The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 20, 1928, Page 6

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. Y. Cable Address: “Dziwork” Phone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only) $8 per year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2 three months Address and mail out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Editor Assistant Editor. aS -ROBERT MINOR ..- WM. F. DUNNE at the Entered as second-class New York, N. ¥., under the act-of March 3, 1879. For President WILLIAM Z. FOSTER For the Workers: A Wave of Prison Revolts For the second time within a week the in- mates of an American prison have attempted to revolt. The bloody massacre of prisoners at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, of last week was followed by the riot of Tuesday in the Mary- land state prison at Baltimore. Both out- bursts were provoked by what the prisoners describe as cruel and inhuman treatment. In the Baltimore case the prisoners had re- peatedly pleaded with the state officials for redress of their grievances, but were scorned by the whole state administration from the democratic governor, Albert C. Ritchie, down to the Roman Catholic warden, Pat Brady, in direct charge of the prisoners. For the past several years there have been continuous outbreaks in one form or another of the inmates of American prisons. Such outbreaks are only possible when men have been goaded to the last extremity. When un- armed prisoners, locked behind steel bars, re- volt against their treatment it is of itself evidence that they consider death at the hands of the guards preferable to their ex- istence within the prison. It is a damning indictment of the penal system. The whole system of dealing with criminals in the United States is one of the most backward, the most vicious, in the whole world. With very few exceptions the wardens are plain ignoramuses, whose conception of adminis- trative capacity is the most ferocious bru- talization of prisoners. With the possible exception of Lawes, in charge of Sing-Sing, there is not a prison warden in America who ever heard of the science of criminology. And even Lawes, who professes to be a stu- dent of criminology, remains the head of an institution that still carries on practices that are but a slight departure from the tortures of the Spanish inquisition. Contrast the American torture system— the gallows, the electric chair, the lethal chamber, the dark cells, solitary confinement —with the Soviet system, for instance. In- stead of iron bars and small stinking cells, the prisoners of the Soviet state live in well- furnished, light, airy rooms. There are no iron bars and no restrictions regarding their talking with other prisoners. Instead of be- ing isolated from their families they are:per- mitted long, intimate private visits. During their terms of imprisonment they are taught some trade or profession that will make them useful members of society and enable them once and for all to abandon lives of crime. They are granted vacations every six months during which time they may visit any place _in the Soviet Union they choose. The Soviet prisons are in reality rehabilitation institu- tions for human beings who have not been able to function in a given social environ- ment. Instead of being compelled to listen to the fatuous imprecations of priests and the im- becile bellowing of salvation army captains, the prisoners of the Soviet government are under the careful observation of specialists in criminal psychology. Each prisoner is a special problem and every effort is directed toward developing him to a stage where he will consider himself a useful citizen of the country and of the world, instead of an out- cast. This contrast is only one of tens of thou- sands that distinguish a Communist govern- ment from a capitalist government. Only the abolition of capitalism will end the fiendish tortures of prisoners that provoke such out-. breaks as the Florida, Louisiana and Balti- more affairs: Only a society that exists for the benefit of the masses who inhabit the earth will be able to apply scientific reme- dies to all social diseases. Another Republican Alibi Now that Hoover has delivered his speech calculated to influence the voters of the in- dustrial east to support the republican ticket, the guns of the campaign cominittee are turned toward the farmers. Just as Andrew W. Mellon’s treasury department issued a re- port on “the business situation” as a prelude Hoover’s Newark tal, so Secretary of For the Party of the Class Struggle! Against the Capitalists! VOTE COMMUNIST! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW Agriculture Jardine now comes forth with advice to the farmer as a substitute for farm relief. Since every farmer now knows that the price of wheat has fallen and that, in spite of the bountiful harvest, the average farmer will realize less than last year, Secre- tary Jardine, using his position to aid the Hoover campaign, admonishes the farmers not to sell their crop now, in an already over- stocked market, but to wait until the supply diminishes and prices rise. If the farmers will only hold their crop until after the elec- tion in November it will suit the purposes of the republican politicians. Unfortunately for Jardine and Hoover few of the farmers are financially able to hold their crops even a short time. The mortgage banker is at hand demanding his interest; no bankers can be found who will advance money to the farmers ‘so they can hold their crops until prices rise—because the banking houses know that the world wheat market is glutted; that there will be a tremendous world surplus this year. To wait for prices to rise under such con- ditions, even if the farmers were able to hold their crops, is like chasing rainbows for the mythical pot of gold—the hoped-for goal is never reached, but the pursuer becomes ex- hausted and perishes in despair. It is high time the workers as well as that other great exploited section of the Ameri- can population, the farmers, ceased placing any hope whatsoever in either of the old par- ties and rallied to the support of the one party that offers a way out of the present situation, the Workers (Communist) Party. A system of wealth production that cannot guarantee security for the producers of its food supply deserves to perish. Only the Communists challenge the very existence of such a system. Vote Communist! To the Highest Bidder The reason most liberal journalists are what they are is because they are not able to sell their services to the big capitalists. After a certain training in liberalism, during which time they gain a more or less uncer- tain following by mildly berating what the late Roosevelt called “the malefactors of great wealth” who “abuse” their position by imposing upon the “common people,” they succeed in convincing the Wall Street gang of their usefulness. In other words the principal reason certain journalists are liberals instead of prostitutes for big business is because no one has con- sidered their services valuable enough to purchase. Which brings us to the case of one of the favorite writers of the ‘““Nation-New Repub- lie” crowd, Mr. William Allen White, of Em- poria, Kansas. After a long apprenticeship in the camp of liberalism Mr. White now blooms forth as one of the denizens of the journalistic red-light district of the power trust. At a hearing before the federal trade commission this hero of American liberalism was exposed as having received a check for $500 for delivering a lecture for the National Electric Light Assdciation. So, Mr. White, the liberal supporter of Hoover for president, finds himself in the same dirty nest with Mr. Frank L. Smith, another Hoover sup- porter, who is bought and paid for by Mr. Samuel Insull of the power trust. The federal trade commission itself is merely an instrument of Wall Street, used to prevent real facts coming to light. It is a certainty that only the smallest particle of the real facts regarding bribery of publicists and other ‘“moulders of public opinion” are revealed. Another beneficiary of the power trust is Northwestern University, a religious insti- tution of “hire-learning” at Chicago. Still another is that specimen of ineffable in- famy, the blood-streaked participant in the murders of Sacco and Vanzetti, President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, whose institution receives the trivial sum of $30,000 per year for “research work” in be- half of the power combine, Mr. Lowell, with his brother hangman, the odious Governor Fuller of Massachusetts, also supports Her- bert Hoover of the Teapot Dome cabinet. Thus we see that the Kansas liberal has at last qualified for a front seat among the kept favorites of Street ti Ae ‘ only 18,000 miners, displacing nearly fo “Peace” in | By I, AMTER | John L. Lewis gave him permis- |sion to call the operators into ses- sion in order to make a “settlement,” and therefore Lee Hall, district |president of District Six of the Complete; 'Sell-out of Coal Diggers by the Lewis Machine | the Ohio Coal Fields United Mine Workers Union, invited the coal operators to a conference. The coal operators, refused. Only of this year produced nearly 50 per cent of all the bituminous coal mined | five were present, and no settlement | in the country—16,900,000 out of jwas effected. Lee Hall is very pa- 36,500,000 tons! Two pigs tient, and although the Ohic Coal | States producing nearly half of the | Operators Association declared that jcoal—and there was no coal short- |it would have no dealings with the |#&¢. This demonstrates that either union, Hall was undaunted. Gov- Ma or without loading rpg lernor Donahey appealed to the op-|these two non-union tields, wit erators to do helt utmost to tlt Re seale and oor trae about peace for the industry that |not only be a menace to Qhio, bu |was badly hit. The coal operators drag down the conditions despite idid not blush—they remained the agreement between Lee Hall and adamant. ° the coal operators. The Ohio coal op- Lee Hall called another confer- | ¢Tators will meet the competition of ence—the first one was only a “pre- |the West Virginia operators by liminary” one. Eight operators ap- slashing the wages, and @his will be |peared at this conference, and mat- | brought anode sey by pong the ters proceeded so far that a sub-|™Ines and forcing the men throug: committee could be elected to work | hunger to accept lower wages. lout an agreement. Its findings are) When one couples the loading jout—and now “peace” has been| machinery to the lower scale, then \established in the coal industry of | one sees that the probability is even | Ohio. f |greater. When one adds to it the What did the conference decide? | fact that the non-union fields of It agreed upon a wage’ scale of $5 | West Virginia and Kentucky are |_ day, and 70 cents a ton. No com- working only a few days a week, | petitive ‘scale, no sliding scale. The land can be worked six days, then |agreement is for 18 months, and, | the’ possibility of knocking Ohio during that time, the miners will | entirely out of the market becomes jenjey work ae BS |glaring—despite the agreement. |peace. But will they? | sy |" Who are the coal operators who |, % The denial of ears and there- | attended the conference? They are fae. Rsieopclpeay abba ogee rar wally ent Bs rn ‘has no right to existence in the day operators owning and operating 14 | mines and employing 9,000. men. jot trusts and super-trusts. The coal Some of thewiian are chai. mines, | @Perator is not a self-sufficient be- ae ’ |ing. He is part of a gigantic eom- and, according to S. Horace Rob-| i6.. Pittsburgh coal is Andrew Lins, president of the Ohio Coal Op- lites whieh te uaiauh~ eek erators Association, “their tonnage |” 3 pueetne, lete. Consolidation Coal is John D. pages Pole aici i Rockefeller, which is Standard 0 |duction of the state.” A fine rep. |Colerac Huel and Tron Cow, rail: resentation for a settlement. been sapiens rae time 9 Central mines are United States But what does this peace mean? | Can there be peace? There cannot! |>*€e) J. P. Morgan, DuPont Chem- 3 \ical—a pyramid of cumulative cap- 5 :. :, < eae aa important factors are | ital. And against these pyramids 1. The rationalization of the in- °t#nds the puny coal operator! dustry. Loading machinery is being| What cannot the trust do? It introduced into the big mines by the 4% See to it that the railroads do big coal operators and is producing |"t furnish flats. It can freeze the coal more cheaply and efficiently. |S™all operator out of the market. |Loading machines were installed It can so underbid him that he will last winter near Cadiz, and are | 2¢ glad to either close down the proving effective. According to the | - |mine to save his capital or to escape | with his hide unhurt. | | In the face of this third fact, what | does the agreement mean? It means | | nothing. | | What can the miner do in the face jof this “settlement” and the situa~ | tion in the industry? | It is clear that the Save-the-Union |group could not get a’ better settle- |ment, and the left wing does not {make any such claim, The reason \that Lee Hall had to make such a/ shameful, devastating agreement is | that his “leader,” Mr. John L. Lewis, | and he, too, carried on a policy of | |destroying the union, so that the | |miners became helpless before the onslaught of the coal operators. In \the face of this situation, with the |union wrecked, and the miners be- | trayed by the false slogan of “no} | backward step,” while John L. Lewis | was destroying their union and pre- | paring them for the worst sell-out in the history of the labor move- ment of this country, Lee Hall had | to accept any terms, even though any rank and file miner can under- stand that this agreement means | nothing. | First wreck the union—the only) support of the miner—and then ac- cept the ignominous terms of the |coal operators and say that they) are the best conditions that could | |be obtained! The responsibility | | rests upon the traitors—Lewis, Hall, | Fagan, Fishwick and all their lieu- | | tenants. The miner cannot oppose the load- ing machine, which