The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 19, 1927, Page 4

? THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER [Trends in the American Labor Movement Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Phone, Orchard 1680 ddre SUBSCRIPTION RATES : By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per years $3.50 six months 50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and e out checks tt z | THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. ee | J. LOUIS E} WILLIAM F, DU BERT MILLER. Editors | .. Business Manager Entered ; second-class mail 2 at New York, N. ¥., the ac ot Mareh Advertising rates on application. British fmperialist Policy Hits a Snag in Europe. Britain’s European policy, seeking domination of the con- tinental sphere, seems to have hit a snag One reason for this is that Great B n has encountered the dead weight of American capital in Europe which sees in the war- like attitude of Britain, her attempt to mobilize the great and little powers for an offensive against the Soviet Union, a grave danger to the security of the twelve or thirteen billion dollars of American investments in European countries, without a cor- responding gain. The open American offensive against Great Britain at the| Geneva armament conference has been followed by an offensive at the Geneva league conference which, while ried on under cover, has nevertheless created difficulties of such a nature for Great Britain that the New York Times can head its London cor- respondent’s story “Britain Sees Return of Europe’s Dislike.” It is noteworthy in this connection that the big American loan to Poland which rumor has had ratified a dozen times ha not yet been made except for a measly $15,000,000 for temporary running expenses. Pilsuds generally looked upon as England’s tool, is faced with new difficulties, the opposition parties having now delivered an open challenge to his dictatorship. New elections appear probable following the convening of parliament and the defea of Pilsudski seems likely. It is unthinkable that the smaller nations of Europe would | : ated union others. is voice of the plight of the miner resolution urging aid for the min- ’ strike will probably be passed, | under By WILLIAM F. DUNNE. { IV. ved] Within two weeks the American} Federation of Labor will meet in con- whe! | United Mine Workers, is fighting for! its life. | At the convention the various of-| ficial committees will report on the | activities of the executive council, | }laud its members, and denounce the| Soviet government, the Communists | nd the left wing. The officers will hurl defiance at} the open shoppers of Los Angeles but | nothing will be done about it. There | will be detailed descriptions of the splendid services rendered to affili- Woll, Green and by Lewis will tell with tears in some formal resolutions for organ- zation work in various industries will be referred to the executive council, the “rew: friends and pun- ish enemies” political policy will be reaffirmed and the delegates, offi- cials for the most part, will return |home to devote’ most of their time for the next year in peddling their influence to this or that candidate of the bosses’ parties. There will probably be more em- phasis on “achievement” at Los An-| geles than at recent previous con- ventions—for reasons already men- tioned in previous articles { Events Showing Uneasiness. There are certain developments in- or could have entered into open opposition to Great Britain a the sessions of the league if they had not been assured of back- ing from an equally powerful source—the United States. Without knowing as yet the exact relationship of forces in- volved in the new developments it is unquestionably true tha the tone of the press in its attacks on the Soviet Union by no dicating that the is considerable uneasiness in official labor circles |and that an attempt is being made to “put up a front” before the mem- bership—to create the impression} that the official leadership is really trying to fight corruption, prepare | and Government? ; as “Organization” Drives. It is in this light that we must in- terpret the following: (1) Publicity in official journals tomobile industry. Elaborate plans ences held and a complicated organ- ational structure outlined for union- izing this industry with Detroit sel- ected as the first poing of attack. A staff of organizers has even been sent to Detroit where, from reports received recently, it seems to be doing little more than trying to obtain the consent of the bosses for its work thru meetings and lunch- eons with their representatives. (2) The pledge of support given by |President Green in the name of the A. F. of L. to the Amalgamated As- sociation of Street and Electric _Rail- way Employes during the recent at- tempt. of the New York traction workers: to organize and smash the company unions. innocuous tone of this declara- tion maybe judged by a quotation from an interview given by him to the New York Evening Post. Green said: “The Interborotigh Rapid Transit deserves the condemnation of all people who believe in the right of | colle e bargaining. Peace cannot prevail if the freedom of contract is not recognized. The individual contract of the Interborough is a means of control thru coercion and such is resented by workmen with independence in them.” Surely this stilted lawyer’s phrase- ology is not designed to fire the trac- tion workers with a vivid sense of their wrongs. The lack of sincerity of the declaration by Green, and the absolute absence of any intention on as Shown by Recent Developments What Are the Leaders of the American Federation of Labor Doing to) Strengthen the Unions and Repel the Attack of the Capitalists The Coming Convention—Sacco, Van- zetti, Mooney—Labor Party Issue—War Danger jinformed as to the strikebreaking, gangster and frame-up policy fol- | lowed by the A. F. of L, Speciat Com- mittee in the war on the Communists vention in Los Angeles at a time|and the capitalist press relative to and the left wing needle trades union- n its most important union, the|the organization campaign in the au-/ ists, resulting in the public repudia-| tion of a cali for assistance from this |have been made, a series of confer- committee on the part of the New |York Central Labor Council, (Altho inner Tammany Hall politics played| its part) has forced officialdom to| i pretend that it wants to stop short of complete destruction of these unions by conciliatory gestures made oc- casionally Effects of Offensive. The tension in the ranks of the upper circles of labor officialdom jean be sensed rather than detailed in black and white. That there is, as a result of the pri re of the capitalist offensive, a differentiation process g place among the union mem- ip can not be denied. Those workers who confront power- ful capitalists in basic industry must of necessity be more sympathetic to a more milftant program than are the organized workers in sheltered oc- cupations, unions which enjoy a privileged position in industry—du to drastic apprenticeship syStems, | monopoly position of the bosses mak ing for a profit rate much higher than the average, etc. The United Mine Workers of America, in spite of the policy of open surrender preached by their leaders, and the five-year drive against the militant elements in the union, are today on strike. The miners work in a _ basic industry where hazards are high and their at- titude toward the coal barons and the government is totally different to that of Matthew Woll’s little, busi- hess-like and privileged union of photo-engravers. We repeat that the struggle in the | | 2 ¢ | HERE’S a fine sword swallowing | act in this latest production pre- sented by Philip Goodman at the Bijou theatre. It comes off, or it goes down, whichever you like, in the big! |scene in Doc. Smalley’s dime museum | on Fourteenth Street, back in the| Eighteen nineties. The Wild Man} a= From Borneo in! that scene is; George Hassel as | J. Daniel Thomp- | son, starring, in| Connelly and Man- | Kiewicz’ comedy | “The Wild Man of | Borneo.” | The thing is a riot. J. Daniel Thompson oper- | si ates deliciously on | the theory that the truth is the | commodity in the! | George Hassell. most precious world, and not to be handed out reck- |lessly. He has the real common} touch when it comes to dealing with | crowds. He lies readily, consistently, superlatively, and whether the oc-| casion demands it or not. It is a} | difficult thing to do—to lie so| throatily and sincerely that it seems | |plausible to the’ audience that the! est of the characters believe him and | ill not convince the audience itself | nd lose the fun in the play. I don’t} know how he does it, but he does. | Of course those who pay admission | at the box office of the Bijou are| kidded, too, almost as much as those | who are paid regular actors’ wages | for entering Doc. Smalley’s dime| museum. J. Daniel in his first half hour at Mrs. Marshall’s boarding | house sends a girl to break ten dol- |lars, and she has to go to three dif- | jferent shops to do it. The andience | to be as obsolete as the shoe-top dress | and the “Darling Nelly Gray” songs. | But anybody can prove that it isn’t, | even tho money is cheaper now than} The Wild Man of Borneo: Among the Boobs and | Rubes of Thirty