The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 7, 1931, Page 4

BOOSTING WHEAT FOR _WAR By ERIK BERT. present rise in the price of ¥ the wheat purchases of the last year, an integral part of the pr by the United States capitalis on the Soviet Union. Last year in accordance with the plans of the general staffs of the im- perialist countries the United States Farm Bo: purchased 250,000,000 bushels of wheat in prep- aration for the attack on the Soviet Union, which had originally been planned for the spring of 1930. The rise in the price of wheat during the varations attack past several day. part of the present war plans of the imperial for the attack on the Soviet Union as soon as it can be engineered The first official news of the present plan the mobilization of the wheat supplies of the United States was made public after the war conference of Laval with Hoover. After this meeting it was announced that arrangements were being made with France for the purch of large quantities from the United States. In commenting on ...ese arrangements, Parke ‘Willis, former editor of the Journal of Com- merce, pointed out the war character of the program. They are on the one hand part of the intensified struggle between the United States and France against the British imperialists. The organized purchase of wheat by France from the United States through the Farm Board means the attack on the wheat producing areas of British Empire—Canada and Aus a. financial arrangements under which i planned’ to sell the wheat indicate further t this sale of wheat is mot an ordinary sale of wheat in the world markets Willis points this out in the followin; “Is there something about the paper that is te come out of these last named transactions that makes the Bank of France prefer that our reserve system carry it?” The peculiar arrangement for the proposed sale of this wheat is that the Federal Rese The Banas are to finance it. The nch imperial- ists, who have no need for credit from ne United States at this time, demanded that the Federal Reserve and not the B: of Prance should fi the sale. The “some- that is to come o this transaction” t it is not any ordinary economic transaction but a transaction for war. The French imperialists demand that in the joint plans of France and the United States for an attack on the Soviet Union the United State: should have as part of its tasks the mobilization of its wheat supplies and the financing of the “sales to France. for war—war against the workers’ and farmers’ fatherland. While the news of the mobilization of wheat of is for war purposes this year came out only after the Laval-Hoover conferen this mobilization has been going on since August. This mobiliza- tion has been going on through the operations of the chief speculators in the wheat markets ‘The leader of this group of speculators is Arthur W. Cutten, The capitalist press is trying to explain the This is mobilization of wheat | SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan amd Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50. BANGE LEVE OKTOBER Ty DKTRGPAKAR EBINMUNA.! Tae LONG Vo yi RE DEFEND THESOVIET UNION, WORKERS’ FATHERLAND | in the price of wheat through a change in world wheat situation and welcomes it as the economic crisis. has been no turn in the economic crisis. been worsening through the en- r without any significant let-up. In the ik the indexes of business activity have hed lewer levels than ever in the course of increase in curred becau crisis, There } e price of wheat has not oc- a change in the economic u Ss been no such change. The rise the price of wheat has occurred as the re- It of the growing war danger. The speculators have bought wheat on the information from the federal government that wheat must be mob- ilized for the coming attack pn the Soviet Union. In 1930 the capitalist class through Secretary of Agriculture Hyde attacked the Soviet Union ge of dumping wheat to cover the plats for the attack on the Soviet Union. Now the capitalist class is trying to hide the present lans for the attack by stories about the “fail- of the crops in the Soviet Union and the Iting inability of the Soviet Union to ex- rt to the world markets, This in the face of the fact that the exports of the Soviet Union during the past three months were almost three times those for the same three months last year. absurd lies of the “spoiling” of 50,000,000 in Germany are another disguise for the 1 reason—war. The capitalist press is accompanying the prep- arations for the attack on the Soviet Union through the purchase of wheat with stories of the millions of dollars that the farmers will gain out of the rise in prices. This is a deliberate attempt to draw the farmers into the war front for the slaughter. This is a deliberate attempt to mobilize the farmers of the United States for the attack on the Soviet Union through trying to make them believe that they can benefit from an imper- bushel r t war. The present price increases have gone chiefly to the speculator. Only the rich farm who have been able to hold wheat, can possibly profit. The small farmers and middle who have no credit have been forced to The agrarian masses of the United States, like the proletariat, can expect nothing but slaugh- ter out of an imperialist war. This, together with millstone debts around their necks is what the farmers got in the last imperialist struggle. The imperialist war in which the capitalists plan to use the workers and farmers of the United States