The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 19, 1930, Page 4

Published by the 12th Street, > Address and Page Four Comprodafly Publishing Co. w York City, ail all checks to the Daly Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, N, Inc. dafty, N. ¥, Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: exeopt Sunday, at 60 Fast “DAIWORK." ae & BANK FAILURE AND SCANDAL By MYRA PAGE. HE ¢ hville and the county in which it is d, fittingly named Buncombe, have been rocked for the past two weeks by the havoc and scandal which developed on-the failure of the C 1 Bank and Trust Co. In fact, the entire state of North Carolina is shuddering from the effects. When the bank closed its doors, it was dis- covered that all of the city’s and county's public funds were deposited here, and that over $875,- 000 had been misappropriated by local bank and public officials. (See “Ashville Citizen” of Dec. 6 and subsequent issues.) Notes far in excess of the amount prescribed by law had been is- sued, and the public moneys had simply “van- hed,” as the local paper expressed it. The “vanished” funds had gone to line public and bank officials’ pockets. Also, according to an editorial in the Ashville Citizen, “The State Banking Department has a good deal to answer for, itself. As a result of the scandal, there is a wide- spread demand that all public officials resign, but so far only a few have complied. The suffering around Ashyille, both among the small farmers and the working class, which was afready intense, is greatly aggravated by the bank's failure. The bulk of the workers are employed in cotton mills, with four thousand formerly on the payroll of the Enka plant, one ty of ; of the largest rayon mills in the country. All factories have drastically cut their force and most of them are only running part time, so there is much unemployment, The middle- class, already pinched by the crisis, has also lost | heavily through the bank’s failure, In consequence of the misuse and dissipation of public funds, there is no money with which to run the schools, so the city and county face the immediate possibility of the closing of all public schools for the rest of the term, or the levying of a special tax, and the reduction of teachers’ salaries by one-third, in order to meet the emergency. At present the community is wrangling over which policy should be adopted. The role of the one local newspaper, “Ash- ville Citizen,” has also been exposed, as repre- senting the interests of the same class as that which the bank and government officials rep- resent. At first the paper refused to publish the facts on the bank’s dishonest dealings, only coming out with them when the facts were al- ready well known. IttS now attempting to-re- cover some of its lost prestige of its working farming and middle-class readers by publishing fiery editorials and printing a few of the indig- nant letters it has been receiving. But it is too Jate, the cat is out of the bag. This public scandal in “the fair state of North Carolina” sums up the corruption of capitalist America in a nutshell. Robbing ot 300,000 Workers Made Easy and Legal By M. D. LITMAN. ILE it takes some capital to exploit the workers, robbery after exploitation, requires no capital. All that the group of exploiters need as a bank, which the State charters permit a few bucaneers to keep the money which an ex- ploited and impoverished worker saves from his food by starving himself and his family. The former pants-presser and peanut mer- chant set up a bank under the name of the Bank of United States. This hooked the unwary right from the start. How true it is that scoundrels hide behind the flag and the scoun- drels who cheated the workers, hid behind their flag and behind their country. Although the prostitute press is laying the crash on to a small merchant ‘on Freeman St., sort of a phantom merchant, the Wall Street gougers knew as far back as a year ago that the bank was shaky. The brokers did not recomend Bank of U. S. stock, as the officers of that bank admitted themselves, rumors were in the aid a year ago thet the bank was weak and there has been a steady withdrawal of funds from that bank, by those who knew through some sub-rosa connections. It is known that businessmen with slim assets preferred to do their banking with the Bank of U. S., because they could get loans very easily. The bankers being very anxious to turn the workers’ money over and over several times, to 2arn big interest. Needle Trades Bosses Become Builders After merciless exploitation of the needle ‘rades workers, which is well known to those who we in the line, the needle trade bosses took these yorkers’ sweat money and invested it in real »state ventures. There are rarely any jobbers vho do not finance some building operations. They bring with them into the building in- lustry the same bag of tricks and