Years Ago ' | laughs—such an incident is supposed | > means is a gauge of the desire of the small nations to act as shock troops in an armed conflict in which Britain can give no sound guarantees of succe War on the Soviet Union would be no child’s play but would} mean catastrophic destruction for which the last war can furnish no parallel. If the social character of such a war receives but little attention in the United States, this does not mean that its full significance has not been considered by the European ruling class. The rear of European capitalism, i. e., the working class of the respective countries, and their industries, is its most vulnerable point . Ss. |ganize the unorganized, ete. | ter the part of the Amalgamated offi- {cials to allow a strike for organiza- tion develop, was proven a few days later when labor and city officials combined to nip the movement before it gained any considerable headway. |to meet the drive of the bosses, or- Altho caring nothing for the in- ts of the working class, seeking always to avoid struggles which tend to develop class consciousness and militancy, trying always to remain Injunctions. within the bounds of a narrow craft; (3) The tirades delivered the year unionism, taking its lead always from|round by prominent union officials |the spokesmen of such organizations|against the I. R. T. injunction, the as the National Civic Federation in Bedford Cut Stone Company decision, questions of domestic policy, follow-|the injunction against the street car ranks of the official labor leadership,!/in the nineties: Just try it some} ANN HARDING Is featured in A. H. Woods new production “The Trial of Mary Du- gan,” which opens tonight at the Na- tional Theatre. Little Theatre | GRAND ee ee W. of B'w STREET FOLLIES uesday, Sept, 20th L Matinees of AND ENEMIES” {TZYBASH at popular as “LOVERS B Nati 41 St. W National ite Wed OPENIN iHT AT 8:30 A. H. WOODS Presents “The Trial of Mary Dugan” such as it is, revolves around the selection of the best method of serv- ing American imperialism—open re- action in cooperation with the bosses or the combination of this policy with the tactic of making gestures from time to time which have the possi- bility of fooling a considerable sec- tion of the labor movement, for a time, into believing that the leader- ship is trying as best it can to put up a real fight. Saturday afternoon. ie DES ER T SONG The medicine-show racket at which © N. Y. & London's Music ensation |J. Daniel and his friend Smalley are | With Robt. Halliday & 1 Buzzeli Pecans lth Monti |adepts is said in the play to be obso-| CASID a9 St, & Bway. 8.30 |lete in New York streets—but it, Mats. Wed. and Sat, 2.30 The LADDER POPU isn’t. This is just the author’s little | joke on the crowd. George Hassell | and Edward Nanary, who plays Doc. | |Smalley, put it over nicely. | The plot is simple, but it is a gem. | | J. Daniel Tompson is a faker of de-| —— vious ways, trying to keep the re- ing the lead of the state department men in Indianapolis, etc. in matters of foreign policy, the of-} These fulminations always refer to The Coming Convention. The forty-sixth annual convention} spect of his daughter and pass in his | theatrical board-place as the actor who | A second r on: Only blind and stupid individuals can believe that there is _ their rulers. no connection between the recent blows delivered to Great Bri- tain’s foreign policy and the swing to the left of the European} working class marked by the successes of the Communist Party | in recent Polish elections and the rising militancy of the labor | movement, the increased circulation of the illegal Communist | press in Italy—now larger than that of the legal press used to be—the wide mass movement against the war danger developed by the French Communist Party among the mas army and navy, the Vienna uprising, the constant departure and return of enthusiastic workers’ delegations to the Soviet Union from all European countries, the victory of the Finnish workers and peasants’ party in spite of the suppression, the risings in Lithuania, the leftward movement among the social democratic workers in Germany, etc. In Great Britain itself we need to look at the million workers follow#z the lead of the British Communist Party and the Na- tional Mlinority movement rather than at the reaction rampant in official labor circles shown by the breaking of relations with the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Unity Committee by the Edin- burgh Congress. It is in the conflicts inside world imperialism and the pres- sure of the working class movements that we must look for the reasons for the difficulties British