The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 31, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, ee NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER ished by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday ee eee : i New Yi N. Y. Phone, Orchar 8 Seeon = aes — = 83 First Street, New wl ah A A aenes MOD TROr | MARIE ARMSTRONG HECHT ~ SUBSCRIPTION RA By Mail (ow $6.00 per yea $2.00 ide of New York): $3.50 six months hree months By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months 50 three months Ad 1 THE DAILY WORKER, 3: J, LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F. DU Alcatraz Island, facing a living death aay that, but he must pay many of| imagination. Perhaps at no plac neds lh ae ae ne in which existence is a torture, for his own expenses, especially laundry| the world, except the French prison iets a rosco eatre to- uae oe ae oh ee pe and uniforms. The average soldier} at Devil’s Island, are prisoners en : ~ ELE eats to twenty x years at hard la- buys his oh ae bie Gh Glee pr a roe ae Kenneth MacGowan is going in for Advertising rates_on application. | hor, would also_be over there with| oe thevauidtene aad Haccaatea| pike moving?) Phos aha formet ihe peoduting tage fs time oe partner. | . me. Comrade Trumbull and I owe!) oo tbate to a fund so they can|order an instant are given extra ee fds Ae oss. Their first our freedom to! the efforts of the have better food than is supplied by|work. When within the prison walls, offering wi e “The Queen Bee,” a Greetings to the Fifth Convention. The DAILY WORKER extends its greetings to the Fifth Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party which opened last night with a mass meeting to welcome the delegates to New York. “Tt is five years since a Communist convention has been held in this city—the last time being in December, 1922, the Sec- ond Convention of the Party. / Ho w the United States Army Makes Brutes Out of Men i By PAUL CROUCH. If it had not been for the efforts of the class conscious workers repre- sented by the International Labor De- _fense made in my behalf, I would Il be a prisoner on that rock of hell, working class, Were Tortured For Truth. | I was sentenced to forty years at} hard labor because I did not wish to be used as a tool for the enslavement and murder of my fellow workers. I saw that patriotism has two objects. First, to oppress and enslave other countries too weak to defend them- selves. Second, to divert the atten- |pay is rapid. He understands that his job consists of drill and military duties. But) he is soon disillusioned. He finds thy t many soldiers who have been in the army for‘years are still ing only $21.00 per month. Not the government. The soldier is forced to meet other expenses of a purely military nature. Reading Banned. Most intelligent workers think of the army as a place where men are taught the science of wholesale mur- der. Yes, it is, but they get their military drill in the morning, as a / %and that promotion with advance ofPescape from the army and the Is- llands. But ships leaving Honolulu are carefully guarded against soldiers | who try to escape, and those who a tempt to do so are sentenced to six months in the Post Stockade at Scho- | field Barracks. Life there defies the they must set upon the floor. Any- one who sings or whistles is placed |in solitary confinement on bread and water for seven days. No reading |matter, except religious literature on | Sunday, is permitted. Letters are de- |livered on Sunday and must be de- | stroyed by the following day. If a | prisoner is found with a newspaper or attempts to keep a letter from his} | Revive C’Neill and | Shaw Plays life in the Nineties, by Peter Blenny and Marie Armstrong Hecht, (for- merly wife of Ben Hecht the novelist comedy by Ruth Hawthorne and Louise Connell. This may be followed : by revivals of O’Neill plays anda. Mac-' |play or two by Bernard Shaw. Gowan productions last season in- \cluded “The Great God Brown,” “De- |side Under the Elms,” and “Beyond the Horizon” by O’Neill. “Such Is Life,” a play dealing with! nee| Edward Kliscu has been engaged by! At that time the Party had enjoyed but one short year of ;rule, and in the afternoon they put legal existence; it was then only emerging from thy status of a tion of American Breer while they | on their fatigue clothing and are re- are being exploited. Because Walter} 7 | mother or other relatives, he is given! Ross Productions Inc., to direct their ‘ aes author with Peter Blaney of solitary confinement with no food ex-|"@W Play entitled “Mister Romeo,” «g Such Is Life” which opens at the |quired to do manual labor with non-| is planned for propaganda