The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 2, 1928, Page 6

ee Vage Six Workers (Communist) Party fe, | Publishing » Except Sunday, at 26-28 ware, New York, N. Y. Te le Ad. pe 6.) phone, ork” ROBERT WM. MINOR Editor F. DUNNE Assistant Editor SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $2.50 three mos. $8 a year $4.50 six mos. By Mail (outside of New York): $6 a year $3.50 six mos. $2.00 three mos. Address and mail out checks to The Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. 7 For President For President WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Wm. Z. Foster For the Workers! VOTE COMMUNIST! For the Party ‘4 the Class Struggle! For Vice-President BENJAMIN GITLOW Ben Gitlow Rev. Thomas Discovers Mooney The Volkszeitung, a German language paper, edited by the discredited renegade, Ludwig Lore, who was expelled from the Workers (Communist) Party some years ago, earries an article by the Rev. Norman Thomas, socialist party candidate for presi- dent, wherein that worthy discovers Tom Mooney in San Quentin prison. Like the palavering liberal that he is the socialist party standard bearer places the fight for the liberation of Mooney and Warren K. Billings upon the decision of one individual, Governor Young of California. Thomas says that perhaps Young has a pardon “under preparation. This identical policy of basing a fight for liberation of working cl victims of the frame-up system upon the alleged sense of “Sustice” of a politcial agent of the capitalist class characterized the yellow socialist and liberal tribe during the struggle to save.Sacco and Vanzetti, and had much to do with the outcome. In the Mooney case Mr. Norman Thomas states that the whole issue is a question of whether those in favor of freedom for Mooney or those capitalist interests who want to keep him in jail will influence Governor Young. Thus we see the socialist candidate in the familiar role of trying to create the illusion among workers that the capitalist state and its officials are something separate and apart from, and standing above, class struggles. The liberation of Mooney and Billings will be achieved only when the working class is aroused to such a degree that the capitalist class is forced to open the jail doors. For months the movement to free Mooney and Billings has been rapidly gaining in intensity. Again the class character of capitalist courts and the fraud of capitalist democracy are ex- posed before great masses of workers. When Mooney is freed, as he must be, it will not be because Governor Young is different from Hiram Johnson or any of the other jailors of Mooney, but because the capitalist state fears the rising tide of contempt for its institu- tions. One of the most damning indictments against the yellow leadership of the socialist party is its attitude toward the Mooney case from the very beginning. Before the Mooney trial Adolph Germer, then national secretary of the socialist party, visited California and reported that Mooney was a dangerous fellow and the socialists should be careful not to get “mixed up” in the ‘affair. The California socialist party officialdom always despised Mooney, and that militant fighter for the working class was forced to join a Hungarian branch of the socialist party to keep from being expelled from an English language branch controlled by the yellow leadership. It is noteworthy that the only prominent California members of the socialist party who supported the Mooney defense were op- ponents of the official policy of that party and were later among the first to join the Communist Party. Also noteworthy is the fact that Eugene V. Debs, alone among the national socialist party leaders, defended Mooney and Billings, not by insipid twaddle about appealing to the better natures of such enemies of the working class as Hiram John- son and Governor Young, but by trying, in spite of his party, to incite the working class against the conspiracy. But for sheer depravity, for utter vileness, the Rev. Norman Thomas now plumbs the depths. Here is a quotation from Thomas’ article as it appeared on page 14 of the Eng- lish section of Ludwig Lore’s paper for Sun- day, October 28: “In the Sacco and Vanzetti case there was at least a pretense of belief by the authorities that they were fairly tried and were guilty.” At the very moment when the capitalist press is forced to admit that the Bridgewater conviction against Vanzetti was a frame-up, the little “socialist” tries to instil into the masses the idea that there is or was some question of the degree of credibility or a ques- of a degree of doubtfulness about the case of Sacco and Vanzetti. In other words, that the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti was a “mis- carriage of justice” and not a piece