The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 12, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'’N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Add SUBSCRIPTION R: By Mail (in New York only): sy $8.00 per year $4.50 six months § three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 ) f New York): 50 six months months. $2.09 three Address and mail out checks to | THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. ROBERT MINOR | ...WM. F. DUNNE N. ¥., wintered as second-class mail at the post-offic t New York, under the act of March 3 Chicago Is “Cleaned Up.” Big Bill Thompson is beaten. Len Small and the whole Thomp- son ticket for republican nominations for state offices in Illinois seem to have been snowed under by the “moral” wave of voters supporting the candidates of Senator Deneen. 1879, “The vote,” says ®eneen, “will restore law and order and will elevate the standards of public service.” To the class-conscious worker looking over the record of re- | publican and democratic capitalist politics in Illinois, this is a bit of screaming irony. The conscious worker cannot fail to know that between the Deneen gang, supported by the majority of the preachers of Chicago, and the Len Small-Big Bill Thompson gang, supported by particularly straight-shooting and bomb-throwing underworld criminals, the difference is more apparent than real. The outcome of the primary election, insofar as the two gangs of politicians is concerned, is a victory of a ring of municipal contract grabbers and a supporting set of professional under- world criminals, over another ring of contract grabbers sup- | ported by another ring of underworld criminals. The Deneen gang proved themselves to be better gunmen than those of Big Bill, and that is saying much. But then the Deneen contractors and thugs had the advantage of being sup- ported by most of the preachers, who are also useful in politics. | If the Big Bill gangsters succeeded in murdering ‘Diamond Joe” | Esposito and Octavius Granady in the effort to secure the victory for the $77,000,000 city contracts and to elect the “draft Coolidge” delegation to the state republican convention, these murders in| the. good cause were clumsy beside shrewder crookedness of the “moral” forces of Deneen. | But the victory for “morality” means much more than that. | The flying automobile loads of sharpshooters with which this | gentle American democratic primary election was fought out are | only the surface facts. Behind the gunmen, and behind even the contractors snatching at tens of millions of dollars of profits, are the bigger criminals of capitalism—the real ruling class of the country. Their “law and order” and “public service” are merely strike- breaking and more efficient exploitation of the working class. te Look over the victors. Lowden, the Pullman multimillionaire, obtains personal control of the state republican convention and an apparently better shot at the presidential nomination. Lowden, enemy of the working class, the meanest exploiter of labor, is an inside man in the biggest ring of republican looters of the coun- try. Ruth Hanna McCormick, daughter of the late and odious equally an enemy of the working class. Chicago and Illinois are “cleaned up” against one gang of the enemies of the working class, for another gang of the enemies of the working class. Chicago and Illinois will continue to be ruled by the same big business forces, through only a slightly different set of pro- fessional criminals of the underworld, with the assistance of a rather larger sprinkling of preachers. The working class will continue to be exploited as before, but even more exploited as the processes of intensifying the exploitation are developed. As far as the working class is concerned, the choice between the candidates of the republican party, although it determined which set of politicians and contractors and bootleggers should | ‘enjoy the fruits and immunities, meant nothing for their welfare | one way or the other. The cold fact is that the working class could gain nothing from the election except insofar as the elec- tion could be utilized to make workers see and understand the meaning of capitalist class rule and the capitalist state—only inso- far as the working class could be mobilized during the election period for the struggle against the capitalist class, against all ¢apitalist class parties and against the capitalist state itself, including these “democratic” forms of rule so elegantly shown in the career of “Diamond Joe” Esposito and Ruth Hanna McCormick. Because the working class is still under the illusion that it can gain its emancipation through the capitalist state and the so-called democratic forms of election, participation in these elec- tions can be made a means of training the workers in the struggle against their enemies. The Workers (Communist) Party in Chi- cago, Illinois, participated in the elections for such purposes. The mobilization of development of the class-consciousness of the working class can be given a tremendous push forward by the formation of a Labor Party based primarily upon the trade unions. But the trade union bureaucracy of Chicago is not in- terested in the welfare of the workers. They prefer the advan- tages which accrue to themselves out of the loot-laden victories of such a gang as that of Thompson and the $77,000,000 bond issue. The overthrow of the entire gang that participated on both | sides of the Chicago fight, and the labor bureaucrats who support them, and the capitalist class which really rules them, is the task | of the working class. Not the: reformism of Ruth Hanna Mc- | Cormick and the labor-hating king of the Pullman empire, but the revolutionary program of the Workers (Communist) Party, | will give the workers their liberation from the gunman rule of str Mark Hanna and another of the top ring of the ruling class, is n delegation conside {ference wi THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928 CAPITALISM “TRIES” ITS ENEMIES erg A By Fred Ellis Sam Bonita, Adam Moleski and Steve Mendola, members of the United Mine Workers’ Union, are on trial in the coal operators’ court. Into this capitalist court, with the demand for their death, John L. Lewis, agent of the operators, drives these workers because they dared to fight to save the union from betrayal and destruction. rear reneraenrs San Francisco I. L. D. Helps Mine Relief (By « Worker Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (By Mail).