The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 19, 1928, Page 6

ita Page Six DATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1928 Daily = oo = es = Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published “by National Daily Worker Publishing Ass’n., Inc., Daily, t Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone, Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable Address “Daiwork” ROBERT MINOR............. . Editor Bete FS DUNNE. 6.6050 ceedass Assistant Editor A Pan-American Swindle After deliberately inciting the puppet gov- ernment of Bolivia to wage war against Para- guay, the United States government, through its imperialist swindle, the Pan-Americar union, offers to mediate the conflict. Th war-monger, the apostle of wholesale murde? of the peoples of Latin with im measurable insolence, ers pass judg ment upon its own crimes of internationa bandit The Bolivian government, dominated b Standard Oil, the Equitable Trust Co., th Guggenheim interests, the National Lear Company, with investments of more than onc hundred million dollars, becomes the tool of the despoilers of its raw material, the ex- *ploiters of its people in the new and sharp turn of Yankee imperialism to extend its power in the South American continent. It Mobilizes into armies its own population in order to have them kill and be killed for the glory of the imperialists of the United States of North America. The real cause of the present conflict is not, as the spokesmen of the Paraguayan government seem to think, because the “war party” got control of Bolivian govern- ment, but because American imperialism wants to reduce every Latin-American state to the level of vassal. In the world wide struggle against its great imperialist rival. Britain, and to secure sources of raw material and markets, the United States fights for the subjugation of all Latin-America. The border warfare between Bolivia and Para- guay that threatens to develop into a world war first involving Bolivia and Paraguay, then Argentine on the side of Paraguay, which is, in many respects, a part of the hinterland of the Argentine; then other Latin- American countries will be swept into the conflict through imperialist intrigue of one or the other or both of the two biggest rival world powers, then finally the United States, England and the rest of the capitalist and colonial world. That the Bolivian-Paraguay conflict con- stitutes one of tHe powder magazines that may explode with a detonation that will rock the whole world is clearly revealed by the frantic actions of the Pan-American confer- ence at Washington, the mediation offer of Argentina and the activities of the League of Nations. When the League of Nations under domination of Britain and France cautiously offered to intervene, Kellogg had the imperialist puppet who serves in Wash- ington as Cuban ambassador issue a state- ment that no infringment of the Monroe Doctrine would be tolerated—in plain words a piece of arrogant defiance to Britain to keep hands off any controversy in the Western hemisphere. Then the government of the Argentine republic proposed to act as arbitrator simultaneous with the announce- ment that the Pan-American conference would offer its “services as mediator.” The government of Paraguay, feeling itself the victim of an unprovoked attack and under the pathetic illusion that any so-called im- partial body would decide in its favor, began accepting offers to mediate as fast as they came. It accepted the Argentine proposals, also the Pan-American proposals. After a day’s hesitation Bolivia also accepted the Pan-American conference proposals, Thus . the Pan-American conference, dominated by Yankee imperialism, is the only “mediator” that has been accepted by both Paraguay and Bolivia. This signalizes a diplomatic defeat for England and the League of Nations, also a defeat for the Argentine republic which, although largely influenced by England, also has independent interests of its own that im- pels it to pursue a foreign policy with regard to its own development. To be sure, in Ar- gentine there is proceeding a struggle be- tween British and American capital for a dominant position. Although both the belligerent nations have accepted “mediation” proposals of the Pan- American conference this does not indicate that the war will be stopped. Warlike ac- tivities still proceed apace. They will probably continue until Bolivia, as the.tool of Yankee imperialsm, feels itself in a position to make reparations demands that the disputed