of de- liberately planned class vengeance against two innocent working men. The socialist party candidate for president and the rene- gade Lore try to create the impression that the Massachusetts butchers are less vi than the California variety of state officials. Says the Reverend, by way of drawing theological distinctions: “In the Centralia case the victims did shoot, though in self-defense.” The venomous anti-working class character of Thomas is equally revealed in this brief reference to the victims of the Centralia as- sault. Like the snivelling pacifist that he is, Norman Thomas would have extended bene- dictions to the Centralia victims of the | American Legion assault on Armistice day, 1919, if they had folded their arms and per- | mitted themselves to be murdered. The fact that they defended themselves with arms in hand evokes only snivelling sermonizing from the pulpit-pounder who heads the socialist ticket. The Volkszeitung article of Thomas should be sufficient to impel every class conscious worker who at one time supported the so- cialist party now to repudiate that aggrega- tion of enemies of the working class by rally- ing to the standard of the Workers (Com- munist) Party, which is in fact the bearer of the best traditions of Debs, who, though confused and hampered by his associates, nevertheless had the instinct to fight in be- half of the victims of capitalist class justice. To support the socialist party today is to be- foul the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti, to mock the Centralia victims now rotting in Walla Walla penitentiary, to devitalize the working class movement for freedom of Mooney, Billings and all other working class prisoners, and to place the stamp of approval upon those engaged in disseminating the most poisonous anti-working class propa- | ganda in the United States today. LETTER FROM A CLASS-WAR PRISON able of any kind. BE ADMITTED. The Following Sent to Prisoner: |graphs, tooth b The following is a letter received in the office of the Daily Worker from a worker who has been in prison for seven years on a framed- up charge and is now serving the rest of a fifteen-year sentence. The letter is sent on a form sheet pro- seribed by the authorities and we also reprint prison instructions that appear at the top of every letter. Here it is: VISITING NOT ALLOWED SUN- DAYS OR HOLIDAYS. Parties corresponding with pris- oners MUST observe the following directions: Confine your correspond- ence to family and business matters. In directing your letters put Prison- er’s Name and Register No. plainly on the envelope. Do not send post- age stamps. Money must be sent by draft or money order. All periodi- cals and newspapers must come di- rect from publishers; old papers not admitted. Inmates are not allowed visitors until they have been here one month, and thereafter not often- er than once each month. Mothers, fathers, wives, sisters, brothers and grandparents only permitted *o visit orisoners. Do not send or ring *auids, medicine, fruit, candy or eat- To the Inmate: personal busines: | letter. Comment |the institution or ex-prisoners or pi Dear Comrade: Today is seven caught in the net time to make con from any friends The American Y. must have “so! further vse for 7 4 lcomb, nail clippers, needle, thread, safety razors, handkerchiefs, undcr- clothing and socks. about other prisoners, crimes, ete.| 5, d . Do not write abusive or threatening | 2ast, and temporary employed in other prisons not permitted. ah. Soe Fort Madison, Iowa, alive and forgotten. Being a most despised “foreigner” in the eyes of the law, I had a hard worker” and @ cluss-war prisoner; THEY WILL NOT|for it seems they would not do a |thing for me. They would not even send me the N. Y. address—nor subscribe me for the Daily Worker --for love nor for money. The only excuse in passing the buck on to Articles May Be s: Family photo- rush, hair brush, | they have no attorney in Iowa” to Confine letters to investigate or to give any legal aid s; do not write|2nd advice to me. s! Seven years ago while on my way good or bad, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I fell a victim state officers wil}, t© the ultra-ceactionary anti-foreign not be mailed. Correspondence with| Prosecuting atturney, the judge and ersons confined jn|/¥%Y——on acco.int of my foreign or- igin, industrial affiliation and my views and op’ tions. | I was illegally arres.ed. tried and convicted on a “put-un charge of |passing one $28 forged check” and sentenced to fifteen years imprison- ment, under entirely “wrong” sta- tute, that did not cover this minor unindictable offense I was charged with. However, due to this travesty of “Iowa justice,” and my complete is lation, I had served seven years already, six months more than the