The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 25, 1929, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, FrPrusRY Baily 245 Worker Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party Published by the National Daily Worker. Publi: Association, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months il (outside of New York): year $3.50 six months $2.00 three months Ine., Daily, pt ate Union Square, . ¥.,_ Telephon 1696-7-8. SS]: ROBERT MINOR WM. F. DUNNE . Cable: “Dz s and mail all checks to Wo 2 Union Ass. Editor New York, | MR. HILLQUIT SEES STARS The Reverend Muste’s Social Reformism Wherever there is a market you will find a merchant. Whenever sharpening class relationships appear in a capitalist society, with the accompanying increase in the class consciousness of the workers—there is invariably an up-cropping of petty-bourgeois supporters of the capitalist system ready with pseudo-radical slogans intended to hold the masses in support of the reactionary system. Recent months have seen attempts to cover up with so- called progressive phrases the reactionary, anti-working class policies of the bureaucracy of the American Federation of Labor. These efforts have been led mainly by the Rev- erend A. J. Muste and a corps of associates. The Muste group is now trying to take on an independent organizational form. It is a “Left” social reformist group, with a political as well as a trade union character. No intelligent worker can afford to let himself be de- ceived as to the real nature of this movement among sup- porters of the employer class and its capitalist system. It is necessary to understand the origin of this group. Its for- mation arises out of the sharpening of class relationships in this country at this time, with the narrowing down of the ‘A. F. of L., the increasing importance of the unskilled and semi-skilled workers as the decisive factor in the labor movement, the development of new unions under Communist influence and the growing influence of the Communist Party. Here is a widening market for the wares of such as | little Mr. Muste. Neat packages of social reformism, done up in pink paper—guaranteed “just as good” as class struggle! ‘Against what is the movement of this petty-bourgeois group directed? Tts composition and its program make it an instrument directed chiefly against the Communist movement. The role of the Muste group lies in its tendency to attempt to iso- late the Communist influence among the masses. The Reverend Muste and his associates attempt only to steer the discontent of the masses into the channels of capitalism. The workers who are seeking the path to break away from the reactionary trade union bureaucracy, from the influence of treacherous social reformism, this Muste group would seize upon and Jead back into the camp of social-reformist illusions, into the camp of capitalism. The Muste group is now engaged in an effort to unite the various social-reformist groups and parties into a party directed against the Communist movement. The real aims and the dangerous role of this group in the labor movement must be made known to, and thoroughly un- derstood by the working class, Its liberal, petty-bourgeois ideology and “Left” slogans are most dangerous to the masses precisely because the Muste group, having already fought against all genuine Left aims, will in the future quite con- sistently betray every real Left slogan in action. ‘An examination of the social character and activities of the group surrounding the Reverend Muste shows nakedly the close and intricate connections with the yellow socialist party and the bureaucracy of the A. F. of L.—i. e. with the worst and most corrupt and active lieutenants of big capital in the labor movement. And the pacifist face of the Muste group is sufficient guarantee that in the fast-developing imperialist war sit- uation it will play a role of leading the workers into the shambles with pretty words of “peace.” Imperialist war can- not be without its “pacifist” servants and the associates of Mr. Muste are quite clearly applying for a post as pacifist camouflage for the imperialist war makers. This group takes what position in the class struggle? Certainly not a position in favor of class struggle on the part of the workers against the capitalist class. It fights against the Workers (Communist) Party. It fights and maneuvers against the Trade Union Educational League, against the new, militant trade unions and against their strikes—against vit organizational expressional of struggle against capi- talism. It is impossible to let this group of adventurers off with the estimate that it is “harmless,” as merely playing a nega- tive part, as “not participating in the class struggle.” The social-democratic parties and groups, like the trade-union bureaucracy, do not play a negative role. Their crime is not that they do not participate in the class struggle, but that they do participate in the