The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 31, 1931, Page 6

hed by the 1 t., New ‘Address and mail Page Six c rk all ‘om daily Publishing Ci ot HOWTO ORGANIZE SOCIALIST COMPETITION By V. 1. LENIN. (Written in 1918) Installment I. \OURGEOTS writers have used up and are still using up reams of paper to sing the praises of competition, of private enterprise and of the other great virtues and charms of the capital- s and the capitalist system, They accuse the ts of not wanting to understand the sig- a es and of ignoring “hu- man nature”. a matter of fact, capitalism long destroyed small, independent commod- t? production under which competition could, me extent, give free play to enterprise, and bold initiative, and replaced it by large-sca: panies, syndicates and other monopolies. Com- petition under this type of capitalism means that the en’ rise, energy and bold initiative of me masses of the population, of the great majorii of 99 per ¢ent of the toilers is brutally despotism, upper rungs of the social ladder. not do away with competition, it for the first time creates ying it on a really wide, drawing the vast majority of vility on Socialism on the contrary, the. possibi massscale-of reaal; the tollers inte wo their abilities, display their talents, which are still an untapped source and which capitalism has trampled on, hed and strangled. factory production, joint stock com- | self, straighten his back and feel man. Now, for the fir orking for oth become poss moreover, to do work with the aid of conquest: Certainly this greatest change in the history of mankind—from inv itary labor to working for oneself—cannot take place without friction, without difficulties, conflicts, the parasites and their toadies tened on the workers so long. have no illusions on this score; the workers and poorest peasants, fettered wi debts and long years of toil for the exploiters, continuously mocked and outraged by them, chained by dire need, know that it takes time to break the op- time, afte subjection to exploiter le to work for oneself, and, all the of modern technique and culture who have fat- But || Communist Candidates Are Different! violence towards | the workers | | position of the exploiters. The workers and peas- | ser- | in which they can develop | Now that a socialist government is in power | we must organize competition. The spongers and hangers-on of the bour- geoiste, portray socialist societ: @ uniform, of- ficial, monotonous, drab barracks. The lackey: the money bags, the flunkeys of the exploiters, lickspittles — the bourgeois intellectuals — raised the bogey of socialism in order to “frighten” the people, who under capitalism were doomed to the hard labor and barracks of drab and infinitely tedious toil, to a life of semi-starvation and se- vere poverty. The first step towards emanacipat- ing thé toilers from this hard labor is to confis- cate fhe landowners’ land, to introduce workers’ control, to nationalize the banks. The next steps are: the nationalization of the factories and ls, fhe compulsory organization of the entire population in consumers’ co-operatives which will simultaneously serve for the sale of goods and as a state monopoly of the trade in grain and other essential goods. At Last the Workers Is Free! Only now has the possibility for wide and really mass display of enterprise, competition, and bold initiative been created. Every factory from which the capitalist has been ejected, or at least. put under restraint by real workers’ con- trol, every village from which the landowner exploiter has been smoked out, and in which his land was confiscated, is now, and only now, a field in which the working man can reveal him- | | ants are by no means infected with the senti- mental illusions held by the intellectual .gentle- men concerning this ne slush with which they “ré against the capita- lists until they are hoarse. They shook their fists at them, ing and acting like a beaten puppy when it came to deeds, to putting threats into action, to carry- “warned” them and then fell to weep- | fe and other such {| ing out in practice the work of dislodging the | capitalists. The Common People Can Organize a New World. The tremendous change from working for others to working for oneself, organized in a planned way on a gigantic, government (and to some de- gree, international, world) scale, not only de- mands that “war” measures be taken to suppress the exploiters but that the proletariat and the poorest peasants apply tremendous organiza- tional energy to this work. The organizational task is inseparably interwoven