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

benefit from it. Published by the Comprod. ly Square, New York City, Page Four Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker. Publishing Co., Inc., daily, except Sunday, Y. Telephone Stuyvesa of le: Union Squ New York, } Daily oO By Mail By Mail Gin New York only): $8.00 a year: 4 $3.50 six months; SUBSCRIPTION Rat 3 six mor (outside of New York): $6.00 a year; nths $2.50 three mouths $2.00 three months ADVERTIZERS OF U.S, “PROSPERITY” . iz By LEON PLATT. 'N the last two weeks there were made two principal analyses on the stock market crash and the econom tuation in the United States generally. One was the analysis of Lovestone on the economic situation, and the other one was the statements of Hoover. The analysi of Lovestone and Hoover are in very harmony with each other and objec in the same direction. In speaking of the views of the Communist Party on the stock market crash and its effect on American economy, Lovestone said: “But the conclusions of the Daily Worker that ‘American imperialism is also beginning its process of decline’ is just as wrong as the talk of the bourgeoisie that it can never hap- pen again.” (Revolutionary Age No. 2.) President Hoover s declared: A few days later statement to the pr “Any lack of confidence in the economic fu- ture of the basic strength of business in the United States is foolish.” How similar the line is, how close is the outlook of the imperialist Hoover and the rene- gade Lovestone. The spokesman of American imperialism is ridiculing “any lack of confi- dence in the economic future of the U ” and Lovestone also considers it wrong to think that “American imperialism is also beginning its process of decline.” There is no surprise in the attitude of Hoover. The Communist Party continuously exposed the role of Hoover. Every class conscious worker today well understands the meaning of the propaganda of the spokes- in a But Lovest a lead man of American imperiali who not a long time ago Communis* Party of Amer tically degenerated into an advertiser of Amer- ican “prosperity.” This once more shows the fate of all renegades, who the moment the tal tie course avainst th Party and the Com- munist International, they inevitably land in the camp of our enemies and become agents of the beurgeoisie. poli- However, life itself and the constantly de- veloping contradictions of American capital- ism, destroyed the myth of American “pros- perity” and brought American economy into a period of rapid developing is. Lovestone and Hoover because of their role the: perform for capitalism refuse to disclose the true s.'uation. But the developing contradic- of capitalism are so grest, the economic is so evident, that the bourgeoisie in their desire to avoid it and impress the: with the seriousness of the situation, are to come out into the open concerning the pr ent situation. The reactionary New York Eve- ning Post in an editorial of Nov. 12 says: “To tell the truth about a situation like that sterday (the stock crash of Nov. 11, L. P.) may be dangerous. We do not think so. We think today is far more helpful than seeking to peddle a false optimism which nobody be- lieves.” This is being said by a steunch supporter of the republican party and the Hoover regime, but a renegade of Communism like Lovestone would not even go that far. PARTY RECRUITING DRIVE Winning the Negro Masses in Detroit. By ROBERT WOODS. ETROIT and surrounding automobile cen- ters, like many, many Northern industrial cities has witnessed during the past few years, a tremendous influx of Negroes, migrating from the South, their number in Detroit at present estimated to be around 100,000. A very large percentage is working in the auto- mobile factories, where, as everywhere else, they are given the most menial and lowest paid jobs. Jim Crowism in restaurants, theatres, etc. is common practice. They are living under the most rotten housing condi- tions. On several occasions those Negro work- ers have shown their readiness to carry on a militant fight against the intense economic and racial discrimination. When some time ago, on the initiative of the Y.C.L., a street demon- stration was held as a protest against the lynching of Joe Boxley, the Negro workers present actually prevented the police from breaking up the meeting thru their militant attitude, forming a protective cordon around the speakers. The fact that in the face of this objectively | favorable situation, our district has only three Negro workers in its ranks, is conclusive evi- dence of a gross underestimation of the im- portance of this Party task. Never has the District Buro seriously discussed Negro work, never was this question discussed in the units. As chairman of the District Negro Committee, the writer is to a large extent responsible for this neglect, especially for not sufficiently in- sisting on more intense activity in this field | of work. The District Plenum, following the October National plenum of the Party, correctily char- acterized the neglect of our work among the masses of Negro workers as part af the right danger recognizing that the Communist Party cannot win the support of the majority of the