The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 4, 1931, Page 4

K ished by the Comprodaily Publishing Pag z 1 St, New York City, N.Y len A age Fou F Address and mail all cheeks to the Daily Worke Yorker. Porty US.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ‘i] everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $1 $3; excepting Borou six months, HOWTOO COMPETITION | RGANIZE SOCIALIST Ian, I. LENIN 1918 By V Written in CONCLUSION the scoundrels are two sides of categories of two main parasites { by capitalism ism. The entire pop- special surveil- y to task for the 1s or laws of are the al Any sign of wee mentality ir would be this respect I order Against the: and mill olunt enth ion and dis- 1 orde to or- it the vorker thetr must le, the ional nd fterence be- ce of an educated person mon” worker so common with ‘ol, make completely n and peasar sloventiness curacy, ner. stead of work in 1 t of a lifetime ry cot me hich thet the abnormal division be 1d physical work, ete. the mistakes, deficier and blunders lution, t s and others be the present moment t the intellectual! idst an? the lack of sufficient con organizing work by the workers, have an important role. ers and peasants are still “shy” and y must get rid of this shyness, and they will mdoubtedly get rid of it. It is impossible to get along without the advice, and the guidance, ef the educated people, the intellectuals, the spe- cialists. Every worker and peasant who is at all Intelligent will understand this perfectly and the intellectuals in our midst can not complain of insufficient attention and comradely respect from the workers and peasants But the guid- ance and advice is one thing-—-the organization of practical accounting and control is another. Intellectuals give the best advice and guidance but are la ably, ridiculously, disgracefully in capable of carrying out the advice and ditec- tions, of exercising practical control and seéing to it that the word is transformed into action. ‘This is where the leadership of the practical- organizer “from among the people,” from among the workers and toiling peasants, cannot be dis- pensed with. “Pots are not made by gods”; the workers and peasants must particularly note this truth. "They must understand now that every- thing hinges on practice, that we have entered upon the historical period when theory turns into practice, is animated by practice, is corrected by practice, is checked by practice. It is the time when Marx's words: “Every step of the practical movement is worth a dozen programs” are par- ticularly true. Every step towards registering the wealthy and the scoundrels and placing them under surveillance, towards really restraining them and reducing their number, is more im- portant than a dozen debates on socialism. Be- cause “all theory, my friend, is gray, but ever- ‘asting is the tree of life.” We must organize competition among the practical workers and peasant organizers. We must fight against every stereotyped form and against every attempt to establish uniformity from above, as the intellectuals are inclined to do. Democratic and socialist centralism had nothing in common with uniformity or the estab- lishment of uniformity from above. Fundamen- tally, radically and materially, unity is not dis- turbed by variety in detail, in local peculiarities, in methods of approach to the work, in means | able to keep their eye on them as dangerous | hungry people, no unemployed, no rich loafers, of realizing the control, in ways of destroyi and rendering harmless the par&sites (the rich the scoundrels, rs and hysterical intellec- tuals, etc). On the contrary, this assures unity The Paris Commune was a striking example ot the combination of initiative, independence, free- dom of ement and energy of the rank and file and voluntary, unstereotyped centralism Our soviets are proceeding along the same lines. But they are shy,” they haye not de- veloped, they ha et become absorbed in this new, great constructive work of creating socialism. ‘The soviets must to work more courageously more initiative. Every “com mune,” fac village, consumers’ organization, supplies committee must come forward, compete with the others as practical organizers of ac counting and control of labor and the distribu tion of products. ‘The program of this account ing and control must be simple, , intellt- gible to every one that every one should have bread; that every one should wear good shoe wear decent clothes, live in warm houses, work | conscientiously; that not a single scoundrel (shirker) rer ree but sit in prison or do hard labor; that not a single wealthy man, violating the regulations and Jaws of socialism, evade the scoundrel’s fate. In all justice, the rich man’s fate should be: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.” That is the practical command- ment. of socialism. That is what we now have to organize in a practical These are the practical successes which our “communes,” our worker and peasant or; and particula our intellectuals must take pride in larly since they are too accustomed accustomed, to take pride in general instruction and resolutions? | Thousands of way d means for the prac- tical registering and control of the wealthy, of | the scoundrels and the parasites, must be worked | out and tested in practice by the communes it+ self, by the small nuclei in the villages and in the city, Here, va is the guarantee of vital ity, the pledge of success in the achievoments of eneral single