The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 28, 1928, Page 6

{ rs q a Page Six eee ee THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1928 THE DAILY WO Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. | Daily, Except Sunday 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RA By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 | “Daiwork 50 per year $2.00 three months. Address and mail out checks t THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, Editor Assistant Editor.... York, N. Y. ..ROBERT MINOR _.WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-offi the act of March 3. The Law of Coal, Steel, Oil Nothing has more clearly shown the road which the mine | workers must travel than the events in that tragic-comedy, the | senate committee investigation of the mine industry. ~ And nothing during the course of these events has so defi- nitely emphasized the necessity of traveling this single road as the testimony of Rockefeller, Schwab and Mellon. Laws are made to be broken—by the finance capitalists of the American Empire—not by workers, of course. These kings are the state! If an agreement no longer suits their purposes, it ean be broken with impunity. The methods of explaining away the “ethical deviation” do not matter. The necessity of the cap- italist dictatorship knows no higher law than its own needs. | In the working out of this law, the sullen Mellon, the genial | Schwab, the pious, psalm-singing Rockefeller play an exactly sim-} ilar role. | This is the law of coal, steel and oil. The brutal frankness with which this law is expressed espe- | cially by the spokesmen of the Consolidation Coal Company, the Rockefeller concern, will serve to open the eyes of large sections | of the American working class. The kings of coal, steel and oil snap their fingers at that “figment of the imagination,” public opinion; they need fear even less the power of the workers if, as at present, led by such arch-traitor as Lewis. Lewis hears the told unraveling of the plot to destroy “his” union. He sits unmoved besides the men who exploit, who evict, who assassinate the workers; he listens and remains quiet as they | predict that nothing will be left of the miners’ organization. shakes hands with Rockefeller at the end! The kings of coal, steel, oil appear to have nothing to fear at} at New York, N. Y¥., COAL. BARON: “I'll say Mr. and reduced the quantity of Union-d RK ER! ‘CLASS COLLABORATION Lewis is a credit to the coal industry. lug coal from 70 percent to 30 percent. With his help we have reduced the membership of the Union by 200,000 on That’s what we call ‘class collaboration’. New Magazine For the Foreign Born Workers |JHE first issue of “The Foreign- Born Worker” has appeared and altho only a mimeographed bulletin, it is attractive and contains a good deal of interesting reading matter. The leading article, “A New Attack on the Foreign-Born” discusses the question of greatest and most vital import to the foreign-born worker in | America today—discriminatory legis- lation. About a dozen bills have been introduced in congress, the article points out, which definitely set apart the foreign-born workers from the na- tive-born and brand them as outsiders if not criminals. These measures propose chiefly registration, deporta- ion and naturalization of foreign- born and suppression of the foreign jlanguage newspapers. This registra- tion would include fingerprinting, |photographing and all of the sort of recording that one usually associates | with criminals. | In addition to the political articles |there are discussions of the position |of the foreign-born worker in various jindustries, particularly the food in- |dustry, in this interesting bulletin. There are also editorials, satirical news bits, cartoons, and reports of the council’s work. | Tt AID RUMANIAN TERROR. - WASHINGTON, March 27,— Breaking treaty relations with Ru- mania as a means of punishing that jcountry’s ruling group for-its atro- jcities, proposed in a joint resolution | offered in the senate. | The state department has replied |evasively to a demand that it block the pending $60,000,000 loan by Wall Street bankers to the Rumanian gov- ernment. The department will do nothing to embarrass this loan. ————_# € e 9 e e e the present moment. | Yet in one great union the forces of struggle have already al Or CTS e l | 1eS ll } O 1S error beén unleashed. Here already large sections of the workers un-| derstand the road they must travel against the Rockefellers, the | Schwabs, the Mellons—and against Lewis. ees to a miserable and intolerable} the party of the people of White Rus- the party illegal and demanding its jdefense witnesses might make ar- The Save-the-Union Committee points the way. | Functionaries Meeting Prepares for May Day Celebration The struggle of the miners, the im- } rialist invasion of Nicaragua and the anemployment situation were the chief issues emphasized at the meet- ity of the functionaries of the New Yorke District of the Workers’ (Com- tmunist) Party, held on Friday eve- ny March 23rd, at 108 East 14th Strvet. W. W. Weinstone, reporting for the District, pointed out that uxound these issues the greatest mob- ilization must be made in preparation toy the Madison Square Garden meet-' ing and for demonstrating the solidar- ' ity of Labor on this international | workingelass holiday. Report By Weinstone. 