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

iene tt vise THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBEK 17, avc0 N Dail W Daily, Ex s S 1696-7 ‘ ROBERT MINOR Editor WM. F. DUNNI F Ree SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York ot $8 a year $4.50 six mo: $2 By Mail (outside of New York) $6 a year $3.50 six mc $2.00 thre Address and mail out checks to Te Daily Worker, , New York, N. Y. 26-28 Union S VOTE COMMUNIST! WILLIAM Z, FOSTER rs For the Workers! Latest Capitalist Terror Proves Communists Are Reaching Masses The series of terroristic actions against the election ca n of the Workers (Com- munist) Pa ecially in the southern states, is a tribute to the effectiveness of our work among the oppressed workers and farmers of the country. It is not by any means accidental that some of the most vicious attacks a t our Party should oc- cur in the south and southwest, where our platform is ted to appeal especially to the Negro exploited both racially oppressed and as the worst working cl and tenant farmers. The fact that the for of reaction are aroused in a united drive against our campaign is not surprising. It can be taken as the inevitable register of the fact that our effort to bring our Party to the masses of the “solid south” in this campaign is effective. night our presidential candidate, Wm. Z. Foster, was arrested in Wilmington, Del., the state of the Du Pont munitions manu- facturers, and the audience forcibly dis- persed for the “crime” of advocating racial equality of Negroes with whites. That our candidate for vice-president, Comrade Gitlow, evaded the kidnapping con- spirators is no fault of the Arizona reaction. The publication of the report in the Arizona Gazette and other papers, including the New York Herald Tribune, that Gitlow was forced to remain on a train in Phoenix and taken to an El Paso jail and from there to Nogales, is, of itself, evidence that such a plot was on foot and that so sure were the city officials, the police, the Legion and the Ku Klux Klan that their plans would succeed that their newspaper associates published the story of their plot as an accomplished fact. The master class of this country is and has been reacting furiously to the success of the Com- munis several fronts during the past few year As the reactionary officialdom of the American Federation of Labor in sev- eral recent crises more than ever before threw off its thin pretenses to defending the interests of organized labor, to be seen even more plainly as a part of the capitalist ma- chinery of oppression and terror, the Com- munist Party appeared with more compelling” clarity the one organized force champion- ing the rights of the masses. The organization of the new National Miners’ Union, forged in the fire of the long miners’ struggle, was recognized as a chal- lenge to the conspirators who tried to de- stroy every vestige of unionism in that in- dustry. The convention was viciously at- tacked by Lewis thugs and police. The New Bedford textile struggle aroused the fury of the forces of reaction in the state of Fuller, Lowell, Grant, Straton, Coolidge and William Morgan Butler, assassins of Sacco and Vanzetti. From the very day of the national nomin- ating convention of the Workers (Commun- ist) Party the ruling class has endeavored to keep our Party off the ballot in various states. The past week has seen an inten- sification of the drive against us. Meetings ection of the have been broken up in dozens of places and our speakers and candidates thrown into jail. Wheeling, West Virginia; Martins Fe Ohio; Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Richmond, Va., were scenes of attacks by the minions of capitalism who threw off the mask of democracy, revealing themselves as Jackeys of capitalist dictatorship. From Los Angeles comes the report of systematic terror against the Communist Party and the Young Workers (Communist) League. In that citadel of the open-shop, boys and girls are brutally arrested, thrown into jail and their rooms and homes ran- sacked by vandals of the police department, the immigration department and the United States department of justice. Let no one be deluded with the notion that these attacks are trivial, that they are mere localized outbursts of official and semi-offi- 4 cial idiocy. When we consider for a moment the position of American imperialism in its relentless drive forward to even greater economic and political conquests; when we remember that every act of every capitalist politician: and every maneuver of every American diplomat on the checkerboard of international duplicity brings the world + another catastrophe; when we con- idee the frantic race for armaments | of the present ruling class of the world. ; FQ] SK | wowsens comms, ea | For the Party of the Class Struggle! <g For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW Against the Capitalists! throughout the world, we can perceive some- thing of the terrific momentum with which American imperialism is traveling toward a new world war. It is the knowledge that our Party, the Workers (Communist) Party, is the one im- placable force that is organizing for a fight to the finish against the system that pro- duces such wholesale