The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 10, 1931, Page 4

* published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., dally except Suwday, at 50 Ea 18th Street, New York City. N. Y. Telephone Algonquin 7954-7. Cable: “DAIWORK, Address and mail al] checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th Street. New York, N. ¥, By mail everywhere: Gne year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; eZcepting Boroughs ~ -- tll, SOBSCRIPTION RATER? > - a aed f of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy., Foreign: one year, $8+ six months, $4.50, | Be, a , Dail ‘Central Full Report of Com. Litvinov’s Speech in the European Commission | IRST of all I wish to express my thanks to the President of the Commission for the welcome he has extended to the new members. The fact that I am present here willl undoubt- edly pease the geographers of the world, for my presence is a confirmation of the hypo- thesis which they have formulated concerning the connection of Russia with Europe, a hypo- thesis which is also confirmed by the decision of the European Conference-Commission. The position which I take up here is a little out of the ordinary, if only as a result of the fact that the country which I represent is very far from experiencing a crisis. On the con- trary, it is experiencing a development unex- ampled in its economic history. The World Crisis and the Soviet Union. This, however, does not mean that we are not interested in the world crisis, or that this crisis does not affect the interests of the Soviet Union. At the moment the Soviet Union maintains economic relations with the great majority of the European and non- European States, so that the economic dis- turbances in these countries cannot be a mat- ter of indifference to us. The price vacilla- tions offer an example of how the crisis af- fects us. The carrying out of the great plan for the speedy industrialization of the Soviet Union demands, and will continue to demand from year to year, the import of industrial goods from other countries. In order to be able to pay fo these imports my government must occupy itself with the export of raw ma- terials practically to the exclusion of other ex- ports. The drop in the price of raw materials during the last few yeas, plus the fact that the prices of finished goods have remained stable, has had damaging results for the eco- nomic life of the Soviet Union. Thus the con- nection between the world economic crisis and the interests of the Soviet Union can be easily appreciated. Indirectly the interests of the Soviet Union are damaged in consequence of the various plans which have been forged against the So- viet Union, and in some cases actually put into action by certain States. These States are striving without much success to extri- cate themselves from the crisis at the expense of the Soviet Union, or to take advantage of the crisis. And finally, and this is not an unimportant point, the relations set up between the Soviet Union and the other European States must inevitably have an effect on the development Delivered at the Session Held on May 18, 1931 of the economic crisis. I think I have said enough to show you what interest we have in a study of the prob- lems raised by the world economic crisis in the sessions of this Commission. The Cause of the Crisis. I do not know whether any of my colleagues in this Commission are in a position to offer us any effective cure for the abolition of the crisis through which the world is at present passing. For my part, I do not believe that there can be any such cure. In any case, please do not expect any such proposal from a representative of the Soviet Union. The whole world knows that in our opinion the economic crises of over-production have their roots in the capitalist system itself; they are closely bound up with the capitalist sys- tem, and they are based on the conflict of in- terests which is peculiar to the capitalist sys- tem. In consequence they appear at more or less regular intervals. No one now denies, that the present crisis is the worst that the capitalist system has ever experienced. This time we are faced with an industrial crisis which is indissolubly con- nected, and not fortuitously, with an agricul- tural crisis. The mutual influences of these crises lead inevitably to an intensification and protraction of the crisis as a whole. The intensity of the crisis is aggravated by the policy of those organizations which have a monopolist position and are aiming to main- tain high prices on the home markets of their various countries. No one can deny that this policy considerably hinders the disposal of warehoused supplies and places almost insu- perable hindrances in the way of the purchas- ers of such commodities, and thus protracts the economic crisis. It is generally admitted that the intensity of the present crisis, particularly