The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 15, 1928, Page 4

Page Four r THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1928 f = THE DAILY WORKER) ee ee Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 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 ths $6.50 per year $3.50 six months | $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Phone, Orchard 1680 “Dalwork” Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y- | BERT Mion | ..-ROBERT MINOR ...WM. F. DUNNE ss second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., the act of March 3, 1879. The Mine Workers’ Call “We must build a new union. | “We must take the situation in hand ourselves and break the control | We must organize a new miners’ union, one with of the Lewis gang. xu an honest progressive leadership and a fighting polic In this way alone can we organize the unorganized, resist wage cuts, bring about the 6-hour day and 5-day week, relieve unemployment and establish a national agreement for all miners. Only with a new union can we shatter the control of the Lewic machine. Only with a new, vigorous, powerful union can we put a halt to the open-shop drive of the oper- ators and re-establish union conditions in the mining industry, and prepare ourselves for the great struggles ahead in the industry.” : These words from the call, issued by the conference of executives of miners’ districts, for a national convention of mine workers in September should fire the entire labor movement to| action. The call for the building of the new mine union shows clearly | the path which the biggest and traditionally the most militant | section of the American trade union movement must blaze for the immediate future of organized labor. The call, published in full in today’s DAILY WORKER, begins with a withering in- dictment of the foulest machine of betrayal that the capitalist class ever possessed within a large organization of our class. Lewis, the well-to-do business man, has made a well paying business of his control of the United Mine Workers. When | hundreds of thousands of mine workers were on the verge of | starvation, Lewis made the chief task of the national convention | of the union that of voting himself a big salary of $1,000 per month (as well as extra money for expenses) and the second | task that of expelling from the union every coal miner who’ showed himself an enemy of Lewis’ friends, the coal operators, | It is true that Lewis had a minor quarrel,with some of the coal | operators—but the quarrel revolved merély about Lewis’ con-| tention that the operators should employ) Lewis as an. agency | for the suppression of the mine workers. ’ This quarrel is sub-| ‘erdinate—Lewis’ main quarrel is with the mine,workers. | \ It was inevitable that Lewis, the friend of the coal operators and the bankers back of the coal operators, should betray the | al miners in 1919. Then in 1922, when the Miners’ Union was} face-to-face with the strike-breaking armed forces of capitalist ‘government, it was but natural that Lewis, the republican, the friend of Harding, the former member of the government’s fuel administration which compelled high production of coal during the war, should break the strike for the government and the} coal operators. Again in 1925, Lewis quite consistently served his life’s associates when it became necessary either to marshall | the mine workers for a terrific struggle or to break the strike nndenth.e henefit of “business.” In the spring of last year, again, Lewis and his horde of parasites in the profession of “labor leadership” for profit, went along with the mine workers only in order to hold control of their union and to use it against them. Lewis has made himself known to hundreds of thousands of mine workers. The machine of which he is the head will be thrown out of the labor movement—the slogan which has been ringing through the mine fields with an ever louder echo will be realized: “LEWIS MUST GO!” The formation of the new union of the mine workers does not mean that the militant movement runs away from masses of their fellow workers left under the control of the agents of the bosses. On the contrary the call indicates that the militants will not make that old mistake, but will continue to root Lewis out of control of whatever may remain for the time being of the old organization. Locals, subdistricts and districts of the U. M. W. of A. are called upon to send representatives to the great national convention of the mine workers in September. The drive} is already on for the rank and file miners to take control of their own locals everywhere and to swing them into the real union being organized. In sharp contrast to Lewis’ strikebreak- ing, the militant movement supports to the utmost the present strike which is in desperate straits because of Lewis’ treason. A great drive for the organization of the unorganized is indicated as a supremely important task. None of the Brennan type of treason in a “separate anthracite union,” but