The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 14, 1928, Page 6

od , Page six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N Daily, Except Sunday 33 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 $6.50 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. 4 $2.00 three months. Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE “Daiwork” Editor.. Assistant ered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York,,N. Y., under 1879. the act of March 3, Lewis Fans the Flame The reign of terror which John L. Lewis and his yellow lieutenants, with the aid of the police in many cases, have started throughout the coal mining regions, is having an effect which Lewis did not intend. Lewis’ gang defeated the will of,the majority of the United Mine Workers by stealing the last election in 1926 Lewis’ gang has resorted to murder in the anthracite. It has aided the police to track down, beat up and jail mine workers whose only offense has been loyalty to their Union and to their class. It has sold out the Union in a thousand historic cases. It pulled the Illinois key district out of the strike at a critical moment when all indications were that to do so would break the backbone of the strike. In the 1922 settlement Lewis betrayed the Washington and Fayette county miners who had struck with the organized men by leaving them out of the settlement and thus practically threw them back into disorganization. Lewis’ gang has expelled from the Union wherever possible every coal miner who has stood in the way of Lewis’ plans of betrayal. Lewis has milked the treasury of the Union for his own per- sonal benefit while the miners and their wives and children haye been starving. While drawing $12,000 per year and as high as $11,000 per year additional for “expenses,” Lewis has at the same time sabotaged the relief of striking miners and has sought to egg the police on to break up the relief organization which the miners themselves established to meet their need. Lewis is not president of the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica by any act of the members of the Union,—three times in suc- cession Lewis has stolen the election by means of fraudulent vot- ing methods after he and the police had failed to blackjack the miners into voting for him. For eight years since. his election in 1920 Lewis, himself a wealthy business man and politician of the ruling class, has ridden the United Mine, Workers for his own benefit and for the benefit of the ruling class. During the past eight years of Lewis’ betrayal the Union has teen gradually broken down until it now has but a fraction of its former strength. Lewis took the presidency of the Union at a time when 70 cent of the coal mined in the United States was dug by Union a. Under his rule for.the coal operators’ benefit, the amount coal mined by the Union has sunk to 30 percent. The Union in 1920 had a membership of over 400,000. It has been ridden by iewis until it now has hardly more than half that number al- though Lewis still claims 300,000. The overwhelming share of the coal output produced in Amer- ica is produced in non-union fields. The organization of the un- organized fiélds is a life-need of the United Mine Workers’ Union; yet Lewis makes no move towards the organization of the un- organized. In spite of Lewis the coal miners have fought for nearly a] year the most heroic battle in American labor history. In spite of Lewis’ pulling out the Illinois key district with a separate agree- ment at the critical moment, in spite of his sabotaging the relief and. directing the police to break up a relief organization estab- lished by the miners themselves, in spite of his refusal to bring other fields into the struggle with Pennsylvania and Ohio—the miners are fighting on,'/and fighting better, with a chance to win the strike. His course established, Lewis has proceeded with a reign of terror. The operators, the coal and iron police and Lewis attack their common enemy, the mine workers. Murder is committed by the Lewis machine in the Anthracite region, where the mine workers’ own selected leaders are mowed down with machine guns on the public street. Brophy and Toohey are assaulted and ar- rested by Lewis’ henchmen, the coal and iron police paid by the operators. Lewis’ reign of terror is added to the coal operators’ reign of terror. But what is the effect of Lewis’ reign of tefror? The wave of resentment and rebellion against Lewis that is sweeping the coal] fields is the answer. The mine workers, cornered and with no way but to fight, are driven to fight harder. Mass picketing is spreading and making the strike stronger. Mass determination to take the Union into the hands of the miners is growing by leaps and bounds—intensified by the very fact that Lewis’ gang murdered Alex Campbell and Pete Reilly, and wounded, slugged and jailed many others. Under some cir- cumstances terror may terrorize, but in this case it only goads the miners to fight more courageously than ever. “Save the Union” committees are springing up in every dis- trict in the coal fields. All