The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 15, 1931, Page 4

. j (Cuban sugar barons (that is, Wall Street ) Puplishea by the 18th 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 ° prodaily Publishing Co., Inc., dally except Sun day, at 50 Bast ‘Daily, Worker: C SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months $3; two months, $1 ot Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctiy. Foreian: one year, eacepting Borouzhe $8+ six months. $4.50. 0 ee Continue the Social Insurance Campaign By GERTRUDE HAESSLER. UR fight with the signatu ance not ‘over of the bill with the at particular phase the campaign itself is social is tech’ must be cor forms. To do this, | however, ave some concrete base to work on—mere agitation in general in the press | does e social insurance a tangible issue to the work ‘We have such a concrete base in the initia- tive and re ndum laws of certain of the counties and municipalities of this coun- state social insurance laws, 's for presenting a proposed rance bill to the legislature under the law, is a very real for initiatiy d referendum and very practical method of keeping the issue before the workers, and increasing the momen- tum of our social insurance campaign, rather than allowing it to fritter away. There initiative and referendum laws in | nineteen of our states, which, between them, cover part of the area of the majority of our districts. The purpose of these signature drives is pri- marily to place the issue of social insurance squarely before the workers. Success in ob- taining enough signatures would be a great achievement, but the consciousness that suc- cess may be only a dim probability, should not deter us from starting the campaign. The re- sults of our national campaign are sufficiently clear to the membership to convince them that the campaign itself is worth all the energy put into it. In connettion with state initiative laws there rre sometimes almost insurmountable technical difficulties. But we have them, too, in con- nection with getting our candidates on the bal- lot in elections. These difficulties should serve as an added impetus to mobilize the workers for our campaign, firstly in order to involve them {| in our efforts to combat these difficulties, and secondly, in order to expose to the workers how “democratic” our government is. In Ohio, for instance, signatures for a pro- posed law cannot be filed until some time in 1932. The campaign is therefore being organ- ized immediately with two purposes—firstly to collect signatures, and secondly, to expose to the workers how futile a law is which cannot deal with an emergency situation like unem- ployment without the delay of over a year. In Massachusetts the technicalities of the law are such that even after the greatest efforts are made and the required number of signatures are collected (and here we must get a certain number in each Congressional District, and not merely a. required number in the state as a whole), it is still within the judgment of cer- tain officials whether the bill is in line with | public policy and whether it can even be pre- sented to the voters. for our campaign are enhanced rather than blocked by these difficulties. Here we must ini- tiate action on a concrete issue of vital signi- ficance for the workers in Congressional Dis- tricts that, we have probably never penetrated with our campaigns. Here we can, in the course of this campaign, expose the so-called demo- cracy of a so-called liberal state. The initiative and referendum laws in New Mexico and Utah have never been used be- cause of difficult requirements for the petitions. Here is a good chance to be the'first to expose these cumbersome laws which so clearly show Graft and Here the opportunities | By HARRY GANNES up what democracy in action means to the | workers. Some of the districts are already active in | other signature campaigns. California, for in- } stance, is collecting signatures for the repeal of the criminal syndicalism law. This should | not conflict in any way with the social insur- | ance campaign, but rather, the two campaigns | can complement one another, and two of our | issues can be placed before the workers at the same time. States in which signatures for placing our candidates on the ballot in muni- cipal or state elections are already under way, (Ohio, for instance), can combine these cam- paigns also. A worker can be asked to sign for our candidate, and then it would be an easy matter to ask him to endorse one of the issues in the campaign which is very vital to him, by giving his signature to our social insurance bill petition tiative campaign for the repeal of the Jim Crow Law. A splendid