The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 12, 1931, Page 4

Page | St. New York es Address and mail al the Comprodaily Publishing Ge, Inc., dally except Qu City, N. Y., Telephone ALgonanin 4- 1 checks to the Daily Worker, 50 East 13th 6. “DATWE Street, New York, N. ¥, at 60 East tk.” Bail pio orker’ runist Party U.S.A SUBSCRIPTION RATES: New York City. Foreign: one year, By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan And Bronx, $8; six months, $4.50, en WHEN WAR COME Inexorable and pitiless, world capitalism is moving into another and more terrible World War. Already the capitalist press is trying to make it appear that it will be “far away” and to make workers believe that it wilt only “give them jobs.” These hellish ghouls lie! The whole world and its entire population—you here in America —will feel the iron heel of military autocra a thousand times more than in the last war— which many of you do not remember. “What will happen? What will I do?” Thes questions run through the brain of every work- er who can foresee only vaguely if at all the storm of blood and carnage confronting his class. The following article is the first of a series (compiled by the Social and Economic Dept. of the Red International of Labor Unions) which give in clear outline, the forecast of what war will bring, the conditions that will ensue and the historic developments that will mark the transformation of the capitalist war into civil war, developments in which every worker will find it necessary to act as an agent of that transformation. Let all understand, then, that the developments which are toda but forecasts, wlil tomorrow be grim realities— which must be faced.—Editor. ARTICLE 1. HE characteristic features of future warfare, which are already becoming more or less clear, can be summed up, fundamentally, as follows: 1, Far-reaching changes have taken place in military technology, due partly to the appearance and development of completely new armaments and partly to the tremendous quantitative growth ahd concentrated action of the older armaments. The scope and scale of this development has been so significant that the great increase in general armaments has opened up new and wider helds of action. All these new developments in military tech- nology have their roots in the changes that have eccurred in the running and organizing of in- Ithough in many cases they are forging ahead of them and are becoming their clearest and most perfect. embodiment These new features can be seen in the tenden- cies known as mass production, mechanization, development of automatic appliances, standard- ization and simplification, developments in the chemical world, and the tremendous development and application of internal combustion engines on all tvansport services, etc. All these indus- trial developments during the so-called rationali- zation period are having a profound effect on all spheres of war and military preparations. As tm the rationalization of industry, the ten- deucy is to increase to a maximum “productivity of labor,” that to increase as far as possibi¢e production” (revd in the present case, cor and devasiation) without increasing the per- sonnel. The outstanding development is to be seen in the fact that, to a grecver extent than the World War of 1914-18, the war of the future will be, so to speak, an example of “mass production” with an unprecedented grouping of basic capital and concentration of myriads of machines and en- gines of war. Expense of War 2. Present-day military developments are dis- tinguished from their counter-part in industry in that war knows do capitalist “over-produc- tion.” War provides, in itself, an almost in- satiable market limited, theOretically, by the ex- haustion of everything that can still destroy and 2xterminate. The expense of war is covered not merely by the accumulated resources of the country Steel Horses ue 7 SECOND TRACTOR GIANT By MYRA PAGE, Foreign Correspondent of the American “DAILY WORKER.” <HARKOV, October 1.—As delegates from all darts of the Soviet Union pour into Kharkov, €apitol of the Ukraine, they find the city busy with the last preparations for tomorrow’s cele- bration. Everywhere banners are up, life-size Posters of red tractors climb the sides of public buildings. The faces of Lenin, Stalin, and other leaders gaze down on the happy populace surg- ing through the streets. Everyone is in an ex- pectant, holiday mood. The rain drizzles, but ‘it makes little difference. For tomorrow, the first Of October will bring forth the fruits of fiteen months of intensive macs labor. For tomorrow, tie first of October will bring forth the fruits of fifteen months of intensive mass labor. Tomorrow wil witn the opening of Kharkov's monster tvacte of the Five- Year Plan. In the public square aero; we are staying a group of workmen Vv rearing @ huge wooden structure. Their hammers ring far ‘into the night. By mor their task is completed. _A gigantic pe ow rides his tractor through the square while in front of him strides