The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 1, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1928 THRE DAILY WORKER Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine. | Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New, York, N. Y. Cable Address SUBSCRIPTION RATES ail (in New York only): By Mai ear $4.50 six ncnths 10 three months Phone, Orchard 1680 *‘Daiwork’ utside of New Yor’): | ar $3.50 six months | 2.00 three months. $6.50 Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. | . ROBERT - MINOR | | i Editor Assistant Editor... aa WM. F. DUNNE a» second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under 1879. the act of March 3, Reverend Norman Thomas | € , Goes to “the Masses’ | Before the Synod of the Evangelical churches at Dunkirk, | N. Y., on Memorial Day, the Reverend Norman Thomas, candi-| date of the socialist party for the presidency of the United | States, struggled to win the souls of his fellow protestant preach- ers for the gospel of Hillquit reformism and away from the reformism of Al. Smith. Mr. Thomas is having a hell of a time.with his flock. The flock is flocking to Al. Smith. Unable to find any es- | sential difference betwaeu tic ete=let poxty ploiform of Smith} as candidate for the nomination of the democratic party, large ra ars of the brethren of the Reverend Thomas’ party could s@s uo reason for failing to vote for the “good” Mr. Smith. : Where does the Rev. Mr. Thomas go to reclaim the straying souls of his party of piety and efficient capitalist government? There is nothing accidental in the choice of Norman Thomas as the orator of the day for the conclave of provincial protestant | preachers who constitute the “key men” of reaction among the} most backward sections of the petty capitalist class. The so- cialist party has lost all semblance of working class basis. Its | present basis is correctly indicated by the struggle of the socialist } party campaign leaders to present to the small business elements | a program more alluring to them than the one Smith promises. Mr. Thomas’ program consists of a few glowing promises that the socialist party politicians if elected will administer more “hon- estly” than all other politicians the capitalist state machinery | for safeguarding the system of exploitation of the working class. | In Reading, Pa., the socialist party officials headed by Rev. | Thomas’ running mate, James Maurer, promises the capitalist class to give it “capitalist”? government and to protect the prop- | erty rights of the capitalists against the working class in case | of strikes. Mr. Thomas himself uses the official organ of the} socialist party to explain that he is not an “orthodox” follower | of Marx, which indeed is a necessary explanation of the Reading | socialist party leaders’ proposal to conduct a strikebreaking gov-| ernment. And all of it harmonizes with the action of the last convention of that yellow party in withdrawing the former re- quirement that applicants for membership in that party should acknowledge the class struggle. Indeed, how could the small business men, preachers and lawyers that now constitute the leading frame-work of the so- cialist party—how could the preachers of the Evangelical Synod —embrace the class struggle of the working class? There is no essential difference between what the Rev. Thomas’ party offers and what the also-pious Al. Smith offers, except one will break strikes with protestant incantations, the other with catholic devotion. The socialist party platform on which this obscurantist preacher—this enemy of the workers stands—is one which offers nothing that Al. Smith can not equally well promise. Both plat- forms are platforms intended to win the workers to faith in the} capitalist government and capitalist system of wage slavery. But| the anti-Marxian, anti-working class platform of the socialist} party especially appeals to the workers to believe the lie that| through the use of the ballot in the capitalist elections they can liberate themselves. The workers should watch closely the antics of this obscur- antist preacher who betrays more openly than the more astute Hillquit the counter-revolutionary, anti-labor character of his party of piety and strikebreaking. | The Workers (Communist) Party asks the working class to vote for the revolutionary party of the working class. But in doing so it does not lie to the workers by claiming that the work- ing class can be emancipated from wage slavery through the cast- ing of ballots in the elections under the capitalist state. The present election campaign, entered into with unprecedented vigor by the Communist Party, is used by this revolutionary party as an important means of mobilizing the working class for the struggle against the capitalist class and against the capitalist state. The Communist Party frankly tells the workers that it] should have no illusions of any possibility of emancipation thru the forms of this state capitalist government or its elections. Only the actions of the mas of workers and exploited farmers, outside of the forms of the capitalist government state machiner outside of the parliamentary forms, can win their emancipation. | Any revolutionary workers elected to public office will use| that office as a tribune from which to denounce and expose the enemy character of the capitalist government, and to mobilize! the workers against it. Vote Communist! Join the Workers (Communist) Party “LABOR DEFENSE AIDS — CLASS WAR PRISONERS Seventy cases in which wor S Fs courts were handled by the New York Section of the Defense, 799 Broadway, during the past four months. these cases were successfully fought rational