The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 5, 1927, Page 6

’ & » Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YO! Trying Year of 1919 Marks Real Beginning of Soviet Railroad Workers Union By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL. HE foundation of the powerful Railway Workers’ Union, that now numbers more than 1,000,000 mem-~ bers in the Soviet Union, was laid in the trying year of 1919. This was not achieved without struggle. In fact, the greatest efforts had to be exerted to put lown the correct basis on which to build the superstructure of the organization. f The March, 1917, revolution that destroyed czarism, released a new era of organizational growth for the Russian working class, But a conscious effort along correct organizational lines seems to have been lacking at first among the great masses of the workers. In- stead of immediately building an all-inclusive organiza- tion for the whole transportation industry, there sprang up a mushroom growth of craft unions in the shops and in the operating departments. The Communist Party alone launched a campaign for the organization shop unions in an effort to break down craft lines Alexis Amassow, the present general secretary of the Railroad Workers’ Union, with two other comrades, headed the drive for the organization of the shop work- ers, Amassow is himself a metal worker. The move- ment met with considerable success. Between the March and the November Revloutions, in 1917, the number of organized railroad workers grew from 3,000 to 22,000. It was a very loose form of organization, however. There were no s books. The payment of dues was entirely voluntary. The craft unions that were organ- ized were very conservative in their outlook. This con- dition prevailed from the Nov. 7th (1917) Revolution until the 1919. craft organizations maintained a more or less separate existence on the railroads. In 1919, however, there was an all-inclusive congress that laid the basis for the organization of one union for tle entire transportation industry. It was upon the fed in 1919, during the trying months of t attack against the Soviet Union in aid of the civil wars and intervention, that the present pow- erful organization was built. * * * The union today, with its 1,087,200 members (Jan. 1, 1927) includes all but 2% or 3 per cent of the workers employed in the industry. This small percentage of non-union membership takes in workers temporarily employed, most of them peasants who intend to return shortly to the land. 2 “There is no skilled worker at present unemployed on the railroads of the Soviet Union,” said Secretary Amas- sow, in discussing the unemployed situation in the in- dustry. (Moscow, May, 1927.) * . * “We are always exerting ourselves to increase the efficiency of our working force,” continued Amassow. “Inefficient help is always displaced with efficient | The wages of the railroad | Gen- | workers wherever possible. workers are divided into 24 categories of wages. eral, or unskilled workers, are included in the first nine categories. The best qualified workers are included in the categories, from nine to 18, including such workers as machinists, engineers and the lower categories of ad- ministrative workers. The categories from 19 to 24 in- clude the higher administrative workers. * * * There is small difference-in the wages of the lowest and the highest categories, in comparison to czarist days when administrative officials received from 50 to 60 times as much as the wage workers. “An effort is made each year to augment the wages of the railroad workers,” said Amassow. “The increases go first to the lowest paid categories.” “Eight hours is our basic workday. all overtime after eight hours is paid.” Double time for * * me the answers to a list of Two of * Comrade Amassow gave questions concerning the railroad workers. these are published today as follows: Economic Progress in the U. S. S. R. ; QUESTION.—Can you give some data on economic achievements in the Union of Soviet Republics and the part played by the railroads? ANSWER.