The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 16, 1929, Page 6

Page Six seteaesnereeer DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1929 peudideiidiotaare me SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a r $4.50 six months 0 three months Published by the National Daily Worker Publishing Inc., Daily, Except 26-28 Union Square, N, ¥., Telephone, y 1696- Cable: “DAIWORK.” Ss ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE .. $2.00 three months and mail all checks to Worker, 26-28 Union New York, N. Y. Address The Daily Square, . Editor . Ass. Editor Mr. Matthew Woll Is Solicited “Woll has risen to the top through sheer ability and tireless energy. Samuel Gompers recognized his high qualities. . In short, he-has probably done more than. any other individual to lay down the policies of the American Federation of Labor. Trade unionists have allowed their thinking to be determined by what came out of the A. F. of L. conventions and what came out was decided by Woll. Now we are beginning to have doubts as to whether Woll-has been leading us fairly.” These words about Matthew Woll, vice-president of the American Federation of Labor and acting president of the big open-shop employers’ National Civic Federation, are re- produced (with our emphasis) from the little yellow weekly organ of the socialist party. They go to show with re- markable clarity the changes in that commercial field which might be called the labor-brokerage business. The American Federation of Labor has become a part of the imperialist war apparatus; its conventions have be- come orgies of imperialist jingoism in which not even hp- service to the working class is paid; the “fat boys” disdain even to wear the reformist mask, but stalk before the world in the livery of finance-capital. But what of the socialist party? Is the socialist party less imperialist than the A. F. of L. bureaucracy? Absolutely no. Not in any essential way. A slight difference of language is due only to variation of origin. Its leaders sup- port the imperialist war preparations with a thin pacifist veneer to make the support more effective; its great men (Charles Edward Russell, for instance) write of the “The Navy’s Heritage of Glory”; its political candidates endorse the murders by “our marines” in Nicaragua with only the | timid suggestion that the rape of Nicaragua should be “legal- ized,” and praise the “genuine triumph” of the criminal im- perialist Pan-American conference. The socialist party in every test without exception throws its full weight upon the side of the trade-union bureaucrats, agents of the employers, against the workers—as proven most recently in the coal strike, the textile strike and the needle trades struggle.. The socialist party is a party of the police; it isa party of middle class support to the imperialism of finance-capital. Just as the A. F. of L. represents the support of the.trade-union bureaucrats and the upper strata, the labor aristocracy, of the working class. But the socialist party is pouting at Mathew Woll, the bureaucrat par excellence. Why? The quarrel is based upon Woll’s action in having the A. F. of L. convention condemn the socialist party’s favorite institution—the school of class collaboration corrup- tion, Brookwood Labor College. Brookwood Labor College teaches workers to support Mr. Woll and the trade-union bureaucracy. Through Brookwood college the socialist party and its blood-brothers, the petty-bourgeois reformists, do all in their power to train young workers (who usually come with a tendency to vague “radicalism”) to be “reasonable,” to “‘see the other (the capitalist) side” and to find “radical” reasons for supporting reaction. The socialist party caresses Mr. Woll, but Mr. Woll spurns her caresses. Therefore the socialist party is “beginning to have doubts as to:whether Woll has been leading us fairly.” The dirty little S. P. organ writes literally: “A word to you directly, Brother Woll: “You can judge that we are deeply perturbed by your develop- ment. You have ability. You are diligent. But are you not on the wrong track?” Tt then proceeds to threaten to let out the secrets of the sordid menage which it has maintained with Woll, Sigman, Kaufmann, Lewis; McMahon and their like during the coal- mining, the textile and the needle struggles. Like a scold- ing mistress it nags Mr. Woll with questions such as “Is it true that you tried to defeat the Passaic textile strikers. . : . - » « Is it true that you acted as an informer to the police on the Communist leaders of the fur strike of 1926 .. .”