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

Oe he, Page Six Aameas Lrcadis 2 ve Gasanasae, Lele vy cere Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Ine Daily, Except Sunday 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: SUBSCRIPTION RATES is By Mail (in New York $ By Mail (outside of New Yor' ie 00 per year $4.50 six aths $6.50 per year 3.50 six mont $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. : Phone, Stuyvesant 1696. “Daiwork” Address and mall out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y- Sa Entered as second-class ma the VOTE COMMUNIST! For Vice-President 3ENJAMIN - GITLOW .-ROBERT MINOR ..WM. F. DUNNE t New Assistant Editor. th York, N. ¥., under t of X For President WILLIAM Z. pa 4 | WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY For the Party of the Class Struggle! Against the Capitalists! For the Workers! A “Clean Campaign” The republican and democratic parties are curiously unani- mous on one point—both want what they call a “clean cam- paign.” It is delightful to hear that organ of “Peaches” Brown- ing, the New York Evening Graphic (not the Evening Porno- graphic) proclaim the need of cleanlin in the campaign con- test between the Tammany candidate and the Teapot Dome candidate. Says the Graphic: “Thinking voters on both sides wil! be disappointed if this campaign is not conducted on the highest level of calm objective discussion, as far as Smith and Hoover are concerned. The New York World also has come out for a clean cam- paign, and what it fears more than anything else is an election campaign which will-bring to the surface the facts and connec- tions of its favorite son, Al Smith, acknowledged head of the most corrupt political ring in the history of the country. Ac- cordingly the World has combined a sort of frantic appeal with an open warning to the republican politicians that this campaign must be fought out cleanly. There has been no campaign in this generation where so much hysteria has lain just under the surface, the World de- clares. By this statement the World admits under the peculiar cloak of its characteristic verbiage that there is more than a little which it would rather not have disclosed. So it seeks to strike a bargain with the republican grafters: Quid pro quo. Very likely the bargain, if not already consumated, will be agreed upon between the two camps. But The DAILY WORKER naturally is not bound by this “gentlemen’s agreement.” The DAILY WORKER will do all in its power to expose not only the graft infested character of both candidates of the old parties but it Will strive equally to bring to light their activities to defeat the working class and their rela- tions with the big business interests whom they serve. As the election campaign develops the spot light will be thrown on that sanctimonious figure beneath the brown derby. Tammany Al from the days when he was paid by the democratic machine to make up for the “pittance” of $1,500 a year which he then received as assemblyman to the days when he sat in secret conference with the traction interests; from the days when he opposed workingmen’s compensation legislation and struck a bargain with the Barnes republican machine to bring back the corrupt state nominating convention, to his activities in paving the way for increased fares in practically every up- state city; from the days when he carried out the orders of “Boss” Murphy to railroad Governor Sulzer, to his frantic ef- forts to put over the billion dollar traction steal—in an attempt to hand over the new city subways to the B.-M. T.—from the beginning to the end of the career, Al Smith will be exposed for what he is: one of the slickest hypocrites in politics and the truest servant of Wall Street. The activities of Herbert Hoover, engineer of international finance-imperialism, his connections with the Ohio gang, his con- temptible part in Hungary assisted by his tool, Gregory, in put- ting down the workers and peasants’ republic of that country in 1919, his more recent bargains with the Vare machine of Penn- sylvania, will receive equal attention. When the World says that in the choice of Herbert Hoover and Al Smith democracy has proved its capacity for self gov- ernment, it is necessary only to point out that Vare and Olvany gave the final push by which these illustricus sons were put over the finish line: “TEN MINERS TOMBED” “Ten miners tombed!” small headlines weakly cry. (It was twice ten.) That a lone man should die Is sometimes news enough to fill a page, While twenty miners caught beneath a rage Of falling coal is but a passing note. A scandal fills the newsboy’s raucous throat, While twenty dead men get but one slight glance From eyes that scan the headlines’ daily dance. Now twenty workers lie beneath the ground In self-made tombs where they at last have found Their rest from toil. These hunkies and these wops Who mangled lie beneath the fallen props Were but the victims of the mighty beast Who preys upon the workers and makes feast Upon these dead, who sets his profits high Above the lives of workers—let them die. “Ten miners tombed!” small headlines weakly ery! HENRY