The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 19, 1931, Page 4

Page Four Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc 18th Street, New York Cit Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Streot, New York, N. Y. N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 795 , daily except Sunday, at 50 Fast Cable: “DALWORK.” orker Perty USA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 4#y mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; {of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctly. Foreign; one year, $%+ six months, / ON TO VICTORY IN THE NEEDLE STRIKE By BILL LAWRENCE going on among the preparation to strug- nditions and simultane- A. F, of L. bureaucracy which to prevent the workers from The recent strikes in the shoe in- e strikes of the textile workers in Ken- ton, which took place in spite of the A. F. of L. officials, are indications that the American workers refuse to carry the burdens of the crisis af Am 2 capitalism, refuse to be starved out and are beginning in an organized way to resist of the bosses. ie strike is a ct result of the des- ot of the bosses to smash the al- andard of living of the workers. It le of the needle workers ing conditions and strength- the interes of the he needle workers have suf! es and the ILGWU officials. better paid line in the dress ) have long forgotten how a decent like. The union conditions have The effect of the speed-up is after a day’s work the needle r is completely unfit for any mental or pl al use. In the cotton shops it is still e. There the workers get from $6.00 to $8.00 for 48-50 hours of slavery. Especially are the Negro workers being discriminated, who compri most a quarter of all the workers in the needle industry in Philadelphia. The t of the bosses within the ranks of the needle workers, the ILGWU, is doing nothing to improve the conditions of the workers. For years of existence the ILGWU has shown to “or- ganize” 250 workers out of the 7,000 in the dress industry in Philadelphia. In the so-called or- ganized shops the workers do not know of any privileges, union conditions or decent standard | of living. The reductions on the prices of dresses are a daily occurence. If a worker dares to open his or her mouth against the prevailing inhuman conditions in the company union shops the boss immediately replies, “if you don't like it you know what you can do.” For the least thing workers are being fired in these “union” shops. lear that the job of organizing the work- ers and safeguard their conditions belongs to the only fighting organization in the needle indus- | try, the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union. In carrying on the battle the NTWIU must con- | centrate and pay special attention to the most underpaid and exploited section of this industry, the Negro workers. It must make special at- tempts to win over on its side the workers who still remained and are misled by the fakers of the ILGWU. The NTWIU must carry on an un- compromising struggle against the Lovestone ele- ments within the union who spread illusions among the needle workers and propose to unite with the misleaders of the ILGWU, thus making believe that these agents of the bosses are,able to defend and fight for the interests of the workers. The NTWIU must raise the fighting spirit of the workers through mass picketing and mobi- lization of the working class as a whole behind the struggle of the needle workers. The Communist Party as in all the struggles of the workers will be heart and soul behind this strike. The needle workers who are mem- bers of the Communist Party will be the first ones in the fighting trenches. They must and will be the ones to show examples of stubborn struggle and sacrifice for the interests of the workers. The Communist Party is the flesh and blood of all the workers. The struggle of the needle workers is the struggle of the Commun- ist Party. The victory of the needle workers is the victory of the Communist Party. With de- | termination and faith in the workers, with sup- port of all the working class movements, the NTWIU with its militant class struggle program will lead the workers to struggles and victories, excepting Boroughs $4.50. es Close Ranks Against Chauvinist Intluences Resolution of the District Bureau, C. P. U. S. A., District 2, On the Struggle Against Chauvinism 1. An all-round tightening of the yoke of im- ) ranks of the union to root out this evil. pe: t oppression of the millions Negro toilers is taking place together with the sharpening of the crisis and the ferocious boss-class offensive against the living standards and the political rights of the workers in general. 