— ete., etc. Of course in most ‘of the crimes she mentions, as in the two we cite here, the socialist party was equally guilty, or as nearly so as her position permitted. What is the reason for this limited, this hesitant, this love-laden scolding of Woll by the socialist party? Well, Mr. Woll and the bureaucracy he represents, think they don’t need the socialist party, think they retain a greater respectability in public dissociation from the miserable so- cialist party. And the miserable socialist Party is haggling on the street with Mr. Woll, whom she has served well, to return _to the menage by daylight, before the whole world. But whether Matty Woll accedes to the solicitation or not, _the socialist party, scolding and whining, will nevertheless thrust her affections upon him. ‘Can’t Pay Total Graft Taken by Sewer Gang If the city government goes ahead told Mayor James J. Walker and the ith the plans to assess upon the | Board, sitting as a committee of the “axpayers of Queens County the en- | hole. of the Ji Pieri A Tf you put these charges against rs he Jamai ._|the people we might as well close mean confiscation of their/our homes. If you put us out of a delegation from that|business you will lose our taxes.” protested/at the meeting of |The biggest item is the $3,000,000 rd. of, Eestimate here yes-|graft taken by Phillips, Connolly, and their friends in and out of office spokesman, |in Queensboro, $ ‘pay it,” the By Fred Elis BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK Party Pre-Convention Discussion | Yor Comrade:— | In almost every issue of our press la hefty wallop is taken at Calif- |ornia. Our sins are so many and are so glaring that everything else | lis shoved into the background and | District 13 is given the spotlight. Now, what have we done that des- ferves so much ink and labor? | | We issue an Open Letter to the socialist party which chalienged ihat ghost to a debate—and this is a right wing error. We admit this sin, but we would like the member- ‘ship to know that it was committed on the instructions that were tele- jgvaphed to our district organizer from Detroit by Bertram D. Wolfe that we issue an open letter to that | ghost (a copy of that telegram has | }since been forwarded to the C. E.| C). When I was shown the draft jof the letter I asked who in hell was |the father of this dumb idea and I {was shown B. D. W’s. telegram. Of jeourse, that ended the matter, for Lk, D. W. is a member of the Ma- | jority and to question the wisdom of one of the Majority of the Cen. tray Executive Committee is sacri- lege. Next, according to this same B. D. | W., our membership is sixty per cent made up of peddlers and house jwives. That is to be admitted es. |pecially in Los Angeles, which, by |the way, is the stronghold of the | Lovestone faction: also if it was not jfer these people the Lovestone fac |tion would hardly have a singl | vote in the whole district. We also fot out a leaflet on the occasion of |the visit of the fleet, in which we} |“welcomed the fleet” instead of the |sailors and marines; but we are not expert yet at writing leaflets, and we are willing to learn. Strangé as it may appear we only learn by try- “Mission Worker” for the distribu- fout to get signaturé and then hops, the Ford factory; also the! structions to our workers who went | viet Russia.” It cost us good money, nnd maybe he remembers what he tion of which we have one of our |pouring a bucket of whitewash all) was told about this same leaflet in jcomrades under a thirty day sen- | over theniselves by allowing a cer- | a letter which I wrote him at the ‘tence which we are appealing to|tain Codkind to be responsible for |time, and also what he was told the higher court. Likewise, we gave|the same. We ask the question, |‘vhen he journeyed over to Moscow. our friend Hoover a nice reception |when was the individual first made |If he doesn’t, I can refresh his mem- ‘at Palo Alto, at which none of the jresponsible for the Central Execu- jer, for I still have it in print in |Lovestone faction were present as they were busy holding a caucus meeting in the city of Oakland, at ich a comrade Yusem from New York was the central directing fig- |tive Committee? Our idea is that \the C, E. C. is responsible for Teav- | jing such a codfish in charge of any | work whatsoever, in fact, we are ‘king ourselves: how did this fish jihe International. Now why is District 13 in bad |chased out? That is what I am lure. I would also point out that /ever get into the Party? This set now going to explain. Our D. E. C. this District is the only one in the |of instructions has made us the |js composed of workers and the col- U. S. A. that has ever got out a/|laughing-stock of the whole world, \lege goofs with lawyers’ and pro- |Chinese paper under the Party’s)as anybody can see if they only |fessors’ diplomas have been given auspices: also a Japanese paper jread the article entitled “An ithe gate; and this D. E. C. got