The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 16, 1931, Page 4

ae wudlished by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., aarty except Sentay, at 56 Fast Page Four 18th Street, New York ¢ N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7, Cable Address ail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Eas 1 Street, New Yor < a ote eee ——— = eee e All working class organizations, industrial, , of every worker to help it in its present political, fraternal, cultural, must rally to the sugport of the Morning Freiheit, whose very existence is in danger. All Party members and Party functionaries must do their utmost in the present campaign to secure adequate funds to save the Freiheit. Statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. Comrades, the Morning Freiheit, militant organ of the Jewish workers, is in financial distress. After a year of severe crisis, the paper finds itself in a situation where it will be compelled to sus- pend unless substantial aid is secured imme- diately. The suspension of the Morning Freiheit would be a severe blow to the working class of America. The Morning Freiheit valiantly carried on the revolutionary struggles of the workers, both eco- nomic and political. It was in the forefront in the organization of the Red Trade Unions affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League. It has helped organize the International Workers Order, the foundation of | a@ working class fraternal organization in this country. It has helped to organize a number of cultural organizations, doing service for the work- ing class. It is consistently combatting the trade union bureaucracy and the social fascists of the “socialist party.” It is fighting nationalism, race discrimination and any other division of the working class. It has been fighting the vicious counter-revo- lutionary organ of the Second International, the Jewish Daily Forward, the organ of the Abramo- vitches, who are plotting with the world im- perialists to organize interventic- in the Soviet Union. The Morning Freiheit has consistently given its readers correct class information concerning the building up of socialism in the Soviet Union. ‘The Morning Freiheit is the only organ of the revolutionary class struggle in the Yiddish lan- guage in the United States, and it is the duty catastrophic situation. A united front was formed against the Morn- ing Freiheit comprising the rich, the petty bour- geoisie, the religious elements, the socialists of the Second International, the union bureaucrats, the Zionists of all shades and varieties, the na- tionalists of every variety, in short a united front of all the elements outside of the revolutionary proletarian ranks. This resulted in business machinations against the Morning Freiheit and withdrawal of adver- tisements. In spite of all this, the circulation of the Morning Freiheit has been increasing, but the deficit of the Morning Freiheit is still mount- ing and it finds itself in no position to continue unless aid is rushed immediately. We appeal to all working class organizations, industrial, political, fraternal, cultural and we instruct all Party members and Party organ- | izations to do their utmost to help the Morning Freiheit. Work for the Morning Freiheit is work for the cause of the revolutionary struggle. Aid | to the Morning Freiheit is aid to the revolution- ary movement. The workers must save the Morning Freiheit. The workers must take up the question of aid to | the Morning Freiheit at their meetings. In the present crisis, when the workers must be organized to fight for shorter hours and high- er wages, when we must fight for unemployment | insurance and immediate aid for the unemployed, when we must fight against deportation of for- | eign born workers, when we must re-double our struggle against war preparations and in de- fense of the Soviet Union, when we must do our | utmost to organize the workers, both white and | Negro, in mass revolutionary organizations, at | such a time the maintaining of the Morning Frei- heit becomes increasingly important. We hope the workers will avert the catastrophe | which is threatening the Morning Freiheit. The Morning Freiheit must be saved! Central Committee of the Commu- nist Party of U. S. A. For a United Fraternal Class Organization Dear Comrades— r the last couple of months the executive com- mittee of the Slovak Workers Society, the Hun- garian Sick and Death Benefit Organization, the Russian Mutual Aid Association, and the Inter- national Workers Order, Inc., have seriously dis- cussed the question of amalgamating thesé mu- tual aid societies into one big workers’ benefit tion. As a result of this discussion, a joint committee, consisting of representatives of all these organizations has been established. This committee took up further, the matter of amal- gamation. The following is the unanimous opin- ion of the committee: The question of amalgamation of the fraternal movement has been raised at a time when the fraternal movement is going through a big crisis as a result of the sharpened economic crisis