The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 7, 1931, Page 6

Bed by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc, dat Es of § SUBSCRIPTION RATE i ~ Rage Six re th Street, New York City, N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7 aa xX } or er FS Adress and mail all checks to the Dally Worker, 50 Wast 13 é Contre Ong. — =< =" a = a aenae. HEALTH HAZARDS IN FUR IN- DUSTRY CAN BE PREVENTED By MYBA PAGE. ERCURY and acid poisoning reaps such e disastrous toll among the 16,000 fur-felt workers, as well as among the other 24,000 in | the fur industry, the insurance companies con- sider them a bad risk, and some companies, as the Prudential, refuse to insure cutters and car- roters entirely. Death rates in the trade are estimated at fifty to sixty per cent higher than that for the average population. Yet these literally murderous conditions in American fur shops are easily preventable! Various investigations and proposals have been made from time to time, by Dr. Alice Hamilton, | the Workers’ Health Bureau, and others, for the siimination of mercury, and acids, and s gubsti- tution of non-poisonous bleachers, also of ade- quate ventilating systems, and other items, but so far none of these have been put into effect. Here and there is a shop where conditions are slightly less intolerable than the one we described yesterday, but on the whole, it is next to im- possible to er-state the hazards which fur workers in the United States must face—all largely unnecessary. However, Lee, Hickey, and other fur employ- ers are concerned, not with sparing human lungs and eyesight of those they hire, but only with output, cheap production and profits. The work- ers, on their part, being largely unorganized and betrayed in the past by the American Federa- | tion of Labor, have not been in a position to enforce the minimum requirements for protec- fon of health. Now, with the Needle Trades Industrial Union | to lead their struggle, the fur workers can go forward with confidence to battle for their health and other demands. Conditions in fur plants in the Soviet Union, where workers rule both shops and government in their own interests, will serve as a model for | which workers here may strike. Light, airy workrooms, separate lunch and rest rooms, seven hours of labor, one day of rest in every five, | a rising standard of living, special protective | measures for women and youth, and the com- plete elimination of the poisonous nitrate of | mercury are some of the conditions which the | Russian workers have gained. (The new formula used in the Soviet Union was first worked out by Dr. P. W. Levitsky. Briefly, instructions run as follows: “Caustic mercury (KOH) is used in place of nitrate of mercury. Drying should be done at 18-20 centi- | grades, or better still in fresh air. Do not use more than 10 per cent Beme formula, The skins should be oiled and rubbed in with a brush, slightly moistened. If brush is too wet, hard crusts may result. Too strong a solution will break the hair of the skin.) The elimination of bleach acid and of nitrate of mercury, the introduction of adequate ven- tilation systems, of free, pure drinking water, | of separate lunch rooms and clean wash rooms and toilets are some of the immediate, urgent | demands which the fur workers are putting forward, along with their demands for higher wages, recognition of their shop committees, and the forty-hour week. Our Org.-Agitprop Conferences 'T our coming Org-Agit Prop Conferences, the organizational consolidation will be the main problem for discussion. Comrade Piatnitsky in his recent pamphlet, “World Communists in Ac- tion,” discusses the causes which prevent the sections of the Communist International from consolidating their great and growing influence. We are re-printing a paragraph of this pam- phlet which gives some of the main causes: “By means of Communist ideas, a correct policy and tactics, a bold struggle against the bourgeoisie, the social-democrats, reformists | fascsits and renegades, the Communist Party attracts to its side the great masses in capi- ‘alist countries and colonies. This shows the | wide ideological influence which the Commu- vnist Party of all countries exercises over the "proad masses. But even the best of the Sec- tions of the Communist International in capi- talist countries such as the Communist Party of Germany and the Communist Party of France, have not yet learned how to consoli- date that influence. The causes for this, as was pointed out above, are the following: “The muddle in Party construction, bad func- tioning of Party organizations, inexact work, Jack of leadership, instructions and control over the work of Communists and Communist frac- tions in mass proletarian organizations; the inability to organize and conduct mass cam- paigns simultaneously by the whole Party, set- ting going all the transmisison belts among the masses and to consolidate the results of these campaigns organizationally in those mass organizations, where there are Communists and sympathizers; finally, the inability, the un- willingness, the incapacity to put an end to all those obstacles, to replace all those com- rades who hamper the reconstruction of the organization on the basis of factory nuclei. How otherwise can we explain the causes of Muctuation of Party membership, which be- comes a constant feature in all Communist Parties