The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 8, 1927, Page 4

Page Four THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. : Cable Address: “Daiwork SUBSCRIPTION TES } By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outsid $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per years $2.50 three months Address and J. LOUIS ENGDAHL } WILLIAM F, DUNNE BERT MILLER Entered as second-cla il at the pos the act of M: 1879. $2.00 three months Phone, Orchard 1680 le of New York): $3.50 six months ail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Ye ee A Day at the A. F. of 1. Convention---Something for Workers to Think About---Federated Press Editor Arrested---A Blow Is Struck at Negro Workers--The Soviet Union and Com- munists Are Attacked The course of reaction at the A. F. of L. convention has de- veloped at least one new angle in the arrest of Carl Haessler, managing editor of the Federated Press by William Hynes, head of the secret service section of the Los Angele 's police depart- ment which operates directly under the management of the Cham- ber of Commerce. Since Hynes has been cooperating with Sec and Vice Pre retary Morrison ident Woll in the inspection of credentials and the hounding of delegates and others suspected of Communist or left wing tendencies, there is little doubt that, the arrest of Haessler was engineered by this trio acting in conjunction with President | Green. Everyone, including Communists themselves, expects Com- munists to be arrested at any time and without any specific and actions are in reason except that their policy opposition to American imperialism and its labor agents. direct and open But the arrest of Haessler is an indication that A. F. of L. officialdom is invoking the aid of the authorities to suppress labor newspapers. In addition to the enlistment of the Los A even the mildly/ critical news service sent by the Federated Press to some 90/ ngeles police to aid them in preventing the voice of any section of the rank and file being heard in the convention, the delegates have defeated again a proposal to place Negro workers on an equal basis with white workers in the labor movement. The national and international unions are to be allowed to maintain their discriminatory rules and customs. are organized in spite of these bars the policy of to be followed and separate Negro locals set up. With a race war missed in Gary by a hair simply because the unorganized Negro workers Where Negroes segregation is the other day, surrendered to mass insult, and with the white puppets of the steel trust puffed with victory, assuring new provocations, the fed eration conven- tion had before it a living example of how its policy plays into the hands of the capitalist.class in a great indust rial center. Yet it continues the policy of treating the hundreds of thou- ~sands of Negro workers coming into industry in fashion as they are treated by the decadent lan the south and their hangers-on. much the same owning class of No more damning proof of the utter reaction which rules the A. F. of L. could be given. To distract the attention of the masses from it > vetrayals and to curry favor wiih the bossss, launches an attack on the Soviet Union and the continual resident ‘Groen Communists. But more than one worker—they are not stupid, as Green thinks, will be struck by the fact that it is Communists and those suspected of being Communists that the Los Angeles police force, part of the machinery of the open shop c merce, are arresting. hamber of com- Workers know that enemies of the work- ing class are not jailed by open shop governments. The Chinese Resi Organize and Fight Reports from Shanghai, quoting the Chinese press, reveal | that in the north, where a struggle is taking place between the Shansi forces and those of Chang Tso-lin, with the latter threat- ened with defeat and the loss of Pekin, there has arisen a military peasant movement that is creating serious difficulties for the reactionary armies. These peasant bands are well armed and they have estab, tished connections with the “Red Lances,” the mi litary section of the organized peasantry which follows the leadership of the revo- lutionary wing of the Kuomintang. Carrying out their expeditions along the line of Tientsin-| Union) Communist Party. Mukden railway, they occupy a strategic position in Chihli prov- ince and it is entirely possible that if Chang Tso-lin is forced to retire from Peking toward Mukden, these peasant forces may cut his forces to pieces and put an end to the career of this bloody | tool of imperialism. The significance of the rise of these peasant what has been formerly a stronghold of reaction, organizations in cannot be over- estimated. That it is a mass movement having its origin in the terrible conditions of the peasantry is shown by the fact that in Jobs For All In Soviet Karelia NOTE TO OUR READERS: We present today the first of a series