The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 20, 1930, Page 4

rage Four appearing The second year of the Five-Year Plan has about a radical lined from 1,741,- 81,000—a drop of about cent. By June 1, 1930 the to 900,000—a de- e-third since the nt pract the Soviet ent; in fact, shortage of skilled great majority of the egistered with the labor S are persons without any or profession, who have mbers of trade unions, ara” hose seeking employment for the rst time. On April 1, the unemployment registered with the Moscow labor exchange numbered 186,000, half of cree recently providing for the en-) either had never worked be-|Tfollment or were never members of the unions. A large proportion isted of unskilled women and juvenile workers. There was not a qualified metal, chemical, leather, food or construction worker or any printer listed. Until recently employment among office workers bookkeepers was considered uronic and as late as January 1, 930 there were 17,000 office work- listed with the Moscow labor ex- single and are no unemployed bookkeepers, ac- countants, or stenographers regis- tered in Mosow. A recent investigation of the un- employment situation reveaoled that about 43 per cent of all unemployed are supported by other members of their families who receive com- paratively “igh incomes. This ex- plains why many unemployed are er particular about the nau of Linemployment Dis- decrease yment in the } n April 1, the number | s At the present time there/ m USSR. growing rapidly, with many re- quests for workers coming in daily from construction jobs, mills, fa and commercial enterpris: te and collective farms are also large new emplo) ers of labor. ies, Conditions r to those of the Moscow labor exchange prevail on the Leningrad exchange. On De-| cember 1, 1929, the number of aoe employed in Leningrad was 129,000, whereas on March 1, 1930 it had| dropped to 24,500. In Leningrad | also, there are practically no unem-| ployed men, the bulk of the jobless being unskilled women, The labor exchange is placing from 500 to 600) women daily. | The number of unemployed juven- iles at present registered with labor | exchanges in the U. S. S, R. is 200,-| |000, but these will be absorbed Lee the fall and spring enrollment into factory schools, which calls for more than 400,000 students. In order to} | draw more people into productive , |labor, the Commissariat for Labor | {has outlined a plan for extending | to a greater number of people the | |privilege of registering with the labor exchanges. According to this | project the following categories are \eligible to register: wives of indus- | trial and office workers who have not been employed during the past few years; members of producers’ jartels, whether they belong to pro- \ducers’ cooperatives or not; individ- ual handicraft wo.kers in trades |which are declining; widows of in- dustrial and office workers; children of industrial, office, and handicraft workers, and their juveniles. In order to meet the growing de- mand for qualified labor the Su- |preme Economic Council issued a de- in factory schools and| schools for the preparation of semi- skilled workers during September of not less than 185,000 students. Of} this number the stee] industry will | absorb 12,000 workers, machine- building—9,000, te tile—8,500, coal |— 8,000, agriculture — 6,500, ete. Those trusts and enterprises were to make application for the required number of students with the local| labor exchanges not later than by July 15. The decree provides for the max- | imum utilization of existing school | ‘buildings, laboratories, etc., by the introduction of day and night classes. Factory offices, club rooms and other | buildings are to be converted into classes during the hours when they | are not occupied, and the engineers | and technical experts of the factories and mills will make 1p the teach- ing personnel. Short-term courses for the preparation of teachers for | than four work offered them. At the Moscow | the newly-opened schools will be labor exchange, for instance, a no- | Organized immediately, two million tice was posted for a number of | rubles being allotted for scholarships months offering employment to men for those who take these short-term and women as watchmen in ware- s, with a monthly wage of 65 and working clothes fur- |, but very few answered this Some groups of unemployed call, réfused to be sent out for garden- ing or construction work or to the Central Labor Institute where un- sk led laborers are taught trades. Meanwhile the demand for labor Pioneer Corner Dear Comrades: We are now back to school again after our summer vacation. My father who works in the mines, has been out of a job for nfany weeks. I have worked for three weeks down Tamauqua, which is not far from Coaldale for Mrs. Sweeney. I had to do all the housework ex- cept cooking, and I also took