terri- tory in the Gran Chaco be annexed to Bolivia, thereby placing the recently discovered oil lands in the hands of Bolivia and alsp obtain- ing a port through which can be shipped the raw material extracted from Bolivia by the Yankee trusts. Paraguay should not be so stupid as to imagine that the Pan-American union intervenes for any purpose other than to complete the Bolivian steal, in behalf of United States trusts. ~The peoples of Latin-America should place no trust in the Pan-American union, which is only an agency of Yankee imperialism. In- stead they should wage a relentless ‘fight against the corrupt, puppet ‘and paralyzed ‘overnments that constitute the Pan-Ameri- san union. The only effective reply to Ameri- tan imperialist aggression is a bloc of Latin- \merican countries, a unified movement of Wor 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 2 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. the Latin-American masses, to drive the im- perialists from their lands. In this struggle they will have the support of the conscious sections of the workers and farmers of the United States who suffer from the exploita- tion and tyranny of American imperialism. Everywhere throughout the United States t is imperative that great mass demonstra- ons be held against the new threat of a orld war. We must demand that all armed orces be immedigtely withdrawn from Nic- ragua, Haiti and other countries; that the hipment of arms and munitions to puppet overnments to equip mercenary soldiery to hoot down native workers as in Colombia stopped. We must tell the masses of Latin America to overthrow the vassal gov- srmments and by force of arms drive out the imperialist invaders who are there only to enslave them and despoil their countries of the rich natural resources. Why the Young Communists Need a Weekly Paper! campaign started by the Young Worker: ist) League to transform “Young Worker” into a weekly has a special political significance during the present period, Rationalization and the war danger (which go hand in hand) are key polit- ical problems during the present period. The (Commu As a result of rationalization increasing streams of | young wo rs are drawn into the indu: and the importance of young workers grows. Because of this fighting strength of the young workers also The willingness of larger numbers of young workers to struggle against their worsened condi- tions under rationalization is bound to increase. In the United States the sign of the overcoming of the political t and lack of class-conscious- ness of larger sections of young workers is already indicated in the mining, textile and needle industries. The importance of the youth has also grown from the viewpoint of the war preparations of the botr- geoisie. The Hoovers and Coolidges have already assigned the role of “cannon fodder” to the youth in their cam- paign to guarantee the world hegemony of American imperialism. This leads to an increased struggle for the capture of the youth between the bourgeoisie d the proletariat. On the one hand the bourgeoisie is spending larger sums to mislead the youth (thru bourgeois youth organizations, sports, sound movies, the grows. etc.), on the other hand the more open methods of © fascisation of the youth (American Legion, Klu Klux Klan youth activities), militarization of the youth ye T. C.,"R. O. T. C., etc.), increased attacks against the youth (worsening of conditions in fac- tories, expulsions of pioneers in schools, increased arrests of Young Communists, attacks against even the mildest youth protection legislation, etc.). These are various parts of the one campaign to capture the youth for the glories of rationalization and im- | perialist war. | course with fake Every militant worker can immediately see thal, our answer to this challenge must be increased strug- gle to capture the youth for our own class interests. The National Executive Committee of the Young Workers (Communist) League has decided to start a two months intensive drive to get 5000 new sub- scriptions and raise $3,000.00 for the establishment of a weekly “Young Worker.” We want you to pitch in and helo. Raise money, get subs, send it in to the Young Worker, 43 East 125th St., New York City. Hoover is the outspoken, unhesitatingly ruthless champion of finance capital. He is the best trained, the most capable, the most experienced chairman of the executive committee of the American capitalist class that this class has had. Coolidge? He was a shadow beside Hoover. Wilson? He was a