The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 13, 1927, Page 6

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1927 Trade Union Delegations To the Soviet Union are Growing More Numerous LOUIS ENGDAHL, J. By ELEGAT to the annual convention of the Amer- | ) can Federation of Labor will begin gathering at| I s Angeles, Calif., the end of this month, at about that the Delegation of American Trade , headed by James H. Maurer, president of the nia teration of Labor, returns to this coun- he Union of Soviet Republics. unionists who dare attempt an approach to the truth about conditic within the Soviet Union will be on the order of the day at this year’: r venti ed on the far Pacifie Coast, in the motion picture colonies and in the mic of shadow Aimee McPherson’s “Temple of the Four- Square Gospel,” alias “The Angelus Temple,” alias “The | Lighthouse.” | Advance reports indicate that the American delegation will bring back a very favorable repcrt. In this respect, | it will not be different from delegations that have vi ited the Soviet Union from other lands. Nor can it ex-| i ment from the labor reaction. I had an interview with Gregory N. y, member of the executive committee of the t Congress, in which he reviewed the efforts of the trade union bureaucracy in different coun- i ainst the sending of labor delegations to the nion. Nevertheless, he pointed out, more than n large delegations from different countries Moscow during the celebration of the Tenth ary of the Bolshevik Revolution in November. * * * Take, for instance, the effort to send a delegation of railwaymen to the Soviet Union from Austria. It was bitterly opposed by the Socialists, prophecy of the So- cialist be 1 of the workers during the recent upri ing ag fascists in Vienna. But the delegation | went t same. But with what results? Six mem- bers of the delegation, who had been members of the Austrian Socialist Party from 25 to 30 years, were ex- pelled from the The chairman of the delegation, Freiburger, who had been a member of the Socialist) Party since 1904, was expelled, as was Mahly, for 32) mem of the party, who spoke at several meet- <ers on what he had seen and learned in the Union. This cited as a warning to American workers against the kind of propaganda that the labor reaction will seek to spread to d edit the report of the returning trade > Green-Woll-Tobin regime in the A. F. of L. gets ] concerning the Soviet Union from the Cool- ogg state department at ic: Sader When Healy, head of the stationary Tiremen’s union, ip a fight at last year’s convention of the A. F. of Detroit, for the right of trade unionists to go to oviet Union if they desired, the plot was immedi- ched and later carried out for driving Healy out ial position. The plan included the destruc- s union if necessary in order to discredit and Healy. truth about the Soviet Union, therefore, will be t back by the trade union delegation in spite of acles, not raised by the Workers’ and Peas- Government, however, but by the labor lackeys of n employing class, expect that the report of the American dele- 1 be even more comprehensive than that of. delegation that went to the Soviet Union in the fall of 1924. should be so, since the delegation is well equipped ts capable of getting up an excellent report, while the last three years have furnished a wealth of material on this period of Soviet constructive effort that should open the eyes of American workers, who are not readers of the Communist and sympathetic press in this this three-year period the Soviet Government itself has had more time and opportunity to gather in- about conditions within its borders. This is of the Soviet trade unions. * * * ° There is hardly a country in Europe that has not seen @ work Union. trade unio egation. Othe officials, while still others have been constituted exclu- sively of men and women from the workshops, the rank and file wor Large delegations have gone to Mos- cow from Germany, France and Czecho-Slovakia. Every Seandinavian country has sent its delegation, some of them several. This is also true of Finland. During the latter part of August, a delegation of 120 members, organized by*the leaders of the largest Nor- wegian trade unions, left Oslo, Norway, for the Soviet Union. The delegation was made up almost exclusively of workers from the bench. They planned to spend a month within the borders of the Workers’ Republic. An- other delegation of 112 workers from Finland is spend- ing September in the Soviet Union, most of the time in Leningrad and Moscow. Belgium has sent its delegation. Italy also, but it had to go illegally. Mussolini is not anxious that the Italian workers should learn the difference between his| fascist tyranny and the proletarian dictatorship in th ’ delegation of some kind go to the Soviet