of capitalist countries. What is most alarming is that frequently there are more members leaving the Party than joining it. Revolutionary workers are attracted by the Communist Parties hoping to find in them a well-functioning organization, which could sat- isfy all their requirements and make use of the whole of their revolutionary energy. Fail- ing to find this, the workers, that are in a revolutionary mood but as yet insufficiently class-conscious, are abandoning the ranks of the Party. There is not enough clarity in our Party as what is the nature of Agit Prop work, nor is there sufficient understanding as to the re- | lationship between Org and Agit Prop activities. In connection with our coming Org-Agit Prop conferences, we are re-printing two paragraphs | of the resolutions adopted at the Mid-European | Agit Prop conferences. (The resolutions were | printed in No. 54 and 57 of the Inprecorr.) \ “In view of the growing world crisis, the aggravating class struggle and the rising revo- lutionary wave, the Agitprop work of the Com- munist Parties is becoming a very important factor in the struggle for the masses, for the capture of the majority of the working class and for assumption of leadership in the class struggles. The turn of all of the Communist Parties toward the masses and the placing of the question of organizational consolidation of the political influence of the Communist Par- ties as a central issue are indissolubly con- nected with increased ideological work of the | Parties, (emphasis ours, ed.) with a qualitative and quantitative improvement of the Commu- nist press, wtih the organization of a sound basis for agitation and propaganda in the workshops, with better preparation and or- ganization of mass campaigns, with proper ideoiogical work during economic struggles, with proper oral and written agitation in the mass organizations, with the organization of systematic teaching of the theories of Marxism and Leninism, and the raising of the theo- retical activity of the Party.” “In view of the inseparable connection of agitation and propaganda, with organization, the conference calls attention to the inadmis- sibility of contrasting organizational work to agitation and propaganda on the ground that more emphasis is necessary on organizational work. The conference holds that one of the most essential conditions for the bringing about of a real turn to the masses, and for successful organizational consolidation of the Party is serious attention to agitprop work, the establishment of rigid control and firm leadership over this work, a systematic study and assimilation of the experience obtained in it and the subordination of its plans to the immediate tasks of the Party. The first con- dition of success of the desired turn is a strengthening of the agitprop apparatus of the C.C. and the local committee (especially in the large industrial centers), by electing workers as their members, a clear definition of the tasks of the agitprop departments at the present time and the correct organization of these departments.” Fight for the By GRACE HUTCHINS. ! A ‘TRAIN carrying 300 workers slides silently | into New York or Seattle during the night. By morning these foreign born workers are spir- ited onto ships sailing for foreign ports, there to be dumped and left to an uncertain fate— @ job at near-starvation pay, hunger without a job, or execution at the order of a Mussolini | or a Chiang Kai-Shek. { An organizer is arrested during a textile strike | for distributing leaflets on the need for higher wages. He is clapped into jail for three months | and threatened with deportation to Great Brit- ‘ain, because he was born there and not in Amer- ica. A building worker is killed in the fall of scaf- | folding on a New York sky-scraper. He was an “alien,” the authorities say, because he was born abroad and was supporting a father and | mother in Europe. After endless months of battle with the employer's insurance company, the father receives only half of what an Amer- ican dependent would receive—a few hundred | dollars as the price of a life. Yet this New York State Workmen’s Compen- sation law granting even that reduced benefit to of a foreign-born worker is better Jaws in most states. In the United general, there is less favorable treat- A. ¥. of L. Bars Foreign Born American Federation of Labor unions are Jously hostile to foreign born unnaturalized In 50 labor organizations with 2,000,000. kc gal aN Foreign Born members do not admit the non-citizen, accord- ing to a survey of the National League for Amer- ican Citizenship. Of 2,000,000 jobs studied, 1,- 200,000 were found closed to the unnaturalized, in such industries as the transportation, public utility, steel and automobile. Now along comes Mr. Hamilton Fish of the American Legion to introduce in Congress bills that will attempt to deport all foreign born workers, who dare to raise their voices against worsening conditions. Bills already introduced and carrying the names of Ashwell, Blease and Cable, aim to photograph, finger-print and es- tablish police supervision over foreign born work- ers. American and foreign born workers together [QUESTIONS AND| | present. The differences in program and prin- | lawyers, preachers, and the like. Thus while the will fight against these bills, and against ex- clusion and all other restrictions placed upon the foreign born. This