The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 29, 1929, Page 6

Page Six Baily SZ Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party | York only): | 3 $4.50 six months 8 three months ty ew York): 0 six months Address and nm The Daily Square, > The “Kaiser’s Socialist” Confesses “I then saw the situation clea power to the workers and soldiers!’ yince—a branch of the Soviet? I knew their slogan, ‘All Germany a Russian pro- a thousand times no!” These. words are from the confession, not of a crown prince, not of a white-guard officer of the Kaiser’s army, not of some court prostitute of Potsdam—but from the con- fession of Philip Scheidemann, leader of the social-democratic party of Germany and one of the chiefs of the Second Inter- national of which the Socialist Party of the United States is a part. The words are quoted from “Memories of a Social- Democrat,” Scheidemann’s latest book, published in Dresden, Germany. The time was just before the abdication of the Ke in 1918. “Comrade” Scheidemann had just looked out of a win- dow and seen a demonstration of workers and soldiers. He was at the time awaiting anxiously the pleasure of the “All Highest” Wilhelm Hohenzollern who, he respectfully hoped, will soon resign merely in order to quiet the masses. Scheide- mann is still “His Majesty’s Minister” and is still loyal, but he takes the liberty, in view of the extreme situation, of tele- phoning to the Kanzlerei to ask whether the Kaiser has re- signed yet. After the workers were pouring out onto the streets shouting for revenge upon the imperial government (of which he is still a minister) Mr. Scheidemann becomes so “bold” as to resign even before Wilhelm has abdicated. He sees the streets flooded with the red tide of workers and soldiers, topped with glittering bayonets. It was the Revo- lution. The streets rang with the cry: “All power to the workers councils!” And so Mr. Scheidemann, Morris Hillquit’s present leader and even then a steady contributor to the Jewish Daily For- ward, knew that the moment of the German workers’ Revo- lution—the moment toward which the whole working class movement had looked forward for three-quarters of a century —was at hand. Red Germany! The German Socialist Soviet Republic! A Union of Socialist Soviet Republics extending from the Pacific Ocean to the English Channel... But this was a nightmare to Herr Scheidemann, the Kaiser’s socialist. “No! A thousand times No!” writes he, in describing his role at the time. And then Mr. Scheidemann did his bit again for the enemies of the German working class. He rushed to the Reichstag building, peered through a window at the demonstration that filled the square, and shouted that the “Republic is proclaimed!”* Scheidemann is perfectly cold-blooded about it. In his very expensive volume of memoirs he admits that the purpose | of his action in “proclaiming the Republic” was to defeat the | DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1929 eee Ld " By KARL REEVE. It is now generally recognized | that tremendous economic changes have taken place in the South. North- ern finance capital has been poured into the South by the millions of | workers’ movement which would otherwise surely bring into a being a workers’ Soviet Republic. It is the confession of a political sneak-thief, a stool- pigeon in the labor movement. But Scheidemann tells it with- out a sign of shame. He makes no secret of the fact that his purpose is to hold the German capitalist class in the saddle at any cost. In the early days this was done by deception, by the lying and sneaking and conspiring with the big capi- talist chiefs which has become a highly developed art of social-democracy throughout the world—just as, on a smaller scale as yet, it is an art practiced by the Socialist Party leaders here in the United states, in every class struggle. But later came “Comrade” Noske’s turn with the guns of the white-guard regiments turned against the masses of workers in Berlin and the Ruhr and throughout Germany. The merci-, less spilling of rivers of the workers’ blood upon the streets of Berlin was the final triumph of this “working class leader.” Scheidemann went through many stages: As the Kaiser’s flunkey who, with his party, voted the war credits and helped to mobilize the workers for the imperialist war; again as the Kaiser’s flunkey whose party boasted that it alone prevented revolution from interrupting the imperialist war; once more as the Kaiser’s flunkey who did all in his power to keep the “All Highest” on, the throne; again the flunkey who “pro- claimed the Republic” only as a last resort to prevent the establishment of the workers’ rule; yet another time as the flunkey-butcher who slaughtered the workers to keep the bourgeoisie in power; and finally the flunkey who strove to the limit of his power to bring about an imperialist encircle- ment ard final bloody crushing of the Union of Socialist Republics! This is Scheidemann, the shameless. To mention his amazingly servile