The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 11, 1931, Page 4

Page Four Y WORKER YEW YOR K, SATURDAY, JOLY 11, 1931 MINERS ON THE | MARCH IN OHIO; TRUHAR riking miners workers with the: hed = fror s into St. Clairs Rumors flew through the crowd} and soon they were verified. The) Gaylord miners, who had gone back, | were out again, refusing to pay a| 50c a day assessment per man to the | mine guards. A shout went up from the crowd. 300 miners had struck ke and |that morning in the Hitchman Mine | ooted,|in West Virginia under the leader- | ship of the nal Miners Union. in the Pittsburgh | By FRIEDA and into Co. the Pessinee whe! that almost 1300 men and back on strike after | the U.M.W.A. The} Guard | of three, nthusiastic, militant. | It was in was spreading! They| & score of |were bound to win. { and d delegation returned. As | dared de! they came the crowd surged forward, | rested all straining to hear the report. The | port came: “They heard us but | could not answer us. When we | ked for relief they said they had | y. And when we demanded | priated to hire de- | had no answer to give 000 apr y authori- | ood for the} puties they es {HOW MANY po You 4 THINK WENT BACK JTODAY, MR SUPER ? 1D REPORT // } aBou demand $10 a week “Marching because “Down with gpafters.” | an end to the eviction | ere. hung! i | | but make a really jminds of the workers. SPREADING LIES for W & Expose These Lies in a Nation-Wide Demon-| stration on August First THIS is the first of a series of three | Soviet Union, a change, which shows articles, showing how the capital- | that the propaganda machine is be- ist propaganda machines manufact-| ing prepared to go on to a war basis ure and spread lies to poison the ne present campaigns, are but aj minds of the masses, and herd them | faint shadow of the hurricame of hate into the slaughter of imperialist war, | and fury that the capitalists will at- whipping up the fury of hate against pt to whip up against our, Soviet the enemy nation. The war pr the moment they are ganda machine is already worl ch the attack against it. spreading lies for wa: t n it is essential that all viet Union. All out Demonstate against im Defend the Soviet Union!—Ed. By N. SPARKS. “War is a continuation by other means, maker. This is all the contradictions of politics be- come immeasurably intensified—above all, the main question of politics— that of keeping the workers and poor farmers in subjection to their mas- | ters, the capitalists. For in war workers must not only slave as ne vefore, they must surrender for the !| tioning of the capitalist lie-making hine and be fore-warned against The last war has been over for a and many of the chief I have written books, in which they do not hesitate to ex- in the most shameless manner, uckling over the specialty choice the murderous lies, which they invented do not delude the people, whipping them up into an insane tred against the “enemy” nation. Capitailst lie-making is a science. On both sides the lies took the same benefit of their bosses even the right | forms—the forms most calculated to to live. At the same time, the bosses | deceive the workers and play on their have to put guzs into hands of the | petty-bourgeois prejudices. First, mass of toilers that they force i each side claimed that it was he army—guns, which can be turned | fighting in self-defense. Second, each against the bosses themselves, when| claimed that it was fighting for once the toilers understand w! | God. Third, each claimed that it their real enimy. For this reason,| was fighting against a nation of the capitalists not only intensify all | devils. thetr means of oppression (martial; Comrade Lenin has shown that in law, fascist violence, sedition laws), | imperialist wars, there is no longer tremendous |any meaning to the distinction be- crease in their propaganda machine—/tween “offensive” and “defensive” their apparatus for poisoning the) wars. In imperialist wars, all the | imperialist powers are agressors. The Bourgeois writers on the subject|plea of “self-defense,” is used only try to give the impression that the|as a blind. Yet the frenzied pitch war-time propaganda of the capital-/ to which this lie can be carried is ists was something that sprang out|/shown by the following quotation of thin air. They do not admit that | from Edmonds, editor of the Manu- this whole poisonous cloud of atro-|facturers’ Record in 1918: “We are cious lies, which lured millions of) trying to save the infant from be- workers to their death, was merely |ing dangled on the bayonet, as was an intensification of capitalism's | done in Belgium. The murderers are peace-time propaganda. They do not|aiming at us. The raptists are look- admit the existence of the poisonous | ing at this land with useful dreams.” | | | Cops in unif the ever presen! the scene. The ci couersare.pagl | | us. We asked for an accounting of | the $700,000 misappropriated during | their administration and again they | ve lent. terview the Commi were si | they went they spoke one after the|When we demanded food and milk} sther, pledging themselves to fight |for our hungry children they told| for the right of the miners to live.