The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 27, 1930, Page 4

prodaily City, N. shed Dy New s and mail all checks to the Daily Worker Publishing Co. In Gay, at 26-28 Union Telephone Stuyv Cable: “DATWO! quare. New York. N. ¥ Tasks 6 the Section BROWN. Dist. By S. (Orga 2) izer Section 1, section are ussing the olution presented by the which points out the short-comings of activities and the tasks before us in sent period. The most important tasks us is the orientation towards the large basic and heavy industries, and 2 units of our now seriously the p ore hops of the ef war factories of which we have plenty on our Section. We are not as yet rooted in these shops We have too few contacts in the basic indus- s. Our last Section Convention was not the battlefield of unpr a gathering of the liscuss our tasks. pled factionalism but most active comrades to The next most ortant problem is the poor social composition which the Section is trying to overco: not by a mechanical re-organiza- tion, as w past, but by assigning territory inten- in sified camp new proletarians from the ba y industries and by drawing the the leadership of the Section. ¢ with them the fighting spirit workers in the shops and facto and will serve as a guard against the right danger. At this time, when our Section is discussing, its enormous problems, when the Section Com- ittee the u are mobilizing the best forces for the struggles of the workers to be- come the leaders of the workers in our ter- ritory; at this time the.group of expelled rene- gades, who still call themselves “Communists,” are working overtime in trying to bring in demoralization in our ranks, by issuing slan- derous documents against the leadership of our Party and of our Section. Not a “Wave’—Hardly a Rippic € answer to these slanders is the slming support of our membership of the line of the Comintern and the C. C. This ents speaks of “The wave of terror and sale expulsion of proletarian elements.” ve,” that they speak of, resulted in the expulsion of nine out of a membership of over five hundred. And what is their 1 composition? The petty bureaucrat Gusakoff, who arose to sec- tion leadership direct from the office of some insurance company, and the public school teach- er Bert Miller, are typical examples of these renegades. One of the three proletari that they did take along with them, has already recognized their counter-revolutionary face by their activities in the mass organizations and is now seeking readmittance to the Party. This renegade document speaks of di continued shop-papers and of dissolved shop- nuclei, but they don't mention any because there was none to speak of. The only shop- paper that they could boast about is the Eagle Pencil Company paper, which was discontinued soe due to mechanical and right wing approach, given to it by the expelled opportunists, against which the Party comrades attacked in the di cument fought. Building Shop Nuclei. ver to these slanderous atiacks s the work that the Section has done in the recent months after the arrival of the C. I. address and the expulsion of these renegades, ~The issuing of five shop papers (two for the waterfront, Pier 14 and Pier 36) almost regu- larly; an additional paper for the Western tric last month, at which place more than two thousand workers are employed; the es- tablishment of contacts in two terminals of the subway construction workers; the building of a shop nucleus (not a fake one) in the Schweinler press, and all other activities in our section speak for themselves and shows the bankruptcy of these renegade The last section convention served as a re- cruiting ba: for the work and tasks before us, and we emerged stronger and more solidly united for the line of the Comintern and the C. C., against all enemies of the working class. The convention laid the basis for the building of our section, as a step towards a mass Com- munist Party in the United States under the banner and leadership of*the Communist In- ternational. Outlook for New England Labor By MYRA PAGE tion with which New E faced grows constantl. gland work- more dif- e ficult. Wage cuts, unemployment, speed-up and increasing child labor are the order of the day. The, chaos and contradictions in- herent in capitalist economy are finding acute expression ists, in New England and the capital- es always, are using every means they to make the workers foot the bill. y the growing resistance of the workers, militant leadership, can halt the bosses’ ught; while the many industrial and so- problems which exist here as well as oughout boss-controlled United States will not be finally solved until the American work- ers are strongly organized and have taken economic and political power into their own hands. Unemployment Grows. industrial and one of the predominant state in the northeastern section the most highly industyialized sfates in the country, may be taken as an example of what the general conditions are in New England in- dustry today. The Massachusetts Department of Lebor and Iniustries tells us that “normal- Massachuse has 65 workers, of which approxim y