The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 7, 1929, Page 4

bed permitted | terial from _ of a former inmate of the prison in a niente cemenaiodn | Page Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1929 Paily B23 Worker F Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published Worker Inc. 26 N. Stuyy “spAIWwe > ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUN prbons, ew York): ) six months onths checks to Address an 1 2 Union The Daily er, Ass. Editor Square, New York, N They Build Their Navies! War Is on the Way! ‘After a more than usual amount of plain speaking on the part of imperialist war makers.in the U. S. Senate, and the historically inevitable demonstration of willingness to foliow ¢mperialist lead if only some bare shreds of their official robe of pacifism are left upon them on the part of the“insurgents” in the senate, the cruiser bill has passed. ‘American imperialism gets its fifteen new 10,000-ton cruisers and its airplane carrier, to be built within three years, five ships a year. The vote of 12 senators against the bill and the pairing of a few more does not mean they were opposed to the strengthening of the mailed fist of the Wall Street empire. ‘As for debate, the senate unanimously, “pacifist” insurgents as well as the hard boiled administration supporters, voted for limitation of speaking and made the passage of the bill in this session a certainty. That was the real vote. Every- body knew that in capitalism’s own senate, there was real unanimity for capitalism’s needs—which is to say imperialist needs, for a navy that can whip the British empire in the Caribbean, complete the subjugation of South as well as Cen- tral America, and wrest African and Oriental markets, Afri- can rubber and Malayan tin, from Great Britain, find an in- vestment field for the profits that choke capitalism at home as a cat is choked with butter. The American empire, reckless of how many millions it kills in its drive for markets and raw materials, for colonies to be exploited, spoke in the jingoistic language of Senator Reed of Missouri: t Fr. And which two countries were meant by Reed, the rival imperialisms to be attacked by this big new battle fleet, were designated by Walsh of Montana when he said: ' f ‘Japanese and British puppet militarist rulers in China form a bloc against American militarism in China. “If our commerce expands it hurts the others. I am in favor of a navy equal to any on earth. I am in favor of a navy so strong that no two countries will dare to attack it.” “It is perfectly evident that the construction of the cruisers contemplated by the bill looks to a war primarily with Great Britain and secondly with Japan.” Coolidge, speaking also for Hoover, demonstrated why he has had to go down in history as “Silent Cal.” He damages when he speaks. In the closing days of his presidential diguity he broke a rule, uttered his cheap third-rate lawyer’s wisdom, and merely ruined the pacifist camouflage which was at that time being spread over both the imperialist war measures: the Kellogg pacts and the cruiser bill. Coolidge said that he was opposed to the clause in the bill which provides for building five cruisers a year, because it destroyed the presi- dential discretion to set the tempo of building. If it were abolished, more than fifteen cruisers might be built, and more than five keels might be laid in the first year. He promised to use the presidential discretion to start im- mediate building. Those wiser in the art of humbugging the electorate saw to it that his words were explained as the president’s way of saying that he wanted discretion allowed to delay building of a war fleet. But the words speak for themselves to all think- ing workers. They speak of war against two foes. American im- perialism, mad for dominion, challenges England and Japan, rushing perforce to a new world war. Coupled with the declarations on the senate floor by Reed, Walsh and others, they tell of a carnival of bloodshed coming, in which supreme power over the capitalist world and its colonies will be fought for by the two great imperialist camps; the one captained by American capitalism and that led by British. The inevitable war against the first Workers Republic, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, did not get much at- tention during the debate. But the workers will know, that as the world can not continue half capitalist and half Communist, and as the mere existence of socialist construction in one-sixth of the world’s surface, with colonial peoples always gaining inspiration from it, and militant workers in the imperialist countries them- selves following it as an example, a conflict between these two systems will be precipitated by the imperialists. They are shrieking for war in Washington, and in the capitals of Washington’s rival empires. War is on the way. Only an aroused, a conscious, a militantly struggling and or- ganized working class can postpone or change to a civil con- _ flict the imperialist strife that Hoover, Coolidge, Reed, and the senate as a whole have planned for us, and prepared for us. PRISON IN YUGOSLAVIA Letter Describes Cruelty and Bribery (Red Aid Press Service) .. BERLIN, (By Mail).