The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 25, 1927, Page 6

/ Tae ‘ Page Six SAY THEY GOT THE HOLY GHOST Proof that in the nooks and cc our rulers ll manage to keep ali proved by the assertions of John R pictured above, were visited by the saved, in a New York church. » holy ghost, cured of dise: Stratton is the recognized leader of the industrial life in America of “he old superstitions is atton that he and his wife, es and prners ve som ‘coach fundamentalists, and a great opponent of modern science, particularly the theory of evolution, 5 AS i ie Ge . FIGHTING CIGARMAKERS OUSTED IN DISPUTE; DEMAND REINSTATEMENT Local 160 the Cigar Makers’ {nternational Union, which has just been expelled from the In- ternational for alleged deficit in funds, is making a ng appeal to of which was fo ‘Amalgamated ting b fakers this opportunity to expel these wor' The cigar mak ng appeal: Brothers and Sisters: We, the progressive local of the Sigar Makers’ International ently suspended by the president shortly before the International con- vention, which is to be held in Au- rust. The feason egiven for the suspen- sion of our local is that it is defi- 60, A closer examination of the facts leading to our suspension will reveal some interesting facts. Once Independent. Until about 6 months ago local 100 Was’ an independent organization nown as “The Amalgamated Tobac- 20 Workers’ Union.” This organiza- tion had, for the past several years, to fight for its existence on the picket line not only against the bosses, but also against the Interna- tional bureaucrats. Our local realiz- ing the necessity for unified action in the industry in order to better defend the interests of the workers, agreed to confer with the International Cigar Makers’ Union, upon the initiative of Santiago Iglesias, with the idea in View of the joining the A. F. of L. prganization. After a series of conferences be- tween the two organizations the fol- lowing main points were agreed up- on: (1) Conditions and prices prevail- ing in the Amalgamated shops before affiliation be maintained. (2) Imme- diate organization campaign be start- ad. (3) That the “Amalgamated” re- teive a charter as a separate local. All these points were granted and the former Amalgamated Tobacco Work- ers’ Union became known as Local ~ 100, Cigar Makers’ International Union. The Old Game. At the time of the granting of the sharter as 2 separate local a strike was in progress in one of the bigges tigar shops in New York, Bloor shop. The International tool this strike and agreed to do its ut- most to carry it to a successful eon- slusion. But instead a shameful set- tlement was effected by Internatio: Organizer Simons and even this ¢ graceful settlement, was broken by the firm as soon as it started to oper- ate. Local 100 thru its delegates to the Joint Advisory Board demanded that the terms of the settlement be tecorded in the minutes of the J. A. B. and that the firm be made to live ap to it. Mr. Simons flatly refused fo state the terms of the settlement stating that it was not he, but the International president who effected this settlement and signed the agree- ment without the knowledge of the strikers. This was a revelation to the J. A. B., as it was not known that the president was holding secret con- ferences with the firm. Local 100 de- manded that the secret agreement be disclosed. The Joint Advisory Board oy aunanimous vote instructed its secretary to demand of the president a. copy of the agreement. This agree- ment was never received by the J. A. B. and one week after, as punishment for the audacity of our local to know the contents of the agreement, was suspended by the International pres- ident. Unorganized Condition of the indus: | ‘ try. , The deplorable unorganized state nf the cigar industry is appalling. 1 organi s make the follow- | it Union, |: Local 100, New York*City, were re-| in funds to the amount of! Out of about 12 ly 1,800 are org tion of whom are’ not working at the bench, but holding membership bec of nd death i for an aggres 00 cigar makers on- ed, a good por- How ¢ stween our lo-| ional officials to » the cigar industry in } 2 local proposed the follow- (1) The calling of ‘shop men meetings to organize a live ation committ eries’of gener: to enlist the} membe v amongst the uno: (3) After prepar- ing the membership a series of mass meetings to be called. | How did tho International carry} ont the above plan to organize the in-| dustry? During the six months of the existence of our local the Joint | Advisory Board called one shop chair-! men meeting where an “6rganization !committee” was elected. This com- mittee