organization to the ks of serious mass work. The five years that have passed since that last New York convention have brot the Communist movement to the very forefront of la- bor’s struggles in the United States. Whereas we were tolerated by the bureaucrats a few years ago we are now recognized as the only defenders of the elementary demands of the working class. Not only have we had to face the bitter enmity of the capitalist class—that is always to be expected—but special cadres of provo- cateurs, paid traducers of the revolutionary movement, have been “recruited from the ranks of the labor bureaucrats to aid the mas- ter class in its fight against the vanguard of the labor movement. In spite of the increasing intensity of the attack and in the midst of the task of reorganizing the Party from the old terri- torial and federation base, a heritage of social-democracy, to the scientific Communist form of shop nuclei, the Party_has forged jahead and has taken the lead in every campaign in defense of labor. In the campaigns for organization of the unorganized, as in Passaic, it was the Party that took the lead. The struggle on the part of the rank and file of the miners against the cynical treachery of the John L. Lewis machine s given militant di- rection by the Party. When all others in the labor movement Trumbull and I saw these facts and ‘called them to the attention of our fellow soldiers, we were considered \dangerous by those who wish to use the soldier as cannon fodder to pro- tect the millions of Wall Street. At the time of our a: Hawaiian Communist League composed exclusively of soldiers. it our intention to id tivities and unite the worke: and the soldier workers in a common movement against our oppressors. Hawaiian Communist League. Effect means little without an un- the but was | jeqi commissioned officers for overseers. Really, every soldier in the army is a risoner. He must be kept as busy as ible so that he will not have time to read and think. When the manuel labor in the afternoon is {over, the soldier’s day is not yet | ended. | pment polished like a mirror, and is constantly preparing for inspec- | tions. * * Frederick the Great once said that \if his soldiers began to think not one derstanding of the cause. Therefore, | it is necessary to understand the con- |ditions in Hawaii and the army, which led to the Hawaiian Commu- nist League, and the tactics of the government in using the soldier against the civilian worker while he, himself, is treated like a brute by his superior officers until he thinks of himself as an inferior being. * * Before the organization of the of them would remain in the ranks. The American army officers realize |that is true today. Serious reading jon the part of the soldier -is dis | couraged. {destroy a copy of the Nationa) | Geographic Magazine. It is especially }undesirable for the soldier to learn jabout other countries. If he read | about oppression in other nations he cept btead and water for seven days.| Which Broadway WO) reir Morosco Theatre tonight. | The prisoner does not even have Sun- | 520W!ng- iow tee ies doce day for a day of rest. In the morn-} een A ling he must prepare for inspections | William Danforth has joined the jand in the afternoon, he is forced to|@St of “The Circus Princess,” the submit to a dose of religious opium} °Peretta at the Winter Garden, suc- \administered by an army Chaplain. | Ceding George Hassell, who is to be He must keep his military | Walter Trumbull ‘was or- | |dered by his company commander te | | Boasts He Made Jail Hell. | Two former prisoners in the Scho- | field Stockade recently told me about |a speech delivered by Major General | William R. Smith, Commander of the | Hawaiian Division. General Smith,| they said, told them: “I have the law jin this hand and you in this, and I | will do with you as I wish. I know this place is hell because I have made it such.” | * * * These prisoners are not criminals. | They are soldiers who could no longer endure the hell of army life. They! ‘had been led into the army by false! \pretenses and in desperation they tried to escape from the trap. Press Suppresses Trial Facts. | | morrow night. featured in “The Borneo,” Wild Man of All seats are reduced for the 7 summer. Best Seats $2.20, ‘Music Notes Sue aaa ana) B'w Matinee Wednesday, Luella Melius, coloratura soprano, will be the soloist at the first concert of the Beethoven Symphony Orches- tra, Georges Zaslawsky, conductor on | October 12th at Carnegie Hall the - Blood Money “comes into the HUDSON to 7 ; i t chill and thrill at the trig- first of a series of seven subscription | gers is performances to be given during the |W. 445 course of the season. Little