The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 19, 1927, Page 6

2. Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1927 THE DAILY WORKER ®0CKEFELLER’s INTERESTS Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER. PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: “Daiwork" SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York oniy): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Addres: and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, N ea PROLOU Ss airls sis'eg ois Assistant Editor.. Phone, Orchard 1680 | “ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-offic , under the act of March 3, 18 A New Phase in the Onslaught on the Coal Muers The arrogant and demonstrative manner in which the big coal operators’ associations refused to take part in the conference ar- ranged by Secretary of Labor Davis shows two things: First, that the coal barons understood from the beginning that the conference was a fake and called only as an attempt. to fool the miners into believing that the Coolidge administration was doing something for them. Second, the attitude of the coal | barons and the insulting references to the United Mine Wrokers of America in their wired refusals to attend the conference, clearly proves that no quarter is to be given the striking and locked out miners. Injunctions outlaw the strike and make even the collection and distribution of relief illegal, thousands of miners’ families are being evicted, the water supply of whole mining communities is shut off by the companies, coal and iron police terrorize the mining camps. In both Pennsylvania and Ohio the chambers of commerce and the local patriotic organizations of the middle class, controlled directly by the coal companies and the banks, are denouncing the strike as “un-American” and urging the deportation of foreign- born miners. The miners and their families are treated as an enemy popula- tion by an invading imperialist army. In Colorado the state troops are raiding miners’ homes, break- | ing up meetings and making wholesale arrests. Actual war is being waged on the miners, their wives and children. The intention is to smash all semblance of union organization | and put in its place the same slave system which prevails in the | open shop mines of West Virginia and other southern states. | The official leadership of the United Mine Workers and of the American Federation of Labor has surrendered to the coal | barons. These leaders are tied hand and foot to the political par- | ties of the capitalists. They are allowing the miners’ union to be} smashed and the mines to be turned into slave-pits. here is in American labor history no greater betrayal than that which has brought the United Mine Workers to the verge of cestruction and which has permitted, because of the failure of the Lewis machine to carry out organization campaigns, the union | coal fields to be strangled by an ever-tightening circle of open | shop mines. ‘ No real effort has been made to rally the labor movement to the aid of the miners by these leaders. No real effort will be made by them. The appeal to Coolidge and to Governor Fisher of Pennsylvania by President Lewis of the U. M. W. A. in itself constitutes a betrayal. If the miners’ union is to be saved, if the brutal drive on the miners and their families is to be stopped, if the labor movement is to be placed on a war footing to meet the growing offensive, the left wing and the rank and file militants will have to do the job. It is a job that must be done and it is a job for which willing hands will be found. The continuous betrayals of union official- dom which leave the labor movement to the mercy of the capi- talists have brought thousands of workers to the realization of the fact that only two choices remain—fight or surrender. The miners have shown that they will fight. Back of them must be placed the utmost strength the working class can muster and into this decisive sector of the struggle there must go relief and organizers. From the workers in other industries must come relief and from the ranks of the militants in the labor movement will come the organizers who will build a fighting labor movement. The labor movement must be broken away from the political parties of its enemies and a labor party formed. Relief for the miners must be collected and distributed in spite of injunctions. Organization campaigns must be started. TheSe are the methods by which the attack of the bosses can be repelled and a powerful labor movement built. But one thing must not be forgotten. It is that the struggle to save the miners’ union, establish a labor party and build the labor movement, can be carried on successfully only by a ceaseless exposure of the boss-controlled union officialdom and a campaign ending in its defeat. The Workers Forum WORKER: Editor, DAILY only pleasure I have! I refuse to comply with such. a curtailment of in- dividual liberty!” The anarchist, insisting on the ex- ereise of his individual liberty, kept on smoking and after a few months complications set in and he died, prov- ing the correctness of the doctor’s diagnosis And so the anarchists who criticized early hardships in Russia during the transition period from Capitalism to Communism are in the same fix as the aforementioned sick person; they refuse to submit to a temporary inconvenience and curtail- ment of individual liberties, in order to reach an ideal society, like Com- munism, which individual liberty will have a chance for its highest,develop- ment. Last night I went into the Anar- chist Club in New York and listened tora ge tlman by the name of Harry rer, lawyer, and a very spoke as only the ex- individualist can speak, al- treme though I do not know whether he is such. However, a well-posted Com- munist could easily detect the flaws in his statements. The anarchists al- ways remind et the fellow who was sick and weft to a physician to et examined. The physician, after un examination told him that he was smoking too much and that unless he gave up smoking he would never get well. The anarchist thereupon turned to the doctor and said: “Why, doctor, you want to take from me the ~A —ANTI-ANARCHIST. By Fred Ellis Subsidized churches and enslaved labor. (Continued from Last Issue.) The Double Standard O0A0.