The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 27, 1928, Page 6

~~ M M “Page Sie neni THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1928 THE D AILY WORK ER | THE TROUGH FOR THE BIG PIGS oe ctl SIE ceacanal ea le See Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: “Daiwork SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 2 of New York): six month ) three months. Address THE DAILY WORK Editor Assistant Editor @ maif out checks to , 33 Hirst Street, New York, N. Y. hntered as second-class mail at thé the act of ~ Mass Picketing and Victory ! Suroughout Ohio and Pennsylvania coal fields there is tak- ing place a big increase in the picket-lines. This is not isolated picketing, but mass picketing. As long as mass picketing continues, the mine workers are not beaten. The increase in mass picketing both in Ohio and in Pennsyl- yania means that the spirit and determination of the mine work- ers is increasing. The strike is not being beaten when the picket line is growing larger. A mass picket line means a mass spirit for victory. Everybody knows that mass picketing is the key to the strike. _. The scab operators know this, and that is why they instruct their servants, the judges, such as Schoonmaker, to issue injunc- tions against mass picketing. John L. Lewis knows this, and Lewis is against mass pi ing—because Lewis has other interests which are more important to him than winning the strike. The scab senatorial “investigation” also knows that mass picketing can win the strike for the mine workers, and therefere the senate committee’s report denounced the miners for mass picketing. ~ But mass picketing alone is not enough. The mine workers who have been fighting with the finest courage ever exhibited in an American labor struggle for one t. whole year, must make their struggle still stronger and must now go over the top to victory. The mine workers of Pennsylvania and Ohio have been fight- ing with short forces. While they are on strike, the mine workers ef Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and other districts have been ging coal. This coal from Illinois, etc., has fighting the coal miners of Pennsylvania and Ohio. And now the Illinois mine workers are facing the threat of a wage cut below the Jacksonville scale on April 1. The interest of the Illinois miners demands that they should fight this out on April 1. And by the Illinois miners coming out on April first, the fighting line of all the mine workers would be strengthened enormously. TSA TAN NR SOREN Sgr reagan eee veneer ey By FRED ELLIS Coolidge and Mellon will reduce the income tax for the millionaire class. ‘ By GERRY ALLARD. The miners of southern TMinois are well on the way to join the national movement for the preservation of the been one of the means of | U. M. W. A. and the cleaning out of the corrupt and treacherous “Lewis Machine.” have aroused the miners of this sec- tign into action. Southern [linois which hitherto has been little heard of will bear watching in the immed- iate future. The situation in this section has The last several weeks | lk The Illinois dis- trict of the United Mine; America has’ decided to be) j represented at, the April 1 con-| ference of the} 1“Save the} Union Commit-| Doctors Get Ex-Soldier’s Compensation (By @ Worker Correspondent.) LOS ANGELES, Calif., (By Mail). —Down on the “slave-market” on the southwest corner of 5th Street and Towne Avenue is one of our many cheap flop-houses. Altho run by @ family of “Huns” even ex-servicemen do not seem to object to staying there at the place for three dimes a night. Recently the writer met an ex- soldier from the K. K. K., state of Texas at this flop-house. While ‘making the world safe for demo- eracy” in France he was shot six times and gassed for good measure. “How much compensation do you get from the government?” I asked him. “Fifty dollars he answered. I asked him if he could manage to get along on that. “Yes,” he said, “But I signed my compensation over to a private doctor in order to save my life.” “But doesn’t the government furnish medical aid to sick ex-service- men free of charge?” I asked, “Yes,” he said, “But I don’t want to die yet.” So because six months compensa- tion or $300 goes into the hands of a doctor this man is forced into starva- tion for the period of at least half a year. The property of the rich is pro- tected all right, this sick ex-service man suggested to me, but not the lives of the workers. L. P. RINDAL. a month,” linois Miners JoinSave-Union Movement U. M. W. A. No Further Oppression. the message of the Save-the-Union Committee. Not one of the thugs ap- Sunday before last, hundreds of | peared on the scene. The miners were miners gathered at the Strand theatre | determined that the meeting would ba coal section in [llinois to hear Pat Toohey, youthful mine leader, convey a message from the striking hungry miners of his district. The meeting called under the auspices of the Save- the-Union Committee created enorm- ous interest among the miners. The thugs of the Lewis machine, headed tee.’