The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1929, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1929 Copyright, 1929, by Publishers Co., Inc, BILL HAYWOOD’S BOOK Secretary of Labor Outlaws I. W. W.; Prepares for Centralia Tragedy; the First Attack On the Centralia Hall All rights reserved. Republica- tion forbidden except by permission. Haywood's story of his part in the great labor struggles of America has reached the time of his last year here. He has told how he was sentenced to 20 years in Leavenworth Penitentiary, re- leased on bonds, to handle the 1.W.W. General Defense, and arrested again in the Palmer Red Raids directed primarily against the Com- munists. Below he tells of the continuation of persecution. By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD PART 112. E were now to learn some facts about the war. Woodrow Wilson, who was then president, said: “This is an industrial and commer- cial war.” He might have added that the stake won by the United States in this war was $30,000,000,000. The press and the politicians were telling the people that it was a “war to make the world safe for democracy.” It was a war that made a $6,000,000,000 debtor nation into a $24,000,- 000,000 creditor nation. It was a “war to end war,” but the Wall Street birds of prey had hatched out a big flock of war millionaires, who are preparing for another war. The Armistice did not settle United States. This knowledge was violently hammered into the I.W.W. by the tragedy at Centralia, Washington, on Armistice Day, November 11, 1919. To lay this tragedy at the door of a department of the Federal Government and to charge William B. Wilson, ex- secretary of the United Mine Workers of America, then secretary of labor in Wilson’s Cabinet, with the responsibility would seem far fetched, but this is what has been done by investigators, not members of the I.W.W., but appointed by the University of Washington. The secretary of labor was told that the chief among the lumber workers’ troubles was the failure of their leaders, and that to be really in- formed, the secretary must make a thorough attempt to understand the motives and methods of the I.W.W. the war in the The secretary of labor, being merely a governmental representa- tive of the A. F. of L., literally raised his hands in holy horror and told the investigators and the rest of the commission that there was no such organization as the I1.W.W. Secretary of Labor Wilson had, so far as was in his power, out- lawed the I.W.W. The Lumbermen’s Association and the press knew and cared only that Secretary of Labor Wilson had in effect termed the I.W.W. a cisloyal and outcast group, and they proceeded with a campaign of suppression and violence under the guise of law, secure in the knowl- edge that they had the sanction and approval of official Washington. Secretary of Labor Wilson made the Centralia outrage possible. Throughout the West, hundreds of I.W.W. halls had been raided and property destroyed. The first Centralia raid took place in April, 1918. The occasion was a Red Cross parade, The Hub and the Chronicle, two lumber trust papers in Centralia, were bitter in their denunciation of the I.W.W. and spoke of them in the identical terms used against the abolitionists before the Civil War. saa ee) N this Red Cross parade, the Chief of Police, the Mayor, and the Governor of the State were given places of honor at the head of the procession. There was Company G of the National Guard, but the members of the Elks Club made up the main body of the parade. This was the vicious reactionary element, and when they got in front of the hall, they cried out: “Let’s raid the I.W.W. Hall.” They stormed the building with stones and clubs, every window was shattered, every door was smashed. The sides of the building were torn off by the mob in its blind fury. Inside the rioters tore down the partitions, broke chairs and pictures. The union men were surrounded, beaten and driven to the street, where they were forced to watch furniture, records, typewriters and literature demolished and burned before their eyes. A victrola and desk were carried to the street with much care. The owner of a glove factory won the machine, and still boasts of its pos- session. The desk was carted off to the office of the Chamber of Commerce. The mob surged around the men who had been found in the Union Hall; with kicks and blows they were dragged to waiting trucks where they were lifted by the ears to the body of the machine and knocked prostrate one at a time. Like all similar mobs, this one carried ropes which were placed around the necks of the loggers. “Here's an I.W.W.,” some one yelled, “What shall we ‘do with him?” “Lynch him! Lynch him!” Some of the union men were taken to the city jail and the rest | were dumped across the county line. The I.W.W. had not attempted to defend their