The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 15, 1932, Page 4

Sam age Four 18th &t., New York City. N. ¥ fF Weblished by the Comprodatly Publishing Ca, Inc, dally except Genday, at 56 Hest Telephone ALwonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORK.” Address and mail all checks to the Daily Worker, 60 Kast 18th Street, New York, N. Y. By mail everywhere: One year, $6; of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, § ig Boroughs six montha, $4.50, The Special Session of the Ohio Legisla ture Is Against Un- employment Insurance By L. MARTIN. (OVERNOR GEORGE WHITE has at last and reluctantly decided to call a special session of the Ohio legislature to take up the question of emergency relief. This step has been forced on him by fear of the rising militancy of the unemployed workers and poverty-stricken farm- ers, who will not starve to death in the midst of plenty without a struggle. He hopes to stall off their demands as long as possible with the maximum of demagogic hot air and the min- imum of real relief. No Longer Voiceless But our capitalist governor will have his bluff uncalled. For the unemployed of Ohio are no longer voiceless and unorganized. They have a fighting organization of their own in the Un employed Councils and will make their voice heard whenever the legislature meets. A mass convention is being planned for Columbus, and the governor and his bosses’ legislature will be confronted by 1,000 delegates representing Ohio's jobless workers and poor farmers. These delegates will force upon the attention of the le lature their demand for immediate and sufficient cash relief to be raised by tax- ing the wealthy capitalist parasites with whom the state abounds; and for a workers’ unem- ployment insurance bill which will provide bene- fits at the rate of full wages for all jobless workers To Put Burden on Workers. The play of political forces leading up to the governor's decision to call a special session has led to the revelation, even in the capitalist press, of many of the actual facts of the bosses’ starva- tion program in Ohio. Piecing these facts to- gether we can readily see the hideous reality; we can see a capitalist class debating within i ranks as to just how safe it is to leave hun- dreds of thousands of unemployed and country poor to starve; and if too many cannot be left to die of starvation, just what is the minimum of relief necessary “to sustain life,” as one capi- talist paper puts it. Finally, if some relief must be granted, the capitalists are debating how the taxation of the rich can be avoided and the whole burden placed on the backs of the poor. Just how low the capitalist “minimum of relief” can be is shown by the fact that the state is actually bragging of the fact that in 19 counties it is feeding 10,000 country children at a cost of 1.36 cents each (little more than one cent) a day. This is all the food these children get a day, for the Cleveland Plain Dealer points out that “only auee children are fed at the school houses as are certified by ‘the teachers as not having food at home.” This is the standard of relief that the state authorities of Ohio set up as desirable. For the Plain De pr the following report from ts Columbus correspondent “The state committee hopes further that cities can learn a lesson in reducing costs of feeding from the activities of the state com- mission in 19 counties, where the average cost per child per day is 136 cents. “This provides two meals a day and furnishes what state health authorities have approved as a F>lanced ration. It may not provide an elaborate diet but it sustains life.” Governor White hesitated as long as he did about calling a special session because the big bosses of the state, employers’ associations, public utilities and the banking and rich farmer ele- ments that control rural poli*ics ~>posed it. . ¢ us see what changed his mind Assuredly he has not decided to disobey his bosses, the in- terests who paid for his election. Something must have happened to make these bosses say to their servant, “All right, we'll permit it.” Ostensibly Governor White yielded to pressure from the authorities and newspapers of the big cities, where unemployment and destitution are | reaching desperate proportions. His decision was announced “from relable sources” immediately after a conference with the chief executives of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown, Ak- ron, Dayton and Columbus, mayors and city managers. just as much the servants of the employing and banking interests as the governor himself, con- cern themselves about a special session. Mainly for the reason that they are the capitalist rep- Tesentatives. closest in touch with the hungry masses of the cities. It is they who feel most. often and most closely the mass pressure of the Unemployed Councils. It is they who are the first to sense and to fear the working class revolt that will follow if too many workers are left to starve to death. Admits Charity Bankruptcy Mayor Miller of Cleveland, flushed with re- cent victory through a well-greased political ma- chine and sure in the support of his capitalist masters, put it mildly, according to newspaper reports, Claiming that the Associated Charities might soon, for lack of funds, suspend relief for 17,000 families in Cuyahoga County, he said: “Put them out in the streets and you have a governmental problem for the state.” Mayor Moore of Youngstown put it a little more pointedly. Claiming that Mahoning County is expending relief funds at the rate of $12,000 @ week, he said: “When the funds are gone there may be serious disorders.” There we have it. These capitalist agents do not give a damn if the unemployed starve, provided they do it quietly. There’s plenty enough factory fodder (and cannon fodder too for that matter) even if several million starve to death. But what they do fear is what they call “seri- ous disorders;” namely, that the jobless will not stand for it, that Unemployed Council or- ganization will become stronger and more mill- tant, and that capitalism will be threatened by a rising revolutionary wave. Militancy Feared Fearing the militancy of the starving masses, these mayors and city managers do not propose to do any more themselves than they are forced to do. “Our relief funds are running out,” they have all been shouting with one accord. But will they willingly replenish them by taxing the rich parasites and bosses in their cities, by re~ fusing to pay bond interest to the bankers? Not on your life. Sooner will they let the jobless starve. Instead they hypocritically cry, “We can do no