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

M Wil St. coll 400 on Los Are clin bef« hon Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine. Daily, Except Sunday $3 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside 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. Phone, Orchard 1680 “Datwork” Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. Editor ..-ROBERT MINOR Assistant Editor.. ...WM. F. DUNNE petered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. A Strikebreaker Celebrates May Day William Green, president of tlie American Federation of Labor, celebrated May Day by pulling off as neat a strikebreaking stunt as any other adept professional capitalist stool pigeon could have pulled. He issued a circular to all unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor denouncing the Pennsylvania-Ohio Miners Relief Committee, now the National Miners Relief Committee, and urging affiliated bodies not to contribute money to its relief fund for the striking miners, In the fourteenth month of the coal miners’ strike in Pennsyl- vania, Ohio and West Virginia, to the ranks of which has been recently added fresh thousands in Illinois, Kansas and the unor- ganized fields of West Pennsylvania, this capitalist flunkey, in- stead of mob ng all the energies of the American Federation of Labor for the winning of the strike sees fit to weaken the resist- ance of the strikers by attacking their rank and file relief organi- zation. Had Green donned miners’ work clothes and equipped with pick and lamp descended into a scab mine to dig coal he could not have done more injury to the cause of the strikers. The operators are depending on the weapon of starvation to| break the backbone of the strike. They know that the scanty savings of the coal diggers have long since been exhausted. They know that they must depend on the generous solidarity of the rest of the American working class to provide them with the necessi- ties of life until they win their strike. And instead of inducing the executives of international unions to dig down into their mil- lion-dollar treasures for contributions to miners’ relief, Green does his level best to place obstacles in the way of the only relief or- ganization that is making a serious effort to mobilize the entire American working class behind the coal diggers struggle. The answer of the members of the American Federation of | Labor to Green’s latest strikebreaking stunt must be to increase}! their relief activities ten-fold and to increase their contributions | to the National Miners Relief Committee, 611 Penn Avenue, Pitts-) burgh, Pa. Show that $12,000-a-year strikebreaker that you will not let your brothers be starved into submission. The miners must win. eed them. Print t8 PAINTERS ENDANGERED BY SPRAYING DEVICE “Will organized painters allow themselves to be made the victims of employe propaganda and accept the use of a machine which increases every hazard of an industry known to be one of the most dangerous from the standpoint of occupational poi-¢---— ape oe sons,” asks the Workers’ Health| painters’ trade who writes: ‘We shall Bureau in a warning issued yesterday |never adopt effective means of pre- embers of the Brotherhood of | Venting lead poisoning in industry un- s, Decorators and Paper-|til we aecept the fact that the danger s of America to vote down|lies in the air the workman breathes every agreement and industrial code|more than in his personal habits. which accepts the use of the spray|American industry is still largely painting machine in their industry. jdominated by the old idea that a “No protection against this machine} worker acquires poisoning from th exists in the house painting industry,’ |lead of his hands and that the way) the statement continues, “where ven-| to protect him is to urge him to wash) tilation depends on the construction| thoroughly before eating, _ laying! of the particular room, closet or hall-| Special stress on the importance of way being painted, and where the|Scrubbing his finger nails. I have most dangerous poisons continue to|never been able to picture to myself be used without regulation. Painters | Just how the employer and the physi- are not even aware of the poisons| Cian think that the lead under a they are using as labels on the con- man’s finger nails gets into his blood. r the purpose of pro-|AS @ matter of fact this source of + impurities in paint | Poisoning 1s relatively: unimportant. d not for the protection, Men do not habitually suck their |fingers; they eat only three meals a ; day, but they breathe in the factory air some fourteen times a minute.’ ” hange n Constant Danger. “Eyen where carried on in specially constructed boot with a provision| _ er spet oF passing | May Day Features New by the working face of the booth and 3 where ead, benzol and wood alcohol| Issue of LL.D. Bulletin have been removed ‘from spray} materials, there is no assurance that | workers will not be poisoned,” eon- tinues the Workers’ Health Bureau. “Unorganized workers have been forced to accept the spray machine in furniture factories, automobile and car painting but at a terrible sacri- fice to life and health. The organized house painter has heretofore un- qualifiedly opposed its use. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California and Colorado, the Workers’ Health Bureau has assisted painters’ unions in opposing the acceptance of any regulations put forward as guarantee- ing protection and has consistently May Day occupies the place of prominence in the May issue of the nse Bulletin, which is pub- lished monthly sec- of De- fense, 799 Broadway. The leading ar- Lich MERIT nificance of this international working class holiday and urges all class-conscious workers to: join in the figbt to free the vic- tims of the class war. With the May issue, the Labor De- fense Bulletin has for the first time been increased to eight pages. The \first number of the Bulletin, 7 fought against allowing the interpre- | appeared in January, was only fou | tation that medical examinations and| Pages, and the magazine has thus the provision of sanitary safe-guards | doubled its size within four months. will prevent lead and other poisons.