The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 27, 1931, Page 4

Four th § Ne i Address and Po ge datiy except n 4-7956, mail ali checke.to the Dally es 50 East 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. THE NATIONAL HUNGER MARCH AND THE MINERS OF PENNSYLVANIA VINCENT KEMENOVICH. is known as one of the of the capitatist eco- ess dates back to the the first industry to By industry wa ation, r industries were still em- workers by tens of thou- industry, according to the wis, there were 250,000 miners that period there was still over loyed in the Bituminous 000 in the Anthracite industry. hen. due to the intense speed-up, mass narrowi down of the this number was lowered to xiners for 1930, or a half The Key State. key Bituminous coal pro- ployed nearly a quarter of a ituminous fields. Now d below the 100,000 mark. the Pennsylvania The , the production was i in 1930, it tons. production 1 tons. But in the two 1930-1931, the production fell by an 090 tons, lowering the production xi by 5,000 tons. This crisis, because the the busiest months last few days of the hen the final spurt for this e orders for the win- the peak large mine is or both, and the num- produce this tonnage is mber required in 1923 hand. in order to keep up the large numbers of men, aes in order to support this mple, the H. C. Frick, a S. Steel, works their single rs (those not renting the com- and lays them off the ince a majority of its mines > ie to two days a week, these get three to feur days work a on the other hand, gives 2 to three miners, and since it more tl:an two men to work in , it means that every third working day ny- Son day for one of the men. Coal, Hillman, etc., have the s” work. That is, the mine icially, but special sections or ly the conveyor and machine load- ese days. Since these groups pro- of twice and three times as the hand loading method, it is of the 100,000 that are still ‘ity get only a few days’ work best periods, and practically no ne slack period. this, the wages of the miners have n and again, and it is safe to through the cuts, new methods of pro- duction, rationalization ,etc., the earnings of the mirers have been reduced 75 to 80 per cent, and the starvation of the unemployed is equalled only by “se starvation of the “employed.” Coal Company “Relief.” What are the corporations doing to help the unemployed? The Pittsburgh Coal Company taxes, out of the starvation wages of those who are employed, $1 a day and gives relief in the ible fo form of food to the unemployed. Of course, the food is bought through the company store at robbers’ prices. H. C. Frick gives “relief” to the unemployed, who in turn must give the company the titles to their autos and deeds of their property. Other companies refuse to do even this much. Local Government “Relief.” What is the government doing? The local township, borough and county governments are doing practically nothing. The township offi- cials generally claim that they have no money. The borough governments claim they can only help the residents of the borough, while the counties claim poverty. Only in counties where we carried on sharp struggles (Washington) the county is paying $1 to $1.50 to a person per month. This starvation relief is given in the form of an order upon a store selected by the county representative and in a great majority of cases, the prices are equal to the company store prices. The workers receiving this relief must accept what is given to them, and not wha‘ they want. Forced Labor Under Pinchot. The State Government under the “liberal” Pin- chot is proposing a special tax upon gasoline, autos, cigarettes, etc., commodities that workers use in the main. The revenues thus raised will be spent by employing the unemployed upon the tate roads. These unemployed and their fam- ilies will be forced to leave their homes and live in the road camps, work for non-union ges, and live under the worst slave conditions. ‘They talk about forced labor in the Soviet Union but we have it under our democratic form of government with a “friend of labor” at the helm. UMWA Aids Starvation Program. The A. F. of L. unions, and mainly the UMWA, have given their unstinted cooperation to the program of the bosses and the government in placing the entire burden of the crisis upon the backs of the workers, It was the UMWA that atte d to lead a new 15 per cent wage cut in the Tcrminal mines, in order to outscab the cabs. In all the struggles of the miners, it is the holy trinity of the corporation, the state, and the UMWA tha@ the miners must fight. We were able to organize two county hunger | marches that involved