—The fol- lowing is an extract from a letter and 5 prisoners are in the prison hospital, all of them seriously ill. No less than 70 per cent of the prisoners are consumptive. “The treatment accorded to the prisoners is brutal in the extreme. The peasants treat their cattle in a more humane fashion than the war- ders treat prisoners. The warders are all corrupt. If a prisoner is in a position to pay 200 dinar he need not work, otherwise he is compelled to if he can stand on his feet at all. After a certain length of time (d termined in the sentence) the pri: oners are entitled to have the chai removed from their hands and feet, but the warders use this as a means to extract money from the prisoners, and only when they have been bribed are the chains removed. The prison is a fine business, both for ty prison authorities and for the Skoplye (Yugoslavia): “There is no differentiation made between poli- tical prisoners and common prison- ers, unless it be that the former are _treated worse than the latter, and this is actually the case. “The political prisoners are not to obtain any printed ma- outside the prison and are itted to write only one yr in fourteen days. There is a ntiation made by the prison ities, and that is between the Macedonians and the prisoners old Serbia, who are in a privi- ed position, The nourishment is or both in quality and in quantity. read is revolting. In conse- the atrocious food, there mercentage of sickness. eaten.’ £0 cook up @ sch ! | We regret that yesterday when many thousands of needle trades workers began the big strike against the intolerable conditions in their in- dustry, there was no cartoon by Fred Ellis to dramatize this historical event. We have hoped every day to be able to resume the printing of the Ellis cartoons. The financial condition of the Daily Worker has not yet enabled us to do so. at once. More generous help from the workers must come to the Daily Worker | THE DAILY WORKER, 26-28 Union Square, New York. U.S. Imperialism Murders | The assassination in . Curacao, Dutch West Indies, of the Venezue- lan revolutionary, Hilario Montene- gro, by agents of the Venezuelan dictator, Juan Vicente Gomez, a crime similar to the murder of Julio Mella, Cuban revolutionary in Mexico City, December 10, by agents of Gerardo Machado, dictator of Cuba—again draws the attention of workers of the United States to the crimes of United States imperial- ism, as it is unquestionable that both these puppet rulers of Cuba and Venezuela are mere creatures of Wall Street and its Washington gov- ernment. But, in addition, these assassina- tions bring to light the fierceness with which the workers and pea- sants of Latin-America are strug- gling against both American and British imperialism and their native | hirelings who seize and hold to power by murder and suppression. The struggle in Venezuela is no new thing, but it has taken new and im- portant forms. | For that reason, to reveal what the struggle is, in which Hilario Montenegro has fallen under the assassin’s knife, we give the follow-| ing manifesto issued recently by the} Venezuelan Revolutionary Party,) whose activities, because of the| terror, are directed by refugees in| countries outside Venezuela. The) manifesto follows: * * | HE ferocious dictatorship which | Juan Vicente Gomez inaug-| urated in 1908, a continuation of! jthe regime of Cipriano Castro, is} \travelling rapidly toward a fatal) end. The unconditional supporters | of the dictator are disconcerted at} |the inefficacy of the terror and at} |the progressive disintegration of the! Agents of Gomez, Wall Hilario M St. Puppet, Assassinate ontenegro | regions on the border of Venezuela | |and Colombia. | | It invites the Venezuelan revolu- | |tionaries to organize their struggle against the present dictatorship, | against the future compromisers and military forces which maintain them ; own work, It was the first time in| against the foreign imperialist in- in power. Venezuela, gigantic torture cham- ber where a whole people suffers! against the government in the ef-/ganization ready to‘ defend th misery, exploitation and death, Vene-|fort to conquer power. It was the | sovereignty of the Venezuelan peo- zuela unarmed and bleeding, has|first time that the political com-|ple and defend the poor and ex. raised itself in proud attempt to af- | promisers and exploiters have been | ploited class against the avarice an firm in the face of the bestial dic-| pushed aside by the popular up-| despotism of the classes which unti tatorship its unbreakable resolution of shaking off the ignominious yoke and burying forever the medieval political system which, from the In- ploitation for the workers, Masses Revolt. A trivial incident, a police perse- cution of the students of the Vene- zuelan capital, Caracas—trivial un- der the present inquisitorial regime —set off an explosion of popular anger. In March and April of last year, the disarmed