The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 5, 1928, Page 6

1 ‘ ° os Oe ee Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY; JANUARY 5, 1928 THE D AILY WORKER NOT A CANDIDATE Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: 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 year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork” ee ‘Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. es ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at the of March 3, 1879. Editor...... eee Secrecy at Pan-American Conference Fearful that it will be openly challenged for its ruthless in- vasion of Nicaragua and its systematic butchery of the masses | demanding freedom from its tyranny, United States imperialism, | through its delegation at the Pan-American conference to con- | vene in Havana January 16, demands that the sessions be held behind closed doors. This demand is to be made because of the fear that some of the representatives of the Latin American govern- ments will place on the agenda the whole question of American | frightfulness against the Southern republics. The Cuban dele- | gates, representing a government subservient to Wall Street, will | aid the yankee butcher try to conceal his bloody fists. But, for-| tunately, there are sections of Latin America not yet subdued by | dollar despotism and they may endeavor to use the conference as | a forum from which to draw up a devastating indictment, recount- | ing the dirty, underhanded, two-faced diplomacy of Colonel Stim- | son and the crimes of the United States armed forces against Nicaragua. This contemptible government, dripping with blood and filth, dare not permit the real facts of its despotism become known | at a time when it is posing before Europe as an apostle of peace. | The Coolidge-Kellogg proposal for secrecy at the Pan-American | Conference makes this government particularly ludicrous in view | KR of the fact that the sessions of the council of the League of Na- tions are, at least to all appearances, open even though prelim- inary diplomatic intrigue is carried on in secret. The exalted rhetoric of Charles Evans Hughes, Henry P. Fletcher and the rest of the American delegation will sound hollow. indeed before the echo of the bombardment of Nicaraguans has ceased to reecho through the forests and mountains. Tt will be as ridiculous as was the peace twaddle of Aristide Briand when the French legions were storming Damascus in Syria and French planes were raining death and destruction upon defenseless villages in Morocco. Still more absurd is the ex- change of pacific gestures between the bloody imperialism of France and the gory murderers at Washington who constitute the Wall Street government, at a time when both countries are invent- ing new devices of frightfulness to use against weaker nations. The American masses should rise in indignant fury and de- mand that the veil of secrecy be ripped from the hypocritical faces of the imperialist delegation at Havana. Mass demostrations against American imperialism should be held simultaneously with the conference and encouragement sent to Latin-America to defy dollar despotism and use the conference to build up a bloc of anti- imperialist nations that will scourge the armed forces of Wall ‘Street and their diplomats from their countries. “Socialist” Prospects in Reading The newly elected socialist party officials have been inaugur. ated into office as the city administration of Reading, Pennsyl vania.. Some very interesting prospects are in sight. Prior to their inauguration the Reading Labor Advocate, of- ficial organ of the socialists, published a lengthy editorial fore- casting the course of the new socialist administration. According to that editorial the socialist party office holders intend to do precisely as similar administrations have done in the past, that is, forget all their talk of speaking in behalf of the working class and proceed to act as capitalist officials. One of the fundainental principles of socialism, taught by Karl Marx, the theoretical founder of the Communist movement, consists in recognizing the fact that the capitalist state is the su- preme organ in this society for the suppression of the working class. A political party, claiming to speak and to act for the work- ing class must, when it takes office, clearly demonstrate by its actions that its presence in office is not for efficiently applying the machinery for working class suppression, but using their position of momentary control of that machinery to the extent of its ability in the interest of the working class. But the Reading socialists do not intend to carry out that principle. Instead they announce, through their official organ, the Labor Advocate, that they intend to betray the workers who elected them. To quote: “Whether they (the socialists) like this system or not, they realize that capitalism is still the order of the day. What is