The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 13, 1928, Page 6

Page Six : 2 Published by National Daily Worker Publishing Ass’n., Inc., Dai Union Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone, Stuyvesant 1696- Address “Daiework” , Except Sunday, at 26-28 ROBERT MINOR.. WM. F. DUNNE Gunmen for United Fruit Company The government of Colombia is savagely murdering part of its own working class population at the behest.of the United Fruit Company. The government, itself, under mass pressure of the workers, has placed pro- tective insurance laws upon its statute books providing for the company paying for injury and accidents. The United Fruit capitalists refused to abide by the law. A strike ensued, that now involves 40,000 workers. Its pur- pose was to force observance of the law. The treacherous character of the Colom- bian government was clearly exposed when it offered to mediate between the strikers and It was in the untenable position i But the company was immovable in its determination to resist the demands of the work . The govern- ment, instead of defying the company, turned with rderous fury upon the strikers and has been waging open war against them more than a wee It is playing the role of gunmen for the fruit company his is a cl example of capitalist gov- ernmental respect for its own laws when they may be of benefit to the working clz Workers in Colombia are slain by mercenary gover’ nt troops be e they demand the enforcement of the laws of the government. Their action is identical with the action of police and soldiery in > United States when they club, shoot and disperse workers who try to hold meetings in confor with the constitution of the United States. All laws of capitalist governments are class laws, made for the purpose of enabling the master class impose its will by force upon the work- ing class. he capitalist hold them in con- tempt when it is to their interests to do so, but they expect workers to respect such laws. Such action as that of the Colombian govern- ment should teach workers to despise all capi- talist laws and the class that makes them. The iking workers of Colombia must learn from this frightful struggle the same lessons that other workers of Latin-America have learned and are learning; that is that one of the most effective methods of fight- ing American ‘imperialism is to overthrow the puppet governments that serve Yankee tyranny. By throttling such governments the Latin-American masses can clear the way for a general struggle of all Latin-America to scourge from its territory all the agents of American imperialism. The Communists of United States take the lead today in arousing the working class to give moral and financial aid to the Col- ombian strikers on the Magdalena banana plantations of the United Fruit Company, to aid the heroic struggle of Sandino in aragua, to fight for the withdrawal of the marines from Nicaragua, for the freedom of Haiti and the immediate evacuation of Amer- ican armed forces from all colonies and semi- colonies. In this struggle we lay the basis for united action of the working class and the farmers of the United States with the exploited masses of Latin-America in order to deliver the death blow to imperialism. The Conflict In the League Although not a member of the League of Nations the imperialist government of the United States neglects no opportunity to have its agents in the league engage in intrigue against its rival, England. The league, dom- inated by England, has been used as a weapon in the world wide struggle between the two great imperialist powers. The United States imperialists, anxious to join the league when it was first established, were prevented from doing so by the so- called irreconcilable senators, the “wilful twelve,’ that defeated Wilson’s proposals. Forced to make the best of the situation American policy has waged a double fight against European domination of the league. On the one hand it has sought, through pro- posals to enter the permament court of in- ternational justice, the legal branch of the league, to place itself in a position to control the league. On the other hand it has con- spired to use representatives of Latin- American puppet governments to defend its interests in the league councils and as- semblies. It is quite evident that the latter motive, the desire to use government agents serving the imperialist interests of the United States in Latin America prompted the action of the delegates of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile in visiting the renegade socialist, Aristide Briand, foreign minister of France, the other day, and pleading with him to use his in- fluence to obtain for them seats on the coun- cil of the League of Nations. The Cuban delegate is just as much an agent of Yankee tyranny as though his credentials were signed by Kellogg at the state department at Washington. The Venezuelan government is largely dominated by the Mellon and other American oil interests. The government sily Sik Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party | the formerly. solid South. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8 a year $4.50 six mos, $2.50 three mos. By Mail (outside of New York): $6 a year $3.50 six mos. $2.00 three mos. Address and mail all checks to The Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Chile wavers between Britain and the United States, but economic power will decide which way that fascist government, maintaining power through mass murders perpetrated against the working class of its own country, will finally go. A survey of the rapidity with which American finance capital is displacing @ritish control of Chile indicates the policy that will eventually dominate. Thus, while the kept press of the world talks about the league as an institution that will make more difficult the outbreak of an- other war, even a cursory study of the actual proceedings of the league reveals it as a nest of imperialist duplicity where the diplomats of the various countrigs are maneuvering for realignment of forces preparatory to the néxt world war. There is but one international organization that really carries on a struggle against im- perialist war and that is the organization that coordinates the activities of the Com- munist Parties of the whole world—the Com- munist International. It is only the working class and the peasant masses that have in- terests that are identical throughout the world, henve only an international represent- ing their interests can avail against im- perialism. The Bewildered Josephus Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of the navy, the Southern bourbon, Josephus Daniels, is still groggy after crawling out from under the Hoover landslide that buried the demo- ratic prophets of his part of the country on November 6. Meeting the train of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the amany governor-elect of New . Yor s home town of Raleigh, North Carolina, Daniels consoled himself with indulging in the favorite democratic in- door sport since the election of trying to ex- plain why the “solid South” was broken into bits. Here are the reasons as revealed by Wilson’s secretary of the navy, to his one- time assistant secretary of the navy, who, since the election, has become the “white hope” of the democrats: “I don’t know of a voter in North Carolina who cast his ballot for Hoover except, of course, the old-line republicans. In the vote against Al. Smith prohibition was the strongest factor in his defeat and religion was next. A republican cam «gn speaker in North Carolina publicly told the people that a roman catholic must not be elected president.” This old bourbon, representative of the small-town, middle class elements of the democratic party, like his leader William Jennings Bryan, another ornament of the im- perialist Wilson cabinet serving the interests of the House of Morgan, was always immune to the effects of the political currents of.the times. His mind still reacts, to everything as though the “old South” were still a reality instead of a memory. He is blind to the changes that have taken place before his own eyes. While no one would deny that prohibition influenced many Southern votes and the re- ligious question others, these things certainly were not determining factors in breaking up This political change is to be found in the industrial in- vasion of the South, a change that has af- fected the state of North Carolina more than any other state. The new textile mills of Charlotte and vicinity that sprawl over vast acres and that enslave thousands upon thou- sands of men, women and children, that brought to the South a chain of newspapers speaking the language of the Fordney-Mc- Cumber tariff, that subsidized scores of preachers and teachers and other “moulders of public opinion” to teach the masses the gospel of the new industrialism also brought about the defeat of Smith and the break-up of the solid South. But that change is only the first effect of industrialism. There has been created by it a huge industrial working class organized by the mechanism of capitalism itself. This class already feels the withering blight of the cotton slave pens. It will in time be organ- izéd into a trade union whose struggles will bewilder still more the unresponsive brain of Josephus and his cronies of the small capi- talist element of the democrat party. In the class struggles that must inevitably rise out of the industrialization of the South the workers will become conscious of their class interests, conscious of the necessity of class political action. Then, in response to the same economic forces that broke the solid South in favor of the republicans, the work- ing class of the mill towns, with its allies, the horribly exploited masses, Negro and white, who slave on the plantations, will break the republicans and all other parties of capitalism with such decisive political action as Josephus Daniels has never dreamed of. When that time comes it will not be pos- sible for even Josephus to blame prohibition and religion for the debacle that overwhelms him and his class. DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1928 By Fred Ellis | By PAT TOOHEY. (Secretary-Treasuter National Min- ers’ Union.) PITTSBURGH, Dec. 12. — The capitalist. government, the coal op- {erators and the remnants of the degenerated, corrupt bureaucracy of the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica have jointly launched a new at- tack against the militant National Miners’ Union, and the union’s leadership. The new attack is on the legal front, and a concentrated effort is under way to frame up and railroad