The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 22, 1929, Page 2

Pennsylvania Capitalist DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1929 ~ Press Organizes to S ubp ADMIT CLAMPING | — Now Making mee for Herb LID ON STORIES OF MINE STRIKES Daily Worker Reporter Gets Facts Daily Work pondent. PITTSBURGH, J The edit- ors of the two Wil e pape the Record and the Times-Leac admitted today that ¢ labor news in + rdc« policy set Gown by ; Chamber of C r That John Boylan, United Mine Workers presi- was the statement of the managing editor of the Times-Leader. The Chamber of in a magnificent w the heart of the cit; ite annual report for list of “achievements’ year is one on page 9, headed favorable Publicity,” which read follows: “During the summer the Chamber discovered thai publicity in out-of-tow arding lvcal petty mine kes was still doing the anthracite industry considerable harm. “A committee of the chamber and the president met with local news paper publishers and asked their co-operation in eliminating such publicity. The local newspapers not only took steps immediately to min- imize unfavorable publicity in Boylan, who was formerly on the|out by the Bureau of Women and ;| Children, of the Pennsylvania De- executive committee of District 1 GROVER WHALEN “TAXI RULES CUT " DRIVERS’ WAGES. HELPERS CALLED Drivers Not Allowed | to Get Return Fare Continued from Page One ssive acts. They therefore in- tc. to carry on a vigorous fight |against the enforcement of the new traffic regulations, thru their or- | ganization. } “At the conclusion of the meeting ‘the following resolution was un- animously adapted: The enforcement of these regula- jtions will restrict our lawful rights |as citizens to the same free use with operators of other vehicles of the |public highways, and | The “cruising” cab is a direct re- sult of the failure of the city au- {ber of hack stands, and | thorities to provide a sufficient num- | Enforcement of these regulations | will work hardship on cab drivers |because it will seriously interfere | with their earning of a livelihood. | That a special committee of this |organization shall be present within |the proscribed zone to observe. and |take note of all acts of a discrimin- ‘atory nature which may be commit- \ted against cab drivers. —CHARLES KROLL, Record- ing secretary.” op; | | 3 WORKERS HURT READING, (By Mail).—Three ress All News of Labor Struggles Oil Imperialists Fight MEETING TODAY | OF POCKETBOOK Election of Important Committee Planned An important meeting of the Pock- etbook Helpers will be held today immediately after work m the office of the union, 53 W. 21st St., where nomination for a new committee and elections of an elections and objec- tions committee will be held. “It is absolutely essential that| all pocketbook helpers be present at) this meeting,” says the call issued} yesterday, “as the present union} agreement with the manufacturers | will expire within a few months, and| it will be up to the incoming Senn t it Cit Coll committees to put up a struggle} ror 4 ‘against the union bureaucracy ‘and| e ity ege \his classes Russell has made pro- the bosses in the interest of the | Shields Faculty Tool |paganda for this open-shop organi- |workers.” | of the Open Shoppers ‘zation and has attacked any expres- “Three years ago when the present . ak: a jagreement with the manufacturers | ion of opinion that was not thoroly jwas signed the progressive helpers’) DETROIT, (By Mail).—The ag-\reactionary in character. He waa committee Lometiven With tie BEOWres"| ininigtration, of Datnait: Clty, Collage |e ee te ee ae sive operators’ and pocketbook mak-| ‘ 4 St \Liberal Association from Detroit ers’ committees forced Shiplacoff |Cotinues its effort to stifle sear fe Caileve aud bi hiviiatt hanced land union officials to put out de-|protest at the presence in the fac-|Cit¥ College and in having it mands to the manufacturers. julty of one, Russell, a paid tool of joo meeting in the public library. “Unless the section committees are the Employers’ Association. | The statement of the Student Pro- also on the watch out this time they | iis Haile Hoa atgiathent ue and| tective Committee also declares that bs, ay tn ee i a Ore | adieu Brotactice Congntiiee, the Russell discriminated ‘against Negro ers sold. ont by the Shiplacoff .re-/* ‘ |Students. The recent Conference on face Se a ys = Trea eared the cnarees| Organization of Auto Workers, held MIAMI, Fla., (By Mail)—Florida Col. Robert Stewart (left), chairman of the board of Standard Oil of Indiana, reeking with Sinclair bonds graft and part of the American oil trust which is ready to precipitate war in its struggie against the British. Center, is John D. Rockefeller, who for diplo- matic reasons wants to oust Stewart. Right, another view of Stewart, in this city, also passed a resolu-| jof the Employers’ Association. In) U.S. CAPITALISTS IN CUBA DEMAND LARGER PROFITS Want Sugar Imports Tax Free WASHINGTON, Jan. 21.