| The Bulletin gives news of persecu- Serious Situation. tions of workers throughout the world “That such recommendations now|and also contains details of the new come from the union itself is cause|mass movement that the Internation- for serious alarm on the part of the|al Labor Defense is starting to free membership,” states the Bureau add-|Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings. ing, “our attention was forcefully) An item of especial interest are the called to the seriousness of the situa-| statistics of persecutions of revolu- tion when we examined the renort|/tionary workers and peasants by the executive board of the Ohio| throughout the world during the last State Conference of Painters and pub-| three years, These statistics, pub- lished in the February issue of the] ,. ae i Ohio Painter. Their statement that lished! by the International Red. Aid, ‘The elimination of trade hazards show that a total of 86,591 workers and peasants were murdered and 92,- rests with the painter himself and ‘ ri , 810 wounded by the bourgeoisie from vance ‘dinary ru! vy. ‘geoisie fro Pup nbeervance(.of $D8i gee oe cing 1925 to 1928. There are at present I hygiene,’ haticall 19 ; fers wy pleted Sebel it ‘Health 64,552 victims of the class war in the prisons of capitalism. Bureau quoting Dr. Alico Hamilton} of Harvard Wniversity, an interna-|. The cover design of the Bulletin i: tional expert on col in the| by Jillian Finkler, | CRUCIFIED ae = * HAVE EXACT FARE REACY By Fred Ellis we ee Nate 7S Millions of workers must pay about $14 per year more in subway fares by order of three New York capitalist flunkeys, judges of the New York State Supreme Court. decision would be and thereby make millions gambling in Interboro shares on the stock exchange? Of course, the judges are “impartial” and have “no personal motives”—but how did their friends know in advance what their Philadelphia Jobless Hold Meet May 9 By B. HERMAN. ‘ AN unemployed mass meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 9th, | at 2 p. m. at Grand Fraternity Hall, 1628 Arch St., by the Philadelphia Council of Unemployed, This meet- ing will be the culmination of a whole series of meetings thruout the city, in West Philadelphia, Ken- sington and South Philadelphia. At this meeting all the councils of un-. employed will be present and a del- egation will be elected to visit the city officials and demand that the city provide relief for the unemploy- ed, that a system of unemployed insurance be instituted that the un- enployed should not be evicted for non-payment of rent. Jt will mark a big step forward in the movement to organize the un- employed in Philadelphia. All un- employed workers are invited to this meeting. The city administration has mil- lions for wealthy contractors, mil- lions for bankers and real estate and traction magnates, but the 150,- 000 unemployed in Philadelphia haven’t gotten anything in the way of relief. The republican admin- istration of Philadelphia and of the state of Pennsylvania feels so securely in the saddle, that it does not even make a pretense of relief for the unemployed. HOW POWER TRUST WORKS WASHINGTON, May 3.—Methods of public utilities organizations in in- municipally operated electric light plants in Connecticut were revealed at the Federal Trade Commission’s Power Trust Investigation. Clarence G. Willard said that a catechism on utilities was furnished to most of the state high schools. The pamphlet said publicly owned utilities charged higher rates, were less effi- ciently operated and were injected into polities. N. Y. Workers School a By D. BENJAMIN. The Workers School had good } cause to celebrate May Day this year. With the most successful | year in its history (1300 registered | in the fall term); with the estab- lishment for the first time of a full- | time national training course (at- tended by 25 leading comrades from | practically every district in the country); with the moving into new and larger quarters at 26-28 Union Square (capable of taking care of over 2,000 students)—with all these and much more having taken place, the Workers School can well say that the year, May 1, 1927 to May 1, 1928, has fulfilled to some extent at least the slogan of the Workers School, “Training for the Class Struggle.” Role of Workers School. | The Workers School is a force in the working class movement ‘and is a tremendous weapon in the hands of the American revolutionary | movement, Its thousands of stu- dents are not students in the aca- demic sense but are militant fight- ers for the working class who, be- cause of their training at the school, can ‘fight ‘more effectively for their | class. Its students belong to unions, to workers’ clubs, to workers’ fra- ternal organizations. Its students | are workers in the shops and fac- student- | tories and offices. Its workers carfy the lessons of the school—the spirit and militancy of the school—the ability to handle and meet workers’ problems in ac- | cordance with the needs of the en- tire working class—carry all this into the shops, into the workers’ organizations, into the very midst of large sections of the working class. Some of the student-workers at the school are leaders in the working class movement—leaders in | the unions, in the shops. While