hall in this raid, but it was different on Armistice Day. The Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union had not been crushed. It was growing stronger. The Employers’ Association of Washington likewise redoubled its efforts, and continued a bitter campaign against the organization. . * ~ + : ee following are a few of the suggestions offered in its bulletin to the members: April 30th, 1919: “Keep business out of the control of radicals and I.W.W. . . . Overcome agitation. . . . Suppress the agitators... . Hang the Bolshevists. . . .” May 30th, 1919: “If the agitators were taken care of we would have very little trouble. . . - Propaganda to counteract radicals and overcome agitation. . . . Put the I.W.W. in jail.” July 2nd, 1919: “Educate along the line of the three ‘R’s’ and the Golden Rule, Economy and Self-Denial. . . . Import Japanese labor. . « Import Chinese labor. . . .” July 31st, 1919: “Deport about ten Russians in this community... .” October 31st, 1919: “. . . Businessmen and taxpayers of Van- couver, Washington, have organized the loyal Citizens’ Protective League; opposed to Bolsheviki and the Soviet form of government and in favor of the open shop. - . . Jail the radicals and deport them... . Since the Armistice, these radicals have started in again. . . . Only two communities in Washington allow I.W.W. headquarters!” On October 19th the Centralia Hub published an item headed: “Employers Called to Discuss Handling of ‘Wobbly’ Problem.” This article urged all employers to attend, stating that the meeting would be held in the Elks’ Club. On the following day, October 20th, three weeks before the shooting, this meeting was held at the hall of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks—the now famous Elks’ Club of Centralia. The avowed purpose of this meeting was to “deal with the I.W.W. problem.” The I.W.W. issued a leaflet, appealing to citizens against use of violence against them, In the next installment Haywood tells of the torture and lynch- ing of Wesley Everest by the American Legion. You can get a free copy of Bill Haywood’s Book by sending in one year’s sub- scription to the Daily Worker, either new or renewal, vem PLAN MARTIAL | LAW IN TENN, Militia Actively Hunt for Scab Recruits VILLE, Tenn., May 15.—A conference between Governor Hen Horton, and Adjutant General W. Boyd of the state militia, with of- ficials of the American Bemberg and American Glanzstoff corpora- tions is being held today, over the advisability of declaring martial Jaw in Elizabethton where 6,500 textile | workers are on strike against the two companies. | The officials are ‘wondering | whether the strikebreaking activi- ties of 300 militia now in Elizabeth- ton will be sufficient, and whether the formal declaration of martial law will not serve to advertise the Trans-Atlantic Flight to Boost French Imperialism Photo shows the monoplane which will soon take off from Roosevelt Field, L. I., on a trans-Atlantic. | The plane will be piloted by Rene Lefevre, French military flyer, and the object of flight to France. the flight is to boost French imperialism, [aso ak ere Feats te A te ae: tre: Pascist |and bring still more relief for the | strikers. No decision had been announced at a late hour tonight. Provocateurs Busy. The 300 strikers arrested yester- | day and charged with picketing have most of them been released, because of the expense of keeping them in jails which are already overcrowded. The mill company’s provocateurs continue to explode harmless bombs around the vicinity to crystallize opinion against the strikers. The latest was a dynamite explosion in the orchard of a scab named S. J. Bowling. Militiamen are accompanying bus drivers on scab recruiting raids into | the back woods counties. Prospec- tive strikebreakers are not told that | there is “labor trouble” at the mills | until they arrive at the plant and are placed under guard in the com- pany slave pens, * | | a | Force Lehman to Quit. Acting Governor Lehman of New York has tried to capitalize the out- break of denunciation against the) use of troops to break the Elizabeth- ton strike by publicly offering his resignation as director of the two mill companies involved. Until now} he las been discreetly silent about his profiteering on the underpaid soutnern textile workers. \ GRAFT TRIUMPHS AGAIN IN JERSEY Hague, Rivals Evade Real Issues JERSEY CITY, N. J., May 15.