The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 19, 1929, Page 6

_— Page Six re DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1! 1 Daily 225 2 the Nation SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ig 4 By Mail (in New York only): 58.00 a year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 a year $3.50 six months $2.00 three months Address and mail all checks to The Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. Published by Calvin Coolidge Steps Out Calvin Coolidge is about to say goodby to the white house, and the capitalist press is now “doing the right thing” by the wretched fellow about whom they have tried so hard during the past six years to build up a semblance of what is called the ‘dignity’ required in the official head of a capitalist nation. “No president has stood so often before the camera,” says a newspaper caption, and the press is full of photographs of the mean, skinny face of the little Boston lawyer whose national career started with the breaking of a strike of police- men and reaches its apparent sunset in Washington two weeks from now. The peaked nose and neurotic mouth peer wistfully from under the feathered head-gear of an Indian chief, the weak chin snuggles manfully in the collar of a “cow- boy” suit under a “ten-gallon” hat—surely the future genera- tions of children in the Soviet schools of this country will laugh at this infantile clowning! But it would be a mistake to pass this ludicrous figure off as merely a clown in the role that he has played. Quite the contrary is necessary. Strike-breaking and imperialist war are not clowning, and Coolidge has been an international strike-breaker and imperialist war-lord of a calibre not to be underestimated. If there is something in the claim that he had to fall back upon the name of “Silent Cal” to keep from exhibiting a certain incapacity to speak without making a fool of himself—it would nevertheless be foolish of the ob- server to think that this little man was unable to function in the role that history alloted him. The past six years, during most of which period Coolidge was president, have been tremendous in the world’s history, and one of the characteristics of the period is the swinging of the brutish Yankee imperialism into such a position among imperialist nations as can be described as the hegemony of the capitalist world. During this time Coolidge has functioned entirely satisfactorily to big monopolist bankers and trust magnates who placed him in the positién. The predatory im- perialist role that United States imperialism plays has been developed to a degree beyond anything in the past. The drab little man who so often poses in “wild west” costume with gun in hand is not listed as a “war president” —but imperialist war has nevertheless been made and is now being made by the United States government during the Coolidge administration. The marines whose commander in chief is Coolidge are now engaged in murder and pillage in Nicaragua. Bolivian and Paraguayan workers and peasants are now rotting in the forests of the border-line as a result of a military clash which received its impulse from Washing- ton. Chinese workers and peasants in uncounted numbers have been slaughtered by native mercenary tools of United States imperialism, and many have fallen under the gun-fire of Yankee warships. Only conventionally has there been no war in Coolidge’s administration—only because there were no wars officially “recognized” as wars. United States im- of unprecedented militarization. Aggressive advance is the order of Yankee imperialism all along the world-front, and the advance is simultaneously diplomatic, financial, com- mercial and military, with the most direct correspondence between the export of capital and the big navy developments, | delegates from all over the country. tion of the agricultural workers) between the strengthening of the fighting arm and the tight- ening of the financial screws, between all of the war prepara- with the structure of interlocking directorates of the trusts and banking monopolies. Within Coolidge’s administrations has come the “third period” of the world political and economic situation, in which capitalism shows itself as having exceeded the pre- war level of production. This stabilization—“the very of the growth of output and trade, the fact that technical | | National Agrarian League (560, | |000) (Campesinos) \eration | The Bloc of Workers, Agrarians The third article of this series by| Albert Weisbord, representative of the Trade Union Educational League \te the recent Mexican Unity Con- gress of Workers and Peasants, took up the industrial composition of the population, the situation of the labor movement, labor organiza- tions, etc. The fourth article fol- lows: | * * * By ALBERT WEISBORD N January 24th and 25th there convened an historic convention. For the first time in the history of | Mexico, the workers and agrarian |Sollers of Mexico united in solemn! assembly to nominate a presidential | , perialism has been marching swiftly onward in its course candidate in the election and tojence selected to run for president, | the Masses were adequately prepar-| }form a permanent political revolu- |tionary bloc. | To this National Conference of the | Workers and Agarian Toilers (Cam- pesinos) Bloc there came over 300 There were represented: | The Communist Party of Mexico, 5 i | (2500) | tions and the amalgamation of the government apparatus | i The Unitary Railwaymen’s Party 7500) | | Workers and Agrarians Confed-| of Durango, Mayarite,| Michuacan Federation of Labor, Re- gional Parties of Workers and 000 members more, and thus making PEACE CONFERENCE PLANS THE DRIVE A Historic Convention Adopts a Revolutionary Program; Tirana—the Candidate Madero betrayed his promises, in|aries are divided and the militants 1910, he then fought Madero. have more confidence in themselves In 1915 Triana was one of the| ‘han before, : principal generals of Zapata’s