more, they understand that their responsibilities will be those of capitalist officials rather than those of socialist party members . . . they will do everything in their power to give honest and efficient administra- tion of public affairs. However, they feel that, in spite of their role as capitalist of-| ficials they can do something for the workers, such as seeing that street improvements in working class sections receive as much consideration as the thoroughfares of aristocratic neighborhoods. “And most important, perhaps, police brutality will not be permit-|italist friends that they were better political servants than the ted against workers when strikes occur.” Concluding their state- ment of policy the “Advocate” says: i) “These are some of the things the socialists of Reading can and will do. They are things which are neither socialistic or capitalistic, but plain common sense activities and rulings which will win them tne continued confidence of their fellow townsmen.” This has, at least, the virtue of being a frank statement of what has heretofore been socialist party practice in most in- stances where they gained control of a municipality, though not all socialist administrations have enunciated their theory. Rather they have concealed their practice under the most high-sounding phrases. The socialists in office are going to show themselves not working class representatives, but capitalist officials. “the continued confidence” of the small bankers, merchants, man- ufacturers, and inevitably, the giant corporations who own the industrial city of Reading, by proving to the “taxpayers” that under a so-called socialist rule their affairs will be “efficiently administered.” ~~ Tt is precisely such policy that has resulted in producing nests of vicious reaction in dozens of cities that at one time had “socialist” administrations. Schenectady, N. Y., New Castle, Pa., and many other places once under control of the socialists are among the most reactionary towns in the country, and their de- cline as militant working class centers dates precisely from the ascendency of the yellow socialists who tried to prove to their cap- By Fred Ellis “Why should I perform for this animal when he performs for me,” soliloquizes Andrew W. Mellon. | | | | i By AMADO DINO. | (Well-known Filipino Nationalist.) yo do not know the fighting spirit of the Filipino until you know | Pablo Manlapit! | He was born in Lipa, Batangas, | Philippine Islands, some 36 years ago. \No silver spoon in his mouth when he |was born, and lived not the life of gilded youth; and it was well these were so; the result was much in favor jin the moulding of his character. At jee writing there is this fair build |of a man, less than six feet tall, mid- jdle-aged, healthy, robust and ever- pleasant in his attitude toward life | whatever the circumstances are. | Years ago, when he was dallying |) | with his schoolmates in ea public school |in Tondo, Manila, not one of them knew that some day, in a foreign land, this classmate of theirs was going to | be a dominant figure over a situation |fraught with difficulties caused by he exploitation of the masses, by raft and merciless treatment of the |poor laboring strangers by the pow- erful interests in Hawaii. The test |of a man’s courage and character |ecomes at a time when a crisis is at \hand. In the peaceful, care-free pas- | | times of the youthful students, young | ablo had no chance to reveal his gift | |for leadership. But later in his man- | hood, he passed the acid test and | showed the courage and the fighting spirit characteristically Filipino, i | | On Sugar Plantations. In February, 1910, he shipped to Hawaii as a common laborer. He was | only nineteen years old then. For three years he worked in the sugar plantations. It was during that per- iod that he realized the inadequacy of wages paid the laborers working in the plantations. The laborer, for a hard day’s work of ten to twelve hours—for twenty-six days (rain or shine)—-was paid the meager wages jof only $20.00 per month! Certzin- |ly, not commensurate with the labor |performed, This aroused his sense |of justice and the urge to ameliorate |the existing conditions became im- planted in his heart. He began to | prepare himself for the service of his ‘countrymen who were in servitude to the big-moneyed men of the Hawaiian | Sugar Planters’ Association. Within j the next few years he applied his time |to the study of law. In December, jlaw practice, busied himself in organ- |ations whatsoever from any sources, 1919, he passed the bar examination and in the same month obtained the license to practice law in the district courts of the Territory of Hawaii. His first program was to put him- self to task, starting the agitation to increase the wages of the laborers. It was his first big fight, and a big fight at that; and the people of the Territory began to take notice of him. Laborers of all nationalities