Unemployment, and the worsened conditions of the workers that are still in the industries brought about a situation where tens of thou- sands of members of the fraternal organizations are compelled to leave those organizations. The reactionary fraternal organizations which boast about their big treasuries do not do a thing to | come to the help of the membership which has been paying for years towards accumulating those big treasuries. The workers’ fraternal or- ganizations are divided up at the present into several small fraternal organizations, with small memberships, and none of them are at present able to play an important role in the class strug- gle. The amalgamation of all the workers’ fra- ternal organizations, with thousands of mem- bers would be of great benefit to the member- ship of these organizations, and to the revolu- tionary labor movement as a whole. Why? 41. A united fraternal organization would be in a position to give to the workers more benefits, with no extra payments. 2. A united fraternal organization would be in a position to organize medical centers, sani- tariums and other important institutions for the benefit of the workers. 3. A united fraternal organization would be in a position to develop an intensive campaign for workers’ insurance at the expense of the gov- ernment, insurance for illness, unemployment, old age, etc. The workers’ fraternal organiza- tion would be the instrument of paying those benefits to the workers. 4. A united fraternal organization would play a very important role in counteracting the at- tacks of the enemies of the working class in their campaign against foreign born. The re- cent report of the Fish Committee to Congress makes it clear that the workers must unite to , fight against the discriminatory laws which are | being prepared by the capitalist state against the foreign born workers. 5. A united fraternal organization would be- come a big force in drawing in millions of work- ers who are yet unorganized, or who are organ- ized in fraternal organizations which are being controlled by reactionaries and capitalist poli- ticians. 6. A united fraternal organization would be in a position to draw into its ranks the Amer- ican section of the working class, which at pres- ent is under the influence of the capitalist fra- ternal organizations, such as the Elks, Wood- men, ete. 7. A united fraternal organization would be in a position to draw in the youth which is playing more and more an important role in industry, and in the class struggle. 8. A united fraternal organization would play an important role in helping the class struggle of the workers. It would help to build up the Trade Union Unity League and thus be- come a very important factor in the economic and political development of the working class in the United States. The joint committee has discussed the possi- bilities of building such a united organization, and, at the same time, giving the widest possible autonomy, not only to every language group, but also to every single branch of this united organization. The committee is convinced that a federated fraternal orgnization of the various language groups in this country, with language secretaries and language organizational and educational committees, would answer the prob- Jems of the widest possible autonomy of each | language group in the organization. This fea- ture of the proposed united fraternal organiza- tion is in accordance with the cultural needs | of the different language groups which would make up this organization. We call on all the branches of the Slovak Workers’ Society, the Hungarian Sick and Death | Benefit Organization, the Russian Mutual Aid Association and the International Workers’ Or- der, Inc., to thoroughly discuss the question of amalgamation, to support this position of the joint committee, to send resolutions, proposals to the National Executive Committee of each of the above mentioned organizations and a copy to the joint committee of amalgamtion, 32 Union Square, N. Y. C., Room 606. Hungarian Sick and Benefit Society, Anton Freidenfeld, president; Slovak Workers’ Society, John H. Schiffel, president; Russian Mutual Aid Association, D. Kasustchik, general secretary; International Workers’ Order, R. Saltzman, ‘sec- retary. Peonage in Florida By CYRIL BRIGGS. 'XPOSURE by the Daily Worker of slavery conditions in the South where millions of Negroes are held in peonage and share cropper slavery are further substantiated by admissions of ‘Federal agents operating in Florida. These agents admit that thousands of Ne- groes are every year impressed into peonage; but declare that the government is helpless to end this system of slavery. Several mild at- stacks by the Federal agents on the system re- sulted in complete failure. A Grand Jury in- vestigation was held and a mass of evidence presented, but the Grand Jury refused to re- turn a similar indictment. In another case @ grand jury actually indicted one M. O. Taylor, road contractor, for impressment of two Ne- gro youths, but when the case came to trial it was dismissed. “Peonage is legalized by