school- master who could take lessons from Mr. Hoover in the art and science of the politics of imperialism. When there was a dirty job to perform in China, Mr. Hoover was there to do it. If there was a bloody piece of work to do in Hungary, Mr. Hoover was there to do that. And if a daring, underhanded ef- fort was to be made to destroy the proletarian Rus- sian Revolution, Mr. Hoover was there to try it. In other words, wherever the hand of American im- perialism was extended for aggression, covered of humanitarianism—‘“saving Bel- gium,” even trying to. “save the Russian people”— | there went Mr. Hoover as symbol of the power of finance capital in the United States. Coneretely, the meaning of Hoover’s nomination is the following: first of all it indicates a growth of the executive power of the American government. Second, it indicates the further tremendous merg- ing of big business with the highest governmental machinery, Hoover is a symbol of capitalist rationalization, of the speed-up, of American efficiency and mass pro- duction. Hooyer is the president of capitalist ra- tionalization. From “The 1928 Elections” by Jay Lovestone in the December issue of “The Communist,” Listen to this frank boasting by that energetic or- gan of finance capital, the Magazine of Wall Street (Nov. 17, 1928, p. 101), in its comment on the Hoo- ver victory: “Hoover will be the first president of all parties and all sections since Monroe. For the first time since the Civil War, a nominee of the republican party has shattered the Solid South. The sweep through Virginia, Ten- nessee, North Carolina, Florida and Texas is far, more than a dramatic episode of a great contest; it is symbolic of the advent of a new age. The mighty republic has found and chosen a leader who reflects the unity of the national spirit and the national thought. ... There is nothing like it elsewhere in the world.” American imperialism is approaching its Victorian day. Thus the same investors’ mouthpiece goes on to say proudly: “As Rome had its Augustinian age and British its Victorian age, so we are about to enter upon an epoch of affluence and magnificence, of peace and prosperity, that history may well record as “the Hooverian age.” Translate “we” into Wall Street and the truth is here. From “The 1928 Elections” by Jay Lovestone in the December issue of “The Communist.” |timekeepers office, | PAN-AMERICANA By Fred Ellis Men Who Slave for Rockefeller By N. HONIG Every winter wind that sweeps down from New York Bay freezes the marrow of more than 6,000 oi slaves on the barren 100-acre stretch of land in that section of bleak Bayonne known as Constable Hook. For these men must toil out- deors, where the stills and tanks are located. The 7 a. m. whistle blows. A long queue of men struggles past the A brass check Work is is doled out to every man. not supposed to start until 7 every mangnust check in by 7:17 two workers arrive. At 5. The gate |is slammed in their faces, to be opened a half hour later... For com- ing to work three minutes early, in- stead of five minutes early, as the | Standard Oil requires of its slaves, they have been docked a half hour's pay. An old Polish laborer stops work for half a moment and grumbles about the freezing weather to a fel- low-slave. A foreman rushes up to take the worker’s name. “That's the second time this week, you.” This means two days’ lay-off. The lunch whistle blows at noon. But no workers come out of the gates. For lunch must be eaten right on the job, and right generous is the Standard in the matter of lunch, for it allows the men an en- tire half hour. About ten minutes before the whistle blew, a foreman caught a stillman in the act of nibbling a bite. An oil refinery slaye can man- age to work up a ravenous appetite in a short time. Two days’ !ay-off for this stillman, Wages, $28; fine, two days’ lay-off, or $9; here’s a pay envelope that will be pretty slim on Friday—$20. Lay-offs Continue. The Standard Oil, the Tidewater, the Texas Oil, the Gulf and the Vacuum Oil companies manage to hold back quite a tidy sum each week through the multifarious fines handed out to the men, Last spring 3,000 men worked in the Standard Oil of New lersey Works; in the spring of 1927, 5,000. In 1926 Rockefeller was able to ex- ploit as many as 7,000 slaves in the Constable Hook Standard refineries alone. In 1926, 2,000 men were laid off. The Standard Oil added 2,000 more in 1927 to thefranks of the unemployed. Since March of this year about 1,000 have been laid off, |most of them this summer. Tem- | Porary lay-offs were frequent this |year. Having refined a huge sur- plus of oil by its back-breaking speed-up system this -spring, the plant practically closed down on two The 1915 strike is a traditio Perwoad apd Undarannad. Freeze While You Work; More Wage Slashes, | More Speed-up, More Lay-offs 0: casions this summer. again promised by the ever-gen- Wage cuts} Rockefeller is philanthropic, though, in the matter of: vacations. | Slave for five years and the Stand. 