the powerful figure of a worker. Jead- in® the way towards socialism ar ‘That is what the tractor plant rainia’s toiling: millions—the gr ce on sccialism that they have made since they drove out*the last of the enemy troops and set up their own Soviet) Republic. ‘The Civil War over, the*workers found they had to take un the ficht on’a new front. They had won freedom from their oppressors, now they must plit an end to their country’s paverty and build factories and rafiroads. Millions of Ukrainian peasants still tilling the soil with wooden plows, each for him- self, and living like beasts, must be turned from their old ways. They must Jeayn to live and wor the land collectively. This meant farm machinery, tractors, “steel horses” to work the land. } Sof fifteen months ago the Kharkov Tractor Gasit vas begun. From the very beginning there Yoremany difficulties. The first question was where to get the necessary labor? For this plant which was to cover six square miles and pro- duce 50,000 tractors a year, was but one of 518 now plants being built during the third year of {a> ‘Five-Year Plan of Socialist construction. ‘Under the Ozar there had been few skilled work- ene. the overwhelming majority of the toiling | with a grinding down of living standards to a | minimum and increased exploitation of the working masses, but places a grievous burden on future generations. In war time there is a con- stant lack of armaments, ammunition, etc.; there is no “surplus” production, no “over-develop- ment” of the industrial apparatus, which is such @ prominent feature of modern capitalism. 3. Hence, mechanization, rationalization and other similar developments in war technology do not during war lead (as observed in capitalist industry today in the chief countries) to a re- duction of the absolute quantity of “labor power” used, e. g., the warring armies, but, on the con- trary, no matter what increased “productivity” is shown by each individual soldier or group of soldiers, this growth tends to increase the quan- tity of armaments and, consequently, the man- | power engaged In spite of all the theories (and many of the hopes and illusions of the automobile, aviation, chemical and other “Pullerisis’ Gcer.ing & e | theory of a writer named Fuller, who tries to make war “pleasant” by saying it will be fought by machines, and not by men) the wars of the future will be mass wars on a greater scale than | the war of 1914-1918, for the whole of the able- bodied population will be involved. 4. The mass wars of the future will require a great apparatus, and, first and foremost, mass production with supply, transport and commu- nications organized on a similar scale. This apparatus is of necessity so closely in- terwoven in the very fabric of the whole national economy that one can truly say that they are insolubly merged. | The whole of the able-bodied adult population | Will be called upon to shoulder arms. All will be | involved, women, juniors, invalids and wounded men who have recovered; while various groups of “irreplaceable” highly skilled workers will be employed on war supplies in the factories, in the counting houses, in agriculture and trans- port. In the wars of the future such work for war needs will not only be considered just as important as the actual fighting at the front, but if anything will be considered even more im- j | portant as having a decisive bearing on the out- come of the war. Mobilization of Industry. From the military point of view there is hardly any substantial difference between a soldier handling his rifle and the worker or woman worker employed producing the rifle or the raw materials, semi-manufactures, fuel and food sup- ply, ete. essential for the prosecution of war. | The breakdown of any of these services will, one and all, benefit the enemy who is therefore out to drive his advantage home. As know, the very character of military operations (especially when waged by means of air-craft, submarine, chemistry and bacteriology) will strike the “peaceful” population just as hard as the men in the front lines. Today, the “peace- ful’, population can, be “got at’ and destroyed despite all the barriers set up, no matter how well-equipped, in spite of all the fronts. ‘The line of the demarcation between the army and the civil population which several military experts frankly admitted had “been worn dan- gerously thin during the last war,” will be prac- tically completely wiped away during the war of the, future, for war operations will inevitably in- volve every family, every economic unit, every individual. ‘The significance of what bourgeois writers call the “moral” condition of the trodps and popula- tion, is therefore clear. All progressive military experts now include the “general mood” and other “imponderables” in the so-called “poten- tials” of war, regarding this to.be one of the most important factors. : (To Be Continued.) | tor the Soviet OF THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN { Population had remained ignorant peasants. A | nucleus of skilled workers, among them a hun- dred Communists, was recruited from the Don Bas coal region, from Moscow and Leningrad workshops. The rest of the 20,000 builders were raw peasants straight from the land who had never been inside a factory, nor seen a tractor. Many of them came to work with the one idea of saving enough to buy a horsef and then re- turning to the village. The Communist workers at the plant had to work day and night not only jat laying bricks and rearing walls but also in enlightening the backward villagers as to the great significance of the Kharkov plant. ‘The raw workers unwittingly spoiled materials. There were other difficulties. Oftentimes building sup- plies gave out, and precious hours had to be wasted until fresh supplies arrived. Rainy weather gave way to snow and biting cold. Yet bit by bit the plant grew. The best workers or- ganized themselyes into shock brigades, to storm | the difficulties, train the less skilled, and get the plant ready in record time. Detachments from the Red Army, groups of young Comsomols came | on their free days to help in the work. Then the enemies of socialist. construction, especially: the rich peasants who realized that the coming of | steel horses and collective farms spelied the doom of their tyranny in the villages, decided to do their worst, In the night they set fire to the | tractor giant. Another time they cut all the electric wires, Nevertheless, due to the workers’ untiring de- termination: and their splendid collective labor, the Kharkov plant was finished on schedule, and its light, spacious sheds equipped with the latest machinery, also a model socialist city to house the 16,000 workers who will man the plant was near completion. Now it was October first 1931. At last the Kharkov tractor workers are able to present to the Ukrainian toilers ,and to. the entire Soviet Union their outstanding contribution. to the ful- filiment of the Five-Year Plan. They have in- vited six hundred delegates to celebrate the as- embling of the first tractor with, them—workers from Stalingrad, Moseow, Leningrad, the Don Bas, | members of collective tarms, government officials, scientists, a revolutionary poet, and represen- tatives from the Red Army detachments which aided in the work. Also because the Soviet work- ers know that they are building socialism not for themselves alone but for the workers of the en- tire world, and because they want the workers WHO BENEFITS BY WAR By BURCK | on the face of the workers, of America and other) countires to understand | better what the tasks and achievements of their Russian brothers are, the Kharkov workers, through their revolutionary union invited” the foreign correspondents of the British and the American “Dally Worker” to take part in the celebration. We arrive at the plant. Endless lines of men, women and children, carrying banners, singing, march to the entrance of the great Giant. Over- head two Soviet aeroplanes soar, dropping the revolutionary poet’s greeting to the Kharkov works. ‘The rain pours down. ‘The rich earth of Ukrainia Gives off rivers of black mud: Yet the workers, unheeding, stand pressed together, listening eagerly to Petrovsky, chairman of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union end of the Central Committee of the Ukraine, to the Red director of the tractor works; a Moscow worker, and others. Greetings are read from | Stalin who hails the Kharkov plant in the name of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as “an example of real Bolshevik tempo.” The “International” is sung, again and again. As I study the alert, rain-splashed faces of the mass pressed around the stand I recall work- ers in the United States alsé standing packed together in the rain, listening intently. “The look on their faces, was far different from this. For they were unemployed workers, grown des- perate from hunger, coal miners. striking against Mellon’s rule of starvation . . . In capitalist-run America, misery, sullen shame, a growing revolt .In workers’ Russia, @ look of confidence, a sense of comradeship, which is based on the truth that Stalin recently expressed—“Labor in our country today is an honor.” : We enter the plant to see the first tractor assembled. The masses’ enthusiasm reaches a- high pitch, there is a tremendous push forward. “Comrades—comrades!” the guards warn. Order is quickly maintained, for Soviet toilers know how to discipline themselves. ‘The conveyor moves. A salute by the artillery, shouts of hurrah, singing of the ‘‘Internationale,” and the first tractor, driven by the best shock brigade, Marusia Tugeva, comes off the conveyor. Every six minutes the Kharkoy tractor giant will give forth a steel horse for the use of col- lective and state farms. Its yearly output of 50,000 tractors of the International Harvester type will match that of its brother plant at Stalingrad. The workers’ socialist town growing up near the plant already has row on row of modern school where the youth will receive free ped witha