The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 11, 1929, Page 6

' BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK Copyright, 1929, by Interna- |snake-dance, the ghost-dance, the tional Publishers Co., Inc. All |sun-dance, or some other just as rights reserved. Republication for- | mysterious. Their only music was bidden except by permission. the drums and the lilt of the squaws. |The tunes were plaintive and fan- Page Six HATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1929 MUSSOLINI’S MAN Daily 525 Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party six months bg . x 3 tastic, and sounded much alike to 0 three months By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD [| ine, ‘In the night when the fires (outside of New York): SYNOPSIS | were lighted, the hypnotic rhythm 50 six months |} months In previous parts Haywood told) of the drums and the springy fur- of his birth and early boyhood | tive dance steps of the Indians, ac- ROBERT. MIN among ‘the Mormons at Salt Lake; companied by the low crooning WM. F. DUNNE War Preparations Against the Soviet Union Shipped with all the precaution that characterizes the transport of arms in time of war, another cargo of French munitions has been received at the Polish port of Dantzig and immediately forwarded to Stanislau and Tarnopol, forti- fied Galician cities. While this consignment is ostensibly for the use of the Polish fascist government in its war plans against the Union of Soviet Revublics, it is presumable that a part of the shipment will find its way also into Rumanian hands. But the imperialists do not depend solely upon the ship- ment of arms from distant France to strengthen their war activities against the Soviet Union. Under the direction of the French government, the Rumanian government has placed a huge order for arms and munitions with the big Skoda Munition Works of Czecho-Slovakia. The arms shipment and the arms orders, mysteriously coinciding with the flying visits of British and French mili- tarists, notably the military commission, headed by General Le Rond, unquestionably indicate the tightening of the lines around the workers and peasants republic. If no other confirmation were obtainable they would sufficiently confirm the existence of a secret understanding between the French and British imperialists and their cats- paw governments in Poland, Rumania, Czecho-Slovakia, ard now in Jugo-Slavia. Secretly, persistently, implacably, the imperialist powers are forging alliances, piling up arms, sending their agents over the frontier which marks the end of capitalism and the beginning of the workers’ and peasants’ government, for the purpose of invading the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics with armies in the near future. In the possession of the Soviet government there is at present unquestionable proof that the imperialists are send- ing provocative agents into the Soviet Union, especially into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic for the purpose of forming white guard groups. The British have apparently learned nothing from the wave of indignation which swept the Soviet Union following the disclosures of futile activities of British agents in the Shakhta trial, but the Ukrainian workers and peasants will soon drive the lesson home. If the elaboration of the war maneuvers against the Soviet Union on the eastern European front have for a moment been left largely in the hands of the French im- perialists, the British have been equally aggressive on a second front. Shuddering from the imminent possibility of the oppressed millions of India rising in final revolt against the British power, the Imperial government has instinctively concentrated its anti-Soviet war preparations on the northern Indian border of Afghanistan, which no less than eastern Europe now represents the attempt of the imperialists to stab the Soviet Union in the back. The notorious Lawrence, bloody provocative agent of the British in their war against the Turks for the possession of Arabia and the Mesopotamian oil fields, (whose disappearance into northern India was everywhere cloaked by the bourgeois press and literati, as the flight into solitude of a recluse) has been entrusted with the mission of inciting the Afghan tribes to revolt against the present westernizing government of Amanullah. The plan of the British armies to make of Afghanistan another “heroic Belgium” has been checked by the unexpected strength of the federal troops, but the British forces still lie in wait behind the passes of the Hindu Kush, waiting the signal to advance from the government whose latest act of outrage against the international working class has been the imprisonment of Johnstone, the American repre- sentative to the world organization of Anti-Imperialist Leagues meeting in