with the task of the pitiless armed suppression of yesterday's slave-owners (the capitalists) and their pack of lackeys—the bourgeois intellectuals. “We have always been organizers and leaders, we have commanded,” yesterday’s slave-owners and their servants, the intellectuals, think and say. We wish to continue to do so. We will not obey the “common people,” the workers and peasants. We will not submit to them. We Will transform knowledge into weapons to defend the privileged money bags and the rule of capital over the people. That is how the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intelligentsia talk, think and act. From the viewpoint of saving their own skins, their con- det is natural: feudalist-landowners’ parasites and toadies, priests and scribers, officials, “in- tellectuals” like Gogol's characters who hated Belinsky, also find it difficult to part with their feudal rights. But the cause of the exploiters and their intellectual servants is a hopeless one. The workers and peasants are breaking down their opposition—unfortunately not firmly or ruthless- ly enough, but they are breaking it down. (To be continued in a subsequent Issue.) The Seabury Commission and the Election By I. AMTER. are workers who believe that the Sea- bury Commission was set up for the purpose of really cleaning out the city government; that Roosevelt was moved by the graft and corrup- tion in the city administration of New York and decided that, in behalf of “public welfare,” a cleaning out had to take place. If that is the case, then it must be explained why the state legislature consented to no investigation of the situation up-state in the Republican strongholds, why no investigation is made in the city of Al- bany, itself, where no official—from the highest down ‘through the police to the bottom—is not engaged in graft and other corrupt activities; where gambling, speakeasies, houses of prosti- tution—everything is wide open. ‘The Seabury Commission has a definite rea- son and mission. Its reason is the struggle in- side the Democratic Party—the house of Smith against the house of Roosevelt. The public wash- ing of the linen is not to clean out Tammany Hall, but a struggle for control of Tammany Hall. Roosevelt is looking for the presidential nomination in 1932, but knows that the senti- ment against Tammany Hall all over the coun- try is so great that he must pretend to be freed from its control if he hopes to get the nomina- tion, which depends to a great extent on the Tammany delegation vote. Therefore the investigation ‘s put across. Does it not strike a worker, however, that the inves- tigation is being conducted in a silk-glove man- ner? No beating up of the witnesses by the po- lice, for refusal to give testimony. No third degree of Doyle, when he refused to state whom he split up the $2,000,000 with. Sheriff Farley, with his wonderful “tin box,” gets away with it, and the public is amused. His assistant deposits “only” $662,000 in 7 years, on a salary of $7,500 a year—and everybody laughs. Sherwood, Walker’s personal agent, engages in transactions of more than $1,000,000 (that is all that {is dis- closed!), goes to Mexico to avoid prosecution— the papers talk a lot about it—but he defies the subpoenaes and is not frightened by a threat- ened fine of $100,000 for his defiance. Walker knew all about his whereabouts—but Walker is not touched. No’ third degree on these fellows— as pickets would’ get it from the savage police and detectives! No grilling that almost turns them mad: Only a gentlemanly investigation— a few goats—and Tammany is supposed to be inyestigating itself! Do the workers of New York know that the ‘Tammany assembly district headquarters have been used as speakeasies, gambling dens and even murder dens? Do they know that the ‘Tammany district leaders have been DIRECTLY involved in this traffic? Do they know that the Republican district headquarters do the same— speakeasies, gambling, murders? Do they know that the police have had a direct hand in it? Do the workers know that judges on the bench, who send unemployed workers to jail for 6 moriths, who send pickets to the penitentiary, have been openly grafting? Do they know that Whalen, the notorious lady-killer, the yellow coward and brave former police commissioner, discharged Rplice officials who carried out raids on resorts and clubs—because these places were under the protection of Whalen? Do the workers of New York know that Mayor Walker was permitted by the Seabury Commis- sion 0. go to. Hollywood and Europe—to “regain his, health”—on the fat salary and