The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 4, 1929, Page 6

Kinny Page Six RAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1929 2 ———_—_—_——_—————— e y BMS Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S, A. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc... Dail Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, York City, N, Telephone Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable: “DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES Sy Mail (in New York only): except yy a year $4.50 six months $2.50 three months By Mail (outside of New York): & year $3.50 six months $2.u0 three monthe and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Squ: New York, N. ¥. The Trade Union Convention Has Ended; Now the Work Begins HE Cleveland convention in founding the Trade Union Unity League has opened a new chapter for the Amer- ican working class. All facts thus far learned from Cleve- land dispatches indicate a bigger success than had even been anticipated by the best friends of the project to found the new and revolutionary federation of American labor. The convention has done what could be done in a convention hall. But the real organization of a tremendous federating body of labor unions and militant groups to organize where there are none, or only reactionary unions, cannot be accomplished merely with the assembling of delegates in a meeting-hall and the adoption of even the best of plans. We repeat what we have said before: The real work begins when the convention ends. - The real building of the new and revolutionary federation of labor will be accom- plished in many long months and years of hard struggle in the work-shops, factories, mines and mills, in the organiza- tion of hundreds of thousands of unorganized workers, in the building up and the correction of the deficiencies of the new industrial unions which participated in the Cleveland convention, in relentless struggle also within the old unions where not one single worker can willingly be surrendered to the treacherous hands of the old*trade-union bureaucracy, and, most of all, by building real organization, new militant unions, among the millions who have no unions now. Into the basic industries! must be the slogan. Claim the masses for the labor movement under the new banner of class struggle. Nor is the fate of the new Trade Union Unity League to be decided by the quiet work in factories and unions under conditions of “industrial peace.’ Such would be out of ac- cord with the nature of the task and the nature of the times in which the task is to be performed. For the new organiza- tion, founded in the spirit and plan of class struggle, is founded also in a time of rapily rising level of class struggle. Not alone in the textile mills of this country, but throughout the whole capitalist world, are to be seen the signs of the oncoming rising wave of revolutionary movement. Lodz, in Poland, the Ruhr in Germany, the agricultural workers in Czecho-Slovakia, the coal miners of Rumania, the textile mills of Northern France, the events of India, of China, of Argentine, of Peru, of Colombia, of Uruguay and Chile—all say with the same voice as our own Gastonia, Elizabethton and Marion that the time is at hand when the organization of the masses of the working class in the basie organizations of struggle can and must be pushed forward with ‘unprece- dented energy, when the trade-union bureaucrats, who are ““agents of the bourgeoisie, can and must be defeated for the leadership of the working class, when the majority of the working class can and must be won by persistent struggle for their own class cause. Capitalist “rationalization” is driving the workers to a condition of responsiveness to the initiative of the new Trade Union Unity League. The more and more open treason of the Greens, Lewises, McMahons, Hillmans and Schlesingers is working for the success of the new and revolutionary trade union federation in disillusioning the masses in regard to the treacherous class-collaboration policies of these agents of the bosses. The time is propitious. The greatest danger to the newly launched Trade Union Unity League is the danger that the work of building it up may lag behind the elementary social forces which are on the move and which give it its base among the masses. Are ‘spontaneous movements among the unorganized workers go- ing to find the new organizing center inactive, slow to take the initiative, slow to respond to their needs? Are the strike- breakers of the McMahons and Lewises going to work more energetically for the bosses than the new organizing center | works for the