The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 3, 1929, Page 6

Page Six*'” Baily wis Worke Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co. Inc... Daily, Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New York City, N, Telephone Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable: “DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mai! (in New York only): $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): $3.50 six months $2.00 three months except A $8.00 a year $6.00 a year Address and mail all checks to the Dally Worker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. International Red Day --- A Stage of the Fight Against Imperialist War The nation-wide demonstrations on August 1st against imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union were not only indicative of the growing willingness of the masses to struggle against their oppressors, but they were a salutary answer to those in the camp of Trotsky and the Lovestone ele- | ments who sneered at the preparations for the demonstra- tions and the slogan of “down tools.” Thousands of workers in New York who left work at four o'clock, the hour appointed to “down tools,” and marched to Union Square in spite of and against the brutality of the Tammany police, where speakers. addressed 20,000 men, women and youth. In Chicago thousands of workers defied the arrests, clubbings and terror of the police. In Pittsburgh, wholesale arrests and the usual Pennsylvania cossack meth- ods failed to halt the demonstrators. Philadelphia and De- troit held big demonstrtions. In Boston and many New Eng- land centers the workers showed their determination to fight against imperialist war. The Pacific Coast cities of San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, witnessed the biggest demon- strations in years. Certainly not since the Sacco and Vanzetti demonstra- tions has there been anything to compare with the August Ist events in the United States. Thus, in the stronghold of the most powerful and arro- gant imperialism the workers showed their international soli- darity with the workers of the world in the struggle against imperialist war. As usual, the capitalist press tries to be- little and heap calumny upon these working class demonstra- tions. To be sure the local press could not ignore the Union Square demonstration, nor could they deny the widespread mobilization of hundreds of thousands of workers through- out the United States, but the entire press carries lying stories about the ineffectiveness of the demonstrations and strikes in other countries. Cable information proves that the international capitalist press is in a conspiracy to be- little the working class demonstration of August Ist. The masses of Berlin who on May Day and two succeeding days held the streets of important working class sections, swarmed the streets in such numbers that the murderous social demo- cratic police feared to again provoke them with fascist at- tacks. In spite of the 30,000 soldiers in Paris, the wholesale arrests of Communist leaders and the suppression of the of- ficial Party organ, “l’Humanite,” masses of workers left the shops and demonstrated on the streets. In China there were fierce street fights when the police tried to prevent the dem- onstrations against the Chiang Kai-shek government’s at- tack on the Soviet Union. In Warsaw, Helsingfors, and other places bordering the Soviet Union, the masses defied the fascist governments and went into the streets. The workers of the world, under the leadership of the various sections of the Communist International, by their actions on Thursday, proved to the capitalists of the world that the lessons of the last world war that was launched fif- teen years ago have been learned and that they have a mighty revolutionary force to reckon with that did not then exist. August First is not the climax of the preparations for the struggle against war. It merely marks one stage of that struggle. It must be the beginning of a systematic mob- ilization of the masses for a relentless struggle against every phase of imperialist war preparations, against the imperialist governments and in defense of the Soviet Union. Anglo-American War Maneuvers Against the U.Sos. Be: T# E statement of Arthur Henderson, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and a pillar of the Second International, that it is impossible for the British Govern- ment to reestablish normal relations with the Soviet Union before there is “a solution of the questions outstanding” be- tween the two countries is a new proof of the continuation by the leaders of the Second International of the imperialist pol- icy of preparation of the war against the Soviet