lowa law calls for a fifteen year sentence and still held— Last year thru one semi liberal October 1, 1928. years since I was! of revenge—buried nections or to hear of human freegom. C. L. Union of N. Id-out” and has no a “foreign-born Against the Capitalists! me for the last two yearsvis: “that| By JOHN W. WATT President of the National | Union. (Continued) (In yesterday’s issue Watt ana- lyzed the role of the republican and democratic parties, the part the old | politicians and the Soss-controlled governments of states and cities have played in the big mine strug- gle and in the present fight to or- | ganize a new union, Today’s install- |ment analyzes the role of the so- |cialist party and the task of the | mine and other workers in the pres- ext election campaign.) Par rar g Miners The Socialist Party—Does It Offer Hope The socialist party, headed by “Preacher” Thomas, is also asking for labor’s vote. But in return it offers nothing—-except some time- work phrases that have no mean- |ing. We judge the socialist party |by its past performances, and its war record is enough to condemn it before the workers. We found that party, ‘supposedly a party working in behalf of the workers, lining up solidly with Mammon and the forces of Wall Street during the last war, proving it to be not a class party. We found it recently lined up with the traitorous labor fakers, printing villification and lies ag: the jrank and file miners who had met jat Pittsburgh to form a new union for their own protection, after the miners union had been sold and de stroyed. Yes, they lend their support: to John L. Lewis and his gang whi have gone on record for Cal Cool. jidge and “Havoc” Hoover and |against the struggling workers who have been persecuted and starved by the alignment of Lewis and the republican and democratic adminis- | trations. They still tell the work- Does the Campaign Offer Hope to Toilers Three Capitalist Parties Have Anti-Labor Records; What Communists Offer , yet they on election day in support of the Workers (Communist) Party of America, with the party that is not on the side of the bosses and Wall Street, but on the side of the toiling jmasses. I found a striking similar- ity of the struggle that the National interests of the worl openly support the republican labor ‘'eaders, who in the interests of the are des’ ing the unions ind adopting the ses’ slogans: Too many industr nd too many workers; smali unions of the work- ers and huge congolidations of cap- ital; separate “and dividing strikes of workers; electing your enem and defeating your friends; against labor parties “and open endorsement of Wall Street parties. This is the gang that the socialists, headed by Norman Thomas, have supported against the militant rank and file workers. dosses to form a militant fighting union end in the fight the Workers Party has had to lay its platform, to form its Party and to hold its meetings. Like the National Miners Union, the Workers Party has had its meet- ings broken up, has had its leaders jarrésted and jailed, has been refused halls to meet in, has been refused They talk of “nationalization” of the mines and basic industries, but they do not tell the workers that under their plan the mines and other industries would be paid for out of the earnings of the industry, or, in other words, out of the wages of the workers, whence all earnings are derived. We have paid enough al- ready in blood, energy and sacri- fices; we refuse to be yoked to a scheme that will keep us in servi- tude and slavery for many more decades under the administration of class collaborationists of the pres- ent socialist type. Does the Present Political Campaign Offer Hope to the Toiling Masses of America? I finish with the question asked t the beginning of this article: \offer any hope to the toiling masses? My answer is: Yes, there is hope, but not by supporting the Does the present political campaign | the use of newspapers and radio—| in fact every source of capitalist oppression was used against the Workers Party just as it was used against the National Miners Union. |We have been accused of being a “Communist” bunch, the same as the Workers Party. jing for the down-trodden workers against the capitalist oppression, with its injunctions, evictions, ar- vests, jailings and starvation is Communism, then I , guess the Workers (Communist) Party is not \lined up with Wall Street and cor- ruption and destruction. We know that the Workers Party stands for | |the abolition of government by in- junction. We know that it stands for the organization of the millions of unorganized workers, for higher wages and better working condi- |tions, for the prohibition of the use of the state cossacks and state | militia and coal and iron police in Well, if fight- | above mentioned