? They jby Lon Fox, the sub-district president will urge that | at the point of guns, forced the speak- ers from the stage despite the angry Also the Anthracite districts are feeling the sharp attack of | : not been effected so much by the the coal operators and at the same the murderous attacks of the ctisis that generally confront the Lewis-Cappelini machine in the Union, which acts as the agent of the operators for maintaining the contract system which forces them into unbearable conditions. . In the particular interests of their own districts and in the interests of the mine workers of the country ‘as a whole, the Anthracite miners have every reason to go out on strike. The addition of the Anthracite miners as well as the Illinois miners to the fighting line would make the fighting line almost un- breakable. < The Kansas miners’ situation is such that they have every reason to take up the national struggle and to help win a sweep- ing, nation-wide victory for the Union. The mass picketing must be mass picketing not only in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but mass picketing involving a whole nation- wide fighting line. This will bring a sweeping victory for the United Mine Workers, and turn the tide for the whole labor movement. But more. The coal industry is shot through with scab con- ditions, with the open shop. Five-eighths of the coal miners in the United States are unorganized. Seventy percent of the coal dug is dug under open-shop conditions. Five hundred thousand unorganized coal mine workers must he swept into the fighting line of the United Mine Workers! Still more. The clique of strikebreaking officials of the Union, with John L. Lewis at its head, the friends of the opera- tors and enemies of the mine workers within the Union, must go down to defeat along with their allies the coal operators. Mass picketing must be carried on to win the strike; and Lewis is against mass picketing. Illinois and Indiana must come out on strikes on April 1 and Lewis is against their coming out. The Anthracite districts must come out to defeat the con- tract system, and Lewis and his henchman Cappelini are against the Anthracite coming out. Kansas, Iowa and the rest of the organized fields must come out in order to win the strike, and Lewis is against their com- ing out. ¢ * The 500,000 unorganized mine workers must be pulled out on strike in order to win the big national struggle, and Lewis is against drawing in the unorganized mine workers. __ The striking mine workers must have relief, the Pennsyl- vania-Ohio Relief Committee must be strengthened and must re- ceive more and more thousands of dollars, and tens of thousands, to continue and increase the relief which will make it possible for the miners to eat while they fight; and Lewis is against the relief committee and against any large-scale relief measures. Therefore any step toward winning the strike is blocked by John L. Lewis and his corrupt bureaucracy. To win the strike, John L. Lewis must go. The life of the United Mine Workers of America is at stake, The United Mine Workers’ Union must be saved, and it can ved only by the action of the mine workers themselves tak- over the Union, out of the hands of Lewis and his underlings, Hishwick, Fagan, Cappelini, Boylan & Co., and the coal operators whose agents they are. The crisis of the struggle comes on April 1. For.this reason the national Save-the-Union Conference is called for April 1 at Pittsburgh. Pe spree *) The Pittsburgh Conference must be attended by delegates from every local of the United Mine Workers of America and of every unorganized mine. Mine workers! To Pittsburgh April 1! 4 coal mining industry nationally. The six months “truce” which was so clev- erly put over on the miners of Illinois by Lewis-Fishwick and the operators is now being exposed in its true col- |g ors before the eyes of the hungry miners. The six months temporary agreement is about to expire; it will have fulfilled the purpcses of the operators on April first. The rank and file of our union has watched with increasing anxiety the long struggle of our Pennsylvania and Ohio brothers. We have come to rea- lize that for the last six months we} have deserted the struggling ranks of our brothe#s and their families and children who along with fathers have faced the hound of starvation and the brutality of the bosses. Do we dare to say to the Pennsyl- action be taken' to prevent acci-| 4 dents like that | pictured which, took place at West Frankfort, 3 Il. vania-Ohio miners that the Illinois miners have deserted the ranks of militant action? Lewis Has Betrayed Us. The fundamental principle “united we stand, divided we fall!” has been violated and abandoned by the flunkey | of the operators, Lewis. Harry Fish-| wick, president of district 12, has sent | out a cireular condemning the Save-| ;the-Union Committee, in which he says that “not a dollar should be spared to head off this band of scoundrels;” he reconcludes his ridic- ulous piece of sickening deception with the statement: “Remember — United we Stand, Divided we Fall.” This henchman of John L. Lewis signs up Illinois under a separate peace pact with the coal barons, dividing the ranks of the miners, and then has the guts to mention the funda- mental principle which was the fight- ing slogan of the pioneers of the protest of the coal miners. In the scuffle that followed the chairman of the meeting was slugged. Calling the miners to join together at a band stand, every rank and filer left the hall