The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 2, 1931, Page 4

é Page Four ‘ fm published by the Comprodally Publishing Co., Inc, dawy except Sunda: 13th Street, New York City. N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: a Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. at 50 Bast DALIWORK.” “ORR By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. Foreign; one year, $8+ six months, $4.50, SUBSCRIPTION MAT}S? Supermillionaires Strengthen Hold on Industry By ANNA ROCHESTER Labor Research Association 'WENTY-ONE persons were added in 1929 to en super-millionaire class with in- 3,000,000 a year. That the stock- nd months of serious’ industrial changed the basic trend ation of wealth is the wn by the preliminary just released by the facts indicate that the not and workers. aires admitting incomes of $5,000,- umbered 26 in 1928 and 36 in 1929. 00,000 but less than $5,000,000 9 and 49 in 1929. Only 7 of who had $1,000,000 but less than $3,000,000 ped by the first months of the wer income class. ts among the capitalists—the more persons with 1928 incomes ranging + under $1,000,000 down to $5,000—were y. One in 25 was drop- under $5,000” group. But they i ] way to fall before they would hit the workers’ average wage. Collapse of the stock market in 1929 reduced in all income groups the profits from marginal g and short selling. Only the supermil- res could as a class cover their share of with increased income from other hout the years of stock market inflation, st few had: been gathering in a large ulation profits, But in the high- er than profits from sale of stocks the market began to fall, the big insider could still make a profit by selling blocks f old shares then buying them back at price. In 1929, increased profits from sale and manipulation of old investments by the su- illionaires more than balanced the decline in their speculative profits. Income Admitted in the Million-Dollar a Year Class. 1928 1929 (511 persons) (504 persons) and $117,900,000 $17,400,000 profits from epec- ulation wise 141,200,000 43,800,000 Other sales of capital assets . 580,3000,000 747,000,000 Dividends cor- porations in U.S.A 316,100,000 323,200,000 Fonts, interest and all other income 63,700,000 74,200,000 Toial class income re ported + -$1,219,200,000 $1,305,600,000 has further widened the gap | s the speculation profits were | ased years before, at much lower | While they were making three-quarters of a billion from selling their old investments, the biggest capitalists maintained their total of cor- poration holdings. As a class they drew a lar- ger income in 1929 then in 1928 from dividends, bong interest, rents, and other forms of property income. All sorts of property income continued to flow into the pockets of the capitalist class through- out 1930, while the millions of jobless workers increased. With a few exceptions (in foods, mov- ies, tobacco, and the main public utility systems) corporation profits were falling off, but dividends were paid from reserves by thousands of compan- ies. Only with the turn of the year did some big companies begin to cut dividend rates: a few passed the January dividend entirely. The bond market still holds firm; practically no import- and corporation has defaulted on interest to bondholders. For the tremendous increase in failures still involves in the main only the smallest concerns. Average liabilities in business failures has jumped from about $20,500 in 1928 to $25,700 in 1930, but this-is still quite ouside the central area of big dominating corporations; Failures have not yet touched the strongholds of the supermillionaires. While hundreds of small country banks go under every month, mergers continue to strengthen the position of the strongest banks. The few metropolitay banks that have ap- proached failure are being reorganized with new directorates nearer to the central financial powers. Meanwhile, the small business man is tottering; lower salaries officials are cut or displaced; the little security owner has to cash in his capital to meet the emergency. The lower ranks of capi- | talists are pushed nearer to the working class. Wage earners and farmers have been pushed into deeper poverty. Wage cuts, part-time work, and mass unemployment have cut the workers’ class income probably one-third. Low prices for farm products plus the drought cut the farmers’ income in 1930 more than one-fourth below the figure for 1923. More farm owners are dispos- sessed and pushed down into tenantry or crop- sharing. Farm laborers looking for jobs are so desperate that (even according to the Depart- ment of Agriculture) many are working for bed and board