The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 23, 1931, Page 4

Vage Four et, 13th New York Clty, N. ¥. Telephone Algonquin 798 and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 Wast 18th Street, New York, N. ¥. MASS UNEMPLOYMENT IN CHESTER By MAC HARRIS, ery confronts thousands thie! Rigby Dat istrial ands are listed the twelve thousand cf whom _ are Negroes working population is com- posed of sand, fifty per cent of whom mployed. rs from nearby cities mi- tuation prevails in the Sun Shipbuilding Co., follo ant plant twelve thousand, now oper- thousand workers. Ford Motor five thousand during normal op- nt running with 800 workers. employing five thousand operating with approximately lisplay the effect of the eco- the workers. The crisis worsens f mass lay-offs is continued by t week the Sun Shipyard laid off 200 additional Negro workers week. In addition to forms of speed-up con- e in all the in es. The most highly skilled labor in the Sun Shipyard receives an approximate sixty-eight cents per hour, while y cents per hour. The ng thousands of young work- ers, pay their employees anywhere from eight to twelve dollars per week ination on a Jarge scale is practiced against the Negro workers. Negro workers are hired as common laborers in the Sun Shipyard receiving forty cents per hour, despite the fact that many of the are skilled mechanics. In isolated cases they are permitted to do more skilled work (operating lathes, milling machines, ete.) working side by side with white workers, but nevertheless receiving far less pay. The wage cuts and Disc: Ford Motor Co. refuses to hire any Negro wor! Negro workers are the first to be laid n the industries where they are granted loyment. he unemployment situation has played havoc upon the living standards of the Negro workers. notes in which they dwell are in many r ects r worse than those of the white workers Five to six persons dwell in one room. are no bathtubs, basin or any other means of sanitation. Lamps and candles are the means utilized for furnishing lights. Many sleep on the floors for lack of beds. Most cf these “shacks” are in a dilapidated condition. se deplorable conditions, the land- nd their exorbitant rents. Many of milies are confronted with evic- ff sales. is.no exception to the many fake re- lief drives carried on by the bosses and corrupt politicians. An “employment” agency is main- tained by the qty where jobless workers register and apply for “relief.” Thousands of workers have applied at this agency for employment— but there are no jobs in sight! The following in- cident is an example of the sort of “relief” handed out by the corrupt city administration. A Negro worker, unemployed for & number of months, applied at the agency for relief. He explained that he, and his wife, had not seen meet the demand for labor. | any food for a number of days and were on the point of passing out through starvation. He also related their landlord was demanding his three months rent due to him, He received four dollars for a period of two wetks, and then was informed that the agency was in no position to do anything else for him! Little wonder that this particular worker remarked that he would like to know who was pocketing all the money being collected during the present “relief” drive. The Ford Motor Co, is not immune from con- tributing a little fake relief measure of its own. The manager of the plant visits the homes of the jobless workers applying for employment at the plant. When he finds out that the particu- lar worker visited is in dire neéd, five dollars worth of food is donated by this “generous soul” in emulation of his master, Henry Ford. The unemployed worker is then hired in the plant, repaying the five dollars from his wages, and replacing another worker in the plant at less wages! This is Ford’s method -of relieving the unemployment situation! The Chester Unemployed Council, affiliated-to the Trade Union Unity League, began an in- tensive campaign to organize the thousands of jobless Negro and white workers. The first council meeting called was attended by fifty workers, forty of whom were Negroes. Thefol- lowing day a demonstration was held with over 500 attending. Following the demonstration a march was conducted to the Unemployed Coun- cil headquarters where another meeting was held with ovér 100 present. Seventy-five per cent of these were Negros. The Council is now growing | very rapidly. The next regular meeting brought out an attendance of 100. Feb. 25th will wit- ness thousands in a demonstration for unemploy- ment insurance and immediate relief. Follow- ing the demonstration a mass unemployment conference will be held March 7th, 2:30 p.m. | at Lithuanian Hall, 4th and Upland Sts. The call for the conference has been sent to Negro churches and organizations, fraternal organiza- tions and clubs, ex-servicemen’s leagues, A. F. of L. locals, etc. a program for strikes