The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 21, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily except Sunda 18th Street, New York City, N. ¥Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York. N. ¥. at 50 East IWORK.” Dail orker Portyg USA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Foreign: one year, By maul everywhere: Ono year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. $8-+ six months. $4.50. “HUNGER” MARCHES AMTER IL By L ger March is not a nly have full prepara~ for the housing and feeding e route, depending upon but organization of mportant to be carefully selected, for the they have to march long employed workers, who for some months, it the workers to march, cted also from the stand- Hotheads, boisterous men are [HE preparation of a H along t etc ‘The men have to have pline, 1 this is quickly incul- They have to understand something of ation, so that being given a task, they ow how to perform it without hesitation N. Y. marchers were carefully selected. composed of unemployed and employed s (mainly the former), they were organ- nto companies of 20 with a captain and of squads of 4. The captain was re- r his men, while the eight captains ate to the three leaders selected b p Union Unity League. 1 had a task. One for distribution c ture, another for defense, etc, The work we wonderful precision. When the men a meal, the captain, through the | eu knew where his men were, whether | ood, etc. When they stopped for the asted six days), the captain, knew where his men were in Albany, some of the men were the cossacks and were given first ough his lieutenants, knew n were locked up by the n the first aid room. ‘When held along the road the defense prepared for any eventuality. n embryo army, with the men learn- ing discipline on the way. The work was facili- ated by the fact that quite a number of the ex-servicemen, and this was only der less trying circumstances hose they had made during the world war Cc s in the red b; 1 Ss was lunist Albany and Tr d discipline to the ches. But it t be stated that the non-Communists showed discipline and promptness, thus demon- strating that there are multitudes of workers willing and able to fight, good militants who belong in the Communist Party, and only wait- ing for the Party members to bring them into the Party Provision wa tion of the men along the route. nade for the political educa- Short talks and dis on the role of the Trade Union Unity L and the revolutionary unions were to be held. It was almost impossible, however, to arrange the talks, for the men were tired when they arrived at a stopping place, and therefore the discussion was chiefly on the ex- periences on the road, which were interpreted by the marchers selected for the educational work. Provision was made for meetings in the towns on the road to Trenton and Albany, in the squares and before factories, but not in all cases was it possible to hold the meetings, for the marchers frequently arrived late. Whenever the meetings were held, they were large and enthu- siastic. On the road back, it was arranged that the marchers should report to the workers as to their experiences in Albany and Trenton, re- spectively, but these did not materialize. First aid nurses accompanied the marchers, not only to assist in case of collisions with fas- cists and state troopers, but to take care of sick men, sore feet, etc. The only time that they Had considerable to do was in Albany. Doctors could not be obtained to start out with the marchers, but volunteers were found in all the cities. A few incidents will indicate the reception that the workers gave the marchers. In one town on the way to Albany some of the march- ers put up for the night at a Negro Community Church. A Negro woman came to the marchers with five loaves of bread. This was a splendid demonstration of solidarity, by a poor Negro woman, At another place, an Italian, at 12 on and this lent | , o'clock at night, knocked on the door where a number of the marchers were sleeping, woke them up and asked to do something for them. He and his son brought the men a big cauldron | of spaghetti, and for a few hours there was much chatting and joking. In New Jersey, in Cartaret, the marchers did not think that they would have any meeting. The little town seemed bare, till they came to the corner of the main street. There the entire town awaited them, A meeting was held, then the marchers set out for the next city. But the Cartaret workers and their children did not want the marchers to leave. The trucks were | sent ahead, and the marchers, accompanied by the Cartaret workers, proceeded along the road. Once more the trucks were dispatched a space, but the workers and their children would not | | leave. The children wanted “that working | man’s paper’—the Daily Worker; they wanted | to learn one of the songs that the marchers | sang. And this was taught them