in the Euro- pean economic system, is to a large extent caused by the special conditions which have resulted from the world war; that its causes lie in the disorganization of the world eco- nomic system during the war; that they were perpetuated in the system of treaties which followed on the conclusion of the war, in the indebtedness of the nations to each other as a result of the war, and in the system of mili- tary alliances, etc., which was continued: after the war. In my opinion therefore, this Com- contributory causes which have intensified the crisis, and must see what can be done to ex- clude these factors in order to prevent any further intensification of the crisis, or at least, what can be done to ameliorate the un- fortunate results of these factors. The factors which I have mentioned must be sought for both in politics and economics. They are deeply rooted in the general policy pursued during the world war and after its conclusion. I will deal with these factors briefly. In my opinion it is hardly necessary to pay any special attention, to the close connection between the increase of the burden of taxa- tion and the crisis itself, as this connection is self-evident. It is clear that the increase of taxation is chiefly due to the obstinate per- sistence of militarism and the consequent con- tinual increase of armaments. Despite the Locarno Pact, the Kellogg Pact and various other Pacts, on which pacifist circles set such great hopes, there is absolutely no sign that the growth of armaments is coming to a stop or even slowing down. The work of the Pre- paratory Disarmament Commission offers lit- tle hope for an improvement in this connec- tion. The policy of the formation of new military blocks is changing the face of the world. Great armies prepared at a moment’s notice to plunge into bloody conflicts, and the existence of these military blocks of course sharpen the armament competition. Every country is compelled to be on the watch not only against this or that other country, but against already existing groups of States, or groups in pro- cess of formation. ‘Apars from the political differences which exist between the capitalist States, it can be observed that the economic differences are sharpening. This is expressed in the growth of protectionism. This intensified economic struggle, of course, also affects unfaverably the post-war economic system of Europe. In this connection it is interesting to note that the national frontiers have been extended since the war by 20,000 kilometres, or almost 30 per cent, Further, we must not conceal from ourselves the fact that another consequence of the war, namely the special burdens which havé been placed on certain States either in the form of considerably to the intensification of the crisis. The result is that large sections of the population observe their purchasing power dwindling, and this results again in making it impossible to dispose of a part of the goods produced. Another factor is the unfavorable distribution of the gold reserves throughout the world. Gold reseves are lying unused in the safes of certain countries, whilst other countries are suffering from gold shortage. Special attention must also be paid to the danger which results from the reduction of the purchasing power of great masses of the population both in town and country. These factors are in their turn closely con- nected with the unemployment problem, which is acute everywhere to an unexampled degree; they are closely connected with the system- atic reduction of wages, with the increase of the working day for those still in employ- ment, with the reduction of benefits under the various social insurance schemes, and with the simultaneous increase of the burden of taxa- tion which weighs with particular severity on the shoulders of the working masses. All these factors combine to create an at- mosphere of political uncertainty not only in Europe, but in the whole world, to create a fear of some terrible catastrophe. This at- mosphere affects the credit policy of the banks and prevents the utilization of capital for the purposes of constructive work, and this in its turn again intensifies the crisi And in th situation the feeling of uncertainty and lz of confidence which exists in Europe is being artificially aggravated by the various anti- Soviet campaigns which aim at proving the ssity of a militar tack on the part of the capitalist States against the Soviet Union. The plans for this attack and the conditions under which it is to take place are the sub- ject of open discussion in the press and at public meetings. The originators of these cam- paigns wish to exploit the world economic crisis for the furtherance of their aims. Those capitalist circles which are particularly inter- ested in concealing the real causes of the crisis from the masses of the people, show great zeal in putting on a false scent those