The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 15, 1927, Page 6

Paze Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY , AUGUST 15, 1927 ‘CAPITALIST METHODS LOSE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS i | TO SWEDISH CO-OPERATIVES : STOCKHOLM, Aug. 14.—The Swed-| of course, fairly high interest is paid lish co-operatives have greatly devel-| (up to 8%)—had “for a’ long time ae UNITED COUNCILS OF WORKINGCLASS WOMEN HOLD CONFERENCE By ELLA ZELNICK cured injunctions against the baker (4 Baker Woman) aed k net NG eae 4 Spann oped in the course of the last few! been the habit of the Swedish Whole- ae the conference, baa . Thetetces the ekatine sadet years-and claim: tobe at the service | sale society.’ It “is” alleged. that “this Ae Satundae the . enna nat by the women. He of the working population. The real|is done in order té-keep the.savings , of the United Councils | begged her to go to the baker union, * state of affairs is divulged by a scan-| deposited’ by the: memiber's in.cireula- Baker nm, who were c¢ ned the coun , the greedy ands. If a- to fight t ploiters all the meetings y evening progress made in| ls all their ame to his} ike was A baker r that a An incic wife and told going on v firms had pro-! Mes- | it POVERTY AND PROSTITUTION FLOURISH ting and the speak- sion on her. Now 1at he seldom s olendid r —the bos: art of Labor Movement. ts we hear of often. All with the help of the enemie ne W. W. We see today that this organization is an important part of | the w lass movement, and that | great part in every ant of all is a resolu- S at the conference to on educational work among uncils. It was one ofthe most important points dis ed. In the name of, the Baker Women Council 1 of the Bronx I give thanks to the United Councils of Working- class Women, which have taken an active part in the past battle against the two greedy baker bosses, who were endeavoring to fasten them- selves to the bakery workers’ backs like para but found the blood not to th liking—Pechter and | Messinger. ne conference ended with a won- derful banquet. AROUND THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE (By a Worker Correspondent.) | well-known street in| erly love” a res-| taurant, n ed, equipped with an attractiv e curtain strung| across its front window, has this sign painted in clean letters on the glass: “Blank restaurant. This is noj Bluff!” A large hand points con-| spicuously to this slogan. To one) initiated into the nature of this par-| ticular quarter of the city, this rather surprising sign is either a joke or a tragedy, according as you wish to look at it. | Throughout this neighborhood, lin- ingy ‘streets so char- e old parts of Phila- are numerous store windows| thing in common: a curtain, | generally white and clean, covering} the whole Sometimes a worn- out sign « nt” or “Store,” soda bottles | basket of fruit lend| deceives nobody. | curtain speaks} d unashamed. | are neither res- taurants nor es nor anything else| but brot s, with the white curtain the identifica- in hours of bleached-hair, | peering out curtain or openly| soliciting on the doorstep. | Love N All Brotherly. This is the rt of the tenderloin! of Philadely red-light dis-| trict cov few streets but a r of that unique, a, that city of over two mil s in reality just) an immen that city so prim} with its ids of of little, | . red-brick houses each with its white, stoop, all alike, that} traditions and modern renowned for the f Sunday blue-laws and the corruptness of its politics, which is Philadelphia. nig streets and little in There are busy ave-} nd restaurants and| dingy back-alleys, > houses are falling in| » brick-paved gutter is} littered with filtt In these latter, generally N o families live,‘ Negro workers trying to bring up their chil- | dren respectably in the midst of the} vice, gambling rink ituti which run r: Nota healt see and corruption r y bloated, dul, cyni- Wrecks and dregs of hu- slum proletariat”—thieves, gamble pimps, thugs, ads, prostitute perverts, these This is the place where manufactur- » the people that live here. ar e@ agencies come to ke-breakers and gang-| ers: and de reeruit the sters they need for their oceasional | £ dirty jobs. ; In the midst of this hot-bed of vice and crime is a little green park, A beautiful little square with well-kept lawns, shade trees and a graceful fountain, This square is known as the “Bum’s Retreat.” E bench is crowded with the tenderloin} without harm to motor and other|Power lies in them! | intone, |letin boards. up”—all conveniences, hot water, electricity, g: not to mention bed- bugs, lice, syphilis and other attrac- tions thrown in. These places rub elbows with cheap beaneries, adver- tising beef-stews for 20 cents, full five course dinners for 40 cents, with pool-rooms, brothels, and lurid chop- suey joints flaunting ultra-oriental carvings, mysterious lights, fantastic names and high prices. “Jesus Saves”, Everyone Else'is Too Poor. Here, too, are the gospel missions, with bibles reposing on crocheted doilies in their windows, with gilt- painted slogans such as us ” “God Pardons Sinners”, s