without any cash wages at all. Clearly, the wealthiest few, in spite of smaller dividends in 1931 will continue to draw off a rising percentage of the total national income. While mass misery increases, the supermillion- aires will come out of the crisis more strongly en- trenched than ever in their control of industry. Ford Fables Exploded By NELL. OME of the comrades from the mining region have again raised the question that there is no youth problem in the mining industry and therefore there is no need for youth sections. But today every industry has a youth problem and I will tell about my experiences in the auto industry. Ii is an infamous lie when Mr. Ford says that he @oesn’t use youth labor and that his Ford Trade School is a place simply for vocational ng. In Fords there are three sets of vances of the young workers: 1. The Ford Trade School students. 2. The apprentices. 3. Young workers on production. Since about a year and a half ago the Ford Trade School has moved from Highland Park to the River Rouge Plant, where his entire pro- duction is now concentrated. In Highland Park the F, T. S. had a building to themselves, but now Ford efficiency has reached out and put the Trade School where he wants it. The school is right in amidst the dirt, dust and oil and noise of the River Rouge Plant. The air is very bad to breathe and the noise unbearable. In the F. T. S. are young children, yes children, 13, 14 up to 18 years of age. They work two ks and study one week. When they work ft is most times at very menial work, such as sweeping and odds and ends jobs. It is a well known fact that many times the boy that en- ters to learn one trade comes out with but a minimum knowledge. Also there is getting to be ‘a very severe check-up on the lessons, so that if lessons are not handed in on time there are wage-cuts and sometimes discharges. The pay while working in the Ford Trade School starts in with 15 cents an hour, with penny an hour increases every now and then, never more than 30 or 35 cents an hour. They are allowed 16 cents for lunch, which, it can be easily séen, is not sufficient. When the students reach the age of 18 they automatically are out of the school and they become apprentices. Can Mr. Ford, the “great benefactor,” refute these facts? That apprentice boys of 18 and 19 years of age work nights? That they have to study on their own time (no money for the time spent in the class rooms). These lessons are given in noisy rooms where it is difficult to hear the in- structor and much of the time is wasted (on the boys’ time) in stopping for noises. That these boys get half the pay as do the adults, yet pro- eveing just as much and working harder, for they are not used to the difficult work? Thus @ boy in a tool room gets $4 or $4.50, where the adult gets $8 or $9. They give the excuse for paying the apprentices half by saying that the boys sometimes spoil the dies. But this is very vare, for if a boy spoils a die there is hell to pay.from the foreman... At tbe same time, while working, apprentice boys have very difficult les- sons in tool making and die making, involving er Trade School has not sufficiently prepared them for. After the~ have put in a hard day or night's work they have to solve these lessons. Three or four incomplete lessons is sufficient reason for discharging them from the school. Many of them get disgusted and quit and try to get rehired as regular men on production, figuring that since they work as apprentices and get half why not hire in as regulars and get full pay? Thus it is figured that from 20 to 25 per cent of Fords is young workers. Once in Fords they are put on vroduction (what about the vocational training they were supposed. to get?) on the belt and undergo the same speed-up and exploitation as the older men. As one young Ford worker puts it: “The Ford man does not know from day to day whether he will be alive.” for granted. It is no longer news. Work is so fast that many times your fellow-worker hasn't time to even realize that you are hurt. I know one young worker who got his finger smashed by a defective punch press. While he was out a young Negro fellow-worker was put on the same press and two weeks later he had his whole finger removed by the press. Then there is the peculiar Ford institution known as the Service Men. Hundreds of them do no work in the plant except to walk around and see that everything is O. K. and presumably to see that no one is stealing tools, ete. But every Ford worker knows that the service men are stool-pigeons whose sole purpose is to keep both ears open for any talk of organization. There isn’t a Ford man but despises these service