annihilation of peoples that keeps the ruling class on the watch for every opportunity to deliver smashing blows at our Party. And in this particular case, the realization that the Workers (Commu- nist) Party can and will cease to be con- fined to a restricted section of the country and will push its way into the backward south —reservoir of cheapest labor, and will arouse the slaves there—it is this that has caused this wave of fury at the present time. To the extent that the day draws nearer when the last card in the game of diplomatic intrigue has been played, to that degree will the reaction unleash more ruthless and frightful forces against the working class of the United States. This brings us face to face with the immediate problems of organ- izing everywhere Workers’ Defense Corps that will have for their immediate purpose the defense of working class meetings, speak- ers and headquarters. Down with the fascism of the K. K. K. and the American Legion! Negro workers! Rally to the only party of the Negro masses, the Workers (Commu- nist) Party! Down with the treacherous officials of the American Federation of Labor! Struggle against imperialist war! The answer of the working class to the onslaught of the capitalists must be a big Communist vote! ’ Workers, rally round the Communist Par- ty. Beat back the capitalist attack! Workers, vote Communist! Vote and fight for the Party of your own class! Last of Czarist Rulers The death of Saturday night of Marie, for- mer empress of Russia, removes from the earth the last of the former rulers of the land of Czarism. To be sure there are, in Paris and other European cities, numerous claimants to the throne of the Romanoffs, but there is no living ruler of the former house. Marie, herself, was of little importance. Ignorant, ambitious and vicious, she was em- press and wife of Alexander III, himself half imbecile, a victim of every vice known to his | age, a physical giant noted only for his de- baucheries and his craven cowardice. She was mother of the last czar, a worshipper of medieval superstition; a bloody assassin of the working class who talked of world peace between butcheries. The news of the passing of the old empress | of Russia seems unreal; like something afar; a dim shadow of the past. In her day, in the land of the former czars the workers and peasants, for the most part, suffered in chains and silence. Like all rulers, Marie and her degenerate spouse believed that their rule would last forever. Sporadic outbursts of nihilism were re- garded only as desperate acts of despair. But during the darkest days of the night that some thought would last forever, there was growing up a determined revolutionary group, under Marxian leadership, a Party that scorned the futility of nihilism, that re- ized that the emancipation of the masses f workers and peasants must be achieved ase Pp ommunist Party as the vanguard of the ppressed. With history on its side.the rev- utionists, under the leadership of Lenin, he greatest revolutionary leader of all time, forged the thunderbolts that finally blasted the darkness of the land of the ezars—and darkest Russia became Red Russia. Work- ers and peasants now walk through those places where once echoed the steps of Marie, too | her ancestors and her progeny. As Marie and her class thought that their rule would last forever, so the surviving des- pots of the earth delude themselves with the same hope. But the forces that were at work in the land of the czars are at work in every country, under the leadership of the Com- munist International, and the time is not far distant when Communist journalists will record the passing of the very last survivor y themselves, that understood the rule of a | “WITH THIS I CAN WIN FREEDOM” By Fred Ellis By EMIL GARDOS. |. The anthracite tri-district, with j its over 150,000 organized miners, }has always been the financial! stronghold of the Lewis machine. | During the last strike, the $2.00 monthly relief assessments coming |from the hard-coal miners, virtually |forced to scab on their brothers.) |helped to raise the millions Lewis) |spent to pay his own and his of- | ficials’ salary, to hire thugs, deputy- pickets, to give strikebreaking re-| \lief to those miners who refused to} jpicket and fight. The anthracite miners by giving nearly two million |dollars to the strikebreaking Lewis) machine have helped to preserve the} vicious machine in power. Today, with the practical elimina-| tion of the United Mine Workers in |the bituminous fields, the anthra- |nancial basis of the Lewis machine. | Their special assessments, _ still forced upon the membership months | after the sell-out of the strike, their |per capita taxes going to the In- | ternational treasury furnishes the |life-blood to the dying machine. The |defeat of Lewis in the anthracite to bury them. When action is forced | | will mean the virtual end of the |U. M. W. A. Lewis knows that and|Ciliation Board, the famous grave-| jhence the renewed interest dis-| |played by him towards the hard-| coal miners. | Machine Due to Smash. | Another reason is to be found in |the developments in the industry. The rationalization process carried on by the operators is going hand in hand with