boasts of the Kaiser’s patronizing compli- ments to him for his political sneaking for the government during the war; would be to complete the picture. And there is nothing unusual or strange about all of this —except the frankness with which it is told! Scheidemann is not some strange exception—he is the typical “socialist” of today. He is still the “comrade” of Abe Cahan, Jim Oneal, Norman Thomas, Maurer, Hillquit and the Socialist Party of America. : Scheidemann’s story is not the confession of an indi- vidual; it is the confession of a whole yellow international through the mouth of one of its foremost leaders. This is an exposure of the function of the Socialist Party of America just as much as it is an exposure of the function of all other social-democratic parties of all countries. ; ‘Bhat is why we, the Communists, must fight these pro- feasional traitors and butchers of the working class without mercy. They become in the end the last bulwark of the capi- talist class against the workers. There is only one party of the working class. . It is the ers (Communist) Party in this country—the Communist wnational throughout the world. : Renee. a i { try is fast shifting from New Eng- land and New Jersey to the Caro- linas, Virginia and Georgia. The steel trust is constructing huge fac- tories and large nitrate and other al- lied industries suitable for war pro- duction have been established in the South. Plantations Breaking Up. , ON TO PARIS: “DELEGATE” MORGAN a UI Wee veeaee | vanguard of the working c Te cag eee == Industrialization of Cotton, Iron States Means Race Discrimination to Increase of Negro tenant farmers and poor, recreation, etc., social discrimination farmers into factory workers willjis continued and intensified. With |dollars. Whole industrial cities have | greatly increase the possibilities of |the establishment of big industry | sprung up almost over night. More | work for our Party and for other | in the South, attempts to divide the| | than 50 per cent of the nation’s coal’ working class organizations. With|workers, to prevent théir organiza- |3s mined in the non-union mines of our demands for complete social | tion into their militant trade unions the South, more than 50 per cent | equality, against all forms of Jim | of the oil of the country is produced! Crowism, for the admission of the | Party, attempts to keep down their |in the South. The centre of gravity) Negroes into the trade unions; and/ standard of living, to exploit them | of the textile industry in the coun-! for self-determination for the Negro| more and more and to wring ever | there is no doubt but that the Ne-/ greater profits from them will be land into the Workers (Communist) gro farmer will be more difficult to| carried on by the capitalist class bring into the ranks of our Party) with the method of stirring up race than the Negro worker. It goes’ prejudice, with perpetuating and in- without saying that the farmer creasing social and economic and po- learns less readily to understand the | litical discrimination on the basis of necessity for organization into the| race; that is, lynchings, beatings, Workers (Communist) Party, the! arrests, and all forms of Jim Crow- ism. These methods are inherently a But does this mean that the in-| In agriculture also the old semi-| Bless . feudal, paternalistic plantation sys- | dustrialization of the South betters tem is being broken up, The mechan-| the condition of the Negro? Does ical cotton picker, the corn cutter,| this mean that the problem of social the big tractor, and dozens of other | and economic discrimination against agricultural machines have recéntly | @ Worker or farmer because he has a been put on the market which are| black skin will disappear or be min- revolutionizing the tobacco and cot-|imized? Does this mean that lynch- ton growing of the South. Of course, ing will decrease? Does this mean agriculture lags behind industry. | that race prejudice will decline and The industrialization of the South become @ thing of the past? Does in its most important phase means, this mean that the condition of the the foundation of huge factories, the | Negro worker will be raised in com- building of new railroad lines, the | Parison with the white worker? No, part of the capitalist system. These methods are the methods of the im- | perialist United States government and will continue as long as that government, as long as the capi- \talist system, lasts. The perpetua- tion of race prejudice against the | Negro, the division of the workers on the basis of the color of their \skin, the brutality and discrimination iin all forms will continue as long }as the capitalist system exists in : America. The only solution to the opening up of waterways and the, building of power plants, all of which are proceeding at an unheard of tempo. We are not here concerned with | the effect of the industrialization of ‘the South upon‘ the position of fi- inance capital on the world market. | What I wish to dwell upon is