against high rents and for lower prices of food. Block councils will also be organized to combat evictions. All workers’ organizations are advised to send their dele- gates to this conference. the Council are héld every Monday and Thurs- day, 11 a. m. at 120 West 3rd St. Seattle Community Fund Feeds Hungry with Sympathy By SIDNEY BLOOMFIELD. ‘TER having completed the annual Com- munity Fund Drive, which netted hundreds of thousands of dollars for the so-called “Uplift” organizations, “welfare” organizations and “char- acter-building” organizations, etc., these organ- izations report that they are doing great deeds of “helpfulness” at the present time, with over 40,000 workers unemployed in this city. The workers who go from house to house collecting signatures for the Unemployed In- surance Bill Petition, sponsored by the Unem- ployed Council and the T. U. U. L., find entire families by the hundreds in the most pitiful and starved conditions. In the face-of widespread misery and starva- tion, the Community Chest funds are being used for maintaining the so-called organizations, their buildings and officers on fat salaries. It has been estimated, from reliable sources, that ap- proximately 2 per cent of the Community funds contributions (which come from the workers) are spent by these organizations for welfare work, In order to. ward off any suspicion, these or- ganizations fill the pages of the local capitalist press with lying, boasting and misleading state- ments concerning the so-called welfare work that they are supposed to be doing. In a recent story which appeared in the Seattle Star, under the heading, “Relief Agencies Are Busy,” and with sub-heading, “Community Fund Head Gives Out Statement on Current Needs,” these fake organizations expose themselves as the biggest frauds since the days of Barnum, whose slogan was, “There is a sucker born every minute.” The character of the needs of the masses is apparent to the dumbest individual; the needs are for food, clothing and shelter. But what do these welfare organizations give the worker in the face of this extreme need? Here is what John F. Hall, executive secretary of the Com- munity Fund, stated in an article which ap- peared in the paper: “Sympathetic suggestions from social work- ers which help to increase the families’ ability for self-maintenance and independence are often more important than the relief.” “Relief, jowever, is only one form of ... welfare.” “These imely statements are made by executives of the 8 family welfare agencies sharing in the Seattle Community Fund, these agencies are: Salvation Army, Jewish Welfare Society, Ladies’ Montefiore Aid Society, Lighthouse for the Blind, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Social Wel~ fare League, Urban League, Travelers’ Aid So- ciety.” These statements by the capitalist “relief” agencies prove conclusively that the role of these bodies is to act as the shock-absorbers of the capitalist class. After having milked the work- ers, when they are fortunate enough to have a few days work, by means of extortion and firing the workers if they do not contribute a day’s pay to the Community Fund, they themselves. admit, in the fact of all thisneed of the masses, that the only thing they can give a worker is sympathetic suggestions” as being “more hiapor- tant than relief.” In other words{$when there are no jobs to be bought or had, they play with the misery of the masses and instead of food they kid along the worker with “sympathetic suggestions,” as hough “sympathetic suggestions” will fill a hun- gry stomach. In the face of the impossibility | of securing a job, or even felief, they have the | organizations. nerve to’ tell the workers about “self-mainten- ance and independence.” At a time when the U. S. Treasury is giving billions of dollars to the ship owners, which is a fotm of “main- tenance and relief” for the capitalist class’ and The conference will work out | Regular ‘meetings of | tales of history, imac: the millionaires who do not need relief and are | not in a Starving condition, but instead live in | luxury and plenty, these social wélfare agencies know better than ‘to talk to millionaires who receive these billions of dollars in benefits and welfare from’ the capitalist’ government. The Fight Against ‘Banger* By W. ENSEE (London). * ya paniphlet consists. of the Statement. pre- pared by the Central Committee of the Com- munist Party of the U.S. A. and presented to the notorious Fish Committee’ when that’ body subpoenaed Comrade W. Z. Foster’ to attend be- fore it to give evidence. As is pointed out in the introduction, the real purpose of the Fish Cém- mittee, which was appointed’ by the House; of Representatives after the outbreak of: the crisis in'America and after the, Comnjunist Party had led.moré than ‘one and a quarter million unem- ployed workers onto the streets, and » whose alleged task was to “investigate Communist: ac- tivities in the U. S. “A.,” was ‘to -prepaté the ground for ‘a series of new laws and adminis- rative measures directed against the U. S. S..R. and against all militant workers and, workers’ In fact it is the Unifed States government's reply to the growing radicaliza- | tion of the workers of America, which has been enormously accelerated by the_crisis. In its Statement the Communist. Party -of America made_ full use of, the opportunity in order fearlessly and ruthlessly to. expose the true state of affairs in capitalist America and “the rottenness that has penetrated every, phase of American society.” ‘ Point by point the indiet- ment'is piled up against American capitalism and its representatives, including the members of the Fish Committee. It sets forth without reserve the facts of the nine million urleniployed in America who are forced to’ starve because of the super-abundance of wealth; the terrorist. methods employed by the authorities and the employers against ‘striking and demonstrating workers; the brutal clubbings, shootings, prison and, death sentences; the Negro lynchings and the persecution of foreign-born workers; the wholesale ruin of the farmers; the fierce cam- paign of wage-cuts which set in after the agree- ment concluded between Hoover and Green that there should be no strikes nor wage _ reductions (even according to the faked | of’ the Board ‘of Labor, in 1930 “alone the “American workers suffered wage. reductions to the amount ‘of $8,000,000,000, while in some industries wage- cutting amounted to 50 per cent). All these facts were flung into the teeth of the gentlemen of the Fish Committee set up to “investigate Communist activities in the United States,” while the statement repeatedly emphasizes that it is only the Communist Party that is organ- izing and leading the fight of the working masses, Negro and white, employed and ployed, and’ hence the reason forthe influence of the Party. Special reference is made to the. growin SATgTE OE bak BB ® Femult: 0k “the: Srecueyeas ~ nee, Boe Ce : SUBSCLUPTION RATES: | By mafl éverywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs (| et Manhattan and Bronk. New York Ctiy, Foreign; one year, $8: six months, $4.50. By BURCK A Red Magazine for Workers’ Children HERE is no working-class literature in Eng- lish for children, There are no. story books, plays or magazines for workers’ children. What do the children read? Books of imaginary adventure, fairy tales, heroes in imaginary worlds. These books and magazines are all highly colored capitalist propaganda, but they are gay and attractive with colors and illustra- tions. Besides the more harmless propaganda | there is open fascist and imperialist propa- | ganda, such as the boy scouts magazines, camp fire. magazines, glowing tales of the world war, and s0 on. Some tales attempt to make the children of the working class content with cold and hunger as thé highest state of heroism and réligion. The bourgeoisie know well how to | propagandize and mislead the children of the masses. They know well how to sugar-coat and | cover their capitalist ideology with romance, ad- venture, color and poetry. This is old stuff. The churches have always used it. The movies are full of it. It is one of the main functions of the public schools. All the books in the school- room are used to glorify tyrants past and pres- ent, their Jaws and their wars. What Shall the Children Read? What, then, is left for the children of the working ‘class to read? There’ is nothing, for we haveas yet no literature for the children. The ‘Pioneer, with its two pages and its cramped means, did not begin to fulfill this need. It lacked all that such a paper should have in order to attract, the-children. It was only a be- ginning; no. more ‘than that. ‘We Must’ Have a Magazine for the Children. We must have a magazine that will appeal to all the children;'a magazine that will contain so | many departments that it will attract,and hold the interest. of all types of the children of the masses. Some children want real stories. We will have these stories with real heroes—heroes of the working class. We haye many of them in real life to choose from. The magazines must contain short plays, depicting the struggles of workers and workers’ children. Our new children’s magazine must be full of color. It must contain pictures, cartoons and poems. It must look good to the eye and all the material must be convincing. Arts, Crafts, Sports, Games. Our new magazine for the children will con- tain material for atts and crafts. It will contain games for playful children and detailed news of labor sports, telling the children what they should do in order to participate. Our new magazine will have articles on methods of self- defense, which becomes more and more a need of the working class. We will have news and material on aviation for the air-minded boys and girls of the working class. Our magazine