The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 18, 1929, Page 6

Central Organ of the Workers (Communist) Party SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a- year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months Published by the National Daily Worker Publishing Association, Inc.,, Daily, Except Sunday, ‘at 26-28 Union Square, New York, The War in “Happy Valley,” Tennessee Industrial war. has come to the mill cities of “Happy Valley,’ Tennessee. Two thousand rayon workers at the DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1929 + po “THE NATIONAL MI NERS’ UNION WILL SAY THE LAST WORD By Fred Ellis desis regbie: “DALWORK-” By Mail (outside of New pags AY tion forbidden except by permission. -7-8. tK. $6.00 a year 0 six months =>, $2.00 three months . Address and mail all checks to hack Rees MInGR, ++ Hditor [tne Daily Worker, Union | WM. F, DUNNE ..... Ass. Editor Square, New Yor a Copyright, 1929, by Internationa Publishers Co., Inc. BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK “Kangaroo Court” at Caldwell, Idaho, Jail; New Friends; An Old Acquaintance; Labor Rushes to Defense 2 Se All rights reserved. Republica- notorious American Glanzstoff Corporation plant at Eliza- | In previous chapters Haywood told of his carly life as miner, cow= bethton have quit their work places and established their boy und homesteader in the Old West; of years as union miner at battle lines against their enemy—the mill owners, who are | Silver City, Ohio; his election to. head of the Western Federation of calling for the bullets and bayonets of the state militia. }a | Miners; its great strikes in Idaho and Colorado; the formation of the “The South,” speaking through its Chambers of Com- | | LW.W, in 1905; his kidnapping in Denaery srgnenant ee Idaho - merce, its Rotary Club and the Ku Klux Klan, has heralded | isolation at the Boise penitentiary. He is now telling of being remove to the world that it was the land of “no strikes,” of “100 Per | | to the Caldwell jail.to be tried for the murder of ex-Governor Steuen- Cent Americans,” which was intended to mean safe invest- | | berg of Idaho. Now go on reading. ments and huge profits. The flames of war now sweeping | | Wy SVE ¢ “Happy Valley” are obliterating this promise. This was in- By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. evitable. PART 62. The new slave-owners and drivers of labor in “The Ps South” do not know the mettle of the so-called “innocent, ignorant hill-billies” being transmuted into industrial serfs, if they have any faith in their own high-pressure propaganda, | intended to draw in capital not only from the North, but also from European and other countries. The Glanzstoff plant, like some of the mills in the Passaic strike, is said to have international, especially German connections. The Southern mountaineer, drawn into modern industry, has often shown his courage and daring on the battlefields of the class war. This has been notably true of the West Virginia coal fields, especially the historic mgrch of the miners of Mingo Qounty under the hungry machine guns and clouds of poison gas of airfleets sent against them by the federal government at Washington. Hundreds of monu- ments could be erected up and down Paint and Cabin Creeks and along the Kanafwha River in memory of heroic working class deeds against the guns of mine owners’ armed guards, Cossacks and federal troops. | By D. MANUILSKY. | “7,500 Miners Locked Out Because of Machinery, Speed-up and Lang hours.”—News Item. scussion N the train from Boise to Caldwell we rode in the day-coach. The other peonle in the car were reading newspapers. Across the head- lines, in letters that could be read fifty feet away, were the names of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone. In the seat in front of me a man had | his paper spread out so that I read over his shoulder. A Thiel detective who was acting as a guard said “You must not read that.” I told hint: : “There’s nothing I’m more interested in. fellows kept us in the dark long enough.” The Caldwell jail was'a small affaif of four cells, in: one of which we were locked up at night. In the daytime we were allowed the use of a large yoom where there was a cookstove. There were five or six short-time prisoners. Like all county prisons this jail had its “kangaroo court.” The prisoners were inclined to let us off without trial, as we agreed to pay any reasonable fine that they might assess us, but we You had an opportunity to see how the “kangaroo court” works, when a young fellow was put in the jail charged with rape. In Idaho there is an “age-of-consent” law, and it seemed that in this case the girl was not old enough to consent. The prisoners told this fellow that he was under arrest and that He would have to appear before the “judge,” a young hobo who was then seated at the table. They asked him if he had a lawyer; he said no. Pettibone volunteered to act in that capacity. The judge told the prisoner before him that he was charged with breaking into the county jail, which he had done without the consent of the inmates, and asked the attorney what the prisoner ws The German. Party Di jportance for the Communist move- ment that without