class struggle as most active and dangerous forces for the employing class and state. The so- cialist party is today a well-developed party of the police and strike-breakers. The Muste group, social-democratic at base, ~ put playing a would-be ambiguous role pretendedly “to the Left” of the police-socialists and the strike-breaker trade union bureaucrats, are in fact merely a foot-loose type of social-democrats, dyed-in-the-wool yellows, who at every test in the past have betrayed the workers and who at every test in the future will do the same. The narrowing base of the A. F. of L., the grow- ing decisiveness of the unskilled proletarian masses in the labor movement, the increasing influence of the Com- munist Party which has played the leading role in every re- edo of the workers and which nurtures and guides the channels of class struggle the growing radicalization of the workers—these are the phenomena which cause the of the yellow flag of the Muste group inscribed with ia ses int@nded to draw the discontented working ss back into the camp of the class. enemy. Every ¢lass-conscious worker should do his part to ex- is coterie of charlatans and to compel its liquidation. ‘Forward with the class struggle! Build the Party of the é Copyright, 1929, by International Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD'S BOOK 'The “Desecrated American Flag”; Dynamite and Frame-ups Against the Union by Thiel Detectives Previously, Haywood wrote of his early life as miner, cowboy and homesteader in the early days in Utah, Nevada and Idaho; of his years working un to the office of Secretary of the Western Federation | of Miners; its early battles in Colorado; how the union fought against martial law, declared by Governor Peabody, to aid the mine owners and open shop Citizens’ Alliance. He is speaking at present of the great Cripple Creek strike of 1908. Now go on reading. * * . PART XLV. QO night I had paper Iaid out on the dining room table at home. When my wife called out from the next room and asked what I was doing, I replied: “Pm making more trouble for Peabody.” I was at work on what became the notorious “desecrated flag” poster. I drew a rough picture of the United States flag, with a caption at the top, “Is Colorado in America?” On each stripe of the flag was an inscription: Martial Law Declared In Colorado. Habeas Corpus Suspended in Colorado. Free Press Throttled in Colorado. Bull-Pens for Union Men in Colorado. Free Speech Denied in Colorado. Soldiers Defy the Courts in Colorado. Wholesale Arrests Without Warrants in Colorado. Union Men Exiled from Homes and Families in Colorado. Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Questioned in Colorado. Corporations Corrupt and Control Administration in Colorado. Right of Fair, Impartial and Speedy Trial Abolished in Colorado, Citizens’ Alliance Resorts to Mob Law and Violence in Colorado. Militia Hired by Corporations to Break the Strikes in Colorado. All rights rese-ved. Republica- tion forbidden. except by permission. Mexican Masses Honor Mella 2" The sixth article of this series, published yesterday and the previo day, was the speech of Albert Weis- bord, fraternal delegate of the Trade Union Educational League té| mittee of Proletarian Defense, | the Mexican Unity Congress of | : P | Workers and Peasants. It dealt |, The se o vue Aatanlo Mella it! y I. = jalism | 22S been keenly felt by the masses | with the role of U. 8. imperialism |i, Mexico, Great demonstrations | in Latin America, with the situa-/have been held under the leadership | Antonio Mella, Mexico City and was packed to the| dha di the LS clube ave eee the leadership clench their fists and swear to| movement in Latin America. of the C. P. of Mexico, His pic-| avenge the murder of their leader. |loss to'the Parties, Mella’s death can | and with international trade unity |ture is to be found everywhere. At between the American and Latin) the meeting the very poorest masses | American countries. were present and one could see they | eR Re were deeply moved. & ARTICLE 7. By ALBERT WEISBORD. Problems of the Communists in the South ,are lecherous planters with colored | By JOHN H. OWENS | concubines, The rapid industrialization of the} The inferiority complex which is |south is creating a new and complex | forced upon the Southern Negro ex- |problem for the Communist Party. | Plains his attitude towards his own] |Prior to the 1928 presidential cam-| female kind. He accepts the white paign, no really serious attempts | man’s evaluation of colored woman- had been made by the Party te in-| hood as well as of other things in |vade the “solid” south, this phase of |life. It also explains in part the |the work being limited to such the-| difficulties of competent Negro loretical slogans as “abolish lynch-| leadership in the South. A Negro jing,” “full social equality,” “abolish | leader is not acceptable to a certain |Qim-Crowism.’” The realization of |part of the race until