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

Page Six Baily Sis Worker Central Organ of the (emmunist Party of the U. S. A. Publishe D $6.00 a yea Adéress a Churchill’s “Bid for Votes” In Englana. British government's “bribery e : Winston Churchill, guardian of the treasury, has presented the conservative party’s budget” to the House of Commons. Like the Hoover-Mellon propaganda before the last elec- tion in this country, it is intended to win back some of the votes that the bye-elections clearly show to be melting away rather rapidly. It is anticipated that the tories will need them in the rapidly approaching battle at the polls. Thus, with one broad swoop, the tax on tea, both foreign and empire grown, that has been in force ever since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which ended in 1603, is abolished. Every- body is supposed to drink tea. The consumption is 10 pounds per capita every year. So with the tax removed, everybody is supposed to be happy and vote for the conservative candidates. The tax, however, is eight cents per pound, which amounts to 80 cents per capita annually, a grand total of only $30,000,000 for the entire population, which is hardly enough to build an up-to-the-minute battleship for the British navy. A gesture is made toward the farmers with relief amounting to the insignificant sum of $12,000,000 per year. It is inconceivable that thes bribes” will have any ap- preciable effect upon the workers who were beaten down by this same government, aided by the traitors of the Labor Party and the Trade Union Congress, with Lloyd George’s Liberal Party also giving yeoman se e, during the heroic strike of the coal miners and the historic general strike that paralyzed the nation in 1926. The Churchill budget continues the demand for the huge war preparations of British imperialism, that develop the new war against the Union of Soviet Republics. This is the big feature of interest to British and to world labor. Churchill insists on a continuation of the militarist orgy demanded by “the absolute requirements of the safety of this island and of the unity of the British empire,” and also: “We cannot make any large reductions in the navy without falling below the one-power standard, which, in my opinion, would be a fatal decision, or without jeopardizing our food and trade routes.” Churchill argues for the growing aggressions of British imperialism, the development of its navy to protect its:trade routes, the exact struggle that leads with lightning speed to the next world war. Churchill also stresses the development of British air forces. Every strength of the British empire will be used, as it is being used today, to prepare for and foment the new at- tack against the First Wowkers’ Republic. Abolition of the tea and betting taxes and the decrease in the tax on saloons, outstanding so-called “popular” fea- tures of ‘the bribery budget,” are dwarfed by the huge na- tional debt of $38,000,000,000 loaded on the backs of the working class. Small comfort in the fact that this tremen- dous sum, mostly the result of the last war, was reduced by $500,000,000 the past year. The new budget providing for expenditures of $4,112,000,000 sneers at relief for the un- employed, while it glorifies and provides for greater arma- ments while British diplomats talk glibly of disarmament at Geneva. Understanding this, British labor will turn more than ever to the standards of the British Communist Party, that rallies the oppressed masses against the rule of both Churchill and MacDonald. They will not be “bribed” by the removal of an insignificant tax on tea, especially when they see huge wage slashes in their pay envelopes. World labor will closely watch every development in the British election campaign. The Communist Party of the United States greets its brother party, the British Communist Party, in this International May Day season, renewing the pledge for united action against the threatening imperialist war, against both American and British imperialism, for the defense of the Soviet Union, for labor’s conquest of all powgr. There Are 8,500,000 Women Workers, In the needle trades, the textile industry and the coal fields, where the left wing industrial unions are developing their activities, the women are in the forefront of every battle. As needle and textile workers they enter the fac- tories and mills, toiling side by side with the men. In the coal fields the wives of the miners fight courageously beside their husbands in every struggle. The greater number by far, however, of the 8,500,000 women workers in the United States have not yet been even touched by militant unionism. The American Federation of Labor has always turned its back on women workers, openly showing its vicious preju- dice by opposing their admission to the trade unions in many industries. The Women’s Trade Union League has for years been the plaything of “nice ladies” of the bourgeoisie. Many of its officials have used their positions as stepping stones to political jobs in the government, especially in Washington. It has become the special task of the National Woman’s Department of the Communist Party to win the women work- ers for their place in the class struggle. As an instrument in this effort“‘The Working Woman”, a monthly publication, has been established. This publication should have a million readers. It is modestly seeking 30,000 new subscribers in a campaign it is now conducting, appealing