weakening of the union. |There is no doubt that it will end] lin a year or two with the smashing} jof the U. M. W. A. as happened in | the bituminous. The handful of op- |erators, having a monopoly over} | production, will probably seek to {eliminate the union, especially now, | when their competitors are produc- ling soft-coal under the worst open- shop conditions. Or they may adopt {another well-known program. | Mr. Lewis knows that too and as a leader with foresight and with |real love for his union and his per |eapita tax, he recently came to in- | vestigate and to negotiate, to pre- | pare the ground for a real sell-out, !a more successful one than in the bituminous districts. Towards a Company Union. Since the 1925 strike, the opera- \tors have been making systematic efforts on the one hand to win back |their markets lost during the five | months suspension, to regain ground lost to substitutes, etc., and on the other hand, to eliminate future labor | | troubles by transforming the union |into a company-controlled organiza- tion. They have been quite success- {ful in both directions. | Thanks to extensive publicity | drives, sales services, the employ- |ment of combustion engineers, the construction of special stoves and boilers for the small, steam-sizes, | ’ the introduction of installment plan of selling coal, ete., the operators have regained considerable ground. Operators Name Lewis Official. Through dictating elections, on a ‘local and district scale, through brib- ling a small group of local officials lat the expense of the rank and file, | they gained the control not only over \the districts, but over no less than |90 percent of the local unions. | It is a well-known fact, for in- stance, that the election of John Boylan as the successor of the com- | pletely discredited Cappelini,, took place in the offices of Mayor Inglis and Mr. Demnick of the Glen Alden Coal Company. The factional strife jin district No. 1, was to a great ex- tent dde to the efforts of the com- | cite districts 1, 7 and 9 are the fi-) Lewis Machine Due to The Situation in the Anthracite Brutalities of | Fascist Gov't. | of Roumania Enclosed on all sides by hostil stone walls, watched by gloomy warders and gloomier souls, robbed of fresh air and life-giving light, | the prisoners seek the slightest loop- hole for communication ,with the free life of the outer world. The inventive talent of these un- fortunate beings often attains to actual virtuosity. In the Dungeons. We have heard of the French re- | volutionist who tamed the rat who | was his sole visitor in the Bastille, (and trained it till it carried letters to the neighboring cells. Many are the tales related of the |ingenious ruses of the Russian re- | volutionists buried alive in the dun- | geons of the Peter-Paul fortress. The passing from hand to hand of books, in which certain letters were marked by pin-pricks, enabled many notes, leaflets, and appeals to be given to the outer world by pris. joners whom the czarist warders | deemed buried forever, and no longer |existing as danger for the “immut- able” autocracy of the czars. Messages From the Depths. _ With what joy and devotion these starcely visible pin-pricks were de- ciphered by the friends outside; the impassioned message read; th> sen- tences, filled with the ardent spirit of revolution, put carefully to- gether. What can this dot mean? Where does this word fit? For hours and days the rare messages were stud- ied, for they came from that dread | place where thousands of the brav- est class fighters and revolutionary | leaders were lying in chains. The | Same devoted attention was given jto the reading of every practical | instruction or directive article, every | personal petition for tobacco or for | | permission for a w'fe’s visit. | We do not know the means by | which the letter has been smuggled jout of the Rumanian prison. Its |the leadership of the left wing, car-| way to the outer world has cer- Smash; New National Union Will Survive peting coal companies to get the control ovér the district for them-) They still hold fast to the idea that Clear thinking miner recognizes that| selves. Mr. Mattey broke the “out- they enjoy better economic condi-| nly a fighting union can survive,| law” strike of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. in Lansford because the miners struck against the lock- out of three unproductive collie ies To complete the picture, Pres. | Golden in District 9 is in full agree- ment with the rationalization pro- gram carried on by the powerful) | Philadelphia and Reading Company. | What is true of the districts is true of most of the local unions. The local officials receive their in- structions from the mine bosses They act as stool-pigeons for the ‘companies, threatening with «is- charge any rank and filer who tries to fight for his interests. When |grievances come up at the local meeting, the committees, instead of |taking them up with the boss, help |the complaint is sent to the Uon- | yard of all the grievances. Bribe Officials. | The companies, appreciating these | services, not only give better jobs | to these traitors, but they help them to get rid of all opposition, going so |far as to force members to pay re- lief assessments to Lewis at the |pain of losing their job. Thanks to |this system, in the majority of the locals, the machine has control over the membership and the company over the local officials. | The rank and file at the present |time is passive, to say the least. | tions than the rest of the workers.