fight is led by the “Commit- tee for the Protection of Boreign Born,” elected the bills, which are an attack nct e foreign born but on the entire The task in the big industrial & i Py We, the American and foreign born workers | together demand that the United States Con- gress take immediate action so that all discrim- | HELLO HEADQUARTERS? ANSWERS The Daily Worker will answer in this col- umn questions which are sent in to its Work- ers Correspondence Department. : psd ae Since several of our readers have asked the | following question, we are answering at more length than usual. We suggest that those in- terested read the Communist Manifesto, the Pro- gramme of the Communist International, or the Eighteenth Brumaire by Karl Marx. ee te Question—What is the difference in principle between the Communists and the Socialists? —M. B. First we must understand the different classes which the Communists and the Socialists re- ciple begin and flow from this source. The Socialists do not really represent the working class, but represent dissatisfied small business and professional men, such as small shop-keepers, small tradesmen, certain groups of socialists dislike the evils which affect the petty bourgeoisie, nevertheless, their chief con- cern is to preserve the capitalist system, which creates these evils. They are interested in “re- forming” capitalism, making little changes, rather than in doing away with it. They pretend to be the champions of the workers, but actually there is nothing they fear more than working class rule. Because of their activity, they, in connec- tion with the A. F. of L. leaders, are the main enemies, in the labor movement, of revolutionary communism. The Communists, on the other hand, are the leaders, the vanguard, the most fearless fighters of the working class against all of its oppressors, the only interests of the Communists are those of the toiling masses, A main difference in principle is that the Communists maintain that in order to establish socialism, it 1s necessary to organize the working class in alliance with the poor and middle farm- ers under the leadership of the Communist Party, to forcibly overthrow the capitalist class, and es- tablish the dictatorship of the proletariat, the political control of the working class; whereas YEAH, CHIEF, THEY'RE MARCHING ON the socialists in order to keep the masses from taking the revolutionary path and destroying the capitalist system pretend that socialism can be established gradually and peacefully in coopera- tion with the capitalists themselves. Hence they represent and in practice support the continua- tion of the capitalist government, “promising that in the “future” it will be chnaged into a socialist government. We Communists call them social-fascists, because in words, they motlth “so- cialist” phrases, but in deeds, they act against the worker and for the capitalists. In the name of “Socialism,” the “socialist” McDonald has killed, maimed and iinprisoned Indian toilers in the interests of his British masters, bankers and capitalists. The life and blood of workers 1s on his hands. ‘The Communists maintain that the contra- dictions of capitalism, as for example “too much production” in the warehouses while workers starve and go without work, are becoming greater, that the class struggle between the work- ers and capitalists is becoming sharper, that cap- italism 1s becoming less able to provide neces- sities to society as the present crisis shows, and that the capitalists will not give up their rule ‘until they are compelled to do so by the working class, They say that the workers must continue , to organize and fight for what they get, that it is ridiculous to think that the capitalists, whose very existence depends upon the capitalist sys- tem, will peacefully allow any other class to con- trol, or allow the government to change peace- fully into % of THE Prepare tor International Women’s Day! PAULINE ROGERS March 8, 1951, must have special signifi not only to y king women but to the working class as a whole. This year International Wo- men’s. Day takes place at a time when the eco- nomic crisis is deepening and becoming more acute, when the attacks on the working class imperialist countries are arming to the teeth for another world war and for an armed interven- tion against the Soviet Union. The intervention preparations of the imperialists are being has- tened because they fear the tremendous building of socialism in the Soviet Union. There the workers are completing the Five-Year Plan in three ‘and a half years, the standards of living are steadily rising, there is no unemployment and women workers have freedom and equality with men. This is indeed a contrast with the mars unemployment, the wage cuts, the victim- ization, the misery and starvation of workers in capitalist countries. With hundreds of bank failures in the U.S.A. | vorking in 1930, with the recent crashes in Wall Street, See Gp runes anes), Ceblnied way the capitalists in trying to escape from the cri- sis are throwing greater pressure on the working class, especially on women workers. By forcing women into industry at lower wages than men | workers, the bosses are successfully reducing the entire working class to further misery and starva- tion. The army of 10 million unemployed in the U.S.A., which is growing larger, means untold suffering to millions of men, women and