efforts to stop them only stimulate them further. In Illinois, Fishwick, leader of the Lewis machine, with the aid of the police tried to disperse the “Save the Union” | conference at the point of the gun. But this only stimulated the mine workers to greater efforts to build up the “Save the Union” conference. April 1, when the big national conference will come together at Pittsburgh to direct the fight tb save the greatest union of the American labor movement frem destruction, to win the fight against the operators and to cleanse the Union of the operators’ agents who are now in control, will be a red-letter day in labor history. Miners, take the Union into your own hands! Win the Strike! Organize the unorganized fields and bring them into the strike! \ 3 9 Phone, Orchard 1680 | THE STRIKE-BREAKERS . senatorial committee went to the mines “to investigate’ the miners’ relief organization, and break the strike. breakers have failed to beat the heroic miners. By PAULINE ROGERS. The figure of the woman is looming larger and larger in the Soviet Union. She has gradually raised herself, with the encouraging help of the Soviet Government, from the cowed back- breaking position of ezarist days, and now stands erect, fearless in facing the new ideas of the country and de- termined to help carry them out suc- cessfully. Today the women of the U. S. S. R. participate actively in the work of the trade unions, the co- operatives and the various branches of government. They are to be found at meetings of all important commit- tees in the factories, in the local so- viets, in the higher executive bodies, in the schools, universities, and in the clubs. They participate in the organ- ization of nurseries and kindergartens and have representation on all com- mittees connected with children’s or- ganizations. This is particularly remarkable in view of the recent .backwardness of the Russian women, In pre-revolu- tionary days, working women were not only very illiterate, but they had no political or social rights whatsoever. The Eastern women of the Caucasus had no liberty of movement, had to wear ‘a veil in public, were sold in marriage /jat a very early age, and had to submit to all kinds of degrada- tion. Equality For Women. It was Lenin who realized that without women’s help, socialism could not be built up. He stressed the fact that if women were kept out of social and industrial life, if they ‘ere per- mitted to go their ignorant way in the narrow round of their domestic activities, one half of humanity would lag behind and keep the country from developing as fast as it might. The Soviet Government therefore placed women on an equal basis with men and gave them every opportunity for development and social activity. Rui in Industry. "Until 1927 there were very few women in the trade unions “and they rarely held any office. At present of MEXICO CITY, Mar. 13.—When General Sandino asked for medical help through his representative in Salva- dor, Dr. Samora, to enable him to help the heroie fighters wounded in their fight-‘against brutal Wall Street intervention, the Continental Commit- tee of the All-America Anti-Imperial- ist League (headquarters in Mexico) immediately published an appeal. This appeal, addressed to all anti-imperial- ist and progressive organizations, asked for the formation of a united front to start a vast propaganda cam- paign against imperialism as a whole, and to raise money to send to San- dino to support him in his fight, no matter how many marines are landed. This is the first time in the history of the fight against American impe- rialisry that such an appeal for prac- tical and real solidarity has been made, and -it ssuccess was so great that: Sandino can be assured of the support of the people, especially the workers and peasants, not only of his country but of the others where dol- lar diplomacy. oppresses the masses, and where other Sandinos are await- ing the moment to rise against illegal foreign intervention. Mexico first responded splendidly to the appeal. In onesweek the “Comite Manos Fuera de Nicaragua” (Hands- off-Nicaragua Committee) was formed and it found the support of the All- America Anti-Imperialist League, then of the Association of Central and South America, and the Antilles; the Brussels Congress; the Workers In- ternational Relief; the Anti-Fascist League; the Anti-Clerical League, one of the most important organizations in Mexico; the foremost leader of the anti-clerical campaign, the, well- known Senora Bella Sarraga, an old leader of the Freethought movement; the International Labor Defense; the Patriotic Union of Haiti; the National Peasants League; International School Teachers Union; United Party of Railroad Workers; Mexican Commu- nist Party; Mineworkers Federation. Since this time, organizations and individuals throughout the entire Illinois, strike against the wage-cut April 1! Save the United Mine Workers’ Union from destruction at the hands of John L. Lewis and the coal operators! ( o fF country have joined this united front; so there is not one place in Mexico of any importance which has