@ egos SINCLAIR’S idea of literasl ture is Socialist propaganda. If a book contains that, it’s good, and it it doesn’, it’s no good.” Thus a young critic, reading these chapicrs in serial form. Let me tell you a story. Four years ago the city of Los Angeles threw a thousand workingmen into jail for the crime of being on strike; and I with a group of friends considered it a matter of duty to go and make a speech in defiance of the police edict. the story of this arrest was tele- graphed to the East, and a certain writer, one of the most famous and prosperous of our humorists—I will call him Mr. X—referred to the mat- ter in his weekly contribution to the Sunday newspapers; causing one of his humorous characters te remark to the other humorous character that I had taken this step as a means of ob- taining publicity. It is a stock re- mark, which I have heard a thousand times in my life, and I paid no es- pecial attention to it, understanding that a man who has to write two funny columns every seven days must occasionally be hard up for material. But it happened that a month or so later this Mr. X came to California to spend the winter, and was a dinner guest of the Pasadena Press Club, and I was invited to meet him. 1 went; and presently Mr. X was introduced by the chairman, and rose to make what everyone expected would be the conventional after-dinner speech, with plenty of comic stories. Instead of that he proceeded in a very grave tone to inform the assembled press men of the city that they had among them a first-class hero and major prophet, whom it was Mr. X’s intention to honor that evening. This hero did not cringe like the rest of us before arrogant power, but took seriously his duties as a citizen of a free common- wealth; he had been willing to suffer arrest and imprisonment in order to defend the constitutional rights of humble workingmen; and so on. In short, Mr. X was making a speech about myself, and the blood began to climb up the back of my collar and take lodgment in my ears, and I found myself with an intense desire to slide under the table and hide. But there stood Mr. X, speaking with such sincerity and intense feeling that oresently he had all the diners ap- nlauding, and I had to get up and stammer a few words of thanks. It was only after I got home and ad time to think it over that I real- zed the extraordinary significance of his episode. You see, Mr. X has a louble standard of judgment: one when he is among his friends and col- leagues, and can say what he really thinks; and the other when he is earn- ing his living, and saying what his paymasters require him to say. These two sets of judgments are contradic- tory and incompatible; and yet Mr. X.ean voice either one with impartial effectiveness. ° : Let me tell you another story. There is in Chicago a daily newspaper which for many years has made a pretense of liberalism—to the extent of saying that it is liberal. It pub- lishes a book review section, and sends that page gratis to many pub- ishers and authors, as a means of »btaining advertisements; so it hap- pens that for ten years or so I have , Money Writes followed the literary life of Chicago. The editor of this page was a young critic, trying to build up a tradition and give himself a thrill by having a | coffee-house and a coterie in the Ad- dison-Steele-Old-Engiish fashion. 1 had read about the group of young wits who assembled at this Chicago coffee-house, and it sounded romantic; so, happening to be in Chicago for an afternoon, I dropped in on. this editor, and was taken to meet the gang. We sat around a table, and I ordered a glass of cider, and got a class of warm vinegar, and we gos- siped about beoks and writers, and presently the young editor warmed up to me. “Oh yes, Sinclair, I read your books, you may be sure, even though I don’t review them. ‘The Goose-Step’ ”—-and for a few minutes he sang the praises of “The Goose- Step,” at that time my latest book. “It made a great stir at the uni- versity, and I’d have liked to give it a good splurge, but you know how it is, I’d have got into troubie here on the paper, and what is the use?” So here again the double standard of literary morals. This able young man understands the world he lives in—understands it so well that soon afterwards he was called to become literary editor of a leading newspaper of New York. I suppose he figured that he was doing no harm except to me—and I was used to it. What he failed to realize was that he was giv- ing to the mass of his readers a false picture of current literature and lite, and preventing American writers from performing their most important function. The result of this system of double standard in literary morals is that we have a nation sharply divided into a few thousand sophisti- vated and cynical inteliectuals, and a aundred million pitiful ignoramuses, ready to swallow any fairy-tale thai is told to them, and to run after any wretched fraud their masters chouse to set up. So you see, what the critics refei to as Socialist propaganda” turns oui upon investigation to be common hon- esty~ and intellectual freedom: the right of thinking men to voice their thoughts, without having a biudgeon held over their heads by some greedy commercial pirate who happens to have possessed himself of a chain o. newspapers or magazines. XL ‘The New Playwrights A there are young dramatists holding up the