20, but | erous Standard. In the past two years Rockefeller has made up for dime handed out to a golf-/ caddy with a wage cut at one of his | plants. | Some of the slashes have been as \follows: Bricklayers, $1.10, to 60 cents an hour; boilermakers, from $1.25 to 80. cents an hour; carpen- | ters, from $1.10 to 75 cents an hour; |machinists, from $1.25 to 80 cents |an. hour. Rockefeller “Philanthropy.” The laborers, forming the major- ity of the oil slaves, have managed to duck these frequent examples of Rockefeller philanthropy. But, then, they have been getting the same |53 to 57 cents an hour for the past 20 years, Painters average about 70 cents an hour; boilermakers’ |helpers, 60% cents an hour: fire- | men, 70 cents an hour; coopers, 60% | to 81 cents an hour, and. pressers, 71 cents an hour. In connection with the forthcoming wage cuts, it is in- | teresting to note that Standard Oil | of New Jersey has just reported |that its net profit for 1928 will ex- |cced the 1927 figure of $11,414,837, after all taxes and other expenses are paid. The speed-up grows daily; nearly jevery day a new rule is introduced |in the Bayonne oil plants, calculated | |to reduce the oil refinery workers | into more abject slavery. Under the no-talking rule, many a worker has \lost a day or two days’ wages as h |fine. Rockefeller’s _ highly-paid corps of “efficiency engineers” got |an extra bonus the Christmas after | they invented the no-eating-anything ‘on the job rule. The workers don’t begin to draw wages until 7:20 a. m., but they must check in by 7:15. |The oil bosses hold back a half hour’s wages if a worker checks in even a second after this time. The | quitting whistle blows at 4:30 p. m. The same worker happens to work near the check office. Naturally, | he turns in his check sooner than a | man working acres further off. “What,” cries the timekeeper, “turning in so soon after the whistle?” That ‘worker couldn’t have been working so hard in the | last few minutes. A mark is placed against his name. Ten such marks mean two days’ lay-off--and a $20 pay envelope. m among the oil spores) of Bayonne. ard and the other Rockefeller plants give you two weeks’ vacation with pay. You'd better rest) up while | you're away, for when you get back |on the job you've got to take on an- other man’s work besides your own, |while the other worker’s getting his | | vacation. A gang of workers leaving: the Constable Hook oil yards after quit- ting whistle on a winter’s day look and feel like something dragged out turning, tells the Workers of ,the| of a refrigerator. No fires are, of course, allowed, on account of the \inflammable products handled. But | Oi) |the men are not allowed a second | Rockefeller subsidiary it may be. off from 7:20 a. m. to 4:30 p, m. Getting Rid of An Old Slave. Here are some of the refinements of the oil speed-up system. Old Standard Oil slaves, Standard em- | |ployes for 25 years or more, cannot | pany schemes to blind the workers. |stand the Standard Oil pace any| more. Out they go, says Standard Oil. They’ are not laid off outright. You see, after 25 years of service, a 65-year-old slave of Standard Oil is supposed to be retired on half pay. But Rockefeller ‘wants to save that pension, So the old worker is transferred to a harder, dirtier job, where the pace is twice as fast. |The work proves far beyond the little strength left to the aged worker; he either drops dead on the job or quits of his own accord. Thus | he loses his pension, ‘The Works Council. Every time another year has ended in the life of the old pirate Rockefeller a swarm of capitalist newspaper men flock to get a birth- day interview. As usual, Rocke- feller charms the reporters with golden words on the oppor- tunity of every American worker to vise under our system of democ- racy. Practicing what he preaches, the old exploiter has introduced a system of “democracy” in the Bay- onne works. The workers in eaeh department are allowed each April ta “elect” from their midst a dele- gate for the purpose of presenting the men’s grievances to