the white a conerete program for this section | folks have put the seal of approval of the country will require the|upon him. This means that he must earnest consideration of the best an- | be “safe and sane” according to the ulytical minds of the Party. most orthodox and fundamentalist | Contrary to the general concep- | Viewpoint of the average Southern tion, even among Communists, the| White. This inferiority feeling also |vast majority of southern Negroes | Partly explains the willifigness and re not revolutionary, not even rad- |£Pequency with which colored women Given a moiety of peace, prop-|eMter into misalliances with white erty and security, they are content |™en, though the economic phase of to drift through life. Not that they |the matter is highly important and lare devoid of ambition—rather the|must not be forgotten. opposite, but this ambition smacks of accepted American traditions of in- dividualism, getting on in the world, highly competitive effort and the |like. With all its social and polit- ical restrictions, the south can boast of a rising class of black bourgeois elements. Another ideological factor which |must be given close attention is the peasant psychology possessed by many Negroes. This reflected in their social outlook, a tendency to ape, frequenily to exaggerate, the manners and morals, the prejudices and political theories of the ruling caste, The average southern white is an inferior individual who attempts to |hide his inferiority complex by a | pretentiousness of manners, an as- sumed superiority based upon color \only and, therefore, the inherent in- \feriority of the black race. The rural Negro is frequently pre- judiced against the town Negro and adopts a patronizing attitude toward “educated Negroes.” This is but the reflex of the white planter’s psychol- ogy who doubts the wisdom of edu- cating his “niggers.” In his opinion, it makes him uppish, refractory and generally untrustworthy as good field hands. “Education puts social equality notions in a nigger’s head.” Thus the Negro manhood of the jsouth is individualized and degraded until it accepts as natural and in- ‘The poor whites of the South are Assemble these red hosts so obsessed with the psychology of! boll-weevil which ruins that one Red Picket Lines By HENRY REICH, Jr. Here see the lines that mark the sharp divide Between the master and the working class, Where stand these men and women on the side Of Labor, shouting “Ye shall never pass!” No beat of drums, no bugles shrilly crying Though some are weak and sick and some are dying, Yet on they press unarmed into the fray. Though maces swing and bayonets are flashing Across their way, the pickets firmly stand Against the brunt. What though harsh taunts are lashing, The placards make reply in steady hand. Though rain sharp blows upon defenceless heads And fly the bullets from the gangsters’ guns, Though every heart is filled with nameless dread, Still stand the rickets—those unflinching ones. This is the front line in the war of classes, : This is the battle ground where labor fights. |. Mexico. The _ speeches, be present at a huge memorial} Anti-Imperialist League, La Farga;spite of the overwhelming evidence meeting, on January 24th, for Julio | of the Committee of Proletarian De-| against him and the tremendous in- d The meeting was/|fense, Vadillo of the Association of|dignation of the masses, however, in one of the largest theatres in} Proletarian Students (founded by} the murderer has just been freed by _ Mella) and Penichet of the Associa-|the Mexican government. doors on the call issued by the Com-|tion of Cuban Political Emigres in|the answer of the fascisti to the which | revolutionary mass movements just This is touched on Mella’s life and work | generated by the C. P. More mur- received with much feeling by the| | and the meaning of his murder, were |ders are expected. The death of J. A. Mella has been audience. One could almost see them|a great blow to the Communist That Mella was politically mur-| be compared to our own Ruthenberg. | dered is now established beyond a|Far from desponding, however, the | |shadow of a doubt. The policeman|comrades have but | testified in court that as Mella Jay | ranks. The speakers were, Huneo, of the|dying on the street, someone came|have now joined the Party. The nee 5 obit | Latin American Trade Union Con-|up, pulled up his sweater and ex-| revolutionary situation is growing as my honor and privilege to|federation, Diego Rivera of the!claimed, “That job is well done.” In!more acute, The Party. carries on. | * * * In the closed . their Hundreds of new members “We must keep the niggers down” that it hampers intelligent action for their own advancement. They are encouraged in this by the upper class whites, who being more class conscious and more practical use this race prejudice for their own economic security. This prejudice on the part of the} whites is also caused by fear. Con- scious of the