The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 31, 1931, Page 4

oe Page Four ' DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, ‘1931 * LIFE STONE SETTER By TAMYA of the Girls Department HIRTY of us young and with very little ambition As we sit all day, For a meagre pay; And we set stones profits With bent backs and tired arms, each one tries to speak a cheery word... to utter a cheery hope a thought until the straw boss comes along With a full-fed round face, big belly, always grouchy, always with a com- plaint; always talking of getting rid of “those talking stone setters.” Up and down, up and down he walks all the day long. Here and there a girl cries silently. Some curse wonderful, but som how not completed. If we look the rest.of the r ines and espe- cially in those claimir ‘0 be liberal: one of which is the “Literary Di which hese so-called radicals and pi intellectuals get their dope from Se” for instance what they have to say i. the Jan. 17 number about the ocer “ence of some time ago, when eigy marines got killed, and two wou?) ed in Nicaragua And they call that “Another Mar- ine Slaughter in Nicaragua”! Of course here they give us some horrid detsils on how the marines were trapped by a band of bandit ich they have gone to fight. Now expect if they wa ; cakes instead of bullets? after ‘This liberal magazine gives you a very liberal view of the fact that the bodies were mutilated by bandits, but almost forgot to mention that eleven of the “enemy” were slain Here they call them more bandits as before, and they peint to a number of arguments which arose from this case, as for instance, the resolution of Senator King to withdraw the marines im- mediately. But we say that no such action will be taken. For no reason at all the marines are down there to stay; unless they be made to move on, but of course they will never move out of Nicaragua unless’ they will be forced to do so by the masses of the South American. .couniries, engaged in a proletarian _reyclution enemy, no ASA him, but never pause......work.. work work profits are to be made. We discuss hate,.....love ee of revolt et fear holds us ae fear of: losing our jobs. The factory smells...... we can hardly breath. The floors are cold, we are cold, Still we sit setting stones......for his profit. y day. erly, laughingly we line up and receive our ....8....10 12 dollars a week, then run out- to our dreams. Dreams of a clean and of a warm factory with no straw boss....straight backs and restful arms, Decent wages | ....yet....tomorrow....profits. Worker Exboses Dope-Peddling, ana ot Literary Digest on Nicaragua) _cmursevs wero with the American nash American im- r solution is No oth ; the Marine is the represen’ tive of American imperialism; and we know that the U. S. intention is to remain in whatever country. they are in, in South America, and to get into the rest of the others, if there ay in which British imperialism be chased out. But U. S. capi- , Will never leave Nicaragua. There is a place where they have in mind for a long time to build a canal to go over on the other side, in the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, only the action of the proletariat in over- throwing imperialism will _ bring 2bout the withdrawal of the forces of imperialism talists Another letter, this time from De- troit, regarding dope-peddling in the cheap magazines, suggests that we need more revolutionary fiction, to off-set the trash. Also, this worker adds, he has found leaving the Daily Worker on the street-car, for others to pick up, is very successful. It arouses cur- osity. a copy pass from hand to hand all the way down the aisle. “The basic question for every phil- osophy, and especially for a new philosophy, is the question of the re- lationship between thought and ex- istence.. . . those who have regarded nature as primary and thought as secondary, have belonged to one of the various schools of materialists.” Engels: Feaezbach. Book Reviews THE LOW-DOWN ON MORGAN It is an interesting commentary on the methods of the House of Morgan, that they sent a representative to/ the publisher's office, to threaten him | if he went through with publication of this book—Editor. THE HOUSE OF MORGAN; a " social biography of the masters of money. By Lewis Corey, New York, Watt. 1930 pp. 479. Reviewed by J. BARNETT IE author piles fact upon fact showing how a small number of| the wealthy class of this country have | accumulated their money and gained control of the banks and industries | of the U. S. For instance, he estimates that} those associated with Morgan and Company, control banks, railroads, steel mills, public utilities, electrical manufacturing, war industries, etc., worth 74 billion dollars, or 26 per cent of the total worth of American