n the winter the homeless crowd the otherwise deserted meet- ing-rooms, ready to be christians or anything else for. the sake of getting in out of the cold. Here of summer evenings you may see a little hand organ set up in the Street, hymn books and collection plate brought out, and three or four bloodless fe- males held a little church service there all by themselves. They wear thick, black unbecoming dresses, like nuns, with hideous bonnets tied un- der their chins. Now and then a pas- ser-by lingers, listening dully as they “Throw out the Life-line; someone is sinking today!” Their doleful hymns, their prayers mingle unnoticed with the honk of passing e | automobiles, with the hiccups of the drunkards lolling on the curb-stones, with the weird Chinese music issuing fom a near-by laundry, with all the other voices of the hectic, teeming tenderloin streets. Argentine Masses Wild With Joy as Sacco and) Vanzetti Win Reprieve BUENOS AYRES, Aug. 14.—With all stores closed and windows barred and the streets deserted except for | an occasional cab, Buenos Ayres dur- | P&S: |ing the Sacco and Vanzetti general strike presented the appearance of a city of the dead. But tho the city seemed dead, news that Saeco and Vanzetti had been granted a~stay of execution which was flashed from the special designed signal apparatus on various news- paper offices, b:ought forth crowds of cheering, eager people to the bul- Shouts of “Long live Sacco and Vanzetti” filled the streets | as the throngs began again to circu- late thru the capital. In the interior, where excitement had reached a pitch which led to outbreaks yesterday, the eager lis- teners received their first information over the radio, New Ford Model Ready. DETROIT, Aug. 14,—Production of the new Ford car will start within the next few weeks it was announced today by the Ford Motor Company. he new model has been perfected and is now in the testing stage, it was said. The new automobile is {capable of attaining a speed of 65 | miles per hour and can be driven for {hours at an average speed of more |than 50 miles per hour without dis- S| th; fighters | By REBECCA GRECHT. We had expected such a sentence we sat in Jefferson Market Court morning, waiting for our group |to be called. in the courtroom, spontaneous, un- |organized, the indignant reaction of} the hundreds of workers who had. just| witnessed the outrageous class “jus-| tice” of Judge Ewald, and were im- pelled to cheer our comrades as they} | were led away to serve their five and ten day sentences—the_ word went jaround that the rest of the pickets would now get ten and fifteen days. | Immediately, on the faces of the their turn, could be seen a firm, de-| termined expression, a spirited glint in the eye. The whisper passed along, “Not one cent fine to be paid! All to the workhouse!” There were sixteen in our group, six women-and ten men. The police- man who had arrested us while we were picketing on 7th Ave. between 28th and 29th streets made a sorry figure on the witness stand. He could only mumble a few words about our “congregating”, “walking three }and four abreast,” in a dull monotone} note. man to seven months—30 days for| picketing and six months for “disor-'| derly conduct” in the courtroom. Of the women, four were given the choice of 10 days in the workhouse or $25 fine. i one to six months. caught “red-handed” participating in groups received similar sentences. | us and to the men, chivairy? sent too harsh a treatment of the “weaker” sex? Or did he think that giving us the choice of a fine would net the court a neat sum, and thus re- ward him for his painstaking labors in the hot and stuffy courtroom? Whatever the reason, he misjudged our metal. Indeed, how could this apostle of law and order, dominated by reaction, understand the modern, militant woman worker? No doubt woman, to him, still belonged in her “natural sphere”, the home. He had not caught up with capitalist develop- ment, which, for decades, had been steadily drawing millions of women into the whirlpool of industrial ex- ploitation. How then could he know gles against economic oppression, have acquired unbounded how to fight. Especially the women in the needle trades, whose loyalty and devotion, whose spirit of self- American labor movement. But thi |the judge surely was not aware of. about 35 of us were packed in togeth-! er, with barely space to turn around. | |twelve more in, | another place was found for them. We remained there more than two! hours. i |to Welfare Island. Like vicious, dan-| gerous criminals, we were herded in-} of pickets arrested in the fur market) yy, weed We? After the demonstration | G4 Sy | them? |protest -that we w comrades, men and women, waiting thasothara oF |the doctor. |they dared, against the 47 of us. as if he were repeating a lesson by} and go Nine men were sentenced to! women were we, 15 days in the workhouse, and one the workhouse to home? the demonstration in court. The other! matron hurried | city. utes we were within the walls of New >| York City’s House of Correction. Several matrons greeted us—with vicious. looks and angry outbursts What