Labor A large number of cibuting May Day leaflets, wor by the defens ion, while) dis y ‘ final decision in a number of them is arrested for distributing the pending, according to Rose Baron,) DAILY WORKER in the Bayonne ecretary. strike and work sted for Among the vases that were taken| Speaking on street s also were among those defended. In each of these cases the I. L. D. paid lawyers’ when _ nece care of during the past four months y ested paper box strik-| ing shoe workers, laundry s, grocery clerks and millinery the strikers of the Eagle) ganda camp Co., workers arrested for dis-| ized workers and paid miscellaneous tributing anti-injunction leaflets, | expenses, arrested for protesting | “Our record of activity for four American imperialism’s war} months proves that the I, L. D. is the agua, workers arrested for| stronges umpion which the work- collecting money for miners’ relief| ers po in their struggle against y, conducted propa- and workers threatened with deporta-| the atta and f -ups of capital- tion bec >t radical activities, in-|ist courts, Rose Baron said yester- clading the e of A. Kobel, editor of| day. ‘All class-conscious workers Uus Iim, Esthonian Communist weekly. Kobel was to be deported for denouncing the murderers of Sacco end Vanzetti. Workers arrested for should recognize this fact and help build the I. L. D. into an even stronger fighter for the American working class.” es, furnished bail} ns to free the victim- | | CAL ONLY “DEFENDS HIS COUNTRY” “It can be said of our country that in all its history it has never made preparations to attack any other country.” —Cal Coolidge in his “Gettysburg address.” Organizing the Young Workers By HERBERT ZAM (Continued From Previous Issue.) The second case was that of the millinery workers. The millinery workers after about two years of hard work had succeeded in building up a local of almost 4,000 members. No help had been given by the bu- reaucrats in this work, and they them- selves previously had never taken any interest in organizing the trimmers. After this work was accomplished however, they are now making ef- forts to smash the millinery workers’ union under the fake slogans of amal- gamation and endeavoring to combine it with another local. The third case was that of the office workers. The Offica Workers’ Union, the B. S. & A. U., No, 12646, a federal union of the American Federation of Labor, has been in existence for many many years, but in all that time has not yet succeeded in getting at the most more than 10 or 150 members into its ranks. It has had annual expul- sions every year. Young workers in the office workers’ union who have |really shown any interest in organiz- ing the big mass of the office work- ers were inevitably expelled from the union, as has been the case recently. Finally, however, those who were expelled decided that they could no | longer support an organization like the office workers’ union which makes no effort to organize the young work- jers, which makes no effort to fight \for their conditions, but on the con- \trary, expels those who wish to fight for their conditions. They organized the Office Work- ers’ League. which is rapidly gaining in membership, Shoe Workers. The fourth case was that of the shoe workers, The slipper workers, mostly young workers, had heretofore been unorganized. Recently they were organized in a local and as a result of this they gained many concessions from the boss, However, the bureau- crats of the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union were not interested in seeing | the young workers in the trade or- ganized. Consequently they took out ‘an injunction against the Shoe Work- ers’ Union which had organized the young workers. All these examples very definitely indicated that the part of the trade union bureaucracy is not only away from organizing the young workers, but is actually for prevent- ing the organization of the young workers by themselves or by other forces, and for smashing their organ- izations wherever they succeed in forming them. Role of Brookwood. In this situation, what is the role of Muste and his associates of the Brookwood Labor College? Their role is somewhat similar to that of the left social democrats in Europe. They talk about organizing the young workers, because there is a movement in the ranks of the young workers for organization. But their talk is| only intended to side-track the young | workers from organization. Thay are | just. as much interested in organizing the young workers as is the trade union bureaucracy, This was demon- strated at the conference by their | continual abhorrence of the discussion of the concrete questions, such as the Plumbers’ Helpers’ and the Millinery Workers’ Unions. They were much more interested in discussing organ- izing the young workers as an ab- straction, but refused to discuss any concrete situation. This was also in- dicated by their refusal to take any steps which might have a positive re- sult in the labor movement. Tom Tip- pet in his speech had declared that the First Brookwood Conference was a conference of hot air;' this one would be one of action, But Mr. Muste very quickly disillusioned the delegates. He declared that the conference could do nothing; the conference éould only discuss. When the delegates, however, ob- jected very strenuously to such dec- larations, he was compelled to with- draw: and finally under the pressure of the delegates he even made the concession of permitting the adoption of resolutions, with the result that the resolution introduced by the rep- refentative of the Young Workers League on Social Legislation for the Young Workers, and the resolution introduced by