probable * wabiah iy graft through Sherwood, while the unemployed and the children of New York are starving? ‘Then why the Seabury Commission? Because the stench is so fearful, and the struggle for control of Tammany Hall is reaching such a stage, that the Roosevelt faction has used this method of getting rid of its enemies and op- ponents and obtaining control. This is not pe- culiar to New York. What about ex-Mayor Thompson’s administration in Chicago? His open connections with the murder gangs of that city? It is notorious—and the throwing out of Thompson and election of Cermak in. Chicago, does not change the situation. It is being proven by the little that the Seabury Commission dares to expose that: (1) The ruling political machine cares nothing about its own “law and order”! (2) that political jobs are purely for graft pur- poses; (3) that contracts are parcelled out to friends and relatives, with a high percentage going into the pockets of the politiclans and contracts; (4) that this corruption extends down to the lowest ranks—and the “upholders of law ‘and order”—the police, are openly involved in it and getting their swag; (5) that any crime is resorted to in this traffic. This is not only Tam- many Hall, but the Republican Party as well. The Teapot Dome scandal is known to every- body—and the goat was Fall. } The whole system is rotten to the core. The | 12,000,000 unemployed workers in the country, of whom more than 1,100,000 are in New York City; the millions in the country and city who are working part time, should consider this im- portant question just now at a time of the worst economic crisis that has affected the capitalist world. At a time when millions are starving, on the verge of collapse, when thousands of fam- ilies are being evicted from their homes, when the gas and electric rates are being raised in New York more than 100 per cent for the small consumers, when in New York more than 60 per cent of the children are suffering from an.der- nourishment; when men and women, young and old, fill the penitentiaries, and new jails are being erected for the workers; when the insane asylums are filled up; when the hospitals are crowded—when the city budget of New York was never higher in its history, when the city treas- uries are being plundered and grafting takes place right and left—then not a penny is pro- vided in the city budget of $631,000,000, for the unemployed. And Aldermanic President McKee, who introduced a bill in the state legislature, for the arrest of all “involuntary ddlers’—a strikebreaking, fascist measure against the un- employed, which the state legislature passed, stated at the banquet which launched the char- ity relief drive of $12,000,000, that “there is not enough in the city treasury to cope with the crisis!” Millions for plunder, graft and corrup- tion, but nothing in the city treasury for the unemployed! This is the Tammany government! This is the capitalist government. ‘This is the nature of capitalism. The workers must take note—and realize that no “clean” government can be in- stalled, neither democratic, republican nor so- clalist, can give us “clean government”—but only a cleaning out of the system, and the establish- ment of a workers’ government, For this only the Communist Party stands, at the same time fighting for the daily demands of the workers. ‘The workers must fight and vote against graft and corruption, for the rights of the workers, for unemployed relief and insurance on Novem~ ber 3rd—VOTE COMMUNIST! SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Ey mal) everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; twe months, of Manhatian and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $1; excepting Boroughs $8; six months, £4 50 —by BURCK |} By HARRISON GEORGE. N A SO-CALLED “civilization” ruled by the dirty selfish- ness of capitalists, with Tammany Democrats and Hoover Republicans trading off offices with one another and pro- ducing huge bank accounts out of “tin-boxes,” in short, in a corrupt capitalist society, some workers—quite a lot, indeed —cannot see that the Communist Party is DIFFERENT. Some will say: “Aw, if the Communists would get elected, they'd graft, too-” That’s a mistake, but it’s natural for those who see that every other political party, Republican, Democrat and fake “socialist,” are crooked and who haye NOT seen the Commu- nist Party IN ACTION. Firstly, now, where does graft come from? From the Big Boys that have the Dough, isn’t it? That is, from capi- talists. Why do they bribe politicians? To get for this or that capitalist not only