| | Terrorized by the machine, the ma-| jority of the hard coal miners are inactive, discouraged, fail to a‘ d union meetings, and have pract': \!!y| lost all hope in the union, in ail unionism. | Struggles Ahead. | This passivity, which gives to the machine and the operators a free | hand, is bound to disappear with the | worsening of the conditions; there lis taking place a slow but steady attack which is becoming more and more open since the sell-out of the bituminous strike. Wage cuts are| | taking place, special rates for “bad” coal are not paid, consideration work |is more and more ignored; there is a slash in rates here and there, even the most backward miner will be forced to realize that he must \fight. There will be more mili- |tancy, greater attendance at local) | meetings, and an open fight against the machine. | In some instances, we have indi- |cations of this leftward trend. It is not very open as yet, not even! |a conscious movement, but as time) | goes on, as the temporary “prosper- | lity” due to the winter orders dis- appears, the miners will fight more | |and more openly. And in this fight |they will realize that the United) Mine Workers: is the company’s) union. Thereafter they will follow United States will wear buttons in celebration of the anniversary of the establishment of the First Work- \ers’ and Farmers’ Soviet Republic than at any time before. A hundred thousand workers throughout the country will wear a |very attractive 11th Anniversary | Button designed and distributed by the Workers (Communist) | This button has a central design of |a red flag bearing the inscription “Vote Communist”; on the border | there is inscribed: “11th Anniversary | Russian Revolution.” Scores of thousands of these but- tons are being distributed through- out the country and will be worn by workers at demonstrations on the streets and at mass meetings in halls. The wearing of this button is a sign of class-consciousness and soli- darity expressed by these workers to the entire working class of the coun- try and to the workers of the world, for the Communist program in the election campaign, for the expres- sion of solidarity with our victorious brothers in the Soviet Union, for a fight against imperialist war, for a struggle against capitalist exploi- tation and unemployment, for the organization of the unorganized, for the building of powerful fighting unions and the development of an American mass Communist Party in the United States to lead the work- ers towards the establishment of a Soviet Republic in the United States. Particularly because of the elec- tion campaign and the fact that its 100,000 Workers Will Wear | 11th Anniversary Buttons This year more workers in the, Party. | close comes actually at the time of |the Eleventh Anniversary of the Proletarian Revolution in Russia, it is necessary for all party units, all ‘labor organizations, working wom- en’s organizations to wear these but- tons. Buttons can still be secured \for the Anniversary meetings. Or- der immediately from the National Office of the Workers (Communist) Party, 43 E. 125th St., New York, |N. Y. These beautiful buttons can be secured at five cents per button if you order 100 or more; seven cents per button if you order less than a hundred. Get your Eleventh Anniversary Buttons now! Wear it today! Send in your order immediately— cash must accompany order. MORE BRIBE ACCEPTERS PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 16.—Cap- tain Wiiliam Frantz, suspended po- lice district head; six city detectives and three patrolmen were arrested today, charged with extorting liquor bribes, and taken before Judge Ed- win O. Lewis, acting as committing magistrate, for hearings. They were arraigned along with two former members of the Unit No. 1 and two saloonkeepers, arrested last night. Warrants for the arrest of detec- tives Harry Bennett, Fred Silber, Plantieri and Winterbottom, the last three suspected of having been involved in t&e conspiracy and raid on the district attorney’s liquor warehouse, were issued and the quartet was expected to be taken into custody bing 2 4 rying on the fight for the National Miners’ Union, the militant organi- zation of the rank and file. New Union Will Survive! The growing sympathy for the new union cannot be denied. Every that is, the new National Miners’! Union. Some of them are coming over today, while others are waiting for future developments, but the new union is gaining ground along with the increase in the fighting mood of the miners and the offensive of the coal operators. Mr. Lewis, his dreams to become secretary of labor in Mr. Hoover’s cabinet, finds this moment very opportune to come in and to strengthen his positions before the companies. He held aloof, while the insurgents were issuing one high-sounding statement after the other, knowing that this un- principled movement would not live long: To some extent, he even wel- comed