—The aggregate agricultural output has increased from 66.8% of the pre-war level in 1922-23 to 88.1% of that level in 1925-26. The aggregate indus- trial output has grown from 34.7% in 1922-23 to 95% of the pre-war level in 1925-26. Taken’in absolute fig- ures, the aggregate agricultural output has increased from 7.8 billion pre-war roubles in 1922-23 to 10.3 bil- lion pre-war roubles in 1925-26, showing an increase of 82% during this period. In regard to the aggregate in- dustrial output we find the following absolute figure: 1,949,000,000 pre-war roubles in 1922-23, and 5,215,- 000,000 in 1925-26, or an increase of 274%. The average figure of the number of people employed in 1921-22 was 1,243,000 workers; that figure was in- creased to 1,550,000 in June 1925 (the reference is to the large industrial establishments alone), and to 1,898,000 in June 1926, i. e. during the twelve-month from June 1925 to June 1926 we have seen an increase of more than 300,000 people in the foremost ranks of the industrial proletariat. . The total wages, the income of the proletariat in 1922. 28, constituted 20 per cent of the national income. In During this period 14 different | ;,. The Greatest Failur in Labor History MANUEL GOMEZ. By (This is the third of a si : ticles analyzing the Pan-American Federation of Labor and its recent convention at Washington.) s of ar- “Gompers Said That Pan-American Federation of 1 x Might Have Life. “Q@AMUEL GOMPERS, dent Green three or n during the V convention, | n-American While tk da little ave his life for Federation of Le statement must be consid or | high to say the least, it is| at Gompers did; are upon it—not that he looked | vorite invest attentions | were unrev success. Thus} . almost ou look at it,| ederation of La-| failures in| HAT it is a failure from an organi- non- | he preceding} icle I shall nilure from | lay needs | of my} thruout **-| official con- | ‘i , Texas, the Pan-| Federation of Labor h not grappled seriously with a si cal problem of ‘internationa union cooperation in the i s of the workers of the Ameri-| strated cle. I try to show that the standpoint of the ever of the The >| Wi H American capital its sway over and with Wall ts play- ing off the work in this country against the workers in Latin America and vice v , energetic coor among the various labor mo of the western hemisphere is a vital extending Americas, nece Ever ortant struggle | in the marine tr port iidustry, in| the oil industry, in the metal in-| dustry, etc., ete., makes it plain that | organized lal must be prepared to take up the fight on all fronts. OINT strike action, international | agreements, interchangeable union cards, international trade-union regu- lation of immigration—these are only a few of the measures that any all- American federation of labor worthy of the name would be expected to es- tablish as a primary duty. HAT about the “Pan-American | Federation of Labor?” | JT has never considered international agreements of any kind, let alone | international strike action. The boy- | cott, which has been used effectively |in a number of Latin American coun- tries in the past, and which would be \a powerful weapon against U. S. | manufacturers who export to Latin | America, has also failed to find favor | with the Pan-American Federation of | Labor. | Sake Frey Befeats Union Card | Measure. | Q)NCE in a convention of the Pan- | American Federation of Labor, | (1924), the Mexican delegation intro- | duced a resolution calling for inter- | change of union cards between mem- |bers of the American Federation of | Labor and the Mexican Conferedation of Labor, but John P. Frey at the head of the resolution committee promptly slipped in the following substitute: Latin-American countries the labor movement is only in its infancy and sometimes delegates come here from organizations having only a doubtful existence.” Discuss Erecting Lighthouse to Columbus! oe for the usual meaningless < ga olution about sending out or- the only “constructive labor adopted were those recom- ling to some Latin-American governments the establishment of a department of Labor and the one suggesting that all governments add labor attaches to their diplomatic and consular staffs abroad. Discussion on the department of Labor proposi- tion proved a contentious one. It) seemed that some ‘“delegates”) ~| thought that Santo Domingo, for in- stance, should not have a Department | of Labor, but a Department of Labor | and Immigration! Discussion on this matter raged so hot as to equal al- most the discussion on the proposal to collect funds for a lighthouse and ; monument to be erected somewhere in Latin America in memory of Colum- bus. Leadership Betrays Workers IN the face of actual trade-union * struggle the Pan-American Federa- tion of Labor evinces the same atti- tude of quiet sabotage as displayed in its convention resolutions. During ;| the past three years there have been important strikes in many countries of North, South and Central