were in- volved. The outcome was successful, gaining fifty per cent increase inj wages for the laborers. At that time there were 20,000 Filipino laborers in the Territory and 25,000 Japanese. The wages increased from $20 to $30 per month. Bosses Betray Workers. It did not last long, however. The machinations of the sugar planters’ officials undermined this new wage scale and before long, about eleven months—it was reduced to $26 a month, That, of course, drew the ire of the Filipinos. Manlapit again was prevailed upon by his countrymen, \ who were virtually Me bestialized | victims of the exploiters. In the meantime, Manlapit, aside from his izing the high wages movement. George Wright, outstanding Ameri- can in the labor movement in Hawaii, volunteered his services to the newly- formed organization, The Filipinos, | in recognition of his sympathetic at- | titude towards the movement, elected him to be co-chairman with Mr. Man- lapit. All officers of this body gave their services free, with no remuner- except traveling expenses and per diems when on duty. To solidify the strikers and to make the plans concrete, Manlapit pub- lished a weekly paper, “Ang Bantay,” as the organ of the High Wages Movement. It was published in Taga- log and in English, mostly in the former. New Demands. The year 1924 was the year of the crisis. Manlapit was determined to recover for the laborers what had been gained in the previous strike. He started the active campaign to sup- port the movement, Within a short | time he had gathered ten thousand bona fide signatures of Filipino la- borers in the different plantations to the petition which contained the fol- lowing requests: * interest of the class they are supposed to serve. To follow such a They will) endeavor to win, not the confidence of the workers whose inter- | ests are antagonistic to those of the capitalist class, but to win! | avowed capitalist politicians of the old parties. | If the Reading socialists wanted to serve the working class | they would have to abandon their-proclaimed position and adopt ‘a policy of using their power to the extent of their ability in the course would certainly cause them to be excommunicated from the | official party machinery dominated by the Hiilquits, Cahans and | Oneals, as well as bring down upon their heads the wrath of the | state government. * | The socialist party of Reading has officially mapped its course |in accord with the traditions of the socialist party in the United | States, which in turn is in accord with the traditions and practices | of the second international to which it belongs, bag, baggage, heart and brain. Back of the scenes at the gala inaugural at Reading where such pen enemies of the working class as James Oneal, B. Charney Vladeck and other luminaries of the socialist party, harrangued the assembled celebrants, hoverg the ghost of Fred- erick Ebert and the menacing shadows of Scheidemann and Noske who murdered the flower of the working class of Germany in or- | der that the bourgeoisie might remain in power, It is clear, already, on the day after the induction of the so- | cialist party into office that such honest class-conscious workers ‘as have not yet understood the anti-working class role of that | party will have a splendid opportunity to become disillusioned as ee Reading administration proceeds to carry out its policy of jacting as capitalist officials, and will abandon that reactionary | party and adhere to the one revolutionary party in the United | States, the Workers (Communist) Party. ! 1. Minimum basic wage from $1.00 per day to $2.00 per day. 2. Eight hours to constitute a day’s work. 3. Time and a half to be paid for all overtime work; double time for work on Sundays and holidays. 4. Equal compensation for men and women engaged in the same kind of work. 5. A proportionate increase in the wages paid to skilled and semi- skilled employes. 6. Abolition of all forms of “bonus” based on the price of sugar or on the number of days worked each month. 7. Recognition of the principle of cdllective bargaining and the right of employes to organize for their mutual benefit and protection. As mentioned before, the laborers received $26.00 a month for twelve hours work a day. The requests men- tioned above were reasonable. But the Hawaiian sugar planters’ people were adamant. Despite the continued efforts of the leaders and supporters of the movement, the moguls of the plantations entirely ignored the ap- peal. To a faint-hearted leader the situation was discouraging. The ter- ritory of Hawaii controlled by the big bosses of the sugar company! And the same big bosses run the govern- ment! There did not seem to be a way out. Faced Handicaps. Notwithstanding these jnandicaps, Manlapit, fully conscious of the righteousness of his cause and fully confident of support pressed the fight on. He made trips to the different plantations in the interest of the movement, On