children, In Chicago, countless women have been found sleeping in the streets; in New_York, Detroit and other cities, hundreds of women are freez- ing on bread lines and begging to get into free lodging houses; in Philadelphia alone over 10,000 children come to school everyday without food or warm clothing. All over the country hundreds of evictions take place everyday, the hospitals and jails are filled to overflowing, the number of deaths from exposure and starvation ||| increase daily. On the grounds of “relieving” unemployment, they fight these wars. They know that only a world union of workers governments which will end capitalism, will abolish wars. The socialists believe that’ the capitalist nations could live peacefully together and that the League of Na- tions could prevent war, ‘The Communists support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and poli- tical system, they support the revolutionary na- tional movements in China, India, Arabia, Latin America, etc, The socialists oppose all of those revolutionary movements; they support imperial- ism in its control and exploitation of the colo- nial and smaller nations, They stand for “super- imperialism” and when in power, as in England, actually murder and terrorize workers who re~ volt against oppression and fight for their free- dom and better conditions. ‘The Communists organize ‘the workers all over the world to defend the Soviet Union, the work- ers’ fatherland, against imperialist invasion and the plots of its enemies. _ The socialists, while tule of the workers (the-Dic- Proletariat) there will be a lH ga g A ale , the social-fascist A. F. of L. is now leading a | ance, | | We must carry on a vigorous struggle against are becoming sharper and more brutal, when the | moyement to throw married women out of in- dustry. This is just another attempt to lower the standards of the working class, because the majority of working class families cannot exist on the low wages of the men workers alone. this attack of the working class by the labor bu- reaucracy, by organizing women workers in the militant unions to fight for the partial demands and slogans of the Trade Union Unity League. The International Women’s Day campaign is a means of bringing to the attention of the en- tire working class the special needs and demands of working women. Through this campaign, the -working class should be made to realize that working women today are becoming a more and more important factor in industry, and that they are a revolutionary force in the building of a strong counter-offensive of the working class against capitalism. International Women’s Day is a rousing call women of all countries, to unite their forces in the ranks of the revolutionary unions and the Communist Party for a militant struggle against the attacks of their bosses and their government, against unemployment, against the increased cost of living, against, the fascist and social-fascist betrayers of the working class, especially the bourgeois women’s organizations, against the im- perialist war preparations of the capitalists, for the defense of the Soviet Union, and for a strug- gle for unemployment and ‘social insurance. Preparations for International Women’s Day must begin now, in the shops, in the mills, in the unions, in the mass organizations. A well’ planned campaign will rally masses of working women under the slogans of the Communist Party on March 8. PARTY LIFE Party ‘Promptness By P. MUNTER: It seems that the directives for campaigns, special events, etc., have a confirmed habit of reaching the outlying districts very late. In fact some of the material for such events and campaigns doesn’t get here in time to be of use. Though comrades always criticize the dis- trict, myself included, it stands to reason that the district cannot give what it has not. A little thought to the detail of time in planning activities would help. On the coast, at least in Washington and Oregon, the Daily arrives four days after mailing. Announcements should therefore be timed to meet that deficiency. This is not only in the Daily but in all na- tional office mateial. The fact that an over- worked district will be tardy ts not considered and I am sure that the district will respond to a good example, If if is not possible to send all material, then, samples at least to give an idea of what is expected should be forthcoming. Of course, this applies to district offices as well. | dress.” very One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Tic ghe snhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy, Foreign; one year, $8; six months, $4.50. TENTH!” Ry BURCK (eer rn, By JORGE eeemneeeeee He Holds the Title ‘We don't have the least idea what the “Amer- | ican Title Association” is, but an. Atlantic City news item of Jan. 17, said that.a duffer by the name of Edwin H. Lindow. of Detroit is its | president. That, also, would be a matter 6f no import- ance, but for the fact that Mr. Lindow sprung a new one while making what. is ¢alled "an ad- He opened his mouth and: this is what he said: “The business collapse in America ts due to plain ordinary laziness on the part of our people.” a ee Ah! Picknockets! One of the lads who has been standing out in front of a New York bank during his spare time for several days, trying to get something back, told us this one—and it’s rather good: The long line was waiting wearily in the cold, shoulders hunched up against the.wind like the south end of a steer backing up against a bliz- zard. Passersby were, naturally, passing by. J3ut some halted a moment to look over. the lint of sad depositors. A cop came strolling down the line: “Watch out, fellows,” he sung out. “There | may be some pickpockets around here.” Peaches and Cream From a reader we learn that Mr, Steuer, other- wise known as “Dear Max” to Jimmy Walker, not only has a son-in-law who has been ap- pointed Assistant Attorney General of New York State—a matter we mentioned previously to the time that Steuer himself became “special assistant” to the Attorney General in order to “investigate the Bank of U. S.”