to all working women under such slogans as “Build New Unions!” “Fight the War Danger!” and “Organize the Unorganized!” “The Working Woman” is the only working class publi- cation raising the cry of exploited womanhood in the mills, factories and workshops, €ombatting the poison spread by the numerous so-called women’s publications issued by the capitalist class. The Daily Worker is now conducting its own subscription campaign. But we urge all our readers to give every possible aid in establishing “The Working Woman” on a much broader basis, winning for it mass support, thus enabling it to be an even greater factor in fighting for women workers in every industry, in drawing them into the Trade Union Unity Con- ference to be held at Cleveland, June First, where they will become a part of the new center of left wing industrial union- ism, the only unionism that wages a fight for all workers irrespective of age, sex, race or nationality. i) The rapidly growing balance of trade in favor of the Union is a big indication that the policy of rapid in- alization of the First Wprkers’ Republic will go forward fully. SDAY. BAYONET PRACTI | General Ely, commander of Second Corps Area of the army, issued an appeal a few days ago to “parents to send their sons to the Citizens’ Military Training Camps this summer as an answer to Communist propaganda.” DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THU CE IN C.M. TF. C. Lenin Manifesto fo | “This May Day leaflet of the | League for the Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class was written by. Comrade Lenin in prison in the year 1896, ! “The Toilers of Russia Will Strike the Hearts and was distributed among the | Petersburg workers in forty fac- tories to the then tremendous amount of 2,000 copies. This League was the kernel of the Marxian movement, which was to develop the Social Democratic Labor Party and finally into the Communist Party (Bolsheviki) of the Soviet Union. - “In preparing and distributing | this leaflet we felt that we were accomplishing a great revolution- ary act. A month and half later of 40,000 (replacing the spinners and weavers that began and grew precisely under the influence of the May Day leaflet and only waited for the occasion to go for- ward in more active form. “This strike showed to us and to the whole world that our, feel- ings had not betrayed us. The strike began precisely in thos places where accidently our leaf= lets had been particularly well dis- tributed.”—B. Gorey-Goldmann.— “Out of the Party Past.” se 8 By LENIN. (OMRADES! | Let us consider our position very | carefully—let us examine the con- ditions in which we spend our lives. What do we see? We work long and hard. We produce endless wealth, gold and apparel, satins and silks. | From the depths of the earth we ex- tract iron and coal. We build ma- chines, we outfit ships, we construct railroads. All the wealth of the world is the product of our hands, | of our sweat and blood. And what kind of wages do we get for this forced labor? If things were as they should, we would be living |in fine houses, we would wear good }clothes, and would never have to | Suffer any need. But we know well Will Arise and Terror of the Capitalists. . .” enough that our wages never suf-| | fice for our living. Our bosses push down wages, force us to work over-| time, place unjust fines upon us—| jin a word oppress us in every way.| | And then when we give voice to our| | dissatisfaction, we are thrown into} prison without further ado. | We have convinced ourselves only | too often that all those to whom | we turn for help are the servants and the friends of the bosses, They | | keep us workers in darkness, they | keep us ignorant so that we should not dare to fight for an improve-| |ment of our conditions. They keep| jus in sla¥ery, they arrest and im- | prison every one who shows any | signs of resistance against the op- | pressors—we are forbidden to strug- | gle. Ignorance’ and slavery—these are the means thru which the cap- italists and the government that serves them oppress us. | tn Sage | How CAN we then improve our | conditions, raise our wages, | shorten the working day, protect | ourselves from insults, win for our- selves the opportunity of reading | good books? Everybody. is against. |us—and the better off these gentle- | men are, the worse off we are! @We can expect nothing from them, we can rely only upon ourselves. Our strength lies in united stubborn re- sistance against the bosses. Oyr} masters realize of course in what our strength lies and they try in every way to divide us and to hide the identity of interests of all work- ers. be But it’s a long road that has no turning—and even the best of patience comes to an end. In the past few years the Russian workers have shown their masters that the cowardice of slaves has changed into the courageous sturdiness of men, | who refuse to submit to the greed | of the capitalists. A whole series of strikes has swept thru various Russian cities. Most of ‘these strikes ended successfully, espegially in that they threw the bosses into ter- ror and forced them into conces- | sions. They showed that we were no | | longer cowardly paupers but that! we had taken up the struggle. As is well known the workers of | many shops and factories have or- ganized the League for the Struggle’ for the Emancipation of the Work- | ingclass with the aim of exposing and rem@ving all abuses; of strug- gling against the shameful