Clarence Miller on the organization of the young workers, were unanimously adopted. There was also quite a vigorous struggle over the question of whether the con- ference should elect a committee or not. Mr. Muste was against it. The delegates were for it, The delegates declared that they must elect a com- mittee which would be able to carry out some of the decisions of the con- ference, which would be able to reach other trade unions with the message of the conference. And finally again, Mr. Muste was compelled to accede to the wishes of the delegates and a committee was elected. The conference demonstrated one thirfg very clearly. The young work- ers are an important factor. They must be organized. Without the young workers, the struggle of the workers against the capitalist class is so much the harder. To whom will fall the task of organizing the young work- ers? To the Communists and the left wing. No other force can or will organize the young workers. Tho trade union bureaucrats will do all in their power to prevent the organiza- tion of the young workers. The lib- erals, like Muste, in between, will talk about organizing the young workers, but actually will act as a brake on this movement. The Com- munists and the left wing must be the ones to take the concrete mea- sures for organizing the young work- ers. The Young Workers (Commu- nist) League has for the past three years been in the forefront in this task. This still remains a fundamen- tal task for the Young Workers (Communist) League. The Young Workers (Communist) League looks upon the Labor Youth Conference as a step of progress, not because of the achievements of Brookwood, but be- cause of the achievements of the dele- gates themselves against them. What must be done now is to follow up, to actually carry out what the delégates expressed at the Labor Youth Con- ference at Brookwood and to spread this on a national scale, The role of Brookwood at this conference was clear, His role was to rationalize and justify the betray- jals of the bureaucracy and their at- jtacks against the left wing and Com- munists. At times this betrayal was cleverly marked by the proper phraseology. An Organized Meeting Is a Successful One By SIDNEY BLOOMFIELD With the election campaign getting under way the organization of propa- ganda meetings will play an impor- tant part in rallying the working class to our banner. In the course of my experience in the Socialist Party and the Communist Party cam- paigns I have seen many meetings | ruined because of bad organization of | the meeting, lack of organization of literature selling and unsystematic | manner of making the collection. In order to avoid failure of our propaganda meetings, I am offering a working program which may be modified according to the circuin- stances. With ten ordinary rank and ; fle workers, a meeting can be organ- ized in the following manner: 2 Four literature sellers; 2 in inside _,and 2 in outside aisles. 4 collectors; 2 in inside and 2 in outside aisles, | women preferred; one literature seller to tend to literature table at entrance of hall; one comrade to act as chair- man. Literature Before the meeting hall is opened, the literature table at the entrance should be\placed so as to have the literature facing tl» the people upon lentering hall. When meeting is on, {the comrade in charge shall turn table around or switch the literature buy upon leaving hall. A variety of literature may be sold by the sellers and at the table before the meeting opens. A few minutes before opening the meeting, the chair- ature, explain its importance on sale and urge the audience to.buy, with- dtawing from the platform for a few around so that people may read and | man should call attention to the liter- ing. The sellers should call out and really peddle the various kinds of lit-| Jerature without however, creating any! jundue noise or disorder. Aggressive selling will bring results. | | The speakers should be supported with ‘heavy literature sales, as the major {part of the success of any meeting | consists in heavy literature sales. | One or ‘two special pamphlets or |books, to be sold from the platform by the. speaker, chairman or other competent comrade should be set aside until the speaking is over. The sell- lers are to have an understanding with the comrade who is to introduce the book from the platform in a two-min- ‘ute speech so as to commence selling ‘as soon as the introductory speech is ‘over. When the chairman is about to open the meeting, all literature sellers must _vetire to the rear of the hall very quietly so as to allow meeting to go on undisturbed, check-up their sales and cash in to the comrade in charge ‘of the literature. When this is done, (the comrade in charge gives to each |Seller his or her allotment of the spe- ‘cial pamphlets or books (that the speaker will later introduce) and quietly take his seat in the rear of hall, but to come forward to the front after the collection has been taken and the speaker commences to talk about the literature. * Ushers and Collectors. The four collectors shall act as ushers until time of collection. When tired of walking around, the ushers may sit down oceasionaily at the rear of hall so as not to disturb the meet- ing by sitting down and getting up during the progress of the meeting. The ushers shall act as collectors, ,and shall have hats or other recepta- They shall quietly move to the front of the hall and be ready for their work when the speaker or chairman begins to make the collection talk. If there are not sufficient comrades, then the same comrades acting as literature sellers may act as ushers as well as collectors. If bills are collected