workers? We believe not. The danger is great because the enemy is strong, and the workers of Amer- ica just beginning to strike out for themselves, naturally without too much experience at first. Numbers will grow, and financial means for the struggle will be found by the workers, dug out of their own lean pockets—for they realize they must fight. The militant workers who founded the new center of trade unions are the best proletarian material that this coun- try has produced. The years of courageous and hard work that they have done in the Trade Union Educational League and related organizations of the left wing, and the heroic work on hundreds of picket lines, give us confidence that they will now show the energy, courage and intelligence to throw themselves successfully into the new situation created by the action of the Cleveland convention. We are not “Deleonites.” We do not create a “perfect program” and then sit down and wait. The program adopted at Cleveland is not “Father Haggerty’s wheel of fortune.” It is a program of militant struggle in the front trenches of every struggle of our class, with the perspective of revolu- tionary goal to give it consistency, momentum and sound, unswerving policy. The new national federating body will grow in struggle. It is through struggle that the hundreds of thousands will learn. . re Long live the Trade Union Unity League! “THE HOLY CITY” ‘The Indiana N.M.U. Convention 106 Voting Delegates Adopted Calls for Militant ARTICLE II BICKNELL, Indiana (By Mail). | —The District Convention of the N tional Miners Union, Indiana trict, opened its business session: with a brief speech by D. W. Jones, District President, who related the origin and growth of the National Miners Union, -uccessor to the fight- ing Save-the-Union Committee. Per-| manent convention officers were im- mediately elected. Maurice Taburi- aux was e!ccted chairman of the convention, and Barret Dye, an ac- tive young militant, secretary. Presi- dent Jones then reported for the Dis- trict Executi Board. The convention elected commit- tees on constitution, organization, finance, and resolutions. The ere- dentials committee reported more than 100 delegates listed, with a number of others from,outlying re- gions not yet reported, Immediately upon their election the committee commenc2d work drafting their re- spective reports, For Energetic Campaign. Patrick Toohey, National Secre- tary-treasurerr 1 ~orted to the con- vention for the national organiza- tion and the activities of the Resi- dent Executive Board in the various fields. Outlining the recommenda- tions of the Executive Board, Toohey urged an immediate and energetic organization campaign in all parts of Indiana, in order to pre- pare for the inevitable struggle which confronts the miners of In- diana. Vice-President Boyce also ‘Gastonia defendants. Seated; Resolution Action addressed this session of the con- vention emphasizing the need for an immediate campaign to establish | the N. M. U. in Indiana. | Greetings were received from national committee of the T 5 from the N. M. U.; Executive Boards of Pittsburgh; Ohio West Va. and Central Pennsylvania. The final report of the eredentials com- he | mittee were that 106 officials voting delegates were seated. They repre- sented Bicknell, Terra Haute, Clin- ton, Blandford, Linton, Evansville and numerous other centers. The Resolution Committee reported at) the afternoon session, and the first | resolution presented to the conven- tion, bearing on the trial of the Gas- tonia strikers was unanimously adopted, after numerous delegates had spoken on the resolution. The jority of the delegates to this| . U. Convention are southern- largely from Kentucky, Ten- nessee and the Carolinas originally, and discussed the resolution with a knowledge of the feudalism prevail- ing in the South. Prior to the adop- tion of the resolution, a motion was unanimously carried that the con- vention wire its greetings to the The resolu- | tion on the Gastonia case adopted by the convention is as follows: “In Gastonia, N, 16 members | tile Workers Union are being held on a charge of murder. “This case is the outgrowth of the of thousands of Southern le workers to improve their ent unbearable working and liv- ing conditions under which these workers were compelled to work 12 and 14 hours per day for a miser- able wage of from $8 to $12 per week and compelled to slave under a speed-up system which was con- stantly being intensified to pile up greater and greater profits for the textile bosses, el “Wh-- ‘ose workers in dozens of textile mills struck against these conditions they were immediately met