4 Weinstone pointed out that the re-, volt of the rank and file against the destructive activities of the Lewis ma- chine would be registered in the m: conference on April 1st, and that this conference would take steps to strengthen the strike and to enable the miners to take control of their own union. On the question of unemployment, Weinstone emp zed that the unem- ployment insurance bill must be put in the forefront of the demands of the unemployed and that this bil! must secure the support of the entire labor movement. On the question of the struggle against the imperialist invasion of earagua, the report pointed out that Party members must intensify their activities still further, and must sup port the campaign for sending medical supplies and bandages to the army of Sandino. In view of the increasing attacks of the imperialists upon the Soviet Union as shown at Gene Farty membership must unde better the program and tactics of Party regarding the war da) that they may be able to fulfill th tasks better. May 1st must voice the need for international solidarity of the entire workingclass against the at- tempts of the imperialists to form a 1e | tention to the detailed organizational |rroblems, for greater control by the »|units of their membership, for better discipline and centralization and | strengthening of the Party units and| Party membership is necessary. It was pointed out that the district has done well in the DAILY WORKER drive, in which over $3500 has been raised and 30,000 copies of the DAILY WORKER distributed each week, 20,- 000 of which have been paid for by the units. Hmphasis was laid upon the prepzrations for the election cam- paign, in which we may put forward our ticket but at the same time con- tinue the agitation for the establish- raent of a Labor Party. Distribute Daily Worker. The discussion which followed was Farticipated in by twenty functionaries who pointed out the accomplishments in the various sections of the c'ty The Harlem and Downtown sections pointed out that they were distribut- ing the DAILY WORKER regularly before the I. R. T. National Biscuit Company, and similar big plants; that this was in preparation for the estab- lishment of shop papers, and that the workers welcomed the distribution of the DAILY WORKER and showed a very friendly attitude to the efforts ef the Party to establish shop pavers and to fight the employers in these big industrial plants. Long Island particularly pointed out that the es- tablishment of a shop paper in the Rolls Royce plant. the distribution of the DAILY WORKER and the atten- tion to the industrial plants in Long Island have re-vitalized the section. Bert Miiler, the organization sec- retary, stressed the necessity for at- reports by the units to the district, and general strengthening of the Party apparatus. The functionaries jurged that the Madison Square Garden | meet can be made a huge success jen May Day by attempting to reach united front against the Soviet Union and against the preparations for new world slaughter. That these tasks may be fulfilled, the report pointed out that greater Labor Prisoners Welcome Books ill come as a real pleasure to s contributing to the defense forts of class war pris x how greatly their donatio’ International Labor Defense tribute to make life bearable be- {prison bars, | all items like tobacco, candy, shaving cream, new books to read, all these are now being had by labor prisoners where prison regulations permit. Claude Merritt, member of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, in San Quemiin prison with Tom Mooney, Warren Billings and other workers, writes in a recent letter pub- lished in the “Labor Defender:” “Your letter and check for $5.00 ‘was received. I must express my for the workers’ remem- 18 vonage those who are behind prison | 1, rs! usefulness; certain items have im- proved our commissary iist; items which are sorely needed ly the new workers and attracting them to the meeting. They also reported that they were undertaking the distributi dof the soecial on of the DAILY WORKER. bars. “The contribution has increased its prisoners. “There seems to be considerable in- | terest among the members of the | Oakland branch of the I. L. D., whi | the fellows here are glad to see. Num- |erous workers have recently visited | the labor prisoners, and I have re- | ceived letters from several who ha’ jour interest at heart. That sort o% bastion is the greatest bols.er of cheer | which the prisoners have. The I. L. D. is not so bad! “With best wishes to every one in the I. L. D. movement, By MAX SHACHTMAN. state. Most of the peasants own not/of the Polish fascists have reduced A whole nation is on trial in the |more than 10 to 11 acres of very}sia, “Hromada”, giving voice to the Polish fascist court at Vilna, where 56 |poor land, burdened with exorbitant! need for social, political, national and members of the White Russian Work- |taxes, old and inefficient tools, and|cultural liberation from Polish op- ers and Peasants Party, the “Hrom- 'resultant bad harvests. During a bad’ pression. It had a phenomenal growth. ada,” the first group of the 490 ac- Tharvest, starvation and death is wide-| At the time of its formation, in June cused, are being prosecuted for mem- | spread. | 1926, it had 19 branches with 569 | bership in an organization which has| In addition, what good land there is| members; in September of the same i-\/ Ry SHACHNO EPSTE the support of from 80 to 90 per cent of the population of the oppressed White Russian people under Polish domination. Fought