banner of revoii. Five of them have organized as th. ‘New Playwrights’ Theatre,” and gu. some backing, and as this book ap- pears, they will be offering “Singin, Jailbirds” in New York. It is the kind of thing these young radicals like to do, with a labor strike, and mob scenes, and plenty of music and ex- pressionist effects. California will be agreeable to the production, on the well-established prineipie that every knock is a boost. One of these New Playwrights is John Dos Passos. Another is Francis Faragoh, author of “Pinwheel.” It is good social criticism, but rather a story in pictures than a drama; we miss the element of struggle, which makes a play. There is Em Jo Basshe, author of “Earth”; and John Howard Lawson, author of “Proces- sional,” a riot of American jazz and hilayity. Finally, Mike Gold, my fa- vorite young genius for some years; he has an autobiographical novel about an East Side slum boy, which I find itfteresting, but which I can’t persuade him to publish. Now he has a Mexican play, “Fiesta,” which the New Playwrights are to produce; also he writes propaganda for the “New Masses,” and writes me letters, quar- reling with my messianic delusions— it is another of those tensions of friendship. I have to reply that I wouldn’t in the least object to being a Messiah, if I could; I am sure the world needs one badly. I have renewed my acquaintance with the New York drama, and ob- serve that the Theater Guild continues its custom of keeping us acquainted with the aristocratic depravities of Europe. Vienna knows how to be charming in its vileness, and this is what the high-powered rich of New York aspire to. I note that my friend Sidney Howard, who knows the iabor movement, is compelled on the stage to resolve the domectie prob- lems of the prosperous. Not long ago he presented us with a stage “wobbly” from California, who begot a child by another man’s wife; they kmew what they wanted, and their creator knew what the public must have. Broadway theatrical success continues to depend upon the enhance- ment of sexuality and the dangerous ideas. I suppose I ought to feel flat- tered by a remark made to me by By Upton Sinclair my good friend Fulton Oursler, as he took me to see his mystery-play, “The Spider”: “My social conscience doesn’t seem to be active except when I am reading one of your books!” Eugene O’Neill had the amusing idea of taking Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt .and dressing him in medieval cos- tume, and sending him to China to talk like an American travelling sales- man to the Grand Khan and his grand- daughter. This version of Marco Polo will take five hours, and make trouble for the schedules of the suburban rail- roads. Also, there was a play | called “Spread Eagle’—extry! extry! all about our next war with Mexico! I missed it, but it ran for quite a while, and showed exactly how big business arranges ifs wars; at the end, when the actors waved the star-spangled banner, everybody felt exactly as pa- triotic as they will feel when it hap- pens. Will Hays, czar of movies, has banned this play from the screen; al- so “An American Tragedy”’—after the would-be producers had paid ninety thousand dollars for the rights! This little Presbyterian pup- pet of Wall Street is the undisputed master of our most important means of popular education, and the people are perfectly satisfied with what he is doing—or would be, if they knew anything about it! (To Be Continued.) Injunction, “Yellow Dog” Contract, and Company Union “The Unholy Trinity in Traction” cal ARTICLE IV. By ROBERT MITCHELL. In the volume of testimony and af- fidavits which the Interborough Rapid Transit Company has collected as the basis for its injunction, proceedings, the records of its company union, the Brotherhood of Interborough Rapid Transit Company Employes, fills up an important section. The “b¥otherhood” is represented as a real labor organization possess- ‘ne a constitution, electing its own “fficers and maintaining its existence onite independent of the company. The efforts by the Amalgamated to rganive the traction workers is rep- resented as an attempt to destroy a ‘og¢itimate workers’ organizaticn. The rmion is charged with a “conspiracy “> destroy all comnany unions.” What the Judge Will Overlook. Tt will be interesting, therefore, to oxamine some of the provisions in the “constitution” of the Brotherhood. ur examination will be a little closer ‘han that of the judge who is to de- ride on the injunction application. Singe the “theoretical” basis of the company union js one thing and its practices are quite another, we wil! consider some of its activities. Of its practices, we may be’ sure, the judge will likewise take little account. In the preamble to the Brotherhood constitution we may find anticipated by several years the philosophy of class collaboration, identity of inter- ests between boss and workers, which is now subscribed to so generally by officials of the A. F. of L. The first paragraph of the constitution tells the world that “We, the employes of the Interborough Rapid Transit Com- pany. . .are fully competent to take up and adjust with our employers, all questions as to rates of pay, hours of labor and any other working condi- tions which may hereafter arise.” Then follows: A Union Controlled by the Boss. “Uninterrupted transit service to the public, a complete understand- ing between employer and employe .