of five news letters from our correspondent, who is now visiting the relatively little-known Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of Karelia. Following articles will deal with in- dustrialization, agriculture, homesteading exper- iences of former American workers, Party problems, etc. Upon the conclusion of this series we expect to arrange for similar treatment of other republics of the USSR visited by Comrade William F. Kruse. * * * By WILLIAM F. KRUSE. (Special DAILY WORKER Correspondence.) PETROSAVODSK, A. K. S. S. R., Sept. 9 (By Mail). —This northernmost of the national republics included in the R. S. F. S. R. still has many economic and social problems to solve—but of one, the evil of unemploy- ment, it is happily free. That problem, which hangs like a nightmare over the working class of almost all Europe, but especially darkly over the workers of the little “Potato Republics” of the Baltie border, is un- known here, Whereas in neighboring bourgeois coun- tries from 10 per cent to 70 per cent of the workers are looked upon as “surplus’—in Socialist Karelia the tempo of potential industrial development is measured by the supply of available labor power. The Soviet Union is a big place and that little sec- tion of it called the “Autonomous Karelian Socialist Soviet Republic” is not such a baby in size when com- pared with its neighbors. It could cover all of Latvia and Hsthonia combined and still have enough left over to make a blanket for Switzerland. In area it is almost equal to all of New England, but in population—there’s where the rub comes in—you conld put thirty Karelias | into Greater New York. Geologically it is blood- brother, or we should probably say “stone-brother”, to Scandinavia and Labrador, here also the oldest rock in the world crops to the surface and underlies a land of | pine and birch forest and endless ¢hains of lakes and streams of fairyland-like beauty. Its climate is rather} like that of southern Alaska—short hot splendid sum- mers in which the nights are “white” and where the northern limits are truly a “land ‘of the midnight sun.” Then some months of cloudy autumn while the days get shorter and shorter until in December real winter sets in. The winters are not so very severe, however, owing to the benign influence of warm ocean currents which find their way into the Arctic at Murmansk. More than four-fifths of its quarter-million popula- tion live in the rural districts, yet Karelia is in no sense to be considered a farming country like its neighboring “potato republics.” The secret of Karelian prosperity —the basis of her whole economic life—lies in her for- ests. The peasants have their land, to be sure, where they raise a considerable part (about 30 per cent) of their food supplies+rye, oats, barley, potatoes and all sorts of vegetables. But it is not pre-eminently a farm- ing country and far more sustenance is to be drawn by matching muscle and sinew against the forest than by applying it to plow and scythe. As the lumber is cleared off under the extensive lum- bering system which thus far still prevails for the most part, more and more virgin land is made available for settlers—it is stumpy and rocky but very fertile—and the government is subsidizing many local drainage Works which dry and make arable the best of all soils, the bottomless black earth of primeval marshland. Thus there is to be found in Karelia neither the Kulak nor the land hunger of the poor peasant. A levelling pro- cess towards a “middle peasant” type, begun since the November Revolution, is still in process; whereas in 1924 there were 11.1 per cent of the peasants without land, in 1926 this had already been reduced to 8.7 per cent. During the same period the number of “middle peas- ants” having up to 2 dessiatins increased from 26.5 per cent to 29 per cent. The amount of land per head here is not of such basic importance as in the purely farming regions, because practically all of the rural population depends for livelihood partly upon wages earned in the woods. Here there is work for all and wages are ample to meet all the rough and ready needs of the population. Besides the woods there are extensive fisheries and | also quarries where beautiful marble, granite, quartz and mica are obtained. There is an exemplary build- ing project in process of completion at Kondostroi, about 40 miles from the capital, which includes a big hydro-electric power station and extensive modern pa- per mills intended eventually to make the Soviet Union independent of foreign paper. One finds here an as- tonishing number of workers of all occupations—from president to ditch digger—who have spent many years in America—Finnish workers mostly with a mixture of Swedes and other nationalities. Everywhere the exhu- berant vitality of the young newly-freed people makes itself felt, and details gleaned in the course of a visit of some weeks will be given in following letters so as to give our American comrades some idea of the work being done even as far north as the Soviet Arctic. The First Day In Siberia By KARL REEVE. “The Chicago of Siberia” SIBERIA (By Mail).