—United States sugar growers in Cuba have prevailed upon the Cuban govern- ment to ask for a revision of tariff \duties on sugar imported fo the United States and will press their case against competitive interests in America before the House ways and means committee today when it con- siders the revision of the Fordney- McCumber tariff act. The arguments that the Cuban delegation has presented in favor of free importation of Cuban sugar, however, reveal much of interest in relation to the workings of Yankee imperialism. Their complete subser- viency to the Yankee business men is contained in their full support of the Platt amendment to the Cuban constitution. They point out that today Amer- jica’s interests in Cuba amount to '$1,500,000,000, while American ship- ping and banking interests have ad- vantages over those of other nations jand 62 per cent of Cuban interests jin 1927 came from the United States. |It was also pointed out that Cuba |pays $150,000,000 in duties to the |United States, chiefly in sugar. Beet sugar interests in this coun- papers here, but at a regional meet- tcok Cappellini’s place, when the partment of Labor, workers were severely injured in a lorganized workers are increasing ‘teats against the students. The ing of newspaper publishers, held in Easton during November, Colcnel Smith of the Times-Leader and the secretary brought the situation to the attention of the publishers rep- resenting many cities, and assurance | was given that. the matter would re- ceive their future atention.” In giving a copy of the annual re- port to the Daily Worker represen- tative, it was said that these reports were supposed to be for members of the Chamber of Commerce only. | Upon reading of this co-operation hetween the Chamber of Commerce and the local newspapers, the Daily Worker representative called on Williem Dougherty, acting man- aging editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, at 44 W. Market St., -the one evening paper, a paper boasting a circulation of 29,000, and having as its slogan: “Progress, In- | custry, Home, Business.” Mr.) Dougherty, when asked if this state- | ment of the Chamber of Commerce | was true, thal his paper had agreed | not to carry news of strikee, very , amiably said: “Why, sure. You see; dur business men have to get | credit, generally from New York. ! When they try to put through some deal, ‘a bunch of clippings about lo- cal strikes are flashed in their faces, ahd it isn’t so good; they don’t get | the credit.” Mr. Dougherty, when asked if his paper wesn’t supposed to print news, rather than suppress it at the re- quest of the Chamber of Commerce, | Said: “Ch, well, a lot of those strikes | don’t amount to much, anyway, and there’s nce sense in hurting business. Business was shot to pieces as it! was, after the last big strike. As a matter of fact,” confided Mr. Dougherty, “the Chamber of Com-' metce likes to brag little. We had, that idea ourselves as soon as they did!” When Mr. Dougherty was re-| minded that probably the majority | of his readers were miners, and their families, who might resent this anti- labor policy of the Times-Leader, he said: “Don't worry about that. John Boylan, president of District 1, U. M. W. A., came up here and we sat down and talked it over and he, agreed it wae the best poricy to play | down these unimportant strikes. _ STATEME! _ 8. The majority (Zam) group of the NEC, true to its tradition, turns) down the proposal for unity on the! basis of the line of the CYI letter.) The line of the CYI letter has been) ignored and the warnings against] fractionalism towards the mincrity] have been disregarded, and a new reign of factional organizational] ures have been taken against) he minority. The crassest example this disregard of the CYI decision | the NEC majority (Zam group) its refusal to transmit the CYI| press letter to the membership | “@ period of over one month, and | did so upon receipt of a cable/ the CYI which states) nsmit letter immediately to lo- | organizations in accordance with | lium decisions.” Linked up) this is its failure to figh it or even protest (anothe (Continued) latter was ousted last fall. The Daily Worker representative then went io see the city editor of the Wilkes-Barre Record, the one morning paper, which claims 28,000 readers. This paper was founded in 1832 and dcesn’t seem to have caught up. Mr. Robert Johnson was in his office at 9 North Main St. When asked if his paper also took orders from the Chamber of Com- merce, he was a little more cautious. “I think this statement refers to a conference,” he said, “where the cuestion came up. Of course, it does hurt business to have continuous news stories about strikes. Un- doubtedly in the past we have