—As I have shaken my boss and so now*have some leisure time on my hands, I will give you a few particulars about the activities of} the comrades in this vicinity. Firsti as to the relief work for the Colo-| rado miners, 16 Organizations, | We have been-able to get the co-| operation of a quite a number of the! best elements among the I. W. W.,/ tho officially we were not able te! get delegates from that organization,| except in one instance. But we man-| aged to draw into the work 16 or-/ ganizations in all. We held three mass meetings in| Frisco, two in Oakland and one in| San Jose, the latter in the Labor! Temple which was donated free. In! spite of the small attendance $100 was raised for the relief. At all these! meetings the I. W. W. speakers wero! the principle ones, As a result we have added to the membership of the International La- bor Defense, and have sent from San Francisco to Colorado close to $800, besides 3,000 Ibs. of clothes, for which we had to pay about $200 for transportation. We still have a few dollars from the dance recently held. Push Penn.-Ohio Relief. The Pennsylvania-Ohio miners’ re- lief has also been pushed, principally among the American Federation of Labor. A number of unions have do- nated to the relief fund. I under- stand that a carload of clothes has been sent east. There have been many individual donations sent with the lists which the committee sent out from Pittsburgh. —FRISCO WORKER. Two Features of the Miners’ Conference which was led by Brophy, Minerich, By MARTIN ABERN The Save-the-Union conference hac many important features, but two 03 which are herein dealt with: One, the delegation from the Illinois distric: and two, discussion on the Anthracite situation, At this conference the delegation from Illinois, district 12, was repre- sented by close to one hundred dele- gates. Veteran Leaders. The delegation was led by the old leaders among the Illinois miners, such as, John Watts, Tom Parry, Freeman Thompson, George Voyzey and others. They represented mature, seasoned fighters in the fighters in the struggle of the United Mine Workers Union. They had been leaders in the famous “wild-cat e” throughout Illinois in 1921, a t leadership which refused to in the moth-worn con- ton-Lewis machine; and they broughi out the workers then in that strike, among other things, in behalf of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. The delegation from Illinois, in many ways, was the most substantial at the Save-the-Union Conference, particularly when it i d that they came from the listances of Southern and Central H- This delegation gave solidity bstance to the conference which s attended by 1125 delegates alto- gether. The conference was a demonstra- tion to the Labor movement in gen- eral, as well as to the membership of the United Mine Workers, that the Save-the-Union movement was not merely an upstart movement, led by some “irresponsible youngsters, new eaders, etc.” Rather it showed that the old mili- tant fighters of the type of Thomp- son, Waits, Perry, Slinger, were as one with the younger elements com- ing forward in the United Mine Work- ers of the type of Minerich, Hapgood, as well as the older types like Bropny in other districts, etc., and were uniting their energies and forces to carry out the elementary needs of the membership in the union. Needs of Union. These needs are: To restore the Union to the rank and file; to remove the Union control and domination from the traitors and crooks like Lewis and Cappelini and place it into the hands of honest, militant unionists; to fight for a national agreement; to develop and spread the} strike into Illinois and unorganized! territories in support of the Pennsy]- vania and Chio Miners; to organize the unorganized;—in brief: To save the unicn for the rank and file. The Illinois delegation from the outset took a prominent and leading part in the proceedings of the con- ference. It is not a matter of passing attention, but of quite some signifi- cance that the chairman of the con- f John Waits from the t. Watts is one of the old mine leaders among the progres- sive and militant forces in Mlinois and has a record of struggle of many Illinois dis years against John L. Lewis and Farrington. | The Tllinois delegation represented genuine progressiv d lef\-wingers and not pseudo-progressives of the type of John Hindmarsh wy play Police “cos- sacks” who at- tempted to smash the mass picket line at Library, Pa., are shown above “You can throw us into jail, but you can’t stop us and you can’t stop mass pick- eting,” the cour- ageous wives of the striking miners cried as the police charged, Tear reply of the au- thorities to the resistance of the militant miners and their wives. between the progressives and the Lewis forces. a This large delegation from Illinois made certain that a real fight’ will be made as the delegates return; that the scab mines in Mlinois will be picketed en masse; that a 100 per cent strike in Illinois in support of the Pennsylvania and Ohio miners will be attained. The Anthracite Issue. The propaganda carried on by the forees of the Save-the-Union ‘Jom- mittee for spreading the strike int» organized and unorganized mine territories now at work, had its repercussions and effects at the Con- ference. This demand for the general strike of the coal fields to win the strike is correct agitation and propa- ganda and