— Defeated by the 25,000 votes of the better-organized Hague machine, James Burkitt, self-styled “Jeffer- sonian democrat” and chief political rival of Hague, was thrown from the police station today when he- visited Captain Walsh to extend his “con- gratulations” on the democratic vic- tory. “Get out o’ here. I ain’t got no GERMAN “GRAF” ae agntons OF BY) Gee TONIAT HE year 1928 ended in a nasty surprise for the fascist trade unions and Rossoni, their leader. reorganized the trade unions, the supreme center of the fascist trade union movement—the National Confederation of Fascist Trade Unions—was done away and Rossoni lost his job. This reorganization expressed it- self as follows: as is known, the fas- Mussolini cist law on trade unions provides for the existence of six employers’ central federations: (1) industrial- ists, (2) agricultural, (3) commer- cial employers, (4) bankers, (5) en- terprises of marine and aerial trans- port, (6) enterprises of land and inland water transport; for the ex- istence of six similar workers’ fed- erations and one federation of per- sons engaged in the liberal profes- sions. The same law permits the formation of a single confederation of all employers’ federations and a single confederation of all workers’ organizations, including the organi- zation of perscns engaged in the lib- eral professions. Whilst, however, the single confederation of employ- ers’ organizations was not formed (this being prevented by the great variety of interests of the individual capitalist groups), the confederation of all fascist unions of manual and mental workers was organized, The existence of a Fascist Con- organjzation, which unites about 3 | million members and is directed by | Rossoni’s placemen. And Mussolini decided. Under the | pretext of the necessity of introduc- ing “order” into the structures of the employers’ and workers’ organi- zation, he abolished the National Confederation of Fascist Trade Unions and got rid of Rossoni, dis- liked by himself and the employers. 'HUS from now on there will be seven separate confederations, headed by seven chairman nominated by Mussolini. But the crux of the matter is not | only ghe division of the fascist trade union movement which has been united since 1922, but that the | fascist trade unions, instead of the onfederation and their “leader” Ros- soni will from now on gain a new master—the Ministry of Corpora-) tions, which will utilize the reorgani- zation of the trade unions for a radi- cal elimination of “undesirable ele- ments” and for their complete sub- | jection to its orders. To what limits the patronage of the Ministry for Corporations over the trade unions is to go is witnessed | by the orders published in connection | with the reorganization of the trade j unions, in which it is stated: “The Ministry, with the help of a | special bureau, and in permanent | contact with the Ministry for Home | Affairs and the Secretariat of the Fascist Party, is taking measures| | that only persons having given cer- federation of Trade Unions was per-|tain proof of culture, preparation, | mitted by Rossoni and his placelings res onsibility and an irreproachable to laud the achievements of “fascist | form of life, be nominated for lead- | syndicalism”; it permitted Rossoni ing posts. The Ministry, seeing not to play the part of a “leader” of the | only to the formation of cadres, but proletarian masses and to carry out| also, working for the elimination of | (insofar as permitted by the con-| undersirable elements from th is| trol of the Fascist Party and the! watching very closely the acti ies | Ministry for Corporations, to which! of the leaders of the unions and the| the trade unions are subject by law) | trade unionists in general, their be-| |a more or less uniform policy in the | haviors in public and private life and | |trade union movement. True this /| their influence over the members.” | |policy consisted chiefly in rude| Carlo Costamagna, the “theoreti-| | demagogy, in attempts to cover up cian” of the corporative regime, quite | \the defeat of the trade unions with | openly explains the meaning of the| phrases of the “survival of class | reorganization of the trade unions. | | get.” French Gov’t Imposes Restrictions FRIERRICHSHAFEN, Germany, May 15.—The Graf Zeppelin, whose transatlantic flight last summer was hailed by war offices of the rival powers as another “triumph” in the development of military aviation, is due to start its second Atlantic voy- | age at 6 a. m. tomorrow—12 p. m. tonight, New York time—Dr. Hugo Eckener announced today, The necessity of a punciual start was emphasized by the commander to meet difficulties caused by the jedict of the French government, which forbade the Zeppelin to fly over munition plants or military works. | A delayed start was due to French restrictions. The aircraft must be | {over the border by 9 a. m, or else abandon the trip “The action of the French govern- ment recalls a similar condition im- posed on the Graf flighe iast year. At the time a military escort was provided when the machine crossed strategic military points. | Build shop committees and draw the more militant members into | | the Communist Party. Silk Workers Produce More, Ea LABOR AND SILK, By Grace Hut-| chins, International Publishers, New York. Special workers’ edi- tion, bound in