The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 22, 1928, Page 6

Page Six Published by National Daily Worker Publishing Ass’n.; Inc., D; Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party w y, Except Sunday, at 26-28 most Union Square, New York, N. Y. Telephone, ng Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable Address “Daitvork” mt" | ROBERT MINOR Won} WM: F. DUNNE.............4/ A Ast young pere Fs tan Britain’s Latest Conspiracy Against | the the Soviet Union din Even though the tory imperialist govern- Ne; ment of Britain is engaged in mobilizing the ef highest degree of resistance to the new and an aggressively insolent turn of Ameri¢an im- ish perialism signalized by the election of Hoo- hai ver, it stilt finds time to engage in provoca- tions and armed conspiracies against the So- | viet Union. Thus, like the United States T%; government, it fights against the first work- J ers and peasants republic while at the same * ~# © time carrying on intrigues against its capi- i talist riv ° Just as the United States is desperately XN tryiag to extend and consolidate its powers €. in Latin-America, so Britain, in its war Y preparations, tries to encircle. the Soviet t Union with bayonets in an effort to isolate 1 and destroy the Bolshevik government. The i rebel bands now engaged in waging an at- 4 tack upon Kabul, capitol of Afghanistan, are HI ‘| o bought and paid for mercenaries of Baldwin and Chamberlain, equipped with British arms and munitions. Their purpose is to over- throw the government of Ammanulla, pro- gressive Islamite king of that country and establish in its place a government servile to Britain so that it can create a buffer state against the Soviet Union and obtain a base from which to launch military operations from the south in an eventual war of ag- gression. But thus far the Afghanistan government has succeeded -in repelling the imperialist hirelings. That Britain is preparing for direct intervention with British troops is indi- cated by the fact that British planes have been dropping leaflets over the Afghanistan lines threatening intervention in case of “harm befalling British subjects.” This intervention is another source of danger of another world war; a war against the Soviet Union. In such a war the class struggle will be concentrated on an interna- tional scale—the fight of the Soviet world to resist the attacks of the capitalist world. In Such a fight the Soviet power will have re- ‘serve forces among the seething millions of the colonies and among the proletariat of the home countries engaged in the war. Every resource of the working clas; and the .peasantry of the countries affected should be mobilized to prevent the war on the Soviet Union. But if, in spite of all ef- forts to prevent it, war against the Soviet Union does come, the capitalist nations will face the mightiest power ever generated in the world, the power of the world proletariat and the colonial peoples of the world, under the leadership of the vanguard of the ex- ploited masses, the Communist International. In such a war the one demand will be, not fraternization of the soldiers at the front, but wholesale desertion of the imperialist armies to the camp of the Red Army, the army of the workers and peasants. In such a struggle the question will be plainly put:— Desert the imperialist armies and with guns in hand go over to the side of the armies de- fending the Soviet Union. In the imperialist countries themselves the workers will be urged to paralyze the war industries and take advantage of the economic and_ political crisis to overthrow the imperialist govern- ments and set up Soviet republics. When the United States, Britain or any other country plays with war, they are only invoking the powers that will eventually de- stroy them, for just as surely as they dare launch another war just so surely will they face the next stage of the world revolution before they have gone very far. \ 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. Prison Depravity One of the festering sores of the capitalist system is the prison regime. Most criminal laws of capitalist society deal with crimes against property. By far the overwhelming majority of victims of capitalist criminal law are workers deprived of an opportunity to earn a living who’ were driven to desperation in order®to obtain means with which to en- able them and those dependent upon them to No prison regime can ever change the economic forces that impel men to violate the laws of private property. And the system in vogue in United States prisons, far from aiding the individual to improve himself physically and mentally; is calculated only to deprave him in every conceivable way. exist. During the past year there have been a number of desperate