The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1929, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, 2: Baily Sas Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. $6.00 a y : three months ress and mail all S Un ware Workers’ Lives Cheap On This Golden Island. Four workers were slaughtered outright and eleven others were injured, some very seriously, in the collapse of a derrick on the twenty-second floor of the new Western Union Building, one of the most. serious catastrophes in construc- tion work in New York City in years. The Daily Worker has had no opportunity as yet to carry on an independent investigation. A worker correspondent, however, sends in the following: “The Western Union is in a great hurry to complete its 24- story building. As a result of this demand for speed, the con- tractors have been promised a bonus if the building is completed ahead of the assigned time. The foreman was ordered to hoist two girders in place of one at a time. The derrick snapped and hit a part of the scaffold on its flight to the street below.” This reads like the usual cause for “accidents” that take huge tolls of life, in building subways, in tunneling the river, building bridges, and especially in running up skyscrapers, where every new floor is the tombstone of some worker murdered. The causes cited by our worker correspondent have been verified from other sources. Here is rationaliza- tion in the building industry with its speed-up and over- loading. Not the contractors, nor the officials of the Western Union demanding speed, were put under arrest, but Police Commissioner Whalen ordered that four workers, one of them the derrick engineer, be held for “criminal negligence” on account of this “accident.” That is also the usual capitalist practice. In the Soviet Union, every building “accident” is looked upon as preventable. The great achievement in the Workers’ Republic is not, how quickly can a building be erected. Suc- cess in building construction is registered by the number of accidents that are avoided. The magnificent new telegraph building in Moscow was put up without the loss of a single life. This was celebrated as a great triumph. How different with New York's new telegraph building already clotted with workers’ blood. The same ruthless disregard for labor that the Western Union has shown in the killing and injury of these 15 workers, is also displayed in the replacement of Morse operators with simplex machines, resulting in unemployment and all its re- sulting evils to large numbers of workers. The great tele- graph monopoly assumes no responsibility. In the Soviet Union workers displaced by labor-saving machinery are taken care of in other industries, the government in the meantime being responsible for their welfare. Or the shorter workday is quickly instituted, as in the case of the six and seven-hour workday now being put into effect everywhere, Workers’ lives are cheap on Manhattan—the island of gold. Here the interests of property and profit come first. Workers’ lives in the Soviet Union come first. Their protec- tion against every hazard is the first concern of the Soviet Power. The Communist Party leads the fight in this coun- try for the protection of labor, for the emancipation of the working class. The Treachery of Cook. The poison press in this country is trying to doubly ex- ploit the treachery of Arthur J. Cook, secretary of the Brit- ish Miners’ Federation, to the working class in Great Britain, by claiming that he is a Communist. Cook was never a mem- ber of the British Communist Party. He was always against Communism. Like many other former left wing leaders in the British labor movement (Purcell, Bramley, Swales, Smith, etc.) Cook has gradually drifted to the right since the British general strike and the courageous struggle of the miners that fol- lowed, that brought him into prominence. The British Communist Party was the first to denounce the “nauseating slavishness” with which Cook grovelled at the feet of the Prince of Wales, who put the misery of the starving coal miners on a charity basis, raised a fund to pre- tend that royalty was interested in the lot of the workers, all for the purpose of winning some much-needed pres- tige for His Majesty’s government. This royal maneuver seems to have completely captivated Cook, who at all times was dominated by his own emotions, with the result that he announced, “I have departed from my revolutionary opin- ions.” Cook’s treachery, in the hour of the worsening oppres- sion of British labor, shows conclusively that he never had any revolutionary opinions. Like so many other renegades he rode the rising wave of labor’s mass discontent, only to betray it at what he considered the opportune moment. The fact that he waited a little longer than Purcell, and the others, does not alter the facts. Cook’s treason manifested itself in recent times in asking the prince to join the petty bourgeois socialist party, and in writing articles for the capitalist. press, gratefully collecting his “pieces of silver.” The British Com- munist Party will continue to expose Cook to the full before the masses, just as it has successfully fought his ilk before. The experience of the