Unioh. The outstanding questions are: the collection of the debts con- tracted by the czar on the British Stock Exchange, by means of which the autocracy crushed the 1905 Revolution, debts repudiated by the revolution twelve years ago; and the ques- tion of propaganda, that is, of Communist propaganda. This attitude of the British Labor Government does not merely signify that it is the faithful servant of the British bondholders. The significance lies far deeper. The action of the MacDonald Government is the first fruit of the Anglo- American conversations, which, it was already suspected, were based on a secret understanding that the MacDonald Government would act in concert with the Hoover administra- tion against the interests of the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union. Just as the famous Locarno Pact, signed in the autumn of 1925, though purperting to be a step towards pegce, was actually a step to bind together the Locarno pow- ers in an alliance for war against other powers, especially against the Soviet Union—so the Anglo-American conversa- tions are designed not so much to bring a temporary pause in the armaments race between Britain and America as to bind together these two greatest powers of the capitalist world in the oncoming attack upon the Soviet Union. A further significance of the action of MacDonald is the proof it affords that the specific role of Social Democracy and of the Second International, especially in this Third Per- iod of capitalism after the war, is to be the trusty agents of imperialism in the preparation’for war against the Soviet ‘Union. At this moment, MacDonald and Henderson can more effectively carry out the purposes of imperialism than even the Baldwin Government. Their specific role is to dupe the ‘masses. In this particular case MacDonald was actually re- to power on a slogan of immediate reshmption of rela- tions with Soviet Russia. His first act was not to resume ions but to promise to Baldwin and the Conservatives relations would not be resumed until the fall. act is to endeavor to make the resumption of relations le except on terms which would destroy the results revolution. 4 - Thus, just as the Anglo-American conversations, with ir ostentatious atmosphere of pacifism, ‘are a screen be- “~S DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1929 ‘i ——_—— Class By VERN SMITH. } The shingle weavers in the Puget | |Sound district, Washington, labored |in a horrible trade. The occupation | was so dangerous that no man could) | War in the Lumber City Article 11---The Everett Massacre, Torture of | Prisoners, and the Seattle Trial : |peared and testified they saw Tracy | be at it long without losing a few fingers in the saws. Many men do- nated every finger to the advance- ment of lumber trust profits, In addition they were badly paid. \ In 1915 an announced wage re- |duction started a determined strike. | It centered around Everett, “city of smoke stacks,” near Seattle, | Everett is a town of 35,000 inhabi- tants, its officials absolutely domi- |nated by the lumber companies. |Every meeting of the strikers was |broken up with violence, An I. W. |W. free speech fight was started, to jopen the streets to the spokesmen jof the strikers in the shingle mills, Beating and Torture. | Hundreds of men were arrested, scores were horribl; beaten. Mak- ling arrested men run the gauntlet, fleeing down the railroad track be- tween double lines of club swing- ing deputies, was a normal amuse- ment of the lumbermen’s police. The entire chamber of commerce was sworn in as deputies and took charge of some of the worst of these sadis- tie orgies. Sheriff McRae presided at most of these little affairs. Mayor D. D. Merrill of Everett, him- self participated in mutilating the hands of Louis Skaroff, a free speech fighter, karoff, a young worker, was arrested, taken to a {prison cell, his hands held under the leasters of an iron bed by deputies, jwhile Mayor Merrill of Everett jumped up and down on the edge of the bed to crush the iron again and again through bon- and flesh. In the great Everett case trial, Ska- roff held up his crippled hands for the jury to see while Merrill was on the witness stand trying to swear the first of eleven workers to the gallows. Such actions by officials of em- ployer-dominated towns are not un- usual, In Gastonia, N. C., 14 years later, the mayor, a mill owner, en- couraged deputies to bayonet, beat, and strangle men and women work- ers. The chief of police led as- saults by deputies. In Gastonia, too, the chamber of commerce crowd | They were clean, orderly, and passed | have to endure further such tortures |the time singing the songs of Joe|as were visited on the previous