at- tending the school, they are better able to carry thru the tasks of ef- | fective leadership. But the Workers School could not and cannot afford to stand still. its very nature—as part and parcel of the class conscious section of the American working class—it must grow and develop if it is to carry By | , out its purpose, And the school has | not failed in this. From 1 class room 4 years ago to 8 rooms to- day; from 55 students to 1300 stu- dents in the same period of time— this has been the history of the | school. New Quarters. | On May Day the Workers School moved into a new building where it will have 12 large rooms, capable of taking care of 2,000 students comfortably. It has a complete floor to itself and will therefore be in a position to organize its work more efficiently and in a manner that will satisfy the students. It is in a position to expand and take over another , floor the following year if its needs and the needs of the militant labor movement of this city so require. Then-there is the step of the es- tablishment of the National Train- | ing School. Can one overestimate its importance? Twenty-five lead- ing comrades from all over the coun- try—from California to Connecticut, from Canada to Colorado—are at- From 9 a. m. | tending its classes, Force in Labor till 2 p. m.—classes; from 2 p. m. till 6 p. m.—study; in the evenings participation in some important or responsible’ manner in the work of the Communist Party or the labor movement in general—this is the schedule of the ‘(National Students”; that is, of the students who will, as a result, be better, more militant and capable fighters for the Amer- ican -working class. From their midst will come organizers, editors, teachers, trade union leaders, agi- tators—devoted fighters to . the cause of labor. All sections of the country wilt benefit. These stu- dents will go back and teach the lessons they learned. This will help the weaker sections of the country. And it will even be possible to send some organizers to do pioneer work for the revolutionary labor move- ment in unorganized territories, The real value of the Workers School, however, lies not so much in the work that it has done but in the work that it will do. May 1, 1927, and May 1, 1928, are impor- tant. But May 1, 1929 and May 1, 1980, are more important. What , will the militant labor movement be able to say of the school next year and the year following that? What accomplishment will the Workers School have to its credit in the com- ing year? Confident of Future. This much the Workers School can answer. It looks upon the fu- ture with determination and work- ing class confidence. It is proud of the responsibilities facing it. It'ac- cepts them. It recognizes the t mendous problems facing the work~ ing class today. But it also sees the opportunities, The working class needs more trained fighters. The working class needs more devoted fighters. The working class needs class leaders. The Workers School had good’ cause this year to celebrate May First, It pledges again its devotion to the struggle of the working class, The Workers School is determined that May Day of next year, of 1929, will witness a bigger celebration, will see even bigger steps forward taken by the school and by the American working class. The following resolution was adopt- ed by thé Executive Committee of the Communist International on Febru- ary 25, 1928, Miles Sa (Continued from Previous Issue). In regard to the organizational! tasks of the Communists in countries where the trade union movement is} split, it is essential first of all to deal with the work and shortcomings of the independent revolutionary trade unions in these countries (France, Czechoslovakia, and others). In these countries it is essential: 1. Energetically to recruit new members first and foremost among unorganized workers, taking partic- ular advantage of periods of mass movements. "2, To carry on a_struggle against fluctuation of membership by the es- tablishment of fighting funds, mutual aids funds, ete. f 3. To reconstrwet the trade unions on an industrial basis without forcing the pace, however, and without re- sorting to mechanical fusions. 4. To combine the factory councils of all enterprises forming part of The automobide industry is draw- ing the women into the ranks of its workers in ever-increasing numbers. Five years ago there were 3,000 women auto workers in Detroit; to- day there are 10,000. They are being taken on the heaviest, dirti- est, unhealthiest of jobs. The bosses are preferring women for some lines. No need to inquire the reason—they can get them for 25 and 35 cents an hour, Young and not-so-young, married and sin- gle, today they need work more than ever before. The married woman's husband is out te ox against concentrated capitalism, each individual factory council, however, to retain its separate existence. 5. To devote special efforis to es- tablish various mixed committees, councils of action and other united front organs in conjunction with the workers in reformist factory trade union organizations, as .well. as with the unorganized workers or the basis of definite concrete ks. 6. To -develop: a_ militant: trade press, to publish special revolutionary trade union-literature, to help in the establishment of Unity Clubs, etc. Where Minority Exists. For countries ‘where trere is an organized opposition. minority. (Great Britain) the most.