REICH, Jr. Be Proud California! By HENRY GEORGE WEISS Be proud, Californial Ye've reason to bel San Quentin and Folsom Are accounted to thee! ss How Long? As once a carpenter @ cross on which to crucify one of his craft, 80 a member of his own union drove the train , that bore Gene Debs to prison. And workers toiled long to make the chair tn which the martyrs died. They spun the noose, they built the scaffold, they reared the jails, they forged the shackles. How long, O workers of the world, will you stand one against the other executing the commands of the mas. ters? Be proud, Californial Thy mountains and plains Are “enhanced by the justice Of Mooney in chains! Be proud, California! Of they Dymond and Coutts, Thy bosses like Caesars, Thy judges like brutes! Be proud, California! Our praises are loud. Thou lovely and damned, HENRY REICH, Jr. We say it—be proud } WORKER) THESE BOYS WILL p SETTLE aval, DUmovAL, JULY 3, loz THE CHAMPIONSHIP By Fred Ellis U.S.S.R. Workers Manage Mills By CLARINA MICHELSON Thirty thousand textile workers in America find it impossikle to live on | their wages, and are on strike in New Bedford, Mass. This follows the long struggle in Passaic, N. J., where other thousands of textile workers fought for a union, for better working and living conditions. What about the textile workers in Russia? their conditions? We have just visited the city of Serpuhov, two and a half hours by train from Moscow, where there are three textile factories, employing 18,500 workers. After a 2 mile drive from the station behind a fat izvosh- tihik, in a long black woolen coat, gathered at the waist, past rows of one-story wooden buildings, past churches, past an old fortress, past some peasant women washing clothes at a river’s edge, our droshky drew up at the gates of the Krasny Tex- tilschik, the largest of the factories, where 6,500 workers are employed, two-thirds of them women. The director, a stocky blond-haired Russian, greeted us. It seems he had worked there at the age of 12, had been in the war, was in a German prison four years, came back to Rus- sia, was in the Red Army, went back to work in the factory, became as- sistant director, and had recently been given his present job. The assistant director was also a former worker in the factory. We went all through the factory seeing the bales of raw cotton, bought for the most part in America, coming in from the station, to the finished product, which is turned out at the rate of 210,000 meters a day. Some of the machines are new, improved models, but many are old. This year $930,000 is being spent to improve the machines, to install better systems of ventilation, etc. The factory runs on two shifts of 8 hours, although there are some ap- prentices who work only 6 hours a day. The 7-hour day will also be in- troduced here, as it is being done in the majority of textile factories throughout Russia. 97 per cent of the workers belong to the union. “It is not 100 per cent,” our interpreter told us,” because some are new, some are seasonal workers, and some are behind in their dues.” Have these workers done anything to improve their conditions? Up a street opposite the factory are two rows of large, red brick houses, set in big yards, homes for the workers, owned by the factory. The workers receive money for rent above their wages—if they live in these houses they get less than if they live elsewhere, as these rooms, which are in great demand, are the cheapest in the neighborhood—$3.50 a month for a room, with electricity, and generally a radio thrown in for good measure. A short walk from the houses is a large one-story wooden building with two wings, in one of which is a kin- dergarten and in the other a restaur- ant able to accommodate several hundred people. THere we had soup, veal meat kalls, rice, tea and bread— very good—for 20 cents. The work- ers now want a kitchen which will serve 12,000 2-course dinners a day, at 11 cents, for the workers of the 3 factories. This will cost $450,000. They have raised $150,000, half from the textile trust and half from the 2m raceme ON aan! TOT SRR NOR A i ge Cooperative and the Soviet. They will get a long term loan from the government but before the building can be started they must raise $57,- 000 more. This they will do by all donating 2 days’ pay. It was so voted at a recent meeting of representa- tives of the workers of the three fac- tories. There is one Cooperative in Serpu- hov with a membership of 12,000. Members can get credit from the stores through the factories, the di- rector agrecing to deduct from their wages the amcunt credited. One large cooperative store, with a monthly turnover of $50,000, handling grocer- ies, dry goods, shoes, samovars, ete., ‘s directly ¢pposite the Krasny Tex- pS What are | tilschik. A sign flapped gloomily across the street hung out by a pri- vate shopkeeper, “I am closing my | window. I'am no longer in business.” | The cooperatives are fast displacing the private stores, to such an extent in Serpuhov that during the last year private stores fell off 50 per cent. Near the store is a year-old one- story brick building. Here the wom- en