to a man, leaving Lon Fox to pray at empty seats. The mine workers of this community returned to their respective localities determined that another meeting would be held. Such a meeting was organized and the Save-the-Union Committee held a huge mass meeting at which John Brophy, Joe Angelo and Gerry Allard were received with great enthusiasm. The meeting showed that the rank and file has become aroused from its apathy and is prepared for action. Thousand miners crowded Polish Hall, while hundreds were turned away to hear ‘of determination, Workers of |at West Frankfort, the heart of the |held, and they let the world know about it too. Strike Call April First. Brophy was given a great ovation; acclaim for the six-hour day and the tive-day week rocked the hall. The strike call for April first by the dis- trict Save-the-Union Committee was adopted unanimously. April first the miners of Illinois drop their tools and extend to their battling brothers of Pennsylvania and Ohio their hands in solidarity for a fight to a finish. The call for the national conference at Pittsburgh, April 1, was received by the miners with great enthusiasm. The miners of southern Illinois have re-entered the struggle with a spirit a spirit that typical of the scrappy coal digger. It is the spirit that will carry them to a successful conclusion against the bankrupt bureaucracy of the miners’ union and the open shop coal kings. The slogan of the militant miners is echoing thruout the country: Forward, coal miners, to the na- tional conference, April 1st! Strike every Illinois mine April 1st; for a national strike! Lewis and his machine must go! Save and build the union! Maxim Gorky, a Colossus in the World of Lett By SHACHNO EPSTEIN. Translated from the Yiddish by A. B. Magil. (Continued from last issue.) IV At first Gorky believed that only the great personality, the individual with the iron will, can refashion life. This great personality he sought not amo culture, nor among the peasants who rooted to the soil, but among the exiles of society, the vagabond “bos- yaks.” Because no one paid any at- tention to the “bosyaks” and they were looked upon as the scum of the earth, Gorky wanted to show that they. were the standard-bearers of true humanity, filled with wisdom, energy and a spirit of self-sacrifice. Thus he introduced into Russian liter- ature an entirely new figure, a rebel- lious character in love with life, in whom there is a superabundance of /energy—the very reverse of the nam- by-pamby intellectuals, with their passiveness and melancholy, and of the peasants, with their near-sighted conservatism. And the boorish, ig- norant Konovalov, who had been brought up under the worst sort of conditions, becomes the expression of By JULIUS CODKIND. The objective situation of the Workers (Communist) Party in ‘the presidential election to be held this year reveals many splendid opportun- ities for the political development of the working class. Government Oil Besmirched. The national government is splash- ed in the oil and murk of perhaps the greatest steal in the history of gov- ernmental graft. The democratic op- position is making a so-called inves- tigation, trembling at the idea of ex-. posing those cabinet members who are at the same tme captains of in- dustry, for they dare not offend the source of campaign funds, ¥ choice souls oversated with | the highest human nobility: it is from Konovalov that one should learn how to live. * * The “bosyaks” embodied Gorky’s challenge to accepted morality. But the purpose of life was not yet clear to Gorky himself and there shone be- fore him no bright ideal. As a result, jhis view of life was vague and con. \fused and his heroes were often stilt- ed. They felt a tremendous urge to \deeds, to action of some sort and hated apathy, but they did not know how to make use of their energy, and so this urge to turbulent activity fre- quently became merely a battling with wind-mills. * True, it is often necessary to resort \to beautiful lies to bring cheer to the \dejected. But then—what? ido the lies lead to and what do they accomplish outside of a temporary al- ‘leviation? To such questions the in- dividual with the iron will can give no answer; he is incapable of lead- ing humanity out of its rut. And so with all his philosophy of the joy of life, Gorky, outside of aphorisms, ab- stractly clever talk and hymns about “the madness of the bold,” had creat- ed nothing concrete. He went around with a joyous, rousing song in hi heart, but in his mind was no defi- Elections a Great Opportunity In the Empire State, New York, re- publican . administrative officials stand “caught with the goods,” while the democratic president of the Bor- ough of Queens of the City of New York appears to have seriously em- barrassed the Smith aspirations by being caught in the smelly sewer graft. The trade union bureaucracy is al- ready badly discredited, giving jackal support to the capitalist political parties. The industrial depression is so deep that its effects could not be postponed over the election by even the powerful American money mon- archs. With it we have the greatest wave of unemployment since the per- iod of perpetual crisis between 1907 Where | nite, compelling idea. “Man—how proud it sounds.” But what can man by himself