prison revolts by prison- ers who knew from the outset that their chances of success were hopeless. They’ simply chose to die fighting rather than en- dure the fiendishness of the regime. It notorious that the food furnished prisoners is vile, that most prisoners emerge from a period of confinement physical wrecks. This systematic destruction of the physical man is accompanied by a warping of their mentality by depriving them of an oppor- tunity to receive literature other than that approved by the ignorant prison chaplins— ordained preachers and priests saturated with the superstition of the dark ages and preaching submissiveness and servility to the chained and helpless victims of capitalism. is Only a few days ago the warden of Auburn prison excluded the Daily Worker. No ex- planation was given. None was needed. The warden, one of Tammany Al Smith’s favorite jailers, is in charge of the prisoners. A paper that so relentlessly exposes the fraud of the late candidate for Wall Street, as well as all other capitalist illusions is dangerous to the ruling clique even of prisons. One specific reason why our paper is ex- cluded from prisons is the fact that in every prison outbreak we have exposed the loath- some conditions that provoke such outbreaks. While other papers loudly acclaim the fright- ful massacres of unarmed prisoners by drunken depraved police guards, we defend the heroic and desperate action of the re- volters, we explain that no person accused of a crime against property should be re- garded as other than a victim of capitalism, that prisons are built not for the big crim- inals, the big thieves, the oil swindlers, the political grafters, but for the poor exploited workers; in a word they are class institutions. To ‘be excluded from prisons by the prison keepers and hangmen of capitalism is a tribute to the Daily Worker—one of the many things of which we are proud as we near the Fifth Anniversary of the founding of this revolutionary paper. All workers, all readers and supporters of our paper should remember that we are known as favorably because of the enemies we have made during the past five years as by the friends we have made. And all those workers who have suffered in capitalist dungeons, or who have relatives or friends or comrades in the fight who have suffered should send in greetings, get organizations to donate to the Daily Worker on this Fifth Anniversary so that we may be able to con- tinue our fight until the time comes that the walls of the torture chambers for the work- ing class fall before the avalanche of the revolution. JAILY WORKER, } By Fred Ellis Barbusse’s New By SOL AUERBACH HERE have been journals and magazines vaguely calling them- selves journals of proletarian litera- ture, without taking the trouble to formulate that initial clarification and definition of their function and purpose. Some of these journals take on a nebulous and undefined form, launching into their vroject without first clearly stating their conception of what proletarian art is, what form such an art takes in a bourgeois country. Such journals more often take on a general rebel- | lious tone, rather than a constcuc- tive revolutionary one. | For some time Henri Barbusse has been formulating his views of proletarian literature, chiefly in the Moscow journal, “Culture and Rey- | olution.” Last June “Monde” made its appearance in Paris, under the irection of Barbusse, and is an at- tempt to put the editor’s views into practice. MONDE has an interna- tional circulation and twenty-five of its numbers have already crossed the Atlantic, offering enovgh ma- terial for a balancing of its pro- fessed purpose with its actual ac gmplishments. MONDE was launched under a fa- ;vorable breeze which blew strongly |in one direction. In the first place Barbuss* had already charted the on in which the ship must go, | giving it plenty of motive power in |a concise and uncompromising basis |for its work. In the second place ers of the Soviet Union had already chartered a course and were. | “limit itself’—but one can readily | | well on their way towards the con- ruction of a proletarian literature \in the environment of a proletarian society. Barbusse’s often expressed wish |had been to create a magazine that \is to present the whole movement of revolutionary proletarian litera- ture, to interpret that new man— |the worker—as a part of an inter. national revolutionary class struggle | | to overthrow bourgeois society and |veplace it by an international chain of Soviets. Such literature in its broad aspects would include ‘the rev- olutionary struggles of the colonial peoples, the struggle against imper- ialism, the struggle of the jclass in capitalist countries, in fact | the whole many-sided and profoundly |deep mass