The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 7, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER fuplished by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, Ine, Daily, Except Sunday 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: Phone, Stuyvesant 1696, “Daiwork” SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): By Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six $6.50 per year £3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Addrass and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. << Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, a the act of March 3, 187). VOTE COMMUNIST! For President WILLIAM Z. FOSTER WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY --ROBERT MINOR .WM. F. DUNNE N. ¥., under Assistant Editor. For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW For the Party of the Class Struggle! Against the Capitalists! For the Workers! Big Business Trusts Al Smith “Big business won’t fight Al Smith. Wall Street won’t fight Al Smith, That portion of big business which is not for him will adopt a pacifist attitude in this presidential campaign.” It is Grover Whelan speaking. Grover, the official glad-hand man of the City of New York, who greets kings, queens,’ presi- dents of small European republics, and celebrities of all kinds who do not have to get chalk-marked on Ellis Island before setting foot on the pavements of the Metropolis. Grover delivered himself of this bit of information in New Orleans on June 30. He further added that big business had a high regard for Smith’s sanity, which means that Al believes big business has a perfect right to run the country as it sees fit with- out being embarrassed by political interference. Whalen is right. Big business trusts Al Smith and will open its coffers to him. Wall S#reet feels perfectly safe in plunging on Hoover and Smith. It is playing a sure game. Heads the working class loses; tails the capitalists win. It is no new innovation in American politics to have the em- ployers finance the candidates of both parties. Indeed it is a tradition. In Illinois Samuel Insull spent huge sums of money on democrat and republican alike. He knew what he was doing. His money was not wasted. He is now the dominating influence in the state. The politicians eat out of his hand. Smith and Hoover are the darlings of big business, the former insurgent republicans and progressive democrats have is engaged in singing hymns to democracy. There is only one being engaged in singing hymns to democracy, there is only one party in the field in this election campaign that deserves the sup- port of the working class and the exploited farmers. * * * The Workers (Communist) Party, with its national ticket, William Z. Foster and Benjamin Gitlow, and its candidates in the states, goes before the masses with a revolutionary program which calls for the abolition of the capitalist system and the substitution therefor of a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government. * The Communist campaign will wage war on the hypocritical pretensions of the capitalist politicians and the fake socialist party. It will rally the workers against the strikebreaking in- junctions, against the imperialist war in Nicaragua. It will fight against wage cuts, and will call upon the masses to support the heroic struggles of the striking bituminous miners and the textile workers in New England. * * To bring the many burning issues that confront the working class today to the attention of the millions of workers and ex- ploited farmers in the United States a large fund is necessary. For this reason the Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party has organized a drive to raise a Communist Campaign Fund of $100,000. This drive is now in full swing. * Everywhere throughout the country Communists and sym- pathizers are urged to collect money for the $100,000 Communist Party Election Campaign Fund. Money writes, talks, and does lots of other things. It takes money to print literature, route speakers, and perform the hundred and one other tasks that a national election campaign calls for. Against the millions of Wall Street, thrown in behind both Al and Herbert, the workers and «xploited farmers must raise thousands. Big business trusts Al Smith but does not relish a $100,000 Communist campaign fund. The ten-dollar bill or even the dollar bill that may be con- tributed to the campaign may be the means of introducing a worker or a poor farmer to Communism. Where is the class-con- scious worker who would hesitate to make a contribution—no mat- ter how small—to the Communist Campaign Fund, if he thought that this contribution would be the means of winning a wage slave away from the ideology of capitalism? Yet every contributor may rest assured that his contribution will share in the conversion of the thousands of workers who will join the Communist movement and the Workers (Communist) Party in the course of this election campaign. * * Tammany Hall, that political cesspool of graft and corruption, will dig into its financial sewers for the sinews of war to cover the country with propaganda for its leading candidate. It will have the millions of finance-capjtal behind it, or a section thereof. The oil magnates who made hundreds of millions out of the concessions given them by the republican administration, the coal operators who were aided in their fight to crush the miners’ strike and smash the miners’ union, the automobile magnates, the bankers who have moneys invested in foreign countries—will swell the treasury of the republican party. To the exploited workers and farmers the Workers (Commu- nist) Party appeals. The dollars of the many against the thou- sands of the few. Help put the $100,000 Communist Party Elec- tion Campaign Fund over the top! s ihe Reem RK LIL COI THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THE SIDEWALKS OF MR, MORGAN By Fred Ellis On, the Island: 6f Death (Translated from the German by Sol Auerbach.) The two brothers Ruffi lived in Bologna. Vittorio, the youngest, | worked as a compositor in a local | printing shop and Mario was a drafis-| man for the government. Both were married, had children, and lived a quiet family life. The brothers Ruffi did their best to satisfy hungry stomachs with pea-soup and macaroni, work- ing from morning to night. Always working, always weary fro:a work, Vittorio and Mario saw each other very seldom, often no more than twice a year. When they saw each other at the beginning of November, 1926, the countenances of the Ruffis bore signs} of utmost anxiety.’ It was shortly after the attempted assassination in Milan. A wave of persecution and pogroms was set in motion by the fascisti over all Italy. All who were suspected of “being unfriendly to fascism” were thrown into prison. Vittorio Ruffi, although not belong- ing to the Communist Party, had made some contacts with one of its leaders and had occasionally shown his friendliness to the Party Cell of the printing shop where, he worked. The day after the brothers had met, Vittorio was arrested by the carbi- neers, dragged out together with five other workmen under blows of the gun-butts. They were not, however, taken to prison. All the prisons were so overcrowded that there was no room for newcomers. The carbineers changed the route of the prisoners, | most of them being led for the pur- pose of “dispatch to Pisa.” The “con- victs made attempts at escape,” said the police, and they. were “according- ly shot by the accompanying guard.” That also happened to Vittorio. . . People who did not belong to the eategory of “suspicious characters” but were relatives or on friendly terms with them were ranked as “criminals of second rank.” Mario numbered among these. Suddenly and unexpectedly he found himself where, according to his understanding, his brother Vittorio should be found. The “Defense of the Fatherland” At this time the law of the defense of the fatherland was put into effect with lightning speed. The law gave the authorities the right to banish prisoners to uninhabited, devastated islands scattered on the Mediterranean Sea. Banishment was allotted with- out any kind of trial or investigation. A dialogue, such as the following, can easily be imagined: “Are you a Communist?” “No, I am not a Communist!” “Do you sympathize with fascism?” “T am a workingman, your “honor, and I have to sweat hard for my bread.” “Aha, so you are a revolutionary. Enough, take him away!” Enemy of Fascism After this hearing Mario Ruffi was labeled as “an enemy of fascism” and as one “suspected of revolutionary deeds.” Like thousands of others, he was banished on the ground of such and similar statements to the island of Ustiea, where, it was explained to him, that “he could travel about freely” but must be at home from 6 o’clock in the evening until 8 in the morning; must not visit any of the other exiles or receive them at his house; not be seen in restaurants saloons or other public places, and -|must not correspond with any one without the “permission of the polite, ete. At first Mario Ruffi tried to get along with the few pennies that he had accumulated by the sale of his coat, hat and boots. The climate of the island seemed to allow him to do without these articles of luxury. But this miserly fund was soon used up— and Mario worried about his family. Privation threw him on the sick bed. He was sick for two months. For the whole period he lay entirely alone in the fisherman’s hut assigned him as a dwelling. When he felt himself strong enough to get up from his bed and to make a few steps Mario de- cided to no longer bow to the cruel rules for exiles and to undertake something. In the first place he wanted to write to his people. Not a letter which looked like a stencil, written under the gun-supervision of the police, but a letter which told everything that must be told, which asked everything that must be known. And Mario also wanted, if only for a moment, to have a few words with the other exiles in order to tell them what must be done if they wanted to survive. Mario Ruffi tried to carry out his plan. The Conspiracy and the Conspirator In order to send the letter to Bo- logna, Mario had a hasty talk with a fisherman who did not live far from his hut. He told him his story, showed him the pictures of his children and called upon the brotherly union of the workers. At first the fisherman was afraid, but later, moved by the plead- ing and the tragic story of Mario, he agreed to forward the letter to Italy past the lines of the police. At the same time Mario tried, at first tim- idly! but then. always bolder and more thoroughly, to hold conversation with the other exiles whom he encountered on the shore or on the small streets of the fishing village. Mario already | began to have good hopes, when sud- | denly everything that he had built up with such care crashed to the ground. Among the “suspicious characters” were spies. The police held the strings of the plot in hand. On the day when Mario wanted to give his letter to the fisherman he, the fisherman and six other exiles were thrown into an underground cell which, at that level of civiliza- tion, was called a prison. The police sent a report to Rome and attempted to make from this opportunity a sen- sational trial against the “banished Communist conspirators.” ’ In Rome the “efficiency” of the Ustica police was approved. The mis- creants must be strongly punished. The principal thing was that every- thing should be done without too much noise. The prisoners were