The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 31, 1930, Page 6

silicon > P| Page Six Square, New York City, Published by the Comiprodaily Publishing Co,; Inc., daily, except Sunday, ee A 1 Telephone Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cabi “DAIWi ORK.” Address and mail all checks to tka Daily Worker, 26-28 Union Square. New York, y N.Y Daily 32: Central Organ of the Communist aii) vi the UL S. AL Rais Worker aa ee SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1) everywhere: One year $6; six months $3; two months.$1; excepting Boroughs of ,ottan and Bronx, New York City, and foreign, which are: Oné year $8; six months $4.50 A. F. L. AND THE §&. P. In th stallments, Comrade Dune eactionary arguments of th aders” who maintain that the is a thing of the past in Amer- supply a theoretical By BILL DUNNE, : mechanization of and ¢ of chronic agric es it impossible for the to reduce the ranks s to them. farming, of the jobless it of land un- amber of work- r of 1914- re wheat, 4 re cotton, 4 per cent ugh’ nt 1 the mil- e census fig- lation declined 5 per cent be tween 1920 and Hoover com reports a declinc on since 1920. Agriculture, tion, there er who would propose of h Randa hands on April and mass unemploy- worker back to the ment farm hunti lihood. of the beauties of capi- 1 and agricultural cri pons in the r government ks on the living standards of class! for further a the v Tt is 2 e lie of capitalism’s publicity agents that the workers displaced by ration- alization in the older indus are “absorbed” by the ne But a study of the actual the Institute of Econ- shatters this fiction that the “displace- speed-up, mechaniza- from one center ment” of workers by tion and the shift of industr to another (t —from the North to the South, coal mining—from middle west to north and south Atlantic states, ete.), not only adds hundreds of thousands of them to the unemployed army but results in a decrease of the standard of living for those who ar2 “absorbed.” “Displaced” workers hav ea great difficulty in finding employment. Almost onehalf of the workers who were known to have been dis- charged by certain firms during the year pre- ceding were still without jobs when interviewed by investigators from that institute. (Institute of Economics). Of those still unemployed over 8 per cent had been out of work for a year and about one-half had been idle for more than three months. More than one-half of those whe had found jobs had been in enforced idleness for more than three months before finding work. Here is statistical proof that capitalist ra- tionalization reduces the living level of the working class. These figures are a definite refutation of the A. F. of L. clai mthat “man- agement-cooperation” and other forms of “class peace” raise wages and living standards and make workers “more independent.” (For a de- tailed treatment of this subject see “Mislead- ers of Labor” by William Z. Foster, “Company Unions” by the same author and “Class Colla- boration” by Earl Browder). “Permanent prosperity” is supposed to result from “high wages” that sre shown by careful research to be really wage cuts, by an “increase” in work- ers’ purchasing power that is actually a de- crease in the price of labor power, by an “in- crease” 4n employment that is actually a rapid decrease in employment. Permanent mass unemployment not “per- manent prosperity” is the fruit of capitalist rationalization and the betrayals of workers by the fascists of the A. F. of L. and the social- fascists of the Musteite stripe. Another important feature of rationalization in connection with the whole drive of Amer- ican imperialism against the working class and its most advanced and courageous section— the Communist Party—is one to which but little attention has been paid. It is the fact that every years more than 200,000 persons from the farms come into the industrial centers looking for work—farm la- borers who are driven away by lack of employ- ment and low wages, bankrupt farmers, farm- ers’ sons whom the home farms cannot support, farmers’ daughters who choose the social pov- erty of the city poor rather than the lomly poverty of the countryside, etc. Still more important is the fact that every year from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 boys and girls become of working age—are enlisted in the ural crisis, arming { the agents of the bosses in the ranks of the working class—by the “efficiency unionism” advocates of the A. F. of L. Under capitalism production is carried on for the market—not to fill the needs of the masses—but for the needs of the market—for sale, production for profit. Rationalization is a method by which the capitalist class increases profits at the expense of the workers. By low- ering the standard of living, by lowering the cost of produting goods (iron, steel, textile, food, etc.) through forcing workers to produce more goods for the same wages, the capitalist gets greater profits and at the same time lays the basis for forcing workers to produce till more goods for less wages. Unemployment is a powerful weapon in the hands of