do to refashion life? * * * Because the “bosyaks” stood out clearly from the rest of society by their differentness, they had become for Gorky a means for expressing his own exalted, essentially different moods, And into the mouths of the “bosyaks” he had put airy rhetorical phrases that really conveyed subjec- \tively his own thoughts and opinions. Objectively the “bosyaks” symbol- lized the social ferment of the time. Through these fanciful creations there were for the first time rooted in Russian literature heroes who were bold, arrogant and merciless, who lcould defend life and enjoy life with strong emotions and desires. And in this period of darkest reaction it was only natural that such heroes should draw to them the sympathies of all progressive readers so that Gorky im- mediately assumed a_ position of honor in Russian literature of the ‘nineties, standing out among the writers of the time as a real inno- ivator. And the interest in his work ‘subsequently grew even greater |wh there was gathered the revolu- tighary*energy for the 1905 upheaval. igh he had touched only casual- r Communist and 1914, Socialists on Road to Decay. The socialist party is already far along the road of decay and decline, losing membership, and with the rem- nants of its following badly demoral- ized by its treacherous support of the Green-Woll union-smashing, _class- collaboration policy and its refusal to Support the workers in their struggles against the employers. In the midst of all this, our Party is the only section of the labor move- ment that in a period of retreat and demoralization has been gaining ground. It can point to a splendid record. of vigorous struggle in every field of working class activity. It is sound, healthy, and growing, and its | ly on the life of his time, Gorky had made it clear that the abnormal con- ditions of society are in complete con- tradiction to the natural qualities of the human character, And on the minds of his readers even the abstract call of Gorky’s heroes to a struggle for the liberation of the human per- sonality had made an impression. Thus Gorky with his narrow, confused individualism helped in a concrete way to revolutionize the masses. But being permeated with the de- sire to refashion life, Gorky could not content himself for long with his “bosyaks,” and with his play, “Lower Depths,” there entered a new phase into his creative work. Here the ro- mantic veil is torn from the “bos- yaks”; they are presented in a new light, stripped of all artificial color and embellishment. And against the lovely lyrical soul-effusions of the aimless vagabonds and proletarian bums’ was placed the “hard truth of life.” The old romantic dreamings had evaporated; Gorky turned to a ‘broader envisagement of life and set himself the task of creating the so- ciological novel, That he was ade- quate to the task had already been shown. in his great works, “Foma Gordeyev” and “Three.” influence is being felt by ever-widen- ing cireles of the American working class, Every sign points to the fact that this election campaign offers a splen- did opportunity for the Party to roll up a vote that will total into the hun- dreds of thousands. It promises to be a splendid medium for the mobiliza~ tion of all of our forces in a great demonstration of strength. A Great Opportunity, Achievements come only with the utmost difficulty and as the result of tremendous sacrifice. It will not be easy to place our Party on the ballot in the various states. It will not be easy to mobilize our forces for the ——+. ers Although in “Foma Gordeyev” and “Three” the “bosyak” psychology is still dominant, there is already de- picted in them on a broad scale the growth of capitalism in Russia, and the typical representatives of capi- talism emerge in a deeply convincing way. There is also in these two works an intimation of the influence of the factory on all phases of life and the part it will play in the solution of so- cial problems. And in Gorky’s play, “Petty-Bourgeois,” there is heard the tread of the awakened worker, bring- ing joyous distraction into the mon- otony of the life around. Here the city pushes the country into the back- ground, Continuing to grow with the years, Gorky becomes the artist of the city. Even when he describes the village, there is the breath of city life con~ stantly bursting through. Ideological changes also occur in him: his roman- ticism, the anarchistic aura of his life- philosophy, give way to a more defi- nite, more materialistic, a more Marx- ian ideology. And Gorky joins the revolutionary movement; he becomes a Soeial-Demo< crat-Bolshevik. .f (To be continued) campaign. It will not be easy to gain widespread attention for our candi- dates. Yet all these and numerous other problems that will arise in the campaign will have to be solved. 4 The Party faces a wonderful op- portunity. Whether or not it succeeds in taking full advantage of the situa- tion will depend almost wholly on the first response to the call for contribu-. tions and on the opening) of the cam- paign, especially the job of placing the Party on the ballot. Let us pre- pare for this job and take what is rightfully ours, Place the Party on the ballot! . A quarter million votes! A hundred thousand dollars! is * | Party to Mobilize the Worker 8