The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 22, 1931, Page 4

i By MAX BEDACHT On August 29 and 30 International Relief will tional conference ‘This conference will rev periences of the m paign. It will the organizationa WIR. It will work the necessary relie coming period. Witt mass struggles of the growth of the activities relief into broad mass come more and more pensable necessity out At present millions of workers are unemployed. fight for their ve: fight for a chance to mai: families. At the same time the c: ifalists are carrying tt An all-around slashing of the w standards of the Americar ts evident. This puts workers, too, before tl struggle against starve working, they are faced with h Hundreds of thousands of textile workers and workers ir industries are underpaid. M: ives, the of profit that god of le. We| t such solidarity action is the c! ss | of mobiliz-| of the working other sections en- F and mass battles. | Workers International Relief must be the instrument of such mass class to sustain Relief is desperately needed for striking miners in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. Workers International Relief gathering food and clothing to be rushed to Pennsylvania. Yeady driven father, mother, | children into the factories. And yet, | even tho the whole family goes to| Slave, it does not earn what might | be called a decent living. In the| mining industry, the operators cheat | the workers even out of the miser-| sble earnings they Allow them. The: cheat them on the scale when the: check up on the tonnage of mined | ©oal; they cheat them in the com-| pany. stores when they charge out | Yageous prices;.they cheat them on| the charge of material used in the] mines; they cheat them everywhere | and every day. Under these conditions, the strug- | @le against starvation is a universal | task of the American workers. Em-| ployed and unemployed alike face | this task. The unemployed must fight for a chance to eat. The em- ployed must fight for a chance to eat enough. | ‘These struggles tind the workers without any reserves. In any strike | or.mass struggle hunger is threat- | ening to drive the workers into sub- | mission. Under these conditions, re- Hef. becomes a political quantity of tremendous importance. Rélief based | on’ proletarian solidarity action is/ not charity. ‘It is a contribution to the fighting determination of the workers in battle. On the part of| the working masses, it is an act of| @efiance against the starvation cam- peign of capitalism. “The Red Cross refused relief to| Here is shown the truck of the mn. It must penetrate ry conceivable labor organization. It x be the pirer and guide for proletarian relief activities of every Possible group of worke Tt must on the one hand mobilizing every ounce of feeling of ¢! solidarity among the broad working masses for e support of workers engaged in attle. On the other hand it must utilize its relief campaigns to de- velop an increasingly better under- standing of class solidarity among the workers. The conference in Pittsburgh on the 29th and 30th of August has an international experience to draw on. But first of all it will be able to draw on the experience in the pres- ent miners’ fight. This experience shows the indispensability of relief work in working class battles of to- day. This experience also shows how the strikers themselves can be drawn into the activities of the W. I. R. It shows further how those strikers en- gaged on behalf of their own strike in relief activities under the guidance of the W. I. R. become efficient relief bodies for similar activities in mass battles of workers in any other industry or territory. The militant workers of the United States must attach the im- portance to the W. I. R. Conference in Pittsburgh which it deserves. They must support it and they must help strengthen the ranks of the W. LR. and contribute to the increase of its activities. Not Even These Hovels Will Shelter the Jobléss in the Winter ®T. LOUIS, Aug. 21—Unable to Bina work and denied relief, over 4000:Bt Louis homeless unemployed fwerkers are forced to live like dogs shacks on the banks of the “The shacks consist of stone slabs with a roof of canvas, as in the @ecompanying picutre. Others are Dailt of packing cases, still others of @m assortment of thin boards and @ardboard. These shacks offer only| the merest shelter and many are| Blown down by storms. The pet Poodles of the wealthy are better} Housed than are these “surplus” | workers for whom capitalism has no jobs and refuses to give relief. ‘The hut in the accompanying pho- tograph is one of a settlement called “Hooverville.” The settlement is made up of