political parties. [labor struggles, for full social and There is hope only if the workers |political equality without discrimin- By Fred Ellis | workers and for women and young Be ats It stands for a Labor Party, for the Workers and Farmers | government in the United States, instead of labor-hating Wall Street |government. It stands for the dis- |tribution of all wealth among the | workers, who create all wealth, and jagainst the concentration of wealth \into the hands of the exploiting classes. It is’ against imperialist | wars. , | These are the issues that the lin, these are the things the work- jers of America must gain. These |things can only be gained by, a | party’ which is pledged to secure |them for the werking class, a party of the working class, by the work- ing ¢ and for the working class. | Iellow-workers, hope is offered to you in this program alone, no other program is for you. The election of a candidate of any other party {means ‘more degradation for you, for they stand for profit to the own- crs and misery for you. They stand | for profits for big business, speed- | up systems, efficiency, which means low wages, long hours of toil and unemployment for you. Eventually you must vote for those and elect those who stand for your class in- terests. Why not start now, regis- jter your protest, line up with the |party which is lined up with you? | | Before another election rolls around |we will be plunged into another igantic war, and the Workers |Party is the only party in America |that confronts the workers with |this issue that means so much to them. Your vote for any other |party is a lost vote, so far as your \interests are concerned, and it | means continued starvation and op- |pression. A vote for the Workers | (Communist) Party offers you hope |for a Workers and Farmers goyern- ers that their party represents the |of America will line up at the polls ation for the Negroes, foreign-born ment in America. € Young Work By P. FRANKFELD. The Young Workers Communist League in New York has partici- pated in this election campaign most actively, and it can truly be said, for the first time as a distinct polit- ical entity and factor. In the past, election campaigns, the Young Workers League sort of |“loaned” its speakers to the Party. | Here and there in instances, League | members went out to gather signa- | tures, but this too was done merely |as Party members. No real ideolog- | ical campaign was carried on to ac- quaint the League membership with’ | the necessity of participating in the! jelections nor giving the membership an understanding of the issues in- volved in the campaign. League lopen-air meetings were held, but they were not organically connected | up with the election agitation of the Party or League. In a word, the | League to a very large extent re- |flected the political apathy of the | American young workers at that | time. - In the present campaign, hun-| dreds of League members were in-| volved in it one way or another. In ee Towa attorney, that had ovidently | | heard of me) I had succeeded in {'-| | ing a writ of habeas corpus for my | release, only to get before a “wrong” | judge and had to appeal tu Iowa’s supreme court. The appeals briefs) ers League Active in Red Election Drive the signature drive, the Young| traditions of the Party. Rather, the Workers League units succeeded in| task of the League was to work out collecting 3,000 signatures. That is| concrete methods of work and ac- a remarkable record for the League. tivity for the Young Workers True, the quota of 5,000 which the| League, and to educate the member- League had set for ,itself was not/ship to the issues of the campaign. reached, but that was more than) The various discussions, the mem- made up for by the energy and re-|bership and functionaries meetings sponsibility shown by the League as | accomplished that fact. a whole to this task. The League) Ip the first period of the cam- units arranged Red Sundays, at paign, the League sold at its open- which whole units were mobilized to gir meetings 1200 Party programs go out for signatures. As a Te-/ and about 800 Foster-Gitlow buttons, sult of a strict checkup that waS/ pesides its own literature such as the maintained by the units, it has been | young Worker, ete. established that over 250 League| : members had gone out for signa- tures. The first weeks of the election, campaign the League conducted on| the average of 15 open-air meetifigs a week. These open-air meetings! were closely connected-with the cam- paign, and League agitators dealt in the main with the problem of the youth, with the Party’s youth program, and kept up week after week with the developments in the campaign. The League succeeded in developing a large corps of open- air speakers, and most of