men who get their jobs through favoritism or for being a general sucker around the foreman. Then there is a side to Ford’s “benevolence” that is little known, but is a common topic among the Dearborn workers. That is the stinking graft and corruption around the Ford empioyment office. Jobs in Fords are bought and sold outright. Right under the nose of the plant there is a place where you can get a job for $100 of $150 if you care. Many times Ford’s “Welfare Women” (special Welfare Department in Fords) are utilized for buying one’s way in. One 20-year-old German young worker paid $100 for a job and worked three months. There used to be a Span’) agency for buying jobs for Latin-American workers in one of the Detroit downtown buildings. Cases like these can be found hundreds of times. These petty racke- teers play quite a part in keeping the workers from organizing. In the Body Plants outside of Fords as, for instance, in Fishers, married women are now being laid off and young single girls are being put in their places. Single men are being laid off and married men put in, no doubt under the direction of Murphy’s Unemployed (scab) Committee. In Briggs H.-P. Plant, which has a motto of “If poison fails, try Briggs,” almost the entire plant is run by young workers and quite a number of Negro workers. The conditions here are his- tory, even in the boom period. There is a notice in the girls’ toilet, amongst other regulations, “that if any white girl is caught talking to a Negro she will be immediately fired.” In L. A, Young, an accessory plant, young girls are working part time. Actually cases have been reported of $3.50 for 10 days’ work. This brings us to the question of the young unemployed workers. Mr. Murphy has already said that those who “have a home, have been over, a year in the city and have children” can get actual relief. Single workers, young workers, get 20 cents a day to eat on. Mr. Murphy (a sige than) ‘gets, however, around $15,000 a year. When asked about the cases of poisoning from rotten food, he replied that he used to get worse food in the army! Especially hard hit are the unemployed young girl workers. Hundreds of them sleep in the 10-cent, “all-night” shows. One girl, when ask= ing for some food and a place to stay in a down- town flop house (they are only for men), got the reply: “Sell what you got. This place is for men,” The Auto Workers’ Union, on the basis of these conditions, must work out special youth demands and show the young auto workers a way out of their misergple conditions. With the Smashed fingers and stubs are taken | PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Commitiee, Communist Party, U.S.A. ore | Se Methods of Recruiting Proper approach and correct methods are in- dispensable for the successful regruiting and keeping of new members in the Party, We print | below some extracts from the Plan worked out. | by the Chicago District Committee in connec- tion with the Lenin Recruiting Drive. Careful reading of the points contained in the Chicago Plan will be of benefit to the comrades in the | other districts. Approach to Recruiting. “This Drive must not be separate and apart from the mass activities of the Party. Recruit- ing must be linked up with every activity and the Nuclei and Section must check up each week on recruiting just as they do everything else. | This drive is not a ‘record’ Drive for figures of application cards. When it is through we want to record an absolute increase of Party mem-~- bers to the amount of new members recruited.” Methods of Recruiting. “The main emphasis must be in recruiting in the shop—as a result of systematic activity of the individual Party members. Each nucleus must aim at recruiting in their own territory— thus rooting the Party in the shop and neigh- borhood. Each Party member through the nu- cleus must be checked up weekly.” | “Every Party fraction in mass organizations must recruit a definite number of new members from .their organization at the same time strengthening and improving the functioning of the fraction.” Employed and Unemployed. “While we shall not neglect the unemployed, | great emphasis must be put on recruiting among the workers still in the shops. When criticism was made of some sections for recruiting exclu- sively among unemployed instead of correcting the disproportion, they practically stopped re- | cruiting.” Shop Nuclei. “An integral part of recruiting new members must be the building of the present shop nuclei | and the organization of new shop nuclei. Each shop nucleus must definitely recruit new mem- bers and each Section must build ‘a minimum of one new shop nucleus. The absolute