oppres- sions and swindles of our conscious- less exploiters. The League distributes leaflets at the sight of which the hearts, of the bosses and their servants, the po- lice, tremble. They are not-fright- ened by these leaflets—they ‘fre ter- vified at the possibility of our united resistance, the sign of our great power that we have already manifested more than once. Leet Pike) 'E, PETERSBURG workers, mem- bers of the League, call upon all the rest of our comrades to join the League and co-operate in the great task of unifying the working class in the struggle for their inter- ests. It’s time that we Russian workers smashed the chains that the bosses and the government have placed upon us. It is time that we joined our fellow workers of other lands in the struggle—under a com- mon flag bearing the words: “Work- of all countries, unite!” In France,’England, Germany and other lands where the workers have already closed their ranks and won By Fred Ellis | | | jimportant rights, the First of May is a general holiday of all labor. The workers leave the dark fac- tories and parade the main streets in well-ordered lines with flags and |music, They show their masters their power grown strong and join in numerous crowded assemblies to listen to speeches in which the vic- tories achieved“over the bosses are | recounted and the plans for future struggles are developed. Because they are afraid of strikes no individual boss dare fine or pun- ish the workers who are absent from work on this day. On this day the workers also fling their chief de- mand in the teeth of the bosses: “Eight-hour day.” In other coun- twies the workers are already pro- claiming this. There was a time— and not so long ago—when they also didn’t have the right we are de- |prived of now, the right to give voice to our needs, when they were in such slavery as we are in now. But thru relentless struggle and heavy sacrifice they have won the right to take up collectively the af- fairs of labor. *Let us wish our brothers that their struggle soon leads to the desired goal, to a society in which there will be no masters | and no slaves, no capitalists and no wage workers, but all will work to- gether and all will enjoy the good things of life together. Comrades, if we fight unitedly and together, then the time is not far off when we too will be in a position openly to join the common struggle | of the workers of all lands, without distinction of race or creed, against the capitalists of the whole world. | Our strong arm will rise and the chains of slavery will fall. The toil- ers of Russia will arise and. terror will strike the hearts of the capital- ists and of all other enemies of the workingclass. iad LEAGUE FOR THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKINGCLASS. Petersburg, May 1, 1896. Those “Docile” Southern Workers Strike By SYLVAN A. POLLACK The strike of the textile workers of the Carolinas has among other things exploded a bubble that has been blown big by the manufactur- ers of the United States and by the Chamber of Commerce of every city ard town below the Mason-Dixon line. That false theory was that the Southern workers, most of whom are fresh from the farms and hills, are docile and obedient. to the ex- tent of accepting any condition of labor and wages that would be of- fered them. Thousands of letters accompanied by attractive folders describing the urexcellent climate of the South, its cheap labor and its proximity to the |vaw material were «sent out to all the New England textile mill men. They stressed the alleged individual- ism of the Southern workers and {the fact that the South is without any union in the textile mills, Some of the advertising matter compared the so-called individualistic Southern workers with the textile workers of New England who have been in many labor struggles. But They Want a Union. It was also claimed that the North- ern textile workers, many of them foreign born, are more easy to or- ganize, while those of the South a@e more difficult to reach with union propaganda, The strike of the | Southern workers have given the jlie to this statement of the Cham- ber of Commerce, As a result of their past strug- | gles the wages of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island workers, while very That They Like Low small, are nevertheless higher than those paid to the workers of Dixie. The hours of labor are alsoebetter. Altho the New Bedford, Fali River and Providence ‘textile -workers - toil long hours, they are capped by the hours of the wage slaves of the Southern | textile. region. That Cheap Labor. As a result of the intensive propa- ganda campaign of the Southern business interests, mill after mill has moved southward. The «lower wages and longer hours, that have become the lot of the new Southern proletariat, has been used as a club over the heads of the New England textile workers. Threats that if the New England workers would not consent to have their wages reduced to the same level.as the southern niills, the mills would be moved there, have constantly been made to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island operatives, ‘The Manville-Jenckes Company of Pawtucket, R. I., is one of the New England corporations that took the publicity of the -Southern boosters seriously. They’ opened up the Loray mill at Gastonf, N. C., in the center of the textile region cf the Carolinas.’ It is the workers of this mill, who under the leadership of | the ilitant National Textile Work- crs Union are today challenging the (Mill Workers Give Death Blow to Propaganda ‘Wages, Long Hours claims. of the Southern - industrial lords, : Cut Wages Again. When the Manville-Jenckes peo- ple ‘took’ oyer the Loray mill, they decided to further reduce the low wages prevailing there. At the same ‘time ‘they brought’ in their “efficiency” experts” who immedi- ately prepared plans for the further speed-up of the workegs,, A plan which locally became knoWn as the “stretchout” was introduced. It is nothing less than the old time speed- up plan under a new name, The Loray workers resented the cut in wages as well as the system of “stretching.” Unable to work any longer under the miserable condi- tions, on April 1, they called a halt and went on strike. The National Textile Workers Union which had its organizers on the field, took over the direction of the strike. The only thirg that can defeat the strike is a lack of food.. With $9 to $12 as the average wage, none of the strikers have any money saved. The very first dc, of the strike they found themselves penniless. Only by the active support of the entire American working class will the strike be successful. Give Them Support! The Workers I: ° -rnational Relief is conducting a telief store in Gas- tonia and is preparing to op: re- lief stations in other cities where the workers are on st.:ke, In order to feed the strikers, their wives and children every day, all workers must rally to their support. Strike Significant Event. The southern strike is a significant event in the’ American labor move- ment. New battalions of. militant workers are being organized into real working class unions. ' They are, bringing American-born clements in- to the labor movement. The Northern and Southern Textile work- ers will begin t6 struggle in common against the greedy m‘'! owners. The Carolina workers must con- tinue on strike! To do so, they:must be fed workers! Come to their as- sistance! Send a contribution today, to the Workers International Relief, Room 604, One Union Square, New York City. WORKERS BADLY HURT. LONDON, (By Mail).—George Crisp and William New were seri- ously hurt when a plank on which they were working at John Barker Co. building, Kensington broke. They may die. SEWER WORKERS STRIKE. SHEFFIELD, Eng., (By Mail).— Sewerage workers at Luton ha gone on strike against the piece- work system. They are employed by Hodges and Porter. BILL POSTERS GAIN DETROIT, (By Mail).—Organized bill posters here, have won an in- crease in wages from citcus owners, Copyright, 1999, by Internatiomil Publishers Co., Ine, tat coca BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK All rights rese,ved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission, |The Execution of Joe Hill; Outbreak of War; I. W. W. Organization and Propaganda the Ludlow Massacre; Rockefeller In installments already printed Haywood has told of his hard life as a worker’s child, and of his becoming a unionist and a revo- lutionist. He tells of the colorful and militant strikes of the Rocky Mountain miners while he was secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners. He has told of organizing the 1.W.W., of the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone murder trial, of the socialist party going from pink to plain yellow, of the outbreak of war, and of the great Lawrence and Paterson textile strikes. Now go on reading. oi Boe By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 89. (OE HILL, an I.W.W. song writer, was arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, and charged with murder. I got out the first appeal in his behalf in which I described the method of execution in Utah, which Joe Hill would suffer in the event of his conviction. Joe thought I didn’t remember him and wrote me that he “rattled the music box” (played the piano) when I spoke in San Diego. Some of his songs entertained the crowd at that meeting. After the trial Joe wrote me that he had not had a square deal. He said: “The right of a fair trial is worth any man’s life much more than mine.” I sent Judge Hilton of Denver to Salt Lake City to assist in Joe Hill’s defense, A new trial could not be secured and m spite of all that we could do Hill was sentenced to be executed. In Utah the law had not been changed and a man could select the means of his death—either by shooting or hanging. Joe Hill chose to be shot. President Wilson made a request of Governor Spry for a respite and the Swedish government protested against the execution of Joe | Hill. r May 1, 1896 All of Joe Hill’s songs breathe the class struggle and are fine propaganda. I do not think that Joe ever wrote anything in verse that did not at some time find its way into the I.W.W. song book. Among the songs written by Joe Hill were “What We Want,” “Don’t Take My Papa Away From Me,” “Scissor Bill,” “The White Slave,” “There Is Power in a Union,” “Casey Jones—the Union Scab,” “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum,” “Mr. Block,” and “Should I Ever Be a Sol- dier.” soe Ralph Chaplin wrote a poem to Joe Hill from which I quote: Singer of Labor’s wrongs, joys, hopes and fears, Singer of manly songs, laughter and tears, Though you were one of us, what could we do? Joe, there were none of us needed like you. Utah has drained your blood, white hands are wet, We of the “surging flood,” NEVER FORGET! High head and back unbending—‘“rebel true blue.” Into the night unending, why was it you? When the