one-third are women and thirds are men. In 1928 there were nearly 000 fewer workers employed in the state n this norm figure. This drop in work- loyed represents a decline of 173,000 00 since 1923, and 62,000 since Massachuse Ss 773 How ny more tens of thousands are walking the stree looking for work, since the Wall Street crash, is not yet known, Fur- thermore, of those workers who were em- ployed, the Department reports that only three-fourths had full-time employment. The » fourth wer “e working two, three, or four days a week The most severe curtailment has taken place in cotton goods, the main in- of the state, which normally employs 114.000 and in 1928 employed little more than half of this number. Barely four-fifths of the 58,600 woolen and worsted goods workers had jobs in 1928, and nearly one-third of the boots and shoes force had no work. During the past year, unemployment among building trades workers was excessively high. On an average one in five was continually out of work and in some months and sections two out of every three were looking for work. dustry So Massachusetts industrialists have thrown on the dump heap more than 113,000 workers. These jobless wage-earners are expected to @lear out. They are “free” to go scarching for work elsewhere, ask charity, or just die orf, falling easy prey to the many illnesses which lie in wait for hungry and badly clothed men and women, and their off-spring. This is a free country, and so the unemployed are free to do any damn thing they please—ex- cept revolt and demand work and decent wages. Overproduction Plus Speed. What reasons lie back of this permanent dis- charge of 113,000 workers? One main cause is “overproduction,” which is really a capitalist term for saying that those working in cotton, woolen, shoe and other factories can produce more goods than the bosses can sell at a good enougn profit to themselves. This situation is largely dve to the fact that the working popu- lation, which forms the vast majority of the consumers of goods, get such small pay that they can’t afford to buy sufficient of the shoes, clothing and other goods which industry can produce, Another cause is the tremendous speeding-up of the workers. This speeding- up has been accomplished through various de- vices, such as giving each worker more ma- chines to tend, gearing up the rate of the con- ve or “belt” on which wage-earners work so thet they must inerease their speed in order to keep up with the machine, replacing week work with piece work, and cutting piece rates sv that a worker must maintain a break-neck pace, in order to make a living. Any who can not keep up, as most of those above forty- five years can not, are discharged and re- placed by younger men and women. There are many illustrations of this speed-up. In num- erous cotton mills in Massachusetts and Rhode Island every fourth weaver has been dis- charged and three weavers are now compelled to do what formerly required the work of four. The number of spinners is often cut to half, while 63,000 boot and shoe workers produce almost as much today as approximately 77,000 produced in 1923. This is to say, that every 4 boot and shoe workers now do the work of 5 men. This increased exploitation of New England workers is typical of what has hap- pened throughout the country. Government studies show that the owners of industry get about one and a half times as much out of each worker as they took in 1899, and the greater part of this increased output per work- er has occurred since 1919, and is very little due to improved machinery in the plants but almost entirely to the speeding up of workers. (See “Recent Economie Changes,” Herbert Hoover, chairman of reporting commission). How Massachusetts capitalists are increas- ing exploitation of their employes is shown by the state department’s figures on “capital in- vested,” “value added by manufacture” and “wages,” over a period of fifteen years. In 1913, the ratio of jue added by manufac- ture” to capital invested was 52 per cent, by 1926, it had risen to 57 per cent. Meanwhile the share of this value added by manufacture going to workers in wages had dropped seven per cent. An important factor in the growing unem- ployment situation in New England is the trend of various industries of this section to other parts of the country, especially to the South, and the failure of new and developing industries to enter New England to any great extent. The shift of the cotton goods indus- try southward has been rapid, the lower wages and longer hours of southern mill hands offer- ing capitalists greater profits than they can accumulate elsewhere. Solidarity of labor, North and South, is the workers’ answer to this scheme, and a united front against the bosses who exploit us both. Besides the in- roads on the standard of living of this section of the American working cl: due to part or whole-time unemployment, drastic cuts have also been made in the earnings of those em- ployed. The hourly rates in the textile in- dustry are one-fifth less than they were in 1920. Men averaged $19.28 cents a week and women $15,75 in this industry