The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 14, 1928, Page 6

i a Page Six THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 blished by National Daily Worker Put Ass’n., Inc., Daily, Except Sunday, at Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone; t 1696 dress “Daitwork” ROBERT WM. F. MINOR DUNNE . Editor Assistant Editor The Farewell Address of “George } Washington the Little”. Calvin Coolidge, who will continue to be president of the. Wall Street Empire until March 4, 1929, made a speech on Armistice Day in which perhaps he intended to equal Washington’s farewell address. And the principle he wished to give a mournful world that will soon lose him as a ruler, he pro- nounced in the inspiring phrase: “Preparation, Limitation and Renunciation.” What does it mean? “Preparation,” he explained, means more war cruisers, the per- manent adoption of the system of conscrip- tion in war, and the expenditure of many more hundreds of millions of dollars for war equipment with both eyes on Great Britain as the rival imperialism against whom to use it. And “limitation” means a policy of maneuvering to limit the military equipment ible rivals, while “renunciation” ng to the masses of the world about “peaceful” intentions of the war mak- ers, so as to facilitate the war preparations. The whole purpose of Coolidge’s speech is recognized by the capitalist press as that of propagandizing in favor of a, monster navy. ‘he rest is flowers. It is true that his miserable pawn-broker’s soul made Coolidge lick his chops over the one hun- dred billions of dollars which he said the United States spent on the last world war— “half the entire wealth of the country when we entered the conflict.” But the whole tone of the speech as well as its content showed that Coolidge meant this as his final strut upon the stage as the world’s best saber-rattler. There is absolutely nothing funny about it, though. Behind the ridiculous figure of the little Massachusetts strikebreaker, is in fact the most terrible war machine ever known in the history of the world. Coolidge described the war machine of the Wall Street Empire in 1917-1918 with the words: “The great organizing ability of our indus-’ trial leaders, the unexpected strength of our financial resources, the dedication of our en- tire man power under the universal service law, the farm and the factory, the railroad and the bank, 4,000,000 men under arms and 6,000,000 men in reserve, all became one mighty engine for the prosecution of the war. All together it was the greatest power that any nation on earth had ever assembled.” And all the increase that he asks for, and more, will be added to the gigantic military and naval power of American imperialism. There seemed to be in Coolidge’s words even a wistful jealousy of the immeasurably greater opportunity that his successor will have to play with the lives and deaths of tens of millions of men in the imperialist war to come. Seldom has even an absolute monarch gone so far as Coolidge did in bluntly nam- ing the nations against whom he intends the use of the armaments he asks for. Of course Great Britain is first among the capitalist nations to whose naval strength he com- pares the naval strength of the United States. Already the imperialist rivalry has gone so far that the rulers forget to con- ceal their thoughts. The reference to Bri- tain, the snarl atthe weaker nations against whom his marines are making war, as “our outlying possessions,” and the plea for more ships, tell two-thirds of the story. The un- told third is that which relates to the am- bition to destroy the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. But on the whole this little would-be George Washington has made his farewell address fairly clear. It is a shriek for war, a shriek for conquest of a world, and a shriek of envy of the bigger imperialism which will succeed the imperial- ism of his own administration. The working class and the working farm- ers of this country should study the utter- ances of the heads of the enemy class. Their ery for more machinery of war, means war. It will again be called “the war to end war,” and “defense of our country,” but it will be just what the last war was—except much bigger and bloodier—a war of imperialist conquest. SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in. New York on $4.50 six mos. By Mail (outside of New York): $3.50 six mos, $2.00 three mos, Address and mail out checks to Te Daily Worker, 26-28 Union *Square, New York, N. Y. $8 a year $6 a year It can only be met by the working class with uncompromising resistance. Only those who work to bring about the defeat of “their own” imperialist government in the next war, and to transform the vast theatre of imperialist war into a field of civil war for the liberation of oppressed classes and peo- ples—only those who follow the revolution- ary program of Marx and Lenin—can meet the