for Rights of White Russian Workers, The “Hromada,” up to the time of the mass arrests that followed the police attack upon its national con- gress in Staraya-Beresa on Decem- ber 2, 1926, was a legal party, and one of the largest in the world. It had mobilized in its ranks upwards of 100,000 active members, out of a White Russian population of only 2,- 500,000. The “Hromada” was the living, militant expression of the feel- ings of this national minority which still suffers a more severe political and economic oppression under the re- gime of Marshal Pilsudski than it did even in the days of the Russian czars. It gave voice to the demands of the White Russian people for the right to self-determination; the right to the maintenance of their national culture, language, schools and other institu- tions; against the discriminatory and oppressive taxation, which has been proportionately greater than that levied in ethnographical Poland; for cooperation with the toilers of all Po- land, and a workers’ and peasants’ government, and against the anti- Soviet policies of Pilsudski that are inspired. by Anglo-American capital, the “Hromada” demanded a policy of toward the, Soviet Union. Polish Fascist Terror. The White Russian people—over- whelmingly feasants—live under the most frightful conditions. The knout | eee PE a | (Continued from last issue) Translated from the Yiddish by A. B. Magil. herence to the ¢ connection with the revolu- ovement placed Gorky with fect squarely on the ground and ted a solid foundation for his He grew more thoughtful and 1g upon life with sober . Without losing any of his tieg spirit or youthful enthus- 1, he came to understand that no ermen will lead society out of its thetic state or bring salvation to kind. He began to realize that work, began look be, is an cagle with clipped if he has no support , behind i and is not bound by a thousand es to the magses. And becoming permeated more and more with the fundamental emotionai perceptions and ideology of the prole- “Yours onward. —“CLAUDE MERRITT.” tariat, Gorky ceased to be the singer of the individual and, became the art- fraternal cooperation and friendliness the individual, no matter how strong | jis handed out in large parcels to col-| onists who are former Polish officers and soldiers, or else “deserving” fas-| cist supporters. The native language is under the ban. Only four out of the 600 White Russian state schools remained in|} | existence up to 1927, and private}| |schools are subjected to the most sys- jtematic extermination. Petty Polish} military martinets are sent to teach/| |the White Russian children in Polish state schools. The White Russian press—with the exception of that part of it that is suborned by the fascists —is driven from pillar to post. And whoever dares to protest against these conditions, be it patriarch or child, man or woman, immediately feels the sting of the lash and is al- lowed to cool heels in the hellish pri- sons of Poland. | gal party! Out of this swamp of misery arose year, it -had 1,062 branches with 30,828 members, and by*January 15, 1927, it had 2,000 branches with 100,000 members, organized into a le- It assumed the vigorous leadership of the White Russian peo- ple, obtained representation in the Polish Sejm, and rallied the over- whelming majority of the population to its banner of struggle. Terrorize “Hromada” Members. Organized and maintained as a le- gal party, it was seen by Pilsudski that his first caleulations—that the “Hromada” would be a harmless and convenient safety-valve for the White Russians—were entirely incorrect, and at the end of the year, December 1926, the first steps were taken to suppress the movement. The national congress of the party was attacked; delegates were cruelly beaten and ar- annihilation at the point of the fascist bayonet; and in addition, all ‘the “Hromada” members of the Sejm (parliament) were arrested without even the latter’s permission. Following an intensified reign of brutality, terror and arrests, 490 of the most active members of the “Hromada,” the best children of White Russia, were arrested, including the Sejm members Voloczyn, Miotla, Tar- asckiewitez and Michailowski, the general secretary of the party Brus- sewitcz, the noted author Lutczke- witez, and the well-known culturalist of Vilna, Ostovsky. They are now ‘on trial. The evidence of the prosecution against the accused is based on ab- solutely nothing more tangible and convincing than the words and re- ports of the agents provocateurs of the infamous Ochrana. “Evidence” is admitted against the defendants isolely on the basis of the say-so of police spies. But not the slightest latitude is extended the defense. Its witnesses, of whom there are hun- dreds, have been seriously cut into by the refusal of the prosecution to post- rested; the order went out making pone the trial until a few scores of BURSEWITZ, ist of the collective mass. And the hero of his works is no longer the in- dividual with his narrow soul-prob- ings, but the masses with their boundless creativeness. * * This close connection between Gorky’s adherence to the proletariat jand the change in his writing was recognized evcn by those critics who were far froya the revolution movement. Ore of thi ities } sd too y pointed out, ho second period of his creative activity, when Gorky aban- doned the “bosyaks” and renounced idualism, he rose to a plane clarity such as few of the ian writers attained. Gorky would never have