the effect of this development upon the workers of the South and particu- larly upon the millions of Negro workers in the South. Negroes Going Into Industry. There is no doubt that the draw- ing in of large masses of Negroes into industries, a number of them [Rane and important industries; the process of transforming thousands By ALBERT WEISBORD j The sharpening situation in. America today makes more impera-| tive than ever before the need of the, formation of strong virile working- class groups that will be able to meet the situation in a militant manner. The labor sports movement is one method by which the workingclass can train its fighters for the future struggles. First there is the danger of war. We see this danger grow greater day by day. There is no denying it. It is first on the order of business for the bourgeoisie. The employers are preparing for the war; they are problem of discrimination against nek at all. z ‘the Negro is for the organization of New problems arise, the battle the Negro and white workers to- against discrimination against Ne- | gether into their own organization, groes takes place in part on a dif- the Workers (Communist) Party, is ferent front. But the battle does not | soy the vietory of the working class end. On the contrary, attacks on the| over the capitalist class, is for the Pataee will be intensified. In the smashing and wipping out of im- | first place, finance capital, Amer-| jerjalism and its goverment and for j ican imperialism and its government | the establishment of a dictatorship | ay iegrps Pile ies vpn at the workers in this country. } o SI and 4: re a, rece that| A Blob on the Entire Flag. in the South, Already we see that! in the textile mills of North Caro-| In the February issue of the La- Hina, the employers are giving the | bor Defender, due to the rush of go- Negro workers the worst jobs, are|ing to press, I committed a political giving the Negroes less pay, and in| blunder in allowing to be printed in all their “social betterment”: proj-|the magazine, of which I am editor, ects, their attempts to keep outjan item in a page of cartoons by Hay Bales, entitled “A Blot.” This militant unions by establishing pa- |ternalistic control over the workers’|cartoon depicts an American flag Importance ot Labor Sports to Workers Increases ment that can be turned into a workingelass red’ army in time of need. Connected with these war prep- arations and part of it is the ra- tionalization process that is taking place in industry, more acutely in America than anywhere else in the world., This capitalist rationaliza- tion process means merely the most systematic method of exploitation of labor and brings in its train the most inhuman speed-up, the most movement the working class can de-|monotonous and dreary work, the feat not only such tricks by the|most reckless disregard of the life ruling class but at the same time|and limb of the worker. The work- can. build @ powerful, virile move-|er from work is sapped . 4 * penetrating the American workers with jingoism and with pacifism that is really only another form of jingoism, and under the guise of a sports movement are training the American workers, particularly the youth, for armed service against their fellow workers. The struggle on the part of the workingclass against these militaristic prepara- tions certainly cannot take the form of a struggle against the sport as- pects of these preparations, In building up a powerful labor sports By Gropper Southern Capitalism Lynches | with a blot on it in the form of a | Negro hanging from a rope on which is the word “lynehings.” This is not |the correct Communist attitude to- | ward lynchings and toward the flag which represents U. S. imperialism and which represents the U. S. gov- ernment. It is incorrect to imply that the U. S. government is a “pure” government with the one ex-| ception of lynching. The U. S. gov- ernment with all of its institutions jis the executive committee of the | capitalist class, is the foe, at all times, of the working class and the emblem which represents American imperialism is the pirate’s flag, not only symbolizing lynching of Ne- groes but symbolizing the entire sys- tem of exploitation of workers and farmers, the entire system of which lynching is but one white terror method of wringing more surplus value from the working class. The blot depicted by Hay Bales, covers the entire flag. The flag which is the emblem of exploitation. This flag is not the flag of the working class. The flag of the working class is the Red Flag of the Paris Com- ‘mune, the Red Flag of the revolu- tionary working class movemert of the entire world, the Red Flag of the Soviet Union, the Red Flag of the dictatorship of the proletariat in all countries. Parit of Capitalism. Lynching, social, political and eco- nomic discrimination against the | Negroes in the South and all of these evils of capitalism in their many forms and manifestations are inher- ently a part of the imperialist sys- tem and of the