is the attack on the Soviet Union. ‘This is the fatherland of all the workers and peasants throughout the world. The farmers and workers of the United States must determine to unite with their brothers in the Soviet Union, who are building Socialism, in a final accounting with the capitalist system that dooms the millions of the toiling masses to untold misery. The rise in wheat prices is a harbinger of war—war against workers’ Russia. The farmers and workers of the United States nust defend the Soviet Union—the first Socialist Soviets of the world’s toiling masses. Some Hazards in Copper Mining and Smelting : By LABOR RESEARCH AS: ERTAIN hazards underground are common to all mining: falling rock, falling timbers, haul- age, machinery, electricity, fires,explosives, and poisonous gasses resulting from imperfect com- bustion. Michigan. copper mines are even deeper than those in Montana, and most of the underground ‘metal mines are worked at much lower leveis than any American coal mine. This gives the metal miners a special health hazard from the excessive heat, Surface workers have extremes of heat in the smelters alternating in winter with excessive cold outdoors. Special summer hazards to which workers in copper mines and smelters are exposed were summarized in a recent report. They include the following: Metal miners’ iumgs are injured by habitual breathing in of rock dust. Silicosis is the chief lung ailment.where the rock bed is silicious (es- pecially in quartz, flint, or sandstone). Else- where a Jess seyere condition is common which doctors call pneumoconiosis (popularly known as miners’ complaint). Tuberculosis is also un- duly prevalent. it Where dynamite is used as the explosive, may add to the usual dangers from all explosives @ special poisoning, with severe headache and speeding up of heart action. Nitro-starches are aid to be free of this poisoning effect Pure copper is one of the least harmful min- erals, but always associated with it in the native ore are other minerals which have highly poi- sonous effects, especially in the smelters where 4 | | | | | | | | the copper is separated and prepared for refin- ing The outstanding hazard of copper production is arsenic. This begins with the crushing of rock (where the hazard is minor) and continues through practically every step.... Throughout the copper production the garlic odor character- istic of arsenic is detectable.” “Some ores are especially rich in zine, Since zine has a low melting point-and a boiling point near the melting point of copper, it is natural that vapor tensions of zine should be high ound copper plants. Under such conditions zine chills may be expected to arise. Lack of exactness has led many persons to erroneously believe that copper is responsible for this con- | dition.” ome lead is always'present in copper ore, but «in copper mining and smelting it is a less im- portant hazard than arsenic. Lead poisoning is more likely to arise from lead dusts than from lead vapors arising from molten metal. Oil flotation process (in the smelters) often gives the workers a skin trouble similar to ma- chinists’ “oil furunculosis.” Sulphur dioxide in low concentrations is an rritating gas always present in the reduction of copper ores, Even with modern devices for draw- ing off the gases, all men working near the roast- x} ers ar posed to a considerabl amount of sul- phur gai In the refineries to which copper is shipped from smelters for final treatment before it is used in manufacturing, other special hazards are present. Most of the U, 8. refineries are located at considerable distance from the mines. | | | | | | Agitators’ and Propagandists’ Column Centralization of Financial Power Increasing the National City Bank absorbs the | Bank of America (New York), it marks one more step in the centralization of financial power which has gone on rapidly during the two years of capitalist world crisis. This merger was arranged by Lee, Higginson | & Co., old international banking house in Bos- ton, who iast month took over control of Gi- annini’s Transamerica Corp., which in turn con- trols the Bank of America (New York). Giannini is still fighting for his biggest bank—the Bank of America (San Francisco)—but in New York this upstart California banker has been shoved out of the picture, National City Bank of New York is the sec- ond. largest bank in the United States, out- ranked only by Chase National Bank. It is not one of the five New York banks controlled by the Morgan group, but it is clearly within the Mor- gan sphere of influerice. Merger with Bank of America will give the Lee Higginson controlled Transamerica Corp. nearly 9 per cent of the National City Bank stock, which is said to be a larger block than is held by any other company or individual. Thereby the forces friendly to Morgan will be greatly strengthened on the Na- tional City board, for the house of Lee, Higgin- son & Co,, is an old ally of the House of Morgan. ‘This latest move is the third obyious step this year in the expanding power of Lee, Higginson, which is one phase of the widening of Morgan influence. In April, the leading. Lee Higginson paftner, Frederick W. Allen, was added to the board of the Chase National Bank. In June, the foreign telephone interests of the Swedish Match Trust and the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. were merged; Allen, as American banker for the Swedish Match Trust, was added to the board of the Morgan-controlled I. T. & T, All these developments