The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1928, Page 6

THE DAILY WORKER) ow 70 Pur rr THROUGH! Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. : Daily, Except Sunday $3 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address SUBSCRIPTION RATES Phone, Orchard 1680 ‘Daiwork } -_——— By Mail (in New York only): By Mail ( je of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.50 per year $3.50 six months| $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Addres: THE DAILY WORK and mail out checks to R, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. SAbe we ROBERT MINOR ..WM. F. DUNNE at New York, N. ¥., under 9. Assistant Editor.... Entered as second-class mail the at the post act of March Mine Workers, Beware of Lies! Bee The success of the national conference of the Mine Workers at Pittsburgh is shown by the attitude of the capitalist class newspapers. Those papers have always acted as ideological strike- | breakers, mobilizers of anti-union sentiment, skilful confusers of | the workers. in every labor struggle. It is especially true that in| every big struggle of the United Mine Workers the capitalist | newspapers, because of the exceptional importance of the miners’ | Union, have used every power at their command to deceive, con- | fuse and demoralize the workers. Bust , | | In the present biggest of all crises in the Mine Workers’ | Union, the editors who take their orders from the <ailiionadne | owners of their papers, and from the banks which back the own- | ers, are especially venomous. | First—the attitude of the big metropolitan newspapers out- | side of the coal regions. These newspapers spend millions of dol- Jars every month for gathering of news. Their representatives, | paid fat salaries, are at present at Pittsburgh, and are gathering | the “news.” They are there for enemy purposes. If there were | any possibility to hold the Pittsburgh conference of the Mine) Workers up to ridicule as a failure, they would do so, as they are | paid to do so. But the big capitalist newspapers outside of the | THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1928 100% ORGAN ZATION: MINERS! NATIONAL AGGREEMENT ./ Lewis Go / “A. pers TAKE ONTROL & a ois RNR mNaRINN CS ut qn pecs " vr 7 By Fred Ellis ‘R. R. Workers [Average Under $1,000 a Year America’s boast of high wages |must sound like a hollow joke to the |400,000 unskilled workers at the bot- tom of the railroad pyramid. Ac- jcording to the survey of 1927 railroad wages by the interstate commerce commission these 400,000 averaged less than $1,000 for the full year’s work. In fact 216,000 averaged less than nine hundred for the year. These railroad workers, receiving what constitutes the minimum wage on which the wage structure in the industry rests, number 411,472, al- most exactly a quarter of all railroad workers paid on an hourly basis. The average railroader’s 1927 wage amounted to $1677, compared with $1657 in 1926 and $1619 in 1923. If we eliminate high paid executives anc officials and include only workers paid on an hourly basis, the 1927 average was $1601, compared with $1585 in 1926 and $1556 in 1923, Thus all the railroad wage increases in the last 4 years have added only $45 or about 2.8 per cent to the average rail- road worker’s annual spending power. The commission’s report also shows how the railroads have been paring down their forces since 1923. This holds particularly true of the shops in which the number paid on an hourly basis has been reduced from 572,180 in 1923 and 517,769 in 1924 to 479,234 in 1927. Here is a reduc- tion of more than 17 per cent in 4 years. The number of train and en- gine’ service men has been reduced 4 fom 343,382 in 1923 to 322,820 in 11917; clerks from 236,411 to 227,500; and the group of transportation de- partment workers other than those in train and engine service, from 208,034 to 195,454. —* coal regions are absolutely silent about the Pittsburgh conference. | Why? Because it is such an impressive success that there is no} possibility of making it appear as a failure. Therefore they are absolutely silent. Hardly a word about the greatest labor gather- | ing in many years has appeared in any of the big New York cap- | italist papers. | The capitalist publishers know that anything printed about| One of the tested methods of con- cealing the preparations carried on 2, : : . | the Pittsburgh conference during its sessions would only let out) i, the capitalist world for new wars, the news which they want to conceal for the benefit of the op-|is the invention of “Red Imperialism” | by the bourgeois and reformist press. erators. ] } Capitalists Race to Arm. But when a half-dozen millionaire senators drove their au-| pyerybody knows that behind the tomobiles through some mining camps on a fake “investigation” | storm of endless talk about disarm- tour, these same capitalist newspapers shouted from the house- tops about it. Why? To make the workers in the coal fields think the millionaire senators and the coal operators and the scab coal operator, Mellon, would do something for the mine workers, and that therefore it was unnecessary for the mine workers to do something for themselves. lof “peace” conferences and gather- armament throughout the capitalist world. This growth leaves far be- {hind the feverish development of | militarism prior to the world war of 1914-18. However, the bourgeois press is prudently silent on the mat- ter: But instead it is touchingly unanimous in