The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 5, 1928, Page 6

x b. SDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by NATIONAL D. AILY WORKER PUBLISHING A N, Inc., Daily, Except Sunday "26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Cable Address: By Mail (in New York only): SUBSCRIPTION RAT: 3 By Mail $6.00 per year work” (outside of New York): $3.50 six months $2 three months Lig per year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 U: nion Square, New York, N. Y. Assistant Editor.. ROBERT WM. F. MINOR DUNNE ——— Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. For Pri For the Workers! WILLIAM Z. FOSTER esident For the Party of the Class Struggle! VOTE COMMUNIST! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW | WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY | Against the Capitalists! The “Unionism” of Al Smith. Every time the spokesmen of the big capi- talist political parties open their heads on what they call the “labor growing intimate relations bet of the great open-shop industrial kings and the heads of the American Labor become clearer. It seems that all capitalist leaders are “for labor” in this election certainly the reactionary trade union bureau- crats are for capital. Here are a few words from address of Al Smith’s runni ator Robinson: “The employers of laborers in have long applied business methods in their enterprises ANALOGOUS TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. While the present system is not perfect in its operation, it is nevertheless deemed essential to the carrying on of the na- tion’s business, as well as to the of employes.” We have put into capital letters the words “analogous to collective bargaining.” does this strange expression is the method “analogous to } in large numbers” Mr. Robi mean the great industries such as the Steel Trust, the monster automobile manufactur- ing corporations,emachine manufacture in general, corporations suchas those of the Rockefellers, with perhaps some large rai | » e roads, etc. And he speaks, n ollective bargaining,”—and “have long applied.” If Mr. Robinson means anything atall he means to suggest that the de platform has in view company unionism as the utmost that the democrat: to promise the workers—a system ‘“‘analogous to collective bargaining,” but “applied” by (And of course even these are empty words—for Mr. Raskob and Mr. du Pont will decide for themselves whether they can best suppress workers with or without company unionism.) “employers of laborers.” Some careful thinking ough any workers who may be under the spell of gaining” which “the employers of laborers in large numbers” have long applied? Evidently by “the employers of laborers gaining, but of “methods analogous to | union methods applied by the workers, but of “business methods’? which.the employers the Tammany had in mind i question,” the bargaining, ween the heads : scab company Federation of Take Robins: friend of labor.” Robinson, the crude politician of the West, said what Smith, the slicker politician of the East, has n all he said about “collective something “analogous to col- lective bargaining,”—the Rockefeller Plan of unions, in other words. on’s words a little further. He speaks against “abuse of injunctions” in la- bor disputes. ing unless it campaign, and jnjunctions in an “abuse” of the Labor Day ng mate, Sen- in large numbers Reais) workers only best interests This means absolutely noth- means that he is in favor of labor cases, except where they can be adjudged (by a capitalist court) to be injunctions. And he explains exactly what he means: . “In other words, the process has been abused in labor disputes by the granting of injunctions PRETENDED emergencies.” (Our em- He means injunctions in labor disputes must be granted to employers against the when there is a real emer- gency, and not nierely a-“pretended” one. The employers must have injunctions, he says in effect, tions in order What mean? What collective bar- form of the d nson can only expresses. ot of collective not of trade expressed poli mocratic party ic party wants injunction tions? ag “their” | gaining,” the t to"be done by | Smith. trade union bureaucrats? a very real and fundamental agreement be- tween the views of such men as William Green, the trade union bureaucracy gener- ally, and the anti-labor views which Robinson (And of course there is no real difference between the democratic and re- publican positions on the subject.) Is not the Executive Council of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor now doing every- thing in its power to crush out every spark of resistence in the working class against the employers’ offensive? only when they need injunc- | to beat the workers. He cites the democratic platform to prove it. Why, then, is this criminal anti-labor plat- emocratic party supported by Because there is Is not their openly icy of “partnership between labor and capital” only another name for a system “analogous” to company unionism? And have they not already given their crea- tive support to the infamous bar association project for a national anti-strike law which would practically universalize the power of ainst all workers’ organiza- The closer Al Smith comes to that com- pany