on the road to | ‘Trenton | In’ Elizabeth, the marchers held a splendid } meeting. The police did not like the size of | the meeting and tried to interfere. The chief tried to.disrupt the meeting and pull the speaker from the box. But, with one fling, he went fly- | ing out of the crowd, and the meeting went on. | what the «significance of the Hunger Marches? ‘They are a higher stage of the strug- gle for Unemployment Insurance, in that the de- mand is presented to the state legislature by men representing the masses of unemployed in their respective territories; they represent a method of demand by selected groups of workers; and they convince large numbers of workers of the insincerity of the demagogues who sit in the state capitols (Roosevelt) and the capitalists’ determination surance. They fill the workers with greater will to fight for Insurance, and convince them that they will get nothing but by struggle. In Albany and in Trenton, the workers learned how representatives of the workers, especially the unemployed, are treated by “their” govern- ment. They learn that this government, which | receives, with bended knee, a prostitute queen, | a rake of a prince or a vicious labor-hater, does | not receive the representatives of the workers, but clubs them, arrests them and prepares to meet them with machine guns. | have opened the eyes not only of the marchers | themselves, but of the tens of thousands of workers who greeted them and listened to their speeches as they marched to the state capitols. These workers know now that only by more in- tense organization and struggle will they get relief and insurance. They know now that the “Reds,” the Communists and revolutionary trade unionists are not their enemies, as Fish, Green, Woll and Norman Thomas brand them, but the only ones who fight for the interests of the workers. They know now that they will get nothing by asking for it, it makes no difference how much they may be entitled to it. They will get Unemployment Insurance; they will win the right to hold meetings and to present their de- mands to the state legislatures only when they are properly organized and ready to fight. The fight for Unemployment relief and In- surance. goes on: The marches to Albany and Trenton are now followed by marches in the other states. The workers all over the country will not stop there. Although the demand was already presented to the United States Con- gress, which merely adopted a bill to “study” the unemployment situation and then adjourned without even considering the Workers’ Unem- ployment Insurance Bill, which was presented by the National Delegation on February 10—the fight will go on. The 10,000,000 unemployed workers of this country, backed up by the em- ployed workers, will continue the fight, by or- ganizing firmer, better knit Unemployed Coun- cils, by building up the revolutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League and by launch- ing a fight that will COMPEL the U. S. Qor- gress and the Wall Street bosses, whom that congress represents, to grant Unemployment In- surance, whether they like it or not. This is the task of the entire working class— and the Communist Party makes it one of its most important jobs. Cost of Living Shows Little Drop (Prepared by Labor Research Association) While wholesale prices declined 17 per cent during the year from December, 1929, to Decem- ber, 1930, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retail prices show no such drop. Cost of living in the United States was only 6 per cent lower than in December 1929 and two- thirds of this decrease took place, during the second half of the year. Retail food prices dropped 13.2 per cent dur- ing the year, clothing 4.7 per cent, rents only 3.6 per cent, fuel and light 2.1 per cent. An actual increase of 0.1 per cent in cost was re~ ported for such important miscellaneous items as street-car fares, motion picture admissions, newspapers, medical fees, medicine, hospital care, laundry, barber service, toilet articles, tele- phone rates and tobacco. Bread Profits Go To Corporations Bread, still costing 8-10 cents a pound loaf, shows the least decrease in retail price as com- pared with the wholesale price. Its average at retail was 8.5 cents in December 1930 and 8.9 ¢ents in December 1929. U. S, Senate Report No. 1838 on Prices of Food Products admits that its information “proves conclusively that the retail price of bread has not declined propor- tionately with the price of wheat” and “the res- ponsibility for this condition rests primarily up- on the large wholesale bakery companies... “The committee finds that throughout the country, as a whole, there should be an imme- diate average reduction of at least one cent per pound in the wholesale prices charged by the large baking corporations for their standard breads and that a corresponding or greater re- duction should be made in retail prices... “The