The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 22, 1927, Page 6

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, NDAY, AUGUST 22, 1927 DRESDEN, Aug. 21.—-Considerable protests have been made by several proletarian organizations because of the campaign of the cooperative bureaucrat inst the Executive « proposal made thé cooperative ference in Dresden for of the society be se of n fringement of the statutes and of the cooperative law. Up to the middle of March, ak 40 such protests had been lodged, most of them adopted unanimously at cooperative, trade union and other meetings inclusive of Social Democratic and non-Party votes. As the m ing committee of the society re hat the expulsion roused the indignation al Democratic members ommittee of the auditing society and it was afraid that the general discontent would find ex- pression also at the Dresden Con- gress, it resorted to a crafty move in order to achieve its aims by other means. It is well-known that the author- ities adopted, apart from their dis- question had even of Soci against the ciplinary measures against the} troublesome Schwarzenberg Con-/ sumers’ Cooperative ciety, the methods of economic strangulation by preventing the rapidly develop- ing society from obtaining much needed long-term credits. When the | authorities noticed that the expulsion methods would not come off so easily | and would probably lower their | prestige, they informed the manag-| ing committee of the Schwarzepberg | Consumers’ Cooperative that they did} not intend to be relentless in regard | to the credit question and that they would also withdraw the expulsion proposal, provided that the managing committee and the board of directors would declare their readiness to adopt | a different attitude and would enter into commensurate obligations for the future. Unfortunately the management of “the auditing society has been success- | ful with this trick. The responsible | comrades, in the managing committee | who had the further smooth develop- ment of the society at heart, thought} that the inter of the members| made this s ice necessary. They) signed the declaration which was de- manded of them, but it must be said| that, in the history of the central so- ciety, this declaration is the most| ysterous thing which the author-| dared to proposed to the opposi- | n. It is admitted in the declara-| ion that the managing committee | and the boa f directors have in-} fringed the statutes and the coopera- tive law ar at they have done harm to the Gerr Consumers’ Coopera- i all of which justified ‘oposal. The manag- rd the board of direc- Schwarzenberg Con- sumers’ Cooperative Society under- take in the declaration: “To expel those members of their society who make the cooperative an organ of truggle, the commis- sariat of str and rebellion, who want to spend the funds of the co- operative for party political aims and act up to these intentions within the) cooperat: crganization. The man- aging committee and the board of directo » undertake to see to it that in future neither rank and file members ing committ tors mix * members of the manag- e and the board of direc- (!), their cooperative | affairs of other con- up al ng committee and the rectors demand expuision mbers of the society who| up to this undertaking. | ster of this declaration | y what the authorities | They were afraid} shows were aimi (and the ing protest movement | increased their fear) that the class- conscious i at the same time busi- ness-like executive of the Schwarzen- berg Coitsumers’ Cooperative Society would set an example to other con- sumers’ coope e societies. There- fore their w vas to isolate the so- ciety and, o and above this, to dis- credit and put in the wrong its exec- utive (“breach of solemn promises”), in order that, on the strength of this, the Comme executive could be overthrown, that the expulsion tould take on a_ subsequent dsecasion under more favourable con-| litions. | That responsible comrades in| Schwarzenberg signed this declara- tion must deeply regretted. It} shows that they completely lost their | be Communist | Schwarzenberg and the} | bership. | erely | demanding, | called up | izing proletarian GERMAN CO-OPERATIVE RECTIFIES ERROR IN FIGHT : 4 WITH REACTIONARIES = |heads and their action cannot be justified even on the assumption that they meant to act in the interests o the members. The actual result such an undertaking that the au thorities were encouraged in their demagogic game, whereas there is no guarantee whatever that the author- ities will keep their ver vague promi: But 's in regards to cre above all, this’ step of the Schwarzen- berg comrades is a very serious politi- cal error in the entire struggle be- tween the proletarian opposition and the reactionary authorities. There is no doubt whatever that the position of the entire opposition throughout the Reich has been made much more difficult. Moreover, one must also be aware that this kind of thing will bring confusion into the vacillating sections of the opposition. Signed For Sake of Unity, Another error consi in the fact that the declaration was signed with- out previously appealing to the mem- that a delegate meeting took place at which the business manager Krtinger made it known that the declaration had been signed, and explained what had induced the executive of the so-| ciety to sign. It was done to pre- serve unity in the cooperative move- | ment and also in order not to put ob- | stacles in the way of the development | | of the consumers’ cooperative society. | Comrade Ertinger wound up his re-| port with the promise that the Schwarzenberg Consumers’ Coopera-} tive Society would be as before the “pioneer of a proletarian cooperative policy.” This slogan was greeted with applause by the meeting, whereas the extortionist attitude of the Exec- utive of the Saxon Society was sev- condemned. A considerable number of delegates and function- aries made a declaration expressing | their joint protest. In this declara- tion it is said that, not the managing committee of the cooperative, but the, executive of the cooperative society, has done harm to the consumers’ co-| The declaration | condemns the means and perative movement. severely methods by which the undertaking had been obtained. The declaration concludes as follows: “The members of the delegate meeting emphasise that in yiew of the success achieved through our pro- letarian cooperative policy, the only thing which matters is: to continue through our consumers’ cooperative society a policy which truly serves proletarian interests.” Demand Soviet Relations. Moreover proceedings at the meet- ing show that the bureaucrats did not succeed in shaking the confidence of the Social Democratic and non-Party members in the Communist leadership of the consumers’ cooperative. Sev- | eral proposals for the Congress jn Essen were adopted Unanimously and also a resolution welcoming the invi- tation addressed by the Centrosoyuz to the central society to despatch of a delegation to the Soviet Union and Pi "al, in view of the dangerous imperialist war policy of the west Eureopean powers direc- ted against Soviet Russia, acceptance of this invitation and immediate | injtiation of close and friendly rela-| were gambling on’ a stay of execu- ttions with the cooperative movement | tion—and they of Soviet Russia. The resolution also demands that the various local organ- j; izations should be invited to partici- pate in such a delegation. The result of the expulsion action against Schwarzenberg has been: that | the attention of the whole Party has been drawn more than ever before to questions of cooperative work, The protest campaign led by the Party had remarkable ‘successes from the very beginning. It was given em- phasis through a protest resolution of the Party Congress in Essen which was addressed to all proletar- jan members of cooperatives and ion them to oppose the split acti of the cooperative bureau- era’ The withdrawal of the expul- sion proposal has certainly brought a hange in the situation, but not a real change, as the incidents which accompanied this withdrawal showed clearer than ever before the anti-pro- letarian attitude of the authorities. Therefore the Party continues its campaign with the intention of mobil- members. of co- operatives against the reactionary policy of the authorities and their dictatorial and extortionist methods. All these matters are bound to play an important role at the conferences and also at the Congress in Essen.¢ Aloha Second in Air Race It was only after the sign-| }ing of the declaration on April 3rd, Workers killed in the Vienna uprising a short time ago. Some were shot by the capi list-clerical police, and By LELAND OLDS, . (Federated Press). How far American wages fall short fof enabling the workers to support | their families in decency and comfort can be computed with considérable ac- curacy from the U. S. department of labor’s publication of cost of living figures for June, 1927. Using these figures to bring the original depart- ment of labor minimum budget up-to- date, we find the joker in all the em- was made at so low a standard that ployer blah about improvement in the | living standards of American workers. | There