over 50,000 workers dur- ing the last strike. Since then, on October 17th, marches were organized in Fayette and West- moreland counties with nearly 20,000 participat- ing. The miners are fighting on every front. Mass Support For Hunger March. Due to our struggles for the unemployed, we were able to approach organizations to support the National Hunger March whom we never could speak to before. We got delegates and funds for the National Hunger March from or- ganizations formerly controlled by the Socialists. All the United Front Conferences held up to now were successful, and the delegates elected to go to Washington, D. C., represents the employed and unemployed Negroes, youth and women. There were some weaknesses observed in the course of the work, such as: 1. Insufficient attention to the setting up of the hunger march committees by the local unions and sections of the union. 2. Lack of an organized drive to penetrate into the Negro organizations. 3. Insufficient attention to the youth de- mands. 4. Failure to immediately set up Unemployed Councils based on delegates from all working class organizations, thus limiting the work to purely union forces. 5. Insufficient linking up of the demands of the unemployed with the struggles of the em- ployed workers. 6. No district NMU leaflet dealing with the National Hunger March. 7. Slowness in raising finances. However, these weaknesses and shortcomings are being overcome, and the Pennsylvania min- ers stand in the front ranks of the workers in the support of the National Hunger March and the struggle for the Social Insurance. Economic Conditions Among Agri- cultural Workers in the State of Washington A Survey by William Ferguson. I HAVE been busy during the last several months distributing literature, the greater part of my time among the farmers, I have been a farmer myself most of my life and I understand the farmers’ problems pretty thoroughly. I find that the farmers are more anxious to read and to study, more anxious to organize than the city slaves. This condition is more prevalent nong the foreign-born men and women on the ms than it is among the American-born. Conditions are simply rotten; the farmers, as ule, are absolutely without money, Eggs and r are down in price to such an extent that mers cannot pay interest or taxes on veir farms, While the farmers in the grain belt 2% Washington) had the grain in their own possession it was real cheap, But as soon as they sold it in order to pay their debts (taxes, tnortgages, etc.) then the price of grain started to increase; and the chicken farmers and dairy- men had to pay a lot more for necessary feed, grain and hay. The farmers on the coast cannot even make ® living cutting wood, but those east of the mountains (Eastern Washington) must pay $10 # cord or more for an inferior grade of wood. Post cutters here get 2 or 3 cents a post for cut~ ling, the owner gets 4 or 5 cents, while the Jarmer in Eastern Washington must pay 20 to 30 cents for small posts, The Dexter Horton Bank of Seattle owns a hog ranch near Richmond, Wash., about five miles from Seattle. They keep 5-ton trucks haul- ing bread from Seattle to the hog ranch to feed the hogs, while great numbers of the farmers cannot even buy bread for their children. Farmers have paid excessively high prices for uncleared land, and now that they have the stumps all cleared off, good buildings up, they cannot borrow half the original price that the end cost them and in many instances have been ed from their homes for non-payment of t ~ ip this way increasing the army of star- = ood unemployed \ 1 Many of the small farmers try to exist by get- ting work in the small country saw mills, which are, however, owned by big mill and timber com- panies. In two such cases, namely, the Preston Mill, is running on an average of about three days a week with a partial crew and pays $2 a day. The Preston Mill, however, has not paid its employes since August of this year, and the Monahan Mill is working half day shifts at 90 cents a shift, Many of the farmers have to come @ good many miles to get this lousy 90 cents and have to catch fish in the creeks and get illicit deer to help out on their living. In one district east of the mountains 150 grain farmers have been compelled to leave their farms, and machinery is still left in the fields and their horses are roaming the range. In spite of all these rotten conditions the farmers are anxious to organize, to read and study, and they want organizers to go among them to speak to them and especially to sell and distribute literature. -I believe that the Party is passing up the greatest