free | Hill, who had been legally murdered | speech fighters. A Pinkerton de- jin Utah the year before. jtective, masquerading behind an I. When the Verona reached Ever- | W. W. card, on the Verona, was so} ett that bloody Sunday, a Pinkerton | outraged at being shot at by his fel- spy employed by the Snohomtsh |low lumber trust henchmen ashore County and Everett Commercial |that he pulled his gun and emptied | Club, had already telephoned the po- all six chambers at the sheriff's | jlice of the departure of the boat, | men. | }and the gunmen had assembled,| But most, perhaps all, of the ex- under the leadership of Mayor Mer- | ecution among the deputies on the | rill, Sheriff McRae, Deputy Sheriff | dock was done by rifle bullets from | Jefferson Beard, and Lieutenant! |Charles 0. Curtis of the Officers Reserve Corps, with a plentiful sup- |ply of naval militia rifles, shotguns loaded with buckshot, and pistols, on the wharf at which the Verona | was to dock. The gunmen kep: hid- | den in two wharf houses. their own force, placed on the boat} and the other dock, and by other deputies on the Verona’s dock, who, blind with terror, rushed into the warehouse at one end, and fired in- discriminately through the thin sides. When the frame-up started jthe Snohomish county authorities | tried to pick up a body that was not | too clearly killed by one of their Some riflemen were put on a boat |own rifles, and had a hard time. | lying across from the dock, some |The indictments first read “for the | |were on another dock — a fatal er-| murder of C, 0. Curtis,” and C. 0.) ror, for when all these forces started | Curtis’ body had been buried in a} | Laying the Ambush. |Haymarket case, in the later Cen-| | the prosecution’s case collapses on) | |with them, though when they were hanged he was six years old. Me- Rae and Merrill and sundry other police and lumber trust hirelings ap- fire the first shot. The prosecution | witnesses contradictéd each other as | in all such cases. Where the em- ployers have the whole community | driving along ahead of their propa- | ganda, sueh contradictions mean nothing. They meant nothing in the tralia, and Mooney and Billings | cases, or in others, But where there is a real mass sentir--1t of the working class back of the defense, | real organization for the defense, such points, It did this time. Tracy was found not guilty, after nearly | two months’ trial. The others were released without trial. One thing that mobilized the workers of the world back of the | Centralia defense, and decided the verdict was good defense phblicity. The Seattle Union Record, a daily paper, at that time a militant paper, | gave the facts to the world. The I. W. W. had two papers, weekly, which helped. It is generally ad-! mitted that the reports of Anna Lou- | shooting at the Verona, the main|solid block of concrete. dock itself was in the line of fire. They let the Verona tie up to an apparently deserted dock, then Mc-} Rae rushed forward and put his hand on his pistol (he was drunk) | and ordered the Verona passengers | ‘not to land. i | They were already half ashore} and did not stop. Young Hugo Ger- lot was high above the crowd on} ‘deck, he had shinned up the flag) pole, and all were sing: the Eng-| ‘lish Transport Workers’ song: | “Hold the fort for we are coming. + “Union men be strong. . . . A deputy who had crept out of | shelter, slightly back of McRae, fired | right into the crowd on the Verona| when McRae gave the signal, and | |for ten minutes bullets and buckshot from ‘all the deputies tore through | the boat and made a shambles of her deck. Young Gerlot was shot, | slipped half way down the staff, and | |fell the rest. The workers seeking! shelter crowded the railing away | from the wharf; the boat listed un- | |til she would have capsized except Curtis Wouldn’t Do. The determined pressure of the |defense forced the Snohomish coro- | nor to break open this rocky grave, and Curtis was found to have died by one of his own men’s bullets. So he went back to oblivion, and the indictment was changed to “the murder of Jefferson Beard.” Cur- tis and Beard had been killed, six- teen deputies were wounded. At least seventeen workers were killed and twenty-eight seriously wounded in that ten minutes’ battle. But no one was ever tried for the killing of the workers, and seventy- six workers were charged with mur- dering Beard. Eleven of them, those the author- ities thought to be leaders, were se- lected for trial, History was to repeat itself in the Gastonia mill strike, for no one is charged with shooting down Jo- seph Harrison, a strike organizer, but ninety-five were arrested for the shooting of Chief of Police Aderholt. And because this number