movements shaking the foundations of the present society orking | Tendency of United Front With Bourgeois Writers Hurts Proletarian Aims J ournal Monde backbone of Marxian revolutionary philosophy. The dangerous develop- ment of MONDE is towards a united literary front with the best of bour- geois writers. There is absolutely {no need for that, and I think it is a |mistake, for our own field is much field of culture, combat its pessim- ism, mysticism, get a stranglehold on its decadence. The bourgeois scribblers, both great and petty, are combatants in the ranks of the enemy, carrying in their writings all the poison of a decaying society. Perhaps the chief reason for not having thus far a clear picture of the rising tide of proletarian revolu- tionary literature in bourgeois so- ciety is the lack of a clear criticism whose principles are based on the | Union and the working class lead- lers of the international revolution. |Such a criticism can only be based |upon the Marxian conception of his- ‘torical materialism, used as an effi- |eient tool in the appraisement of | literature and in directing the ef- forts of the revolutionary writers. * QNF would then expect that such a journal as MONDE would limit itself to these three main. tasks— the presentation of the movement in revolutionary proletarian literature, |the function of Marxian critic. clari- |fying for proletarian writers their role, purpose and aims; and a crit- ical analysis of bourgeois literature and art which is bound to lead only |to an attack upon them. I say * * |see that the three tasks mentioned |above are by no means limitations, | but, on the contrary, a field as wide |and profound as anyone would de- |sire to tackle. Perhaps the best contribution that MONDE has made is its intention, which has been better formulated than is usually the case. It is the only magazine I know of in a bour- geois country which has defined its purpose and aim as a proletarian journal with some degree .of pre- ciseness and with an appreciation of jits tasks. It is not a spontaneous | offspring of some nebulous thought lon the subject of revolution, but its program, at least as Barbusse ex- | pressed it, is definite and revolution- ary. What has it actually done? _ Has |it contented itself with merely for- revolutionary tenets of the Soviet | “ Rs ico big, our three tasks are great, ing some proletarian -Jiterature' and the leadership of such men as jot high merit. It has run in serial Romain Rolland, Upton Sinclair, De jform the vagabond memoirs ef Pa- Unamuno, Leon Werth and Tagore nait Istrati; a. novel called “The are to be combatted strongly if we Worker,” by the Flemish proletarian | 546 to have our own revolutionary jauthor, Stijn Streuvels; it is now |jiterature. Instead MONDE ac- publishing a novel of the Mexican cepts writers as collaborators and revolution by Mariano Azuela; Jean | ayen points a commending finger at Tousseul, the Belgium waterffont | thom, |worker, writes in its pages; it car- ts aire : |ries interesting selections from the| What would best indicate this | prolific Soviet literatuye, which has |‘tend of MONDE towards the lib- barely been touched by translators. eral bourgeois writers and its illu- It is well illustrated by revolu- in that a united front with them tionary artists, such as Diega Ri can be achieved is the inquest it is vera, Zilze, Grosz, Serge and others, #0W catrying on to ascertain # Following the dictate of its cover proletarian literature is possible and that it is a weekly bulletin of liter-|!f so what is its role. Its inquest ary, artistic, scientific, economic and Posts two questions: social information, it carries pano-| 1. Do you believe that artistic ramas of happenings in the literary and literary production is a purely and artistic worlds, a full page of |individual phenomena? Do you | paragraphs on international affairs, |think that it should or ought to be |which ore very interesting and in-| the reflection of the main currents |structive. It follows the struggle which determine the economic and ‘of Sandino closely as well as thes social evolution of humanity? struggle of the Latin American 2. Do you believe in the existence | countries against United States im- | of an art and literature which .ex- perialism, There are reviews of the presses the aspirations of the work- cinema, the theatre, music, phono- ing class? Who do you think are jgraph records; criticisms of paint-| its principal representatives? ‘ers, old and new; of architecture, of |house construction, of write In | leading formulation of the second |fact it is a curious mixture of odds | part of the first question—should |and ends of information thrown in |it not have been, rather, the economic to make a very paradoxica) journal. factors which determine social evolu- I find no fault with choosing such |tion and its main currents?