British working class with Cook should be a warning to American workers to watch more closely the Cooks, the Purcells and Maxtons who appear in their own midst, small reflections and imitations appearing here in the so-called “Muste group.” The American Federation of Labor has found another spokesman in Charles G. Wood, the representative of the Hoover strike-breaking government in the Carolina strike zone. Wood says he voices the sentiment of the Charlotte, N. C., Central Labor Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., when he says that it has “publicly refused either financial or moral support to the strikers.” The reason offered is the fact that the strikers have accepted the leadership of the Na- tional Textile Workers’ Union. The A. F. of L. offers de- feat, disruption and starvation under its leadership in place f victory and growing solidarity under the leadership of left ‘ing industrial unionism. But the workers show every in- _ dication that they are in a mood to win and they have -hosen their leadership accordingly, y YEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL | Four workers were killed and eleven injured on Western Union Building, N twentieth floor, due to an over. ‘RATIONALIZATION DEFINED loaded derrick. By Fred Ellis ew York, when girders crashed to the ground from the By “PENMAN SLAVE” WASHINGTON, April 21.—Pre- parations for “a war of major ef- fort” behind the screen of imposing peace pacts are the order of the day for the new administration at Wash- ington. Two developments row in process indicate clearly the major emphasis to be placed on readiness fcr the coming conflict which in- formed circles understand to be in- evitable sooner of later with one or 2, combination of European powers. | The new “Educational Orders” munitions bill, designed to keep the muscles of peace-time factories in trim for prompt conversion into war organs is on the cards to pass the | next session of Congress, Its advo- cates under the spur of the DuPont and other munitions interests have iet it be known that all energies will be mustered to this end. | “Saving” Oil for War. No less significant is the new oil “conservation” policy of our chief efficiency engineer for Big Business with headquarters at the White | House. Behind the Hoover oil leas- |ing program, hailed as the first |great step in conserving one of the country’s most precious natural re- |sources, is a long-time policy of | “rationalization” of the industry, the squeezing out of many small pros- rectors, and the co-ordination of the large producers under government direction into a single force to com- |bat British controlled oil interests. The administration is understood to be behind the new “Educational Orders” munitions bill. This _ bill \introduced late in the last session |by close administration spokesmen jin the House of Representatives would leave to the discretion of the \Secretary of the Navy to give out \sample orders for the manufacture |of war munitions from time to time to “peace” industries in order to keep these concerns always in read- iness Yor instant conversion to a war time basis—for “a war of |major effort” as its chief spokes- man has declared. Yes, War Is Coming. “It is today recognized,” Rep- resentative Harold G. Hoffman, Republican of New Jersey, declared in a recent burst of oratory, “that the training of industrial soldiers is no less important than the train- |ing of those men who may be called upon to do the actual fighting in the event of war.” Hoffman during the late world war was a captain in the army; is _a well known jingo, an American ‘Legionist and a member of the | House Military Committee. This is less important than the fact that he is Vice-President and Treasurer of the South Amboy Trust Company, a bank in which DuPont influence is said to hold sway. Another sponsor of the bill is Franklin W. Fort, Republican also from New Jersey. Fort is Secretary to the Republican National Committee, His activities in behalf of the measure leave no doubt that the Hoover administra- tion is behind it. Fort stayed away from the fighting front during the war but. “served” under Hoover in the U. S. Food Administration. “Under the program,” says Hoff- man, “there will be prepared in our industries a nucleus of men. skilled in the production of the particular type of munitions required. ,. . our Plants will be able to get speedily |into production in the event of War... .” Army and navy circles hailed these sentiments with considerable joy. The Ordnance Chief prepared a brief which Hoffman is using for jhis guidance. The brief stressed the {alleged inadequacy of government arsenals to provide war-time needs. So we find the much concerned Mr. Hoffman saying: “(Under the pro- posed bill) arsenals are given their maximum capacity but these will | by no means meet our requirements, make only from one half of one per cent to 10 per cent of the vari- ous items required in a war of major effort... .” | A war of major effort! Against shower of peace pacts in themselves raay not tell us but let other facts |speak: There is the development of the new oil “conservation” policy. Out in Piedmont, California there |dwells—when the gentleman is not in Washington