the State of Florida, by a law passed in 1919. The law reads: Sretion 7303. Any person in this state who shall. with intent to injure and defraud, un- der and by reason of a contract or promise to perform labor or service, procure or obtain money or other things of value as a credit, or | ae advances, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor ' rag? upon conviction thereof shall be punished ee me ais lation of the following section this failure or refusal, without just cause, to perform such labor or service or to pay for the money or other thing of value shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure and defraud. ‘There.are many ways by which the turpentine camp bosses, road contractors and others can put a Negro worker or farmer in debt and thus accomplish his practical enslavement. One favorite way, in which the police and courts actively cooperate, is to arrest Negroes or any pretext whatever, hand them a, stiff fine, and thus prepare the stage for the white plantation owner, turpentine camp bosses and others to come forward with the “generous” proposal to pay the fines of the Negro victims. The Ne- groes are then prohibited by law from leaving their “employer” until the debt has been paid, which is made practically impossible ‘by a sys- tem of cheating and dishonest book-keeping. The Florida peonage law was passed under the governorship of Sidney J. Catts, who cam- paigned the State on an anti-Negro platform and was himself indicted on peonage charges after his term of office but acquitted by a white boss jury. The law was drawn up by the present attorney general of the State, Rob- ert Davis who, questioned on the constitution- ality of the law cynically answered: “Sure, the law fs constitutional. It will stand. I ought to know. I drew up the bill. “DAIWORK." | as either Negro or white. k, N.Y. THE BLOOD OF CODER AND HURST SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ‘% . -“- By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months $3; two months, $1; excépting Boroughs » ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy, Foreign; one y: $8- six months, $4.50, — —- = oa << ee By BURCK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS . ¥. High School | Question: I learned at that a child which is born from a Negro and white couple is called “Hybrid.” This is supposed | to be a very unhealthy child and has physical as well as mental defects. The child is known as impure. Have the Communists no consideration for this result of having an impure offspring when they draft a program of struggle for the working class? Are the Communists not interested in better- ing the lives of the future generation? Answer--This is typical of the poison being in- jected into the minds of the working class youth by schools and other capitalist-controlled insti- tions. Such a distortion of scientific fact fol- lows natural mm. the vicious theory of Negro inferiority by which the white master class seeks to justify its brutal enslavement of the Negro masses during chattel slavery and at present, and to keep the Negro and white workers divided so that they can be exploited more easily. The idea of “impure” offspring of a Negro and white couple is based on the false assump- tion that there are “pure” races. By “impure” is meant that different races have mixed, this has no reference to health or physical fitness at all. Furthermore no rep- utable biologist claims “purity” for any race, all are “impure,” in this sense. As to the offspring of Negro and white parents being unhealthy, even bourgeois statistics deal- ing with the mulattoes in the United States re- fute such an absurdity. On the contrary, biolo- gists have proven that a mixture of races is good and as a rule produces better offspring physically and mentally on account of the mix- | ture. Mulattoes are thus as pure and healthy Cneidentally, most of these offspring are forced upon black women | by the white master class). That mulattoes are | mentally defective is as much a lie as the non- sense peddled by the bourgeoisie that the black race is naturally inferior. This race theory of white superiority and Ne- gro inferiority, is in direct contradiction with the facts. That the whites are today on a high- | er cultural level is due to economje conditions and to the fact that they have been able to | explo‘t and viciously suppress the Negro masses. | It does not prove any racial superiority. Quite | | the contrary, when the whites were in an un- favorable economic situation, they were also qn a much lower level than the Negroes and other dark races. History shows that with favorable economic conditions the black peoples have cre- ated very high types of civilization. Communists are relentlessly opposed to the im- perialist ideology of race hatred and lies about Negro inferiority and to all nonsense put out in support of this ideology. ot 8 Question: Please tell me the name of a re- cent book by a revolutionary trade union writer that tells about strikes in the Northwest Ium- ber industry.