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

} bY i ; iN fa } 1 ; ¥ 1 s € 8 i Le 8 3 3 n ; 8 ; # } 2 1 8 8 ae 2 h b at 4 tt 9 st * BAG22- -~ Daily Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by National Daily Worker Pu ing As’n., Inc., Daily, Except Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable Address “Daitwork” ROBERT MINOR WM. F..DUNNE.. Editor «+. Assistant Editor Organize Auto and Aircraft Industry The Detroit conference of trade union, fraternal and beneficial workingmen’s or- ganizations, to lay plans for an organization drive in the motor industry, announced for Sunday, January 13th, while embracing only the automobile city and vicinity, is of na- tional, in fact international significance, in view of the fact that this is a period of fran- tic preparation for another world war that by comparison will make the last world war ap- pear almost an incident. Detroit is the center of one of the most highly concentrated war industries in the whole country. Long the center of the auto industry, Detroit is now the center of the aircraft industry. This supremacy has been attained within the past three and a half years. Out of the auto industry in Detroit has grown the aircraft industry. These two industries are classified under the general head—the motor industry. In Detroit alone there are at present 42 concerns manufactur- ing aricraft or aircraft parts and supplies. Their products last year were above $3,500,- 000. This year they have already exceeded $5,000,000 and the Detroit News estimates that it may before January Ist, even double the volume of last year. : Jn preparing for another world war the air- craft industry is being stimulated by the in- vestment of millions upon millions of dollars. Every effort is made to see that this industry is carefully “protected from labor agitat Only the most servile superintendents and foremen and picked crews of workers were at first placed in the aircraft industry. But the rapid development of that branch of motors has compelled the employment of thousands of unskilled and semi-s illed work- ers, who can be organized. The workers of the entire motor industry have suffered unemployment that has made possible, because of a total absence of ef- fective organization, a whole ser’ \ cuts. The speed-up has been intens' ied to an unheard of degree. So frightful is the demands upon human vitality that only workers with the strongest constitutions can endure work in the industry even for a few years. Workers in the motor industry are worn out and thrown upon the human scrap- heap before the machines upon which they work are thrown upon the junk-pile. The bureaucracy of the American Feder tion of Labor in Detroit furnished a cla example of the depths to which this vicious machine can sink in the service of the em- It appears openly in alliance with the most reactionary politicians and is a part of the republican strike-breaking machine, the identical state machine that was formerly dominated by the millionaire grafter and crook, Newberry, and a part of the national machine of Cal Coolidge, Andrew W. Mellon and Herbert Hoover. These Detroit labor fakers are open servants of the war-mongers, fawning before General Motors, the House of Morgan concern, which is in one gigantic war merger with United States Steel and DuPont powder. None but an idiot would expect this American Federation of Labor outfit to organize the slaves of the motor in- dustry against their political bosses. ors.” s of wage- ss Worker << The “Nation” Aids Strikebreakers | The only trade union organization that at | present is capable of rallying the masses of auto workers is the Auto and Aircraft Work- ers Union, an industrial union, independent of the American Federation of Labor. It is that union that is calling the January 13th conference of workers for the purpose of lay- ing plans for an intensive drive in the very heart of the motor industry. Every worker in Detroit and vicinity should work day and night in order that the conference may be successful; in order that every organization of workers may be repre- sented there and in order that thousands of workers may join the auto workers union and wage a struggle to organize the other hun- dreds of thousands of men, women and youth in the motor industry. A nucleus of thou- sands of the more conscious workers must be created to blaze the trail over which the great masses can march toward effective or- ganization against the wage-cuts, the speed- up «nd other tyrannies of the motor mag- nates. An excellent opportunity for organization is now afforded with the motor industry re- sponding to the new and sharp turn of Amer- ican imperialism that ig driving forward pell- mell toward a new war and that is opening up new