were-we? Wh er 4 p. m. to both Why didn’t we pay the fine? Then the instruction came—to ready for fingerprinting and for the | doctor’s examination, At that, let it be confessed, we grew cold. We didn’t mind being fin- gerprinted. But we knew what see- ing the doctor meant. Our heated re strikers, not prostitutes, met with the rejoinder that we were no different from all ho came in. ided, among ourselves, that under no circumstances would we permit a physical examination. We | house for Women, And in a few min-| looked at get} us wi th .impatienee. “Go hom sted angrily. “The you out.” o one responded. A few minutes later the keeper came in. The union, aid, is ready to pay-the fine of who want to go home. Then It was up to us, en- And we chose, Seven went The rest, in chorus, shouted a No! so emphatic and spirited, that |even the matrons were convinced we Then we de-| would | stand by each other and refuse to see | Let them use force, if In groups of 8 or 10, then, we went into another room. Our fingerprints Again began the same insistent and angry questioning, quite deliberate, it seemed. Why didn’t we pay the fine home? What manner of any way, to prefer We tried to explain to them that matter of principle, that we strikers could not and would not be intimida- ted, that we would not justify the In the midst of our explanation, a in with the cry, We women wondered why the dif-| sentative is here to bail you all out.” What had happened? | were taken, the color of eyes and hair} | noted, weight and height marked, But there was no doctor around. meant it. Their strategy, apparently, had failed to budge most of us, Even the threat of a physical examination, which we understood later to have been simply a ruse, had not made us pay the fine. They could not under- stand it. They thought we were very peculiar. | But, they Said, we certainly stuck together. And stick we did. From the mo- ment we entered the workhouse to the moment we separated. Now that we were staying, our clothes were taken away, and each one given a bathrobe, We were “regular” criminals, now. The judge had so declared, and the prison records confirmed it. They had our | fingerprints, our identification marks. | of imprisonment, | we would not pay the money as a} | | | a One woman Was SeN-| outrageous actions of the police and} tenced to 30 days for picketing, and | the court by accepting the alternative | She, too, had been | of a fine. | “Everybody home. The union’s repre-| We had picketed in a strike, in de- fense of our interests as workers, in defense of our union, and had not been deterred by arrests or threats We had thus com- mitted a serious and reprehensible crime in the eyes of the capitalist agents of justice, working hand in hand with the bosses, with all the forces of black reaction in the Ameri- can Federation of Labor. But in the minds and hearts of the 40 who remained, as we were led into our prison quarters, there was no hesitation. Instead, a renewed deter- mination to continue with the strug- | gle as soon as we were released. ference in the sentences meted out to| We looked at one another in amaze-| Had the judge ment. We were a part of the left wing Were /in the furriers’ union, in the needle been overcome by a sudden sense of | the cases being appealed—so quickly? | trades, in the entire labor movemen Was oie disturbed by the| We demanded further information. | Our fight was a big one, a vital one, thought that public opinion might re-! We wanted to know. who had come/and no 10-day sentence in the work- ‘and exactly what he had said. Other- | house could frighten us and destroy wise We would not go. The matron! our militancy. (By ANNA LOUISE STRONG) HANKOW, (By Mail).—It’s a joke | to think of the things folks are writ- | ing about Hankow—the wild place it is supposed to be, ready to devour foreigners alive. I have poked my way with another girl into all sorts ‘of official headguarters in the native I have been lost in the middle | (of an arsenal, and had a few hup- dred bare-back sweating workers nod é s me cheerfully along toward the party |- that women, too, in their bitter strug-) { was with. | The lies about nationalization of | courage} women have started again. and determination, and have learned! credited missionary, said by the edi- | tor of the China-Review to have been fired by nearly every board in China, is getting out carbon copies of an) sacrifice, and idealism, has been a/ announcement presumably made at a constant source of strength and in-| missionary prayer-meeting by a letter spiratiof to the left wing, and indeed,|from Hunan, that “by a new law all are unsurpassed in any section of the | girls over 16 must be married within one month or the government will provide| husbands for them!” Also We were taken up to the jail. that women in abbreviated bathing There, in a narrow passage-way less | costumes have been enrolled to march than three feet wide and 30 or 40 feet | With ae ; long, outside dark and airless cells, | Shstly rot! Hankow armies. Such New Marriage Law. The fire behind this smoke is that |} We thought of cattle herded into|@ new marriage law has