her little boy out in his carriage every day. I had only received four dollars a week and my father told me to ask her for five dollars. When I did ask her she told me that it was too much and that she could get many girls who would work for $3 a week. I didn’t even get enough to eat from Mrs. Sweeney. Sometimes I would only have a small sand- wich and a small cup of coffee for dinner. One day when she fried eggs she didn’t give me a whole one, but she took a piece off. One day when I told her that I did not get enough to eat she said to me that she thought I didn’t even get that much at home, because we were very poor. I told her that when I work hard I need enough to eat. She then got mad and told me that I know how to answer her and she told me to go home where I will eat. Now I will have to close my letter. ANN BORETSKY, Napavine, Washington. Dear Comrades: -My father has no work and he has to work at home now, T help him. One day when we Were eating dinner he started to ery. We asked him why he was cry- ing and he said that he was worrying because school was going to start and we had no shoes. | told him that I had earned one dollar and that I would give it to him. He said that one dollar wasn’t much, Dad said I shuld -AGITATE FOR THE | courses, The decree also states that the 51/ | million rubles ($26,000,000) appro- | priated for the construction of new \factory and mill schools and of \schools for semi-skilled workers are to be fully expended during 1929-30, jand that the new schools are to be completed by September 1, 1930, the | beginning of the school year. keep it and use it to get tennis shoes to go to school in. Then if he gets a job some place he would buy me a pair of shoes to go to school in in the winter. Comradely yours, NELLIE NAREVICH. Salem Depot,, N. H. Dear Comrades: I am sending you the answer to your puzzle. Here, in Lawrence, work is slack. Most people work only one or two days a week. When people enter the mill to get a job the boss says,—“there is no work for you!” It is bad that the work- ers’ conditions are that way. But that is because the boss wants more profits. | I live on the farm and haven’t/ time to write any more because all) summer we were making hay and now in the fall we have lots of work too. Walton Tusen Syracuse, N. Y. Dear Comrade Readers: | A series of Open-Air meetings |were held in Syracuse. .Two of | these meetings were held near our, block. The speakers spoke on un-) ,employment. Both meetings were | successes. Most of the people sym- pathized with these speakers but) |the trouble is that some of them| jare still afraid to fight. for their, rights. They still think somebody | 5 ~ to provide their fe nily with | |food and work without fighting for} IN EUROPE By MYRA PAGE While twenty-two thousand Ford workers tramp the streets of Detroit looking for jobs to keep them and their families from starving, with more than seven million others keepin, up the same vain search in cities throughout the United States, Henry Ford and his wife go on a jaunt to Europe in for antique furniture! This thin-lipped capitalist, who is one of the three richest men in the country and ‘rightly listed as one of the “fifty-nine” who rule the government, does not give a dam for the unem- ployed, any more than he gives for the slaves who drop from exhaustion at the speed of the belt in his factories. None of the motor-king’s mil- lions is to go to feed hungry babies ain d children of the that is, not if he can help it. No sir, he needs the cash for pleasure trips to Florida and Europe, for trying out sorts of crank schemes of his to make America more of a happy land for the well-to-do, and for pur- chasing such essentials of life as High-boys and early s' teenth century French furniture | and other foibles with which the rich parasites indulge them- selves and keep boredom away. Meanwhile the Morrows and Vanderbilts amuse themselves | with yachts, and Dawes goes | caye-hunting in Spain. ANOTHER NERO. Ford began his “pilgrimage” in a peculiarly fitting manner. On board ship going over, he and his wife entertained the entire ship by dancing a maz- | urka to an audience of boot- licking hangers-on who yapped and ah-ed. Too bad none of the unemployed could have been there. The sight filled their empty bellies. executing a dashing side-kick in the dance and saying “Yes I’m opposed to socia! insurance. Let a search | undernourished | unemployed— | | | Like the simple-minded | might have | Ford, | DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1930 | The Vanderbilts and Morrows Spend Millions om Yachts But Oppose Workers’ WHILE JOBLESS iVORKERS STARVE ica’s thirty million workers to take back some of the billions Social Insurance Bi ae paurance Bill slaved on the belt, so that now ie, WY, mn) \) FORD everyone but me and my wife | and my son work for a living. Insurance would be