has been a gain, but the start | WOMEN DRIVEN TO WORK AS AVERAGE AMERICAN WORKER'S WAGES FALL FAR SHORT OF NE least $41 for a full week’s wo1 cover inevitable loss of ear |through sickne: layoffs and | time. The building trades worker | {ean count on only about 75 per | | of full time work throughout the | |must make at least $56 a week working. Nor will thése ear make any provision for the purc of new necessaries and comforts !ed to the normal family standar |the progress of industry since Wages Short of Needs. If the wages paid in Mlinois typical, male workers in this cov. some feli before the hastily summoned troops of the socialist mayor, Deitz. They got a funeral at the expense | the average worker family still falls | fall at least 30 per cent. short 01 of the city, and Deitz remains in office to conduct fresh treasons against the workers. ARTICLE I. | There is a general ignorance in Western countries about the conditions of land-ownership in China. Two opposing misconceptions prevail, which make it dif- ficult to understand the peasant movement in China. These must first be disposed of. no private ownership of land, the Manchus (1911). of the government, who is “the only | is “a land where the peasants alre: ideas aye far from the truth. * * * What, then, is the actual situation lines? I will characterize the status basis of the public lands are largely based upon (by family, clan, etc.) basis of the Chinese land-hloding public land is also cultivated by landless peasants. Thus the preponderant element in agricultural production is | the tenant (varying in different provinces from 40 per The oldest of these misconceptions is, that there is or that such private ownership is recent, arising only since the overthrow of Such well-known writers on China as MacGowan, Williams, Symon, Simcox, Douglas, deal with the land as exclusively the property of the head | to another extreme, a current conception is that China the soil” (see Newsletter No. 8, of American Commit- tee for Justice to China, July 28, 1927). and occupancy in a series of points, and then elaborate each of them with actual figures of investigations. 1. Private and absolute ownership of land is the Chinese landholding system. 2. A very large proportion of the privately-owned land is in the hands of a relatively small class of land- tically unchanged tivation. landlord.” Going | ady own most of semi-tenants. Both of these in its broad out- of land-ownership can and English So-called private ownership system. So-called | LANDOWNERS IN CHINA By EARL BROWDER. cent to 80 per cent), and the agrarian question is dom- inated by the landlord-peasant relationship. 8. Peasant economics have been dragged under the influence of world markets, specialized cultivations, etc., but social and legal relationships are still dominated by feudal and semi-feudal customs, and institutions. 4. The unprogressive technique of agriculture (prac- for thousands of years) produces an exceedingly minute division of units of cultivation. The tremendous pressure of population accentuates this fac-| ¢ tor, and simultaneously heightens the intensity of cul-| 5. Out of these factors has grown an exploitation of | the masses of peasantry, of a degree unknown in any | other land, amounting to 70 or 80 per cent of their) produce in the case of the main bulk_of tenants or * * * Here are the main outlines of the most fundamental question of the Chinese Revolution. It is not yet real- ized in the West, the main driving force of this revolution; it is quite usual, on the contrary, to read remarks in the Ameri- | press especially, to the effect that | that it is the peasantry who furnish the “conservative peasantry” of China will soon put an! | end to the “Bolshevik” tendencies of the revolution. ens: will be the purpose of these articles to make clear why |°™Ployed in industry should have at | it is that while the “Bolshevik” working class in the! ; I | cities is leading the revolution, yet at the same time| if he can't earn it himself the mother | when called upon in the court to ‘it is the “conservative” peasantry which relentlessly | Of his children must become a wage | fend the girl’s action to be reinsta drives the revolution on and on, which makes it impos- sible to find a compromise which will stabilize China | It ' short of a thorough-going transformation of its entire | economic and social system. | Patriotism and the Sacco-Vanzetti Case By HELEN BLACK. One thing about the capitalist sys- tem, it never lets a money-making | chance slip by. Its commercial eye is |always peeled for opportunities to |eash in on every