The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 24, 1930, Page 4

hepa Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co. Inc., daily, except Sunday, at 28-28 Union ) D if Page Four Square, New . Y. Telephone Stuyvesant 3696-7 af “DATWORK.” a iu A s and mail ecks to Daily We 8 pion s Yoru N, a LEWIS PLEDGES TO BETRAY! ANTHRACITE MINERS ELD, wo so-calle By P. FRANKIE A T eC er € the t d “cor Y in Spring the anthracite convention’ “labor” L. Lewis was predicts con- e hard-coal here full operators the ne m: inimum have uggle 1 that the force to be fear of los- ar of the NMU the sofar as rences had and the tors anthracite ubstantial m of another 1 run for a ber of years”; (3) that the coal companies and the UMWA have been working most close- ce the strike in order to a ik from developing in the future, a ave zgle in Sept., 1930; (4) 'y of the operators t of production of coal but ng the wages of the miners. Officials Lying. thracite misleaders of the miners, of an, Hartnealy, ete., have been nying the fact that there have secret conferences with the opera- Boylan made a statement to in which he called for “No who nevertheless said io conferences between als and oprators relutive to the q the ment.” Lewis flatly de- clared that there were and are. Right now, the operators and their e “conferencing” heir new Sun” agree agents behind closed doors draw- agreement. The coal com- nd the company union are preparing hackle the hard-coal miners to another 5 r even more, for who knows what a antial number of ye means to Ju wis!) agreement. Every miner has se agreement w out in life itself. No miner’s wage has remained the same—from that of 4 years ago. No miner's working con- 1 s have remained the same—in fact have become considerably worse. Prices on cars have been in m ‘ases reduced by more than t ¢ 50 per cent. Tonnage rates have been de- creased. work.” Hardl Y all receives pay for dead v w. And all of this has bee Agreement, recently, cision of Umpire Gor- man ation Board, that every min- er must remain in the mine the full 8 hours is a direct attack on the working hours of the miners, and means in effect a 144, 2, and in f the Concili me ca more ease in hours for the ners cision of Umpire Gorman will e put after Sept. 1930. The nies don’t dare risk its application because of its possible effects on the niners While Lewis approves of lessening the cost production, “but without decreasing the : of the miners” liberately closes his eyes to that the wages of miners have and are being reduced xy the companies, and he also knows that the perators don’t always reduce wages by giving a direct cut, but by adding on one car the profluction of the min or by refusing to pay for all dead wo Lewis’ role is to help the cost of production of anthracite coal be iced, and therefore his “blindness' ily able. Bosses Agree With Lewis. e very same day that Lewis made his , a Mr. S , of the Maderia Coal Co. made a spe before the Chamber of Commerce in which he said: “There must not be any more strikes. In my humble judgment, there will be no more strikes.” Mr. Suender s expressing a wish, but neither Suender’s i hopes, nor Lewis’ betrayals can do h the existence of tne cl: away struggle. The class struggle rages in the anthracite with the same stark br lity that it does elsewhere. The operators’ keen quest for big- ger profits is daily colliding with the miners’ mination that their wages, hours, g conditions ll not be reduced or worsened. In spite of all of the U. M. W. A.’s attempts to outlaw strikes, many have occurred since the b nning of the year; and sharper ones loom ahead. Lewis’ open speech of betrayal of the min- creates a wider field for inde- pendent activity on the part of the N.M.U. than ever before. First of all, in spite of the fact that conditions and wages much higher than those soft coal min the hard-coal miners > re- sisting and will resist even more sharply all attempts to smash their standards of wages, urs and working conditions. (2) The U. M. has declared its policy of sell-out. It ers’ e still relatively better, of the ren ns for the N. M. U. to bring home this lesson to t ass of mi (3) The re- sponsibility for openly mobilizing the hard- coal miners for a general strike falls on the should of the N.M.U. The N.M. will have to take up the fight for the interests of the anthracite miners. All grievances, and all i must find a champion in the N. S M. U. The N. M. U. must endeavor to lead these local strikes, spread them, and fight for the interests of the miners. Tasks of N. M. U. N. M. U. must undertake a real and organizational campaign to establish itself as a factor amongst the masses of min- ers in the