Negro and white workers evicted from their homes for non- payment of rent. This is the only “solution” capitalism offers the workers: unemployment, evictions, mass misery, hunger and starvation. Workers! Organize! Build the Un- employed Councils! Demand unem- ployment relief! Fight against starv- ation and for a workers and farmers government! Section | WIOTHING shows more clearly the Other methods were invented, development of the vicious attacks | of the bosses upon the militant work- | ers than “The Frame-Up Syste the very brilliant little pamphlet by Vern Smith. In 32 pages, written in simple workers’ language, Smith shows the embryo frame-up system in the Mol- ly Maguires’ affair, and the begin- ning of the labor spy. In the Hay- market affair, during the terrific | labor struggles, another frame-up tactic appeared, the “picked jury.” | such as the kidnapping method in the Haywood case. The Joe Hill, and the Mooney and Billings case are vividly summarized. The pamphlet empha- sizes the Sacco and Vanzetti case as a failure of liberalism. This chapter is of special importance to workers now because of the coming Sacco and Vanzetti Day demonstrations on August 22. There is much valuable speaker's material in this section. The pamphlet ends with the Greco and Carrillo case in which the work- DRAWN BY WM. GROPPER A Pamphlet For Sacco-Vanzetti Day AFTER THEIR EXECUTION jing class won because they rallied behind the intended victims of Mus- solini’s agents Now we add the Scottsboro case as a deliberate frame-up to suppress the Negroes and to kill the fighting spirit of the Negro and white wouk- ers, The lessons to be drawn from this well-written pamphlet are many. In each case the capitalists use all their tricks learned in the preceding case, and invariably spring something new. The class struggle is becoming shar- per and each case marks some new advance on the line of the class-war. The best defense against all at- tacks on the workers is a strong, militant Communist Party and a powerful, mass LL.D. These we need for the fight against the frame-up system and all other methods of per- secution of workers under capitalism. Workers who have not yet secured this pamphlet should send 10 cents for it to the Workers Library Pub- lishers, P.O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. NOTHER historic court battle, agai ter of working class mobilization throughout the United States and the volving the lives of 30 coal miners charged with murder, and long prison terms for | others charged with “banding and confederat- | ing and criminal syndicalism has opened—this | | time in the fastnesses of the rich coal fields. Just as in the opening days of the trials Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the capitalist press gives but a few paragraphs to this outstanding persecution. Parallels Sacco-Vanzetti Case. But also, as in the Sacco-Vanzetti case, the court house at Harlan, Ky., as in Dedham, Mass., becomes the scene of the mobilization of the armed forces of capitalist class justice. press, the judge, the sheriff, the prosecutors, all interested in coal mine profits, have the coal miners have planned “an uprising” for Criminal scum from the first day of the trial. the alcohol underworld, bootleggers, and rum runners from as far as Cleveland and Chicago, have been sworn in as deputy sheriffs. Machine guns, tear gas, armored cars, ered rifles and shotguns are the weapons placed in their hands by the ruling elements of the Kentucky coal fields, the Rockefellers, the Mel- lons, the Insulls and the Morgans. Fighting Powerful Interests. ‘The Harlan miners especially, but also the miners throughout Kentucky are fighting the most powerful vested interests in the nation: the Rockefeller Consolidated Coal Company, the no- torious Peabody Coal Company of Chicago; the United States Coal and Coke Company, con- In the cen- of protest world, in- | scores of | of the coal miners. of Nicola poisonous strikes. . The boss announced hijackers high-pow- trolled by the United States Steel Corporation; the Wisconsin Steel Company, and Sam Insull’s big power monopoly centered in Chicago, the Commonwealth Edison Company. Down through the years these great corpora- tions have fattened off the agony and misery The United Mine Workers’ Union during the past decade has been openly on the side of the mine owners. In the inter- necine war between various reactionary factions in the UMWA, much truth came to light, one charge made being’ that John L. Lewis, still president of the UMWA, received $100}000 for allowing the Kentucky mines to remain working while other competing sections were closed by Mine Owners Judge. No wonder that