|US to go to the County Poor house | A> resolution was read condemning |@Md orphanage. This was their an- the brutslity of the deputies, de-|SWer to us. | manding an accounting of the $700,-| The starving miners and unem- | 000 misappropriated by the County|ployed workers listened eeeenty | authorities, for whi no one was|They had come for a showdown. And | ever jailed or prosec protesting |they got it. The government was} not their government. It was clearly linked up with the coal-operators. | A slogan was shouted and taken up| by the crowd. “We will pay no taxes! to Belmont County. We elected | those fakers and we will kick them} out again The miners returned | home, grim and determined. They | d seen this government, which was | supposed to be their government, in | action. And despite this government, they were going back to picket and | fight till they won their demands} }and built a strong National Miners | lUnion. It was 2 fight to the finish | land they were game. | the arrests of miners and ir wives for daring to fight for their very lives. The voice of Paul Bohus rang out, “We demand that the $35,000 appropriated to shoot us down be turned over to feed us. We demand free light, free ¢: no evictior Amid the cheers of the crowd the delegation marched off for their terview. While they were gons was carried on, spe denouncing the scab- W.A. and pledgi for the workers Miners Union. the meeting ter speaker herding U.M. lies of “peace-time,” instilled by the | would even the craziest reactionary schools, the press, the movies, the | today try to convince anyone that in radio, and count! other means,/1918, Germany was dreaming of in- which disarm the workers and pre~ |enataee the U. S.,,and murdering the vent them from fighting with their|children and raping the women? But full strength against the masters.| the lie (defense of women and chil- dren, with a little sex excitement \o n) served its purpose. It | was not for nothing that it appeared in the Manufacturers’ Record, special in of the bosses. And, Theodore They do not admit any lies in “de- wn Already, wé can see a sharp in- crease and a greater vicious in the capitalist propaganda against the In 1917 the imperialist rob- bers were just learning their trade; teday they have become masters in the lying Propaganda, e In 1917 the le was: “Save Civi- lization from the Huns.” Nhe ca- pitalist slogan now is: “Save ¢ Civilization from the Reds.” ‘COLUMBUS DISPATCH” How Can THE Wogtp Make PEace wiTH Tus THING? S This atmosphere of holiness—fight- you with all my heart. That’s straight | ing for God and civilization—has the patriotism.” additional object of making all acts And, the editor of the North Amer- | of the capitalist war machine immune ican Review, instructs the people:|from attack and criticism. Unbe- “Our duty now, is to kill Germans. | lievable graft and profiteering, the To the killing of the Germans wej|most intense attacks against the must bend all our energies. The more} working class and their leaders—all Germans we kill, the less danger to|this is justified for the entire press, our wives and daughters.” |and every organ of capitalist propa- Each side fights for God. It must} ganda shrieks: “It is a holy war!” be so, because God’s own chosen rep-| Not only do both sides fight for resentatives, the preachers and/God, but they fight for the whole churches tell us so. To take one ex- jof civilization also. To take again ample out of thousands, Archdeacon one example out of thousands, Pro- Wilberforee of London: “To ,kill | fessor G. De! Vecchio, of the Univer- Germans is a divine service in the |sity of Bolonga (is this an accident?) : fullest. acceptance of the term.” |“By a, happy stroke of furtune, Italy And, the German God speaks thru} is unable to defend hereself without the Kaiser in his proclamation to the | at the same time defending the whole We protest against this conference as @ conspiracy of the Hoover-Mel- Jon government, the coal operators and the United Mine Workers of America to break the present strikes of the miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio’ West Virginia, Kentucky and Illi- nois against starvation, and to force the miners down to still greater depths of poverty and destitution. In making this protest we speak directly in the name of the 40,000 striking miners and their families under the leadership of the National Miners Union in Western Pennsyl- vania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia, and we voice the sen- timents of the overwhelming mass of workers in the whole coal industry. ‘The Washington conference . is part of the program to perpetuate the regime of starvation and terror- ism which the operators have set up in the mining fields. Wages have been cut as much as 70 per cent. The miners are mercilessly robbed on the Seales. No relief is given the un- employed. Men, women and chil- dren are living in famine conditions. Starvation stalks among not only the unemployed and strikers, but also the miners at work in the var- ious flelds. In the company towns, ruled by armed thugs, sheer terror- ism prevails. The local, state and national gov- ernment gives its full support “to this program of starvation and tér-~ Army of* the East in 1914: “The/ of ci ation.” | spirit of the Lord has descended upon| That “happy stroke of fortune’ me because I am the Emperor of the |sounds a little unconvincing, but | Germans. I am the instrument of jafter all the poor fellow is only a| the Almighty. I am his sward, his |professor trying to obey orders, and | agent.. God, by my mouth, bids not a diplomat. Salaries of Union Bureaucracy Bared in New Book While ten million workers are un- Bridge & Structural Iron employed in the United States and| garpenters & Joiners \ a flood of wage cuts is breaking over | trical vorkers a , x : .