2. Thus particularly in the recent period, the white ruling class and their agents are redoub- ling their chauvinist activities. Everywhere the forces of reaction are engaged in frantic efforts to fan into frame the embers of racial and na- tional prejudices and hatred among the workers, to split the ranks of the workers on the basis of race and nation, to lynch and terrorize Ne- groes. The object of this intensified wave of 100 per cent Yankee terror is to distract the workers from the struggle against the real enemy, to scatter the workers’ forces and thus render joint struggle impossible, and to isolate the Negro workers from the revolutionary movement. Every revolutionary worker and particularly every Party member must understand that these tactics of the class-enemy are not directed against the Negroes alone, but are part and. parcel of the bosses’ attack against the whole working class. 3. Hand in hand with this new wave of rul- ing class chauvinism and supplementing it, is to be noted an up-flare of bourgeois national- ism among the upper strata of the Negro popu- lation. In desperate attempts to retain the leadership of the discontented Negro masses in the Jim- crow districts of the cities, the Negro bourgeoisie and their spokesmen are increasingly coming out with demagogic slogans and gestures on the one hand and are on the other hand entering into all sorts of treacherous agreements with the white bosses. The object of these activities of the Negro bourgeoisie is to prevent the growing movement of discontent among the Negro masses from find- ing its natural expression as part of the revo- lutionary labor movement, to turn it into chan- nels harmless to imperialism. The workers, black and white, must ‘defeat these sinister attempts of both the white ruling class and the Negro bourgeoisie to break up their ranks, by the closest solidarity of the Negro and white workers in the struggle against all op- pression. 4. The pressure of this new wave of 100 per cent American chauvinism is felt in the revolu- tionary movement and even in the Party itself, In the recent period, a number of the most disgraceful outbursts of chauvinism, occuring for the most part in our non-Party mass or- ganizations, have been brought to the attention of the District Committee. For example: a. Negro workers attending a dance at the * Harlem Finnish Club, New York, are confronted with open hostility. Members of our Party frac- tion present, made little or no protest against this outrage. b. A similar incident occurred ata dance given by the Progressive Youth Club in Harlem, While in this case a Young Communist League speaker took the floor and put forth the position of the Y.C.L,, the fact that such a situation arose, in- dicates an impermissible negligence of our League fraction in educational work among the white ion-League members. ec. In the Young Liberator group in Brooklyn Negro non-League members justifiably accused: certain league comrades of white chauvinist ten- dencies. This matter was aggravated by the fact that, during the investigation, our league comrades, instead of an attitude of frank self- criticism before these workers, almost unanim- ously took up a defensive attitude. | e. In Paterson, N. J., white Chauvinism agatt again made its ugly appearance among our auxiliary organizations. In most of the above cases it was revealed that the Party fra¢tion instead of waging a de- termined struggle against chauvinism among the non-Party members of their organizations capi- tulated before chauvinism. The basis of this capitulation is the existence of chauvinist moods among Party members themselves. Thus the case of comrade Yokinen of the Finnish Club fraction who during the investigation of the incident re- ferred to above, showed by his attitude that he was against admitting Negroes into the pool room and bath rooms. The attitude of members of unit 5 buro, section 4, New York, and of mem- bers of the unit recently criticized by the sec- | tion buro for chauvinist tendencies in connec- tion with the showing of a film by the unit in the Harlem headquarters was impermissible. Comrades of the unit not only received this criticism with hostility but the unit organizer informed that the section organizer was a “black chauvinist” or “Negro terrorist.” 