first, the col- lectors are to leave their receptacles on the edges of the platform and go thru the audience for the bills. When the speaker asks for the general col- lection, then the hats or receptacles shall be used. Collectors should go slowly thru the lines or rows of seats so as not to miss anyone and to give all an opportunity to contribute. In this respect we may take a lesson from the church collectors. Soon as all money is taken up, col- lectors shall proceed promptly to an ante-room or other place (to be agreed upon before collection) where the collection may be counted with- out disturbing the meeting by jingling of coins or the conversation of the collectors. The chairman of the col- lection squad shall take charge of the collection after the collectors have as- sisted in counting and have verified the amount, Free Literature. Literature for free distribution should not, as a rule, be placed on the seats. People do not buy litera- ture as readily after’ having received free literature. Some people tear up or scatter the literature, making a mess on the floor. Others read the free literature while the speaker is talking. Many do not even take up the literature from the chair, but sit on it, leaving the literature in a wrinkled state when leaving the hall, On the other hand, if a few comrades the free literature when the audi- ence is leaving, very few people will refuse to take it. Many will take the literature home, as they don’t wish to stop to read on the street. A piece of literature, taken home is just the desired aim and purpose of distribu- tion. Upon passing out the litera- ture, a few words as “take it home and read it,” spoken out loud by the comrades passing out the literature to each individual has a good effect. All printed matter; whether pamph- lets, leaflets, papers or’ magazines should be stamped with a simple rub- ber stamp similar to the one used by one of our units bearing the follow- ing announcement: “You are Welcome! come to the WORKERS PARTY HEADQUARTER Rooms 224-5 Day Bldg. 4 Walnut St. EVERY SAT. & MONDAY EVE. Good Speakers, Lively Discussions and Good Times.” All meetings should be made to yield as much as possible, and full ad- vantage of the meetings must be tak- en. Announcements should be taken care of by the chairman, and impor- tant ones may be repeated at another time, A membership drive at every meeting, if done in a well planned manner so as not to bore the audience is always in order, and many differ- ent means can be resorted to if the committee is wide-awake. Subscrip- tions to the party publications may be taken and cooperation with the speaker or chairman makes this task easier. Vatious party supplies such as, subscription blanks, information and membership application blanks as well as party programs should be on minutes to allow uninterrupted sell-|cles ready before the meeting opens.’ are stationed at the door to pass out |hand at all meetings. iS ay HANaQuTS) | Talk about the solid south. Even the dry agents in Birmingham, Ala., are good democrats. Yester- day they confiscated a freight car load of liquor destined for Kansas City, where the republican national convention will be held. * * » Congress has adjourned at last, end the worker can swell with pride at the millions appropriated for army and navy. Think of it! All that money being spent just to protect him from all those big wicked nations | that are just itching to pounce on him! * * * A reader writes to suggest that we stop printing stories about Tammany graft. “That isn’t news!” he says. * * . In Memoriam ~* Mrs. Knapp hae very tender nerves, (Far more persuasive than her am- ple curves) And Mr. Fall a very stckly heart, More eloquent than legalistic art. While Mr. Connolly of sewage fame, Must go to Europe, so the papers claim; And Mr, Mellon, suffering from bunions, Goes to Bermuda to inspect the onions. When will the reticent “spokesman” of this nation Depart on his much-merited vaca- tion? —F. H. President Cal’s Gettysburg address was a signal for universal weeping. Even the skies were downcast. = * ° Poor Senator Borah! After so many years of beautiful speech-mak- ing, of playing insurgent when in- surging was fashionable, of showing faith in true American principles by trying to murder Haywood, Pettibone and Moyer, and now he isn’t aven mentioned for the republican nomina~ tion. « * s The Crisis of 1928 (Photo by New Bedford Standard.) “Oh Mama, who is the nice old man in the picture?” “Norman Thomas, my child.” “Well, what in the world is hq doing?” “Nothing at all, my child. He's @ socialist.” “Well, what’s a socialist for?” “When the capitalist system bea gins to slip, a socialist holds it up.” “But in the picture, mama, he's only holding up his pants, isn’t he?” “Adolph! Take the flatiron out of your mouth and come to mama this instant and get pinned up!” Lost & Found Dept. LOST—Presbyterian prayer book. Please return to Rev. Norman Thomas, Brickbat Presbyterian Church, Finder will receive re- ward of benediction worth seventy- five cents, THE ORDINARY. “Great Accident! One Hundred Thouse and Dead!” You were incredulous if so you read; | And wherefore then of the unusual speak, A Million die each ordinary week; And any common hour, the floods of pain Run aeeney than upon the igen a] ° WHO'S WHO. JACKSON MINTZER. Born Aug. 2, 1894. Ed. in public and higl schools. Married Mollie Blintzes July 2, 1915. Entered dress goods 3 of father-in-law. Joined social party, March 4, 1916. Candidate for assembly on S. P. ticket, 1918, 1919, — 1920. Member of B. P. O. E., Inter- national Order of Odd Fellows, — Brith Sholem, Lodge 381. Re tion: golf, tourist trips to lodge meetings. \ aoe) nea