mood, or whim, or | event of the moment. | Take the murder of Sacco and Van- | zetti for instance. Up near Boston \it is an opening for betting. On Au-} | gust 10th, in Roxbury, the odds were | heavily against the two doomed men }in the morning; but as the day wore on they steadily changed until at 7 p. m. they were 4 to 5 in favor of reprieve. This did not mean, of {course, that these bettors hoped for |a reprieve. What difference did that | make to them? It was just that they won. Probably the! good today since the state supreme court | odds are not so | verdict of the came in. | * * % | Here in New York, ex-soldiers are} making the most of the great world-| workers’ tragedy in a novel. office to} office canvas. Armed with creden- | tials from th@’American Legion they | call upon bankers;brokers, manufac- | turers, and other pillars of our so- | cial order. “IT wanted to tell ya about a fund we're raisin’ fer the edjacation o’ for- eigners in this country,” says the stal- wart legionnaire. “Ya see ther er 13,000,000 ignorant foreigners right in’ our midst an’ we gotta make good Americans out of ’em. This here Sacco-Vanzetti case shows ya what they are. Tryin’ t’ interfere with our courts an’ law and prevent a couple of wop murderers from gettin’ what’s comin’ to ’em. | “Now we're gonna establish a} fund to edjacate these b——s, or out they go. What we want you to | do is endorse this complete history of | | the world war—written from both the | Allied and the German point of view, | | everythin’ about the war—an’ then! | we'll inscribe in it the name of your | }son (he already knows the man has | one) or some other relative who, | served in the world war. All the) | profits of the history go to edjacatin’.| these 13 million foreigners—every | cent of profit to the fund: and all its | costs you is $127 includin’ your name | among the endorsers. The most com- plete account of all the events of the} great world war, etc., etc.” | Before he leaves, the salesman | shows sme of the pictures they have | decided to leave out of the book be-| cause they are too horrible--some of the atrocities of the great conflict for democracy. Since the history is said to present both sides of the war, we can presume the unpublished pictures | are also the atrocities committed by both armies. i But after all, if Representative ; Johnson uses Sacco and Vanzetti for personal pwblicity for himself, ana Secretary of Labor Davis uses them as (im excuse for some more of his ayiti-alien measures, why are they not/ j ee cs ‘To: grist to the mill of a humble book salésman. Sacco and Vanzetti are workers. What other fate have work- ers‘anywhere? * * * What I kee wondering is about | that electrocutioner, Robert Elliot of Richmond Hill, L. I. ‘He has had to stay up in Boston ever since August 10th waiting to kill Sacco and Vanzetti, I wonder whether he is annoyed. I wonder whether he gets paid for waiting, or whether he just gets paid by the job and all this extra delay is costing him money. Of course his business must be pretty good for he kills for three states—New York, New Jersey and} Massachusetts. But if he only gets so 'much a murder, he doesn’t want to spend any more time at it then nec- essary. That’s one thing about mod- ern methods of killing, they take less time than the old-fashioned ones; al- tho they must give much less thrill to the executioner. For instance, just pulling a switch is not very exciting even tho you know it burns a man to death. A hanging took more practice ard skill. * One of Mr, Elliot’s neighbors out in Richmond Hill told a friend of mine that Sacco and Vanzetti ought to be hanged. There ought to be a public hanging out in front of the City Hall with everybody invited. “That’s the way to treat those criminals,” says the neighbor. That’s the kind of people who live * * | in Richmond Hill. It’s a quiet, middle- class suburb, full of meek white-collar slaves, and very, very respectable. Mr. Elliot’s neighbor is quite typical of the community. No wonder Mr. | | | | | Elliot lives there. | much admired. | I can picture him grasping the | morning papers and eagerly scanning |the pages for murders—“Business, | you know my dear; business.” Even | He is doubtless | | if its only a bonus on each killing and | a flat retainer the rest of the time, Mr. Elliot must relish seeing the num- bers mount up. “Cop slays picket”— oh no; that wouldn’t mean business. | “Man chokes wife”; “Wife slays lov. er”; “Bandits kill pursuers,” etc., ete. | The times are right for Mr. Elliot, that’s certain. In his little suburban cottage he can sit secure; sure that for him there*will