Judge D. C. Jones, himself closely interested in mine properties, on the opening day of court lauded the “lawful” United Mine Workers of America and condemned the “lawless” National Miners’ Union. The International Labor Defense has been in the field since the attack by mine owners’ thugs on the mine strikers in Evarts, as a result of which several strikers were wounded, but also four deputized gunmen were slain. Morris Stern, Pittsburgh district organizer, was early sent into the field from the Pennsylvania-Ohio strike zone. J. Louis Engdahl, general secretary of the LL.D., spent some time in Harlan following the Scottsboro United Front Conference in Chatta- nooga in May. Later he met with the Kentucky delegation at the National Miners’ Conference in Pittsburgh to organize the defense. Jesse Wakefield was sent into the territory mainly to develop the relief campaign for the starving families of a criminal Pennsylvani its forces, ment with Scottsboro pers. The and white is an 80-yei Closely i to develop Internation: tent. They 80 E. llth the imprisoned miners. While en- gaged in this work the automobile placed at her disposal was dynamited. Her arrest followed, on syndicalism charge. This charge was dropped, followed by her arrést on the same charge, and she is now being held in the Harlan County Jail under $5,000 bail and a $5,000 peace bond. Allan Taub, LL.D. lawyer, working in the ‘ia-Ohio coal strike area, has been in Kentucky for several weeks. With the opening of the murder cases the I.L.D. is strengthening both Negro and white, in this area. It is closely linking up the Harlan defense move- the struggle for the lives of the boys and the Camp Hill share crop- Harlan prisoners include both Negro coal miners as well as sympathizers. One of those charged with criminal syndicalism ar-old Negro preacher who organized a protest meeting against the persecution of the miners before the Harlan County court house. inked up with the mass protest move- ment which is expected to reach a high point on Sacco-Vanzetti Day, August 22, and with the court battles, is the drive for funds. The Harlan Miners’ Defense Committee has been organized the defense struggle locally in Ken- tucky, and to work in close co-operation with the jal Labor Defense. So extensive has been the. pauperization of the Kentucky coal miners, however, that they are without means to finance their own defense, even to a small ex- look to labor throughout the nation for aid. Send all contributions to the National Office, International Labor Defense, Room 430, St., New York City. By JAMES LERNER | One of the ancient arguments used against Socialism was that it was a Philosophy of the belly. Socialism does not take into account the spir- itual and cultural values of ‘life,| reasoned the well-fed. The human} being must have something more than mere food. Yes, answered the Marxians, that is so. And that is one of the reasons why we are So-| cialists. We will destroy the system that makes of the human being something that looks to satisfy its belly and no more. Then the work- ing class will become the most intel- | ligent and educated group in history. | Up to the establishment of the So- viet Union this was only theory. Now we can answer by citing facts and figures. Comrade Lenin advised the work- ers and peasants whom he had led to victory to “learn, learn and learn.” The recently published report on the amount of books published in the Soviet Union shows that these work- ers have accepted the advice. To the ignorant enemies of the USSR. these figures must have been a deep shock and to those who are acqu- ainted with American publishing fig- ures this shock must have been much greater. In 1930 there were published in the Soviet Union half a billion books. In 1929, 335 million books were turned out of the Soviet presses. And the same report that gave us these figures adds that the only reason why more books (and news- papers) weren’t published was not because there was no market for them, but because there wasn't enough paper to meet the demand. Can you imagine such a situation existing in capitalist United States? I suppose most of us do think that the American people are a great reading nation. For hasn’t every drug store, many candy stores, sta- tion shops, etc. a book stand? But the publishing companies report that. an average of 200,000,000 books are sold in the United States every twelve months. Compare this to the 500,000,000 sold last year in the Sov- fet Union. A great thing is always made of the American Public Lib- tary system. But even adding the over two-hundred million books is- sued annually by the libraries, the total remains behind the U.S.S.R., which