markets through deeper penetration of Latin-America symbolized by Hoover's imperialist tour. An organization drive in the motor in- dustry is not merely an ordinary trade union fight. It is in every sense of the word i polit- ical fight, a drive against the war-mongers. Every worker who really wants to put up an effective fight against the imperialist war should support the movement to organize the 6. —<$<$——; SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8 a year $4.50 six mos, $2.50 three moe, 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. auto and aircraft workers. Modern warfare without industries turning out war materials is utterly unthinkable and one of the methods of fighting against imperialist war is to or- ganize the workers in the war industries. The weekly publication, The Nation, that doesn’t know whether it is liberal or liber- tarian, and that supported the Wall Street Tammany candidate, Al. Smith for president of the United States, poses as a “friend of labor.” In its current number it appeals edi- torially for “Christmas funds” to be sent to the offices of the Associated Silk Workers of Paterson. It was the officials of the Associated who, forced to call a strike by the pressure of the workers in the union, contrived to betray it and now stand exposed as open enemies of the workers. To urge the sending of money to the Associated of Paterson is to aid strike breakers and union wreckers. In this action The Nation is at least polit- ically consistent. It backs for president of the United States the head of the Tammany union-smashing outfit and urges support of traitors to the labor movement in Paterson. There is but one organization in Paterson that represents the strikers and the mass of workers in the silk industry and that is the National Textile Workers Union. All class conscious workers will support that union, while the capitalists, including the lib- erals and the silk mill owners, will support the scab union. In the resistance to imperialist aggression, nothing can be expected from the petit-bour- geoisie. So eloquent a petit-bourgeois spokes- man as Borah, has gone over lock, stock and barrel to the big bourgeoisie. Witness his endorsement of the big navy program of the General Naval Board. The industrialization of the south, the further proletarianization of the Negro mas: the further expropriation of the farm- of the rural mas: as a whole, and their further proletarianization, will serve to create a bigger and more class-conscious prole- tariat, developing new fields for struggle. Our Party must be wide awake to these sig- nificant deep-going changes. We must not only respond but must aggressively lead. The outlook for a cataclysmic crash between imperialist powers—between the United States and Great Britain, or the serious danger of an attack by a group of imperialist powers against the Soviet Union, is ever more menacing. American imperialism is still power- jul but in this very heyday of its prowess, it is developing power of own destruction. Sharpening class struggles are in sight. In- creasing opportunities for development of our Communist Party into a mass Bolshevik party are at hand. The 1928 election campaign has taught us many valuable lessons. Our active participa- tion in it has been of real value in our untiring effort to establish the Communist Party as the leader of the American working class. (From “The 1928 Electtons” By Jay Lovestone In December “Communist” ) “The election was a sweeping victory for finance capital. . This victory cannot but translate itself into sharpening attacks against the workers. Rationalization of the coal in- dustry means further oppression and more in- tense exploitation of the miners. Efficiency and speed-up methods in the textile industry will mean a harvest of worsened conditions for the textile workers. The further merg- ing of the government apparatus with the big business apparatus can only mean a more frequent and more outrageous strike-breaking role to be played by the government thruout all its subdivisions. The huge vote given the big @apitalist parties will be interpreted by the bourgeoisie as a mandate for sharpening their attack on the workers’ living standards, conditions of work and rights along the whole front... . But let no one fail to view this picture dynamically. There are numerous deep con- sequences for American capitalism, growing out of its very strength, its very imperialist prowess of today. By utilizing and exploit- ing every opportunity afforded by these con- tradictions of American imperialism, our party can enhance its influence, develop itself into a mass Communist Party—the leader of the working class.” (From “The 1928 Elections” By Jay Lovestone In December “Communist” ) Boston Jingoes at It Again (Special to the Daily Worker) BOSTON, Mass., Dec. 16.