a profit, but an extra-big profit, out of subway contracts, dock leases, street-car franchises, rates for electric power, and, of course, moonshine and other illegal business. One capitalist shuts another capitalist out by bribing a politician. But, workers, that is only the surface of the capitalist stink hole. The BIG GRAFT is that ALL CAPITALISTS, that the CAPITALIST CLASS, have their political parties and candidates, and pay them well, not for this or that little racket, but to KEEP CAPITALISM IN POWER. That the manager of a bus company slips the mayor a cool $500,000 for giving him a franchise and shutting out a rival capital- ist, that is only small potatoes. What is IMPORTANT is that the mayor, the governor, the president and all the PO- LICE POWER of ARMED AUTHORITY, support the capi- talists against the workers. For there’s only ONE WAY that any capitalist can make the money he uses to bribe the politicians and fill his own pockets—and THAT is by EXPLOITING THE LABOR POWER OF WORKERS, by ROBBING THE WORKERS of the values they produee OVER AND ABOVE WHAT IS PAID THEM IN WAGES. The whole string of capitalist political parties, including the fake “socialists,” supports this CAPITALIST SYSTEM; they support any government that LEGALIZES THIS ROB- BERY of the working class. The fake “socialists” SAY they don’t support the robbery, but everywhere, in Germany, England, Poland and here in the American cities of Mil- waukee and Reading (where they are in office) they PRO- TECT it from the slightest demand of the workers. The “socialists” help the capitalists cut wages, as in the Pennsyl- vania Hosiery Workers’ strike. The Communist Party IS different. It not only helps the workers to win their every-day demands, for Unemploy- ment Insurance, Relief, to organize and strike against wage cuts, but it wants the workers to organize to PUT THE WHOLE CAPITALIST SYSTEM OF ROBBERY OUT OF BUSINESS! The capitalists are not afraid of the fake “socialists.” Background of the Lawrence Textile Workers’ Revolt But they ARE afraid of the Communists! In fact the capf- talists HELP the “socialists” to get elected when they think that the workers are getting sick of republicans and demo- crats and can be KEPT QUIET by the fake “socialists” while the capitalists CONTINUE ROBBING THE WORKERS. In a dozen countries of Europe, the “socialists” have talked AGAINST capitalism, but, in office, have SHOT DOWN WORKERS who want to destroy capitalism the ONLY WAY it can be destroyed, by revolution and the establishment of a WORKERS’ AND FARMERS’ GOVERN- MENT, In America now, the capitalists, through their news- papers, are beginning to HELP “socialist” candidates. The N. Y. World-Telegram is supporting the fake “socialist,” Norman Thomas, for important office. But it DON’T ex>- port any Communist—not on your life! Just look at the DIFFERENCE IN CANDIDATES! The republican and democratic candidates live in style, quite openly, like the rest of their robber class. And the World- Telegram recently told of the VERY NICE home of Norman Thomas, the “socialist” candidate, saying: “Many rooms, numerous fire-places, and lots of easy chairs,” but, oh, dear! There is “only one servant’! Isn’t that too bad! How can a “socialist” candidate’ get along with only ONE servant! But, workers, take a look at a Communist candidate for mayor, who has NO servant, NO big house, and indeed HAS BEEN EVICTED! Charles F. Bell, Communist candidate for mayor in the Steel and Mining town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is an UNEMPLOYED WORKER with two children. He was con- vinced that ONLY the Communist Party really FIGHTS for the workers, when he first saw Communists leading a dem- onstration last February of unemployed demanding relief at City Hall. He was NOT THEN a Communist: But he, too, was ARRESTED along with many Communists. So he joined the Communist Party! Now he is Communist candidate for mayor. And be- cause he has become a FIGHTER FOR THE WORKING CLASS, a COMMUNIST, the County refused to pay the rent on his poor humble home, ard the capitalist court has sent him notice that his family will be EVICTED. And the land- lord is the Moxham Investment Company, one of the officers of which is the CAPITALIST JUDGE of the court which evicted him! Nice, isn’t it! So you see, workers, that the Communist Party is DIF- FERENT! It is the ONLY party rallying all workers to, overthrow the whole damned system of capitalist (class rob- bery of the workers! It is the ONLY party that ‘leads and helps the workers RIGHT NOW in struggle for Unemploy- ment Relief and Insurance, that