The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 30, 1931, Page 4

Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co., Inc., dally except Sunday, at 50 East 12th Street, New York City. N. ¥. ‘Telephone Algonquin 7956-7. Cable: “DAIWORK.” Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York. N. ¥. Page Four Dail orker Dory US.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs ot Manhattan and Bronx. New York Ctly, Foreign: one year, $8- six months. $4.50. Imperial Valley Prisoners Greet the Daily Worker Conterence In Los Angeles The following letter signed by Frank Spector for the Imperial Valley prisoners serving in Folsom and San Quentin from 3 to 42 years was sent to us. “We greet the Daily Worker Conference. The very fact of its being brought about speaks for the improved activities in the task of bringing the Daily closer to the Los Angeles masses. It must be recorded that until but recently the Daily has been solely neglected and in this fashion a powerful weapon in the hands of the Los Angeles revolutionary movement has been left to rust. But in order that this weapon may regain its keenness a mere conference will not suffice. If this conference will result in none less than paper resolutions it will decidedly fail to serve its purpose. FOUR POINTS TO BUILD “DAILY” “What should be the concrete results of this gathering? One: A permanent committee of active comrades to direct future activities to- wards the widest popularization of the Daily. Second: The establishment of D. W. Commit- tees in every working class organization. Third: A concrete, carefully worked out plan as a result of which the Daily will gain foot- hold in shops and factories. Fourth: Organ- ization of Workers Correspondents Clubs. “Tt has been an institutional misconception that the task of bringing the Daily to the masses lies in the hands of the D. W. agent alone. ‘While he undeniably should be the moving spirit. yet he alone will never accomplish the task or any part of it. It follows logically that even after the formation of a committee, as contained in point one, we must go further: this directing committee must coordinate the activities in be- half of the Daily in every working class organ- ization—not only revolutionary—but reformist as well, in short, in al those where there are workers, But special effort must be directed to the shops and factories. Why? Simply because to the mass-meeting come in the main class conscious workers; in the shops and factories the workers for the most, are yet groping to- wards class consciousness—the Daily will be their powerful means for their becoming thus. This brings us to the fourth point: The role of The Worcorrs. The Worcorrs, among other tasks, must supply specific articles based upon a spe- cific set of conditions or an outstanding condi- tion such as coming wage cuts, etc. The effec- tiveness of an issue that contains articles speak- ing of the grievances of a particular group of workers cannot be estimated. “My space is up. I hope that we bring to you. comrades, some really concrete, practical sug- gestions which in our opinion are based upon the concentrated experience of the movement. TO WORK COMRADES! And may our Daily grow in powerful strides for the organization of the masses. The heartiest comradely greetings from the Imperial Valley Group. "Frank Spector.” Daily Worker Clubs Another Point. The suggestions in Comrade Spector's letter are not only concrete and practical but VITAL to the health of the Daily Worker if it is to survive as leader of the working-class in its present and future battles against the bosses. One more point must be added to Comrade Spector’s four: The formation and perpetua- tion of Daily Worker Clubs composed of read- eds and worker sympathizers of the Daily to develop the initiative of the masses of Ameri- can workers in building and supporting their revolutionary press. If these D. W. Clubs are not limited to any mechanical or too narrow basis—they will draw into their ranks masses of American workers who are interested in the problems of the working class as a whole and will actively support the revolutionary press. By HARRY GANNES. In the previous article of this series, Ca- pone’s connection with the leading capitalists and boss politicians in Chicago was shown. The Chicago Tribune Capon 'HE- Chicago Tribune which made such a free use of gangsters in attempting to drive out its Hearst rival boiled over with indignation when its star police reporter, Alfred (“Jake”) G. Lingle, a close friend of Al Capone, was Killed on June 9, 1930, The bullet that killed Lingle also ripped open the close connection between the Chicago newspapers, the gangsters, the police department and the leading capital- ists as well as the Chicago Tribune's close con- tact with “Scarface” Al Capone. ‘When Cermak was elected to replace Thomp- son as mayor, the Chicago Tribune gave him its full support. Lingle’s murder was sensational. He was on hhis way to the races, walking in the crowded central. subway leading to the Illinois Central Railroad. A gunman stepped up beside him, pumped him: full of lead and then ran off. The Tribune raised a sanctimonious howl of protest against ‘the gangsters and gangsterism in general for killing its upright reporter. While many of the facts about Lingle’s life never came to light, enough did to show that Lingle was the go-between for Al Capone and the police department. The main reason he was hired by the Chicago Tribune was because of his alliance with the strike-breaking Pinkerton Detective Agency and the Burns Detective Agency, and later because of his close ties with early every leading gunman in