has thousands of red corners and libraries. As significant as these figures are “FORCED READ grad Tractor Works. ie 5 é A permanent exhibition of technical books at the gate of the Stalin- we would be doing the Soviet work- ers and peasants a great injustice to stop here. In books more than in any thing it is quality and not mere size that counts. And here the Sov- iet books are so far ahead that there is no comparison. One half of the books put out in the Soviet Union last year dealt with social and econ- omic problems. For instance, in the early part of 1930 the chief publishing house in the U.S.S.R. had already put out one hundred books on the Five-Year Plan, amounting te 15 million copies. During the rest of the year this was multiplied many times. In the spring sowing campaign, the same house is- sued over 25 million books. Also 50 million copies of Lenin’s works were sold. Quite a contrast to the books turned out here, like “Flaming Youth,” “Strangers May Kiss,” and so on. And show us the American publication selling into millions of copies. If such a thing were to happen both author and publisher would be cases for an insane asylum. The usual run of an American book is 2,000 copies. If it is a first novel the author can expect to make about $325 (the usual sale of these is 1,500 copies). You notice that these fig- ures deal with novels. The reason is that we are trying to give America, & break. The book that ‘deals with an economic or scientific subject has @ run of about 1,000 or maybe less, depending on how many libraries want it for their shelves. Of course, there are exceptions and some non- fiction that become best sellers but these exceptions are few and far be- tween. Most of these so-called non-fiction best sellers like “Story of Philosophy” are in the same class as the novels. Making a claim to being scientific they are more harmful than others which do not. A smattering of this and that and the author presents a “History” of all thought of all time. The histories and biographies which became so popular a few years back, were just so much junk and poison. The history of an epoch evolved it- self into the love affairs of some degenerate ruler. Unless an author puts across some best seller in the United States he is pretty bad off. Boris Pilnyak, the Soviet author who recently visited America, said that over there the writers are the most Prosperous. And they don’t have to sell insurance on the side. In the United States intellectuals speak with great awe of the classics. Schools drill year in year out on a few standards like Shakespeare and @ little of Alfred Lord Tennyson, beautifully bound sets are turned out. ING” to harmonize with the furniture of @ doctor or professor, but few people read these. In the past few years the Soviet government has issued many new and expensive editions of these, but more important, they have issued in 1929 alone 34 titles to sell at 25 cents. They regard this price as still too expensive and will produce cheaper editions. The Soviet gov- ernment spends two and a half times as much monéy on the. publishing industry as on the mines, This is enough to show how important educ- ation is to the Russian Communist Party. ‘When it was reported that unem- ployment “just simply wasn't” in the Soviet Union, the monarchists, de- fenders of capitalist democracy, in- cluding the socialists,” howled “forced labor.” Now that it has been yt reading. And what is more, the rea- son why these workers read such high falutin’ stuff is because they've got to. None other is put out. And true, the workers are seeing to it that only stuff that suits them is published. In the Soviet Union the Gozisdat (State Publishing House) has created “Workers’ Editorial Councils” which discuss and critic- ise not only books already published, but also manuscripts. Of course, this last will not appeal to those high minded intellectuals and liberals to whom a worker is a very interesting object indeed and maybe a subject for a heart-rending poem, but after all very ignorant and only good for his hands. But proletarian art is for the masses and the intellectual force that was released by the so- cial revolution is rapidly transform- ing the masses held down by the czar into an educated group of work~ ers. And with the rapidly increasing Success of the agricultural revolution, also the peasant is beginning to be replaced by farm workers without all the ignorance which has always been part of the farm stuck way out from civilization. Another form of reader's criticism was begun last year in tegards’ to Frank Spector Greets the Workers on Amnesty Day | jee: SPECTOR, one of the eight Imperial Valley