| Elevator Constructors every industry the wages of the offi- | international Ladies Garment \ cial leaders of the American Federa- Workers , Lathers .. tion of Labor are not being cut. Financially, they are “sitting pretty.” This fact is revealed in the forth-| | Eneinemen coming Labor Fact Book compiled | tine workers by Labor Research Association and | released for publication during July | by International Publishers. A list of salaries of labor skates is given in} the book. The list does not include amounts received for expenses and through graft and sundry extortions. | The book points out that William Green, A. F. of L. president, draws as much in a month as most work- ers get in wages in a yeag. His total salary and travelling expenses for a | year are $20,000 “in addition to un- specified honorariums for addresses or grafter especially in such rich before colleges, Rotary Clubs, Cham- | territory as Chicago and New York. bers of Commerce” and other open| The Labor Fact Book gives thou- shop bodies. |sands of other facts about the labor The list of salaries of the presi- | movement as well as about the eco- Locomotive Engineers .., Locomotive Firemen & ans .. : Oyerating Engineers Photo Engravers Plumbers Printing Pressmen Railroad Trainmen Railway Clerks Stage Employees Teamsters Telegraphers ae United Garment Workers . Upholsterers .. Sec ee te cone oe ROBOD Local union grafters and racket- eers often receive much more than these nominal amounts. Incon-2s of 5100,000 a year are not unknown among the “business union” type of | junctions, | shooting, clubbing and murdering of | born, against the Negroes, etc. The | Pinchot government, while hypocri- | tically proclaiming fair play for the MINERS’ BALLAD SONG At th nd striking end un- employed Pennsylvania, a coal- digger sang some bal! rst one giv ells the miners’ story of the hard, bitter wint of work have spread starv mond Mine Str ever been written dow body knows who wrote the words or music. similar in their plaintive melodies and origin to the ballads which theitm Venezuela, in Bulgaria, in Italy, ation through told th but southern mountaineers and Poor Whites sing. one who can sing them is present. sé ballads, J. S. Moats, chairman + neither just pass along from one to the ‘They are real folk-work-songs, of recent years when wage cuts and the. lack ut the coal fields. of the words or musi next.” The striking miners demand these ballads at every meeting where | They listen with 2 sad intensity, for | revolutionary workers. Dia- | for have | prison guard: No- | Was tortured to death. Forced labor | dents of sample unions as given in| the book is as follows: Barbers ... $9,000 Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers A 10,000 nomic crisis, imperialism, the Soviet | Union, speed-up, social insurance fee hundreds of others topics of in- terest to workers. Torism. ‘When the miners strike in defense of their very right to life. it- scl W@ are met by the flooding of the strike zones with armed forces, the suppression of the right to as- semble, to speak and picket. by in- mass arrests, tear gas, strikers, attacks against the foreign miners, has used every means at; its disposal, to break our strike against starvation. The organization of the Washing- ton conference is also only one more evidence of the strike-breaking, wage-cutting, policy of the Hoover- Mellon government and its hostility | to the miners and the working class } in general. ‘We protest against the attempt of the government, the operators and the U.M.W.A. to trustify the coal in- dustry at the expense of the workers. ‘The program of the Washington| conference reduces itself to fatter profits for the operators, lower wages for the miners, worse working By HARRY GANNES they were flogged. One | of children! Whips, solitary, dark | |cells—for children! Where is this?) lin Mexico, in Ching, in India, the | exploiters have invented the most up- to-date methods of torture for the! But, in the | = pity.” to them the song voices their bitter experience—It sets forth the condi- boasts vir the Hoover govern- = ment, they have gone them all one tioms against which they are now fighting so neuen se a they ue ie ae ont ehaiae wes learned to give up expecting “the rich men in the city” to “have a little | there are 6,000,000 “free” child labor- jers slaving their lives away, there has begun to compose some. ‘The present ferment and gigantic struggle in the coal fields will bring forth new songs, more militant in tone and words. Already this miner | ever dascribed by official records. So far, these new songs are little more than | fragments, but they are quickly taken up and will grow and spread in | official report issued by President | Hoover himself, submitted to him by | maueh the same way that the earlier ballads were developed. A MINER’S PRAYER I keep Ustening for the whistles in the morning, But the mines are still No noise is in the air. And the children wake up crying in the morning For the cupboard is so empty and so bare. And their little feet are oh so cold they stumble