unionism “analogous to collective bar- closer the betrayers of labor headed by William Green will come to Al Vote Communist! (Continued.) There is a great necessity for a workers children’s camp in N. Y. Why? Because there are dozens of children’s camp owned, controlled, and run by outright capitalist insti- tutions, (Boy Scouts); by the settlement houses; by religious groups (Zionist); and then the so- called non-partisan camps; “socia- list” (Pioneer youth); and the a Workmen circle camps. None of Y. ing during their stay at camp. these give the worker’s child a work- ing-class understanding and train- Of course we must recognize a distinc- tion between the various types of camps mentioned above. The out- right capitalist camps, scout and settlement houses, are different from the non-partisan camp, but a workers children’s camp is in direct contradiction to ‘all of them insofar as it openly utilizes this opportunity Even Maurer Means Nothing By I. AMTER. CLEVELAND, Sept. 4.—Jim Mau- rer, vice-presidential candidate of the socialist party, was booked to speak in Cleveland on August 19. The picnic at which he was to speak was arranged by the Jewish “branch” of the socialist party in Cleveland. Socialism is so respec- table that the picnic was announced at the meeting of the Cleveland Federation of Labor, one of the most reactionary central labor bodies in the country, which prides itself on knowing how to deal with the mili- tants and progrensiy: Notices were in the “Cleveland zen,” ed- ited by that old-time socialist, Max Hayes. What more could one want! Surely a respectable crowd would appear at Lakeland to hear Jim Maurer. Did not Jim have enough of the “red” about him to attract even the militant, the Communist? Had he not been in the Soviet Union and made fine speeches over there—and even over here when he returned” And Maurer had not yet been in Cleveland. Surely a good crowd would gather to hear him—the “fu- ture vice-president” of the United ‘States. _ But it was all miscalculated. To cla be sure Jim did not come. Perhaps some cf the gang knew that he would not appear, but for the sake of success, the upper guys would not divulge it. How would it look if the picnic grounds were empty— although Jim Maurer, one time pres- ident of the Pennsylvania Federa- tion of Labor and socialist candi- date, was announced to speak! Surely in Cleveland there is enough “socialism” to make a_ successful pienic. But it didn’t work. The “masses” did not know that Maurer was not coming—but the masses didn’t care whether he came or not. Two hun- dred people gathered at Lakeland and sat around disgusted that Mau- rer did not appear. Probably even the management of the picnic did not know that he would not come to Cleveland, for they provided no other speaker. Earlier in the season the social- ists had a picnic, and Sharts, can- didate for governor, spoke. He bored his audience, till at the end of | his speech hardly a handful was | listening. | Thus the “message” of the social- |ist party attracts and interests the workers. The socialist party is |played out as far as the working ‘class is concerned. A Cainp for Workers’ Children | to carry on educational work along working-class lines. The class conscious section of the} working class must realize the im- portance of combatting the capita- list controlled camps. Communist and left-wing workers must give the utmost support to an English sneak-| ing working-class, children’s camp. And that is what W. I. R. Children’s |Camp is. The policies of the Wor- |kers Children’s Camp must be a definitely class line. Whenever petty |bourgeois and bourgeois elements manage thru one means or another |to get their children out to a wor-| kers children’s camp—there must not. be a question at all but that after proper notification, these children will have to be returned to their parents. / Need Aid. If any worker is really interested in seeing and feeling a real living, throbbing movement’ of workers ‘children—let him visit the WIR Childrens Camp. If any class conscious worker is interested in developing a class move- ment amongst the children and} combatting the influence of the ca- pitalist controlled camps—he must support the WIR Camp. What can be done immediately? 1) Send books fit for children (between the ages of 9 to 15). There is a library in Camp. But not enough. Send books to WIR | Camp, Wingdale, N. Y. 2) Send money to Workers In- ternational Relief. There is going |to be a deficit—that is to be ex- |pected especially in the beginning |of a: workers children’s camp. Let every worker who is concerned with \the future of the movement, inter- ested in developing new forces for \the working class movement, let him and her show it by supporting, |morally, and financially the Work- }ers International Relief Camp. | Address—1 Union Sq., City. Phone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8 | By Fred Ellis Berry, a Broker in “Labor” (Maj. George L. Berry has been | picked by Tammany Al Smith to corral the “labor vote” for the Democratic presidential _ ticket during the present election | campaign.