-important. organ- izational tasks are: 1, To draw as many complete trade union organizations and trades coun- cils as possible into the opposition movement. f 3 2. To carry on a struggle in the local bodies on questions of wages, policy, industrial peace,. etc.” i 8. Unceasingly to explain the causes of the defeat of the recent industrial struggles and to drive home the lesson of the need for a change has had a wage cut, the single girl’s father can’t keep her any more. So she gets a job in an auto factory. At the same time, of course, ‘wages come down. Where the for- | mer skilled man would get a dollar and a half per hour on the job, the girl now works for 35 cents. man walks the street, or makes up his mind to go back for half the wages on “production’—a general term which covers all sorts of un- skilled and semi-skilled processes, , Some of the worst companies in town such as Briggs, known for their rotten conditions and bitter ex- ploitation, employ wamen on ex- -|workers—the labor aristocracy, where The | 'The Tasks of the Communists one concern or trust for joint actionof leaders. > 4. To earry on a relentless struggle against the slightest infringement of, trade union democracy, expulsions, ete. For countries where an organized opposition does not exist and where “work is carried on only by fractions (Germany, Austria and others) all the efforts must be directed towars:| 1. Forming fractions according to} industries, districts and on a national} seale. 2. Appointing for every big enter-| prise a special trade union organizer) for permanent work among the or-| ganized and unorganized. . 8. Struggle against bureaucratic centralism in the trade union move- ment and for extension of the rights of local trade unions and trades councils, Tasks for American Party,” In the United States where’ the overwhelming majority of workers are unorganized, where members of the existing trade unions are recruit- ed mainly from the midst of skilled the most important trade unions are undergoing a process of disintegra- tion, all Communist work in trade unions must be directed mainly to- | tremely heavy jobs. For example, on the big punch-presses, 30-ton machines, which must be lifted by the worker, where the piece punched out may weigh over a hundred pounds, two girls are put together on such machines. There is con- stant danger of losing fingers or | hands on such a job. | Ruin Womens Health Women are being taken on spray- ing increasingly too. This job is | known for one of the unhealthiest in the whole industry. While the booths may be equipped with suc- tion blowers, this draws off the fumes so slowly that before they in the Trade Unions - wards organizing the unorganizedomation of Negro workers’ union’ masses of unskilled and semi-skilled The slogan “Organize the Unorganized” must not be a call to the corrupt trade union bureaucracy which rejects the task of organizing the working masses; neither must it be a one-sided call to the existing trade unions, but must be the basis ‘of the activity of the Communist The Communist Party must on its own accord organize trade |unions in those branches of industry where workers are not organized at all or very inadequately organized (the steel, automobile, rubber, boot and textile industries, water-transport workers. Party itself. service, ete.). At the same time Communists must continue and increase their activity in trade unions affiliated to the reac- tionary American Federation of La- bor in order to form a strong left wing in it. As many trade unions refuse to admit Negro workers to member- ship, the Communist Party must take the initiative in forming trade unions Simultaneously, it must continue the struggle for the admission of Negro workers to the Communists must put-up a fight for the amalga- Women Replace Men in Auto Industry; Slave 54-Hour x Negro workers, existing trade unions, absorbed the worker has breathed them in for several minutes. ‘Work- ing for nine or ten hours a day in a stifling, paint-laden atmosphere standing continuously, going through the active muscular exertion. re- quired by spraying, covered with grease and paint, breathing in fumes which smart the eyes, throat and nostrils, this job is truly hell and the companies such as the Ainsworth, a crying disgrace. With the cheaper copanies such as the Ainsworth, a girl may work 54 hours or more a week on this exhausting and un- healthy job and only bring home 17 or 18 dollars, S with the trade~ union organizations of the white workers in the same branches of industry. In spite of the efforts of the cor- rupt bureaucracy to prevent the left wing from capturing the miners’ union by cunning and violence, .Com- munists must not leave this, union. In view of the decline of the miners’ union, however, the left ele- ments must take the initiative in forming new local trade unions in coal mining districts where workers ‘are not wrganized and in places where the miners’ organizations have been destroyed or have fallen to pieces. . The whole purpose of the organiza-, tional. work is systematically to win over the masses. It is from this point of view that every organizational measure, and every step in our prac- ‘| tical work must be regarded. This is precisely why the ways and means of organizational work are so varied, and why it is impossible to lay down} general and fixed rules for all coun-; tries. Organizational work requires, a serious knowledge of the tradé’ union movement and great flexibility in the’ application of revolutionary tactics. Week at $17 Women Must Organize Equal pay for equal work is one crying need for the women in this" industry. They should be kept off the night. shift and off the particu- larly unhealthy or dangerous jobs. They. should have yearly vacation. with pay. Free nurseries should be maintained by the city where the working mother could leave her baby instead of hiring some one at home, which eats up nearly all her wages. For expectant mothers there should be two months’ vaca- tion before and after childbirth, with fluencing high school students against~ soa