Ameri- , but the Pan-American Federation of Labor has turned its back on them. The executive committee cannot point to a single struggle of the workers which it has assisted in any way| thruout the period of its existence. ‘HE ‘Pan-American Federation of | Labor,” as at present controlled, can never accomplish anything in the | interests of the workers of the Amer- ie DING thru any one of the long reports of the executive committee of the “Pan-American Federation’ of Labor” you get the impression that! its conception of international labor ! action is for Mr. William Green to| | write polite letters to the President | of the United States or some other} government official and receive polite | letters in return. Latin Workers Smell Rat in P. A. of L.—a Skunk. js it any wonder then that neither | William Green, nor Samuel Gom-} pers before him, has been able to al-| lay the suspicions of the great mass of organized workers of Latin Amer-| ica as to what the purpose of the Pan-American Federation of Labor really is? Is it any wonder that, ex- cept for the Mexican Confederation of Labor, not one of the basic labor organizations of Latin America has} been willing to send even an observer to Mr. Green’s or Mr. Gompers’ con-| ventions? Is it any wonder that the| so-called Pan-American Federation! of Labor does not include the labor! federations of Argentina, of Chile, of Uruguay? Is it any wonder that while two handpicked delegates from non-existent organizations in Peru come to the Washington convention the bona-fide Peruvian unions stay away? Is it any wonder that Cuba, which has a relatively strong and ex- perienced trade-union movement should be represented only by dele- gates from one union in part of one industry, and those delegates agents of President Machado, the bloody Wall Street-owned Cuban dictator? ESOLVED, That the Mexican Con- federation of Labor and the | American Federation of Labor com- |municate with their affiliated na- tional and international unions with the object of establishing understand- ings and agreements which will bring about the interchange of membership cards between the unions affiliated with the Mexican Confederation of of Labor and the American Federation |of Labor.” HE substitute was adopted, and |“ that is all that has been heard of |the matter from that day to this. | Green Admits Delegates Represent | Nothing. i AT the Washington convention just | “passed, one of the three or four La- js it any wonder that the Pan-Amer- “ican Mederation of Labor is a fraud and a fake? T the 1921 convention of the Pan- American Federation of Labor eight countries were represented on paper. At Washington in 1927, “nine countries were represented,” also on paper. In both cases it was manifest that except for the Mexican Confede- ration of Labor, the P. A. F. of L. is non-existent in Latin Ameri- ca as far as trade-union affiliation or action is concerned. The only dif- ference is that in 1927 most of the delegates claiming to represent Cen- tral America and the West Indies have been exposed as fakers or gov- ernment agents. & Greens and the Wolls cannot RK, FRIDAY, AUGU ag. Rog? T 5, 1927 e (Romance in the Soviet R Union By SHIRLEY REEVE. j 'HILE exchanging English for Russian lessons with | a student of the Military Political Academy, who. is also a Milit: Commissar in the Red Army, we came to talk of our better halves, He of his wife and I of my husband. But it is the story ofthis wife that I am} going to write about. And if with the cold keys of my typewriter I can convey to you a tenth of the real life | and romance of this courageous young “Kommunistka” | (Communist woman), who, tho still in her twenties, has already been decorated with the order of the Red Ban- ner for her services in the Red Army during the civil war, you will be filled with enthusiasm and admiration for her. But what is more you will get a glimpse of the “stuff” that made the workers of the Soviet: Union win out against an enemy a million times stronger than the huridred-headed dragon of our fairy tale days, in| spite of all their handicaps. * * * Born in the Ukraine in the year 1902, she was barely | 15 when the first sparks of the October Revolution took | fire. Already then she was supplementing the meagre | income of her working class parents by working in a} tobacco tactory. Her father was a member of the (Social Revolutionary Party) but she, hot- blooded girl, was impatient with tne slow and compro- | mising gait of the party of her father and became an} anarchist. Like a great number of the anarchists in| Russia, she did’ not waver long before throwing in her} lot with the workers and peasants. With a nature like | hers this meant sto at nothing to defend the inter-| ests of her class. 