The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 17, 1928, Page 6

Hw DAYLY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1928 Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party | Published by NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS’N, | Inc., Daily, Except Sunday 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. Cable Add ‘Dai By Mail (in New York $8 per year $4.50 six nths $: SUBSCRIPTION RATES only): 2.50 three months $6.00 per year work” Phone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8 By Mail (outside of New York): $3.50 six months $2 three months Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28. Union Square, New York, N. Y. 21 Assistant Editor.. .-ROBERT MINOR ..- WM. F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail | at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. For the Workers! For the Party of the Class Struggle! Against the Capitalists! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW VOTE COMMUNIST! For President M Z. FOSTER Smith and Straton—Birds of a Feather “I will hire the largest hall . . to ask the mayor of New York and Mr. Smith, as governor, for all necessary police if it should be necessary, militar: So says John Roach Strator with Al Smith as to whether there shall be a} debate. The issue is whether spawn of Tammany Hall’s organized crime, as or whether Straton Straton contends, cheap faker, a professional liar. It is‘one of those cases where both | contenders are correct in their contentions as tends. far as they go. But the grandiloquent words of Straton about police protection and mil: if necessary, are only bunk. Of course Straton knows that Smith’s Tammany him complete protection, simply because the faking sky-pilot represents a ruling class. It is only the sp working class that Smith’s Tammany thugs assault and blackjack and jai Defenders of capitalism get protection from the same police thugs that assault those who attack capitalism. Straton represents just as thoroughly as Al Smith does the filth and crime of the society which both of them uphold and defend. Tammany Hall and its present leader, Smith, have grown powerful on the organizing of prostitution, gambling and graft, the Reverend the directness. . Lam going protection, and, ‘y protection.” n in his debate Smith is of the is a , as Smith con- Hall. itary protection police will give | section of the okesmen of the 1 for speaking. If Communist. Straton draws his own dishonest income from | the same source—the difference being only in While Smith’s contact is that | of a leader and organizer of the thugs, finks, | ward heelers and contractors through whom the prostitution, gambling and graft are or-| ganized at first hand, the Reverend Straton’s| contact is, so far as we know, only with the} nice gentlemen at the top whose control over | | society is the cause of the degradation, crime and misery. The capitalist system of exploita-| tion of the working class is the cause. lives by lies that help keep the system alive, just as does the meanest fink of Tammany | This dirty-handed hypocrite only helps | to conceal the real cancer with his quack reme-! | dies which pretend to cure the symptom. | Straton is right in saying that Smith is a spawn of crime. And Smith is right in suggesting that Stra- ton is a sneaking hypocrite. The workers and exploited farmers have the |tration of foreign industrial and Straton Work ‘ALL STREET’S and Washing- ton’s fingers are now raking an odorous mess on the boundary of Honduras and Guatemala. One of the chief objects of the American Money masters in Central America is to disunite the five republics (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.) While it is the expressed desire of the peo- pies of all these countries to unify, American imperialism has kept them divided, in the interests of plunder and war. The dispute over the Guatemala- Honduras border is in reality a con- test between two American fruit companies, the United Fruit Comi- pany and the Cuyamel Fruit Com- pany, both Wall Street enterprises. The Cuyamel Company is in Hon- duras, while the United holds sway in Guatemala. Both are trying to control valuable fruit lands. Each dominates a government and wants ite puppet to have jurisdiction over the disputed lands. Fruit Companies Fight. «For many years the United Fruit Company has virtually controlled Guatemala. Today it owns one fifth of the territory of that coun- + try. In 1913 the Cuyamel Fruit Company obtained a concession from the Hondurian government of 25,000 acres of land in the Motagua fiver district. The ownershiy of “this territory has been in dispute for over 100 years between Guate- Mala and Honduras. When the Cuyamel Fruit Co. secured its grant, it started to improve the land and to build a 33-mile railroad in 