by the most bitter and ruthless attacks from the bosses, from the company thugs and gunmen, from the state and city governments which ordered out the militia and the police to make war against the strikers, breaking up their picket lines, raiding the food store set up by the Workers Inter- | their | national Relief, destroying union headquarters in Gastonia, and finally attacking the camp colony of the strikers, which had been set up following their eviction from the company-owned houses, resulting in the wounding of one of the strike and organizers of the National Tex- leaders, and three policemen and the By Fred Ellis | killing ec? the chief of police Ader-| holt. | “The issue involved in this case} is very plainly that of the right of| the workers to organize and strug- gle against the slave conditions in the South and the right to defend thei* wives and children against the | company gunmen and tte polite who | came in the night shooting up their! camp in an effort to terrorize them into discontinuing the struggle. | ‘“‘THEREFORE BE IT RE-| SOLVED, that we, the Indiana Dis- triet Convention of the National) Miners Union declare. our solidarity | with the Gastonia strikers and strike | leaders of the National . Textile | Workers Union and our intention to support them financially, morally, and by any other means at our con» mand; that we declare most em- phatically on the basis of their ll periences and of our experiences in) many struggles the necessity of the| workers being prepared to defend| themselves against the company thugs and gunmen, a~ainst the un- | warranted c-d unjustified attacks by the police and militia, and the neces- sity of setting up of a workers de- fense corps for that purpose, and that we endorse the International Labor Defense and the Workers In- |ternational Relief which from the | beginning have aided these southern | textile workers, as well as ourselves and many other strikers in the| past.” | | | | By SENDER GARLIN. GASTONIA, N. C. (By Mail). — | You really can’t call Frank H. Kirk- |land—6 ft., 185 Ibs.—an “outside agitator” who comes from a foreign state like New York, New Jersey or leven Massachusetts. And yet he was severely beaten by “boss men” and \hanger-on when he attempted to | speak at a meeting arranged by the | | National Textile Workers Union for |the Pickney mill workers in South |Gastonia, + | At the same time Crip Brindle of South Gastonia, who voluntarily of- {fered the use of his lot for a meet- \ing of the Pickney mill workers is now in jail, despite the fact that at the last moment he withdrew his | permission, giving as his reason that |the mill had arranged to buy the} | lot. ““Kill Him! Kill Him!” | Although Kirkland is a member) of the Workers International Relief and the International Labor Defense |and a subscriber to the Daily Work- jer, he will proudly tell you that he is also a member in good standing of the Old Fellows, Modern Wood- men, United Mechanics and Patriotic Sons of America. Besides, he’s a faithful member of the “Primitive Baptist Church” of Gastonia. “Drag him out! Kill him!” These were the cries of the boss men, safely hidden in the darkness as they began to hurl a barrage of eggs and rocks at the battered ;Chevrolet from which he was about {to speak. “Fellow workers” was just about as far as he got when ithe mill thugs and overseers rushed for Kirkland, beating him on the! back Of the head and neck until} |workers in the crowd of 150 came to his aid. Worked for Grocer. Kirkland wasn’t always in bad |with the mill bosses’ crowd in Gas- tonia. For five years he worked ‘Sidelights on Gastonia Strike for one of the grocers in town, haul-|ing union—speaking at meetings and ing the orders, making collections | aiding in defense and relief work. and tending on the customers. But, | from the beginning of the great|Kirkland enrolled strike in the Loray cotton mill on | States army, serving 18 months inj April 1, Kirkland has been helping |the Philippines with the 22nd Ten- the workers build a powerful, fight- | nessee Infantry. Much hulabaloo was made by alleged Interboro Rapid Transit settlement of its debt to the city (check for $5,886,342 shown above being handed Mayor Walker). This is a cloak to conceal deals between Tammany and LR.T. for fure raises in future, A Cloak to Hide Traction Graft capitalist press of New York in In 1907, when he was but a lad, in the United | He’s not a worker in the cotton mill and so is not a member of the} |National Textile Workers Union. |“But my wife is a member,” he ‘says, “and goes to all the meet- |ings.” She doesn’t work in the mill |now, but did “for 20 years, off and on, as a spooler on _piece-work.” Eleven dollars for a 60-hour week on the night shift—this was his wife’s wages on her last job. “Sees the Boys.” | Kirkland rode over to the Meck- lenburg county court house this aft- ernoon to tell the boys there about union activity on the outside. “We're getting out a leaflet right away,” he told them, “and we’ll have another meeting for the Pinckney workers in a day or two—boss men or no boss men.” | Standard Oil Plant in) Baltimore Is on Fire BALTIMORE, Md., Sept. 3.