working class without winning the support of the most exploited section of this working class. In our campaign to organize the automobile workers, in-our unemployment campaign, and in all our struggles, the slogan of full social, political and economic equality for Negro and white workers must be prominently put for- ward. Retreat in face of opposition of white workers cannot be tolerated and when the well- known question “What would you do if a Ne- gro wanted to marry your sister?” is asked, we must not only state that we would not reset it, but that we welcome such inter-racial marriages, as a step towards breaking down the capitalist instilled antagonisms between the different sections of the working class. Only by fearlessly defending our principles will we win the confidence of the proletariat. The Party is preparing for an intensive recruiting drive. The success of this drive must be measured by the number of Negro workers that we will recruit into the Party. Our activity among the Negro workers will be a baromet: as to what extent we can call ourselves a Bolshevist Party. Our fight against the right danger must be measured by the extent to which we fight white chauvin- ism. Party membership and white chauvinist ideas are incompatable. White chauvinism in our Party means a capitalist agency that wo witkin our ranks, Out with it. And forward to a Leninist Bolshevik Party! Fighting the Right Dange rin the Armenian Fraction By JOHN LUCAS. |. | ie Right danger is the most pronounced in | the language fractions of the Party, be- cause these sections have been based upon the old Federation system, acting independently of the Party directives. Also the work of the language fractions has consisted mainly of problems in the fraternal organizations and were not connected with the class struggle. | The seriousness of the situation in the language fractions in reference to the Right danger can be easily seen from a certain sit- uation in the Armenian fraction. garding the opposition of higher Party author- ities to their proposal, stubbornly maneuvered for the establishment of a non-partisan news- paper, which meant the suspension of the Party | organ. They openly and covertly sought to close the Armenian Workers Club in favor of a club which was opened by a fraternal or- ganization (H.O.C.) in opposition to the Workers Club, because the Club was under the influence of the Party, which these comrades opposed. Due to their sabotage and intrigues the Workers Club is now closed. These same comrades opposed also the carrying out of the Party line and propaganda in the same frater- nal organization. Due to social democratic tendencies the celebration of “Bolshevization of Armenia” has been left to this fraternal organization of a non-political character. The curious part of the situation is, that comrades who follow a right wing policy are very care- ful not to offend the backward elements in this organization, yet are in favor of turning over the celebration of Sovietization of Ar- menia, evidently in fear that the Party may | | | A group of comrades in New York, disre- | | | Two years ago in Detroit at the Anniversary mass meeting of Soviet Armenia, this fraternal organization in question, with the approval of Party members, had a clergyman invited to speak, who opened up his speech with a pray- er. Two comrades, from Detroit and Chicago, respectively, just recently wanted to honor “The 25th Anniversary of Public Service” of ‘an individual who in the past served an Ar- Fascist Party and as yet has not re- his past connections with this or- already presented have become a_ tradition among the Armenian comrades and at present we are facing a difficult task in orientating the Armenian comrades to the needs of the present period. Thus the inner-examination of the Right danger in the Party shows that we must not be satisfied with cleamking out of Lovestone alone, but continue the struggle and keep up the ideological campaign against the Right danger in all spheres. Fralkin Denounces Lovestone Group. I abstained from voting for the December resolution at the general membership meeting /Sof District 2, because I felt at that time that the characterization of the Lovestone group as “agents of imperialism” was too sharp and .tended to antagonize a number of comrades who might otherwise have voted for the resolu- tion, but who voted against. it. But even then, I could not vote against the resolution, because I was already convinced that a fight against our Party must result in a help to the bourgeoisie. However, i still harbored the illusion then, that some more comrades could be saved. In this I feel that I have been mistaken, and therefore I was wrong in abstaining. Time has convinced me that these elements, by the very logic of events, are drifting far- ther and farther from the movement, and are only aiding all enemies of the movement. Now I wish to state that I accept and en- dorse all the decisions made by the Party and the Comintern and consider them binding upon me as a member; that I am not associated and have not been associated with the Love- stone group, but am against this group, and that I pledge to conduct a struggle to destroy it. The