—Note.) | . By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER. HE symbol and _ outstanding instance of everything corrupt) and reactionary in the printing |trades is Major George L. Berry, President of the Pressmen’s Inter- | national Union. He is peer of the |Worst labor fakers ever developed | |in the entire history of the Amer-| lican labor movement. European | labor men, unacquainted with the prevalent reaction in our unions, marvel that such a figure can pretend to be a labor leader and is able to hold on to his official posi-| tion. October Strikers. | Berry, a former prize-fighter and| |ex-army officer, is one of the most |blatant Chauvinists in the entire | labor movement. He is a high of- ficial in the American Legion and| |a prominent politician in the Demo-| jeratic Party. Berry’s methods are| |without parallel. He has become) |a wealthy capitalist by the misuse | of his official position. We shall! reserve for later a description of his| czaristic tactics in controlling his | union and his scandalous system of| | plundering his rank and file. Here| |let us cite only a few of his strike-| | breaking exploits. Under Berry’s leadership the |Pressmen’s Union carries on a| {policy of crassest craft betrayal. | When any of the other unions in | the industry strike the pressmen are | | ordered to stay at work. And if the! local pressmen, outraged by this union scabbery, nevertheless go out| jin support of the strikers, Berry im-| mediately enters into active collabo-| |ration with the employers and fills| the same over their own grievances, regardless | |of their justificiation, unless they) | get his specific permission. Berry| By GEORGE PADMORE. | There has never been a president) \of the United States who has been| |so fond of boasting about the pros- | | perity which the capitalists enjoy as| |Mr. Coolidge. This gentleman, who} {owes his position as chief executive | |of the most powerful and richest |nation in the world to the servile way in which he serves the interests |of the American bourgeoisie, can well prate about the great wealth which the owning class of America controls. |. There is no doubt about it. Amer- ica is the banker of the world, due largely to the last war when the | workers fought and the exploiters remained at home and fattened on war-time production. A partial ex- | amination of this idle chatter of the | president reveals the fact that when | Coolidge talks about prosperity he | means the prosperity of the bankers, industrial capitalists and corrupt politicians. True, there is prosper- ity in America for the Mellons, | Rockefellers, Fords, Schwabs, Hoo- vers, Al Smiths, Raskobs, du Ponts, etc., ete. But there is not even the |farmers and the oppressed Negro race. Whatever little these groups once enjoyed is today a thing of the | past. In this age of trust, monopoly, syndicates and cartels, the middle class of America is fast disappear- | full dinner pail for the workers, poor | ing into the ranks of the proletariat, 'Czar of Pressmen’s Union Waxes Wealthy On Continued Betrayals of Workers has broken many strikes this way. One of his most infamous exploits | was breaking the 1919 New York “vacationist” strike. Recently he sent professional scabs in to break the pressmen’s strike in the Cuneo Co.’s plant in Chicago. Such scab- herding comes easy to Berry as he himself was originally a_ strike- breaker in St. Louis, where he was given a card in the union to induce him to quit scabbing. Broke Pressmen’s Strike. The strike of-the New York web pressmen illustrate the methods of Berry. the great post-war drive against labor, Judge Manton, arbitrator in the New York pressmen’s dispute with the employers, made an award conceding all the employers’ de- mands including wage reductions and drastic worsening in working conditions. Although enraged, the web pressmen fulfilled the award’s terms until the agreement expired in 1923. At this time Berry, arbitrar- ily taking charge of the situation, dallied and delayed for weeks, maneuvering with the employers to force the workers to accept unfavor- able terms. Finally the pressmen struck, tying up all the big New York papers. Berry outlawed the strike and ordered the men back to work. He also issued a call to all his locals in the U. S. and Canada to furnish scabs at $20.00 per day and he open- ed an office to recruit strike-break- ers. The Burns Detective Agency worked with him recruiting scabs. The strike lasted 11 days. The men were driven back to work under| | their places with scabs. He follows conditions but little better than| strike-breaking policy| those of the Manton award, in the| when any of his local unions strike| name of the sacredness of contracts.) In connection with the Pressmen’s The employers praised Berry ex- travagently, and so did the labor reactionaries. In 1921, under influence of| | Congratulated by Gompers. Gompers wired congratulations to Berry, and when the latter appeared at the Portland convention shortly afterward he was given a wild ovation, and the delegates rising Mr. | | tumultously to do him honor. Gompers said: “We will suspend business to hear |from one who has engaged in a tremendous contest in the interest of the honor and integrity of the | American labor movement.” | The Pressmen’s Home.. |THE notorious Pressmen’s Home in Watkins County, Penn., about 12 miles from Rogersville and about 100 miles from Knoxville, cogt the