5. Indifference and passivity in regard to the Negroes is also revealed in other fields of Party activity. In Harlem, where the work among Negroes is our major activity there is an al- most total neglect of this work. a. Difficulty to mobilize a number of white Party members for work among Negroes; failure of comrades to appear when assigned to cer- tain tasks—distribution of leaflets, eviction cases, the failure of white unemployed comrades to participate actively in the Harlem Unemployed Council, ete, s b, The attempts on the part of some white comrades to transfer into other sections. c. The small attendance of white comrades at inter-racial affairs, dances, etc. d. The attempt to shift responsibility for the carrying out of Negro work, to Negro comrades, or at best to comrades assigned to Negro work. e. The failure to energetically recruit Negro workers into the Party. f, The appointment of incapable comrades to function as Negro directors is common to all sec- tions. This indifference and passivity in regard to the struggles of the Negro masses: manifests a crass underestimation of the importance of Negro work and reflects a deep lack of faith in the Negro masses, 6. “It must be born in mind that the Negro Congress on Negro question.) One of the most fundamental demands of Party policy in regard to the Negroes, is that still occupy 's, peivilewed “position in’ relation: to the Negro workers. ‘Therefore, any attempt to blur over the special demands of the Negroes, to deny the necessity in practice with the socialists and liberals, 7. \The district committee therefore reempha- sizes the necessity of a decisive break with all chauvinist tendencies and practices and is dey termined to take all measures, educational and Speed-Up and Wage-Cuts in Pennsylvania Coal Mines (By a Worker Correspondent) WESTLAND, Pa.—The miners in the Pitts- burgh Coal Co. mines, controlled by Mr. Mellon, are slaving even worse than the prisoners in the workhouse. This is specially true of the Westland Mine, one of the largest of the com- pany. The mine is equipped with the best loading machines. The speed-up on the loading machines is something terrible. When the Jeffrey loading machine was first installed it was scheduled to load 23 cars a day. When this goal was achieved the 30 cars a day goal was set. When 30 cars a day had been achieved, 40 cars a day became the goal. This also has been achieved, and now 45 cars a day is the goal that must be accom- plished every day. The bosses are already pre- paring to raise it to 50 cars a day. The speed-up is actually murderous on the loading machines, The other day my buddy was setting up a post under the slate. All at once he dropped as if dead. I called: “Pete, Pete, what is the matter?” But Pete did not answer. I grabbed him and pulled him on a side. He was motionless. With the help of the machine operator and the driver, we laid him on the gob. We tried to wake him up but again he did not answer, We could not bother with him very long as we had to work because the order of the boss is that the machine can not lose one minute “ regardless of the consequences. About two hours after the man had been lying on the gob, ab- solutely motionless, the boss came, We reported the incident to him. This was his answer: “Hell, that’s nothing, we have plenty of such cases al- most every day.” The man was over 4 hours on the gob before he was taken outside and given medical treatment. ‘The wages are as follows: Operator, $6; the man on the right side of the machine, $5.60; and the man on the ieft side of the machine, $5.40, and the driver $5 a day. ‘The company is now introducing the check-up system. A check-up is being made systematically on every worker, They check up the speed of the loading machine, hand loader, driver, slate man, etc. Everyone must work at the top speed when the check-up is being made, Jn this checking-up the smallest detail is recorded, For instance, they check up how long it takes a man to put his working glow on, how long it takes to put the pick aside and take the shovel instead, how long it takes to drink water, to change cars, to Why Working By GRACE M. BURNHAM. \N International Women’s Day the working women of the United States should wake up to the fact that to the capitalist government they are just so many human machines for making | profits for the bosses. In fact they are not, even as important as | machines, for machinery is well cared for, oiled, and polished, geared to a pace which will not. | } wear out its parts and fully insured against breakage. Workers in certain states and industries are take his coat off, etc. On the basis of this check-up a new speed-up will be introduced. No one is allowed to leave his working place until quitting time. No one is allowed to talk to another fellow. The com- pany is afraid that the miners will talk to each other about the National Miners Union. There is no man-trip. We must walk in. The | strictest compahy control and supervision pre- | vails in the houses. The Coal and Iron Police are stationed everywhere to watch every single | move of the miners, Recently the cutters got a