is un- incited to ever greater and greater |for the hawser tying her to the} wieldy to try, sixteen of the leaders violence against the strikers. Gastonia workers were tortured and beaten after arrest and in prison. The Meeting Announced. An attempt was made by the |free speech fighters to hold another ‘meeting in Everett. It was an- nounced by handbills for a desig- inated corner, Sunday, Nov. 5, 1916, jat 2 p. m bullets churned around their heads | until they sank. Over twelve, are| | known to have died in this way — |their names were never known. Five Known Dead. Five workers, Felix Baran, Hugo | |Gerlot, Gustav Johnson, John Loo- | In| dock; many fell into the water, and|are selected in Gastonia to face charges of murder, Workers on Jury. In the Everett case such a storm of criticism of the authorities went up, such resolate organization took place, that the defense was able to get a change of venue to Seattle to |ney, and Abraham Rabinowitz, were |S°t separate trials for the work- |picked up dead, riddled with’ shot, \€"S So that only one, Thomas H. ise Strong, in the Union Record, | and of Charles Ashleigh, in the I.) W. W. papers, mobilized the work-| ers for the defense, and checked | the effect of the lying yarns sent} out by the mill owners, | (Probably close sontact with this | case helped to make Anna Louise Strong now an interpreter of So-| viet Russia, and Ashleigh a Com-) munist.) So, in the Gastonia case, it is) no accident, but one of the skirm- | ishes of the class war, that the em- ployers, bent on legalized murder of their rebellious slaves, strive in- cessantly to muzzle the Interna- tional Labor Defense, and the Daily | Worker, The post office depart- | ment is trying to bar from the mails | jall I. L. D. envelopes carrying any | mention of the frame-up, and the| mill owners’ paper, the Gastonia Ga- | zette, is trying to lay the basis of an authoritative demand that the Daily Worker also be deprived of mailing privileges, Frame‘up tac- ties, once learned, are never for- gotten by the bosses. . * * (I made a mistake in the Joe Hill article. The Rowan who had charge of the Joe Hill defense was Ed Rowan, not the Rowan who led the split in the I. W. W.—V. S.) Soil Specialists His sec-* Hundreds of }.arvest workers and | When the boat finally broke her line lumberjacks in Seattle wanted to|and drifted away, still fired upon. go. A boat, the Verona, was char- A few pistol shots were fired tered and all she could safely carry,|from the Verona by workers who 250, filed on board and started out,|had armed themselves so as not to hind which intensive war preparations continue, so the Mac- Donald Government makes of Anglo-Soviet negotiations a screen behind which is concealed the further war preparations lumber mill attorneys, H. D. Cooley | ment of the USSR to extend an in- against Soviet Russia, 4 Baldwin and Churchill broke relations with Soviet Rus- | sia, preparatory to the coming war, but at the same time | aroused resistance to such a policy amongst the workers of Britain. MacDonald, put in power specifically to resume re- lations, has the task of endeavoring to dupe the masses of Britain into the belief that normal relations with Soviet Russia are impossible. Thus he fulfills the task of the Sec- ond International, of Social Democracy, to complete and round | off the ideological preparation for war against the Soviet Union. But neither in Britain nor in the United States will the masses he deceived. They will recognize that MacDonald is an agent of the British bondholders, of the strengthening im- perialist bloe against the Soviet Union. By their action against the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union, as well as by their action against the textile workers now struggling in England, the MacDonalds themselves open the eyes of the workers. It is the task of the Communist Party to transform this disillusionment of the masses into positive action under the slogan of; “War Against the War upon the Soviet Union!” To Hold Congress | . In Moscow in 1930. The trial started March 9, 1917, before Judge J. T. Ronald, of King | MOSCOW, (By Mail).