out which comes out monthly. Further, | Americar: Election Document” that |its own instructions to the election ell work along the Oriental line sppeared in the English Internation- | workers ahead of the one that the comes out of District 18. And any reader of the “Labor Unity” cr the |“Marine Workers Voice” wiil usu- ally find an article by Frisco workers in each issue. Again, we are accused of not having one shop nuclei. Every season for the last three years we ve had one shop nucleus, and etimes two in the lumber indus- ‘y alone to my own personal know- 3 we also have them in Oak- md in the cotton mills, in the Southern Pacific shops in Frisco and likewise, there are papers being issued in Oakland. We issued a leaflet on the unem- oyed, and B. D. W. tore one sen- tence out of it and construed it to ‘suit himself—he also did the same thing at Moscow. Let me assure the Party members that District 13 is quite willing to be criticised, but not in this manner. We want con- struction--not destruction, and the \latter is what we have been getting. | Why is this? District is in opposition to our Cen- \tral Executive Committee on politi- jeal policies. We don’t like their jmethod of endorsing socialist party jcandidates nor do we like their ac- ing to do things where we are open | tion in turning over sixteen thous- to error, yet the only way that we ‘ean learn is by trying to do things, for only dead men never commit an error. Next, no shop papers have been \issued. I have to admit that we have not issued as many papers as we might have done if we had the \tunds to get them out, but many jbulletins have been issued: to the marine workers, the Southern Paci- jue Passaic workers to the tender mercy of the A, F. of. L. Here was a fine nuclei for a foundation of a united textile workers organization, and after showing them the way to fight and geti somewhere we betray them to the fakers, and then go to it again in New Bedford with an- other bunch of raw recruits. We cppose the Majority because of their action in getting out a list of in- It is because this! |ai monthly, We are against this policy of | White-washing, which was also used jin the case of the writer Sherman: why was he made the goat? How long is it since a writer has been re- sponsible for the articles published in our papers? What do we have editors for: it so that writers lcan give their material direct to the printer and say to him “Put this fish sont us, I am of the opinion that no other District did anything ‘of the kind and I am enclosing a copy of these instructions so you can print them for the benefit of the Party membership and see how they like them. Moreover our Dis- trit Executive Committee sees to it thet the policy they lay down is carried out, and they keep a careful eye on the D. 0. Also remember th the Central Executive Com-| |mittee, and why must our D. O. be} Copyright, 1929, by Interna- | tional Publishers Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Republication for- bidden except by permission. ae ie | By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD | SYNOPSIS. |} In previous parts Haywood wrote of his boyhood among the Mormons at and near Salt Lake City where he was born in 1869. Went to work when nine years old in a mine. Told of his first strike; how he was affected by of Indian fighters from both youth in the wild west; learns of the Knights of Labor; life in a remote Nevada mine; he marries; does his bit as a cowboy; tells the seamy side of cow-punching; takes his wife to live at the de- serted army post, Fort McDer- mitt. Now go on reading.—Edi- | tor. * * * PART IX. (Continued.) We saw dust coming up the valley road one day and wondered who it might be. Looking again a little later, we could see a sorrel team and a light bug- }gy, but we did | not recognize the occupant even when he pulled into the yard. We went out and asked him to un- hitch and have supper. He told us his name was Henry Miller. We had never seen |him before, but knew him as one of the biggest ranch owners of the West. Putting his team in the barn after watering the horses and giving them a feed of Hay, we took Miller to the house and seated him in the Wm. D. Haywood jsupper, One of us—there were only two men on the ranch at that time— reached up and took down a package of coffee from the shelf, when Mil- jler broke in: “Now I see why Hoppin jgoes broke. He feeds de ranch- {hands Arpuckle’s coffee! No vunder he goes broke; I vould go broke, too, \if I gif my men Arpuckle’s coffee!” |We did not comment on this out- iburst, as the coffee seemed cheap enough to us. In the course of the evening Henry Miller told us how jhe had made his tremendous fortune. | |He said: “I starts out mit a basket of meat on my arm; I peddles it |from