retailer of bread charges a gross profit of at least one cent per pound loaf. This amount which the retailer obtains for allowing the bread to be placed in his store and for delivering it to the consumer, is, at present prices, equi- valent to the total amount the farmer receives for interest on his investment, for preparing the land, planting, tending, harvesting, and deliver- ing to market the wheat contained in a one pound loaf of bread.” ‘This Senate committee, investigating the pri- Pos of, food. promis eported. shes the, baking industry is “dominated by a few extremely large corporations” which have earned “excessive” profits. One large baking company which sold its common stock at $2 a share in 1916 reported yearly earnings, based upon the old stock of 1916, amounting to $146.97 per share in 1930. Milk 13.5 Cents Fresh milk, costing at retail 13.5 cents a quart in December 1930, showed a drop of 6 per cent during the year from its price of 14.4 cents in December 1929. “What has actually occurred,” admits the Senate Committee, “is that in the majority of cases the reduction to the consumer has been taken whole from the price paid to the farmer without any portion of the reduc- tion being borne by the distributor... “On the average the farmer receives less than half the retail price” although he has “an in- vestment much greater than that of the dis- tributor.” Thus, the distributing company is still getting its former profits, while the farmer gets less for his work. The U. S. Bureau of Home Economics advises workers not to expect to buy fresh milk but to use tinned milk—three cans costing 25 cents, Meat Shows Little Drop Meat, ranging from 17 to 50 cents a pound at retail, shows much less decrease in the re- tail than in the wholesale prices, which have dropped by more than 13 per cent. The Senate Committee reports that charges for distribution have remained practically the same. The dis- tributing corporations have had their profits while the slight decrease in retail price of from 2 to 4 cents a pound has been taken from the price paid to the farmer, Rents Still High Rents, showing @ decrease of onty 3.6 per cent must still form from one-fourth to one-third, or more, of a workers’ budget. According to the Labor Bureau, Inc., rents “are due for an ad- ditional fall, though they are not likely to fall so far in the cheaper and moderately priced ranges as they will in the higher priced apart- ments and homes.” Cost of living in the main industrial centers of the United States still calls for at least $2,000 @ year as an absolute epost & tealy of not to grant unemployment in- | ‘These marches | WAITING ae -S$TOITS BORD PARTY. LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. The Training of Functionaries By S. D. Cc Party is growing. Its influence is spread- ing. We are to mobilize and lead workers, many of whom never had the experience of conscious and direct struggles against capital- ism. To lead such workers we must have trained functionaries, trained leaders. Many militant workers are at present joining the Party, many of whom have splendid con- tacts with the masses, many who are the proper type for mass leadership. The growing strug- gles and tasks of the Party will call upon us to place them in positions of leadership amongst the masses, to place them in active and leading positions in the Party. Yet many of these new members, never had any experience in the or- ganized labor movement, never had any ex- perience in leading mass struggles. Their lack. of experience must be made up through in- | tensive painstaking training. aA The training of functionaries, of mass leaders, is an acute problem in every section of the Com- munist International. However it is particularly | acute in our Party. Why? If we will even super- | ficially compare the labor movement of this | country with that of the leading European cap- italist countries, we note the following: We know | that most of the workers joining our brother Parties in Europe gained some organizational and political experience before they joined our Parties. Many of them took an active part in | the various united front campaigns of the Party, while yet being members of the Socialist Party or voting for the Socialist Party, being members of their respective unions, fighting under our leadership against the social fascist leadership. As we already indicated above, if we compare it with the European Parties, in many instances the workers who join our Party at the’ present time, lack that elementary political organiza- tional training that we spoke of in connection with the workers joining our European brother Parties. Of course, one must not make the mis- take of jumping to the conclusion, that we have no workers in the U. S. who have acquired that elementary political organizational training. Our united front tactics will- bring into our Party many of that type. In