problems which are presented to us by this farewell Address of “George Washing- ton the Little.” Needle Trades Amalgamation Heartening indeed to the masses of work- ers in the ladies’ garment manufacturing in- dustry and the fur workers is the news that these two groups of workers will soon be | amalgamated under one head into a power- ful union. The national organization com; mittee of the ladies’ garment workers an- nounces that at its coming convention there will be an amalgamation with the new furriers’ union whose convention will be held the same week. This proposal has been dis- cussed and accepted by both unions. It was these two groups of workers in the needle trades that suffered most from the terror launched against them by the com- bination of employers, Tammany police and courts, and yellow socialist leadership. Their once powerful unions were reduced to ruins primarily because of the infamous treachery of the reactionary leaders. When the rank and file would no longer supinely submit to wage-cuts, speed-up, lengthening of hours and a flaunting of every demand of the workers, the reactionary leaders not only re- fused to fight against the employers, but re- sorted to every form of violence, intimidation and terror against those rank and file leaders that arose out of the struggle. The workers in the ladies garment and fur industries heroically faced the solid opposition extend- ing from the employers to the reactionary la- bor leaders, who were determined to wreck the unions rather than let them come under the leadership of the representatives of the rank and file—the left wing. In spite of the odds against them the work- ers in these branches of the garment industry maintained organizations for struggle against their oppressors. The yellow socialist leader- ship is completely discredited; they are literally despised by the masses of workers who once followed them. The sole defender of the elementary demands of the workers is the left wing leadership that is driving for- ward toward the creation of a powerful union that will enable the workers to fight effectively for their demands. It is possible for treacherous yellow lead- ers to destroy individual labor unions, but it is not possible to destroy the labor move- ment, as the history of the needle trades struggles eloquently shows. The amalgamated union will teach the em- ployers and the Tammany politicians that they may, with the aid of opostates to the labor movement of the type of Sigman, Cahan, Schlesinger, Kaufmann & Co., de- stroy the old-line labor unions, but that just as often as they succeed in their designs, just so often will there arise upon the ruins of such unions more powerful organs of la- bor that will realize the demands of the workers. This amalgamation of the two former unions is only a forerunner of the amalga- mation of all the needle trades unions into a formidable industrial union. embracing the entire industry. Not merely will the smash- ing of the old unions by the reactionary offi- cialdom invoke the most determined retalia- tion by the workers but, under the leader- ship of the vanguard of the whole working class, the Workers (Communist) Party, the defeats for the old and weak unions will be a signal for a determined offensive that will result in the creation of union organizations mightier than any that preceded them. | Not merely defense against the disruptive, strikebreaking actions of the yellow bureau- crats, but the aggressive advance along the whole front for the organization of the Amer- ican working class, is the watchword. Bedacht Will Teach Two New Courses at > the Workers School / Max Bedacht, member of the Na- tional Political Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party, noted student of Marxism, has been added to the faculty of the Workers School. He will give two courses this term, one in “Marxism-Lenin- ism” on Thursday evenings from 3:30 to 9:50 p. m., and one in “Cri- tieal Periods in Human History” on Saturday evening, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. For the first time in.the history of the Workers School, a class in eral history is being given. The dae in “Critical Periods in Hu- i, / ;man History” will deal with the his- | tory of the class struggles and revo- | lutionary movements. This course | | will take up those critical and deci- |sive periods in history when revolu- tionary changes have occurred in so-| ciety. After a brief survey of the | chief slave and peasant revolts, the | jclass will discuss the Cromwellian | Revolution, the American Revolution |of 1776, the French Revolution of | |1789, the revolutionary movements | jof 1836 and 1848, the American |Civil War, the Paris Commune, 1905, the February 1917 Revolution | in Russia, the Proletarian Revolu- tion in Russia in November, the | various uprisings and revolts in Europe and outside of Europe after the World War, and the Chinese | | Rgvolution. | This course will begin on Satur- | day, Nov. 24th, In view of the fact that there are already fifty regis- tered for this course and since reg- istration will be limited, all work- ers are urged to enroll immediately. Phila. Cop “Resigns” After Quiz on Graft PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 13.