The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 6, 1929, Page 6

soacpth,. DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MAY 6, 1929 39RE, aily Sais Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S. A. Daily, except City, Ne Ys $840 a year $2.50 three months 00 three months 8 Union Square, <E2>.. $6.00 a y Address > ie “Order” In Berlin i The dispatches announce “order in Berlin.” “order” established on a volcano! German capitalism had been for years bleeding the proletariat to retain big profits for themselves at home, and also make reparation payments under the Dawes Plan. A few months ago they began to bargain for changing the terms of the agreement. The monarchist foreign minister Stresemann and the socialist finance minister Hilferding, thru their running dog Schacht, were for weeks trying to find a plan that would be more favorable to German capi- talism and still suit the foreign imperialists. While the parasites “gassed about” in richly appointed quarters in Hotel George Fifth in Paris the police fiercely attacked the gigantic meetings of the workers that were held on May Day. The Berlin proletariat, under the leadership of the Com- munist Party, rose with arms in hand to defend themselves against the social-democratic-monarchist combination. At this distance and with the meager reports available it is in many respects impossible to draw the lessons of the struggle, especially insofar as the tactics‘used are concerned. Some things are, however, already clear. The heroism of the Berlin proletariat is in itself too great to be enhanced by words. They displayed ability which showed the benefit of the experience gained previously in the strug- gles led by the beloved Spartacus leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, and later by the established Com- munist Party; they displayed leadership which showed the advantage of an organized vanguard of the working class. But it is | AN AID TO THEPR Organizing In_ Virginia By IRVING KEITH. The rapid industrialization of Vir- OTECTION OF INVESTMENTS BILL HAYWOOD’S |Low Wages; Race War Always Imminent; The extent of the powerful forces arrayed against the workers is indicated in the dispatches which report that the most modern machine guns, newly invented one pound rapid fire artillery guns, aeroplanes, gas, ete., were used. Against these the workers had only the barricades, a few revolvers, bottles and bricks. But even with these, for four days they drove back the police who under the leadership of the social- democrat Zoergibel were shooting housewives and children as well as demonstrating workers. The example of the Berlin proletariat will remain for- ever in the hearts of the workers of the world who are learn- ing how to treat their enemies, whether they are capitalists or smooth talking socialists. The Berlin foreign office raises the cry of “Russian instigation.” They protest es- pecially the banners carried on May Day by the Moscow workers supporting the demands of the German workers. They cite the banner which described the German govern- ment thus: “Eighty million marks for a cruiser, but not a penny for feed- | ing children; and bullets for the unemployed.” | ginia calls for an expansion of Com-] munist activity and a concentration of Communist forces in the state, In the Tidewater district of Virginia, which embraces Norfolk and that part of the state immediately sur- rounding it, are quite a number of \large manufacturing plants. In these plants working conditions are miserable, wages are very small and | s is ten the average working day hours. | General Conditions. As a direct result of the very low | wage scale living conditions are al- most unbearable. For the Negro workers particularly, is this true.| | They are forced to live in rambling | shanties which have no means for either lighting or heating. For the white workers conditions | Nuclei of Communist Party Can Be Built In Shops it. This militant group in the Navy] Yard is of the utmost importance | and cannot be allowed to go its own y and result in its being lost to} With the proper leader- | st be turned into an active shop nucleus, embracing the best elements among Negro and white workers. It is also of the utmost importance that nuclei be established | immediately in all of these bases and | military schools. | Negro Question. The Negro question in Virginia is | acute. Discrimination, segregation | and Jim-Crowism are everywhere | prevalent. The Negro, although ex- are slightly better, and since the| pioited even more than the white general tendency is to compare their | worker, is not outwardly revolu- standard of living with that of the| tionary. The Negro masses now poorest class of workers, i. e., the! working in the mills are the same To the Hindenburgs, Stresemanns, and