boards $1. “The harder we work, the less we What is behind this statement of | 135,000 workers in silk plants in sev- eral hundred towns and cities in the United States? Why is each silk = UNDERWOOD MEN RALLY TO TU.EL. 3 Conferences Will Aid Unity Convention HARTFORD, Conn., May Two Trade Union Edu League conferences, one in Hart- ford tomorrow and one in New Haven Friday, will elect delegates to a state conference Sunday 2 p. m. in the New Haven Labor Ly- ceum. These conferences, besides having as an important item in the proceed- ings the preparation for the Na- tional. Trade Union Unity Conven- tion in Cleveland, June 1-2, will have under special consideration the strike in the Underwood company here in which the active militant forces are the T. U. E. L. men, For a Shop Committee. An appeal has been issued to all Underwood workers to organize in all departments and combine these organizations in a shop committee, with demands for a 20 per cent in- crease in wages, abolition of the speed-up and recognition of the shop committee. The link and bar men, 250 ot them, are already on strike, and the walkout is spreading. The company follows the usual terrorist tactic of|t threatening a* complete shutdown unless the strikers return, and has already discharged 1,000 workers. Mayor Tires to Stop Meeting. Today, in defiance of the order of Mayor Batterson prohibiting a per- mit for the meeting, a successful noon-day meeting was held at the factory with 200 present. Tonight there will be a big mass meeting at Lyrie Hall. Among the speak will be Peter Chaunt, the organizer here of the Trade Union Educational League. In the face of great compan timidation, the present strike lead ers have renounced the T, U. E. L., but under the counter pressure of the workers, whose sentiment is for the T. U. E. L. and its policies, they have approved the organization of a club. The Trade Union Educational League has denounced openly the Central Trades Council here for its complete indiffernce to the needs of the strikers, and also has criticized the polishers union already in the plant for its policy of rendering mere financial assistance to the strikers instead of solidarity. in- Page Three Vienna Police Arrest Workers for Horthy; Keep Charges Secret (Wireless By VIENNA, May 1 tk “Inprecorr”) The police for the ve arrested sey- g that they munist Con- names of the ar- charges filed against secret. EXPOSE A. F.OFL, JIM CROW UNION Food Strikers Call for Aid of Negro Women ritie acting Budapest police, clar “Cor eval workers, overed a The nd the Don’t be deceived Join a real fight- were the slogans distributed _ by x Hotel, Res- Workers women workers who A. F. of nding their at 129 W. 136th > women! by akers! ing organiz: heading a members of taurant anc Union to Ne Cafeter were foo! L. bureaucr meeting St. onary Atter g wing spirit able ipitalize the t against in- William Leh- of the A, F. of i which dis- groes and ping the cafeteria t strik- yasper, an agent of the labor fe who tried to wreck ihe Womens Day’s Workers League and the House Painters, alled the meeting. At the meeting last night thse faki under the pretense of or- ng the fake “Pro; sive Women’s Union,’ UW the N discriminate aga workers and t tried to ‘0 worker ho they nst, to betray the to break the cafe- in reality teria workers’ strike. The ieaflet of the militant cafe- teria workers’ union pointed out the treachery of these officials, who, while organizing a very smali por- tion of the waiters—the aristocrats food workers—and left the es of other food workers to be y exploited. Lehman has done Negro, Chinese and Spanish < who slave 12 to 14 hours in hot kitchens for such low 12 a week and has refused mer p in the union. Now he wants to organize a Jim-Crow union with a separate charter. ' The leaflet calls upon the Negro | women workers to support the cafe- ‘ike and join the union, the Restaurant and Cafeteria \ Union, in which there is no ination. rn Much Less tile Workers Union. Methods which the Southern.rayon work will be lined up beside their northern brothers in this battle also clearly stated.—J. W. by Build Up the United Front of the Working Class From the Bot- tom Up—at the Enterprises! are More Wall Street Troops Off for China | use for you,” a Walsh aide growled| psychology” of the employers, in to the sweet grocting of the de-|wordy duels with the employers’ or- feated candidate. Burkitt was then | ganizations, in empty talk on the forced out. |great future of fascist syndicalism, However, he continued to strive|ete. It did happen, however, that to get on the local front page by} the Confederation of Fascist Trade adopting the same publicity tactics | Unions faced with the unrestrained with the mayor whom before elec- | aggressiveness of the employers, and tion he had bitterly assailed as a|under the pressure of the masses, “corrupt grafter.” attempted, of