over- emphasized these strikes. Especially these killings ir Pittston,” said the smooth Mr. Johnson, “were greatly ever-emphasized.” He referred to the brutal murders of the insurgent miners, Alex Camp- be, ‘Thomas Lillis and Pete Reilly, who were murdered last February, to the killing in cold blood of Frank Bonita and young Jacob Loyack, last November—all militant work- ers fighting for the rank and file, in the neighboring town of Pittston, Pa., where the Lewis-Cappellini- Boylan machine is in power. The policy of mum on all labor stuff is being carried out a hundred per cent. Yesterday, 200 miners of Maxwell Colliery, No. 20, of the vowerful Lehigh-Wilkesbarre Coal Co. went on strike, because one of the mule drivers was fired. When the foreman tried to persuade one of the miners to scab, he told him where to get off, in no uncertain terms. This miner was a member of the new National Miners Union. The man fired was reinstated today and the miners went back to work. Among those striking was Al Stroll, Subdistrict Organizer of the Young Workers (Communist) League, Neither Wilkesbarre paper carried a line on this local strike. Among the bosses who get all the breaks from the two Wilkesbarre papers are the mill owners. Some more distortions of facts are printed in this evening’s Times-Leader re- garding what it calls a “human in- terest story of 14 and 15 year old Pennsylvania boys and girls in in- dustry,” based on a report gotten :| up committee to « onsider this ques- 5) and in its place the following fac- | tional acts of aggression took place: (a) Refusal to elect William- son DO in New York despite the recommendation of Chitaroy (Secretary of the CYT). (b) Removal of Don and Rijak from the New York, D, E. C. (c) Removal of Mates Pittsburgh D. 0. (d) Sending Rijak to Buffalo, where League is practically non- existing. (e) Refusal to send comrades of minority to speak against Trot- skyism and refusal to print NEC minority statement against Trot- skyism. (f) Refusal to send comrades of minority to districts represent- ing NEC on questions of practical work, The report states: “One fourth of the continuation school children (i. e. children between 14 and 16 years old who work but have to go to school one day a week—Ed.) had gone no further than the sixth grade in school, the minimum educational | requirement for eligibility for an| employment certificate.” The mill owners’ friend, the Times-Leader, distorts it as follows: “The report | shows that one-third of all children | of 14 and 15 years at work in the industries of the state have had an eighth grade education or better. | while three-fourths have had more than the law requires.” But worse! than this, the Times-Leader wants | no one to think that “these little} workers,” as it calls them, are forced | to work because their fathers and | mothers don’t get enough to live on. Oh, no. It explains the presence of the 25,000 children in industry ‘in Pennsylvania, by purporting to again quote from the report (an ab- solute fabrication). It wants its | readers to think that the children | prefer toiling in factories and mills | to going to school and playing, so it | says: “Opportunity for work, rather than economic need, would seem to influence children leaving school to} enter industry.” British Owned Arabs _ | Kill American Agent, | Kellogg Investigates | WASHINGTON, Jan. 21—A clash \of empires may be involved in the | action of the state department, which tonight cabled the American | consul at Bagdad to investigate at once the reported killing of Henry A. Bilkert, American missionary at | Basrah, by tribesmen, who are Brit- | ish proteges, more or less. This action was taken after a tele- phone call to the department from | the secretary of Charles R. Crane in |New York. Crane, a wealthy Chi- | manufacturer and formerly | cago American diplomat, with his son, | John, were reported to have been | \traveling by automobile with Bil- kert when attacked. Crane is Inter- | ested in exploiting Arabs in compe- | tition with the British, and all sorts |of rumors are current. ' tion’ asking the board of education | ‘TY PPose the Cuban proposal and collision of two food lorries at Cal-/theid demand that a state compensa Statement declares that Russell open-ito dismiss Russell from the public| ily boasted that he was in the pay |school system. cot-Lane, near Reading. ition law be established. “Prosperity” i | | | | | urge even a higher tariff on Cuban |sugar in order to safeguard them- aiceceiaige | selves. Before the committee will jalso appear the United States pup- pets in the Philippines, Hawaii and Porto Rico. 7 Members of Family Killed in Collision of Auto With Train Seven members of an El Paso fam- ily were killed and an eighth was critically injured in a grade crossing tragedy at Finlay, Tex., 75 miles east of here Sunday. The dead are: Alejandro Hernan- dez, 50; Bernadina Hernandez, 23; Esquel Hennandez and his wife, Alejandro Hernandez, Jr., Juliana Hernandez, 5, and Maria Hernandez, 1. Francisco Hernandez, 2, is near death, hospital attaches said. Simon | Hernandez, a stepson of Alejandro, sustained fractures of both legs, but is expected to survive. The family was returning to El Paso from Big Springs, Tex., when their machine was struck by the Sunset Limited, crack Southern Pa- cific passenger train. African Natives Revolt Against | Slave Conditions | (Crusader News Service) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, | (By Mail).