1913. Before starting work on its im- provements, the Cuyamel sought to obtain permission from the Gua- temalan authorities. Naturally, be- ing United Fruit Company em- ployees, they refused. Despite the action of its competitors, the Cuy- amel started wovk but was forced (© stop because of the armed inter- vention of the United Fruit Com- any’s government. The Cuyamel Company, however, was al- ‘lowed by Guatemala to construct just one mile of the railway. ’ 1918 the entire dispute was itted to a representative of §S. government, Mr. Roy T. minister to Costa Rica. But tial to its imperialist pro- , would not decide between two in exploiters. The dispute pany, which has a monopoly on uit business in Central Amer- is doing all its can to crush titor. It even will go to n Guatemala, and Honduras, in ler to stamp out its rival. suggested that the ques- referred to the Central court. When this tribunal dispute between Nic- lecision was reached. Obvious-) U. S. government, which is, il unsettled. The United Fruit) mt of starting a war be-| the United States over the canal | should not exist and our duty is to rights in Nicaragua jin favor of) take equal interest in the welfare and Honduras against the United States, United States simply refused to recognize the action of the court. Guatemala, that is, the United Fruit Company, is willing to accept the jurisdiction of the Central American court. Honduras declines to submit the rights of the Cuyamel Fruit Company to this body. Seek to Destroy Rivals. If the United Fruit Co. is the victor, it will mean that the Cuy- amel will be cut off from any out- let to the Atlantic coast. Costa Rica \versy between Peru and Chile. In short, | it will mean the end of this com-| petitor of the United Fruit Co. If tHe Cuyamel wins, the United Fruit Co. will be restricted in its activ-| ities to the left side of the Motagua river. The officials in each country are tools of the respective companies. Their “patriotism” has been aroused to warlike heights. Accusations of bribery have been hurled from both | sides freely. The fact is that both fruit companies spare no expense in gaining their object. Even the labor unions are bought. The Gua- temalan Federation of Labor ad- dressed a letter to William Green in July, 1928, attacking the Cuy- amel Fruit Co. as the instigator of| pie to Central America. and | of each of the countries of Spanish the| America, because we all share the same dangers from the colonizing policy of the Yankee imperialists. “For example, the question of the boundaries between Guatemala and Honduras, between Honduras and Nicaragua; the canal dispute be- tween Nicaragua and Costa Rica; the quarrel over the Gulf of Fon- seca by El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua; the Tacna-Arica contro- In this manner, important affairs of Latin America are tangled up with- out being settled among ourselves. The Yankee imperialists have studied us well and profit by our state of culture and our lightness of character to imperil us when- ever it suits their interests. “The Yankee imperialists are the worst enemies of our people. When they see us fired by patriotic in- spiration, when we sincerely seek unification, they stir up from the depths our latent quarrels; they in- cite hatred among us that we may continue disunited and weak, and for that reason easy to colonize.” aie Sas bible teh shes brings destruction, desolation and internecine strug- Out of the trouble, while at the same time! these countries they take a king's it forgot to mention that the United! ,ansom in profits. By fighting the Fruit Co. controls the political life | competitive battles! of the’ contend: of Guatemala, and without doubt, ing Wall Street vultures the work- inspired the indigation of the Gua- temalan labor fakers. A “Divide and Rule.” THE United States fears an in- dependent Central America. It has thus far been successful in buy- ing or forcing these various gov- ernments to abide by its will. In Nicaragua the imperialists meet with the resistance of Sandino and his forces. In a_ united Central America the task of suppression and murder would net be so simple as it has been in the past. The axiom tion of this Wall-Street-raped ter- | ritory. of “divide and rule!” is the guid-| ing principle of American domina-| 15,—Professor Francias Behounek, ers and peasants of these countries weld their chains about themselves tighter. Only by eliminating U. S. im- perialism in Central America can the political and economic problems of this scene of Wall Street’s un- numbered crimes be solved. Scientist Reveals Deficiencies in Italia Preparation PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia, Czech scientist who was on board General Augusto C. Sandino, who! the Italia when it struck the ice in many times has announced that his