—All available fire apparatus today was fighting a dangcrous blaze in the Standard Oil Co. plant at Boston and 8rd Sts., following an explosion mun set fire to a 50,000-gallon oil still. Five alarms had been sent in but the fire appeared to be gaining headway. The still is about 50 to 60 feet high and as wide as a house; it is surrounded by other such tanks, oy ee | show the master scene. Reprinted, by permission, from “I Saw It Myself” by Henrt 3 published and copyrighted by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc, Ne THEIR HEADS UNBOWED HAT wild and rapid film scenes can be disentangled from tti¢ chaos of our recent history, sifted and sorted out into epic sequencef: One of these dramas stands out in lurid red against the background ef the Great War; it is an epic that sings the power of human conscience and will. And ever since the day that I befriended some of the actors in that story who survived their parts, a mute reproachful vision haunts my mind. 4 First upon the curtain—a curtain that means the world—let us Behold a gathering of men in uniform. This is the Meeting of those condemned to die. It begins at eight in the morning, and ends with the stroke of ten. Fate itself has fixed that hour, and no official edict. At ten, all will be over. The throng of soldiers bristles with red flags. When they marched to the meeting place, the flags they bore in their hands were like sails, blowing them on. The speakers harangue under the open sky; every speech ends in the same way: “This and this only we want, to return to Russia. We want to go back to the Land of Revolution.” Another voice says: “There are eleven thousand of us.” One milder voice sug- gests: “Better give way, give in.” * * * A they answer him, with one single voice. “Far better die under the Red Flag!” cry one and all. The Marseiliaise and the Inter- nationale are sung. At five to ten, the meeting is over, The band plays a funeral.march. From the horizon comes the sound of a whist- ling roar; then a volcano bursts forth in the earth at the feet of the men. Two bandsmen fall, fatally wounded. Those next to the gaps play on. Shapes of men are seen to fall in the smoke and writhe in agony. Flashes and thunder claps stream down from every quarter of the sky. This field of blood lies in France, in the Creuse Department. These men are Russian soldiers. Theit enemies, their conquerors, French and Russian soldiers. And now, since we are hovering over the world, looking down- ward, let us fly back to-begin the story at its beginning. Let us go far, far away and visit humble dwellings here and there in the wide lands of Russia—to a wooden isba in the province of Moscow; then to the Ukraine, to a peasant’s cottage, with low roof and yellow walls, running round two sides of a little courtyard; to Armenia, or to Geor- gia, to one of the little houses looking like great flat paving stones that nestle in to mountain sides or stony plateaux; or again, to one of the tumble-down hovels where the oil workers of Baku were housed. Inside each one, peasants and workers, the poor, are talking. On the wall hang the czar’s portrait. They are talking of life, which is bitter and hard: all these men are toilers, humble and oppressed. They are bound to their work as with chains. Some seek consolation and relief from misery in the drunkard’s troubled dreams. And now, behold! Their burden grows heavier yet. War has been declared by their masters. Misery and suffering will increase tenfold, Through- out that land, workers and peasants—underlings, perpetual slaves— bow down their heads. * . * y Vokes now, to other scenes. In the twinkling of an eye we are before a brightly lighted palace, and enter in. Here are splendid galleries, marvellously designed; constellated chandeliers and golden stalactites fill the chambers. A long green-covered tabe stands in the centre of one. Diplomats in conference. The Frenchman says to the Russian: “Russian troops for France are imperative. The war is dragging on. We need fresh throngs of young men. We have called up the niggers, but that is not enough. We must have Russians too. France has lent money to