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

{ | | Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Ine., daily exeept Sunday. at 56 East 12th Street, New York City, N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7956-7, Cable: “DAIWORK” Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Page Four ——— - - ——— Experiences of New York Unem- Re ee ae ployed Councils | ot site By SAM NESIN. hus far in our unemployment work The trem tions whic bosses about their so called prospe The signa the Unemployment Insurance Bi elected by local conferences. The October 16 demon where we exposed the ¢! forced a illion dollars demonstra - into the teeth of the 6 mass y York n and to be appropriated for immediate f ‘The state hunger marches dramatizing the fight for unemployment insurance The prevention of hu of evictions by petitions, threats of rent striki by the tenant neighbors and putting back it has been tt into the streets in hundreds of cases Forced the n of mployed workers, robbed employm Issued thousa leaflets with neighborhood issu the holding of open air meetings Participation of unemployed nches on picket lines in strik in the Eagle Pencil against the wage cut, Zelgreen’s Cafeter‘2 against the injunction, needle, shoe, tobacco workers, etc Broke down the five day a month rule and the general practice of for wo! to work without pay in the Municipal Le Forced the Seamen's In. free cots for sleeping accommodatior Recruited unemployed workers into the T. U U. L., Ex-servicemen’s League and the Party. The organization of the Red News Club, in- creasing the sale of the Daily Worker and Labor Unity. Organization and Struggle. There is more regularity in the functioning of the Unemployed Council than ever before. The functionaries and committees are made up en- tirely of new forces. The approach of these new forces to the masses is much more effective than that of many old members. They do not use un- necessary language and are more concrete in their demands and organizational proposals to secure them in many instances. Organizational advances and the direction in which we are travelling in our unemployment work can best be related in the following re- ports, The Madison Square Branch of the Unem- ployed Council in its week's activities from May 9 to 16 reports as follows Two hundred members—70 good standii new members—2 business meetings, aver tendance 50, 4 educational meetings, average at- tendance 75; 7 open air meetings, average at- tendance 500; 2 executive meetings; 1500 leaf- lets distributed, 20 Labor Unities sold, 179 Daily Workers sold. Block of concentration, 89th St. between Ninth and Tenth Aves. Leaflets dis- tributed at Municipal flop house, Salvation Army line and St. Vincent line. Seventeen fam- ilies canvassed in two houses. One family agreed to permit the use of their apartment for a meet- ing of the tenants. The branch collected $52 for a group of Negro workers from a contractor who withheld pay on a house wrecking job. $34.50 collected for five workers from four em- | ployment agencies; 8 pickets sent out to a food workers strike, 10 pickets to a needle strike, 7 pickets sent to Middle Village strike ‘against high cost of food. Money collected for initiation fees 85 cents, dues 52 cents. Expenses $1.20. Turned into the City Committee 17 cents. In the space for remarks on the weekly report blank we have the following: The expenses of $1.20 was for fare of delegates elected to the Foster-Muste debate. Five out of the 17 fami- lies canvassed are enthusiastic about the forma- tion of a house committee. The composition of the branch executive com- mittee is also of some significance. Here are their names: Richard Sullivan, Joseph Mack, Robert Young, George Benton, Tony Perini, John Lembke, Albert Young, George McBurney, John O'Gara. Three of these are Negro workers, Many women workers are members of our Par- ty in this section, but none are active\in the Unemployed Branch. You can easily see that the old members of our Party are conspicuous by their absence in looking over the list of the executive committee, Struggle Against High Rents. The next report is that of the formation of a house committee of tenants in the Bronx. Out of a house of twenty tenants at 735 E. 182d St. a meeting of nine. was held in one of the apart- ments. Several others promised to be present and support whatever demands were to be made upon the landlord, but were unable to attend for one reason or another. At this meeting a secretary of the House com- mittee was elected. Apartments not represented called and each tenant present was as- ed to visit a tenant or two on their floor. Where the original canvassing committee was | unable to convince them or had the door shut n their face, these intimate neighbors were | fective Demands were drawn up for a 10 per cent re- duction in rent and that