taken to Beggio and in this sn.all town were taken before the Special Court. It performed its duty quickly. The de- fendants were sentenced to from 15 to 80 years of prison, and Mario, as ring leader of the conspiracy, to life- long term. Everything took place without noise and in miniature form, almost like the trial in Rome against the Italian Communist Party. Plan for Great Miners’ Relief Campaign To combat the onslaught of police and coal operators who are attempting to destroy the miners’ union and break the strike by forcing hundreds of mili- tant leaders out of the fight and con- fining them to prisons, the National Miners Relief Committee and the In- ternational Labor Defense are enter- ing a nationwide campaign. National Miners Relief and Defense Week has been set for the week of July 22 to 29, In every city of the United States workers are being mobilized for the monster drive. Hundreds of thou- sands are expected to participate, * Ws Hite To All Miners’ Relief Committees and Contributing Organizations. Greetings: We are face to face with a situa- tion that demands immediate atten- tion of all those who sympathize with the miners in their historic struggle. Thousands of striking miners’ fam- ilies are starving. Local miners’ re- lief committees telephone our office daily appealing to us for just a little flour for bread for the striking min- ers’ chiJdren, Electricity, gas, and water has been shut off in thousands of miners’ home. Evictions continue, Miners’ families are being thrown out of their homes into the roads of the coal operators, And police terrorism continues, The arm cf the law, at the bidding of the coal corporations, has entered into subtle maneuvers to break the spirit of the strikers, Threats of deportation, threats to take children and babies away from mothers, threats to foreclose on homes that the miners have built with their hands... Starvation and Terrorism. This starvation and terrorism throughout the strike area must bring us all to cur feet at once ready to lend a hand. Without the loss of a moment we must enlist and fall into line to assist these fighters. A decision has been reached to make the week of July 22nd to July 29th inclusive a National Miners’ Re- lief and Defense Week. The Nation- al Miners’ Relief Committee, which has fed hundreds of thousands. of families during the miners’ strike, and the International Labor Defense which has defended thousands of working class prisoners, will join hands to make this the biggest week ever held for the support of work- ers engaged in defending their wages, their homes, their very lives, against unscrupulous employers and their courts and police. Every City Min- ers’ Relief Committee, Language Min- ers’ Relief Committee, Women’s Min- ers’ Relief Committee, Negro Min- ers’ Relief Committee, Youth Miners’ Relief Committee, Children’s Miners’ Relief Committee, every organization that has given support to the miners’ struggle; every local and branch of the International Labor Defense, will take part, is actually duty bound to make this the most successful event ever entered into for the benefit of workers engaged in struggle. Plans for the campaign follow. Read them carefully! Hold closely to the line! Mobilize! 1, Every city is to hold a joint con- ference of all City Relief Committees and affiliated .bodies, together with the International Labor Defense and its affiliations, plus all leading work- ers, on July 8th, or during that week. This will be a preliminary mobiliza- tion conference. Plans for the Min- ers’ National Relief and Defense Week are to be thoroughly discussed. The names of all relief workers who can take part in an excursion to the strike area on July 14th and 15th, are to be taken. A mobilization of auto- mobiles for this purpose must be made. 2. Automobile excursion to Pitts- burgh, Saturday, July 14th, and Sun- day, July 15th. Expenses for this ex- cursion to be borne. by those partici- pating. Final Mobilization. 3. Immediately upon returning from Pittsburgh, and up to July 22nd, the representatives that came to’ Pittsburgh shall report to their or- ganizations. On July 22nd every city shall hold a final mobilization con- ference at which the representatives returring from Pittsburgh shall again report. At this conference final plans shall be made for all activities to be undertaken during the National Miners’ Relief and Defense Week— July 22nd to 29th inclusive. All af- filiations of the City Relief Commit- tees and International Labor Defense, additional Workers’ Fraternal Organ- izations, and all interested workers shail participate. The conference of July 22nd must be a mass confer- ence, to which every delegate from every sympathetic organization and every worker who will aid during the week will be invited. ° 4, Every possible activity for the collection of funds shall be undertak- en during the week of July 22-29th. (a) A thorough canvas of al lor- ganizations of the city for relief and defense funds shall ‘be made. (b) Relief and defense collections shall be undertaken in all shops, mills, and factories; collection at shop, mill and factory gates shall be made; col- Jections shall be made at all labor union meetings, meetings of workers’ fraternal organizations, and wherever else possible. (ce) A thorough circularization by mail of al. lists of sympathizers and organizations shall be made. (d) Street meetings, and meetings in the various sections of the city shall be held during the week for the purpose of mobilizing workers for the campaign. Shop meetings, meetings before factory gates shall be held. ‘ House To House Collection. * (e) The activities of the entire week shall concentrate upon a maxi- mum mobilization of all forces for a stupendous house to house collec- tion or tag day on Saturday