1919 found her fighting on one} of the most dangerous fronts against the counter revo- | lution. Not as a Red Cross Sister or clerical help, but | right out in the front ranks with the men, as a machine | gun operator. | One day, her‘ husband told me, Gafa (her name) was | at her machine gun facing an. attack of the Poles on the} Warsaw front. The battalion had been ordered. to re- | treat but Gafa, seeing the commander of her Polk (regi- | ment) wounded and thrown off his horse immediately | after giving the command, she, with her wits sharper | than ever, at once reali the great danger of allow-} ing him, with all his pape plans and orders to be captured by the en Thus hardly five feet five inch-| s tall and a mere p of a girl, she instructed the | driver of her machine gun to lift the commander up | onto his horse and to drive off with him. She mean-| while trained her gun here and there, keeping off sev- | eral fast advancing Poles. Only after the other two] were well on their way did she make her own escape. | It was for this wonderfully courageous act that she | was awarded the order of the Red Banner. | The highest Order in the Red Army which is awarded | for the most courageous action during a time of war only. * * * ‘ | Her husband, who was at that time her Polk Com- | nissar, greatly admired the girl as did all the soldiers who came in contact with her, and loved her. But that | was not a time to think of love. The hard won proleta- | rian revolution was in danger and no Red Soldier, not} to speak of those who were at the same time Bolsheviks had any thought of himself or of his personal feelings. Immediately after the retreat of the Polk,-the Com- | missar was ordered to another district and she was taken | to the hospital with a wound in the arm and it was not until three years later that they met again while lei- surely strolling down Tverskaya Boulevard in Moskow. This was in 1924, the imperialists had long ago be- come convinced that they were wasting their money in financing the attacks on the counter-revolutionary gen- erals on the Soviet Union. The wheels of industry and agriculture were now being turned by the mighty mil- lions of the Soviet Union in the peaceful tho energetic task of buliding Socialism. This was a time when a man and a maid could turn to thoughts of love without neglecting their self-imposed duty to society as Com- munists, The process of building socialism, on the con- trary, provides the facilities for marriage without a woman’s sacrificing all her other interests in order to realize those that are hers as a woman. “On October 25th we will celebrate our third wedding anniversary,” he joyously told me, “and the second birthday of our son.” To the question did not your wife find it difficult to be only one woman in a battalion of men. Did they not annoy her a lot of lovemaking, did they not in fact think that that was her reason for coming into thé Army? “Yes,” he answered, “her father thought so when he first heard of her joining the Army, but not our men, We always saw her in action and could do nothing but admire and respect her. Some of us loved her, myself for example. But not one of us ever thought of annoying her with unwonted attentions. God help the man who would have tried to do so. But then our soldiers are taught to have the highest respect for women.” * DANGER! OIL WELL BURNS | Inter-racial 1924-25 it rose already to 28.1 per cent of the national | tin-Americans who represented some income in USSR, i. e., during such a brief period it | sort of legitimate labor organization increased from 20 per cent to 28.1 per cent or nearly | introduced a resolution dealing with one and a half times. bpsecrpiratr committees to regulate immigration. This too was immedi- Financial Results of the Working of the USSR Rail-| ately side-tracked by the American ways from 1923-24 to 1926-27. ieeenes of Labor machine. 