economic situation in this country, as well as internationally, demands iron discip- line from all members in order that we should be ablé to fight the common enemy—the capi- talist class. All those who remain outside he Party at this time are giving objective aid to our en- emies. ; # -- IRWIN FRALKIN. | condition. | y have to | | DECEMBER 9 of the Communist Party of the U. 8 A. 4 , ILLINOIS ON STRIKE! By Fred Ellis By HUGO OEHLER. HE depression in the cotton spinning section throughout the South has left the workers in the usual position of widespread * misery, want and unemployment. their share of the inability of th pitalists to solve problems any other way. The situation confronting the southern cotton spinning section is no isolated It is part of the crises ting in the textile industry throughout the world. The crises of the world textile industry is only a reflection of the temporary nature of the stabilization of the capitalist system and indi- cates clearly the world character of the capi- talist mode of production. When the equil- ibrium is effected in a section of the industry the vibrations are felt throughout the industr, shaking the stability of dependent indust which in turn send vibrations through the whole social structure. The strike and lockout in England in the textile industry, the struggle of the India jute workers, the strike in Poland and the struggle of the southern textile workers in a series of es and bloo ruggles between the work- 's and the bosses, are the workers’ answers to the intense rationalization inaugurated by the textile bosses to enable them to compete more suc fully on the international market. The imp list groups controlling the whole network of industrial activity through the con- trol of financial capital are carrying this com- petition to a higher stage. FLERCER STRUGGLE, The concentration of capital increases the intensity of the struggle between these groups. This concentration solves the problem between industrial sections formerly sep: e but does not solve the fundamental contradiction the capitalist system faces as long as the capitalist mode of production prevails. This new stage of competition on a larger scale lays the basis for intense rational ion, pulling in the cur- rent all sections striving to survive. The new giants pour forth commodities in untold quan- tities with production cost reduced through rationalization and mechanization. The overproduction formerly met as national crises, now become international crisis with the disparity growing between the productive forces and the markets. This is an unsolv- able contradiction under the capitalist mode of production; it can only be solved by the prole- tariat under the leadership of the Communists. Naturally the southern textile bosses are going deeper into the swamp. - The capture of new markets today fad into the air tomorrow and lowering the cost of production through speed-up today brings overproduction tomor- row. MECHANIZED CHAOS. The textile industry, the highest mechan- ized industry in the world on the one hand, and its chaotic and decentralized condition on the other with the general trend of centralization and concentration in the capitalist system sharpening the strugglesbetween the imperial- ist groups, brings to the fore the textile in- dustry on an international scale as a reflector of the direction the system is travelling. The textile industry as a light industry producing for the needs of relative capital (in the Marx- ian sense) has enabled the capitalist to meet this crisis at intervals with attacks upon the proletariat with less difficulties encountered for stabilization than under similar conditions in the industries producing the means of pro- duction. Such intense conflicts centered in the Chinese textile industry in the 1924-27 period used as a safety valve for the industry as a whole, was enough to add considerable weight to the forces struggling against the capitalist exploitation. The condition of the Chinese tex- tile industry in the period of the Chinese reyo- lution cannot be separated from the condition of the industry internationally. The interna- tional exploiters are always on the watch for a lower level of cheap labor power and raw material. In 1895 China had several mills with 183,000 spindles. In 1927 they had 133 mills with 3,581,304 spindles and 25,980 looms. Bri- tish and Japanese capital led in the establish- ment of textile mills. This increased produc- tive capacity at a reduction in the average cost of production effected the international market. The cotton spinning industry in India has leaped ahead at a fast rate of speed with raw ie! y Crisis in the Cotton Spinning Industry material and cheap labor power enabling the British bosses to compete successfully on the market. In 1926 there were 275 mills in India with 8,286,202 spindles and 150,680 looms em- ploying 324,600 workers. The jute industry had 50,354 looms employing 339,500 workers. The world war that gave impetus to in- creased production in the United States and the establishment of many new mills in the north, and especially in the South, effected the industries of the warring nations. The post- war period saw a fast recovery