fact, in a number of cases are known to us, this type of worker, who joined the Party, had less difficulties in assuming leadership and becoming a functionary. While our Party is one of the older ones of the Comintern, and while many of the old Party members have gone through the exper- ience of the struggle against the last imperial- ist war, the struggle of the left wing in the socialist party, the needle, textile, and mining strike experiences, yet the bulk of the Party membership did not go through these experi- ences and grew up in the “prosperity” period. ‘The growing homogeneity of the American work- ing class is not so well reflected in the Party. ‘The old foreign-born membership has the ele- mentary political organizational experience, but not in all situations that arise, can we place them in position of active leadership. (While we must point this out, at the same time we must guard ourselves against the tendency of ig- noring those foreign born comrades who have splendid experiences and are trustworthy) and we must call upon younger American elements, and place them in a position of leadership in preference to the more experienced foreign-born comrades, And their lack of experience, lack of tested stability must be made up: through steady and intensive training and, wherever pos- sible, personal guidance. at which to ave, ) revolutionary ‘The present world crisis of capitalism, the present and developing situation in the U. S., places ever greater duties on our Party in mob- ilizing the masses. Yet in face of these de- mands and tasks we lack the revolutionary ex- perience (tho one should not for one single moment forget the militant and heroic experi- ences of the American working class) that our brother Parties have gone through. : Comrade Stalin in his speeches to the Amer- ican Commission delivered in 1929 in refering to the historic role-of our Party said it is “one of the few Communist Parties in the world upon which history has lala tasks of a decisive character from the point of view of the world wave ae 4 gM, Pie 7 By BURCK. PATERSON - White Farmer Charged With Peonage by Negroes By ESTHER LOWELL (Labor Research Association.) ‘ORT WORTH, Texas.—Disagreement of the jury is all that. saved Fred Lindsey, white farmer of Quanah, Texas, from conviction on a peonage charge in the federal district court at Fort Worth, Texas, Joe Richbourg and three Negro women accused the white farmer of working them without wages and refusing to let them leave his cotton fields in September, 1929. The case just now reached trial. ‘The white farmer advertised for cotton pick- ers, offering free transportation to his farm and $1 a 100 pounds for cotton picked. The Negro workers took the job, bringing with them an- other woman who was a helpless cripple and did not work. One woman kept account of their cotton picking and charges at the grocery to which farmer Lindsey took them. At the end of the first week, when Lindsey refused to pay them, the Negro workers asked to leave. The farmer’s wife told them they owed $6 apiece for transportation to the farm and that their work did not cover their’ grocery bill. The Negroes worked on for three weeks. Each time they asked for wages due them they were told they owed the farmer, although the Negro woman's accounts differed. Finally the Negroes arranged to move and went out one evening to meet two other white farmers who would employ them. The Lindseys pursued them in their auto and stopped the white farmers. Lindsey swore at them and said: “What do you mean coming here and taking my Negroes frem me, when they owe me money?” The two white farmers corroborated the Negro workers’ testimony at the trial. “Mr. Lindsey called the white men everything but childrer. of God,” Joe Richbourg’s step- daughter testified. United States District At- torney Alex. Mood ‘described her as a “burr- headed little black nigger girl.” Mrs. Lindsey held a revolver to Richbourg’s ribs and made the Negroes return to the Lind- sey farm, where they worked out the season. Richbourg had borrowed $15 from Lindsey, which he repaid when forced back to work. Mrs, Lind- sey had told her husband not to pay the Negro the sum, although Richbourg claimed it was due for work. “Joe Richbourg may be a nigger, but he’s not crazy,” Prosecutor Mood told the jury. “Was he right in not telling Lindsey he was leaving? He knew he'd never get away if he told he was going.” 