opportunity for com- bining our Negro work with our general un- employment and social insurance campaign by carrying on collections of signatures for both purpses simultaneously! ‘These state campaigns require the close co- | operation, in many cases, of two or even three | districts. For instance, District 9 has already | written in that it is ready to start the cam- | | paign in upper Michigan as soon as contact with Detroit can be established for a joint campaign. District 9 writes as follows. ve feel that a movement for a state social insurance law will get the widest support in the upper peninsula, copper and iron mining territory, as well as the farming regions. We will fall in it are taken.” The Districts involved in this campaign on a state scale are the following: Dist. States Involved. 1, Maine and Massachusetts. 3. Maryland. 6. Ohio. . Michigan. 8. Missour: ; 9% Michigan. | 10. Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma. | 11. North Dakota, South Dakota. | 12.. Oregon. | 13. Arizona, California, Nevada. 15. Massachusetts. 18, Idaho, Montana. 19. New Mexico, Utah. Some cities and some counties also have ini- tiative and referendum laws. The city of Den- ver, for instance, has one, and the local com- rades launched their campaign several months ago. Local comrades everywhere must make inquiries whether such laws exist in their cities and counties, and immediately inform the Dis- trict so that preparations can be made for the signature campaign on a municipal and county | scale. | Here we have an opportunity for reaching | proletarian and farming elements we have never | reached before, on an issue they will readily | support. | _ Instructions have already been sent to the | District Organizers on the launching of the campaign. The Secretariat is now preparing the political instructions for the drawing up of the state bills. Here is the opportunity for | carrying forward our social insurance cam- paign. We can mobilize hundreds of thousands. Gangsters Graft in Washington After showing the origin of graft along with the development of capitalism in the United States, the previous articles in this series took up the situation in Chicago, New York, De- troit and Philadelphia. story of the graft in the federal gov- ernment, the central state power of the cap- italists in the United States. is a long one. In certain periods enough of the truth cropped out to show that graft reaches into every de- partment of the United States Government. It is not necessary to go back to the regime of Presideent Grant, when jobs were sold openly and when Grant permitted bankers to mulct the treasury of millions. Nor is it necessary to remember the war days under the Wilson re- gime, when the socalled dollar-a-year men filled their pockets out of government funds while they drove the workers to slaughter in France. the most glaring example, not because it is unusual. but because it was brought to light spectacularly through the mysterious death of the President, was the Harding regime, in which Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, was the leading figure. The much-talked of Teapot Dome scandal, when the Harding Ohio gang shelled out mil- lions in government oil lands to the Fall-Do- heney crowd, was just a small portion of the general grafting, which went on. ‘aston B. Means, now used as an anti-Red spy. in his book about the Harding regime in which he took a leading part says that nearly every cab- inet officer in the Harding government was a dauble-fisted grafter. President Hoover was Secretary of Commerce under Harding; Coolidge was vice-president, and both of them had the odor of the eTapot Dome oil scandal clinging to * them. Hoover Regime Graft Under the Hoover regime the director of pub- lic lands in Colorado charged the Secretary of the Interior Wilbur with turning over a large share of the government oil lands to the Stand- arg Oil Company. He wrote a series of articles in the New York World stating that oil lands valued at forty billion dollars were being given away by the Hoover government. For this in- formation he was discharged. Hoover was not above even petty aid to close friends in the grafting line. The foremost in- stance is the $75,000 earned by Hoover's per- sonal attorney, Edwin P. Shattuck. Shattuck was paid $75,000 graft because he was closely associated with Hoover and promised to use his Influence with Hoover to get lower tariff rates ‘on Cuban sugar for the Cuba Co. a §170,000,000 sugar corporation owning Cuban sugar lands, ‘the lower tariff from Hoover. My brought out in Senate hearings. The Gangsters and Washington governments, in the state capitalist political machines contribute liberally to the election