The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1928, Page 6

Bann ee THE DAILY WORKER) ™£suwy ran Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 33 First Street, New York, 'N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES Young Workers Rap Militarism The following letter reproduced in part, has been received from Herb- Phone, Orchard 1680 “Daiwork” By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): ert Ferme. Bxecutive Secretary of $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.50 per year $3.50 six months the Young Workers (Communist) $2.50 three months. $2.00 three montlts. Leas: Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y- | . ROBERT MINOR “Editor DAILY WORKER:— “In the report of the election de~ mands of the Young Workers League : :.WM. F, DUNNE published in the DAILY WORKER of @ntoréd as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under March 14, there is an error which Bat Se ot See we would like you to correct. “Under the sub-head, “Vacation with Pay,” there is a sentence which gives the impression that the Young Workers League is' of the opinion that young workers who attend the Cit- izen’s Military Training Camps re- ceive four weeks vacation with pay. The Young Workers League is the most consistent fighter against the Citizens Training Camps, and is at present carrying on a campaign against them, as we have done ever since. they were established. The slogan of a free vacation, by which the camps tried to inveigle the young workers into them, is a fake slogan end the only purpose of the camps is to breed militarism and to pre- pare for capitalist wars. “In the same paragraph the im- pression is created that the League favors the present system of voca- tional training. This is not correct. The League is against the present method of vocational training, and has continually exposed it as being only a blind with which to create illusions that young workers are en- abled to obtain some industrial train- ing.” “We favor the institution of work schools modelled after the work schools of the Soviet Union, These schools to be attached to factories, und productive work to be carried on within them, Ycung workers to re- ceive full pay while attending them.” >, “Security of Government” Whether the poison which ended the life of Warren G. Hard- ing on August 2, 1923, was ptomaine, accide’ lly taken, or whether Harding committed stticide when he landed in San Fran- cisco after his wild trip to Alaska and received a personal report of the chances of exposure of the $3,080,000 bribery fund with which he was elected president of the United States, is compara- tively unimportant. Whether the liberty bonds he left behind bear the same serial numbers as the oil-graft bonds which passed into the hands of the members of his cabinet, does not affect the essential nature of the Coolidge graft-cabinet. Such facts can only be clues to the details of the bribery of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. That the presidency of the United States was purchased for Coolidge and his predecessor by their masters, has been established. It has also been established that Coolidge is deeper in the oil graft than any other living man. Coolidge not only is president by virtue of the corrupt deal, but he was among the four, who, included Hoover, Hays, Weeks and one other, who solicited the corruption fund which came from Sinclair. The really important matter is the question raised by several senators whether this is an abnormal condition, in this time and this country. Walsh, Borah, Reed, Robinson and other pure “an- gels” of the oil probe are working overtime to make the masses believe that the purchase of the United States government by in- dividual multimillionaires is unlikely to happen again. Yes, Amer- ican capitalism of the Grant administration was small and feeble beside the American imperialism of today. The outright owner- ship of the government power by a small group of the biggest finance-capitalists and industrialists (of course Sinclair is only one of those by whom Coolidge was bought—Mellon, Morgan and Rockefeller were merely more careful)—is a typical and basic The senators who are very gingerly handling the oil graft scandal declare that the inyestigation is leading to the im- plication of an “outstanding figure.” . condition of this period in this country more than any other. The imperialist stage of capitalism is one in which highly centralized capital, instead of diffused and scattered groups of capitalists, directly hold the government machinery. The senate investigation is not putting an end to this condi- licn, but is doing exactly the opposite: it is eliminating the smaller industrialist, the smaller oil concern, and is concentrating the ownership of the United Statés government in the hands of bigger men, the Rockefellers, the Mellons, the Morgans; etc. The senators claim to be worrying lest the “security of gov- ernment” is threatened by the direct purchase and ownership of presidents by private capitalists. This is laughable. Security of government for whom? Wasn’t the government of Harding fairly secure for the big finance-capitalists who owned it? And isn’t the Coolidge government being made more secure for these big- gest finance-capitalists by the Sinclair incident, which leads to the elimination of the small Sinclair