Chicago, and particularly with Al Capone himself. As a mark of friendship Capone presented Lingle -with a diamond belt buckle. “Jake” Lingle was so intimate with Chief of Police Russell that Russell said, “I looked. on Lingle like my own son.” But their relation- ship was much thicker than just that. While Lingle got $65 a week from the Chicago Trib- une, his bank account showed deposits of over $60,000 made in less than one year, before he was murdered. Lingle was the official graft collector for the police department on booze delivered in Chicago’s main business district, the loop. Payment of $5 a barrel was made to Lingle, and Lingle turned it over to Russell nd the other heads of the police department. Price of Police Promotions. ‘The Tribune reporter had been Chief Russell’s pal for twenty years. It was through Lingle that payment was made by policemen for pro- motions. Regular price scales were worked out. If a cop wanted to become a police sergeant, he paid $1,500; if he desired a captainship, he Paid Lingle $5,000. Precisely how much the police officials got and what share went to Lingle, and what the Tribune got out of it, never was made public. The workers can draw their own conclusions. So close was Lingle’s connection with the Chicago police department that he was known as the “unofficial Chief of Police of Chicago.” Not content with reaping thousands in graft through the police department, Chief of Police Russell and Lingle had a joint stock market account that at one time amounted to over $100,000. Why Lingle was murdered will never be known, as the traces of Lingle’s murderers lead right into the offices of the biggest capitalists in the City of Chicago. It is known, for instance, that the suspected murderer, a man by the name of Forsyth or Fawcett, was working in the office of City Corporation Council, Samuel Ettleson, at the @mmc time, Ettleson is the political sawyer for Insull, the billionaire public utilities magnate in Chicago. Lingle, too, was not only the collector of graft, but he was the pay-off man for the vari- ous police captains. In his accounts, for ex- ample, there was a check of $500 payable to Captain Daniel Gilbert, in charge of the Central Police Station in Chicago. It can be taken for granted that many other damaging item’s of Lingle’s accounts never reached the light of Gay. The fate of such documents as Lingle’s accounts book, the Rothstein private papers, the Zuta poinson box, and other rare gangster docu- . Graft and Gangsters By HARRY GANNES e The origin of graft in the United States was traced in articles published previously in the Daily Worker, especially the use of gunmen by the capitalist politicians, and the Lingle Murder ments show they have a way of disappearing. Lingle used to receive money from such il- lustrious figures in Chicago as Samuel A. Ettel- son, corporation counsel of Chicago, $5,000; Ma- jor Corolos Ames, president of the Civil Ser- vice Commission $5,000; Bert Cronson, member of the City Council, nephew of Ettelson $5,000. After the exposure of Lingle’s gangster and political connections, the other capitalist news- papers in Chicago tried to make the workers think that they were free from such ties. In this they were unsuccessful. Proof of the con- nection of every one of them came out with such startling rapidity that a gentleman's agree- ment between them was reached to kill the whole matter. But such facts as the following did come out: The Chicago Daily News for years had hired the gangster reporter Julius Rosenheim, who met the same fate as Lingle. Harry Read, city editor of a Heart newspaper was a guest at Capone’s palace in Miami. Soon after Lingle’s death, when the intimady of other capitalist newspapers with gangsters had been exposed, Donald R. Richberg, a prom- inent Chicago lawyer made a speech before the City Club in which he brought out the inter- locking directorates between gangsters, capi- falists, politicians and the big exploiters. Rich- berg said: “Is it possible that the people of Chicago can read their daily papers and yet remain ignorant of the interlocking relations between public utility control and corruption of gov- ernment and the political protection of crime? “The close relationship between Jake Lingle and the police department has been published in the Chicago papers. Out of town newspapers described Lingle more bluntly as having been. the unofficial chief of police of Chicago. But Lingle was also strangely intimate with Al Ca- pone, our most notorious gangster. “Surely all Chicago knows that Samuel Et- tleson, Mr. Insull’s political lawyer, who is cor- Poration counsel of Chicago is also the chief operator of the city government. Thompson is only a figurehead.” Startling as these revelations by this liberal lawyer are, his main purpose was to lead the workers to think that “clean government” can be achieved by putting such right-minded capi- talist leaders as himself into office, and that capitalism can shed one of its vital organs— crime and gangsterism. Just before the mayoralty elections of 1931, to cover up the cennection of the leading poli- ticians in the murder of Lingle, a St. Louis gangster by the name of Leo V. Brothers was brought to trial and convicted. Whether con- nected with the murder or not, Brothers was @ goat and not the instigator. After his con- viction on evidence which had all the earmarks of a frame-up, Brothers issued a statement in which he said: “If I had taken the witness stand, I would have been framed further. I have no record. £ have no gang connections. I challenge Mr. Roche (police investigator) and Mr. Thabun (assistant prosecutor) to continue this investigation. I’m