of the presidents in the Republican and Democra- tic parties. Tammany Hall and large interests in Wall Street, were soilid behind Al Smith for president on the democratic ticket; Thompson, with all his gangsters, the Vare Machine in Philadephia, and Wall Street, were behind Hoover for president. The same gunmen who are employed for city elections are used to in- sure presidential votes. The line-up begins in the vice dens, as usual, and gces on up. It reaches into the national conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties. even though the “respectable” elements, directly representing the capitalists who supply the largest share of the campaign funds, guide the proceedings of nominating presidential candidates. The Capitalists “Investigate” themselves In all cities, when graft becomes so riotous that even the blind begin to see where it leads, a hue and cry for “investigation” arises. Fore- most among these crusaders for the purity of capitalism are the Socialists. In New York they want the courts “cleaned,” they want the work- ers to have more faith in capitalist judges. But there are more serious elements in the graft killing bands. . Chicago, of course, will serve as a typical ex- ample. There is the Chicago Crime Commis- sion, headed by Frank J. Loesch, who was also a member of Hoover’s Law Enforcement Com- mission. There is the Committee of Hight, and an endless list of capitalist organizations “to fight crime and graft.” Loesch started his crusade against Capone and other gangsters in 1919. Since then Capone has become a leading figure in the Chicago city government. ger scale, vice, gambling, murders, crimes in- crease. But Loesch’s real function is to cover up graft. This is how he hoes it. He tries to belittle the wholesale killings, the police con- nection with the gangsters. On January 27, 1931, he made a speech over the radio, He said: “Proportionately, Chicago has no more crime than any city of its class... Crime in Chicago is not unique... In less than a cen- tury of progress Chicago has developed from a settlement in a swamp to the second city of the Union; to the fourth city of the world. This rating is based on population alone. In many things... material, spiritual, educational, ar- tistic, industrial... it ranks unquestionably On March 23, 1931, a two-day conference was 4 by the State’s Attorney of Cook County, In Maryland the Party is launching an ini- | line with this drive as soon as the steps for | The gangsters in the city wards, in the city | Graft is organized on a big- ean WHITE’ GUARDIST STIMSON GOES TO EUROPE . . 4 By BURCK C. 1 Demands Public Exposure ot Spies and Traitors | Communication from the Inter national Control Commission To all Sections of the Communist International: During the last verification and cleansing of the ranks of the Communist Party of the So- viet Union it was discovered that in a number | of Sections of the Comintern there is an in- | correet attitude towards treachery. There have | even been cases where persons who have be- trayed comrades under examination and at trials, who have given away addresses, secret meeting places, etc., have been left in the Party. Eyen worse have been cases of withholding information of such treachery when transferring persons into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. There have even been cases of attempts to defend ex-traitors (Rumania). The International Control Commission calls attention to this impermissible matter. The Communist Party must establish a firm rule by which Party members who are discov- ered to have betrayed their comrades after ar- rest, have given away secret Party meeting places to the police, informed them of pass- words have connections with the police, etc., should be unquestionably expelled from the Party. All Party organizations must increase their fight against betrayals (not limiting themselves to expelling traitors from the Party, but also to prevent them from getting into workers’ or- ganizations, boycotting them, isolating them in | prisons from other political prisoners, etc.). It is the duty of the Communist Parties to inform the Communist International and the | corresponding Sections of the Comintern, to which the traitors have gone away from their | wn country, trying to hide from the judgment of the Party of the proletariat and to conceal their past. The names and nicknames of the provaca- teurs and traitors should be widely published, if there are not any reasons of a conspirative character against this. Simultaneously there must be Party penalties, to the point of expulsion from the Party, for all those members of the Party who directly or indirectly defend exposed provocateurs and