a vigorous drive for the welding together of anthracite and soft coal miners into a single, nation-wide union of the mine workers, is thé program set forth in the call. Rightly the whole labor movement is called upon to support this movement. Assistance to the striking miners should be sent to the National Miners’ Relief Committee, 611 Penn Ave., Pitts- burgh, Pa. The mine workers of this country are about to hold the most momentous convention of their glorious history of struggle. The new union they will form will surely be the back-bone of a revived trade-union movement. THE PRISONER By JAMES A, MILLER. He paused in the endless pacing. Grey walls, cold walls. It seemed he ‘heard something in the far corner, that he craved, sleep that never came. Then began the endless pacing. The south wall where the strange | noises came from. Some ghost of old | time doing its penance in the cell. He {Bedford is now entering its eighth | tinue paying the present Jacksonville THE CANDIDATE IS CHOSEN Young By JOE SPINNER, Young Striker. | The strike of 27,000 workers in New | | week of struggle. The mill owners are trying to take advantage of the slowness of the textile industry and have posted a notice of a ten percent wage cut. There have been two wage cuts previous, and the bosses thought they could get away with another one because the bosses knew that the ma- jority of the workers were outside of any union. The reactjonary officials of the, American Federation of Textile Oper- atives, an organization that has some two thousand skilled workers in its ranks, tried to stall off the strike, but due to the pressure of the unskilled workers and the honest rank and file in the A. F, T, O., the strike was de- clared. One of the first public announce- ments of Mr. Batty, secretary-treas. of the A. F, T. O. was in advising the strikers to go to sleep until the strike was over, and telling them that they were tired and should take advantage of the strike to rest up. The New Bedford Textile Workers’ Union saw | the treachery of such advice and told | the workers to pay no attention to Mr. Batty, and to come out on the picket line. The workers followed the advice of the New Bedford Textile Workers’ Union, and one could notice daily the continuous growth of the picket lines. Today there are mass picket lines. As many as three hun- dred around a single gate. the pressure of the New Bedford Tex- tile Workers’ Union, Mr. Batty has of strike, he is advising the members of his union to go on the picket line. These are beginning to go there any- how. The New Bedford Textile Work- ers’ Union has come out with a state- ment welcoming the members of the A. F, T. 0. on the picket line, at the Same time warning the workers against such leaders as Batty, who do not realize the importance of the pick- et line but only consent to the picket line due to the mass pressure from the strikers. 5 Relief Is Vital. Early in the strike it could be seen that relief work would be an immedi- ate necessity for all the strikers if the fight was to be won. Mr. Batty an- ticipating that the workers would come to his organization for relief came out with a statement to the ef- fect that his union would only give relief to those workers who were members of his union before the strike. In plain language this meant that he would give relief to the 2,000 skilled workers only, at the same time neglecting the 28,000 unorganized workers outside his anization. He advised them to go to the citizens’ and mayor’s (scab) eommittees. In spite of this betrayal of: the great mass of textile workers by the A. F, T..0., they made appeals thru- 80,000 strikers, but only giving relief to their small group of skilled work- ers. When the New Bedford Textile Workers’ Union saw the seriousness of the situation, they made arrange- Due to |ments with the Workers’ International | of militancy, these young workers lost | It was agreed | all interest in the strike, but now with Relief to raise relief. turned turtle. Now after seven weeks out the country for the relief of the/| that relief would be given to anyone | the growing militant policy which the as‘ long as he was a striker in need,) New Bedford Textile Workers Union, and who went on the picket line. Last week the loom fixers’ local of the A. F. T. O. paid out its last strike bene- fit of $4.00 per member;“and is now advising its own members to go to the citizen’s and mayor’s committees \for relief, The Workers’ International Relief has announced that it will give relief to all workers regardless ~of what union they bélonged as long as | they go on the picket line. 8. P. Aids Fakers, The socialist party has been giving active assistance to the misleaders of labor running the A. F. T. O. The Boston district of the socialist party recently in convention adopted a reso- lution supporting these bureaucrats. Mr. Norman Thomas spoke at the mass meetings of. the strikers, and the S. P. has been raising relief, ap- pealing in the name of the 30,000 workers but turning this