Venezuelan peo- ple launched itself into the streets. The women, in public demonstra- tion, stimulated rebellion. The workers and employes paralyzed the economic life of the country. Many soldiers turned their arms against the enemies of the people—who were jalso their own enemies and blood flowed in the streets of the capital. Similar events occurred in many cities of Venezuela. Assassinations, tortures, imprison- ments and a most violent and open persecution crowned the momentary triumph of the dictatorship. But the people has not been conquered. The popular masses, at their awakening, have learned that their political and economic liberation must be their jthe history of Venezuela that the |masses have thrown themselves rising. Again Revolt. The battle continues. A new as- | sault against the stronghold of the dependence until our own days, has | dictatorship took place in November |condemned the people to ignorance, |last. Despite the strict censorship masses go to the struggle to emanci-| to cruel and humiliating slavery in| iv is known that open battles oc- | nate themselves politically and eco-| [the barracks, and iniquitous ex-|curred in the streets of the capital, |jomically, to gain the individual | jand that more than ten persons, among them both workers and stu- |dents, were killed. Political strikes, | similar to those of March and April, |proved anew the leading and active |intervention of the workers in the | struggle. Facing this unprecedented revolu- | tionary situation, the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party expresses its who are struggling within Vene- |zuela, and sends its fraternal greet- ings to the victims of our emanci- pation, No Trickery! It again denounces the maneuvers of the Venezuelan leaders abroad who try to substitute the present dictatorship, sold to the oil com- panies, for a regime equal in op- |pression, in favor of one of the tio rival imperialists in the fight: the Dutch Shell (English), and the Standard Oil (North American). It denounces the intrigues of foreign capital, which tries to create an “independent” republic of the oil solidarity with the valiant fighters | |terests, within the ranks of our! Party, which is the only political or- |now have profited from political and |economic domination. The hour has passed in which the| | | political leaders can move armies to |their personal profit. The popular! |rights contained in all the Venezue-! lan constitutions which have been} respected on rare occasions by the governors only in order to rob for the rich classes the just value of | the labor of the poor who today re- ceive but a miserable wage, to sup- press the unjust exploitation of the peasantry, to transform, in short, the political and economic regime, and to establish a social system based on the Basic Principles of our Party, a social system that will guarantee in an effective form the liberty and the interests of all workers. For the emancipation of the pea- sant from the land-owner. | For the emancipation of the work. er from the domination of the cap’ talist. For the emancipation |soldier from the despotism of the commander, For Social Justice. (Signed) Gustavo Machado, General Secretary. of the ' Militancy of Australian Labor Increases | By HARRISON GEORGE. | The trade union movement of! Australia, embracing in all about 750,000 members, broke down its | former isolation in July, 1927, when the Australasian Council of Trade | Unions, with 500,000 members in the affiliated sections of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania, affiliated to the Pan- Pacific Trade Union Secretariat. The principal bodies then remain-| ing outside the ACTU, which had been set up in May, 1927, were the} Queensland and West Australian) trades councils and the Australian | Workers’ Union, the latter mostly | | of militant agrarian workers, with! |a leadership, however, completely reactionary and bureaucratic, deep- ly involved in reformist labor party} politics and class collaboration. Attack From the Right, The AWU leaders, jointly and somewhat identical with the labor | party chiefs, opened a war on the ACTU, encouraged by the employ- ers and right loyally assisted by a right wing inside the ACTU itself, on the basis of the ACTU affilia- tion to the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat. The PPTUS was at- tacked as being “Communist,” as “a | Moscow trick,” and the race preju- | dice fostered by the bourgeoisie was given full play on a “White Aus- tralia” basis. Naturally, the most destructive foe being the enemy within, the contest between the militants and reactionaries. became most sharp and dramatic when the ACTU held an Emergency Congress in July, 1928. Here the right wing, led by those elements in the Victorian Trades Council who had tried to prevent affiliation to the PPTUS in 1927, who are in connection with the traitors of the Amsterdam In- ternational and who had been or- ganizing their supporters for a fight, tried to get the Congress to break affiliation with the PPTUS, which was termed “a mob of Asia- tics with