—The Boston jingoes are at it again. This time the matter that has aroused the ire of police and censors and caused the society madames of the Back Bay district to blush with out- raged purity is Michael Gold’s play of the Mexican peasantry, ‘Fiesta,” now being produced by the Harvard Dramatic Club in Cambridge. The police of Cambridge threaten to stop the play unless several “objectionable” lines are cut out. One letter sent to Superintendent of Police Michael H. Crowle, who led the Boston police force in its brutality during the last days of the Sacco-Van- zetti agitation, and who banned “Oil” recently, com- plained that the play was “indecent” and “the most disgraceful and immoral production” the sensitive chief had ever seen. The letter was immediately forwarded to City Censor John M. Casey, who senf three of his bluecoat sluggers to witness a performance of the play. On the strength of his committee’s report, Boston police have announced that they will lock up the entire cast if “Fiesta” is produced in Boston, , WELCOMING HOOVER'S “GOOD-WILL” TOUR — DATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1928 Mrs By Fred Ellis, The International Labor Defense has received copies of several let- ters which John Porter has just written. from Fort Leavenworth military prison. Porte who was sentenced by court martial to serve two and one-half years for “deser- tion,” after he became a leader of | the \strike, reveals in these letters the jabuse and mistreatment to which he lis being subjected. | Receives No Mail. | incommunicado, as I am permitted to write only one letter per week. Of course I have written to Theresa | Valente and have asked her to write to several comrades for me, but I \have no answer as to whether she has or not. I have not received any mail from her for over a month, jand her letters are the only ones that are permitted, as she is my fiancee and she is the only one from whom I can obtain news from the outside. | “I wish that you would write to her and find out the reason. | Rushed Away By Officers. | “On August 5, at 12, noon, J was notified that I was to be shipped away. About 20 minutes later | was rushed away to Boston, at the average rate of 55 miles an hour, in the commanding officer’s special ear. This, of course, was done quickly so that I would not be able to get in contact with comrades out- side, for their intentions undoubtedly were not to let anyone know where \I was to serve my sentence. Three my two guards, notifying my mother by telegram, go 10 hours without a bit to eat. “On Saturday morning J was brought before Colonel Morrow. He seemed angry, because he had found out that the working class was de- manding my release. In front of him, on the desk, Jay about ten let- ters which he had already opened and read. He referred to one let- | ter which was from. my mother, say- | ing that the International Labor De- fense and the Textile Mill Commit- \tee were behind me.’ He asked me | what I thought of people who: pick- eted a mill, to which my reply was |that I didn’t blame them for fight- |ing for better living and working |conditions and secondly picketing is a constitutional right, To my sur- prise he brought forth this reply: |*What do you mean, a constitutional |right, there is no such thing.’ He also stated that I should be shipped to Russia. Given Hardest Work. “As usual, I was given the hard- and ever since then, although other prisoners have been given better jobs, I still do the hardest work they can find. Here each one has the privilege of taking up vocational training. This, too, has been denied me. Also, the commandant stated | that he would not allow me any mail |that would encourage me in any way. Of course, he has kept His | word, for since I have been here I received mai] only from my mother and my fiancee. “At the time of my arrival here the kitchen was in the most unsan- itary condition I have seen. We were forced to eat out of plates half washed and greasy. Our food was also unsanitary and, although I had no intentions of doing so, I have ealen more than one cockroach in my food. ‘e received just a little food on our plate and we had to satisfy the rest of our hunger on est work that they could find here, | Held Incommunicado; Asks the International | Labor Defense to Get Mail Thru to Him bread. This place, which they call) ew Bedford textile workers’ | an institution, is the worst peniten-|are read before they are sent out. tiary in the United States. Thi: | military pen is supposed to be gov- \erned by regulations issued by the | |war department, but they seem to | Porter declares: “Pardon my de- | govern it by their own rules, We | end the only reason for my not