Army, I asked Triana several questions, an agrarian revolutionary army Whether. the agrarian toilers would which under the slogans of Land Tally aid the industrial workers oal| and Liberty won great renown in Seizing the factories, and mines, ete. / Mexico. When the De La Huerta re- | and also whetHer the agricultural action and later the Serrano reac- | Workers (not organized and so not tion began, Triana actively took the |'@Presented directly at the bloc con-| field against them. It is such a ference) would join hands with the “parliamentarian” that the confer-|'est- My final question was whether Within the past few years Triana |i7& for the conflict. has become an officer in the Na-| To all these questions this revolu- tional “Campesinos” League (mostly |tionary representative gave a direct semi-proletarian) and had already|answer all the more forceful be- begun great work in the organiza-|cause so calmly sure: Tirana Speaks. (Peons) who had been almost ak Sse ies ne bloc. The masses want a complete About the New Step. change in system, In very direct language Triana) 2. The agrarian toilers will help| commissioned me to tell the great|the workers seize the factories, workingclass of the United States /'mines, oil fields, etc. 2 . about the new step the masses had} 3. The agricultural workers taken in Mexico. In the opinion of|(peons) will support the bloc even Triana, this bloc had not been|more than the semi-proletarians, created before because the militants|Triana had organized and led these 1. The masses will go with the| fact Agrarian Toilers, etc., totalling 130,-|had failed to realize the necessity | peons in battle also. and value of the bloc. Today witha| 4. The reaction will provoke civil progress and the possibilities of production are increased, |a grand total of approximately 500,- revolutionary situation the reaction- war and this will be the opportunity while the world market with its limits and with the spheres | 900 people behind the bloc. of influence of the individual imperialist groups remains more Widely Supported. or less stable—just these facts entail a very acute, far- | Thus the conference actually, reaching crisis of international capitalism, pregnant with new wars and endangering the existence of all stabilization.” Not a smooth and uniform advance of all imperialist countries comes out of this partial stabilization, but a very uneven advance in which some capitalist countries hang back and others advance with leaps and bounds, far exceeding the pre-war level of production. In this period of very precarious, very shaky stabilization, the Wall Street power of which the little Coolidge is the chief executive (exercising more real power than any monarch) moves into the position of hegemony in the capitalist world. Especially the advance of | United States imperialism at the expense of the British has | upset the balance of the distribution of colonies and spheres | of influence for export capital and exploitation, and the rapid tion of the materials for the military clash pro- s. Little Coolidge has done his job for Wall Street in this tremendous epoch of world history. For his masters in Wall Street he has cleared away much of the antiquated rubbish of “democracy,” as the decks of a ship are cleared for war. His administration has laid the surveyor’s lines around a colonial empire intended to be made of twenty Latin-Amer- ican republics. It has passed the big navy bill, it has merged the identities of Wall Street and the White House, it has prepared the diplomatic ground for the coming world war and the gigantic assaults to be made with the objectives of destroying the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and quenching the Chinese workers’ and peasants’ revolution. Little Coolidge steps out. Hoover, commissioned to en- large, strengthen and carry through to bloody conclusion the om of American empire, steps into his place with voluble about permanent capitalism—with theories of world- tule by Wall Street which he dreams not only of attaining, but also of perpetuating. But with the very advent of, is ver come also the sharpening of the contradictions which y and surely bring the collapse of the colossal slave- e of Wall Street. With unprecedented speed the revo- ary forces are generated and the conditions developed x which the American workers’ revolution will triumph. _ Never beface wa the perspective for the working class olution s$ c}»g- as at this very period of the boasted pros- of the ruling class. \ ia \program contained the following |main planks: | represented one half a million people} jbut there is no doubt that it had the) |sympathies and support of the over- |whelming majority of the masses. | The program that was adopted |was of the most revolutionary sort. | There was no illusion in the minds of any of the delegates that the| |coming election might not.mean civil | war and from the Presidential nom- linee down, all were preparing for| it. The goal of this conference was | the democratic dictatorship of the) workers and peasants and they prac- tically said so in so many words, The Four Points of Program | 1, Nationalization of the land.| |The land to the agrarian toilers. 2. Nationalization of the indus- tries with workers control. 