anthracite. The N.M.U.’s base is a ‘y nal one at present he N.M.U. must base its entire stra y for the develop- ment of a general strike in Sept., 1930, on the development of the struggle here. Unless this is actually done, the slogan of a general strike will remain merely a propaganda slogan. The organizational basis must be developed and prepared now. The N. M. U. must definite The ‘ow y decide to issue the strike call for the anthracite region in its | own name, This question cannot be left hang- ing in the air until the last moment, The M. U. must come forward with a whole se of immediate demands, and the fact that this not been» done to date deserves the sharp- criticism. The Must Fishwick movement will undoubt- edly atter to enter the anthracite coal fields. They must be exposed right now, as agents of the Peabody Coal Co., and as enemies of the miners. While the sharpest outlook must be adopted insofar as right errors are concerned, and ten- dencies to yield before the difficulties here; yet the 1.U. and the Party must begin to guard against left phrase-mongering. The situation is a developing favorable on® With a great increase in the number of lay- offs within the last few weeks, the N.M.U. and Party must seriously undertake the fight ainst the menace of unemployment and for unemployment relief. The N.M.U. must also develop a fight against the increase in the number of mine accidents and deaths since the first of the ye: There sufficient issues on which to fight—in the interests of the masses of hard-coal miners. The only thing that remains is for us to go out and develop it. ay Steel Turns South By TOM JOHNSON. Under pressure of the growing crisis and the stiffer competition coincident to it, the giants of the steel industry are again turning their eyes to the South. Republic Steel of Youngstown is the latest to announce an expansion program in the South, Republic already has a controlling i terest in Gulf States Steel whose main mill is located in Birmingham, and w completing a new plate mill in Gac bama. Now it is reported that Republic negotiating for the purchase of the Woodward Tron Co. at Birmingham. One does not have to look far to find the reason for this migration to the South, par- ticularly in a time of crisis when price cut- ting is the order of the day. It is to be found in these figures: In 1927, the last year for which govern- ment statistics were available, the year’s wage of the average steel worker in the Birmingham district Was $932—some $175 under the national averag For the state of Alabama as a whole average wages in the manufacturing industries of the state in 1927 reached the unbelievably low level of $885 for a year’s toil. This was two years ago. Since that time Wage cuts in the steel industry have beeome eommon place. Today the going rate for Ne- ~ gro labor in the Woodward mills, on which Re- _ public casts an envious eye, is 24 cents an hour. In other mills single men are paid 25 " cents while the “generous” company pays mar- vied men 30 cents. In all mills wage rates for Negro workers range from 4 to 8 cents per | hour under the rate paid the white workers. Along with these starvation wage rates the hig companies foree the workers to pay exor- bitant rent for filthy little shacks one cannot dignify by calling houses, and insist on the worker spending at least a fixed portion of his pay at the company commisary, Prices in these “pluck me” company stores can be well imagined. As wages go down hours are lengthened and the speed-up is increased. The 8-hour day, won by thousands of steel workers in this district as a result of the 1919 strike, is a thing of the past. 10, 12 and even longer hours are the order of the day now. Production per worker mounts steadily—and mainly at the expense of the hard driven workers and not thru use of improved technical processes. In the manu- facture of cast iron pipe in this district the value added by manufacture increase] 429 per cent in the past 10 years while the number of workers which produced this added value grew only 83 per cent. Many similar examples could be cited. In the face of these attacks the southern steel worker has but one recourse—organiza- tion and struggle. Already the Trade Union Unity League and the Metal Workers’ Indus- trial League are gaining a substantial foot- hold in this open shoppers’ paradise. The dream of the steel magnates of unlimite1 ex- ploitation of a docile working class in the Sunny Southland will be shattered by the shock of approaching class conflicts, Fight the Bight Danger. A Hundred Proletarians for Every Petty Bourgeois Rene- gade! Central Organ of the Communici (uity of the U.S. A. ’ D ME STRENG HEL? THE