The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 7, 1929, Page 6

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1929 THE MIDWIFE The “Experts’ Report” Agreed On. The New York Evening Post, organ of Wall Street, ac- _aims the experts’ report on reparations agreed on at Paris, which is to be signed today, and raises the demand, “Now for Ratification.” The great financial interests are satisfied with the work accomplished by their “experts,” J. Pierpont Morgan, the international banker, and Owen D. Young, chairman of the General Electric Co., also member of the original Dawes Com- mission, who acted as “unofficial” representatives of the United States government. Wall Street’s spokesmen went into the conference de- termined that there should be no cuts in debt payments by France and Great Britain to the United States. They were not worried over the question of German payments to France, Great Britain, Belgium or other “victo: under the terms of the Versailles Peace. Their desires were gratified. Nothing is to be gained through speculation whether the-agreement reached will be ratified or not by the capi- talist governments of the various countries involved. There is opposition to the settlement, especially in Germany, while the German marks question is left entirely to direct negotia- tions between Germany and Belgium, which may fail. The big fact is that whatever the reparations are, they must be sweated out of the blood and sinew of the working class. In Germany, especially, more than in any other land, the growing cr of capitalism in direct connection with the reparations problem leads directly to an increasing offensive against the working class, to a general intensification of the class struggle, and to the outbreak of great social upheavals, the May Day events for example. The restriction of the world market, the accentuation of international competition, and the failure of American sources of credit force the German capitali to have re- course to a vigorous increase of exports, if they are to ful- fill their reparations obligations. The situation on the world market, however, does not permit of any very pronounced augmentation of German exports which, expressed in capi- talist phraseology, reads “c of production” and which practically means wages, hours, conditions of work. The accentuation of Anglo-American rivalry, the in- creased competitive struggle on the restricted world market, the approaching end the business boom in the United States—all these factors dispelled the last illusion as to a possible cooperation of German and American capitalisms and a common pressure on the Reparations creditors. Great social struggles appear imminent, however, in other countries as well as in Germany. In France and Eng- land, also the United States, the working masses are more and more feeling the effects of the growing antagonisms of international capitalism and (in the same degree in which the struggle on the world market increases) also of the vicious circle of the Reparations problem. The New York Evening Post warns the powers con- cerned that, “It is clearly enough this plan or no plan at all.” It claims that the governments concerned “will be forced to realize that the alternative before them is acceptance of the compromise or a continuation of the uncertainty which must prevail under the Dawes plan plus a blow to their national credits which might have serious results.” Here is a veiled threat of the importance which this Wall Street organ attaches to the development of this form of capitalist unity in Europe against the growing threat of the Union of Soviet Republics. This unity can only be achieved, in the words of the French foreign-politician de Jouvenel, writing in the “Deutsche Bergwerkszeitung,” organ of German heavy industries, by Germany putting aside its vacillation “between an East (Russia) and West-European policy, for which reason it would be most desirable that Germany should be brought to abandon the policy it has pursued hitherto. An all- round readjustment of Germany’s policy would be just as ad- yantageous to Germany itself as it would be to the rest of Europe.” Every effort is thus being made to build the Anti-Soviet Bloc. This was one of the dominant factors in the nego- tiations for the reparations accord in which Wall Street won. The Anti-Fascist Matteotti Memorial. UNE 10th is the Fifth Anniversary of the cold-blooded J murder of the Italian socialist deputy, Giacomo Matteotti, by Mussolini’s fascist assassins. The repercussions from this deliberate political murder shook the power of the fascist dictatorship to its very foundations. The crime itself at- tracted world-wide attention. There was no disputing that Mussolini’s closest and leading supporters personally directed and carried out the actual killing. Matteotti died an enemy of fascism. He was one of the few socialist members of the chamber of deputies who dared raise a voice against Mussolini. He did this while other lead- ing members of the socialist party were rapidly succumbing to the fascist tyranny. , The Fifth Anniversary of Matteotti’s martyrdom will witness two types of memorial gatherings. There will be the proletarian memorials organized by revolutionary workers, to preserve for all labor the tradition of Matteotti’s courageous struggle against fascism. At the same time, however, counter- revolutionary elements, typified by the socialists and their traitor allies will try to exploit the memory of Matteotti for their own treasonable purposes. This is the case in New York City, where two meetings have been arranged, for the same time. Revolutionary labor in New York will- support the memorial organized by the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America to be held Sunday afternoon, June 9, at the New Webster Manor. Workers desirous of making an effective fight against fascism will gather at this demonstration for the strengthening of the American anti-fascist movement. In Italy it is only the Communist Party, fighting illegally to be sure, that wages an effective struggle against Mussolini. The conglomeration of social-democrats and their sup- porters, that now parades under the name of “concentration- ists,” that resorted to an appeal to the king to abolish fascism rather than rallying the workers for a struggle against it on the occasion of Matteotti’s assassination, completely betrayed and then deserted the Italian working class. In reality these social-democratic elements, of the type of Modigliani and Turati, are the legitimate parents of fascism, strike-breakers against the fight for the overthrow of the fascist regime. All these facts must be clearly emphasized at this year’s Matteotti Memorial. The allies in the United States of the social-democratic traitors in Italy, are the same Hillquits, Thomases, Cahans, who seize upon every labor struggle to do the bidding of those who are fighting the working class in this country, carrying on an open attack against the Soviet _Union, and waging war against the Communist Party of the United States, and the Communist International, that lead the effort for the defeat and extermination of fascism. uainted with this situation, workers: will know By Fred Ellis Problems and Struggles of the By RICHARD B. MOORE. Race Prejudice the Ideology of Capitalist Imperialism. (Continued) WL. Negro Workers In order to maintain the system| gro are adequately explained on the] same as that of the patricians of of exploitation of the black mass: the imperialists following in the|status. The tearing-away from the| were of the same racial stock. Here| |basis of his history and _ social |Rome toward the plebeians who wake of the chattel slave holders} African soil and the consequent com-| is not a question of innate antag- have developed an ideology and pre-| plete Joss of the old standards of| onism but a question of crass con- judice against the Negroes. hold that the Caucasian race is a| pendency of slavery and by all it} superior race and that all other| entailed, followed by a period of dis- races are inferior, the Negroes| organization and by a severe econ- being the most inferior of all. All|omic struggle against heavy odds, jsorts of arguments are put forward{are sufficient to explain the infer- to support this prejudice. The old|iority of the status of the race, with- biblical myth of the curse pro-| out falling back upon the theory of | nounced by Noah upon Canaan be-| hereditary inferiority.” (p. 272.) jcause Ham laughed at the drunken! 4 ‘That evolution theory which | state of the old patriarch is brought holds that Negroes are closest to forward as a proof of the divine en-/the apes. As proved by Golden-| |dowment of the white race with Su. | weiser, Lowie, Boas, and - others, |perior qualities and the lack of! there are no distinctions to be made| | them in the supposed black descend-| on this score. The pot may not call| oa of Ham. “Science” is supposed | the kettle black. There are as many| to prove that the germ-plasm of the! ane - like characteristics among) |superior Nordic is endowed with) whites as among Negroes. Straight | mysterious and excellent properties | pair is more like the hair of the apes They | life, which were replaced by the de-| tempt growing out of a specific class relationship—namely, that of master and slave, IV. Importance of Negro Masses for the Labor Movement and the Revolutionary Struggle in America. Negroes number over 12 million. They are one-tenth of the total population and one-seventh of the workers. They are the most exploit- ed section of the proletarian masses of this country being doubly op- pressed both as workers and as a subject race. Potentially, therefore, they are the most revolutionary | proletarian elements and constitute Memorial to attend on Sunday, _,.’ "The traits of the which are responsible for the pres- \ént superior status of the white im- perialist nations, History also brought under contribution to show that the Negro race has contributed nothing to civilization whereas it is to the white race that we owe what- ever civilization exists. So-called intelligence tests are also said to prove innate deficiencies of Negroes and other non-whites. But a truly scientific analy: of this race ideology of imperialism proves the utter falsity of all these assump- tions. | 1. No intelligent person can for a moment countenance the biblical | argument. * The twaddle of a drunk- }en man cannot be taken as a uni- versal cosmic law. 2. tions to civilization, the truth of his- tory attests that all races have made great contributions thereto. Not the least among these the Negro race. As we must be brief, we quote only this small paragraph from Buchar- in’s “Historical Materialism”: “In the first place, the race theory is in | contradiction with the facts. The | lowest’ race, that which is said to |be incapable, by nature, of any de- | velopment, is the black race, the Ne- |groes. Yet it has been shown that \the ancient representatives of this | black race, the so-called Kushites, jcreated a very high civilization in \India (before the days of the Hin- doos) and Egypt; the yellow race, which now enjoys but slight favor, also created a very high civilization |in China, far superior in its day to | the then-existing civilization of the | white men; the white men were then | children as compared with the yellow men, We now know how much the ancient Greeks borrowed from the Assyro-Babylonians and Egyptians. These few facts are sufficient to show that the “racial” explanation is no explanation at all.” (p. 127.) 8. Inferiority based upon present social traits. Even the most lightened of the bourgeois scientists are compelled to refute this ideol- ogy. Professor Franz Boas in “The Mind of Primitive Man’’ deals with this at length. We have space only for the following quotation: “An unbiased estimate of the anthropol- ogical evidence so far brought for- ward does not permit us to coun- tenance the belief in a racial in- feriority which would unfit an in- dividual of the Negro race to take his part in modern civili ion. We do not know of any demand made on the human body or mind in mod- ern life that anatomical or ethno- logical evidence woold prove to be beyond the powers of the Negro. the American is} In respect to racial contribu-} than kinky hair. Even the thick lips of Negroes which were held to be a distinctly animal feature, are seen to be a distinctly human feature. Such characteristics as the length | of the forearm, in which the Negro| |more closely resembles our common |ape-like ancestors, than the Cau- leasian, are set off by these other} | characteristics, 5. Intelligence tests. The nature and method of these tests prove most of them to be absolutely worth- less. But even on the basis of these tests conclusions are posited which give no warrant whatever for innate inferiority but prove on the contrary that the social opportunity and en- vironment is responsible for the |present development of the races. | For instance, the army tests showed | that Northern Negroes had a higher | intelligence quotient than Southern! | Negroes and also than Southern whites. 6. “Inherent antagonism between races.” The late President Harding uttered the imperialist dictum on this point at Birmingham, Alabama, when he said: “There are funda- mental, inescapable, eternal differ- ences between the races which will make it impossible for them to live together upon terms of social equal- ity.” So thought Lincoln, the much- heralded friend of the Negroes, So think most whites in Amerjea, so think even a large and growing number of Negroes. But such antagonism as exists be- tween the races can definitely be proved to be the result of training and social education, It is not in- born. Children are unusually free | from this prejudice, They play with each other wholly oblivious of this “innate” antagonism until it is im- pressed upon their minds by preju- diced elders. Moreover, whites enter into the most intimate relationships with Negroes, even the most rabid Negro-haters, the Southern slave- Negro women at their breasts and the millions of mullatoes in these United States are testimony to the fact of sex relationships between white and black. But itis to be noted, that a less intimate relation- ship will be objected to if it places the Negro on a plane of social equal- ity. The black mammy may nurse the white child but she may not sit in the parlor, As a black coachman or chauffeur the Negro may sit be- side whites but not as a fellow- passenger, These instances may be multiplied but they suffice to show that it is not intimate ‘relationship per se that is objected to but equal i 2 a fertile field for Communist propa- ganda and organization. Moreover, the development of American imper- ialism draws the Negro masses ever more into the forefront of the class struggle. Specific factors which op- | erate to make the Negro workers an | organized and integral factor of the labor movement and the revolution- ary struggle are: 1, The movement from the farms |to the industrial and | cities. The extent of this movement | ures: In 1890 the percentage of Negroes living in rural districts was 80.6, | that in cities 19.4; in 1920, 66 and |34. From 1900 to 1929 Negro city population increased more than a million and a half while the Negro population of rural areas increased less than 72,000 or about 1 per cent. | The greater part of this movement occurred from 1910 to 1920 during which decade the Negro city popu- lation, making a total increase of more than 2,100,000 for the 25-year period—a growth of over 100 per cent. From 1900 to 1920 the South- ern cities increased by 886,173 while the Northern and Western cities in- creased by 671,292, On a percen- tage basis, however, the gain in the North was 105 per cent as against 65 per cent in the South, More than 31-2 million or over one-third of the Negro population lived in cities by 1920, In 1920 there were six cities, 13 Southern and 8 Northern, which had a population of over 100,000 Negroes. These are Baltimore, 108,- 382, New Orleans, 100,930; and Washington, D. C., 109,966. New York, 152,467; Philadelphia, 134,229; Chicago, 109,458, As we shall see next the Negro population of these northern cities have increased con- siderably since 1920. 2.. The migration from the South to the Northern indystrial centers. It is estimated that between 800,000 and 900,000 Negroes came north during the two recent great mass migrations of 1916 to 1919 and 1921 to 1923, The first of these move- ments was due primarily to the de- mand for labor during the world war, the latter to the labo: demand due to restricted immigration. The contributory causes were’ severe economic exploitation in the South, insecurity of life due to !ynchings and mob violence, insecurity of prop- erty caused by high mx tgage and interest rates, crop failures due to boll weevil and floods, unemploy- ment, Jim Crow laws, poor school facilities, oppression in the courts, disfranchisement, and the terrible 4 Me commercial | j will be seen from the following fig-| |tricts. These Negro workers went into industry for the most part into steel, mining, automobile, needle and other industries. In the mining |industry, the report of the U. S. coal commissioner shows that 42,489 Negroes were employed out of a |total of 525,152 workers. These | figures suffice to show the growing industrialization of the Negro work- ers and their importance for the la- bor movement. It should be noted that the great steel strike of 1919 was broken by the capitalists be- cause it was possible for them to draw upon the Negro masses whom | they consider as strike-breaking re- |serves to break this strike, in one | of the most basic industries. In the mining strike, thousands of Negroes | were likewise imported. They were not told that they would be em- ployed as miners or that a strike |was on, In the needle workers’ | strikes and in the paper-box makers’ by the bosses. their practice to utilize Negro work- ers against white workers and to pit white workers against Negro work- ers to undermine the standards of both and to maintain the exploita- tion and degradation of the entire working class, The role of the Ne- |gro masses in the revolution which abolished chattel slavery Negro masses for the proletarian revolution of America. It is impos- sible to conceive of a successful so- cial revolution without the Negro masses, who played the decisive role jin the civil war of 1865 and who important ‘ole in the coming social revolution. | 3. The industrialization of the | South, The South is being rapidly | transformed from into an industrial section. Steel, mining, textile, and other manufac- turing industries are being rapidly developed owing to the absence of restrictive labor laws and a cheap and docile supply of white and black workers. Negro workers are being drawn in large numbers into the heavy industries. 4, Limitation of immigration. The decline in immigration will be seen from the following figures: re- ported by the Bureau of Immigra- tion: in 1910 a million and 41,570 immigrants entered the United States. This number fluctuated slightly until 1914 when 1,218,480 came. In the next year only 326,700 were admitted, the number falling as low as 110,618 in 1918, and in- creasing slightly to 373,511 in 1923. A greater demand for Negro work- ers in industry is the result. (The End) ‘Senate Withdraws Its |Approval of J. Cotton as an Under Secretary WASHINGTON, June 5.—Over- riding the angry protests of Sena- tor Borah, who claimed that all the serious charges against Joseph P. Cotton had been investigated al- ready by the senate foreign rela- tions committee, the senate today withdrew its confirmation of Hoover's appointee to the post of under-secretary of state. Cotton would seem to be an ideal man from the imperialist point of view, as he is a big corporation | will again play a very Heawyer and banker and also served om Hoover’s food commission which starved the Hungarians when they had a Soviet government. But he is suspected of taking money from foreign sources, Buil@ Up the United Front of the Working Class From the Bot- a strike this same tactic has been used | More and more it is} should) demonstrate the importance of the| an agricultural | ea By FEODOR CEMEN GLADKOV Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. Gleb Chumalov, Red Army commander, returns to his town on the Black Sea to find the great cement works in ruins and the general life of the town disorganized. He wins over the workers to the task of reconstruction as well as Badin, chairman of the District Executive of the Soviet. Together with Engineer Kleist, who has remained from the old regime, he makes active plans to get the factory into working shape again, * * * CHAPTER VIII BURNING DAYS Workers’ Blood. these days the sun was not burning; the sky was white-clouded. There was not enough air for one’s lungs; and the town and moun- tains, the people and the docks, were all whipped by the wind which went rocking in whirlwinds of pebbles. The days burned only in the hearts of men, hearts that throbbed heavily. Gleb, with his helmet pushed back on his head, was running to the Council of Trade Unions, to the Party Committee (Call immediately an Aggregrate Meeting of the Party for the whole town!), to the Rail- | way Men’s Union (Comrades, hasten the dispatch of tank cars to the petrol refinery!), to the Factory Administration, to the power-house where Brynza and the Diesels waited all ready for work. Shidky was clapping Gleb heavily on the back and burning with enthusiasm. “God damn you, old Chumalov! Harness yourself to the factory instead of the dynamos and you'll be able to make it work all by your- self. We ought to send you to Europe—you’d start a hell for a row there!” “The main thing, Chumalov, is not to forget that you are above everything a Communist, All our reconstruction isn’t worth a damn unless it’s burned in the red fire of revolution. Remember this and keep a sharp look-out.” “Yes, we're going straight ahead, Shidky. We're doing our level best! The only thing is not to do it too well, not shoot beyond our mark! That’s the danger!” “I love you, Chumalov, you’re a real man!” Gleb, nostrils quivering, breathed shortly with emotion. * * * HE ran to Lukhava. But as usual Lukhava was not at the