the interest of the workers uppermost to strenuously fight to} abo! them where ‘they do exist | and fight against all attempts of the employers to introduce them. For years the compositors in the news- paper offices of this country suf- | fered under the speed-up system of mined fight were they abolished. | Even in that conservative union—the International Typographical Union— there is not a single official, even of the most openly reactionary charac- ter, who would dare propose piece- work. The wrath of the member- ship would drive him from office in disgrace. Experience has proved that piece- work in any industry must, in the irst place, be of average perfection, if w s are to be paid in full, One need not be a Ma n to readily perceive that this a most fruitful source of capitalist cheating and thereby achieving reductions in wages through imposition of penalties for “inferior” work, ete. Many other isastrous. effects are well-known characteristics of piece-work. Not only does it cause the most fierce competition between individual work- between the workers in a given shop, but it sets the pace so high that only the fastest workers can realize a liv- ing wage. The desire for still more wages is an incentive for workers to labor more than the established union hours, and even to fight against at- tempts by the union officials to com- pel observance of union hours. When | the speed-up em has operated for |a given time and it is discovered that | the piece-workers, by a tremendous | expenditure of energy, are able to realize higher wages than week- workers, there occurs a readjustment, |a lowering of the piece-rate and fur- | ther tive for still greater speed. piece- | wages that cause all union leaders} piece-wages, and only after a deter-| ers, which breaks down the solidarity | of Mr. B. S. Hardman | | UT this speeding up also has its effects on the industry inasmuch | as fewer men do the work required, | with the result that the reserve army | of labor increases. This increase in| the unemployed in the industry also tends to force down all wages, so the logie of piece-work is not only to inerease production for the benefit of the employer but to reduce wages instead of increasing them. Hence, instead of increased production re- sulting in higher wages, as Hard- man and the rest of the defenders of class collaboration argue, the ef- fect is always to reduce wage The function of trade unions is to try to weaken to some degree this natural law of capitalist production, by organizing and securing joint ac- tion of both employed and unem-} ployed workers. ‘ Instead of trying to increase the production of the individual worker, every increase in production should be the incentive for a reduction of hours, a slowing up of individual production in order to absorb in in- dustry the reserve army, the unem- ployed. Only in that way can work- ers resist the encroachments of capi- talism against their standard of liv- ing. A union leader who. takes any other view of the struggle and who indulges in capitalist twaddle about increased production to increase wages is an enemy of the working class and an agent of the employer. In the face of unimpeachable, scien- tifically demonstrable economic facts the case of Beckerman, and his pen valet, Hardman, breaks down. And they may use the columns of the, “Advance” from now until the prole- tarian revolution in America to re- vile the DAILY WORKER, because} it exposes their game and fights for | the elementary interests of the | working class, without ever chang- ing by a hair’s breadth the eco- nomic laws that govern this society | and that brand them as traitors to| the workers they are paid to serve. | (By NABOY, Worker Correspondent) | CLEVELAND, July 27.—In Cleve- |land as well as in all other large |cities there are many thousands un- employed. Those out of work are both groups, the so-called white col- | lar workers and the overall wage earners. ¥ In their frantie efforts to get em- ployment of any kind these workers tramp from one end of town to the other end with very few being re- warded by a job. It is just the posi- tion the bosses like to have where they can break down the standard of living among the workers. Detective Agencies. | Not content with refusing the ap- | plicants work at any wage, the bosses through their lackeyes maintain ems ployment bureaus which are more of la detective agency than anything else. For example, take any department store in general and the May Com- pany of Cleveland in particular. Every morning between the hours of nine and eleven, applicants for po- sitions are privileged to enter the employment offices where they are given a large blank to fill out. Many quit in disgust before they are half finished with the blank. Some of the questions called for are: What na- tionality are you? What languages are spoken in your home? Will you join the company insurance club for workers? Will