The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1928, Page 6

Fy & ‘ Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, ; Ine. Daily, I 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address SUBSCRIPTION R (in New York y) By $4.50 s t $ Phone, Orchard 1680 By £8.00 Mail il (outside of New York): r year $3.50 six months $2.00 three months. mut First Street, checks to New York, N. Y. Address and DAILY WORKER, 33 THE ee eee ROBERT MINOR | Assistant -WM. F. DUNNE pits as second-class mail at the post-off at New York, N. ¥., under / the act of March 3, 9. Harry Sinclair---Sam Bonita | We predicted that Harry Sinclair would be acquitted. x so, we pointed out that the name of the millionaire swindl neither Sacco nor Vanzetti. The criminal law couldn’t touch Sinclair because the criminal law exists for the protection of the class of which Sinclair is a member and for the crushing of the enemies of that class. r is guilty, and everybody knows it. But Sinclair has | been acquitted because it is to the interest of the ruling class that he should be acquitted. The fact alone that Sinclair is a milti- millionaire many times over was sufficient to ensure his acquittal. | But there are other facts which made his acquittal doubly sure. Sinclair bribed the cabinet of Warren G. Harding, which with slight moc tions became and still is the cabinet of Calvin Cool- idge. Members of the present Coolidge cabinet handled personally the bribe funds of Sinclair. Coolidge himself solicited funds which came from Sinclair in the form of the stolen property which | paid for Coolidge’s election to the vice-presidency; and Coolidge | today is still president by virtue of the gigantic swindle. es ke is thus not only a member of the elass too high to be i law, but also an inseparable part of the syringe “dy apital. Sinclair is free, and it is the opinion of the capitalist press that his acquittal is the end of the court actions growing out of the bribery of two administrations of the United States govern- 1n ment. The indictment of the other oil millionaire, Edward L. Doheny, for brik ing’s and Coolidge’s secretary of the in- | the indictment of Fall for accepting the ,’ the capitalist papers say. Coolidge, ve not been indicted, and even the thought of y of them is inconceivable. y of crimi al law does not fail to operate in i sts of the class which controls terior, Albert B. and bribe, will b Mellon and Hoover the indictment of The machine regular fashion wh that machinery are at stake. * * - Now turn over the picture; her a view of the trial of Sam Bonita, a representative of the working class, a man engaged in leading the struggle of the anthracite coal miners against the capitalists who operate these mines. The machinery of the law in that case also did not fail to| work. Just as Sinclair was known to be guilty of bribery in mil- | lions, Sam Bonita was known to be innocent of any crime. Yet Sam Bonita was convicted and condemned to suffer twelve years in a hell-hole of prison on the ground that he did not let himself be shot to death by a gunman of the coal capitalists. Both the acquittal of the millionaire briber and the conviction of the honest mine worker are Justice. Not abstract justice, not metaphysical justice, not ‘‘justice-above-the classes,” but actual justice as it is meted out in the United States of America in 1928. It is the justice of the ruling class—capitalist class justice. There is no justice except class justice. There will come a time, after years of class struggle, when the working class will rule, and when working ¢ justice will be administered. In the present time it is nec ry for the workers to use every incident of the rotten, corrupt actions of capitalist courts, to learn the nature of capi- talist class rule. The courts of law in the United States are agencies of capital. Judges, in every essential respect, are merely special types of clerks employed by the big capitalists. Trial by jury, once con- sidered a bulwark of “liberty,” is, in present-day life, nothing more than an empty form in which the influence of big capital over the middle sections of the population (either by bribery or other ) is utilized to manifest “popular” accord with the will of capital. In no single ca: the class struggle will of the capitali ists involved a labor prisone’ 2 rare occurr 2 in many years at a criminal trial in which was reflected, has there been a defeat of the t class or of that particular section of capital- the workers or the farmers. If in a few of capitalist courts have been “acquitted,” Ss were only concessions to working