this move, because it held back the rank and file from the fight for the new union. But eventu- ally, he had to step in, to reach an agreement with the operators re- garding the future and also to stem the-radicalization of the miners. In his statement issued to the press, Mr. Lewis laid his cards on the table. efficiency drive of the coal opera- tors: “I am glad to note that the an- thracite industry is gradually making progress toward an in- creased stability, coming with les- sening of mining ‘costs’ and an | improved relationship between op- erators and mine workers. The operators are to be commended for the efforts they are making.” Not a word about the wage-cuts, speed-up and the elimination of the “too many miners.” After praising the operators to the skies, he came forward with the keynote of his | statement, the main object of his visit. Referring to what he had said at the Anthracite Co-operative Con- gress, he expresses a desire to avoid a strike in 1930: is -One of the greatest of material blessings which could flow to the anthracite industry and the anthracite population would be the reaching of an agree- ment between the operators and the miners guaranteeing the indus- try freedom from a strike in 1930 and an assured continuity of pro- duction for years thereafter. . .” John L, Lewis does not want a strike in 1980. Lewis knows what such a strike would lead to. He is ready to accept any kind of an agreement, be it arbitration or sub- mission, provided the union is “rec- ognized” and the per capita is as- sured. The wrecker of the union in the bituminous fields is again offering his services to the coal operators, who, perhaps, will accept the offer. They may welcome a company-union, headed by the UMWA officials, pro- vided it will guarantee “the lessen- ing of mining costs and the con- tinuity of production” as so ably ex- pressed by John L. Lewis. The coal operators have not in- dicated their answer, but theirs will not be the last word. The rank and file will have something to say be- fore this deal is concluded. Moreover, the National Miners’ Union, born of the revolt of the rank and file against the destroyers of the union, will become the leader of the revolt of the ha‘ 1 miners against the common ¢ é ; | not being certain of} First he welcomed the) tainly been no less difficult than | that painfully followed by the mes- sages which penetrated from the |ezanist fortresses of Russia. For the mantle of the international gen- darme has fallen from the Russian |ezars upon the Rumanian. govern- ent. From the Deathless. In a cold dark cell, by the light of a wretched lamp, in the remotest corner farthest from the watchful eyes of the warder, the “criminals’ gather together. They write a let- ter. Oh, how little this picture, these | attitudes, and these faces, remind us of the “free” letter of the Zaporo- shtzi to the historical Turkish prince! A stout elderly prisoner with bearded face, already familiar with the atmosphere of such “castles,” regards the little group thoughtfully. For him the free life outside—lib- erty—is something so distant and |unattainable that he can scarcely |imagine how this letter can reach | its destination, how it may be read, and how his friends may remember even him, the long forgotten. Another face contrasts with this, the still rosy face-of a youthful prisoner, looking down at the white paper with ardent impatience, teem- | ing indignation, and burning longing |for freedom. | A foundry worker, consumptive, | wrapped up against the cold, drafts the letter, undiscouraged by the two years during which he has already fought with death in this frightful place, and finds words bold and fiery, heart-rending, for the message to the unattainable outer world of the struggle. . ‘ Courage, Will. The faces bent over the letter sparkle with energetic fighting courage and hope. In the shadowy corners there are other faces, weary and hopeless. Sombre and motion- less, bereft of hope, weary even of despair. And now how to get the letter away. Day by day a fresh copy is made with infinite labor, day by day the fresh effort made to get it be- yond the outer walls. The warder strives, with blows and kicks, to dis- cover the writer, but in vain. The letter, unsigned, is thrown down one day after another, until at last a youth succeeds in picking it up un- noticed. Then the scrap of paper begins its further journey. Hidden in the boot sole of a friend, it crosses the frontier, and is not en- trusted to a post office till it reaches Soviet soil. . “Save Us From Horror.” Ah, you distant ghosts in the Ru- manian dungeons, the hour of your reward has come! The letter is read. The figures of its authors rise with irresistible power from its few words, we see the emaciated features and burning’ eyes. ie What does the letter say? It is a call for help, a hope of speedy release from the horrors of prison, a heart-rending picture of the misery of the prisoners! There is an impassioned appeal for the speedy razing of the dun- geon walls. And then a small re- quest for a warm shirt for a sick prisoner. a collection arters of the Nee« ‘Tradex Campaign Committee, 28 fundw for the electio nea the Workers (Communist) Union Square, Room 202, and collect }