large, free hospital, nurseries where working mothers can leave their children during the day, moving pictures, stores, theatres, and a modern schol where the youth will receive free hot lunches, shoes and warm clothing. The Trade Union, to which 87 per cent of the workers already belong, has set aside an initial sum of twenty thousand roubles for these free lunches in the school. (A ruble is about 52 cents), Another fifty thousand. roubles has been assigned for mass cultural work. A huge community kitchen is being built which will serve 100,000 two-course meals a day at a cost of about 15 cents a person. Working a seven-hour day, with every fifth day a rest day, the 10,000 workers now employed at the plant, (which is not yet running to full capacity.) average from 200 to 250 rubles a month. Some of the best earn as high as 600 and 700 rubles. Among the high skilled are more than 130 foreign-born workers—Czechs, Germans, Americans and others. ‘The American workers, about whom I will write more later, are on the whole enthusiastic about life and work here. As one skilled fitter told us with a twinkle in his eye, “I worker for Ford for seventeen years in Detroit, but I’d never seen what I have now, since I've been here. What I admire most is the way everybody likes to work. You see, we have no boss, We work all together, like, for ourselves. That's the way it'll have to be in the United States, too, some day—all to- gether, and no more boss.” CORRECTION In the Daily Worker of Wednesday, a mistake was made in the article on page 4 by A. Burov on “The Working Class in the U.S.S.R.” in say- ing that “The entire functioning body of the Soviet trade unions consist of over 13,600,000 members.” This should have beer 3,600,000, the number of what are called “actives,” among the total membership of 14,000,000 members, \ THE STRUGGLE OF THE JOB- LESS WORKERS IN NEW KENSINGTON, PA. By REBECCA GRECHT HE struggie of the unemployed workers in New Kensington and Artold has given striking evidence of the militant mood, the rising spirit of resistance of the masses of workers suffering under the intolerable burden of unemployment and wage-cuts. The twin boroughs of New Kensington and Arnoid constitute the principal industrial center of the Allegheny Valley—scene of turbulent bat- tle in the recent strike of 40,000 coal miners in Western Pennsylvania, Blacklisted and tinem- ployed miners, driven out of the mines surround- ing New Kensington, form a large part of the population, Here also is the home of Mellon’s American Aluminum Company, which presented its workers, whose living standards had already fallen heavily through part-time employment and indirect wage reductions, with a 10 per cent wage-cut on October 1. The campaign for immediate unemployment relief begun under the leadership of the Com- munist Party and the Unemployed Council, met with immediate stirring response. Within one week, the workers of New Kensington were mob- ilized in the biggest demonstration. at the Boro Council building the town had ever seen. The masses took possession of the séreets, and com- pelled the Boro Council to listen io the demands of the committee of unemployed wovkers. Dur- ing the week following, as it became clear that the movement was involving ever greater num- bers of Negro and white workers, united in com- mon struggle, the governing bodies of New Ken- sington and Arnold, dominated by the coal oper- ators and the aluminum trust, commenced a Policy of terror in their efforts to crush the un- employed workers and smash the Unemployed Council and the Communist Party. A second demonstration for unemployment re- lief+was brutally attacked by the police. For several hours the workers battled with the police, who, armed with tear gas bombs, clubs, and guns ready for action, failed to drive the workers off the streets. The headquarters of the Unemployed Council and the National Miners Union in New Kensington were boarded up, The headquarters of the Communist Party in Arnold were raided and three leading local Communists arrested. Threats of arrests, imprisonment, flooded the towns, and an atmosphere of sharpest terror was deliberately created in the attempt to disorganize the fighting ranks of the workers. A significant feature of the attack upon the unemployed and the National Miners Union was the active participation of Governor Pinchot’s state troopers. 