neglect of shop nuclei (not even’ on agendas of Section | Committees except St. Louis and So. Ul.) shows | the underestimation of the Sections.” How To Accept New Members. “We must learn from our past mistakes. Don’t recruit just application cards—concentrate on g6od fighting proletarian types of workers. All | mew members must be accepted in the nucleus nucleus must have @ Membership Committee of three. This committee meets before the nucleus meeting and ¢alls in applicant to question him. If not satisfiéd with first examination, delay entry oné week and visit home of applicant but. insidé of two weeks every applicant must be acted upon. In this way we help to keep out unfit elements. However, we warn against’ un- necessary delay.” “Before being accepted every applicant must | pay initiation fee (50 cents or 10 cents) and 10 | cents for membership card. After the applicant has attended one meeting and been accepted he must get his membership book without delay. Every new members must be given free a copy of ‘Greetings to New Members,’ together with the membership book. How to Keep New Members. The following should be the guiding points: 1. Proper functioning of Nucleus—Buro—ap- paratus, etc., so as to organize work of meeting, etc, 2. Every meeting start at 8 p. m. sharp and adjourn no later than 11 p. m. 3. Nucleus Buro assign an old member to every new member for periods ranging from one to two months. This must not be done me- chanically. The new member must not know | about it. The old member should be held re- sponsible fog getting to know him—helping him— showing him how to work—suggesting what to | read, etc. When it comes to choosing commit- | tees for distribution, visiting, etc, the Buro should assign these same two comrades. Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party 0 S A. P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Cum- munist Party. Address GHEY. cn sae toeasccereens scans) SHALE cieentrest Occupation Age ...... -Mail this to the Central Office. Communist Party, P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. , Uncover Starvation and Misery The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, has been publishing less and less news about unemployment, It hides the starvation of the unemployed workers’ families, We must constantly expose the miserable treatment of familles of the unemployed by the city governments and charity institutions. We must uncover all cases of starvation, un- dernourishment, sickness. We must pub- lich these cases in our press, in the Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, tell them at all workers’ meetings, Un- employed Councils should publish bulletins to inform all workers of the starvation and misery of the unemployed. proper demands for the young workers they will rally around the union and in the struggle they, siemseives, under the union leadership, will find 4 the best forms for the youth section to take, a by ® vote of the nucleus. To handle this every | | the Machinist Union. BEFORE HIS ARREST 1917 AFTER 14 YEARS IN ST. QUENTIN PRISON A. F. of L. Leaders Betray Tom Mooney In the last issue of his exposure of the treacheries of the A. F. L. leaders in the Mooney-Billings case, Mooney tells how, at the 1930 convention of the A. F, L., Woll sabotaged a resolution demanding release of the two framed up werkers. Mooney tells how Schar- renberg, secretary of the California State Fed- eration of Labor; Brouillet, president of the San Francisco. Labor Council; Mullen, editor of the “Labor Clarion”; Casey, McLaughlin, Haggerty and other local chiefs, sabotaged the Mooney-Billings campaign. Mooney then be- gins to tell something about those who did fight for him and Billings, and continues be- low: INSTALLMENT 18. FREMONT OLDER—CRUS.ADER. tT disloyal and corruptive machinations of the California “labor leaders” has not deterred the foremost editor of the Pacific Coast, Fre- mont Older, from waging a tremendous battle for the pardon of Mooney and Billings. Threat- ened with blackmail, financial ruin, social ostra- cism, and even bodily harm, he has been thun- dering for 13 yéars: “Mooney and Billings must be pardoned.” Despite all discouragements, he hes carried on the fight right in the city of the frame-up, and when Mooney <nd Billings again walk the streets of San Francisco, they will have to say: “If Older had not helped us, we might not be here.” ABLE ATTORNEYS HELP TOM MOONEY. When Tom Mooney and his co-defendants needed capable attorneys, no labor leader of- fered to help them by engaging competent de- fense council. No comment is needed to charac- terize the action of A. W. Brouillet, the former President