convieted for fourteen years for something I did not do.” (To Be Continued) JOHN G. SODERBERG EXPELLED FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY. The Central Control Commission of the Com- munist Party of U. S. A. has expelled John G. Soderberg from the ranks of the Party as a disruptive anti-Party element and an irrespon- sible careerist, who places his personal ambi- tions and grievances above the interests of the revolutionary working class movement. He has conducted a whispering campaign of slanders against the Party and against the In- ternational Labor Defense, as well as against the Jeadership of his own union, the Marine Work- ers Industrial Union; as a matter of his own personal career without the knowledge, con- sent or direction of the Party or of his union he has become a functionary of the I. T. B. U., apparently through a deal with the reactionary |“THOSE OF US WHO HAVE MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE—’ Party Life Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. Exchanging Experiences in our Shop Paper Work By S. ERENBERG. (California) (| ae Party is still in an experimental stage when it comes to the issuance of shop papers, not only in the number (only about 10-20 a month) of shop papers issued, put also in the content of most of the papers. Most of the comrades engaged in the issuance of shop papers have usually made a sharp line of demarcation between shop news and general problems facing the American working class. ‘Until recently, the practice has been that the comrades working in the shops wrote the shop news, while the comrades from the Section or District office wrote the political articles, which were usually abstract, not connected with the issues fac- ing the workers in the particular shop. The workers in the shop read the shop news en- thusiastically, but are indifferent to these long- winded “political” artigles. Under such circum- stances, many important issues and campaigns raised by the Party in the shop papers were not digested by the workers as their own and we were wondering why the workers do not re- spond to our slogans. Another big shortcoming in our shop paper work is the fact that every shop paper has been a world by itself. We did not draw any lessons from our past mistakes, and we did not benefit from the expériences of the various shop papers issued in other districts.or even in our own district. In this connection we must greet the appearance of the “Shop Paper Man- ual,” also of the “Shop Paper Editor.” Here we have an abundance of constructive suggestions which if properly utilized by the comrades involved in the shop paper work would greatly improve the technical and political com- position of our. papers, In our district (California) ever since the na- tional shop paper committee got on the job, and began analyzing seriously the mistakes and shortcomings of our shop papers, we succeeded in improving our work considerably. Before, we used to issue our shop papers any old way. Now, after we réceived the individual criticism of our shop papers and after we dis- cussed these criticisms at our shop nucleus; we are taking greater pains in the actual construc- tion and editing of the paper. Especially great hhas been the change to the better in the “Head- light” (Southern Pacific Shops, San Francisco). The April-May issue of the paper has avoided all the former shortcomings, not enough tllus- trations, etc. The restilt was that the paper was received enthusiastically by the workers, The workers passed the paper around on the job, discussed its content and made favorable re- marks, (The reason we do not make much head- way in the shop, is because our comrades inside as a rule do not participate in these discus- sions on the shop paper, in order to get or- ganizational results. They are in the shop as mere onlookers). a ‘We hope that the shop paper committee will not slacken down on its job and will continue to exchange experiences of the various shop papers. One little suggestion. With every “Shop Paper Editor,” send to each district at least one copy of each shop paper received in the national office so that we may get the full benefit of the good and bad points of the paper, \ leadership of same; and he has crowned his anti-Party and anti-proletarian actions by send- ing a slanderous statement for publication in the counter-revolutionary sheets of the Love- stoneites and Trotzkyists. All working class organizations should beware of this unprincipled careerist. Central Control Commission Communist Party of the U. 8. A. By BURCK PRE-CONVENTION DISCUSIONS YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE, U.S. A. On Inner Life In District No. 2 By L. KAPLAN. jUR League units today are not real basic organs of the League throbbing with the life of their territories, building up the interest of their memberships in League work through discussions and real educational methods, but are organs mechanically carrying out decisions given by higher bodies. The main fault lies in the inability of the units to answer in an in- teresting fashion the whys, wheres ard hows, etc., of every problem, The duty and role of the executive in build- ing up inner life must first be made clear. It is the job of the executive to direct the en- thusiasm of the membership into the correct channels, to strengthen this enthusiasm through various lighter features, and finally to link up this spirit with the work of the unit with the aim of getting results. With these ideas as a basis a short estimate of the work in District 2 must be made: 1, The failure of the district to provide any centralized method of exchanging experiences