opportunity in the world by neglecting to organize the farmers. There is a great need of sincere and patient work among the farmers. We seem to have lost sight of the fact, that many of the farmers’ boys are in the army and the navy, and, also, in neglecting the work among the farmers, the Party is neglecting its work in the small towns in which most of the farmers do their buying. Then, too, a large number of small storekeep- ers, barber shops, gas stations and small garages are fruitful places to do a lot of good work. The greatest sacrifice literature agents have to put up with is a lot of walking during the day, but most of the farmers are willing to feed a litera- ture agent and give him a bed and help him with useful information and any other means in their power, To sum up the whole thing, I think that we must show more spirit of willingness to sacrifice for the good of the revolutionary movement, It is absolutely necessary that we help the farm- ers to organize. “The measure of passing adversity which has come upon us should deepen tke spiritual life of the people.” — By mat) everywhere: On of Manhatian and Bronx, New York City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ar, $6; six months, $3; Foreign: two months, $1; one year, excepting Boroughs $8; six months, $4.50 By BURCK Hooyer’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Agitators’ and Propagandists’ Column Railroad Profits | & Wage Cuts By LABOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. IN trying to weaken the railroad workers’ re- sistance to wage cuts by telling “hard-luck” stories about railroad capital, railroad and union _ officials are keeping very quiet about the high profits gathered in by the railroads during the boom years before the present crisis. Total oper-. ating revenues were climbing and a steadily ex- panding slice was taken out by the capitalist class. The record of what happened to the workers and what happened to the capitalists during “prosperity” is important as background to the present wage cutting campaign in the railroad industry. Workers remember well the crisis of 1921, when in the course of two years about 400,000 railroad workers were displaced, wage rates were slashed twice—with the approval of government boards and boss serving union officials—and the total railroad payroll was cut by more than $1,000,000,000. Shop workers resisted in the “out- law” strike of 1922, which was defeated by a combination of reactionary union officials to labor betrayers, and a water-tight anti-strike injunction. This cleared the way for the boom, with rising profits and further decrease in the number of workers. High-salaried executives increased; the number of minor executives on daily pay re- mained about the same; but the number of workers paid by the hour went down from an average of 1,630,439 in 1924 to an average of 1,539,385 im 1929. Operating revenues were pushed up and operating expenses were pushed down. “Other income” from non-allroad in- vestments held by the railroad corporations also increased. So more money was available and most of it went to the capitalist class. Spokesmen for the capitalists point out that the average hourly wage paid went up from 59.7 cents in 1924 to 63.7 cents in 1929. ‘They are not so fond of mentioning that since fewer workers were employed the total payroll of hourly work- ers increased less than 2 per cent. And they keep very quiet about the much greater increases that, went to the capitalist class. The payroll of highly paid executives increased nearly 13 per cent and the total paid in interest on railroad bonds plus dividends on railroad stocks increased nearly 15 per cent, Partly the increase in dividends reflected an increase in capital investment, but most of the big systems were paying the stockholders a rising dividend rate on each share of stock. For example: The New York Central Railroad Co., which has taken the lead now in asking for a “volun- tary” wage cut, pushed its dividend rate up from 5 per cent in 1922 to 6 per cent, then 7 and 7} per cent, From 1928 to 1930 inclusive it paid 8 per cent, or $8 on each $100 par value share of stock, ‘The Pennsylvania Railroad pushed its dividend rate up gradually from 4!% per cent in 1921 and 1922 to 7 per cent in 1928. The rate.was raised again to an 8 per cent yearly basis in the spring of 1929 and this rate was maintained through the first two quarters of 1931. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, one of the largest and most solidly prosperous systems in the United States, pushed up from 6 per cent to 10 per cent, and this rate has been carried through 1931. Many other examples could be given. After the crash, the Class 1 railroads together paid a larger total in dividends in 1930 than in 1929. Some companies paid their 1930 dividends partly from accumulated surplus, but taking the group as a whole, they not only paid dividends but added $335,633,000 to surplus. For 19311, figures are still very incomplete. But the Wall Street Journal reports that of 30 major systems, 20 are clearing some net profit (after payment of bond interest and other so-called fixed charges), and 9 are still egening enough to cover after a strike is over the workers arrested dur- ing the strike are dealt with less severely by the capitalist courts. But not so during the recent Strike of 45,000 coal miners. During the last month Tom Myerscough, Leo Thompson, Adam Ghetto, Bob Young, Stella Rasefsky and 24 other minexs were sentenced to long terms in Blawnox Penitentiary on charges resulting from the strike, Scores of others were sentenced to smaller terms to the different county jails ‘The reasons for this unusual severity of the bosses are many, but the most important reason is that the coal barons know that the last strike did not defeat the miners, that the miners came out from the strike with a strong National Min- ers’ Union. The incident in the Pittsburgh Ter- minal, where the coal owners admitted that in spite of the full co-operation that the U. M. W. are willing to give them, they can’t put over their wage-cutting policy, because the miners will follow the leadership of the N.M.U., is an in- dication to what extent the N.M.U. has the con- fidence of the miners. In New Kensington Governor Pinchot’s state Police raided the N-M.U, headquarters and closed up the hall. It was only because of the mass struggle that the workers of New Kensington put up that the authorities were forced to re- open the miners’ hall. In Brownsville the N.M.U. headquarters were raided by the state and federal police, and the unton organizer, Philip Giambatista, arrested and is being held on deportation charges. In Cannonsburgh the police raided the N.M.U: headquarters and arersted three workers, rail- roading Joe Murphy to 60 days to the Blawnox Workhouse on the flimsy charge of vagrancy and the two others to five days on charges of gambling because they had raffle tickets with them, In Pittsburgh a public hearing of the Unemployed was raided, the workers driven out of the hall and six workers arrested. ‘Through- out Washington County the hall keepers were warned by the state police that they would rent no hall to the N.M.U: or any other workers’ or- ganization. ‘Throughout the mine fields the workers are beginning to conduct splendid fights for the right to organize—to meet—to strike and picket. New Kensington is a good example of the fighting spirit of the workers. The hunger marchers in Fayette County, where 15,000 workers linked up their demand for relief with the demand to free Giambatista, Tom Myerscough, Leo Thomp:on, Tom Mooney and all other class-war prisoners, is another example, their present dividend rates. Most of them have cut dividends, bu only 7 haye stopped dividend payments. Jar and unbroken income for themselves shalt at any cost to the workers be drawn off frum the value created by the working class, this is a serious crisis! Large profits paid out to them through 1930 do not satisfy the investors today. ‘They insist that workers must be made to carry the whole burden of stagnant industry. But without ope and general wage cuts, the burden already laid upon the railroad workers has been unbearable. August and July are the months of heaviest railroad employment. Com- pare August, 1931, with August of 1930 and 1929: Hourly Workers on Class 1 Railroads—August. Number employed Index 1929 » 1,635,025 100 1930 « 1,395,695 85. 1931 1,179,722 12 Month’s payroll Index 1929 $231,355,000 100 1930 .. «+ 188,260,000 81 1931 153,416,000 66 In 1930, when capital was drawing a larger in- come than in 1929, the railroad workers’ pay- roll went down: by 12 per cent for the year as @ whole, and by 19 per cent in the busiest month. By August, 1931, over one-fourth of the work- ers were jobless and the workers’ payroll had rene down by one-third below the August figure for 1929, 5 'T is the usual proceedure of the capitalists that For the capitalists, who demand that a regue * The I. L. D. Demands the Release of Miners Jailed for Strike Activity The International Labor Defense is at present calling Amnesty Conferences in preparation for a stete conference to be held in Harrisburgh in January that will expose the hypocritical role of Governor Pinchot and broaden out