cor-_ *porations. On acount of secret busi- | mess transactions, Morgan no doubt @ontrols much more about which the author is ignorant. Besides this the Morgan group have a large share of control of the billions of foreign in-| vestments of American imperialism) (amounting to 16,009,000,000 dollars | in 1929, exclusive of the 12 billion! dollar war debt.) Here are billions of reasons for American Marines in) Niearagua, China, and elsewhere. The House of Morgan has for a long time been the leader of the penetration of American financial interests into} the colonies. ‘The book exposes, with many docu- ments, the wholesale robbery and corruption whereby these men gained their financial control. Here are two interesting cases. Old Miles Morgan took land away from the Indians, and this “first ‘business stroke’” was to ‘steal real estate in Springfield. senior helped sell guns, ‘which had been condemned by the ‘war department as unfit for use, to ‘the government during the Civil . wr. These guns arleady belonged ‘to the government and at the very of sale were in the warehouses of the army. The profit was large— ‘These dangerous guns bought $3.50 ce were resold at $22.00. Many examples of the ruthless and methods used by such men gan against “friends,” unus- persons, rivals and enemics| financiers have had religion he Government cooperate with Buying judges, bribing leg- , wetting national “leaders” to) witewash their crooked deals, are regular practices. Morgan gave money to both the republican and democratic parties. Jr. who said that “there is no differ- ence between the political parties.” While the ruthlessly driven and op- pressed miners on strike in Morgan controlled coal fields, were starving and being evicted with the aid of government troops, one of Morgan’s henchmen, the largest coal operator declared: “The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for by the Christian men to whom God has given control of the property rights of the country.” The notorious reprobate and swind- ler, Daniel Drew, used some of his fraudulent money to endow the Drew Theological Seminary at which the preacher who got the money said, “Oh, that we had one more Daniel Drew.” Again the banker's president, McKinley, insisted that he got orders from God to grab the Philippines, in the following fashion: | #“I went down on my knees, and | prayed Almighty God for light and | guidance, and one night it came to me, take them all....” McKinley | also said, “What we want is new | markets....” The last will of old Morgan said, “T commit my soul into the hands of my Savior....” His business meth- ods dnd his religion evidently went well together. The author shows that these Christian capitalists are the bitterest enemies of labor and labor organiza- tions, miserably exploiting workers and suppressing strikes with the aid of troops and thugs. The bloody Homestead strike is an example, One should be convinced that there is no way for the workers to get some re- lief from this oppression except through organization and the most, militant struggle, and no way out except by overthrowing the whole tribe of capitalists. In spite of the damning picture which the author draws of these men and the present economic system, he still retains admiration for them. He has praise for Morgan, calling him a “constructive” force. (He states that Morgan was rather dumb intel- lectually.) If one wants suggestions as to what can be done about these conditions, he need not look to the author for them. The book shows the apologetic and confusing role Played by such “liberal” writers, as well as the rottenness of the capi- talist syste He reports that he has seen | It was Morgan,) BREADLINE ACHILDREN GWA 7 ROCHESTER TAKES CARE OF UNEMPLOYED AND HOW! By CAUGH Andrew Olson is a carpenter living at 1149 Ist Avenue, S.E. Rochester, Minn. with his wife and four chil- dren to suport. The following is a conversation which took place be- tween Mrs. Olson and the County Commission: Vine: “We must have help, Mr. Vine,” began Mrs. Olson, “my husband ha no work and hasn't had for two years a steady job to work on, and we have no food in the house....some- thing must. be done. “What you been doing the past two years, then?” asked the old Shylock “We have just starved and suffered in want and poverty. We've sold everything we had, begged, borowed, and done everything but steal because we are good, honest, faithful workers. and we want to do the right things— but we can not go on living like this.” “Well! Well! Well! that is just too bad, Mrs. Olson,” answered the rat “If you didn't learn anything iz two years of starving and loafin~ there’s no use to help you. If you wil) get rid of that drunken loafer yor call your husband I wouldn't mine caring ,for you on the