relief over to Batty for his two thousand union members. J, Manning of the Y. P. S. L., who carries the distinguished title of “confidential secretary” of the strike committee, has been giving the bureaucrats active assistance in their fight against building a real textile workers’ union in New Bedford. The S. P. by all these actions once again shows itself in its true role as the agents of reaction. The young workers make up over |25 percent of the textile workers in New Bedford, and it therefore be- comes very important that the union pay special attention to them if the strike is to be Won. Due to the lack Workers Aidin Mill Strike is instituting, we find these young workers coming back into the strike movement and more and more taking an active interest in the strike. The New Bedford Textile Workers’ Union in recognition of the importance of the young workers, has adopted a list of special youth.demands which are as follows: (1) Minimum wage of $15 a week for all young workers. (2) Equal pay for equal work for young and adult workers, (3) Com- plete abolition of child labor under 15 with state maintenance for all those now working under that age. (4) No night work for young workers under 21. No overtime for young workers under. 18. . (5) Two fifteen-minute rest’periods a day for all young work- ers. (6) 7-hour day, 5-day week for young workers under 18. (7) One hour for lunch and washing up on company’s time. (8) Work schools for young. workers under 15 and 18 on working time under union and young worker control, The New Bedford Textile Workers’ Union in. the eight weeks of strike is as strong as ever. Picket lines are grewing daily, and mass meetings likewise... The workers know that a real union has come to.stay in New Bedford: The young workers know that they now have a union to fight for them, which :s worth while fight- ing for. ‘The- young workers will fight like hell... They are chipping in their all to build a union of the New Bedford Textile Workers affili- ated with’ the National Textile Mills Committee in New Bedford. All young workers’ organizations are asked to support this militant strug- gle of these workers, Lewis, Fishwick and Operators Combine | By ALBERT GLOTZER. | A statement issued by the Peabody Coal company, which was recently} printed in the Illinois State Register| thoroly exposes the present agreement | between the operators and the Lewis- Fishwick machine. The statement is not only the statement of the Peabody company but is the voice of the organ- ized operators in the state. Peabody has spoken for them and has laid down the program that will be fol- lowed by the operators in Illinois. } The content can be summarized as follows: The passing of the major part of the coal production to the un- organized fields must be dealt with. This one outstanding condition does not allow the operators here to con- scale of wages and still derive their enormous profits. In order to meet this competition’ the operators ‘are asking the miners in Illinois to ac- cept a wage-cut or else suffer the loss of their organization and a shut-down of the mines, To the militant coal miners who have been fighting their corrupt offi- cials for years, this statement is not a surprise. These miners have indi¢t- ed their officials for their failure to organize the non-union fields; they have demanded a militant struggle against the operators; their cry has been, “a national agreement and a na- tional strike;” for a six-hour day and |a five-day week to solve the crisis in the miners’ union. The machine has given these miners its answer. The answer exhibits it- self in the decadence of this once pow- erful organization, which is being bled to death by the combined efforts of the opdrators and the Lewis official- dom. ‘In Illinois the Fishwick ma- chine has signed separate agreements sending part of the miners back to | something that was alien to the place. He dragged himself slowly to see where it seemed to come from, but there was nothing. He resumed his pacing, backwards and _ forward, ceaselessly like an endless shuttle weaving the loom of fate, tireless, in- dumb—time like a worn out threading her way, forgotten arded. ‘Yhe endless pacing. The west wall with its erack run- ning diagonally across; wall where the rats came from at night, scurry- ing hither and thither until he chased them away with curses he had almost forgotten how to utter. Curses that oozed with the slime of iniquitous divinities of the world without these four walls: four walls that con- tinually pressed in upon him, over and around him like grim, ghosts, that forboding jed eons ago. The door against which shrieked their silence |he had battered his knarled fists when the little patch of sunlight dried countless ineffectual times, sending wished it would go away and never bother him again: that word again | was aad the walls, monotonous and gray. ray walls, r tah » gray days, gray Then began the endless pacing. ' | The north wall where the cold winds came from in winter, the