unpronounceable names” seeking to seduce Lily White Aus- tralia into recognizing class war in- stead of race prejudice, Confusion. The right wing, however, was given a smashing defeat on this issue, in spite of the left wing not being sufficiently prepared. This is a tribute to the soundness of the rank and file of the ACTU. But on another question, the ac- ceptance or rejection of the offer of the employers to meet jointly in an “industrial peace conference,” the right wing won, and on Decem- ber 6, 1928, Australian labor and sapital “got together” at Melbourne |sought escape from Employers, Government Terror Fails to Halt Class Struggle peace” in the midst of industrial ‘war. The employers had for nearly two years been delivering smashing at- tacks on the trade unions, and the ACTU right wing, finding support from the timid leaders who had been trained in the pacifism and legalism of the Arbitration Courts, struggle in what is essentially a surrender, but what might be sugar-coated with a lot of mythical benefits supposed to be obtained by “industrial peace.” A “Peace” of Surrender. The employers and their govern- ment had attacked labor with per- secutive laws such as the Crimes Act, the Anti-Trade Wnion Law, the Transport Workers’ Act, it had banned all working class literature from entry into Australia, even that published in England. It had at- tacked union control in the -metal trades and used troops and police in the dockworkers’ strike. In this strike it had shot down, in good old American style, several strikers and an avalanche of fines and sentences were hurled at work- ers and militant trgde union offi- cials who put up a fight for their class. There can be no question, then, but that the “industrial peace con- ference” was held in an atmosphere and condition of defeat for labor and of victory for capital. The puny efforts of the right wing in the ACTU to turn the picture bot- tom side up-and explain that labor had compelled capital to listen to reason, is quite absurd. The em- ployers, knowing they had the upper hand, were simply trying to force a pledge from the ACTU officially to forego in the future all struggle in the interests of the workers. It was @ peace of conquest, with the con- queror dictating the terms. Two dozen of Australia’s most biter anti-union employers repre- sented the Australian capitalist “good will” toward labor, while the angels of “peace in industry” from Great Britain itself were Sir Hugo Hirst and Sir Arthur Duckham of the British Economic Delegation vis- iting Australia, who had come from the infamous class collaboration Mond Conference between the labor bureaucrats and imperialists of Eng- land. Sir Alfred Mond had been Forced to Drop Judge Attacks Oswaldo Case, Workers Party PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 6.—The recent dismissal of the charges against E. Oswaldo, Guisseppi Bal- dassare, Luigi Bruni, Nicholas Sny- der, Andreas Pajor and Michael Dauerbach terminates an _ eight years’ struggle conducted by the In- ternational Labor Defense to pre- vent the deportation of these work- ers, They were ordered deported in 1921, charged with having “pro- scribed literature in their possession for purpose of distribution.” Dauerbach, Snyder and Pajor sub- sequently faced a second charge of perjury in connection with an al- leged fraudulent acquisition of citi- zenship. Because of the strength of the evidence in favor of the three, however, Federal Judge Dick- inson was forced to dismiss the cases, 5 In giving the decision, the pee number of the defendants , were members. Although forced to dis- miss the case because of the stub- born protest that had been raised, he expressed his antagonism to all working class organizations by charging that the workers were the “dupes of agitators and that the statute was meant to reach higher- ups.” : Discussing the evidence, he men- tions “the frank statement by the Board of Reviews . . . that the defendants are being deported be- cause they are radicals.” WATER WORKS MERGER. WILLIAMSTOWN, Pa, (By Mail).—The National Water Works Corporation has acquired four water works companies in Pennsyl- vania and one in New Jersey. The companies in Pennsylvania are at Hegins Valley, Lehighton, Tower City and Mifare dihied The ea ny is a | | fixed up and sent a cable of con- gratulations to Australia from Lon- don. But a row arose from the side of labor, although not enough of a row, when the motion was made to exclude the press. To the shame of the other trade union delegates, only the three from the New South Wales council voted against the ex- clusion of the press and for secrecy between labor’s leaders and labor’s enemies. The N. S. W. Council, learning of the decision, wired its delegates the following instruction: New South Wales Labor Awake. “This council protests against the decision to exclude the press from the sessions of the conference and instructs its delegates to insist that| all sessions be open to the press. Further, that our delegates be in- structed to insist that, before any discussions take place on industrial