the landlord hire an exte: nator to rid the house of mice with {| which every apartment is infested. A committee of five was elected to secure the signatures of the rest of the tenants and pre- sent the demands to the landlord. A reduction of $2 on each apartment was secured, and the landlord was also forced to make the ngcessary repairs ‘The Struggle Against High Cost of Food. In Middle Village a food strike has been organ- ized by means of leaflets and meetings. De- mands were made upon the butcher shops for n in the price of meat, A picket line | et up, open air meetings held and many s were forced to settle upon agreed prices, osted in the windows of the shops 0 per cent reduction. This success is | now being followed up with a strike for a re- duction in the price of bread and rolls. The Women’s Councils are playing a leading role in | this struggle. | I cite these examples to,give you a glimpse of | the organizational forms that are being devel- oped and how our general slogans are being sis for the development of these ac- t questionnaires have been issued by the Unemployed Council of Greater New York, with the following directives how to canvass workers’ homes 1, Concentrate on one block at a time, going from house to house. 2. Comrades should go in couples, a man and woman wherever possible, and should have cre- dentials with them. | 3. If acquainted with the nationality of work- ers, comrades speaking their language to be as- signed. If possible workers living on that block should be assigned, or sympathetic neighbors to be taken along. 4. Open air meetings shall be held and litera- ture distributed in the neighborhood as prepara- tion for canvassing 5. When visiting the workers, inform the fam- ilies as follows (a) Whom we represent ployed council) ; (b) Bad conditions in neighborhood. (c) Work of unemployed councils (putting back furniture, stopping of evictions, preventing shutting off of gas and heat, collecting of money from employment sharks for unemployed work- ers. Demanding immediate relief for starving families. Free food and clothing for ¢hildrén of unemployed and our fight for Unemployment insurance. (d) Our fight to lower rent and for safitary conditions. (e) The need for organization of a house com- | mittee in their building. (f) That we are getting information to de- mand from the city government and the bosses immediate relief for our starving neighbors give specific cases where possible. Workers visited should also be urged to give information about unemployed neighbors. 6. Information as required in the question- naire should be secured as much as possible dur- ing conversation, rather than in a formal sense. 7. If a particular family visited is not in need, ask their attitude towards our organization and whether they would join to help others. 8. If sympathetic, ask them if they will per- | mit the use of their apartment for a meeting of the tenants in their house, 9. In some houses the landlord may live there himself. Be careful when speaking to them or even the janitor. 10. Leave some literature in house, inform them of address of branch of unemployed coun: | cil in neighborhood. 11. In the space for remarks put down what | their attitude is towards our activities and sug- gestions for following them up. for organiza- tional purpose. Also such matters that are of particular interest and not included in the ques- tion blank. 12, After a thorough canvassing of the block, it must be immediately followed up with a meet- ing in the neighborhood called by means of a leaflet. 13. At those meetings all information secured must be reported and a committee from the | block together with the members of the Un- employed Branch delegated by the workers to make demands upon the city and large corpora- tions in neighborhood, aiso the alderman of the district for immediate relief, as well as the charity organizations. 14. Committee should report results and fur- ther action planned. (branch of unem- | Workers’ Cultural Federation to Mean Big Step Forward By A. B. MAGIL Member of the American Delegation to the Charkov Conference of Revolutionary Writers and Artists 'HE Lumber Workers’ Club in Moscow. The place is jammed, but the workers insist on making room for us. There’s something im- portant happening; it’s happening on a stage. And everyone feels that this is of tremendous significance to him, part of his life, his own problems, desires, experiences, . Young workers on the stage are giving a play, & play dealing with the sex problems of youth. There is humor here, but no vulgarity, earnest- ness, but no pedantry, The play is alive. I can see that—though I don’t understand a word— from the reactions of the audience, After this come the Blue Blouses, about ten in all, both men and women. They are older workers, but they too radiate youth and energy. » The program they