Theatre w “La Forza Del Destino” will be! 4 ot Bway. opp | STREET presented by the Free Open-Air Opera | MAT IS ene ompany at : FOLLIES Starlight Stadium to-| 4 |might compare it with his own en-| i aw Dusolina Giannini will begin her s but a one sided affair with, S 2 jslavement and realize that the work- | i 3! Hawaiian Communist League, there} o+; of all countries have a common|the military authorities and they do/ had been a long strike of the Filipino | cause—that they have nothing to lose | Not hesitate to violate their own laws | plantation workers. The cost of liv-| but their chains and a world to gai: .;and resort to the underhanded | ing in Honolulu in a decent manner is | Army Class Distinctions Rigid |methods. On February 19, 1925, | {even higher than here. Yet, the aver- | jowhere alae ae iclaas aaetiod antl Walter Trumbull and I were arrested |age wage was less than one dollar} vious ae in he arin, he eater and held without bail and without} y rs re 0} =] reer: bi s ~ |any charges or warra ainst us os an (ae ard gabon un \is not permitted to speak to an offi- ail tp 12, arrants against u: were either sabotaging or yielding to legalistic illusions in the great campaign against the murderous frame-up of Sacco and Vanzetti the Party alone held aloft the banner of mass struggle. In fact there have been no major struggles or campaigns in the labor movement during recent years in which the Party did not play an important and, for the most part a dominant role. our in October with a recital at Richmond, Va. Daniel Mayer recitals during th month of October will include dance recitals by Tamiris, -Martha Graham | and Doris Niles, a song recital by Gil Lucilla de Veseovi, soprano, will Valeriano, a piano recital by Irene | give a series of four recitals at The Scharrer and song recitals by A. John Golden Theatre devoted to the Finlay Campbell and Ena Berga. ‘songs of Italy and Latin countries. The strikers de-| i a8 Today, as the Fifth Convention comes into being we are sure that the Party will continue to develop its task of correctly es- timating the problems before the working class of the United States and formulating policies that will enable us to move for- ward on the path to the proletarian revolution by mobilizing the working class against the new war conspiracies of the imperialist bandits of Wall Street. Mellon hameali Vare’s Philadelphia Hooligans If ever there was historical justification for the observation of Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto that “the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society,” the slum proletariat, is prepared, by its condition of life for “the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue,” it is to be found today in Philadalphia politics. The real head of the national republican party, Andrew W. Mellon, billionaire banker and industrialist and secretary of the treasury in Coolidge’s cabinet, is also the boss of the republican machine in Pennsylvania. Last year his candidate for United States senator, George Wharton Pepper, was beaten in the prim- aries by William S. Vare, boss of the thoroly rotten Philadelphia republican machine which, like most powerful city machines, is based upon the very lowest elements in society. Vare is the chief of the Quaker City hooligans—the riff-raff, the criminals, the pros- titutes, the whole putrid mass of gutter-proletarians—the decayed scum thrown off by all layers of society. Like Tammany Hall, the power of the Vare machine rests directly upon the graft it per- mits its henchmen to share and the license it grants criminals to ply their trade against the rest of society. In Philadelphia this machine serves loyally as strike-breaker and scab-herder for the notorious poen-shop nabobs; the scab Mitten traction concern, the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Curtis Publishing Company and all other apostles of scabbery. But in the last senatorial campaign Vare went a step too far and challenged the eminently respectable Mr. Pepper, favorite of the eminently respectable Mr. Mellon. Mellon turned loose his ‘purity squad to tour the state and expose the loathsome condi- tions prevailing in the city of brotherly love. No epithet of de- gradation was too violent to apply to Vare and his hooligans. But Vare was able to stuff and steal more ballots than the Mellon gang. The result was that W. L. Mellon, relative of Andrew W., and chairman of the state republican committee, supported Vare in the Fall elections and sat grimly on the platform at the Hotel Henry in Pittsburgh, while the hoodlum, Vare and _ his. lick- spittle, Harry A. Mackey, a low ignorant clown who was in charge of the city treasury of