5 & Sees was a great deal of wordy om of ES e debate at Washington, but very $e G5 88. $, | little to indicate that the delegates G 2 8 £ = aN FI 41 were participating in what claimed to Rs ; ae | 23 ‘3 _ be an international labor convention. Zé aeé #2 32 |Sometimes the thing became almost Income of railways farcical. I remember that there was in million roubles 685.4 938.7 1,888.7 1,599.1, much excited discussion over a reso- Per cent of increase 100.0 187.0 195.3 233,3 | lution approving the idea of continued Expenditures of rail- Pan-American Federation of Labor ways, general 720.2 876.4 1,860.1 1,511.5| conventions in the future. This was Per cent of increase 100.0 121.7 188.8 —209.9 | because one of the handpicked Latin- Expenditure on wages 298.1 393.4 603.0 728,5|American “delegates” who repre- tion of railways 668.38 805.3 1,177.1 1,819.6 | Sented nothing, except perhaps his Per cent of increase 100.0 120.5 176.1 197.4, 8°vernment, saw a chance to get a Expenditure on wages 298.1 394.4" 608.0 «728.5 | Permanent place on the Green-Woll Per cent of increase ° 100.0 182.0 202.8 — 244.4| Payroll by attaching a rider to the effect that ‘in each country the or- Why Rates Were Increased. ganization affiliated to the Pan- QUESTION.—What accounts for the increase in-rail-| American Federation of Labor be way tariffs in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics? | recognized as the bona fide labor ANSWER.—The increase in railway tariffs in the movement of that country.” The idea Union of Socialist Soviet Repulice is to be explained by| of the rider (which of course had the fact that the Russian railway tariffs constituted only | nothing to do with the original reso- 75-80 per cent of the pre-war rates, whereas the prices | lution) struck many receptive cords on other industrial products are somewhat above the|in the convention you may be sure. pre-war rates, In order to eliminate this inconsistency | Enthusiasm reached such a high point as between the- transport rates and industrial prices,| that Green was oblized to make a build an All-American Federation of Labor that amounts to anything. Peruvian Leader Jailed; Fakers At EPORT NEGRO SCHOOL HEAD FIRED FOR RADICAL VIEWS; NEW YORK HOSPITALS BAR COLORED NURSES By MARY ADAMS. The del tes, who were arrésted at Forrester B. Washington has been| Port-au-Prince, were just about to Frazier. jappointed head of the Atlanta School} emb: \for Social Work in place of Franklin Frazier threatens to tell ex-| to actly why he was let go, if a state-|was read at the convention. for. America. were able to serid a message Dominican delegation, which These Th the ment as to his inefficiency is not| men will keep company in jail with retracted. This statement was is-| seven editors whom Borno sent there sued hy Rhoda Kaufman and W. W. lately. Alexander for the Board. Dr, Alexander is connected with the Committee of Atlanta. The school is supported by the Laura Spellman Memorial, the Russel Sage Foundation and the Atlanta Commu- nity Chest. It is the same type of school as The School of Social Work, run by the C, O. S. here. Publicity sent all over the by the new head says there number of positions such as welfare, research and care workers waiting for graduates. Rumor has it that views on race “questions. Pei aus Hoover Hands Out Sops. country | are any) ” * * Forced to Sell Land. A former K. K. K. cyclops, named Worthington is found on investiga- tion to hold the deed to the land of Arthur Hitt, a colored man of Birm- inghame Ala. Worthington protests that he paid a fair price for the land. The price paid was $600, Arthur Hitt, the Negro owner, was forced to sell this land which is worth $9,000. He was taken from his home one night by masked men, tied to a tree and | Frazier was dismissed for radical| flogged until he promised to sell. He threatened gings, should he di rence. Neverthele: with further flog- close the occur- he appeared be- Dr. J. S. Clark of Southern Uni-|fore a committee and told his story versity, Baton Rouge, La., Dr. L. M.} which resulted in an investigation. McCay. of Rust College, Jackson, Miss., and H. C. Ray have been ap- the Red Cross units in their respective states. These appointments were made after Secretary Hoover had conferred, with the Colored Advisory Commission on Mississippi Valley Flood, of which Col. R. R. Moton was head, J. L. Feier, executive in charge of Red Cross writes a three-page letter to Walter White of N. A. A. C. P. of New York in which he says, “As an agency of help and mercy the Red cross would not of course wish to | | pointed advisors on yeconstruction to} * * Hospitals .Bar Negro Nurses. George Harris, editor of the New York’ News, and a former Alderman |points out in his paper that Negro | Mr. stand for unfair practices of the type you suggest toward colored refugee: Mr. this letter. Perhaps he had heard of the camp where the army cots were only distributed to the whites. Or maybe he