charity.” Then turning to his wife, “Now a neat turn my dear... Don't | worry, anybody, high tariff will | solve all problems.” Ford, an- other Nero, fiddling while Rome burns! hypo- Ford tries to hide unwilingness crite he is, his to part with any of “his” millions for any purpose except to satisfy his own personal whims, by saying he is opposed to social insur- ance for the unemployed as a / . Me uh AN PLOYED (ws Ford and His Class Dance and Bargain-Chase on Back of Workers , | Workers, Organize and Demand Work or Wages! when the factory gates closed on them, they and their children may have bread and a roof over their heads. “Charity” | | eae (L HAVE AN oe Antec CAM} —zah! Not charity, but ele- mentgry <class justice! that the | De! | toilers of this country demand RE OF IT | és Than ANY | and are determined to win. Tne | Fight for the Right to Live. Workers, fight relentlessly for | your right to live. Put all your| combined power behind the strug-| gle for the Workers Social Insur- | ance Bill advanced by the Com- | munist Party. This bill provides | that social insurance to the full’ amount of wages be paid to all, work because of sickness, mater- nity, or old age. In no case shall’ amount received be less than 5 with $5 for each dependent. | Those incapacitated by accident or | occupational disease shall get an additional compensation for their disabilities. Ex-service men wholly z, DKlhR S| |or in part incapacitated by their NOR } ees | time in the army. or navy are en-| eos Ww | titled to full insurance. Part-time workers shall receive sufficient to make up their full wage. The bill calls for a fund of five billion dollars to be provided by a transfer of all appropria- | tions for war purposes previously voted by Congress, and by a gra- duated tax levy on all capital and | property accumulations in excess of $25,000 and by a graduated in- come tax on all incomes in excess form of “charity.” Charity!— to demand, in the richest coun- try in the world, the right to | of $5,000 a year. “Work or Wages.” Charity, This fund is to be administered where two million is spent by by a Workers Social Insurance its ruling class for ones after- Comission, which is to be elected noon’s yachting race—Enough at a national conference of dele- to supply eighty thousand work- gates, chosen by workers em- ers’ families with a week’s ployed or unemployed, at election necessities, thrown away for the pleasure of a few. To demand the end of such waste is charity! Charity it is, not to starve quietly, taking care not to dis- meetings held in shops, factories, mills, mines, trade unions, unem- ployment councils, and other wor- kers’ organizations. Workers, put your mass power turb the sleep and play-hours behind the demand for Workers’ f the Fords, Rockefellers and Social Insurance. Vote Communist Morgans. Charity, for Amer- ‘in the coming elections! How German Workers Carried| Through Their Election Cam- paign for Communist Party By FRANZ LERCHE. The Communist Party of Ger- many, in the recent election cam- paign, has just demonstrated in a striking manner that it is a mass party with a following of more and a half millions among the workers, poor farmers and nation’s poor. Berlin is now Red Berlin, for the industrial pro- letariat of this metropc gave the Communist Party three-quar- ters of a million votes, putting it) in the lead of all other parties in Berlin. There has never been: an election in Germany where the campaign has been carried on with so much enthusiasm by the workers, for this time the German working class realized clearly that the elec- tion was a fight of life and death for the existence not only of the Communist Party of Germany, but for the working class of Germany in general. The dissolving of the Reichstag by Hindenburg, and ine threaten- | ing open dictatorship with the help, of Paragraph 48, the “Hunger Paragraph,” made it clear to every worker, and to the bourgeoisie as well, what the election would be held for. It was a well recognized fact that the Communist Party of would be Germany prohibited, if the outcome of this election showed that the working class of Germany could be caught off guard by this onslaught to establish a dictat ship of the capitalists in German Working Class Aga’nst Bourgeois Fascists. But the working class of Ger- many was on its watch. This was | {hind their flag. This demonstration | was militant and determined thru-| out Germany, and it can be said| here, that in many instances the/ police this time were not attack- ing the demonstrators for the sim- ple reason that it was better for them not to do so. It was shown again in results of the recent elec- tion. | Throughout the Reich the slogan was raised “Wir greifen an!” (We are attacking!) and in this sense the election campaign was carried) out. In all the principal cities there | exists a vattalion of Red Cavalry,| consisting