% .are the objects of this or- ganization. . .and the various provisions of this constitution, when accepted and approved by the In- terborough Rapid Transit Com- »pany, shall be deemed a contract “Seetion 4. All employes of the company shall hecome members of the Brotherhood. . . “Beginning February 1, 1920, each newly. employed person. . . shall as a condition of employment agree to join the Brotherhood and aecept its obligations.” Here we have one of the most in- ‘eresting paradoxes in the labor movement: An open shop. union smashing traction company maintain- ing a closed shop. Provisions are made for the election of a General Committee to represent the workers The powers of this committee are an- uther joker in the constitution. General Committee, All Powerful. “Section 7. The General Com- mittee. . .shall be the supreme governing body of the Brotherhood and shall have power to make any rules or regulations for the proper conduct of the Brotherhotd, and to assess the members any amount considered necessary for the wel- fare of the Brotherhood. . . “Section 10. The decision of the General Committee in all controv- ersies between members of the Brotherhood and the company shall be final and binding upon all mem- bers of the Brotherhood. . . ae “Section 13. The General Com- mittee shall have the power to re- move from office any representa- tive who, in their opinion, is not acting in the best interests of the Brotherhood. . . “Section 19, The General Com- mittee shall have full power and authority in negotiating with the company as to wages and working conditions for any definite period of time not exceeding five years . .and any contract so entered upon shall be binding upon each and every member of the Brother- Iocde. 63," Company Dominates Throughout. From the above excerpts, it may be seen that so far as the rank and file is concerned, they have the full power of obeying and remaining submissive. In practice, officials of the company supervise elections, “suggest” to the General Committee what steps to take in cases of emergency, and map out the procedure and order of business of meetings which are of special im- portance such as those during a threatened strike, Elections are held on company property and an election committee appointed by the president cf the General Committee must ap- prove all nominations for election to the General Committee before the candidates can run. According to section 5 of Article VII, “The names of all members de- clared eligible by the election com- mittee shall be printed on a nomina- tion ballot.” During the last elections all candidates for the General Com- mittee were compelled to appear in person before “Paddy” Connolly, the president of the company union. Those not “acceptable” were not approved, of course. The candidate who ran against “Paddy” himself was called in and asked which he preferred, to run in opposition or his job. He pre- ferred his job! A Cancerous Growth. This is the company union which a supreme court judge is asked to rescue by means of an injunction from the destructive tactics of the organ- ized labor movement. To work for the eradication of this cancerous growth is called a “conspiracy” by the Interborough attorney, James L. Quackenbush. If the injunction is granted it will be largely on the basis of the “legal” contract drawn up by the company henchmen on the gen- eral committee. In order to illustrate the exact na-_ ture of some of these henchmen, it will be sufficient to quote from the affidavit of “Phil” Welch, a delegate from the Motormens’ and Switch- mens’ Local 7. Welch is the delegate who is replacing Ed Lavin, whom the Interborough could not buy and who in 1926 led out his men in the mem- orable strike of that year: How One Company Henchman Works “Affidavit of Philip L. Welch, verified August 1, 1927. “Philip Welch, being duly sworn, deposes and says: That he is an employe of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and. . .is a member of the General Committee “That on the first day of August 1927, deponent was on the platform at 242nd Street station of the sub- way, at Van Cortlandt Park; that while there he saw motorman Day, who told him that motorman Harry Hunt was giving out blanks for membership in the Amalgamated . .3 that deponent thereupon wait- ed for Mr. Hunt to appear at that station and he appeared at about 11.10 a. m.; that deponent there- upon approached Mr. Hunt and stated that he heard he was dis- tributing blanks for membership in the Amalgamated and asked him how about it; that Hunt stated to deponent he had joined the Amal- gamated and was a member and had-his card in his pocket. He fur- ther stated that he was giving out applications for membership in the Amalgamated and _ distributing them to anyone who would take them. . .” The incident occured on August 1. Welch made out his affidavit on the same day! It is thus clear that his business as a delegate of the General Committee is to spy on the workers and turn them in to the company. The man against whom he testified was one of the leaders of the 1926 strike. Hunt’s words speak for them- selves. The spirit and bravery of Varry Hunt are an example to the workers in all trades, struggling against the greatest obstacles for the emancipation from capitalist slavery. As for “Phil” Welch, Motorman Day these cogs in the Interborcugh s tem of espionage and enslavemext will be remembered as beings wh lost their working class manhood and sold out to the enemy class. mentioned as the informer, “Danny” a Holland, Fd. MeGann, James Theo- dore and others still to be mentioned, 4 ( t (To Be Continued.) * * * (Tomorrow’s issue will contain further exposnres of the Inter- borough Spy System, revealed in the testimony of its own paid henchmen. Read The DAILY WORKER daily for the details of labor’s strugg'es. Buy several copies for distribution among the traction workers. HELP ORGAN- 17E THE TRACTION. WORK- ERS!) BULGARIA HUNTS LOAN, GENEVA, Dec. 18.—Bulgaria is the latest loa’ hunter in the western European market. Following his visit — to the League of Nations in search of a new loan, the fascist Minister of Finance, Mollov, has handed a tenta- tive budget to the Bulgarian Budg- etary Commission which fovors a re- duction in expenditures.