to prison various lead- ing, officials of the new miners’ junion, The new attack is also an attack, directed against the union it- self and the right of the miners to organize. The forces of reaction have, it is clear, girded for war against the new union and its leadership. Some jrecent developments in this respect convince us that this joint attack jis to restrict, curtail and if pos- sible stop the sweeping successes being made by the new |union. The efforts are being di- rected towards jailing those respon- | sible for organization work amongst |the miners. Within a few weeks |the following developments have | occurred: Minerich Arrested. Anthony Minerich, Executive Board member of the National Min- |ers’ Union, was arrested and held incommunicado by the Cossacks in the anthracite region, |charged with two attempts of dy- |namiting. That the charge is a |frame-up, weak, a fake, and with- out proof is clearly evidenced by |the fact that the case has finally |been dismissed. Minerich was at- |tive among the struggling hard coal miners. Horthy Wants Victim. | The federal government hurriedly called to trial the case of John Topolchany, miner of Herminie, Pa., supporter of the National Miners’ Union. The prosecution attempts revocation of the defendant's citi- zenship papers because of “alleged Communistic tendencies.” The’ charge originated thru the Horthy censors confiscating a letter sent by Topolchany to a brother in Hun- gary, denouncing him for joining the White Army, murdering work- ers, and acting as a tool of fascism. |The letter was forwarded to the | American authorities by the Horthy fascisti, whereupon Topolchany was arrested and held on bail, while an effort was made to revoke his citi- zenship papers and deport him to Hungary, where he would be im- mediately executed for opposition to the fascist dictatorship. Hurry Cheswick Trial. The hurried calling to trial of the 22 miners indicted on various charges in connection with the Ches- wick mass meeting. The day prior to the murder of Sacco and Van- zetti, several thousand miners and wives assembled on a farm near Cheswick to protest the execution and demand the release of their comrades, A small army of state cossacks, detectives, coal and iron police, deputy sheriffs, ete, de- scended upon the meeting, clubbed, tear-gassed and dispersed the crowd. Scores were gravely injured, many were taken to hospitals. The cos- sacks then toured the mining towns, hunting down active strikers, beat- ing and slugging them. During the riot which was precipitated by the cossacks, one of the cossacks was killed by a person unknown. As a result of the trouble, 22 active left wing miners were arrested and in- dicted on charges of rioting, incit- ing to riot and unlawful assem- blage. The case is now called to trial after a long rest in the ar- chives of the district attorney. A >| miners’ | and Railroad to Pris Union on Miners’ Leaders” | The attempts of the federal dis- | trict attorney, Meyers, noted red baiter, of Pittsburgh, to jail the | writer, J. H. Daley, business man- |ager of the Coal Digger, and Miss Ross, union bookkeeper on a charge jof “contempt of court.” At the attack the National Miners’ Union, National Miners’ Relief Committee, ete. | “Railroading” In Washington Co. | ‘The continued attack against our junion by the Washington County (Pa) judges and district attorney, where our members are railroaded |to prison, our union denounced, “justice” mocked at by this so- {same time this was utilized to also) called district attorney, who serves) Y \other hand the N. M. U. was de- the coal bosses so well. The calling to trial of the | Brophy-Toohey “rioting,” “inciting | to riot,” “conspiracy,” “unlawful as- semblage,” case for Decembet 18th. A hurried activity is observable garding this case. Eight Months Jailed. The railroading to prison of our jrank and file m:mbers, Mike and George Matty, Steve Crevda, Frank Sonosky and John Midi, to terms of four, six and eight months each in the workhouse, despite the evident innocence of the men, The . freeing of the murderer By NELL AMTER. | CLEVELAND, 0.—In the name infamous} i ishment is a constant holding of a of the Young Pioneers of Cleveland is | mined and well planned: by the ‘re- a new campaign has begun in this city against the use of corporal punishment in the schools. The particular issue which this campaign centers is the pil, who, because he failed to bring his “gym suit” to school, was com- |pelled to run around a track five cold shower. three weeks, as the result of the brutality of the gym teacher. This is only one instance. Last yeay, there was a case of a boy who .;came home with a black eye in- flicted by his teacher; of a boy who went through the “spats” (the gauntlet, a line of 80 boys, each of whom pummelled him in punish- ment for failure to bring along his gym suit); of a child who dropped dead of heart failure while running on the track. as punishment, and cases throughout the city which | were never reported, In several schools, especially Tre- mont and Woodland schools, in working class neighborhoods, there is a mechanical paddling machine, which is used regularly and often. Only Workers’ Children Hurt. Last year the board of education gave official permission to teachers to use their own diseretion in the tuse of corporal punishment, and