war broke out I was struck dumb. For weeks I could scarcely talk. I spent much time in the libraries, the chess club and at Udell’s little book shop on North Clark Street in Chicago. I could not concentrate my mind on chess, but at least there was no con- versation as I watched the game. I could not read, as my mind was fixed on the war. I never felt any doubt about the United States becoming involved. Wilson had been reelected to the presidency the second time because “he kept us out of war.” I knew that when the magnates of Wall Street pushed the. button that the Oyster From Buzzard’s Bay would swell up as flamboyantly as the Buzzard From Oyster Bay did during the Spanish war. When I was elected General Secretary-Treasurer of the Indus- trial Workers of the World, headquarters were located at 166 West Washington Street. At one time the office force was Matt Schmidt’s sistes, Katherine Schmidt, who was stenographer and bookkeeper, and myself. I had been in the office only a short time when I received a letter from Elwood Moore, a member, saying that he had inherited a small legacy and asking how it could be used to the best advantage of the organization. I told him of the financial straits of Solidarity and suggested that he send $1,000 to that paper and the balance to head- quarters, as we had decided to start a campaign to organize the agri- cultural workers. Also that I was anxious to get to work in other basic industries, especially metal mining, lumber, oil and the packing industry of Chicago and elsewhere. ¥ . * * Te Agricultural Workers’ Organization was formed in Kansas City and we began to develop the job-delegate system. The name was soon changed to Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union, which more nearly conformed to the plan of the*organization. Walter T. Nef was secretary and the main office was in Minneapolis. The union grew very rapidly. My next move was to organize the metal mine workers. I sent Grover H. Perry as secretary of the Metal Mine Work- ers’ Industrial Union to Phoenix, Arizona. Between these two unions I kept up a good-natured competition by writing to Nef about the growth of the Metal Miners and to Perry about how the Agricultural Workers was increasing. We moved headquarters to a three-story building at 1001 West Madison Street. We put the print shop on the ground floor of the adjoining building and installed new machinery, moved Solidarity from Cleveland and printed other papers in many different languages, in- cluding Bohemian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Jewish, Lithuanian, Russian, Slavonian, Spanish and Swedish. The One Big Union Monthly and Tie Vapauteen, a Finnish monthly, were also published in Chicago. Other papers in various languages were published in other cities throughout the country, including the Industrial Worker, English official organ in Seattle, Washington, and a Finnish daily in Duluth, q Pie OSL | ios 1913 in Colorado, the old battle ground of the Western Federation of Miners, a horrible massacre took place at Ludlow. The coal miners on strike there had been evicted from their homes. They were living, in a tent colony. One day when most of the men were picketing the mines a company of militia passed the colony. A young miner was killed by a lieutenant who crushed his skull with the but of a rifle when he approached the soldiers with a white flag of truce. The brutes then fired into the tent colony, killing women and children, and then set the colony afire and burned the bodies to a crisp. The news of this massacre horrified the workers from coast to coast. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in an article in the Atlantic Monthly, said: “Any situation, no matter what its cause; out of which so much bitterness could grow, clearly required amelioration,” adding to this the contemptible lie: “It has always been the desire and purpose of the management of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. that its employees should be treated liberally and fairly.” Again, in speeches made in the state of Colorado, he reiterated the nonsense about capital and labor being partners, and with a lie on his lips spoke of the protection afforded to labor against oppres- sion and exploitation, at the same time presenting an industrial plan that gave the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. a strangle hold on all the workers it employed. ‘ This industrial plan was framed by Mackenzie King, later prime minister of Canada, who, it is asserted, at one time said that “labor in Canada must come down to a lower standard of living nearer to that of the Chinese workers.” Rockefeller said: “The common stockholders have put $34,000,000 into this company in order to make it go, so that you men will get / your wages, you officers have your salaries, and the directors get their fees, while not one cent has ever come back to them in these fourteen years. This parasite must have thought the reader a damn fool to believe that the stockholders of any industry invest their money to pay the workers’ wages. He knows and most people know that all industries are run for profit, * * ° In the next chapter Haywood quotes his testimony and answers to cross-examination before the famous Industrial Relations Com- mission of 1916. Surely you must have Haywood’s Book, for your reference and for good reading, Get a copy free by sending in @ new or renewal subscription for one year to the Daily Worker. yeod |