—the a variety of subjects—in fact it is! very posting of these questions is |commendable if the fight is to be | an admission of uncertainty. It may carried out against the whole of a| be answered that the immediate bourgeois culture in one journal. purpose for these questions was to But all these subjects, ifvihe orig- | arouse controversy between bour- inal purpose of MONDE is io re-| ge0is and proletarian critics and main intact, must be treated from | thus lead to the further clarification a consistently revolutionary pojnt of |Of the proletarian view. It has view, There are almost unbelievable | @7oused controversies judging from paradoxes in the sheets of the | the numerous answers in Monde and | sentin, Aside from the vague and mis-| MONDE, which leads one to believe | has even broken out into the ever-| that its collaborators are not united in their aims and efforts and as a jvesult make concessions ‘to bour- geois literature and criticism * * * , its MONDE has succeeded. in pre- senting some proletarian writing | snooping Parisian bourgeois press. javen the ultra-conservative Temps | Souday. | By far the most inconsistent as-| [pect of these questions is their bid) | for a.united front with the bourgeois | intellectuals. Perhaps the Parisian | carried an animated answer by Paul | | of high merit, it has not thus far | literary tradition delights in con- sueceeded in the two remaining | troversy and loves such fights, but Misleaders in the American Labor Unions By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER Such men as y” Madden, Sam Parks, Simon O’Dennell and Brindell were highly destructive fac- tors in the labor movement. They | poisoned union progress at its | source. But upon occasion they had a certain regard for the demands of the workers and sometimes made |fights to protect them. This they did in the realization that if they were to be able to advance their own personal intersts a basic con- sideration was that they maintain a strong trade union organization. Gensequently, often their unions of skilled or strategically situated | workers, were very powerful, usu- ally at the expense of the other trades and the unorganized. But in |many places the building trades grafters, in their greed and general spirit of reaction, killed the goose that laid the golden eggs by liter- ally “selling” qthe unions to the point of their extinction. Philadel- phia is such a place. Frank Feeney. One of the chief figures in the unsavory history of the Philadel- phia trade unions during the past quarter of a century is Frank Feeney. For ten years he was president of the Building Trades Council, and for seven years presi- dent of the Central Labor Union. He now president of the International Union of Blevatcr Constructors. For two decades he has been a key man in the right wing national machine of the A. F. of L. Within recent months he became a tember of the executive council of the National Civie Federation. Feeney is one of the group of | trade union Jeaders whose darksome influence has conributed towards king Philadelpn'a one of the eakest trade union cente:s in the country. They have “pe tlicd” the | movement in every conceivable wa: | Feeney is cynical about his graft- ling. At the 1914 convention of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, en Feeney: was being tried for | disloyalty to the workers, Jim | Maurer quoted him as saying: | “Sure I’m a grafter. Whenever |you hear that Frank Feeney goes |after something you make your |mind he is getting his price. I’m jfer Frank Feeney.” | This misleader of labor maintains |his hold on the trade union move- | ment by virtue of his firm seat in | the saddle at the head of the Eleva- tor Constructors. He follows a pol- licy of furthering the interests of | this little group of skilled workers jat the expense of the other related |unions, especially the Machinists. | This is a commor trick of the labor | faker. | Feeney hus had his hand in every |foria of betrayal, from running | erooked papers to selling out strikes. |He was on the payroll of Martin | Mulhall, the arch betrayer, who re- lates’ the follutving to show how | Feeney earned his pay: | Thers was an agitation on to amalgamate the printing trades and |that would have been fatal to the employers; that we didn’t want; we | didn’t care how loyal Frank Feeney | would be to the typographical union, | so long as he prevented the amalga- | matior, and is what we put him \in to prevent, aud it was prevented.” | A specialty of Feeney’s is capi- | talist politics. He has long been a labor agent of the republican party, a lieutenant of the reactionaries Quay, Penrose, McNichol, et al in the ranks of the workers. For