absolute clarity ‘concerning them there can be no An especially brilliant page in Southern labor history had to say in defense. Pettibone made a plea. The prisoner was fined has been the fighting side by side of Negro with white work- is the intention of this article} Meal witht | a dollar which-was tobe used for the benefit of all. Then they arrested |to deal with two questions. The Differences of Opinion Between’ Groups Are ers, as in the coal fields of Alabama, the only shameful blot being that the white workers have too often in the hour of crisis deserted their Negro comrades in the hope of winning some advantage for themselves. The struggle that blazes through “Happy Valley,’ Ten- nessee, therefore, has the heritage of a long and *brave re- sistance already waged by those who have these many years been coming down out of the hills and the mountains. The strikers of Elizabethton have need of every tough sinew they can boast. The huge machine of capitalist op- pression, the glorified Hoover business efficiency regime, is arrayed against them as against every other revolting worker and poor farmer in the entire land, Rifle and machine gun fire, poison gas, the terror of armored tanks is the employ- ing class answer to their many and just grievances. The factory serfs of “Happy Volley” suffer from the long workday, excruciating toil of 66 to 72 hours weekly for men; 10 hours a day and 56 hours weekly for girls and women. They agonize under the peculiar industrial diseases that afflict them; partially blinded by acid fumes, chest and lung troubles developing from the etherized atmosphere, the dreaded tuberculosis finding fertile soil and helpless victims everywhere. They are continually torn on the rack of low wages and the high cost of living; maddened by the meager pay that does not even provide the bare necessities of life. No wonder there has been an explosion in the mills of “Happy Valley,” wjth the prospect that the strike will spread to the neighboring plant of the American Bemberg Corporation. Here is an opportunity for the new National Textile Workers’ Union to plant itself astride the Southern industrial battlefield, where its forces have been practically nonexistent up to the present time. It is said that the fascist betrayers of the United Textile Workers’ Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, are on the ground trying to win the confidence of the strikers. This is, of course, a chal- lenge to every militant in the labor movement, who must recognize that every strength won by the reaction is used to smash the resistance of the workers wherever it asserts itself. The mill workers of “Happy Valley,” Tennessee, must understand the treason of the United Textile Workers’ Union at New Bedford and Fall River, in Massachusetts, at Passaic, New Jersey, and in a multitude of other battles. It must not now be allowed to write the same black page in “The South.” Negro workers must everywhere be drawn into the leadership as well as into the membership of every Southern strike struggle. On this issue alone the A. F. of L. traitors will expose their open hostility to the fighting unity of the working class. Women and youth labor must also be drawn into leader- ship and membership. Sixty per cent of the, mill workers in “Happy Valley” are women. They are subject to even greater exploitation than the men. They are capable of great résistance, quick to sacrifice in every extremity, brave in combat, courageous in working class spirit, ever flaring a will _ to victory. It would be a grave error in this, as in all strug- gles, not. to draw women workers fully into the leadership. ~~ Capitalist industry has boasted, and still exults over the huge profits drawn from its human treadmills in “The South.” -But the working class, witnessing Southern indus- trialization, also sees its own ranks grow and strengthen ‘The new proletariat of “The South” becomes a mighty re- -eruit for the class war that must end with victory mounting he standards of the whole working class., first of these questions is the inter- national importance of the problems which the present discussion in the German Communist Party has brought to the fore. The members of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist Inter- national paid no attention to this side of the question is their speeches |which the text of the Open Letter \to the German Communist Party jwas discussed. The second of these questions is ‘that of the stabiljzation of capital- ism, for this question is of extereme importance for all sections of the |social democracy, the question of or- Communist movement. Comintern. A detailed discussion of this question will create clarity and will show clearly the revisionist char- acter of the attempts to interpret the decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern as though the capital- ist stabilization were permanent, fi- nal and capable of being maintained. Such a discussion will arm us ideo- logically for the coming revolution- ary struggles and show every mem- ber of our Communist World Party the necessity for a merciless strug- gle against the opportunist epidemic. 