The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 4, 1928, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1928 Baily 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. Gable Address: “Daiwork” Phone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-3 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. ¥. Editor. Assistant a1 -ROBERT MINOR ...WM. ¥F. DUNNE Entered as second-class mail at the post-office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. For President WILLIAM Z. FOSTER JQ|X For the Workers: Smith’s New Prohibition Stand There is a certain irony in the fury of those opponents of the Volstead Act who claim that Al Smith’s recent utterances on the question amounts to “double crossing” them. Like the republican candidate, Hoover, the democratic candidate, Smith, announces that if elected he will enforce the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act to the letter. This is directly the reverse of Smith’s stand as governor of New York, where he did everything in his power to prevent the enforcement of the act—a fact that gained him considerable popularity among the op- ponents of prohibition. f \Of course, it is well known that neither Hoover nor Smith will enforce prohibition. An industry with hundreds of millions of dollars, in which thousands of politicians have vested interests, always commands the respect of the capitalist politicians. me An analysis of the Tammany political machine, of which Al. Smith is the grand sachem, or imperial hell-roarer, or whatever euphemism designates the boss of the gang, instantly dispels the claim that the demo- cratic presidential nominee would really strive to abolish the Volstead act. The very base of Tammany in New York is the boot- leggers, the thugs, the gangsters and their concomitant, the corrupt police. This strata of society, this festering mass, thriving through the manufacture and sale of poison hootch, works hand in hand with the upper strata, the Wall Street bankers, the big manufacturers, the exploiters of la- bor. Whenever a strike is to be broken or a labor man framed up, this social scum is utilized against labor. R : “It is just such an apparatus that is re- quired to conduct the shady business of Tam- many. Neither of the old parties can enforce pro- hibition. As for the socialist party, it simply utilizes the prohibition issue in order to | prove to the capitalist class its respect for their institutions by proclaiming that pro- hibition should be abolished “because fur- ther persistence in this tragic-farce threat. ens a complete breakdown of law and order.” Only the Workers (Communist) Party has a real program that meets this and other is- sues of the campaign. We denounce prohibi- tion of consumption of liquor as a measure to decrease the needs. of the working class, thereby decreasing the price of his labor- power. We denounce it as a device for more efficiency, greater speeding-up. It isa class measure the burden of which falls upon the workers. But we also state emphatically that alco- holism is one of the most frightful diseases generated by the capitalist system and that it will only be solved in a Communist society that rises on the ruins of capitalist society. The demands of the Workers (Communist) Party on prohibition are: 1—The repeal of the Volstead act and the Eighteenth Amendment. 2—Dissolution of the federal and state prohibition apparatus. 8—Energetic propaganda agathst alcohol- 4sm as one of the most malignant social diseases under ¢apitalism. Conference of Traitors Each conference of the British labor party, each utterance of its leaders, proclaims anew the debased role of that aggregation as lackeys of imperialism. The exclusion of Communists by Ramsey MacDonald, Phillip Snowden, George Lands- bury and company is nothing new. It was fully expected. It is a tribute to the Com- munists, as the leaders of the class-conscious workers, that the labor party leaders as- sailed them. To have been praised or even admitted to the conference of traitors would have degraded the Communists in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of workers who have learned to despise these apologists for imperialism. Nor do the British Communists ask ad- mittance to such a conference. They realize full well that since the labor party was:in of- fice there is no further need to even pro- pose a united front with them in order to gain influence over workers still under illu- sions regarding the role of MacDonald & Co. The only way now left to win’ the masses away from the laborite swindlers is an open fight against them on all fronts. Typical of the slimy depths to which labor- ism in Britain has sunk was the reaction of WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY For the Party of the Ch MacDonald to the declaration of J. M. Ken- | old, upon the backs of bleeding slaves. ae) ‘ ; - VOTE COMMUNIST! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW is Struggle! . Against the Capitalists! worthy, lieutenant commander of the British army, that the danger of war between the United States and Britain “is as real as was the war between Great Britain and Germany in 1906” and concluded with the warning, “We are heading straight for the same tragedy as 1914.” Instead of permitting further discussion of the question MacDonald announced that he would demand in the house of commons that the British govern- ment publish the details of the Anglo-French naval pact. Of course it would be an absurd thing to upbraid MacDonald for not offering pro- posals to fight the war danger. In view of the known treachery of MacDonald, to ask him or the labor party to lead a struggle against world war would be playing directly into their hands—it would be a piece of rank opportunism. If the labor party conference really repre- sented labor instead of the imperialists the leaders would have launched a terrific drive against the heroes of secret diplomacy, the war-mongers, and all their agents. The conference only reveals MacDonald, Snowden, Lansbury & Co. playing their fam- iliar role of sowing pacifist illusions in an effort to keep the working class helpless and at the complete mercy of their assassins, the ruling class. : Such is the role of the heroes of the sec- ond (socialist) international throughout the world. The only reason the Rev. Norman Thomas, Morris Hillquuit, James Oneal and the rest of the socialist party leaders. of America do not now play the same role as their British comrades, MacDonald and his associates in England, is because they are not regarded as necessary to the American imperialists’ scheme of things, for the sim- ple reason that the American socialist party has no influence over the working class. Religious Tolerance in Politics State candidates of the two old party tick- ets were selected with a view to catering to religious prejudices, now that the religious issue has been raised by the Roman catholic governor of New York who yelps persecution in order to gain sympathy among the voters. The religious question is a fine smoke-screen to conceal the absence of vital issues between the contestants. On the republican side we have the spec- tacle of a Jew, Albert Ottinger, being nom- inated for governor in the hope of aiding Herbert Hoover, a quaker, carry the state of New York. On the democratic side we see Franklin D. Roosevelt, a protestant, and Herbert H. Lehman, a Jew, nominated for offices of governor and lieutenant governor to help Al Smith, a catholic, carry the state. Among the sentimental drivellers this is regarded as progress against religious in- tolerance. To the revolutionist, who regards with a critical scientific eye the sacred insti- tutions of the ruling class, it is only evidence that all creeds, all churches, all temples of ignorance and superstition and fear, no mat- ter what god or sets of gods they profess to worship, are-useful to the capitalist class. Hoover, Smith, Ottinger, Roosevelt, Leh- man are not nominated because of their re- ligion, but because they are all trusted ser- vants of imperialism. Religious tolerance itself has a very in- teresting history. At a certain stage in human society, the tribal stage, each social unit, or tribe, had its own god who was op- posed to all other gods. When eommerce be- gan to develop, that is, when a stage was reached where the community was able to produce more than was required for the con- sumption of its members, the tribes had to enter into economic relations with each other. Hence religious tolerance arose in order to protect the “infidel” merchants who came to buy and sell. As tribes merged into nations, there arose national gods. When Rome be- came a great power religious tolerance made great headway as indicated by Gibbon who, in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- pire” said: “The Greek, the Roman, the Bar- barian all bowed in one temple before their respective alters and came’to believe, that under different names, they all worshipped the same god.” * Here in the United States of America there is one god before whom all the capi- talist politicians—catholic, Jew, protestant, quaker—craw] in worshipful awe, the god of Wall Street, whose shrine is glittering gold, and which is built, as were the temples of SMASH THE WAR Bosses Were Out to Get Mooney In the spring of 1916, a bitter, | struggle was raging in San Fran- MONGERS ries Ai ay) eat cisco between the bosses, organized Framed Him for His Activity in Strike; How |in the Chamber of Commerce an |the workers in the trade unions. | Strikes were the order of the day. |A state of open warfare existed. There was violence, shooting, club- bing and murder. In the midst of| this class war, Tom Mooney, a| fearless, incorruptible organizer, was attempting to weld the street jear men into a union. For years | previously, the bosses had at- |tempted to. “get” Tom Mooney. | They couldn’t buy him. Here he was again in the center of the class war.) Build Frame-up The Chamber of Commerce raised |a fund of a million dollars to crush | the workers. With the press, the po-| |lice and the local government in| their hands, they saw in the ris-| ing war hysteria an opportunity to smash the unions and beat down wages and conditions of labor. The United Railroads, where Mooney! was attempting to organize the men| on the job, had hired Martin Swan- son, who before had attempted to frame Tom Mooney. Swanson had offered Weinberg, a jitney driver,| $5,000 to swear he had driven) Mooney out to the hills 10 miles south of San Francisco where on June 11, transmission