was never called to a meeting. also called one membership eting during the entire six membership not being » this “wonderful” preparation aj ing” was called, about as well prepared as the membership meeting. Only a few active members | came down to this meeting. This was |the end of the organization drive for, the whole six months. Again it was the Wi “mass me apparent that the International of: cials would not do anything to let t New Y organization grow for fear al ideas. Forced To Fight In Defe Our local became_ outraged = thi the part of the Intern: tional officials and put up a consi: nt in the New York Joint Ad- Board for the ts of the ip and insisted that the x unity be lived up to. sure of the bureau-| erats of the International by our lo-| the coming convention caused | he president to issue an edict dis- olving our local to prevent our dele-| rom, exposittg their treacher- | uct at the coming convention. | there must always be some) e flimsy pretext given. for| our local was /that*,we Se. spent 60 above the amount al- lowed the constitution. | The Official “Excuse” for Suspension. | The official Journal of April 1927} discloses the fact that there are about | 160 local unions that had a deficit} on January 1, 1927 of an amount of! close to $35,000, Some of these sums} are substantially above that of our) local. For example: Local 14, Chi-)| cago, where the international presi- dent no doubt is at present a member/ shows a deficit of $4,261.85; local 148, | $1,442.52; local 350, $1,478.05; local 601, $1,125.56; local 251, New York, where international organizer Simons is president, $1,939.77, The above is only a partial list of| those locals who have a deficit. Con- sidering the above facts taken from the official Journal, can the member-| ship accept the flimsy excuse that lo-| cal 100 has been dissolved because of | a deficit of $142.60? If according to} the constitution locals are to be sus-| pended for deficiency in funds why] were not the 160 locals listed j their | own official report suspended? The) reason is. obvious. These 160 locals| the officials are considered as safe, | whereas our local will put up a fight} \for the real interests of the workers in this industry. | BOSTON, Aug. 24. — Colonel} Charles J. Glidden, former financier, | developer of the telephone with pro-| jfeasor Alexander Graham Bell, or- ganizer of the famous “Glidden Auto- |mobile Tours” and a pioneer in avia- tion was criticaily ill at his Fenway \home today. He is seventy years old. THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1927 DROWNING THE MIND, NOT 71 zor Pictare shows ceremony of baptism by Plymout sins and make the new convert fit to associate with. churches is that it insists on running water, outdoor: jug inside. . E RODY hh brethren. The was g is suppased to take away The only difference between this sect and most s, whereas the others are content with a tank or a The By EARL BROWDER. ARTICLE IV, growth of the Peasant Union The tremendous in | China has attracted attention of the entire world, and shown tion. ep mtry as the chief force of the Revolu- The land problem is the chief problem. But the Therefore, to form a judgment of the future of the revo- lution, it is necessary to know how strong are those | sections of the peasantry who are revolutionary, who make up the Peasant Unions. The following classifica- tion is made by Mo Chek-tung, a leading Chinese 1 scholar (“Chinese Peasant,” Jan., 1925): The landlord, class, numbering over two million per- sons, is the main reactionary force in the villages. is led and organized principally by the big landlords, numbering about 300,000, and by the village “gentry” and officials. : The main body of the peasantry number about 320: millions. Of these, the most conservative are the yeomanry (working farmers owning their own farms) 120 millions strong. ‘But not more than 10%, or 12 mil- li hopes of becoming landlords and therefore tend to support the reaction. About half, or 60 million, are just holding their own and making a living; these are timid, trying to avoid struggles, and, help neither side ch. The remaining 40%, or 48 million, of the yeo- ary are farmers who are losing each year, and rap- idly going into bankruptcy. These latter; although un- reliable, definitely tend to support the revolutionary struggle. The Revolutionary Poor. The main force of the revolutionary peasantry con- sists of the semi-yeomaary, the tenants, and the village poor, These total more than 170 millions. They carry peasant population is not, of course, revolutionary. | gra- | It | s, have an economic surplus, and only this number | Chinese