in the textile industry in Europe. In 1927 France had 9,850,- 000 spindles and 185,000 looms active in the cotton section of the industry. Germany had 4,293 mills with 12,000,000 spindles. Poland had 2,437,192 spindles. Their home markets were soon taken care of and with a sharper fight for markets, overproduction effected the in- dustry. Italy and Japan can run their mills to the capacity of five million spindles each. The cotton industry of the British Island was ex- porting 148,700,000 pounds value of cotton in 1927. In 1925 the textile industry of the United States produced goods valued at $9,122,858,000. This tremendous productive capacity of the textile industry brought about through speed- up and stretch-out and the lowering of the liv- ing standard of the textile workers through- out the world, has resulted in overproduction. Sections of the textile industry are periodically curtailing production to meet this situation. At the same time the process of rationalization is increasing. The textile bosses of the South meeting in Spartanburg announce on the 12th of Novem- ber that a general curtailment will take place throughout the South. Overproduction and the Wall Street crash are connected with southern section of the American cotton industry. The textile bosses are trying to weather the storm and save the individual mill through curtail- ment. ONLY REVOLUTION CAN SOLVE IT. The textile bosses have not solved the prob- lem of the textile ind They cannot solve this problem separate apart from the in- creased difficulties encountered by the capi- talists of the world and the forces of capital- ism making for war. Their temporary reme- dies are only to hold off the inevitable. The only force capable of boldly remedying the situation in the textile industry is the prole- tariat. The reduction of the hours of work and the abolition of the stretch-out are essen- | tial to the continued welfare of the textile workers. But only when the textile industry plans its extension and its production on a so- cialistic basis of production through the con- tro] of the proletariat will the textile industry be able to remedy the constant difficulties en- | countered under the capitalist mode of pro- duction, As long as the textile mills are owned by the capitalists the workers have but one choice —to organize powerful industrial unions link- ing them up on an international scale and com- pel the textile bosses to reduce their hours, in- crease their pay and abolish the stretch-out and child labor, and fight on the basis of the class struggle. Advantages of New Dues. By SAMUEL ETLER. , (Financial Secretary Section 1, District 2.) The new system of dues’ payments will be an improvement. By discontinuing the ever- lasting fee for the different auxiliary organizations, ily Worker Sustaining Fund, rent, etc., it will release a number of func- tionaries for more political work. It will be a great time saver, because more time could be spent on political and educational matters, whereas previously much time and energy was spent in agitating and collecting funds for var- ious departments and tickets. The comrades who attended regularly were taxed much more than those who were not active in their basic units. By equally dividing the dues according to income, there will be less expense to the active members. By MYRA PAGE, ! RS. CRENSHAW’S, where I had been stay- ing, was the best boarding house for mill hands on the hill. “The hill’—the term which these ex-mountaineers apply to every mill vil- lage—is in’ this case a flat stretch of yellow dirt, spotted with two hundred frame dwell- ings. The August sun rebounds from the sand | in little balls of fire all over your body while hot drumsticks beat a jazz rhythm up your spine. At one end of the cluster of s stands | the mill, as if on guard, ungainly in its three shades of red brick, and rumbling day and } night like some restless, driven beast. Each of its sections marks a stage in the owner's career. | As his profits swelled, Mr. Hutchins added a | section, moved into a bigger house in town, built a few more frame houses, and brought in | more poor whites from the Blue Ridge hills | and farms. Next to the mill stands the company store, not only the buying mart but also the social | center of Hutchins village. Here everything | from tobacco and snuff to colored ginghams | and hog’s meat is exhibitéd in true cubist | fashion. On the farther edge of the village, | four blocks away stands the Methodist and } Baptist churches, and nearby, the grammar | school, a recent addition, This is Hutchins Hill (this is a literal de- scription of a Southern mill village, only names of persons and the name of the village are disguised), one of the nine mill villages, form- | ing a crescent around the city of Greenville, South Carolina. More than fourscore cities in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee | and Virginia can boast such a cluster. And each mill village in all these clusters is similar to Hutchins Hill. Mr. Hutchins is king of the village, and all he surveys. The land, the mill, the churches, the store, | the houses and the people all belong to him. | The school which was his now belongs to