Russia and loans are not made for love.” This, almost word for word, is what M. Paleologue said to M. Sazonov, the Tzar’s Foreign Minister. The Russian grandees agree. They take pens, write down the sum total of the human freight: Forty thousand Russian soldiers are to be exported monthly to the French line of battle. Into the cottages and isbas and dens where the town workers dwell, comes a sudden ray of light and hope: volunteers are wanted to go to France! Perhaps a soldier son or father will go to France—France, the great republic, the pattern of all free countries; there no princes rule, and the people are their own masters. France has had her revo lution, “We did what we could in 1905, but we failed; the rising met with the same fate everywhere—lines of soldiers shooting and sabring the masses.” Leave imperialist Russia for France! What a dream! Young men in town and country are stirred at the thought, and a light shines in the hearts of the long-coated soldiers, imprisoned, five men to one rifle, in barracks or billets. ENROLLING. Volunteers pour in. The best are chosen; the tallest toughest and the wirest heads—those who can write and read, that means. Only fifteen per cent. of those who come up are chosen. And the rejected soldiers are as sadly disillusioned as men waking from lovely dreams. The chosen men make feverish preparations; in the new land there will be no striking the soldiers as in Russia, no flogging; each man will have a rifle. The volunteers are quite overcome by this new and incredible prospect. * * The Voyage. Half the globe passes before their eyes. The world’s map visibly curves. Giant Russia; Siberia more gigantic still. The uniformed crowds are piled together like ants, jostled onto their trans- ports. Some reach Marseilles via Siberia and Vladivostok. Others reach Best. via Archangel—points of arrival where troops of ours arrive as the transports come in? The Russian troops disembark in great style, set foot on the blessed soil of France. Psalms, orations. Marseillaise, full-throated crowds half-crazy, Cigarettes and choco- lates for the soldiers; and women, in patriotic transports, kiss the handsomest looking. * * | plated’ MISGIVINGS. The war tramples them down. The general command decides to reinforce discipline, for when you’re not soaring from victory to victory, it’s the soldiers that are to blame. Military honors must be strictly rendered—more strictly than in peace time— and they transform the men into machine-made automatoms. Corporal punishment, blows and floggings are reinstated, the reason given being that “Russisn soldiers only understand knocks.” And for the matter of that, they’re not the only men to be treated thus, as their eyes can plainly tell them: the Sengalese, torn in numbers from their homes across the sea with the help of threats or golden promises, are trained and disciplined at the stick’s end. One is reminded of beings in count- Jess numbers—the greater part of the living race, in fact—cattle, horses, Sengalese and soldiers; they are the tribes, in all creation, whe only understand hard knocks. What of the sounds of the Marseillaiee, still ringing in their ears; of man’s charter, les Droits de VHomme, before the mind’s eye? Why, the one is only a sweet-sounding kind of wind, and the other a piece of writing on. the screen set between the masss and their rules. “The France of democracy, where is she?” comes the question; and the reply: “Goodness knows: not in France, to judge by the look of things. * * * Nie clouds thicken. A newspaper called Nache Slovo (Our Word) A read by Russian soldiers on the French front, protests against one or two abuses, not being at the rulers’ beck and call. Some unrest is known to exist among the troops; a “bad spirit” is germinating. Head- quarters are uneasy, annoyed. The general command, in agreement with the authorities, arranges to employ agents provocateurs; their work will allow them to take energetic measures. One of these agents is a man named Vining, a minion of the Russian Embassy. So this intrigue, in itself a fearful and vital episode in this great and fearful tragedy, leads up to the murder of Colonel Krause—stoned to death one evening by a band of hotheads or hirelings. More especially, it’ leads up to the repressive measures which were the end in view—-the Nache Slovo is suppressed. A certain number of revolutionaries are expelled from France (Trotzky among them). Eight men are bi every one of them innocent of any share in the murder of~Colone! Krause, The time of misgivings is over; the reign of terror and brutal oppression has already begun. ' . A obey: (To be continued), “vy