organizes and leads strikes against wage cuts! By voting for Communist candidates, you put them in a position where they can do MORE to help the struggle and make it successful! The difference, you see, is WHICH CLASS do candidates represent! Vote working class against capitalist class! Vote Communist! three-quarter hours. Workers have been en- couraged to work right through the noon lunch hour, eating at the machines, which made a working day of nine and three-quarter hours; but up to six months ago the extra hour was paid for at one and a half times the usual rate. |, Within the last six months, the overtime rate By LABOR RESEARCH ASS’N, pe of the walkout of nearly 25,000 workers in Lawrence, the metropolis of the New Eng- land textile industry, which was precipitated by the announcement of a 10 per cent wage cut, lies a story of accumulating grievances against short time, speed-up, and cheating of the workers over @ period of years, says Solon de Leon, research worker, who has been conducting a survey of conditions in Lawrence for the Labor Research Association. A similar study of working and liv- ing conditions of silk workers in Paterson was recently made by I.R.A., and other surveys are being conducted in the coal and automobile in- dustries. ‘Until the rush of orders that immediately pre- ceded the present Lawrence strike, the Hoover- Green stagger plan had been in effect with hard- ly a break for years, Sometimes workers were called on every other week; sometimes one group of workers worked the first half of each week and another group the second. Many workers mentioned the fact that the speed of operations had increased tremendously in the last two years, Sometimes the machine on which the operative worked was geared to a larger wheel, so that the machine operated faster for a giyen speed of the driving mechanism. Sometimes the driving mechanism: itself was speeded up. Several also remarked on the fact that the basis of payment had been changed from a@ per- yard basis to a per-pick basis. It was practically impossible to compute the average number of picks in a yard, since there are so many varieties of cloth, but when the pays began to come in under the new system, they decided that their rate hag been cut. Many of the mills have been working night shifts, The weaver who has not finished his piece leaves it on the loom, and the company is supposed to give him credit for as much as he has done when the man on the other shift takes the loom over. The weavers contend that the company has robbed both the day and the night shift and made deductions in its own favor. By other indirect methods the wage rate had been slashed even before the announcements of the general 10 per cent cut, Thus, the usual operating time on the day shift is eight-and has been cut out, making, nine and three-quar- | ters at straight time. Children over 14 but under 16 and 18 years of age have been work- ing on machines from which they are supposedly barred under the child labor law. The 48-hour law for women workers has also been violated. ‘This man went into details on his personal ‘situation. He is 39 years old, with a wife and eight children, five of them under 12 years of age and none of them earning anything. Though’ his earnings in a “good” week ran as high as $27, short time and “bad” weeks had resulted in his earning during the last year only $525. His rent amounted to $2.50 per week, Once when it rained, the ceiling fell in, injuring his wife. Even after borrowing $250, he had been obliged to apply for charitable aid. He was only able to get meat once a week for his family, which also did not get enough milk, tralt or green vegetables, £ The full report on Lawrence conditions now being prepared by Comrade de Leon will be = a F By JORGE Staggering the Poodles One of the rarest satires on capitalist “cures” for unemployment we have run across, is a little booklet by Liam O'Flaherty, the Irish author. It is a “solution” that ought to gladden the heart of the Hoover-Gifford Commission. In brief it is the proposal of a man O’Flahérty is supposed to have met in a park, a man Wlio “hates dogs,” and who, when drawn out; declares he is not a poet, but an “economist,” ahd: he hates dogs because he has solved the unemploy- ment problem—or would solve it, were it not for the Society of Dog Lovers, Incorporated. His idea is that there are so many million dogs in this country (he refers to England; but .there’s no reason it shouldn't apply here, to6); and a heavy per cent of these dogs ee “4 people who have a good income. “My scheme is to substitute a human