class clamor in ¢ too “raw” to be expediently put through. Che working class must learn to put no faith in the capitalist class courts. The worker t fight to save their own cham- pions from c overthrow the ruling cle and in the struggle learn how to s of Sinclairs, Coolidges and Mellons. The Coal Miners’ Wives At no place and at no time have the women of our class played a more heroic role than that which has been played by ‘the coal miners’ wives, sisters and daughters in the big struggles in the coal fields during the past twenty years. The heroism of the women who marched on the Belmont county jail at St. Clairsville, Ohio, Saturday must be hailed as an example which will help materially to win the present big fight against the coal operators and their agent Lewis. The brutality and trickery of Col. Don Caldwell of the na- tional guard troops who trapped the wives, sisters and daughters of the mine workers, luring them into the jail with lying promises %hat they might see their jailed comrades, and then used the bayonets of the soldiers to drive these defenseless women in the ‘trap, will surely arouse the working class of America and the workers of all coal fields to a fighting fury. The incident shows that the mine owners’ control of the state power and of the state troopers will be exercised to any extreme against even defenseless women and children. But it shows also that the mass picket-lines are becoming more and more effective and that the mine owners are becoming deeply fearful of a victory for the strikers. We are proud of the women of our class. When coal miners wives who have borne the brunt of the struggle and the hunger for more than a year are still ready to come out on the picket-line by the hundreds and thousands and then to march on the jails where their comrades of the picket line are incarcerated, then we know that the fighting spirit of the coal fields is on the up-grade. Miners, redouble your mass picket lines! | igs & THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928 A study by Labor Bureau, Inc., of New York shows that about 400 pri- vate corporations in the United States have old age pension systems for their employes, The total number of workers cov- ered in 315 of these 400 companies is about 8,259,000. Most of the old age pension systems have been adopted by big firms, including 83 public utility corporations, 59 railroads, 56 metal trades companies and 28 banking or- | ganizations. Among these are the Standard Oil companies, the Pullman Company, the U. S. Rubber Company, | the U. S. Steel Corporation, the Penn- sylvania Railroad, and the General Electric Company. Workers Are Bound. Instead of government social insur- ance, such as is found in Europe, American capital uses private old age pension systems as part of the “wel- fare” work intended to bind the em- ploye closer to the capitalist system. | These so-called welfare schemes in- elude not only old age pensions, but also illusive forms of stock owner- ship, group life and health insurance, “educational” schemes, employes’ | | | By LELAND OLDS, (Federated Press). The tremendous concentration of financial power represented by the National City Bank of New York is j dramatically brought out by the re- ‘cent addition of $60,000,000 to its capitalization and that of its sub- sidiary, the National City Co. This giant Rockefeller-Kuhn Loeb organi- zation will now have capital funds totaling $256,000,000, the largest of any bank in the United States or Europe. The new capital will be obtained by the sale to stockholders of 150,000! new shares of stock at $400 a share. | Stockholders will be offered 1 new) National City shares had a market! value of $845 a share March 23 when | the offer was announced, the chance | to purchase the new shares at $400) was reckoned as representing a bonus! of about $75 a share or at $56,250,000 on the outstanding stock. According) to the New York Times this is the! largest bonus ever distributed by a! financial institution. j Market Value Increases. ‘ Since the announcement the mar-/ gone to $1,000 a share. This gives the 750,000 shares outstanding a mar- ket value of $750,000,000. The Wall Our women are showing us the way to win! Street Journal points out that this |tory discretionary” type. share for each 5 shares now held. Ast ket value of National City stock be magazines, and gymnasiums. Their avowed purpose is to increase produc- tion, reduce the labor turnover, pre- vent strikes, disrupt the discipline of the labor union, and in general lull the workers into contentment with otherwise intolerable conditions. These schemes also enable the em- \ployers to evade state regulation by arguing that it is unnecessary and to reduce taxes on profits by artificially inflating costs, Workers Entirely Dependent. About 89 per cent of all the old age jpension plans followed by private “non-contribu- In _ these cases the cost of all pensions is borne formally by the company. The pay- companies are of the lment and continuation of pensions is also in the company’s hands. Em- ployers are bound in no way, either by law or contract, to pay pensions to their old workers. If the company discontinues payment of a pension, he worker has no legal claims of any | kind. Companies using this plan in- sert a special clause expressly resery- ing the right to discontinue pensions altogether or to change the regula- | employe. In case of discharge by the company, the worker cannot claim a pension. This makes the worker en- tirely dependent on the “generosity” of the company; he has no certainty of support in his old age. Workers Pay Own Pensions. The “contributory” plan of old age \pensions is followed by 39 companies. Under this plan the workers con- tribute part of their wages to the old age pension fund and the company contributes a stipulated portion, In addition to these two plans, some companies provide for the re- tirement of their aged workers by |purchasing annuities from insurance jcompanies, In most cases the pension jconsists of a certain percentage of | ‘the worker’s annual wage multiplied | by the number of years he has served | ithe company. In other cases the pen- sion is a flat percentage of the wor! er’s average wage, ranging from 25 to 60 per cent. The smallest pension jon record is $5 a month; the highest is 75 per cent of the worker’s average wage, Some companies compel their work- ers to join the old age pension. fund- penses of these pension schemes. Ex- cept for the railways, where the com- pany old age pension prevails, indug- tries where such pension schemes are found have no strong labor unions. This scheme tends to discourage col- lective bargaining; it ties the worker to his job in expectation of a pension. The average pension paid is $48 a year—hardly enough to guarantee the worker an “independent old age.” On the other hand, strikes are for- bidden to workers who want to get pensions. The railway strike of 1916, the railroad shopmen’s strike of 1922, the steel strike of 1919, various tex- tile and leather workers’ strikes, |strikes against the Pullman Co.; the jengineers and firemen’s strike against the Western Maryland Railway and many other strikes, showéd that the ‘old age pension is used as a lash over the worker either to prevent him from \striking or for turning him into a ,blackleg. Many of the pension \schemes contain regulations which | jmake striking a misdemeanor for vhich the worker loses his pension Hrights. -~- Organized labor objects. to these | May Day in Switzerland The Swiss workers, just like all | workers all over the world, also had to fight hard to achieve the right to celebrate May First. Solidarity and united energy lead to victory, and |thus there is hardly a hamlet to be |found in Switzerland in which May’ | First is not celebrated by a complete; cessation of work. Even the governmental institu-! tions—railways, post, telegraph, etc., | were forced to reduce service on the’ First of May as on other holidays. , |No employe can be penalized if he doesn’t show up for work on May | First. | In the larger industrial towns the | First of May has been declared a |legal holiday. There the police havo |relieved our comrades of the job which they used to have when in |the early hours of the morning they {would march through the industrial | quarters, do picket duty, and kept the |weaklings and vacillating elements |from work. | But it was not always so. Heavy fighting, which inevitably led to | clashes with the police, was demanded. |'The offices of the Party and of the | trade unions used to look like the loffices of the general staff of the army. The whole membership was | mobilized and five o’clock in the morning they gathered to be assigned to march to the various factories. |. The young comrades, under the leadership of several strong adult comrades, undertock to close the | stores and shops. But at noon, when the demonstra- tion paraded through the streets, no one dared any longer to resist the |mass will of the working class. Each | year there was less for us to do, for the employers gradually came to re- | alize that it is much better to put a good face on a bad situation and they no longer even opened up their places