this, jhe and his friends have been re- warded from time to time with well- paid political jobs. Of McNichol, an avowed enemy of labor legislation and a supporter of the state con- stabulary, Feeney said: “So far as my friend Jim McNichol is con- cerned, let me say to you that I am proud to call hifh my friend.” In 1905, largely through Feeney’s efforts, the Philadelphia unions pu up an Independent Labor ti Feeney was the candidate for she iff. Labor, enthusiastic, rallied to the workers’ ticket. The Labor Day parade of that year, consisted chief- ly of floats extolling the labor ticket. But at the eleventh hour Feeney withdrew his name in favor of the republican candidate and in- By E. KWIRING. The past. twelve months repre- Cellective farms sented a great step forward on the indivdual farms way to a socialist transformation) h«re restrict our . of the Soviet villages. now that we can fully understand how timely was the slogan of the of 102 XV. Party Congress, which pointed superiority of harvest yields on they in comparison with that we can lves to a single » SO It is only | instance. In the year 1927 the harvest yield 1 collective farms on the one hand, and of the individual peasant the way to collective economy in the | farms, on the other, figured as fol- rural districts. with much approval peasant masses. time last spring the collective The slogan met) lows: among the In the case of During the sowing extent, These important capital in- vestments enable the collective farms to increase their area under cultivation very considerably and to augment both the total output and the marketed portion thereof, This is confirmed to the full by the following figures: 1926-27 1927-28 Area under cultiva- tion in 1000 hect 876 1700 ‘and directed to the construction of |mulating a program, or is it actu- {a new world. ally carrying it out? | One of the greatest illusions| Jt has been most successful in |about proletarian art is that it is|this one respect—in actually “pre- conceived by many people in the old | __.. - tasks. In fact it tends to confusion among the ranks of proletarian | bourgeois writers which lacks all the |sense of a “literary school,” with lone writer at its head and with one XM. A pteclane and spirit. And it is} pointed out that outside of the! | Soviet Union there is no, group,of | |writers which can be definitely | called proletarian, that there are not many novels which can be termed proletarian. This is almost the same as saying that there is no revolutionary struggle in the bour- geois and colonial countries, that (By Federated Press) “Except from the 18th day of De- cember to the following 24th of De- cember, inclusive,” reads the N. Y. labor law. The section on hours of ment grew to such dimensions as had not been experienced in pas years, extending above all to broad masses of the village poor. Collective Farms Increase. Suffice it to point out that in the past economie year the number of collective farms was doubled. This tendency among the poor peasants to collaborate on collective farms is | As a result of the extremely poor collective farms Rye Wheat Total production in aoa alah aed 87 TL. | millions of roubles 103 139 A al ek OB Commercial quota of t | raya Volga District Me a | output in mill. of r. 35 rimea i: In the individual Large State Credits. peasant farms As we see, the area under cul- Ural District 64 ‘55 tivation has in one year been dou- North Caucasus 82 59 | bled, with output increasing in about | Middle Volga District 42 35 | the same proportion. Absolutely Crimea 62 57 | Speaking, these figures are natural- ly still small, but the rapidity of |there is no international working these mcvements have already found | their expression in literature and | lit should be precisely the function |of such a journal as MONDE, if it jis to properly fulfill its function as |a proletarian journal, to present this literature of revolution against cap- italism. work for women in mercantile estab- 84 class revolutionary movement. For |lishments begins with this exception, All bars are down for employers during the week hefore Christmas. The so-called 48-hour law, which really allows 51 hours of work a week for women in shops and fac- tories, is shoved aside during the Christmas good will season. in the first place to be explained by th. fact that they have been con-| yinced by the collective fazms al- ready in existence of the advan-/ tages of big agricultural enterprises over small ones, and also by the fact that the material support afforded the collective movement was great- er this year than last. In the pre s, indications have fre- | provision of the poor peasants with | agricultural implements by the gov-| ernment, substantial capital invest- ments for the support of the newly, | formed