1. International Significance of Open Letter of E.C.C.1. to German Communist Party. The Open Letter of the E.C.C.I. to the German C. P. in connection with the attack of the German Right |imcreasing extent in the Communist/man Party. On the contrary, they |2ation amongst the workers and) wingers upon the decisions of the Sixth. Congress of the Comintern is of the greatest international im- portamee. Next to the C. P. of the Soviet Union, the German C. P. is ithe strongest mass party of the Com- | intern, This mass-character of the |German C. P. goes hand in Hand with its fighting capacity. As far as the German C. P. is concerned, | these exists no disproportion be-} |tween the two elements of Bolshe- |vization, the mass-character and the fighting capacity, something which jeannot be said for instance of the 'C. P. of Czechoslovakia. The Ger- jman C. P. was born in the fire of |the revolution. It grew and became istrong in the bloody — struggles lagainst the white guardist bands of \Noske, it was hardened in the civil |war and in heavy defeats which con- ‘tributed to its strength and experi- ence, This circumstance distinguishes the German C. P. from all other sections of the Comintern in West- lern Europe, which have not gone through such a bitter period of revo- lution and civil war. The lessons learned by the C. P. of Germany in the most important \stages of its development are in lsome respects no less important for the other Western European sections of the Comintern than the experi- ences of the C. P. of the Soviet Union. It must be borne in mind that the German C. P. is a party ‘fighting for the seizure of power in |a highly-developed capitalist country possessing the strongest social de- mocracy and the best trained reform- ism in the world. For these reasons the conditions under which the C. P. ‘of Germany is fighting are more |typical for the Western European |Communist movement than were the ‘conditions under which the C. P. of the Soviet Union fought before the October Revolution. The tremendous experience gained by the C, P. of the Soviet Union in the building up of Socialism will ac- ‘quire immediate and practical sig- Inifieance for the sections of the Com- intern in Western Europe only after the seizure of power. Today the most important tasks which face these sections are thcze which are connected with the preparatory work | for the revolution, or in other words, \C. P. of Germany: the question of \the winning of the masses, the leader ship of the mass-struggle, the work of the Communists in the trades unions, the emancipation of the working masses from the yoke of the ganizing the unorganized workers, ete. % * For these reasons it is no for- tuitous circumstance that the Ger- man C. P. is always ahead of the} jother sections of the Comintern in Western Europe in. putting forward |new questions and new tasks for dis* lrades to be a “precipitate” tenden- ley. to deal with differences of jopinion in the most important ques- tions arising in the practise of the |Communist movement, or a “mech- anical” extension of the discussion into other Sections of the Comintern, is in reality nothing but the logical consequence of the leading role of International Significance \cussion, What seems to many com-| \heatlhy ideological life in the Com- |munist Parties of Western Europe. | The question of the charatcer of ¥ \capitalist stabilization, the question the circumstance that it is invariably |formism, the estimation of the speed two parties, the C. P. of the Soviet|of the process of radicalization Union, the Party of the victorious amongst the workers, the problem of |proletarian revolution, andthe C. P.|the united front tactie under. the lin the session of the Presidium in|the immediate tasks which face the|of Germany, the Party of the civil present circumstances, the attitude war, which systematically take the/of the Parties to the opportunist initiative at all international con-|slogans of the transformation period gresses and at all the sessions of the (the slogan of the control of produc- |E.C.C.I. in order to secure a clear|tion, which is based upon the fas- jand definite treatment of all the cist slogan of the social democracy, most important questions of the tie slogan of “economic democracy”), the problem of consolidating the To interpret this circumstance as Communist Parties without at. the an unhealthy expression of “Comin-|Same time obscuring the ideological tern” policy, as an attempt to jockey eats of opinion, all these ques- this or that greup of comrades into |tions are of urgent and immediate accepting the dominant opinions in|importance for the German C. P. the Comintern,.means to replace a and for ail other sections of the Com- considered and Marxist analysis of intern in Western Eurepe. the most important events in the| The discussion of the IX Plenary ideological life of, the Comintern |Session of the E.C.C.I. concerning with considerations of a more or less |the new electoral tactics to be adopt- \philistine nature, jed in Great Britain and France was When these circumstances are also practically , based upon these taken into consideration, the differ-|questions. This became still clearer ences of opinion in the German C./at the last plenary session of the P., between the Central Committee |Central Committee