traitors, or hide them from the Party. INTERNATIONAL CONTROL COMMISSION. peeve bree The Central Control Commission of the Com- munist Party of the United States, being in full agreement with the views of the International Control Commision, wishes to record that it has always recognized the nevessity of the public exposure of all spies and traitors, and has con- sistently carried out the policies and procedure which are now officially required by the Inter- national Control Commission. CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY, U.S.A. , the Daily Worker family is beginning to together. One of the first Daily Worker Clubs they have formed was born in Yonkers, N. Y., last Saturday. And it didn’t have much pre-birth attention either. In fact the circulars sent out to our readers there were a bit off; somebody who wrote them having not learned that the forma- tion of a Daily Worker Club of our readers and friends was the main business of the meeting. Once our readers are united and work to- gether for the paper in the Daily Worker Clubs, all other things will follow. But anyhow the Yonkers meeting was a pretty good example of what can be done in other places. ‘Thirty-three workers came, only two or three Communist Party members—a good proportion. ‘They had the help of the Worker International Relief who furnished them with entertainment in the line of a movie film. Daily Worker Club meetings should be made interesting, and our family can make ’em so. Of course, and—as it should be—the discus- sion on the Daily was the big part and best part of the meeting. We got a heap of suggestions and some good criticism, some not so good, but on the whole fine. This space is too limited to discuss them here, and they will be duplicated ming the rising tide of crime.” To this con- ference came the prosecuting attorneys of many cities. That State’s Attorney Swanson of Chi- cago should tell his fellow-prosecutors how to stem the “rising tide of crime” is indeed pre- sumptious. Swanson’s office is the clearing house for criminals of Chicago, Nearly every one of his assistants look forward to the day when he will become a lawyer for the crim- ‘jnals, using his knowledge of the State's Attor- ney’s office to help his clients commit murder, robbery, or any other crime. without ever see- ing the inside of a cell. Such conferences have been held before, and always in the same way. They are called to give the masses the belief that the capitalist authorities are attemptnig to do something about the growing army of gang- sters on whom the city authorities rely to a great extent to keep their power and collect, graft. However, some interesting sidelighis were brought out by some of the prosecuting attor- FROM EDITOR TO READER Our Yonkers, N. Y., Readers Get Together many other places no doubt. But they will be given consideration and we will answer these comrades direct. So our letter should be read at the next meeting of their club. Yonkers being near New York, {t had the ad- vantage of having a member of the Daily Work- er staff there, who correctly did not try to speechify the workers to death, but encouraged them to talk, to make suggestions and criticisms. ‘The present financial drive was not overlooked either ($10 was collected right there), though it properly took second place to organizing their club, which will remain as a permanent base of mass support. ‘The audience elected a Committee of five, only one a Party member. If they had wanted to, they could have made the Committee bigger or smaller. Let these clubs run things them- selves. O, yes, the committee was figured out on the basis of having a Chairman, and financial sec- retary, a recording secretary, a secretary to look after Worker Correspondence, and one to take care of circulation. If you do it differently in your burg, it’s O. K. with us. But get together and send us in your suggestions and criticisms of the paper—your own paper. neapolis said that the army of criminals in the United States (mainly tied up with the capi- talist political machines) numbers 500,000, and is increasing annually at the rate of 25 per cent. “In one year,” he declared, “9,000 men, women and children were murdered in this country and from this holocaust of lawlessness there re- sulted 4,500 arrests and only 750 convictions.” He said there were 325,000 men and women con- fined in 5,000 penal institutions in the country —of course, none of them are the real leaders of the gangsters or criminals. He said the number in American prisons (all of whom are forced to labor for the profits of private bosses) is “greater than the total sent to Siberia in the Czarist regime.” . On top of this seething sewer of