aim to free the land of Russia from all pests, from scoundrels, rich men, and other pernicious insects who infest the country like bugs and fleas. In one place, imprison a dozen rich people, a score of scoundrels, half a dozen workers who are shirking work (like those | hooligans, the Petrograd compositors who are dodging work, particularly in the Party printing shops.) (At the beginning of the October Revo- lution the printers in the main supported the | Mensheviks. Those who were working on the Bolshevik Party press sabotaged the work—Ed.) In another, make them clean the latrines, In a third, give them a yellow ticket when they leave prison so that the whole nation will be people until they have been reformed. In @ fourth, shoot one out of the idlers, on the spot. In a fifth, adopt a combination of different ways and means, as, for example, putting those ele- ments, scoundrels and hooligans who can be re- formed, on probation, as a means of reforming them rapidly. The more varied the means, the better, the richer will be the general experience, truer and quicker will be the success of social- ism, and practice will produce with greater fa- | cility—for only practice can produce—the best | ways and means of carrying on the struggle. In what commune, in what section of a large | city, in what factory, in what village are there no no scoundrelly bourgeois lackeys, saboteurs who | call themselves intellectuals? Where was more | done to increase the productivity of labor? To | construct new good houses for the poor? To | house the poor in the houses of the rich? To see that each poor family is well supplied and that every child in the family has a bottle of milk every day? These are the things for which the commune, the productive-consumers’ society and the co-operatives of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies must compete. It is in this kind of work that the organizing talents must display themselves in a practical way and come to the surface in work of the | state administration. There is much talent of this kind among the people. The talents have been suppressed. They must be helped to de- velop. These talents and only these, with the support of the masses, can saye Russia and save the work of socialism. Uneeda Blood on Nabisco Buiscuits? How Morgan Profits trom $14 Girls By LABOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, “N°: we have not cut wages,—Not yet.” The guide in a freshly-starched white uni- form added the last two words with emphasis, as he guided a visitor through the great plant of the National Biscuit Co., Morgan’s subsidiary of the National City Bank, largest biscuit corpora- tion in the United States, largest user of sugar and flour in the world, employing in all 25,000 workers. On the walls of each department post- ers in big blue lettering read “What are YOU Doing to Ingrease Uneeda Sales and Thus Protect Your Job?” But Nabisco has cut wages. Only a few years ago girls in the packing departments of Na- bisco’s 66 factories out over the country were able to ears $24 a week on the piece-work system. By changing from piece-rates to time-rates, the company was able to put over an indirect wage cut and reduce the packing girls’ pay to $18 a week or less. Starting at only $14 a week in New less in other centers, the girls find stay for months at this low rate. If the girls have to wait for more belts to start, that time is deducted from the pay envelope. Keeping Up With the Machines. “They have to keep up with the machines,” the guide admits. ‘Thus the belts do the speeding-up, formerly done by the effort to earn more under the old piece-work system, hours a day, 44 hours a week, the conveyor sys- tem, in the packing and icing departments, moves the boxes and the biscuits and other materials past the workers who must not take their eyes off the job. Fingers must move instantly to guide the filling, folding and finishing of a box Io talking. ‘There isn’t time. On each machine a white-uniformed supervisor watches every de- tail and keeps up the speed of production. Only at two stated times, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, can the worker leave the ma- | | the baking department on the floor above, Steadily, relentlessly, for 9 | | | to take her place. The 50-minute lunch period is not long enough for a girl to change her blue and | white striped uniform, get outdoors for a breath | of fresh air and get back again into uniform. | Only young girls can keep up with the pace of the belts. Older women, at lower pay, are used | for inspection and examining jobs,—looking over the crackers as they fall down the shoot from | Blood On the Biscuits. | Blood on the biscuits sometimes, in spite of | of all the inspection. ‘This is because the edges ot | trays and of moving boxes rub off the skin from girls’ hands. Some girls try to protect their hands with piedes of surgeon's plaster, which it- self pulls off the skin when it is removed at night. Icing may cover the blood stain and the belt. moves on. In the baking arc Sour departments only men are used. For baking, too, the speed is relent- less, the moving belt timed exactly with the heat | of great ovens holding 6 sheets of dough at a time. In some Nabisco plants the number of men serving the ovens has been cut in half, so that each man is speeded-up to do twice as much as before. In the flour department, flour ~dust fills the lungs, and some workers find their arms covered with sores from skin irritation. Profits Over $22,000,000. Who profits from the work of these men and girl workers in Nabisco plants? Back of the com- pany stand the Morgan-Baker banking interests, with several representatives of J. P. Morgan as directors, including the president of Morgan's First National Bank Profits in 1930 were even greater than in 1929. A total of $22,879,000 in net earnings for 1930 ex- ceeded by a@ million and a half the profits of $21,423,000 for 1929. A stock split-up during the year meant that on the basis of $25-par’ stock, earnings in 1930 amounted $8.50 a share on com- mon stock, as compared with $8.21 in 1920, Total eine to ge to the tllet—wiben.» pelle! girl como | gamete wary One A136-600,000 fy $299 gRW 3 < a “Back to the Land” in return for assistance in farm work.” So, the city unemployed should work—no, they'll be FORCED TO WORK, as we'll soon see, WITHOUT PAY. Hoover tries to get around that by adding “in some cases with moderate cash compensation’—O, VERY “moderate”! And only “in some cases”! Which will be no cases at all if the big capitalist farmers, who are the ONLY ONES that re- quire farm workers particularly in the wimter, have their choice, Indeed, Hoover lets the cat out of that bag, by virtual admission that he expects no wages to be paid for this FORCED LABOR, when he explains that these jobless city By HARRISON GEORGE HE Hoover-Gifford Commission, in its “Program for Bus!- ness Recovery” has started a movement. “Back to the Jand”—as the boss papers say in headlines. That was only one of its ten recommendations, but more space and enthusiasm was given it than some others, Now, workers, let’s see what this is all about. says that the “surplus city idle” would “cheerfully be pro- vided for”—understand that? “Proyided for” says Hoover, mendations.” The Hoover farmer, will face the competition of SLAVES, captured in the cities and FORCED TO WORK WITHOUT WAGES! But that is only ONE of Hoover's outrageous “recom- WORKERS! Take, for example, the proposal of “spreading work,” which is an alias for the “stagger” plan. Hoover demands that it be done more. He is sore he- cause some employers “have-as yet made no consistent ef- fort” to “spread work.” Why not, he asks, when—“The Am- erican Federation of Labor whose endorsement has already been given, can be expected to support this plan.” Oh, yes, the A. F. of L. officials can be depended on to Support ANY dirty attack on the workers! this “spread work” and “stagger” plan is, You can see that by asking a couple of simple questions: Do you work to get “work” or work to get wages? Hoover don’t say anything about “spreading wages,” but that is what it means. It means that if one worker is working a ten-hour day for $30 a week, another worker should be put on for five hours ‘a day, the first one cut down to the same time, and both get $15 a week. That don’t cost the boss a cent. It might bother him a little breaking a new hand in, and that’s the reason some others are equally AGAINST THE That’s what sn a Mattie Woll, Dramatic Director Mattie Woll, vice-president of the A, F. of L, president of the Union Labor Life Insurance Co, and director of the Federation Bank, in his ar- ticle in the November issue of “The Railroad Trainmen,” makes the Tollowing sage observa- tion: “I know of no more dramatic experience in the history of American finance than that the depositors of American savings banks, largely the laboring people, have grown to the enor- mous army of 13,000,000 persons.” That is what Woll calls a “dramatic experi- ence.” But the said depositors have been staging another “dramatic experience” trying to get their Money out of said banks. And in this Woll, as Official of the busted “labor” bank, is obviously functioning as a “dramatic director,” * We Displease Thomas While Norman Thomas has received the ap- Proval of Fish, he (Thomas) is peeved because the workers who lest their Savings in the Bank of U. 8. don’t like him, in fact they boo-ed him, ‘This, says the Rey. Thomas, 1s the work of these terrible Communists, and so he launches a lie (quite preacher fashion) to the effect that the Daily Worker “misquoted” hini. But his en- tire letter was read to the depositors’ meeting, just as written, and the Daily Workér is not responsible for the boo-ing it got. It merely re- corded the fact that it WAS boo-ed. ‘The letter speaks for itself, In saying that “depositors who picked the wrong capitalist bank” should not be indemnified “out of the public treasury.” Maybe he meant that they should have used a nice “labor” bank, like the Federation Bank which went bust also. They are ALL “capitalist” banks under cap- italism, so under his idea, the depositors can whistle—in spite of the fact that the state super- vision is SUPPOSED to insure thelt safety. Mrs. Max Steur insured her's all right. She had $55,000.44 in the Bank of U. S. and—After clos- ing time the day before the bank shut up, got out the $55,000—and left the 44 cents. So Thomas fs a bright boy in leaving the question doubtful by saying “IF the respon- sibility of the state can be proved” and then backing out from that by irrelevantly dragging in “the needs of the unemployed come first.” | The way it is, neither the Jobless nor the de- Ppositors get what’s coming to them. But that don’t bother the “socialist” ‘Thomas. ae RE What Is Progress? One lone—and utterly mistaken—objector was heard from concerning our comment on Edison, which said nothing against Edison but lit into the capitalist system which prevents the devel- opment