Hilferdings we say: “You are idiots if you think you can break the unity of the workers of the world with diplomatic notes. The work- ers of the U.S. S. R. are the ‘instigators’ of the Berlin revolt only in the sense that the contrast between their improving conditions under the Proletarian Dictatorship and the wor- sening conditions of the German working class under your bourgeois government is the inspiration which guides the workers of Germany and of the world in their struggle against capitalism.” In the U. S. the socialist as well as the capitalist press are attacking the heroic Berlin proletariat. The Jewish Daily Forwards as well as the New York Times label this mighty struggle as “riots’; both feature the fable of “Rus- sian” agents and both hide the murder by the police of house- wives and children as well as workers in the last lines of their news stories or “overlook” these facts entirely. The capitalist and socialist press of the world exult that “order is re-established.’ The prophetic words of Rosa Luxemburg, written just before she was murdered by these same social-democrats who now direct the murder of work- ers from the cabinet or who carry the murders out as chiefs of police, is the best epitaph to the martyrs who fell in the fighting: “3. “Order reigns in Berlin! You senseless thugs! Your ‘order’ is built on sand. The Revolution will rise tomorrow, bristling to the heights, and will to your terror sound forth the trumpet call; ‘I was, I am, I am to be!’” “Due Process” That the “law” is simply a weapon in the hands of the capitalists is no new idea. As far back as eighty years ago, Marx showed that every ruling class produces a “code of laws” or adapts an old code to protect itself and its privi- leges against the oppressed class. It is a characteristic of the ruling class, however, that it always denies this fact and its law courts usually make a grand pretense at neutrality in the struggle between classes. Wearing this mask of neu- trality, they perpetrate the worst outrages against the work- ing class and justify their actions with the assertion that everything is decided “by due process of law.” Frequently extremely frank crass examples arise re- vealing the unity of the courts and the bosses. Such a case we have in the current strike of the cafeteria workers. Be- tween April 22 and 28, one Bushel was magistrate in the Jefferson Market Court, imposing vicious sentences on the strikers. Less than one week later this individual became the attorney for the Wil-low Cafeteria, Inc., one of the bosses of those workers who had been fined and jailed. It is incidently interesting to note that this same Wil- low cafeteria not only bought the judge but also the renegade _Lore, who still pretends to “radical” leanings. They with two _other cafeteria bosses induced Lore’s Volkszeitung to accept ‘advertisements which were printed in the May 2 issue for scabs to take the places of the strikers. The advertisements in the Volkszeitung promise “opportunities for advance- ment” and “good wages and outstandingly good working con- ditions.” We do not doubt that Lore will excuse his scoundrelly role in connection with these advertisements by Saying, as on a similar occasion he said, that the advertise- ments were accepted in “due process of business.” |masses of Negro workers, they do |not consider themselves in as poor a condition as they really are. | No attempt has been made to es- | tablish nuclei in any of these mills. {It is of the utmost importance that |our Party take up immediately the |task of organizing nuclei in these | factories and mills. The War Danger. In, the Tidewater district of Vir- ginia are several bases for the manu- facture and storage of war materials. }In Norfolk and Portsmouth are the | Navy Yards and Naval and marine bases, in Newport News and Hamp- ton Roads, the ship yards and naval bases as well as warehouses for the | storage of munitions. Virginia has several air ports and is now pre- paring for the building of several more. © Throughout the state are scattered military academies of vari- ous sizes. The two largest are the Virginia Military Institute and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Thus we see Virginia as a center of preparation for the coming im- perialist war. At this time when we are bending every effort to fight } militarism and the preparations for | this next imperialist war these) places become important centers and | as a result Virginia becomes one of the most strategic points in the country. | In the Navy Yard at Portsmouth | there is a strong group of ae workers. This militant element has not been developed, nor has there been any attempt made to develop| masses who a few years ago were} jengaged solely in agricultural pur- | | suits. Now