8. Dissolution -of the State Ap- paratis and the formation of Work- lers and Agrarian Toilers Councils. | 4. Free Arms to the Masses. Such demands could’ receive ‘the |overwhelming. and enthusiastic ap- probation of the widest masses, as they have done, only in, an acute revolutionary situation. The fact) ithat the agrarian toilers no longer \follow their old petty-bourgeois leadership, the fact that they can |unite with the trade unions of Mexi- co under the leadership of the Com- |munist Party and prepare to fight for such a program speaks eloquent volumes, | Tirana—The Candidate, | The conference then nominated a stauch revolutionary fighter, Pedro V. Rodriguez Triana as candidate for the Workers-Agrarian Toilers’ Block in the coming election. I had a long conversation with Triana be- fore I left Mexico. He is a very simple straight-forward __revolu- tionary with a long fighting record) that dates from 1903 when ‘he fought with Madero and later with the an- Mexican Peasant Leader | | Ursulo Galv.., Secretary, of the National Peasants’ League of “Mexico, may not look at all like the pot-bellied capitalists who call themselves the heads of the National Grange and various fake “farmers’ co-operatives” in the United States, which are a tremendous political force of that country and an enemy archist leader Flores Magon in the National Libera] Party and when of American and British imperialisms. “-° \launch in the fight the agrarian But Galvan has be- | prisonment and a fine by a fascist hind him the class conscious exploited agrarian toilers of Mexico, | judge here. He has been in prison 29 ik By Fred Ellis for the militants. Already in the country there is a red military corps well armed and a whole military strategy has been worked out. In this struggle the Mexicans in the| United States could help greatly. Of | course, if the revolution succeeded | then the United States would inter- fere “and in that case,” Triana said, | smiling at me, “our success will de-} pend on the proletariat of the United | States and throughout the world if we are to win.” This analysis is also the analysis, in the main, of the Party in Mexico. The Party thesis reads as follows: “10. The armed conflict between the different bourgeois groups, will masses who will want to seize the| land, We foresee that the conflict | between those groups will conduce | later on to a conflict between those | roups and the agrarian masses,| first, and later with the working masses. The role of the party is to| unite those discontented and to unite | the fight of the,masses in order to reach a united front against the bourgeoisie and imperialism. “11, The first task of the party must consist in separating the work- ing and agrarian masses from the leadership of the bourgeoisie and the small bourgeoisi The second to organize these masses within one| organization which will unify them} for action. This task the party must | take in hand with all energy. The Comintern at our April Con-| ference has fixed the method and| the organization. The method is a} class program which should mark| clearly the difference of objectives between the bourgeoisie and the pro- letarian and agrarian classes. The organization is the Workers and Agrarian Block.” Permanent Block The conference of the Block did not break up until it had formed it- self into a permanent body with per- manent rules and a permanent exec- utive of nine created, and had worked out the forms by which the |state organizations could be created |and individual members placed in |groups for the social unification of |workers and agrarian toilers before affiliation. The executive is as fol- lows: Diego Riveira, president, Commu- nist Party; Galvin, secretary, Na- tional Camp. League; La Borde Railwaymen’s Party; Monson, Com- munist Party; Carillo, Communist Party; Diaz, Coahuila League; Cal- eros, Tuamalupas League; Silva, Chihuahua Workers Federation; Lara, Vera Cruz League. eo The fifth article, to be printed to- morrow, will dea! with the Unity Congress of Workers and Peasants, discussing its, representation, the business it transacted, relations with the Trade Union Educational League of the U.S., and its achievements. Fascists Imprison | Worker 2 Years for Singing ‘Red Flag’ MILAN, (By Mail).—For singing the “Bandiera Rossa,” the Italian version of the “Red Flag,” in the street, an Italian stone cutter has been sentenced to five months im- since May, 1927, when he was ar- rested, awaiting trial. ‘ Copyright, 1929, by Internationa Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK A Capitalist Judge Hho Wasn’t So Stuck on the Mine Owners; Haywood Is Again Warned of Moyer Previously Haywood wrote of his early life as miner and cowboy in Utah, Nevada and Idaho; of his first years as union man in the Western Federation of Labor; his rise to Secretary-Treasurer of the union; the fights of the wnion in the Coeur d’Alenes, Idaho; in Den- ver Telluride and Colorado City. Judge owers, in a clash with the reactionary Governor Peabody, has offered Haywood to give the union an injunction against the mine owners, if Murphy, the M. F. M. attorney, would present a petition, Now go on reading. All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. eo Ae By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD.® PART XL. MORPHY. went to Leadville while Judge Owers was on the bench. Here are some of the judge’s remarks when the injunction was granted: The appellants are members of the Cloud City Miners’ Union Num- ber 33, W.F.M. All of them are engaged in the mining industry, one of the chief industries of the State of Colorado, from whence a great part of the wealth of the people of the state is obtained. The appellants are the im- portant factor in the production of all this wealth. Without them production would at once cease, and in a short time the present populated mining region would become a howling wilderness, as the business element would soon leave if there were no mine work- ers to exploit. The appellants are most of them miners who every day shake dice with death. Not only is the labor of the men hazardous, but it is also unhealthful. The union which they have formed and of which they are members js their chief support; it is the medium through which their wages are maintained and their hours regulated. The union provides succor for them when injured or in sickness, and a funeral benefit for their families when they are called by the sum- mons of death. it is the opinion of eminent jurists that it is the law of state and natin that working men have the right of association and cooperation for their mutual benefit, which in this instance means that the men employed in and around the mines of