county, but so long as you have to have a man hanging around, you can starve. We won't feed him.” “But my husband is not drinking and will work and he....” “Tut! Tut! Mrs. Olson you've said | enough, my answer is “NO,” and that | is final.” | So the poor woman with her baby | | In her arms walked away as they are doing in hundreds of other capital- ist cities hungry, insulted and abused. {t was up to other workers of the | family to’ also sell their personal | | property to aid the suffering mem- | bers of the family, and when they too have sold everything, and begged, and borrowed what will the county com-/| missioner say? | | The Olsons finally had to go to the} City of Rochester. This famous} | wealthy city of the Mayos has the | most bastardly scheme to help the! unemployed that can possibly be im-| | agined. The city owns and operates | | its own power plant, the city be- | its own power plant. At the/ | Power plant a ditch is being dug | from the river to the plant for water power. The wealthy Mayos and pros- perous merchants of this city don’t | believe in helping any one that does not work for what they get, and so all unemployed residents of this famous city get down and dig the ditch to get relief from the situation this rotten government has placed! the workers into. Only forty eight hours per month is alloted to each| unemployed worker for which he gets | twenty dollars upon which he must sustain life of himself and family. So Olson went into the ditch Tues- | day with the temperature at 5 degrees | below zero. He is not a young man} | and before night he was chilled to the | bone in a five food ditch where the | sun never shines. We found him | Prostrated a short while after work- jing hours in a garage and brought | him home, and tonight he lies suffer- | ing from the exposure his flimsy clothes, (he could afford no better) could not ward off. In exchange for | | the five dollars paid him he has given | | his health and maybe his life. Half-| clothed and half-starved they put this | poor old man in that ditch, and sent him home a sick man. What puzzles the correspondent is | why the workers will stand for such things as this wrich are becoming so common that they hardly make news. How long will workers stand for such a rotten system? Capitalists will do nothing for the workers, the workers must take matters in their own hands. “A new kind of family life, changes | in the position of women and in the upbringing of the younger generation, are outcomes of the more advanced forms of capitalism; the labor of women and children, the break-up of the patriarchal family by capitalism, necessarily assume in contemporary society the most terrible, the most disastrous forms. Nevertheless, large- scale production, assigning to women and to adolescents and children of both sexes an important role in the socially organized process of produc- tion away from the domestic hearth, creates the economic foundation for higher forms of the family and of the mutual relationships between the sexes.”—Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1. p53 —By PREVAL. Workingmen in War By H. R. ROSKOLENKIER. And will we face it like once before we did, forgetting our homes and children, wives and the jobs we left behind—undone; our unions bust while we slogged around the mud in France; seeing the seasons of the year charge without a change, the snow and the rain—and death all over the land; the heat of the sun slogging through the swamp terrain; making DEMOCRACY, WEALTH, BLOOD, FUNERALS (mass action) We know the years since the end of the annihilation; thirteen years—swiftly they passed. Se sometimes thinks the mournful mother who gave birth to a government tombstone (of honor) and over it a flag blowing, a symbol of the nation’s tribute (of lechery) to workingmen; like a rag for drying pots in the kitchen; used with subtle efficiency in pinning medals on a soldier's chest; and sometimes when the is gone 2 ithe is put over a tombstone and a bugler blows taps— “Here lies a hero and a patriot.”| Last words. Last thoughts, for some gold cross mother, “Your son was a hero and we cited him for brayery (TO IMPERIALISM); we grieve his death, he was efficient—signed, GENERAL STAFF.” ? . . . And will we face it, we of thirteen years ago, with the same skill for keeping silence, seeing working men of other nations pursut IMPERIALISM’S HUMANISM? Will we face it—legless and armless—confused about a nation, about a boss, liberal president or king; confused about the issues, purpose of WAR, death; and their idea of life—to face a worker across a line and shoot it out with him FOR NOTHING— Wars of aggrandizement are old 1898, 1905, *14 and the one that’s coming; the movies drum trying to order you mind and body into a state of AMERICANISM; trying to dope you into becoming NATIONAL GUARDSMEN, to break strikes scientifically and efficiently. WORKINGMEN IN WAR— we are not pacifists—WE FIGHT FOR A SOVIET—HERE! WHAT IS A WORKER The following lines, describing the workers’ lot in capitalist Amer- ica, were sent us by an unemployed miner in Missouri.