'Thus, while Pinchot. makes dema- gogic pledges fur unemployed relief, his state troopers attack the unemployed workers when they demonstrate for bread and express their determination to fight for their demands. The Communist Party and the Unemployed Council reacted immediately to these sitacks with further mass mobilizal‘ca of the workers in protest demonstrations Hoth in New Kensing- ton and Arnold, which became demonstrations of the workers of Allegheny Valley against the ter- ror and for the .ight to organize and fight against unemployment and wage cuts. Through this action, the terror drive was checked, and the basis laid for developing a more intensive campaign for unemployment relief. Events in New Kensington and Arnold have clearly revealed the growing influence of our Party in Allegheny Valley—an influence that is based on actual leadership of the struggles of the workers, as in the recent coal miners strike. ‘The fact that through their mass pressure the workers compelled the Boro Council to take some relief action for the first time making an im- mediate appropriation of $10,000 for relief, issu- ing an order to the Sheriff that theve shall be no evictions during the winter for non-payment of rent—showed that it is possible to force con- cessions from the capitalist. government. through determined, militant mass struggle, and encour- aged the workers to continue the fight forall their demandse Furthermore, the fight against the terror drive’ has been especially significant for the whole of Western Pennsylvania, where the growing in- fluence of the Communist Party and the revo- lutionary unions — the Natiousl Mirers Union and the Metal Workers Industrial League, as well as the developing movement of the unemployed has led to a sharpening terror against the en- tire revolutionary movement, expressing itself in raids on local Communist headquarters, the im- prisonment of active leaders of the National Miners Union, the breaking up of meetings of the unemployed and the Communist Party. The %| method of struggle against capitalist terror ‘in New Kensington and Arnold has demonstrated that only mass actions, mass protests, mass mob- ilization of the workers for immediate counter- attack can check this attempt of the steel and coal trusts to prevent struggle against wage-cuts and for unemployment relief by crushing the Jeadersiup of the workers—the Communist Par- ty and the revolutionary unions. A number of weaknesses, however, have ap~ peared in the activities in New Kensington. Or- ganizational consolidation of the unemployed movement proceeded too slowly—it is only dur- ing the recent week that functioning block com- mittees have been established. There was not @ quick enough follow-up in the unemployment struggle, for example through demands and de- monstrations of women and children for free food and clothing for the children of unemployed and part-time workers, through concrete strug- gle against the shutting off of gas and water of individual families. There was delay in follow- ing up’and exposing the relief gestures of the local governments, and insufficient activity car- ried on to unite unemployed with employed and part-time. workers through special agitation among the aluminum workers, the miners, the worker in the glass factory. Furthermore, the Party membership in New Kensington and Arn- old were insufficiently involved in the struggle, thus narrowing the base of the leadership of the movement. ‘These weaknesses are in large part due to the difficulties of growth faced by the movement in the Allegheny Valley—the shortage of cadre and trained forces; the inexperience of the Party members, most of whom have but recently joined. Tf is necessary, however, to take decisive mea- sures to overcome these weaknesses, to check any further lagging behind the militant mood of the masses. Preparations are now on the way for the West-~ moreland County Hunger March to Greensburg on November 17, to present the demands of the unemployed workers to the County Commis- sioners. This hunger march must,be the occa- sion for a wider and more intensive mobilization of the workers in and around New Kensington as well as other sections of the County on the basis of the struggle for immediate unemploy- ment relief to be paid by the government and the bosses and administered by the workers through,the Unemployed. Councils. The aim ct the government to further lower living standards by forcing the employed and part-time workers to bear the burden of unemployment relief while the profits of the captialist class remain intact, must be exposed, and the demand for unemploy- ment insurance brought more sharply to the front. ~ The National Miners Union, the Metal Work- ers Industrial League, must rally the miners, steel and metal workers behind the county hun- ger march, developing mass actions in mining and stcel localities in the county. t We must strengthen and consolidate the Party organization in New Kensington and carry on an active recruiting campaign to build the Party in Westmoreland County as a basic parteof the Hunger March activities. The county Hunger March must become a rousing call to the work- ers of the entire county for support and par- ticipation in the National Hunger March to Washington on December 7. And it Is the task of the Party, throughout all further struggles of the umemployed in Western Sie “Vote For Me” ‘| A little picture of how much “above” the workers are the capitalist politicians, was gives us by Helen Kay, who sent in an election came patgn circular issued by a capitalist candidate for County Commissioner in Washington County, Pa., where the most brutal strike-breaking tool. place. This