the Arctic, is telling of his exper- imited to the confines of Nicaragua, has written to the people of Hon- truggle against imperialism is not) iences in a series of interviews, which reveal the insufficient prepa- duras and Guatemala, calling on! tations made by the fascists for the them to refrain from being incited) Pole flight. |to war for the pleasure of the two |U. S. fruit companies. In a letter to his friend, Froyla |galpa, Honduras, Sandino says: | All in Danger of Imperialists. | “In the name of Nicaragua, of Honduras, of Guatemala, I ask all | the people who have a clear under- | standing of the situation in Central | America to try to avoid, by all |means possible, any break among | ourselves. You must make the people of Latin America understand Rica, Honduras and | tit among ourselves boundaries| pened after the crash. Cabins were overcrowded, bunks n Placed in corridors that obstructed Turcios, editor of Ariel, in Teguci-| the passage, impliments were im- perfect. As a result the bearings taken were wrong and resulted in the failure of the rescue expedition to know the position of the wreck. His story is especially interesting since Mussolini has forbidden No-| bile or any of the Italian crew from talking about the event. Behounek has yet to tell about what hap- \ Aug. | Sts | | THE DRIVER WITH THE BROWN DERBY > ee development of national in-| dustries and the growing pene- fundamental interest and necessity that runs | commercial capital in China is ac- counter to both these servants of capitalism— the necessity to abolish the foul and criminal capitalist system in which both Smith and growth Straton are but sewer-birds. | Work for the liberation of your class. and fight to create a new and free system of | society without exploitation, without prostitu- | tion, crime and graft, without poverty and! china. Out of 50,000 workers em- misery—and wihout Smiths and Stratons. Join the Workers (Communist) Party. Vote | dustries of the natives in 1926 there }eompanied by the constant growth in the employment of women in in- dustry. Particularly large is the in the employment of} women’s labor in the textile and to- bacco industries. | Women 40 Per Cent of Workers The women constitute 40 per cent of all the industrial workers in ployed in the cotton and silk in- |were 50 per cent women, whilst in the foreign mills, which are technic- |ally better equipped, the women | constituted about 70 to 80 per cent. | women and children (in Canton). | | The condition | women worker is considerably worse than in the capitalist countries of) Europe and America. It is worse} By Fred Ellis ‘Slave 12 to 16 Hours a Day for Starvation employing exclusively the labor of| Frequently their bear their child Wage of 15 Cents medical attention whatsoever.” In| the silk spinning mills of Shanghai} the women work in unventilated| women waiting outside the factory gates. Whilst working under such un- The Woman Worker in China | Be st os? | eg 3 é | om Ss" | ace xe Sm | Rep ger ease | Seasonal Wkr’s 1,553 | Permanent ” 200 1,758 | Total Thus, the majority of the seasonal furnaces in a hot and humid atmos-| bearable conditions, the ‘ Chinese| workers do not earn more than 20 phere which is so detrimental to| workers receive miserable wages,| cents a day, whilst the permanent their health that the women em-| whilst the women receive two-thirds| worker do not earn more than 50 ployed in those factories can be recognized by their peculiar palor| and emaciated appearance. No Privileges For Women. | eke are no privileges for wor! ing mothers. Pregnant women keep on working day and night to | There is a whole number of factories|the very last moment of childbirth. | Fruit Companies Brew War whilst tending the machine, resum- th hinese|ing work immediately after birth. or aE vorse| The baby is either tied behind the| back or put in a little basket near| the machine, with the older brothers | than the condition of the Chinese| 2nd sisters usually standing by. In | working man, it is worse even un- |der Chinese conditions which are| {characterized by political and cul-| tural backwardness of the masses| of the workers, by the abundance) {and cheapness of labor power, and} by, the atrocious exploitation of th workers by foreign and native ca tal. Chinese Women Know No Rest The Chinese working woman knows of no rest. She works the| whole year round, day and night.| In some provinces of China, under! pressure from the workers, there| were attempts made to establish) holidays for working men and} women on the days dedicated to the| celebration of the Chinese New Year which usually lasts 7 to 10 days. This has not been achieved as yet. Working Day 12 to 14 Hours. p- $.