and the exaltation of the big Rockefeller? The United States government is a class government. That the class which owns the government is the class of the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the Mellons and Ryans, with the little Sinclairs and Dohenys trailing precariously along and being made to pay highly or exorbitantly for the share they obtain in the ownership, is not open to dispute. The security of capitalist government consists preeisely in that direct ownership of the state apparatus, including the presi- dents, cabinet members, senators, to be horrified by. etc., which the’ senators. pretend The only insecurity for the governing class in this situation today lies in the disillusionment of the working class and the ex- ploited farmers who learn a little Seah pee CAN NANA of the real character of the cap- italist state when the shaking off of the small oil men occurs. The consolidation of the ownership of government by big finance-capitalists is the other important result. The security of the capitalist class government can be shaken only by the working class in alliance with the poorer farmers. When the government of the working class and farmers is estab- lished in this country, the security of that government can be obtained only through establishing the dictatorship of the work- ing class in alliance with the farmers, a dictatorship strong enough to crush the whole ¢lass of Sinclairs, Rockefellers, Morgans and Mellons, and their paid servants, row Wilsons, Al Smiths, Walshes, Reeds, Nyes, ete.—a dictator- ship which will place all of the means of production and exchange into the hands of those who produce wealth. the Hardings, Ceolidges, Wood- Low Wages for Candy Workers (By Federated Press.) andy means. sticky profits for xer and dirt for the consumer. and dirt inseparable ingredi- ‘4 in much of the metropolis’ sweets ihe League found girls getting $13.75 # week while working, but also found that unemployment is so high thot an average of $11.75 is nearer the true figure of real income. * While work is skimped in the lonz 7 dull periods, many factories are over- ES generous during the rush season be- 3 fore Christmas. As a result the y- hour law falls by the wayside aud 54, #5 and 70 hours constitute a week's work, e Consumers’ League of New York has concluded a six 3 candy factories and has found@— The law requiring medical exaraina- tion before employment is a dead let- om the boss, $13.75 a week to the girl ths’ survey ter and the great maj workers never get a real physical ex- amination, the League’s investigation shows. Many factories fall dowr com- pletely in primitive sanitary require- ments. Three were very clean, 10 were passably so and 12 were unnec- essarily dirty. Conditions Typical. The Consumers League, which has been through many such probes, con- cludes that “conditions described in the candy industry are probably more or less typical cf those in all low- wage, seasonal industries in which the workers are young and unskilled. The struggle for markets and spheres of influence amongst imper- bordering the Pacific Ocean has be- come keener than ever. Declining British imperialism is making redou- bled efforts to maintain its foremost position; Japan is strenuously at- tempting to undermine this position, not without success. The United States of America is endeavoring to extend its trade in the Pacific in or- der to stabilize its industries at the boom level enjoyed during the last | few years; and France and Italy are quietly consolidating and extending | their gains. | During the last two years, while | the Chinese nationalist revolutionary | movement has been struggling to | throw off foreign domination, the im- | perialist powers were compelled to| more or less submerge their differ- ences in order to suppress the revolu- | tion. Since the surrender of the Kuo- mintang to the imperialists, however, there has been a mad race to grasp as much as possible of China. Such a clash of interests must eventually lead to war, for no one im- perialist power will cease its intrigues until it holds undisputed possession of all the vast resources of China. Imperialist War Looms. That the imperialist powers are preparing for war is evidenced by the. feverish haste with which they are in- creasing the efficiency of their na- vies, and strengthening their naval | bases; also by the scornful manner in which they rejected the proposals | for complete disarmament submitted | by Soviet Russia at the recent dis- armament conference. The deliberate provocation to war on the part of the powers toward Soviet Russia in the shape of consulate raids, etc., also point to the danger of an imperialist attack on the U. S. S. R. which by its very existence constitutes an in- dictment of the capitalist system in the rest of the world. It is quite obvious that the organ- ized strength of the working class is the only force which can prevent an imperialist war in the Pacific; or an armed attack upon Soviet Russia by world capitalism. But no matter how. good the intentions of the work- ers may be, or how strong their de- termination to preyent such wars, their effectiveness is enormously weakened if they have not a common understanding of the position and united policy in relation thereto. Therefore a congress fully repre- sentative of all workers in countries in proximity