the state, but it stands on company® ground, is run by his taxes, and its five teachers are near-relatives of “friends of the family” or management. Mr. Hutchins is a paternalist and a devout | christian. He says he began his mill, as did all the other Southern mill owners, soon after the black slaves were freed, to furnish em- ployment to the poor whites who were starv- ing on the farms or in the hills. He furnishes his mill people with houses at the low rate of twenty-five cents per room per week, free electricity, and one water pump in each block. True, the houses are built of thin boards, four rooms each, with no plastering, paper, sewer- age or means of heating, but what can you expect for your money? It is much better than these folks were ever accustomed to, back in the hills. At the company store, Mr. Hut- chins continues, mill hands can buy on credit, ever up to the limit of next week’s wages. (As the average wage for men is around $12, and for women $9, most families use this privilege, which tends to cut down the high labor turnover, because how can you move on as long as you're in debt?) The second week I was on the hill, the local sheriff frightened our household by paying me a visit. | “Mr. Wheeler, the sy‘per, sent me down here | | to be sure you ain’t doin’ no harm. We're | keerful of strangers. You ain’t here to stir | up labor troubles, or aspying for them North- | ern mill owners? You know, Hutchins Com- | pany owns this here town and nobody kin | set foot inside without its permission. I’m the town sheriff, and Hutchins mill pays my sal- ary—” I quote his own words—“to see no one stays home sick who should be at work, and nobody commits murder or adultery, and that | no labor agitators gits in.” After learning I wasn’t a damn Yankee but came from Virginia, he was easily reassured. | “Why, last year they war a woman here talking this monkey business, evylution she called it. Believe me, we chased her out in no time. Looks like folks’d think more of theirselves than believe they come from mon- keys, don’t it?” Since I was not in the village | to educate sheriffs, I kept my peace. Mr. Hutchins serves with the other mill pres- idents on the school board “to represent his people” and see that they are given a one hun- dred per cent, Anglo-Saxon, American educa- tion. He pays three-fourths of the two preach- ers’ salaries, so that the souls of his employees may be saved. On his staff*he has placed a welfare worker whose duties are to run a social club for the girls to keep them pure, and to tend the sick and help the sheriff keep people from staying out when they should be at the mill at work, for “these people are a shiftless lot, but they come from the best stock—pure- blood Anglo-Saxon.” Hutchins, like the other mill villages, is not incorporated. Mr. Hutchins and the other owners feel that these people, who are “mere children,” should be relieved of the responsi- bilities of corporate life. At quarter to six in the morning the mill whistle blows. Men and boys in shabby blue overalls, girls in faded pink, ginghams, moth- ers in black and white checks and carrying - sunbonnets, troop out of the houses and hurry down the dirt paths to the mill. At five in the afternoon the figures drag home. Only the ’teen age girls and boys have the pep left for sallies. Babies of all sizes trot up the streets, to greet their Mas and Pas, stretching up their arms as they run, and tired parents take them on their shoulders op lug them on their backs, c For a few hours the beast ceases to growl, With the growing hard times and the mill’s slowing down, Hutchins Mill has left off night work, In all the neighboring villages, as the day shift leaves, the night shift comes on. Mill hands hate night work, even though it pays better and is a saving. Twice as many folks can use the beds—but mn somebody has to cook twice as many meals, and it makes days and nights a jumble of working, sleeping and eating. Families get together only on Sundays. A man works in the day, his wife at night. Then during the day she can mind the kids and do the housework, and in between times snatch a few half-hours of sleep. The monotony of village life is broken only by the vegetable wagons of poor farmers in the surrounding country who drive through the streets hawking their wares, the weekly | ag SOUTHERN COTTON; MILLS AND LABOR | one dollar a week plan, or to take back the | ones pack their few belongings and hie them | and then move on. | was born out of the state. | dam Yankee but came from Virginy. visits of the insurance man who knocks from door to door, collecting the ten cents a week insurance and carrying the latest gossip, and the loan sharks who come either to “furnish your home complete” on the five dollars down, furniture from somebody who hasn’t the dollar this week. Every Friday and Monday, there’re the moy- in’ vans, Then the discontented or roving to the next village, while others come in to take their places, stay a few weeks or months When you ask “Why do you move so much?” nobody seems quite cer- tain. One family said they had left their last place because of a mean super, another had heard wages might be better here, and majly said they reckon