towers of the| United Railroads had been dyna-| mited and for which both Mooney and Billings had nearly been |framed. It was Swanson who also| [had offered Billings $5,000 and a | good job for “evidence” that Mooney | |had done the job. | | To whip up patriotic hysteria the| Chamber of Commerce organized a preparedness parade for July 22. | Every union man was given notice |that he must march in it or lose | his job. The feeling between the} |bosses and the workers was now) |at white heat. The parade began at 1:30 and at 2 o’elock a terrific explosion gon Stuart Street near| | Market, killed six people | | wounded 44, Here was the oppor-| | tunity. “Get Tom Mooney,” was, |the word passed along. It was in} |the press and openly talked of in) |the street. Meanwhile the strike that Mooney was trying to orgap-| ize among the street car men had, failed. Tom and Rena Mooney, lafter trying days of organizational | | work left for a holiday in the coun- |try, two days after the explosion. {On learning from the papers that they were “wanted” they imme- diately communicated with the po- \lice, intimating their activities «| were an “open book,” and were ar- rested on the train returning to San Francisco. Admits No Evidence Police Captain Matheson de- clared later he had no evidence against them at the time of ar- |rest. Yet for eight days Mooney was not allowed to see friends or secure legal aid. Three of their friends, Warren K. Billings, Israel Weinberg, a jitney driver, and Ed- | ward Nolan, a labor leader, had al- ‘ready been arrested. On August 1, all of them jointly, with Rena | Mooney, were indicted for the mur- der of each of the victims of the bomb explosion, eight of whom had already died. In September, Billings was con- victed of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In January, fol- lowing, Mooney was placed on trial for murder. Between these two trials the defense obtained court order permitting them access to the negatives of photographs held by the district attorney, which he did |not present at the trial of Billings, ‘showing Tom and Rena Mooney on Frame-Up Was Built the roof the Eiler building, a mile; marshalled against Billings, even and a quarter away from the scene of the explosion, with the parade in progress below. picture showed the exact time the explosion occurred with the Moon- eys on the roof in full view. Underworld “Witnesses” Despite these now famous photo- February 9 on the evidence of peo- ple of the underworld, under the direction of the notorious anti-labor District Attorney Fickert. prosecution’s chief “witnesses” in to characterize the whole legal case. One was a prostitute, Estelle Smith, alias Moore, alias Starr, a star witness for the state, who had been previously charged with mur-|of new evidence an exposure pub-_ der and who confessed after the Billings conviction that she had committed perjury in giving testi- mony for the prosecution in the ex- pectation of sharing in the blood money that was offered as a re- ward for conviction. Her mother also confessed perjury later. had been promised a pardon for her husband who was then in prison for a forgery. The paramour of the prostitute’s mother gave false evi- dence also, after being threatened by the police for prosecution for adultery and who has been convicted as a thief and later released by the police to lie against Billings. The degenerate John McDonal who in 1921 confessed that his tes- timony was concocted for him by the police, that it was twice changed by the order of the street car com- pany detectives, was entirely false. When the evidence had been prosecuting attorney had not the courage to ask for the death penal- A clock in the ty from his own subservient jury.) | In the trial of Tom Mooney, | Charles Organ refused a bribe from the ‘pOlice to give false evidence. His trial, however, was an,even |more horrible farce than that of |graphs, Mooney was convicted on Billings, and he was sentenced by Judge Griffin to death in May, | 1917, on the false’ evidence of the prosecution witnesses, ex-convicts, The gamblers, gunmen and prostitutes. | After the Russian revolution in |first trial, that of Billings, served! the spring of 1917, a démonstration | in Petrograd before the American embassy for the release of Tom |Mooney centered world attention upon the case. International labor protests followed. On presentation lished by Densmore, a special in- vestigator who with government agents had planted a dictaphone in the district attorney’s™ office, and threats of a general strike, the sen- tence was postponed to August 23, She|then to December 13 and was fin-| ally commuted to life imprisonment. ena Mooney was acquitted* on July 26 and Israel Weinberg on Oc- tober 27. The case against Edward Nolan after a period of two years and six months (nine months of which was spent in jail) was dis- missed for “lack of evidence.” He jhad been charged with making the q bomb? At the very time he was at-| tending a meeting of machinists in Baltimore. 