POOR RUSSIANS!” “GIVE ROCKEFELLER AN » News item: The agents of the pope, the jesuits, concluded an agreement last month with American oil magnates, and in particular, with the Rockefeller group, as a result of which Catholic organizations will receive a bleck of American oil shares. SD: Worker © i'TO By Fred Ellis s is the second installment of an articte outlining the ideological preparations for the Fifth World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions, sent out by it for the stingila- tion of interest in the Congress among th® broadest masses of workers, is given in assist- ance to the R.LL.U. section in the U. S., the Trade Union Unity League. It is worthy of the attention of every revolutionary and mili- tant worker and should serve as guidance for such workers in strengthening the T. U.L—Editor. Faia It is essential that the factory papers ar- range special corners to deal with the questions of the Fifth R.LL.U. Congress, and also publish special numbers devoted entirely to these ques- tions, A‘l the papers should make it a point to explain to the wo: at large the sent day situation, the implications and significance of the growing economic depression, the pros- pects of the struggles ahead, the growth of unemployment, the offensive against the work- ing class, the menace of a new imperialist war against the U.S.S.R., ete., relating all these evestions to the tasks of the revolutionary T. U. movement. The papers: should also eall attention to the economic growth of the -S.R., the Five-Year Plan, the struggle against unemployment, the relief being issued the unemployed and the tendency towards the gradual elimination of unemployment altogether in Soviet Russia. Through the pre: lessly encourage criti the defects and drawbacks of the Revolutionary T.U. movement, especially as regards leader- ship of the economic struggles, showing up with facts and figures of the struggle’ in the various districts and plants, all deviations from the line * shortcomings of the Revolutionary T. U. papers. The press should at the same time popularize ~ the activities of the R.I.L.U. and its sections and clearly expose the lying treacherous role of the social-fascists, the Right defeatists and the others and all their publicity work in fighting the growing working class movement. The positive experience gained during the preparations (various measures, discussions, meetings, ete.) should be carefully studied, and by means of the press be broug@t to the notice of the other organizations and the factories. At the same time we should criticize in a construc- tive way all the defects of the present cam- paign. Special attention should be given to utilize the worker correspondents during the prepara- tory campaign for the Fifth R.LL.U. Congress. This campaign will be turned into a really ef- fective mass movement if we are able to get the cooperation of all the worker correspondents and organize correspondence between the work- ers in the capitalist countries, the colonial and semi-colonial countries and with the worker correspondents of Soviet Russia. It would certainly be expedient were the revolutionary trade union publications in the various countries to enter an International Revolutionary Competition to ascertain which paper is carrying out the preparatory cam- paign best of all. Furthermore, the press should give publicity to the fulfilment of the agreements on the International Revolutionary Competition in carrying out the preparatory campaign, as closed between the various sections during and after the Sixth Session of the Central R, 1. s we must boldly and fear- | ‘ism and self-criticism of | we are urging and also. call attention to the | Forward to 5th World Congress of Revolutionary Unions! L. U. Council. Besides the workers’ correspondence call, it would be highly desirable were we to organ- ize the exchange of materials dealing with the preparations for the Fifth Congress between the various publications, and the different en- terprises in the given country, and also be- tween the factory papers being issued in the capitalist countries and the U.S.S.R. and es- pecially between those factories that concluded agreements on the International Revolutionary | Competition. The preparatory campaign for the Fifth R.LL.U. Congress should be utilized to review all our revolutionary trade union publications. The revolutionary press should not only be a powerful engine to promote propaganda of our principles and the practice of the revolutionary trade union movement but should serve as a means of coordinating all our activities. The review of our papers should form an integral epart of the preparatory campaign for the