picturing the Union of | Socialist Soviet Republics as a “dan- |gerous hotbed” accusing it of plant- ing militarism. . A few facts and figures will suffice Pittsburgh capitalist newspapers during the last few days|to expose these fictitious tales. It is generally known that the | have done some remarkable lying about the conference of the|_ **t spel ab a A i : 7 2 é 2 i Union of Socialist Soviet Republics | Mine Workers. At the highest point in the proceedings the cap- is, according to territory, the largest italist papers tried to put over the lie that there was a “split” |country in se oe a powers on * = 11 states an as i ilometers among the delegates. Another and even cleverer thing they Ae | ce boundary: linea. ierintercnational doing is to print the most idiotic sentimental slush about that situation is such that aggressive ac- hard-boiled enemy of the mine workers, Phil Murray, and his|tion on the part of the capitalist * A * ss 2 We coca against the first workers’ lieutenants, telling sentimentally of how they spoke for hours “‘in | republic in the world may be expected the rain” to encourage the mine workers. When did these papers | at any moment. become “friends” of the mine workers? But the capitalist newspapers in the coal regions cannot en- tirely ignore the biggest event in the lives of the Mine Workers, because the Mine Workers already know about it. Therefore these capitalist papers are not silent. Instead of being silent, they lie. The capitalist newspapers are now, at the end of the big na- | tional Save-the-Union Conference, mobilizing their resources for | the purpose of saving John L. Lewis and Phil Murray and the | rest of the gang from the wrath of the miners. | By A. GUSAKOFF. Sos, ¥. ae pe last few months of literature The capitalist owners of these capitalist newspapers know|# work brought us some good re- that if they can save John L. Lewis, Phil Murray, Fishwick, Fagan, |sults. A general increase of litera- ini ” " sos aatrow a TIni ture sales to almost 200 per cent, not Cappelini & Co., the operators can destroy the Union. Gils op a aise keale,, bart in aes! itali ess Wi y in as a tions. units, etc, an increased sale The capitalist press will now begin as never before to lie oy The Conmminied! and “Party Or- about the Mine Workers. It will twist every piece of real news | ganizers,” are to be considered as and will manufacture news that does not exist. |great achievements, and those who | have been responsible for this in- |erease, namely the literature agents. {and members of the literature squad, This advice can be taken as the exact reverse of what the | should be complimented for this good Mine Workers ought to do. | work. There are, however, still many | shortcomings which must be pointed The Mine Workers have adopted their program. It is the out and immediately Sages a i ~ itali , must, ‘for instance, show that _ Mine Workers’ program, and not the capitalist press’ program. | \rite there is a general increase. {1 The Mine Workers can, must and will carry it through in spite | literature sales and distribution, it i i advice’ italiat | stly limited to interhal (Party) and sabotage and poisonous “advice” o: is rnostly limited 2 re ies . us eo ie Capt paLeD | distribution, This, of course, is of ea papers. great importance and should be con- sidered as a step forward in our j work, but it is not entirely satisfac- Not the capitalist press, not the rotten press of the Lewis |‘ ‘ 9 and Green bureaucracy, not the treacherous press of the so-called” riterature work, as well as other socialist party, but the press of the working class, will and does |party work, can not be limited He poor i 9 the Party alone; our orientation also ort ee eanaek Rtoerer. lin this field of activity must be + towards the masses, towards the great ‘number of proletarians, who are still for one reason or another outside of Party, is the only daily paper in the English language which is |jogical campaign within the party for wholeheartedly supporting the Miners’ Program. The DAILY |a Labor Party, without raising this WORKER and the twenty other papers of the working class in | issue in the labor movement in gen- the various languages of the foreign-born miners which support jeoh ee unions, political and frat- Y erna 4 x * | organizations, ete, so it the Miners’ Program, must be spread among the miners through- is incorrect to think, that by increas- out the country. ing our literature sales in the party, | we have already solved the problem. |A systematic, well organized distrib- |ution of literature in front of shops, factories, at union halls, ete., this is The DAILY WORKER tells the Mine Workers to go ahead | hat will popularize us among tho The capitalist press will “advise” the Mine Workers. The workers can rely only upon the workers’ press. s >s not support the Miners’ Program is the. miners enemy. This alone will counter-act the poison of the capitalist news- papers which are trying to confuse and defeat the workers. ament, behind the screen of all kinds! ings, there is a feverish growth of| Soviet inion Apart from that the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics must, in the interests of its defense, take into ac- }count the danger not only of an at- tack on the part of its immediate neighbors, but also on the part of the other capitalist powers. Never- theless, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. has a Red Army for the protection of its vast border lines only of 