have meant a strengthening of Morgan and Lee, Higginson power and a tightening of the web which binds together the largest New York banks. Financial power has also been increasingly concentrated during the crisis by failures and suspensions among weaker banks. Ever since the war there has been a high ratio of bank failures, but until the crash of 1929 these oc- curred chiefly among small rural banks. During the past two years national banks and city banks belonging to the Federal Reserve System have also been going under, So in 1930, the bank suspensions numbered 1,345 and involved $864,715,000 of deposits. In the first eight months of 1931, they numbered 932 and involved $698,816,000 of deposits. That the crisis is reaching in toward larger banks is clear from the increasing amount of deposits in- volved in each suspension, rising from an aver- age of $365,000 per bank in 1929 to $645,000 per bank in 1930 and $759,000 per bank in 1931. But as yet, no first-class bank has failed: , Several bank mergers have been carried through as @ safety measure against, failures. This. waS dramatically illustrated in Chicago during one hectic week of June, 1931. The Mor- gan-controlled First National Bank (Chicago) prevented the failure of the Foreman» banks by gobbling them up in a hurry, The same week, the Central Trust Co.—controlled by the Dawes family and indirectly linked with Morgan— merged with the National Bank of the Republic, Obviously mergers of big banks and failures of weak banks have greatly increased the per- centage of total banking resources concentrated in the 15 or 20 largest that head the list. But this ie only part of the story of increasing cen- ralization of financial power during’ the crisis. Banking failures and business failures have gone hand in hand. In manufacturing,. min- ing, and trade, the crisis has thrown out hun- dreds of weak concerns and left in existence only the stronger companies tied to the stronger banks, 3 if Also, where small investors have been able to salvage any capital from the collapse in security values, thousands of them have disposed of in- dustrial holdings and either deposited their small capital in the strongest savings banks or turned to investment in insurance, Total resources of savings banks have actually increased since the crash of 1929. This piles up more capital to be controlled by the leading financiers and their lieutenants who make up the boards of trustees. Free the Arrested Lawrence Strikers! Every Worker Should Rally Behind This Demand to Defeat the Terror of the Bosses! Defeat the Wage Cut Drive! ‘ By Labor Research Association. | “PMISEASE PREYS ON IDLE,” says a headline in a capitalist paper above a statement made November 1, 1931, by Frances Perkins, In- dustrial Commissioner of New York State, to the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee. She admits that, in spite of all the charities and private health funds and state welare commis- sions, the health of the workers ts being shat- tho4 by the economic crisis. Sickness is taking | an increasingly heavy toll of the underfed job- less workers. She adds that, if the workers have been undernourished ‘as thousands have, their resistance has been lowered and they more read- ily fall prey to disease. And illness itself is al- ways enhanced when it is superimposed upon malnutrition—it is more serious, ‘and it leaves | more serious results.” Testifying before a U. S. Senate Committee on October 23, Miss Perkins had made practically | the sarne statement to the effect that the work- ers “have never been in so depleted a state physically; that the amount of minor illness is increasing—minor illnesses which are not in the nature of scourges or epidemics, but are due to malnutrition’—a polite term for gradual starva- tion. All the recent figures from hospitals, medical societies, doctors and the like, bear out these observations. According to the General Director of the United Hospital Fund of New York City, hospital cases have increased during the crisis in “abnormal and progressive” degree. And in addition he. states the obvious fact that “there are many persons who ought to be treated, but are “complaining” of their crowded condition and the increased amount of out-patient work. Another recent statement from the United Hos- pital Fund says that “the city operated hospi- tals are extended to the limit and the city is short at least 1,000 beds for the care of the sick in the city institutions.” Every charity organization and settlement house makes a similar report. For example, the Henry Street Settlement of New York City re- ports that its nurses were compelled to care for 11,000 more patients in the first 9 months of 1931 than in the corresponding period for 1930. And the Welfare Director of the Visiting Nurses By W. Z. FOSTER. nine drive of the Liberator for ten thousand new readers is one that should be given the energetic support of every militant worker. The Liberator is one of the key publications in the structure of revolutionary journalism, and every effort applied in building it up is bound to be who cannot afford to be sick.” All the hospitals | Comrade Dimitri Dontshey Assassinated IN September 15, 1931, the Rumanian bour- geoisie with the Jorga government at its head has committed a new assassination. Through their inhuman brutish myrmidons they had the national revolutionary Com. Dimitri Dontshev, member of the ©.C. of the Dobrudch revolutionary organization, DRO, shot “when trying to escape.” For