must appeal to Negro children and the children of the foreign-born workers. Negro children and children of the foreign- born must be made to feel that it is their maga- zine. It must deal with their special problems, and this can be done with the same methods of pictures, stories and poems exposing the per- secution and terror of capitalist society against them and steeling and inspiring them to future action and struggle. Stories and Pictures of the Soviet Union. Our new magazine will contain news of the Soviet Union and will show the children help- ing to build a new civilization in the Workers’ Fatherland. - Build a Red Magazine for Workers’ Children. So let us get behind the campaign for a maga- zine for the children of the masses. Help in the drive to put across a red magazine for the chil- dren of the masses; a magazine that will appeal to all the children. Help us in the drive for funds for a snappy, colorful little book that will attract and hold the attention of every child that reads it and which will force the exclama- tion: “Gee, that’s hot stuff—I’m for it; when does the next issue come out? Demonstrate February 25th! N, February 25th of this year, 25 millions of unemployed will demonstrate in all capitalist countries, against the mass unemployment that has been created through national and interna- tional monopoly, and -trust-capital. These mil- lions will demonstrate against the brutal hunger- offensive that has been organized by capitalism in its attempt to satisfy a desire for ever- increasing profits, which is abandoning millions of men, women, and children to misery and staryation, such as there has never been before. National and international capital are not only attacking the unemployed through this hunger- offensive, but by. creating these enormous ‘armies of unemployed,. it is organizing pressure upon those still at-work. They carry through in this crisis of capitalism, and particularly to the prep- arations for imperialist war against the Soviet Union. A striking contrast is drawn between con- ditions in the United States and in the Soviet Union, where increased production and every improvement in industrial technique brings only benefit to the workers in the shape of reduced hours and a higher standard of living and cul- ture, and where socialism is being successfully built-up under the Five-Year Plan, ‘The report. of the Fish Committee, which has been published in the meantime, fully confirms the accuracy of the American Communist Party’s estimate of this committee and its denunciation of the sinister plans behind it. As an exposure of the Fish Committee and the circumstances under which it was sct up this pamphlet de- serves the widest possible circulation among the workers of America, ‘Fight Against Hunger, Statement drafted by the C.'P. U. S.A. and. presented to, the Fish Committee by . William Z... Foster... Workers Laren Pablishers, New ork, Exkee 8 cents, way, a reduction of wages, and an extension of working hours, under terrific speed-up. In this way, they hope to be able to force the standard of living of the workers and their families, to the lowest level. It is the unquestionable duty of the workers in the shops, to defend themselves against the criminal attacks of the capitalists, and the gov- ernments that protect the capitalists, by form- ing .a revolutionary united front with the un- employed, to organize the counter-offensive of the toiling masses, and carrying through the following demands: 1, That unemployment insurance shall be ad- ministered to the jobless, by a Workers Com- mission elected solely by employed and unem- ployed workers, in the amount of $15 a week to @ single worker, and if married, $3 additional for each dependent. raised by levying on capital and property ac- cumulated in excess of $25,000, and by a grad- uated tax on all incomes over $5,000 a year, by converting all war funds, to the fund for un- employment insurance. 2, That unemployed shall be free from the necessity of paying rent and taxes. Children of unemployed shall receive free lunches in school, and free transportation to and from school. 3. Against wage cuts, injunctions, against the stagger system, The Workers International Relief has sup- ported the unemployed in their struggle for un- employment insurance, for work and bread. The Workers International Relief now appeals to all individual and collective: members and sympa- thizers to devote their strength to the fight for the demands of the unemployed. The Workers International Relief stands for a decisive strug- gle against the national and international ex- ploiters and oppressors of the working class. All out on the streets! Demonstrate! Feb- Tuary 25th! 2 International Committee of the ‘ Workers International Relief, ‘This’ insurance shall be~ PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. Issue Party Bulletins A SYMPATHIZER of Los Angeles writes us the following