India. While Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea has been turned into an extended battle-line, an arsenal of imperialist cannon waiting the command of the British and French foreign offices to fire, while British cannon have already been used by the tribesmen against the Afghan government, the imperialists are no less active in their own countries. The towering armaments that the British, French and American governments are piling up are not only aimed at one another. They have the further purpose of availability for immediate invasion of the Soviet Union. The detailed plans for the mobilization of whole populations for war, the mobilization of all industry, with an eye to the quick con- version of peace time manufactures into war products, are directed not only agianst rival imperialisms, but against the workers’ and peasants’ government as well. The far-flung battle lines of imperialism, encircling the Soviet Union, demand a constant alertness from the workers and peasants of the whole world in defense of their liberated brothers within the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. In face of the imperialist mobilization for war embracing the whole world, the international proletariat must reply with its own mobilization. Confronted with the outbreak of imperialist war against the Soviet Union, the workers of the world must prepare to turn it into civil war. And in the present “breathing spell” (of feverish war preparations) be- fore the powers give the signal for their onslaught again.t the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics the workers must prepare their own lines, their offensive. A Needle Trades Victory Ahead At a big mass meeting in Cooper Union at New York Wednesday—the first official meeting of the new Needle ‘Trades Workers Industrial Union—thousands of needle trades workers threw themselves enthusiastically into the organi- zationa] tasks attendant to preparations for a general strike in the dress making industry. Unlike the remnants of “unions” in the needle trades sill under the American Federation of Labor, the great new nion, in passing resolutions at its recent constituent conven- n calling for such an organizational strike, really meant ; it said. Proof? The meeting Wednesday night, dly one week after the resolutions were passed. Is a strike necessary in the dress manufacturing in- ? What are its chances for victory? Conditions in industry makes it clear to all but helpless victims of the jalist sell-out artists and union wreckers, that only a rike can be effective in fighting the humanly intolerable nditions in that trade. greater portion of the trade is totally unorganized, ing open shop. Only a small proportion of the shops union control, and even this control is weak because oe was recently decorated with a medal sent from Italy by Mussolini. Portes Gil Ti MEXICO CITY (By Mail).—The | |first legislation to be taken up un- |der the administration of the new | president, Emilio Portes Gil, will be a new labor code. The Mexican constitution, adopted at Querétaro in 1917, contains an extensive chapter on the rights of labor—Article 123— which up to the present has been regulated by presidential decree. Many of the provisions of Article |123 are vague and undefined. The |CROM, until recently ihe official \labor organization, has long at- | tempted to get a satisfactory labor law adopted in accordance with the | constitutional provisions. Thus far it has been unsuccessful. Portes Gil announced that his first administrative act would be to bring before congress such a bill. He has drawn up such a bill, accord- ing to his own ideas, supposedly Lased on prior conversations with the assassinated President-elect Alvaro Obregon. Even before taking of- fice as president, Portes Gil, while still secretary of the interior under | President Calles, submitted this bill | for discussion to a mixed convention | of employers and workers, composed of about a hundred delegates each. The CROM was represented in this assemblage with about twenty mem- bers; the remainder of the workers’ delegates were independent union: among the latter being the rail syndicates. This mixed convention had only power to discuss, the un- conferms to the general reformist provisions of the constitution, such as the eight-hour day, protection of |women and children, social insur- ance, arbitration and conciliation, schools on haciendas and at mines, safety sanitation, ete. It contains certain clauses, however, which are distinctly fascist, and which tend to \deprive the labor organizations of jall independence of action, making \them completely subordinate to the state. The government argues that if it requires the priests to register | with the civil authorities, and thus | delimits the internal organization of the church, it has similar rights with regard to labor organizations. | Thus, the