—J. R., New Jersey. Labor and Lumber, by Charlotte Todes, It can be bought from the Workers Library Publishers, Box 148, Station D, New York City. $1.00. Bole Se Question: Why was France the last to be hit by the present crisis?—N. R. Cleveland. During the world war the French territory was the hardest hit by the damagemngerETAOINETT of the war. As a result, France took a longer time to rehabilitate itself than other countries in Europe. This meant work for workers, so that unemployment was delayed on that ac- count. France also seized rich Ruhr industries, coal and iron fields. Besides she gets a huge slice of the reparations payment. ‘There was a shortage of labor, partly due to the low birth rate, and France imported foreign workers, Poles and Italians, who were shipped back out of the country when work began to get scarcer. This kept unemployment down. France has a large tourist trade which has helped keep industry up. In addition many of the exports of France are of the nature that they could be called “luxuries” which depend upon the purchasing power of the richer groups. But now, according to a Paris correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune, Feb. 6, France was “facing one of the greatest crises in her economic his- tory,” and that unemployment had already reached, counting part-time workers, the huge figure of 1,300,000, Ns Tau A. F. of L. Leaders Betray Tom Mooney Those parts already printed of Mooney’s ex- posure of the part the Crooked A. F. L, leaders played in his and Billings’ frame-up and the part they play in keeping both these workers in prison for life are: a letter from Mooney to Billings, explaining why he tells of these things; a short review of the state supreme court fake review of thé cése last year, an ex- posure of the treachery of Paul Scharrenberg, secretary of the California State Federation of Labor, and in the last installitiént, thé story of Mooney’s arrival in San Francisco, where he found the A. F, L. leaders actively betraying the McNamara brothers, who had sacrificed themselves to save these same A. F. L. fakers. Now Mooney takes up another big chief in the A. F. L. Tis. eat INSTALLMENT 7. P. H. MeCarthy—Traitor. NE of the dominant personalities on the Metal | Trades Strike Committee was P. H. McCarthy, president of the State Building Trades Coun- | cil, president of the San Francisco Building Trades Council, “Czar” of the labor movement of California, and Mayor of San Francisco when the Committee of 26 was organized. McCarthy's campaign slogan for reelection as Mayor was: ‘1 promised industrial peace—I have made good.” | ‘He was willing that strikes be called in Los An- | geles, Oakland, or any other part of the state, but not in San Francisco, for the majority of lesser “labor leaders” held remunerative- jobs under him and he, as all these job holders, was | yery much concerned lest the “Big Business” in- terests of the city be harmed by a militant labor movement, Tom Mooney did not know that McCarthy had told McNamara and Schmidt to agitate and con- duct strikes anywhere but in San Francisco. Mooney militantly tried to arouse the workers of San Francisco, and became the. foremost dis- turber on the labor leaders’ horizon after the Los Angeles “Times” case was settled to their satisfaction. It was very much to the advantage of P. H. McCarthy and his friends to have Tom Mooney, who had already taken part in a series of strikes and threatened to capsize the top- heavy political machinery that these traitors had erected on the backs of the workers, out of the way. The powerful State Building Trades Council, under the rule of McCarthy, in convention at Marysville, March 21, 1917, refused to give any consideration to the Mooney-Billings cases, de- spite the urgings of many of the delegates. It was only in 1921, four: years after the Mooney- Billings arrest, that the Building Trades Cotincil passed a resolution requesting Governor Stephens to arrange a “new and fair trial.” Even this weak resolution was passed solely through pres- sure from the rank and file, and over the pro- test of the labor leaders. Two years later, in 1923, P. H. McCarthy, the mighty “Czar” of California labor, was thor- oughly exposed as a slimy enemy of the workers. It was proven he accepted a $10,000 bribe from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company—whose private detective, Swanson, was the Corporation's evil genius in the frame-up of Mooney and Billings. Advocates of Public Ownership had succeeded after great efforts to have the State Legislature submit an amendment to the voters which, if passed, would have given the People of Cali- fornia the right to develop the vast hydro-electric power of the state. The privately-owned power companies would have lost millions of dollars had the amendment carried, and as usual, they resorted to bribery in order to defeat this law. The entire labor movement supported the amend- ment; the State Building Trades Council was especially active in its denunciation of the utili- ties who tried to defeat it, but McCarthy, for the sake*of afew thousand dollars, was willing to betray’ the interests of labor. On the eve of the