—Editor. By E. N. TURRI A worker is a man who builds palaces and lives in shacks, He builds pullmans and rides the rods He builds automobiles and pushes wheelbarrows He serves T-bone steak and eats the soup bone. He bvilds electric lights plants and burns oil He builds grand opera houses and goes to the movies, He makes silk suspenders and holds up his pants with nails. He reaps the harvest and stands in the bread-line. He weaves silk shirts and wears over-alls, He makes broad cloth and wears shoddy. He weaves linen sheets and sleeps on a plank. He digs the coal and shivers in the snow. He builds factories and is refused a job in them. He builds the jails and has to beg for a flop in them. He builds sky-scrapers and has no place to call home. He builds the side-walks and is arrested on them for vagrancy, He creates capital and is denied the right to labor. ‘ He fights for “freedom” abroad, and is put on the chain gang at home. He has made America, and yet the master class rules and owns all. | streets, where he had heard of this \mer where a man of the new faith | Young leaders needed, a new world ;@ decent world. Suddenly his heart | ached to hear that quiet voice again, | “Welcome Comrade.” THE CALL Believe it or not, this story is one which the writer, a young worker, experienced himself.—Ed. By WILLIAM WALD “\OUNG man, we have decided that you have earned the right of pro- motion and so from next week on you will take Jim’s place. Good luck.” To Fred the news at first sent a thrill of joy coursing through his blood. At twenty-five Assistant Supervisor, boss over three thousand men! That meant an increase in salary of course and a bonus for quick work. Why, that meant everything....a beautiful home, a car, the good things of life +-+-his big chance, A great happiness possessed him, until his eyes took in’ the slaving, lumbering steel men, rushing, rushing, rushing, with now and then a death and Jim urging them on to greater efforts. For what? For the addi- tional money in bonuses, or because Jim was a brute, a taskmaster, a tyr- ant of the old Russian breed..,.and now they had asked him to take Jim’s place, Again he saw the hur- ried forms, like slaves toiling on and on with their daily quota of acci- dents, Here one starting in horror at the flowing blood and stump at what had been an arm; there the mad cry of a man who was having his leg amputated on the spot by the company doctor. Here one’ wiping away the blood flowing from a cut in his forehead, but always hurrying and rushing, rushing and Jim urging them | on. Suddenly there flitted across his} vision a place that he had seen.... @ place where neither clothes nor race nor creed counted....a place that he had entered more from curiousity; a little two by four on one of the butchery of human life; butchers by| inches, They had called him “com- rade” there and he had laughed at them....had mocked them and now.. --Why had. they taken him out of the office and wanted to place him here where ‘a thousand miseries were depicted daily....why in God’s name} couldn't they have let him alone?) “Well Fred, what now? Do you} think that you can handle it? Come | now, there's work to be done.” Work) to be done. Where had he heard that phrase? Oh, yes. That street cor- had spoken....work to be done.... to be forged....a workers’ world.... to press his hand, to hear that cheery, | To help forge that world..to stop this unnecessary murder of the worker for bonuses and profits. To help organize for the brotherhood and equality. of all toil- ing men. Smilingly he faced the pampered, Sleek,jowled face of his employer. A secondary twinge of regret, then, “I am sorry sir,” he said slowly, but I cannot accept your proposition. You see, I could not be like Jim, I can not stand your orders of speed; of the death of these poor workers in re- turn for a few more dollars... I’m afraid you won’t understand, but I can’t accept. A stunned silence greeted him....the boss paled, then: “Get out, get out, you, you unap- preciative dog, out; why, you rebel, you, you, why you're a Red, get out.” Fred smiled as he took his hat and coat. His shoulders were straight, his eyes looking eagerly ahead, as his mind was already planning, building) how best he could offer himself to the new cause. A LETTER FROM A DANBURY’S. STRIK- ERS’ CHILD — — — Tam a child of one of the strikers of Danburk. I cannot have any more milk, or I cannot have any more new dresses, or new shoes. Why do you think I