present is timely. It must be; life moves so fast under the Five-Year Plan that ancient history is what happened last month or even last week. In a few days ail Moscow will be celebrating the anniversary of the Oc- tober Revolution, and the Blue Blouses must help prepare the celebration. Their performance is a rich, imaginative restatement, a re-creation in terms of pantomine, song and declamation of the history and lessons of October. It stirs the audience deeply, organically. They become % part of the play, they are themselves the actors on this stage—and on the larger stage of his- tory. * In Berlin I saw one of the German Blue Blouse troupes—there are 500 of them in Ger- many. It was cruder, less developed technic- ally than the one in Moscow. But not less vital. These too were shock troops of the cul- tural revolution, every phase of their work part of the class struggle, breathing its spirit, I didn’t get a chance to see them performing be- fore factory gates. But they do that too in Germany—this is no hothouse art. What I have described here is only a small part of the immense, variegated cultural work that is an integral part of the daily revolution- ary activity in the U.S.S.R. and Germany. And all of it develops not haphazardly, but in an organized, coordinated way. What about America? Many workers will be surprised to learn that cultural groups that function in their own language; we have a situation where the cul- tural organizations of each nationality work in almost complete isolation from all other na- tionalities and from the great body of American workers. When I say “most workers,” I refer rather to the class-conscious workers; the over- whelming majority of the working masses of the United States have no contact whatsoever with out cultural groups and are left a prey to the | Y. M. and Y. W. C. A.’s, various social educa- tional and sports clubs, all the poisonous agen- cies of bourgeois culture such as the press, the schools, the movies, etc, Bourgeois culture is an immense corrupting influence, penetrating every nook and corner of the workers’ live combatting our political propaganda at éverd turn. Moreover, most of the proletarian cultural organizations which do exist tend to function if a formal, séctarian way, catering to an ad- vanced few (comparatively), cut off from the Mainstream of working class struggles. As a result, we often find tendencies toward an “art for art’s sake’ movement—with a proletarian flavor, of course. Turn to the basic organizations of the work- ingclass, the trade unions—the revolutionary trade unions—and you find an almost total ab- sence of cultural activity. \ What's to be done? Obviously, coordinate the scattered cultural activities in some way, band together the numerous cultural organizations in a federation, broaden and intensify all proleta- rian cultural work, bring it into the shops and factories, into the desolate industrial towns and farming communities, into the trade unions. Such an idea has often been broached, but left hanging in the aair though a majority of those comrades working in the cultural field strongly favor it. There are, of course, a few, still living in the past, who can’t see beyond their own noses and prefer to stick in their safe, familiar ruts. They will have to be per- suaded that there is a world (and what a | world!) beyond their noses, and they'll have to breathe into their lungs some of the air of this world or die of suffocation. The first concrete step was taken by the world conference of revolutionary writers and artists that was held at Charkov, U.S.S.R. last Novem- ber. This conference assigned to the organiza- tion of the American revolutionary writers and artists, the John Reed Club, as one of its chief tasks the initiating of a cultural federation. It’s taken us several months to get started, but now we're on our way. ‘ First the job is to organize the federation in the New York district, the chief center of proletarian cultural activity in the United States. ‘After that, the national federation. For this purpose a conference has been called for Sun- day, June 14, at 10:30 am, in Irving Plaza, 15th Street and Irving Place. Every organiza- tion in New York and vicinity, no matter hae irge or Il, that is engaged in some fo! af yebtariad cultural activity, in whatever language, should be represented at this con- ference (send two delegates). One thing should be made clear: when we speak of organizing a federation, we don’t mean a rigid, centralized organization. It should be a loose federation, one that will not interfere with any existing group, but on the contrary,. mit a broadening and deepening of ac- I tate 8 constant interchange of experience and material, that will give a tremendous impetus to proletarian culture in the United States. ‘The June 14 conference is in a sense historic, the first step toward a much bigger task whose horizons are limitless. For, after all, as revo- Jutionists we are fighting to win the majority of the working class not only politically, but. culturally as well. And the Russian workers— and to a large extent the German too—have shown us the way. 