achieved this clar- jity had he not drawn his inspiration jfrom the working class. The revolu- jtionary movement was the spring pouring abundant life into him, and through it Gorky approached the great serenity of a Tolstoy. Yet before Gorky had acquired this LUZKEWICZ, 8 |Gorky w White Russian Workers’ Leaders, Victims of Pilsudski WOLOSZIN, new orientation there were already a number of critics who were proclaim- ing ‘finis” to his work. The famous Russian poet, Alexander Blok, wrote at the time: “If there is anything great, inexhaustible and promising |that we are wont to identify with the ep of Russia, we must look upon as a considerable ex- f” Maxim Go |pression the 3 | Blok’s words refer to the time when still idealizing the “bos- lyaks”; but they acquired a new im- ing |port later on when Gorky wrote his play, “Enemies,” and his novels, |“Mother” and Confession.” Although artistically “Enemies” jcannot be ranked with Gorky’s best jwork, it is nevertheless interesting jbecatuse of its theme. In it is re- ‘vealed the moral power of the work- er-collectivity that goes simply, with- lout high-sounding phrases, to heroic \deeds because of “its calm faith in its truth.” And agninst this worker- collectivity bourgeois individualism in all its forms seems so puny. When the play was. first published, it was greeted with great enthusiasm by the brilliant Marxian theoretician and lit. lerary scholar, G. Plechanov, who TARASKIEWICZ, Wo White Terror @ MIOTHA, called it a penetrating study of work- ingclass psychology, * % * Much more important than “Ene- mies” is the novel, “Mother,” which was translated into many languages and created a tremendous stir among the working class of various coun- tries. In many respects “Mother” is {still sketchy and has not the sure {mastery of Gorky’s mature creative iperiod. The underground revolution- jary movement is enveloped in too jmuch romanticism and the revolution- jary leaders are over-idealized, while the agitational-propagandistic back- ground of the book stands out too ‘much, However, the life in the fac- \tory and the gradual awakening of ithe working masses to class-con- |sciousness are vividly portrayed. The novel, “Confession,” was a new attempt to depict the revolutionary movement, an attempt which is ar- tistically more successful than “Moth. er.” “Confession” portrays the dev- ious processes of spiritual ferment among the working masses. The de- scriptions. of nature and of mass- ecstasy are full of an extraordinary ipower, but the novel suffers from a , ja ;| well-known progressive rangements to be present, and more than a hundred others have been ar- bitrarily refused permission to come |to the trial and testify! The defense lattorneys did not know to the last minute if the trial would open when it did, although they should have been given at least fourteen days of notifi- cation. The prosecution has charged the defendants with belonging to an or- ganization’ maintained by a foreign power, by which is meant the Soviet Union. Pilsudski desires to crush the “Hromada” so that his frontier will be in good order at the moment of the attack upon the Soviet Union that is being steadily urged by British and American imperialism. “Order must reign” in White Russia and Western Ukraine so that there will be no in- terference with his murderous impe- rialist designs, and his Policy of the complete subjection of the White Rus- sian people, and the annihilation of |the remaining vestiges of their na- tional identity. The Vilna trial is one of the most violent steps yet taken lin this direction, Workers Protest Terror, The case has aroused the interest of all Europe. Thousands have al- ready protested against the prosecu- tion and a strong movement has de- veloped to demand its end and the lib- eration of the accused. In the United States, the International Labor De- fense is aiding in the organization of similar movement, particularly among the nationalities directly af- i: fected in Poland, as well as among American labor organizations and individuals. The bond of solidarity that holds to- gether the workers of all countries will be immeasurably strengthened if the workers of this country will im- &|mediately give voice to their horror at the murderous work of Pilsudski and their demand for swift vindica- tion and release of the courageous sons of the toiling masses of White Russia. Maxim Gorky, a Colossus in the World of Letters serious ideological defect in that the power of the worker-collectivity is exalted to a sort of religious super- stition, There is even a scene in the book where, under the spell of the worker-collectivity, a paralyzed girl begins to walk and is entirely cured. Such an interpretation of the collec- tive might of the working class \aroused astonishment among Marxian critics, * * * “Confession” undoubtedly reveals the influence of the prevailing God- \seeking, which was then the height ‘of fashion in Russian: literature as a \result of the reaction after the failure of the first revolution. God-seeking isecured a foothold among certain sec- tions of the socialist intelligentsia and Gorky also fell a victim to it. But all three works, “Enemies,” “Mother” and “Confession,” revealed clearly Gorky’s fundamental artistic aim: to portray the life and struggles of the proletariat, the sufferings and inner turmoil of all “the lowly and despised.” And not for nothing did call Gorky “proletarian writer.” (To be continued) Lenin, who detested empty phrases,