wage-cut. The pre- vious scale was 10 cents per ton, which made it on an average of'$3 per cut. Now they receive | $2.25 per cut. The machine cuts 7 feet deep | and 22 feet wide. No set of cutters work less than 14 hours a day. One day one set of cutters were working continually for 25 hours. The weight of the cars about 3 months ago was 80 (4 tons), Now it is 50 to 60. This ob- viously is a wage-cut. The men on the hand loading machines get 30 cents a ton and the hand loader 52 cents a ton. But the weight of the cars are getting lower every month. ‘There were rumors that the Pittsburgh Coal Co. will put a general wage cut into effect, the intended rate being $3 per day. When this wage cut was to take place, the Hillman miners struck, under the leadership of the National Miners Union, against.a wage-cut in the Edna No. 2 mine. The company postponed the in- tended wage cut fearing that the miners would strike against it, under the leadership of the National Miners Union. The coal operators are afraid of the revolutionary National Miners Union. Every miner must know this and join our militant union. District. The recent 2 weeks special discussion in the units proved absolutely unsatisfactory, and brought out sharply the deep confusion that exists on the question. b. The establishment of a permanent class with the view towards training cadres for Negro work, c. Party fractions in non-Party mass organi- zations must, see to it that the Negro question is placed prominently among the educational ac- tivities of these organizations, @ A question and answer box shouldbe estab- Ushed in the Daily Worker as a means of stimul- ating the discussion. A series of short popular articles on the Negro question must be published in the Party press as well as in TUUL papers. e. The development of the most thorogoing, merciless Bolshevik self-criticism within the ranks of the Party and Y.C.L, The Party mem- bership must be encouraged to bring into the open all manifestations of white chauvinism. In cases where white chauvinism is definitely re- vealed the comrades concerned must be fully ex- sung with! nthe Party, mass organizations, in the Party press and in special resolutions. from the sections and units where such incidents occurs, i t. White comrades must take the lead in the struggles against white chauvinism. The non- Bolshevik conception that the struggle against chauvinism is principally the task of Negro comrades which in- itself) manifests an under- estimation of Negro work must be energetically combatted. ’ g. The leading Negro comrades especially must conduct tireless. activity among the rank and file Negro comrades against all remnants of distrust, suspicion and super-sensitiveness in regard to white revolutionary workers, hh, Simultaneously with the above must be beth wich apecdtetrerienibodie otic bots workers for concrete immediate demands, well, planned organization of mass solidarity demon- gregation and Jim-crowism in restaurants, thea- tres, residential sections, evictions, hospitals, schools, ete, i. A serious and energetic campaign must be undertaken without delay on the part of the LSNR and the Protection of Foreign Born Coun- . cils to counter-act the periicious activities of the white capitalists and the Negro reformists and misleaders, thru open air meetings, confer- ences, touring speakers to Negro and white or- ,Banizations, etc, J. The trade unions and defense organizations must finally build Negro departments, involving the whole organization into mass recruiting of Negroes and systematic drawing in of Negro workers into leading committees in the organiza- tions. k, The demands of the Negro workers must ‘be raised in all leaflets, and in all agitational and propaganda material. 1. Particularly in Negro Jim-crow sections special attention must be devoted by the Party sections and mass organizations to the proper attraction of Negroes to all affairs, dances, concerts, etc. The adi ma‘ of such affairs should carry special invitat to Ne- ‘groes; while among the speakers at: these af-) fairs, there should always be some Negro cam- m. The greatest degree of fatechieition? the closest association of the white with Negro com- rades in social life inside and outside of the Patty is impexative. Only the most energetic and fearless struggles to wipe out of the revolutionary movement all chauvinist tendencies; only the most intensive training of the workers in the spirit of Bolshe- vik internationalism which will enable us to march forward toward mass offensive struggles Pertalism.. February 10, 1981, | states are all occupational diseases compensated. | certain processes in textile mills, Benzol is a serious hazard to women workers