matters, the following subjects be taken up: “(1) The withdrawal of all scabs from the waterfront; (2) The abro- gation of all anti-working class laws; (3) The release of all politi- cal prisoners; (4) The removal: of the ban on working class literature.” The bosses would not permit the issue of the waterfront strikers to be raised. They refused to let the Transport Act be brought up as a demand on the shipowners. Nor the abolition of any anti-labor laws. They evaded all the genuine prob- lems of the class struggle and dwelt on speeches of “harmony” and “co-operation” for the “best in- terests of Australia.” The Class Struggle Goes On. The net result of the conference ae a decision to meet again in bruary, while a permanent Com- mitteé of Management, three from each capital and labor, was set up to “maintain peace in industry.” On the very day the conference opened, however, the “peace” idea was given a black eye by several new cases of capitalist persecution of militant workers. Dickenson was imprisoned in Adelaide, and Tom. Wright and Kavanaugh were fined in Sydney for participation in the waterfront strike, : Under such conditions the “Pan- Pacific Worker” of Australia, issued by the A, C. T. U., remarks rightly, that “all talk of peace in industry is a sham and a lie. This was true on December 6th when the confer- ence opened, no less than on De- cember 5th, or at any other time or place under capitalism.” But it is also true that if such ideas are to prevail in the policies of the A. C. T, U., then the class conscious workers inside it must certainly or- ganize their struggle against the right: wing elements rx in the future than in the past ~ Copyright, 1929, Publishers Co., Inc. by International HAYWOOD'S All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. The Smuggler-Union Mine; The Telluride Strike; The Bullion Tunnel Disaster; A Terrible Snowslide In previous chapters Haywood wrote of his boyhood among the Mormons; his growth to manhood in Nevada; miner and cowboy; mining at Silver City, Idaho; the early strikes in the Coeur d’Alenes; his rise to the head of the Western Federation of Miners. He is now telling of the W. F. M. convention of 1901. Now go on reading. * By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD. PART XXX. Wed convention was enlivened by the report of Vincent St. John, president of Telluride Miners’ Union, in which he described the working conditions in the Smuggler-Union mine, where a strike had been declared on the first of May. We arranged to make a weekly of the Miners’ Magazine, and also to employ an attor- ney as one of the regular staff of the organization. After the convention the executive board appointed John M. O’Neill, a miner from Cripple Creek, as editor of the weekly. O’Neill was a fluent and powerful writer and the magazine grew in popu- larity. We were fortunate also in securing the serv- ices of John H. Murphy, who was at that time at- torney for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. He continued to hold that position as well as doing the legal work for the W. F. M. In anticipation of the expense that would cer- tainly be involved in a vigorous fight for the eight- hour day, I issued a circular letter describing the life of the smelter men, mill men and miners. I told of the work that we had done to- wards having an eight-hour law passed by the legislature in different states, and that in Colorado it had been defeated by a stroke of the pen. I told also how the constitutional amendment had been ignored when it was adopted later in Colorado. Now that we had to fight for the eight-hour day, it would involve one strike after another, some of which would become very bitter. We received from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars in reply to this letter. * * * Telluride is an important silver and gold mining camp in the San Juan district of Colorado. The Smuggler-Union was one of the big mines there. Arthur Collins was the manager for this company, and introduced the piece system of mining. He would give miners a con- tract to break ore at so much per fathom. The miners boarded at the company boarding house. They were provided with tools and pow- der by the company. At the termination of the contract the expenses incidental to their work—board, powder, candles, tool-sharpening, and so on—were deducted from the amount owed them, by the company. The price per fathom was continually reduced and the exactions of the company increased. In the beginning miners were required only to break the ore, but finally they were compelled to break it in a suitable size and shovel it down the mill-holes or chutes, Telluride Miners’ Union of the W.F:M. declared a strike on the Smuggler-Union proper- ties on May 1st, 1901, for the abolition of the contract system. Though the union offered to guard the property without expense, guaranteeing protection to the company, the reply of Manager Collins was to employ scab deputies. An agreement was finally reached be- tween Collins and the union, when the contract system was so changed that the miner