—Nova Si- birsk, the capital of Siberia is called by the inhabitants “The Chicago of | Siberia” and not without reason. The growth of this city in population, pea- sant economy, wealth and in building, I have never seen duplicated, even in America. Here are the figures for the population of Novo Sibirsk: 7,800 69,800 68,000 76,500 - 120,600 (Figures from Nos. 9-10 of statistical bulletin published by the Siberian So- viet—January-April, 1927) At present the city is growing at a very rapid rate. The speed of building is only rivalled by the speed of increase of population. In a one- day automobile excursion thru the town as a guest of the Central Com- mittee of the Siberian “Gray” Soviet, (Kray meaning the entire territory of Siberia), I jotted down a few of the important new buildings, when they were build and, in some cases the cost. Magnificent Lenin House. Let us look at a few. First we take the immense and beautiful “Lenin House” on one of the main streets of the town. It cost one million rubles and was completed in 1925, It very much Institute building in Moscow, which stands on the Soviet Square, off the | Tverskaya, being of the same size| and of the same material. This build- ing houses the City Soviet, district | Soviet and the City and district or- ganizations of the Russian (All Across the front is printed in gold letters— |“Lenin Umer, Jeive Leininismus’— | Lenin is Dead, Leninism Lives.” | “Schools of Communism.” | Second the “Dvorets Truda’—Pal- ,ace of Labor, a large white building |covering several New York City | blocks, surrounded by a garden, its towered piles rising up in pleasing ir- regular contours. It cost 600,000 rubles and was completed in 1925, We south and. central China, in conjunction with the military move-| went into two large meeting halls, ments of the revolutionary armies of Ho Lung similar developments are taking place. That the peasant masses of China are in motion on the side) of the mass liberation movement which has survi to betray and crush it, can be doubted no longer. and Yeh Ting, ved all attempts It remains for the Communist Party of China to give this _ movement direction, extend it to every province, and connect with __ unbreakable bonds to the labor movement and the revolts of the city poor. one seating a thousand, a_ kino (movie) a theatre seating another thousand and a number of smaller ete., and into a large white restaur- ant looking out.into the garden. The| Who are on the inside know that the | price of a complete dinner here, is 60 kopeks (30 cents), for members of | the co-operative which runs the res- taurant 50 kopeks (25 cents). Across |the front of the building, printed in large letters is the statement, “The With this done the success of the Chinese liberation move- trade unions are the schools of Com- ment is assured. | munism.” Training Siberian Peasants. Next, the four-story Agricultural resembles the famous Lenin} College, which is just being com- | pleted, This building when finally finished and opened on October 1st of this year will give 800 young Siberian peasants a thoro four years training in scientific agriculture. 150 of these peasant students will be housed with- in the university, the rest in outside dormitories. 5 New Home For the Party. The large stone building housing the Ispoleom of the Soviet of the Siberian “Kry” (C. E. C. of the Si- berian Soviet) and the Central Exec- utive Committee of the Communist Party of Siberia, was also completed in 1925. It also is a beautiful white- its place in any modern American city. A few other buildings either now being constructed or completed in 1925 are the Social Insurance build- ing “Gos-Strach,” finished in 1925; a large new market now being built on the site of an old bazaar; the State Bank building, a large stone struc- ture completed two years ago, the textile building, also recently built of stone, numerous rooming houses {and workers’ quarters, several large | co-operative stores and the “circus,” a large new theatre also recently com- pleted. { Many Other New Buildings. There are in all 700 new buildings | being constructed in this town which in 1893 was nothing but forest land, the greater part of these buildings | being of stone or brick. The money walled stone building which can take | given out by the Soviet for building in Novo-Sibirsk was as follows: 1924 —2,150,000 gold roubles; 1925—4,- 200,000 gold rubles and 1926—6,300,- 000 gold rubles. We visited some of the great co- operative stores built (new) on the basis of the American department stores. (The Siberian Soviet knows how to apply American technique— the auto we travelled in was of American make, and we saw Ameri- can sewing machines and_ type- writers). Here were well stocked