fifty days the “Siguran- za” tried to force him by torture to become a traitor, and when they were unsuccessful they shot him down. Com. Dontshev was one of the most cour- ageous and active fighters against national sup- pression of the Dobrudscha by the Rumanian bourgeoisie and against the National Reformism and the National Fascism of the Bulgarian bour- geoisie. Hated and pursued by both of them he worked indefatigably to gather the broad masses of suppressed workers and peasants to the front for national and social freedom, side by side with the revolutionary proletariat atd peasants in Rumania, side by side with the national revo- lutionary and revolutionary workers and peas- ants movements of the Balkans. against the broad masses of the Dobrudsha, against the movement of all exploited and sup- pressed workers and peasants of Rumania and the Balkans; it 1s @ heavy loss for the whole revolutionary movement in the Balkans. The ‘nationally suppressed masses, the Dobrudsh emigration in Bulgaria, the working masses of the Balkan will reply to the assassina- the bloody imperialist Rumanian interventionist bourgeoisie with a strengthening of the mass fight for their daily interests, and for the down- fall of the complete system of the slaveholders, Down with the bloody Rumanian bourgeoisie and all its abettors! Long live the fight against national suppres- sion in the Dobrudsha and against the great Rumanian executioners and murderers! Long live the revolutionary united front of the working masses of the Balkan! COMMUNIST BALKAN FEDERATION; September, 1931, fi tion of the valiant revolutionary Dontshev by. . The assassination of Com. Dontshev ts a blow |: The Crisis and Workers’ Health Association of Newark, N. J., reports that from January 1 to September 1, 1931, its nurses made 9,308 free visits as compared with 6,650 for the whole twelve months of 1930, also a crisis year. The number of visits this year, will, therefore, | be about double last year’s record. In the face of this rising curve of sickness among the workers we find that many of the So-Called health agencies have made serious cuts in their nursing staff. So while patients are on the increase nurses are being fired because the rich are giving less to charity than in previous years. The net result is unemployment for the nurses while sickness spreads at a terrific rate among the workers. Even the reactionary Red Cross, relief arm of the imperialist army, admits that the health situation is getting critical‘in the United States. Its acting chairman, J. L. Feiser, declared, Oc- tober 25, that reports “indicate that a serious health problem may face the nation for several years to come as a result of curtailed diets, in- ability to pay for medical and hospital expenses, and withdrawal of funds for local health work. He admits “widespread lowered standards of living,” and reports that “peliagra, usually preva- lent in rural sections, was found in many areas” investigated by the Red Cross. But it is in these very agricultural districts that the Federal gov- ernment refused to do anything for the farmers, and where starvation diseases are spreading most rapidly. The food that is occasionally given poor families by local charities is of the sort that does nothing to stop the spread of pellagra Along with sickness goes a rising curve of insanity. In Detroit. where unemployment has ravaged the auto workers for the past two years, the general superintendent of the Eloise hospital admits that within the last month 200 insane persons were admitted to hespitals in Wayne County. “Insanity,” he says, “is growing rapidly through strain and undernourishment and. will continue to spread... .” ‘And Dr. J. G. W. Greef, Commissioner of Hospitals of New York City, reports that 2,508 more patients were ad- mitted to the Psychopathic Division of Bellevue Hospital alone in the first six months of 1931ias | compared with the same pericd in 1928, “an ap- parently normal year.” He attributed the rise to “fear of unemployment in hard times.” Support the | “Liberator” Drive very fruitful. One of the phases of the revolutionary pro- gram that the capitalists dreed most is the unity of the Negro and white workers. They see in sueh a developing unity the dofeat of their policy of dividing the working class, of using one sec- tion against the other. Hence, their alarm and militant opposition to the unity of Negro and white workers in no matter what form it may develop. ‘The very heart of the work of the Liberator is in cultivating this fundamental unity between the black and while workers. It, mO6bilizes, not only Negro workers but. whites as well, in the struggle for Negro rights. It is an opening wedge for white workers in making contacts with the Negro workers in the shops and in the homes. It draws the Negroes into the Red Trade Unions and organizes both black and white workers against capitalist exploitation and persecution in every form, In the big campaigns now being carried on in (ie-steel, coal, textile and other ‘industries ~ against wage cuts, the Liberator can and must Play a leading role. It is an inyaluable instru- ment, especially for reaching the Negro work- ers, who play an increasingly decisive role in every industry. It is of fundamental impor- tance in the work among the super-exploited and oppressed Negro masses inf? suth, In all these movements, espéciahy au she big campaigns amongst the unemployed, the 1'b- erator has proved its worth. In Chicago, in Cleveland, the Liberator was in the very thick of the fight in mobilizing the Negroes for these big struggles. The question of circulating the Liberator should be taken up by every Red Trade Union, by every revolutionary organization in a sys~ tematic manner. ‘The Liherator must be built, and the present campaign for ten thousand new readers offers the way to build the paper. DISTRICT, SECTION AND UNIT LITERATURE AGENTS See that you are supplied with the following literature; For Unemployment Work and the “ ‘National Hanger March Unemployment Relief and Social Insurance a Fight Against Hunger... aeeceead 5 Work or Wages, by Grace M. Bi 10 Social Insurance, by Grace M. Burnham.. 