injustices which the Negrées have suffered for genera-| tions, the Southern whites cannot) but quake at the thought of retali- ation. This is reflected in such) sadistic orgies as the lynching and) mutilation of Negro men and. rip- | ping up pregnant women. That this prejudice has no_ biological) foundation and is not inherent in| either race is evidenced by the wil-| lingness of Southern white males/ clandestinely to cohabit with colored females. The crisis in agriculture, the evils} of the single crop production, the in fully array— crop (cotton), changing farming conditions in the south, concentra- tion of land ownership and mechani- zation of farming), are potent forces tending to weed out the poor and inefficient owners both black and white and reduce the number of agricultural laborers work the productive acreage, These dispossessed ruralites become a part of the city proletariat and are absorbed by the expanding indus- tries of the South: the mines, the mills, the factories. In an article “The North and the| South Today,” Current’ History Magazine for November, 1927, the author has this to say: “Now, Southern enterprise and Northern capital combining have made the South the outstanding | commercial wonder of the day. For example, a line of creamer- ies, backed by Northern capital, stretches from Washington to New ‘Orleans and the great Southern hydroelectric development has likewise been brought about large- ly by New York, Philadelphia and Boston money. . . . One by one the smaller Southern industries are being strengthened or ac- quired by Northern capitalists. In Randolph County, North Caro- lina, fifteen of the seventeen cot- ton mills have heen purchased with Northern capital and in Sel- ma two of the three and this is typical of the condition through- out the South. In fact, unob- trusive forces are everywhere at work breaking down the barriers and soon the last one will have fallen. “Just as soon as the Negro taboo and the fundamentalist re- ligious tahoo disappear, we may expect Party lines to disappear also. North and South Carolina with more spindle hours than Massachusetts will not continue to blow ‘hot and cold’ on election days. “But, the Southern states, though nationalized and cooperative are still conservative, more so, per- haps than those of the North be- cause of the absence of the foreign ‘element: They are far removed from Sovietism or ‘Red’ Repub- licanism and they respect the courts and love the Government.” How will the changing economic needed to} evitable such derogatory institutions as concubinage. peonage, chain- gangs, segregation and a host of other festering evils which are damning indictments of white cap- \italist civilization in America. By a peculiar mental twist the Negro en- dures these evils by refusing to ree- ognize them and the southern Ne- gro as well as the southern white bitterly resents criticism of his community by an outsider. Some Negroes go so far as to de- fend their “good white folks” even Struggle—the Wogan (Communist) Party! ui though these same good white folks| Gere Here, ’gainst the few, defiance by the masses Is flung and these no longer seek ‘their “rights.” Defiance and a challenge here are flung Against, the bulwarks of society. What though our leaders have been shot or hung, - Still others rise to take their places. See! The Red Flag flies above the sturdy lines, Advancing ever in the fiercer fray, While over all the Star of Russia shines 5 And marks the dawping of the Workers’ Day! _ conditions affect the social relations of the races? How will the South- ern white workers, grounded in race prejudice, react to Communism which preaches and practices race equality? How will the Negro re- spond to a suggested alliance with the “po’ white trash” whom capital- ism has consistently pushed forward as his traditional enemy? Perhaps the economic forces at work con- tain the potentialities of an answer. Who knows? Here is a problem which requires all, of Communist | fortitude and courage, wo anothers ~*~ | graph had been taken in Telluride, where he was chained to a tele- graph pole during the strike. Under this was the title “Under the Folds of the American Flag in Colorado,” and under the flag, “If Old Glory is desecrated, it has been done by the Governor of Colorado, The strikers are struggling to enforce the laws of the state and to break not only the chains that bind Henry Maki, but the chains that bind all the workers. Following this was an appeal for funds for the Colo- rado strikers, with the signatures of Moyer and myself. e | .. Victor Poole, a young miner, was in and out of the bull-pen jail many-times. Finally Governor Peabody declared the writ of h corpus suspended in his case, and said that he must remain in p | We followed this decision by applying to the federal court. While case was pending the military authorities, fearing that the writ | be granted, contrived to have charges preferred against Victor Poo: for