of the San Francisco Labor Council. He cold-bloodedly betrayed Mooney and Billings to Fickert and the frame-up crew. Typical of the behavior of the Caseys, Mc- Laughlins, Mullens, O’Connells and the “boss” himself, Paul Scharrenberg, is the conduct of William Haggerty. This “labor leader” was a “big time” politician in the Machinist Union, Local No: 68, of San Francisco. Like Brouillet, he had studied law, and was the attorney for He was a leader of the Union Labor Party, and held a lucrative job during McCarthy’s administration of San Fran- cisco. When the Los Angeles Metal Trades Strike Committee was organized, “Billy” Haggerty was elected one of “the 26.” After the Preparedness Parade bomb explo- sion, Edward Nolan, an active, militant membe: of Machinist Local No. 68, was arrested as one of the bombers. Nolan, and all his co-defend- ants, was held incommunicado, and for a time he was not allowed to see his relatives or friends. Finally, his friends in the Machinist Union asked Haggerty to defend him. To their great aston- ishment, the former member of the Los Angeles “Committee of 26” refused, He did not know whether Nolan was innocent or guilty, but he rushed into print, and gave a statement to the press stating that he would not under any cir- cumstanges defend Edward Nolan on the charge placed against him. Only a “labor leader” would have the effrontery to publish such a statement. He could have refused to defend Nolan without making a public statement. As a member of the Bar, his action was highly un- ethical and grossly unwarranted, but as a leader of labor it was a foul betrayal. Haggerty, as counsel of the Machinist Union, kngw that ot the time of his arrest, Nolan was officially lead- ing a strike against various automobile repair shops, and that he was highly respected in the Union. Even the frame-up crew had to release Nolan, for he was amply able to prove his inno- cence, but this did not interest Haggerty. As a member of “the 26” he had to appear “respect- able” even if it mean the wanton betrayal of a member of his own union. ‘Tom Mooney end Warren Billings did receive able legal aid in spite of the Brouilleis, Hag- gertys, and the frame-up crew. Maxwell Mc- Nutt, the son of a very wealthy surgeon, born in the lap of luxury, raised and educated as:dn ultra-conservative, saw through the frame-up and agreed to defend Mooney and Billings when almost the whole world, even Fremont Older, seemed to be crying for their blood. His cour- age cost him thousands of dollars through the loss of many clients, he was socially ostracized, his life was threatened, members of the Bar refused to speak to him, but true to his high ideals .he made the decision to defend the two men whom he knew to be innocent, and notiing could deter him from acting as their advocate. A few months efter McNutt took charge of the Mooney-Billings defense, W. Bourke Cochran, one of the most eminent attorneys of his time, volunterily offered to defcnd Mooney without fee, and as an act of public service came all the way from New York at his own expense to act as McNutt’s associate. After Cochran’s death, Frank P, Walsh, an attorney with a nation-wide reputation as an able, fearless and honest man, continued the fight begun by Cochran, He has been a tireless advocate of Mooney’s pardon, and has, spent, thoysengs,of dolays. from his por- | sonal funds, studying the case and vueparing his \ arguments for the pardon pelitioy | Clarence Darrow has always been most helpful. A few years ago he donated $500.00 to the De- fense Fund and wrote: “In all my experience I have. never seen so complete a c2se¢ for pardon. When the Judge, the State’s Attorney, the po- lice department, and the jurors confess that they were mistaken and ask for your pardon, it ought to be enough. However, it seems to me there is some other reason beside the case itself why you are still kept in prison.” Darrow shrewdly surmises that something is wrong— Darrow is right—something is radically wrong. The deliberate sabotage and disloyalty of the “labor leaders” has filled all Tom Mooney’s at- | aes 2 | of life and neither could proceed a step with- torneys with amazement. They all agree that had the leaders of labor cooperated with the defense, and cr, of the workers for a pardon, Mooney and Bill- ings would not be in the penitentiary today. BELLE HAMMERBERG—LOYAL AND TRUE. Mrs. Belle Hammerberg, a sister of Mrs. Moon- ey, was indefatigable in her efforts to help the defense. She aided defense attorneys by inter- viewing all the defense witnesse After the trials she worked for years interviewing all the jurors who convicted Mooney. Because of her tenacious