has come to stay—and yet the loading machine ill throw him out of the industry. Hall knows it—Lewis knows it—| and their only answer is “throw | 800,000 miners out of the industry.” | | Truly, if the conditions remain the |same, then 300,060 men will he dis- | placed forever from the industry, | land they will be followed by tens {of thousands more. But that does |not solve the question—for these | men must live, and the same process |of modern machinery plus the speed- “Tllinois Miner,” loading machinery |in 18 large mines would produce [69,000,000 tons of coal a year, a larger amount than is produced to- day in 435 mines, and would require | The election campaign in Cali- rnia is in full swing. The drive of |S the collection of signatures on Will | the petitions is on and the Party | will be on the ballot in that state. |These signatures must be filed on z aoe September 22. When Comrade Fos- jators will not tolerate apposition, | 4 the miners cannot oppose it—and | *° speaks, in Los Angeles on Sep- ‘i |tember 23 it will be as legal candi- they should not. (How this aspect | AS noite pice «11 date on the ballot in California. Los of the question must be treated will | ‘Anoeles’ sub-dintcl 7 be dealt. with later.) jAngeles sub-district has to turn in But one thing is sure, the load- | 10,000 signatures in 22 days, or an ‘ing machine, which is expensive erie of over 400 a day. Cali- land can be installed only by rich | ornia election laws are designed to " r Pi «| block all competition for the cap- companies, will ruin the competi-) i .1:<¢ avtiew ih (AMG Patatalee Tse |tion of the small operator and no} Pp ‘i | matter what agreement he has made | : | with the miners the agreement will | S2OP» the Party will be on the bal- | ( ; lot and rolling up a lot of Com- |be null and void of its own accord. | itt votes in Nevemb, The small, inefficient mines will gta lie hal ° close dcwn—and the agreement will! Adam Getto, secretary of the la- | die. | bor party of Washington County, 60,000 miners! Is this progressive feature rationalization to be stopped? the operators tolerate it? Should the miners oppose it? The oper- CAMPAIGN CORNER |plica of Lewis’ union—but a fight- jing union with a different policy the same, in the home of the open- | effected in West Virginia, the pur- pose being to install the most mod- ern methods of coal production and |thereby produce coal economically. | Will the small operators of central Ohio, with their hand labor, be able to compete with the miners,of West Virginia, which will use loading ma- chinery to the greatest extent pos- sible? They will not, and will shut down automatically, and the agree- ment will be of no account. 2. Competition of West Virginia. The conditions for the workers in West Virginia today are intolerable. Wages are low, the men work only two or three days a week. Will Ohio be able to compete, in face of the competition of West Virginia, with or without the loading mh- chine? Will it be able to compete with Kentucky? According to the ‘ea of mines, West Virginia and Kentucky in the month of May A $200,000,000 merger has been | Pa., and candidate for congress from the 25th district on the labor party ticket, has written to the secretary lof state demanding that his name ‘be taken off the socialist party ticket, whose nomination he received | without his permission or consent. Getto issued a public statement de- nouncing the socialist party for its alliance with the reactionary ele- |inenta in the labor movement against | the left wing, and particularly James Maurer, former president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, and vice-presidential candidate on the socialist ticket, who made a united front with Capellini, Fagan and other gangster elements at the last convention of the federation against the progressive and radical delegates. Getto says that the so- cialist party as a whole and indi- vidual leaders like Maurer, did noth- ing vo assist the miners during their strike. The socialists even went s | far as to refuse to give halls under their control to strikers for meeting purposes. Getto calls on the work-_ ers of Pennsylvania in general to support Foster and Gitlow, presi- dential and vice-presidential candi-| dates, respectively, of the Workers | (Communist) “Party, and on the| workers in Washington County to| support the candidates of the labor | party, which in convention assem- | bled at Philadelphia last May en-| |dorsed the Communist ticket. Ba Mee The election campaign of the | Workers (Communist) Party in Pennsylvania, and in all the mining | states, is tied up with the great struggle that is now going on be- tween the reactionary forces led by John L. Lewis and the operators on