ome of these have been composed of prominent officials, as in the case of the British del- ures, without doubt, that another attack on} A. F. of L, con-| have been made up of local trade unions | @@pitaligt courts and capitalist gov- | speeches of Stanley Baldwin and the | | Part of great throng of garment workers which met in Madison, Square Garden, New York City, Saturday, to plan a united fight to reestablish their union as a ree in the garment industry, and throw off the paralyzing grip of Morris Sigman and his friends. | GARMENT WORKERS GATHER IN TENS OF | > THOUSANDS TO PROTEST SIGMANISM a Ei | | Current Events (Continued from Page One) part of the capitalist government ap- paratus and are ready to fight for a system from which they benefit. * * * {pee feigned alarm of the open-shop- pers over the alleged fight carried | on by the A. F. of L. bureaucracy for | the unionization of American indus- try deserves a cynical horse laugh. The open-shoppers who sit around the | Woll mapping out the plan of cam-| paign against radicals know their | onions and their labor fakers. It is good for both labor fakers and open | | shoppers to have the masses believe | that their leaders are waging battle | against the open shop. And it will not hurt the coffers of secretaries and treasurers of American Plan associa- tions to keep the bankers and big in- | dustrialists fearful of the possible re- sults of a militant drive for the union- ization of industry. * * * APPER Jimmy Walker is having | the time of his life in Rome. The en- | thusiasm with which he was received in Dublin pales into insignificance compared with the pomp and splendor | of Mussolini’s reception in honor of | the Tammany Fascist mayor of New York. Whether Walker visited Rome | in order to help cinch the Italian vote | for Tammany or to popularize Fas- | m with the American masses, is not | clear, That Walker, judged even by | the dwarfish standards of average po- litical intelligence, is an intellectual gnat, no one will deny. But this men- tal molecule is rendering better serv- | ice to capitelism in singing the praises | cf the cutthroat Mussolini and his fascist regime than all the paid prop- agandists that Benito ever sent to this country. * * * THe health department officials of | New York City who were paid to | protect the inhabitants from milk deals who might be tempted to dis- super-profits will not be shot either at sunrise or sunset if found guilty, tho their treachery may have been re- sponsible for the untimely death of thousands of human beings, thru the consumption of the poisonous food. | ernments are much more interested in running down men and women en- gaged in organizing the workers and blazing the way to a better social or- | der than punishing the criminals that poison the people’s food supply. * * * jee British army command is ex- periencing a shake-up. The army is going thru what is described as a mechanization process. Officers who have made a special study of the lat- | est and most deadly war machines are supplanting generals who have not learned much since 1918, Britain is feverishly preparing for the next war. The army manouvers are closely re- lated to the class-collaborationist tribute impure milk by the lure of |} Soviet Union. | reactionary policies endorsed by the) The tendency among the organized workers of capital-| Edinburgh conference of the Trade ist Europe now is to send delegations to the Soviet| Union Congress. Union representing various industries, instead of gen-| * * * eral delegations from the working class as a whole.) (NE of our editors witnessed a Thus three different industries in Germany have sent rather amusing incident while sit-| their representatives to the Workers’ Republic, while a| ting in the waiting room of the Penn- | delegation has gone representing directly the Teachers’| svivania Station a few evenings ago. | International Union. | An Italian who carried a rather awk-| * +) Oe . ward bag was killing time whil it- Thus it is seen that the struggle to develop a better ing for Hh train ah pra licry ice understanding between the workers still enslaved under . a al - capitalism and freed labor in the Soviet Union is only fa Regt aietar ic ate ar just beginning. Battle as they will against the Soviet fathatetnn dethala. Who tend t | Union, the labor agents of capitalism cannot stem the prea rohibiti alk a eae hed | mounting bond of friendship and solidarity between the| "Tallan, aanricthaily ree char eI sing ; An : | trickle of what the snooper took to be | The American working class is backward. It has per- booze flowed from the bag, she was mitted students’ organizations, mixed delegations of pro- Johnny-on-the-spot. She dipped tnt fessional people and other groups to precede them to finger in the liquid arid Breese | the Soviet Union. But even the American working class her nose. ithe aniitied, ih es ad does move. It took several years of effort to send the} th t bi ” hi # ace pare The small delegation across the Atlantic that is now visiting L at ‘did peat it Meee sire ae the Soviet Union. But this delegation will be followed talian did so with alacrity revealing by others, the outgrowth of greater ambitions in this % hishorrs eins perry gales direction. 