been passed | The matron attempted to force) by the Chinese Nationalists, giving but we protested, and|to women the right of divorce for | cause. Hitherto a man could divorce ‘is wife at will and without alimony At four o’clock we were taken! by returning her to her parents. Now he must support her if he turns her away until she gets another husband |to the police wagon. There were two! 0t finds means of self-support. Now |compartments, like cells. iron, surely, unventilated, with a tiny, | | barred opening at the top that let in) |no more light than one candle pow-! er. In ours, no more than five feet square, at least twenty comrades were crowded. To be sure, every precaution had Were we not of that dangerous. var- |iety known as the radical woman? | Amazons that we were,,,sith our fin- | ger nails or our teeth we might—who {door and let ourselves out with the aid of our shoe strings. |side, growing hungrier all the time | (we had not eaten since early morn- |ing—some, not at all) we found one \relfef. We sang. Working class to be taken to prevent. our escape. | |knows—bore a hole thru the iron! But we were not worried. Scarce-| ly able to breathe, jolted from side to. |songs, revolutionary songs songs of y available | comfort to driver and passengers and | S¥ffering, of battle, of freedom. What, Every melody, | loafers, resting their rotting, diseased | equipment, it was stated. Thousands|every word, seemed to give us more; bodies while they eymieal philosophies of life. This neighborhood abounds in the leisurly testing took place. exchange theit|of Ford workers. were laid off while| strength, make us more buoyant, | We sang until we reached the is- land. The police wagon stopped at “Men's Hotels’—‘35 cents. a right Don’t Forget the Sustaining Fund!|last before the entrance to the ’ ork- We Built of | the woman, who before had no right of protest when her husband. took A dis-| concubines, may adduce that fact and secure divorce with aliniony. Also there is a Woman’s Union up- river, which takes a_ semi-official function in fighting for women’s rights. There is an apparent authen- ticated case of a man committing sui- cide, after being forced by the Wo- men’s Unien to walk through the streets with a placard announcing him as a wife-beater. Organization to Remain. I cannot overlook the fact that thousands of good respectable ideal- ists around Shanghai are rejoicing in the split between Hankow and Nanking, as “a getting rid of those wild communists.” Such people ex- pect Hankow to “evaporate,” just as the others expect Nanking to do so. It is my guess that neither will evap- ordte, but that Pekin will be taken and that thereafter there will be a full meeting of the Kuomintang exec- utive (for the first time since the split) and create a new unity. . Quite likely they will expel the Communists, who bore the brunt of the northern expedition. Quite likely the workers and peasants will be madly disillusioned, and will get few immediate results, es But one result will be felt all through central China—the experi. ence of worker and peasant organ: ization. For this they will have to thank none but Russia. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS 'BER cs kronen to a~“private iron firm, the guarantee being~.a quantity of pig iron. be a. fraudulent ~ concern © and money was irretrievably lost. the The The firm very soon proved to} sensation created by this incdient in| the Swedish co-operative movement and also among ‘co-operators of other har 3 pe Rd RRS i as- x jdalous’ affair <in: which they _ were tion. wee F fie ie 1 ee hy ee Wwe e jlately involved. t The co-operative Life Insurance In- er Women Cour To this she answered her husband: | Like the British. central co-opera-|Stitution (Folkat) -also-Jent 480,000 as delega “What do is, I should go 2 oa \tive ‘societies, the Swedish ¢o-opera-| kroner to a firm closely ‘connected ver before was | picketin, have I got to do Ft tives have considerable surplus cap-| with the above-mentioned iren mer- and in-} with this 5 < ital which is, however, not used for|¢hant. . Of course, it is alleged that nally, b not without great the development of the workers’ or-|this sum will be recovered, but this »0r, the baker persuaded his wife | en avs In e OT Ouse ganizations, but merely~for making! does-not-alter the fact-that the-sav- 0 one of the meetings, where \ profits. The -business management of| ings of the co-operative members are many of our Os gta ecole asbomtres te I RE Sr lens —j|the wholesale society lent 740,000/nsed for financing private enter- prises. It is characteristic that in spite of the great loss of about three-quarter million “kronen, the wholesale society had in 1926 a clear profit of 2.5 mil- lien kronen. This ‘clear profit exceeds that of 1925 by 400,000 kronen. The enormous clear ‘profits show to what countries, induced the business man-| extent the Swedish central ‘co-opera- agement to offer some explanations, | tive societies sail under capitalist which show that the. practice of| colors granting short term loans—on which| price policy, etc. in their business methods, LIN CO-OPERATIVE TRAINS ENTHUSIASTIC CLASS IN COMMUNIST TASKS BERLIN, Aug. 14.