of comrades with motor-| cycles, whose fighting capacity is very great, for they can be rapidly | moved about. This battalion on August First dared challenge the very strict law, that in the most! exclusive section of. Berlin, Unter | den Linden and Kurfuerstendamm, | the hangout of the upper 400, there should not be any parading. The) Red Battalion even went into these | streets, with red flags flying, and must have given some real sur- |prises to the German ruling class \and touring American Babbits, Dur- jing the election campaign the Red Battalions were very active. | Demonstrations, though the most effective form of campaigning, are by far not the only means of pro- paganda and agitation. New, ar- tistic methods were used all over Germany to reach the working class. There were speaking choruses and the masses participating in ithem, wherever there were parades and meetings, very effective slog- (ans being spoken by the masses, one of them running like this: The leader questions “Workingmen, | whom are you voting for?” and the masses answer: “For Commnu- |nists, on ballot No. 4!” | Workers Make City “the Way | We Want It.” | Then there were the agitprop |groups, the most popular and ef- |fective form of campaigning. These Men Less Cared for Than Birds in Hub of the Universe Where the Oldest and “Most Cultured” of ~ America’s Robbing Class Live THe CRUMI3, BB ] From Tose J are | York, Hungr Worker Steals Crust From fat Pigeons in Boston Bill Johnson, unable to find A Boston capitalist sheet gave work for over four months, with | | three lines to this story on an in-| empty pockets and an emptier!.. ro ane } stomach, sat on a bench in Bos-|Sid¢ Page. We're willing to bet ton Commons, envying the fat| that it received even this space not! because of the hungry worker, but because of the over-fed pigeons about which Boston’s “ladies and gentlemen” on Beacon Hill grow so sentimental. and crusts of them by pass-) pigeons the nuts bread being fed ers-by. Some country! thought _ Bill,| where they feed the pigeons but let humans starve. Edging nearer, and casting a furtive, shamed look around, he grabbed one of the crusts in his hand and made off, while a cop and middle-class idlers started after him. poe ha ents’ posters replaced overnight | wherever possible. “Workers Fight for a Soviet Germany!” Out into the country the cam- paign was carried also. Every party | unit adopted a number of villages, | and every industrial district adopted | a country district, which was visited | Workers like Bilt are joining Un- employed Councils of the revolu- tionary ns, and entering the fight for the Workers’ Social In- surance Bill, put forward by the Communist Party. quite a small guerilla warfare, and; the fighting forces of both classes are shifted about a section of the country where the enemy can be met. The Red Cavalry goes ahead sizing up the situation, sending messengers around. Telephones are ringing, and the class forces are concentrating on the spot, flags _| sight |workers’ theatre groups of a uni.,eVery week-end by trucks packed ique kind performed at large and|full with workers and by the Red) jsmall meetings not “plays,” but| Cavalry, distributing and selling li- | |short sketches picturizing in a con-|terature, holding improvised and \clse manner the life of the workers,|larger meetings, visiting every atirizing the class enemies, andj house in the village and talking to putting the party program before the workers and poor peasants per- the workers by song and play! |sonally, establishing new contacts | Songs, flags, modernistic posters,|and forming party nuclei. For the uniforms and streamers were made | very reason that this “Land-Agita. use of in most effective manner.| tation” is highly important worl The streets in working class dis- and also proving very fruitful, th triets were draped in red flags und| fascisti fought it wherever they streamers ran across the streets. could in the most terroristic man- | ner, The landowners, knowing what | |recent election meant more than) ‘The conditions in Syracuse are not |Shown fully on the First of Aug- jat "1 favorable. Many shops have| ust, which in linking ‘it up with been closed and work is still drop-| the anti-war demonstration was the ping. Workers are roaming the|general opening day of the elec- As a comrade said in his speech ‘opening up the election campaign: “The city must look the way we |waht it to look, and wd cannot af-) they will loose if their workers were to throw off their exploiters, the fascisti did not stop before any sort streets looking for jobs but with- out success. On our block they come and ask for food but when they come to our our house they get an answer like this—“why don’t you organize and ask the govern- ment to provide you with work or waena?? Ruth Parybus—12 years old | tion campaign, The masses turned out stronger than ever and swept the bourgeoisie clear off their feet. Not only individual workers, mem- bers of the party, are marching | every wall one can read, painted|clashes between workers and fas- parties—republican, democratic and in such demonstrations, but the|by unskilled workers’ hands in big,|cisti. (This reminds us somewhat) “socialist.” Agitate for the Com- workers of every shop, mill, fac-|red letters the words: “Vote Com-|of the situation in the South of | munist campaign! On with the Y Sometimes! Hammer and Sickle! Vote Commu-! to write again soon. tory and mine are represented there in a body and marching be- co ford to go into expenses for this.”