—An outbreak of disease |as a result of unsanitary conditions | forced on the native workers is re- |ported from the Namaqualand State jdiamond fields, the scene of a recent {outbreak against slave conditions. Poor wages and stringent regulations \prevail, making virtual slaves of the workers. The state of unrest is rapidly be- coming so general that fresh rein- forcements of police are being sent |from Pretoria to Port Nolloth, to be held in readiness against the work- ers and “drastic measures” have been threatened by the South African government. . E. C. MINORITY ON LETTER OF THE COMMUNIST YOUTH INTERNATIONAL (g) Refusal to remove Green | 2s Buro member, altho never | elected by NEC, but by the Buro itself. (h) Carrying out in a fake manner the decision of the CYI | for a partial renewal of leader- | ship. NEC majority refuses to re- lease comrades on NEC who are old and completely out of League | | work and draws in to national | | leadership such comrades as Flai- | ani, Salzman, Manes, instead of accepting minority proposal to set tion seriously and report in a | couple weeks. | Since these actions the CYI has} cabled: “Remind you our letter ‘states repressions against minority | impermissable,” but the NEC, jignores it and instead of answering, these charges tries to create a smoke | _sereen around these factional actions | by perverting other issues. The pro-| posal to make Williamson DO in New York is interpreted in the} | majority NEC letter as “removing |DO’s for sole reason of supporting |majority,” without telling the mem- | |bership that this was the recom- |merdation of the leading comrades \of the CYI. | 9. The CYI Congress has placed before every section its main tasks in the present period. The main tasks of the American League is to ibe alert to the War Danger—be- come the leader of the working youth in the struggles against the War Danger and the growing en- croachment of the bosies on the ‘factories, trade unions, mass organi- |youth, build shop nuclei, draw pro- | League. political and economic fields. We} must develop our mass work in the| zations, unemployed, armed force: and auxiliaries, among the Negro} letarians into Lh League and build) a proletarian leadership, ete. In| connection with this we must recog-| nize and rectify the following out- standing weaknesses: 1. The poor social and national composition of the League. The NEC views with alarm the great | growth of student elements in the League and will work out direc- tives with the DEC’s to turn the face of the League to the prole- tarian youth. This phenomenon is not accidental but shows a decisive incorrect line of approach towards the working youth by the entire Linked up with this is the developing of new proletarian leadership coupled with a renewal of the entire leadership by releas- ing some comrades to the Party. This proletarianization must not be a mere gesture and these prole- tarian comrades must not be mere appendages, but must be ac- tually developed as the political leadership of the League. The NEC views with alarm such situa- tion as the composition of the Dis- trict training schools, where cx- clusive of New York, the composi- tion of the other 5 training schools were from 75 to 90 per cent high school students and other non-pro- Ietarian elements. Also the situa- tion in the New Ye-k Buro under the leadership of comrade Her- berg, where of five comrades added to the New York Buro since March, only one was a proletarian. 2. The decrease in our eco- nomic trade union work and the practical liquidation of this de- partment on the NEC. This is a reflection of our changed social composition. While there was ac- tivity in those sections (Pennsyl- vania, Colorado, and New Bed- ford) where the young workers, without the League being respon- sible in any way, engaged in eco- nomic struggles, this activity dic not find sufficient youth forms and in the case of the new left wing trade unions (miners, tex- tile and needle trades) insufficient has been accomplished in organi- zing youth sections or conducting sufficient youth forms of activity. While some progress was made in calling youth conferences, these were, with the exception of Pitts- burgh coal mining conferences, without a real basis in the work- shops or among the young workers, tories, is the only way to root the League in the work shops for our basic tasks for organizing the working youth and combatting the war danger. 