The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 30, 1929, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. THURSBAY, MAY 30, 1929 Baily 25 Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. y, except N.Y; onths $2.50 three months (outside of New York): $4.0 a year six months Adéress and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, New York, N. Y. $8.00 a year 0 three months $8 Union Square, oP, “Wm. Green—Imperialist Recruiting Sergeant ao Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, instead of directing campaigns for the organiza- tion of the unorganized which would strengthen the power of labor, is devoting his time more and more to the job the Wall Street bankers have given him,—recruiting Sergeant for the . next war. This was shown in the stellar role he played in the launching of the battleship, Pensacola, and only this week as the chief speaker at the review of the 1,300 cadets at Yankee imperialism’s West Point military academy. Green, while drawing his huge salary from the per capita taxes paid by wage workers affiliated to the A. F. of L., spends his time in navy yards, officers’ training camps and incubators of future “generals”, like West Point, where mil- itarist strike-breakers, like “Black Jack” Pershing and Leonard Wood are in the making. Green, while being paid by the workers, not only associates with strike-breakers, but be- * comes one of them, “doing his bit” for the building of the army and navy that is being and will be used by the exploiters against the workers to fight their strike struggles and or- ganization drives. It is clearly shown again, therefore, that Green will not help organize the unorganized, nor’ will he remain neutral. Instead he is an aggressive imperialist force against the workingclass in all its struggles. Memorial Day, today, should be utilized to the full, when the capitalist press is filled with militarist propaganda, to bring to the attention of wide masses of workers the open al- liance of the official regime of the A. F. of L. with dollar imperialism. This will lead to a better understanding by wider sections of the working class of labor’s real objective in the war against the imperialist war, in the building of the class power of the toiling many for the sweeping away of the capitalist social order along with its reformist rub- bish typified in the treason of the Greens, the Wolls, and their apologists, the Hillquits, Thomases and Cahans. The Elections in Great Britain Today. CREE role of the Labor Party and its treacherous offspring the Independent Labor Party in the British elections today is reviewed in an article published on another page. Especial attention is given to the election manifesto which “breathes the bourgeois character of the Labor Party.” The complete betrayal by the Labor Party of Henderson, Thomas and MacDonald, of all workingclass interests has been in full evidence during the entire campaign. No fight * has been made for the repeal of the infamous Trade Union Act and the Miners Eight-Hours Act, the dastardly legisla- tion imposed on the workers by the conservative government in retaliation for their militancy displayed in the historic general strike and the bitterly fought miners’ lockout. The Labor Party’s only interest in the huge colonial empire of British imperialism grows out of the fact that they offer the opportunity of developing “greater markets over- seas”. It turns its back completely on the aspirations of the colonial masses. It is urged that all readers of the Daily Worker care- fully study the article published today in order to better understand the election results. These results will only register progress as they show an increasing drift of the masses to the Communist Party, the leader of the left wing in the trade unions, the fighter against British imperialism and the standard bearer in the struggle for its overthrow. ‘PRE International Labor Office of the League of Nations laments that the United States will not even have an “observer” at its Twelfth Annual Conference starting Thurs- + day at Geneva. The choice assortment of social-democrats who have received well-paying swivel chair jobs in this im- perialist nest are anxious for Wall Street’s views on the ques- tions of native labor, the “white collar” slave and industrial accidents. To be sure the League “Labor Office” is not anxi- ous to get the viewpoint of thé workers on these questions. And the great capitalists are too busy plundering native labor, exploiting “white collar” workers to the limit, and success- fully using the great reservoir of unemployed labor to feed the places made vacant by industrial accidents, to. bother about what the Geneva office boys of world imperialism think of these questions. Anyway, the League is the property of British imperialism, and therefore Yankee imperialism steers shy of it as a habit. ee ENT of the Indian masses, joined with the pro- *™ test of the British working class at home against the so-called: Simon Commission fof India, and against British imperialist oppression generally, finds a new avenue of. ex- pression through the candidacy of S. Usmani, president of the Indian Trades Union Congress, on the Communist ticket, against the liberal, Sir John Simon, in the Spen Valley, York- shire district. Usmani is now in jail in Meerut, India, and a local magistrate, mouthpiece of ‘the Baldwin-Lloyd George- MacDonald coalition against Indian independence, refuses him liberty even long enough to make the campaign which comes to an end with the elections today. Thus British oppres- sion in India, and its support from all three major parties, again is put startlingly in the foreground of the British elec- toral struggle. ‘HE “20th Century Limited”, the exclusive New York- ‘Chicago flyer of the New York Central Railroad was de- layed half an hour yesterday near Poughkeepsie, after it had crashed into a gasoline “scooter” operated by two workers f rushing to their jobs. The workers were killed outright and the “flyer” might have continued op its way without delay. But the body of one of the workers got tangled up in the run- ning gear of the locomotive. Other employes, at rationaliza- tion speed, were called on to remove it, and then the “20th Century” swept on to New York as if nothing had happened. e lives of workers count for little on the railroads, as in all ~m, Wadustry. by | Conditions in Gastonia Mills © | By KARL REEVE. ARTICLE I, Gastcnia, North Carolina, is less thana day’s train ride from the City of New York, but it is a different world, in many respects. Those who live in the industrial cities of the north have heard of the bad conditions and the low wages of the 300,000 southern textile work- ers, the “mill hands,” but the south- \ern textile field is far away and the workers used to northern standards cannot picture the literal starvation that exists in the southern mill | towns. When the Washington delegation of Gastonia strikers, members of the National Textile Workers Union, appeared there, Senator Overman of North Carolina, in an effort to counteract the enormous shock these emaciated workers gave to all who beheld them, declared that the dele- Se = = GREEN’S DEDICATION FOR A NEW, WORLD WAR Children Under 14 Slave in Mills By Thousands; Undernourishment Throws Men On | Premature Scrap Heap | wealth.” Average Wage $10. workers of North Carolina is far be- | low the standard of living of the northern worker. One reason for| the perpetuation of the 100 per cent American stock in the textile region is the fact that the foreign-born worker is repulsed by the extremely | low standard of living. The aver- ege wage in the North Carolina tex- | tile mills, in my opinion, is not more than $11 per week, and is probably | most any mill in the Common- | with tuberculosis and pellagra, all berger, $10 per week, 10 years in| |of them thin and undernourished. At | mill. 85 a worker is often prematurely | The standard of living of the old and ready for the scrap heap. age, not the young girls between 14 These low wages and this general | voken down physical condition are | not unusual, but general. The 12.) hour day is practiced throughout the region, the mills working two shifts, day and night. The children go into the mills by the hundreds and thou- | sands, before reaching the age of | fourteen, their age being changed to fit the convenience of the mill |owners and the necessities of starv- | $9 and $10 per week. jing-families. The rule that no night | In the Washingten delegation was | work shall be done by those under | gation was “hand picked.” He de- clared them “the worst lot of scrubs | who ever came out of North Caro- lina.” Robert Litolff, who has been in the mill 31 years, and whose highest pay envelope in that time has been Even the correspondents of $13.10. Binnie Green, our 14-year- the capitalist press gave Overman |old striker, during the first month |in Gastonia ahd find out what their |5- R-) at the time of the birth of the lie, M. Farmer Murphy, Wash- | of her labor received only 25 cents ington correspondent of the Balti- a week pay. Her highest wage is more Sun, declared in the May 11|$4.95 in a week, issue of that paper: “But persons| “Red” Hendricks, a member of who have been among the mill the strike committee and one of the hands of Senator Overman’s state | Washington delegation, declared in |16 years of age is openly violated | |Ly all mills, 1 | Let us take a few of the strikers | wages are. Runey Sper, spicer, $10 | jper week, five years in the mill; | Althea Metalf, weaver, $9 per week, |six children, 20 years in mill; John | Myers, warper, $8 per week, 25 | years in mill, four children; Lula will not agree with him that the | Gastonia delegation is a specially | selected group. Having seen the workers on the spot, they know that ;@ similar all-American, underfed, overworked team could be chosen at random with eyes closed in al-! speech after returning to Gas-|Gaines, spinner, $12 per week, 20 tonia that, although only 30, his|years in mills, two children; A By Fred Ellis week; Dass Ajrudge, ,spooler, $12 per week, 30 years in the mills, 5 children; Inez