employed in factories and mills, and getting a slight bit more, in the way of wages, than when he was agrarian, the Negro has become, outwardly at least, quite passive. The attitude of the masses of white | workers toward the Negro is, gen- erally, that hatred which has been instilled in them by bourgeois propa- ganda and teaching. There are sev- eral groups of militant Negro work- ers in both Norfolk and Richmond. | These, like the Navy Yard group,| have not been touched. These groups are now ready for development. They must not be al- lowed to go on in their own way or they too will be lost to the Party. It) is of the utmost importance that the | members of these militant groups be drawn into the revolutionary struggle. The masses of Negro worke: in Virginia are readers of} the reactionary “Negro World” and the “Norfolk Journal and Guide.” It} is urgent that the “Negro Cham- pion” conduct a campaign and secure as readers the masses of Negro workers in Virginia. It is also im- portant that a special publication, dealing with the vital problems of the southern industrial workers, agrarian laborers and tenant farm- ers, be issued and distributed. Composition of Norfolk Unit. There has been practically no work done in Norfolk. The Navy Yard, the Naval and Marine bases and the various factories and mills have not | been touched. The problem of the organization of the Masses of Negro workers has gone by almost un- noticed in Norfolk. The social composition of the Nor- folk unit of the Party is extremely bad. There is not 2 real proletarian element in the unit. It is for this reason, primarily, that the Norfolk unit of our Party is utterly unable to cope with the problems of organi- zation or to do necessary work. The Norfolk unit of the Party is a Jewish-speaking one. This, as we can readily see, may be responsible for the loss of American working | class elements, especially the Negro workers, who are entirely English- speaking. To cite an example; the one worker whom the unit could| claim as a member was non-Jewish and had to stop coming to meetings because he could not understand what was going on about him at the few meetings which he attended. The Party unit in Norfolk has adopted a white chauvinist attitude towards the race question and has fought all moves toward the organi- zation of Negro workers into nuclei and units. It follows the course of least resistance and makes no effort | Seen, | cases, continues to pay for as long |as two-and sometimes even three| years. Since most of the Norfolk Party members run _ installment houses, the reason for this chauvin- ism on their part can be readily The Party’s invasion of Virginia in the last election campaign did not give rise to any organizational gains. In Norfolk there were three campaign meetings. Two of these were arranged by the National of-| fice of the Party and the third by the district office at Philadelphia. The Norfolk section of the Party did very little towards the success of these meetings. The same, I be- lieve, is true of Richmond. Proposals. Our Party must undertake the complete reorganization of the Nor-| folk and Richmond units. It must| inaugurate an extensive campaign to| organize real proletarian elements | into units and nuclei, and in line with the general situation in the South, | of which Virginia is partly typical, | it is my opinion that the Party must pay particular attention to the im- mediate organization of a Southern district with all the functioning de- | partments, such as Women’s, Negro, | Youth, and Pioneer. The Trade Union Educational League must establish itself in the South in order to draw the great} | masses of unorganized workers into | the struggle on the industrial field. to give the Party’s stand on the Negro question to the masses of More attention must be paid to the jorganization of the Southern work- workers. This can be attributed to} os into the new industrial unions. the following reason: since taking | Our Party must analyze the condi- leadership in a movement to organ-| tions of the agrarian laborers and ize the Negroes and advocating | tenant farmers with a view towards | equality of the races would bring) jaying out a program around which| jnotoriety to most of the members| yo must rally these agrarian labor- of the nit, and since all of these are | in business and notoriety is bad for business, they are fearful of the out- come of an open policy on the Negro question. It is my contention that the unit} members cannot go about the task of organizing the Negro, con- scientiously, because of the fact that | they are now, in their businesses ex- | poiting the Negro workers. For | illustration: most of the business done in Norfolk is installment-plan selling. The Negro masses are the primary source of business for