shelves of textiles. We were told that the prices were set by the All- Russian Textile Syndicate for the whole of the Soviet Union, so that |the textiles are sold at one standard price all over the Union. The soap on sale in these co-operative stores was manufactured in Novo-Sibirsk and is one instance of the effort of the Soviet to develop industry. Of course there are small peasant houses in Novo-Sibirsk. But the construction of the City by the Pro- ‘letarian State is going forward with such giant strides that the small traders, kulaks and petty shop- keepers are being left far behind. Nowhere else have I been so im- pressed with the rapid advance of Soviet Russia in building her agri- cultural and industrial economy to- ward Socialism as in Novo-Sibirsk, where the forces of revolution have transformed a village into a large modern city. Letters From Our Readers | About the Ford Slaves. Editor, The DAILY WORKER: _ I want to correct the erroneous impression created by the reference to the new Ford model and condi- tions of employment. The statement quoted that “the plant has operated on a five-day schedule since last Spring” is only partially true, as most of the departments only run |two and three days since last Fall, and have been totally closed down | Since the second week in May. | Thousands of employees of these | departments have been idle for 14 weeks and are still out of jobs. It jis the “privilege” of the company to “Kabinets” for committee meetings | ive out whatever figures it chooses) ; as to the force employment, but we | 58,000 figure is grossly exaggerated, and that most of those who have been recalled are being given two days work a week, Workers Losing Homes. In the balmy days of the Ford! Company, when some of the workers actually believed that a job with Ford | gave them a fair measure of security {and thereby enabled them to act on 2 ¢ ” Ee The First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure For | Morgan loan of $150,000,000 the decorations are not without sig- |nificance. The lavish, almost promiscuous manner, in which deco- rations have been handed out following a banquet tendered Thom- Let it never be-said again that Japanese have no sense of|as W. Lamont by leading Japanese bankers and government of- ificials on Oct. 4, would indicate that the Japanese treasury is The Japanese emperor has conferred upon J. Pierpont Mor-| running low oa sacred trensuxe and another loan is needed. American Bankers humor even if the joke is on them. gan the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure; Thomas W. Not only in China and the Philippines but in Japan as well Lamont has received the Second Class Order of the Sacred Treas-| is American finance-capital finding an investment field. Each ure, as have Mortimer Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb and Co. and Charles new joan adds to the burden on the workers and peasants of the E. Mitchell of the National City Bank of New York. \Far East who } pay tribute to the same class that exploits the Sun has becn conferred | American masses. Zé Not parroting of the “yellow peril” slogans of the ruling class but solidarity of the workers of America and the Far East of Nippon has been added to by a is the line for the American labor 4 . Sane jthe company’s advice and purchase \their homes by instalment, they now find that the Ford family has shed its pretended interest in their social | welfare. Now when an appeal is ‘made by these deluded slaves to the company for help to save their homes from foreclosure and the consequent jloss of equities amounting in many | cases to two and three thousand dol- lars, the reply is, “sorry we can do ‘nothing for you.” | I know of many Ford workers who ‘are reduced to destitution by the long ‘period of part-time employment, and | then by the latest 12-week layoff, and ; with no prospect of jobs in the near .future.—Dave Miller, Detroit, Mich. { \ ; | Philadelphia Leather Workers. Editor, The DAILY WORKER: Philadelphia has some of the ‘largest Morocco (leather) shops in the | United States but the only men or- ganized are the glaziers. There is a lot of dissatisfaction among the other | Workers as to pay, hours of labor and | Working conditions. Every day I hear | them saying that 8 hours is plenty to | work and that $1.00 per hour should be the rate. Organization, however is handi- capped by the fact that there are so many men who have worked in the industry even as long as twenty-five years and who,do not yet speak English. Polish is the predominant ‘language, most of the leather workers being of that nationality, Something should be done about the jconditions in this industry. But ‘there is little to be hoped from the lA. F. of L. organizer, Joo Ritchie, who recently endorsed Harry Mackey, the congervative who has the backing lor eM the big firms, for mayor of What this town needs organization Piss te 9-2 ry The “Nonpartisans” Draw a Blank