proposed law provides that the labor unions must remit to the government labor board tri- monthly reports regarding the num- ler of members and provide infor- mation regarding the members who have joined or left the organizatio to the same governmental authority it must send a report of the source of its funds and the disposition of them. The syndicates may not mix in political or religious matters. Thus during recent Catholic dis- turbances, in many places, Catholic rebels have burned labor headquer- ters and assassinated labor leaders. The new |. would deprive the unions of taking any measures of self-defense. Priests have threat- derstanding being that its sugges- tions would be considered by con- | gress. ened workers and peasants with ex- communication in case of strikes The new law would prevent the la- bor unions from any counter-action. tics are equally onerous in many |cases. Local authorities have fre- |quently harrassed labor unions, yet the labor union is prevented from taking action to block such pro- cedure. Furthermore, the labor unions cannot engage in any com- mercial activity.‘ This is capable of many interpretations, and it might |prevent the establishment of co-op- leratives and all such similar enter- prises. The unions may not accept as members agitators or persons who carry on “a propaganda of dis- solvent ideas.” This permits the |government to eliminate from the labor unions anyone whom it con- siders is not propagating the proper ideas. The words used are so vague land elastic that this clause alone |would permit of the elimination of leaders proposing strikes or any |other normal working class activ- lity. The unions may not force an lemployer to dismiss or refuse to lemploy a worker, without “just ‘eause.” Many of the Mexican unions jhandle the placement of their mem- \bers; and this clause also strikes at union discipline. The “just cause” is not defined. In time of strikes jor lock-outs, the unions cannot “fo- jment reproachable acts against per- aes or property.” The labor dele- jgates to the convention asked: “Would picketing be considered a |The restrictions with regard to poli- | | Police Commissioner Grover A. Whalen, on ‘teave of absence from his $100,000 a year job as manager of the Wanamaker stores, es Up the Unions reproachable act? Would occupa- The bill, as proposed, superficially and acceptance of distributed lands. | tion of a factory be considered a re-| then the thought struck me what a/ |proachable act? Would the present |strike custom of sealing the doors lof an establishment with the union flag be considered a reproachable jact?” = The purposes of a labor union are it stands is adopted, a labor union may “foment and maintain discip- line, spirit, solidarity and profes- sional prestige among its members; it may foment saving and morality . +. and institute ... mutual aid and | insurance.” As a result of these provisions and other difficulties with the gov- ernment, the CROM delegates with- drew from the convention. The dele- | gates of the autonomous unions tem- porarily withdrew to demand guar- antees for all labor organizations from the president. As the bill now stands, it makes all revolutionary syndicalist action criminal, and it reduces the legiti- mate reasons for strike so de- cisively, that the unions remain tied hand and foot by the governmental authorities. While Portes Gil has protested that he is not against the workers’ movement, his attacks against the CROM, taken in conjunction with the foregoing legislation, tend to indicate that he is definitely bent upon weakening the workers’ posi- tion. On the Class War Front in Regions of the Pacific | | *(The Pan-Pacifie Worker.” Of-| ficial Organ of the Pan-Pacific the delegates from the Australian Trade Union Secretariat. (Austral- Trades Union Council, did not suc- ian Edition, 1928, Sydney, Aus-|ceed in being present at the confer- tralia, First Year, Nos. 1 to 10.) | ence (the Bruce conservative govern- | The contradicting interests of the ment took good care of this). At ‘greatest imperialist plunderers, the the conference, however, there were |U. S. A., England, and Japan, are represented: China, Japan, Korea, | interwoven on the Pacific. The prob- | Indonesia, the U. S. S. R., the Na- ‘lem of markets intensifies, making a|tional Minority Movement of Great tight knot of the contradictions be- | Britain, the Trade Union . Educa- tween these countries and bringing | tional League of the U. S. A., and ‘to the fore the “military problems,” lie, war for hegemony on the Pacific. In these conditions the Australian part, the trade union movement of |New South Wales) concretely puts labor centre, proposing, for this pur- | Pose, to call a Pacifie Trade Union Congress. Pan-Pacifie Secretariat Formed 1927 The Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (P. P. T. U. S.) was