the units had very little occasion to call on the district office for help in this re- spect. As to the ideological aspect of the election campaign, The League in New York during the summer months held 2 membership meetings. One of these was devoted entirely to the election campaign. Comrades The League carried on a campaign | amongst youth organizations for en- 1 acraenent of the Party candidates |and platform. Speakers were sent to youth clubs, and there the issues of the campaign and the programs |with. The problems of the young workers under capitalism, the war |danger, the question of unioniza- | tion, the demands of the Party for the youth are discussed by the League speakers at these youth clubs. Following the speaker, reso- lutions endorsing the Party plat- form and candidates are presented to be voted upon. The League has not failed-to link up its economic-trade union work with the election dampaign. Nearly every shop bulletin that has been is- sued in the past 3 months has con- tained articles on the election cam- paign. The struggles of the young of the vafious parties were dealt | young worker,” “The 6 hour day, 5|° day week,” “Fight against capitalist militarism,” ete., were explained in simple lucid fashion to the young workers. .In the last few weeks, the League has been issuing a series of | special leaflets addressed to young | workers in specific factories dealing with their immediate problems and linking them up with the Party program. | The League has been supplying | speakers and been participating in the noon-hour meetings arranged | jointly with the Party. | Indoor meetings have been ar- ranged in Williamsburg and Bronx, where youth candidates are run- ning for office. Leaflets are gotten |out to the young workers in the \vicinity advertising same. The League has arranged its own | Red rallies. In the Downtown Sec- tion, 7 open air meetings were held last Wednesday night. On 10th St. and 2nd Ave., where the meetings wound up, there were about 1500 | Workers. After the meeting was |over, a parade was started to the Party headquarters, and the police \tried to disperse it several times. | When meetings of the Party were threatened by hoodlums, the League was on the job, to protect the meet- ings. This was the case in Long ‘Island, where the Y. W. L. mobil- ized 75 comrades on one occasion. In the schools and colleges, the League has started to work. A had. been duly filed and the argu- Benjamin @nd Grecht spoke for the “ments heard, only that the attorney Party, and a League speaker dealt had suddenly “disappeared” and I|With the League’s participation in |could not hear a thing about my|the campaign. There were 2 dis- jease anymore. Evidently ‘the case cussions in the units of the League ‘had not been lost as yet. on the election campaign. There | I had requested that a $5 check) Were Several meetings of the League be sent to you (from here) for 1 i ea at which the election Daily Worker subscription, if you| campaign was discussed in detail. | would kindly put me on the sub-| The League did not have to do much scription list for that amount, as I convineing about the necessity of am almost starved intellectually. | participating in the election cam- Thanking you very kindly, I am,.|paign, because the League/Member- Fraternally yours, | ship in the main is a new and*young JOE DRAZICH, | membership, and at no time was in- No. 12061, Box 316, Fort Madison, Ta.! flicted with the anti-pe>!"gmentarion } workers in tHe factories for better Foster-for-President Club has been conditions, for unionization, were organized in New York University. organically connected with the polit- In other places, like City College, it ical struggle and the election cam- was prohibited. But Communist paign. The young workers’ prob- speakers have already spoken in lems were never considered by the’ several colleges, and several leaflets League to be something separate, and apart from the class atruggle| °° Hadlentia) Have ence nema /dle. as a whole; and all of the leaflets '/uted in high schools and col- and bulletins issued reflected that’ leges. rat The ye cement el fas All in all, a good beginning has Ort Wats. BODUIBHIsedy ¢ slo-! been made this year. There is one (ei era nate pa week left and the League will not person 18 years of age and over,”| fall down on the job in this remain- the “$20. minimum wage for, gyery! ing period. VA Oil and the Imperialists in Mexico | By ENRIQUE MARTIN i ee is impossible to treat the Mex- ican situation without analyzing, however briefly, the international situation. Today no nation can lead jan isolated existence—least of all jour country—economically under the jcontrol of the large capitalist na- | tions, | We are living in the epoc of im- | perialism—an epoc in which a small number