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 . in the United States there are hundreds—perhaps thousands—of workers’ cultural organizations— Blue Blouse and other theatrical groups, sing- ing societies, orchestras, literary, art, sports, have about 600 cultural organizations in the ‘United States and Canada, " Address Pprrrrrererer rier tree eeeerer rere rss ee BtAte -reesccseee CY sreccccececcecssesses: -Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Station D. New York City. Age. Dolly. The origin of graft in the United States from the earliest days was shown in the ear- lier articles in this series. The use of gunmen by J. P. Morgan, the elder, in order to steal a railroad was exposed. Then the development of graft and gangsters in the A. F. of L. How Cermak Helped OW the Chicago chief of police used his in- vestigators to list the bawdy houses, new dope dens, gambling joints and speakeasies so the regular share of graft could be collected, was told in a special grand jury investigation that was started on January 19, 1931, Mrs. Shirly Kub, once a $300 a month “investigator” for Acting Police Commissioner Alcock and at an- other time an employee of the sanitary district a section of the city government) told how she collected graft. Another witness was a Miss Shaw, former sweetheart of Sergeant Jack Har- degen, who got Ris job as police sergeant be- Graft and Gangsters By HARRY GANNES cause he paid $5,000 to the gangster Jack Zuta. | His main duties were collection of graft di- rectly for Zuta, through the police department. The Disappearing Act. At first, the disclosures seemed so startling that a request was made for $50,000 to pay the grand jury investigation. Then the usual thing | happened. Mrs. Kub “disappeared.” Then Miss Shaw couldn’t be found. They were bringing in the names of leading city government officials who got the graft. The whole police depart- ment was involved. It was not only the Thomp- son administration that was being exposed but all the capitalist politicians in the City of Chi- cago. What happened to thts investigation which for a few days was bla:-ned on the front pages of the newspapers? It was killed. It, reached into the Civil Service Lepartment. The examination papers on which Sergeant Hardegen was supposed to have obtained his | promotion “disappeared.” Every time evidence was needed to prove the witnesses’ statements, the documents couldn't be found. Graft started in the house of prostitution and reached on up, ever higher. Cermak Comes In. What became of this grand jury investigation? The $50,000 had been promised. Here we see how all distinctions between capitalist parties disappear in the matter of protecting the ex- posure of graft and the connection of the en- tire capitalist city governments with the graft rings. The workers are told that the Big Boss of the Cook County Democratic Party, Anton Cermak is a bitter enemy of Big Bill Thompson. But they worked together like two fingers on the same hand when it came to the task of kill- ing the grand jury investigation. The money for the special grand jury comes from the Coun- ty Board. Antén Cermak headed the County Board, other democrats rule there, too. What did they do about the $50,000? They refused it, and that ended the tale of graft leading up to the high office of the Chicago Police Commis- sioner, protecting Thompson and all his cohorts. $12,000 Becomes $7,000,000. Anton Cermak became Mayor Thompson's successor on April 7, 1931, His action in quash- ing the grand jury investigation shows how closely his interests are tied up with the graft- ing police and the Al Capone gang. There will be no difficulty at all for Capone to transfer his ‘business to the Cermak outfit. Mayor Cermak, who has his own efficient gangster machine and will inherit all of those who supported Thomp- son. Besides, he is building a new Tammany in Chicago. Behind Cermak there have lined up the leading capitalists in Chicago, One of his sup- supporters is Melvin Traylor, president of the First National Bank. Traylor came out in favor of wage cuts for all workers prior to his backing Cermak for mayor. Traylor, of course, knows about Cermak quashing the grand jury investi- ‘ gation which threatened to expose connection between the police department and the gangsters. Another supporter of Cermak 1s the McCor- mick estate, which beside owning the Chicago ‘Tribune of Lingle fame, is the chief owner of the International Harvester Co., which laid off } SUBSCRIPTION RATES: © New York Ctly, Foreign: By