| of violence, not even before murder, |Now, the party does not go into|in order to keep Communists away |too high expenses, yet the streets from them. There has been no wedk- | look the way we like it. On almost,end that passed without serious | munist, Ballot No. 4!” Posters were) the United States.) are lifted high and not seldom bul- lets are flying... This shows that the situation in Germany is most serious and the just a parliamentary election. The Communist Party of Germany stands prepared now for what will! come next. In tremendous letters it was written all around the Neu- Koelln Stadium, when the Red’ port and Culture day was held} on August 24: “Workers, fight for} a Soviet Germany!” And the masses there held up their fists and pledged the oath, to be ready when the party calls on them, to take up their arms and fight for a victorious proletarian revolution! Follow the example of the Ger- man comrades! Mobilize for the attack on U. S. capitalism and its FORD DANCES AND CHASES ANTIQUE BARGAINS “GOMMUNISTS' — By PAUL NOVICK Nearly 30,000 signatures al-! ready collected by the members New many of various districts of Greater that Hundreds ten times peope approached, thousands! “Communists ?” The well-fed woman that ered the bell was taken aback. Here they are, Reds, in person, an- asking HER to “sign up” for their candidates! What affront- ery! | The gzrrl-comrade was right. She knows. This is not the first time she’ is going out for sig- natures. She could tell from the appearance of the house what chances will be. This house did not look like a place where workers unemployed, or unable to) workers could afford to live. Too their rent. clean, too well kept. Rent must be high here. At the Doors of the Enemy “No use, bourgeois, or petit- bourgeois people’, she told her companion, they will not sign. “Yes, it looks that way,” he agreed. But the comrades went up the stairs, starting from the top floor down. They did not want to skip any house. Besides, let “them” know that the Commu- nists are campaigning. Doors started to bang. “No, no, no!” “We are democrats!” | Most of ‘the time the door banged without the party on the inside uttering a word. Some- times that party would nervously | put the door chain on and listen! breathlessly to find out whethter the Reds are retreating. ‘“Po- lite” business men, or Greenwich Villagers would answer: “Not to-day, some other time.” One Villager was in a dilema. To sign, or not to sign, that is the question! Some hidden “sympapthies” were fighting for signing. But, she was afraid to “commit” herself. Besides, she does not bother about politics at all, No, she won’t sign. Very- very sorry. “Wish you success.” Religious objections on Sun- days), threats of arrest (where a policeman would be living), scornful looks. The comrades did not get discouraged. They knew they are knocking at the door of the enemy. But they would get tired, up and down, five flights, six flights. Not one proletarian apartment, not one signature. Hot. Hard to climb these flights. Climbing was MUCH easier on| the dark slippery stairs of the| neglected tenement-house. The comrades were among OUR peo- ple! Campaigning in the Tenements ‘Communists?” .. .. “Oh, yes, the fellows of the demonstrations on Union Square? Sure!” They were both | unemployed. Two men. Greek workers they were, I think. Laborers. They were sitting at a bare table, in a corner of their tiny “front- room”, There was helplessness in their voices at first sight. The of Communists cheered them up. “Yes, | know the Communists from the old country,” one of them boasted in broken English. His colleague who spoke a_bet- ter English and is a_ citizen the petitions. But they would not let their comrades go away immediately. They wanted to talk. Here is somebody they can talk to! No work. Trying all kinds of | Not working, | Not a trace of the so-called pros- jobs. Nothing helps. tinued in other workers’ apart- ments. American-born, immi- grants—the same story all over. or still working. perity! The conditions of some of the immigrant ‘workers were abso- lutely heart-rending, particularly those of the Latin-American workers. Families of three, four five, hudled together in two tiny “rooms”, poorly