they have used plenty of punish- ment. 3 There is-one thing outstanding about all cases which have been re- ported, publicly, and all reports which are gotten from school chil- dren. That is that this punishment, and excessive punishments, take place in the working class neigh- borhoods, in schools which are crowded with workers’ children. In all of these schools there are many cases of children who fail to bring along certain supplies because their parents cannot afford to buy them, In all the schools the children must eventually quit school. and tramp the streets hunting for work. In all these schools the children who are punished are always the children of the workers. Complete Persecution. These facts make perfectly clear the reason for the regular punish- ment used in the schools. The whole system is an éducation in obedience PIONEERS FIGHTING . SCHOOL BRUTALITY |and respect to authority for work- lers’ children, The practice of pun- threat over the head of the child. \In order to avoid trouble the child | does as he is told, speaks when he | taught, and never oversteps the line. | ment. | These children are going to be | workers soon. By the time théy a job. When they come to the em- ployment agencies of the great | steel mills and automobile and ma- chine plants of Cleveland, bosses will demand certain quali- fications: they will demand that the worker doesn’t talk; that he doesn’t |think too much; that he does as he is told, and takes what he is given. The ideal worker for the boss is the one who has a strong back and a weak mind. S The bosses of Cleveland are working hand in’ hand with the board of education, and between the two they are turning out good work- ers regularly every year. The Young Pioneers demand the | complete abolition of corporal pun- ishment in Cleveland schools. They | demand that the Board of Education shall open the entire question, and change its: former decision, and pro- hibit teachers from using violence on workers’ children. The Young Pioneers, and the Young Workers Communist League, which is cooperating in this work, call upon workers’ children in Cleve- land schools to fight against punish- ment and support the Young Pio- neers in their fight. We call upon workers’ children to pass the resolu- tions, and send them in to the dis- trict office, 2046 East 4th St. We call, upon working class parents to bring their children into the Young Pioneers and help us to carry on the fight. We demand the abolition of cor- poral punishment. Support and ‘¥ the Young Pioneers, At the same time the Young Pio- neers will fight determinedly for the demand: free books and supplies for workers’ children, —NELL AMTER. The Workers (Communist) Party fights for the organization of the unorganised workers, around the prosecutor’s office re-| the) A New Conspiracy Against the National Miners’ “Concentrated Effort Under Way to Frame Up Louis Carboni, who cold-bloodedly killed George Moran, of Bentley- ville, Pa., who was a local organizer of the N. M. U. when Moran made attempts to arrest Carboni, who | was running amuck with a gun. The “inquest” was turned into an “in- quisition,” Carboni was lauded as a hero and protector of American democracy and government for kill- ing one of the hated “reds” and wounding two others, while on the nounced by this district attorney in ious terms, Support Cossacks. The throwing out of the case of assault brought by D. W. Lane, member of the National Miners’ Union, against two state cossacks | for their clubbing and rioting in the town of Avella. Not only did the | capitalist court throw out Lane’s | charges, but they jailed Lane for | the $75 costs in the case, later paid ‘by the American Civil Liberties | Union. A Reactionary Drive. So many legal developments in a yery short period of time, all aris- ing simultaneously, have all the characteristics of a well conceived plan to harass tional Miners’ Union; to jail its leadership and supporters and ac- |tive members now under indict- |ment. The worker will commit a | grave error who may consider these |facts as accidental—it is predeter- | actionary forces. | Why? Because the National around] is spoken to, thinks what he is) Miners’ Union is fulfilling its his- |toric mission. It is organizing the case of a 14-year-old 8th grade pu-|That is the purpose of this punish-| unorganized miners. It is penetrat- |ing hitherto unorganized territory. |It is leading the struggles of the | oppressed mine workers. It has the times, which completely exhausted) reach the eighth grade, 17 out of| confidence of the miners and is or- him, and then was forced into a/every 20 children in the elementary | ganizing them steadily into a class He has been in bed| schools in the city of Cleveland will! conscious, militant, fighting organ- with a bad case of the “flu” for! quit school and go out to hunt for) ization. It is stopping wage cuts. \It is winning local strikes. It is | the sole resistance to the wage cut- | ting campaign of the employers and company union U. M. W. A. It is steadily extending its organization to every coal district. It is prepar- ing the miners for a final challenge and struggle against the powerful mine owners. This explains the attack. But the reactionaries, the government, the coal operators do not know the vi- tality, the determination and energy of the forces they