—The first County, especially appointed by the | International Congress of Soil Spe- governor. ‘The prosecution, nomi-|Cialists was held in Washington in} nally conducted by Lloyd Black, dis- | 1927. That Congréss was attended | | trict attorney of Snohomish, was | by a delegation of Soviet scientists — jreally under the command of the Who were authorized by the govern- Tracy, a teamster, was ever tried, jand a jury was secured which had a few workers on it. and A. L, Veitch. The attorneys for the defense: were Fred Moore and George F. Vandervere. Like Gastonia, There are her many resemblances to the Gastonia case now in pro- cess, and, indeed to all frame-up cases. The special judge appointed by the governor is a feature of the Gastonia trial. There too, the de- fense appeals for change of venue. There, too, the employers most pre- judiced against the defendants put their attorneys in charge of the prosecution, The Everett case prosecution pre- sented the usual melange of per- jured direct testimony, and far- fetched circumstantial evidence. They read everything the defend- ants or their organizatic: had writ- ten for publication. They talked about the Chicago Haymarket vic- tims, and tried to connect Tracy vitation to the soil experts to con- vene the second International Con- gress in’ Soviet Russia. The invitation of this congress, which is to be held in the summer | of 1930 was unanimously accepted | by the delegates to the Washington congress, and the 7th All-Union Con- | gress of Soil Experts appointed an Arrangements Committee to make preparations for the forthcoming congress, Among the members of the Committee are the biggest soil scientists of the USSR, The Gastonia Textile Workers’ trial began July 29! Twenty-three workers face electrocution or prison terms! Rally all forces to saye them. Defense and Relief Week July 27—4 just 3! Sign the Protest Roll! Rush funds to International Labor Defense, 80 East 11th Si New York. "ihe By FEODOR CEMENT 229222 Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh \ All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. Y. Gleb Chumalov, Red Army Commissar, returns to his home on the Black Sea after the Civil Wars to find the great cement works, where he had formerly worked, in ruins and the life of the town disorganized. He discovers a greqt change in his wife, Dasha, whom he has not seen for three years. She is no longer the conventional wife, dependent on him, but has become a woman with a life of her won, a leader among the’women of the town together with Polia Mekhova, secretary of the Women’s Section of the Communist Party. Under the direction of Gleb, the reconstruction of the factory is started despite the opposition of Shramm, the bureaucratic chair- man of the Economic Council. Gleb goes on a mission to the Bureau of Industry, and on his return discovers that the work on the fac- tory has been sabotaged. pees the report of the Presidium of the Party Committee, re- garding the work of the Provincial Centre for Political Education, Shidky gazed at him with affectionate derision and laid his hand on Serge’s. “Are you afraid, Serge? out!” “Why then? What for? I don’t feel anything like fear. It’s as though it were something outside of me, which does not concern me: ..” “All right, don’t worry. We'll defend you. . . . The devil is not as black as he is painted.” As usual, Lukhava was sunk in his chair, his chin on his knees, his eyes and hair glistening. “You lie, Shidky. You're afraid of this combing-out yourself. And I’m afraid too. I fear nothing and yet I am afraid of this. Serge will be excluded. How have you the power to prevent it? A former Menshevik—. Hasn’t Lenin said that we must turn out the Menshe- viks?” Shidky banged his fist on the table. “He won’t be turned out. Why should he be, if neither you nor I are? For what reason would they exclude-him? Menshevik? An intellectual? That’s nonsense, Those are not motives. We could all protest if this happened. The Commission is working very badly: they’re excluding people for doubtful reasons or imaginary ones. Dur- ing this week already about 40 per cent of the responsible workers and about the same number of rank and file members have been excluded. Shuk, for instance—a worker, too. The reason: disrupting and frac- tional work.” “Shuk! * * . Look out, they'll give you a good work- Is he turned out?” 'ERGE stretched his head out towards Shidky in astonishment. Yet it was an involuntary action and Shidky’s words did not really move him; just as if the affair was in reality far away from him and of little significance. Lukhava broke in, unusually calm and firm, and with a certain official quality in his voice. The Commission is not obliged to bring all the facts to your knowl- edge and you have no right to interfere with its work and to criticise its methods. For the excluded, there is only one thing to do: to lodge an appeal.” “All right, but I’m going to act, and I shan’t stop short of any- thing. I shall make a row right up to the Central Committee of the Party. Those who are doing the purging don’t know anything about their work. It only leads to the destruction of our organization. We have ample grounds for protest. I’m not going to drop the matter.” And Shidky slammed his fist upon the table with an oath. Lukhava