among the units and even inside of the units has led to a great deal of chaos and misun- derstanding as to methods of building up the life, and the consequent Ppoorness of life in the units, 2. Ag to the order of business and the plan- ning of the meeting itself: The tendency on the part of executives is to plan haphazardly each unit meeting. In some cases the organ- izers write out the order of business a few min- utes before the meeting. In other cases the order of business is abstractly spoken about at the unit executive. In very few cases, however, is the order of business planned in every detail before by the unit executive. The unit meeting ‘ts the most important event of the Week in the life of a unit. We must learn to make it so. Every little point shall be gone over beforehand by the unit executive and prepared for the unit meeting. “The time to be allowed for each point, the time of discussion, the scope of each point, and the comrades who report on each point must be prepared before the unit meeting, In New York we have found also that it is better that the chairman of each meeting be designated be- forehand by the unit executive, given the order of business and told how he is to take up each point. He will then be trained how to act as a chairman and will be prepared to act cor- rectly and not as is the case today in most units. The effect to be aimed at, is of a well organized, smoothly-running meeting, with only the comrade chairman, reporter and secretary in the front. Such methods must necessarily give prestige and strength to the unit execu- tive as a leader of the unit. 3. In New York the division of units into squads of 6 or 7 based on where the comrades live, makes the entire unit meeting and check- up much easier. These squads have as their captainsemembers of the unit executive, Other comrades can also be captains. These squads are all assigned to specific work for each week. The check-up is made at the unit executive where the captains report on the work of their squad. The executive takes to the unit meet- ing only the outstanding failures in the unit and also all the experiences gotten in the carrying out of the previous week’s activity. At the unit meeting itself, the unit meeting beside a very short general executive report, also includes half-hour meetings of each squad. This is in- cluded on the order of’ business. Some examples of unit order of business: Internationale or Song—3 minutes, Chairman prepared beforehand. Report of Executive—20 minutes. Discussion and questions--3 minutes each comrade, for 15 minutes. Squad meetings—30 minutes, Lighter features—45 minutes. of meeting—2 hours, The holding of unit open nights with lighter features has been tried with some success by some units. Here all the work of the units is left to the squads and there is no order of business except squad meetings, * The executive committee of each unit is par- ticularly responsible on this point. Plans for at least one month in advance of the contents of each meeting should be prepared by the Agitprop Committee. Onee it has a definite plan, comrades for each part in the features should be prepared in advance. Experience has shown that wherever the executive has planned @ particular unit feature in advance, prepara- tions, all details and all participants in ad- vance, the best results are gotten. Our District has already begun to issue small one act plays which can be put on at the unit meeting. The Executives must also have their own little unit sketches written to deal with things and situations in the unit. Many units have succeeded (especially during the Lenin- Liebknecht-Luxemburg campaign) in putting over little sketches and mock trials by them- selves with good results. The issuing of wall papers is also linked up to an important degree with inner life in the units. However, the energy expended by most units in preparing and putting out wall papers is not justified by the results obtained. The policy should rather be orientated to- wards a flexible wall paper or bulletin. In one unit (S. B’klyn.) the method of having articles changed almost veery week was adopted with success. The articles were written about some unit happening almost immediately after it oc- curred. It was posted on the board. The ar- ticles are then fresh ones on immediate hap- penings and have an interest for the members. The above suggestions on inner life, the methods of bettering unit meetings, depend mainly on the participation of a maximum of the membership in the life of the unit. The executive must now begin to activize both the old and the new members to help make the unit meetings better. This may be a step in activizing them in League work. Some com- rades can play and sing, others can write and others can act. If the executives will study each case and involve each comrade in some part in making the unit meetings better, it may be a step in activizing them. The @pinion of the membership shall always be the index whereby the Executive judges how good or how bad a unit meeting. This will involve the great- est possible number of comrades ta help in unit meetings, Maximum time Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. 