Peasant Union | {the main burden of village exploitation, rents, taxes, etc. Their conditions are the most miserable of all who still have any place in economic life. For them the revo- lution in the village (overthrowing the landlord admin- istrations, reducing or abolishing rents, establishing their own armed forces) is a necessity for their con- tinued life. It is from them that comes the organizers, the fighting forces of the Chinese peasantry. Then there are the “lumpen proletarians” of the vil- lage. These are people who have been squeezed off the \land, unable to migrate to the already-overerowded cities, and who starve and rot in idleness and crime. | They ‘are the soldiers, bandits, thieves, beggars, and prostitutes. They number about 20 millions. It is ‘mainly from this degenerated mass that the landlords | yecruit their fighting forces, which they use to crush the revolution, Peasant Unions. If this classification is approximately correct, and it | is borne out by other studies which I have read, then we | can say that not less than two-thirds (about 220 million) | of the peasantry have a definite material interest in the sutcess of the peasaht union movement. About 60 mil- ‘lions are wavering elements, and certainly not more | than 40 millions (including the criminal and idle classes) | are actual or potential reactionary forces. | When f left China in June, ten million of the revolu- | tionary peasants were already enrolled in the peasant | unions. Since that time, the province of Hupeh has re- | ported an increase of two millions, and Hunan of an- | other million. The movement for organization is sweep- ing like wildfire over China. For the first time in his- E the masses of China are exercising a little prac- tical “democracy.” Through their peasant unions they taste, for the first time, the joys of “having something to say” about their own life. Figures Destroy Oil Propaganda Put Out by Shell Henri Deterding of the Royal Dutch | Sir Henri incorrect and entirely misleading in| Henri Deterding’s | ints a statement by Saul G. Bron, Chair- | COnSSts | ‘is maintained at the expense of cur-| Figures of Russian oil industry | tailing the requirements of the popu- y given to the press by Sir| lation of Russia.’ Deterding are A ~ | faulty in themselves, but are compiled Shell Group, in order to back up his | in. kuch “a manner faa to) prevent a statement that there is a shortage of | decidedly perverted picture of the oil oil products in Russia, are declared | situation in the Soviet Union. of comparing the yearly | average for three pre-war years,|ing 1924-5 and 1925-6 total oil pro- “The above table shows the quan- tities of kerosene and lamp oil made available for internal consumption during 1924-5 and 1925-6 as 975,122 and 1,421,499 metric tons, re- spectively. “Both figures exceed the pre-war average, the latter by as much as 60 per cent. “It must be stated that while dur- The figures of not only Sir statistical method man of the Board of Directors of the | when production was stable, with the | duction in the Soviet Union was still Amtorg Trading Corporation. According to Mr. Bron, the quantity | of kerosene and lamp oil made avail- | able for internal consumption last | leaps and. bounds. \tion in the Soviet Union. grew by, higher than before the war. |average for the years 1923-4, 1924-5, |below the pre-war level, during the ‘and 1925-6, during which oil produc-| present year oil output it running There- This method ob-| fore, Sir Henri. Deterding’s concern for the Russian consumer of oil at BOOKS Albert |CIRCUS PARADE. By Jim Tully. Mlustrated by William Gropper. and Charles Boni, New York City. $2.50. ea of Jim Tully’s experience with a small circus. Tully is consid- ered one of our best hoboes but the die-hards who scorn the drawing rgoms of liberal high society speak lightly of his hoboism. Yet I am of the opinion that Tully tells of the road, graphically, interestingly and thruth- fully. Artists rarely speak well of each other, particularly when they are hungry. The competition is too keen and unless an artist loves starvation for its own sake, he must be an expert trombone tooter to get by with his | beans and maintain his artistic soul in its pristine purity. The great majority of the populace that hews to the three-square-meals- |and-a-bed diet, must have their little vices by proxy and the clever uncon- | ventionalist who knwos his mulligan can afford an apartment in the Village by catering to the demand. Tully’s book contains as fine a collection of | rascals as one would not like to meet except in front of a catmon. | One day voluntarily spent