received at least the union wage for the time that he was employed, and the miner could terminate the contract at any time. This settlement was not arrived at until a pitched battle had taken place between the union men and the deputies and other scabs. Charles Becker, the superintendent of the mine, was shot, two scabs were killed and several were wounded. The rest of the gang was es- corted over the mountain. John Barthell, a union miner, was killed outright during the fight. * * The Telluride Journal carried on a bitter campaign against the union until a close boycott was put on the sheet, Manager Collins succeeded in organizing a business-men’s association to sustain the paper. This became later the Citizens’ Alliance, the directing force of all the terrorism against the unions of the Western Federation of Miners. Some time later Arthur Collins was killed. Some one fired a load of buckshot into him as he stood near a window. Governor Orman sent a commission to Telluride, composed of David Coates, then lieutenant-governor of the state, Senator Buckley, and John H. Murphy, attorney for the Western Federation of Miners. When this commission made its report it was to the effect that “every- thing was quiet in Telluride and the miners were in peaceful possession of the mines.” This report created a commotion among the employing class in Colorado. The capitalist papers, especially the Denver Re- publican, carried editorials bitterly denouncing the miners. One day I was at the First National Bank where the W.F.M. did business, when Fred Moffatt, vice president of the bank, said to me: “Is this report true that comes from Telluride, about the miners being in peaceful possession of the mines? If that is the case, what becomes of the men who have invested their money in these prop- erties?” I said: “If we follow your question to its logical conclusion, you'd have to tell me where the owners got money to invest in the mines. Who has a better right to be in peaceful possession than the miners?” + * On the twentieth of November one of the tragedies in the history of the metalliferous mines occurred, at the Bullion tunnel of the Smuggler-Union mine. The tram house at the entrance of the tunnel caught fire. A carload of baled hay had been unloaded at the mouth of the tunnel. The burning hay, lumber and timber caused a dense smoke, and the tunnel, with connections to the surface, formed a per- fect chimney. Edgar Collins, a relative of the manager, and super- intendent of the mine, directed spasmodic efforts to stop the flames. Then he gave his attention to removing Winchester rifles and am- munition from a nearby warehouse. Munitions of war were more im- portant to him than the lives of the men inside the mine. The fire had made great headway before any attempt was made to warn the men at work of their danger. When a messenger was sent in, he attempted to bring the men out by the same entrance he had gone in, All who followed his lead lost their lives, as did several others, though most of the miners escaped through other exits. The fire was still raging when a group of miners from the Tomboy mine, headed by the foreman, Billy Hutchinson, arrived at the scene. He at once gave orders to blow up the mouth of the tunnel. Had that been done as soon as it became evident that the fire could not be put out, all lives would have been saved. The first rescue party was driven by gas and smoke, but they finally found twenty-five men who had been choked and smothered to death. When the funeral took place, all mines of the camp were closed down, and delegations came from the surrounding mining camps. There were about three thousand men in line when their sixteen fellow-work- ers were buried at one time. Each miner carried a sprig of evergreen which he tossed into an open grave. > ‘1 * *. * On the last day of the following February a terrible snowslide at Telluride carried away part of the Liberty Bell bunk-house, killing seventeen men. The terrific rush of snow had swept everything be- fore it, rock, stumps, and brush, and had left a clean path behind. Avalanches happened frequently where the slopes were steep, and the forests had been cut down. They can be caused by a single drop of water from an icicle hanging on the branch of a tree far up the moun- tain side, or a flutter of a bird’s wing might dislodge a particle of snow sufficient to start a mighty slide. A story appeared in a Denver paper in which Adjutant General Gardner was credited with the state- ment that the deadly snowslide was an evidence of the wrath of God against the unruly outlaw miners of San Miguel county, This foolish remark was intended as an insult to the miners, and it rankled deep in minds already sore from the sufferings of the strike, the fire, and the avalanche. * * * In the next instalment Haywood writes of the struggles against the Guggenheim smelter interests; the strike of the Grant smelter- men at Denver; “Strike while the iron is hot!”; something about Charles Moyer, then president of the W. F. M., which forecasts his later treachery. wee a ion RN no Al?