laughed and*buried his nose between his raised knees. “You ass! You too will be excluded for this, or transferred to lower grade work.” “Don’t worry: I’m not afraid of anything!” Serge noted that Shidky and Lukhava were gazing at him and then at each other with feverish eyes, burning with terrified foreboding. * * 6 IN the Women’s Section, Polia, grown thinner, with tormented eyes, was unable to control the convulsive twitching of her hands and face. Dasha, big and strong, was seated at the table, writing with dif- fieulty some kind of report. She did not see Serge or Mekhova. What mattered to her their troubles and their conversations? With her hand Polia beckoned to Serge, indicating a chair near hers. She looked at him, and then at Dasha, threw a glance at the window, and could not master the nervous trembling of her hands and face. “Serge, won’t you help me to understand all that’s going on now? lve gone completely crazy. Dasha doesn’t understand me any more; she’s become very rude and won’t speak to me as she used to. Serge, I feel that I am going to be turned out of the Party.” Dasha was silent. She could not hear what Polia was saying. Serge also was silent. He did not know what to answer. He wanted to be tender with her but could not find the right words. He wanted to say something about himself that was simple but earnest; however, he was at a loss for a suitable phrase. “I shall tall them what I see and what I feel. Do you understand? Tm going to be excluded. . . . That which is going on.- . . Hap- pening. . . . What crucifies me and the revolution. . . . I can’t lie to them.” Dasha ploughed the paper with her pen; then she rested her right hand on the table and raised her head. Under the obstinate brow with its red headscarf, her eyebrows were raised in interrogation. “But what has happened, Comrade Mekhova. Perhaps I’m too | stupid to understand. The work in the Women’s Section is going on much better; we women have learned to speak for ourselves and to act together, no worse than the men. What is wrong then, Comrade Mekhova?” J f OLIA shuddered at Dasha’s voice and jumped up. “How dare you say this? Don’t you know what’s happened? Don’t you know that the blood of workmen and soldiers, a regular sea of blood—do you hear, Dasha?—a sea of blood was shed staining the ground; and before that blood is dry we’re giving them the ground for markets and cafes chantants? So that everyone can roll together in one filthy heap? You don’t know that, eh?” Serge had never seen Polia in such a violent state before. Her face was like that of a person in a fit: it was congested with blood and her brow and upper lip were covered with a sticky sweat; her eyes were dry and murky, Dasha again bent over her writing with a smile of indulgent com- prehension. “I thought it was something else. . .. Is it possible, Comrade Mekhova, that you think that everyone except yourself are such fools and idiots?” “Yes, yes! Fools! Traitors! Cowards!” Then suddenly Polia became calm, gave Serge a smile which was just a pitiful grimace, clapped her palms to her eyes and began to cry. “Why didn’t I die then, in those days? Dead in the streets of Moscow? Or in the Army? Why did I have to live to know these torturing, shameful days, dear Comrades?” + « «@ AN irresistible smile began to twist the corners of Serge’s lips, He felt unable to breathe. His lips danced. Polia, the window, the walls, swam in a heavy mist. Possibly he was tired. Without doubt he could never support the tears of another. Probably Polia had robbed | him of his last strength, that night when she had burst into his room, terrified and broken by the bestial power of the Executive Chairman. Dasha, standing near Mekhova, her eyes misty, pressed the girl’s shoulder. “Comrade Mekhova, you should be ashamed! nervous attacks prove your strength? You’re not a young lady, but a Communist. Our-hearts must be of stone, Comrade Mekhova. Let our heart burst, if it must, but we don’t want a heart of tears—not a heart of cotton-wool! One’s heart must be like flint. . . . Go home, Comrade Mekhova, and calm yourself. You may rely upon me; I have strength for a long time to come yet.” She returned to her place; determinedly she grasped the pen and resumed the dogged scratching of the semi-literate. Polia, perplexed, looked for a long time at Dasha and then at Serge; then silently she sat down. With a harsh frown, she said in an unusually hard and cold tone: “I shall not go anywhere. I came here to work; and I shall work right through to the end.” “Yes, good! I know you, Comrade Mekhova; you know this isn’t the first time that we've worked together.” * Dasha wrote on without lifting her head, smiling. 4 rea Do these tears and