union originally about $11,000 and Berry, the President of the Union, has since squandered about $2,000,- 000 of union, funds upon it. Berry |owns several thousand acres of farming and_ stock-raising lands, | much of which lies adjacent to the Home. Its value has been greatly enhanced by the proximity of the latter institution. Berry owns the “Rogersville Review,” the Clinch- |field Mercantile Co., the Clinchfield |Land and Luniber Co., and the |Clinchfield Hydro-Electrie Power Co. He sells farm products and various other commodities to the |Home at fancy prices. The Home, supposedly ‘for the benefit of dis- jabled pressmen, is situated con- | veniently for his own ends and Ber- | ry loses no opportunity to profit by it. Hutcheson of the Carpenters | Union, no doubt inspired by Berry’s success, is beginning the develop- ment of a big Home for carpenters at Lakeland, Florida. Already it smells badly of graft. Swiped $165,000. Home, Berry proceeded to develop his own concern, the Clinchfield Hydro-Electric Power Co., with Coolidge “Prosperity” Applies Only to the Exploiting Class; How Other Half Lives which grows bigger and bigger un- der the oppressive weight of big business. Marx was truly right when he said: “In proportion as the bourgeoisie is developed, in the same proportion is developed the proletariat, the class of modern workers who live only so long as they find work, and who only find work as long as their work increases capital.” How Capitalists Live. In order to illustrate how utterly false and bankrupt this swan song of Coolidge prosperity, as far as the workers are concerned, we publish a partial list of the report of the Park Avenue Association which should be compared by American workers who are today confronted with one of the most acute economic depressions in the history of the nation. “The most characteristic example of American luxury may be found in the record of expenditures on Park Avenue, New York City, as esti- mated and officially stated by H. Gordon Duval, late president of the Park Avenue Association, published in the New York Times and World, Jan. 28 of last year. “The 4,000 families who live on this avenue between 34th St. and 96th St. spend a total of $280,000,000 or $70,000 per family during the year. They spend for women’s clothing $50,000,000 a year, or $192,- 000 a day; for liquor, according to the reporter, $15,000,000. They spend $26,922 a day for yachts, $11,- 538 a day for flowers. A father spends $25,000 for a single debu- tante daughter. .The women and girls in this section on average each spend yearly $6,250 for clothing, $2,000 for furs, $500°each in beauty shops, $900 for hats. The paltry five millions that these four thou- sand families give to “charity” is only one-tenth of what the women spend on clothing alone. And a large proportion of these people are professing Christians.” “The following is a partial list of their yearly expenditures: Women’s wear $50,000,000 Rent ...s.06 18,000,000 Furs .. 16,000,000 Traveling 15,000,000 Art Galleries . 15,000,000 Restaurants 10,000,000 Automobiles union funds. For this purpose he misappropriated $165,000 upon the false pretense that the company was owned by the union. this, Chicago Pressmen’s Union, 3, a local in Berry’s International, took the matter to court. The court rul- ed that the company in question belonged to Berry and his friends personally and it ordered them to pay back to the union the $165,000 which they had misappropriated. Things looked black for Berry. But the employers, of whom Berry is a valuable servant, came to his aid. With their assistance he was able to terrorize the Chicago loca] into dropping the case, by the threat that if they did not do so their pending demands upon their bosses for bet- ter conditions would be categorically rejected. Hence Berry, althrough convicted in court, was never com- pelled to pay back the $165,000. How Wealthy. The ultra-patriotic Major Berry is now a rich man. He is reputed to be worth half a million dollars. When he was elected President of the International at the Brighton Beach Convention in 1907 they had to take up a collection to pay his expences from San Franicsco. Now. in addition to his large proptrties in Tennessee, he sports, when in New York, a su'te in the Waldorf- Astoria. A few years ago he nar- rowly missed securing the Demo- cratic nomination (tantamount to election) for Governor of Tennessee. When he put up a fight for Demo- cratic nomination for vice-president of the United States in 1924 he had the support of wide sections of the capitalist press, Republican as well as Democratic. At that time he had in New York practically all the national organizers of the union, at the union’s expence, wearing “Berry for Vice-President” buttons and working for his nomination. * * * (From “Misleaders of Labor,” by William Z. Foster. Published by Trade Union Educational League, 2 W. 15th St., New York). American Capitalists’ Live in Luxury 7,000,000 7,000,000. 