winds |that froze him to the bone and made ‘him screech until the turnkey rattled his keys at the great door and de- manded silence. He wished the wind jwould freeze him up forever like he jhad read of travellers in the far jnorth being frozen, swiftly and sil- ently in the vast grayness— | | Then began the endless pacing. The east wall where the door was, \the outlet to that vague unimagina- \ble liberty that had béen his, it seem- up and went to sleep, Heavenly sleep |dull echoes reverberating through the bd * “ved Blais Ye eecemmitnned os lll oe ooo silent corridors deaf to his entrea-;God who made man to sit in judg- ties, ie iment over men and sand them into Then began the endless pacing. | little holes like this to die smothering The dull, gray floor stained with! '" stifling srayneess hundreds of filthy excrements, The| He closed his eyes and tried to driveling drain that carried its fluid away to where it mattered not. The uneven cobbles worn by his and count- less other feet that had worked out their penance on the tread-mill that never moved except within their swirling brains maddened by the des- pair of solitude, The light faded from the little opening and the rats came from the west wall and he heeded them not; and the noises*creaked teasingly from the south wall, But he was trying to sleep again and he stared at the ceil- ing that pressed down upon him like a weight of lead. The top of his cage that hid the sun and moon and stars. Up there they said was God; sleep, but they wouldn’t let him, these four walls. Then he struggled a lit- tle bit and thought of green fields in the spring and the ice coming down from the hills on the breast of the little river, but they always turned gray and the birds began singing the same eery tune of the noises. And the rushing of the water sounded so much like the rats, Then he screamed the way a rabbit does when you kill it and the turnkey made threatening gestures through the window and he ceased, He looked at the south wall and north wall and the west and the east wall. Then began the endless pacing— work and leaving the rest unemploy- ed. It has split the organization and has played into the hands of the op- erators. These agreements specify no \conditions, no time limit; it gives the operaters the right to abrogate them }at will. The machine has issued state- ments declaring to the miners that |these agreements were permanent. | This declaration was made to the |miners by Hindmarsh, Springfield sub-district president and renegade “progressive-socialist.” It would be well to quote from the Peabody statement which was pub- lished immediately after the declara- ticn by Hindmarsh was made. The first paragraph reads: Z Treachery Exposed, - “We have reopened two of our mines at Springfield under an agree- ment to pay the Jacksonville scale of wages TEMPORARILY.” It goes on further to-say: “We have offered and are willing to pay at our mines in Illinois wages and rates higher than those paid gen- erally in the mines (referring to the non-union fields—AG) which now have the business that Illinois mines formerly had. We are asking our mine employees to accept only such MODIFICATION of the Jacksonville Agreement , « This condition is not local. It applies in all the mining districts in the central western: terri- Mine Workers of America. (Empha- | sis mine.—A. G.) a = Charges Proven. The charges made by the rank and file are here substantiated by the voiee of the operators. The operators have no one to fool, they represent. only their own interests. The ma- chine feels uneomfortable at this statement by the operators. It would rather not have the rank and file 1 \ know these conditions and know that they are in league to destroy this hard fought for organization. But these conditions stand out boldly and stare the miners in the face. It con- firms only again the need for taking the union from these fakers and mak- ing it the property of the coal miners rather than the property of the coal operators as it has been. The administration is desperate. They are using every method imagin- able to defeat the rank and fiie who are today holding their conventions to assume control over their orgariiza- tion. The slugging of such militants as Watt, Voyzey and Thompson at the Illinois miners’ convention, the send- ing of anonymous threat. letters to militants and their wives, and a wave of wholesale expulsion supports ev- i charge made against the official- lom. The officials in league with the op- erators make up the other side, They feel the forward surge of the miners and are squeezing all they can out of the union. Fearing that the rank and file will take control of the organiza- tion they have ordered the banks, ai which the miners’ money, is deposited, not to the money to go into the } AS WE SEE IT By *T. J. O’FLAHERTY. E are indebted to Secretary of La- bor Davis for the opinion that the depression in the coal industry con- stitutes a menace to \the national prosperity but he sees hope in the movement. among