founded at the Pacific Trade Union Conference, held in May, 1927, in |Hankow. The initiators themselves, jlabor movement (its most active! |the question of creating a Pacific) \the Unitary Trade Unions” of France. The Australian Trade Union Council subsequently adopted ‘all the decisions of the conference and affiliated to the P. P. T. U.S. Special Australian Edition. In view of the distance of Aus- tralia, the Pan-Pacifie T. U. Secre- tariat adopted a decision to publish a special Australian edition of its organ, the “Pan-Pacific Worker.” The ten issues published up to the present contain several interesting articles on burning themes of Pacific life. We find here articles on the heroic struggle waged by the revo- lutionary Chinese proletariat under | of the fact that the Schlesinger scab agents have destroyed the unions in the ladies garment trades. Now as to its chances for victory. Most important of all guarantees for success is the historical fact that the dress- makers, in all their history as unionists, have proven them- selves the’most determined and heroic fighters. While the workers in the cloak and fur industries have astounded the labor world with their two years of heroic struggle against the destroyers of their unions, the dress makers along with them, the dress workers have the added advantage of not having been through long and bitterly fought general strikes in 1926 as the other two categories of workers have. In their demonstrations of tenacity and rare fighting ability through- out two years of this fight against the bureaucracy, lies an- other guarantee that their struggle will end in the first big victory of the new Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union! the conditions of horrifying Kuomin- tang terror. The articles on Japan acquaint us with the struggle of the Japanese proletariat, with the prob- lems of the Japanese labor move- ment, with the wave of terror against the revolutionary trade union movement. The reviews on the trade union movement in other countries are brief, concise and in- teresting. ‘ Compulsory Arbitration Evil. The labor movement of Australia has for decades been stewing in com- pulsory arbitration; the bourgeoisie there have succeeded, by means of slight concessions through the arbi- tration courts, on the one hand, in educating a whole generation of well-intending trade union bureau- crats, who, having specialized in jurisprudence, represent the inter- ests and “lead” the struggle of the working masses before the arbitra- tion judges. On the other hand they have suc- ceeded in instilling into the working masses the belief that the arbitra- tion courts are “impartial” (the workers were wont to explain the rejection of their demands by the unfavorable attitude of the given pudge or the inability of their rep- resentatives to prove the justness of the workers’ demands); in poison- ing to a great extent the class-con- sciousness of the working masses with the idea of the harm of the class struggle and the advantage of arbitration settlement of disputes between labor and capital: here the race prejudices are still very strong amongst the working masses and the so-called “White Australia” slo- gan finds no small number of sup- porters. Offensive Against Unions | The labor movement of Australia was for long isolated from the world labor movement. The affiliation to the Pan-Pacific Secretariat is the first big step towards coming out on the world arena of struggle against capital. The class between the class interests of labor and cap- ital has especially intensifed recent- ly (this is shown by the recent dockers’ strike). The capitalists, with the support of the conservative gov- ernment, have commenced an of- fensive against the working class and its trade unions, Several laws have been passed, aiming at the complete disintegration of the labor movement. The Australian working class is faced with the task of re- organizing the trade union move- ment oh an industrial basis, the task of consolidating its ranks, the task of abolishing the arbitration system, and over the head of its apostles, of setting up a united front to give a set-back to the developing offensive of capital. Australian Problems In the face of these tasks the “Pan-Pacific Worker” acquires spe+ cial importance. The magazine is conducting a fight’against race prej- udices, widely propagating the idea of internationalism; it popularizes the decisions of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Conference, and is con- ducting an effective campaign for preparations for the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Congress. Australia occupies central place in the magazine. In the articles of Comrades Garden, Croft, Carpenter, and others, we are acquainted with the specific conditions under ‘which our comrades have to carry on the struggle. The articles on Australia fare particularly valuable, as they throw light on the problems of the Australian movement, which is comparatively little known, |strietly prescribed. If this law as) City and the mining camp at Ophir; | scenes of violence; Mormon poly- | gamy; to work at nine years in a mine; varied jobs at Salt Lake City; Haywood’s first strike; a little school between jobs; off to a remote mining camp in Nevada; the school of experience; a lover of books. Now go on reading.