Rowland, spimmer, 21 years in the mill (since 11 years old), $13 per week, supports ill mother and father, husband dead; Henry Wineberger, spooler, $11 per week, 11 years in mill; Sally Wine- These wages represent the aver- and 18 years of age who work 12 hours a day in the mills for less than $5 per week; $13 per week is considered a high wage. Forbidden to Nurse Baby. A statement given to me by Daisy McDonald, now in New York, speak- ing on conditions in the south, gives a revealing, and, in most ways typ- ical, picture of family life and the sanctity of the home in the south- ern cotton mill town. She writes: “T have worked in mills for 18 years and was living at Loray (Loray is the mill village of Manville-Jenkes at Gastonia; it is familiarly called Greasy Corner by, the strikers— my baby, which was Jan. 14, 1925, of my family at the time he was account of having only one leg, the other being amputated two years be- fore on account of tuberculosis of the bone. When he was discharged my husband being the only support | discharged from the Loray mill on| health has been ruined for life in the mill, and that he is working on behalf of the “younger generation.” The young men of 20 to 25 are al- ready middle aged, many of them |my baby was five weeks old. It was two weeks before I got work and I |had to go in the mill to work when |my baby was seven weeks old and |was not allowed the privilege to go |out of the mill to nurse my baby at | Geatab, spooler, $14.45 per week, six years in mill, two children; Lizzie Crow, spinner, two years in mill, $5 per week;’C. J. Cox, corder, 14 years in mill, 3 children, $15 per | and 8 o'clock. Therefore I was | compelled to put my baby on a bot- |tle, this being at the Myers mill, Two Letters on Comintern Address Gee Cleveland District Organizer.) tion of the new leadership of the j The corrections made by the Com- |Party, yet knowing that the Comin- jmunist International in the lines of |tern always acts in the best inter- |both the Majority and the Minority ests of all its sections, I pledge my of the Central Committee give the own most energetic efforts and the Party the correct line for its work. full support of the District Execu- The errors of both the Majority and tive Committee of District 6 to this the Minority could not be cqrrected leadership in carrying out the de iby the groups themselves or by the |cisions of the Communist Interna- Party as a whole in the light of the |tional on the basis of “iron prole- |sharp factional situation in the top |tarian discipline, to which all or- layer of the Party. Obvious errors {deat oelaaied and each individual were tolerated and overlooked;!member unconditionally submits,” slight deviations were magnified. | “submission of the minority to the Self-criticism was taboo except in | majority,” “inner Party democracy the districts. face of the clear intention of the Comintern to wipe out factionalism in the Party, Particularly the ten- dency toward a double accounting with the Comintern in this situation must be condemned, the easy ac- cetance in words and the rejection in deeds of the Comintern policy by which some hope to be able to main- tain a line in cpposition to the Party and the Comintern without | detection. All such tendencies must be energetically combatted and |comrades urged to show their true jcolors at this juncture. Then there is the theory of the South Gastonia. I moved back to Loray and went to work there. My daughter was old enough to work then and they laid her off, and this left me nine to support on $12.90 per week. My house rent was $1.50, furniture, $1; lights, 50 to 85 cents per week; insurance on my family, |$1.25 per week; wood, one week, | $2.20; the next week, coal, $1.75. The rest I had to support nine and when the strike came of course J came out with the rest.” ... Speed-up Saps Strength. This is a typical story of family |life among the mill hands of North Carolina. Dozens more could be |told equaling this in the picture it and proletarian self-criticism.” The convention could not fulfill its mission, owing to the factional situation. Nevertheless the conven- tion pledged that irrespective of the nature of the final decision of the Comintern it would be accepted un- reservedly. This was the plecge cf the leaders. tnis was the nledge cf the delegates speaking for the membership. | The Comintern has rendered its jdecision, its analysis of the polit- ical situation and of the errors made by both groups is correct. Its condemnation of factionalism is jus- | tified and correct. The need of uni- \fication of the Party—particularly lin the upper stratum—is impera- | tive. Its denunciation of leaders wh have broken their pledge . to tite Communist International and to the |; membership, its mention by name |of those who have committed gross right wing mistakes developirg al- most into a tendency, are correct. The need of re-organization of the |secretariat has been pointed out by the Comintern as a “basis of secur- ing real collective, non-factignal ac- tivity.” Not knowing the cemposi- ISRAEL