chicanery that hey used in exploiting the needle workers, stoop- ng to the lowest form of pick-pocketing imagin- ble. Bankruptcies, fires, cheating, conversion of xssets, skipping out, and “making settlements” is °s common among this gentry, as entertaining » model in their private office. It is this ele- nent that owns bank shares, borrows money and ixes the judges who are their relatives on the sench. Instead of applying the money these new reedle trade builders borrowed-from the title ompanies and the banks to the building they were building, they started other projects with part of this money. This resulted in what is known as “shoe-string ventures.” They were actually holding title to their projects on a slim shoe-string. To pay contractors in the building line, they had to resort to short loans from the banks, giving them fabulous financial statements, showing their dress or cloak business in a healthy shape and placing a valuation on the plots they held, in line with war-time values. The Bank of the United States is in that case the natural place for borrowing money, The officers of that bank knew these jobbers, had faith in them, wented to earn the fabulous interest and loan commissions, wanted to sell shares and gladly lent money. This money came to the Bank of the United States from the measly saving .| deposits of the exploited workers, cajoled to put their money in the Bank of United States by alluring ads in English and foreign language papers. By opening branches in working class sections and by employing interpreters to speak smoothly to each worker in his own tongue. Fabulous Sums Paid for Leases If these banks take a notion that a certain spot is good for their business, no amount of money will stand in their way. The writer was told the other day that a bank paid $25,000 to two small businessmen, a restaurant and a radio store in Brighton Beach for their leases in order to open up a branch there. It is a thickly pop- ulated working class section of Brighton Beach. This is not the same as spending $25,000 to put up a building, because this money goes into the pockets of these small cooties to be used as they please. It is not paid out in wages. Working Class Investigation Is Needed t is childish to assume that the same gang of bankers and bankers’ relatives, dress-jobbers and leeches who are making a gesture at investiga- tion, will protect the workers’ interests. There is no doubt but that the stock holders are this moment transferring their assets to their wives to escape assessment. As to their own capital, they probably pulled it out long ago. An in- vestigation of any kind must work on the axiom that they are all faulty until proved otherwise. The personal fortunes of each bank officer must be tied up at once, to protect the workers’ de- posits. Let us get busy at once and demand an audience with the State Bank Examiner, the mayor and the officers of the bank. Who’s By ZELL. ‘ILENCE spread over the. courtroom as the woman took the witness ‘stand. Her words 2 on the.crowd—cold and brittle—icicles break- }g on a pavement. Her chapped and reddened ‘ands fumbled at the frayed pockets of her coat. “Yes, I forged those checks, but I am not the uilty person. Soneone else committed the rime. How about the days I've waited in em- loyment agencies—who's going to pay me for ‘nat? All day I've sat—not. one day, but many ays, waiting for jobs I never got. And the time ‘ve spent waiting at factory gates—who's going 2 pay me for that? My time is worth some- aing to me, if not to anyone else. Who's going » pay me for that time?” ‘The judge shifted uneasily. in_ his chair and ept his eyes fixed on the green blotter in front f him. He dared not look at the woman's thin, aggard face; dared not meet the gaze of her ‘iercing, fanatical eyes. The woman thrust her ‘ands more deeply into the pockets of her habby coat and continued: “Even when I didn’t have enough to eat, I’ve ent money for carfare, going after jobs only » find a dozen—yes, sometimes a hundred— {ter the same place. Who's going to pay me or that?” The judge wrapped impatiently with his fin- . *rs on the desk, “My husband was killed in a mine. We got » few hundred dollars insurance, But how long ould we live on that—three growing children nd prices always going up. I used to do sew- ag. I was a good dressmaker. And then the xctory came along. People didn’t have dresses ‘ade any more, They could buy them cheaper. * couldn't keep up with power machines and vecial operators. So I went to the factory. ery day I did $8 worth of work, but was paid nly $4 for it. Maybe you don’t call that rob- ‘ery! “And now the factory is closed—no one, any- here, will let me work. You have the ma- ‘dives and the elotb and you will not Jet me Guilty? work. And then you begin a BUY NOW cam- paign—My God! My hands are red because I have no gloves.” She held her hands out toward the judge and then thrust them back into her pockets, The judge kept his eyes fixed on the ae blotter of his desk. “My children’ were egy: They weren't get- ting enough’ food.’ They took ‘sick because they got their feet wet. Their ‘shoes were full of holes, and ‘I'didn’t ‘even’ have the money to get them half-soled. *** “Everywhere I went it was ‘buy now—in the newspapers, in the store windows. Well, I made up my mind I’d-buy mow.’ As: long as I have life and strength ‘I'll get food for ‘my children. If I can’t get it-in:one-way I'll get it in another. Yes, I forged those: checks, but it’s only a trifle compared to what’ the: world owes me.” Again the judge shifted uncomfortably in his chair, “Defendant, admits .the forgery.” Then turn- ing to the woman,, ‘The court sentences you to five years in, the. state. prison, The state ‘will furnish you with, machines and material and let you work for.nothing.,. Court. adjourned.”. ide a History ers’ Delegates on general strike and its development into armed uprising. 1907—Coal “dust explosion «at. Jacobs Creek,.Pa., 239 miners killed, .1915—~Edouard Vaillant, French Social- ist. leader,. member of. Paris Commune, died. 1918—Twenty-three : thousand workers at Gen- eral Electric plant at: Schenectady, .N. Y., struck for recognition of ‘union and no discrimination in sympathy with Erie, Pa., plant, 1921—United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the Arizona law prohibiting injunctions in labor disputes. 1923—Cuban railroad workers struck. BANK — BANG! Daily, shone, | Net a SUBSCRIPTION RATES: sa tee Foreign: One year, By mail everywhere: Ono year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting “<* { Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six months, By BURCK LENIN CORNER In the following excerpt from “Memories of Lenin,” by Krupskaya (Published by the International Publishers, $1.50), we have a glimpse into the method of work and study by Lenin and what is particularly strik- ing, is his profound faith in the masses, supplemented by strict Marxian analysis of the objective conditions—Editor. és{JLADIMIR ILYICH had a most profound faith in the class instinct of the proletariat, in its creative forces, in its historic mission. This faith was not born in Vladimir Ilyitch in a day. It became moulded in him during the years when he had studied and meditated Marx's theory of class struggle; when he had studied the actual conditions of Russian life; when, in combatting the conceptions of the old revolutionaries, he had learned to counterpose the heroism of individual militants by the power and heroism of class struggle. It was thus no blind faith in an un- known force, but a profound assurance in the strength of the proletariat, and in its tremen- dous role in the cause of emancipating the toil- ers. It was an assurance based upon a pro- found knowledge of the subject, and a most conscientious study of actual conditions. His work among the Petersburg proletariat invested in living forms this faith in the power of the work- ing class. “The revolutionary movement in Russia con- tinued to grow, and at the same time correspond- ence with Rusia increased. It soon grew to three hundred letters a month, which was a tremen- dous figure for those days. And it provided llyitch with a spate of material! He really knew how to read workers’ letters. I remember one letter, written by workers of Odessa stone-quar- ries. It was a collective essay, written in several predicates and innocent of stops and commas. But it radiated an inexhaustible energy and readiness to fight to the finish, to fight until victorious. It was a letter in which every word, however, naive, was eloquent of unshakable conviction. I don not remember what the letter refered to. but I remember what it looked like—the paper and the red ink. TIlyitch read the letter over many times, and paced up and down the room deep in thought. It had not been a vain en- deavor when the Odessa quarrymen wrote Il- yitch their letter: they had written to the right person, to someone who understood them best. of all. “A few days afer this letter from the quarry workers a. leter arrived from Tanyusha—a young Odessa propagandist who was just coming out. She gaye a conscientious and detailed de- scription of a meeting of Odessa artisans. Tlyitch also read this letter and immediately sat down to reply to Tanyusha: “Thanks for the letter. Write more often. Of great importance to us are letters describing the ordinary workaday ac- tivities. We get devilish few of such letters.” “In practically every letter Myitch asked the Russian comrades to supply more contacts. “The strength of a revolutionary organization,” he wrote to Gussov, “is in the number of its con- tacts.” He asked Gussov to put the Bolsheviks foreign center in touch with the youth, “There exists among us,” he wrote, “a kind of idiotic, philistine, Oblomovy-like