5 Defense Attorney Sam Sayres attempted to get a direct acquittal by claiming that there was no debt involved. To convict of peonage there must be evidence that the accused held the complainants against their will for the payment of an actual, or pretended, debt. Mrs. Lindsey concealed her account book showing the pretended debt until the prosecutor called for it. A former deputy labor commissioner of Texas testified that he had attempted to collect the Negroes’ pay for them. In charging the jury, Judge Wilson, a demo- crat,.carefully enumerated the conditions which would permit the jury to acquit the farmer and not once stated what would determine a verdict for the complaining Negroes. Although Negro peonage is more common on Southern cotton farms than court records ever indicate, the prose- cutor of Lindsey cl his best to minimize the case, The court room was packed with Lindsey's friends and neighbors, 35 of whom were his character witnesses, Few Negroes remained in the court room. Despite the judge's prejudiced instructions and the prosecutor’s minimizing, the jury in two hours’ deliberating could not agree to acquit the white man. » Forward to Bigger Struggles Statement of the National Council of the Na- tional Textile Workers Union. The National Council of the N.T.W.U. met at a time when the workers in the textile in- dustry are meeting the intensified efficiency and wage cutting drive of the employers by a ris- ing wave of militancy as expressed in the Law- rence, Maynard and Shelton. strikes, With 49 representatives, from the South (Charlotte and Greenville), Lawrence, Maynard, New Bedford, Providence, Pawtucket, Shelton, Philadelphia, Paterson, and Passaic present, at the council meeting, it assumed the real char- acter of a National Textile Workers meeting able and determined to lead the many strike strug- gles/that are on the order of the day. Faced with reports of impending strikes all over the country, the Council meeting never- theless decided to continue its concentration work in New England, with Lawrence as the the American Commission he made the follow- ing significant statements: “I think the moment is not far off when a revolutionary crisis will develop in America. And when a revolutionary crisis develops in America, that will be the be- ginning of the end of world capitalism as a whole. It is essential that the American Com- munist Party should be capable of meeting that historical moment fully prepared and of assum- ing the leadership of the impending class strug- gles in America, Every effort and every means must be employed in preparing for that, Com- rades. For that end we must work in order to forge real revolutionary cadres and a real revo- lutionary leadership of the proletariat, capable of leading the many millions of the American working class toward the revolutionary class struggles.” . ‘Thus we see how Comrade Stalin in the clos- est possible manner knit together the revolution- high point and the American Woolen Company Mills as the base. It was emphasized, however, that this con- centration did not mean a slackening of work in the other sections of the country. On the contrary, the South was specifically mentioned as being of extreme importance and new addi- tional organizers were sent there. Standing out as the high point of the meet- ing was the fact that the union was really orientating itself to the new organization meth- ods as laid down by the Trade Union Unity League. Less talk and more detailed work in the mills for the building of mill locals was the slogan. At the same time the need for stressing partial demands instead of abstractly calling for a gen- eral strike was put before the union as the cor- rect method of approach to our Organize and Strike campaign. Attention was directed to our failure to conduct @ real campaign among the rank and file of the UTW. Philadelphia, the base of the UTW, where strikes have been going on for some time, was given as a glaring example of this. ‘The danger of the Muste movement was also pointed out together with the serious situation in Lawrence, where a new organization, the American Textile Workers, was formed immed- jately after the strike and now has over 100 members, Our lack of an official union paper of our own brought sharply before the council the need for an intensive drive for the building of Labor Unity as a wide mass organ for the textile workers. The council seriously discussed the question of building permanent local, district and na- tional executive boards. In this connection, the extreme importance of really carrying on plan- ned work, among the youth in the industry, was stressed. The council decided to launch a National De-~ fense Campaign’ against the attacks upon our By JORGE Jise S A Wise Steno ; Concerning Mr. Broderick, State Superin- tendent of Banks, about whom we shot some bolts while all the boss papers were worship- ping at his feet with “assurances” to depositors of the Bank of U. S, that he was “guarding their interests”—we now have a postscript, Now some rival crooks are smoking him out. At least threatening to “investigate” his con- duct. Readers will recall how we declared long ago that he was protecting, the bank. looters, while the boss press was howling about “red rumors.” One of Broderick’s chief assistants, by the way, a chap named Egbert, seems to be a genius for “losing” important documents. He Jost some