10 Comunist Call to the Toling Farmers.. 3 Race Hatred on Trial........... + 10 Why Every Worker Should Join the Com- ‘Those who cannot otherwise supply them- selves should write direct to Workers’ Library Publishers, P. ©. Box 148, Station &j New York City. ‘ i By ii cot ial The Kaiser’s Pig Workers who are ex-servicemen and failed to leave their bones on Flanders fields but are decorating park benches with said bones—but ne bonus—will be cheered by a recent news item about the Kaiser and the Kaiser's pig. The Kaiser, you will recall, was the object of billions of cuss-words, and the U. S. mobilized 4,000,000 men to “Get the Kaiser!” Several other little things have intervened, such as the death of those 100,000, a revolution or two, several wars and a couple of worse peaces. In fact, 10,000,000 men were killed !n battle and 30,- 000,000 more people died of famine, disease, ete. But, the Kaiser is still getting along splendidly! And the Kaiser wants his pig. It’s a good story, that pig. Before the war, theKaiser sent a prize pig to an English farm to be cared for. The pig never came back, like those 10,000,000 men. After all the man-killing stopped, the Kaiser; safe in his comfortable retreat at Doorn, Hel- land, wanted his pig back, or its equivalent in cash. The British farmer said the pig had died, killed by one of the Kaiser's airplane bombs, That was a good one, but’ the Kaiser sti! sists, and has entered a claim for the value of pig with the Anglo-German Claims Commissic: as owner of a prize porker against the Briti: government. We don’t recall how many British workers lost their lives in the war, but those who are left ard are now getting wage cuts, will probebly have ce pay for the Kaiser's pig. All of which should teach Workers a lessc.1 about capitalist wars. Unless they turn into a revolution such as that of Soviet Russia, the caj- italist system remains and though the worke-s suffer and die, the capitalist ¢lass, and all the Kaisers, great and small, still want the price of their pigs, ix & eee Paste This In Your Hat We have received from an American worke; ‘* Moscow, the following, which speaks ably fer itself: “Dear Jorge:—I just saw a copy of Red Sparks where you report that the New York Post has exposed the terrible fact that—‘an unseasonal snowfall has come on Moscow and in spite of the fact that the people are freezing, the quthori- ties issued a decree forbidding heat to the suf- fering citizens.’ “It is now the second week in-October. I have been here since July. If there-was a snowfall if must have been in June. “Although it is true that there was some nasty weather the first weeks in October, the Post slightly errs on the decree that .was passed. When the weather turned bad the standing decree that heat would not be turned on until October 15, was modified to state that BEFORE October 15, as long as bad weather persists, the furnaces and stoves would be fired every third day. When one of these big porcelain stoves is“once fired, the heat lasts for two days afterward. On October 15, the firing every day began: “It was cold, I'll admit, but not nearly as cold as the park bench I slept on in New York last winter. “Another thing I would like to pass on to those who: have been. reading, with shivers in their backbones, about the supposed ‘25 roubles. a | pound” boloney here:—I bouzht the best class meat today on my worker's card, nice choice ribs that will roast up as well as‘any cook could wish, for exactly 25 cents a pound. I mean 23 emts figured on the old U. S. gold standard. “We get a good meal for 30-kopecks (about 15 cents U. 0.). We may have™té work hard ana under plenty of difficulties inherited from the past and forced on us by the eap-countries to- day, but if anyone tells-youwe-are starving, or discouraged, rub this under their noses—We are building socialism and will continue to build so- cialism in spite of their liesA Worker in Mos- Music Hath Charms | The board of ‘directors and state presidents ot the National Federation of. ic clubs met at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Oct. 31, and “settled” the unemployment problem, ‘Thus we read an Associated Press dispatch of that date, which starts out: y “Community singing like that during the war / to stimulate the fightng spirit of the American people, was offered President Hoover by the music clubs of the nation as a contribution to unemployment relief.” ‘They sent a wire to Hoover‘ottering “coopera- tion,” and saying that “country-wide songs will dissipate social unrest.” We suggest a few lines of song to “calm _ unrestful souls.” | Sing a song of six-pence, pocket ful! of tricks. _ The “recovery” is but mootishine. And detectives still are dicks, And when the “pie” is opened . . . The “PIE”? . . . Ah, that’s the rub! ‘The “Hoover pie” for your “relict.” 1S A FAT COP’S CLUB! tad mn ‘