mat! everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; e..epting Boroug' of Manhattan and Bronx one year, $8- six months. $4.50, By BURCK unions before, during and after the war was taken up. The previous article dealt with Al Capone’s connections with the city govern- ment and the exposures of the Zuta poison box. Thompson Hide Graft 7,000 of its 19,000 men in 1930 and uses polite to smash meetings of the Communist Party in front of the shop gates. Cermak knows how to coin money from his political jobs. Although he never held a job paying more than $12,000 a year his friends ad- mit that “Tony” Cermak is worth over $7,000,000. They Flock to Him. Cermak had a sizeable gangster machine be- fore he became mayor. Now all the gunmen and grafters who were on the Thompson bandwagon are quickly going over to Cermak’s camp. Cer- | mak is building an efficient grafting machine equivalent to Tammany Hall, and in many re- spects even worse. Mauritz A. Hallgren writing on the Cermak regime in Chicago in an article in the Nation (April 22, 1931) entitled “Chicago Goes Tammany,” says of the gangster drift to Cermak: “I have heard in the last few days from the lips of more than one speakeasy proprietor and more than one Capone henchman that far from fearing anything in the way of a genuine Cermak offensive against the gangsters, these men actually supported Cermak on election day in the belief that he is helpless to move against them.” The Communist Party was ruled off the bal- lot for the 1931 mayoralty elections in Chicago. This was done by agreement between the Thompson clique and the Cermak group. Otto Wangerin, Communist candidate for mayor of Chicago, in an article in the Daily Worker ex- posed the gangster connections of Cermak. He showed how all the A. F. of L. union gangsters who had not lined up with Thompson supported the demagogy of Cermak. “Among other things,” Wangerin wrote, “Cer- mak has organized a ‘Labor Union Club’ con- sisting of about 75 of the most notorious scab officials and racketeer gangsters in the Chicago Federation of Labor, among whom are Martin Durkin, vice president of the Chicago Building Trades, William Tabor of the street car men’s union (thus showing that Cermak is making a bid for the support of Sam Insull), James D. Ryan, secretary of the Sheet Metal Workers. Of course, all this shows the unity of the big bankers with the fascist officials of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor who have but one pur- pose, and that is to carry the bosses’ program of more attacks on the living standards of the workers,”” “Don’t Dare Talk About Yet.” On January 18, 1931, detectives raided the Rex Hotel in Chicago and found two safes full of records linking police politicians and capitalist officials with crime, which even the callous Chicago grafters called “astounding.” These records were never made public because, like the Rothstein documents.and the Zuta poison box they named capitalist politicians, bankers and rich exploiters who control the government. and who have enough power to destroy any such evidence. However, we get a good inkling of what was in these two safes by the following description from the New York Times on Jan- uary 19, 1931: “These records cast a shadow of suspicion into every branch of government 1n Cook County and even into the halls of Congress. They showed illicit dealings between Capone gangsters and policemen, politicians and public officials in- cluding what they described as ‘names we don't even dare talk about yet.’” The names they “don't even dare talk about” are the exploiters who wring profits out of the workers, cut wages and yelp fo» war against the Soviet Union. | I read in the first cflumn, the following: oul Something More Than Discipline “Comrade Jorge:—It seems to me that some- _ thing ought to be done to enforce discipline in the Red Builders’ Club in New York. They are doing good work; but there has been a lot of dissension between members over the possession of choice selling corners on 14th St. “More than once I have seen Daily Worker salesmen squabbling over the question as to who should sell the Daily Worker or Freiheit in front of the Crusader restaurant, The other day a squabble of this nature occurred about 5 p. m, at that place. The sidewalks were packed with workers. I heard the argument way cross the street, A big crowd stopped to watch them argue it out. @ “Of course you know the bad publicity that the Daily Worker gets out of such fights. Isn't it possible to rotate, one week to one or two, the next week to others and so on. That's the choicest location in town for Daily Worker sales, so no one should monopolize it.” Perhaps the rotation-of-crops idea might help. But there is something more needed than dis- cipline. And that is comrades who sell the Daily from Communist conviction in a desire to win other workers for Communism. The