come, hundreds of them a day, take off their clothes, check them, and go into a huge room, where naked as the day they were born, they do the family washing. There are big tin wash tubs and plenty of boiling hot water. Soap they bring. It is given them at the factory, so much a month. Quite a change from scrub- bing in the cold water of the river. The woman in charge was so effi- cient, and our Russian so shaky (our male interpreter was not allowed to enter) that it was only by the merest | chance that we too did not join the crowd of naked women and begin washing. Another brick building nearby is a bath house where women can go and take the weekly Saturday-night. Both these establishments are free. A few minutes walk from these buildings. is the library. On the out- side wall the workers are greeted daily by a big sign, “Are you ‘a mem- ber of the library?” Near this is a huge map of the world, which can be illuminated at night, and a space for news of the day. The librarian told us they had 14,000 books and could By S, KAEMRAD. N the outskirts of Polish towns there are low and gloomy build- ings surrounded by high palings and watched by armed guards. They are situated amidst the miserable hovels of the poorest of the poor amongst | the town population. Only picked people who have earned the hatred |of the Polish seeret police ever come here. There is one such building on the outskirts of Byelostock. In the evenings when the short twilight is slowly turning into dusk the few passers-by may often hear the faint strains of a song borne from the windows of this building out into the still air. Young girls, members of the Young Communist League of Poland and political prisoners, are the singers. The song is one of our songs, a song of the revolution, of the victorious workers and peasants. On the first of May the singing of revolutionary songs was the only way in which these girls could express their sol- idarity with the masses of revolu- tionary working men and women out- side the prison walls. Many young girls are incarcerated in this prison, several dozen. They are all accnsed in the process of the “133.” This process has been post- poned from month to month and fin- ally fixed for the middle of April. Vera Khorunshaya is one of these young girls. She has not gone thru the hard school of the factories, but life itself showed her face to face the most brutal terrors that a de- generating capitalism is capable of producing. Vera saw the drunken bands of Bulak-Balakhovitch plunder. ing and raping in the towns and vil- lages of West White-Russia. She heard the groans and shrieks of the workers and peasants maltreated by the elegant Polish legionnaires. This experience lighted the fire in Vera’s breast which has not yet burnt out, but burns clearly and persistently, the fire which has made her the re- volutionary fighter for the cause of the workers and peasants she is to- day. 3 Before she took up the struggle with the master class Vera supplied herself with a thorough knowledge of the working class cause. She went to the school where Marx, Lenin and Plechanov were taught, where revo- lutionaries were provided with the knowledge necessary to carry on their struggle. Over her books she never forgot the idea of revolutionary work. This idea was summed up in the one word quicker! Quicker, quicker, finish off the lessons and then to work! Finish with the books and commence the practical work! Vera overcame all hindrances. Some of these difficulties were of a nature that would seem absurd to those out side, but for corspirative work they were very important and pleyed a very considerable role. | Vera had short hair. This form of Girls in Polish Fascist Jail And in general the whole attitude of Vera was not at all in accordance with the rolé which she was,to play in the illegal movement, i. e. the role of a daughter of a “highly respect- able” family. She, however, was the embodiment of a young Communist in these times of stress and strain. The winter of 1924 found Vera at last engaged in the illegal work she had longed for. Considerable organizational capaci- ties quickly put her into the front ranks amongst. the best workers of the Young Communist League. She carried out a tremendous amount of work with untiring energy and re- sourcefulness. The Polish secret pol- ice already knew of Vera, but she was not to be found. “Defying the power of the Polish master-class we are growing and strengthening to the delight of the Young Communist International,” Vera wrote. “We are winning the masses of the working class and peas- ant youth and driving new roots deeply in the factories and in the villages.” “We are not only recruiting new members, and organizing new groups and districts, but we arq winning more and more the sympathy and support of the working population. This fact gives us immeasurable strength and increases our courage and daring . . .” of terror of the. Polish master class is difficult and dangerous, almost un- believably difficult. Much has already been written upon the subject, but the brilliant examples of heroism und self-sacrifice will never be ex- hausted. “Our most dangerous and merciless enemy is the Polish secret police. This enemy has so many faces, so many ears, so many eyes and so many arms that it seriously hinders us in our work. ‘ “The quicker we work, the quicker disappear the few legal possibilities of work which still remained for us, and we are then compelled to work, still more illegally, and still deeper under- ground. We must use our leaflets still more often. Prohibitions must mean nothing. to us. Almost every week out proclamations are pasted up onto the walls of the towns and the villages and in the soldiers barracks, “It is a feeling of deep satisfac- tion and pleasure the next n:orning to see swarms of police with pails and pots washing off our work or smearing it over with black color. But innumerable leaflets have dis- appeared into the pockets of the workers on their way to work in the morning, and these leaflets are lost for the police, “From its underground political world, from the small towns and the far off villages of West White-Rus- sia our Young Communist League which never loses its energy and courage, calls over the heads of the Polish secret police to the Communist youth of the whole world: “Long live the fearless and cour- friseure usual amongst young Com- munists was compromising for con- spirative work, it aroused suspicion. | ageous activity of the Young Com- munist International: all over the we.ld!” ¢ The illegal work against the regime and did get any other books wanted. On one wail is a box for readers to place questions about the books they have been reading. Above are the answers, A large streamer reads, “Books will help us build a real com- monwealth of labor.” Nearby a booth carries iocal and national newspapers. A small park with a statue of Len- in, adjoins this. Here there is also a booth for a summer library. An- other large park not far away fea- tures moving picture shows every evening in summer. For this a work- er pays $1.63 for his season ticket. There are 3 kindergartens for the children of the workers of the Krasny Textilschik, and 2 nurseries. One we visited is an airy, sunny one-story building, managed by a woman doc- tor. Children from 2 months to 3 years come here to play, sleep and eat while their mothers are at work. As the children are brought in, their clothes are removed and placed in in- dividual bags, they are weighed, looked »ver by the doctor and put in fresh clothes. In a room whose walls are covered with educational charts and posters concerning baby hygiene, the nursing babies are visited by their mothers who are given time off from the factory. “The mothers are well taken care of,” the doctor said. “They are released from the factory 2 months before and 2 months after the baby’s birth, with full pay. They are also given $15 to buy the neces- sary things for the baby, and get an additional $4.00 a month during the nine months they nurse the baby.” (Some of ihe textile workers of Pas- saic give birth to their babies at the machines.) Another achievement of these tex- tile workers of the Krasny Textilschik is a clinic and fospital with a staff of 28 doctors, also within .a short walk- ing distance of the factory, The di- rector of the hospital showed us thru the spotlessly clean wards, explain- ing that besides the medical and sur- gical work, the staff makes special studies of fatigue, posture, etc. of the workers at work, and also studies industrial diseases. They had recent- ly made a report on the effects of dyes in one of the textile factories and made recommendations which were already in operation. Every two years these doctors go to one of the large cities for a 4months’course of study. The entire staff of the hospital—doctors, nurses, cleaning women, cooks, etc., are union mem- bers, All’ these achievements have been organized and carried through by the workers of this one factory, these 6,- 500 weavers, spinners and other workers of the Krasny Textilschik— and all since 1922, through their trade union organization, the Communist Party nucleus and the Cooperative, with the help of the government. They have also organized a club where a large auditorium is the scene of debates, plays, musical entertain- ments and frequent reports by the factory director. The latest one had been “Rationalization in the Factory.” There are also classes in sewing, phy- sical culture, ete. This is by no means their only cultural achiev-ment. There are classes to liquidate illiteracy, evening schools, special technical schools and political schools. One of the most interesting of their educa- tional activities is a month’s course where 100 “activists” from the fac- tory, such as dues collectors, chair- men of departments, etc., go each month to learn how to become more efficient union members, and to un- derstand the problems of their fac- tory. A beautiful estate 20 miles from Serpuhov is where these textile workers are getting trained. We told a group of them, 50 men and 50 wom- en, something of the Passaic strike and sometfiing of the textile strike in New Bedford. woman, with a red kerchief round her head, stood up and said: “Before the revolution conditions were very bad for us workers. But now we can live, Please take our greetings to our struggling brothers and sisters in America. Now that we are free it is become fra.” our duty to help them until they also Vey . 