And I have to pin the rags upon their back And our home is broken down and very humble While the winter winds are blowing through each crack. (Chorus) Oh it’s hard to hear the hungry children crying ‘While I’ve got two hands that want to Oh you rich men in the city ‘Won’t you have a little pity And just listen to a miner's prayer. do their share Down beneath the frozen ground the coal is laying » Only waiting till we dig it from its bed While up above the earth each heavy heart is praying As each wife and mother wait with bowed-down head. Oh we only ask enough to clothe and feed us And to hear the little children sing and play And if we could give the things to those who need them I know that would be a miner's happy day. (Ohorms, Oh it’s hard to hear the hunery cbikiren coyine, ete. jare thousands of child forced prison | laborers undergoing the worst torture Here is the story as told by an |the Wickersham Law Enforcement ; Commission. We can be sure that jthe more important facts, the worst tortures described were suppressed What is told, shows the debasement lof American capitalism in torturing | children in the vilest dungeons; fore- \ing them to labor; murdering some in the dark, foul cells after hours of abuse. Prison guards, under the authority of Uncle Sam, vent their sadist lust on boys and girs, con- demned as criminals by the Wall St. government. Remember about Hoov- \er’s prating about ‘Child Health Day,’ |about the “glorious heritage of our | children.” | Now it so happens that during the past six months, the United States government has condemned 2243 boys jand girls under 18, and many under (14, to prison for various “crimes.” | These children have been condemned to forced labor. The Wickersham Commission was not interested in thelr welfare, but part of its duties were to follow up prisoners convicted found the torture of the children, thi hardened port some of the The capitalist a to manufacture lies about “forced labor” in the Soviet Union—though, in its maddest mo- ments it never invented tortures des- cribed by the Wickersham Comission. such as are inflicted on children un- der the protection of the stars and stripes—actually could not stifle its | Eos tne nitot Pree WASHINGTON, Jhly, 8,—: horror at the revelations. The “H- beral” New York World Telegram shamefacedly announces: “U. S. Jails Torture Children.” The staid New York Sun tries to play it down say- ing mildly: “Child Prisoners of U. 8. Suffer Daily Abuse of Torture.” The more sensational tabloids, like the Evening Graphic, blurt it out a Uttle of vielatton of the prohibition act. Some of the Wickersham investiga- more boldly: “Children Beaten, Tor- tured in Dungeons of U. 5S. Prisons.” W ckersh. am R epor t gall day, and sag after the forced labor@session of a two-cent stamp, talking Tells of Prison Horrors We do not have the entire report with its maze of details about young girls and boys beaten into unconsci- ousness, or starved in stinking cells; or dying on cement floors slippery with their own blood beaten out of | Wickersam Report Reveals. U.S. Jails Torture Childien trivial as well as serious offer at count, épeaking in dining roo ij tthe cell block, making loud poppifil| the mouth, were listed'on some slips of the federal cases studie} “It was related to our field of the reformatory sta‘. that foi Concerning th Chillicothe, Ohio, she cha few minor Of them. Here are a few of the quot~ ations as given in the United Press and Associated Press dispatches. In the Washington State Refor- matory, where Uncle Sam keeps some of his child prisoners, the Wicker- sham Commission found: “Punishment in the dark cells is given trivial as well as serious of- fense; not standing at count (the children have been forced to labor ; Priveserdeiie ickersham Comraileaion Report Made Public | ~ by President Hoover—Flogging, Shack- ling and Dungeon Cells Listed. WASHINGTON, Ju 8 (U. P : i: 4 petty infractions of rules and thro€ Mint? soll jark cells 4 UNCLE SAM TORTURES CHILDREN IN JAIL | is finished for the day—H. G.), speak- ing in the dining room (probably asking for a slice of bread), laughing in the cell block, making loud pop- ping noises with the mouth, were listed on some of the discipline slips of the federal cases.” For such “crimes” as the above, the Wickersham investigators report, “It was related to our field worker by lone of the reformatory staff that a SALE pd prisoner (that is, a child) was found dead in one of these cells (of torture). From the reformatory at Chilli-~ cothe, Ohio, where Uncle Sam en- trusts some of the other children, about whom Hoover will concern himself next May 1st, we get this report; “A minor offense noted in the re- cords as punished by from 3 to 6 days in the guard house. were, pos- in mess line, concealing an apple in the bunk (the children are undoubt- edly starved), kicking a refuse can, stealing five eggs from the kitchen (more proof of starvation). Boys are shackled in leg irons. even in the imagination of the worst enemy of the Soviets, in the Hght of these latest facts stands out as the bald hypocritical lie, which it is. This rotten system of capitalism which tortures children is trying to provoke @ war against the Soviet Union where the workers have wiped out the basis of exploitation of children or men and women, i Smash the war plot of the ohild- torturers, of the Hoover