the struggle for the release of the working class prisoners in Pennsylvania as well as all other class war pris- oners. For a Mass Circulation of the “Liberator” in the Fight for Negro Rights UR fron’ of struggle for Negro rights widens. The drive for 10,000 new readers and the cir- culation increase of the Liberator goes hand in hand with our daily struggles for Negro rights. The lynch masters, the profit-greedy bosses, are increasing and sharpening their bloody weapons of struggle. The workers, both white and Negro, must increase and improve their weapons of struggle. The Liberator is an indis- penible weapon in organizing the Negro and white workers for joint struggles for the defense of Negro rights, for the National Liberation movement of the Negro people. The growing terror against the Negro masses is being fought by the white and Negro work- ers: The massacre of the Chicago and Cleveland unemployed did not go by unchallenged. The sacrifice of these workers was not in vain. The heroic fight of the share croppers in the South demonstrated to the Southern white lafdlords that the Southern Negroes will defend them- selves against the attacks of their masters. The fight for the freedom of the Scottsboro boys has thrown panic into the ranks of the white ruling class and their tools—the Negro bourgeoisie. Why? Because for the first time, on a nation- wide basis—in fact, on an international basis, the white workers, under Communist leadership, fight for the rights of the Negro masses, an op- pressed people. These struggles open up new pages in the his- tory of the Negro peop >. In these struggles the white workers, for the first time, have demon- strated on a mass scale that they are beginning to part with race prejudice, the pride of Amer- ican “civilization” which stinks of the old slave market, But these struggles are the mere be- ginnings. Lynchings are on the increase, Jim- Crowism is being extended and widened. Pov- erty, misery, disease, are increasing daily. The Jot of the Negro share-croppers in the South is getting worse than that under slavery conditions. The bosses, bankers and landlords are increasing their lynch terror in order to silence the Negro masses. They increase their poisonous propa- ganda of antagonism against the Negro race, thus hoping to prevent the white workers from defending their Negro brothers from the mur- derous ©‘tacks of their common enemy We are weak in our Sight because we lack a mass organ which VOICES the grievances of an oppressed Negro nation—an organ which cleanses the white workers’ minds of the bccc7s’ retten idea, that his Negro brother is inferior to him. We must build a paper which will unite the Negro and white workers in the daily fight against lynch- ings and discrimination, on the job, in the neigh- borhood, etc. Above all, we need a paper which will become an ORGANIZER in our struggle for Negro, rights. Can we with a clear conscience say that the Liberator, with its present circula- tion, can fulfill the task and duty of an AGI- TATOR and ORGANIZER in the National Lib- eration movement in the fight against race pre- judice? By no means. The drive for 10,000 new readers of the Lib- erator must, therefore, be considered as a major campaign in our struggle for Negro rights, and every worker, Negro and white, should dis- tribute the Liberator, sell the Liberator, butld the Liberator in the shops, the trade unions and in ete By JORGE A Rogues’ Gallery Readers of this column might strain a point the coming week by looking at the rest of the paper, most particularly the front page, where, We are informed, a daily item will be pictures and pedigrees from a Rogues’ Gallezy of carica- tures (drawn by Hugo Gellert) of members of the Hoover-Gifford Commission for the salva- tion of downtrodden millionaires from the grasp- ing demands of the lower clawsses. The series will begin Monday, Nov. 30. By the way, the numerous “benefit” games be- ing put over by capitalist sport organizations for the relief of “idle” rich from paying taxes to finance unemployment insurance, is being coun- tered by real support to the unemployed by the Labor Sports Union, which is not only contrib- uting its services in training the marchers to Washington, but here in New York is raising funds for the marchers by a Sports Festival at the Dyckman Oval this Sunday afternoon. Puke-ism, a New One We were a bit astonished to learn that, in the Lettish language, the god of wealth or greed or, one might say, of capitalism, known in Eng- lish as “Mammon,” is known as “Puke.” So in- forms us Comrade Leonard Spier, who was so tickled by it that he enclosed a