prisoners, who has just been released from San Quentin after serving 13 months, has arrived in New York in preparation for his tour for the International Labor Defense, in connection with the drive for the release of seven Imperial Valley workers and for the repeal of the sedition laws, Comrade Spector brought with him personal greetings from Tom Moon- ey, J. B. McNamara, the Imperial Valley comrades as well as the other labor prisoners. “My fellow class prisoners and a number of clgss-conscious workers in San Quentin asked me to give the Daily Worker their hearty thanks for the many free subscriptions supplied them, . “The Imperial Valley prisoners’ are particularly grateful to the thous- ands of workers whose mass-protests were responsible for the partial vic- tory won by the International Labor Defense. The California bosses were compelled to slide back on their in- tentions to keep us there our whole lifetime.” The California Courts’ decision of May 27th, reduced the sentence of five of the group from 42 years to 14 years maximum, and completely “dis- missed comrade Spector. In his case the paid stools of the fruit and veg- etable trust and the Los Angéles Chamber of Commerce failed to prove his presence in thé Valley. “Immediately upon my release I toured California State and had splendid receptions from hundreds of workers who are fighting for the re- lease of all of us in the Imperial Valley case. “In San Jose I spoke before nearly 2,000 cannery strikers of whose num- ber 25 were arrested’ during the strike, 2 days prior 5,000 strikers and other workers, led by the Trade Union Unity League and the Inter- national Labor Defense, were storm- ing the City Hall and jail to release their fellow workers. The police bar- ricaded themselves inside the jail and were rescued from them by the firemen who drenched the workers with the water hose. @ “In California the workers are get- ting down to brass tacks. A vigorous campaign is now going on to smash the Criminal Syndicalist law. Good headway is made among the broad rank and file of the Americain Fed- eration of Labor. The San Fran- cisco Central Labor Council was forced to endorse the Anti-C-ir-'~- Syndicalism Campaign by a close vote of 45 to 39, thanks to the pres- sure of the rank and file. “What are the prison conditions and life there, First, Tom Mooney. They are trying to kill Tom physi- cally and thereby rid themselves. of his issue. After 15 years of stay there he is assigned to a job of peeling po- tatoes and other vegetables. He work 8-9 hours daily in 4 small, six foot square room with no ventilation whatever, The room is often filled with steam from a single shower. on the corner for the 28 prisoners serv- ing the officers and guards’ mess— where Tom works. It is little sur- prising to watch Tom sinking ~ in health. “For the other class war prisoners, life is a constant fight against the efforts of the prison administration to starve them mentally. At one time the Daily Worker readers’ cir- cle consisted of nearly 200 prisoners of the héalthiest, proletarian type. \A number of them subscribed them- selves out of their meager funds. A number of articles of specific prison interest appeared in the Daily Worker and were discovered by ‘the men especially the several dealing with the penal system in the U.S\S.R. The contrast was too glaring. * In gentral the U.S.S.R. is on the minds of nearly the whole prison popula- tion, as a workers’ land where the misery and punishment that passes with capitalism as a system of pen- ology “is no more.” “Th¢ popularity of the Daily was too much for the prison bulls—it was barred=temporarily. “The International Labor Defense is now going ahead full steam, with an intensive drive to compell the release of our seven comrades from Folsom and San Quentin. “August 22, the Sacco and Vanzetti anniver- sary, is fully utilized to bring forth the Imperial Valley and the Anti- Sedition laws campaigns along ‘with the fight for the Scottsboro Negro kids and general amnesty for’ all working class fighters. We here. must not forget our brothers in fascist Poland, Baltic States and Philip- pines, as well as numberless other fighters now behind prison walls in many Capitalist and colonial lands. “I am fully certain that with con- tinuous real mass pressure we will snatch our seven Imperial Valley comrades from the hells of .the ‘Cali- fornia prison. They are to face the prison board in the latter part of September. The danger of long sen- tences cannot be minimized. I am going ahead on a tour across the country in behalf of the Valley case as well as the other main défense issues. “Iam mighty glad to get back into the ficht. I hed tco long of