the operators to consolidate their mines. This is the panacea proposed by John L. Lewis which will undoubtedly work out to the advantage of the operators but will throw a few hundred thousand miners permanently out of the coal in- dustry. Messrs. Lewis and Davis should worry! * [Hose who have been worrying { about what to do with ex-vice presidents and wage earners over fif- ty should take heart from one cf Mr. Davis’s latest pronouncements. The mechanization of industry has pro- vided the.solution. Of course, our ex-vice presidents will ba provided with employment more congenial than steering an automatic coal-cutting machine. Lots of oil companies need | vice-presidents, particularly if the vice-presidents are clever dcodle bugs. And then there are always new brands of cigars and shaving soaps to be baptised! Be the slave who has passed his fifticth birthday. What about him? Let Mr. Davis speak: “The mechanization of industry has furnished positions for old fel- lows who would have difficulty finding work otherwise. Employ- ers are learning that the old fel- lows are better at running ma- chines than the young. Realizing that it is the only thing they can do for a livelihood, they are more satisfied. They are steady and not easily startled. The old fellow may not have ap elastic step but he has a trained brain and a trained hand. Hard work has already largely been done away with through ma- chines, and accidents are being re- duced. Under the condition there is no reason why men should not work until they are 65 or 70 years old.” §° the millenium for the aged is here! Theirs is a bright prospect. Work until seventy! No more will men of advanced years long for the days of their youth, Instead, youth will pine for the days when the blood begins to thin and the spirit begins to falter. A youth’s place will be in the home until he is fit for the machine. Unless he chooses to join the marines and shoot up Nicaragua. * ‘HE lead in the consolidation of the coal industry is taken by the Sun- day school saint John D. Rockefeller, Jr. John has already shut down sev- eral of his high cost mines and is concentrating on the low cost ones. This means more money for John and nothing at all for hundreds of his former slaves. Operators in the Monongahela Valley are following the Sunday school teacher’s example. Andrew Mellon’s Pittsburgh Coal Company has adopted the Rockefel- ler plan. Indeed Andy may be justly entitled to the credit for the innova- tion but, not having Ivy Lee for a press agent, not he but John D. got the publicity. * yes frame-up system is working overtime in the mining strike area. The latest victim of this sys- tem is Frank Brobb, a striking miner f Northern West Virginia. Brobb is accused of dynamiting the homes of three scabs at Triadelphia. Accord- ing to reliable information the dyna- mite was exploded by company stool pigeons, after Brobb was inveigled to the spot, If the operators suc- ceed in convicting Brobb a twenty year penitentiary term faces him. * * * 'T would be well worth the trouble and the expense to ‘comb the peni- tentiaries of the United States, part- icularly those located in the feudal) areas dominated by coal and steel: with a view to ascertaining how many workers are buried in them for their activities in the class struggle, with- out the knowledge of the labor move- ment, outside of a small circle of their friends. Letters come quite frequently to the national ‘office of the Internaticnal Labor Defense at 799 Broadway, New York, from workers who are buried alive in capi- talist dungeons, whose fate has thus been learned for the first time. No doubt there are hundreds of such * * * * * * * * ‘ * * cases. * * * N bias appearance of a group of Ger- man Communist seamqn at the tory, which HERETOFORE operates |which they bleed repeatedly. under agreements with the United |dreds of dollars are paid thugs to beat |rational character of the Communist hands of the local unions. They are |New York state nonfinating conven- in cahoots with the operators to turn|tion of ‘the Workers (Communist) over the check-off to the officials ra-|Party and the message of greeting! ther than the locals and are reducing | delivered by their leader was a rous- organization to a money agency |ing and encouraging incident. It was Hun-}a graphic illustration of the inter- militants,All this in effort to stem | movement and the strong ties that, the tide of the rank and file. _ | bind all sections of it together. Here | These methods will never destroy |i3 @ movenient that has its roots in’ the movement in the miners’ union. |every industry and a net-work of or- he struggle is not an easy one. It|#anization all over the world, on sea takes more than a day to break down|as well as on land. This is the or- this immense machine built 80 | ganization, yet comparatively huge @ I. “/in this country, which is dest its fall is inevitable despite the ~ But carvan He tim i} the combined efforts of th rators,|¢lass. The workers of the world r Pasa ie