one side, and the left wing, under the leadership of John Watt, Free- man Thompson, Pat Toohey, An- thony Minerich and other militants. The militants are building a new miners union that will organize all the hard and soft coal miners in the country. into one powefful industrial union, that will base itself on an uncompromising struggle against the bosses and their agents in the battered and betrayed U. M. W. A., which is now only a shadow of a labor union, due to the treachery of John L. Lewis and his hénchmen. “ae Bug A Greek worker from Detroit writes: “I am enclosing in this let- ter a ten-dollar money order. This is to help pay the expenses of the jelection. My nationality is Greek. I haven’t got my second papers yet. But I have tried very hard and for that reason I cannot vote and I am very’ sorry. But I am willing to do my best and I am doing the best I oon! fe eM THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, 1928 Be = tee oe rae ——— THE PERIODICAL FLEECING By Fred Ellis | ‘Told You So |THE former associates of the |" United States in the grand and glorious war to make the world safe for democracy, or what we haven’t | got, would like to pay their debts if | they had the money. They are well- |meaning gentlemen, but creditors are hard boiled customers and pre- fer the color of a debtor’s money to the sound of his voice. And they don’t give a darn where he gets the dough. ue aay the early part of 1917, Germany was pushing the Allies back to the | Atlantic Ocean and mission after mission came from England and France to the United States seeking money, men and consolation. General Joffre wept on Wil- son’s shirt and there were more English dukes knocking at the white house ask- ing for alms than there | are bondsmen | around the Tombs. The great heart jof America was touched because, forsooth, Morgan’s millions were in- | vested with the allies and it hap- pened that it was to the best in- terests of the dominant capitalist jelements in the U. S. that the | Kaiser should be licked. The Allies \got the cash. me a Bor anybody will tell you that it is much, more pleasant to receive T. J. O'Flaherty up is being introduced in every in- dustry, which is displacing its own hundreds of thousands. What is | then to be done? Shall the work- | Miners Prepare to Build New Union :s, as at the time of the installa-|than to give money. The Allies had tion of the first textile machinery, |a jolly old time burning up the Wall attempt to destroy it? He shall | Street loans. They won the war not: The machine must be put to/and democracy was saved. Don’t the service of the men and women | ask us for a bill of particulars. Like who use it—not to enslave them as the old lady in the play, who ex- it does today. not to represent more |claimed when she heard that her profit for the owner, the capitalist, | daughter was being suitored by the |but to furnish greater facility of | vice-president of a corporation: “He } production for the workers. must be nice. Isn’t he a vice-presi- Today that means that the worker | dent,” we never doubt the words of must demand the lowering of hours, | statesmen. But the worst began to jand none will suffer. | operators \rifice the men. \to their enlightenment. an equa] division of work, so that each miner will find employment But in the end that will not suffice, for the machinery of production, in the United States in particular, has been improved to such an extent that, compared with 1919, 11 per} cent less men produce 26 per cent more commodities. This can be in- creased by scrapping the old ma- chinery and methods, by cutting the waste in overhead and distribution, so that only part of the workers will be employed while the majority will remain idle. What is the solution? That the workers must prepare to take over the machinery of production to op- erate it not for profit—nor from the standpoint of production—but for the purpose of use. This means the Revolution—but the American worker is not yet prepared to fight for that—neither organizationally nor ideologically. The conditions, however, will force him in that direction. , The sell-out is complete. will not deal with the union, reactionary as its officials are and willing as they are to sac- The mergers and trustification in the non-union fields, the control of the railroads; the in- troduction of machinery, make the “settlement” a joke. There can be no peace in the coal- fields. The miners must recognize this, and have recognized it, and are preparing to build up a new union that will fight for the interests of the miners. Today the miners are forced to accept the conditions that | the sell-out of Lewis, by decision of the Executive Council, forces upon them. tion that ali is