not its| Hands-off-Nicaragua committee. Spirited activity has begun all over Mexico. At the present time, three weeks after the initiation of the cam- paign, more than 2,000 pesos have a upon the vane workers, farmers and students: to participate energetically. in =the coming? election campaign, the Young Workers League of America has issued a statement on its“demands for the young workers in the. elections, Represents, Toiling Fouth. Pointing out that the Young Work- ers (Communist) League is a political organization representing the inte- |p: rests of the toiling youth: in~ this country, and as such participates. in every form of activity which concerns. the youth, its statement added that the league was the only youth organi- zation which participates in elections and endeayors to arouse the masses of the youth in this country to make a special fight for their demands. dur- |n ing the election period. The League believes that all young’ persons 18 years of age or older should demand a vote, emphasizing this de- mand with the motto: “Old enough to work, old enough to vote.” At the the 825,000 members of the textile union 55 per cent are women. In every other industry there is a steady growth of the number of organized women in the unions. In 1924 women constituted 10 per cent of the total union membership, in 1927 the figure has grown to 28.7 per cent. Besides thousands of women hold executive positions in their trade union organi- zations. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of women oc- eupying leading positions in industry. Everywhere in the Soviet Union women are being promoted; they act as foremen, masters, assistent direc- tors and even directors of trusts and syndicates. In Leningrad alone, in the past three years, 657 women were placed in higher positions in in- dustrial management. Women are even beginning to use their initiative and often devise ways and means of increasing production and of sub- stituting modern methods for the old ones still in use in some Russian plants. ’but really to demoralize the mine workers, destroy But the silk-hatted strike-breakers will fail just as all other strike- By Fred Ellis Milfay Hosiery Workers Fight for Unionism (By Federated Press) BUFFALO, N. Y., March 13. (FP). Full substantiation of the main griev- ances of Milfay full-fashioned hosiery strikers is given by the printed report of the citizens’ committee which is staging an attempt to mediate the dispute. Owners of the Milfay firm completely rebuffed efforts of the committee, Investigation of the situ- ation is now sought from the New York state industrial survey commis- sion. Milfay workers were locked out last November when they refused to sign yellow dog contracts. ‘This is the big issue, declares Carl Holder- man, organizer for the American Fed- of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers and executive board member of the United Textile Workers. Qther grievances of strikers which the ‘citi- zens’ committee lists include: eration 70 hours per week for knitters, in- cluding, 14 hours each for 2 days of the week; 2 machines per operator and no helper to assist after 5:30 p. m.; arbitrary fining system which made a considerable pay cut each week for minor infractions; no hear- ing for those fined; lack of ventila- tion and proper sanitary conditions, lowering vitality, Demands of the workers, now or- ganized in the full fashioned hosiery workers’ union, are for recognition of’ their right to organize; abolition of the 70-hour week and installation of the 48-hour week; end of the fining system; reinstatement of leaders as well as rank and file of locked-out workers, The Role of the Working Woman in the Soviet Union In the large industrial areas, as many women as men participate in the elections, and.in some centers women show a greater activity than men. At recent elections in the chemical, railway, food ‘workers and textile unions of Leningrad, there was a greater percentage of women voters than men. This growth in political activity is also to be found among the peasant women. In the 1927 elections, 30 per cent of the peasant women voted. The Soviet. Government realized that if woman is to become’ an important factor in industry and gov- ernment, she must be relieved of many. of the irksome and wearing duties connected with her household and her children. As a result ‘thou- sand of nurseries, kindergartens, and children’s playgrounds have been or- ganized, where children are left dur- ing the day and cared for by people specially trained for the work. Protective Laws. The government has also enacted such laws for the protection of the been collected and sent to Sandino. This collection together with the mass meetings that have been held in all cities and villages show the ear- only country in the world where the youth has a right to vote. Farmer-Labor Youth Clubs. The Young Workers League which participates actively in the drive for a Labor Party based upon the mass lorganizations of the workers, favors and will support the organization of Farmer-Labor Youth Clubs and Labor Party Youth Clubs