read ‘of the man who was White was not satisfied with shot dead trying to escape from a} farm, eae Set “Divide and Rule.” W. H. Le Grange in a lengthy dis- patch to the African world states the position of the colored people of South Africa. We colored people, he says, are opposing the Native Move- Equal Rights for all, realize Europeans must work out destiny of country. We do not want to be dragged down to the native white man. In short we want to be such a people that Europeans will be proud of. From the foregoing we can see that Great Britain has been most successful in her time worn pol- iey of divide and rule. ” * * Win Slight Raise. Hostlers, helpers and firemen on Southern railroads will receive an in- crease of 25 cents a day. R. B. Lemus, president of the Brotherhood of Sleep- the men on twelve Southeastern rail- roads. All these men are colored. This raise is the result of a ruling by the Board of Meditation, oy * Borno Jails Labor Leaders. The State Department at Washing- ton is unable to interpret the action of President Borno of Haiti in arrest- ing the Haitian delegates to the re- cent Pan-American Labor Congress. ing Car Employees says this effects | patients as well as Jews are discrim- inated against in the city hospitals. None of the city nurse training schools admit colored women, says Harris. There is, however, a Jim Crow school for colored nurses in the Harlem Hospital. He makes the further point that there are no Negro internes in either.Bellevue or Fordham hospitals. Asks Garvey Release. Gov. Green of Michigan has added his name to the list of those who are petitioning for the release of Marcus Garvey. Garvey, who built up a splendid mass organization among Negroes, the U. N. I. A., was sent to Atlanta when he was convicted of us- ing the mails to defraud, He has served three years of his sentence. Tt is said that under the prison rigors his health is beginning to fail. Foreign Born Workers ment. We stand on a platform of t0 Hold Penna Meeting because we! Early This September A Conference for the Protection of level, but helped up to that of the) Foreign Born Workers of the State of Pennsylvania, will take place at Harrisburg on September 4th and 5th, 1927. The National Council for the Pro- tection of Foreign Born Workers, which has its office at 41 Union Square, New York City, was organ- ized over two years ago for the pur- pose of combatting anti-alien legisla- tion and promoting naturalization work on a large scale among the eight million aliens in this country. The bills which are pending in Con- gress and which the Council is op- posing are the Registration of Aliens Bills by Congressmen Aswell of Louisianna, Holliday of Illinois, and Brand of Georgia. There are also a number of compulsory naturalization bills which propose to deport aliens for not becoming citizens of this country. THINK OF THE SUSTAINING FUND AT EVERY MEETING! Conference. AS I was writing the colsing para- graph of this article a letter came to me from Peru bearing the news! that Octavio VargaseMontjoy, secre- tary of the Federation of Labor of Lima (the only labor federation in the country) has been arrested by order of President Leguia and his ultimate fate is in doubt. The arrest mus‘ have taken place at the very time when the fake Peruvian “labor delegates” in Washington were laud- ing President Leguia to the skies as “not a tyrant but a true friend of labor!” | Can’t Cash In On Geneva. rage ISTH Mass., August 4, Rear dmiral Francis Tiffancy Bowles, one of the foremost retired naval ship builders in the United States, died at his home here today. He was formerly president of the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation | in Quincy. During the world war, he|{} was with the United States Emerg- ency Fleet Corporation. BUY THE DAILY WORKER a slight increase in railway tariffs has been introduced.| statement explaining that “in many ; a AT THE NEWSSTANDS ! GIRL OBJECTS TO FLOGGING When his daughter refused to “pray her way through” after he discovered her receiving notes: in church Cues ai who later became her husband, the Rev. E. H. Owens, Pentecostal evane gelist, of Lonoke, Ark., took her to the woods and whipped heg with a rasor strop, along with her small sister. who sympathized, his daughter told the district attorney. rested on a chai The evangelist was are of assault. Owens is shown above, to th The daughters, Joyce, 16, now Mrs. John Lowe, ‘a Jewe dnd Jewell, 11, with John Lowe, are on the left. Below is a view of the Pentecostal church at Lonoke.