lost. No—out of the chacs, depression and defeat a new union is growing. Not a re- and a different aim. Though it is not stated in the program of the new | union, inevitably through the strug- gle in the mining industry, as in other industries, with the ad- \vancing war, the miner will not and cannot be content with continually | facing unemployment, hunger and deprivation. The miners have learnt a bitter lesson. Not only the coal mies, but the government, tvo, op- presses them. The textile workers of New Bedford also are learning the role of the government. The Canton steel werkers are learning All these workers will learn—through the struggle for better conditions—that the employers will oppose .them— and though here and there they will make a concession—in the end they will stand fast. They will learn that, the fight will have to be a basic one: shall the workers or the capitalists control the mines and in- dustries of the country? Shall the workers suffer and struggle, or shall they struggle and demand con- trol? This question will be posed in the not distant future—and the shame- ful betrayal of Lewis and his yield- ing to and co-operation with the government will have taught the miners the proper lesson. There can be no peace, either in the coalfields or anywhere, as long as capitalism exists. The struggle is on and will continue till the workers have taken over control through their organized power, facing the capitalists and the capitalist government, facing them and defeating them; defeating They must accept them— | and they do—not with the. concep- | operators are their ene-| |come almost immediately after the | victory was won. Poetical, but un- | pleasant. | ce a RIG-HEARTED Uncle Sam wanted his money back. He did not care where it came from. So the Allies decided to take it out of Germany’s hide. Now, it is a fact, well known to gardeners and even gentlemen farmers that you cannot extract blood from a parsnip, so in order to enable Germany to pay the cost of getting licked, she was allowed to engage the services of a United | States financial expert. He got the money. This fellow is still on the | job, But the Allies have not yet paid \their debts to the United States, | which is not so good for them, be- cause whenever they get fresh with |Sam, and pull off some pleasantry like the secret naval-military pact / | between England and France, Uncle | threatens to send the sheriff. Then there is weeping and gnashing of | teeth. The big * 8 wo iT° get to the point long deferred. |* At the forthcoming international conference on reparations, the for- mez allies will try to arrive at some arrangement whereby they can pay joff part or all of their war debts. | The French would like to sell $400,- | 000,000 of German bonds with which | to pay the United States the amount |due for war supplies. The British would take a slice from some other |part of the Teuton economic ana- tomy. The United States would be millions to the good in the trans- | action, tho it would not mean an ad- | ditional doughnut on an American | workingman’s table. Psi tase T would all be sweated out of the German workingclass. Low as the German worker’s standard of living is now it would be hammered down still further. In order to com- pete with their rivals, the Germen | capitalists would again cut wages. | This would react in other countries. | And to make a long story short, the | brilliant schemes of the Allies would -end where thev started—in an im- passe, from which there is no relief except thru the stern method of revo- lution. The workingclass of the world must pitch war debts and all other debts incurred by their mas- | ters into the cess-nool of history and start out with a clean slate to build up a social order, where cooperation for the common good, will take the place of the competitive system, un- der which men, women and children of the workingclass are slaves to the parasitic few that hold political power and thru force, control the productive machinery of society. The workers and peasants of Sovjet Russia have blazed the way for the rest of the world. It is the only path to freedom. Son OHehety | LETTER CARRIERS ELECT, ALBANY, N. Y., Sept. 19,—At the closing session of the New York State Association of Letter Carriers’ convention last night, Nias Hewitt, # of Amsterdam, was re-elected pres- ident. Other officers elected were: vice president, George C. Monaghan, Rochester; secretary, Peter Groth- man, Jamaica; treasurer, Robert W. Warnock, Troy; executive commit- tee: Charles S, Waldie, Yonker: and destroying them and establish- ing working class power—the pro- letarian dictatorship, x4 George F. Kinnerle, Buffalo; f: Huston, Schenectady, and Pe, Aad ig Elmira, ip i }