| working women; the factories one may see working women nursing their children with-| out interrupting their work. | In some of the Chinese provinces, | as the result of numerous strikes, | vacations of one,or two weeks after | e| childbirth have been established for nevertheless the women, even if entitled, did not take | | advantage of the vacation. The place | of the working woman going on va- cation may be promptly taken by one of the thousands of unemployed| or one-half of the man’s wages. In Canton in 1927 the average minimum wage of a working man average minimum wage for women jwas $7, and the maximum $15.36.| No wages are paid to working men or women in case of sickness. It | was declared by one of the employ-}| ers of Canton before a commission appointed to investigate social ques- tions in 1926: “When workers fall sick, they have to take care of them- selves.” In other textile centers the work- ing woman usually reecives not more | than 15 cents a day. In the factories of the Anglo-American Tobacco Company the women packers earn daily from 25 to 40 cents, and in the match factories about 20 cents a day. In the factories of Tientsin the following rates of wages for work- | ing women exist (these data cover 6,357 working women of 25 fac- tories) : CHINA WAR LORDS EXPLOIT MASSES For ten years war has been going 4 fies working day of the working on unceasingly between the Chinese woman usually lasts in the up-| militarists and each day it becomes |to-date factories from 12 to 14) bloodier and more ruthless. Thus hours, and in less modern factories| the Chinese masses find themselves ;as long. as 16 hours. | tories where the women are virtually | In those fac-/in conditions of the most terrible oppression and exploitation. In the |part of the machinery, not being| Changsi provinee, for instance, allowed even an interval for par-| taxes from 1917 to 1928 increased | taking of food, the 12-hour day be-| more than 30 fold. comes more unendurable than the trayal 16-hour day in the more primitive | groupings of ‘inimical neomilitar- | Since the be- by the Kuomintang the factories and in the home trades; in| jsts have become more complicated the latter the labor is less intensi-|than ever before; there are sup- | fied and the women can allow them-/ porters of Chiang Kai-shek, Pei selves short intervals during work) Tson-si, Yen Si-chang, Feng Yu- for food and rest. hsiang, etc. Besides, the Kuomin- In all the factories whether owned tang js incapable of uniting China | by native or foreign capital the em-/ __conflicts are ripening between the ployment of women and children on} Kuomintang generals night work is permitted. Since 1925 the Chinese trade unions, have: been carrying or ® | ploiting the masses, who are com- vigorous campaign for shorter, shorter hours, but little notice has been taken of their demands, and the women and children are fre- |quently compelled to work. even longer hours than the men, under | the constant and vigilant eye of the supervisors. Should a working woman or child doze off for a while or work less strenuously on account of fatigue or sickness, the whip of _the supervisor immediately falls |upon the back of the unfortunate | worker and the imposition of a fine is announced in a rough voice. Abominable Condition. From the standpoint of hygiene |the working conditions in the fac- tories are abominable. An American | journalist, Agatha Harrison, thus | describes a visit to one of the Brit- lish cotton mills in Shanghai in | 1923: “Hundreds of working women jand children were tending the spin- jning wheels. It was three o'clock |in the morning. Some of them fell asleep at their work from sheer fatigue, in a standing posture. The children of the working women were | squatting close by. I saw with my own eyes how one of the children | had its leg torn off by the machine, the child died on the spot fron, . protasgatons of blood, receiving y | ‘ themselves. Therefore each of these adventur- ers are trying to get rich by ex- pletely ruined. The only way out of this position is’ to come out on the path of revolution. We give below a list of those evils which the Chinese masses have to suffer as a result of the war be- tween the militarists: I. Political Position. (1) The supreme power is inthe hands of militarists; all regions are ruled by military chiefs. (2) The right of meetings, free- dom of speech and other elementary rights of the population have been annulled, especially for workers and peasants. (8) The most barbarous punish- ments are practiced (eyes put out, ears cut off, etc.). (4) The money-lenders and landlords help the militarists to ex- ploit the peasants. Il. The Economic Position. cluding those managed by the gov- ernment, have been ruined (railway companies, cotton mills, ete.). Am- munition factories, however, are working successfully, and imperial- ist capital is spreading more and ore in, China, especially in Man- (1) All