be no business de- pression; lazily dreaniing of switches and levers and straps and wires. * * * He’s been waiting for this Boston job for a long time. They’ve kept postponing it year after year. Just nonsence. Sheer spinelessness on the part of the government. The idea of allowing appeals and stays and peti-| tions and all this legal flub-dub! The idea of bringing him up there two weeks ago for the murder and then issuing a reprieve. Why not get the thing over with, He had the chair all ready, everything set; and then they postpone it again. Well every business has its annoy- ances. Even killing is not free from cares. Now Mr. Elliot will have to go over the whole electric chair bit by bit again. Try every part of it. Make sure there is no slip-up, no er- ror. Three men to be killed, and it must be done neatly and quickly. Robert Elliot is sitting in Boston waiting. Workers of the world, will he be allowed to carry out his mur- derous job? | IS THIS I, OR SACCO AND VANZETTI? By LEO YURMANN. (Translation by 0, how heavy weighs the day upon my back! ‘ I would become blind, I would become deaf And not hear Insanity colored voices Of fear and blood, .. . Always, out of my sleey) /\ shiver! And my eyes search, And they dig; Am I being crucified, Will I be led bound, Monday midnight To the last walk, of mine? Or are these . Sacco and Vanzetti? Brothers, my brothers! I do not know! It seems to m is death-scorched face, | bs x less, uncounted, i Joseph N. Katz.) They lead me Monday midnight To the murder-instrument, the modern. .. . My night becomes restless And red and fully insane; | With feverish visions, ' With fearful phantasies, with death} delirium, Like a raven, ever restless I break out of my sleep And ery and shiver. The day became heavy And out of all windows betrayal scoffs at me; My night, bloody-crying became And I sit with bloody eyes upon my bed And ery and shiver: Is this I, or Sacco and Vanzetti? ... No, this is, the night answers: ‘This is, you and they, And they and you~ And the whole world, The whole world, The whole world! ed deaths, far short of the decent living which the country’s productive capacity could provide. | High Cost of Living. In August 1919, according to the department, a worker family includ- ing 3 children required at least $2,- | 262.47 a year to maintain itself in \health and reasonable comfort. The recent report shows that since that | date the cost of the budget items has | | changed to such an extent that $2,188 | is required to maintain the same stan dard today. The average expenditures necessary to meet the major items of this health \and comfort budget for a family with 8 children on the basis of costs in | June 1927 were: Dept. of Labor Per Per | Minimum Budget Year Week Food $652 $12.53 | | Clothing 364 7.00 Rent 412 1.92 Fuel and light 155 2.98 | House furnishings 60. 1.15 | Miscellaneous 545 10.47 | Total $2,188 $42.02 Women Forced to Work. | | . This means that the average father least $42 a week throughout the year. | |ing able to provide a family with |minimum standard of health and |fort. The average male worke |Illinois factories, according to : state department of labor, m about $31.50 a week. In the buil industry the average is $44.27. leading manufacturing industries averages are iron and steel $3 cars and locomotives $31.61, agr’ tural implements $28.76, boots shoes $25.08, oil $92.36, job prit_ $42.85, men’s-clothing $34.10 and eae packing $27.32. A 40 per cent increase all along line would hardly bring these earn’ up to the department’s standard. they are the wages of men with & right to support a family in ace ance with the standards amply | sible with American industry. Student Wins Right Attend, Tho Not “Tyr SYRACUSE, N. Y., Aug. 21.—~ instatement of Miss Beatrice thony; 21, of Binghamton, co-ed was dropped from Syracuse Uni sity last October, was dire in a decision handed down by Jur Edgar N. Smith. The university contended that I Anthony was “not the Syracuse ty | earner to supplement his inadequate | earnings or his family will experience | | the rigors of poverty. | | To assure this income the average | | male factory worker must average at) Sacco and Vanzett Shall Not Die: 1 i FARMERS TO ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADERS OF TOILING FARMERS AND PEASANTS OF ALL CCUNTRI Dear Friends: We are addressing this letter to you to join us in the struggle against the preparation for a new world war. Recent events have shown that the enace of a world war is closer and more direct than it might have seem- ed some time ago. We have witnessed a number of open acts provocating armed conflicts. No one who is sincerely interested in preserving peace can now close his eyes to these facts. It is not sufficient |to call oneself an opponent to war without at the same time doing some- thing definite against the real men- ace of war. It is not enough to de- clare oneself in favor of peace and to give vent to general slogans about the brotherhood of nations, and mean- while to support the imperialists who are carrying on war against the revo- lutionary liberation movement of the peasants and workers and all toiling masses of China, and feverishly pre- paring a military invasion of the U.