Leadville have the right to belong to the Miners’ Union. The parties against whom this application for an injunction is di- rected are the owners of the mines in and about Leadville. Many are among the most prominent and substantial citizens of the community. Other owners are absentee stockholders. Such an injunction, if issued, would be against all owners, Some of the mining companies, it seems, have registered membership in the combination set forth (the Mine Owners’ Association) in the names of their respective managers or superintendents. Cognizance will be taken of this fact. None will at this time attempt to deny that the mines and property belong in fact and in accordance to the law to the present owner: though the charter under which the Miners’ Union is working pro- claims that “labor produces all wealth; wealth belongs to the pro- ducers thereof.” This or a similar maxim, was at one time expressed by Abraham Lincoln, but with this sentiment the laws and the courts of the land do not agree, and certainly the mine owners are not in sympathy with the notion. The mines belong to them and in this in- alienable right they will have the protection of this and all other courts. The mine owners have the right to form themselves into a mine own- ers’ union, not so named, but the equivalent. The mine owners’ union can be used for the mutual lawful protection of their joint property. They have the right, after their lawful indebtedness is defrayed, and the meager wage of their employees deducted, to the accumulated residue or unearned increment. The mine owners’ union or its mem- bers individually or collectively should not be, and are not, held in liability for the aged or injured who are in their employ. ... The citations of this petition are such as to lead one to imagine the remote possibility of the rights of the members of the miners’ union having been infringed. The prayers of the appellants are, however, substantiated by a large number of affidavits. Therefore the opinion of this court is that the injunction be granted and at once issued. It is hereby made permanent. Violation of any clause is punishable by imprisonment for one year or fine of five hundred dollars or both. “ * * This injunction granted to Cloud City Miners’ Union enjoined the Mine Owners’ Association from interfering in any way with the busi- ness of the Miners’ Union, or discharging men because of membership in the organization. Although the regular judge of the district was not inclined to enforce the injunction, after Judge Owers’ return to Denver, yet it did prevent the Mine Owners’ Association of Leadville from joining forces against the miners with the associations of other districts. A few days after my talk with Judge Owers, I went to see Patterson at the Welton street office of the Rocky Mounain } When I came in the senator was at his desk. He invited me to sit down and asked how things were going. I told him about the situa- tion in Telluride, Idaho Springs, Colorado City, and about the smelter men’s strike in Denver, and said that I wanted to speak to him about an article that he had printed charging the officials of the W.IF.M. with having called the Cripple Creek strike. I explained to him t the members of the unions of Cripple Creek had called the strike through their district union, : “Oh,” he said, “that’s a small matter, Haywood.” “But, senator,” I answered, “that’s one of the charges that the Mine Owners’ Association makes against us.” He said, ‘Well, we’ll have to let it go this time. You can make the correction in some future statement that yeu publish.” This did no tplease me at all, but there was nothing to be done about it. Just as I was about to leave, the senator said: “Haywood, where did this man Moyer ever make noise enough for you to find him?” I told the senator who Moyer was, and that he had proven to be a very good organizer. He remarked emphatically: “He has not the manly fiber or the stability required in a man to be the executive officer of such an organization as the Western Federation of Miners. I’m certain that you will find this to be true before you get through with him.” I remarked that the present situation would try the best of us, and thanked the senator for the generally friendly attitude of his papers. * * * Cripple Creek district was on the crest of a spur range of the Rocky Mountains. Here nature, the conjurer, had shaken up the porphyry dikes and into each split and seam had spurted up gold- bearing quartz or quartzite, which congealed. To the dismay of mining experts, the same old nature wizard split the mother granite and filled its cracks and crevices with gold. This untold wealth remained hidden through all the ages, until 1889, when a forlorn prospector, whose view of the scenery was obscured by the hind end of a jackass, dug with a dull pick into a streak of rich ore. That was the beginning of one of the world’s greatest gold mining camps. Men like that poor prospector have found the riches of the world. Wandering prospectors found the mines of Kalgoorlie, Witwatersrand, Klondike, Siberia, the diamond mines of Africa, the nugget of Ballarat, the iron mines of Sweden and America, the copper mines of Chile and Peru, the silver mines of Mexico. But the wealth they have found has nator | always slipped into the coffers of the exploiters. _ * * In the next instalment Haywood writes of the Cripple Creek strike of 1908; how the class lines cut through social life the first days of the strike; how the merchants bet on the wrong horse; of a frame-up to charge the union with dynamiting. Readers who wish to get Haywood’s book in bound volume, may do so by sending in a yearly subscription, renewal or extension. No extra charge. Just the regular rate. For a short period of time the Daily Worker is offering free of charge a copy of Bill Haywood’s book with every yearly subscription. This applies to renewals as well. If you have already subscribed extend your sub for another year. \ r