per- |lay in writing, I would have writ-|are only permitted to write one let-|haps being beaten to death was be- ten sooner, but I am practically held |ter per’ week and are not allowed |cause five other prisonefs were jto receive any” tobacco or edibles, except on Christmas, The only reading material which is permitted is that which teaches us to slave for {less money and to become real American citizens, When we write a letter we are only permitted to use jone sheet of paper. We are not \free to write that which we want to, for if we do our letters are de- stroyed, Beaten By Guard. “On Aug. 12 I received a letter |from Theresa, asking to report con- the military ezars would have pro- | have fought so bravely for my re- | tected him, for they are always will- | ditions here. I was, of course. called again to the office and asked to write favorable reports. That is the reason for my not reporting true conditions to her, as all my letters “On Nov. 5 I was clubbed by a| sentry and, although not severely,|sas, who was retained by the I. L.| still bad enough so that the back of my head ached for over a week, | |present and would have prevented orter Clubbed’in Army Prison this public through the Daily} tacked a guard, but because I refuse |to yield to their attempt to crush iay fighting spirit. I. L. D. Lawyer Helps. |D., came down and I reported to her about my mistreatment here. Also I asked her to have the I. L. D. take action on my mail, and now I seem to be receiving mail from comrades in Detroit, Michigan. This |him from doing so. “When brought before “the fore- man he seemed surprised that I was \alive, for he asked the sentry why | he did net use the club, to which the |Sentry replied that he did. It seems |that he is prejudiced because I am }a Communist, or else he has been jinstructed to do this by higher au- thorities. If he and I would have |been alone, he would have undoubt- edly beaten me to death and said |that I attacked him, and of course ing to protect. anyone who allows | himself to be used as a scab ogainst this fellow-workers. I want to make Lewis’ District Gang Goes Underground; Raises Dues lorganizers of the United Mine |pickets (somewhere in Pittsburgh) jand wrote finis to their claim to [leadership of the Western Pennsyl- vania miners. times I tried to write a letter while| PITTSBURGH, Pa., (By Mail).--)for those who stay on the ol a {enroute here, but was stopped by | With more secrecy than attends a roll. Spee d who denied me this night raiding party of the Ku| and even denied me the privilege of Klux Klan, the officials and dis- response from the mine regions to However, judging from the lack of the call for dues payments, one can While enroute I was only allowed | Workers of America in District 5 easily vi i i | } ly visualize the opening of | to eat when they ate and to sleep | (Pittsburgh) called together theic private : Sa labee' when they slept, Sometimes I would |loyal standpatter henchmen and paid |agencies, speakeasies. or some other detective agencies, labor {kind of racketeering enterprises, be- }cause theré is not much else that the |fat boys can do and if the men from ithe mines refuse to’ contribute to The gathering was designated, as| their upkeep, they have to do some- ithe regular (?) Biennial Convention \of District 5, United Mine Workers of America, although not a line was | written or printed to call it together, jnor were the so-called local unions linvited to elected their own delegates _to represent them at the convention. | Each one of the delegates was hand- picked or self-picked, because there jis not a mining town in Western! | Pennsylvania with a functioning lo- jeal union that is paying dues to the “machine of International President |Lewis or District President Fagan in District 5 of the United Mine |Workers of America. All of the unions that do exist are locals newly ‘organized and belonging to the Na-| |tional Miners Union. Because of this, the so-called convention is all the more a huge joke. Convention Or Funeral? | It would be more appropriate to ‘call the gathering a funeral than a convention, because its work was of |such a nature that District 5, United Mine Workers of America pronunced dead by all its former members, was waiting only for the burial servi¢e and the funeral dirge. At least that |much is gleaned from the order of business which consisted of a dis- cussion of the lost strike and re- sulted in the decision to instruct all those not already working, to return to work wherever they could get it and to pay dues to any of the offi- cials whose records are proof that no further organization work will be attempted. In every sense of the word the United Mine Workers of America is as dead now as the Knights of Labor has been for