election, an article appeared in the offi- cial paper of the Building Trades Council, “Or- ganized Labor,” condemning the Water and Power Act and urging all the members. of the Council to vote against it. Of course, this as- tounding reversal of eared ‘was brought about | feat this law. After the Legislative investigation of the P. G. & E. and the Power Trust, Mc- Carthy had to “resign” as a “leader” of the labor movement. Clever as he was, he could not give By JORGE eee! For the Needle Trades “Dear Comrade:—Last night I invited three Negro workers to come along and see the film “China Express,” which was being shown at the Allerton Theatre benefit performance for the Needle Trades Worker’ Industrial Union. The program included revolutionary songs and recita- tion by Artef. “To our surprise and disappointment, all an- nouncements, speeches and recitations we could not understand. “We would like to know why such an affair could not be conducted in English, or at least some of the announcements and speeches? The posters advertising the affair were in English. The captions were in English. And surely the majority of Jewish comrades and sympathizers can understand the American brand of English. “We stuck it out and made the best’ of the lengthy speeches, and enjoyed the film im- mensely. The Negro workers were very enthu- siastic over the first proletarian affair they had attended —E. C.” Well, comrade, we also wonder why the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union acts that way. We called them up to find out if they know that there are other needle workers in New York besides the Jewish workers. They had to hunt around some to catch a comrade who knew the proposition of racial groups. Finally, on our ; Second phone call the information was cornered. a valid explanation for the $10,000 given him to | influence the labor vote. And it is such contemptible creatures as P. H. McCarthy that put Mooney and Billings in prison and keep them there! A. W. BROUILLET—DOUBLE-CROSSER. The amazing treachery of the president of the San Francisco Labor Council, at the time of Mooney's and Billing’s arrest, is still more un- believable than* McCarthy's. It must convince the readers of this pamphlet that the two framed workers were deliberately betrayed by the major California labor leaders. A. W. Brouillet, the president of the San Francisco Labor Council, was a brilliant young worker who had rapidly risen in the ranks of labor. He had studied law, was considered a capable attorney, the presidency of the Labor Council he held the important position of prosecuting attorney for the State Board of Pharmacy. Immediately after the arrest of the bomb defendants Brouil- let was asked to act as one of their attorneys and he agreed to act as associate counsel. All the facts in the possession of the defendants were | given him and a few days later they were as- tounded to hear that Brouillet had withdrawn from the case. Why did he withdraw? It was soon known that Charles M. Fickert had asked Brouillet to have a conference with him, and it was shortly after seeing Fickert that he withdrew as associate counsel for Mooney and Billings. A few days later defense counsel became aware that Fickert had come into pos- session of facts known only to the defendants themselves and—Brouillet. It was soon certain this arch-betrayer was violating one of the most secret ethical canons of the Bar. The defense had secured the story of a volun- tary witness, a known drug addict, which would have seriously impeached the statements of “Whitie” Reans, a drug clerk. prosecution witness, John McDonald, claimed Reans corroborated his allegation that he was in a certain drug store on the afternoon of the parade, and that he had told the drug clerk he Witnessed the bombers place the bomb at Steuart and Market Streets before seeing the drugs, knew that Reans was a “dope peddler”; that he was illegally selling narcotics; that he was falsifying the records of the drug store; and that he was deceiving the State Board of Pharmacy. It was the wish of the defense that Brouillet, a member of the State Board of Phar- macy, should secure the necessary evidence proving Reans was ‘a trafficker of drugs. Had Reans been arrested as\a “dope peddler” his testimony corrobgrating McDonald’s would have been valueless, Brouillet, betrayed these tacts to Fickert, and it was impossible for the defense to impeach Reans. Brouillet’s connection with Fickert became so obvious that on February 23, 1917, Vance Thomp- Son, then editor of the “Coast Seamen's Journal,” charged on the floor of the Labor Council that “there is a secret wire between the Labor Coun- cil and Fickert’s office.” Brouillet's animosity » toward Mooney and Billings was so overt that .when the Labor Council passed a rescliticn, March 31, 1917, declaring its belief in Mooney’s innocence, he strongly dissented. A few months later, August 17, 1917, he wrote an open letter to the San Francisco “Bulletin” stating: “Mooney, Berkman, Billings, et al.. coterie ‘ ave done more to discredit labor than any single agency I know of..." “. . . When the