with the~outfit would be enough for any romantic appetite. Of course the animals were there But even the animals (did not seem to be any better than the circus folks from the boss down. The boss got most of the gravy but once in a while a fellow, bolder and |dopier and quicker on the draw cleaned up on the boss and walked away ee money. Just like the big gyps in the more legitimate business world! | The most interesting feature of any book is the author. Tho one does not seé.as much of the author in a book of tales as in a novel where some- body is laboriously trying to picture the emotional reactions of a couple engaged in struggling with each other in the holy bonds of wedlock. Ina book on a circus even the poorest of authors can make a good showing by letting one of the lions kill his trainer or having an elephant get-a colic and | roll over the strong woman. Most of those stories look alike to me. It seems that I heard them from my mother when I was ten years old and the beasts were performing in Ireland. But what is to stop a lion or an elephant from doing the same thing in the United States, particularly when the trainer is unusually drunk and the strong woman’s lover ran away with her dough? But whether things happen or not if they are recorded interestingly and plausibly what’s the difference to the tired customer? Tully gives one the impression of being tired of life tho I understand he publicly admitted his admiration for Pola Negri and anybody who can summon up enough energy to admire that Volcano is not liable to be mis- taken for a graveyard deserter. He is too intelligent to hug bourgeois so- ciety as a whole but it is more pleasant to figuratively hug some of them in their chosen haunts than to be obliged to patronize Dan O’Brien’s “Tub” on the Bowery. Tully’s father was either a bricklayer or a hodcarrier or something in the building trades line. Tully ran away early in life and being a lazy fellow naturally followed a circus. His present status is further proof that a,crop of callouses on your palms or warts under your skull are not necessarily a diploma to success. I have rarely seen a hardworking, conscientious youth amount to much except as a wage slave. “Circus Parade” is dedicated to: “H. L. Mencken; George Jean Nathan; Donald Freeman; James Cruze and Frederick Palmer, civilized comrades in the circus of life.” This looks to me like a neat bit of back-scratching. Some of those “civilized comrades” are big literary guns and others are in the moving picture game. 3 Those fellows regard life as a circus and take substantially the same attitude towards the working class that a circus boss takes to the yokels who are inveighled in to see a nude woman dance in the sideshow. They are to be fleeced since they can be fleeced. But there is more fun in the teaching etd to fleece the fleecers than merely sitting back and describing the show. / ANOTHER MAGAZINE WITH A MISSION. ee VERSE, is a little quarterly magazine of what it says it is with a home address at 185-a Vernon Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, Elsie Shwarcz, at the above address will gladly accept contributions to this little adventurer. It contains poems by several poets of repute including Henry Reich Jr., who contributes frequently to The DAILY WORKER. It would be a pleasant and easy to get funny with this little magazine by quoting from it but we have had a few unprofitable experiences with the bovine-minded sleuths who look after the public morals, so we shall refrain. But we make the suggestion free of charge that many of those young poets who send contributions to The DAILY WORKER should try their stuff out on “Free Verse.” All are cordially invited to contribute, it says. In con- clusion we quote the noble purpose of the magazine: “This quarterly will tiy to be a medium for the experimental, a laboratory for the unusual and a gesture to save the youngest generation from conventional strangulation.” On War and Danger of War (Continued From Last Issue) This is the third installment of the Theses on the war danger adopted at the Plenum of the Executive Com- mitte of the Communist International on May 29, 1927. It gives the official Communist viewpoint on this impor- | Union recalls the language of a coun- try already at war. In international capitalist relations such acts, like the raid on the Soviet Embassy in Pek- ing, the arrest of diplomatic couriers, the raid on the Soviet Union Delega- tion in London, are met with repres- sive measures ‘pregnant with war. It year was 60 per cent larger than the Viously gives a wrong picture of thé -/average for the last three pre-war | Position