letter in which he offers some constructive criticism of the Party work in the Los Angeles section: “There are séveral reasons why the Party has not madé more progress here. Many. comrades put the blame on the objective conditions, but the fact that the objective conditions are not made known to those workers who do not feel them directly has a good deal more to do with it than lack of those conditions. The white terror, for instance, is very severe here, but’ the working class does not seem to realize it. “The Daily Worker should be brought to as many. workers as possible, but the Daily is not all sufficient. It cannot give us the news hot off the press. The news comes to us at least four days late. By that time it is no longer news; it is old. The workers here have already received the capitalist impression from the capi- talist press and, for the most part,.are not in- terested in the proletarian version coming in so late. How can we remedy this situation? We should put out a Los Angeles Bulletin. “We pass out thousands of leaflets before a demonstration, but we leave it to the capitalist papers to give the workers the impression of the demonstration as it happened according to the capitalistic viewpoint. Why not mobilize the Party and sympathizers, why not have the ap- paratus ready to put out an edition of thousands of copies of a Los Angeles Bulletin as soon as the demonstration is over? Let: our comrades shout the news, “Workers slugged by cops in unemployed parade” as compared with the capi- talist “Reds slugged by cops.” Let the bulletin be sold in front of factory gates that very after- noon and in the streets the same eveniyg, The bulletin can be either printed or mimeographed and sold at a cent a copy. It could also be put out every week as well as in special editions. “Of course a bulletin would not be a miracu- lous ‘party» builder,’ but it sure. would help a good deal. “In mentioning the news: items that should have been put out here in the last few days we could include the January 10th demonstra- tion, yesterday's parade, and a war mongering editorial in Hearst’s Herald. The latter was an article to persuade the worker that war is better than peace, that the worker was fed in war and went hungry in peace, and therefore should wel- come war as a solution of the unemployment problem. Such editorials are very misleading as they tell half a truth, and should be exposed as they appear in the enemy press.” Comment: The workers in Los Angeles and California generally are in movement, as in all cities and states of the country, and certainly a big part of them realize the increase of the white terror, and are ready to fight, as proven by the last unemployed demonstration, i It is true that the capitalist papers still suc- ceed in impressing their viewpoint on large masses; but on the other hand it is also true that the masses understand more and more all the maneuvers of the capitalist press and are coming to the class point of view. This does not mean that we shall wait for the masses of them- selves to come 100 per cent to our conclusions. But it is through our press, leaflets, meetings, demonstrations, etc., that, we reach a part of the working class and through these, other parts. Los Angeles, for example, has only 816 readers of the Daily Worker, but how many more are influenced by. us, know how to interpret all the lies and maneuvers of the capitalist press to confuse the workers? ' Certainly thousands. In the line of increasing our influence, to combat the capitalist press, immediately give to the masses the correct news, from a class point of vic, especially in case of important political issues, demonstrations, ete. as Comrade R. pointed out—because of the. delay of the Daily Worker in reaching California—the idea to Belfomte Lunacy in Chicago “I have no doubt that at least: one or two of” the candidates are psychically abnormal,” says Dr. George B. Lake, one of the psychiatrists ate tending the American Medical Association con- vention in Chicago, referring to the Chicago elections. (A psychiat: we explain, is one of those guys who pass supposedly expert opinions on whether a person is cuckoo or not.) You see, there's a city election on in Chicago, and though we got the psychiatrist report late, we hope we can give some advice to Chicago workers before the ballots are counted. The capitalist papers talk as though there are only two candidates. Looney Lyle and Batty Thomp- son. But there's an escaped democrat whose name we forget running arount-with a banker's psychosis, whom they don’t mention. But besides all three dippy candidates, there's one sane one, Otto Wangerin, running for mayor on the Communist ticket. You see, the rottener capitalism gets, the more the lunacy comes out on {thé Surface. And Thompson and Lyle have the spotlight. Each one accuses the other that if the other is elected, Al Capone will be the real mayor. And probably