choice spot mentioned may be good to sell at, but we doubt that anybody is won for more than three cents there. And we respect those who take the Daily out where there are workers who neyer saw it before, in front of big factories and so on. out of revolutionary recog@ition of the need for reaching work : Selling the Daily is more than just a bi and if there is no other motive than a bu: motive, one might just as well sell neck tangerines. om ewer aie A 26 per cent Liar “Dear Jorge:—You are the only one to whom. I can appeal in my plight. Either my arith- metic is gone on the blink else Knickorbocker of the N. Y. Pest mixed up his lies while strive ing for another Pulitzer prize. “In his article in the May 28 issue of the Post, ‘the Soviet Union’s share in all Nether- lands imports rose from .37 per cent in 1929 to nearly 4 per cent in 1931 ‘(for the March quarter).’ “In the 6th column of the same article. Knick- erbocker, apparently forgetting what he wrete in the first column, or perhaps thinking that the. level of intelligence of Post readers is so low that they will swallow everything, goes on to spread the scare thus: “What really large place the Soviet haye won recently in the Dutch market can be: be judged by the fact that in the period under consideration Russia contributed more than 2)3 (66%) of all the wheat Holland imported. 937% of all rye, 75° of all oats, 64% of all lumber, 99% of all pulpwood. 94-7, of all manganese and so on down a long list of products. including] 40 of the more important Dutch imports, o! which on an average Holland took from the Soviet Union more than 30 per cent of her total requirements from abroad.” How come that four per cent turned into thir- ty per cent between the first and the sixth col- umn? Such, we gather, is what the comrade wants to know. Well, you see that a “Four Per Cent Menace” is, not much of a menace. But the demands of the N. Y. Post (which admits in the same issue the charge of a worker—“That in America you, the editors of the Post. are ready to take the leadership in the anti-Soviet campaigns”) is for something more than a Four Per Cent Menace. So, like an obedient prostitute, Knickerbocker, had to multiply the percentage in order to mul- tiply the menace. So he took such things as lumber (and whi in hades would expect Holland to raise any luin-} ber or to use a great deal, either!) and “points with alarm” to that “64% of all lumber,” an so on. Then, making “an average” of five such commodities named, adding in thirty-five whic! he don’t name, he simply asserts without offer: ing any proof, that this “average” is “more thar 30 per cent” of the imports. More, he distorts the truth into a lie by say ing that this supposed 30 per cent includes “th more important imports”’—when the fact alread) mentioned by him clearly proves that they ar positively not the “important” important, or ho’ could they “rise” to “nearly four per cent” o! the total and no further than four per cent? This same four per cent also contradicts thi “30% of her total requirements from abroad, the “total requirements” here being used deliber. ately by Knickerbocker to multiply the four pe cent “menace” to thirty per cent. When caugh| in this lie, he will say that “Of course. I meant the total requirements of the wheat. lumber, etc.” But the distortion was clearly done deliberately to deceive, to create a “menace” that don’t exist Incidentally, besides the Pulitzer prize, suc’ lies about Holland will, without doubt. recei: a private “honorarium” from Sir Henri Deter ing, the Dutch oil imperialist who has finan’ many such a liar. es a area y A New Member’s Impression Dear Comrades: I am a newly joined member of the Youn: Communist League. On coming into the Leagu I had the impression that it was a well discip: lined group. That is, I thought everyone cam down on time, that there were no foolish rea sons given for being excused from duty and that; orders were obeyed, etc. ‘ I found things quite the opposite, however. When duty was scheduled for 8 p. m. it came off at 830. This gives a bad impression to new member. Besides this, it leaves us ver little time to work and make the comrade: rather indifferent to the work after a white. Just the night when we need the most com rades, about three show up. Jowing come from an old member. asked to come down and picket at a certail strike. After giving his reasons for not comil down and having to look for a job, he was told that he must come down, To which he replied he was not coming down, It was generally known that, he never looked for a job earlier than 7.30 a. m. and the picket line only required his presence till that time and as his duty left him in the factory section, it really made no difference, to him, A group cannot function properly with such Jack of discipline, : 5. J, SIG ee SS See ea ee ae ee thee eee 7 ay Fees a