April 1st, 1924, the strike be- gan—after a persistent struggle of one whole year, with all the hard- ships and sufferings attendant upon a situation of the like. By April 10, the Inayuda baby was evicted from the hospital in Waipahu, owned by the Oahu Sugar’Company, member of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Asso- ciation. The baby belonged to a couple who supported the strike. The father was out of work and the baby was seriously ill in the hospital. The fact that it was a striker’s baby was enough to bring about eviction of the infant from the Sugar Planters’ Hospital. It was quite against the ethics of the medical profession to execute an order of throwing away a dying baby from a hospital, the affiliations nothwithstanding. But as it turned out later, the doctor ordered the baby out, turning a deaf ear to the pleadings of the parents. The baby died. Try to Get Manlapit. “Ang Bantay” published a brief item regarding the case. Now the sugar planters’ men saw their chance to “get Manlapit.” By hook or by crook they were going to get him. Their stool-pigeons had had their feed. On that account Manlapit was accused of criminal libel. On April 22nd he was arrested. His arrest was the culmination of the Iong-dyawn struggle between the oppressed and the oppressors, labor and capital in Hawaii. When he was sent to prison on May 29th, 1925 the strike collapsed. The reason was obvious. There was no leader. The sentence was from two to ten years of haw labor. and he was eligible for parole by.January 5, 1927, on condition that he left ¢he | territory of Hawaii for the Philip- |pines. This imprisonment of his har been the live topic of all the news- papers in the territory and even in some remote parts of the world. Details of Frame-up. It was learned later that those who —» Brief Sketch of Pablo Manlapit’s Activities testified against Manlapit were hired by the sugar men for the purpose; that they were promised fat sums in addition to their fare to the Philip- pines if they could only lie in order to have Manlapit convicted. The affi- davits of these men have been ob- tained Igy Mr. Manlapit’s friends in the Philippines when the paid men in question reached the homeland and squealed after having discovered that they were cheated by the plantation men by giving them only $100 each instead of $15,000 as was originally promised each one of them. When the time for his parole came, Manlapit was not released, because he did not want to leave for the Philippines. Under the same offense prisoners have been paroled without any conditions attached thereto. But Manlapit’s case has been an excep- tion. It was well-known throughout Hawaii that he was discriminated against; that the sugar bosses, includ- ing the governor were doing their best to retain him in prison; to release him only should he agree. to leave the territory; for he was their most dangerous foe. As the Honolulu Ad- vertiser, leading newspaper in Hawaii, said in one of its editorials, “. . .a feeling has been created in the mind of the public that Manlapit has been discriminated against; that unfair parole conditions are being forced upon him.” Finally he agreed to leave the ter; ritory for the mainland. (U. S. A.) The warden testified to his excellent deportment while in prison. Parole was granted last August 13, after the petitions from different labor organi- zations in the United States, from congressmen and other persons in the United States. He arrived in the United States last August 19th. Speaking In U. S. Ever since ‘his arrival in Los An- gelea he has been occupied in deliver- ing speeches before different organi- zations to which he was invited. At present he is preparing to make a tour of the big cities of the United tates under the auspices of the All- America Anti-Imperialist League. Al- though in his speeches there will not be anything touching directly on his ease, for his speeches will be on the topics mentioned below, he is fully confident that the people of Hawaii are still his great and trusted friends and sympathizers, because he knew that he stood and fought for the right of the exploited countrymen of his in Hawaii. The topics of his speeches are: _1—Labor conditions in the Philip- pines, 2.—Exploitation of our resources by Wall Street absentees. 8.—Labor conditions in Hawaii. 4.—Exploitation of imported labor- ers from the Philippines and other countries. 5.—Philippine independence. 6.—The sugar tariff. Pablo Manlapit is a fighter. This time he fights for the rights of his oppressed countrymen and he will fight it to the end. When you hear and know Pablo Manlapit you wil! know the fighting spirt of the Fili- pino! GENERAL ELECTRIC LOSES. WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 4.