course, without leav- Walsh stated that two weeks ago | ing the framework of fascist legality In the “Stampa” 1928) he writes: * “The transfer for the trade union |phase to the corporative phase is being effected chiefly by an Act, under which the union is trans- formed into a part of the state machinery, which gives up all pre- (December 14, tensions to struggle, self-defence |and sovereignt; oe And further: “Any further perma- Burkitt had threatened to beat him| “Now he’s trying to make with people so he can live here,” he added. Obscure Real Issues. Thus the Jersey City elections were concluded by opposition forces in the same spirit of ballyhoo with which both sides tried to obscure! political issues in an effort to cap- |ture the political control of the city | | through which Hague had made tre-| mendous fortunes in graft. | Bombs exploded as rival voters} | slugged each other freely in the in- terests of the corrupt political ma- chines who both fought under a plea of “community welfare.” Hague Organized Graft. Three hundred witnesses testified in thousands of pages of records ex- |amples of the widespread fraud of | the Hague clique. They ranged from petty graft of sums of $25, $50, and | $100 “tips” to grossly padded pay- | rolls or jobs which existed only in) | the lobby rooms of the local rulers. | All that the “investigation” ac- |complished was the adoption of a ‘motion “recommending legislative changes which would make ‘waste’ in payrolls more difficult.” Thus the republican opposition indicated ‘its interest only in mechanical “rec- ommendations” which made no basic change in the legal structure which ‘lent itself so efficiently to graft. | Jersey City workers, forced to abstain from voting because of elec- tion laws so constructed to militate against Communist candidacies, point out the corruption of both sides. “It’s just a quarrel between thieves,” they declare. “Neither side ‘is interested in the ‘clean politics’ | plea with which they advertise their campaigns in the press. ‘Get graft by grabbing votes’ is their real watchword.” Something elxe, however, must be id of the other enemy of Bolshe- in the working class movement. not sufficiently known abrond Bolshevism grew up, formed, itself in long years of po. to itwelf; it into existence the mei wield those weapons—the modern working elass—the proletarians.— Karl Marx (Communist Manifesto). ‘ nent existing of mobilized trade union forces is incompatible with sovereignty of the Fascist ,State. Not with the means of the*trade union organizations themselves, but with the means of the state are simultaneously safeguarded the rights of individual persons and the rights of organizations. ... From now on the task of political organizer |becomes the task of administrator. The fascist regime... no longer needs politicians of a second | degree (an insulting hint at the ytrade union “leaders.” Emphasis by Costamagna.—Ed.), but needs tech- nicians, educators and lawyers.” This signifies that the fascist to check the appetites of the em- ployers. There have been cases when the local unions attempted to utilize the right given them by law in order, even though to the slightest extent, to defend the interests of their mem- bers. For instance, they attempted to send up disputes to the labor courts, or transfer them from the lower organs to the higher, and thus delayed the employers from carry- ing out their plans. Thus it was disclosed that the cor- porative system with its centralized bureaucratic apparatus of employers’ and workers’ unions, with its state settlement of labor disputes and its network of lower and supreme or- government, faced with the dilemma gans of class collaboration, while | either to continue to the end the constituting an excellent means for corporative reforms, or to take a disarming the working class, for de-' decisive line for the destruction of priving it of all independence and the trade unions as self-acting or- self-expression in the defence of its ganizations, is attempting, after interests, nevertheless had its dis- some-wavering, to firmly follow the advantages for the employers. And second path. The fascist trade namely, the cumbersome corporate union organizations were disrobed. apparatus did not guarantee them) Ea sufficient speed in the realization of | their aggressive plans, at least until | fascist unions would be absolutely Week,’ and unconditionally subjected to the | is will of the government and the em- ployers. | Therefore Mussolini from the very | HooverObserves‘Negro President Hoover reacted to the first days of the introduction of the Communist Party's Negro Week by | corporative reforms undertook the |S¢"ding a congratulatory telegram “education” and “disciplining” of the | to Clayton Powell, pastor of the, trade union organization, every now |Abyssinian Church and Community and then cleaning