of the French C. of the latter Party and the Right|P. when Comrade Renaud Jean rep- wingers and the group of concilia-|resented a standpoint with regard |which the German C. P. plays to an tors, no longer appear as*matters of |to the stabilization of capitalism, to |purely internal interest for the Ger-|the speed of the process of radicali- There is nothing fortuitous about |of the estimation of the role of re-| movement of Western Europe. jare seen to be matters of such im- The Death of Josef Skrypa, . Leading Polish Communist eeEe SKRYPA, a leading member of the Communist Party of West Ukraine and Communist deputy in the Polish Seym, died on February 12 in Prague, after an operation at the age of scarcely 35. Comrade Skrypa’s activity in the Seym, and his courageous conduct at meetings where he ruthlessly exposed the criminal policy of the fascist government and its reformist lackeys, made him well known among the working masses. Comrade Skrypa came over to the Communist. Party from the ranks of the national emancipation movement of the Ukrainian masses. As elementary schodl teacher in the Chelm district he won the con- fidence of the small and middle peasants, who: in West Ukraine have to bear the double yoke of social and of national oppression: 5 In 1922 the Block of the National Minorities, after.recording great victories in Volhynia,gput up Comrade Skrypa as candidate for -the Polish Seym, to which he was then elected. Working on a broader basis, Comrade Skrypa came to the conclusion that the national eman- cipation, of the Ukrainian masses is closely bound up with social emancipation, and can only be realized by revolutionary struggle in collaboration with the proletariat of the whole of Poland. oe At the beginning of 1924 Comrade ‘ypa and three other Ukra- inian deputies resigned from the’ Ukrainian club and founded the deputies’ club of the Ukrainian social democratic party (U.S.D.P.), consisting of extremely revolutionary elements. But the Polish gov- ernment scented danger and disbanded this club. A large number of its members and their four devuties went over to the Communist Party of West Ukraine at this time. They realized that it is only under the red banner of the Communist Party that’a real struggle is possible against capitalism, against the occupation of West Ukraine by the Polish bourgeoisie. On November 7, 1924, the deputies of the U.S.D.P. joined with the Communist deputies Lanzutsky: and Krolivkovski to form a Com- munist fraction in the Polish Seym, and this fraction speedily gained the confidence. and adherence of the working masses of Poland. This was due to a great extent to Comrade Skrypa, whose self-sacrificing and- unwearying activities everywhere, in the Seym, in the workers’ meetings, and at other public demonstrations, brought him’ into the foreground, . 5 a a" In spite of great suffering he worked on untiringly, and often’ went straight from bed to a meeting or demonstration. When the former Seym was closed, Comrade Skrypa was obliged to leave the couptry. It was not given him to’see the beloved scene of his revolutionary la- bors again, although he was elected to the new Seym a few weeks be- fore his death, in place of Comrade Sochacki, The death of Comrade Skrypa creates a painful gap in the ranks of the Communist Party of Poland, in the Communist Party of West Ukraine, and in the Communist International. jconcerning our attitude to the |“Left wing” social democracy, {which approximated to the stand- point of the German Right wing \group. Similatly, tendencies are to |be observed in the French C. P. in the question of the “Committees of Action” and the united front tac- tic, approximating the stand- point of the group of conciliators around Ewert in the German C. P. In a whole number of Parties we can meet with remnants of the so- cial democracy, for instance in Czechoslovakia in the instructions lgivén by the “ultra-Left” Comrade |Neurath to the local organizations jof the Party in connection with the elections. In these peculiar instruc- tions Comrade Neurath gives the following analysis of the relation of. the ©. P. of Czechoslovakia to the social democracy in the question of. the application of the united front tactic: “Every attempt of the C. P. Cz. to win not only the socialist and non-Party workers for the extension of the mass-struggles, but also to interest the socialist leaders. in these revolutionary struggles, met with the resistance of these leaders who fight against ,any attempt to turn the parlia- mentary oppositional — struggle into a revolutionary mass-strug- gle of the exploited masses of the population.” This one quotation is sufficient to show that there are still com- rades in the ranks of the Comin- tern who attempt, after the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, to “in- terest the socialist leaders” in re- volutionary struggles, and who be- lieve that the treacherous parlia- mentary policy of the social demo- crats is a “parliamentary opposi- tional struggle,” and that all that is wrong is that the social democrats refuse to go further and’ “turn the parliamentary oppositional struggle into a revolutionary mass-struggle.” The “instructions also contained other gems of a similar