—Editor | . 8 PART VI. | I took a shotgun one day and) started up the canyon looking for when I grouse or sage-hen, ran across a Basque sheep-herder who suggested, “May- be you want deer?” I told him that would be fine. We went together to his camp on the ridge that divided Ea- gle Creek from Rebel Creek, where he got his rifle and we started around the summit toward a clump of seragely poplar trees, There was & thick undergrowth of manzanita. Point- ing to a big flat rock on one side of the wood, he handed me his rifle and said, “You go there. I stay) here few minutes. Then I go) through, maybe deer come out.” ba walked over and climbed up to the} flat rock, from which I had a clear| view of all that side of the woods. Presently I heard the crash of un- dergrowth, and out burst a beauti- ful big stag with splendid antlers. | I stared at him amazed, when he turned and bounded down toward | the bed of the creek, heading into the brush again. In a short time} the Basque came plodding through the manzanita over to where I was | sitting and asked me: “Did you see) \deer?” I told him that I had and| | started to explain what a big buck lit was. He interrupted me by ask- ing, “Why you no shoot?” Only | splendid shot I could have had at) | that buck! I tried to tell the Basque |that I had forgotten to shoot, but he took his rifle and marched off} without a word. I must have had lan attack of the “buck-ague.” If I had scared up the deer and left {the Basque to do the shooting we would have had venison for supper. One morning as I came out of the dry gulch on my way to the sta- tion I saw a bunch of saddle horses and a crowd of men in front of Andy Kinnigers place at the mouth of Willow Creek. I hurried on, and heard that Kinniger had been shot} and the surgeon from Fort McDer- mitt was then trying to find the bullet. It was somewhere in the dead man’s skull. I marveled at the skill with which the surgeon had re-} moved the top of the skull to probe | down the spinal column where the} bullet had lodged. Kinniger had been shot some time the previous evening while he was seated in a chair leaning back against a clump of willows. Later it was proved that Kinniger was killed by One Arm |Jim, a Piute Indian, who was ar-; | mine, Bill Haywood | | what’s up? rested, tried, and sentenced to hang. No one could find any motive for the Indian’s action, and every one| believed that he was an accessory. A petition was circulated and the sentence of One Arm Jim was com- muted to life imprisonment in the Carson Penitentiary. I saw him there many years afterward, when| I visited the pen to see Preston and! Smith, who were serving life sen- tences. These were two miners from Goldfield whose story I will tell later. I recall an interesting feature about the penitentiary yard, which had been made by excavating into the mountain side. A rough) half circle was dug out, leaving sheer walls, in places sixty to eighty feet high. On the floor of the yard} were the imprints of what must have been an elephant or mastodon of prehistoric times, also the foot- prints of a man which were half again as large as an ordinary man’s footprints. These impressions were made in mud apparently, but had hardened to solid rock, Involuntar- ily one followed the footprints as they led to the wall. There one-half of the animal’s track was left ex- posed, the other half was covered by eighty feet of solid rock and al- luvial soil. One realized that it was just a little too late; the animal had passed by, perhaps two hundred thousand years before. The wall of time had arisen to prevent our fol- lowing. Z People were sociable in the fron- tier country. A dance was quite an event, It would be planned some weeks ahead, and people would gather from thirty to forty miles around. It was not unusual for some of the ranchers with their families to drive forty miles to a dance, dance all night and all next day, then drive home, As for danc- ing partners, there were girls and old women from the ranches, and sometimes Indian squaws would take part. At an impromptu dance at Kinniger’s place Mrs. Snapp from the station at Rebel Creek played the dance music on a three- stringed fiddle, accompanied by Tom Melody, who had contrived a tam- bourine by putting beans in an empty cigar box. But more interesting were the In- dian foneos, where, in, a circle {eleprcd on the sary2-brush flat, the