govrnment, and its imperialist supporters. Pro- test the torture of child forced labor in the United States. Give your answer to the war mongers on August First. All out against capitalism and war preparations, its brutality, its torture and slaughter! Defend the | 140,000 STRIKING MINERS SPEAK | Statement of the National Miers Union on the Washington Conference of U. S. Government Representatives and the Coal Operators, July 9, 1931 conditions and more speed-up for the workers, the driving of several hundred thousand miners out of the industry, etc. The coal industry is “ick,” but so are all the capitalist industries, as is proved by the world-wide indus- trial crisis. The remedy for the workers does not lie in programs of capitalist trustification and nation alization, but in a strong, industrial union and a militant struggle for every possible advancement and protection of the workers’ stand- ards now and for the eventual abo- lition of the capitalist system. We deny that the coal industry is un- able to pay higher wages to the miners. The coal companies are and have long been reaping large Profits out of our labor and starva- tion, The coal and allied industries have produced a whole crop of mil- lionaires and billionaires, typified by Andrew Mellon, We protest against the avowed aim of the Washington conference to force the United Mine Workers of America upon the miners. This organization is a tool of the coal operators and in no sense defends the interests of the workers. It is hopelessly in the control of labor crooks, racketeers, and ultra-reac- tionaries. The Lewis regime has been marked by a long series of treacheries and betrayals of the min« ers, at the behest of the operators, This reason is primarily responsible for breaking the power of the min- ers and enabling the operators to stitute the present famine and slavery conditions. Lewis’ latest loit, was the sign- scab agreement with the Pittsburgh” Terminal Coal Company (all of whose workers struck under our leadership) providing for con= ditions worse than those prevailing before the strike (as even the Pitts- burgh Post-Gazette admits) and by the mobilization of scabs, with the aid of state police, special deputies, mine guards, to smash our strike. The miners refuse to abide by any agreement entered into with the U. M.W.A, This fascist organization has no right to and cannot speak in the name of the workers. Every- Where the miners are in revolt, not only against the intolerable condi- tions dictated by the coal operators and enforced by the government, but also against the U.M.W.A. the main {ool of the operators to demoralize and defeat the miners. This is ex- emplified by the big strikes in the anthracite distriats, Southern Di- Mois, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wes- tern Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, etc., all of which are in spite of and against the U.M.W.A. Only the National Miners Union and the various rank and file strike committees and movements, elected and organized by the miners them- selves, represent the interests of and can speak authoritatively for and deal with the operators in the name of the great body of miners. At- tempts to force the operator-con- trolled U.M.W. upon these workers ‘will be met by militant mass resist- ance throughout the coal industy. As against the starvation program of the Washington Conference, we demand general increases in wages throughout the coal industry, recog- nition of real checkweighmen elec- ted by the miners, the establishment. of the 6 hour day amd union condi- tions, abolition of @ompany towns, the liquidation of the regime of ter- rorism and the removal of the armed forces from the coal districts, abo~ lition of the injunction and estab- lishment of the right to meet, to or- ganize, to strike and to picket, the re- | lease of all workers arrested for strike and union activities, no discrimina- tion against Negroes, no deportation of foreign born workers. ‘We emphatically demand fedesal unemployment insurance, the fall cost to be borne by the government and the employers. The Hoover- | Mellon government spends three billion dollars yearly for past, pee- sent and future wars, but it leaves ten million unemployed workers to starve in the midst of the deepening industrial crisis. We demand all these war funds for immediate re- ef for the unemployed. We pro- test against the war against the Soviet Union. 5 ‘We call upon the masses of miners to organize and struggle against the starvation and slavery program of the operators, the Hoover-Melen government and the UM.W.A. We invite all miners, employed and un- employed. to send delegates to the United Front National Conference to be held in Stttsburgh, July 15 and 16 which shall work out a common Program of action and joint’ dew mands for the coal industry nation- ally, ‘We call upon the working clase generally to support the i strikes against starvation in the coal fields, by energetic collection of re+ lief and by militant protest against the program of the Hoover-Mellon government to trustify and ‘fascize the coal industry at the expense of “the starving miners and thetr fam< ies, j ‘CENTRAL RANK AND FILE STRIKE COMMITTEE (Signed) Vincent Kemenovich Secretary Mational Mimers Union Soviet Union, where the workers’ children are free! 611 Penn Ave, Pittsburzh, Pa, A sommes }