—In February of the students varied, even a com- and March the Berlin Brandenburg|tade of 73 years old participated in district executive of the CPG organ-|the course,. but generally speaking, ized a course for Berlin functionaries | the age of the students was between 85 and 60 with a sprinkling of young- which: dealt. with the question of/er men and women comrades aged 21, workers’ co-operatives. The course occupied five evenings. could actually collaborate. the questions dealt with were: Strength and, extention of co-opera- tives (including organizational ques- tions of the central society, etc.), or- igin and history of the German work- ers’ consumers’ co-operatives, reform- ist co-operative theory, discussion’ of the reformist theory of the old Social Democratic Party, the basic attitude | of the Comintern and the CPG to workers’ consumers’ co-operatives, practical and tactical questions of co- operative policy, and of business methods (main point), organizational fraction” jvork, a The number | of participants was limited to 23 com-|was not uniform. rades in order that every student) |22 and-23 years. The collaboration of the students Collaboration was excellent in connection with “practical Among and organizational questions, whereas collaboration in the treatment of his- |torical and theoretical questions was |inadequate.* Here it ‘came to light |that even the active - co-operative jfunctionaries of the Party—and it is | they who matter in’ these courses— jhave very little knowledge of his- itorical and theoretical questiény. But lin spite*of various defects and‘weak |points, one can say that on the ‘whole |the course was a successs. It will no doubt help*to put life into co-opera- tive fraction work in Berlin which! is |now far from satisfactory. | Through’ this course, we have se- Attendance at these evenings fluc-|cured 16 active men and women-com- tuated, which was partly due to stu-/rades for the establishment of a pro- dents being taken up with other par-/|letarian co-operative circle. The cir- ty work. men and women comrades. The first evening the at-|cle is to support the work of the tendange was 23; on the second. eve-|Rerlin Co-operative ning 24, on the third evening 17, on| whenever possible, fractioi and it is als6 to help the fourth 17, and on the fifth 16/ the co-operative fraction work thru- The age! out the Reich, | FREIHEIT FORWARDS CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT: FORWARDS FAILS TO The organizer of the United Work- ers’ Co-operatives in New York, D. Girson, declared at a members’ meet- ing when the annual report: on the activity of the organization was pre- sented, that the help and the influ- ence of the Workers (Communist) Party in general and of their Jewish daily organ “Freiheit” in particular, have made it possible to propagate the idea of workers’ co-operatives. Prior to the establishment of the “Freiheit” it was very difficult to get the slightest notice published in ithe “Forward,” a Jewish socialist organ in New York, This co-operative began its activity in 1926, by organizing a workers’ camp which is open all the year round and_can at present accommodate 600 and 700 people. Just now, the organi- zation is building co-operative houses and shops. It contemplates the es- tablishment of a central purchasing agency in order to be able to supply all co-operative shops with food- stuffs and manufactured articles. Cooperative INCO was organized in the United States at the end of 1925 by a group of Russian-American mechanics, The main purpose of this organization was to help build up the new economic life in, Russia applying he modern American methods of mass production, The co-operative has been subdivided into two branches: mechanical and electrical. The first branch is now working full Speed. The shop was organizedyand the machines installed in 1926; 150,000 rubles worth of machinery has been shipped to this co-operative and 25 men are working,/making about 200 rubles a month each, This is con- sidered a very good salary in U. S. S. R.. The co-operative is building special machines ordered by various institutions in U. S. S. R. and mak- ing various'parts for the textile in- dustry. The main aim, however, is ~ INDUSTRIAL COOPERATIVE IN-CO, MOSCOW, USSR to establish a large plant and to draw in hundreds of Russian workers. With this in view our co-operative S worked eut a complete plan of work and has applied to-the proper insti- tutions in U. S. S. R. for permission for a group of 40’ additional mem- bers from America. The Supreme Council of Economy in U. S. S. R, has given us permission for thig group. The co-operative in Moscow is now preparing for production of lathes for which the co-operative has already received an order for a few million rubles. Following specialists are needed for our co-operative: Fifteen all-round men, ten ma- chinists, five lathe hands, five tool- makers, two pattern makers,’ one draftsman, one planer, one’ setter for automatic machines. Ras For all information apply to Cen- tral Bureau, 799 Broadway, New York City, Rika