12 Years of Death. Tom Mooney and Warren K. and tification of Mooney and Billings prison and for the rest of their days | are doomed to rot behind prison walls, Baily S25 Worker NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1928. NT OF THE OWNERSHIP, BNT, CIRCULATION, REQUIRED BY THE Ss OF STATE: | MANA ETC., ACT OF, CONGR | AUGUST 24, 1 Of “The Daily Worker,” published |daily, except Sunday at New York, N. Y., for Oct. 1, 1928 State of New York ' County of New York Before me, a Notorary Public in and for the state and county afore- said, personally appeared A. Ravitch, who, having been duly sworn accord- ing to law, deposes and says that he is the Business Manager of “The Dally Worker,” and that the follow- Ing is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid ‘publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, em- bodied in section 411, Postal Laws and Regulations printed on the re- verse of this form, to wit: 1, That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, National Daily Worker Publishing ‘Ass'n, Inc., 26-28 Union Square, New York City; Editor, Rob- ert Minor, 26-28 Union Square, New York City; Managing Editor, Robert Minor, 26-28 Union Square, New York City; ‘Business Manager, A. Ravitch, 26-28 Union Square, New York City. 2. That the owner is: If owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also immediately thereunder the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given, If owned by a firm, company, or other unincorporated concern, its name and address, as well as those of each individual membeg, must be |Siven. National Daily Worker Pub- |Ushing Ass'n, Inc,, 26-28 Union Square, |New York City; J. 0. Bentall, presi- |dent, 26-28 Union Square, New York City; E. Royce, treasurer, 26-28 Union Square, New York City; A. Ravitch, secreta 26-28 Union Square, New York City. | morteagees, and other security hold- |ers owning’ or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mort- |zages, or other securities are: (If | there ‘are none, state.) None. 4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the own- lers, stockholders, and security hold- ers, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the company but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the com- pany as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, Is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements knowledge and belief as to the cir- cumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security hold- ers who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold |stock and securities in a capacity jother than that of a bona fide owner; jand this affiant has no reason to be- eve that any other person, associ: tion, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, | stated by him. | 5 That the average number of copies of each issue of this publica- tion sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid subscribers during the six months preceding the date shown above is 33,842. (This information ts required from daily publications only.) A. RAVITCH, Business Manager. this 30th day of September, 1928. MAX KITJES, (SEAL) Notary Public. \ (My commission expires March 30, 930. \ embracing affiant’s full) bonds or other securities than as 80 | By Fred Ellis The present time presents an,ex- cellent opportunity for the renewal | of the fight for the release of these two comrades. The intricate and hideous struc- ture of perjury, bribery, corruption, conspiracy and vicious class justice has not broken the spirit of Mooney and Billings. Like Sacco and Van- zetti their spirits and belief in the ultimate success of the labor move- | ment over capitalism is unshake- | able as the following message indi- | cates. “Our hope,” said Mooney, “is a new protest movement. Every possible legal and technical move has been made to prove our in- nocence and our right to uncondi- tional pardon built without suc- cess. We have been fortified | through these years in prison by our faith in the movement which we serve in this outpost of the class struggle and by the con- sciousness that even though con- | fined here, we are instruments of | the workers’ cause, and the symbol of their struggle. We have not forgotten the protest of the Rus- sian workers, which saved us | from the gallows, and we have not lost our confidence that the workers of America; and the world, will again make their mighty voices heard on our be- half.” The International Class War Prisoners’ Aid and its 44 brother sections in different parts of the | world and the International Labor | Defense are answering their mes- sage by a world-wide agitation as in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, | but it rests upon the shoulders of | the conscious workers as to whether these two comrades shall | remain in prison. | Details of Jubilee and that his iden- Billings have now spent 12 years in| Edition of Tolstoy’s Works Told by USSR MOSCOW, (By Mail).—In connec- tion with the 100th Jubilee of Tol- stoy the State Publishing Company started to issue the first complete collection of Tolstoy’s works in 94 | yolumes. The first volume is appear- ing during the next few days. This edition will contain a series be published for the first fime. It will include all writings of Tolstoy | (his diaries, correspondence, several quotations which were forbidden before by censure, etc.) | It is supposed that the whole edi- | tion will be completed in four years’ time. Mr. Tchertkov, personal friend of Leo Tolstoy is appointed chief editor. The edition is being issued under general supervision of the State Editorial Collegium with Lunacharsky, People’s Commissar for Education, at its head. With the issuing of this edition in accordance with Tolstoy’s instruc- | tions laid down in his last will, all his, writings are declared to be com- /mon property and can be freely re- \printed in the USSR as well as | abroad. 