fear of the youth.” Ilyitch wrote to his old acquaintance of Samara days—Alexei Andreyevich Preobrazhensky, who was then living in the country—and asked him for contacts with peasants. He requested the Petersburg comrades, when dispatching workers’ letters to the center abroad, not to send ex- tracts or resumes, but the original correspond- ence. These workers’ letters told Iyitch more plainly than anything else that the Revolution Was approaching, was growing. We were already on the threshold of Nineteen ‘Five’” Every Party member, every Young Communist must sell 25 copies of the Daily Worker before fac tory gates each week to be in good standing. ‘ primitive-looking hands, devoid of subjects and, Planned Economy and the Workers’ State Y ar problems of a planned economic system agitate and profoundly interest the modern world on both sides of the Atlantic. The reyo- lutionary proletariat of the capitalist countries sees in the Soviet economic system, that is, in the system of a planned economy, the prototype of the economic structure to the establishment of which it must devote its efforts on the mor- row after the victorious proletarian revolution. On the other hand, the more profound and far- sighted minds among the bourgeoisie view with alarm the growing instability of the capitalist system as opposed to the successful unfolding of organized socialist economy; and they endeavor to discover in the Soviet economic organization methods that might prevent, or at least retard, the decline of capitalist society. Unusually in- teresting in this respect is the admission of Pro- fessor Raymond T. Bye, of the University of Pennsylvania, who, after giving a detailed ac- count of the Soviet system of planning and or- ganization, declares: This is a stupendous conception, which pre- sents a real challenge to capitalism. If social- ists can demonstrate the feasibility of a cen- trally planned and co-ordinated industrial sys- tem, we may well question whether capital- ism must not find a way to incorporate this feature into its economy, if it is not to give way to socialism. This, coming from a bourgeois economist of the most powerful capitalist country, is a char- acteristic and almost tragic admission. To see the only salvation for capitalism in methods borrowed from planned socialist econ- omy—with what bitter irony these words of this American bourgeois ecoromist must ring in the ears of those “singers” of capitalism who so zealously attempt to present the Soviet economic system to the civilized public of Europe and America as a product of barbarism, ignorance, Asiatic backwardness and despotism. But the at- tempt to incorporate the methods of organized and planned socialist economy into the econ- omic system of capitalism is a futile venture: it is an attempt to combine incompatablie elements based on mutually exclusive principles. Planned economy is as inherent to the socialist System as hopeless anarchy in production and merciless competition, whether among individual capital- ists or among capitalist groups and states, are to capitalist society. For, indeed, what are the essential prere- quisites, the essential foundations on which the planned organization of Soviet economy develops in spite of colossal difficulties? They are as follows: 1, The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, 2. The nationalization of the land, factories, workshops, railroads, banks, etc. 3. The monopoly of foreign trade and the strict regulation of economic relations with the capitalist economy of the world. 4. Undeviating limitation and the final elim- ination of the capitalist, exploiting elements in the villages—the kulaks. 5. The essentially different attitude, as com- pared with capitalist society, of the Soviet econ- omic system, and hence of the Soviet State in general, toward the proletariat, peasantry, na- tional minorities, backward regions, etc. 6. The fact that the great masses of the proletariat, agricultural laborers and poor pea-" santry, and the bulk of the intellectuals are deeply and vitally interested in the success of the socialist economy and the resulting increas- ing self-activity of the people. This radically distinguishes the principle of Soviet economic construction from the economic processes taking place under conditions prevailing in antagonistic bourgeois society. 7. Finally, the ability peculiar to the Soviet system, to concentrate at any given moment, under the guidance of a single thought and will, on the most important sectors of the general line of economic construction virtually all the combined resources of the state, the monopolistic political party, the trade unions, the peasant or- ganizations, the state trusts, syndicates, banks, the co-operatives, the press, schools, ete. In order really to understand the very founda- tions of the planned organization of Soviet econ- omy and not merely electrically to select a few in- dividual ways and methods which may allegedly correct the uneven and halting gait of the capi- talist machine, it is necessary first of all to fully appreciate these determining social prereaui- sites of the Soviet economic system. It would, otherwise, be futile to describe the individual elements and links of this system, its fornis of organization, its working mechanism, etc. The strength of thessystem is not in its technique, which is still inadequate, but in its social foun- dations which open a new epoch in the develop-. ment of human society. ae eo 3 From The Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union, by G. T. Grunko, onegof the original collaborators on the Five-Year Plan of So- cialist industrialization, a complete account of the Plan, containing the first two years of its operation and a political estimate of its place in world economy. By special arrangement with Interna- tional Publishers, this $2 book FREE WITH THE DAILY WORKER FOR ONE YEAR, $8 in Manhattan and Bronx, $6 outside New York. Rush your subscription to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th St. New York. Mention this offer. Machinery Introduced—Miners Lose Jobs By JOE TASH National Board Member, M. O. S. W. I. U. S a result of loading machines, introduced into the Dillonvale No. 1, Mine of the wheeling and Lake Erie Coal Co., 40 miners have been thrown out of work. There is general dissatis- faction among the miners, which expressed it- self in a meeting called to hear the report of the R. I. L..U. delegates (Bisanter-Tash). This meeting was attended by 200 miners and a great percentage of them youth. It is interesting to note that the overwhelming majority of those discharged were young miners, they having ex- pressed their willingness to struggle in no uncer- tain terms. They are responding to a call for a special meeting for organizational purposes, youth section, etc. As a result of a leaflet that was issued by the Ohio district of the Mine, Oil and Smelter Work- ers’ Industrial Union, the bosses are on a ram~- page, wanting to know who in heli were the reds in the mine who distributed the leaflets. The leaflets exposed the speed-up maneuvers of the coal operators, and also went on to explain the role of the Safety Committee, whose func- tion is to hoodwink the miners to believe that the company is doing something to safeguard the lives of the miners, when in fact this cem- mittee exists for no other purpose than to force the expense of the petty safety attempt on the miners, and its bigger role is to divert the | miners from union organization, by calling them to meeting, and then discussing how to “keep the mine safe.” kind of shoes, goggles and generally introduce methods whose expense falls on the miners. When the miners complain in those so-called safety meetings, of loose rock, bad air and dirty roads etc., the committee reports them to the super, and discharge is the result. This is be- cause of the fact that the major safety measure is to be taken in connection with loss and the expense would fall on the company, The air is bad in the mines, so bad that just recently, two miners droped in a faint, this happened also because of the tremendous speed-up. The safety committee has registered a kick be- cause the leaflet gave them a rap. The miners | are well pleased. The committee howls because its role is that of the bosses. The miners showed their determination to fight by the expression’of militancy in the meet- ing and the discussion that took place. A local of the MO.S.W.LU. exists in this mining town | and has the full support of the miners, with correct tactics that will be used in the prepara- tion of the miners for action, We are sure that the miners will mobilize for a struggle wider the leadership of local union 19 of the Mine, Oil and Smélter Workers Industrial Union. They make the miners buy new | By JORGE “Socialist Nonsense The Milwaukee “Leader” is a “socialist” pape supposedly, and on Dec. 15, one of its editoriais rehashed the nonsense of a religious journay about capitalism and Communism being “brotil- ers.” ‘This is one of the favorite “arguments” of the socialist fascist “socialists” who still keep up the pretense of being “opposed to capitalism” but spend all their energy fighting Communism. ‘They say that the capitalists “believe in vio- lence” and “so do the Communists.” The same argument is hauled out about. fascism and Bole shevism—‘“they are both dictatorships” is the cry. If these “socialists” had the slightest respect for the work of Karl Marx they would, of course, analyze “violence” or “dictatorship” to see which class it represents in each special case. To any ordinary sensible worker it is clear that nothing is neutral; there is no dictatorship standing “above” classes. Every dictatorship represents |. the dictatorship of