exertion, she finally obtained signed statements from every, one of them admitting they had erred in the verdict and requesting a pardon for Tom Mooney. A quiet, modest gen- tle-woiman, with a background and life of sim- plicity and high ideals, she did not hesitate to plunge into the turmoil that was the Mooney- Billings case, and for 15 years she has been faithful to the imprisoned men. JUDGE FRANKLIN GRIF FRAME-UP CREW’S NEM In spite of the labor leaders, Judge Franklin Griffin, who presided at the trial of Tom Moon- ey, has been tireless in his efforts to bring about @ pardon ‘ever since the subornation of perjury by Oxman was established. Addressing a mass meeting in San Francisco, February 25, 1929, he said: “I am old-fashioned enough to believe that a Court of Justice should be a Court of Justice, and when I know a wrong has been done it is my duty and your duty to see that wrong righted. That’s why I am here tonight to tes- tify to what I have repeatedly said, that Tom Mooney is innocent and ought to be pardoned.” Can Paul Scharrenberg, Michael Casey, John O'Connell or any other “labor leaders” be quoted in such plain, unequivocal, forthright words? SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPERS — FIGHT FOR MOONEY AND BILLINGS. d The chief journal of the Union movement, the “American Federationist,” has never printed one line about Mooney and Billings; the San Fran- cisco “Labor Clarion” has them; almost all the channels of publicity con- trolled by the A. F. of L. have been closed to them; yet they have secured column after col- umn of friendly publicity. From whom? Capitalist Press, such as the Scripps-Howard chain of newspapers. This great chain of papers did more than any other agency to force a re- hearing of the case after the outrageous de- cision of the Supreme Court last July. A few weeks ago, October 18, 1930, at a conference of their editorial writers at French Lick Springs, Indiana, they sent a resolution to President Hoover, stating: “This conference of editors of the 25 Scripps- Howard newspapers unanimously urges inter- vention now by, the President in the Mooney- Billings case... . We recommend that the President specifically . . . bring the case of Mooney-Billings to the attention of the Law Enforcement Commission... .As a resident of California and as Chief Executive of the na- tion we feel that the President has both a double interest and a double responsibility in seeing that justice is done. The Scripps-Howard newspapers . . . pledge themselves to keep before the public the details of this judicial lynching until justice is finally done... . Scores of other influential newspapers are equally determined that the spirit of justice shall not languish forgotten and friendless in California penitentiaries.” Tiluminating to remember is the fact that at about the same time, the convention of the A. F, of L, was, held in Boston. Did the labor lead- ers send a resolution on behalf of Mooney and Billings to the President or the Governor of California? Did they pledge themselves to se- cure the pardon of two of their own members? Absolutely not! Silence, stark and depressing— that is all that can be reported about the A. F. of L. convention regarding Mooncy and Bill- ings.’ And that is the main reason Tom Moon: still pests “spuds” in San Quentin, and tho ret pile in Folsom ever hangs over Warren Billings’ head, TO BE CONTINUED Tet your protests against lynching, de portations, discrimination and perse- cution of the working class re- sound fren: ccast to coast o@ March 28, All outt 4 savagely attacked | The | tallized the universal sentiment | | By JORGE teens Let’s Clear It Up “My Dear Comrade: Galion, Oho. “Herewith I am giving myself the pleasure of sending you a copy of the booklet of mine to which you refer in one of your Red Sparks articles. My excuse for troubling you with it is that I want to make it easy for you to refer to the page containing the paragraph to whidh your Boston correspondent objects, on page 134. Will you kindly read the next paragranh; and if you think with me that you ana ne inad- vertently have cast an unjunst reflection upon my work, I am sure you will draw attention to the mistake, otherwise no feelings will be hurt. All the pieces of my propagandism are in close alignment with the doctrinal statement on the page fronting the title page of the book. Thank- ing you for your interesting and helpful Red Sparks, I am, with every good wish for all to whom we are indebted to the Daily Worker, Very cordially yours, WM. M. BROWN.” We are glad to get the above letter from Comrade Wm. Montgomery Brown, because we recognize the fact that the work