562,000. The forces of the immediate western neighbors of the (Finland, Esthonia. Latvia, Poland and Rumania) number 543,000 men. U.S. S. R: Reduces Army. In addition to that it should be pointed out that whereas the numeri- cal strength. of the armies of those states increases from year to year. the Union of Socialist Soviet Repub- lies reduced its army by 138,000 dur- ing the last four years. Thus, for the defense of the west- ern borders alone, an expanse of 3,- 000 kilometers, (only 15 per cent of the land borders on the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics) it would be necessary to use almost all armed forces of the Union of Socialist Sov- iet Republics. But the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics as every other state cannot leave the other border lines, which constitute 85 per cent unguarded. The forces of the Red Army are bring the workers nearer to our move- ment, In connection with this, it is also important ‘to: point out that not only must we cover raeetings arranged by our oWh-organ’zation, or sympathetic organizations, but it is still of greater importance to cover with literature these meetings which are organized bhy.our enemies. Section one has shown 2 good example. The litera- ture squad of each unit was made responsible for a certain territory. Any meeting arranged in this ter- scattered over a vast stretch of space and at any point of our border lines are weaker than their neighbors, let alone the fact that the latter can receive 4t any moment (and have re- ceived during the civil war) the sup- port from other capitalist powers. This is the first fact which shows that the Red Army can by no means be regarded as a weapon for imperi- alist aims. The second fact which proves the falsity of the inventions about “Red Imperialism” is a comparison of the military drilling in the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics and other capitalist countries. The Figures. Popu. Sol. Per- in in cent- Country Thou. Thou. age France 39,200 729 17. Esthonia 1,100 14 12.7 Latvia 1,800 20 11.1 Poland 80,000 312 10.4 Finland 3,400 33 9.7 Roumania 17,000 164 9.6 Great Britain 44,500 37: 84 Lithuania 2,300 15 65 United States 114,000. 429 3,8 Japan 59,000 205 3.5 U.S. S..R. 148,880 562 3.8 \ritory, no matter by which organi- |zation is/under their direct respon- jsibility and supervision. All the news- istands in their territory are also to be covered by them. This distribu- tion of work, with the direct respon- |sibility of a group of comrades over a leertain territory, if properly exe- leuted, and strictly followed out will bring good results, Other sections should follow this example. Each section can, however, work out its own plan. At present we are engaged in a The aggregate army during the peace period of four large states, Great Britain, France and Italy and the United States was in 1913 1,413,- 000 and in 1927 1,821,000. The Russian Army in 1913 num- bered 1,300,000 men; the Red Army of 1927 numbers only 562,000. It should by the way also be point- ed out that the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics which ranks among the first countries of the world in the number of the population borders on several seas and has a sea front of 40,000 kilometres. Its naval for- ces comprise 189,000 tons as against 548,000 in 1917, whereas the United States has a tonnage of 1,255,000, Great Britain, 1,238,000, Japan, 622,- 000, France, 458,000, Italy, 289,000. etc. Soviet War Budget Small. No less characteristic are the fig- ures on the war budgets. The war budget, for instance, of the four states mentioned amounted in 1913 to 993 million dollars and in 1926 to 1,768 million dollars, i.e., an increase of almost 80 per cent, while the war budget of Russia amounted in 1913 to 1,586 million roubles and was re- duced by the Soviet government to 644 million roubles, which is an ap- proximate decrease of 60 per cent Now we will analyze the relative strength of military expenditures as membership drive. All the forces of the party are behind it, all the com- rades are mobilized, all the channels must be utilized. All the depart- ments are actively drawn into this work, organizational, industrial women’s, ete, The literature depart- ment, however, is not sufficiently utilized. The comrades consider this department of lesser value in reach- ing the masses of the workers. This is wrong. This conception must be changed, and the sooner the better. The literature agents, the agit-props, Progressive Doctors Urged to Editor, DAILY WORKER:— Some time ago the leaders of the institution which I represent found it impossible to get the proper medical assistants for its Health Conservation Center. The positions were to be re- munerated and to be sure, there were many, too many, candidates, but few who understood the non-commercial scope of our work. We have finally made the necessary connections and it will be some time until new vacanc- ies will be open. But this has brought to our attention a fact that should be known to a certain fraction of the medical profession. 