the com- pany superintendents. The dele- gates are paid 3 cents an hour ex- tra. One worker and one company official are supposed to count the When Standard Oil Slaves Rose Against Their Oppressors e & "es ca aes Displaying a solidarity hitherto practically unknown in the American class struggle, over 10,000 of the oil workers compelled Rocke- feller to grant an increase in their miserable wags. Photo shows Standard Oil strikers on July 22, 1915, resisting Rockefeller thugs and police, who shot down on them from the house tops,—Courtesy Un- |votes. ‘This laborers forced to ac- cept a bribe and let the officials do the counting. Either he takes the |bribe dy he is fired. The actual counting is done by the superinten- cent behind closed doors. The work- | crs thus have never had an honest delegate on the Works Council, as the oil companies call these ex- amples of “democracy.” | The betrayal of the Tidewater Oil ! strike by the delegates on the Works Council last May ecnyinced the men once and for all as to what the pur- pose of the Works Council really is, Stool Pigeons. The delegate to the Works Coun- cil is usually a stool pigeon, If the men present any grievances as to |wages or conditions, the delegate | goes to the superintendent, and, re- | many “advantages” of working for such a big company as the Standard or. the Tidewater, whichever |He explains to the men how great |to warm themselves in the boiler ihe operating expenses are, ete. |v | room. Then the matter is dropped, but a “ringleader” is picked out and fired | as a “trouble-maker.” These dele- gates obtain all the graft jobs in connection with the various com- These company lackeys somehow manage to be the managers of the | oil company baseball team or basket- ball team; they always manage to run the annual summer outings for the company. Of course, the real |purpose of these “recreational and |social activities,” as the oil bosses call them, is to keep the oil slaves docile. Gruesome accidents .are hourly loccurrences, due ‘to the inhuman |speed-up. The commonest of these are acid burns and the inhalation of poisonous fumes. % « The Ethyl Death Room. The tetra-ethyl lead used in the jnew, cheap Standard gasoline, “Esso,” is one of the most deadly |of all known chemicals. Increased |sales of the poisonous fuel have re- sulted in the enlargement of the ethyl department. In a Standard Oil laboratory plant a few years back ten workers died in horrible agony, accompanied by violent in- sanity, through working on the tetra-ethyl lead. Notable scientists | stated that if the ethyl fuel were widely adopted, the result would be slow poisoning of the public. Sev- |eral workers have been killed out- | right in the ethyl room of the Stand- |ard; many have been incapacitated for life. All of the workers in this room of death are ill at all times, suffering from headaches and dizzi- ness, | Stock Scheme. The old scheme of allowing the workers to purchase a few shares of stock is practiced throughout the Bayonne oil plants, Each man is allowed a small amount of oil stock. When any strike talk arises, the |men are kept cowed with the spiel, joined in by the Works Council, “If you strike, the value of your stock will go dawn. The prosperity of the Standard Oil Company is your prosperity.” This scheme was used in the strike at the Tidewater Oil | plant last May. But the workers are beginning to realize that the small dividends from the stock ‘amount to nothing, compared ta a living wage, as is evident jy the decline in the amount of stock they |now own, Gold Service Buttons. A little item from the Bayonne | Times, one of the local sheets de- |nending lock, stock and barrel on |the oil bosses: “Twenty Standard Oil Company employes yesterday received their rewards for their faithful services ‘Misleaders in | the American _ Labor Unions By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Sam Parks was boss of the New | York building trades for several | years prior to 1903 when his labor | career came to a stop. He was the pany: Madden of New York. | Walking delegate of the House- | smiths’ and Bridgemen’s Union, he | was also. dictator of the Board of | Building Trades, a central body com- | posed of the representtaives of 39 | building unions. He was a tough bruiser, who boasted of having had |as many as 20 fights in one day. |R. S. Baker thus describes him (Mc- Clure’s Magazine, Noy., 1903): “A striking*and impressive figure. A County Down Irishman, 40 years old, all his life long he had done the roughest, hardest work, river