who are studying the causes of the crisis, and persuading them that the only cause of the present crisis is the existence of the Soviet Upion. By JORGE Beis Broken Loose Again Donald Day. the Chicago Tribune's (and U, S. State Department's) anti-Soviet liar at Riga has. broken loose again. “Fifty Bread Rioters Reported Killed by Po- lice in Moscow” runs the headline, and the story goes on to add the horrible details: “Machine guns spraying death into crowds in the streets,” etc, These details are supposed to be told by “two American engineers” who “arrived at Riga from Moscow” on June 7. Which reminds us of the same kind of yarns sent out last November 28 from a certain “Brite ish engineer just returned from Moscow.” His name was, very aptly, Woodhead. Woodhead gave all the awful details. He said that on Nov. 11, he had seen a battle in the middle of Moscow: “Soon after the firing had ceased I saw several hundred men laid out by the OGPU. It was commonly stated that over a thousand men perished in the affair.” ‘the next day, added this Woodhead liar, he was in a village near Moscow where he personally Saw peasants massacred by the Red Army. We forgot to say that in the Moscow “battle” it was the Red Army which was being mas- sacred by the OGPU. Anyhow, in the village there were 400 or 500 killed—“Judging from the number of bodies I saw lying about.” “But the only “lying about” done was by Wood- haed, who was not in the Soviet Union at all after May 8 last year. So he, was “lying about” the Soviet Union. ot Folks who wonder why all these anti-Soviet lies burst forth in full bloom should realize that the more hunger marches and unemployed dem- onstrations there are in America, the more American capitalism feels it necessary to attract attention to imaginary “rebellions” in the So- viet Union. Machine guns are being used against the worke ers, but in Pennsylvania in the mine strike, | “Mounted police are charging the crowds.” But in Youngstown, Ohio—not in Moscow. Please keep this in your hat and come back at some of those “liberal” snobs who are always gabbing about the Communist papers “exagger- ating.” oer Just Want Tillie, That’s All A “Young Worker of Chi.” writes us, exhibit- ing some inner anguish, because, although he likes to hear a certain “young working girl speaker,” whom he identifies as “I believe her name is Tillie,” strange things seem to happen to speakers of the so-called “Socialist Labor Party” and others when Tillie shows up on the horizon. The people, or workers many of them, told the speaker of the S.L-P. to get off the box and pushed this girl forward, yelling for her to speak. Do you think that this is correct of the Young Communists to do this? Do you think that they should instruct this girl to stay away?” ‘Then, perhaps, unwitting, he goes ahead to , mission must pay particular attention to these FROM EDITOR TO READER reparations or inter-allied debts, contributes Party Life Conducted by the Ors. Dept. Central Com- mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A, (To Be Continued.) answer himself: “Tt is true that whenever she speaks, there is a big crowd that supports her because shs | speaks for the Communists.” So it deosn't look like any special action of a few Young Communists taken against the will of the majority of the workers, after all, jy { which case we might have some reason for' Graft and Gangsters By HARRY GANNES ‘ How to Begin at the Bottom IN our last message to you, the reader, we told you about the Daily Worker Clubs that are being formed in most if not all big towns. The Daily. Worker reaches 1,800 towns! -Some 36,000 people read the Daily Worker, just as you are doing this minute! In the big towns where there is an agent of the Daily, he or she is supposed to call you to- gether for a mixed social and business affair, and organize a Daily Worker Club. ‘You don’t have to attend, but you'll miss some- thing if you don’t get to these reuntons of the Daily Worker Family, No tiresome formality about them (if they’re run right—and it’s your club to run as you see fit!), no dues, no terriky- ing “discipline” beyond that which you decide upon to get through on time and ship-shape, no “constitution and by-laws” but your own com- mon sense, no paid “officials” and only a secre- tary and a committee to keep track of things and arrange affairs you yourselves decide upon. Wouldn’t you like to mix up with the whole gang of Daily Worker readers in your town, to have some entertainment (Maybe a ham sand- wich, too), to discuss the Daily Worker—and even cuss it? Your secretary is supposed to write it all down, criticisms and suggestions, and send it in to the Daily Worker editors. Then we'll know what you like and don’t like! Every day. Suppose you are one of the thousands who get the Daily but never see that chap called the Daily Worker Agent? Don't know anything about | him. All right, why not