can’t get these things? I will tell you. why. The boss goes ahead and cuts down the wages of my parents, and gives my mother and father less pay, and now what we can do to help our parents get their pay back i sto help them to fight, and our mothers and fathers should go on the picket line every morning, The way I can fight is to join the strikers’ children’s club and get other children to join. A strikers, child, J.N. (10 yrs, old). eye ve Song and Cheers van SS Lal ccm i aN eile men “Opportunity’— By VALENTINE’ V. KONIN. «AT .FIVE O'CLOCK, the factory whistle roared, stirring the earth and the sky with the mightiness, of its call. With caps pulled down over their foreheads, and lumber jackets. buttoned close to the neck, men pour- ed out of the building, sullenly step- ping up the hill along the dark fence of the lumber yard. On the other Side of the street, a group of little girls, with wet noses and red, chap- ped hands, were continuing their game of “Walter, Walter, the Wild Flower”, weakly drawing out the ris- ing and falling intervals of the ir- regular tune. George McQuade was turning around the corner of the factory, when somebody's arm, waving a news- paper, stretched out to him from be- hind the lamp post. “Buy the Daily Worker! Only three cents”, said a girl's voice. “Read all about the working class”. « George McQuade was going to go along his way. His head was buz- zing from the pulsating din of the machine. His whole body pained with the desire to stretch itself out and rest. He was not going to bother with anybody now, least of all with Reds. He had heard enough of them from the accounts of their demon- Strations in the evening papers, which he read religiously every night after supper. And he wasn’t going to get into trouble with the factory man- ager getting into his car right be- hind. “Read all.about the working class”, said the girl's voicé again. George turned without energy. His eyes met @ fair, childish face with naive eyes opened a little nervous- ly. George smiled. “Well, you are a nice little lady to look at”, he said. “Only I ain't going to buy any of your papers. You folks don’t know what you are talking about.” “Oh, we don’t?” said the . girl surprised. “Suppose you read’ one of our papers. Maybe then, you'll see whether we know what we are talking about.” George shook His head. —‘Naw, naw, I ain’t going to bother with it. You folks, you've got a lot of pluck fightin’ the cops on Union: Square. But you don't know enough. about this country. Here we've all got the same opportunity. Your stuff won't go with us.” “You think we've all got the same opportunity?” asked the girl amused. “Just take a look at these kids here. They have no coats on a day. like this. Do‘you think your boss’s chil- dren live that way too? You bet your life they don’t. His kids don’t have to worry about dropping out of school, as soon as they are old enough to get a job.” George still shook his head. “Alright, you neec’'t buy the paper. if you don't want to”, said. the girl shrugging her shoulders. “Take one, anyhow. Read it when you have time.” ed “E..won't read your paper,” said George. “I ain’t interested in what you Communists believe.” ~The girl, rather exasperated, stuck a copy into the pocket of his coat. George was too tired to protest any further. He still shook his head me- chanically and went along his way. When he got home, it was already dark. His mother was bending over the stove, scraping a pot with a knife. Below the painted images of Holy Virgin and Our Lord, his father lay smoking on a bed, his toes sticking out ludicrously thru the tares in his shoe; At the edge of the bed George's youngest brother, Freddy, sat crouching and whining like .a little child. “What ‘re you cryin’ for, now,”, asked George irritably. The boy did not answer. “He don’t want to quit school,” said his mother straightening out, and with the back of her hand push- ing back the hair which had scat- tered over her forehead. “Your father has not been working again, The whole plant shut down for good, today. And there is no other work to be found. Goodness knows, I do not want Freddy to quit school. I have always wanted him to get the best education he can. But he’s got to help out now, that father’s out of work.” “I don’t want to stop school,” cried out Freddy. “I was just going to try. for that prize in an essay contest. ‘Teacher says I'm the smartest of them all, I’m even smarter than minister's son, Billy. And now Billy is going to get that prize. And he's going to go thru school and be a lawyer. And I am smarter than him! I don’t want to stop school.” “Aw, shut it”, said George angrily. ‘It’s no use cryin’ like a sissy. You ain’t a minister's son. This is no time to be thinking of school prizes, with Daddy's plant shut down