to the Pacifie Ocean is urgently necessary. Foul Conditions. Besides the dangers of war being precipitated there are many other matters of importance to the working class that should be given due con- sideration at such a congress. The conditions of labor in some of the Pa- cific countries are unbelievably bad— wages are ridiculously low, working hours are intolerably long, child-labor is prevalent, housing and sanitary conditions are terribly bad, Such con- ditions constitute a menace to the standards attained by workers in countries where working class organ- ialist powers operating in countries | In some. countries, i. e., China, Korea, Java, Formosa and Japan, the organization of the workers presents a stupendous task on account of the jinhuman suppressive methods used by the governments and their hire- lings. International action is re- \quired to win the most elementary legal rights for the workers, not to speak of social legislation and other achievements long established in the countries of higher industrial devel- lopment, Trade Unions in Lead. | The efforts of workers in colonial ‘and semi-colonial lands to better their conditions has shown them the neces- sity of overcoming the foreign im- perialist forces which are allied with and support the native exploiters and reaction. With the rise of the labor movement the struggle for national liberation has become a part of the struggle for improvement of the workers’ living standards. The trade unions have thus become the leaders in the rising national revolutionary Tom Mann, leader of the British minority movement, who helped in the formation of ‘the Pan-Pacifie Trade ‘Union Secretariat. Pacific Labor Meet to Fight War Danger movements. It is essential for the workers in the suppressed colonial and semi-colonial countries to forge organizational bonds of unity with the workers in the imperialist countries, for mutual ‘assistance which includes support to the struggle for national independence. ‘ Of extreme importance is the co- ordination of strike movements—par- ticularly in the transport industry— and the organization of mutual sup- port, also the struggle for the uni- versal eight-hour day. The movement for international unity of the trade union movement must be strengthened, especially now when the world movement remains in such a divided condition, All those and other matters should be discussed at a Pan-Pacific Trade Union Congress, and definite policies should be determined upon. That a fully representative Pan- Pacific Trade Union Congress is nec- ssary was fully realized by the con- By A. E. SCOTT. The general strike and the miners’ strike of 1926 were the cause of a great awakening of the English work- ing women to political activity. In these great working class struggles the women fought as bravely and as stubbornly as their men comrades. In 1927 this has not been forgotten and jalthough the workers of England suf- fered a great defeat; they are not broken and ‘thruout 1927 we see the fighting spirit of the workers in spite of the betrayal by their leaders, Terrible Conditions. The conditions of the workers, par- ticularly in the coal mines is terrible. We find such-cases.as the following: A boy of 16 years of age, who has his mother to keep, after a full week’s work, received only four shillings and nine pence at the end of the week; a woman. -pit-head worker earned after a full week’s work 14 shillings. After her rent, social insurance, ete., had been deducted she took home four pence, Every means possible is taken to keep the wages as low as possible. Agreements are broken, pits are closed, so, that we have one district in Seotland which is practically de- populated, The pits have been closed and the workers and their families have been forced to go to other dis- tricts seeking for work. Attack Unemployed. The goyernment and the capitalist class are not satisfied with beating down the wages of the employed workers, but they also attack the un- employed. A government commission was set up, with two labor representa- tives on it, to report on unemploy- ment and to make proposals to deal with it. This is known as the “Blanesburgh Report” (so named af- ter the chairman of the commission), This report which was signed by both the labor members is an open attack ization is more advanced, Therefore these downtrodden workers must be assisted to improve their Lott a on the unemployed workers, putting many difficulties in the way of get ting unemployment pay and reducing Working Women in England in 1927 the amount to be paid to the young workers. The rate for young work- ers before the report was 18 shillings for men between the ages of 18 and 21, and 15 shillings for women. Now it is proposed to reduce the allowance for women to 8 shillings, out of which has to be paid rent as well as food land clothing. This report aroused great indigna- tion among the working women and at the women’s conference of thé Labor Party in June, 1927, where 846 delegates were present, representing 200,000 working women. A _ resolu- tion was passed with a two-thirds ma- jority condemning report and the labor members of the commission who signed it, and this, in spite of the fact that Margaret Bondfield (one of the signatories) a very well known trade union leader and a member of parlia- ment, was present and gave her rea- sons for signing this