of the oil industry during the years, Sir Deterding, in his esti-|last of these years. As a matter of mates, is said to have failed to make |fact, the quantity of kerosene and important corrections necessitated by lamp oil made available for internal the secession of large territories from | consumption of 1925-6 was 1,421,499 Russia. Mr. Bron’s statement fol-| metric tons, a large increase, and not lows: /a decline, as compared with Deter- “Sir Henri Deterding, in a new. ding’s pre-war figures. statement, attempts to present some| “Production and exports for 1911, statistical data to prove his previous | 1912, and 1913 were as follows, in declarations that Soviet oil export! tons: Kerosene & Liquid Other Total 1911 Lamp Oil Fuel Products Production 1,558,300 5,028,000 1,543,300 8,129,600 Exports 449,000 85,200 290,900 825,100 Available for Internal ‘ Consumption 1,109,300 4,942,800 1,252,400 7,304,500 1912 “s Production — 1,586,300 4,180,000 1,686,400 7,452,700 Exports 396,600 56,300 386,200 839,100 Available for Internal Consumption 1,189,700 4,128,700 1,300,200 6,613,600 1913 Production 1,562,200 4,126,000 1,822,300 7,510,500 Exports 440,000 116,800 390,900 947,700 Available for Internal Cr rs od os Consumption 1,122,200 4,009,200 1,431,400 6,562,800 “The above official statistics are, cent, since those territories were of different from those presented by Sir Deterding. Not only are Deter- ding’s figures inaccurate, but, what is much more important, they do not take into account the decrease in the territory and population of Russia sincé the war. The pre-war figures refer to the territory of the former Russian Empire., However, the present Soviet Union population is In order to make possible a fair com- parison with the present situation {in the Soviet Union, the pre-war | figures should therefore be reduced by at least 20 per cent. The resultant ‘figure, showing the average quantity ‘of kerosene and lamp oil available ‘for home use in 1911, 1912, and.1913 ‘is less than 900,000 metric tons, an industrial and urban character. “Production, exports, and the quan-' nearly 20 per cent smaller than the population of the Russian Empire in 1913. The share of Russian kerosene production consumed before the war by the now seceded territories was probably even larger than the 20 per ‘tity of ofl products made available |for internal consumptinn) for the years 1924-5 and 1926-iIl are given iby the Chief Statistical /idministra- tion of the Soviet Union as follows {in tons): Kerosene & Liquid_ Other Total 1924-5 ~ Lamp Oil Fuel Products Production 1,427,700 8,068,900 2,496,600 6,993,200 Exports 3 452,578 899,032 519,480 / 1,871,040 Available for Internal ed _——. Consumption 975,122 2,669,868 1,977,170 59622,160 1925-6 Production 1,860,700 3,754,900 . 2,628,600 8,244,200 Exports 489,201 858,354 675,656 1,478,211 Available for Internal rd — —— Consumption 1,421,499 3,896,546 — 1,952,944 6,770,989 A the present time will be even less appreciated than before. , Use Electricity Now. } “The statement that the Soviet Union would need to import oil from abroad in order to maintain its pre- | war level of oil consumption, when made in the face of production greater than ever before, of lesser require- ments on account of a decrease in population and, incidentally, in the face of a gain of about 150 per cent in the production of electric current, is obviously misleading. | “Sir Henri Deterding takes great pleasure in mentioning an official Moscow newspaper in support of his claim regarding a shortage of kero- {sene in the Soviet Union. The item | in the “Economic Life” ig shown, | upon analysis, to refer principally. to |the shortage of salt brought about by certain difficulties in the distribu- tion system. Regarding kerosene is | States that ‘kerosene is not being sold on the Moscow bazaurs on ac- |count of the fire hazard. Howey ‘in local stores it is being sold with- ‘out any increase in price.’ No special ‘committee to investigate the causes of the shortage was created. -What ‘actually took place was that the | Moscow Trade Department was urged to make an investigation of the quan- ‘tity of kerosene on hand and of the (compliance with standard prices in | village stores, | “It is perfectly obvious from the {above that Sir Deterding’s so-called ‘shortage of. kerosene’ refers to certain local and temporary breaks in the distribution of kerosene in vil- lage stores around Moscow, and not to any permanent shortage of kero- sene caused by excessive exports, as Sir Henri Deterding is at pains to show, “Yn conclusion it is only proper to is that, whatever Mr, Deterding 'may say, the Soviet