— |Three hundred workers in the H. tioned by the special grand jury in- vestigating the alleged collusion of the Philadelphia underworld and the police department, Sergeant Conrad Beale resigned from the police force today. He gave no reason for his resignation. Beale had been in the police force for several years. za — By ANNA ROCHESTER. (Continued) A fresh link from the Pittsburgh Coal Company to the southern West Virginia coal fields was set up last | May (1928) when the Comago| Smokeless Fuel Company was organ- | American Coal is J. L. Steinbugler | West Virginia — Battleground Record Coal Producing State, Leading Union Crusher, Challenges New Union First, Consolidation Coal Co. is ized to take over and operate proper- | who is a director also of Pittsburgh /affiliated with the Elk Horn Coal ties in McDowell County and to operate properties in Raleigh and; Wyoming Counties. The president} of this new company, H. N. Eaven-/| son, is a director of Pittsburgh Coal. | The Mellons and persons closely as-| sociated with them have in recent years set up several other connec- tions in Kentucky and Alabama coal. Just the other day it was an- nounced; that the $200,000,000 merger of West Virginia coal in- terests had fallen through and the| committee had disbanded. Negotia- | tions may well be continuing in p’ | vate, or in the near future a new) committee may be formed to take up | the matter again. Meanwhile look | at the interests represented on that | committee. They are typical of the| forces that confront the miners in West Virginia. The chairman, Isaac T. Mann, is president of Pocahontas Fuel and a} director of the Norfolk and Western Railway. Other directors of Poca- hontas Fuel represent New England steamship interests. In 1917 that} company’s dividends, which had been running at about 6 per cent a year, | shot up to 32 per cent. In 1919 they were 19 per cent. Since 1919 the) dividend rate hgs discreetly been kept as dark as possible, but the fact of a stock dividend of 300 per cent in 1922 is public knowledge. R. H. Knode, the president of the General Coal Co. in West Virginia, is also a director and vice-president of the Hazle Brook Coal Co. a} Donald Markle Anthracite Company which has just been merged with Markle’s Jeddo-Highland Anthracite Company. The Markle companies are tied up with Morgan. They have among their directors men who are interested also in the notorious | Westmoreland Coal Company and in| the large but temporarily unsuccess- | ful West Virginia Coal and Coke Co. | TB: Davis of New York is vice- president of Island Creek Coal Co., the largest of the four closely re- lated West Virginia companies dom- inated by Boston officials of the U. S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Exploration Co. ae smaller com- panies in the group‘are Pond Creek | Pocahontas, Mallory Coal Co., and} Hardy Coal Co. One of the direc- tors, I. J. Freiberger, is—or has} been—president of the Cleveland | Chamber of Commerce. The vigor- ous anti-union sentiments of the) president of Island Creek Coal, Wil-| liam H. Coolidge, we have already | noted. Island Creek is also the com- pany which in the course of 12 years has viled up profits of $28,630,758 on stock with par value of $118,801. Its largest profits have been re- ported since the war. Only last year a 400 per cent stock dividend was handed out. | | | R. H. Gross, president of the New River Company, is another Boston man with holdings in half a dozen independent copper ventures. Other directors represent New England manufacturing and steamship in- terests. A third New England group sat in. at the committee through William C. Atwater, president of the Ameri- can Coal Co. of Alleghany County (W. Va.) which operates on land leased from the Norfolk and Western Railway. The Atwater family is deep in New Bedford tex- tile interests. William C. himself is president of a coal selling company which claims a direct interest not! only in the American Coal Co. but also in, ten smaller West Virginia, companies. ' Another director of / Terminal Coal Co. presence on the committee of R. C.) Hill, chairman of Rockefeller’s Con- | directly a Rockefeller company. solidation Coal |Corporation, operating chiefly in Perhaps most significant was the | West ‘Virginia a Beneaeky . Second, Davis Coal and Coke is It and partner in| holds the lease on 31 mines and more the firm of Madeira, Hill and Com-|than 100,000 acres owned by the pany. He represents more or less| Western Maryland Railway. It con- directly at least four connections in| trols also some 25,000 acres of other West Virginia besides the