The Year’s Political Record of the Executive Council—Its Com- plete Failure—One State Endorses Child Labor Law, 43 Op- pose It—The Petty Character of Legislative Demands— The Attitude Toward Foreign-Born Workers—Some Concrete Instances—The Appeal to the Capital- ist Parties—The Reason the Executive Council Loves the “Nonpartisan” Policy By WILLIAM F. DUNNE. a the field of social legislation the report of the executive council to the Los Angeles convention is barren of achievement. It tries, however, to list as sub- stantial victories two laws legalizing the application of existing workmen’s compensation laws to longshoremen and a “liberalization of rates in the federal workmen’s compensation act.” We would be the last to say that for longshoremen the measure re- ferred to is not of importance, but ‘we submit that as 50 per cent of the total | positive achievement for one year of the leadership of the American labor| movement, it is not anything to cause! wild demonstrations. The other 50 per cent of the legislation affects only | federal employes. T= legislative activity of the exec-) utive council is of such a character | that it becomes a plaything in the hands of the lobbyists and agents of enemies of the workers. It is evi-| dent for instance that desire of the A. F. of L. leadership for the maxi-} mum immigration restriction brings it into a united front with such in-| dividuals as Johnson, congressman { from Washington and chairman of the house immigration committee, who sponsors a bill providing that the maximum number of immigrants from any country shall not exceed 25,000 annually after July 1, 1928. Even the inhuman provisions of the existing immigration regulations, which divide husbands and wives, parents and children, creating un- told misery a glimpse of which is given occasionally by the press, does not move the executive council to abandon its cfforts to close the doors of the United States to workers of other countries. 'HE report accuses those who seek special legislation designed to eradicate some of the most flagrant evils of the present provisions of in- troducing these measures as “a step- ping-stone to changing the whole policy of the United States regarding immigration.” The executive council explains in this manner its opposition to a bill providing for the admission of “35,000 wives or unmarried chil- dren” of aliens legally admitted be- fore July, 1924. Likewise the executive council op- posed granting citizenship to 69 Hindus, refugees from British perse- cution. “The California State Fede- ration of Labor,” says the report, “contended that if the Hindus were restored to citizenship the same privileges would have to be extended to 400 other Asiatics in that state.” It is hard to find a parallel for this cynical attitude in the whole annals of the labor movement. the attempt is being made, so the report states, to secure the pas- sage of a law requiring that only American citizens shall be employed on government work, whether it be done directly by the government or by contract. This bill was sponsored by a conference of union officials held on Dee. 2, of last year. It will be presented to the next congress. The various bills requiring registra- tion of all aliens failed to pass, but it is difficult to see how the executive council, the loudest shouter of all for stoppage of immigration and dis- crimination against alien workers, will put up any effective opposition to this legislation when it comes up again. — aaa providing for steel cars in the postal service for the protection of railway mail clerks, for an in- crease of wages for watchmen, mes- sengers and laborers in the postoffice department, prohibiting military train- ing except in military schools, in- creasing the efficiency of the public health department, for the 44 hour week in the government printing de- partment, for the elimination of night work, compensation law for District of Columbia workers, prohibiting ar- ticles made by convict labor becoming articles of interstate commerce, civil government for the Virgin Islands— all failed to pass. The character of these bills not only gives an idea of the petty char- acter of most of the reformist legis- Jation favored by the executive coun- cil, but shows also that its positive influence, in behalf of the American workers among congressmen and senators is almost nil. ON Page 75 of the report we find the following: “Forty-four state legislatures met in 1927, ONLY ONE (Montana) ap-|} proved of the proposed child labor amendment to the. . .constitution.” Child labor has increased from 1.2} ; per cent to 87.4 per cent in 24 cities where the department of labor's Children’s Bureau made a survey. But the executive council feels that justice finally will-triumph. “Jus- tice,” it says, “may be long delayed, but there always comes a time when justice prevails. The history of Jesris- lation shows that bencvolent measures require many years to be accepted.” pee is not ‘one word that can be interpreted ss urging <cpeciel energy in organizing young ers, Instezd the executive council takes a long look into the future: “We therefore believe that the American Federation of Labor can badly is i organize tho national ht t Nag bechakg Sol ! ses mea ayo hohe oem Phila, "Hook forward to a time when the pro-| ick is another striking example, | posed child labor amendment will be a part of the constitution of the Uni- ted States... .” What the exploited children are to do in the meantime is not stated. 