imperialist U. S. government. With industrialization in the South, the class struggle is sharpening. With industrialization, in the South these evils will increase and intensify. They will disappear when the capitalist system disap- pears, They will disappear when the capitalist government of the U. S, disappears, They will disappear when the workers have their own government whose symbol is not the stars and stripes with -r without blots but whose symbol is the Red Flag of the international proletarian revolution. of his strength mentally and bodily, | and arrives completely exhausted, , As part of the rationalization pro- cess, to prevent a too rapid wear and tear on these human machines, the employers have gone into welfare schemes, not the least important of which is the sports movement, Company sports is very often the be- ginning of company unionism, and by means of company sports the em- ployers try not only to prevent a too rapid deterioration of their human material (“their” workers) but at the same time shunt off the energies of the workers from chan- nels that would mean struggle against the employers to channels , Copyright, 1929, by International Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD'’S BOOK \Hard Times at Silver City; Death in the Depths | of the Mountain; Off to the 1898 Convention | In former chapters Haywood told of his boyhood among the Mormons; young manhood as miner and cowboy in Nevada; of wife, baby; hardships, homeless, jobless and broke; he leaves for Silver City, Idaho; the Western Federation of Miners organizes the cump; life at Silver City and the power of the union, Now go on reading.— ae PART XXI. N the twenty-eighth of June, 1897, my youngest daughter was born, My wife did not recover her health for months. She was bedfast, and the domestic cares of the family fell entirely upon my shoulders, as there was not a woman or girl in the camp that we could get to work outside her own home. They came up in the evenings after their own work was done, and helped us in neighborly ways, but until the wife of the col- ored barber came to town I had to do the work my- self, The baby from its birth slept with me. Afraid of smothering her if I laid her at my side, every night I put her on my breast. If she had been in cradle I should not have heard her cry when she ‘was hungry, so soundly did I sleep. Though I was not working, the butcher and store- keeper and others with whom I dealt said to me: “Don’t worry, Bill, things will be all right soon. Remember, you can always have anything you want from us.” ‘At that time I gambled some and drank a little, but I quit both. While I had sometimes made winnings, in the long run I had been much the loser. Sometimes I took my wife to visit the neighbors, the baby in one arm and her in the other. I remember one evening being down to see Mrs. Morris at the foot of the hill. When we started home there had been a drift of snow, and I had my wife on one arm, the baby on the other, and the little girl on my back. I carried them all three up | the hill. | Wr woe The Blaine mine was worked through a tunnel in the side of a mountain, and the mining was done above as well as below the level of the tunnel. Coming out we walked Indian file on a plank laid be- tween the tracks. One day Theodore Buckle, a florid, big, fine-looking young Hollander, was just behind me, and we scuffled and joked as we went along. He went to dinner in a boarding house, I ate my lunch in the blacksmith shop. Going back to the mine after dinner, he was a few minutes ahead of me. Some of the men had to climb a hundred and ten feet to the first level above, and from there to the stopes which were still above this. There were some ahead of Buckle, some behind him. He was just climbing up into his stop when a slab of rock fell and crushed the life out of him. We managed to raise the rock high enough to get his body from under it and carried it down to the hundred-and-ten-foot level. There, for want of a better stretcher, we tied the corpse to a short ladder which we lowered down the man-way to the main tunnel, We sent a committee to town with the body. On another occasion we heard a shot, back near the station on the same hundred-and-ten-foot level. Then some one called to us and we hurried out to find that MacDonald, who had only been at work a short time, had his entire face blown off. He was still alive and we contrived to lower him down the man-way. One of the boys had run out ahead and sent for a wagon. We got him to the hospital as quickly as we could, where he soon died. MacDonald had evidently been biting a fulminating cap to fasten it on a fuse that he was getting ready to fire his holes. Many of the miners did this instead of using their knives to clinch the cap, or pincers that were made for the purpose. The question of the eight-hour law was beginning to stir the | miners of Idaho, and at the coming session of the legislature they were going to try to have a bill enacted to provide for an eight-hour