em- |. died. Women Need Special Protection insured against industrial accidents (workmen's compensation), i. e. they are paid a proportion | of average waces one-half or one-third—depend- inf on the state, for some of the time lost when injured on the job. But for disease due to harm- ful working conditions workers cannot get com- pensation in any but 12 states, and only in five Industrial conditions which destroy health are a crime against all workers whether they are men or women. But where they affect women work- ers the are particularly disastrous. This is because when the women wage earner is ill it means not only loss in income for the family | but actual destruction of the family. The work- | ing woman is not only wage earner but cook, wash woman, housewife, nurse and mother. Moreover, certain occupations have dangers for women which men escape. For example, trades requiring constant standing, heavy lifting, and pressure on the abdominal and generative or- gans offen make women into chronic invalids and render them incapable of bearing healthy or normal children. Examples of such occupa- tions are the operation of punch pressure and Working with heavy machinery is. prohibited for women in | some states in the U. S. and in most European countries. Just as important. are regulations protecting | women against industrial poisons. “It is plain to | all,” writes Dr. Alice Hamilton of Harvard Med- | ical School, “that if a poison is circulating in the blood of the mother it is practically certain to affect the child she is carrying.” A woman | who has lead poisoning, for example, is more likely to be sterile than one who is healthy. Women in the lead industries, if they do become pregnant, are very likely to suffer an abortion or have children born dead. Should the child survive it is more than likely to die within the first year of life. Women are much more susceptible to occupa- tional poisons than men. In potteries they-have a rate of lead poisoning twice that of men work- ers. More than one-fifth of the women em- ployed in American potteries have lead poisoning, ‘The profits of American potteries are protected by a high tariff, but they have a rate of lead poisoning 34 times that of England. Regulations for the protection of workers in U. S. potteries simply do not exist. Another poison which has a deadly affect on ‘women and should be prohibited is benzol. Ben- zol is used in no Jess than 50 industries, many of them employing large numbers of women, ployed in the manufacture of rubber goods, in cementing sanitary cans, in pasting trimmings on hats and in dry cleaning. Of 52 cases of severe poisoning studied by Dr. Hamilton, 40, or over 75 per cent were among women, while among 36 deaths from benzol poisoning, 28, or 80 per cent, were among women. ~10 per cent of the women poisoned by benzol ‘Wood alcoho! poisoning, resulting in blindness and even death is also a serious hazard. Women employed shellacking ‘lead, pencils, and picture frames, stiffening hat frames and Panamas, and working on artificial flowers face this hazard. The fight for laws to prohibit industrial poisons or to safeguard their use is an immediate issue in every dangerous trade. Only a fearless union organization such as the TUUL is capable of carrying on a successful attack on the bosses to ager he class, such as the Communist Party, 4s interested in getting laws passed which make it @ crime to poison workers, Regulations pro- hibiting deadly poisons and safeguarding the lives of the workers are law in every industrial country but the U. S. In England, Germany, France, Belgium and even fascist Italy the work- ers have organized industrially and politically and forced the governments to act. Conditions have improved although they are far from ideal, Only in the Soviet Union, where the govern- filial ck tlre sced eth Med ema | with it, Bachmann, and that is the guaran’ By JORGE ecm! “Ten Commandments” A sheet called “The Trades-Unionist,” official organ of the Alleghany Trade Council of Balti- more, which specializes on ads occupying its front page from banks and breweries, gives most of the second page in its issue of February 14, to “Ten Commandments for Industry.” Printed in big type, it starts off with No. 1, addressed to “Organized Labor” (unorganized labor is wholly left out), as follows: “Thou shalt not permit any of thy members to place the union card aboye our country’s flag.” No. 2, says: “Thou shalt not deny to any man, at any time, in any place, the right to. work as a free man and to receive wages as such.” Taken together, these are the doxology of strike-breaking and the open shop. “To capital,” gives four commandments to be a “good boss,” while “The general