nature. (To Be Continued) Pettibone for having volunteered to act as lawyer, and fined him a dollar. The “kangaroo court” was conducted in much the same order and with quite as much regard for the law as the courts on the outside, 'HILE we were in Caldwell ‘we learned that a stone cutter from Chicago by the name of Billy Cavanaugh, and his partner, were cutting stone for the new. court house that was being built in Caldwell. Cavanaugh sént word to us to know if there was any thing we would | like to put in the cavity under the cornerstone. We could think of | nothing better than a copy of the constitution of the Western Federation of Miners and my membership card, which we sent out by a trusty. Cavanaugh saw. that they were deposited before the cornerstone was placed, One of the prisoners, a bright young fellow, said that he would be going out within a few days, and if there was anything that we wanted him to do for us he would carry any message and bring back the an- swer either to the Caldwell jail or any other place that we might be moved to. a explained that he could break into jail at any time, and wouldn’t do Enything thafwould get him more than six months. We thanked him as best we could and told him that through our lawyers we could get all the news in and out that we required. It seemed that we were not without friends. Here was a man who was willing to do | six months in prison for the privilege of bringing us a message! In the penitentiary was the man who had tried to slip me the note, who had been willing to take a chance to give us information, in spite of the fact that his days were numbered. There were others who risked punishment to-help us. wits at Caldwell we were taken into the county court, Judge Saxith presiding, given a preliminary hearing and remanded back to jai!. Ey some hocus-pocus of the law, a change of venue for. the state had been enacted by the legislature. We were transferred to Ada County jail, in the county in which our trial was to take place. Here we were confined at night in a little jail that had been built behind the main building. There were special guards outside, day and night. Steriff Moseley was a man of some feeling who tried to show us that in his opinion we were not guilty until convicted. We were the only occupants of this little jail, and while our cells were not locked at nignt, there was a lock on the cage and on the door that led into the raain prison. | The first day in the Ada County jail, when-I went out for exer- cise, I was surprised to see that one of the guards was John Taylor, the man on whom I had called years before as one of the committee from the union a Silver City, and who hatl been compelled to leave the camp by the men of the Black Jack Mine. I couldn’t help smiling ae irony of the situation, I never mentioned the incident; neither i ic i The executive board of the W. F. M. had voted me a vacation with five hundred collars. I had been at the desk continuously for five years, and the members of the board thought I was entitled to a rest. I never got’ the vacation. The eighteen months in prison could not be called a vacation. - * +e * * IN the daytime we had a special cell where we had our meals together, and-each of us got out for an hour every day, to walk up and down in the, sun or amuse ourselves as we pleased in the yard under close watch of the guards. I took excellent care of my health. We had a tub in which we could bathe at any time so I always had a bath at night and setting up exercises in the morning. I fasted several times, for two, three and once for six days. At the time of the trial I was as clear-as crystal both physically and mentally. _ ‘This was the jail where the plans for the Western Federation of Miners had been talked over before the initial convention in Butte in 1893.. Now. Moyer and I, the officials of this organization, were im- prisoned in this historic jail some fourteen years later. Pettibone had never been a member of the Western Federation. * * * * ONE of the first bits of good news that we received from headquarters was about the spontaneous defense fund that was being provided for ovr trial, We had been arrested on February seventeenth. On the twentieth of the same month, Belleville local of the United Mine Work- ers sent five thousand dollars. This was before any appeal for funds had been made. Telluride Miners’ Union sent a large contribution and said they would sell their hospital to increase the fund if necessary. Silverton, Colorado, sent five thousand dollarg and guaranteed to raise thirty thousand by selling their hall if it was needed. Goldfield con- tributed six thousand dollars, so it was easy to see that we were going to have funds enough to secure counsel for our defense. * * * * 4 In the next instalment Haywood writes of the time he spent in the Ada County Jail at Caldwell, Idaho; of President. Roosevelt's ‘attack on “undesirable citizens ;” of .Mazim Gorky. You can get a copy of Bilt Haywood’s book free with cach yearly subseription, renewal or extens sion to the Daily Worker. Daily Worker agents should be aware to the advantage of this offer in getting subscriptions, Is the agent in your, city alive to this fast? eo ae es A Re d. ts | |