close to forty-eight years, but the dues are necessary to provide wages and hotel ‘expenses thing or starve to death, There are many miners who ‘sincerely wish that they find themselves unable to do anything. Dues Raised: Some years agu the district union sen: into consideration. Please for-| formulateda splendid method by which they could build a ‘worth-while treasury to grab their spoils from jand they instituted a burial fund. | This was to be built by a levy on jeach’ members’ earnings to the tune lof one-half of one per cent. This was before the days of Volstead, Out of this fund, $150 was to be paid to! the beneficiary of every member who ; died, but when the strike came’ there was “grave” fear that: the dead members would cut into the treasury |too deen. The officials stopped pay- |ment of death benefits so that they | themselves could keep on drawing \salaries. Now they have stopped |the benefits to the members because jall the funds have been used to. kill |and bury the United Mine Workers | They are asking the jof America, miners to carry them through their purgatory period until some kind coal operator that they have served so well in the past offers them a permanent haven of rest. To this end the miners are asked to pay an be $1.50 a month instead of the eighty cents per month before the strike. New Union Growing. The new National Miners Union is growing by leaps and bounds and the old U. M. W. A. is forgotten ex- cept for its betrayals. The miners realize that their future depends on the new union and are joining it de- spite the combined opposition of the operators and the fakers, increased monthly dues which will) shows that they are really afraid of us taking legal actions and mak- jing an investigation of all this. | Since the defense attorney came |down they seem to use me much |better, although I still receive the ‘hard’ and dirty work. However, these attempts will never crush my revolutionary spirit, for I will al- ways remain a loyal fighter of the | toiling masses. Still Full of Fight. “T thank all the comrades who lease and send them my best greet- ings and fighting spirit. I will still |continue to fight for the emancipa- {haps some day I may be able to do ihe same for them. Continue the tight, comrades, for the ezars here |realize. that the fight is growing lintense. I pledge myself to be a loyal fighter of the toiling masses, always ready to even sacrifice my |life, if necessary, especially for the jyoung workers who are most ex- ploited. Expose them through the Daily. I would also, if possible, like hear from comrades, Expose \publicly all I have written about | this place. | In a second letter Porter tells of ithe denial of all privileges, even | those which are, granted according | to regulations, Porter says, “Enclosed are a few regulations concerning mail, visi- ptors, home parole, ete. These regu- llations are made by the War De- ‘partment but are broken here with- ‘out notice given to them. ‘all privileges granted us by the | War Department are denied by of- ficials here. All this should be tak- ward a, copy to the I. L. D. Mlegal Restrictions. “For instance, in my case I am not permitted any mail from other | than relatives. | “All this’ should be made public land a fight put up so that we can receive some privileges granted us for, although we are prisoners, we are still human beings. “Please send best regards to comrades jailed at Washington. Best regards to all comrades.” Porter then gives quotations from the War Department regulations and shows how they are being vio- lated. Porter smuggled all these, letters from the prison in order to inform the workers what is going ‘on, Own Regulations Violated. The letter of Porter telling of the lations follows: “(a) Privileges of first class pris- oners. Permission to write as many letters as desired each week. The officials have changed it of their own accord without notifying the War Department, to one letter a week. No specific reason givén for change other. than it is too much work reading two or three letters of each man, “(b) Permission to receive visi- tors on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday afternoons, between 1 and 4p.m. “This also has been changed. First Worker, that if I. should by any| means be killed here, it will not be | because I attempted to escape or at- | “On the 19th Miss Caroline Lowe, | an attorney from Pittsburgh, Kan-| tion of the toiling masses and per- | In plain,| violation of War Department regu-| Misleaders in the American Labor Unions Closely connected with the build- / ing trades corruptionists are the { grafters in many other unions. The | .