Indians weuld gather for their pow- wow and dance sometimes the|“General.” song, were thrillingly weird. The story of the massacre of the Piute Indians at Thacker Pass was told to me first by Jim Sackett, one of the volunteers who took part in the killing. I also heard the story from Ox Sam, a Piute who had made his escape, one of the only three survivors. I first heard this hair-raising nar- rative when old Sackett happened to be a chance visitor at the Ohio It began with an explanation of the many depredations on the part of the Indians throughout southern Oregon and northern Ne- vada, which caused the white men to organize a volunteer company which, he said, was for mutual pro- tection. This company had been famous as the crack Indian fighters of that section. Their quarters were at Fort McDermitt; from this base they scoured the country looking for Indians. McDermitt was on the western slope of the Santa Rosa range, in the mouth of a branch of the Quin River. Sackett was an old pensioner who roamed about the country doing lit- tle, as he was then too old to work much, There were only a few of his type left. He was at home in the mountains at the cabins of the prospectors or at the ranches along the river in the valley. He wore hi: hair and his beard long, both gri zled gray.. His eyes were weak and looked as though they were sore from alkali dust. As he talked he would squirt tobacco juice at an ob- ject he had located as a target. and hit it with remarkable pre { ion. His story started: “That day we had camped at the mouth of Willow Creek, just above where Andy Kinniger’s house stands now. We were settling down for a good night’s sleep when the call came for boots and saddles. Now The outfit was ready to move in a very short time, mules packed and horses saddled. The captain coming up pointed across the valley in the direction of what is now called Thacker Pass, saying, ‘If you look close you can see a fire there. Before dusk I thought I could see smoke but now I see the fire. It is an Indian camp. We've got to get there by daylight. We'll start when it gets a little darker.’ It was a long ride across the sage- brush’ flat and through the mea- dows as we got close to the river, which we had to swim. More mea- dows and then the sage-brush again. One of the horses stepped into a badger hole and broke his leg. We couldnt kill him until next day, They might have heard the shot and we did not want to alarm them. Here the company divided; part were sent ahead to ride down the.pass to the camp, a small detachment was left with the pack animals and extra saddle horses, the rest of us rode up the pass, “Daylight was just breaking when we came in sight of the Indian camp. All were asleep. We unslu our carbines, loosened our six shooters, and started into that camp of savages at a gallop, shooting through their wickiups as we came. |In a second, sleepy-eyed squaws and | bucks and little children were dart- ling about, dazed with the sudden | onslaught, but they were shot down |before they came to their waking |senses. The other detachmen* came | rushing in but did no shooting until they were close up. From one wickiup to another we went, pour- ing in our bullets. Then we d mounted to make a closer examina- tion, In one wickiup we found two little papooses still alive. One sol- dier said, ‘Make a clean-up. Nits make lice” When Charley Thacker spoke up, saying, ‘I’d like to keep those two if there ain’t no serious objection.’ Before it was decided, some one sang out, ‘There’s one get- tin’ ayay!’ He was already a mile off on a big gray horse going like the wind. Some of us began to shoot, several got on their horses and started after him. But it was too late, he escaped. They soon re- turned. Those of the Indians who were only wounded- we put out of their misery, and then mounted and rode away, Charley Thacker carry- ing his two papooses behind him.” These young ones grew to man- hood and were known as Jimmy and Charley Thacker. When I knew them they had gone back to-the no- madic life of the Indians. Bo} were fine, stalwart men; as men, I imagine, much better than those who helped kill their fathers an? mothers, relatives and friends. * 8 In the next instalment Haywood writes of how disillusioned he wos with Old Sackett’s tale of Indian “booze, bibles and bullets”; the fighting. The story of Sackett as amended by the Piute, Ox Sam; great Eight-Hour Day strike of 1886, and the Haymarket “Riots” reach young Haywood in far-off Nevada; the Knights of Labor. TRICK POLITICIAN LONDON, Jan. 10.—The fight for control of the Salvation Army treasury entered a phase of tricky politics. today, when “General” Bramwell Booth, whose administra- tion of millions of dollars worth of church property is under fire, of- fered to resign and turn over the loot to agommittee. Opponents say the committee is packed by the