4 ate continuing lack of success of the executive council in congress and the state legislatures in improv- ing the status of labor, the admitted fact that the labor movement has no legal standing, the equally obvious fact that state and federal injunctions have outlawed strikes, picketing and boycotts, the increasing ‘hostile ac- tion: of the supreme court shown by the Bedford Cut Stone Company and other decisions, the fact that 43 state legislatures are hostile to a measure like “the child labor amendment, furnish overwhelming proof of the bankruptey of the “nonpartisan” political policy. Bee the executive council casts all rules of evidence to the winds on Page 72 and under the head of “Political” says: “The successes of the non-partisan political campaign... have been gradually »becoming greater. A larger number of wage-earners every year sees the benefit of non-partisan | action and this, it is helieved, will | make them a greater factor in the coming election than they ever have been heretofore.” aN still more significant than this paragraph is the manner in which the executive council appeals to the | leaders of the two capitalist parties to rescue them from the results of | the disillusionment which absence of | achievement on the political field is | spreading among the union member- ship. Only the feeling that they cannot preserve much longer the fiction of the efficiency of “nonpartisan” action | without something in the way of \ concessions from the parties of big business ¢ould produce such a frantic SOS as the following on Page 71: “The experiences of 1924 shoyld be a warning to both parties.... Both parties ignored the plea of labor. The platform of neither party was ac- ceptable to those who were looking forward as was evidenced by the fact | that nearly 5,000,000 PROTEST vas were cast for a third candi- ate. Wet the executive council really is saying here to the bosses is: “Throw the mob a few sops or all this talk about a labor party in al- liance with the bankrupt farmers may develop into something that will wreck our non-partisan policy.” Only a labor leadership that is part of the machinery of American im- perialism would arrive at the con- clusion that complete failure of a policy. indicates that it should be con- tinued. This is exactly what the executive council does when it deals with the political activity of the American labor movement. WE give this leadership credit for enough intelligence to be able to draw conclusions from such potent facts as it submits in its report of its political campaigns. Only one reason, therefore can prompt it to recommend a continua-| tion and extension of this suicidal | policy i.e. its desire to draw the. American labor movement still more | closely into the strangling network | of the capitalist parties and at all costs prevent the rise of a mass party, of labor opposing the parties of the bosses on every front. iL L.'D. Gathers Proof of Police Guilt (Continued from page 1) refreshments. All of it was taken by the eossacks, and while they were, having their fill of the stolen food | and drink of the miners, they washed the blood off their riot clubs in the Babies’ shoes were picked up on the grounds, lost while their mothers were | ‘ing to carry them to safety. One| saother got down on her knees and: ed a trooper who had seized her | baby by the hair and dashed it ‘to the | ground, for merey. His answer was 2% blow in the head with his club, , knocking her unconscious. In many places, men, women and, children were piled up against the’ barbed wire fence surrounding the e, and, blinded by the tear gas | 08, were clubbed into insensibility’ he mounted brutes. Over a hun- broken and bloody hats were ed up in the grove the day after ¢ attack. It was found, later, that | had been placed at various | ts in the mecting, and at a sig- he cossacks, who had quietly aded the audience, attacked without warning using tear gas bombs and ylot clubs, A single opening was i tho only oxit from the meeting and } the huadveds gathered there were. foveod to run the vicious gauntlet. | Tho Cheswick case will be one of; the important issues dealt with at the | Thivd AnnualgConference of Interna- tlonal Labor Defense to be held in. New York City, November 12-18, to! t i Lt at y where the soda pop was kept | packed in ice, - f Begged for Baby. ‘af } / oe SE cakes tk ee TET —