—An iniunetion sought by the General Electric Co. to restrain the DeForest Radio Co. from using three high vacuum-tube patents granted to Ir- ving Langmuir was denied by Fed- eral Judge Morris here today. One Pe for potassium tubes was up- BOOKS THE AMERICANIZATION OF LA- BOR. By Robert W. Dunn. Inter- national Publishers, New York. $1.90. (bes book deals with a process which has been going on intensive- ly in the United States for a decade and which is rapidly copied and imi- tated abroad. In various countries it means various things: In the Soviet Union, for instance, to “Americanize” has come to mean the attempt to introduce methods of large-scale production, principles of more efficient organization, scientific methods of industrializing the country, The worker in the Soviet Union would scarcely think of using the term, which reports state has become ex- ceedingly popular there, to a speed-up system applied to himself. * * * What “Americanize” actually means in the United States is fully explained in this important study, Beginning immediately after the World War but especially with the period of the 1920- 1921 open shop drive on labor, the process of “Americanizing” the labor movement has continued until at pres- ent the organized forces of the work- ing class have been reduced to strag- gling, wounded and leaderless groups. In these “Americanizing” drives, the American Federation of Labor has lost a million and a half men, The railroad brotherhoods have lost an- other million. Hundreds of local unions throughout the country have been completely wiped out. Strong union centers such as San Francisco, have been entirely transformed, Dunn quotes “The American Plan,” open shop organ of the west, as boasting in the fall of 1923 that “today 85 per cent of all men who earn their bread by manual toil, work under open shop conditions. What more complete trans- formation! Three years ago over 90 per cent worked under absolutely closed shop union conditions. Today over 85 per cent work under open shop conditions.” Eighty-five per cent of the indus- trial establishments of St. Louis were reported to be open shop; practically every state in the union was reported in a similar condition in a compre- hensive open shop survey made at the time. * * * And what were the methods adopted in this commendable task of “Amer- icanizing” the workers? Dunn gives in great detail such examples as that of the Industrial Association of San Francisco where the notorious “Black Jack” Jerome was employed: “Jerome mobilized a small army of thugs, gunmen, and ex- convicts, just as he had done in the Denver tramway strike in 1920....” At that time his orders to his hench- men were: “When you shoot, be sure and shoot straight.” Dunn pojats out that, “It was Jerome who committed the first violence in the San Francisco strike.” There were daily lists of strikers to be beaten up; a whole chart of prices was worked out vary- ing from $10 to $50 for a mere slug- ging or “massage” to $250 to $1,000 for a thorough-going killing or full “polish.” And all this was accomplished un- der the protecting shield of patrio- tism, the star-spangled banner and Americanism. Coincident with these short cuts and also more direct methods there de- veloped a whole system of what might be termed the “newer diplo- macy” in industry, the company union, the “yellow dog” contract, em- ploye welfare schemes, stock distribu- tion plans, insurance schemes and what not. This too is part of the “Americanizing” process, and its ef- fects have been more deadly, as Dunn well shows, than even the “shirt sleeve” diplomacy of the strong arm squads. * * * The vast amount of material mar- shalled within this volume and the elaborate and careful treatment of @ relatively new subject bear the evi- dence of great labor and research, Dunn is probably today our best ine formed student of the technical and mechanical organization of the cl struggle, just as William Z. Foster i the one most keenly aware of its inne. and living forces. a And here we touch upon a certain © shortcoming in Dunn’s book. Know- ing the tendency of the mind to exag- gerate the relative importance of even the smallest adverse criticism as com- pared with the highest favorable cri- ticism, one hesitates to record any disappointing reactions to this valua- ble book. But in failing to present a clearer picture of the living labor forces themselves in the process of being “Americanized,” and in adher ing a bit too closely to the objective mechanism of the process, Dunn has lost a certain vitality which is the very essence for instance, of Fostér’s new book, “Misleaders of Labor.” But I hasten to say that in Dunn’s\ book we have a record of lasting value for the labor movement, one which will unquestionably serve as the de- parting point for later studies when that great history of the victorious American proletariat shall come to be written. i —ROBERT MITCHELL. PLACQUE FOUND IN RUBBISH, NEWBURGH, N. Y., Jan. 4-~ Spanish War veterans here are up in arms because a placque presented by them to the city, comm the Maine, was found discarded in a rab- bish barrel. » call