Philadelphia, performed in: approved Cal- lowhill street fashion before the eminences of finance and indus- try of the Smoky City. Vare praised Mellon; Mellon boosted Vare; Mackey was court jester; harmony prevailed. The mightiest of American plutocrats united with the Phila- delphia boss of the slum proletariat. Vare, in spite of the things said against him by the Mellon gang played the game, and is now receiving his reward. He may not get to take his seat that he tried to steal in the United States senate, but he will continue to be undisputed boss of Philadelphia if Andrew W. Mellon can aid him. Vare has now selected as his, candidate for mayor of Philadelphia that same buffoon, Harry A Mackey. An old line republican among the respectables, ex-mayor and ex-congressman J. Hampden Moore, challenged the right of Vare to appoint his hoodlums for the highest city offices. Mr. Moore had been in other days a strong supporter of Mellon and expected Mellon to aid him this time. But new times demand new alliances and Mellon has categorically endorsed Vare’s man. When strike-breakers and thugs and gunmen are needed to maintain the “American plan” of scabbery in in¢lustries controlled ‘by Mellon the Vare gang will supply them. If a Pennsylvania election is to be stolen Philadelphia will do its share as long as “ i Vare is Vare. Against this thoroly rotten anti-labor gang of plutocrats manded two dollars per day. Not only | was this very modest demand denied, | but the power of the government was | used to aid the plantation owners in | forcing the men back to work. While | the American army stood ready to |erush the least opposition with blood |and steel, the local authorities used brutal force in suppressing the strike. If it had not been for the soldiers. the Workers without doubt would have |realized the motto of the Hawaiian ;Communist League: “Hawaii for | Hawaiian workers.” But the work- jers were forced back to work in {slavery as_ before. Twenty-four | Filipino workers were murdered at lone time by the government agents _of the plantation owners. Pablo Man- ‘lapit, the brave leader of the strikers, is in prison in Hawaii today, because of his efforts for the working class. He is eligible for parole, but the au- | thorities refuse to release him unless he will agree to leave the Hawaiian Islands. ‘ This he refuses to do. | Economie Conscription. | It is said that the United States has |a volunteer army. In reality, it is a |conscripted army, drafted by more | brutal methods than those in use by/ The majority of | American soldiers were forced into, European countries. | the army by economic necessity—by |unemployment and the fact that one must eat in order to live. One hears much talk about Amert- ean prosperity. Undoubtedly, the capitalists are prosperous. spite of all the wealth in this coun- try, hundreds. of thousands are un- employed and on the verge of starva- tion. Many of these unemployed en- ter the army, Remember, comrades, that the soldiers are the worst vic- tims of capitalism, and we must carry our message of Revolution and free- dom into the army, the last defense of capitalism. The army is the tool of capitalism, and we must take a | definite and emphatic stand against the soldiers are fellow workers who have nothing in common with the in- terest of their officers. win them over to our cause. | Russian Revolution was won because the soldiers fought by the side of the civilian workers for freedom from an autocratic government and the capi- talist_ system. will be repeated in America. that day may not be far distant. There is no difference in the external appearance of a fresh egg and one ready to hatch. Capitalism contains the forces leading to its own de- struction, and we myst prepare for theAinal struggle. * F * ro Soldiers Brutalized. The capitalist know that the solc has everything in common with h fellow workers. Therefore, they us every possible means to prevent him from thinking and to erush all human nstinets in him. The soldier, forced into the army by economic necessity, has been told that he will get $21.00 per month plus all expenses during his period of training | But tm! imperialist wars and militarism. But! We must! The} That lesson some day} And; |cer without permission, except in |case of absc@.te necessity when on duty. If a soldier wishes to speak to a Colonel, in command of his regt- ment, he must explain his business to his First Sergeant and get permisston to speak to the Company Commander. |Then, he goes to his Captain, and salutes, standing stiffly at, attention, begins: “Sir, I have gpriatesign the Captain.” He must always ad- |dress an officer in the third person. The word “you” applied to an