candidate, J. W. Manon, addresses “My, ‘Taxpayer,” and gives his program, beginning with: “A safe, conservative business administra tton,” and “repairs on improved roads,” down t# “taxes be reduced” and “no increase of bonded indebtedness.” What did it matter that two women 6f Avella, ¢Pa., died in childbirth because they were tod weak and starved to bear child—and the babies also died! No, “a safe and conservative ade ministration” that would not raise taxes on the coal companies to feed these starving mothers of babes starved to death in their mothers’ wombs? Great gods! “One was a Negro working class mother, whose miner husband worked in the P. & W. mine of the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company, which was under control of the United Mine Workers of America, the A. F. of L. company uhion, for 90 days—long enough to break the strike. ‘Then it was closed down and the miners are starving,” writes Helen Kay. we But what does that mean to a capitalist polle ticlan? Less than nothing! “A County Come missioner should be a business man,” said het Meaning, “A County Commissioner should be @ rattlesnake, that is, a servant of the coal oper- ators against the workers!” Well, we . . . No, we give up! We're toomad to speak! Cameco eae Mobilized God For War It has already begun, both the war and the mobilization. In New York on Sunday, Nov. 8, a parade of decidedly military nature went up Fifth Avenue, and ended with the ¢eremony called “massing of the colors” in the “Church of the Heavenly Rest” in its “Chapel of the Be- loved Disciple.” Very splendiforous! The printed program we have bristles with a row of Brigadier Generals and Rear Admitals, sandwiched in between Rev- erends and prayers, Oh, yes, all led by the N. Y. Police Band. It was a sight for ante-diluvian eyes! * And ears! Inside the House of the Prince of Peace there arose the alarms of war! War is coming, ’twas admitted, even boasted. And i% is “inevitable’—take due note you doubters! ‘This from the pastor who opened the war ery with @ prayer: “Almighty God, our heavenly Father, , guide, we besééth Thee, the Nations of. the world unte the way of Justice truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit righteousness . . .” etc. zs At the same time the Japanese Shintoists were dropping shells into Tientsin, Briand was dodg- Ing between publicly “insisting on peace” ang privately inciting war, and Stimson was ing on Japan to attack the Soviet Union advising U. S. Troops in China not to let Japanese grab what Wall Street wants in Rear Admiral W. W. Phelps lectured on ornery some people use the Stars and Str; but failed to say that on the printed program itself the flag was faced right instead of left as according to divine military instruction, and had only 45 stars. ' i Some more prayers, the oath of allegiance te the flag, and then the Police Band played “On- ward Christian Soldiers” and the entire audience of holy mass ramrderers was ready to sacrifice the last American worker to uphold God, Hoover and J. P. Morgan, Crazy Land Somebody dropped a little clipping on our desk, that we opine might be worth g It is called “Crazy Land”; and it is signed by Samuel S. Sampson of Chicago: Have you ever been to Crazy Land, Down on the Looney Pike? ‘There are the queerest people there, ‘You never saw the like. For those who do the useful work Are poor @s poor can be, While those who are the idlers All live in luxury. ‘They raise so much in Crazy Larid, Of food and clothes and such, ‘That those who raise them starve to death Because they raise “too much”! ~Where Did They Get That?: We speak of thu funny notion of a Party unit out in the Buffalo grass country, that—according to our informa- tion—keeps an old time revolutionary, who long ago quit the fake “socialists” and voted Com- munist in 1924 and 1928, out of the Party be- cause he “has a good education, and can speak and write with ease—therefore he belongs to the intelligensia,” etc. How do they get that way? The Party, of course, wants workers, but it. doesn’t reject the intelligensia when they place themselves devotedly at the service of the Party. And, as we understand it, this particular chap, like most of the intellectuals these days, hasn't. been able to cash his education and has to work very much like the rest of us. Concentrate A Little: You New York folks who might have or lay hold of a stove for the Merine Workers’ Industrial Union hall, should remem- ber that the marine industry is one of the heayy concentration points, and try to help the mare ineros out. Besides that, there are (ncluding the union secretary) some mattresses and blankets, has become too cold to sleep on keep these boys from becoming “frozen Drop a line to the union at 140 tell ‘em what you can do, down! 4 ivbezt employed and employed, a clearer understand- ing of the role of the capitalist government: to utilize the lessons of the local and county ele¢- tions that have just taken piace for the Purpose of exposing bourgeois democracy in the struggle ‘