house to house. I make me not ,vYun fortune, but tree fortunes; I |make vun fortune for Lux, vun for de goddam lawyers and tibves, and jvun for mineself. If it vas not for \de goddam lawyers and tieves, I own \now de whole dam state of Cali- \fornia. Anyhow, I got it some land; I can travel from mine wheat ranch jin Modesto to de Whitehorse ranch in Oregon mit a team and stop on |mine own land every night.” Lux) |was his business partner; Miller and} |Lux was a powerful firm of meat- raisers and wheat-growers in Cali- on the front page with box car head- | that we did not want this D. 0. ‘We | fornia, which exploited the state in ing” or is it to see that only such asked for someone else, but the C. the early days. material as suits our policy goes into the paper? made that Minor went out of town. |Well, what if he did, someone is him; and now when we work to-! gether harmoniously the D. 0. has! | responsible for putting the fool into |his place that allowed this article |to appear, and what is this fool do- ling’as sub-editor on our paper any- l\way? Is he or she still holding lento the job? | Again, this opposition doesn’t like the action of Max Bedacht in the case of the coal miners. Who |authorized him to set himself up in jopposition to the instructions of the R. IL. U.? Where did he get his |dignity from that he felt was hurt so much, and if a “drunken bum”, as Bedacht called a certain individ- jual could do the job, why could not |the sober Bedacht do it better? | Was it because he had some salary ewing to him which he demanded should be paid, and is this the rea- son that he is called to a responsible position in the Party? Or is it be- cause he is a member of the Love- stone faction? We \in California stiJl remember his wonderful leaf- let “Strike a Million Blows for So- E. C. conveniently at that time did The excuse was |not have anyone that they could| |recommend to us, so we had to take |to be kicked out and a Useless is to replace him. | Comrades, that won’t work—not lin the West. It might in the East, "That is what we out but not here. Again, this District | |in the west would like to find out.|can give you the official election | count in every one of the 53 counties in the state. How many districts can do that even? Also we got a | big vote for our D. O. in his assem- lily district and they know us for |Communists and not as_tricksters. Tt was a vote that was class-consci- ous, not a pill peddler’s vote. Lastly, T want to cite our work in the unions | where our members have got res- |ponsible positions on their merits \and not by brass band noise. Now comrades, there is plenty more to write but I have to go on the job, so I will thank you in ad- vance for printing this, and remain, Yours, C. W. PILGRIM, Member S. F. Street Nucleus No. 10, District 13 MEXICO CITY (By Mail).—The |members of the Committee of Prole- itarian Defense, created in Mexico a few months ago, has made the fol- lowing declaration: The economic condition of th working class, seriously affected by the unemployment of tens of thou- sands of workers, impels. the Com- mittee of Proletarian Defense to take rapid action for the realization of trade union unification. Though being decidedly opposed to the chiefs of the Mexican Labor Confederation — CROM — whom we consider ideological agents of im- perialism, we have, from the begin- ning, done everything possible to prevent the dismemberment and the destruction of that organization. During the convention of the CROM, which took place in the first half of December, we proposed a plan of united struggle, for the purpose of defending the rights of the Mexican proletariat, seriously lendangered by imperialist reaction. The representatives of the CROM, in order not to awaken the wrath of ths masses, who desire a real unification, pretended to accept our taging our proposals after the con- vention, s There is no doubt that the bureau- eracy of the CROM thought that they will be able to continue to be- ‘ay the masses, but the masses, jlong “efore we expected, began to jrevolt and at last did revolt defi- |nitely. “PROSPERITY quarters of the Workers Interna- tional Relief from unemployed work- ers who are desperate because they are unable to feed their children. But none has come within the past few weeks as simple and appealing as the one from the soft coal fields of Indiana, The letter says: “Dear Comrades, “I have been instructed from the National Miners Relief Committee of Pittsburgh, Pa., that the N.M.R. have combined with the W.LR. and that the place was here in New York. So therefor I am appealing for aid for our comrades and bro- proposals in order to gain time, but | _ ‘with the evident intention of sabo- thers of Bicknell, Ind. who have been out of employment for 22 u Many