report. Demand U. 8. S. R. Delegates. Another significant feature of this conference was the question of a dele- gation tothe conference from Russia. At the previous conference a resolu- tion had been passed demanding that a delegation should be invited from Russia, At the opening of the con- ference, delegates immediately asked whether there were any greetings from Russia, The answer given was, that there were greetings, but that ghey were in Russia and Esperanto, hat therefore they could not be read. The question came at once—had dele- gates been invited. The answer was no, the Labor Party belonged to the Second International and therefore no one from the Third International could be invited, also it was impossi- ble for the Labor Party to invite any- one from the Russian Communist Party. From all over the hall came eries of “Why Not?” ~ This is related at length to show how the working women, even under the leadership of the Labor Party, are | not blinded by their they have a more junderstandmg of the class struggle leadership, that |tional as and more clear and the necessity to fight, and also how strong is their feeling of com- radeship with the working women of the Soviet Union, Fight Anti-Labor Bill. This is also shown in the part that women have taken in the fight} against the trade union bill. This bill, | which was made a law last year, re- stricts the rights of workers to strike, makes a general strike illegal and puts great difficulties in the way of paying the affiliation fees to the La- bor Party. In the campaign carried on by the Communist Party against this bill the women took a very active part. In all the chief centers delegate meetings were held which were well attended ference held at Hankow in May, 1927. That conference was not fully rep- resentative because of the tyrannous action of governments who prevented delegates from attending; it therefore decided that a congress of Pacific workers must be called within two years. % In accordance with instruc Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat will convene a congress to be held in Australia in March, 1929. The Australian workers are entitled to the prviilege of having the con- gress held in Australia because they are the originators of this great movement, furthermore, at the last All-Australian Trade Union Conress held in May, 1927, a resolution was adopted expressing a desire that the congress be held in Australia. More- over, the congress will help in the task of eradicating racial prejudices which are held by a section of Austra- lian workers, The secretary of the PPTUS is hereby instructed to notify the effili- ated organizations that such a con- gress will be held in Australia during March, 1929, and to invite them to submit items for the agenda It shall be the duty of our Austra. lian section to immediately consider whatever difficulties there may be in holding such congress and to carry on an intensive campaign to liquidate them. The Red Army Fights Reaction 3 has Red Army triumphed over the foes of the working class in spite of the numerical superiority of the latter, in spite of tremendous ma- terial difficulties in the situation of the Soviet Republic which was then severed from the rest of the world by the imperialist blockade. There was a time in 1919 when only by delegates from various working women’s organizations, including the trade unions, and factory workers. At these meetings, the women supported strongly the lead given by the Party for the calling of a general strike against the bill. F The fight ‘still continues, not mere- ly of the workers against the capi- talists, but against their leaders who at every turn betray them. — Textile Struggle Rages. At the present moment there is a struggle going on in’ the woolen textile industry, where the majority of the workers are women. Wage cuts and longer hours are demanded, and the trade union leaders, though forced | by the spirit of the workers to make a show of fighting, are working to defeat the workers by their attempts a few gubernias around Moscow re- mained, out of the whole of the vast territory of Soviet Russia. General Yudenitch was within 8-9 kilometers, of Petrograd. The hordes of General Denikin were approaching Tula, the centre of the war indus- tries located within a few houra journey from Moscow. Admiral Kol- chak, armed to his teeth by the for- eign imperialists, was advancing from the east. The Polish troops were threatening from the west, Nevertheless, at the most trying moments, the Red Army constantly gathered fresh forces, and the coun- ter-revolutionary generals were soon brought into the position where their only thought was of making good their escape aboard foreign warships. The Red Army won the victory by its class-consciousness, by the clear - to split the ranks. In 1928, the fight will still go on, and the working wom- en politically awakened through their daily struggles and the struggles of the working class as a whole will turn more and more to the Communist Party and pe Communist Interna- leaders ke te Mees view it had of the aims of the strug- gle. The workers and peasants who constitute the soldiers in the Red Army realizéd that they had before | them the relentless class enemy, whatever the pseudo-democratie di: guises under which he paraded with the support of the Mensheviks and the “social-revolutionists.”