Fifth R. I. L. U. Congress. The campaign should not only aim at ascer- taining how far the revolutionary trade union publications have succeeded in popularizing and giving publicity to the decisions of the Fourth R.LL.U. Congress and the Strassburg International Conference, drawing attention simultaneously to the principal directives of the R.LL.U., but should endeavor to ascertain how far the papers have been reflecting the By Mall (im New York City only): $8.00 a By Mail {Cuteids of New York SUBSCRIPTION RATES: yea City): $6.00 a yes (In the first part of these two articles, the ancient land tenure of the Inca and Aztec Indian civilizations were dealt with, and their conquest by the Spaniards, the survivals in land tenure of the feudal con- querors being shown as still existing in the present feudal economy of Latin America with its enslavement of the Indians.—Edi- tor.) Pa By JORGE P&Z. (Part 1.) IVE HUNDRED years were necessary, and perhaps more, for the men of occidental culture, which in its superlative form is capi- talist culture, to take note that there have existed, far beyond the columns of Hercules and the Helenic archipelago, thousands of years before, other civilizations not inferior to that of ancient Greece, but on the con- trary of a superior type—if we may draw any comparison. In the tellurie resources in which the Indians lived, they rooted their civiliza- tion, which the feudal invasion of the con- querors came to destroy with their harque- buses and catapults. Four centuries the white‘ conquerors fought, motivated by greed and infected by race hatred, to overturn the primitive institutions of the Indians. And though we may give it little thought, we see that they attained their object. The sad and disgupted story of Latin America is the tragedy of this struggle. $4.50 six month: ; $3.50 six months; The Spaniards invented a new means. To the invaders, and according to their social positions, were given the communal lands, ac- vording to the orders of the king of the im- perialist metropolis, whose notions of just what the Indians were, were most vague. To Hernan Cortez in Mexico, was given by royal order: “All lands are thine until where vision ends.” Cortez climbed to the top of a tree and his vision reached the horizon. There he went, where his vision reached, and again climbed a tree. Thus one of the grandest valleys of the world, the Valley of Oaxaca, became his. In Peru, Almargo and Pizarro did the same, Thus were born the great lati-fundists and feudal senores in Latin America: adventurers and captains, Besides the lands “until where. vision ends” (a measure originating in the illiteracy of feudal Spain), these adventurers were given, or took, since these people asked or took or- ders from the Council of “savages” residing at the court of Seville, Indian slaves in suf- ficient number for the exploitation of the land. Thus was born the slavery of the Indian, The officers of the army had the right to two “until where vision ends,” that is, to climb trees twice to find the horizon. The cavalry soldiers had a right to 10 “caballerias,” equiva- lent to 333 acres; the infantry soldiers hadva right to a “peonia.” To this repartition of the land was added the robbery and sharing up of animals of all kinds, and the gold of the temples and the ornaments of the Indians. Booty was the one thing in mind. It is said that even the poorest mouse makes a hole in the cheese. But the natives remained to be dealt with. i The Spaniarjs were obliged to yield land to | the natives. The Indians fled to the moun- tains and rejected the new civilization. In the mountains they fought. The Spaniards needed people. No other immigrants came than ad- venturers, soldiers and criminals. They were not sufficient to work the lands of the feudal warlord who was making a fortune to enjoy it later in the metropolis. | 2.50 three months 2.00 three months wenn | LATIN-AMERICAN INDIANS AND THE PEASANT PROBLEM The Spa is had, therefore, to create the “ejido,” with the object of attracting the In- dian from the mountains, a compromise to the occidental petulance of the invaders. The “ejido” was a parcel of land in the environs of a native town. The word “ejido” is de- rived from “exodus,” referring to “exile.” The “ejido” of the Spaniards pretended to revive the “ayllu” and the allpulli.” But this “ejido” implied a small rural individual prop- erty. The right of its usufruct belonged to the vice-roy and not to the people. And the viee-roy took advantage of his right always when the harvest was good, It is very pos- sible that the object of the “ejido” was the Spaniards’ desire to win over the chief of the native tribes. And though