holding conferences with Mr, Hoover—an engineer by the name of Mark L. Requa. We |for the arsenals in general, can| jwhom may this be directed. The | Former Member of Sinclair Gang Real Author of Hoover’s “Conservation Program” {stopped Mr. Requa about a week jago to inquire as we do of all vis- litors to the president if he would tell us about his conversation with |the chief executive. Some of the “boys” who did not remember him from war-time days not having been | here perhaps asked his name and |business. “Mr. Requa of California, mining engineer. I urged oil con- servation upon the President. Good |day, gentlemen.” Mr. Requa had been “interviewed” before. One of Starvation Hoovers. But some of us did remember him. | During the war he was chief of the cil division following an apprentice- ship under Mr. Hoover, when the latter was Food Administrator. (Strange how many now carry the label: Served Under Hoover, Here in the Department of Mines ‘and like many good public servants was graduated. His reward came from no less a personage than Harry Sinclair. So in 1920 you find Mr. Requa Vice-president of the Sin- clair Consolidated Oil Or There.) Mr. Requa studied oil | * eum Institute, big “conservation.” Mr. Requa got frcm under before il began to smear the Harding istration. Look for his Sin- connections today. You will Recently he wrote a individualism and knocking the “Reds” something awful. He describes himself as “mining engineer, farmer, consult- ing engineer, student of govern- ment, railway executive and public official.” No mention of oil, He kas been writing for the oil jour- nals and lecturing to the oil men but alw: as “Mining Engineer.” Peiicy From Oil Men. All this would haye very little significance except that Mr. Requa is known to be the author of the rew oil leasing policy and is said to have written the new report of the Federal Oil Conservation Board of which Hoover was a member, Mr, Hoover’s policy was announced the day after a week end of confer- ences with Mr, Requa. So. The new report of the Oil Con- servation Board advocates govern- ment help to American oil investors in foreign fields. The whole thing is a move to centralize control of this now disorganized industry as a means of overcoming the advantage mover for oil clair tind no trace. book upholding Corporation, | row possessed by British controlled organizer of the American Petrol-|oil monopolies. The “Stitf’ By JAMES A. MILLER. There was a going away sound about him, a chug-a-chug noise of trains and steam twisting up in a funnel to the sky and long lines of track behind with sign posts that say: it’s so many miles to Seattle or Spokane. There was a tugging of chains and a steam boat whistly air about him a Newport News to Shanghai something or other that seemed to say: “Well, s’long gang—” Photo shows the army transport Chateau Thierry steaming out from Brooklyn, carrying 200 marines and 500 troops sent by Wall Street's government to butcher workers and peasants of Nicaragua. The | heroic army of Sandino continues the struggle against Yankee imperialism, Copyright, 1929, by Internatio Publishers Co., Ine. ‘ BILL HAYWOOD’ tion forbidden except by permission, Winning Some Demands From the Steel Trust the Preparedness Campaign; Mooney and Billings Arrested Haywood has told so far of his boyhood of toil, his becoming a revolutionist, his leading great strikes of the Western Federation of Miners, of founding the I.W.W., of standing trial in Boise on a@ framed up murder charge, of the Lawrence strike, the Paterson strike, the Paterson pageant, the Akron strike, of Mother Jones, anc Darrow, and Debs, and Borah, and Gompers, and Moyer and of trip, to Europe as delegate or speaker where he saw Tom Mann, Lenin, and many others. In the last issue he was writing of the Mesaba Range strike led by the I.W.W. and the imprisonment of the strikers. The governor was about to investigate. Now go on reading. By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. PART 93. URING the strike, Governor Burnquist sent a commission to thc iron ranges to look into the condition of the miners. Later there was an investigation and a hearing before the Minnesota legislature When the governor’s commission made its report, the miners returned to work, and, strange to say, every demand that had been made was granted by the Steel Trust without a conference, a settlement, or an agree- ment of any kind. The miners got an increase in wages, an eight-hour day, and better working condi- tions generally. This was the second time that the great steel corporation had granted demands made by the I. W. W., while the officials and members of the organization ‘were no better acquainted with the offi- cers of that concern than they had been before. the strike began. These facts are a lesson, a “Golden Rule” that the compromising officials of labor might well learn to the advantage of the membershir | of their organizations. Oil Barons Push War Orders The industrial magnates of the United States realized that a vii torious Germany would be a strong contender for the markets of tt world. They were fearful of the inventive genius of this great natio that created ships like the Deutschland that came across