| S. S. R. The struggle for peace must not be a struggle of words, but of action. All real friends of peace, all those who are really opposed to war, must at the present time unite on the basis of a comomn platform of strug- gle against the war dangers. United Front. Against the united front of the ene- mies of the toiling masses—the or- ganizers of war, let us establish a united anti-war front of the toiling farmers and peasants of the world. Let us join the ranks of the working- class and those of its organizations which are really fighting against the | threatening war. Let us strengthen in the struggle the fraternal alliance of the workers and farmers and peasants | throughout the world. No matter how different the path along which the various farmers’ and peasants’ organi- zations and their leaders want to serve the cause and the interests of the farmers and peasants, no matter how different their fighting methods may be, in the face of the menace of war and in the struggle against it the extension and consolidation of the international unity of the toiling far- mers and peasants of the world must become the most essential task of all the laborifig farmer and peasant or’) ganizations and all real defenders of | the farmers’ and peasants’ interests. Reach Understading. The Fatmers’ and Peasants’ Inter- national Council proposes to the or- ganizations and leaders of the toiling farmers and peasants of all countries to come to an understading, among each other concerning joint measures and a common program of action against the menacing world war. Tt is necessary to prepare joint cam- a the: tivond af farmers and peasants. it is + to disclose the instigators of the 1 world war by means of joint mani | toes and leaflets, by means of issu common pamphlets, and adopting ai war resolutions at the farmers’ : | peasants’ meetings;by means of mz festations and demonstrations, means of convening various dist: and national anti-war farmers’ | peasants’ conferences, by appear | before all representative instituti: | (parliament, municipal, - institutic \ete.), focussing the attention of masses to the horrors which will | sult from such a war. | Unite to Struggle. | We call upon you to begin and ca on a most energetic campaign un }the slogans: “Down with the insti; tors of war—the landlords and ca’ | talists!”.“Hands off China and © U. 8. S. R.”, “Farmers and workers’ all countries, unite in the ‘strug: | against war!” f In order to lend the campaign a cc crete character, and to rally the bre. masses of farmers and peasants, — is necessary to link up thesd Noe with the everyday needs of the fay ers and peasants. In every individ: j district it is necessary to combine ti. jeampatgn with local, conditions, The anti-war struggle must be c: | ried on not only by the farmers’ a | Peasants’ organizations and leade but must also draw in the farmers a peasants masses. For this reason * propose to set up anti-war farmer a’ peasant committees and to unify the | activities. { Help Offered. The Farmers’ and Peasants’ Inte national Council will help in eve way any of your undertakings f the preservation of peace. We a ready to discuss all questions and pr posals concerning the intensificatic of the anti-war struggle with all o ganizations and leaders of the farr. ers’ and peasants’ organizations ma‘ by them. f | All farmers’ and peasants’ organ zations and their leaders must at ti same time carefully consider the qu tion hew to unite the national ant war struggle of workers and peasa! with this movement in other ¢countrie Dear friends, the Farmers’ ar Peasants’ International Council cal upon you to join hands with the wo: 7 ingelass in the struggle against t ers and oi preparation for-a new war which injure the toiling ants more than anyone else. therefore ask all the defenders of ti farmers and peasants interests to ¢: press their opinion on the issues touched upon here. i » Awaiting your reply. Yours fraternally, ig For the Presidium of the Farme: and Peasants’ International