and Sun- day, July 28th and 29th. In the larg- er cities relief collection stations must be established in each section of the city for these two days to which all the collectors operating in that sec- tion shall report. In the larger cities organizational forms for successfully prosecuting the house to house or tag day collection for these two days shall be devised. (f) Sunday night, July 29th, each vity is to hold a hunger banquet to which all collectors, representatives from organizations, and workers who took part in the campaign are to be invited. At this gathering a general ELECTION SIDELIGHTS By T. J. O°7FLAHERTY John J. Raskob, chairman of the finance committee of General Motors, which has the backing of the House | of Morgan, reached New York on the same train as Al Smith. This is the | Raskob who recently stated that big business had nothing to fear from | Al Smith. Raskob is quite right. * * * The executive council of the A. F. jof L. will meet in Atlantic City on | August 81 to outline the policies and program to be followed in the cam- paign. The report will be something jlike this: < “The executive council of the A. | F. of L. confirms the wisdom of the | policy | has secured so many beneficial re- of non-partisanship which sults for labor. As hitherto we ad- vise trade unionists to study the records of candidates on the demo- cratic and republican tickets and to vote only for those who ae shown themselves to be friends o! | friends and punish our enemies” | shall be our slogan in the coming campaign.” * * * | Hoover, it is said, will be favored by railroad labor leaders, because he | tried to force a settlement of the rail- |road strike in 1922 on terms which | would hzve saved the faces of the leaders. He will undoubtedly have the support of John L, Lewis, whose face he saved at Jacksonville, in 1924, when he induced the operators to sign an agreement on/!the old scale. ra * Claude G. Bowers, editorial writer of the Evening World, set a good many people thinking when keynoting at the Houston convention. “To your tents, O Israel,” he perorated, while the befuddled delegates didn’t know whether they were being advised to go to bed or to charge the enemy with empty bottles. It may have been the custom in Biblical days for the favored of the Lord to spend some | time in prayer before picking up their scimitars with the intention of carv- ing up the foe. In this case the foe jwas the Republican Party, whose chief sin is insisting on squatting on the treasury in Washington and tak- ing therefrom hefty fistfuls of coin which the Democrats dearly desire to take into their jeans. 0 Be A newspaper headline reads, “Smith to make his stand clear.” One would fact that he intended to tell the truth when delivering a speech on his atti- tude towards the various public ques- tions would receive no more attention than if the same man said that he scratched his ear when that organ receives the attentions of a mosquito. But evidently it is big stuff when a capitalist politician even promises, to tell the truth. wits Smith will not tell anything that is liable to lose him a vote. He is convinced that a certain number of voters will vote for Hoover anyhow, and every good politician knows that the fellows who make a virtue of reg- ularity must have some hot stuff to ‘keep their danders up. Smith is for enforcing the Volstead law in the South and for winking at it in the |North. He will tempt the voters of the industrial sections with the suds and in the arid areas he assures the natives that he will keep an eye on | their cider. Hoover, on the other hand, jthough a member of the party that has a former whiskey (distiller as cabinet member, must come out strongly for prohibition enforcement lest he offend the Anti-Saloon League, which was suckled by the Ohio gang of odoriferous memory. So this is capitalist politics. report of the week’s work is to be made and the question of further re- Jief and defense activity to be con- sidered. Special Literature. 5. The National Miners’ Relief Committee and the International La- bor Defense jointly will issue spe- cial literature for this campaign, namely, contribution lists, posters, leaflets, buttons, and will undertake a broad campaign of press publicity and advertising. A national circu- larization of all labor papers and other mailing lists will be made. Field relief organizers will visit the larger cities to assist in the campaign. The National Miners’ Relief Com- mittee secretary and the Internation- al Labor Defense secretary shall con- fer at once upon receiving communi- cations from their respective organ- izations in order to arrive at an un- derstanding regarding the prosecu- tion of this joint drive. In all cities where a National Miners’ Relief Com. mittee and an International Labor De- fense loca! exists, the literature will go forward to the National Miners’ Relief Committee secretary, and the International Labor Defense secre- tary chall secure the literature need- ed for his affiliations from the city National Miners’ Relief Committee. And now to work, and immediately. You have before you the largest task that has ever been given to workers id organizations that understand the immediate need of a nation-wide attest of solidarity with the miners and their families, who have fought, starved and suffered during fifteen menths of struggle against the most ruthless employers in this country, the open shop coal operators from Andrew Mellon, Rockefeller, and Schwab down. Let us all prove that we know how to fight this enemy, that we know how to conquer. _ Fraternally, DUNCAN McDONALD, Chairman. ANTHONY MINERICH, Secretary. Director. VINCENT KEMENOVICK, Treas, labor. As in the past, ‘Reward our imagine that a man announcing the. ALFRED WAGENKNECHT, Relief — |