day for men employed in mines, mills and smelters. Joseph Hutchin- son was sent as a lobbyist, supplied with funds by the Trade Dollar Company to work against the bill. This action could be expected from the mine owners, but James R, Sovereign, one-time Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, then editor of the paper owned by the miners’ unions of the Coeur d’Alenes, the Idaho State Tribune, did a treacher- ous peace of work in-publishing an editorial against the eight-hour law. He proved a faker and sell-out, no better than his predecessor, Powderly. The bill was defeated by the legislature, but later estab- lished by the miners, It was the Western Federation of Minefs, through its attorney, John H. Murphy, that carried the first eight- hour law passed in the United States, the Utah law, to the United States Supreme Court, where it was declared constitutional. But the miners and the mill men of Utah had to fight to compel its enforce-. ment. All. rights. reserved. Republica- | tion forbidden except by permission. * * * I was elected as a delegate from the Silver City Miners’ Union to the conyention of the Western Federation of Miners which was held in 1898 in Salt Lake City. There were delegates from most of the mining camps of the West: copper miners from Butte, Montana; lead miners from the Coeur d’Alenes, Idaho; gold miners from the Black Hills of South Dakota and from Cripple Creek, Colorado; silver miners from Vir- ginia City, Nevada, which was called the mother of mines. The miners’ unions of most of these places had been old assemblies of the Knights of Labor. Here they were all meeting together. Miners’ delegates came from many other places besides; British Columbia had her rep- resentatives as well as Arizona, There were mill men and smelter men and one or two coal miners, We were the men who, with the United Mine Workers, a body of coal miners, produced the mineral wealth of America. Each union that we represented was an integral part of the Western Federation of Miners. ‘We were one of the three industrial unions that existed at that time, and the only one that had a vision of the day when with other unions in other industries, we could live by the slogan “All for One, One for All.” * * * In the next instalment Haywood writes of what the 1898 Con- vention of the W. F. of M, did and who was there. Among “ihcse present” was Sam Gompers. This was the first time Haywood :nct Gompers, and his description of that person is something rich. Don't miss it. that are harmless and that really play into the hands of the em- ployers. By giving: special privileges io those few who are on their com- pany teams, the boss divides the workers within the shop one against the other, while at the same time creating the illusion that he is friendly to all and that he is their benevolent protector. By egging on ‘one company team against the other, the employers divide the working- class itself, stimulating artificial loyalty of workers in the factory to “their” bosses as against other bosses who have other teams which are in competition with the teams of the first company. , - & strong virile labor sports move- ment will smash to pieces these company teams, just as a strong la- bor union will smash to pieces the fake company unions of the employ- ers. Boss loyalty will be broken, workers’ solidarity will be stimu- lated, and the sports movement, in- stead of being chained to the chariot wheel of the boss, becomes a weapon in the hands of labor to smash, the chains of the boss. The training that the labor sportsmen will receive in games will stand them in good stead on the picket line and in all their struggles for better conditions. The contradictions in present day society, while tending to raise the To Nn EARL SMA ACES Capasso ga AE OY few, tends also to degrade the many, and as capitalism finds itself in a blind alley, more and more of the young workers are pulled into the vicious streams of the slums, The bourgeois sports movement tends only to accentuate the degeneration of sections of the proletarian youth into the slums. The professionalism of bourgeois sports, the gambling and vice connected with it, tend to declass the idealogy of the young worker and to make him an anti- proletarian force. These young work- ers also must be taken care of by the trade unions and by the labor movement; the labor sport move- ment is admirably calculated to pre- vent the growth of such incipient anti-proletarian and fascist tend- encies. To further labor sports, the class conscious section of the working- class, the left wing, must take the lead. Particularly the militant new unions that have been formed or will be formed in the mining, textile, and needle and other industries where hundreds of thousands of young workers are bitterly ex- ploited, must consider the young workers, the bearer of the future, and must demonstrate that together with the young workers the work- ingclass as a whole will fight all its battles to complete emancipation.