the organizations eae eer ae eee upon Bs of insufficiently submissive trade | is oO fee app service” dur- unionists, disbanding the insuffi- Seal h veeee Ley pastorate. ciently “class conscious” (in the 4,5. os cover by AN JAE a fascist sense) trade union organs, j.ankers Pei? ha Hie eae yore and waiting for a.more favorable | city, who) eon ay erencht moment to get rid of Rossoni, who Hi was not sufficiently discreet ‘and not ou in Harlem and employ any: “convenient” enough for the em- 2 the Negro workers, speak at his nidvets |community forum. On a Sunday And 80 time passed until the clecd| Seeman Kel Patil a ttatla tg of the aba to theradaeieall “ooenarative top-hatted and big-bellied Negro ex- Parlideaae’ ahew Maas, aS. is Lanett eens: from the church ‘. tl ir “re- known, a considerable number of | spectability” yo Nee tha delegates to the latter are nominated | white masters of the Negro indus- by the trade union organizations, and trial slaves, although the Grand Council of the| Hoover, in his telegram, wishes "| Fascist Party has the right to turn “for him and his co-workers still down these candidates and replace /further achievements in benefitting them with and add others as con- the congregation and other charges sidered fit by it, nevertheless it is|committed to their care,” which risky to let these matters rest in the |means more exploitation of the Ne- hands of a single strictly centralized | gro workers. ts ab Congratulates a Reverent Exploiter: | worker producing more thread and |fabric but earning no more, or even |less, in real wages? Why is un- jemployment striking periodically at increased tens of thousands? And why is there more strain and speed- ling for those who are able to hold lon to their jobs more or less | steadily ? The facts about this speed-up or “stretch-out” system, as it affects workers in silk and rayon plants, and the meaning of this system to workers everywhere, are set forth in Labor and Silk. It is a study of these indust: the” corporations that pile up profits in them, and the workers who toil at the looms and frames. It is the first book that| | deals with this important pair of in-| | dustries from the labor viewpoint. | Knows Subject. | Grace Hutchins of the Labor Re- search Association, and the Federa- ted Press, is the author of this new book for workers. She has been fol- ‘lowing events “in the silk” for many |years. Her book is one of the first in a series of studies of Labor and | Industry being prepared by the La-} | bor Research Association and issued by International Publishers. The story of the amazing new rayon or artificial silk industry is | carefully told. Its mushroom growth, jits significant international cor- porate connections, and its lowering; | wages for the workers, 60 per cenz) | of whom are women, is dealt with in | one of the most interesting chapters. The spontaneous strike of the 5,000 Tennessee rayon workers and the re- volt of textile workers in Gastonia |and other points in the South, makes this chapter of special importance to all workers who would understand | the background of this new industry, and the aggressive anti-union policy of the rayon manufacturers. | New Union. “ | Silk workers have battled for bet- ter conditions through some of the | longest and most heroic struggles in| |the history of American labor. A) | book of 192 pages can, of course, | \only hit the high spots in this hun-| dred years of struggle. But the out- standing strikes such as those of} Paterson in. 1913, 1919, 1924° and) '1928 are vividly described by the) jauthor, and their significance and| lessons pointed out. | What to do about it? This ques-_ tion is answered for silk workers and | | all workers in the last chapter which includes suggestions as to the kind) of union that will weld the. silk workers into a united army to face |the bosses, viz., the National Tex- | rs It is the nitimate aim of this work = (“Ca i economic 1 society —Marx. Photo shows another contingent of troops leaving the U. S. Army Base in Brooklyn, for China, last Monday. They will be held in readi~ ness to slaughter the Chinese workers and peasants to protect Wall Street investments. eee OR WORKERSsum JUS1 OFF THE PRESS! Women In Soviet Russia . . . . 25¢ Wage Labor and Capital by Karl Marx . 10e (NEWLY TRANSLATED AND REVISED EDITION) Ten Years of the Communist Inter- national by I. Komor . .... Reminiscences of Lenin by Zetkin . Proletarian Revolution by Lenin . . (NEW EDITION) Program of Communist International . Communism & International Situation Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies ll 10¢ 35c 50e 15¢ 15¢ 15¢ Complete Report of the Proceedings of the Communist International . . $1.25 EEE eee WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS 35 East 125th Street New York City SOURCE OF ALL REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE RE