in 1928. The wages for men in other industries were some- what higher than in textiles, averaging around $30 a week; but various studies of cost of living and minimum budgets on which a fam- ily of five can live show that a working man can barely manage to give the minimum es- sentials to his family on these wages, provided he is employed regularly, which of course he is not. Earnings of women workers are strik- ingly low. The average for the state is $17.37, but the mass of the women earn even less than this amount, a few better-paid groups off-set- ting the bulk of lower-paid. Just how greatly women are exploited in the Bay State, whieh boasts of its minimum wage law for women, and how the Minimum Wage Boarls work in the interest of the employers, is revealed by these Boards’ decisions on minimum wages. Here are some examples. Minimum wages for inexperienced women workers, who have work- ed in the trade less than six to eighteen months (varying with the industry), are $6 in the millinery trade, $9 to $11 in bakery and bread products, $8 and $9 in canning and pre- serving, $7 to $10 in men’s clothing, $8.50 in knit goods, and $8 to $10 in men’s furnishings and in mus!in underwear. Minimum wages for experienced workers run around $13 to $13.60. (Vo Le Continue few weeks ago in Washington. Cent One Ee the Senin st, Party of the Us. ee ut By Mail (in New York City only): $ By Mail (outside of New York ely! 36.00 a yea S: 3 50 six months; $3.50 six months; $2.50 three months 32.00 three months Rubio, the hired man of Wall Street, is carrying out the orders received by him a It is the logical succession after the massacre of workers» and peasants, outlawing of the trade unions and Communist Party, organized by Mr. Mor- row, Governor-General of Mexico for Ameri:an imperialism. By SAM DON. 'HE announcement of the naval conference was made last summer with trumpets of pacifism, with mutual declarations of love on the part of the two’ main imperialist rivals— Great Britain and U. S. MacDonald and Hoover issued a joint statement, a statement herald- ing a “new era” in Anglo American relations. How quickly have the mutual declarations of love been forgotten! Did the “labor” Prime Minister really ever did visit “our” shores? ... A visit so quickly forgotten, not mentioned and not referred to. The “peace” maneuvers were merely a prelude for the present extremely sharpening relations between England and the U.S. Why is it that at this naval conference it is so difficult to keep up the mask of paci- fism, and the rivalries between the various imperialist powers, especially between the U. S. and Great Britain, have come out in the of the conference? The answer is clear. Be- cause the maturing contradictions of world capitalism (the contradiction between the pro- ductive forces and markets, the contradiction between decaying capitalism and socialist pros- perity in the Soviet Union) are sharpening at such a speed that it is difficult to hide the differences, but on the contrary the conference itself becomes the arena of immediate war preparations. As one correspondent of the Chicago Tribune expresses it in the following idea “It is less expensive to maneuver at the conference for naval strength and superiority than at war.” The political resolution of the Central Execu- tive Committee correctly states, “the confer- ence is a field for maneuvers for favorable position for the opening of the armed strug- gle.” Cris The most important factor in sharpening the imperialist rivalries at the conference is the present crisis in the country which in- tensifies the general crisis of world capital- ism. On November 15, Hoover in one of his first official statements on the stock exchange erash stated “among other things” that “ex- port must be stimulated”, and on December 5 in his address to the conference of business » leaders stated more definitely, “another of the great balance wheel of stability ‘instead of balance, read: the contradiction beeen the productive forces and contradiction of markets must be solved through an offensive to pene- trate the world market and prepare for war) is our foreign trade.” The above statements of Hoover were greeted] with shouts of desperate opposition on the part of all the imperialist powers, especi- ally that of Great Britain. The resolution of the Political Committee of the Communist Party of the U. S. A., states correctly “Under the pressure of the econc crisis, the foreign policy of the U. S. government, carrying through its drive for expanded markets, must sharpen considerably and find its principal strategy in maneuvers looking towards a re- grouping of forces, towards breaking up the combinations hostile to its imperialist plans, and securing allies in the coming struggle be- fore all with Great Britain while itself as- suming hegemony of the imperialist drive against the Soviet Union. This is the -main significance of the naval conference opening soon in London,” (My emphasis). ‘The capitalist press finds it ever more diffi- An Important Factor. cult to cover up, for instance, the struggle between F'vance and Italy as really being a ‘ last week so sharply, even before the opening | The Meaning of the Naval Conference in London struggle between England and the U. S. The Paris correspondent of the Chicago Daily News in its Dec, 28th issue, writes: “This conference bids fair to be a long wrangle (note, “a long wrangle”, just before Hoover's farewell “peace” message to the American delegation to the conference) between France on the one hand and the U. S., and Great Britain supported by Italy on the other, with Japan strategically situated as the intermediary.” Discard the confusing diplomatic language of the corres- pondent and you will find clearly that the American governmenxt’s: principal strategy is to “break up the combinations hostile to its imperialist plans, and securing allies in its coming struggles, before all with Great SBEIEAIN 1a". Clash Becomes More Open, With the openin; of tl): con’erence the more openly American and British imperialisms come to a clash, and the capitalist press of both countries are beginning to mobilize “pub- lic opinion” for war eventualities. The entire matter of disarmament is every day begin- ning to be discussed mors openly from the view point of protecting trade routes, need of raw materials . . . and stated less openly the problem of capturing new markets and colonie: In the centre of this discussion— the rivalries between U, S. and Great Britain come ever more to the fore. A few quota- tions from the Chicago Tribune, brings it out very clearly, In the January i2th Issue of the Tribune, in an editorial under the caption “Vital In- terests”, we find the following: “Well, the facts are that in 1928 our foreign commerce, exports and imports, was valued at eight billions of dollars, and it was carried over the high seas chiefly over twelve main routes, as Cant. Overstreet has recently pointed out in the New York Times, having a total length of 60,- 000 miles. The chief trade of Great Britain, like that of Japan the other leading naval power, is with a nearby continent, whereas all our sea routets are from 1,200 to 10,000 miles long. The protection of such routes certainly calls for a considerable dispersion of our ships, and in fact, a strategic disposition of the greatest difficulty considering our lack of bases.” Or further “Yes, conceding this possibility as a necessary condition of British policy, what of the implication that our interests in ade- quate naval defense is not a matter of vital interests? We cannot be starved out, but the paralysis of our commerce would bring about a catastrophe which no sane nation could clas- sify as other than a vital interest.” The mr'n object under discussion here is trade and the main subject under discussion is Great Britain. This is still more clearly brought out in a London dispatch, printed in the January 20th issue of the Chicago Tribune: “With the renid- ly expanling foreign trade beginning to con- stitute a measure of* prosperity, with the re- viving merchant marine, with the increasing dependence on overseas sources for a supply of rubber, manganese for steel manufacture and other necessities, with vital communica- tion lines encircling the globe, the time has arrived when protection of national interests in distant regions is as vital to America as to Great Britain.” The Merchant Marine. In the struggle between Great Britain and | the U. S, for Naval superiovity the question of the Merchant Marine is brought up cdn- tinually. Just a few figures will tell the tale. Tn 1928 33 percent of American commerce was catried on American ships and 50 percent of The following letter was sent by Karl | Liebknecht to the first Zimmerwald con- ference, at which he was unable to be present as the German government called | him up at the beginning of 1915 to serve in the Landsturm. What importance Lenin attached to this letter is best to be seen from the extracts which he made from it (in Ger- man) and which are preserved in the Leni institute. The passages extrac- ted by Lenin are shown below in black type.—Ed. ey e EAR COMRADES:—Allow me to write a few hurried lines. I am imprisoned and fet- tered by militarism (K. L. was called up as a Landsturmmann—Ed.), Therefore I am un- able to come to you. My heart, my head, my whole being is nevertheless with you. You have two serious tasks. A hard task of. grim duty and a sacred one of enthusiasm and hope. Settlement of account, inexorable settlement of accounts with the deserters and renegades from the International in Germany, England, France and elsewhere. Mutual understanding, encouragement and in- spiration of those who remain true to the flag, who are determined not to give. way an inch before international imperialism, even if they fall as victims. And to create order in the ranks of those who are determined to hold out; to hold out and to fight with their feet firmly planted on the basis of international socialism. It is necessary to make clear in brief form the principles of our attitude, to the world war as a special case of the principle of our atti- tude to the capitalist order of society. Briefly, so I hope! For here we are all united and we must be