imperialist policy has found in its path. What will be the reply of the British ruling class? Un- questionably it will be a renewal of the offensive against the Soviet Union and new attempts to find a method of swinging the European nations into line. An indication of this is the fact that Philip Snowden, a more influential right wing labor party leader even than Ramsay Mac- Donald, comes to the defense of British imperialist policy in a letter to the Manchester Guardian, according to a London dis- patch to the New York Times. The more desperate the economic and political position of Great Britain becomes the more desperate will be her attempts to organize war on the Soviet Union and the more need for the preparation of the masses for struggle against imperialist war and for defense of the fatherland of the world’s working class. In the United States we must make clear to our class that by constant struggle against American imperialism we weaken the whole imperialist front and that struggle against imperialist war danger and for defense of the Soviet Union and the Chinese liberation movement is of necessity a struggle against American imperialism. We must not allow the growing hostility between American | and British imperialism to be used to deceive the American | ficial labor leadership nevertheless’ injunctions as “tyrannical” and “un- ;must try to conceal its role of agent! American” but never by any chance |of imperialism in the ranks of the do these labor officials advocate or- of the American Federation of Labor : n appears when Richard Mansfield is |} goes into session in Los Angeles, sick. Smalley’s wife lives in the [New Don Marquis Play —Ben Hecht Opus California, on the Pacific coast a Opens Tonight house, and after various attempts on! s and in the} working class. Therefore it must make o ional gestures stimulating indignation (such as its outburst against the hardboiled section of the Detroit open shoppers) during the last convention). It must | appear to be waging a fight against injunctions, it must appear to be try- ing to organize the unorganized. Since American labor leadership professes to believe that “American- |ism” is a catalytic agent resolving |capitalists and workers into “one hap- |py family” (in spite of the fact that) | American capitalists have never ad-| |mitted that unions have a right to| ganized mass violation of these vi- cious measures or a labor party as a means of combatting and defeating them. These public statements have one purpose only—that of distracting at- tention of workers from the fact these vociferous officials never go to jail themselves for violations 6f injunc- tions. . They do not lead any decisive struggles against the injunction men- ace which now threatens the very life of the labor movement, (federal in- junctions against the United Mine Workers in southern and eastern exist) labor officialdom claims that | Ohio, injunctions preventing foreign- |the trade unions are 100 per cent/bhorn workers from picketing, etc.) | American, stresses its own patriot-| but they are verbally militant know- jism, grumbles at “unenlightened”! ing that high-priced attorneys will do |employers but joins with them in war| what little fighting is done in the ‘on the Communist and left wing! courts. | workers and trusts’ to the limitations} “Peace” Negotiations. jof its craft union and its reactionary| 4, The “peace negotiations” which political policy, aided by the on-| occur from time to time in the needle slaughts of the bosses, to prevent any | trades also come under this head. jof its gestures resulting in genuine | The extreme dissatisfaction in cer- struggles, tain sections of the labor which are scant six weeks after the murder of Saceo and Vanzetti—in Massachu- setts, on the Atlantic coast. California is the state that im- prisoned Tom Mooney, and holds this member of the iron-molders union, railroaded almost to the gallows in one of the historie American frame- ups, in jail for eleven long years for the crime of trying to organize the traction workers of the United Rail- ways in San Francisco. Elementary loyalty to labor would have dictated the change of the con- vention city from Los Angeles to Boston where the whole question of political prisoners could have been raised in the most powerful way in connection with the organization of the part of other tenants to expose! J. Daniel as a liar, does so accidentally by discovering thru a rough and ready variety of dick that Smalley is| her abscounding husband. She leads the whole gang down to Doc’s show | and breaks it up, recognizing J.) Daniel in the Wild Man’s cage. But, Daniel, tho temporarily stunned, puffs | out his enormous belly, and lies his way thru the mess.