a‘ rest and am starved for real work in: the class struggle.” A Capitalist Editor Warns That WarIsCloser Now Than in 1914 A special cable to the World- Telegram yesterday William Phil-! ip Simms, foreign editor of the Scripps-Howard papers, warns the capitalists that Europe is on the verge of a political and economic col- lapse. His.summary of the present European situation is that “Europe faces the blackest and in many ways the most perilous winter in her peace time history.” The danger of @ collapse lies not in one or two minor weak spots but in the most important countries. “Some of the oldest and staunchest powers of this hemisphere are admittedly on the ragged edge of an abyss whence only the. coolest heads can save them. Great Britain as well as Germany— to mention merely the two greatest —tan avoid disaster only through unprecedented reorganization ‘of their finances which in itself involves political dangers.” In this he re- fers to the sharpened attack on the working class that the capitalists and socialists of both Germany and Eng- land are making to try and avoid collapse. War Closer Than in 1914. The logical way out of this crisis for the capitalists class is ‘war—the attack on the Soviet Union. “In some ways things are worse than in 1914,” says Simms. He adds that while it was thinkable that war could have been avoided in 1914 “to- day such a thing is impossible.” He warns the capitalists that the Prussian referendum of August 9 did not as they tried to make the work- ers believe indicate a defeat for the advance of the German workers on the road to a Soviet Germany. The people Of Germany, he says, “are én , the move and are not going to stop | until reparations are wiped out’ or greatly reduced, tHe Treaty of Ver- {sailles revised and union with’ Aus- tria accomplished.” The Commun- ist Party of Germany is the only Party that is leading the millions of German workers to wipe out the rep- arations and all capitalist debts and the Treaty of Versailles. It is the Communist Parties of Germany end Austria that are leading the workers of both countries for the establish- ment of Soviet governments in both countries. % Hunger for German Jobless. The German ambassador to the United States Prittwitz who returned to the U. S. yesterday also warned of the horrible winter that the workers of Germany are facing. He stated that there are apt to be over 7,000,~ 000 unemployed this winter in Ger- many and added that the country would be unable to support so large ‘The coming winter with the curtailment of unemployment relief will mean starvation to thess 7,000,000 and their families. children’s books. Incidentally, this is one of the most important phases of Soviet publishing. In the United States children’s books are left most~ ly to the dime novel stuf\. In back of every book it put out one com~- Pany pasted a questionnaire which asked such questions as: How did you like the book? Was it easy to read? Has everything necessary been included or do you think that some- children filled An annual event is the Children’s Book Week. And last winter a con- ference was held in Moscow where the old grey heads of the Bureaus of Education, the heads of the pub- blishing houses and representatives of the Young Pioneers met to dis- cuss what's what in books.’ And they didn’t decide to put out stories about the poor but honest shoe-shiner who tose to be president of a bank or how some handsome young prince with the aid of an angel freed some miserable little girl from slavery. One of the books put out for these children, “The Primer,” dealing with the chaos of capitalism and the plan- fulness of Soviet economy, is now a best seller in America, being read by adults over here. 7 ‘some may‘ take this article as the| is going to come from will ment of the capitalist system which makes of the workers a beast fighting for a meal, working all sorts of hours must worry about And the school system that breeds the -will to get ahead in business and makes education a stepping stone to make more money, will not teach the youth to read and learn. A reliable investigator reports that “many mil. lions after school days are over, read none (books, J. L.) at all.” he Besides the physical exhaustion of the warker another thing that in- terferes with his reading is the price of the book. Any of the books that sell as better fiction sell for $2.50 and $3 dollars. And the non-fiction ate. not considered classy enough unless they have $4 and $5, and ‘sometimes more marked on them. And these books are not written for the masses. ‘The Soviet Union has shown the way. It is only the revolution which ‘will liberate the will and the ‘ability to learn, fees