the capitalist class by which this process is speeded up. Wages go down—the the new jobs paid lower wages in most in- stances, It was also found that trained cloth- petition for the decreasing number of jobs. What are the facts regarding the wages of those workers fortunate enough to be “ab-* sorbed” by other industries after being dis- placed by the rationalization process? The Institute of Economics discovered “that jobs paid lowed wages is most ins ces. It was also found that trained cloth- ing cutters for example, with years of exper- ience, had become gasoline station attendants, watchmen in warehouses and clerks in meat markets. Machinists were selling hosiery for mail order house: A significant number of en after months of enforced idleness admitted frankly that they had taken to bootlegging.” * Unemployment and its twin, poverty, not only lowers the standard of living of the work- ing class but sets up a process of degeneration new which affects individual workers. The com- petition for the job creates a cannibalistic truggle between young and old, male and fe- male, Capitalism in this period of imperialism, when the s of its marvelous machine pro- ion methods are sung by the professors ised at bargain counter prices, when the sts, taking. their cue from the ruling rate of “organized capitalism” and ex- eauties and possibilities, condemns mil- lions of our class to imprisonment in the valley y, and covers them with the ashes of poverty. The poisonous dust of pauperism con- s their faces and only the tears of hungry children wash furrows through it. Seeing them, the professional welfare work- , the jackels of capitalism, say: “Look, they are human after all. We must do something.” So, soup kitchens are opened in the name of mythical Jesus to show workers that pov- is a blessing, that hunger prepares one for heaven, that the sanctified but scanty food of chr an charity must not be considered from the standpoint of base materialism and the gnawing ache of empty bellies. Did not Jesus himself feed five thousand with five loaves and three fishes? Unemployment and poverty for the working class—idleness and riches for the parasitic rul- ing class—this is the law of capital robbery and misery of the workers—th’ e cement which bound together the foundation stones of capitalism, Paul LaFargue wrote with burning satire in 1880: the ert “In the name of christian meekness a priest of the Anglican church, the Reverend Mr. Townsend, intones: ‘Work, work, night and day. By working you make your poverty in- crease and your poverty releases us from im- posing work upon you by force of law. The legal imposition of work gives too much trouble, requires too much violence and makes too much noise. Hunger, on the contrary, is not only a pressure which is peaceful, silent and inceasant, but as it is the most natural motive for work and industry, it also provokes the most powerful efforts.’ ork, work, pro- letarians, to increase social wealth and your individual poverty; work, work, in order that becoming poorer, you may have more reason to work and become miserable. Such is the inexortable law of capitalist production.” “Because lending ear to the fallacious words of the economists, the proletarians have given themselves up body and soul to the vice of work... there is a plethora of merchandise and a dearth of purchasers, the shops are closed and hunger scourges the working peoples with its whip of a thousand lashes.” (The Right To Be Lazy—Pages 23-24—Kerr Edition). But the cement which bound the foundation stones of capitalism into what seemed to many to be an unshakable structure is crumbling in the fierce fire of the class struggle. Robbery by the masters and misery for the workers is no longer accepted as inevitable by the work- ing class, The million and a quarter American workers who came into the street on March 6 to demonstrate for “Work or Wages,” and against unemployment, at the call of the Com- munist Party, show that even the structure of American capitalism, considered the mos’ powerful in the world, is not impregnable and that the working class, far from being starved into submission, is rallying for the assault. (To be continued) Warning Against Jack Bryan, Police Agent The Central Control Commission warns al! Party and other workers’ organizations against Jack Bryan as a dangerous under-cover agent, who plies his nefarious trade by surreptitiously joining some workers’ or- ganization, working him- self up to some more o1 less important position and then trying to disrupt the organization. Before the March 6th Unemployed Demons t ra - tions, he cropped up in Toledo, Ohio, and became very active. le joined the International Labor Defense, he even made Jack Bryan an application for membership in the Party. But then he was exposed as the same Jack Bryan who acted as a stool-pigeon in the Pas- saic ttrike in 1926, And when his attempt to pretend that he had reformed failed, he came out again openly trying to disrupt the May Day demonstration in Canton, Ohio. Is about 45 years of age, 6 feet tall, weight about 130 pounds, reddish-blond hair, ruddy