you keep secret amount of your salary? Dozens of other questions of a similar nature are asked and those who are able to fill out the entire blank are inter- viewed by the employment chief in charge, and are told that as soon as a place is open, they will be sent for. Choose Lowest Paid. In a situation of this sort, the em- ployers can pick their choice of the lot at any wage the bosses care to pay and hold a club over the workers’ heads with the reserve group list al- ways ready to take their places. Those workers who pack a lunch and carry their overalls to work, face even harder conditions than their white-collared brothers. In going from place to place, they are told “nothing doing today.” One of the best known factories where unem- ployed workers stampede to is the Fisher Body Ohio Co., a subsidiary of General Motors. There every morn- ing, day in and day out, only Sun- ‘EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS IN CLEVELAND GRUESOME; WORKERS TRAMP STREETS day excepted, hundreds of men con- gregate, hoping to be taken on. Al-| though the employment office opens at eight o’clock, many scores of men arrive for vantage points as early as four o'clock in the morning. On many occasions the large outer office where the men are permitted to stand is so filled that hundreds are forced to wait outdoors. This is not so bad in summer, but in the colder and rainy days it is not quite so com- fortable, especially when many do not have the warm clothes necessary in January and February. Often these large numbers of unemployed | are kept waiting for four and five hours before the door opens and per- haps one or two are hired at the rate of pay dictated by the boss. | Workers Need Unions. That such conditions exist are due to the fact that in neither the depart- | ment stores nor in the automobile} shops are the workers organized in- | to unions. Several sporadic strikes | of individual departments in the Fisher Body factory have taken place only to be lost. This was natural, for the workers must realize that only through systematic and entire organ- ization of all departments with con-} certed action will successful strikes be conducted. The time is ripe for organization. Energetic and respon- sible leaders are the crying need of the moment. Voikoff’s Assassin Not To Have Life Sentence Changed to Short Term WAASAW, July 27.—President Pil- sudski has revoked the granting of commutation to Boris Kowceda, and the latter will have to spend life in prison, as matters stand now. Kow- | ceda was lately found guilty of mur- dering Peter Voikoff, ambassador from the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics to Poland. At the trial) Kowceda admitted he “was ordered | to shoot Voikoff.” The prosecutor | made no effort to find out who or- dered him, but there is strons evi- dence that Kowceda was an agent of | a white guard conspiracy organized | and financially supported by Eng-| land. Life imprisonment in a Polish | prison prevents the assassin from| telling more, should he decide to do | Dear Comrades: izations. realized. FOR THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE BERT MILL] -@ Busizess Manse The Daily Worker Acknowledges Help Given to Carnival TO ALL ORGANIZATIONS AND COMRADES WHO HELPED IN THE) DAILY WORKER CARNIVAL AND FAIR | So. | | | The DAILY WORKER wishes to acknowledge the| splendid co-operation and support given to The DAILY WORKER Carnival | and Fair, by the various party vaits, individual comrades and workers’ organ- | It was directly due to this wonderful support that the affair was such an outstanding success. The success of the Carnival and Fair is a mani- | festation of the remarkable power of proletarian initiative, which can be developed among the workers of New York in their efforts to support The DAILY WORKER. The Management Committee calls upon the comrades who participated in the Carnival to continue their efforts to help The DAILY WORKER, so that the present attack upon the paper may be defeated and the establishment of The DAILY WORKER as a mass paper may be quickly cea Civic Repertory Players! To Continue at 14th St. Theatre Eva_Le Gallienne who returned from Europe yesterday informs us| that the Civie Repertory theatre’s | permanence had been further insured | through the leasing of the Fourteenth | Street theatre for a term of five. years, Miss Le Gallienne will im-| mediately begin on two productions. | Reheasals for her first play of next| season, “The Good Hope” will beetn | next week, and also of the road com- | pany of “Cradle Song.” | Bella Winn has’ been engaged by | James La Penna to play the leading | role in Paul Gerard Smith’s latest | play “White Lights.” The musical | comedy is scheduled to open in Stam- ford, Connecticut, August 12th. | | Jed Harris has definitely announced | two of his forthcoming productions. | In ‘association with Crosby Gaige, | Harris will present Helen Hayes in| “Coquette,” a drama by George Ab- bott and Ann Preston Bridgers. “The Royal Family,” a comedy by George! Ss. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, will have its premiere some time in Octo- ber. Other items in the Harris schedule are a comedy drama of| newspaper life by George S.’ Brooks, as yet unnamed; a romantic comedy | by John Erskine, also untitled, and “My Public,” a comedy by Martha! Madison and Eva K. Flint. . | A new play by Daniel Rubin titled, | “Women Go On Forever,” in which| Mary Boland will be starred, will be| placed in rehearsal next week by Brady & Wiman in association with John Cromwell for Broadway show- ing. Labor Problems and the Negro From Address by William Pickens, before the Intercollegiate Associa- tion of New York, in summer session at Potter, N. J., July 24th, 1927, “There is no ‘Negro Labor’ and no ‘White Labor.’ There. is just,— labor, and there are white and black people among the laborers. There is a greater proportion of the black than of the white population in the labor- ing rank; and therefore anything that is important for laborers, is still more important for the colored la- borers. ‘Co-operation, unionizing, the em- ployment of organized power is very important for laborers. The relation of wages to the cost of living is very important for laborers. The legal rights of labor organizations: the rights of group bargaining for wages, the right of impartial treat- ment by the officers of the law in| eases involving disputes between la- borers and their employers,—these rights are vital to the interests of laborers, white, black, or other colors. “Employers do not buy or exploit color; they trade in labor. The handi- cap of color, like the handicaps of age, and sex, or ignorance, may give a selfish employer an extra advan- tage in robbing the laborer. But that would only mean that the Negro la-} borer will be more taken advantage of, and should, therefore, be more in- terested in the defense of labor. “That means, logically, that there should be no Negro labor unions or white labor unions, but only labor unions, for laborers. A division in the ranks of laborers along the ra- cial line is just as weakening as a division along any other lines what- soever. When white workers force colored workers into separate unions by race prejudice or into the open shop by discrimination, these white workers are acting directly against the interests of themselves and of all other laborers, “The Negro is not naturally an open-shop worker or strike-breaker. He is just willing as any other race on earth to get more wages and do less Work. He is the same sort of animal as the rest of mankind.” EMIL JANNINGS _“In “Passion,” which is being re- vived at Moss’ Cameo Theatre. AMNSEMENES Little Theatre GR AND Eveninge ae iso," STREET MATINERS FOLLIES ap The LADDER All seats are reduced for the summer. Best 48 St. Cort Theatre, 4 tinee Wednesday. The Workers Party! In the joss o€ Comrade Ruthen- berg the Workers (Communist) Par- ty has lost its foremost leader and the American working class its staunckest 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 j* 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: 5. .5.... Peeeererrrcrr rn Occupation ..,...... ce vecececceecs Union Affiliation........... eecveee Mail this application to the Work- ers Party, 108 Hast 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.” ‘(his Ruthen- berg pamphlet will be the basic pam- Palet thruout the Ruthenberg Drive. Every 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 will get their pamphlets from the Dis- trict office—108 East 14th St. Nuclei oxtside 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, Il. Red Aid Honors Zetkin, Revolutionary Leader, With Recruiting Week BERLIN, July 27.-~—The Second Congress of the German Red Aid (I. C. W. P. A.) has arrarfged a spe- cial recruiting week from July 3 to July 9 in honor of the seventieth birthday of Clara Zetkin, famous German revolutionary leader and president of the International Class War Prisoners’ Aid. Local commit- tees of representatives of all labor organizations have been formed in all districts under the leadership of the Red Aid. bination: By Upton Sinclair is just the thing to you have read it. EMPIRE SOCIALISM By R. Palme Dutt A study of the colonial British Empire. Research Study Group) Books offered NOTE 3 {] AT MPECIAL PRICE A Good Nove! and Two Other Interesting Books At an unusually low price we offer this com- 100%—THE STORY .OF A PATRIOT A book that has sold into thousands of copies and » to your shop-mate after THE LAW OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION— By Scott Nearing (in co-operation with the Labor All Three for 59 Cents Add 5 cents for po\age. 1 oaeleeeennnineniemeeneeemememeeneetee eet * in limited quantities. and filled in turn as received. j TN me eee ne —.25 —.10 question as it affects the — 50 in this column on hand All orders cash |