united! It is necessary before all to draw the tac- tical consequences from these principles. Ruth- lessly for all countries, 1 war, not civil peace! Exercise inter- national solidarity of the proletariat against pseudo-national, pseudo-patriotic class harmony, international class war for peace, for the so- cialist revolution. How the fight is to be fought, must be laid down. Only in co-operation, only in the mutual working of one land with the the American commerce was carried on Brit- ish ships. Great Britain’s share in the world’s ship building industry in 1927-8 was 54 per- cent. It goes without saying that America’s share was much smaller. The post office department has for the past two years been busy in stimulating the build- ing of American ocean going mail carriers. In all discussion on naval armaments and “disarmaments”, the question of an armed merchant marine figures prominently. The January 20th issue of the Chicago Tribune, in one of it editorials, states quite openly: “Un- til the U. S. or another nation acquires a mer- chant marine as good as that of Great Britain, the reluction of heavy fighting ships auto- matically increases British sea power and widens the already wide margin of its super- iority.” Just as U. S. imperialism, driven by its insoluble inner contradictions (and not as Love- stone and Cannon are wont to speak—bhecause of American imperialism’s arrogance and power . .) is taking the lead in the war prep- arations against its imperialist rivals ally England, so does, “U. sume leadership of the imperialist offensive against the Soviet Union.” U. S. imperialism has not given up Manchuria in its struggle against its rivals—Great Britain and Japan, nor as a starting point of ~‘tack against the Soviet Union. The Chicago Tribune in an e*’‘orial on the victory of the Soviet Union in Manchuria writes: “American interest (in Manchuria) is not direct or very important at this stage, but it is advisable for us to watch developments” (my emphasis). The world counter-revolu- tionary forces suffered a defeat in Manchuria. Amc “:an imperialism i. already looking for a new point of attack against the Soviet Union. The new point of attack r‘sht be started in the Baltic. The Baltic states have better equip- ped armies, and there are other edver whic? were lacking in China. And the Chi- cago Tribune in an editorial with a headline “Baltic States and Russia”, in- speaking of “China’s (read U. S. Imperialism’s) recent ex- perience with the Soviet in Manchuria” gives a word of “advice” to the “new Baltic na- tions”. And here is the piece of advice: “We do not know how far they (the Baltic states) have moved toward federation or al- liance for defense against their huge anil ruth- less neighbor, altho txere have been reports from time to time that cooperation for that purpose was under discussion. The possibil- ity of defensive alliance among the smaller states formed from former Russian territory, Finland, Latwia, Esthonia, and Lithuania— suggests also understandings, if not alliances, with the more powerful states, Poland and Sweden.” Preparing War on the Soviet Union. The points made here are so clear that they need no elaboration and comments. The re- cent political resolution of the Central Com- mittee gives a clear analysis on the war prep- arations of American imperialism when it states “Sharpening of antagonism between the U. S. and Great Britain develops simultane- ously With the offensive against the Soviet Union. It is entirely wrong to speak of the “im- perialists setting aside their differences” in order to attack the Soviet Union; they proceed to fight out their differences within their united front against the Soviet Union, It is equally wrong to say that because of the deep anta- gonisms between the U. S. and Great Britain, therefore there is no danger of an armed at- tack against the Soviet Union (Nearing). As the crisis sharpens in the country, as ra- tionalization iptensifies, as the rivalries be- tween the imperialist powers increase because of the growing crisis of world capitalism, and above all as the decaying, rapidly declining capitalism is being confronted with the rapid growth of socialism in the Sov'2t Union, every Party member, every worker, must grap the full significance and meaning of the state- ment contained in the Central Exe »'ive Com- mittee resolution: “The new world war is ripening before our eyes. It is the immediate perspective.” KARL LIEBKNECHT’S LETTER TO THE ZIMMERWALD CONFERENCE other, mutually inspiring each other, can the greatest possible forces, the attainable success be achieved. The friends of every country have in their hands the hopes and prospects of the friends of every country. You French and you Ger- man socialists before all have one and the same fate. You French friends, I appeal to you, do not allow yourselves to be caught by tl phrase of national unanimity—against this you are immune—but also by the equally danger- ous phrase of the unanimity of the party! Every protest against this, every proclamation of your rejection’ of the official government policy, every bold acknowledgment of