Consolida- | West Virginia coal lands. |tion mines in the Fairmont field. | Third, R. C. Hill’s own company, Chinese Workers’ Song (This is the song of the Hankow Teztile Workers. It was taken down by a Briitsh worker who was helping to organize the trade unions in Hankow, and was sent to Workers’ Life.) L By big sister weaves cloth, My big brother sells cloth, Sells cloths and buys rice To fill our empty stomachs. By big sister weaves cloth, My big brother sells cloth, My Little brother wears ragged clothes— No cloth to patch them. My big sister weaves cloth, My big brother sells cloth, Who buys cloth? Yonder rich man. Homespun cloth is coarse, Foreign cloth is fine; Foreign cloth is cheap; The rich man likes it. No one: wants homespun cloth. : My brother and sister die of hunger. I. You plant rice, I weave cloth. He makes tile. Hang-ho! Hang-ho! Hang-ho! Hang-ho! Eight hours’ work, Eight hours’ resty Eight hours’ study. All who toil.and labor, Want to live like men! Learn to read, Read books. The working man is no fool. Read and learn! Learn dnd read! ° Eight hours’ study, Eight hours’ rest, Eight hours’ werk, All who toil’and labor Want to live like men. Ii. Speed up, speed up, worker! From early morn till late at night, Fourteen hours! Fifteen hours! Speed up,-speed up! Speed up till you’re too old to stand! Speed up till you die. Speed up, speed up! Cast away your chains, workers! Smash the capitalist! , What is civilization? Stamp it to dust! ‘ !Madeira Hill, operates through a subsidiary two mines in the Fair- mont Field. (Madeira Hill, by the |way, directly and through various subsidiaries haye large anthracite \and bituminous interests in Pennsyl- vania.) Fourth, Brookes Fleming, Jr., the West Virginia director of Consolida- tion Coal, sits on the board of direc- tors of two minor West Virginia companies, the Ohley Coal Co. and the Watson Coal Co. (One step further removed is the Cabin Creek Consolidated Coal, a 4,000,000 ton company, whose directors include W. A. Ohley, president of the Ohley Coal Co. and director with Fleming of the Watson Coal Co.) Whether the $2,961,000 “invest- ment in allied companies” reported in the last annual balance sheet of Consolidation Coal carries Rocke- feller interest into other companies where the connection is not so easily traced, it is impossible to guess. The secretary of the merger com- mittee, Holly Stover, is currently re- ported as “Of the National Coal As- sociation.” Inc.lentally, he wrote some weeks ago to the New York Times defending the conditions at the Stover Coal Company against what he considered an unfair com- parison with the mining village (in the same West Virginia County) owned by Henry Ford. Now it ap- pears that the Stover Coal Company is a direct subsidiary of Inland Steel. Unfortunately it has not been pos- sible to estimate the tonnage turned out by West Virginia mines con- nected with northern interests. But it is worth while to list a few of the more important Mellon and U. S. Steel, which 1 ere | apparently not represented on this merger committee. They include the Allied Chemical and Dye Corpora- tion of which Lord Melchett, better known as Sir Alfred Mond, is a director; the Insull-Peabody group in Illinois; New England utility in- terests; Bethlehem Steel and many of the “independent” steel com- panies, including the Lake Superior Corporation of Canada; and cer- tain northern railway interests. Perhaps more immediately im- portant to mine workers is the fact that a large number of northern coal companies besides those already mentioned have now acquired coal properties in West Virginia. To name only a few: Westmoreland Coal, independently of its anthracite connections referred to above; H<1l- man Coal and Coke;Keystone Coal and Coke; Youghiogheny and Ohio Coal; Bertha Consumers, Co.; the M. A. Hanna Co. of Cleveland; the Cosgrove-Meehan Corporation; and Old Ben Corporation of Illinois. Al- having a director in common with Atwater’s American Coal Co. has just installed as its new president, H. T. Wilson, president of the notori- ous, Red Jacket Consolidated Coal. Liberal writers are forever stress- ing the chaos. of competitive produc- tion and marketing of coal and the advantages in the increase of “cap- tive” mines. (A captive mine is one owned by an industrial or public utility corporation which mines the coal for its own use.) The com- petitive market does involve genuine difficulties for the miners. It has been the pretext for wage-cutting and union-smashing in once well or- ganized districts. But the growth of “captive” mines has re-enforced the anti-union desires of coal opera- tors .with the anti-union drive in other industries. In spite of the competitive market we have today a united front against organization of coal miners, The three financial giants—Morgan, Mel- lon, and Rockefeller—are all ag- gressively hostile to unions. They can guide the labor policy for their own