comple;ion, light blue eyes. (Centeal Control Commission, C. P. of U. S. A. ranks of those workers seeking jobs. Some dis- place older workers who in turn join the ranks of the unemployed but others find no jobs. The main feature o7 this situation is that the ranks of the permanently unemployed army are swelled continually by both youthful and aged | reeruits. ‘ “High production makes possible high Amer- ican wages and the high American standard of BILL GREEN SALUTES. HIS COLORS The president of the A. F. of L. took part “in and agreed to all the decisions of the Hoover industrial conference, where the big employers and the A. F. of L. promised that the workers would toil through the crisis, and the b This is pure trickery to keep the exploited and unemployed workers from rebel- Proof? Rockefeller’s mines (the largest company in wages. ling against low pay and starvation. sses would not take advantage of it to cut U. S.) cut their 2,500 West Virginia miners 14 per cent and Green ‘alls no fight against it. The Chinese Soviets at Work (Continued) The Soviets have decisively beaten the Kuo- mintang militarists, have confiscated the land and cattle of the landlords, have burned up the onerous leases, the usurious loan contracts, the rent accounts, of the capitalists and land- lords, and have thrown overboard the mili- tarist rule and government of the Kuomintane generals, During the struggle, Soviet governments have been set up, and Red Armies organized and strengthened to defend the Soviets. The Red Armies in China not only triumph over the counter-revolution with rifles and bullets, but with the all-piercing weapon of leaflets and circulars, which awaken the soldiers—who are unemployed workers in military uniforms —to turn their bayonets against their com- manders, to respond to and help the upris- ings of the Soviets and to carry through the agrarian revolution shoulder to shoulder with the workers and peasants. This has greatly alarmed the militarists, and hardened their attack on the Soviets, which, however, have steadily gained strength and enlarged their scope. What Soviet Rule Does. In the territory of the Soviets, there are no more landlords and usurers, who live as para- sites by extorting high rents and interest from the workers and peasants. There are no more vicious gentry (thieving village officials) who cheat and oppress the peasants; no more loafers, hoodlums and ban- dits. In the territory of the Soviets, land has been distributed to the landJess farm workers, the small peasants and the families of revolution- ary soldiers. In case the said families cannot till the land themselves, the Soviet govern- ment hires peasants to till it for them. In the territory of the Soviets, peasants’ banks are in operation to supply the peasants with capital for the cultivation and improve- ment of their farms. Cooperatives function to help the workers and peasants to get their necessities cheaper and to sell their products easier. In the territory of the Soviets, workers are | enjoying increased wages, shorter hours, and all sorts of political freedom and cultural privileges. In the territory of the Soviets, the linkin tax (internal customs tax), tariffs and other op- pressive taxes and rents are abolished, with the exception of the administration expenses given over to the government directly by the workers and peasants. In the territory of the Soviets, the small artisans and trad are leading a peaceful life, free from militarist oppression and yet unable to exploit the masses by raising the price of their commodities. The Masses Armed. In the territory of the Soviets, both workers and peasants have been armed for the defense of the Soviets and the defeat of the militarists. In the territory of the Soviets, young work- ers and young peasants have been provided with ample opportunities of education and rec- reation to train themselves ideologically and physically for the class struggle. These youths have organized themselves into Pioneers and Young Workers Leagues, have rendered ef- fective support to the Soviets in clearing up the reactionary forces and have been part and parcel of the Red Armies. In the territory of the Soviets, the completely emancipated women workers and women peas- ants have gained equal rights with men, and have actively joined the revolutionary struggle. As yet, the Soviets have not won many of the industrial and commencial centers, and therefore are comparatively poor in finance. As to material well-being, we don’t want to indulge in loose exaggerations, One thing is sure: The Soviet territories, without exploitation and without oppression, are for the masses the nearest thing to paradise of any region in China. But they are not hermits’ pleasure resorts. During this period of bitter struggles, the Soviets are a great force in the battle and a flying flag in the field. The proletarians in the cities must energetically lead these vil- lage Soviets and organize them into one solid whole. Only by this means can the banner of the Soviets soon be hoisted over all China. Into Maryland With Communist - Organization By GEORGE MILLIE i