are attempting to squelch. The miners will not stop, the fight will go on, even if some fighters are taken from the ranks, Miners Organize. ~The miners are today battling against extreme odds. The miners are not pessimistic, They know that behind them and supporting them are ‘thousands of militant workers in every industry, who nave helped the miners time and again in their many struggles. In this difficult period the miners need support again, material support, for legal defense, for relief of hundreds of blacklisted and victimized families, for further organization work, to spread the union everywhere. Moral support is appreciated. Support in concrete form is much more desirable. The miners have faith in the workers, that the werk- ers everywhere will once more rally to their support, to assist them in defeating the enemies of the work- ing class, to keep their fighters on ‘he firing line and out of prison, to holp the fighters who, have been victimized and to spread the union. The new miners’ union is not solely a weapon for the coal miners, but for the working class as a whole, Let the workers again do their share—we assure them we will do ours, rien i | Bad blood brewed and hinder the Na-| Misleaders in the American Labor Unions By WILLIAM Z#FOSTER Murphy attracted national atten- tion over the killing of Maurice (Mossie) Enright in 1920. Enright was a notorious labor gunman, as- sociated with Chicago’s most des- perate criminals. A pal of “Skinny” Madden’s, he*was active in grafting and inner-union feuds for 20 years. He was a leader in the bitter juris- dictional war between the plumbers and steamfitters, in which many men were killed. His “educational committeo,” touring the streets in |the “pirate car,” terrorized his op- ponents. Enright participated in many shooting scrapes. In 1911 he killed Vineent Altman and “Dutch” Gentleman, two professional labor sluggers. For this he received a life sentence, but, by virtue of his pull, he was released in two years and went back to his old game of graft and ,terrorism, in which he had growWn rich. Enright “made” Murphy in the unions, “electing” him as organizer of the Building Trades Council and business agent of the Street Clean- ers’ Union. But the militant “Big Tim” soon began to oust Enright. between them. Bitter quarrels developed over split- ting a $10,000 bribe from the Peo- ple’s Gas Light & Coke Co. for pre- yenting a strike of the gas work- ers, and over the control of the Gas Workers and Street Cleaners’ Unions. The situation climaxed dra- matically in Feb. 1920, when En- right, stepping from his automobile at his door, was riddled with bul- lets fired from an automobile which had followed his. Enright was bur- ied with great pomp, his funeral being attended by senators, judges, aldermen, priests, 5,000 people and 300 automobiles. Murphy and his “black hand” friends, Carozzo, Cosmano and Vin- ci were arrested for the murder. |Cosmano was shown to be the man | who fired the | shots. Boglio the | owner of the car said he had loaned it to Carozzo who was accompanied by Murphy. Vinci, the car driver, declared they had followed Enright for weeks before they “got” him. |'Things looked black for Murphy. But of a sudden the skies cleared eriously and completely and Cifaldo, the two key witnesses disappeared and Vinci repudiated his confession. So Murphy walked free from jail without even going to | trial. Soon Murphy was in trouble again. Twenty days after his release in the Enright affair he and Cosmano were arrested for a $100,000 mail rob- |bery in Pullman. He managed to squirm out of this also. The great Chicago building trades struggle of 1922 found Murphy in the middle of the picture. The em- loyers, through the so-called Landis | eee dealt the local unions a shat- tering blow and established semi- non-union conditions. Most of the | reactionary leaders, Murphy among |the rest, traitorously accepted the award although the masses of the workers bitterly opposed it. The car- penters, painters and a few oth trades <‘ruck against it. The Build- ing Trades Council split in two, many of the unions remaining at work, The strike was exceedingly bitter. Wholesale bombings of union and non-union workers and | buildings took place. It climaxed in \the killing of two policemen. Wild excitement prevailed and, in a lynch- ing spirit, the police raided all the offices of the local building trades unions and arrested 200 officials. Murphy, “Frenchy” Mader, and “Con” Shea, although professed sur porters of the Landis Award, were charged with the murders. With this usual braggadocio Murphy ridiculed the whole affair as a “seven days’ wonder that would soon blow over.” He was right. Eventually the charges against him were cropped. BILL. POSTERS GAIN. ST. PAUL, Minn, (By Mail)— | Organized bill posters in this |and in Minneapolis have won a w raise of $2.50 a week, <3 well as the 8-hour day and 44-hour week pr aeasa ac mee Do you suffer from * * * | Corns 4 * * * | Bunions * * * Chilblains * * * Flat feet * * * Fallen arches * * * Galloping rheumatism * * * Ingrown toenail or * me * What have you * * * Dance it off at the * * * Daily Worker-Freiheit Ball * * * Madison Square Garden's * * * The place * * * Saturday night's * * * The night! P. S.—Rout dow't sutter from lack of tickets. Get yours Now! 13 “0 VN chop hint | 2