the installment houses, The Negro, with no knowledge of values or prices, knows only that he must pay so much each week or his belongings will be taken as payment for the merchandise purchased. He, in many ers and tenant farmers to the stan- dard of our Party. * * EDITOR'S NOTE—The Norfolk unit has already been reorganized because of white chauvinism. The District Committee is now engaged in building a real Party unit from among the workers in the basic in dustries, concentrating among the workers of the Navy Yard. The condition described by Com- rade Keith existed and to an extent still exists in other Party units in the South. The Party is now giving attention to these units in reorganizing them and orienta- ting itself on the Negro prole- tarians and the workers in the basic industries generally. * (Continued) In 1903, the police in issuing warn- | | ings about the May Day demonstra- | | tions, threatened to organize Jewish | | pogroms. In view of this, the dem- | onstrations were called off in many |towns, But the Caucasian Social | Democratic Union organized power- | ful demonstrations in Tiflis, Baku, Batum and Kutais. In 1904, May Day demonstrations | | Were organized in Warsaw, Riga, | Mitava and Gomel. A new phenom-| ‘enon this year was the fact that the | | demonstrations in Riga and Mitava had their special fighting detach- ‘ments of workers armed with bay- onets, knives, sticks and stones. | Thus, in connection with the cele- bration of the First of May, the workers, for the first time organ-| ‘ized their armed detachments. That | year many May Day strikes and! | meetings were organized. | | The third period in the history of | May Day celebrations includes the | | ation, year, was now only marshalling its forces for a general skirmish which was to follow in the months, Octo- ber and December of that year. The “Central Committee cf Bolsheviki,” took that situation into tonsider- The proclamation issued by the Bureau jointly with the Editorial Board of the Bolshevik paper, the “Vperyod” (Forward) said: “Against armed force we can act only if we are armed; we must dem- onstrate shoulder to shoulder with rifles and bullets and bombs in our hands, But the First of May of course cannot be the day of a gen- eral armed rising. . . . It would be madness to demonstrate on the streets on the First of May; we have been exposed enough to the weapons of the hangmen; but it is untimely £3 yet to come out with arms. But we have a method of celebrating the international holi- day of the proletariat, which is a general strike.” It is impossible to give an ac- ‘~The strikers have little to choose from between being betrayed by the “law” or by renegades. But the cafeteria — workers have already shown that they understand the lessons | their strike is teaching; that they can have confidence only _ in their own class and their present struggle must be aimed towards lagen the movement to overthrow the capi- ; and p: eir in power. * ~ ee _ Nibath of the Oth of January of that years 1905 to 1917. jcount of the enormous amount of The principal task of the revolu-, May Day literature that was issued tionary workers in 1905, was the|that year by the revolutionary or- preparation of an armed rising, That| ganizations in the center and in the year the May Day celebrations were| provinces. In connection with the very moderate, as the Russian pro-| situation in 1905, many strikes and letariat, being tired of the mass|May Day gatherings were organ- strikes which followed the blood ized; only in Warsaw there was a demonstration. In dispersing the 4, The Bloody May Days of Tsarist Russia demonstration, the Cossacks charged and 30 people were killed and about 100 wounded. During the year between May ist 1905 and 1st of May 1906, Russia experienced gigantic revolutionary events, The May Day celebrations in’ 1906 were a mass character, (and exertion of forces during the general strike and the armed rising of that year, made itself felt. On the First of May of 1907, the Government crushed a series of ris- | ings in various parts of Russia, but ‘its triumph was not complete. In 1908 the reaction celebrated its victory over the first revolution. The working class quietened down. It had not recuperated from the blows suffered nor had it gathered its forces for another struggle. The proletarian holiday also quietened down and during the years 1908- 1911, there were only, small May Day strikes here and there. But in 1912, the labor movement was again at its height. The years 1912-1914, were years of revolution- ary revival in Russia, and they were characterized by an increased strike moyement, intensified clandestine Party activity and the appearance of illegal labor papers. The “Pravda” (Truth) which had only appeared recently could not, due tothe