Hace leading party in the State of Maryland, which is holding an election in November fdr all officers, is the democratic party. Its candidate for governor is Albert C. Ritchie, excessively Protestant, corpulent, and aristo- cratic. He is running for his fourth term, apparently hoping to remain governor w he outlives all the other Democratic presidential hopes, Twice, in 1924 and 1928, he almost suc- ceeded in capturing the nomination, but was beaten out first by a corporation lawyer and then by Al Smith, the Tammany Catholic author and realtor. For most of the eleven years that he has governed Maryland Ritchie has been popular with those who make governors—the finance ¢apitalists and the newspapers, Graft, which has never been far under the surface has been particularly flagrant during Ritchie’s present administration. Several mem- bers of the State Roads Commission were in- discreet enough to get caught stealing, put- ting Ritchie in a much less popular position than he has been in the eleven years of his overlordship. In addition Ritchie has been ac- cused of “gross mismanagement” of the Cono- wingo Dam and of practically giving it away to the Pennsylvania light and power interests. Consequently the two other capitalistic parties in Maryland—republican and socialist —are both licking their chops at Richie’s dis- comfiture and will make earnest efforts to get their hands on the plunder always avail- able to the occupants of the State Capitol. The socialist party, which in its own sweetly hypocritical way here calls itself the “labor” party, has no more contact with the workers than class-conscious proletarians expect it to have and is a completely moribund sect. Generally, conditions in Maryland are such that the Communist Party is in a splendid position to reveal to the workers the extent of the intense exploitation to which they are: being subjected. A vigorous attempt must be made to reach the white and Negro coal miners and railroad workers, particularly in Western Maryland, where until now virtually no contacts have been made. The agricultural workers throughout the state and especially in Southern Maryland and along the eastern shore are being held in a state of semi-feudal bondage in no wise different from that pre- vailing throughout the South. The govern- ment workers and the naval workers in Anna- polis must be reached and the contacts already established among the Baltimore marine work- ers, the B. and O. workers in the Mount Clare shops, the steel workers in the Bethlehem shops and the unemployed movement as well By FRED ELLIS bi Fight Against Right By E. VAFIADES, New Jersey Section Organizer. HERE are no doubts as to the correctness of the Thesis of the Central Committee and | the Draft Thesis of our District, especially | on the question of the deep-going crisis and i the growing radicalization of the masse | If we believe that there is a d going crisis, then we mu: so believe in the con- sequences of the such as wage cuts, lengthening of hours (which is a general drive of the bosses here in New Jersey, unemploy- ment, and the growing misery which affects even the petty shopkeepers. In this situation the Party faces the task of organizing and leading the gigantic struggles that are ahead of us and building up the rev- olutionary unions, the Trade Union Unity League and the Party. The leftward drift of the masses brings the A, F. of L. into line with the capitalists, and they (the A. F. of L.) become the leaders of the bosses, the machine to break up strikes, etc. The Social Fascists also cannot be i nored. They, too, are taking the leadership in the atfack against the condition of the work- ers and the Soviet Union (Woll, Thomas). We can see this for a fact in Paterson. When the N. T. W. U. had a drive to organize and prepare the workers for a general strike, the Fascist U. T. W. of the A. F. of L. and the Social Fascist Muste-ites organized a so- called “Peace Council” (which consisted of the Chamber of Commerce, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Businessmen’s Asso- ciations, the priests and all the black forces of the capitalist system) in order’ to stop the N. T. W. U. from organizing the unorganized workers that are working 70 to 80 hours a week in the dye houses of Paterson for star- vation wages. In this period there is no other party in the field that really tries to organize the millions of unorganized workers that are working under miserable conditions. In order that the Party be able to cope with this situation, first and foremost it must clean from its ranks all the right wing opportunists and Social Democratic elements, who are rem- nants from the Socialist Party and the Lov stone renegades, in order to attract new pr letarian elements that will put into practice the new methods of work. These new elements will be the ones to carry out the plans and the decisions laid down by the Central Committee, such as: Concentration on specific shops and building up of shop nuclei and shop papers; to transform the Party from a Party of street nuclei to a Party of shop nuclei and make every factery a fortress