8. Negligence towards and un- derestimation of Negro work. The first prerequisite to successful Negro work is to conduct a sys- tematic campaign against white chauvinism in the League. With- out that Negro work is impossible. Linked up with this we must con- duct an ideological campaign among the membership for the | line of the CI, which considers the Negro question not only as a ra- cial question, but as a racial-na- tional question, with the necessity of building’ up such a movement with the proletariat as the driving and léading force of this move- ment. While we have as our cen- tral slogan “social and political equality” we also raise the slogan of “self determination for the Ne- groes” in our propaganda. In every phase of activity concrete tary drill and especially recom- mend the creation of workers de- fense corps on such occasions as the outbreaks in the Anthracite, Pittsburgh and New Bedford strikes. Intensified anti-work in the armed forces and auxiliaries —properly conducted anti-war agitation—specific agitation in the factories, etc.—this is the method combat the war danger. 5. The N.E.C, again empha- sizes that our united front tac- tics must be from below, based on the young workers. It is in- correct to have united front movements with petty-bourgeois organizations alone. If there is a strong proletarian base, an excep- tional case may be made of in- viting a petty-bourgeois youth or- ganization, which has influence over young workers, to the united front conferences, but the united front miners relief conferences held in Buffalo and Kansas City, based on a majority of church and opponent youth organizations, ‘and above all, in no case were | measures must be taken to recruit | were incorrect. they followed up. The exclusion | Negro working and farming youth | 10, The statement of the major- of the Young Workers League | into the League. A comrade should |ity (Zam) group of the N.E.C, on from the conference calls of Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh was in- correct. We must consider our economic trade union activity as one of our basic tasks, emphasiz- ing the need of real individual and collective work in this field, crea- tion of youth séctions in left wing unions, creation of broad economic auxiliaries where impossible to form unions immediately and a systematic daily work in the fac- be sent to the South immediately. 4. Altho some progress has been made in combatting pacifism, strong tendencies still exist (ac- centuated by influx of students in past year). These must .be com- batted energetically, The N.E.C. recognizes as adventuristic and provocative, the proposed meas- ures of introducing military train- ing with arms in the district schools, We are in favor of mili- the C.Y.I. letter is simply a more subtle expression of the Party Pol- com attack on the C.Y.I, The state- ment of the N.E.C. majority does not endorse the C.Y.I. letter. It does not mention once the political line of the C.Y.1. letter, and by this omission demonstrated its opposi- tion to this political line. Further, _|the N.E.C. statement tries to pose the May C.Y.I. letter against t! October letter,'in this way to con- fuse the membership and evade the sharp criticism of the C.Y.I. letter, “forgetting” to point out that the October letter of the C.Y.I. states that the progress referred to im the May letter, lasted only so long as there was unity in the League, and this unity “was marred by the un- jcritical attitude of the Executive of the League to the Right errors of the Party.” The reference to self- criticism is mere words and every deed of the N.E.C. majority rejects these empty words. The statement gives a blanket endorsement of the Party Polcom activities, not con- demning, but ignoring the Anti C.Y.I. and Anti Comintern state- ment of the Party Polcom against the C.Y.I. letter. Instead of accept: ing the line of the C.Y.I. as a basis of a united League, the N.E.C, majority evades this political line and attacks the N.E.C. minority) who stand on the basis of this letter! and defend it against the attacks of the Party Polcom without th< assistance of the N.E.C. majority, The N.E.C, majority (Zam) grouy refuse to endorse the letter of the C.Y.1. Unity is only possible by unre. served acceptance and endorsemen! of the C.Y.I. line and letter—criti. cal attitude towards Party group: ings and vigorous attack againsi both the Right danger in our Party and against Trotskyism—immediat breaking of connections by th: majority (Zam) group with th Lovestone group in the Party—car rying into effect the tasks given & the American League by the C.Y.1 Li EL PASO, Tex., Jan, 21 (UP).—