trade unions have aban- doned the CROM and our Commit- tee considers it appropriate to con- stitute a real cldss organization which will safely unite the majority of the Mexican proletariat. The CROM ‘has already finished its rolé as the national organization of the masses; nothing more than ” IN INDIANA Appeals come daily to the head- months and these comrades axe not. getting any aid from any sources whatsoever as some of these bro- thers have been expelled from the U.M.W. of A. on account of being progressive for the National Miners Union, And some of them that have not been expelled had their com- missary stopped from the U.M.W.A, on account of speaking their senti- ments toward the corrupt officials of the U.M.W.A, “Hoping that you will be able to send us some aid, I will come to a closing, “Comradely yours, “Maurice Taburiaux, Sec’y-Treas., Dist. 11 N.M.U., Bicknell, Ind. “Davey Jones, President N.M.U., Bicknell, Ind.” The Workers International Relief 'City, New Mexican Trade Union Center to Be Established its bureaucratic central offices re- main. Its leaders, when they have been accused of embezzlement, have been unable to defend themselves, By the end of January, the Con- federacion General del Trabajo Uni- taria (United General Confedera- tion of Labor) will be an accom- plished fact. This confederation will be animated in its struggle by a strong international spirit, so that the Mexican proletariat may strong- ly feel the necessity of Latin Amer- ican and International Trade Union unity. The new unified Mexican Labor Federation will, side by side with its European brothers, undertake an intensive work of organization and struggle for solidarity. We are sure of this, having in view the admir- able and persistent efforts of the Red Trade Union International, tage (Signed) a7 A. SIQUEIROS E. BARRIOS is appealing to all workers not to let these militant miners and their families starve. Send all contribu- tions to the headquarters of the W. LR., 1 Union Square, New York ra We were always busy on the Hop- pin ranch. According to the season, |sheep-shearing, breaking _ horses, handling the cattle, or haying kept us on the go. There were three hay lranches, one alone of which was |three thousand acres. At this time Fort McDermitt was abandoned by the army. There was no industrial center anywhere near, and the Indians were practically all exterminated. My father-in-law was appointed custodian of the gov- \ernment property. My wife and I went to live alone at the old deserted army post until the family could ‘arrange to move there from Willow | Creek. | *_ * PART X. Homestead and Hard Times. The old fort was typical of many \of its kind to be found throughout |the West at that time. It was built in a hollow square around’a parade ground of / well-kept lawn. When entering the big gate in the barbed wire fence, the barns and stables were on the right, while on the left was a big granary, which was set up off the ground on piles. On top of each pile, before the sills were laid, a tin pan had been placed up- side down to prevent rats or mice from getting in. The soldiers’ bar- racks were on one side of the par- ade ground, the officers’ houses on the other. These were small but neat, well-built dwellings of lumber. The officers used to see that they were kept warm in winter, as they had great ricks of mahogany wood which cost from forty to sixty dol- lars a cord and which had to be brought on mule-back for long dis- tances on mountain trails, We took up our abode in what had been the captain’s house. Our furniture was scanty; there were neither blinds nor curtains at the windows, nor a carpet on the floor. A big bed, chairs, and a table, besides our cook- ing outfit, was the extent of our household goods, My wife spent her time making baby clothes. She startled me one morning sooner than we had ex- pected by saying that she was suf- fering from labor pains. We were alone. We had planned to get Mrs. Vance, who was acting as a midwife for her neighbors and who lived ten miles away. My wife said that she did not think the baby would come during the time it would take me to drive over and get the old woman, so I hitched up and started at break- neck speed for help. When I got to the Vance farm the old lady put on ‘ther hat and coat and got into the seeing a Negro lynched; stories | sides; his many. odd jobs as a | |kitehen while we set about preparing | wagon; I was not two hours in mak- | ing the twenty miles. Just ahead of us my wife’s father and mother pulled in from Willow |Creek. Mrs. Vance hurried into the house while I drove the team back |to the barn and left them for the old man to unhitch. I went to the house on a run, where I found that my wife’s mother had fainted when she heard her ‘daughter’s