wherever a labor Pay exists. The League believes that such clubs will be a great help in mobilizing the youth for the Labor Party movement. Other demands for the toiling youth which the League will raise in ‘the week for all young workers, a demand. which takes into consideration the ls in health and education of the sa workers and the unemploy- jmient situation and the large number of youth replacing adult workers at the present time in industry; the com- plete ‘aboliticn of child labor without reservations and the state mainten- present time the Soviet Union is theance of all children at present meal a ra ¥ i elections include the 6-hour-day, 5-day | League also ‘of the-apprentices as well as for voca- woman’s health. which enable her to carry on her industrial and political work without injuring her health or that of her children. Women under 18 and over 40 cannot be compelled to work. Night work is prohibited for women except by special permission of the Commissariat of Labor. In ad- dition to regular vacations and. sick leaves, women are relieved 8 weeks before and 8 weeks after childbirth, with full pay. These social services are also given to the wives of the workers. Not only are the hours of labor much shorter in Soviet Russia than in other countries (the 7 hour day has now been introduced) but conditions of work are incomparably. better. Machinery is guarded, modern sani- tary improvements are to be found in the old plants as well as in the new ones. The textile mills of Russia are light, well ventilated; the wérkers have short hours, can take occasional rests from their work, and do not know. the speed-up system. ‘Mexican Workers Launch Campaign to: Aid Sandino nest desire of the Mexican people to help Nicaraguan fighters in their bit- ter struggle. They show that the Mexican masses have determined to Students in Mex- ico City are shown in a huge demon- stration against the Wall Street’ fight on the Nicar- aguan workers. The students hailed Gen. Augustino Sandino as the leader of the Latin American workers’ struggle against American imper- ialism. American business men and wealthy tourists were hissed in the stPeets Election Demands of Young Workers yn) et ployed, another demand which would help to alleviate- unemployment; a minimum wage of $20 for every work- er; protection of young workers in industry thru abolition of night work, underground work or dangerous oc- cupations; also effective. accident compensation, Vacation With Pay. _Another demand is a four weeks vacation with pay eyery year, some- thing that is offered those young workers whe attend the C..M. T. C., ‘but otherwise never enjoyed by ‘the Jarge mass of working youth, The ue also makes demands in favor tional training, demanding work tchools with paid attendance \in the factories for all young workers be- tween the ages of 15 and 18. ~ The election program of the League will also contain special demands for the youth as they are effected by unemploytnent, which will be dealt with separately. ash habitat ett 5 @ ——— aid Sandino, although the official del- egation to the Havana Conference failed in this respect. The popular help of the Mexicans is far more important. than official support; because it shows that the people as a whole are bitter enemies of imperialism, although the govern- ment invites Morrow, Lindbergh, and the White House jester, Will Rogers, into Mexico to parade the good-will of the United States. * Not only in Mexico, however, was there response to the call for aid. In the other Latin-American countries |prompt action to raise funds and to build united fronts followed the ap- peal. In the United States, too, the success has been encouraging. All over the Latin-American conti- nent, the slogans “Help Sandino!” “Down with Imperialism!” are on the tongues of the masses, and find. the support of all labor, peasant and pro. gressive organizations. The success of the slogan “Hands Off Niearagua!” proves that there is a common feeling in all Latin-Ameri- can countries. It shows that the peo- ple disclaim and denounce the actions of the representatives Wall Street who spoke at the Pan-American Con- ference in the name of their govern- ments. The support. that Sandino finds is the best proof that these dele- gates do not really represent their countries, The united front, under the leader- ship of the active and class-conscious Mexican section of the All-America Anti-Imperialist League, is a fact. Never has there been so broad a united front, never so good a spirit in the mass meetings of bs Anti- Imperialist. League But the Mexican workers under- stand that it is not enough to help Sandino with money. They join not only the united front, they join also the All - America Anti - Imperialist League, which is now a real leader among the Mexican and Latin-Amer- ican peoples, and which will be a pow- er tomorrow, even if the Mexican gov~ ernment should sell out to Wall Street. Eighteen new locals of the ~~ Mexican section of the geavebaty fy AE Anti-Imperialist League have formed. No better illustration can ve iven of the success of this campaign. v: