The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 3, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 3, ryze THE DAILY WORKER SCRAPS FROM THE BOSSES’ TABLE Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING G ASS N, Daily, Except Sunday New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES (in New York only) By Mail (outside of New York): $4.50 six niont $6.50 per year £3.50 six months | 0 three months. $2.00 three months. | fon! $3 First Street, Phone, Orchard 1680 | “Daltwork’ | Address and mail out checks to DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. . ROBERT MINOR Assistant Editor -WM. F, DUNNE ea es second-class mall at the post-office at New York, N, ¥.. the act of March 3, 1 THE Editor under | Lewis Fires His Own Stoolpigeon The miners of the Hocking Valley were not shocked when | Oral Daugherty, late president of Subdistrict One, District 6 of | the United Mine Workers’ Union, was removed from office by John L. Lewis “for disloyalty to the union.”, It is true that Oral Daugherty is a traitor to the Union, but | how does it happen that one traitor, Lewis, kicks out another | traitor, Daugherty. | Is this disloyalty of Oral Daugherty so new? It is not. Did Lewis only discover it today? No, of course not. Lewis has known about it for some time, and yet he did nothing despite the protests of the miners. Oral Daugherty had been carrying on propaganda for months, | for a “fair agreement” with the coal operators. In February he} called upon the business men of Athens, Ohio, to bring about. a conference between the miners’ officials and the coal operators, at | which they might come to an understanding. He did not demand | the Jacksonville scale—far be it from that. Daugherty was will- | ing to surrender to the operators. Even before this, he had spoken at mass meetings of the miners, advocating the plan. He had his spokesmen among the miners, who proposed the same thing. When this was called to | the attention of the miners, and the spokesmen were called open | stools of the coal operators, the miners did not seem surprised, | nor did-they take any action against these reptiles. While Daugherty was doing this dirty work, he was “lead- ing’ the men in marches on the mines where scabs had been brought in or attempts were being made to open the mines with scab labor. This deceived the miners and raised Daugherty’s stock in their minds. Lewis knew about this. In fact it was reliably reported that Lewis had ordered Lee Hall, the district president, to fire Daugh- erty, but that Hall had pleaded in behalf of Daugherty, and had maintained him in office. When the last meeting was held, and Daugherty came out openly for the men to return to work on any conditions that they | could get, this was the signal for Lewis to show his authority and to try to square himself with the mine workers, against whom Lewis has carried on the same strikebreaking that Daugherty had. Two mines in the Hocking Valley are opening on the 1917 scale, the result of the propaganda of Oral Daugherty, the man} whom lL.ewis allowed to remain in office, doing this dastardly werk. y does Lewis fire him now? Why didn’t he fire him while he was doing the dirty work with Lewis’ full knowledge? Lewis had a scheme in this matter. He thought a movement } ba_k to the mines would be started. Lewis trusted that the move- | ment would be strong enough to capture the entire field. The men would demand that the strike come to an end, no matter how low and humiliating the conditions might be. How could that be done? By stimulating “rank and file| By Fred Ellis John L. Lewis, who calls himself leader of the Mine Workers, is only a flunkey of the coal operators. British Empire Stole A. Whole Nation in Egypt By SCOTT NEARING (Fed. Press) - Great Britain has her hands full these days with Egyptian nationalists. jand Arabian tribesmen. Egyptian na- ; tionalists are particularly firm in in- is isting upon the right. of the | Egyptians to govern themselves. British statesmen insist upon their “responsibilities’—in this case aris- ing from a declaration which Great Britain made Feb. 28, 1922 to the effect that British rights in Egypt would be protected. This position Great Britain holds “in view of the vital importance of the British em- pire and of British interests in Egypt.” To Protect Empire. What are these British interests in Egypt? 1. Security of communica- tion for the British empire within Egypt.. 2. Defense by the British in Egypt against all foreign aggression or interference. -3. Protection of foreign interests in Egypt. 4. ‘The Sudan in which British capital is at- tempting to develop immense cotton plantations. British landlords, mine-owners, manufacturers, traders, bankers, gen- erals, admirals and ministers direct affairs in London. They also direct them in Cairo. In London it is Britain for the British. In Cairo it is Egypt for the British. Steals Entire Nation “e In a case of petty larceny involy- ing a watch and chain, everyone shouts “Stop Thief!” When the stolen goods include a whole nation and the thief is the world’s greatest imperial robber every human with a sense of fair play should be yelling — himself hoarse. { extile Mill Committees Fight Wage Cut For the first time in sixteen years, the textile workers of New Bedford have shown their full strength. On Monday, April 16th, 380,000 workers left the mills and declared | their intentions not to return until such time as the mill owners re- store the wage cut. This attempt on the part of the mill owners to | force a wage reduction of 10 per cent of the meager earnings of these textile workers was met with a 100 per cent resistance on the part of the workers. Strike Spread Seen. This struggle of the New Bed- ford workers is setting the pace for the development of similar strike movements thruout the textile in- dustry. Already we see similar sentiment” to go back to the mines, By having it take on volume and momentum, till Lewis would be “powerless” to stem it, and { then Lewis would be freed of all responsibility. He thought the men would go back to work, the strike would be over, and he could | announce that he had followed the “will of the membership. ”* And | he would continue to reign supreme. Only one thing marred this dirty strikebreaking plan’ of | | Lewis. The Save-the-Union Committee saw through his plans. | They knew and declared that Oral Daugherty is the teol of John L. Lewis, even if he did remove Daugherty from office. Daugherty | is the agent of Lewis, spreading demoralization in the ranks of | the union. Daugherty is, at-the same time, the agent of the coal | operators. The actions of Daugherty and of Lewis tally—and Daugherty, | though he is now the “goat,” is no less the tool of Lewis. | It has long’ been noted that, though he received no salary since the eile of the year, because he renounced it, Daugherty has aly s had plenty of money. Operators’ money? Traitors’ | money? Pi rom just where John L. Lewis gets it? The Save-the-Union Committee is correct in branding erat | and his henchman Daugherty as men of the same stripe. Daugh- | erty has gone—he has sown the vile seed of the idea of returning | to the pits under any conditions. But it will not be as Lewis fore- saw. The masses of miners are standing fast. They will take good care of the few yellows who are deserting the Union. And as for Lewis: he can not clear his own name by firing his many strikebreaking stoolpigeons. He has played his game too late and too loose. The Save-the-Union Committee has laid bare his treachery—he and his kind must go! Daugherty had to be fired by Lewis. Next the Halls, Fagans, Fishwicks, Murrays, Kennedys—then the biggest traitor of all—John L. Lewis---wili be tired by the mine workers! POWER TRUST LOBBY BOUGHT ‘LABOR’ PRESS WASHINGTON, May of the so-called “power trust lobby,” the propaganda organization ot private power monopoiists, reveals that Ernest Greenwood, the former representative in Washington of the International Labor Office at? ~ a, engaged by tho the anti-labor power compan: og t to conduct a ceinpaiga \Saow papers could be bougni, erament ownership or ¢ontrol of | advertising contracts: or othierwi prevent the workers from sup por’ wer _ power facilities and to subsidize the | labor press in America for support | {the campaign for nationalizucion of of the non-union power -companics, | ¢lectric power plants. | The investigation by the Federal | The investigation has eked that | \the power trust bought the Trade Commisison revealed that | ¢° wrk dpa eb a : ‘ u of erceols newspapers, college | Greenwood received $7,000 from the | professors, diplomatists and poli- Joint Committee of National Utility |ticians, in their energetic campaign Associations (the power lobby) last | against government control of the Rank: For. this ‘iw erate ebook: Als | ‘power companies. Richard Washburn Child, former ambassador to Italy ladin,” glorifying priyate ownership | received $7,500 from the power trust _ of power companies and made an in- \for writing two small books against vestigation of the attitude of labor! government operation of the great papers toward public ownership. |power plant at Boulder Canyon. In other words, Greenwood, the|Child’s work on these pamphlets former representative of the Labor however, seems to have been unsat- Office, undertook to det ine for lisfactory. sere | ority movements is ba } due largely movements pending in Fall River, Manchester and in Waltham. We know that a wage reduction for-the textile workers of New England will result in the manufacturers of other cotton and woolen centers following On the other hand, resistance ' in New England will be the best | | Suit. | challenge to the other mill owners and the probabilities for similar wage reductions would be lessened. Of the 1,100,000 workers in the By EVELYN SMITH. | \ | | textile industry in the United F. T. 0. has made no attempt to States, approximately 60,000 are or- ganized. These 60,000 workers are organized into Sixteen different unions, which divides the forces of the workers in their encounters with the mill owners. The major problem facing the | textile industry is that of organiza- | tion of the unorganized. The unions | in the textile industry have prac- | tieally ignored this question. It is | inevitable that such a condition will | lead towards. the lowering of the | living standards of the textile work- | ers, towards the worsening of their conditions and to the disintegration of the textile-unions. The problem of the organization of the unorganized workers is a problem ‘which . cannot be. solved thru lip service. It is a burning need of the workers, it is a prob- lem which can only be solved thru the concentrated effort. on the part of the organized labor movement in the textile industry. The time has now come for deeds, not words, Work of Mill Committees. It_is from this angle that I wish to deal with the present situation in | New Bedford. There are over 30,000 wotkers at present on strike. Of | these less than 5,000 are organized Minto” "the American Federation of Textile Operatives. The vast ma- jority are still unorganized. The A. organize these workers and from all indications these 25,000 workers will again be ignored by these unions in the course of this strike. With this situation prevailing, it was imperative for the Textile Com- | mittees to enter the situation. The | Textile Mill Committees compose a | national organization with units or- ganized in the mgst important tex- tile centers of this country. It was | formed in a New England confer- ence on March 11th in Boston, where it adopted a program of actiog which serves as a guide and direc- tive in the struggles of the New England textile workers, One of the main planks in the program of the Textile Mill Com- mittees is the organization of the unorganized. The role of the Tex- tile Mill Committees in the present strike in New Bedford will be to | organize these unorganized workers, to eliminate the dangers which face the workers in the course of the strike, if they were to remain un- organized. It is the policy of the Textile Mill Committees to organ- ize the workers not on the old craft lines, but to organize into a mill committee all workers who toil in one particular mill. This is a high- er form of organization which was adopted by the Textile Mill Com- mittees, which will bring about bet- ter organization, and concentrate the energies and struggles of all the workers in the textile industry against the common enemy. Those who are members of any existing union and apply for mem- bership in the Textile Mill Commit- tees will be admitte@ and exempt from paying dues, providing they show a paid up dues card in the or- ganization of which they are a member. We tell the members of the existing unions to remain with- in their organization and work en- ergetically for the organization of one union in the textile industry, as a guarantee for more effective struggle, for better organization, for the consolidation of all the forces of capital. A. F. T. C. Misleadership. The Textile Mill Committees have drawn certain lessons for the work- ers in connection with what has hap- pened in Fall River just a short time ago, and has aided the New Bedford workers in determining their stand on the wage cut which they have received. In Fall River, the leadership of the A. F. T. C. has stolen the strike vote, and told the workers that there were 11 votes shy to carry the two-thirds strike vote. In New Bedford the The [asks of the Communists The following resolution was adopt- ed by the Executive Committee of the Commer International on Febru-} ary 25,1928. * « In regard to the problems of the revolutionary trade union movement, | it must be emphasized~ that! maximum fl ty, abil to take into account the conerete and special condition of the country, rapid change} of forms of organizational work in| accordance with changes in conditions| of work and in the organization *and tacties of employers and their re-| with. the masses. Organizational Work. Suoissnasip y “aytovtyyUy ey} Ul els {such committees where they do not Notwithstanding the fact that or- exist, and transforming factory coun- | ganizational work must be carried on|cils into the primary organizations ' in different ways in each country and/0f the industrial unions. in each branch of industry in accord-| ance with circumstances, it is pos- sible to lay down general lines of or-| ganizational work for all. the coun- tries. The organizational Communists in the trade ee towards: . The capture of the most fiaate branches of industry, im th 5. Having all the most important | questions of the trade union move- ment brought immediately before the workers for discussion in the fac- work of| ‘ries. union) movement‘ of all countries must be} | 6. Special efforts must be made to reserve the class character of fac- tory councils and to counteract the efforts of employers and social dem- erats to transform factory councils into instruments of class collabora- formist agents, must be the keynote| most. important industrial districts} tion: of organizational work. It must not! ‘be forgotten for a moment that the} revolutionary trade unions and min-} diy conducted is} adequac: work of ‘the Commu frade union movement leads to isolation fy the everyday! truggles of the masses and conse- and big factories and works. 2. Drawing into trade union work! pareaucra ic fact that organizational work in the) a maximura number of workers em-| proad trade union democracy, i.e, Ae ployed in each enterprise. 3.The establishment’ of tus. 4. Obtaining control of , factory { 7. Organi the fight against and for s centralism, ‘for the extension of the rights” of “trade| local trade union or ‘ganizations, elec- of the } union organization on a factory basis} tion Patty in Lait which purpose it is necessary to, bodies on the basis of proportional and (that it) capture the local-trade union, appara-) | representation, of trade union management. annual election of | management bodies end officials, ete. leadership of the A. F. T. C. made \ a move to delay the count of the | strike vote, but it was the militancy of these 2,500 workers who were in | the back-of the hall at the time and | shouted on the top of their voice “Strike! Strike! Strike!” that for- ced the hand of the leadership of ' the American Federation of Tex- tile Operatives. On the morning when the strike | vote was to be taken the Textile the workers, The Textile Mill Com- mittees called upon the workers to! vote strike and wage a militant struggle for a 20 per cent increase in wages, elimination of the speed- up, the 8-hour day and the b-day | week, It was this spirit’ of fight and of relentless struggle against the at- tempt of the manufacturers that brought about the militancy and ina termination on the part of the work- | ers. It was this work of the Textile Mill Committees which has made this organization a vital factor in , the present struggle in New Bedford and will stimulate the organization of the unorganized workers not only in New England but also thruout the entire textile industry in the ‘ United States. in the Trade Unions quently to a weakening of contactcouncils wherever they exist, forming union movement of all countries on a sound financial basis. Forms and methods of financial must be detemmined in accordance with the conditions and the character of the movement in each country. 