industrial enterprises, in- | | (2) The population is burdened |by numerous taxes. The paper currency has completely depreci- ated, but the militarists force the merchants to accept it. The finan- capacity of the masses; the work- |whole year. The peasant produce | has decreased, and it is impossible means of transport have been dis- lorganized. There is a shortage of food preducts in the town, and in the village great need is felt for in- dustrial commodities. | (8) The Chinese merchants have | been ruined (more than 1,000 sh.ps lin Peking have closed down), but the imperialists’ goods are dis- tributed in China. Great supplies of ‘ood from Japan arrive in Shang- | hai. | IU. Public Education. (1) More than eight-tenths of the schools all over China have been closed down (an extremely large number of elementary schools in the villages have been closed down). | (2) Public education does not jexist, the former schools of this |fype have been closed down. (3) Education imbued with the feudal spirit is comparatively flour- ishing. (4) All civilization is dying out. IV. Social Position. (1) Banditism is spreading all over China, both in the towns and | the villages. (2) The unemployed peasants pour into the towns. (3) Unemployment in the towns is increasing. f (4) Poverty causes numerous cases of suicide. Vv. The Various Taxes. (1) Taxes levied beforehand. (2) Tax for the suppression of the Reds. (3) Tax in aid of the militar- lists. r : (4) Tax on things bought, amounting to two-fifths pended. cial crisis has decreased the buying | ers have not received wages for a} to transport the products, as the | cents. On the whole, the average learnings of the Chinese woman | worker are not more than 6-10 Chi- |was 8 Mexican dollars a month, and |nese dollars a month, barely suffi- 4,.| the maximum was $25.50, whilst the| cing for an existence of semi-starva- | tion. Food of Rice and Soup. IN the large cities of South China the food of the working woman | consists of rice, soup twice daily, | and boiled rice once daily. In Cen- | tral and North China, where rice is considerably dearer, it is substituted by beans, maize, and wheat and |flour boiled in water. | The earnings of the working woman do not allow the purchasing | of clothes from new material; the | working woman is usually clothed jin old rags purchased from the | second-hand dealers’ stores, which |are scattered all over industrial | China. On the average the earnings of | the textile workers’ family, if not less than 2 members of the family are working in the factory, do not exceed 12 Chinese dollars a month. | At the same time, according to data by the trade unions for 1926, the | indispensable Jiving minimum for |a working class family of 4 people in Hankow was not less than 28.46 |Chinese dollars. Hence the textile | workers’ family earns only 50 per cent of the indispensable living mini- |mum. The position of the working woman is further aggravated by the | fact that virtually she never gets the full earnings. System of Fines. | In the industrial enterprises of |China, both national and foreign, the system of fines is widely used. Fines are imposed for failure to come to work, for slackness of at- tention, for talking to comrades, for | laughing while at work. In the silk spinning mills of the Shantung Province there are 33 different vari- \eties of fines: for being 6 minutes late a fine of 10 cents is imposed upon the working woman, an equal fine of 10 cents for washing up without permission, or for pausing _at the machine, The working woman | | frequently has to part with one-half of her earnings in fines. .Cases are not rare when she does not get any wages at all. | Besides fines there is also prac- |ticed the system of “security,” which is held by the employer as a guarantee against pilfering, ‘or clumsy and inaccurate work on the part of the working woman. The of three weeks earnings and is vir- tually never paid back to the worker. Women Worker Flogged. H tage) Chinese working woman is still suffering from the system overseers flog the women and in- their property. security is retained in the amount of supervisors and overseers. The flict corporal punishment for the least offense, considering them as There are even cases of women being killed by the overseers who are carrying arms. Brutal treatment of working women by the overseers exists also in the foreign factories. The whip is never discarded. In 1926, in the course of a strike in the silk spinning mills in South China, a working woman was killed by a revolver shot fired by an overseer, because she had been ‘Told You So y Ree outstanding positive accom- plishments of the G. 0. P. ad- ministration are the invasion of Nicaragua and the slaughtering ot thousands of the people of that country for daring to defend their rights against the American im- perialists. The slaughtering of hun- dreds of Chinese workers at Han- kow by shells fired from United | States warships. The general ad- }vance of American imperialism | thruout the world, accompanied by murder and oppression whenever the interests of Wall Street required “stern measures.’ The use of guns, bombs, bayonets and injunctions against the American workingclass whenever they tried to better their conditions or fight for the principle | of unionism by strike. ote Sige is ony a short page of the indictment that could be drawn up against the republican party. And should anybody come to the | conclusion after reading the fore- going that we entertain any hopes for better treatment from the demo- cratic party should Al be elected, | we simply point to the reign of Woodrow Wilson and his bloodhound Mitchell A. Palmer, attorney gen- eral, who had the streets of several cities treated to the spectacle of | hundreds of men and women march- |ing manacled to immigration deten- tion points awaiting deportation be- | cause of their political opinions. | * * We have no illusions about the democratic party and when Al | Smith delivers his acceptance speech we shail have something to say in comment. The Al Smith who is en- | dorsed by the Fascisti Alliance of North America cannot be a friend of the workingclass. The Al Smith | who is alright for John J. Raskob of General Motors and General Motors cannot be alright for the |workingclass. Lack of space pre- |vents me from carrying this thot | further today, but there will be other |days, so we will hold something | over, and we may repeat, since re- | pitition if the life of propaganda. * * * * * | BY way of comic relief, Bill Mathe- | son, who is active in the mining | fields of Illinois sent me a clipping with a Vancouver dateline which reads: “A nameless marine creature | about six feet long, having an eel- |like body and a head resembling |that of a sheep, was on display at Provincial Police Headquarters here today as evidence of the existence of a sea-monster which many people | have reported seeing in Lake Okan- ;ogan, in the interior of British Columbia.” “Perhaps its Coolidge” ‘hazards Bill. No Bill, not yet. Cal- in will not have to turn himself into 2 man-eating hippopotamus or |a Texas toad in order to get pub- licity until after the elections. And (as for the description! All I will | say is that a sheep’s head is at least | toothsome when properly cooked. ae Niel Consolidated Gas Company of | New York and the Brooklyn | Edison Company, amalgamated a | few days ago despite the opposition of certain liberals who are still fighting the trustification of in- | dustry and supporting the political | parties that keep the trust wheels | greased. No sooner was the mar- riage ceremony performed by the | Public Service Commission than the |Consolidated Gas Company, the | name adopted by the happy pa | clared a 100 per cent stock dividend. * * | * | 'HOSE who claim that the days of | opportunity are gone in America |are dripping. The members of the | Public Service Commission were as | anxious for the merger as a canni- | bal for a slice of baked Baptist. |Party lines were disregarded, re- publicans and democrats rushing the | ceremony with the haste of a village | justice of the peace joining an elop- jing pair in wedlock who were | pursued by an angry parent, forti- fied by applejack and a sawed-off | shot gun. There may have been a reason. * Fee be it from our purpose to un- dermine the moral underpinning of ‘any prominent citizen, but if we were not what we are but instead looked on society as a fat goose to be plucked when the plucking was good, we should not think twice of accepting a baby carriage-full of stock in the spliced gas companies of New York and Brooklyn. After all, it is hard to get rich by work- ing at it. And it is no more repre- hensible to accept a bundle of stock certificates from a big hearted gas man than it is to rob one or one thousand workers of a part of the product of their toil in mill, mine or factory. pes | ys Wh lem IOUSE of Morgan, United States Ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow has again proved that he is a man of courage. Not being eating ham and eggs with Calles, he now gives further testimony to his hardihood by purchasing a home in a spot that is infested by bandits. Ah, a lucid interval! How’ could Morrow feel at home in an honest environment having lived so much of his life in that bandit’s quarter, Wall Street? Bet, the Mexican highwaymen will park their legs when they arrive within a mile of his residence and crawl to his’ pres- ence to swear fealty to their mastet and place their humble services at his disposal. As the bank messenger is to the treasurer so is a Mexican bandit to Dwight Morrow. ‘ satisfied with risking his life by ,