both are correct. So it looks like Al Capone either way on that basis. And the dippy democrat don’t count. “For Chicago's sake, I hope the most compe- tent of the lunatics is elected,” remarked an- other psychiatrist, Dr. White, of Washington, D. C. And anyhow who comes from Washing ton ought to be an expert-on lunatics. “There is no doubt that some of the candi dates show traits indicating lack of mental bal ance,” adds Dr. Barrett, psychiatrist at the Uni versity of Michigan. He ought to know some. thing, also, about looney mayors, after watching Murphy of Detroit. The psychiatrists give | these, opinions aftey seeing the crazy stunts pulled by Thompson and Lyle. Thompson leading another jackass labelled “Lyle” through the streets. Lyle parading around with machine guns, he says: belong jointly ta Capone and Thompson. And*lots more we can’ give space to. The Chicago “News” tries to blame ‘this lunac; on the masses, and asks the question, “If Can didates are Crazy, Are Electors Sane?” And 4 lot of jabbering is done to show that it is be | cause the masses are dipped,jn original sin of something. Actually, capitalism, being a crazy system, pro: duces insanity in otherwisé¢ sane people. Friday, an old civil service employee whose pension is threatened by the new “economics” put over by the capitalists with the help.of the German “so: cialists,” tried to “assassinate”. .the, “socialist” leader, Severing, in the Reichstag—but with blank cartridges. He WAS crazy. Another Ger man, an inventor, made a small cannon and, poking it out the window, bombarded the build ings around, ‘because, he said, it was the only target ground he could get. From this, German journalists.are asking i the whole country is not. going nuts. But wej see the same craziness here, too... And if the masses are backward or ignorant, it is the capi-] talist class which makes and keeps them so. Even the psychiatrists in Chicago say that, while} Thompson and Lyle are “mentally abnormal,” yet—“most psychiatric cases.are very shrewd in: dividuals in some lines of thought.” The shrewdness of these Capitalist lunatics lies in keeping the masses confused with fals issues, That's not the masses’ fault, And only one candidate in Chicago is sensible enough ask the masses to vote Communist as againg capitalism, the incubator of insanity. Vote fo Otto Wangerin for mayor of Chicago! ir ee Better Housing The “Survey,” of Feb. 15, carries an articld by Bleecker Marquette, who is-executive secre tary of the “Better Housing League” of Cincin nati, in which that writer tells all about how bad housing is. But then something else is let loose also. It if said that “high building costs have been tht main obstacle” to better housing. And now, say’ the article, is the time to correct all that, cn| reason being that “labor is “plentiful.” But that is not enough, apparently, becausq after saying that “This, then, is the time to in| terest. people of wealth toss -up.capital” fo better housing, we are told that; “Tt is not unlikely that building labor would under existing conditions; be .willing to cov tribute an hour of work a day.” It is possible that the “Better Housing” ex pert and “Associated Industries” may put th over, but if our building tradés comrades in th} T. U. U. L. will be more active’in the fut than they have in the past, the building worker will have something to say about it. se 8s Believe It Or Not But we're not the only ones whorsee war cloud riding on the winds. The-Preuch paper “ Soir” is not a Communist paper, but a quotatio dropped on otir desk by a cbinrade cites it saying: “Those who doubt that the thotights of mal are not already turning to a Next war, shot visit the shipyards, where work is being carrie on night and day to turn out new men-of-war And with France announcing that it intend to build all the warships it can, and Italy co tering with the slogan: “Ton for ton and g for gun” to buuild the same, England 1s plain] stating that it “may have to” build more tha the famous London “disarmament,” treaty or vided. es And all the while, fereua raha stronger grov the war cries in all capitalist.countries again. the Soviet Union. “Reich Industry Now Fea Red Trade Menace,” says the headline over story by H. R. Knickerbocker: from Berlin, in tt N. Y. Post of Feb. 18, He says that the “ “Bergwerks : Zeitung,” a pap of the “leading arch conservative: big business which has till now “poch-poohed” the Five Ye: Plan, has switched over to seeing it a succe and is having Fish fever over.“dumping.” oo eiagie iRpeie “If Pocsibla” Here's a tough one. A fellow,writes to t editor of the N. Y. Evertinee world (Feb. 2 admitting that things ave inje inet of a me but posing this problem: y “Some way must be found, if ‘possible, witho resorting to Communism, ‘to ‘prevent profitec ing.” For the benefit of innocent bystanders, we say, brother, that it isn’t possible |” By JORGE seem CR i a @emmnodcs owt vyravyoran