of the Communist Party, especially now, when there a grow- ing danger of war against the Soviet Union and the possibility, in the near future, of ille- gality of our Party; of building up our rey- olutionary unions, the T. U. U. L.; to broaden the circulation of the Daily Worker, the organ- | izer of the masses; the building of the F. S. U., in order to mohilize the masses of workers for the defense-of the Soviet Union, the work- | ers’ fatherland, ete. | I agree with the Central Committee when it says in its Thesis “the Party passes very defi- | nitely over from a period of talk to the period | of action.” | But there are still elements in our Party that live in the first period. Not only elements but whole nuclei, and an example of this may be found, not in the South or Middle West but ten minutes from New York—in Cliffside, N. This nucleus, which remains from the cialist Party ,is in existence for fifteen years. It consists of thirteen members, all Lithuani- | ans. There has not been a gain or loss in mem- bership during this period of time. It consists | of the following elements: Five business men, one bootlegger and saloonkeeper, one foreman, and the rest are workers who have degenerated among these business men. There is one ex- ception, however, a devoted comrade. The meetings were conducted in Lithuanian. They took place twice a month in back of a saloon, The meetings were usually called at 8 p. m., but did not start until 9 p. m. because they had to drink first and then start the meeting. Their order of business usually consisted of questions of the fraternal organizations and not the every-day work of the Party. The unit was organized an a fraternal organization basis and not on a Communist basis. For instance, in- stead of having an organizer, industrial or- ganizer, agit prop, etc., they had a secretary, secretary-treasurer, and treasurer. They had a treasury of $60. I don’t think there is an- other unit in the United States that has accu- mulated $60 in its treasury. This, in itself, shows how much activity was carried on. Once in a blue moon they hold a mass meeting, and then they issue leaflets in Lithuanian. When I first visited the Unit, as a Section Organizer, I had to bring to them the deci- sions of the Section Committee concerning general Party work, especially May Day. When the question of May Day was taken up, they were opposed to holding any open-air meetings or demonstrations. Not even an in- door meeting, claiming that the workers of Cliffside were not ready to come to demon- strations and that they did not understand PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSSION | do with the Daily Worker. Danger Not Over' anything of Communism. ‘Instead they decided | to leave the workers of Cliffside and go to | New York to the demonstration. When the question of distributing the special May Day issue of the Daily Worker was brought up, they revolted and refused to have anything to | Only when they were threatened with expulsion did they take 1,000 Daily Workers, of which 500 were dis- | tributed. Only three comrades participated in { the distribution; the rest claimed they would | lose business, because every one in the town j knew them. The worl claimed that they | would lose their jobs. As far as getting sub- | scriptions for the Daily Worker was concerned, | they flatly refused, using the same exci The Section Committee, after a thorough di: cussion on this unit, decided to take organiza- tional steps: (1) We reorganized the whole unit and elected an organizer and the rest of | the functionaries; (2) we expelled the boot- | legger; (3) we called all those that resisted | the instructions of the Section, to the Control Commission; (4) we instructed the unit to get |. out of the saloon immediately and find another ff place to meet; (5) to sell and get subscriptions for the Daily Worker; (6) to organize a Trade Union Unity League; (7) to check back the | activity of the comrades; (8) to have a meet~ ing every week and not twice a month; (9) we appointed the organizer of the unit to run as Congressman in Bergen county; (10) that every comrade get convention stamps, accord- ing to the decision of the Central Committee, in order to have a right to vote. They formally accepted the decisions of the Section. But they did not carry them out. For instance, only one participated in the sale of Daily Workers, and sold nine, for the first time in front of a factory. One the question of convention stamps, they brought up the ar- gument that the new dues system of the Party forbade any tax or assessment. The rest of the instructions were actually sabotaged. For instance, on the question of the Congressman, not only did they refuse to sign the petitions, but also told the workers of the town not to sign because the candidate was not capable to be a Congressman! All the instructions of the Section and the new methods of work of the Party, these com- rades found .too radical. They immediately called a special meeting, before the regular meeting, excluding the Unit Organizer and in- cluding the expelled bootlegger. At the next regular