\ Not only that, but he keeps the show running while! Doe goes to the can: “Aint’ I been| trimming suckers for forty years now?” Ah yes, he has.’ Even to the pres- ent day. If he wasn’t a medicine faker who liked to live that way, tho admitting it was no way to live, he the unorgani%ed. might have been president. Many of Here we have the real measure of, his kind have done it. ; ,the caliber of the official leadership} The east is all so good that it of the American labor movement. would be favoritism to single out any The convention is only two weeks| of them, except perhaps “The Great away. In spite of the virtual im-| Birdo,” so well and irascibly taken |Possibility under existing conditions| off by Spencer Charters. ‘of rank and file spokesmen being! “Birdo,” the whistler, is J. Daniel’s’ elected as delegates to the convention | main enemy, until he is bribed, white in any numbers, it nevertheless will|ribboner tho he is, by a case of the be necessary for officialdom, in view! : Warren Proposes More Pay for Higher-Ups; No Increases for Patrolmen. Commissioner Joseph A. Warren, of the New York Police, Department, considers the granting of increased pay to the higher officials of his department essential to keeping up the morale of, ithe force. In his budget estimate the Commissioner makes no, |provision for- increases for over 15,000 patrolmen and patrol-) | women, stating frankly that his policy is “to keep all increases) | down.” | | The salary increases asked by Commissioner Warren are as follows: Chief Inspector from $7,500 to $8,500; seven Deputy Chief Inspectors, from $5,300 to $7,000; nineteen Inspectors, from four Captains from $4,000 to $4,500; 542 Lieutenants, from $3,300 to $3,500; 250 first-grade detectives from $3,300 to $3,500; 962 to $7,000; one Deputy Chief Surgeon, from $4,400 to $4,900. Considerable dissatisfaction is being manifested among the rank and file, against this unfair discrimination, shown toward} of the increasing pressure of the capi-| talists on the labor movement, to present some sort of program, some perspective and some record of ef- forts made in behalf of the member- ship. \ There can be no question that it has been with an eye upon the com- ing convention, and with a distinct recollection of the sorry figure it eut under the lash of the Detroit open- shopers that labor officialdom has been making some of the gestures listed previously. | There is the further reason that next year comes the presidential cam- paign and it is necessary that the ; r en I holders of the purse strings of the! $4,900 to $6,000; Commander of Detective Division from $4,900 capitalist parties be duly impressed | would come up the role of American, to $6,000; fifteen Deputy Inspectors from $4,500 to $5,000; ninety- With the importance of labor official-| imperialism. \ | But more immediately important is the fact that labor officialdom, faced sergeants, from $2,900 to $3,100; one Chief Surgeon from $6,500 with a political defeat by the repudia- | American labor officialdom will say! ition of its worker-employer coopera- ‘tion policy by capitslists who believe , the unions weakened enough to de- feat easily with the shaky character and raising the class consciousness of “The Man-Eating Tiger,” a farce by Ben Hecht and Rose Caylor, opens tonight for a two weeks engagement at the Walnut Street Theatre, Phila- delphia prior to coming here. Robert V. Newman’s forthcoming musical production “Pardon Me,” will have the following players: Billy Wayne and Ruth Warren, Stanley Ridges, Clarence Nordstrom and Harry Kelly. Ralph Murphy did the book and Morrie Ryskind for the lyrics. Charles Rosoff and Harold Lewis are the composers. A new play by Don Marquis, “Out of the Sea,” has been acquired by George C. Tyler for production this season., The play is already pub- lished. In its scene is the Cornish coast; its story half-mythical, half- realistic. medicine-faker’s last stock in trade. It’s whiskey with a little quinine in it, but the Doc. has decided, while samp- ling it himself, that quinine’s good for you anyway.—V. S. be a real weapon in the hands of the 2 9 the American labor movement. | masses—for constant resistance to the W But upon one vital issue official-: 2ggressions of the bosses, for im- |dom will not touch—the war danger Provement of wages and working con- '—except by inference and innuendo, | Gitions, for increasing the power of |It will join in the chorous of the im--the working class and for struggle /perialist wolf pack against the work- | @8ainst imperialist war. jers and peasants government of the! Saad Soviet Union but it will not advocate * Vice President Matthew» Woll, ‘openly an armed offensive against it.