lighted by gas- jets, with only one smah win- dow coming out into the yard, or against some dark wall, The workers complained about the hardship they are having paying But the “appear- ance” of the rooms, as well as the entire house, showed that the The Keel i i 7 landlord has rent in mind. Some of the needle workers liv- ing on the lower East Side ran a close second to the Latin- American workers. So was the case with most of the Italian workers, whose stuffy rooms of- ten looked like sweat shops, on account of the house work the women’ and children of Italian workers are compelled to do, day and night, mostly work for the men’s clothing manufacturers. So the story ran from house to house, a story of the condi- tions of the working class in the richest city of capitalism. A pic- ture of cheerless, miserable ex- istence and of endless worry about getting the few cents for this existence, in a city where the capitalists and their servants are squandering thousands and millions of dollars for luxuries. for debaucheries. It was fortunate that although but nothing else members of our Party, through this canvassing for signatures came in close touch with the working masses, as well as with the enemies of the workers. This experience will have a good ei- fect upon our membership and will bring some good results in the way of spreading Commu- nism among the workers, in the way of breaking through the wall of lies and calumnies which the capitalist press has put be- tween the workers and the Communists. And now, for fol- | lowing up this work, for getting results, for piling up a_ big Red vote! The German comrades have shown the way. Good work must bring results. “Wir greif- fen en”, was the slogan of our German comrades, “we are on the attack”. Let us. be on the attack, from now till election day. “Wir greiffen an”! The attack is on! Bosses Give 600 Cannery Workers Bum Checks; Workers Must Organize Sacramento, Calif. Comrade Editor:— Six hundred cannery workers here have just been gypped out of their wages when the California Co- operative Packers Co. filed bank- ruptey. An article in the Sacra- mento Union states that most of these workers depended on thej meagre wages from week to week, and being s: late in the canning! season that the most cf them are faced with starvation and a hard winter ahead. More Tricks. Another trick of the bosses. Over 70 per cent of these workers are women with families that are depending on them for support. These workers ‘have learned a damn good lesson. We must now get on the job and line them up in the only workers’ organization, the Trade Union Unity I-eague. Conditions Bad. Conditions on the skidroad here are rotten. Employment sharks stand outside their places shouting for slaves. Wages in the fruit har- vest are e worst in many a year. Prune pickers, 6 cents a box, have your own camp outfit, too; pear pickers, 7 cents a box, own outfit. Workers are becoming uneasy about these rotten conditions and will be right with us in the next demonstration. Yours for a work- ers’ and farmers’ government. . O'B. PEER aR Oakland, Calif. Editor Daily Worker:— Received your letter of recent |placed everywhere, and the oppon-|these clashes took the form of| nist! date and thanks for the invitation Til do that now, UNIST TICKET! Enclosed find a clipping from the Oakland Post-Enquirer of yester- day concerning a cenning company in Sacramento. . “Rubber” Checks. These 600 workers were paid wi’. a rubber check, so to speak, but the checks did not bounce back, because the workers were unable to cash them at all. Now the district attorney and others are pretending to investigate and the bosses are passing the buck as to who is re- sponsible for this outrage. Workers in all California are continually being confronted with just such conditions as this and it’s time something was being done. Work Day and Night. Today I talked with a young worker from the American Can Co. here in Oakland. He told me of the tricks employed there to fool the workers. Example: The employes were told they would have a holi- day yesterday, the 9th, “Admission” Day in California. They got the holiday alright, but they worked all night the night before to get it. Imagine working all day and all the same night to get a holiday. The workers were naturally too ex- hausted to use the holiday for any- thing but much-needed sleep. T. U. U. L. Must Get Busy. If the T. U, U. Lecould only get busy at these slave shops and or- ganize the workers the; could surely get some changes made for the better and here’s hoping they organize soon, Will close with greetings to the Daily Worker and the militant staff. —R. U. VOTE COMMUNIST! | Bad. What Set SAE PACE ee eae |is going to happen when the winter comes? | 7 ; The comrades could not stay wrung out of them while they |of the Communist Party in the to Jong, but the story was con- ' TT