4 Besides this fundamental Jubilee edition, the State Publishing Com- pany started beginning from Janu- ‘ary of the current year to isgue two ‘complete editions of Tolstoy's fic- | tion works which will be ready in a ‘year’s time. Together with these big editions i Sworn to and subscribed before me there are printed also separate) popular works of Tolstoy in cheap editions as well as a large amount of critical literature about the great writer. $ ‘Told ae So | \WE should have told you this long | ago, but advertising space in | this column has been at a premium |recently and the Daily Worker |Bazaar suffered from the conges- | tion. But it is never to late to buy an overcoat for two worthy causes, namely, to help the Daily Worker | and protect yourself from the wintry |winds. Beginning today the Daily Worker Bazaar opens up in Madi- |son Square Garden and from what |I hear, anybody who purchased | winter wear already is out of money. * * & | ‘ | THERE is hardly anything that the well-dressed proletarian should | there. A large staff of hustling salespeople will be on duty to assist you in making pur- chases. The prices are right; the goods excel- lent. What more could you expect? And in addition to things to wear, there will be things to eat, music and danc- ing partners, girls clothed in the flowing garments of .the east and the thrifty garments of the west. And—this is what you should paste in your hat—the proceeds will help to keep the Daily Worker hold- }ing forth in Red Square. Every- | body is invited. T. J. O'Flaherty ae: 5S ae AST Saturday I had the pleasure |™ of patronizing the eating estab- lishment of the International Pro- gressive Centre at 101 West 28th Street, in the*heart of the fur dis- | trict. In addition to the excellence lof. the cooking, the dancing and other forms of entertainment pro- vided by the Greek comrades who manage the place, I was impressed with the good that such institutions can do in spreading Communist ideas. Several Greek workers were | present who are not members of the Workers (Communist) Party or of any radical organization. A few of |them were snatched from the jaws of the Y. M. C. A. oo Ree | ERE they become acquainted with Communist literature and with Communists, who eat, drink Turkish coffee and dance like ordinary human beings, a fact that gives a pleasant shock to many a non-party worker who hugs the delusion that Communists never laugh, crack | jokes or get down from their Ivory | Tower. That this place is an inter- a#national centre,is proven by the fact that several Jewish comrades deserted the East Side for the even- ing, and this columnist was there to report on the establishment to our customers. You are all invited. * 8 8 AVING done the right thing by our advertisers, I shall now look over the evening papers and see where I can find a particularly vul- nerable spot in the armor of capi- talism. Here on the front page of the Evening Post is the picture of Fred J. Curran, as slick-looking a character as ever looked into a man- hole. Mr. Curran was secretary to. the late John M. Philips, late “Kinz of Queens,” the man who put the $ in sewers. You have heard of him. iN°. doubt you have also heard that \*“ Tammany Hall did not like the idea of the Queens scandal boys plundering the sewers, and thus bringing odium on the wigwam which had barely recovered from the sins of Tweed, Croker, Murphy et al. The New Tammany, as the old Pirates’ Den is now known, washed its hands of the Queens scandal and left Connolly and his gang hanging to the end of a limb, as it thought. But the voters of | Queens wete willing to let Connolly count their ballots, so Tammany’s pique over the bungling of the brothers across the river went into the record. eee Tammany was simply talk- ing thru its nose, in disowning |the sewer scandal, was proven dur- ee, a 3. That the known bondholders,/ of works and documents which will|ing the trial now taking place in |Queens County Court House, Long jIsland, when the " aforementioned | Mr. Curran testified that John M. | Philips, the Sewer Sultan, supported James J. Walker for mayor in 1925, and as you know “Jimmie” is as close to Tammany as he is to his shirt. Of course one scandal more or less is nothing in Tammany’s young life. It is a sound, healthy organization and as Al Smith said it would not live so long if it had not been virtuous. So there you are. Compétition in slush is the life of capitalist politics. Lem OKahety 3 MOUNTAINS FALL, GENEVA, Oct. 8 (UP).—A ter- rific landslide, demolishing - moun- tains and forests, has occurred in the Montarbino district. Millions of | cubic feet of rock and‘250 acres of | forest were dislodged. | * Geologists estimated that the landslide, which began yesterday, would continue until the entire sum- mit of Mont Arbino had fallen into the valley. Mounts Monda Chiara and Ruscadt disappeared entirely. | wear that will not be on exhibition’ ) 7