he has done has brought thousands of workers and poor farmers -nearer to and into the revolutionary struggle. We do not forget that good work merely because we take issue with him over some expression which we feel represents a con- cession to the substance of a thing we both despise. The booklet referred to is “The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism,” about which a comrade wrote us a letter printed in this column March 16th. We added the comment that it did seem that Comrade Brown had “leaned over backward” in stating that—“I do not say the conflict of science with religion, because there is none and never has been. Science and religion have always walked hand in hand on the way out the -other.” The next paragraph (which we are asked to | read), says: “Science is the study of nature for the purpose of learning how to make the most of terrestial life. The desire and effort to live with refer- ence to what can be learned from nature in or- der to the attainment of the most abundant. life on earth is all there is, or can be, of true religion.” The “doctrinal statement” has, as its open- ing and chief statements the following: “Marxism is correct in its opposition to religion if it be regarded as a belief in a supernatural- istie God, Bible, Church, Heaven. or Hell. But none of these beliefs have anything to do with religion and politics.” i Well, the bishop plainly states that he 4s not a Marxist. For Marxism does not admit any “ifs.” The facts of life do not permit this “if,” because we cannot be shunted away from the fact to the masses “religion” means God and the rest of superstitions. We cannot trade off a realization ef this fact just to be amiable in allowing individuals to make their own def- initions. Why? Because it weakens the revoluticrars will of the masses to struggle. Convinced 24 they may be of the benefits to them of ‘Com- munism, the religion that they have, and not the religion Comrade Brown speaks of, acts as a brake upon action, for instead of expecting God to give them happiness in another world, they tend to expect God to bring it about ‘in this world—without any special effort of their own, Hence Comrade Brown is mistaken when he says, in his doctrinal statement: “Can people be both Marxian-Leninian, or Bolshevik-Com- munists, and Jesuine-Christians? Yes.” And mistaken in the inference that the “Soviet Rus- sians” are religious. Devotion to a cause has nothing to do with religion ‘The capitalists are devoted to exploiting the workers, ready to die for it. It is their “desire and effort to live with reference to what can be learned from nature in order to the attainment of the most abundant life on earth.” . Thus, the “religion” of Comrade Brown is broad enough to take in both the workers and the capitalists. So to talk about “true” reli- gion, implying something else that is “false” religion, is merely getting lost in words and definitions. Another comrade from Towa after reading Bishop Brown, writes us, triumphantly pointing out that “religion” is not the “church” —yet leaving the door wide open for God. No, comrades, religion is what it is, in life, to the masses; as Marx correctly said. their “opium.” To temporize, in the midst of class struggle, is to make an ideological concession to the enemy. To shamefacedly place a wea} in the hands of the enemy, As Lenin put it, “to rebel on bended knees.” Science is based upon materialism, and omitting this basic thing in his definition the Bishop erred just as in ommitting to say that religion is based upon superstition; and the two are in head-on conflict—in life and action, which no comforting philosophy can cover up. This all does not deny that Bishop Brown has done—and is still doing—a great deal of good in the main line of his earnest endeavor to advance the ideal of Communism. That he makes mistakes, and serious ones, is but natural. Who doesn’t? And we would be doing him, and certainly the movement to which he is un- doubtedly devoted, an ill service in not pointing them out and cautioning the workers that Marx and Lenin cannot be revised without injury to their class. o Only a “War Relic” Supposing that you have read in the seands: shects all ebout the recent arrest of the al- lesed most murderous gangster, Fred Burke, who has a list of murders as long as a giraffe’s front leg to his credit, and want to know if you read this item, which cane from the As- sociated Press at St. Joseph, Mich., Tuesday: “New York police officials quizzed him (Burke) about the slaying of Frank Uale, Brooklyn boot- legger, but Burke denied the crime “I haven't been in New York since 191%, when I was on recruiting duty for the