etn as pet, for every dog which is the property of\a Person with an income of over $5,000 a year.” Get the idea? He means to “stagger” the poodle dogs! He had the same idea as applied to race horses, too! But he got enthusiastic when telling of the advantage of fat matrons walking down the avenue with unemployed men. on the end of dog chains: A Spiritual Awhleding Since Heywood Broun suddenly abandi med: his theatrical pursuits (after losing $5,0000 ,and came out from under the bed or beds of ‘his va- rious stage mistresses, we thought that both the theater and the “socialist” party had reformed. But, lackaday! Broun’s “socialist” side-kick Texas Guinan has gone on a tour of one-night stands to the provinces, and in perusing th? col- umns of the “Nation” we discover that, the stage is worse off than before. For the “Nation” informs us that ‘the “wages of sin” is not death, but next to it, a 'sum-to be exact, of $25 per week and board yourself. . It appears, says the Nation, that the “spiritual awakening” and mass meditation upon the. evils of material life, expected as a result of the wéll- known “depression,” has resulted not in the church putting up standing room only.signs and directing those seeking divine guidance to over- flow meetings, but in a new crop of excéédingly naughty burlesque shows on Broadway, a street that we,hayve neither the wish nor the Simaee to frequent. Further, the Nation cites the theatrical péper “Variety” to show that the chorus gitl shares the same fate as the steel worker in regard to wage cuts. In these new show houses, and fii. the old ones, it appears that: “The longest and hardest job is now the ‘74- hour, $25-a-week runway grind for girls at the Central. They average~12 hours Fridays and Saturdays and 10 hours daily the rest of the week, including. Sundays.” “Variety” further explains that once ‘fn. ae ‘time, the girl who stripped off most cf her clothes during her act (known as a “stripper”) or she who had a “teaser” act, one in which: thé girl sheds clothes piece by piece at the demand of those who want to see nature in an unadorned state, got $2 a week extra, at about nickel bad “strip.” gates, But that’s all cut out now! Not theustripp: but the $2! The spiritual awakening of the man- agers has decided that the girls must still strip and “tease” even more than before. But. they don’t get that extra $2. So the poor girls are the - only ones that give up the “illusion of material rewards.” Mr. Wells Troubled H. G. Wells is now worried about what will happen after the “national” fascist government of Britain fails to restore prosperity. He “féars a turn to Communism.” Only the other day this literary “socialist” spoke in New York, at the Rand School as we recall. Anyhow a comrade brought us in a fancy list of names of those attending, and he noted on the first sheet the names of two well-known members of the “socialist” party, listed com- fortably, side by side, with the “Grand=Duchess: Marie of Russia,” and “Princess Alexandra Kropotkin.” If a man is known by the company ne keeps, these “socialists” certainly accumulate: a fine reputation, ew One of Those “Backward” Nations: The Asso- ciated Press of October 21 tells us that the U. S. Commerce Department agent at Lima, Pert, reports that a government decree has been is- sued “prohibiting all agricultural, industrial and: commercial enterprises from reducing wages or discharging manual laborers.” We don’t- expect the capitalist demagogues who run Peru now to enforce that, because we see that even this much was forced on them» by the Communist Party, which ran ‘a poor barefooted Indian peasant for president on a slogan for a Soviet Peru. But its a fighting point won which the masses will acd force. Vote Communist; it gets results! : 4 DISTRICT, SECTION AND UNIT i LITERATURE AGENTS See that you are supplied with the ed literature: For the Nov. 7th Campaign The Decisive Year, by A.A. Heller........ Anti-Soviet Lies and the Five-Year Plan, by Max Bedacht.. “Soviet Dumping” Fable, by M. Litvinov..... 3 Modern Farming—Soviet Style, by Anna ... Louis Strong”)... cok classacesvescoamyon: WE. ‘New Conditions—New Tasks, by J. Stalin.. &. For All Anti-War Activities War in the Far East, by Henry Hall, Chemical Warfare, by Donald A. Cameron. .. ‘The War of Intervention Against the Soviet Union and the Second International, by P. R. Dietrich.........+++ ‘ ‘War Preparations Against the Soviet ‘Unton, me by Marcel Cachin........csscceseetseeee 0 Revolutionary Struggle Against. War.. vs. Pacifism, by Alex. Bittelman. +: peat Special 14th Anniversary i ‘* Number