5,000,000 4,000,000 Millinery Yachts .. Amusements . Beauty Shops . Total for 4,000 families $280,000,000 “The Other Half.” On the other hand, there are over five millions of able bodied men and women walking the streets of “pros- perous” America—the paradise of the capitalist class—the hell-hole of the workers, who are willing to work, but are unable to get employ- ment. Thousands of working class families merely live, above the star- vation margin. Women and chil- dren are driven into industry. Homes are broken up; family life disintegrated. It is estimated that there are over 25,000 fatal accidents in industry yearly, not including more than 2,- 000,000 daily disability. Of the 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 18 in America today only 16 millions are regularly at school, while 12,000,000 are compelled to go to work to help the family income. There are more than 8 million per- sons over 10 years of age who can neither read nor write and it is esti- mated among conservative educators that only one child out of every 60 gets a chance to attend high school or- college, and this opportunity, 10,000,000; when it presents itself is either for Disbelieving H c is not safe to take too much money out of the sewerpipes of New York in a year sanctified by the candidacy of a Tammany sachem for the presidency. Tammany braves die; they never squeal. If they don’t die willingly, they die anyhow. Philips, the big Queens County boss, charged with having ve taken millions T.J.O'Flaherty ¢¢ dollars out of the sewer business was bumped off in Atlantic City some months ago, Since then his son has been shooting his father’s loot over the green baize tables of Long Island gambling joints. Last Sunday, William L. D’Olier, another big sewer man, was found dead on a lonely road with a bullet through his head. Med aw F there is any choice between democratic political grafters and their republican competitors it is in the way they pass out rather than in the way they take their loot. The republican go-getters seem to have more confidence in justice. They await the rap as a rule, and the rap seldom comes. The only exception in recent years is Jess Smith, Harry Daugherty’s pal. But then there is a suspicion that Jess was assisted to Valhalla. iff IS reported that workmen have abandoned search for Tammany relics on the site of the old wigwam on 14th Street. If they were looking for the vault in which Boss Tweed | kept his loot, they must be an opti- mistie and naive gang. It would not |be like Dick Croker and Charlie | Murphy to spend decades in the Ti- ger’s lair without making a thoro in- vestigation of the premises. age, ei, | JERE are a few epigrams from the |** lips of a Presbyterian divine on | Labor Day: “Luxury can only justi- |fiably come into existence when [honest penury has vanished and when each person has his daily bread.” “Wealth does not release | the possessor from the obligation to |work.” “Lack of wealth does |not justify, the poor in volun- tary idleness.” ‘This particular | divine is not a bad egg, as clergy- |men go, but he is full of steak. The | Poor are lacking in wealth because |the rich rob them of the fruits of their labor and should the idle poor | insist on the right to a job without |the consent of the idle rich they | would land in a police cell for their | pains. 'HE divine would do worse than | consult young Alfred Doss, a | young German who jumped ship to seek his fortune in this country. | After working at odd jobs for a while Doss ran into hard luck and a |few nights ago a policeman found him sleeping in a doorway and on being informed that the lad had no |money, the cop arrested him for | vagrancy. | ERT MARTIN, the national secre- tary of the Farmer-Labor Party threw up his job and declared for | Hoover. Had he not done this, Mar- | tin would be unknown outside of his | wife and family and the installment furniture dealer. The existence of a |national Farmer-Labor Party has been something of a mystery for the past four years. Martin hopes that \in four years time the “progressive | forces” will be able to get together and build anew. Hope deferred | maketh the heart sick. In the mean- time intelligent workers will work and vote for the Communist ticket, strengthen the Workers (Commu- nist) Party and join it for a real fight against capitalism and to or- ganize the masses for the struggle which will end when the workers and poor farmers of this country over- throw the robber system and set up a Workers’ and Farmers’ Govern- ment. #08 ] C. PENNY, the department store magnate, is for Hoover. Penny |is a democrat. Now, what we would |like to know is: who is Robert Dol- | lar going to support? This does |not look like an election campaign, but a tit for tat game. Son © Hohesty the sons of the rich or petty-bour- geoisie. In the face of these facts, it is no wonder that the class struggle is growing sharper and sharper daily. Hundreds of thousands of coal min- ers have recently been betrayed by the fake leadership of men like John L. Lewis, Bill Green and Matthew Woll. Over 30,000 textile workers are putting up a heroic struggle against their bosses and in the face of police terrorism, to avoid a ten per cent cut in their starvation wages; bread lines begin to increase as the winter season approaches; and starvation and grim poverty stalks the land from coast to coast. This is the lot of the American workers, the producers of wealth and plenty for the capitalist para- sites. Truly, what America needs is a revolution. * ‘Told You So I: