The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 8, 1929, Page 6

Page Six ‘ Baily Sas Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. THE INFORMER ————— Government to “Enumerate” the Unemployed | iota considerable jockeying, during which the proposal f sas considerably kicked about and stepped on, the lower Hie of congress by vote°of 189 to 188 has finally permitted the enumeration of the number of unemployed in the country s in May, 1930. The capitalist government isn’t much concerned with the ¥ unemployed, except when they demonstrate in the streets in 3 their rags. Then the police are called out. Herbert Hoover, as head of the department of commerce, at any moment of the night or day, could tell just how, many toothpicks or straw hats existed in the land. But James J. Davis, the sec- rétary of labor, never knows how many jobless workers are walking the streets, or those part time unemployed. He makes his guesses to suit the convenience of the administra- tion’ to which he belon iable unemployment statistics have been as rare as kept capitalist party campaign promises. They did not exist at Now it seems that by a single majority vote some statistics are to be taken, by order of the lower house of congress, although the proposition may yet be killed in the senate. to be made part of the national cens Since the italist parties ident Hoover, the purposes of the employers. much truth into them. census is to be taken by henchmen of the cap- , they can, of course, be manipulated by Pres- “the efficiency engineer of imperialism” to suit It will be difficult to read One vi * unemployment in this country was presented to the National Electric Light Association conven- tion, now meeting at Atlantic City, by J. R. Howard, past president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who pointed out that.three-quarters of a million workers are being forced to turn to new employments annually by the increase in the use of mechanical power in this country. He stated that 300,000 men are being replaced on the farms each year by mechanical energy while more than 400,000 are driven from the various industries. of gr¢ Howard pointed out that this raises the question of the development in the United States of new lines of business as a result of scientific discoveries or mechanical application which will provide labor for these three quarters of a million workers disemployed annually. But he did not point out that this was possible. The prices that the poor farmer gets for his products from the food speculators does not enable him to motorize his land, nor his wife to indulge in lighting fixtures, percolat- ors and electric curling irons, included in the Atlantic City exhibition. Instead he is pushed into the class of bankrupt landless and becomes a part of that “300,000” drifting an- nually into the alr overcrowded cities, while the bonanza farms of big growers increase in size and efficiency, develop mechanization and hire an increasing number of “hands,” ex- clusively agricultural workers. Our Communist Party has continually pointed out that it is this increasing and more efficient use of mechanical energy that is gradually developing the permanent army of the un- employed in the United States, a factor in the increasing radicalization of the American working class. The so-called new industries, automobiles, chemicals, radio, rayon (artificial silk), airplane, certainly do not absorb the disemployed. Nor are there new industries in prospect that will do this. Statistics carefully taken by the national census machinery in May, 1929, could throw considerable light on this development of American capitalism. Perhaps it may even be possible to read something worthwhile into the figures taken by a government most interested in hiding their real meaning. The Communist interpretation will put the problem as it confronts the working class. Social-Democrats in the Anti-Soviet Bloc HEN the Communist Reichstag Deputy, William Stoeck- er, exposed before the Reichstag foreign affairs com- mittee the maneuvers behind the scenes at the Paris repara- tions conference for developing the financial, political and military understanding against the Soviet Union, Chancellor Mueller and the social-democratic minister of finance, Hil- ferding, made no comment. Yet their silence speaks loudly. It reveals again the acquiescent role played by the social- democrats in building the imperialist offensive against the Union of Soviet Republics. It may be taken for granted that the social-democratic MacDonald “labor” government in Great Britain will ratify the Paris accord on reparations and remain equally silent on those features of this situation which tend to strengthen the anti-Soviet bloc. The MacDonald government will continue the well known international policies of British imperialism. German capitalism will not settle the reparations de- mands with the 87 billion gold marks ($8,813,400,000) sup- posed to be paid over a period of 58 years, with compound interest at 514 per cent, making a grand total of 97 million marks ($23,105,400,000). Rather an effort will be made to settle this question with guns and bayonets, especially when German capitalism can be persuaded to turn its guns and bayonets against the Soviet Union, in an effort to destroy the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. The Communist deputy, Stoecker, charged that the for- mer minister of foreign affairs, Von Kuehlman; the bitterly anti-Soviet capitalist, Von Rechberg, and General Von Lippe, held numerous conferences with the spokesmen of the other imperialist powers at Paris. He charged that the president - of the Reichsbank, Schacht, was also present at these secret conferences. There was no denial by any member of the Reichstag foreign affairs committee. It is clear, therefore, that these conferences were not left to intermediaries or second raters. They were arranged and attended by those who speak directly for the dominant capitalist power in Germany. w The Versailles allies would like very much to have Ger- many set aside immediately the Rapallo Treaty with the So- viet Union, as the first important step toward moving closer to West European capitalism. This was no doubt one of the subjects of the secret “conversations.” It is this feature of the Paris reparations eonference, as in the Daily Worker, that should rivet the attention workers upon future developments in Europe that will have an increasing bearing on the growing war danger. In all of these developments Wall Street imperialism will be « leading factor, applauded by its own coterie of social-dem- rats. Fight the Anti-Soviet bloc by preparing all labor for Red Day, Anti-War Day, August First; by the Communist Party, the standard bearer DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK By Fred Ellis Result By CYRIL BRIGGS Acting Director, National Department. National Negro Week is over, but the Party’s Negro work has just be- gun. While full reports have not yet been received from the districts as to the measure of success achieved in each district in the task of mob- ilizing the entire Party miembership for Negro work, the National Negro department has sufficient data on hand to permit of a careful analysis of the results attained and of frank oBlshevik self-criticism of the man- ner in which our activities were car- ried out during National Negro | Week. | First, let us consider the Party’s |purpose in having a national Negro week. The communications sent to Negro the District Negro Committees by} the National Negro Department be- fore and during National Negro Week stressed that “the period of May 10 to May 20 shall be National Negro Week, and shall be used for the purpose of mobilizing the entire | membership behind the Negro work jof the Party, building the American Negro Labor Congress the relief committee, the Negro Champion, or- ganizing tenants’ leagues, ete.” Dramatizing Struggle. It was also repeatedly pointed out that National Negro Week must be utilized for dramatizing the strug- gles of the Negroes and for drama- tizing the support by the Commun- ist Party of the struggle against white ruling class terrorism, against lynching, against Jim-Crow! ’ against segregation, against disfran- chisement, and for full political, so- cial and racial equality of the Ne- | groes. District Negro committees were instructed to send mixed groups of \white and Negro workers to theatres, restaurants and other publie places | known to be practicing discrimina- \tion against the Negroes, and that any refusal to sell tickets to, or serve our Negro comrades, was to be uti- lized for a mass demonstratio against these places and against the tion, with picketing of the offend- ing places by groups of white and Negro workers. In this way, it was pointed out, \the struggles of the Negro workers would be dramatized and at the same time we would also be dramatizing the historic role of the Communist Party in leading the struggles of the Negro masses against capitalist loppression and exploitation, against hite ruling class terrorism, lynch- ling, disfranchisement, etc. | No Broad .Agitational Base. | From the data at present on hand, | would appear that the campaign was practically barren of that broad ogitational base sought by the Na- |tional Office and for which direct- lives were sent to each district. Only jin Paterson (District 2) did Na- tional Negro Week achieve that agi- tational base. In other parts of Dis- trict 2, notably in Harlem (Section 4 of District 2) several attempts were made to achieve this agita- tional base, but the first attempts | Proving unsuccessful in uncovering racial discrimination (the places tested having evidently changed their policies by reason of the grow- ing pr€ssure of the Negro population and the necessity of having to seek the Negro’s trade) the matter was dropped, The Toussaint L’Ouverture Mem- -rial Meetings, held in conjunction vith the A. N. L. C., were generally adly organized and poorly attended. “hese meetings offered a splendid {opportunity to bring Negro and svhite workers together and to ac- quaint the Negro workers with their whole system of racial discrimina- | ng at the| ! s ot National Negro Week valuable aid both at the dinner and : * | before, Achievements and Shortcomings; Must Rally ™ S Depattn ent Failing Workers for Intensified Negro Work {same time carrying on an ideological |campaign against chauvinism among | the white workers, | This opportunity was muffed be- cause of poor arrangements and im- | proper handling. Boston, perhaps, |had the greatest success with the |memorial meetings, with Detroit two memorial meetings were held, ene in Brooklyn which was fairly | well attended, the other in Harlem. This latter was an absolute farce, | with only about 75 workers present. Very few of the white comrades were present, indicating that the de- | tional to the contrary, there is still a marked underestimation of Negro | work in the Party. The poor at- tendance of Negro workers can be traced to the failure of speakers to show up for the street meetings held | previously to the memorial meeting. | Wrong Conception. | The Negro comrades were partic- | ularly to blame in this respect. How ever, the white comrades must get over the idea that street meetings in Negro communities are absolutely impossible unless a Negro comrade is present to speak. If the white comrades will give the necessary at- tention to a study of the problems of the Negro masses they will not con- tinue to consider themselves inade- quately equipped to address a meet- ing of Negro workers. | Nor will they fail, as now, to en- \list the sustained interest of Negro audiences. Their failure in this re- spect is generally due to the fact that they do not know how to link up the Party’s program and slogans | with the special problems facing the Negro workers. | Their attitude on the Negro ques- | tion is not one of study of the special |problems with which the Negro workers are faced but either of |mechanical and confused (confused because of failure to give the neces- |sary study to Communist Interna- | tional decisions on the Negro) ad- | herence to Communist International | decisions, or of a sort of condescend- jing interest in the Party’s Negro standing next to her in the in the taal of vote enatehingy "i next. In District Two, with its more | than 250,000 Negro population, only | sion of the Communist Interna- | Gets Another Chance to Fool Workers Given the soft district of Plymouth to contest in the British elec- tions, Lady Astor got another chance to excel as spokeswoman for the British ruling class in Parliament. The fashionably dressed man guys Me neble lard sche aided bie wi work, which is symbolized in their attitude to the Negro Champion, which they usually do not buy to read themselves but “to give it to} some Negro worker.” | Fairly Successful Meets. In Kansas City, in Boston, in Chi- \eago, in Detroit, in Cleveland, there were fairly successful memorial |meetings from an agitational view- point. The National Negro Depart- ment co-operated with the districts | wherever requested in sending out national speakers to cover their af- fairs. Comrade Moore was sent to address the memorial meetings in Boston, in Philadelphia, and also | travelled to Buffalo to find that in| | spite of a request for a speaker no| arrangements had actually been made for a memorial meeting. Com- rade Moore also spoke at the Har- lem memorial meeting. Comrade | Hall spoke at two memorial meet- ings in the South, where for the first time the Party and the A. N. L. C. are penegrating on a healthy |basis, drawing in proletarian ele- |ments of both races and discarding \the professional and petty business element which heretofore hindered | the Party’s growth in the South. In| no district, however, outside of Dis- trict Two, was there any success in carrying out the financial campaign | for the Negro Champion. | In sharp contrast with the failures | of the campaign and the poor at- |tendance the memorial was the methodical arrangement and splendid success of the Negro ;Champion Dinner in District Two. |Over five hundred persons were present at this dinner, where five hundred dollars in cash was raised | for the Negro Champion, with over $1,500 pledged by various organiza- tions and individuals. The dinner was a success both agitationally and financially. The committee in charge of ar- rangements, of which Comrade King was chairman, deserves the highest praise for the efficient way in which the affair was arranged. So do the comrades who co-operated with the committee, and particularly Com- rade Joseph Brodsky who gave in- meetings, | Of course the National Negro De- partments had its failings, too. The department fell down in the matter of getting out the Negro Champion in time for distribution at and be- fore the memorial meetings. This was due to two causes, the absolute lack of funds and the shortage of |forees at the center where one com- rade has for the past three months been handling the work of three. The first reason was, of course, the de- cisive one. The department should also have printed an ANLC leaflet and a Party leaflet for national distribution among the Negro masses during Na- tional Negro, Week, but here again the lack of funds was decisive fac- tor. They must, however, share the |blame for the failure to get out these leaflets. Had they responded with orders for these leaflets and with remit- tance, as requested, the hortage of funds at the center would have been overcome. All they did, however, was to order leaflets, conveniently forgetting to forward remittance. Must Learn by Mistakes. Our Party must learn by these mistakes and in the task of pushing our work among the Negro masses we must seek to benefit by our past mistakes and experiences. We must learn the necessity of proper prep- aration for our mass demonstra- tions.. And we must energetically carry on our work among the Negro masses and the fight against white chauvinism, against ruling class terrorism, against discrimination in the trade unions, etc. We must al- ways bear in mind the words of the Communist International: “It must be borne in mind that the Negro masses will not be won for the revolutionary struggles un- til such time as the most conscious section of the white workers show, by action, that they are fighting against all racial discrimination and persecution. Every member of the Party must bear in mind that ‘the age-long oppression of the Colonial and weak nationalities by the im- perialist powers,’ has given rise to a feeling of bitterness among the masses of the enslaved countries as well.as a feeling of distrust toward the oppressing nations in general and toward the proletariat of those Nations.” Rally to Negro Work! National Negro week is over, but our Negro work is just begun. We must mobilize every district, every section and every unit for full, ac- tive participation in the struggles of the Negro masses.’ We must in- creasingly intensify and dramatize the struggles of the Negro masses: We must clearly and concretely dramatize the historic role of the Communist Party as the champion of the most oppressed section of the working class, and for the fight against lynching, against Jim-Crow- ism, ete., and for absolute political, social and racial equality for the Negro race. Down with Jim-Crowism! Down with lynching! Down with capitalism and im- perialism! Down with white ruling class terrorism! Down with segregation and race prejudice! Long live international and inter- racial working class solidarity! , POGROM IN WARSAW. WARSAW, Poland, June 6.—Dis- patches from Lemberg tonight re- ported 43 students wounded in a clash with police which climaxed three days of anti-Jewish disturb- ances there. There were 5,000 stu- £ | | | from you. By FEODOR CEMENT GLADKOV Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. The coopers’ shop was simply a useless shed. The glass roof had been smashed by mischievous stone-throwing children. Sticks, metal junk, broken hoops and all kinds of rubbish lay on the framework and on the few panes that remained. The work-benches, belting and cir cular-saws were covered with rust and with dust from the mountains and high roads, brought by the wind, that good grave digger. And over everything was a blue misty light. Three years ago, were not the work-benches, saws and unfinished barrels blue and icily trans- parent threugh this light? Gleb came here also and stopped on the threshold. In former times the golden shavings burned in fiery spirals, and the coopers, themselves covered with shavings and surrounded by flying sparks, were gay, intoxicated with the wine-like smell of wood and with the siren-song of the saws. Gleb did not*step forward; this was enough to turn one’s head— there was so much to do, But the day would come when this place would have its turn also: the shavings would glitter again and the sawdust fly, and the saws sing again their songs of youth. He wanted to go away, called by work, work—work everywhere, put stopped, a laugh leaping to his face. Savchuk! He was sitting with his back to Gleb, at his old bench, examining it, trying the treadle with his foot, testing the bench with his fist, trying its solidity until it wheezed and coughed like an old man. “Ha, ha! You’re groaning, you old bastard! yourself out. You've not forgotten how to work, eh?” Well, straighten He walked barefooted up to the saws and struck their ice-like discs with his big paw. They rang with remote reverberations as though in a dream. “Ha, ha, my nice round girls! You've grown pock-marked with no man to handle you. Let’s see what kind of songs you'll sing! Just wait a bit—some men will be here soon. We're going to breed barrels Not barrels for women to pickle cabbage in, but barrels to go beyond the seas to all parts of the earth. Not carrying cabbage but cement. Ah, my lonely ones—you’ll get your bridegrooms.” This damned Savchuk! Big as a bear, and you can’t get round him with either curses or kisses! Yet here in this shed he’s lamenting and whispering like a lovesick boy. Does this look like our Savchuk, going on like this—the hairy devil with legs like a cart-horse and fists as big as wheelbarrows?” Gleb didn’t dare to laugh and disturb Savchuk. When a man’s healthy strength is awakening and his blood is rising, he must not be interfered with, It is the deepest and most important