start something your- self, Maybe in your shop there are workers who you can interest in reading some particular arti- cle in the Daily, Get them around you at noon hour and read it to them, or get one of them who is a “good reader” to do it. See what they think of it; of the whole paper if possible. Try it again, and see if you won't find a number getting the habit! They'll. be looking for it. Get them to- gether sometime and write down what they like and don't like about the Daily. Send it to us. We'll answer them. By that time, when you get our letter to read to them, they'll be pretty interested. They'll be- gin to recognize that the Daily Worker really respects the opinion of the workers; that it is their paper, the paper of the whole working class. They will be willing to form a little group to boost the Daily Worker, to pick out a Worker Correspondent to write up what’s going on in their shop. They'll be ready to chip in their dimes and dollars to help their Daily Worker when it needs it. They will be one of the many groups which, in the whole town, can be called in for a big social affair and set up a Daily Worker Club, ‘Try it! SEC. 5 OF DIST. 2 CHALLENGES THE CHICAGO DIST. IN DAILY WORKER DRIVE By de . : head weeks of the Daily Worker Drive are over and our best agitator, propagandist and organizer still faces the danger of suspension for lack of funds, This is a serious warning to all the workers of this country, who must under- stand the importance of the Daily Worker. ‘The main reason for this situation is that the Party as a whole has not understood the imme- diate acuteness of the situation and has not acted accordingly. Challenge Chicago. The Section Committee of Section 5, District 2, (New York) of the Communist Party, realizing the situation, is making strenuous efforts not enly to raise its quota of $3,000, but more. The Section Committee is confident that the mem- bers of the Section do understand their tasks in connection with keeping the Daily Worker alive and bring the message of organization and struggle to the tens of thousands of workers, This is the reason why we challenge District 8 (Chicago) and say that we will raise more finan- cial support for our Daily during the drive than the whole of the Chicago District. Raised $1,250 in Two Weeks. In the first two weeks of the campaign we Taised $1,250 (more than the whole Chicago Dis- trict) and we hardly got down to business. We must say that some of the comrades did splendid Work, but we also must say that some comrades, those making comparatively good wages, are not doing their utmost to insure the publication of the Daily Worker. Our units are in revolutionary competition with one another and from all indications, we will come out victorious in this competition for the benefit of the Daily Worker. Workers! Join the Party of Your r Class! Communist Party 0. 8. A P. O. Box 87 Station D. New York City. ‘ Please send me more information on the Com- munist Party. Name .....ses00 City .. seeecces BUA cicesceeeee OCCUPATION ....sseeeeeecercessescess ABO ceeeee -Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, P. O. Box 87 Station D, New York City. Organize Your Open-Air Meetings | HE following directives, issued by the Agit- prop Department of District 8 to the section and unit Agitprop Directors, show that the com- rade who drew them up had in mind certain phases of this work which need stressing. He stresses the need of quality rather than of quan- tity. He does not overlook the opportunity for developing speakérs through participation in this work, and déveloping them in the proper way, by starting them off with the less respon- sible work first, and gradually working them in as speakers. He stresses the mass character of the duty of thé comrades who are mobilized to support an open-air meeting, the getting of contacts, mingling with the workers—getting or- ganizational results—smashing the conception that comrades come down merely to make the crowd look big. And above all he stresses the need for careful preparation. Here are the directives: A Few Points On Open Air Meetings. 1, Select the best location and time for your open-air meeting and stick to it. The number of meetings to be determined by the speakers and committees available. Better less meet- ings, but better ones, 2. Register all your speakers and assign them to speak at least once a week at open-air meet- ings. Don’t only select your first raters. These meetings can servé as school for speakers, pro- vided you draw them in first as chairmen, and discuss with them their speeches, besides speak- ers’ conférences on a section scale if possible. The speakers are assignéd by the Section Agit- prop Department. 