graft, crime and murder the function of the capitalist re- former and investigator of crigne is to spread ‘a veneer of lies to fool the masses into believing that capitalism is advancing and is not really a monster. based on bloodshed and murder. . Party Life Conducted by the Org. Dept. Central Com- | mittee, Communist Party, U. S. A. Work in the Neighborhoods J. H. LAPIDUS (Sec. 6 New York) 1 WANT to tell a few experiences of how to make new readers for the Daily Worker and how to gain these readers for our Party organizationally. When I was transferred by the Section to Unit 4 as organizer. my first job | was to throughly investigate the Unit’ terri- tory. I found it to be a poor working class territory, many unemployed, a large minority of the population being Negro workers, all news- stands having no Daily Worker for sale, few workers being acquainted with our D. W. and much less with our Party and revolutionary trade unions, even though our headquarters is located a few blocks away from this territory. After discussing it at the Unit Buro, I gave a report on the situation of the workers in the Unit territory at the first meeting of the Unit, and concretized this report with the mobiliza- tion of the Unit membership in building a D.W. carrier route, considering the importance of our press as the first elementary training school for the average workers. An open resistance to the building of a car- rier’s route was quite evident. Comrades giv- ing excuses such as “it is impossible, workers here will not read our paper, we must wait yet”; some comrades stated that “it is a crazy idea.” However we convinced the comrades and a canvasing of the territory started. At the same time we, in the spirit, of revolutionary competi- tion, challenged another Unit in the Section that “Unit 4, will within 5 weeks built a car- rier’s route for the D.W. of 25 readers and gain 8 new members for the Party.” (this was to be achieved by May ist). Some of the comrades were skeptical about realizing such a quota. However with the willingness on the part of the comrades we canvased the territory and by May 1st we secured 27 deliveries for the Daily Worker and 8 new members into the Party. ‘When our Unit reached over 40 deliveries for the D.W. we were confronted with the problem, “what shall we do next?” “How can we bring them together and establish friendship?” The Unit Buro proposed to’ arrange a gathering for all the D.W. readers and their friends. A good committee was elected. A very good letter was printed and inserted in the Daily for two con- secutive days while it was being delivered. We spoke to a large number of them personally; on the evening of the affair comrades went into the house of the workers and brought them to the hall, the result being far beyond our ex- pectations. While arranging the affair we ex- pected to get about 50 to 60 workers to the affair, however we had 130 workers who came to our gathering, 60 of them being Negro workers which form the largest percentage of our Daily Worker readers. The Negro workers came with their wives and children and friends. The hall was jammed. We wanted to give these workers something to remember and we arranged to pes a news reel of the May 1st demonstration and one picture showing the advance of the workers in the Soviet Union. The workers liked it very much. We had a speaker from the Daily Worker staff who spoke and called upon the workers to give suggestions on how to im- prove the Daily and at the same time calling upon those present to write stories of shop con- ditoins, etc for the Daily, A number of sug- gestions were given by the workers which shows that they feel they are part of our movement. A speaker from the Section spoke and made an appeal to the Daily Worker readers to join the Party. Nine Negro workers joined, three of them being women workers. ‘We had mimeographed revolutionary songs and had them distributed among the workers who joined in singing revolutionary songs. The Unit succeeded in involving members the Wom- en's Council in its work. All this was accom- plished within a period of 7 weeks. When we deliver the paper we want them to read, We have discussion with them about their work- ing conditions, home conditions, and other things, In this way we ‘can surround ourselves with scores of sympathizers for our movement. ® By JORGE ee From Brighton Beach We've received a dandy letter from Brighton Beach. And guess who sent it! None other than “The Red Sparks Pioneer Group” of that part of this big city! These young comrades aie just rarin’ to go, and make a heap of sug- gestions. Finally, they wind up with a postscript, which we reveal for the benefit of the District Pioneer Office: “We have a uniform. A khaki shirt and shorts; the girls wear khaki skirts, A red band with yellow letters on our sleeves saying ‘Red Sparks.’ We always wanted a uniform, so we finally got one ourselves, after getting sick and tired waiting for the District Pioneer Office to get us ona” Attaboy! Anybody who can’t keep up with Red Sparks tempo ought to get razzed. Wonder what would happen in the Soviet Union if the Pioneers got “sick and tired” waiting for ma- terials for socialist construction! ede Ce Alas, the Poor Fish! A news dispatch of May 31 from Uniontown Pa., now in the mine strike area, told how Vice tor Robinson was arrested and sentenced to 25 days in jail for “catching turtles to make soup for his starving family.” A Fayette County prosecutor, however, evi- dently willing to let miners break the game laws rather than go on strike, ordered Robinson's release and said that “persons who violate the fish and game laws to provide food for starving families will not be imprisoned in Fayette County. Anyhow, it’s cheaper than requiring Andy Mellon to pay taxes to cover unemployment in- surance. So we discount the prosecutor's “gen- erosity.” But though Fayette County prosecutors may make some allowances—not so with Mr. Knick- erbocker of the N. Y. Post. He rushes to the de- fense of the fishy tribe who may fall before the assault of the revolutionary workers. In the Post of June 8, he opens up his article thus: “Oslo, June 8.—The Five Year Plan for whales has made its debut and the unwitting beasts, happy today in the security afforded them by Norway’s decision to cease whaling for a whole year, are living in a fool's paradise. For the Soviet Union has just ordered three whaling vessels from Norwegian shipyards.” True, after bursting into tears over the way the devilish Bolsheviks are pursuing the once care-free whales into the region of icebergs and unhappiness, we noticed that Snickersnocker forgot to draw attention to the fact that the whaling ships ordered by the Soviet would prob- ably not be built and sent on their nefarious mission until after kind-hearted Norway's closed season is over. But, then, it was a whale of a story for Mr. Sneakersnocker. And he gets paid by the word. And a word to a whale is sufficient. 4 ee The Truth We are again reminded tiat the R “Pravda” the follow: Near Ju gei—Here’s a tioveht for those who a (why “‘worried?’—Jorge) by the ent © by Wilson on the Fazm Board's 1 ef 250,009 600 bushels of wheat in 's article in the accumul: jieparation for war—or Brox Daily on the same subject. “John D. Black, Professor of Agricultural Ec- onomics at Harvard, in a book financed by Rockefeller (“Agricultural Reform in the U. S.”) deplores the carelessness and inefficiency of the government agricultural banks. Why? For- sooth. for the very reason Wilson and Browder pointed out: Black would like to see these Agricultural Banks “in shape to function suc- cessfully in the next war.” There are a surprising lot of fools running about pooh-bahing the possibility of war. ‘The “International Labor News Service” which is run by Mattie Woll has just sent out a short. jtem to the A. F. of L. papers, in which it states that some “high official of the U. S. army,” commenting on Ludendorf’s book prophesying that the war is plotted to begin next month, in July that is, says that Ludendorf is “not far wrong.” It adds that the army official's name “cannot be mentioned.” The Communist : JUNE ISSUE JUST OUT! A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism CONTENTS MUSTEISM—“LEFT” DEMAGOGY A La MODE ......- ..By William Z. Foster ‘THE COURSE OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN THE UNITED STATES ..By Harry Gannes ‘THE THEORETICAL DEFENDERS OF WHITE CHAUVINISM IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT By Harry Haywood ‘THE GROWING POLITICAL CRISIS IN eae .....By Edward Leno OUR PRESENT TASKS IN CUBA ... By O. Rodriguez DEMAGOGY AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSUR- ANCE IN THE UNITED STATES .... By Sam Darcy RATIONALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUEN- CES IN THE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN- DUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES By A. Peterson ‘THE DECLINE OF THE GARVEY MOVEMENT By Cyril Briggs A “MODEL” COLONY OF YANKEE IMPER- By D. R. D. AN UNEMPLOYMENT MANIFESTO DURING THE CRISIS OF 1873 . With Editorial Note by Alexander Trachtenberg, ENGELS ON “JUSTICE” ‘ BOOK REVIEWS ....-. be Make all checks, money orders, and corres pondence to; THE COMMUNIST, P. O, Box 148, Station D, (50 East 13th Street, New York. Subscription rates $2.00 a year; $1.25 for six months; foreign and Canada $2.50 a year. Single coples 28,80 a