meeting, which was held in the same saloon, at which I was present, I presented an order of business from the Section Executive. The groceryman, Stevens, immediately got up and proposed an order of business which had been prepared at the secret meeting, and stated that the majority proposed it. ‘These com- rades were told that only Party organizers |. have a right to present an order of business and the comrades may add what they want. (Their order of business had nothing to do with the present activity of the Party.) The answer to the Section Organizer was, “If you don’t like this order of business you can get the hell out, and if you don’t, we will kick you out. This unit has been ruled by us for fifteen years and no one will rule it but our- selves!” I had to appeal to the few workers who were there to leave the meeting and have a meeting in a place where we can take up Party problems and not language problems, What does this show? First, that the mem- bers were left alone for fifteen years with- out any leadership from the Section or the Party. Second, in the langwage branches there are still remnants ‘of federationism. Third, the Lithuanian Bureau must be severely criti- sized for not bringing the message of the Party to the Lithuanian workers, in order to educate them as to the structure and general campaigns of the Party. We cannot ‘call these elements “right wing- ers,” but nationalist open social democratic elements wh ve no place in the Party. We must also criticize our District for not paying more attention to a State which has the most basic and war industries, in which thousands of proletarian elements, ready to come into our revolutionary unions, are working. The Party must send the most capable comrades into New Jersey and must help out this State, not only through the sending of colonizers but also financially. f The main fact to be stressed is that the Sec- tion Organizer and Section functionaries must see to it that they direct the work of the units personally. This must also be applied to the District Executive members who must check up activities of the Section and activities of every unit in the Party. Only then can we expect from the lower units the carrying out of the instructions and decisions of the higher bodies. The right wing elements will be swept aside during the process of this ‘work and the revolu- tionary struggles that are ahead of us and new proletarian elements will replace them. The Party will then be able to mobilize the major- ity of the working class for the final oyer-. throw of the system and the establishment of a workers and farmers’ government. FORWARD FOR A MASS COMMUNIST PARTY UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE C. L AND C, G must be maintained and developed. ~ According to the Bureau of Census figures (1927) there were employed in gainful occupa- tion in Maryland 126,700 workers in 3,205 different factories and shops. Total wages were (1927) $141,902,797. Total value of pro- ducts $948,410,896. Cost of material and fuel and power was $564,120,407. For Baltimore | (1927) the figures were 84,005 workers .in 2,090 shops and: factories. Total wages were $93,403,523. Value of products produced $692,- 574,915. Cost of material, fuel and power, $425,919,448. Average wage according to these figures for the worker of Maryland is $1,112.10 a year or $21.39 a week, Statistics for agricultural workers, who are paid about one-third of the wage given to city workers, are not revealed by the census figures. And these figures reveal a condition existant prior to the bringing» of a “full dinner pail” and “prosperity” to the masses by the “Great Engineer,” Workers in Maryland are almost completely unorganized, The Trade Union Unity League | is just beginning to function and the M.W.LU. has enrolled about 600 members, at the same time driving the useless I.W.W. from the waterfront, The bankrupt A. F. of L, has or- ; ssi ganized a few of the skilled workers in the bricklaying, plumbing and electrical trades, but has made absolutely no effort to unionize the unskilled workers. The coming elections then, offer a splendid opportunity for the Party to put the issues before the workers on a class-struggle basis. | Our candidates can appear on the ballot only, by petition. Two thousand signatures each must be obtained for the office of governor, attorney general, comptroller, and clerk of the court of appeals: 8,000 in all, For nominees for congress 1,500 signatures must be obtained in each district, a total of 9,000. A campaign committee of five members has been elected to call a convention for the purpose of nomin- ating candidates and drawing up a platform and left wing unions have been invited to par- ticipate. If the Party is to make any real headway among the exploited, if it is,to organize the masses, and draw into its service class-cons~ cious leaders, it must bend every effort to obtain these signatures and to make the com ing elections a concrete. example to the work ers of the revolutionary class struggle by, building during the campaign the permaneng organizations of class struggle in the |