poem, from which we quote as much as space allows: PUKE-I8M I learned it first at a free-soup station, Sponsored by our christian nation; For after long weeks on a shivering line, At last, alas, I, too, got mine! They pulled me gently past the rope To give me something—soup or soap— I can’t remember, But what they gave Sent me a decade toward the grave, Yes, I hurled aside the Good Old Book And damned all saints from Jobe to Luke, ‘Yet unaware I worshipped there When I bent my knees to Puke! But once my reverence reached a crisis, Became an ailment worse than Christ is. It was a holiday—forgot the name— I heard our President proclaim, “The great traditions of our land... “Blaba ..,blaba...blaba... and, and+,.” And then I yielded, faint and frail, And for an altar used a pail! For I’d hurled aside the Good Old Book, And cursed all names from Job to Luke, Yet unaware I worshipped there, When I bowed my head to Pukel You Can’t Buffalo these Boys! When it comes to Americanizing the Commu- nist Party, all bets are off. If you were born and brought up in Brooklyn, your name may be Stone or Stein, and you may have heard of the “badger game,” but you don’t know whether badgers grow on trees or whether they are to be peeled before eating or served on the half-shel, New Yorkers are the most stupidly provin- cial people. They know nothing and care to know nothing about America as a whole, its history, traditions, culture, geography—anything. This superiority complex naturally seeps inte our Party, and we are suggesting that the Work+ ers’ School set up a course in the flora and faure of these United States. Something has to be done because it is get- ting dangerous for a chap who knows America to be wandering around loose. Frinstance: Consider our crocodile. The varmint knows “the Sticks,” as those who are Second Ayenueish con- temptously refer to the rest of the country. But poor old Krock risks his neck when he makes use of his knowledge. Here’s an example: A comrade wrote in about a Party unit lo- cated . . . well, somewhere between the Texas panhandle (there's another for you to chew on!) and the Canadian line west of the Mississippi, and we write it up. Not the Mississippi, but the unit. And, not wishing to name names and things, | we referred to it in a Spark we publisaed on Noy. 12 as being “out in the buffalo-grass coun- try,” and having been guilty of misconduct, but not in the sense of Judge Jones of Kentucky. Ah, the plot thickens! ‘That 1s, the grass-plot, No sooner had the paper reached Buffalo, N. Y., than a council-of-war was called among the Jeading functionaries. General Honjo could be no more warlike. The diminutive Chief of Staff rattled his saber and breathed death to the croc- odile. ‘The crocodile must be killed and his skin made into $12 suitcases! { Letters began to rain from Buffalo upon the Secretariat, the Org. Dept. and of course upon | Red Sparks: “. ., a scurrilous and lying statement about a Unit in Buffalo .. . not one iota of truth... stupid attack on our district . . . slanders from provocateurs . , . clownishness . . . reckless- ness.,.?!2?1!...” wrote the Org. Secy., lead= ing the charge at the head of the troops. The D.O., maintaining a degree of calm for which we praise him in view of the fact that there are, in the 48 states, exactly 22 towns called “Buffalo,” demanded: “Where did this case actually happen; in Buffalo, New York, or in Buffalo of a western state?” ‘Thanks, com- rade; we'll explain: We said “out in the buffalo-grass country.” Now we quote from a good dictionary available, we hope, in the local library: “Buffalo-grass:—A common name for several low grasses very prevalent upon the plains east of the Rocky Mountains.” So, dear comrades, “curfew shall not ring to- \ night” for good old Krock. (Sethe are | f What can yon do about this? : We were sort “raided” the other day by a “Red Press Squad, / not from the police—o, dear, no! But from Pioneer group calling themselves “The ards.” This “Red Press Squad” is a sort of “shock brigade” to get out bulletins for TohSela then they want to work on, to m.:.. up “wall newspapers” and report to all the Communist press on events of interest to working class kiddies, And they want (and need) someone in New York who has a typewriter, no matter how crippled up it is, to donate it to their work. Whoever can spare a typewriter, just tote it right down to “Dixie,” at the National Pioneer Office, sixth floor, 35 East 12th Street, Cok Bee. | Symposium”: Said the F.S.U. ad. aut what the devil is a ‘symposium?’” some “O,” we replied, “that is just one way 0 ing workers away from a mass BE enone FI ps le