2 Is it possible that, contrary to what we see in many parts of Europe, among our thousands of New York physicians there should be no radicals or, if there are, there should be none who have adjusted their practice to the needs of the workers? I believe that, besides their revo- lutionary viewpoint in social and eco- nomic matters, the practice of pro- gressive physicians. should be such that their general theories should be reflected in their daily work. It seems to me that the social back- / full speed on their e# and win their fight. masses of the workers, and help us “| 4 Negaesesenembenaat won sea ate ground in the explanation of disease,| On the other hand a fertile and ee qe Oy the principles of health teaching, the relations between doctorfand patient, particularly between doctor “and pro- letarian patient, our medical science and ethics, ought to be seen in a new and different light by the radical medical men. Although the vicissitudes of our present bourgeois and capitalist sys- tem have made deep inroads into medicine, both as a science and as a practical application of a science, although this condition of affairs is natural and to b> expected, I am con- vineed that a simplification of our healing methods, an improvement and elevation ef our relations to those who rely on us, a deep reform and a thorough cleaning of the prevailing practice is possible for some of us even today, especially if we will go to the trouble of educating our pa- tients individually and in groups. I hope that some of us have accomp- lished something along these lines ind I know some who have expressed a sincere desire to do so but were unsuccessful. There must be many unknown to me who are willing to wed theit ideas to their practice, Meet Together growing ground for a new practice cxists among the more enlightened working people and in the intelligent public generally. They are critically- minded and they are tired of the de- basing commercialism so frequent in the ranks of all sorts of healers. They are impatient with spectacular and exaggerated scaring methods, with superfluous make-believe work, with a show of super-science and over- treatment. They want prevention and treatment based on preventive prin- ciples They are looking for simplic- ity, light, truth, sincerity, honesty. Therefore I should like to arrange ene or several meetings of radical physicians under the auspices of my organization, at which occasion all the questions touched upon in this letter should be thoroughly discussed and perhaps a radical medical society founded. All those colleagues who wish to take part are requested to write to: B. Liber, M. D., Dr. P. H., Director, Workers’ Health Conserva- tion Center, Co-operative Colony. 2700 Bronx Park East, New York City. ‘Big Red Army’ Talk Screens Imperialism compared with the general state bud- gets of the various countries. Whereas the military expenditures of the capitalist countries usually constitute 18% (America) 21% (France) and in some countries even amount to 35% of the general bud- get (Poland, for instance) the ex- penditure of the Soviet Union in 1924- 25 constituted 14% of the total bud- get, in 1925-26, 14.2% and in 1926-27 12.7%. The figures given definitely expose the legend about “Red Imperialtsm” and “militarism” in the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics. Only the Soviet Union engaged in Soviet construction is pursuing a true policy of peace. Only the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics is actually fighting for disarmament and the abolition of militarism. This was once again reiterated by the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics pro- posals made in December, 1927, in Geneva at the session of the prepara- tory disarmament commission of. the League of Nations for the Disarma- ment Conference. No insinuations, no falsehoods on the part of the bourgeois and reform- ist press can deceive the toiling masses, conceal the true role of the Red Army, deny that the Union ef Socialist Soviet Republics takes onty the minimum measures of self-defense in face of the monstrous armament of the capitalist world. Mass Distribution of Literature Is An Important Task for Party all the other party functionaries must see to it. All departments are of equal importance and value as long as they all fight for winning over the workers for our Party. This de» partment, especially, can be of great value in advancing the class-consci- ousness of the American workers. This department must do its bit in this drive. 10,000 copies of the Ruthenberg pamphlet, “The Workers Party, What It Stands For, and Why the Workers Should Join It,” must be distributed in our district by May 1. Hundreds of shops must be tackled during this drive. Thousands of workers in all parts of the city must be reached. With the intensification of the class struggle in the U. S., the workers more and more come to re- alize that the Workers (Communist) Party is the real leader of the work- ers. They should learn more about us, they should be drawn into sour movement. Systematic mass distri- bution of literature will accompflsh much. This distribution should be organized in conjunction with the industrial organizers. Section one has again taken the lead. Literature distribution was taken up at the meeting of the industrial organizers, industrial work was discussed at the meeting of the literature agents, shops were selected in the section which is going to be tackled by the squads, all the comrades are lined up.‘and good results are expected. Each section is assigned a certain quota of these pamphlets. The price now reduced 1% cents, there should be no difficulty to distribute 10,000, of these pamphlets in our district, Sections must get on the job at ence. Mass distribution of literature is mass work of the Party. It means building the Party. Organize mass (distributions, Build the Party. |