AMTER, District Organizer, Cleveland, Ohio, | District, * * From Woman's Department Head. | I wish to add a few remarks of clarification of my position to the enclosed statement. I, very sincerely jendorse the Address of the Comin- |tern and will co-operate to the best of my ability in carrying it into ef- |fect. This address is a political {document of very great importance in the life of the American Party. It opens up a perspective of a new lunity in the Party, a strengthening jof discipline, and the elimination of |factional organization. At the same time it establishes a clear Commu- nist line which brings the American |Party into its correct place in the world struggle against imperialism. At the same time I wish to ex- press my strong disagreement with certaing tendencies among leading and active comrades of the Party which have come to light with the publication of this Address, and be- degeneration of the Comintern, | 8'¥eS of poverty. But this poverty fore, Such are the tendency to teaintain factional groupifigs pnd factional policies ahd ideology in the I which seems to be finding accept- ance in some quarters, which accom- panies various right and left devia- tions, and is nothing but Trotsky- ism, although those concerned might reject that term. The crystalliza- tion of right wing tendencies, of re- sistance to the authority of the Comintern and the discipline of the Party, of opportunism and petty bourgeois tendencies toward resist- ance to proletarization of organiza- tion of factional defense actions against organizational measures for carrying through the line of the Comintern, all these seem to be tendencies arising as a_ reaction against the Address of the Comin- tern. All these tendencies are to be condemned most emphatically and actively combatted. Acceptance of the Comintern Address in spirit and deed, as well as in word and loyal and united effort to carry through ity ine in the Party, such a course wil® cleanse and. strengthen the Party and stee) it for the struggles it is now entering upon. JULIET STUART POYNTZ, New York City. lin itself did no* precipitate the |strike situation, This was brought about directly by the institution of a crude and brutal speed-up on tep of the already starvation wages and |12-hour day. The machines wore increased two and three tiraes in speeed, making the words “doubling up” and “tripling up” a commen- place among the mill hands. The speed-up began in the Manville- denkes mill about a year ago. The workers, already drained of their stamina, cursed with disease, exist- ing on “sow belly” and corn »bread, found the speed-up more than they could bear. More than one worker has told me how after leaving the mill at night he would sit down near the mill gate in order to gain the strength to walk home after the i2 hours of speed up, and how, after getting home, they ‘would stagger to the bed and lie there like a wounded animal until morning. Of- ten workers, due to the combination of starvation and speed-up, faint on the job, uneable fe last out the 12 * hours. (The next article will deal with the strike situation.) 3 By FEODOR GLADKOY, CEMEN Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N.Y. Gleb Chumalov, Red Army Commander who has returned to his town on the Black Sea, finds the huge cement factory almost in ruins, and the workers fighting among themselves. He sets about turning their attention to the reconstruction of the factory and the single track over the mountains in order to transport wood before the winter, sets in, He has been to the Party Committee and has rattled Engineer Kleist, directing technologist of the factory, from his seclusion. He now goes to see Chairman Badin of the Executive Committee of the Soviet. * Chapter VI The Presidium THE FIRST LINKS BEARDED messenger in a military blouse and grey hat, as worn during the Imperidlist War, sat outside the door of the office of the’ Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Soviet. He glared at Gleb like a wolf from under his heavy eye-brows. His hairy hand was clasped by habit around the brass door-handle. In this way he guarded the door of the Chairman’s office every day, from ten in the morning until five in the evening, without leaving his chair, even when the Chairman went forth on business. Whether they were busy persons carrying brief-cases or unknown petitioners timidly stretching their necks like birds, it was all the same; each had to pass by this silent morose guard, with wolf-like gaze under heavy grey eye-brows—dumb and unapproachable. And each meekly awaited his turn in line, unless the urgency of his affair was vouched for by the Secretary of the Executive, In the queue, people were standing in uniform coats, with or with- out portfolios, with or without papers, patient or furious; but all knew that it was impossible to force their way past this old devil with the wolf’s gaze. The Remingtons were clickin; and a hoarse rasping voice was crying: Comrades. . . . Bureaucracy and formalities are devouring us. should all be sent to hell! or be shot like rabbits!” ane