for good.” He walked angrily to the sink, pul- ling ‘off his cap and lumberjacket on. the: way. Freddy’s whining irritated him. George washed *his face grumbling to himself, but something within was twitching with a mixed sensation of pity. When, after supper, his mother calling George several times to help her hang up the laundry, went into his room, she found him lying on the bed, his head covered by the open sheets of a newspaper. “Didn't you hear me call you, George?” she asked, a little hurt. “You know all the clothes, I’ve got to hang up. And your father’s asleep. What paper is it you've got tonight? Is it the “Eagle”? “No, it ain't”, said George, getting up lazily and looking under the cot, for his shoes. “It’s a paper somebody gave me today. Daily Worker, it’s called. I was just interested to see what these have got to say. Maybe the devil ain't as bad as he's ” painted.” “GO MY CHILD AND PLAY WITH THE BOYS” By ROGER. There Is Plenty to Eat By A. WAGENKNECHT, There is plenty to eat. And the unemployed army can get it if it or- ganizes and fights. Mellon, the watchdog of the United States treasury, during his term in office lavishly presented rich. corporations and millionaires a total of two, billion dollars in tax refunds. Mellon’s Hoover says there's no moriey for unemployment insurance. Let the unemployed starve. More than 500 fat rich gentlemen. pay income tax upon a million or. more dollars income each year. They say, let the children of the unem- ployed go hungry. Wine flows, rich foods are gulped, diamonds sparkle at coming-out par> ties for the daughters of the fabu- lously wealthy held in Was! They say, let the babies of the unem- ployed die for want of milk. ‘Larger dividends were declared by corporations in 1930 than for the year previous despite the crisis. ‘These corporations say, lay off more men; cut wages, speed up the mas chinery—work the workers hard and For, Workers’ Children, composed. by | plenty. Danbury Workers’ TUNE TO YANKEE DOODLE Ola Lee he thought he'd cut aur pay, But we know how to treat him;, We know that if we organize ' That we will surely beat him. Strikers, strikers, keep it up We always stick together, Fighting on the picket line No matter what. the weather. . eB ONE, TWO, THREE One, two, three, Strikers’ children are we, We will help our parents, Fight the enemy. A HUNTING WE WILL GO A bunting we wil} go, A hunting we wil} go, We'll cateh a scab, and put him in abe, : re Beautiful, comfortable mansions of the rich that cost millions of dollars in upkeep, dot the nation. Exclu- sive apartments for the wealth in all the big cities for which $50,000 to $100,000 rent a year is paid. They say, Jet the unemployed freeze, go without shelter, let underfed children turn blue with cold, * Refrigerators of the I trusts, fille@ with meats, cold storage establishments of the commission corporations filled with vegetables and fruits, immense bakeries filed with bread, hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat in storage in grain elevators. For the hungry unemi- ployed, a laddle of watery soup, a stale sandwich, a cup of coffee, slow starvation, Set ‘Unemployed workers, there's plen- ty of everything. Ha’ Ly now you starve! Unemployed wotkers, close your ranks in every city, large and small, in every steel and textile town, in every mining camp. Mass starvation sweeps the country. Fight to live and-live well. Organize unemployed councils in uncountable number, This is power. ¥ Sweep through the streets of every city and town in hunger marches. | Let neither police nor jails stop you. Win all workers’ organizations for. your struggles, send committees to them. Make your demands upon the bread lines, at municipal relief sta- tions. Rock the city halls and all the’ grafters they hold with your militant will to live, not starve. Elect your Workers Unemployment Insurance Delegation to Congress. Meet the watchdog of the treasury head on. Enforce your demand for unemployment insurance by gather- ing signatures in such numbers that Congress will begin to doubt its se- curity. Climax innumerable local battles for immediate relief, the steady. sig- nature drive, with gigantic demon- ‘strations on February 10, the day your delegation makes its demands upon Congress. Shake the nation, this richest country on earth, the country of the richest foreflushers bins your power and your battles for Unemployed workers—Eat! There "| 4s plenty for all. You have the pow- er to decide to live and live. well. am Rate ta ae ea (This is the impression of a worker's child, on the occasion of his second trip to the Soviet Union.) Dear Comrade Stember:— How do you feel? Iam 0. K. If you ‘come to Moscow now you would think you were in New York. Every- thing is new—big tall houses, it is lke it to