Union is in a | position, in virtue of its tremendous oil resources and large investments in the industry to continue increasing ‘both the exports and the internal |conaumption of oil products.” __ BOSTON, Aug, 24,—Menry Ford became a road contractor today. He receives $1.00 from the Common- wealth of Massachusetts for 8400 feet .of highway costing $8,260,000. tant question. * * * , 6 The Chinese revolution is of enormous significance for the world proletariat. The victory of the work- ers and peasants in the Chinese revo- lution would serve as a mighty stim- ulus in revolutionizing the world la- bor movement and especially the working class of Great Britain. would, as a result lead to the move- ment rising to as yet unknown heights in the chief capitalist coun- tries. The objective, revolutionary conditions would be, created for pro- found mass movements through the world. At the same time if the pro- letariat proves powerless to extricate revolutionary China from the imper- ialist noose, then the victory of im- perialism in China would imply; first- ly, a fresh temporary consolidation of the capitalist system throughout the world, secondly, extreme reaction against the working class in the im- perialist countries, thirdly, and fin- ally, the onslaught of the imperialist bloc upon the Soviet Union. The-fight against imperialist suppression of the Chinese revolution is therefore at the same time a war of self-defense of the European, American and Japanese working class against the capitalist offensive and a fight against war in Europe and for the victory of social revolution in these countries. policy is characterized by the fact that capitalism is about to pass over from the stage of “little” wars to that of gréat wars. The war in China, al- though at the moment recalling in its sia of 1918-19, opens up a new period of. great wars, In its international significance the intervention of the imperialist forces in China is already &@ great war. It is a great war be- ie it is being conducted by the great capitalist states under the lead- ership “of Britain against 400 million toilers of China. With it is connected the fate of four continents—Asia, Evrope, America and Australia, It will inevitably develop into fresh wars, unless it is suppressed at the vory outset, } This war is already developing into @ war against the Soviet Union, The language employed by the British con- servative press against the Soviet i It} 7. The new phase of imperialist | |form the intervention in Soviet Rus-| is only the peace policy of the Soviet | government consciously bent towards this end, that has so far saved the \toiling masses of Great Britain and the Soviet Union from this anti-Soviet war, in spite of the systematic pro- | vocation of Great Britain. } 8. But this war, like a patch of oil on the water, threatens to spread to the whole of Asia and the Pacific coast: U \ (a).—It is quite evident that the victory of the workers and peasants in the Chinese revolution would give rise to desperate attempts on the part of the imperialists to crush the vic- torious movement of the toiling mass- es of China, and those revolutionary movements which would be called forth in India, French Indo-China, In- donesia, in the Philippines and Korea. This would be a prolonged great war | of the combined bloc of the imperial- lists of the great capitalist countries against the insurgent toiling masses of Asia, under the leadership of re- volutionary China, | (b).—On the other hand, a defeat of the Chinese revolution would stim- ulate the antagonisms between Bri- tain, Japan and the United States in China and would inevitably lead to a war between these imperialist powers lin the Pacific. | 9. Closely connected with the war in China are also the efforts to en- circle the Soviet Union at other points on the European and tie contin- ents. British diplomacy is incessantly striving to create a united anti-Soviet Baltic front, stretching from Finland through Poland to Roumania. It en- deavors to draw in Lithuania by or- ganizing a fascist coup d’etat. Through the medium of fascist Italy it is striv- ing to strengthen its position in the Balkans and to draw Hungary into the anti-Soviet coalition, By this it cal- culates on establishing a sufficiently wide anti-Soviet front on the Danube. One of the most active roles in this anti-Soviet frorit is to be played by Poland, but it must, in the event of seus secure its es Therefore Brit- 8 perialism is exerting e ef- fort. to include Germany in ite ant of influence and to regulate German- Polish relations for the purpose of a joint attack on the Soviet Union. (To Be Continued.) —