public’ is commanded to “pay a fair price willingly” and also “pay taxes cheerfully.” The Tenth Commandment is addressed everybady,” and here it is: “Thou shalt honor and love thy government, “te | for it is the people’s government, the best ever devised by man, and there is none other like it in the world.” We agree there is none like it in the world. Nor are there anywhere else in the world such “labor” papers as the Trades-Unionist. . ° ° Buffalo Bull Up in Buffalo, New York, they produce a pe- culiar kind of humor possibly known as Buffalo Bull.” One of the choice examples came to us from a comrade who sent a clipping from the “Buf- falo Courier.” It seems that, with the city overs run by jobless workers, most of whom are slowly and some rapidly starving to death, the Central Y.M.C.A. of that city thought it needful to stage @ lecture on “Leisure.” The orator was a guy named Frezee, and he spoke, in part as follows: “Leisure is opportunity. The first use to make of leisure is to find that thing about which we can be most enthusiastic.” We have the general idea that the thing most | jobless workers couldn’t work up enthusiasm about would-be to listen to a lecture on the sub- ject of leisure, We expect, however, that they could go one | better by giving a talk to the poor devils on the breadlines about the advantage of a balanced diet. Here in New York, some bright Jad got the idea that to keep the “idle” out of mischief, the newspapers should be filled with advice that the workers who are facing a hell of starvation, would have a most delightful time, if they would only pay a visit to Grant’s tomb. . A Bedbug Rails at History “Why should there be any hesitation in driving this horde of enemies out of the country or | shutting their treasonable mouths and stopping their revolutionary noise is beyond my under- standing,” shouted Representative Bachmann, of West Virginia, in Congress on Tuesday. Meanwhile, “Within a stone’s throw of Battery Park every morning, wagon load’s of food are destroyed rather than sell ata low market price. Because the owner cannot sell it at the usual profit, they burn it and let people starve who have not the money to buy it. In California they have an egg-smashing competition because they cannot sell eggs at an immediate profit, while children go hungry and mothers commit suicide, taking | their little ones with them,” we are told by C. Bloom, of 159 E. 116th St., New. York. Bachmann, capitalist representative from West Virginia, infamous for its massacres of striking miners and their wives and children at Cabni Creek and Paint Creek, would “stop treasonable mouths”—but not with food! And though we don’t except Bachmann to learn anything from history, as long as mouths have no food in them, you can expect plenty of “treason” to occupy that place. The “mothers who commit suicide” are cer- tainly “driven out of the country,” and the “treasonable mouths” of their little children are forever silenced—while food is burned and eggs destroyed to guarantee Bachmann and his kind —PROFITS! But there is another guarantee that goes along) collected by the Russian workers from your kin on Nov. 7, 1917! And, if that be “treason,” make the most of « 8 Good Cheer from Libertyvill Libertyville, dear reader, 1s in Tlinols, W suspect that it was called “Germantown” befor the World War. Anyhow, it is now Libertyville} and wants to be in style. So, says the Chicag: Tribune: “A straw man, dubbed Old Man D’Pression, was placed in a casket and carried to a small park on the main street. The procession was! ~ composed of all the business men and most o!. the school children, “Old Man D’Pression was. scheduled to le in state there until next Saturday, when the| village band was to lead another procession to| the tune of ‘Happy Days Are Here Again,’ and] @ pnblic cremation was to be held.” Such was the intention.. But the end of De| pression, who was fixed up with a wax face an posted gruesomely in a coffin in the middle c the village, came more quickly than his fellow figured. You will have noted that while mor of the school children” were there, not all fo’ lowed the business men. i And doubtless some Pioneer, strayed into Lit ertyville, figured that-only the fires of revolt tion would put an end to capitalist depressio and in the dead of night while the village poll: slept, and the good business men were in bt with each others’ wives, Old Man D'Pression we up in flames. materials or starve, Women workers on who depends the lives and health of the future ge’ erations must refuse to so sacrifice themsely further. Organization can put a stop to t slaughter on the industrial battlefield in the 8. as it has in the U.S.8.R. Into’ the T.U,