ee ei ie metallically inside near the door “It’s a shame and a disgrace, You ‘LEB walked up to the door, and he and the messenger silently eyed each other. “Well, you mop-haired old devil, take your hand off the knob.” The people in the long queue began to murmur. What was this?, Was Gleb any better than anyone else? Why was he trying to get in first? If they were patient enough to wait their turn, why shouldn’t he do the same, according to the rules? It was quiet now in the office. The door was close shut and a piece of paper was stuck on it saying: “No one can enter unless previously announced.” Lower down another paper: “The Chairman of the Soviet Executive Committee only receives persons coming strictly on business.” And lower down still: ‘Admission out of turn on urgent business, only through the Secretary of the Executive Committee.” A diabolical arrangement! To make it work properly it has to be broken. Gleb made his way to the Secretary’s office. Here was stiffness and confusion and another long queue. A typist was tapping busily and slamnfing the drawers of the filing cabinet. Girls were installed at old stained tables, turning over papers and nibbling at their rations of black bread. They were indifferent to this customary sweaty tumult. As usual, the blonde-haired china doll was looking into her pocket- mirror and patting her hair with her fingers. Was that why the Secre- tary, Peplo—with his grey locks and youthful face—was smiling while he gazed at the grey faces around him? His irrepressible smile reveals his even white teeth, trimmed with little bubbles of spittle. Cla oa. poe knows everybody. He calmly listens to the tumult. The Sec- retary knows everything; he sits there smoking and never appears hurried. All business is the same, and it does not need wings. Then in one corner, and again in another, a loud hoarse voice domin- ated the uproar of the rowdy crowd. “You ought to be all kicked out, you blasted drones! the working-men into a hell of a harness! one’s head and fists of steel to smash your fat bureaucracy. I'll make you sing small! I'll teach you to persecute the workingclass. .. .” The cries died down unanswered, and Secretary Peplo continued to smile broadly. Doubtless they were all accustomed to these outcries. The machine was functioning at full speed and the protests and anger of the citizens did no more than help grease the wheels, Shuk, covered with perspiration and with tears in his eyes, was striding up and down like one possessed, stooping under the weight of his wrath. Gleb took him by the arm and pulled his hat down over the back of his head. “Keep your pecker up, Shuk! your arms about like a windmill!” * You’ve got One should have horns on Don’t bark so much and wave GHUK devoured Gleb with his swollen eyes; he trembled with joy, raised his hand and stopped in his tracks. “Hullo, Gleb, my own dear friend! How it saddens me to see the workingclass so ill-treated! But I won’t give them any peace while I’m living in this miserable world. I’ye really got nothing to do here, but Ym stirring up the work a bit... . I’ve been to the Economic Council today—it’s a mess! I’ve been to the Food Council—another mess! Everywhere it’s a mess! And here, damn it all, what a mess too! So you see, I’m going around swearing like a trooper.” “Shuk! You’re crazy, Comrade! One must act—talking’s no good.” “I... . You want me to—. But, God damn it—! I’m going to expose them all. I’m going to stand them up against the wall.” “I must give you some work to do, Shuk, or you'll be firing nothing but blank cartridges all the time. You're wasting yourself. Don’t for- get: I‘m going to find a job that will suit you.” “No, Brother Gleb, dear Comrade. They'll find out about me yet. I’m going to remind them of 1918... .” He shook his clenched fists towards the ceiling and went away with heavy step. (To Be Continued) Song for Our Memorial Day By LEONARD SPIER O martyrs of the one great cause, For you, we in remembrance pause. O Russian braves, in the time of tsars Lighting for all the brightest of stars; O comrades of Austria, strangled to death Resenting the stench of the fascist breath; fe) leaders hallowing Cuban waters For flinging down the slavers’ halters; O Sacco-Vanzetti!—(these hearts still tell What dripping fingers have failed to quell!) ; O wife of the world’s true proletar, O mother and love who our heroines are; You weavers warped in India’s mills, Long lying quiet ’neath India’s hills; You rebels of China slain by the knife, Whose bodiless heads still urge for strife; You free men of Italy, bravest of all, Mazzini’s descendents, resounding his call; You sons of the south, black brothers and white Whose symboling skeletons swing in the night; And you, strong Poles of Ukrain, dead Defying Pilsudski’s murderous tread; And you of the home of our prophet’s birth, Your staunch breasts heaving thru Rhinish earth; And you of all hills, towns, cities, and plains, “1 . Who have shadowed the soil with scarlet stains; You martyrs of the one great cause, For you, we in remembrance pause! nn sam