corporations, for related cor- interests besides | so the Pittsburgh Terminal besides | porations, and for companies opera-the v ae Pay Na? Some Mayors I Have Met in United States By I. AMTER, There are mayors—and mayors. Some of them manage to respect the laws of the country, and some lof them seem to glory in the fact |that they stand above the constitu- |tion of the United States. | In Martins Ferry, Ohio, when a meeting was peaceably taking place, Carl Hacker, candidate for lieutenant-governor of Ohio, was ar- rested. Thereupon, the writer rose, as the next speaker, and declared, “The constitution of the United States guarantees us the right, | without interference, of free speech and free assemblage. The mayor of |Martins Ferry evidently does not | know the constitution of the United |States. The workers of Martins |Ferry will get their constitutional lrights if they have to fight for them.” This was held against the speak- er as reprehensible conduct—par- ,|ticularly since the crowd thunder- ously applauded the statement, Orders From Higher Ups. In Powhattan, Ohio, the mining section, the mayor of the town re- fused a permit for the election meeting. The writer ‘and a few workers of the city went to the mayor to discuss the matter with him. The writer told the mayor jthat he was violating the constitu- tion of the United States by refus- ing the Communists the right to jhold a meeting. “I don’t care—I |get my orders from higher up.” The writer told him that he would not dare to stop Al Smith if he, the mayor, happened to be a republican. After much discussion, during which the mayor manifested little understanding of anything more than that he gets his orders from higher up, the permit was given, the mayor attended the meet- ling, and the speaker made the |speech that he intended to make, |which evidently the mayor did not understand, although it was perfect- ly outspoken. The whole thing was that the mayor only understands his orders, Some more interesting things about mayors in the small towns: not only do they not know anything about the constitution and care less about it, but they also boast’ of their membership in the unions. “Friends of Labor.” The mayor of Martins Ferry is a member of three unions, among them the carpenters. The chief of police, the man who eats Commu- nists alive every morning is a mem- ber of the United Mine Workers’ Union, an ex-socialist, and they say a member of the K. K. K. The mayor of Powhattan is a member of the United Mine Workers, and like Lewis, a double-dyed republi- can. He always was and will be— . and that is why, as a 100 percenter, public official, he knows nothing about the so-called constitutional rights, and gets and takes his or- ders “from higher up.” The safety director of Wheeling, W. Va., also knows nothing about the constitution. The judge of the Common Pleas Court took it upon himself to judge the merits of the platform of the Party even after the state of West Virginia put the Party on the ballot, thereby legaliz- ing the Party—at least during the election campaign. The press of Ohio has been com- pelled to write strong editoria : against the conduct of these x: |tlemen, They are bringing the c. stitution into disrepute. If the workers are told baldly that the constitution is a scrap of paper, | which any worker can discard, what will become of the country? No Illusions. Communists have no illusions— we know that the constitution is only a scrap of paper, giving no |rights to the workers. But the |whole world does not know it—and it is bad form for mayors and chiefs of police to act in such a manner |that the workers learn this clearly. These mayors are splendid exam- ples of American citizenship! They are excellent upholders of law and order! The workers of this coun- try one day will write a constitution —and these mayors and chiefs of police—and the “higher-ups”—will get a taste of workers’ democracy. Sigrid Undset, Norse Woman_ Author, Wins Year’s Nobel Prize OSLO, Norway, Nov, 18 (U,P).— This year’s Nobel prize for litera- ture has been awarded to Sigrid Undset, Norwegian woman author, it was announced today. Among the novels of Sigrid Und- set, which have been published in America, are “The Axe” and a trilo- gy including the famous “Bridal Wreath,” Alfred A. Knopf Co., her publishers, said today. Another book, “The Snake Pit,” on which it was believed the Nobel award may have*been based, will be published here in January. . ting on lands that their companies own. But this is only one center of their power. Their railroads, which include many of the chief coal carriers of the country, can stall pro- duction at any mine by failing to provide cars for the output of coal. And bankers can threaten to with- hold credit if an operator's policy appears too friendly to labor. The strongest forces in the coun- try are in fact lined up against the miners, who need as never militant National Miners’ |