collective enterprises are re- quired. their advance opens a very satisfac- tory prospect. As regards the esti- mates for the economic year 1928- 29, there is a prospect of no less than 100 million roubles long- | In this respect great pro-| termed credits, while we hear that “It’s a wonder they don’t make us work Christmas Dey, too,” said a tired woman at Wanamaker’s, as she sorted handkerchiefs mussed up by the last customer. “Yes, we get pay for overtime work, but not ex- Henri Barbusse very correctly | points out that besides this positive | | work of laying the foundation for | the literature of the future society | by presenting end coordinating gress was made last year. The col- the area under cultivation is to be \Jective farms were accorded long- increased to about 3 million hectares termed credits to an extent of 61 4nd the value of the total output to | million roubles; which is an increase be raised to 260 million roubles. to more than three times the former | To Be Continued uently been published showigy the ie proletarian literature during the period of revolutionary struggle, such a journal as MONDE professes to be must also carry on a relentless fight against the bourgeoisie in the < tra pay, only the usual rate.” The usual rate is $10 a week in wages and a small commission on’ sales. To the woman patiently waiting on a fussy lady, who makes no pur- S IS BOSS’ EXCUSE TO SPEED UP WORKERS chases, there is no compensation foy time lost, “No time even to lunch decently,” said another saleswoman, “We'll be here more than 12 hours tomorrow, and get maybe 10 minutes for lunch and 10 for supper. TI’ll be’ so tired by Christmas Day, it won’t be any holiday at all. I’ll just want to stay in bed all day. Oh, yes, we’re open on Monday, Christmas. ¢ve.” Woolworth’s 5 and 10 cent stores are open every night of the week before Christmas till after 9 p. m. More than 12 hours on their feet, in the close air of an overcrowded shop, leave the girls longing for Dec. 26 and the end of the mad rush. Many saleswomen taken on for the busy season, till Christmas, will be paid off after Dec. 24. “We need a rest all right,” said one girl. “You've said it. But a rest is no rest when there’s no money coming in.” writers, when they see criticism of | to my mind to carry the controversy to those who are known to be the enemies of the working class and its ideology and to open the pages of Monde to these individuals is an entirely wrong conception of the) function Monde should be intended to serve. Jean Cocteau, that flip- pant, decadent parlor wit; Waldo | Frank, the decadent reviver of de- cadent romanticism searching clouds, castles in Spain and rose gardens; the extreme individualist, De Una- muno; Emile Vandervelde, a traitor to proletarian revolution, they and others like them answer these ques- tions in Monde. What can they tell us about proletarian art and the aspirations of the ‘working class? Their views are separated from ours by a whole society. If the purpose of the inquest is to | clarify the purpose of Monde let the proletarian writers and critics clar- ify it and develop their views by mutual exchange and a mutual fight against the very ones who have been invited to write in Monde. This united front tactic is the greatest danger to Monde and to its expressed purposes. We can only hope that it will make a sharp change in the direction it is travel- to the execution of the three main tasks of a revolutionary proletarian | journal, ing, drop some of its literary salon. atmosphere and really devote itself) | duced the new party to endorse the whole republican ticxe:. “is be- trayal made Feeney a big cog: in the local republican machine. Feeney has sabotaged various im- portant pieces of labor legislation in Harrisburg. Secretary Quinn of the State Federation of Labor accused him of being responsible for the defeat of the Workmen’s Compensa- tion Bill and of facilitating the pas- sage of the State Constabulary Law. In the past quarter of the century every attempt of the work- ers in Pennsylvania to move sor- ward, on either the economic or po- litical field, has had to confront th opposition of Feeney. That is on reason why their trade unions 9 in such a demoralized condition an also why Feeney is wealthy, owning | a palatial yacht, a large estate, and a summer home in Atlantic City. vames C. Tron’n. Jim Cronin, business agent of the Molders’ Union, who ct the age of 24 got elected as president of the Philadelphia Central Labor Union, was a pal .. ~ seney’s and the other building trades crooks, and partici- pated in their union wrecking enter- prises. Cronin was a darling of the republican politicians and upon Feeney’s recommendation was ap- pointed to the State Industrial Com- mission, of which he became cher. man, *