of business. On May First the streets belong to the working class. The working class has achieved this right by fight- ing for it, and the results of these demonstrations have opened the eyes of unnumbered workers and bound them closer with the class front of the workers. The victory of the First. of May is an example of how the vic- tory of the proletariat can be fought eut. Stand together—don’t be fright- ened—endure and march forwards, and thus we will attain our goal. Should not that which is possible jin Switzerland and in the whole of Europe, be possible also in the land of the Chicago martyrs? —_—__—_—_—_@ Fake Old Age Pension Schemes Exposed there can be no real substitute for adequate wages. To the many “welfare” schemes al- ready in existence, the Fur Manufac- turers’ Association of New York has announced that it will add the private unemployment dole. Out of the city’s 12,000 fur workers 8,000 are at pres- ent unemployed. The manufacturers have appointed a committee to admin- ister a relief fund to unemployed workers who apply for assistance, The president of manufacturers’ organ- zations referred to the relief fund as a “charitable undertaking.” Unem- played fur workers have been in- |structed to apply for assistance to \their last employer. The manufactur-' ers described the “dole” as a loan, which the workers will pay back when \they are employed once more, Thou- sands of fur workers participated in jlast year’s left wing strike, which lwas fought by the manufacturers, the right wing bureaucrats of the fur workers’ union and the American \Federation of Labor leaders. The /manufacturers are unsuccessfully try- jing to use the “dole” to attract work- jers away from the left wing leader- tions at any time in regard to any In effect the workers pay the ex- pension schemes on the ground that ship. value of the entire organiz capacity of this citadel of credit. margin. ~ Morgan (right). my to the branch banking system allowed in that country, rank ahead of the At the close of 1927 National 16 Largest Banks. America’s 16 largest banks, ranked In deposits and gross assets the | by deposits at the end of 1927 were: National City Bank leads all other banks in the United States by a wide | National City, N. Y... But 5 English. banks, due |Chase National, N. Y.. (Guaranty Trust, N. Y. Bank of Italy, San Fran. + $1,275,041,000 792,339,000 720,029,000 645,002,000 ‘First National, Finance Magnates Rake in Shekels; Control Industries exceeds by $553,500,000 the net asset National City in deposits and, resour- tion. This | ces. huge excess of market value over as-|City deposits totaled $1,275,041,965 set value represents a capitalization |and assets $1,682,802,851. of the extraordinary profit-making Am. Ex.-Irving, N. Y. 622,176,000 Reaches Foreign Lands. Bankers Trust, N. Y.. 562,069,000} The Nati ity 1 Con, National, Chicago 541,322,000 its Roane Pees eerste bid Nat. Bk. Com., N. Y... 537,262,000] into the financing of the United Equit. Trust, N. Y.... 478,852,000! states and foreign countries, In 1927 ll. Mer. Trust, Chicago 883,334,000] it headed syndicates which floated First National, Boston. 360,177,000 | new securities to the tune of $4365,- First National, N. Y.. 349,537,000 | 516,000 and participated in syndieatea Cen. Union. Tr. N. ¥. 311,403,000 | which floated $1,154,695,000 addition- Union Trust, Cleveland, 293,589,000} 41 securities, a total of new securities Los Ang. First National 285,624,000 amounting ty $1,590,311,000. J. PJ Chicago 274,095,000 “ " . 5 D. Rockefeller (left), who with Kuhn-Loeb and Company controls the huge interests of the National City Bank. Otto Kahn (center) ardent supporter of Fascism is a member of Kuhn-Locb and Ce, and J. P. Morgan & Co. headed syndicates with a total of $502,590,000 in new securi- ties offered. But in the total value! of all securities with which its namo was conneeted National City outdia— tanced all competitors, Control Reaches Governments. National City financial control ex- tends not only over railroads, mines, smelters, refineries and factories throughout this country but also to governments, municipalities and cor~ porations in foreign lands. It repre-| sents the dominant financial interest! in many corporations engaged in ex- ploiting Wall Street’s Caribbean em: pire. A check of its financial opera tions in the last 12 months shows the following countries included in {tsi sphere of influence: Canada, Argen- tina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Porto Rico, San Domingo, Australia, Austria,| Finland, Germany, Greece, ees Tre- Nand, Norway and Sweden. v4.