4 Thus the A. F. of L. bureaucracy gathering at Los|"P angered the snooper so much that Angeles next month will be hard put to it to battle thi he called a policeman and demanded rising tide, that will not only demand closer relations , that the crowd ‘be arrested on a between the workers of the United States and the Soviet | charge of lese majestie. But the cop, Union, but will also gradually increase the power of when he learned the details, laughed American labor’s demand for the recognition and defense | 80 heartily that he was even less ar- of the Soviet Union, which must include an intensified | ticulate than usual. He twirled his struggle against the employing class at home. club and waiked away, grinning. “ | A NEW BATTALION OF DEATH’ Now when the fliers in general are flinching from the almost sure death involved in trans- \ oceanic flights, some influence is forcing women forward, in the well known military “battalion of death” style, evidently to shame the male into continuing his dangerous trade for the ben- efit of aviation—a military science. Below, first, is Ruth Elder with her Stin- son Detroiter plane, who is said to be ready for the Atlantic hop. Below that is “Grandma” Almatia Bennett, of Chicopee, Mass., who is also Civic Federation board with Matthew | boosting aviation with a trip to Boston by plane | hooks, on her 101th birthday. TRIBUTE To Sacco and Vanzetti. By HENRY GEORGE WEISS. « For seyen years You daily died A death denied, For seven years You knew the hell . Of a prison cell, For seven years You kept the strength To go at length From friend and foe As heroes go— Without a word . To mar your name, Without a deed To dim your fame! :' for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car : petition with the Interstate Commerce | } shop and maintenance unions in their | ference for the settlement of griev- | BEGIN FIGHT TO REPEAL WATSON-PARKER LAW; | By HARVEY O’CONNOR. | WASHINGTON, (FP) Sept. 12.— | If the Parker-Watson railway labor | act is not amended in the next session ‘of congress, a concerted effort will |be made to wipe it off the statute As it stands today, the act is {utterly useless to the railroad labor unions and is in fact being used lagainst them by the railroad com- ‘panies to foster company unions. This is the growing consensus of opinion among Washington rail union officials. “The act needs teeth in it,” asserts A. Philip Randolph, general: organizer Porters. In Washington to file a Commission against the Pullman Co.'s | wage policies, Randolph conferred with other railway labor men over the needed amendment of the law. | “The Porters Brotherhood, a com-; paratively young union, finds itself in the same boat with the old-established Machinists Union and other railway inability to get the railroad companies to negotiate agreements under the Parker-Watson act. The Machinists have openly declared the law to be a dead letter, but Randolph is hopeful that congress can be persuaded to re- vise it so that railway workers can force the companies to enter into con- ances, Porters Seek Strong Union. Ever since the Parker-Watson act was set up, the Porters have been trying, and in vain, to get the Pull- man Co. to enter into negotiations ‘looking toward recognition of the junion and an. increase in wages. | Despite the good offices of the fed- eral mediation board created by the act; the Pullman Co. has steadfastly refused to have any dealings with the bona fide union of its porters but in- stead has formed a company union. The company union has proved the main obstacle to the functioning of the Parker-Watson act, according to the shop crafts unions. The railroads fondle these dummy unions, recogniz- ing them and carrying on all the solemn hokus-pokus of “negotiating” with them. The federation mediation board and the unions are then told cao span htt n= nm Letters From PULLMAN PORTERS STRIVE FOR STRONG UNION . that the railroads are carrying out the provisions of the Parker-Watson act by treating with these fake or- ganizations. Discontent Grows. | The growing budget of discontent against the Parker-Watson act promises either to end in complete re- vision or death of this instrument, so highly touted two years ago as evi- dence of the sweet peace between em- ployers and workers on the trans- portation systems. All the shop and maintenance unions are now ranged