represents the best in- terests of the rank and file. That this demand of the progressive and mili- echoed time and again by the dele- gates at the Save-the-Union Confer- | ence demonstrated fully that the | delegates at this conference had a fundamental, sound and healthy out- look on the miners’ needs. During the course of the discussion on the organization of the unorgan- ized, the question of tactics regard- ing striking other fields came up for discussion. The recommendation of the sub-committee was first to strike Illinois, Indiana and Kansas on April 1st, and then on the 16th the West- moreland, Fayette, Somerset and Green counties, i.e., Pennsylvania un- organized territory, and use these as a base for spreading into other un- organized sections. It was proposed also by delegates that ‘a call be issued at once for a strike in the Anthracite. A discussion BU EE Bull head, bull neck, Protector of the rich Harrasser of the unf bull shoulders, against the poor, ortunate, Treader on the downtrodden, Smashing the heads of his victims: The picket, the violator of the law, the loiterer, the suspec t Let them come singly or in small groups, He is prepared with his billy and gat— But what,.ch what shall he do When they come by —HENRY REICH, Jr. ihe thousands? ‘ tant forces for a general strike was!for many hours took place. However, at this point the sound leadership and ihe understanding of the delegates came to the front. Everyone desired the general strike called. But in the Anthracite territory, where the Lewis- Cappelini machine still has some strength; where the Brennan opposi- tion forces tend to ‘dissipate and weaken a united action of the rank and file by playing between the Cap- pelini and Lewis machines; where the progressive and left-wingers support- ing the program of the Save-the- Union Committee is not yet suf- ficiently strong—the delegation came to the conclusion that to issue a call now for an anthracite strike would be premature, unlikely to be widely successful, and would play into the hands of the Lewis-Cappelini oligarchy. The resentment of the delegates at the division Lewis had created among the miners by a separate agreement in the Anthracite was strong. A healthy sentiment for a struggle was present, but the delegates realized that a strike now would have demon- strated unpreparedness of the prog- ressive forces in that territory and finally accepted, virtually unani- mously, the recommendation of the sub-committee to refer this question to the national committee to work out a program for drawing the anthracite into the strike as soon as possible to achieve success, Significant Features, This vehement discussion for a num- ber of hours at the conference showed many significant features of great importance to the movement among the miners. The aims of the con- ference, as pointed out, first spoke generally for the issuance of the an- thracite strike call, but sound leader- ship prevailed. This overwhel: vote and | bombs were the —+ Ba Plecathy, Hapgood, showed the following: . One, that the mass of the delegates had confidence in the integrity of the leadership of the Save-the-Union forces. Such confidence in the honesty of leadership is not obtained merely by words of the leaders, but by a demonstration of their abilities and activities in the struggle. This had evidently been shown to the satisfac- tion of the delegates, Two, this discussion brought for- ward qualities of leadership both among the established leaders of the Save-the-Union forces, as well as among the new elements. Three, it demonstrated the ability of the mass of delegates at the con- ference to reason and think out the conerete situation correctly, and not |be swayed merely by their desires and emotional reactions. It proved jconelusively that this Save-the-Union delegation was miles ahead, intellect~ ually and in leadership, of any pre- vious gathering of miners hitherto | held. Four, this discussion particularly prepared the delegates to return to their local unions and districts to go ahead militantly for carrying out the program of the conference, and par- ticularly for spreading the miners’ strike systematically and persistently in every field. ete., Problems of Delegates. At the same time it must be pointed out that even this difficult situation at the conference might have been avoided by a greater clarification and preparation of the miners before the conference in regard to the miners’ situation, especially in the anthracite territory. After all, it is too simple and easy to excuse these difficulties because we have been successful in passing throvgh the crisis. The main problems yet remain before tha miners. F The delegates must go back to tha locals and districts and mobilize the membership to carry out the pro« gram; to carry out local elections ta oust the reactionaries and put in mili« tant and progressive forces on the Save-the-Unéon program; to prepara for district conferences for the strug- gle to kick the Lewis machine out of the union; and to take over the Miners’ Union for the rank and file, This conference demonstrated that our Party is sinking its roots mora and more among the workers iri tha basic industries. With continued mili+ tant and organized leadership of tha progressive and Party forces, our program and movement will win. At the recent convention and plonums of our Party the perspectiva that the working class in America would be drawn very shortly into bit« ter struggles against capitalist op~ pression and intense exploitaties and governmental persecution waa drawn and accepted. This perspective has been fully justified and the suo, cessful conference of the Save-the~ Union forces of the United Mina Workers of America, held in Pitts« burgh, April 1st and 2d, bears wit« ness that these struggles are develop. ganization of the workers, under tha direction of a militant left wing which receives its clearest ing the class consciousness and om — ree