the ocear under the water, and invented Zeppelins that could cross over thq seas, made guns that would shoot 75 miles, invented a specifie that could cure syphilis, and were proud to mark their products “Made in Germany.” The United States was anxious to turn its batteries upon this growing industrial competitor. The ravage of Belgium by the “Huns” had slipped by. The destruction of the Lusitania was not enough for a declaration of war. The people of the United States, especially those of the Middle West and the western part of the country, | were decidedly against the nation becoming involved. So it was neces- sary for Uncle Sam, personified by the imperialists of Wall Street, tc start a preparedness campaign. First they secured control of all the most influential newspapers of the~country. Then the commercial clubs, manufacturers associations, etc., began their preparedness par- ades. These demonstrations were held in many of the large cities, The loans to the allied governments were, of course, the greatest factor in determinitg America’s entrance into the war. Coe ae 9 Be San Francisco, two days previous to the préparedness parade, a great meeting was held in Dreamland Rink, protesting against the United States going into the war. At this meeting one of the speakers advocated as a means of ending the war that the soldiers shoot their officers and go home. The success of this meeting was guaranteed b the publicity of the Bulletin. The following day letters of warning were sent to all the paper: telling them that “something would happen that would be heard around the world.” Something did happen on the day of the parade. An explosion oceurred which killed many people and injured many others. Tom Mooney, Warren Billings and others were arrested and charged with this crime, Tom Mooney had a short time previously led a strike of street] car men in San Francisco. During this time he had written me to send some members of the I.W.W. to help him in the strike. It was! for Mooney’s vigorous and successful conduct of this strike that he was arrested, charged with being one who caused the explosion, Mooney and Billings were convicted and sentenced to death. Later this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. They would havel been murdered in the same cold-blooded manner as Sacco and Van4 zetti, were it not for the fact that a committee of Russian workmen| waited on Ambassador Francis in Petrograd and told him that thei brother, Tom Mooney, in America, must not be hanged. = Franci: wired the United States in behalf of Mooney and Billings. It must be said to the credit of Freemont Older, editor of the Sai Francisco Bulletin, that when he learned the facts of the Moone: and Billings case, he gave them the strongest support of the paper off which he was the editor. At this time the I.W.W. was doing much propaganda work against] the war, everywhere pasting up stickers which read “Don’t be a sol dier, be a man. Join the I.W.W. and fight on the job for yourself and your class.” , *“ # * T= Convention of the ILW.W. in 1916 adopted the following resolu. tion which was formulated from the Lenin resolution at the Zim, merwald Conference. It was headed, “A Declaration.” “We, the Industrial Workers of the World, in Convention a: sembled, hereby reaffirm our adherence to the principles of industrial] unionism, and we dedicate ourselves to the unflinching, unfalteri: prosecution of the struggle for the abolition of wage slavery, and the realization of our ideal in industrial democracy. With the Europea war for conquest and exploitation raging and destroying the lives, clas¢ consciousness and unity of the workers, and the ever-growing agitatior for military preparedness clouding the main issues and delaying th realization of our ultimate aim with patriotic and, therefore, capitalis, tie aspiration, we openly declare ourselves the determined opponent! of all nationalistic sectionalism, or patriotism, and the militaris: preached and supported by our one enemy, the capitalist class. Wel condemn all wars, and for the prevention of such, we proclaim the anti-militarist propaganda in time of peace, thus promoting Class Solidarity among the workers of the entire world, and, in time of war, the General Strike in all industries. We extend assurances of both moral and material support to all the workers who suffer at thd hands of the capitalist class for their adhesion to these principles and call on all workers to unite themselves with us, that the reign of thd exploiters may cease and this earth be made fair through the estab lishment of the Industrial Democracy.” I had a leaflet made of this resolution with a red border whic! we printed alongside of a resolution which was adopted by the Amer. ican Federation of Labor, bordered in black, under the caption “A Deadly Parallel.” These were circulated in vast numbers throughou the country. This “Deadly Parallel” was also published in a pamphl which we called “The Last War.” Seu al _ * & Bees In the next issue Haywood tells of the reaction of the LW.Wy the A. F. L., Debs and Moyer to the declaration of war by the U.S. Get a copy of Haywood’s autobiography free with one year's subs scription to the Daily Worker, aa / Pare