a minor criminal offense which had been forgotten if it had ¢ | been committed. They turned him over to the sheriff of the cou | in this way slipped from under a writ that would in all pro | have been granted. Poole was not an official of the union. I | tinued persecutions caused much comment. ae Vindicator mine was under guard of the militia, but an on the six-hundred-foot level that killed the foreman a tendent was charged to the Western Federatign of Min examination they made of the mine and the evidence in coroner’s jury was unable to determine the cause of the Sherman Parker, Charles Kennedy, Bill Davis end Tom charged with this crime and placed under arrest, but the district at- torney quashed the indictments for lack of evidence. The persecuticn of these men had become a byword in the di: They had been ar- rested and re-arrested, charged with nearly everything to t in the annals of crime, but never once was any of them convi slightest offense. Parker, Davis and Foster were out at this time un E cumulated bail, though they had not been charged with an: and no crime had been committed. None of the previous ac having been fastened on these men, a serious charge was ng framed up against them. * * * CERTAIN lodging house in Cripple Creek was the rendezvous of the gunmen and detectives of the Citizens’ Alliance. There the thugs planned their vicious consniracies. It was there no doubt that Sterling and Scott arranged with Beckman, the Thiel detective, and Mc ney, | a rounder and pimp, the details of a proposed train wreck, the re- | sponsibility for which was to be placed upon Parker, Foster and Davis. | Scott had already inquired of a railroad engineer named Rush, | where the worst place would be for a train wreck. Rush told him that | 4 a rail were loosened at the high bridge, it would throw the train down | an embankment, three or four hundred feet and kill or injure all the | passengers, Scott told Rush that he must be on the lookout, at a certain hour that night when he was driving his train, At the identical spot near the high bridge, Rush stopped his traim and took the fireman and others ahead, where they discovered that spikes had been pulled and a rail had been loosened. A wreck certainly would have occurred if he had attempted to run his train over the spot, carrying to death or injury between two and three hundred people. Kennison, the president of the Victor Miners’ Union, and many other union men were on the train. ae) ae Warp a PARKER, Bill Davis and Tom Foster were arrested as the principals of this terrible crime. When they were brought to trial McKinney was the star witness for the prosecution. He testified that he had done the job with the accused, but after a severe cross-examina- tion admitted that he had testified at the instigation of Sterling and Scott, who had promised him a thousand dollars in cash and a ticket te anywhere he-wanted to go, If he should be arrested and convicted, they had guaranteed him a pardon from Governor Peabody. Beckman admitted that he would be willing to kill two hundred or more people for five hundred dollars. The attorneys for the Western Federation demanded his immediate arrest, and called upon the district attorney arid his assistant:to do their duty. : But the detective was never arrested. ‘Sterling and Scott. also testified, but the slimy wretches fastened all the blame on their tools, Beckman and McKinney, ‘The final witness for the prosecution was Rush, the engineer, who testified that Scott had asked him where the worst place for a wreck would be, and that he had tipped him off that an attempt would be made at the place designated near the high bridge. Without calling a single witness for the defense, without a word being said by the defendants in their own behalf or by the attorneys of the Western Federation in behalf of them, the judge ordered the jury to bring in a verdict of “not guilty.” "3 3 8 * A FEW days after this victory, Moyer and I went to Cripple Creek dis- trict to.see the stores and visit the district union. Before we left I said to him: . “I don’t propose to spend any ttme in the bull-pen.” “Well,” he said, “what are you going to do if they arrest us?” * “Let's shoot it out with them,” I said. We took a couple of extra revolvers in a handbag. I told him: “\ “It we dont need these we can leave them with the boys.” _. Inthe next instalment Haywood writes of the situation at Cripple Creek on his visit there; of how Haywood and two fellow workers “ghot it out witha gang of deputy sheriffs at Kighteenth and Champa Streets in the heart of Denver; a touch of Big Bill’s grim humor in the midst of class war. Readers who would rather not wait to read our daily instalments, or who wish to add to their library Haywood's ~ memoirs in book form, may obtain: the book free by sending in a yearly subscription, renewel or extension. If desired, and plainly in- structed, the baok can ao to one address and the subscription to # *