groans and realized what was about to hap- pen. There she lay on the floor. and as Mrs. Vance came into the room she, too, fell down in a faint. I went and got a dipper of water and threw it hastily in their faces, and left them where they fell. I have confronted many desperate situations but nothing so serious as this, and none that required the same nerve and coolness on my part. I did not know what had to be done, and I thought my wife was going to die, she seemed to be in such ter- rible pain, I said some words of encouragement to her as she lay moaning with the increasing pangs, and I grabbed the doctor book and hurriedly read all that I could find on childbirth. A baby girl was born. I had tied and cut the naval cord when Mrs. Vance came to her senses. I was too busy to notice her until, just as I was cleaning up the afterbirth, my mother-in-law also came out of her faint. At last they were calm enough to go and heat some water and wash my wife and the baby, who was as bright and healthy as though she had had expert atten- tion at her birth instead of only the unskilled help of her father. My wife came through safely. All through the confusion caused by the old ladies’ unaccountable behavior, she had kept cooler than any of us. While she was still in bed, Old Jim Horsehead, a Piute Indian, would come every morning and flatten his nose against the window pane and ask: “How you wife and baby?” He showed the greatest interest in the progress of the baby. The accusation of cruelty is only due to prejudice against the Indians; I have known many Indians and have found them more friendly and more loyal to their friends than many other people. In the Spring I joined a govern- ment surveying corps to plot that part of the country around Black Rock and Quin River Sink. Moran, the surveyor, had taken the precau- tion to get his men in good shape for the work. The first month we were busy preparing stakes, cutting |them the right length, sharpening |them, and running preliminary lines. In the month of April we did nine hundred miles of measured work, an average of thirty miles a day, Sundays included. After we were through survey- ing I went to Paradise Valley, where I worked during the haying for the Reese brothers. Aaron Reese was a russet-faced, heavy set Welshman with a red beard. There was a fine bunch of men. on his ranch who had a great store of good stories to enliven spare mo- ments, The way they broke horses to harness on this ranch gave me all the thrill of a Ben Hur chariot race, We would hitch a gentle, well-broken horse on the off side of a mowing-machine, having lifted the sickle bar and tied it securely. While the wild horse was being hitched beside the other, the driver would seat and brace himself. The men holding the wild horse would let go. With a desperate plunge to free himself from the contraptions that were all new in his life, the broncho would jump and rear at the {rattle and clatter of the machine be- |hind him. There was nothing to do |but let the horses run. The gentle horse would crowd when the rein |was pulled and make the wild one circle in wide rings. After a short time they were driven back and un- hitched. After two or three exer- cises of this kind we would put the colt to regular work cutting grass. I was with a threshing outfit that season after the haying was done. There were a lot of small farmers who had grain to thresh. We had a good crew of men with our ma- chine and put through more grain than had even been threshed in thar valley before. The boss of the out- fit wanted to pay twenty-five cents a day less than the previous season. Every man ‘on the job quit, leaving the threshing machine standing alone in the field. Up to this time I had never drunk much, and had gambled but little. chine everybody went to town. A dice game was running in Gillinan’s saloon. I began to play and before the night was over I had won every- thing but the key of the front door. Gillinan borrowed money and won back from me most of his property but the money I had won I sent home, . END PART X. * * * In the next instalment Hay- wood writes of how he took out a homestead; great hopes of in- dependence; working away from home to get a stake; the five one- eyed men; sleeping in the snow; rustling a job at Tuscarora; the nine man-killers; the story of Molly Forshay. Don’t miss it. ing private property| intionnlizing the en= terprines, the banks, which are at this moment engaged in organiz- jave exposed our- from all sides to we are making takes, Yet, the workers elves are creating socialism, many the mistakes M learn in im iand, of making revolutions wit! it mistakes.” From speech by Lenin. at mass meeting in Moscow, Lenin memorial meeting, January 19, in ~ The day we quit the threshing ma- °