of countless other Edisons, and which retards the use of what Edison invented. With even the far-from-complete spread of technical education among Soviet workers, these workers are creating a regular storm of inven- workers might do work that has been postponed “because of LACK OF CASH FOR WAGES.” This ought to be welcome to the big capitalist farmers, he adds, not only because they “seldom lack necessities” and have hearts overflowing with “sympathy,” but because it is an “easily-recognized business proposal.” Undoubtedly! Slavery has been a “recognized business proposal” by the slave-owners of all times! : bosses don’t like it. But it relieves ALL CAPITALISTS from meeting the demands for real and adequate unemployment insurance and relief! And that’s why Hoover insists on it. The next question is, HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WILL LAST? That’s where the rub comes! For you, the workers, MUST LEARN THAT THE PROSPERITY OF THREE YEARS AGO WILL NEVER, NEVER COME And this slavery will NOT be left to the choice of th Because Hoover recommends that “local relief organizations” fix up a “board” to see that they go. And if a jobless worker refuses to leave his family in the city and go to a farm—why then, the “board” will see that neither he nor his family gets any relief! Just to think, workers, that this same Hoover and the whole capitalist class he represents, INVENT LIES about “forced labor in the Soviet Union” and pretend to shed gobs of tears about the “poor Russian workers.” But they ORDER jobless city workers, either. FORCED LABOR IN AMERICA! If you remember that between 1920 and 1927 alone, there were, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statis- tics, 2,875,000 workers THROWN OFF THE FARMS INTO THE CITIES, because there was NO. WORK ON THE FARMS, and that fully FIFTY PER CENT OF ALL FARM WAGE WORKERS ARE NOW JOBLESS, you will see what miserable hypocrites and liars Hoover and his Commission are! The small farmer, already near or completely starving from the crisis, who depends upon the small wage he might get by working his daylights out for some big capitalist dependent! BACK! All statements to the contrary are LIES! Then what happens? Then the standard of living of ALL workers is PERMANENTLY CUT IN TWO, your “Am- erican standard” is shot all to hell! without a fight the bosses will NEVER STOP CUTTING! Even that half will be cut in half! YOU WILL BE DOOMED TO LIVE LIKE A CHINESE COOLIE! Only—the Chinese coolies are right now FIGHTING TO RAISE THEIR STANDARD! They have revolted, they are forming Soviets, organizing their own Red Army to bring in a new deal and a better life! What are YOU doing here, in America, to prevent YOUR OWN slavery, the “spreading” or “staggering” of your wages, the reduction of your standard to a crust of bread, a pair of overalls and a pig-pen for a “home”? Workers, join the Unemployed Councils! Demand Win- ter Relief of $150 for each jobless worker and $50 for each Insist on Unemployment Insurance at the full wage, paid by the capitalists and managed by the workers! And unite all support possible around the National Hunger March on Washington, where the jobless will put these de- mands under the noses of Congressmen and ask them: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? And if you accept it Build the “Liberator” By EARL BROWDER. “1, HE LIBERATOR” is the most important weapon of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, its weekly paper which is at the same time agitator, propagandist, and organizer of the struggle. Its importance is given to it by the importance of this struggle. Struggle for Negro rights is important not only to the 12,000,000 Negroes. It is a funda- mental social question, directly affecting the lives of the total 120 million inhabitants of the United States. The working class as a whole must take up the struggle against the national oppression of the Negroes, for equality and the right of self-determination, as an essential part of its own struggle for liberation. ‘That is why the Communist Party is a part of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, its most active and leading section. The Commu- nist Party does not leave the liberation of the For the first six months of 1931, net income, after payment of taxes, exceeded $9,406,000. “The showing of the company is due to the constantly increasing efficiency of all depart- ments,” announced the president of the com- pany in a letter to stockholders in January, 1931. In other words, speeding-up of workers and cut- ting of wage-rates has increased the profits go- ing to owners who never set foot inside the Na- bisco plants. Workers of Nabisco can protect themselves against this increased exploitation, not by boost- ing the sales of Uneeda biscuits, but by organ- Negro masses to themselves alone; on the con- trary, it proclaims that the white workers must take a leading place in the fight for Negro rights. And while the League of Struggle for Negro Rights is a broad non-party organization, the doors of which are open to every white and Negro individual and organization which uncon- ditionally fights for Negro rights, at the same time the L. 5. N. R. recognizes that its program is identical with the Communist program on the Negro question, that the Communist Interna- tional first definitely formulated this program in applying the principles of Marx and Lenin. “The Liberator” is the paper devoted exclu- sively to the development: of this struggle for