one class against the dther. Now then, it is clear that in Italy or Poland or Hungary or Cuba, the fascist dictatorship is not that of the working class, but of the capi- talist class, and against the working class. And in spite of all the mountain of lies of the capi- talist papers, millions of workers here in Amer- ica are convinced that the dictatorship that ex- ists in the Soviet Union is one ‘certainly hated by capitalists everywhere, favoring the interests of the workers as a class against the interests of capitalists as a class. ‘fhe same with war. There are just and pro- gressive and reactionary wars. Workers cannot take the capitalists’ word for it in any case, of course, but should look to the political party that represents their class to give guidance— that is, the Communist Party. Addle-minded people (their minds are addled fault) get completely lost in such cases and by capitalist hokum and it isn’t always their begin to talk about “humanity”—and all hu- manity is, of course, afected one way or an- other. But dealing in abstractions gets no one anywhere. If a cop clubs a worker, to protect capitalist rule, it is a reactionary action. If the worker, in ‘efense of his class or to advance its inter- ests, strikes back, it is a progressive action, a blow struck for progress of the only useful and essential class (which will ultimately embrace all humanity, true enough) but any gabbing about “humanity” or “human feelings” or so on during the fight, without distinguishing between the classes into which humanity is divided under | capitalism; is only confusing—and what is con- fusing hurts the workers. So the next time you are met with such crafty boss anguments, always think: “Let's see if this isn’t an abstraction concealing a class interest of the capitalists. As long as the capitalists are sitting on the workers’ neck, he who yells for ‘peace’ between the two is helping the capitalists and is a swindler to pretend to be neutral.” os 8 « A Traveler’s Tale A short while ago I talked to a banker in San. Francisco, , Calif., from a trip through the Northwest, including Oregon and Washington. He had cut his trip short, and when asked the reason, he expressed himself frankly as being terrorized by the condi- tions of unemployment and the desperation of the workers, He related how he had been eatin gin a rest- aurant when four workers came in, ordered meals, ate hastily and nervously, then went to the proprietor. They told him they had no money and asked what he intended to do about it. Being too many to beat up, all the proprietor could do was to tell them to get out and for Christ's sake not to tell anybody about it. ‘The banker inquired of the proprietor if that was a usual occurrence or his firsé experience. He replied that it happened half a dozen times | a day with him; that it was happening with all of the restaurant keepers and that he intended to get out of business as he couldn’t stand the strain. This happened in some small city in Oregon. I would inquire through the columns of the Daily Worker if the workers in Oregon could give us more information on the matter, —Bud Reynolds, * Anything But That Terrible “Dole!” A lady of Boston, indeed, yes, from Boston, has written to the press generally, that in these times of stress and strain the way for all te act is set by herself, her exemplary self. She says she has doubled her staff of servants to “help the unemployed,” which is, of course, rather nice of the good lady. But, on the other hand, think how awkward it might be for an iron worker to serve as the duplicated butler. And to have the good lady sit down to her pork chops while two carpenters deferentially move the chair under her hindquar- ters. Of course it is rather convenient to have two maids to open the door for you when you want to go through it. Maybe the good lad; eats two servings of each course to “aid the unemployed.” Which reminds us that a Federated Press dis- patch of Dec. 9, recites the interesting tale of) that most enchanting school of social fascism, Brookwood College, where all the dear swee! boys and girls actually are doing without pie ot | Sunday amd ice-cream on Saturday evening! just to “héJp the striking miners.” But neither the Boston lady nor the Broo! wood “students” will give a policy, a class sti gle policy, the only policy by which worket can win either unemployment relief and ine ance, or see ; ( Warkexst: Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. 8. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. Please send me more information on the Cuit munist Party. NAME os sceesecereeceeecessececsuerveneeenenee AGATCSS sissecseccecsevevecerecnscsssenensees City . . Stat Occupation .. -Mail this to the Age . Central, oMce, Party, 43 East 125th Bt, New York, N. ¥, who had just returned ” Reo cs Se 2gee Geees ox Ce. bee ge Base FEESS we BE A On ! im ffo {+ Coup