9. Securing the adoption of the principle of building from below up- wards in the structure of revolution- ary minorities and independent ‘trade unions, 10. Struggle against bureaucratiza- tion of central apparatuses and trans-| ference of the whole weight of the work to factories and works. 11. Drawing immigrant workers into-trade unions on the basis of complete equality and strenuously combating hostility towards foreign workers, At the same time revolu- .| tionary trade unions must, by. con- ducting work of mass "education among their members, who are about to emigrate to another ,country, se- cure’ that these workers shall jhecome organized and thus prevent them from being in the hands of -the em- 8. Placing the revolu ionary tegde lovers: -and- the reformist bureau- contributions} cracy in the countries to which they are emigrating. 3 12. Strengthening the organization. | of unemployed; struggle against the expulsion of unemployed from trade unions, and for keeping up a connee< tion between unemployed expelled from trade unions and their organ. ization. 48. Drawing women and young workers into trade unions and theix | promotion to active trade union worl, 14. As a rule working from every- day concrete demands to general questions, and not vice versa. 15. Once and for all breaking the habit now prevailing in all countries of devoting inadequate attention to the work of fractions in revolutionary and reformist trade unions, and alsa to trade union departments in Party committees. Concentrating the atten- | tion of all parties on the practical application of the decisions of the Second, Organizational Conference of the Executive Committee Communist Tnternational. (To Be Continued). Growth of Metropolitan Soccer League Booms Workers’ Sports By J. F. SENYAL. “The Metropolitan Workers” as it is called in short by many of the soccer players and fans who are con-, nected or acquainted with the league, has shown ‘that there is a real basis for workers’ sports. In the six months of the existence of this organization it has grown from a group of seven teams to an or- ganization now comprising some thirty-two teams. , About two months before the soc- cer season several soccer players got together and discussed the pos- sibilities of forming a workers’ soc- cer league, With the opening of the season, the league had about nine teams in two divisions. Before very long, these nine teams s' 40,17 : fh ; teams, and already the members of the executive cotnm:ttee were dis- cussing the advisability, of forming a third division, This was done. Today, the Metropolitan. Workers has 32 teams ih its ranks; These teams are members of some 20 or- ganizations. In these 82 teams there are over 550 soccer players. Today there is no more room for the ac- ceptance of more teams, not even in the third division. This ig due to the speedy growth of this organization, These teams who have been recent- ly accepted have joined with the understanding “that they play friend- ly games this season and scheduled games in the following season. Many will ask the question why. this unprecendent success of the Motroyalitap Workers. This can be * contributed to several things, the two outstanding of which are, first, the purpose of the league and see- ondly its method of functioning. The purpose for which the. Metro- politan Workers was built was prim- arily the development of workers’: sports which would be free of many of the evils and shortcomings of many soccer leagues in the city. We had noticed that in the past. there was a great deal of discontent with the methods the other leagues used. Then again there was lots of divides” kicking about several people up on top in these other leagues, running the organization to suit themselves. Often-it could be seen that the, in- dividuals concerned were not inter- ested in. promoting sports, but only their individual business interests ft above ‘the interests of the league, and,of course, as is to be expected, theiv de¢isions on many disputed points were made accordingly. There were also many soccer teams which tinually felt the abuse of the rul- clique because of their foreign- born origin. * “Tn. the Metropolitan Workers it costs a team between $4 and $7 a ie. Instead of making the home am-pay all the expenses as is done by other leagues, the Metropolitan a. Popularize Workers’ Sports. Because .f our methods we have» been able to popularize workers’ sports among many soccer players and fans. We expect to, due to these methods, see many teams join ‘the ranks of the Metropolitan orkers very soon. In fact, it is agreed by all that the Metropolitan Workers’ Soccer League in the coming season will be second to none among the amateur leagues in New York City. The successful growth of the Metropolitan Workers’ Soccer these expenses equally. Schedules are made up and sent to the teams each week. The teams re- ceive a copy of the league’s standing along with the schedule. This’ helps to stimulate considerable interest in the league’s activity. ~ League should bring encouragment to the workers’ soccer teams all over the country. The Metropolitan Workers’ Soccer League will | furnish information to whoever re- quests it. J. F. Senyal, 945 Fox St, New aa City, is barge: ; nay } Mill Committees issued a leaflet to } | | |