Negro rights. Therefore, the present efforts being made to extend the circulation and in- fluence of “The Liberator” demand the mo: energetic support of every revolutionary work- er, and especially the white worker who has heretofore neglected the problems of his Negro brother. That deadly poison of white chauvin- ism, popularly known as “race prejudice,” which the capitalist class deliberately cultivates to keep the working class divided against itself, is the special enemy which must be overcome in build- ing up “The Liberator.” Everybody to the task of extending the circu- lation of the “Liberator,” fighting paper of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights! In the Soviet Union wage Increase and the universal introduction of the seven-hour day, In: ‘capitalist America wage cuts and the slave stagger plan. Attend the November 7th cele- 4: DESERTERS AND TRAITORS EX- PELLED FROM THE. COMMUNIST PARTY IN SACRAMENTO, CALIF. V. G. Moss, J. Walker, and James Black have been expelled from the Communist Party as dis- ruptive anti-Party elements, who have sabotaged the working class revolutionary movement, who have stooped in their anti-proletarian and anti- Party efforts to the basest means, including vile slanders against the Section and District lead- ership of the Party, anti-Semitism, and even threats of police action and association with known stool-pigeons and with spy suspects O'Brien, Kelly & Co.). ‘To confuse honest workers and to antagonize them against the revolutionary movement, V. G, Moss circulated a kind of petition against the Section Organizer of the Party, and brought it into the Unemployed Council meeting, trying to disrupt the Coungil. But after an explanation was given to the workers, they turnéd against Moss, and the meeting was a success. By a resolution, adopted unanimously by the Communist Party membership meeting in Sac- ramento, held on October 7, all workers and workers’ organizations have been warned against these class enemies and to cut them off from the working class movement organtzationally and politically, Approved by Central Control Commission, Communist Party of the U.S.A. Over, 11 million unemployed in capitalist America. Unemployment liquidated in the So- ° viet Union, Attend the November 7th Celebra- tions, and the most modern of modern machinery is welcomed (for instance something “advanced” America still don’t use, the electric plow, is be- ing introduced in the Soviet Union), while every effort is made to INCREASE production. Meanwhile, we see such an outstanding spokes- man for capitalism as Silas H. Strawn, president of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, advocating in a speech over the radio on Sept. 9, that: “The great problem that now confronts the world is to gear down the productive machin- ery so that it will synchronize with the con- sumptive capacity.” ‘This reactionary proposal was hailed as a great idea. (We must mention here that what he says {s “consumptive capacity” is the “buy- ing capacity,” which is quite different). But even when such a reactionary proposal is put forward as something fine for the workers, it 1s still a reactionary proposal. ‘We caution workers not to be deluded into thinking that the word “reactionary” is limited to lynchers, strike-breakers and fascist violence against the working Class. Here, for example, in the N, Y. Times of Oct. 31, we find the follow- ing quotation from an article praising the Kel- logg Food Products Co., of Battle Creek, Mich.: “A few weeks ago when the development was announced of a new machine which would have displaced 100 workers and effect a considerable saving in operating costs, Mr. Kellogg refused to have it installed. ‘This is no time to displace workers,’ he said.” spite of the “charitable” excuse, this is re- dane, and we will bet that it is hypocritical to boot. Because capitalists aren't built that way, and what is doubtless the case is that bu speeding up the workers at low rates the philan: thropic Mr. Kellogg finds that he can make more profit than by going to the expense of buying the machine. ‘And that, too, ts reactionary obstruction hed progress, just as in China where one may aa 20 men—and women--pulling @ great load Re lumber where a motor, or even horses, mig! Oo even giving credit for a doubtful senti- ment of consideration for the 100 workers who might be thrown out of work by the machine, still it is reactionary not to instgil it. Because ultimate progress, and even the jarrower inter- est of these 100 workers, require this machine to be used and the workers to fight to socialize it. Progress demands that the machine be ‘used, the workers freed from the labor BUT benefit : frdm the social ownership of the machine. Yet the boss ts “good.” He makes the workers slave’ for his own profit and poses es @ “philant Ist” { They are not SECURE even in the socially unnecessary work they might be doing by pre- venting the installation of the machine. The job is not theirs, but the company’s, and by re- tarding mechanical progress they are laying the basis for a real shortage in production througt @ reversal of progress—a retrogression that can not possibly benefit the workers. If this is not so, then it is perfectly sensible and progressive to abolish railroads and go in for the ox-cart, to destroy the steam shovel and use teaspoons, etc. etc. Capitalism is become openly reactionary (it wasn’t once), and the only progressive thing now to do is to overthrow its rule, altar Sa, om