--but we also learn that this son-in-law, Henry Epstein, who is a sorta partner with Steuer, was presented by Steuer with the case of Peaches Browning when that highly explosive dame was suing “Daddy.” It seems that the Steuer family, who tickled the cream off the banking business.of New York City, simply had to serve it with Peaches. rae ek * A Premium On Happiness The “Long Island Daily Press” of Jan. 21, hae taken on a safe bet. On the front page the editor offers one dollar every day for the “Best Letter Indicating Departure of Depression.” It goes on to specify that it wants you to “pick out a sunbeam now and then from all dark clouds,” and without waiting for information it ventures to state that “Happy Days Ate Com- Evidently happy days for workers: are so darned few that the capitalists can offer a re- ward for them and still keep their money. Try This On Your | Coffee Pot Marvelous are the ways of capitalist “stabiliza tion”! The government of Brazil is not only buying up 15,600,000 out of the 18,000,000 sacks of coffee at $6 a sack—naturally paying the banks, the State Bank of Sao Paulo and the Bank of Brazil, a pretty penny of interest—but is imposing a tax on every new coffee tree planted. (A sack of coffee weighs something over two hundred pounds.) ‘The news that Brazil is restricting coffee pro- duction will undoubtedly be hailed with joy in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador— and among American financiers interested in coffee plantations there. Probably they will all be so glad that they will plant four new coffee trees for every one not planted in: Brazil! In the meantime, brethren, do you notice any difference in the price of a pound of coffee, or @ cup of coffee? We don’t! ay sek g . LENIN SAID: An oppressed class which does not strive to learn the use of arms, to possess arms, would deserve to be treated merely as slaves. Lest we become bourgeois pacifists or a1 its we cannot fgrget that we are living ‘ina class so- ciety and that there is not and earhot be any other way out of it except the ‘class struggle. In any class society, whether founded on slav- ery, on serfdom, or, as now, on wage labor, the oppressing class is always armed.. Not only the existing standing armies but also, the existing militia, even in the most democratic bourgeois republics, Switzerland for example, represent the armed bourgeoisie as against the proletariat. This truth is so elementary that there is hardly any need to dwell on it. Suffice if to mention the use of troops against strikers in all of the copitalist countries. (Lenin: The Military Program of the Proletarian Revolution.) A ! It is theoretically wrong\and an obvious his- torical error to deny the possibility of national A few examples out here right now. The Daily carries the account of the Lenin recruiting drive. We did not know about it until the Daily had it. Iam sure that advance material on it was given somewhere, The plans for the Amnesty Drive of the LL-D. did not greet any of the city members for the New Year as was announced in the LL.D. _ Now when we are trying to make the turn and ‘correct our own habit of lateness, it is impera- tive that the national and district bodies also try. Of course,. in Portland we have had some trouble in the, attack on the Party and militant workers, but in getting around to remember that any workers attract will not be able to keep interest if we do not show the promptness and vigor of real revolutionists ourselves, I believe that new workers should be encouraged and their attempts pointed out en- couragingly if they merit it. We are a little | more experienced and should institute the feel- ing of comradeship among the Pk aR ae Comentary t The above observations’ of Munter are correct, It is true that sometimes, due to not taking ation the far distances , we fail still, | wars under imperialism: from a practical aspect it is tantamount to European chauvinism. How can we, belonging to nations which oppress hun- dreds of millions of people in Europe, Africa Asia, etc., tell the. oppressed peoples that their war against “our” nations: is “impossible? (Lenin: The Program of the Pro . * * ‘ ts Civil wars are also wars. Whoever re the class struggle must also re or wae which. fs in class society a natural and under certain circumstances,.an inevitable development and accentuation of the’class struggle. All great revolutions prove this. To deny civil war or to ignore it would mean to become an extreme op- Portunist and to repudiate the soctal revolution. —(Lenin: The ! mme paigns start late. This shortcoming whic rade Munter points out must receive Hon of the Center but, also bf the Com- atten Worker i | 4 crmeease —a