they jes’ had the habit alt coulden stay still long at a time. Sally, a m#l worker since childhood, gave her version of it. “We. been here goin’ on seven year now. It’s time we wuz movin’ on. Uh? Why? No, nuthin’s wrong, only it’s bes’ not ta stay so long in one place. The company gics to thinkin’ they owns you. ’N a body gits tired to the same faces.” For those who chose to take them, there are two other breaks in the monotony: window- shopping in the city Saturday afternoons, and church meetings. But Greenville is a car-fare or a hot walk of two miles away. Window- shopping is exciting, but it makes you envious, and the way those city folks look at a mille hand’s make your f They're that stuck up, when everybody knows there ain’t better blood or chare’-ter to be found in South Carolina than on the hills. The older folks generally stay at home but the young ones must go to the bewildering city, even if they have to walk, so as to have the dime for that forbid sin, the movie. Movies, novels, swime- ming pools and evylution are all immoral, ac-| cording to Hutchins folk. But the young’uns are fast taking to the first three sins, even though they are not sure but that they are| playing into the hands of the Devil Himself. I had been at Mrs. Crenshaw’s three weeks} now, and we had become fast friends. She an the others had long ago forgiven me that I At least I wascn Tt was’ hot August evening, and Mrs. Crenshaw w [ sweating over her ironing while I sat by, rez shortening a dress. All of the children an boarders had gone to a funeral director's party, so only the two of us were at home. We wert in the midst of one of our confidential chats, “Yes’m,” she was saying (a southerner say: yes’m or yessir to every one he considers hi: equal or his better, which among mill hand: means everybody but “niggers”). “Yes’m, it‘ not so easy as it might be. Seems like us mill hands es’ work harder and git poorer year by year. But then, as our parson says, the Lo: chastiseth those He loveth.” The iron spat vigorously as big drops of sweat hit its side’and slid to the board. Mrs. Crenshaw was also a devout christian, as [) learned, and an old woman at forty-nine. She halted a minute to rub her dripping face and twitching mouth with arms that trembled with the palsey. Her muscles had worked without halt for forty-two years until now they had | forgotten how to stop. “Say, Mrs. Crenshaw, less call it a day. It’ nine thirty and you’ve bin working since fov thirty since morning.” I knew, for I slept (i a feather bed) in the same room with her an’ her two daughters who worked in Hutchins mill, Each day of the three weeks I had spent there had been like the last. Since early childhood, Mrs, Crenshaw had worked in the mill. After her marriage to a mill hand, she worked on, as usual. The seven children she had raised out of the thirteen she brought forth, all worked in the mill—except one boy, who had run away to sea and a less strenuous life!’ Then her husband died with cotton mill tuberculosis, and she changed over to running a boarding house for mill hands. For ten years she had cooked, swept, and done the washing in this double-sized company dwel- ling, for her children and seven other boarders. All told, there were fourteen of us sleeping in | the four bedrooms. Besides her potted plants, her sole diversion — was Sunday preaching and Wednesday prayer meetings, where she could just sit for a while and join in the sad, sweet hymns, and hear about the Blessed Beyond, where all is Res.’ And she would weep for joy or sorrow, she | never knew which. i | “For myself, I am willin’,’” Mrs. Crenshaw spread out a pair of worn overalls on the board. “But for th’ chillen I’d a-hoped it cid be dif- fernt. I have never went to school, but I did svan’em to. Well—” and her voice rank with pride— “All of ’em kin read ’n write! But | with wages so low, no matter how I saved and worked nights, I had to take ’em out of scho; sooner thin I’d a-planned on. Each one, I ma aged to keep in a little longer, ’til my you gal, she finished grammar school. She was so ambitious-like, Doris was.” (To Be Continued.) Buffalo Challenges District 15 The District Buro of District 4, at its last meeting, after a discussion on Party recruit- ing drive and the present situation in the United States decided: (1) To order at least five thousand of the Party Pamphlet, “Why Every Worker Should Join the Communist Party.” (2) That every member of the Party in the District be held absolutely responsible for the sale or distribution of at least ten comies of the pamphlets. (3) That every Party member working in shops is held abso- lutely responsible to get at least two workers as members of the Party. (4) Each unit of the Party is held responsible for the paying | and getting and distribution at a given tory of 25,000 Copies of the New Party let, “The Present Situation in the Unite States.” ‘ The District Buro has loked for a District to challenge in this campaign and found that our friend and neighbor, the Connecticut Dis- trict 15, has kept very silent in this drive, therefore we wish to challenge District 15 in | this membership drive as well as in literature _ distribution. BURO DISTRICT 4, ‘ TEAS aS