3. It is a misconception that all you need is a chairman, speaker and one or two comrades to sell literature. The bigger the committee, the better. As many comrades as possible must be mobilized not to listen to what the speaker has to say, but to mingle with the workers, to make connectioms with them, to sell literature, etc. This must be stressed because the speaker cannot sell literature or get members for the Party. The success of the meetings to be gauged not by the attendance only, but primarily by or- ganizational -results. 4. Speeches at open-air meetings in general are terrible. The comrades get up there with- out any preparation, without knowing about the logical conditions, coming out with the same old generalities, and then we wonder why the work- ers are “not sufficiently radicalized.” All speakers must be prepared. In case there are several at a meeting, the topics should be divided. We must give every week something new to the workers. Do not rely only on the speakers’ outlines and confetences. Reading of the Daily Worker and even of the capitalist press gives ample material. Likewise find out about the conditions in the territory and link these up with the general points raised. We have to popularize these open-air meet- ings, and it is a good idea not only to write about the open-air meeting in the various leaf- lets issued by the units, but to issue properly distributed special leaflets for this meeting, ie Ford and General Motors in the Graft Scheme Previous articles dealt with graft and gun- men in Chicago and New York. They traced the origin of gangsterism and boodle along with American capitalism—in the A. F. of L, bureaucracy, the leading industries, in the capitalist government. ad ates ETROIT is a clearing house for bootleggers who smuggle booze over the Canadian border. It is a rich source of graft as well as from the vice dens. The big automobile plants, particu- larly Ford and General Motors, contribute their share of graft and receive good service from the government and gangsters of Detroit. Most of the Ford workers live in Detroit, but Ford has his factories located in suburbs near Detroit so he will’ not have to pay taxes to the city of Detroit. In these towns, such as Fordson, River Rouge, Dearborn, etc., Ford rules the town gov- ernments. He has an army of private police at his plants who on more than one occasion have murdered workers and were given the thanks of the Ford officials. Ford, though he avoids paying taxes to the city of Detroit, makes heavy contributions in other ways, as to the campaign funds of the city politicians, and in outright graft cleverly covered up. From K.K.K. to Socialists ‘The growth of Detroit is similar to that of Chicago and the development of graft for a while outstripped that of Chicago. Yet in De- troit we have the interesting spectacle of a united front, reaching from Ford. through the American Legion, into gangland, and directly into the socialist party. < This process has an interesting history. In November, 1929, Mayor Charles Bowles was elect- ed to office. Bowles was supported by the Ku Klux Klan, the real estate operators and the Bangsters of Detroit. Ford contributed his share to the Bowles’ election fund and got plenty of Protection against the workers from Bowles. Graft, crime and vice had always been a source of income for politicians long before Bowles came on the job. But Bowles made up his mind to organize it into a system so that the greatest share would flop right nito his Pockets. Instead of permitting the 15 police precincts to “clean up” vice—that is, to list the speakearies, bawdy houses, and collect the graft —he organized a central vice squad, under the direction of Police Commissioner Emmons, a Ford man, so that tHe main booty would come into the mayor's office, Police Commissioner Emmons, who had a “respectable” front, objected when Bowles in- troduced James D. Witte, head of the slot ma- chine gambling business in Detroit, to the chief of police so that they could do business on a better basis. Emmons finally resigned and an experienced gunman by the name of Wilcox was given the job. Mayor Bowles did all his graft- ing on a big scale. Frederic L. Smith, writing in the Outlook, in an article entitled “Detroit Apes Chicago” telis of some of Bowles’ heavy grafting. Bowles appointed John Gillespie as Commissioner of Public Works. “Curiously Enough” “Curiously enough,” wrote Smith, “Mr. Gil- lespie's private interest coincided closely with the position to which Mayor Bowles had appointed him. Gillespie represented, for example, a cer- tain bond company which accommodated the majority of contractors engaged in construction work for the Department of Public Works of which he was the head. Mr. Gillespie was like- wise financially interested in the Detroit Reduc- tion Company which held a $400,000 contract from the city for the disposal of garbage and waste.” From this connection with Bowles, Gillespie raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions—and Bowles got his share. Gambling, which was run on the quiet before, flourished