in the City Trust Bank swindle, for which Mr, Warder, Broderick’s predecessor, was sent to prison, Now he “misses” some in the Bank of U.S. case. But this is about a steno, We don’t know whether she is blond or bru- nette. But she’s a wise bird. It seems that in attempting to cover his tracks, Broderick had given an “opinion” on some big steal by the bank officers, that he thought would leave him a hole to crawl through in case of trouble. He had dictated a “statement” to his stenog-. rapher on the legality of the deal, in which he said he “would not approve, but might not ob- ject.” Now that was putting things so that either way the cat jumped, Mr. Broderick would be in the clear. But the steno had some sense, So all the bow-wows were thunderstruck in the “investigation,” when the statement came up reading: “Would not approve’—and _ there stopped. All the lawyers went into a huddle. The thing Was amazing! A legal “opinion” that. stated something straight and unequivocally! Impos- sible!’ Mr. Broderick himself was astonished, It could not be that he ever said anything that wasn't possible of at least three interpretations. The steno was sent for, and told to bring her notebook, And there, in the shorthand notes, it was read: “Would not approve, but might not ob- ject.” Broderick’s reputation as a lawyer and bank superintendent was saved. “But, why,” asked the bow-wows of the steno, did you not. write the whole thing, instead of just the ‘would not approve?’ and the steno, in the innocent simplicity of her heart, protested: “T didn’t write it all because it didn’t mean anything that way!” New Republic Lies ‘The ideological purveyors of fascism dressed up in “liberal” phrases who help make up the de- ficit of the so-called “New Republic” took off in a flight of imagination in the issue of April 8, under the heading of “The United States, Rus- sia and a Wage Cut.” Stating: if “The unique spectacle of the United States and the Soviet Governments carrying out a common policy, and, above all, @ policy of con- niving at wage reduction, can be witnessed at Paterson, N. J., where some 600 workers at the Wright Aeronautical Corporation have been on picket lines for four months.” Upon what evidence does the New Republic make such absurd remarks? Upon the -follow- ing: “Both the War Department and the Amtorg have been asked by the strikers to intervene in their behalf, but both at last reports have re- fused to intercede.” . Now, what, dear reader, do you suppose Mr. Fish would say if the Amtorg did intercede? “Soviet interference in our affairs!” Propaganda to incite American workers against their employers!” “Reds meddle in strike; un- der Moscow orders; oust the Amtorg agitators!” Such arrogant demagogy passes beyond: the limit! And dodges the fact that it is.the-Amer- ican capitalist government which controls this country. Which is precisely why these New Republic scoundrels write it up so as to appear, themselves, to be on the side of the’ workers, while sidetracking the workers’ resentment from the American government, which is to blame, to the Soviet Government, which is not to blame. But the yarn goes on: “The Soviet- authorities, claiming to be friends of the workers, have ignored them, too, altho several months ago, when. some Communist propagandists were discharged by the Wright Company, the Amtorg obtained their reinstate- ment by exerting economic pressure.” Horse radish! This is merely a lie to cover up the first demagogic statement. To give it apparent reason. The same lie was turned loose in the Danville strike. And no one but such un- principled scoundrels as run the New Republic would peddle it. But that is what workers should expect from social fascists. Powder Puffs for Generals They are holding an international patent ex- position in Chicago, and among those inventions mentioned in the N. Y, Times of April 14, was the following, quoted verbatim: “A powder puff, octagonal in shape, and re- sembling a wrist watch, was designed by Major General George O. Squire, U. 8. Army. The stem fs a handle for a drawer. Pull, and out comes the puff and a mirror. The General will demonstrate it in person on Saturday.” From which, we opine that Major Generals are not fit company for adolescents, and that the one in question should be transferred to the navy, where bell-bottom pants instead of army puttees might at least allow the luxury of ruffles, electric chair and others facing long terms of imprisonment and deportation. It was clearly seen that as we more and more assume the leadership in strikes the employers will intensify their efforts to crush us through arrests, etc. ‘The council really marked a turning point_ in our union. We have brought many new workers into our ranks through strikes. Our task now is to consolidate our forces and get to work applying the concentration and perspec- tives of the meeting which were for larger the near. |