| Seeking in his Labor Day statement To do so would raise the whole for argument against a Labor Party, question of imperialist war and this not only shows by his declaration that the Wolls, Greens and Lewises do not! it is an actual issue in the labor move- j want to raise just now. Neither will they urge support of ; the Chinese labor movement which is the spearhead of the mass national. liberation movement for here too. With the whole imperialist world) _being placed on a war basis as} rapidly as circumstances will permit {not one word against it as a warning! to the American working class, _ This will be the great crime com- imitted by the Los Angeles Conyen- | workers into acceptance of militarization or to interpret the| the members of the force who are burdened with the hardest and | of trade union capitalism shown by’ tion. | struggle between Great Britain and America as an evidence of friendliness of the Ameyican ruling class for the workers’ and | peasants’ government of the Soviet Union. Could American imperialism see its way clear at present to aid openly the British offensive against the Soviet Union without jeopardising its own interests as a robber nation it would be mobilizing today. It is not upon the conflicting interests of imperialists that the Soviet Union principally depends for peace while it builds a socialist economy over one-sixth of the earth’s surface, but upon the sympathy and support of the toiling masses of the world for the Soviet Union, and their resistance to the war plans of |most disagreeable tasks, This dissatisfaction is deepened by the fact that the patrolmen of this city, have been subjected to the most rigorous demands during the last few months, during which time their vacations were withdrawn, and many had to work fre- quently for 24 hours at a stretch in connection with strike duty and the Sacco-Vanzetti demonstrations. The patrolmen are be- ginning to resent the fact that they have to bear not only the jeers of the workingmen of the city for their strike-breaking and anti-labor activity, but also the contempt of the city authorities, when it comes to the payment of salary increases. The idea of a strong union affiliated with organized labor is beginning to per- meate thé minds of the more intelligent patrolmen on the force, jas a possible remedy. the collapse of the Locomotive | Engineers’ ventures, is forced to cast a round for some method of check- ing the development of a powerful militant movement in which the Com- munists and the organized left wing will wield tremendous influence. Whatever claims are made by labor officialdom in Los Angeles, however mild the program put forward, how- ever bitter the denunciation of our Party, however hypocrital the ges- tures, they will nevertheless give us an estimate of the relationship of forces in the sharpening conflict— the forces of reaction and the forces that make for building, strengthening } But— It will be only preparation for a) still greater crime: The support of Our party must use the A. F. of L. convention to expose the black, role played by labor officialdom, both in the daily struggles of the workers) and the wider political struggles, to the whole working class. : We must convince our class that only by organization and struggle carried on in spite of the sabotage of labor officialdom can be built an American labor’ movement that \will ‘ment, but falls into a trap set by him-~ ‘ { self. \ In one paragraph Woll says: “4 ¢ in a democracy where labor so largely dominates, existing institutions may as readily be used by those disposses- sed of property, ete, . i In the next paragraph \Woll contra- dicts himself by saying: “Where the suffrage power that makes for the delegation of political authority is so largely in the hands of an agricul- tural population, as it is in this coun- 'y, the appeal of the industrial worke ers for a distinctive political party i@ doomed to failure.” Woll is not only incorrect in his estimate of the numerical relationship between urban and rural population political struggles by the industrial workers in general and in particular by the organized section of the indus- trial workers-—the trade union move- ment, That Woll does not even mention the possibility of an alliance of labor and the farmers for joint political ac- tion against capitalist parties is suf- ficient evidence of the specious nature of his statement. * feaval ot anereriatiem and the be-liut he fails entirely to take into con- * blood-mad rulers when war comes® , sideration the decisive role played in Fy