against it; the switchmen at their last convention voted for its abolition; high officials of the trainmen, con- ductors and firemen have voiced bit- terness against it. Even th en- gineers, favored with 7% per cent} wage increases, may swing into line for modification. The Porters, who have tried to function for two years under the Parker-Watson act, have shifted their activities for the time being to the Interstate Commerce Commission as a more hopeful channel of redress against the tyranny of the sleeping car monopoly. In a unique plea drawn up By Donald Richberg, co- author of the Parker-Watson act and Henry T. Hunt of New York, counsel for the Brotherhood, the commission is asked to set aside the Pullman Co.’s custom of forcing the public to pay directly to the porters, through tips, a large part of their wages. Ask For Inquiry. The commission fixes rates to cover all transportation charges, and this should include the full rate of por- ters’ wages, it is contended. Instead the company has fostered the tipping practise, telling thew employes that they can make out their average $72.50 a month by $50 to $100 in tips. This is an outgrowth of slavery days, the Brothehood argues, when tipping was the compensation given to in- feriors doing menial servile labor. The commission is asked to investi- gate the Pullman wage policy. The ‘Workers’ Sports in the USSR By MARY REED. Yesterday the Red "Square in front of the Kremlin was brilliant with the gay colored athletic suits of 20,000 | young workers of the Soviet Republic. Their tanned arms and legs gave tes- timony that their hours were not all | spent in the factories, and their splen- did physique showed far better than any statistics that Russia is no longer ja land of famine and civil war. “Arise, ye prisoners of starvation! Arise, ye wretched of the earth! For justice thunders condemnation, A better world’s in birth!” The Red Army band played “The | International,” and the vigorous bod- jies of these young workers and their henyansiaara were the living truth of it. | * * * One after another the bright splash- es of color detached themselves from the brilliant mass of orange, green, red, blue, purple, black and white. Group after group marched by, heads erect and bodies swinging evenly in the emblem of the hammer and sickle showed the names of their organiza- tions, Textile workers—giris in red blouses—hundreds of them passed, railroad workers, cooperative work- ers, sport leagues, delegations from far parts of Russia and foreign dele- gations from Germany, Czecho-Slo- vakia, Norway and Finland—20,000 young workers testifying to the strength of the new Russia. * * . bo Before the revolution workers’ sports were confined to a few indus- trial centers such as the Donetz basin, where the influence of foreign engi- neers, etc., gave some impetus to sports in general. Already in the first months of 1918, however, the revolu- tion began to be reflected in this field. The physical condition of the workers was a matter of concern to the whole country. It was no longer a question of using up workers for profit and throwing them out when they could go on no longer, but a question of hav- ing a strong nation of men and wo- men equipped to carry out the tre- mendous task of building up the first workers’ republic in the world, In all towns and cities sports came to be an integral part of the activities of the Soviets. Football, basketball, swimming, rowing, wrestling, run- ning and winter sports were at last within the reach of masses of work- ers, and with the growth of the young pioneer movement: interest in sports is becoming so widespread that it will not be Jong before every boy and girl in the U.S.S.R. will have opportuni- ties and facilities for.the fullest phys- ical development. The Russian section of the Red Sport International already numbers three and a half million. * * * Tremendous work has also been car- ried out in this field by the trade unions. In Moscow, for example, every trade union member is entitled to the free use of a boat on the Moscow Riv- er. And what is more, the workers now have time to take advantage of such opportunities. Boating and bath- ing are not confined to Sundays and holidays. After working five and a half months in a place a worker is en- titled to one week’s vacation with pay, Brotherhood feels that such an in- quiry will establish the Pullman Co.’s | guilt and result in orders requiring it | to pay full wages to its workers in-| stead of forcing the public to pay) for services which should be included | in the price of the ticket. : Our Readers “Leaders” Aid Bosses. Editor, The DAILY WORKER: I would like to know what consti- tutes a union shop in Mr. Shiplacot’s Union? A friend of mine is working } in the leather goods shop of Ginzburg | Bros., 102 Prince Street, a union shop, but the shop chairman, the only vestige of unionism in the place, serves the boss and Mr. Shiplacof, but not the workers. So far as I could discover no shop meeting is ever held. The chairman seems to be ap- pointed for life, and the shop is afraid to say anything against him, because} that means being fired by the boss} and no protection from the union.’ Union meetings are never announced | in the shop and no one attends them. | Non-union helpers work in the shop, | and the chairman, not alone does not |ask them for union cards, but refuses | |to take them into the union, When pressed hard he always finds some! evasion why he should not make them ‘union members. Several weeks ago, a girl, Fannie ;Richman, who worked in the shop ‘quite a long time, went over the head of the chairman, Mr. Goldberg, and asked to be taken into the union, but ‘no investigation resulted on account} \of her complaint against the chair- | ;man. Instead they informed him of | ithe complaint and the girl was promptly fired for trying to become ‘a union member. This was a little too crude, so the union got the boss to take her back ter a few days, and ‘when the girl wanted to have the bene- fit of union conditions, she was fired | ‘again, told her to get a job elsewhere. Union and non-union helpers who work in This time the union officials | Shall never be forgotten. ; 18 and 15 dollars a week. should the boss pay union. wages when he can, under various disguises and with the collusion of the shop chair- man. Mr. Goldberg hires help outside the union, Is it a wonder that the helpers are indifferent to the union and its work? All the union amounts to, in so far as they are concerned, is expenses of all kinds and no benefit or protection whatsoever. — Trade} | Unionist, New York City. * haat Editor, The DAILY WORKER: — | Yesterday—Sacco and Vanzetti! | Today—The DAILY WORKER! | As I read these words, new hatred | grew in my heart against the greedy capitalist beast. They killed our two) comrades, but they shall not kill The | DAILY WORKER! \ The DAILY WORKER shail not) die. In the past the workers have given all that was in their power to} give to build The DAILY WORKER | to a strong, and powerful paper reach- | ing the workers of this country. And, in the future, we, the workers, should | and will do our utmost to save it from) the hands of the ruling class. We will build it to a still stronger and) more powerful press, for it means} the final victory to the working class. In Russia the workers went weeks without food for the proletarian revo- lution. We, in America, can go without a meal to save The DAILY WORKER. Saeco and Vanzetti are dead, but The DAILY WORKER shall never die. Long, live The DAILY the shop a long time get as low as WORKER.—Helen S., Detroit. Why | and to two weeks after one year. In addition to the vast~“health fac- tory” in the Crimea, where rest cure homes and sanitariums stretch along the shores of the Black Sea, there the many local rest homes for workers | whose condition does not require such |a complete change. For instance, the | banks of the Moscow River are dotted ; with such places. Old estates that ‘used to be the country homes of the | aristocracy are now turned into work- |ers’ health homes, where workers are sent for minor illnesses or where they may spend their vacations. These are situated in the tall pine forests which | were hunting regerves and private es- | tates in the time of the Czar. Today the paths are overrun with groups of workers in athletic sufts, singing and jlaughing as they go. The sandy | stretches of beach along the river are |a paradise for sun bathers. Within a half an hour of Moscow, workers absorb all the beauties of nature peace, without the commercialism of | Fasts For The DAILY WORKER. la Coney Island to deaden their senses, * * ” This health work that the Soviet government has carried out in spite of all the difficulties of war, counter- revolution and famine, has made pos- sible the physical culture demonstra- tion that took place yesterday and the sport week that is going on now as part of the celebration of ten years of Soviet government in Russia. And this is only the beginning. \VASHINGTON, Sept. 12.—“Bribery is rampant in the prohibition serv- ice,” Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Seymour Lowman, in charge of enforcement activities, de- |clared today in a sensational written statement summarizing his survey of the service since he took charge sev- eral months ago. “There are many incompetent and erooked men in the service,” Lowman said. “Some days my arm gets tired signing orders of dismissal. are many wolves in sheeps’ clothing. We are after them. A lot of them have lately been let out all over the countiry.” ‘ There _ |fine formation. Red banners bearing |