openly. Right from Mayor Bowles’ office you could see one of the largest gambling houses in the city. Murders became more fre- quent. Crooks from smaller towns flocked in to help Bowles along. In the struggle for the vice proceeds many shootings resulted. Within eleven days ten gang murders occurred. Chief Commissioner Wilcox thought it was a good thing. He knew the killings were ordered from the higher ups to insure the smooth flow of graft to the big officials and capitalists. “So long as they confine their shootings to their own kind,” ,he said, “there will be no police drive or any increase in the squad assigned to such cases." Of course, the police squad to terrorize militant workers and Communists was increased, Sharper Graft Struggle During Bowles’ reign, the economic crisis came on with tremendous force. Tens of thousands of workers were thrown out of work in the auto- mobile plants. Huge unemployment demonstra- \tions took place. More than 100,000 took part in the March 6 unemployment action. The police beat up and attacked the unemployed. In this period, the struggle for graft became sharper. Because of the disintegration of the Bowles regime. the big automobile cepHalists engineered the end of the Bowles administra- tion. They did not mind Bowles’ grafting, but they required more efficient methods and greater attacks against the workers, On June 2u, for the first time in the history of any large Amer- ican city, a recall referendum was voted, which meant that new elections were to be held, in which Bowles would be a candidate. Henry Ford, at first, was against Bowles’ recall. He got good service from this grafter. He circu- Jated a petition urging his workers te vote against the recall. When Bowles was finally recalled, however, Ford supported Mayor Mur- phy who succeeded the deposed Mayor, In the election which followed, Raymond, an auto worker was the candidate for the Commu- nist Party. : bets (To Be Continued) RN. correcting a wrong tendency. It seems that the majority of the workers just like Tillie, and they like Tillie because they like Communists, and don’t like demagogs and counter-revolutionista who call themsleves “socialists.” We, Red Sparks, was (or were) tried for | “sedition” during the last war, and for weeks during the long trial, saw sitting before us a representative of the so-called “socialist La- bor Party.” the correspondent for their paper, and that scoundrel continually kept helping the prosecutor to send us workers to prison, furnishing documents and making suggestions. So the “Young Worker of Chi.” has come to the wrong address for any sympathy for the 8. L. P. Further, if he is looking for some noble ab- straction of “liberty” and “justice—to all,” he fails to see the real need of making some sharp class distinction. We point out the hypocrisy of capitalist “liberty” because it only pretends to be “for all” and is, in practice, limited to capi- talists and those who (like the S.L.P.) help the capitalists against the working class—hence against the Communists, We believe in working class democracy, in letting the majority of the workers determine who shall speak and what they shall do, because this will aid our class struggle. We have faith in the workers, not individual workers, but the class. Those of any minority whose wishes are against the decision of the majority, have no kick coming—yet, in the name. of an empty “democracy” they would violate real democracy of their class. They actually show they have no faith in thet class, a lack of faith which comes from bour- geois teaching, like Hoover's “rigged individual- ism” bunk, a philosophy which died with handi- craft production but hasn’t been properly buried and so pollutes the air. Thus, if the majority of the crowd of workers want to hear Tillie, it’s just too bad about the S.L.P. being found out for what it is( a capitalist party in disgusie, All Mixed Oop Just as we were getting excited about the tidal wave of Soviet goods that was flooding the Knickerbocker world as a result of the Five- Year Plan, along comes Trotsky and says that the Five-Year Plan is a “failure” and that there” is no socialism in the Soviet Union. It was sort of upsetting to hear the wails of anguish because the U. S. Army is using So= viet matches instead of the matches which are supposedly “American.” but are really manu- factured by the Swedish Match Monopoly. But if the patriots worry over that, tell them to let the soldier boys look inside of their U. S. Army shoes, where it says in plain English: “Made by Prison Labor.” By the way, the N. Y. State Federation of Labor, according to the “Trade Union News” of Philadelphia is “operating with” the N. Y. State prisons and contractors handling prison-made goods, “finding markets” for such goods, and so on, ‘Tell that to the A. F. of L. rank and filer who thinks that his officials are againss prison-made goods on mee EN)