00a, A sturdy, barefooted | HANdOuTS | While Secretary of the Navy Wil- bur was on his way to lunch at the Congressional Club in Washington he saw three Negro caddies in a hot bate tle with clubs. With the righteo gait he learned as a Sunday sch teacher, the secretary strode out and stopped the fray. After lunch back in his office he denied to newspaper= men the report that the United States intended to withdraw the 3,900 marines from China. He then busied himself with his campaigh to get sev- eral millions more tof build death- dealing baitleships. * Mrs. Coolidge left Brule, Wiscon- sin, the other day and went to Du- luth where she spent $28 in a beauty parlor. The money was no doubt wisely expended but it would be bet- ter the next time if she would bring Cal along and leave him for a few days with a plastic surgeon. * * * A man was stabbed in an I. R. Ty washroom, Anyone who would go into a subway washroom deserves to be. : A man doesn’t have to be very smart to know that Americanism stands for wage cutting for workers and coupon cutting for capitalists. This is the kind of a burlesque show that looks bright to the capitalista down in front and tawdry to the workers behind the scenes. Whenever you hear anyone shouting his throat hoarse for the American system you’ can be sure he hasn’t mopped many American floors. The bosses of the McCord Radiator Company of Detroit: were so anxious to ladle out a couple of spoonfuls of opiate to their workers that they stopped the plant for half an hour and gathered the men together. After a speaker had prdved by statistics and oratory that it was better to be an Americaa wage slave than a capi- talist the following card was passed around for the workers to sign: “Broadcasters of Americanism “T hereby register as a member of the Broadcasters of Americanism. As , a token of my loyalty to the country | wherein I live, I agree to do all with- | in my power to combat every move- ment which attempts to destroy our present form of government. I also subscribe to the following’ creed: “I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the peo- ple; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sov- ereign nation of many states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and hu- manity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. “I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to sup- port its constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to de- fend it against all enemies, William Tyler Page. “Employed at ...... Signed .....26 “Date .. drone. 5 sconce Most of the men signed. Those who demurred at first were asked so many questions and given so many dirty looks they decided it was cheaper to turn in their signatures. But mea- sured in loyalty to the robber system it didn’t mean anymore than if they had scribbled their names on a board fence, a cement sidewalk or signed He for a package of “Slim Jim” pret- zels. * * bt * * Our indisposed contemporary, The Nation, has often proudly described Ben Stolberg as “one of the keenest students of the American labor move- ment.” Conclusive proof of this fact is found in the following letter printed in a recent issue of that lib- eral weekly: “To the Editor of The Nation: “Sir: In my article The Tailors and the Scientific Method, in The Nation for June 13, I said that “During the last two years (Sid- ney Hillman) told the convention (of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers) the union has in three instances given financial assistance to manufacturers exposed to the danger of liquidation. These three firms employed more than one thousand workers.” These three firms ‘employed more nearly four thousand workers, I gave the re- sources of the Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago as close to $9,000,000. Its resources are about $3,500,000. I mentioned an election quarrel in the “Buf?slo Joint Board.” It should have read the “Rochester Joint Board.” New York, June 13 Benjamin Stolberg’” TERRITORY OF U. s. 8. R. The present territory of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, accord- ing to revised estimates, is 21,352,572 sq. kilometers, about half a million sq. kilometers less than the area of the Russian Empire in 1918. On the terri- tory seceded trom Russia there have been created the so-called Baltic states and Poland. The U. S. S. R. has the largest continuous territory of all the countries of the world. * U. 8. 8. R. POPULATION GAINS. MOSCOW, July 2.—The population of the U S. S. R. as of January 1, 1928, according to the estimate of the Central Statistical Administration was 149,900,000, a gain of 2,900,000 for the calendar year 1927, The popu- ‘ lation of the Soviet Union on Dec. 17, 1926, according to the general census was 147,013,600. POWER STATION IN SARATOV. MOSCOW, (By Mail).—The Sara- tov power station, commenced in 1926, will have two turbo-generators of 5,500 k.w. each in operation by Octo- 1929. It will gost about $3,000, = ee a