it did not always work, in many cases it did. The “ejido” was a proportional measure of no more than ten hectares (about 25 acres) of cultivatable land. Besides these, the Spaniards created holdings called “propios” (property of the government) and “eriales,” the last being lands not fit for eu ion. It is this sort of “eriales” or land unfit for cultivation which Calles and Portes Gil, and now Rubio, agents of Yankee imperialism in Mexico, are giving to the Indians, among a din of noise abroad about the “benefits” thus conferred by the so- called “revolutionary” government. The “propios” were worked by the Indian tribes “for themselves,” but with a right only to the third part of the harvest. And they could neither sell nor transfer it. There was a tax in kind. The conquerors pretended with this means to create a native communal prop- erty. But by it the feudal senores were enriched. The “ejidos” were surrounded by feudal properties. To pass their product to market, it was necess: to pay toll to the feudal senor. The tax tributes, excises and church so-called ” an ap- imposts, made of the “ejido” and “communal property” of the “propios, pendix of the feudal lands. Some fascist governments of Latin America which pose as “revolutionary” (Mexico and Peru, and particularly the former) pretend to return the communal lands to their ancient proprietors, the Indian communities or towns. But they find that the Indians “possess no titles” which show their right as “proprietors.” But who i: simple as to think that the In- dians could exhibit, after 400 years during which the Spanish conquerors first and the re- public later, made free with both the lands and the Indians, that the Indians should come forward with documents proving their ancient title? The republican form of government in Latin America, a form that in these coungries is ad- justed to its typical feudal-capitalism, in op- pressing and exploiting the Indian has gone further than did the Spaniards. In some places they are exterminated, in others tHey are robbed of all forms of agrarian property, be it communal or “ejiditaria.” This can partly be explained by the fact that the Indians do not trust the whites and have for them a profound hatred. But today the Indian is an exploited, a most exploited class. The problem of the Indian as a land worker must be faced as a problem of the most brutally exploited part of a class, with its ra- cial characteristics, but not as a race. This is almost a commonplace, as is known; but it is true that there exists a strong cufrent in Latin America that hates the Yankee because he killed Indians, that hates Europeans for like reason, without distinction between the exploiting invaders and the exploited immi- grants. For Defense ot the Soviet Union A meeting called by the Russian People’s Mutual Aid Society in the cities of Lowell, Lynn and Maynard, at which comrade Boris, editor of Novy Mir spoke, the following reso- lution was unanimously adopted by the as- sembled Russian, Lithuanian and Polish workers. A similar resolution was also adopted a few days before at a meeting of the Passaic workers, ” Resolution of protest against the crusade of the world imperialists and clergy against the Soviet Union. We, workers of Maynard, Lowell and Lynn, in mass meeting asembled for the purpose of protesting against the crusade of the imperial- growing activity of the workers at large and the new rise of the revolutionary wave, whether the revolutionary papers took up in “timely fashion the various political and practical ques- tions, how far they served as the mouthpiece of the masses and a means of encouraging proletarian criticism and self-criticism in the revolutionary trade union movement. This review of our press must also ascer- tain how far our papers have really been answering and meeting the needs of the broad masses. It should be the starting point to overhaul radically and seriously all the work of our revolutionary trade union papers, in- creasing their circulation among the masses, turning them into militant weapons to pro- mote the political and class education of the workers, to organize and mobilize them for the struggles ahead, Our March 6th Was as Militant as Any HOUSTON, Texas.