8. A. P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. Please send me more information on the Com- munist Party. Name .. Clty eseeee, secccees BtAte sescveceeee -Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, P. O, Box 87 Station D. New York City ' OCCUPATION Lesseesevevesceerereeores ABC seceee coieceiney NSS Reatcfocts. | By JORGE ence A Puzzled Comrade A comrade, who just can’t figure it all out, writes us, in part, as follows: “I’ve just been reading in the ‘Worcorrs Briefs’ column the answer written to a worke: in Belton, Mont., regarding religion versus labor (Daily of May 18). “It states that the Party does not bar work- ers from its ranks on account of their religious views. Well, I must admit that I don’t quite understand. Does that mean that such a worker is eligjble for membership in the Com- munist Party—or only in one of its auxiliary organizations? The Party, being the vanguard of the working class, I was under the impression did not admit those with religious views. You see, I thought that a member of the Party was supposed to believe in the material conception of history.—A. L. C.” We have to go back to the Montana corre- spondent in order to explain better. He wrote us —more than once—urging that we “adopt the biblical teachings as a method of overcominre capitalism in favor of Communism.” When w expressed our doubt of such helping any, he go off the following: “If you deny me that, or if the labor move- ment has no use for it, or ignores this moral or biblical basis, then you or the Party cuts me off from the labor movement entirely and forever.” From his letters, it is obvious that he is not quite all there, a religious fanatic, and not simply a worker with a certain religious view. His letters are long and tiresome repetitions of religious arguments, without one word as to what conditions he has as a worker, and it is left to imagination even if he is a worker. But he most certainly is interested in folsting religion onto the Communist Party. ‘That is where we draw the line, And our explanation correctly said that the Communist Party does not bar workers from its ranks merely because they have religious views. Work- ers come to the Party because it leads them in class struggle. But they come to us with numerous confusions, remnants of bourgeois teachings. Should we bar them out until they have gotten rid of each and every error and be- come “wised up” outside of the Party? Nol They would not get any further that way. The Party takes them into its ranks, teaches them patiently and gives them concrete tasks from which they learn, with the aid of the Party leadership, that the collective leadership of the Party and its theories are correct and any contradictory notions they may have had are wrong. It is different if a worker is considered for a leading position. A more rigid rule is: rightly applied to Party leaders. One who is soaked full of religious hop cannot in the very nature ; of things be trusted to make policies for revolu- tionary class action. Experience has shown very definitely that such comrades surrender a revo- lutionary line in a crucial hour. Also, people who are not workers, people such as preachers or our Montana correspondent, 7 approach the Party and wish to join, not ‘+ give themselves to the workers’ struggle, but d order to use the masses they find there as \* field for religious propaganda, these are ati and, if they get in by mistake, the Party w. exclude them later. eet Nie | War Department Mathematics The other day, when the Air Fleet was flut- tering around over New England, the N. Y¥. Times of May 25 told how indignant Assistant Secretary of War Davison was, because, so we were told: “Communist organizations were spreading the report that the Army Air Corps’ maneuvers were adding some $3,000,000 to the burden of the taxpayer.” Davison thought it necessary to try to con- tradict such a “report” and managed to do it— after a fashion customary to sophists—by appa- rently upsetting the laws of mathematics which ordinarily hold that a fraction is a part of the whole, It may be true for mathematicians, but not for Assistant Secretaries of War; Davison disposed of such an argument by saying: “The answer is that it 1s a contemptible He. These maneuvers, which are a part of the regu- Jar annual army exercises, are not costing an additional nickel.” ‘They never had them berore; but they are regular hardy annuals! They cost nothing “addi- tional”—therefore they cost nothing at all! The cost of the air maneuvers are merely a part o! the cost of the imperialist war machine, so ¢he / maneuvers didn’t cost a nickel! Such is the © “reasoning” we are given on page one of ‘the New York Times. On the editorial page, ho ever, it seems to be indicated that the expense’. was real and not imaginary. It says: “Never before has a division of the Army Air Corps engaged in maneuvers. The people, who are taxed to maintain it, have an opportunity to judge of the success. . .. It is of great im- portance that they should behold a spectacle proving the defensive and offensive power of the air branch. With the simplest ,understanding it must be clear that money spent on it... will not be wasted.” No, dear reader, it is not that the New York Times was publishing Communist “reports” and, incidentally, spreading a “contemptible lie.” It only happened that liars got their wires crossed. Davison was trying to put over the lie that the air maneuvers cost nothing, because starving unemployed had to be deceived, and the Times © was trying to show that what it cost was well spent from an imperialist point of view. There | was merely a lack of what the talkies call syn- chronization, ewe Pua tale e. * Religious “Liberty” Just how little the Pope, who raises such a | storm clai ig there is no religious liberty in | the Soviet Union, really upholds religious lib- | erty, is revealed in the news (N. Y. Times, May _ 26): i “VATICAN CITY, May 25.—That Cardinal Pacelli, the Papal Secretary of State, is pre- _ paring a note to Spain’ formally protesting, against the recent proclamation of religious liky’ erty, was confirmed today,”