censor, develop gn ex: / |tensive First of May campaign, but the illegal party was busily engaged in preparations for the First of May. The tsarist secret service was also getting ready. Numerous house searches and arrests were made on the night of April 28th. The offices of the “Pravda” and the Menshevik “Zhivoye Dyelo” (The Vital Cause) were smashed. About 199 to 170,- |000 people participated in the May Day strike of that year throughout | Russia. Attempts were also made to organize demonstrations, but they were dispersed by the mounted police. The police were particularly active before the First of May 1914. Daily | reports were coming from various towns about house searches and ar- | rests. But in spite of all the meas- ures taken by the police, 280,000 people participated in the May Day strike in St. Petersburg, 86,000 in | Transcaucasia, 44,600 in Riga, 40,250 in Moscow, 16,000 in Reval, 15,000 in Kharkov, 9,200 in Nizhni-Novgo- rod and Sormovo, etc.—a total of 504,190 people throughout the coun- try according to the reports of “Put Pravdy” (The Way of Truth), (To Be Continued) For a Six-Hour Day for Under- ground Work, in Dangerous Occu- pations, and for the Youth Under Ba Rh ITC GAS W Copyright, 1929, by Internationa Publishers Co., Ine. ty s All rights resevved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission, BOOK Nebeker Hates to Hear of Crimes of Capital; the Frame-Up Verdict: “Guilty”; 20 Years; Narrow Escape from Provocateur Bomb Haywood has told of his life as a child slave, of his working as a miner and at many other trades during the latter part of last century in the Rocky Mountains, and of his long career as labor organizer and strike leader for the Western Federation of Miners and the I. W. W, which he helned to create. He has told of the nation-wide “red raids” that took place after the United States entered the world war. At the great trial of the I. W. W. in Chicago, Haywood was one of the defen-d ants, with Nebeker the chief prosecutor, and Vanderveer the attorney for the defense. In the last chapter, Haywood was on the stand tes ing. Now read on. \ CHA eae 3 By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD PART 103 TOLD of the contrast of wealth and poverty existing side by side in the richest country of the world, the life of misery of the wealth ] producers in the mines of the West, the mills of the North, the turpen- I com- tine camps of the South and the textile factories of the East. pared the security, such as it was, of the Negro chat- tel slaves ofthe South with the terrible insecurity of life of the wage slaves of today. I showed a chunk of life as it is borne by millions who go hungry in periods of hard times, to prove that the solicitude the master had for his slave, when the slave represented an in- vestmént om hundreds of dollars, has no parallel in the relations of employers and their wage slaves to- day. ‘ In the town of Fall River, I told how women and children toil long hours for starvation wages, their pinched and miserable lives, where underfed mothers are so unable to nurse their babies that infant mor- tality was the incredible proportion of 400 per thousand born into the world. And right across the river from that hell-hole of capitalism is Newport, where the “unemployed” capitalists flaunt their orgies of idiocy and sensuality, where they amuse themselves with monkey din- ners and dog weddings—the wedding of two poodle dogs attended by such parasites as Mrs. Penrose, Mrs. Frank Heath and Mrs, MacNeil, the Penrose and MacNeil families owners of copper mines where the I. W. W. was striking. Where the prosecution had tried to prove that the I. W. W. expelled men who joined the army, I proved that there was no record of such expulsions nor any clause in the constitution to that effect, although many labor organizations deny membership to militiamen. Nebeker had objected to the introduction of photographs depicting workers blown to pieces in mines, lynched and tortured by mobs of bosses and businessmen, etc. Nebeker said they were “gruesome,” and I replied that conditions were gruesome. The camera only recorded the truth. Also, I told how our witnesses were being interferred with and in- .timidated, our defense mail held up and those who collected money for our defense arrested, even those who contributed to our legal defense were arrested wholesale. It was proven in court. that witnesses sub- poenaed to testify, were visited in their hotel rooms at Chicago and threatened by detectives connected with the prosecution, + * 8 HEN the evidence was all in, Nebeker made the first argument to the jury. He spoke for less than one hour. To the amazement of prosecutors, the attorneys for the defense decided to submit our case without argument. This prevented the