Trade Union Council, he could not stay within the walls of his office. Every day from morning till night he was runnisg from one union to the other, to the various workshops, entering into all the details of production and into the life of the workers; organizing special meetings, settling dis agreements, cursing the wasters and inscribing on the Red Roll of Honor the heroes of toil. He haunted the offices, mills, workshops, the economic services, the food department, fingering papers, ordering, re- questing, jostling, arousing fear and evoking storms of enthusiasm. He was never worn out, never knew the meaning of exhaustion; in his eyes a fervid inextinguishable fire burned. That's how he entered into the souls of the workers. Gleb used to leave him notes: “Hurry along the Railwaymen’s Union Committee.” “Put the screws on the Economie Council for sabotage and red tape.” And Lukhava ran hither and thither, bronzed, fie d, his hair streaming like black flames. * * * Av the factory the electricians had commenced the repairs to the in- stallation. In the workmen’s quarters, electric light bulbs, taken from the factory store, had been fixed in the empty sockets. The lamps glittered and cast genial reflections in the windows; at the sight of them the women and children were moved to smiles and the grey mask of hunger on the faces of the workmen melted away in a happy presenti- ment. No more pipe-lighters were being made in the repair shops. Dif- ferent work was going on now: in a whirlwind of iron clanging, gnash- ing, whistling, hissing and murmuring, the machines were coming back to life. Workmen in blue shirts stained with copper passed each other in the courtyards going from workshop to workshop, building to building. But neither Loshak nor Gromada were there. They had other cares: the Factory Committee. In the Factory Committee office, down in the basement under the factory offices, in the rooms reeking of cement and cheap tobacco—tobacco rank enough to make the devil kick up his heels— people were crowding and trampling from door to door, and the walls and windows trembled with the echoes of shouts and bellowing laughter. Factory Committee. . . . Increased rations. . . . Distribution of forces. ... Ropeway. ... Whirlwind of machinery in the machine shop. Liquid fuel. . . . Tomorrow the dynamos will be working and by tomorrow night the factory will awaken. .,. Gleb—he was the workers’ representative on the Factory Manage- ment—rushed hither and thither, dripping with sweat, laughed, caught up tools, cut, sawed, drilled and could not keep pace with the mad tempo of his heart. He often called on Brynza who would receive him with cries which filled the great engine room. “Ho, ho, Commander! it’s moving! The machines are ready! Fuel, my Commander, we must have fuel! That and nothing else! Now you’ve risen out of hell, the merry-go-round will start. I know it will! Your head’s a machine like my Diesels. Fuel—petrol and benzine! That’s all we need! If you don’t let me have some in two days I’ll blow myself up and the Diesels too. And when I fly sky-high, I'll drag you with me by the feet!” * * * MONG the machines his assistants—who all looked rather like him were moving about, cleaning and making the metal resound, Brynza nodded to them and winked under his peaked cap, joyfully showing his teeth. “You see: the brothers have, started work with a big push! The idle chatter and trifling of the past years are forgotten, my friend. That’s what the power of machines means. So long as the machines are alive, we can’t get away from them. The yearning for machines is stronger than that for a sweetheart.” And suddenly his great voice filled the whole shop: “Fuel, fuel! Ten tanks—that’ll be enough for the first go. tanks! Or I'll cut you in pieces, Commander!” Together with Engineer Kleist, the technicians and the workmen from the quarries, they walked along the valley, through the grass- grown yards. Grave, silent and sunken-eyed, Engineer Kleist was ex- amining the old ropeway. Two technicians of the old staff of the factory from traditional habit were walking two steps behind the engineer, rushing up to him with servile alacrity at the first silent nod of his head. The engineer did not look at Gleb but Gleb knew well that the engineer realized only; his presence and lived only in his power. When Kleist talked to the\ technicians Gleb felt that he was really speaking to him, and that he was expecting from him words he would not be able to contradict, They decided to repair the whole transportation system of the fac- tory and to carry the ropeway from the highest stage in the quarries up to the crest of the mountain, about 800 meters, * Ten it \ \ AN? once again seated in his office (both windows were now wide open), Engineer Kleist said, after having worked on the plans and estimates: ‘ “ “If we have a guarantee that the specifications will be fully ap- proved and that sufficient labor is furnished us, the work'can be com- pleted within one month.” Gleb bent down towards the engineer and slapped his hand upon the papers. “Comrade Technologist, the work must be accomplished within four days. Five thousand workmen are at your disposition, Material will be given you by the factory management upon your instant demand. If there’s any sabotaging I’ll smash them to bits: we’ve taken worse Bastilles than this. Not a month, but four days only, Comrade Tech- nologist! Take good note of it, and hit straight for the target.” Engineer Kleist looked closely at Gleb, For the first time a pale smile lit his face. . (70, BE CONTINUED.)