| Teamsters’ Unions have a nest of them. (In 1918 a strike occurred among the bitterly exploited girls of the “Rit” soap works in Chicago. J. W. Johnstone and the writer, as officials of the Stockyards Labor Council, took charge cf ithe strike. A few days later a big automobile, loaded with ostentatiously armed huskies, drew up to our union head- quarters. Two of them announced themselves as stockholders in the “Rit” company end also, to our svr- prise, as business agents of the Chi- eago Teamsters. They demanded brusquely how much we wanted for calling off the strike. They were astonished when we refused their money and insisted that the only way to end the strike was to grant the workers’ demands.) A shining example is “Con” Shea. This man, at the time president of the Interna- tional Brotherhood of Teamsters, ied the great Chicago Teamsters’ strike of 1905 in which 21 men were killed and 415 wounded. Shea was then a \ pal of the notorious labor grafter, J. C. Driscoll, a man who had sold out dozens of strikes and who ad- mitted that he had a gross annuai income of $60,000. The teamsters’ strike was lost, charges being made that Shea sold it cut. If 1909 Shea, then secretary of the New York Teamsters’ District Council, bruta!ly | stabbed his sweetheart, Alice Walch | 88 times, glmost killing her, for which he ‘was sent to Sing Sing priscn for six years. Released, Shea returned to Chicago. Since then he has been a member of the Building Trades ring, with a reeking record ef labor grafting, automobile thiev- ery, bootlegging, white slavery, ebady business deals, corriipt poli- tics, jury fixing, etc. He is a special friend of Tim Murphy and he kas been arrested many times. Hutchins Hapgood thus writes of this “repre- sentative” of the trade union move- ment: (The Spirit of Labour, p. 346.) “I met Shea on several occasions. He sat more or less like a poisonous tozd in his rooms at the Briggs House. He seemed a fitting com- panion to Young and Driscoll.” One of the “toughest” Chicago unions is the Motion Picture Opera- | tors’ Union. The boss of this strong- ly organized and strategically situ- | ated organization is “Tommy” Mal- loy, a pupil of “Mossie” Enright’s. The officials of this union have grafted huge sums of money, vari- cusly estimated up to several hun- dred thousands of dollars, from the- atre owners, not to mention what \they have taken from their own rank and file. They have used many | schemes, including “strike insur- | ance,” “initiation fees” for opening | new theatres, “fines” for infractions, real or imaginary, of union rules, etc. A prolific source of graft was the Peerless Advertising Co., or- | ganized by the union officials. The | latter gave this company the sole | right to use the union label on ad- vertising slides, and then refused to | permit union operators to run the | slides of other, non-union companies. Thus, with a practical monopoly, |the union officials were able to charge exorbitant rates for, their ad- vertising slides and to reap large sums of money. The leaders of this | union won. the right to control the motion picture operators in open armed struggle against the Electri- cal Workers’ officials. Automobile loads of gunmen from each union |met on the streets in the heart of \the city, and fired into each other. | When the smoke of hattle cleared ;away Malloy and his friends re- | mained the victors. That settled the jurisdictional question. } to receive visits only from imme- diate relatives and for a period of 20 minutes only, and now it is changed to from 1 to 3 p. m. on the same days and strictly relatives. For instance, there was a man’s wife who came all the way from Georgia, a distance of 900 miles to see her husband and because the man was not listed here as married she had to go back home without seeing her husband. “(e) Consideration for home par- ole, Denied Parole Right. “In the last two years, out of | 2,000 men that have been sent here, about six men have been granted home parole. War Department specifically states that a man should |exercise every effort possible to |make home parole, When a prison- er goes before the parole officer he is discouraged as much as possible by said officer. Always, when a man on home «parole is arrested, | whether guilty or not, he automati- cally forfeits his parole and when he comes back he loses all good conduct time earned and does the remainder of his sentence in full. sign stating that they don’t want home parole and the officer tries to get all the men to sign it so that the men won’t have any come-back. GREAT GERMAN IMMIGRATION WASHINGTON, Dec. 16.—with 45,776, Germany led in immigration from Europe to the United States in 1927. . WARD BREAD UNFAIR, CHICAGO (By Mail).—The Bak- ers and Confectionery Workers Union has again declared all Ward Baking Co. products unfair to union labor. : aba They have a form here that the men |