of countries, economically | powerful and strongly armed, dom- | inate the economic life and in many jcases the political life of the re- | maining countries of the world. The ene exception to this general rule is the Soviet Union—the bulwark of the oppressed peoples in their strug- |gle against imperialist oppression. Mexico is a semi-colomal coun- try. In its most important indus- try—oil—Mexican capital controls less than 25 per cent; in mining, about 10 per cent; textiles, less than & per cent. The transport industry, steel, commerce and banking, are al- 1nost completely in foreign hands. Only in agriculture does Mexican control reach 60 per cent. This proves clearly that the Mexican bourgeoisie: is an agrarian bour- geoisie made up of landowners and wealthy ranchers. But the economic depetidence of Mexico is not sufficient to” deter- mine the actual position of Mexico in relation to the other countries in the international situation. The epoc of imperialism, in addition to being a period of domination of small countries by large, is also the epoc of imperialist wars and social revolution. Insatiable hunger for markets and sources of raw material precipitate war. The existence of the Soviet Union is an intolerable reality to the bandits of the capital- ist system. The capitalist system |is preparing war against the Soviet | Union because it is the mortal enemy of capitalism. | To cover up these war prepara- |tions, the imperialist nations have Miners Union has had in its fight | workers of America are interested |CStablished a whole series of insti~ | tutions, organisms, conferences, con- |eresses, pacts. The ultimate aim of | these is to lull the working masses |and to hide the pirate polities of the |imperialist states. It is not strange, therefore, that the United States has |taken the lead in this whole series of conferences for disarmament and peace—illustrated by the Kellogg | pact just signed. The United States, like the other capitalist states, is | preparing for war. | The Kellogg pact is not a peace jpact. It is a pact of war against |the colonial and semi-colonial coun- \tries and against the Soviet Union. | This pact leaves the U. S. a free hand in Latin America for “peace- ful penetration”—such as at pres- ent applied in Nicaragua. The pol- ities of the U. S. in Mexico, in Cen- tral America anc the other countries of the Caribbean, form a part of the war preparations of American im- perialism. For a victorious march of the Yankee army, military occu- pation of these countries is indis- pensable. Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia have the oil without which it is impossible to move the armored tanks and airplanes. The location of Mexico’s oil fields on the gulf—a naval base in case of war—the location of the oil fields in Venezuela and Colombia—close to the Panama Canal—strategie path of greatest importance for the war in the Pacific—the possibility of building another canal through Nicaragua, parallel to the Panama Canal—all of these are indispen- sable factors for Yankee imperial- ism. The War Against Mexico. The war of the United States against Mexico has no uniform character. Sometimes it assumes the form of armed intervention; sometimes the support of one or an- other political faction, fomenting civil war; today the war is carried on by the open support of the reac- tionary forces and through economic pressure against the government andthe public administration of the country. As proof of this it is suf- ficient to recall the maneuvers of the oil companies in 1926-1927 to force the government to yield on Article 27 of the Constitution. At that time General Calles, in a speech to congress, stated: “The decrease in exports and ex- ploitation of natural resources date back to 1925, when the oil campanies began their reduction. The total sum in taxes which the government receives from the exploitation and export cf petroleum does not pre- sent a favorable future. In 1922 the oil taxes were 30 per cent of the total national income; in 1924, 19 per cent; iff 1926, 11 per cent, and in 1927 will not pass 8 per cent.” ‘ This statement becomes more eloquent when translated into fig- ures. The taxes on the production and export of oil contributed: the following to the national income (amounts given in pesos—2 pesos equal one dollar): 1922 ... $85,980,144 1928. . 60,535,679 1924 . 54,621,992 1925 . sees 42,144,547 1926 . ++ 84,821,472 1827 (estimate), 21,640,063 These figures, more than the notes exchanged between Mexico City and Washington, indicate how “cordial” are the relations between the two countries. The Mexican government lost the fight on the oil issue because Venezuelan oil made possible greater pressure on the nart of the U. §, oe ment. i (To Be Continued.) My of ‘ =e i | | |