officer is an unpardonable offense. The |Captain may deny the request, in which case there is nothing more to be done or said. But if permission is given, the soldier goes to the Adjutant and repeats the request to have the opportunity of actually ad- dressing the sacred person of the regimental commander, * * * ‘I could write indefinitely, telling | how the soldier is treated like an in- |ferior being. Along with this treat- ment, his mind is constantly bei | filled with the idea of nationalism, e: | pecially in Hawaii where most of the workers belong to other races. Every- thing possible is done to make him regard the natives with hostility and to prevent any personal association on a basis of equality. In Panaina, soldiers’ are forbidden to marry na- tives. While he, himself, is being abused by his officers and taught to regard himself as far inferior to them, he is encouraged to find com- pensation in thinking of himself as superior to the native population so that he can be used as a tool for their enslavement. Guard Houses Hell-Holes. I have been discussing the relatively bright side of army life. But the: are darker aspects. Alcatraz islands is more than a place of punisnment. It is a sinister menace which con- stanty hangs over the head of every soldier, especially those who care to think for themselves or object to be- ing cannon fooder for the use of Wali Street. But Alcatraz and other disciplinary barracks are not the only places for | the: inearceration of soldiers in vivia- ‘tion of all principles of justice and ‘constitutional rights. Every regi- ment has a prison known as the guard house, where soldiers are held with- out bail in imprisonment at hard !a- ; bor, sometimes for months, before ‘trial. In these guard houses, soldiers joften are treated worse than muv- derers who are imprisoned. for life. In the Philippine Islands, soldiers in the guard house were forced to sleep on the cold cement floor with only one In Hawaii, at s in guard houses are not per- ;mitted any reading maitter except religious literature. They are given ;copies of the new testament. This is i# good illustration of how religion is {used as the opium of the people, | * * Py Barracks “Defies Imagination.” | The soldiers in Hawaii are treated |so har that many of them try to and gutter snipe politic ans the workers of Philadelphia are pre- ‘from the First Sergsant to spéak to} present, | paring to enter the field with a labor candidate and to wage a campaign that will expose the whole crew and pave the way for the building up of a state labor party that will fight against the frightful industrial tyranny maintained over the workers thru control of state power, * f Charges were pre- pared then and we were tried April. We were held incommunicado so ‘that we could not get in touch with defense organizations and have proper defense when brought to trial. Army officers were appointed to de- fend us, but I could have defended myself much better without them. On Egbruary 20th, I from the guard house ) my parents telling of my arrest.’ It was not mailed until about March 12th. Contrary to usual procedure, the newspapers were not informed in ad- vance of my trial, and after it became public, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin stated that it had been requested by the army authorities to suppress the facts in the case. Newspapers were giyen wrong information about the date of Comrade Trumbull’s trial in their efforts to prevent reporters from being present. Railroaded to Alcatraz. Of course, in our case the govern- ment was more anxious than usual to railroad us to prison by any means and to suppress the facts. But really our case was typical of injustice com- mon in the army. A prisoner now in tenced to twelve years imprisonment on a forgery charge. I made a care- ful study of his case and it appears that he was the goat so that the guilty persons, perhaps in responsible positions, might go free. The army officer, appointed to defend Regner- son, called on him only ten minutes before the beginning of the trial. Regnerson gave a list of witnesses who, he said, could prove him inno- cent. Also, he wished to take the stand in his own defense. But the officer “defending” him would not call the witnesses as requested and told Regnerson not to take the stand, saying there was no evidence ggainst him and that he was certain to be found “not guilty.’ A short time ago, Regnerson wrote to the War De- partment, requesting an investiga-/| tion of his case. He told about the| failure of his “defense” to really de-| fend him or let him defend himself. He offered to produced proof that he was away from the city on the day | the crime was committed and that it! was impossible for him to have been) the guilty person. The request for an | impartial and thorough investigation | was refused by the army authorities. | Why should they investigate? What) does a human life mean to them? + * * * Join the Army and Become a Pervert! Not all prisoners in Alcatraz are innocent. Some are guilty of the worst crimes. As an illustration of the moral influence of the army, a jlarge per cent of Alcat prisoners were imprisoned for the worst per- versions. They are low types of de-| generates, and should be treated in medical institutions. Perversions are common among those sentenced for other offenses. Recruiting signs says: man.” If many parents could never lived. Aleatraz. as well as crime, Soldiers are sentenced for minor offerces or even for no real crime at all. merely they can not easily lose their humanity and be- rome brutes. Their spirits are broken in prison and their environment, leads in| ue a letter | | Letters From [se see —— ue ——— Sacco and Vanzetti Live in Workers’ Hearts. Dear Comrade: | Your unseifish and courageous con- is deign to be remembered by work- ers. I used to vote for the Socialist Par- ty without being member of it. But, the rotten conduct of S. P. leaders and A. F. of L. heads:certainly dis- gusted me. I cannot understand how the majority of workers don’t see these sold-out leaders’ tricks! We will not forget Sacco and Van. zetti, our beloved brothers—martyrs of this odious rotten system. duct during Sacco and Vanzetti week) aders | Comrade: | I have just read your wonderful | truth revealing pages in memory of | Saecoand Vanzetti. I see the cartoons ox men hanging, of electric chairs, of men clustered together with weapons \in their hands, of dead bodies. 1 see |words written in large black letters | that speak of murder, of labor, of | Sacco, of Vanzetti, of Ludlow, of | death, of fight, of August 22. What are the colleges doing for Sacco and Vanzetti? 4 attended the | Columbia summer school this season. There were over thirteen thousands |students attending the summer ses- }sion and not once did I hear a word Alcatraz, Anton Regnerson, was sen- | A LENIN AND THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT | + By A. Losovsky +15 LENIN—The Great Strategist “Join the army and become al By A. Losovsky AS see | , _A total of 80 cents worth of books sent to any what sort of men the army made of | single address in the country for their sons, they would wish thev haa | % 50 CENTS s e other prisons. is a training schoot for | armetnase Books offered In this column on hand | NOTE: in limited quantities. All orders cash | * and filled In turn as received. | eager ae Let Buller and his associates en- of protest against the whole black joy their deeds—we will not answer} procedure that was taking place in them by terrorist acts—but the day| Massachusetts. Thirteen thousand when the proletariat will conquer the} students, most all of them teachers! power. We say, Sacco and Vanzett' Columbia University by its silence are not dead, they are alive in our|is just as guilty as the bloodthirsty hearts, they are living in our memory, | colleges in Massachusetts. One of the N. Y. Workers. | K. Gardel, New York City. |them into real crime. The real cause, comes the soldier will fight by the of crime is the capitalist system | side of the civilian workers instead of |which makes a virtue of living at-the | being used as a tool by the capitalists expense of other. |to murder them and help perpetuate Must Carry Message to Soldiers. | his own enslavement. The average soldier today is with-| The capitalists today are preparing out hope. He sees the brutal treat-| for the next war. The workers, too, ment around him, but he regards the| must prepare, or they will be used government as all powerful, and soon! as cannin fodder against the workers his spirit is crushed. He becomes a|of other countries and especially selfish individualist with the motto:|those of the Soviet Union. We must “Hurray for me—to hell with you.”!take a militant stand against mili- We must resurrect such hope as is|tarism, and we must build up the In- left in the soldier. We must carry| ternational Labor Defense as the our Revolutionary message into the | working class challenge to imperialist army, so that when the final struggle | wars and economic slavery. = ry _AT PPECIAL PRICE? About Lenin These four books about the great leader of the revolutionary labor movement should be in every worker's library. Get them all at this special price. LENI His Life and Werk: A brief popular accourt of the great leader and the principles he fought for. — By J, Yaroslavsky —.25 E> LENIN AS A MARXIST By N. Bucharin —.25 a