moment in his life. Gleb walked quietly out of the workshop. Outside in the sun once more, he struck his palm upon his helmet and was convulsed with laughter, “That God-damned Savchuk! laughing!” During that day when the stones and rails seemed melting in the sun and the empty factory shimmered in its rays, a panting locomo- tive, belching steam, came hauling along towards the factory a train of tank cars with benzine and oil. Workmen in long blouses came out to welcome it, shouting and waving their hands, You'll be the death of me with eee A Leap Over Death. The Executive Committee of the Soviet had received a telephone message that Borchi, chairman of the District Executive Committee had horse-whipped Saltanov, Chief of the District Militia, who had been sent to aid him in the requisition of grain. Also that Saltanov, had fred at Borchi. * c was reported that Saltanov, with a detachment of Red soldiers, was attacking the Cossacks and townspeople, was clearing the grain out of the granaries and driving the last of the cattle from their stalls. Then when the wagons, under a convoy of Red soldiers, were travelling towards the District Executive Headquarters, the band played the “In- ternational,” while the peasant women followed the carts, striking their heads against the wheels, and mingling their wails with the noise of the cows and sheep. It was then, during the music, that the en- counter between Borchi and Saltanov had taken place. Badin was reading the transcript of the telephone message with his usual calm stony face and Secretary Peplo stood near the table awaiting his orders with his usual broad pink smile. “Here’s a nice bunch of fools! One fighting the other! Have a carriage got ready at once, Comrade Peplo. I’m going to look into this affair myself.” “Right!” “Will you please telephone to the Party Committee for Comrade Chumalova to come here at once. She has been asking for horse and cart to go to the same place. I will drive her there.” “Good! Shall I inform Comrade Chumalova that you will make the journey with her?” Secretary Peplo gazed at Badin with blinking eyelids, smiling sweetly. The Chairman lifted his gaze to Peplo’s face, and the Secretary recoiled a step from the table, but the smile did not fade from his face, “Right!” Badin sat, heavy as though cast from iron, his chest against the table, his head sunk between his shoulders as though it were heavier than his body. Scarcely had the Secretary left the room when Badin got up, swung his arms high, then walked up and down the room. The metallic heaviness of his head and shoulders was gone; he stood erect, big- boned with flexible muscles and head obstinately set. . I placing her arm within hers, walked with her to the exit. “Look here, Dasha: wouldn’t it be better to send another dele- gate in your place? You’re ordered somewhere every week and the others are only having a soft time at home. Attacks on the road are becoming more and more frequent. We must take care of you; we can’t easily replace you. Every time you go away I’m worried about you.” “Comrade Mekhova, you should be ashamed to talk like this. I’m not a little girl any more and know my own business. What kind of a Women’s Section should we have with our hearts in our boots all the time from fear?” Polia looked at her anxiously and stopped, Dasha patted her hand affectionately and walked sharply into the street, swinging her portfolio—which she had made herself—which contained everything: papers and bread. At the front door of the Executive Headquarters stood a carriage, black and lustrous. The bearded coachman was blowing his nose to / pass the time and wiping it on the ample lapel of his coat, * * * IN the Women’s Section, Mekhova caught Dasha in the corridor, and f i i a i 0 the boulevard, befouled with rubbish and trampled by people and beasts, two boys in torn overalls, with blue swollen faces, were rolling about in the dust. The dust whirled above them like dirty smoke disappearing in the brown branches of the acacia trees. Dasha stopped near the ‘carriage, looked down the boulevard, and then up at the open window of the Executive Chairman’s office. Then she again looked down the boulevard. Who were these children? What were these strays doing here? What is the Militia doing, and why is the Children’s Commissariat 80 blind and helpless? Or has it strayed far like these miserable children?, She crossed the cobbles and approached the railing of the boule- vard. There she stood for some minutes watching the wrestling ‘of the dirty little imps. “Kiddies, who wants bread? I know your little bellies are empty. Come here!” The boys pricked up their ears like little startled puppies. The woman was smiling in a homely way and was not at all frightening. There was a red scarf on her head and she held the piece of bread in her hand. The red scarf inspired fear (for long had they known that this scarf stood for power), but the head was new and, even at some paces away, they could smell the moist malt odor. “Yes, yes... . We know. . . « You call us like that, and then De sen raisnte thestiaas tiation |