driver and lumberman in the North Woods, coal heaver on the lake docks, rous- tabout-sailor, railroad brakeman, bridge builder; time was when, un- erringly balanced on a steel beam, 200 feet in blue space, he could drive more rivets to the hour than any man in the trade. A rough, tough nut of a man who loves to fight, he says, better than to eat. Ignorant, a bully, a swaggerer, a criminal in his instincts, inarticulate except in abuse and blasphemy, with no argument but his proficient and rocky fists, he yet posseses those curious faculties of leadership, that strange force of personality, that certain loyalty to his immediate henchmen familiar among ward | politicians—so that he. could hold | his union with a hand of iron. No, Jit is not strange. Tweed ruled and | robbed New York for years; only lyesterday Croker was our king; | Quay bosses Pennsylvania. ‘They are all of a stripe, all bosses; Parks | @ little rougher and ruder, perhaps, but the same sort.” Parks was brought to New York in the nineties from Chicago as a non-union worker by the big G. A. Fuller Construction C Undoubt- edly he remained an agent of this company and was used by them j against their competitors while he was the head of his union. It was an era of corruption in the building | trades, and Parks was in the thick of it. For example: in 1902 the Amalgamated Associated, cont | ing the New York painters, deman: }ed an increase’ in wages. Where- upon the employers gave a fund cf $17,000 to various labor fakers to bring the rival union, the Broth hood of Painters and Decora’ into New York. This body si a scale of $3.25 to $3. j against $4.00 and $4.5: | by the A. A. Another example is | that of Murphy of the stone cutte | who stole $27,000 from his w for which he was sent to Sing Sing. Parks plunged deeply into corrup- tion, using the familiar methods of “strike insurance,” “fines,” “pilfer- ing the union,” etc. But the jobs of his employer, thle Fuller Co., went ahead undisturbed. He was exposed as a grafter as a prelude to the great building lockout of 1903. As usual, the employers bribed him to |do their work during “peace”, in the industry and then exposed him in order to discredit and demoralize {the unions when “war” loomed. | Parks was sent to Sing Sing for | blackmail in 1903, but his powerful political connections had him re- | leased in a few days. Crowds grcet- ed him at the Grand Central Sta- tion upon his return. The Nation |of September 10, 1903, says: “The enthusiasm could hardly have been greater if he had returned from a successful engagement with a for- eign enemy, instead of coming for |a temporary respite from the peni- | tentiary.” Six days after his release Parks led a great Labor Day parade in New York. Finally, however, he was returned to Sing Sing, where, after being expelled by his union, |he died. | De Leon, in an editorial in 1903, |thus characterized the activities of Parks and his cronies: “Murphy and Parks played fast and loose with the welfare of their rank and file. According as the prurient maggot of corrupt desire bit these gentlemen, their rank and file were thrown out of work or ordered back. Strikes thus ordered, or “settled,” or threatened were the trade of these gentlemen and the rank and file figures but as cattle that were led to and from the shambles to be skinned by their em- ployers, or to be slaughtered by the fakers. Of course, in the process the capitalist was blackmailed, but the blackmailing was but an incident . . «It may be said literally that the money blackmailed from the em- ployers is the gathered drops of blood that the ,rank and file have been made to shed in bogus strikes,” The 1916 Carpenters’ Strike. In the 20 years between the pic- turesque Parks and the notorious Brindell, the New York building trades were constantly afflicted with graft of all sorts. Colorless and un- scrupulous .fakers galore sold out innumerable strikes and: grafted in- discriminately upon the workers and the employers. Let the betrayal of the carpenters’ strike of 1916 serve to illustrate some of the methods that have kept the New York build- ing workeys from constructing an or- ganization capable .of controlling their local industry. to the company when gold service buttons were awarded to them, Michael Kazaciewicz, John Timko, ete, received gold buttons for ten years’ service; Michael Savinko re- ceived a gold button with one dia- mond, for 20 years of service, and Anton Strelzik reccived the 25-year gold button with two diamonds,” mite. 20 Be Continued sl ni " t | |