bomb cases were first discussed in the Labor Council I took the posi- tion they were not labor cases. . . .” Is it any wonder that when Oxman was>ar- rested for perjury, Fickert, who had paid this contemptible creature for his perjured iesti- mony, but who was now compelled to “prosecute” him, wrote to the Labor Council that ne would be “pleased to. have the cooperation of A. w. Brouillet as an associate” in the “prosecution” of Oxman? To Be Continued es 8 8 to the enterprise in state capi- by which it was proposed that the state run the electric power of the people the right to de- and besides | The principle | It is estimated that there are 167,000 workers in all needle trades in New York City; that some 75,000 are Jewish—or only about 45 per cent. Also that in dressmaking, one-third are Latin Amer- ican, Negro and Italian. So they know it all right. But when they start out to do anything, all that they know is put in cold storage, and the old habits and methods continue. Incidentally, we have heard that besides Jewish, Latin American, Negro and Italian, there are some Irish and even Amer- icans ia the industry. Anyhow, there seems to be a lesson for the union in the letter quoted. Te: The Problem of Approach A comrade from Boston who likely thinks we have forgotten him, sent up a note some time ago about religion. He objects, and in general we agree with his objection, to an unreasoning way some revolutionary workers approach those who are still religious—a way that affronts the workers approached so that’ they feel personally offended and close their minds to whatever else may be said. As an example of proper action—after citing a bad one—he tells how one comrade on Boston Common in speaking about the pope’s anti-So- viet campaign, developed the subject from the following point of view: “Why did not the pope start a campaign for the 10,000,000 unemployed in the United States, instead of against the Soviet Union?” This, he says, was well received even by the ones who had wanted to fight a previous speaker. Then he goes on: “Incidentally, I do not believe Bishop Brown is correct in his approach to religion. In his ‘Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism,’ Vol. 2, p. 134, he says: “* . . . Has this scenery (nature as it now appears) any lessons bearing upon our subject, the conflict of science with theology? ¥ do not say the conflict of science with religion be- | cause there is none and never has been. Science and religion have always walked hand fn hand on the way of life and neither could proceed a step without the other.’ The Boston comrade proceeds: “The Workers International Relief is making a great mistake in selling his books which contain such things as the above quotation; especially when the books were not written with the purpose of showing that religion is the dope of the people. ..” Well, it does seem that the bishop was sort of leaning over backward to be convincing to the elders or whatever they are, of the Episcopal Church. “Religion is the opium of the people,” now just as when Marx wrote it, and the only “science” about it is the science of making workers swallow it in order to keep them from struggle for their emancipation from capitalism. Tf It Passes Up at Albany, the New York State Assembly has had introduced a bill by Louis A. Cuvillier, “democrat” of New York City (which means a Tammany hound) which makes compulsory the singing of the Star Spangled Banned at all pub- lic meetings. Now, gentlemen, if you go and pass that bill, | we will start a contest’ for the most satirical police. This voluntary witness, as a_user of | parody, and you can bet your sweet life that it would be the most popular hit of the century. “Christian Science” j A reader in Denver calls our attention see ‘ fact that the so-called “Christian Science M tor” is trying hard to keep up with the pop¢ an inciter for war against the Soviet Union. Some clippings from the sheet surely justifies the supposition that someone who has the ani- mus of a Ovzarist cavalry officer is editing it. “Reds Start World Move For Atheism, ” says one big headline. Not that the article produces any proof of even this “move”; which is perfectly legitimate— formally, but not actually—in the United States. But the sub-headlines go on in the best. approved liars’ style: “Berlin group said to have been in- trusted with campaign” and “Moscow believed back of policy.” » Again, on Feb. 19, in answer to a question from Fort Wayne, Ind., the editor lets’ himself go. re is a hopeful cuss: “It may well be that the nation at large will” presently revolt against Soviet rule” Again— “Another revolution may overthrow lar sciia tyranny.” But this Christian Science scoundrel takes banner when he talks about how patient Russians are: “They endure the extremes of political an social injustice. and patiently bear hardshij which Americans would not tolerate for a mo: ment. Breadlines form onthe streets.” Now what do you think about that? velop the vast hydro-electric power of the state.’ ‘This, from our point of view, is incorrect. I would have given another group of capi