—The Daily Worker | stated that we applied for a permit at the City Hall for the demonstration of unemployed which we held here on March 6. This is not correct. We did not apply for a permit. We had a crowd of over 2,000 workers. The police stopped us from speaking and dragged me into the City Hall. The crowd howled protest and demarJed that we be allowed to speak. The mayor then ordered the cops to put me back on the steps and let me speak. When I got through speak- ing the police ordered me to disperse the crowd This I refused to do. Our demonstration was just as militant as any in the country, and if they had not let me speak there would have been the biggest riot ist robbers and the obscurdntist clergy ‘against the Soviet Union, are sending our flaming greetings to the toiling masses of the Soviet Union and declare that our proletarian hearts are beating with pride for the conquests of the October Revolution and the great accomplish- ments of socialist construction of our father- land. We pledge to defend these great con- quests and accomplishments to the last drop of blood. e We express our deep indignation and anger at the mean slander and persecution of our free Union of Socialist Soviet Republics on the part the police knew this. The Daily Worker gave us a very poor write-up, and did not publish the facts. Never before has anyone got up at a mass meeting and demanded complete racial equality, the overthrow of the capitalist government and recognition of the Soviet Union, in this “Lone Star State” of: Texas. Comrade Minor will tell you this if you ask him. I wish you would tell the Daily Worker to correct this mistake and write the truth about our demonstration. I never was a yellow dog and I never will be one, and I protest against our paper, the Daily Worker, putting in such a crappy article, The article implied that we soft-peddled the issue. This is not so, and we want this corrected. Fraternally, J. S. Moran. Editor’s Note:—The Daily Worker is only too glad to give Comrade Morgan’s correction, pointing out that the only information it had was from capitalist press dispatches, and draw- ing the attention of all comrades engaged in such activities that it is their duty to inform the Daily Worker themselves, since we can not get the facts by clairvoyance or mental tele- and the cops would have gotten the worst of it, too, The general sentiment was with us, and the crowd was ready to fight. The Mayor and pathy, and without cooperation from our own comrades are forced to rely, willy-nilly, on un- reliable reports of capitalist press news. agen- cies, of the grafting, hypocritical U. S, imperialism and its priestly “socialists” and trade union lackeys. These oppressors of the workers, these char- latans in priestly robes and rabbi caps, these traitors to the working cl: are carrying out their preparations gor a military attack against the U.S.S.R., under the guise of the struggle for “freedom, civilization and morality.” In their own land these parasites have thrown into the streets 7,000,000 workers, leaving them the freedom to die from hunger. In their own land these defenders of “c' ization” are beating, arresting and shooting the unemployed who demand Work or Wages. In their own land these defenders of “morality” are brutally exploiting women and children, lynching Negroes and are dooming the workers to hunger, sickness, degeneration and death. We unanimously declare that we will under the guidance of the Communist Party and the revolutionary trade unions, affiliated with the T.U.U.L. fight against our class oppressors and the entire despicable capitalist system and for the establishment of the government of the toilers, the Soviets of Workers and Farmers, tn the United States. We demand Work or Bread, social insurance against unemployment to be covered by taxa- tion of the capitalists and controlled by the workers themselves. We demand the immed‘ate liberation of all the working class fighters who are languish- ing in jail only because they have fought for the working class. We appeal to all workers to strengthen the Communist Party, the revolutionary trade unions and to struggle in an organized manner against the speed-up, for increase in wages. We demand complete equality for our broth- ers, the Negro workers and farniers and the right of self-determination for them and the colonies of American imperialism, Haiti, the Philippines and others, We protest against the persecution of the foreign-born workers, against the new attempt of the capitalist oppressors to smash the unity of the workers by means of racial, religious and nationalist prejudices and hate. We demand the cessation of deportations, the abolition of the criminal syndicalist laws and we will fight against the attempts to intro- duce exceptional laws against the foreign-born workers. We will build the revolutionary trade unions and will fight for the seven-hour day and for the increase in wages. We promise to use every effort for the pre- paration of the National Conference of the Unemployed which is being called by the Trade Union Unity League and the Councils of the Unemployed for March 29,