the class struggle, of solidarity with us, for the proletar- ian will to peace, strengthens our fighting spirit, increases our force tenfold, to work in the same sense in Germany, for the proletariat of the world, for its economic and political emancipation, for its emancipation from the fette~s of capitalism, but also from the chains of Tsarism, Kaiserism, Junkerism, of militar- ism, of now international militarism; to fight in Germany for the political and social libera- tion of the German people; against the power and lust for territory of German imperialism; —for a speedy peace, which also restores un- vy Belgium freely and independently and back France gto the Trench people. hers—we know the special dif- ficulties of your tragic situation and bleed with you, ~s with the tormented and stoned mass of i all peop!c-; your misfortune is our misfortune, | as we know that our pain is your pain. Let | Help us as we swear | our fight be your fight. to help you. The new International will arise, it can arise on the ruins of the old, on a new and firmer foundation. You friends, socialists from all countries, have today to lay the foundation stone for the future structure. Hold irrecon-| cilable judgment over the false socialists! Ruthlessly urge on the vacillating and hesi- tating in all countries, also those in Germany! The greatness of the aim will raise you above the narrowness and littleness of the day, above the misery of these terrible days! Long live the people’s peace of the future! Long live anti-militarism! Long live interna- tional, people-emancipating, revolutionary so- cialism! Proletarians of all countries—unite again! KARL LIEBKNECHT. ie aie Philadelphia Workers Feel the Capitalist Curse— Unemployment By H. ROBINSON. ee chief topic discussed thruout the entire : of Philadelphia by all workers is the growing unemployment. Both uvemployment and disemployment are growing at a rapid rate 3 Those workers still employed ‘ are g: “How much longer can I hold my job?” of Lenin and Leninism is is evidenced by the ever grow- ing militancy of workers, both employed and unemployed. A food worker relates how a worker approached him and asked to use the phone. “But I will lose my job if the boss catches me letting a stranger use the phone. T'll take a chance tho, if you are looking for work.” The strange worker replied: “You must. be Bolshe shake hands, brother.” An- a other worker relates how he asked a friend if “No,” said the friend “and I can’t find a job. The way it looks, I'll not get any work either. I’ve been fooled before by both republicans and democrats, now I’m a Communist.” These workers were from the Northeast (Kensington) district of Puiladel- phia and changes of the sort related are not isolated, but becoming more and more frequent. “No Work” Signs. Now during the latter part of January, when hosiery mills have resumed work with new orders during normal times, workers are confronted with signs nailed on the entrances “No Work Until Further Notice.” Henry Brown & Sons, First and Ontaria Sts., employing more than 1,000 workers, are com- pletely shut down as are literally scores of smaller hosiery plants, In all other textile industries here, general stagnancy prevails. L. H. Gilmer, rubber belting is averaging two days a week. Carpet mills as well as dye houses are doing nothing or next to nothing. With this enormous surplus of textile work- ers to choose from, it is but natural that wage cuts as well as speed-up is the order of the day. However, the militancy of the workers force some labor fakers to call strikes, as at the Aberle Hosiery Plant, v-here 1400 workers struck after a wage cut of 80 percent. “The labor fakers of the Full Fashioned Hosiery Knitters are working in co-operation with Aberle to effect a compromise settlement.’ It remains to be seen whether the workérs will permit this kind of collaboration. At the Link Belt Co., 21st and Hunting Ave., workers report for work every day, but during the past several weeks have been lucky ‘to average 3 hours a day. This concern manufac- tures machinery of all kinds and workers at the plant tell that by the placing’ of the newest methods of production, anybody can operate the mechanism; so that skilled machinists are replaced by young bez: operating levers, Electrification Plus Lay-Offs. The Pennsylvania railroad has nearly com- ’ pleted the electrification of its road betwee Philadelphia and Trenton, Upon completion, the usual climax—lay-offs. Three men were killed recently, falling from the tops of the poles to the tracks where they were cut to bits. - hese workers had received 80 cents an hoz: and paid with their lives. The capital- ist ess, as usual, conceale] these deaths of workers. Only by the workers of Philadelphia realiz- ing and accepting the teachings of Marx and Lenin, whose memory was recently com- memorated by a mass memorial at one of Phi- ladelphia’s largest halls, can the workers lift themselves out of the bitterness imposed upon them by their rulers, the capitalist class. Fight the Right Danger. A Hundred Proletarians for Every Petty Bourgeois Rene- gade! he were working.