prosecution from having the closing argument to the jury. Judge Landis read his instructions. The jury was out one hour. Their verdict was completed and read to the court: “Guilty, as charged in the indictment.” The jury had listened to scores of witnesses. There were hundreds of exhibits to examine. There were 17,500 offenses to consider. There were 40,000 pages of typewritten records, some of which could have been examined. But the jury’s verdict was given within an hour. It was no surprise to any of us; the verdict was a foregone conclusion. When the sentences were pronounced, the defendants were called to the bar in groups. One or two of the defendants Were discharged, Meyer Friedkin and Charles Roberts were sentenced to ten days in the county jail. A small group to one year in the federal penitentiary. A larger group to five years in the penitentiary. Another, not so large, to ten years. And for some unknown reason, the fourth group was sentenced to five years. The last group was sentenced to an aggregate of 38 years on the four counts, the longest term was 20 years, and the sen- tences were to run concurrently. Before we were sentenced, we were asked by the Judge if we had anything to say as to why sentence should not be passed upon us. Many of the boys made brief speeches. I told the judge that I thought the trial was a farce and a travesty upon justice. HEN the prisoners started to leave the court room, the judge asked Vanderveer if it was the intention to apply for a new trial. Van- derveer said that it was. The judge then called back all the defendants and placed a fine from $20,000 to $30,000 on each man. Pontius Pilate or Bloody Jeffreys never enjoyed themselves better than did Judge Landis when he was imposing these terrible sentences upon a group of working men for whom he had no feeling of humanity, no sense of justice. Ben Fletcher sidled over to me and said: “The judge has been using very ungrammatical language.” I looked at his smiling black face and asked: “How’s that, Ben?” He said: “His sentences are much too long.” At one time previous to this during the great tral in a spirit of humor, Ben remarked: “If it wasn’t for me, there’d be no color in this trial at all.” I might explain that he was the only Negro in the group. Our bail was cancelled, and we were taken from the court room to the subway under the building, loaded into patrol wagons, and driven to Cook County jail. We were trying to have our bonds continued while the application for a new trial was being considered by the District Federal Court. I was taken one day to the marshal’s office which occupied the top floor of the federal building. The post office was on the ground floor of this massive granite structure, which occuppied an entire block in the con- gested center of the city. During a recess I went with two deputy marshals down the elevator and across the street to a basement lunch room. After we had had something to eat, we returned to the building and up to the marshal’s office, I HAD been granted permission to have a stenographer and had just started to dictate to Elizabeth Serviss when the air was rent with @ rumbling blast. A tremor ran through every one in the room, Momen- tarily they appeared pretified. Then we heard a heavy showed of glass falling on the pavement below. It was some minutes before we learned what had happened. A bomb, supposedly of T.N.T., had been placed near the entrance through which wé had just come as we returned from the restaurant. When the bomb exploded a woman and two men were killed, several were badly injured. Some little damage was done to that side of the building. The explosion happened in the early afternoon. I was held in the marshal’s office until after 6 o’clock. When we went down in the elevator, it did not stop at the main floor but went to the subway below where the mail wagons were loaded. There was a procession of patrol wagons, seven in all, if I remember rightly, all loaded with policemen. I was told to get into the middle wagon. With this parade - of seven “black marias” I was escorted back to Cook County jail, My fellow workers in prison soon learned of my return and that I was uninjured. Many of them thought that I had been the victim of treachery, that the explosion which every one in the prison knew about had, in the opinion of some, been concocted for my personal benefit, end had missed me by minutes only. It was said at the time that such a T.N.T. bomb as was alleged to have been used, could be obtained only from government sources. * ¢ @ In the next chanter Hauwood tells how those convicted at the Chi- cago trial were sent to Leavenworth federal nenitentiary. You can get Bill Haywood’s book free with one yearly subscription to the Daily Wes Worker, cither new or genewal. : i ’ t