more, the state must help.” So the word goes down the line, from one capita) agent to another, that the unemploy- ment situation is becoming desperate, that there is no chance of the jobless starving in silence with the Unemployed Councils on the job, and hunger is becoming so great in the rural districts that soon the farmers will be on the march too. So the big bosses finally nod their heads and say: “Well, I suppose we've got to pretend | to do something; just fix it up for us, boys, the best way you know how.” And so Governor White finally consents to call a special session. These are the reasons why the capitalist press in the big cities of Ohio has recently been ad- ing here and there a few of the facts about the increasing misery of the jobless and the country poor. Destitution in Cleveland, for in- stance has increased at such a rate that the Associated Charities report 19,300 families ré- ceiving direct relief in February, as compared with 7,901 in February, 1931. They threaten to leave all these workers to starve after the end of March unless moré funds are forthcoming. Children Starving Tens of thousands fo children of the poor farmers of Ohio are going hungry or being “fed” on one and one-third cents a day, the capitalist press admits. Their parents do not even have a chance at the half-cent meals (two for 1.36 cents). Thousands of children in 46 rural coun- ties have to be supplied with shoes and clothing to be gotten to school. Their parents do not go to school, so they get no clothes or shoes to protect them from the elements. Admitting the above facts, the Cleveland Plain Dealer com- ments: “A social worker in Kansas recently spoke graphically of ‘a breadline knee-deep in wheat.’ That condition is not far from the correct pic- ture of much of the rural territory of Ohio.” Starving farmers of Ohio, starving jobless and employed workers of the cities, unite to make your demands heard when the special session of the bosses’ legislature meets in Columbus! Demand that the wealthy bosses of the state be made to pay for food and clothing for your hungry children and yourselves! Demand un- employment insurance at full wages and paid for by the bosses! The Counter: Olympics-—Part of the Struggle Against Imperialist War By MAC GORDON EVOLUTIONARY workers give plenty of lip ervice to the necessity of fighting bosses’ Sports and building a workers’ sports movement. In action, however, they have, with little ex- ception, fallen prey to the capitalist lie that sports are neutral, are outside the arena of pol- itics and class struggle. Thus, most revolu- tionary workers regard the Counter-Olympic campaign, where they know it exists, as purely @ sports matter, to be left only to sport organ- izations. This is wrong. The issues of the Couter- Olympic Campaign are broad, political, working class issues. The Olympic games foster pa- triotism and narrow nationalism, and the spon- sors are chiefly high military officers. ‘The Counter-Olympic Campaign is, therefore, a demonstration against imperialist war, and part of the struggle of the working class against such wer. The Olympics have consistently boycotted the Soviet Union, carrying out the imperialist United Front against the workers’ land. Thus the Counter-Olympic Campaign is a demonstration against the imperialist plans for war on the Soviet Union, and part of the working class struggle to prevent such war. ‘The Olympic games have been carried on this year by the very same apparatus that is holding Mooney and Billings in prison. The Counter- Olympic Campaign is a demonstration for the freedom of Mooney and Billings, and part of the working class struggle to release these two heroic working class leaders. Every working @lass organization that fights imperialist war, that fights against imperialist plans to destroy the Soviet Union, and that fights for the re- lease of class war prisoners, must identify itself with the Counter-Olympic Campaign. ‘The complete under-estimation of the po- litical significance of this campaign is reflected i the utter lack of understanding concerning } its nature and the complete indifference with which it is regarded by revolutionary organ- izations and by the revolutionary press. A state- ment issued by the Communist Party in support | of the Counter-Olympic Campaign appeared in the Daily Worker on February 23. The very next day, in reporting the Mooney demonstration at the Coliseum on February 24th, the “Freiheit” did not even mention the fact that there was a speaker from the National Counter-Olympic Committee, although it discussed all the other speakers. * ‘The “Daily Worker” showed complete ignor- ance of the nature of the campaign by repre~- | senting this speaker as coming from the Labor Sports Union, which was “organizing a Counter- Olympic movement and Tom Mooney Street Runs.” This is false, as was pointed out above. The issues of the Counter-Olympic Campaign are broad, working class issues, : ‘The campaign {s, or should be, a united front of all organizations composed of workers. At present, the National Counter-Olympic Com- mittee, consisting of representatives from all bodies joining the campaign, includes the Labor Sports Union, the International Workers Order, the Workers Gymnastic and Sport Alliance, and the Nature Friends, the last two affiliated with the Lucerne (socialist) Sport International. Revolutionary workers and workers’ organiza- tions must wake up to the fact that the cam- paign against the Olympics is directed: against millatrism, imperialism and fascism. They must take an active part in popularizing the cam- paign and its issues among the working youth. ‘To do this, they must themselves become fa- miliar with the campaign. ‘The March issue of “Sport and Play,” organ | of the Labor Sports Union, contains a com- prehensive review of the Counter-Olympic Cam- paign. Every worker should read it and help spread it, in order to make the Counter-Olyimpic | “WELL DONE, BROTHER!” ANron CERMAK By BURCK The Negro and the Paris Commune |Me; |dreamers, however, but practical re- By A. D. When the workers of Paris overthew their masters and established their own government—the Commune—on March 18, 1871, they unfolded a new page in the history of the toiling masses, Negro and white alike. It was no accident that the Paris workers proudly pointed to their Red Flag as the emblem of the “universal republic” in which all toilers, regard- Jess of race or color, could claim citizenship. They looked upon their revolution, not merely as one of local or national significance, but rather as @ starting point for future working ¢lass revolutions to follow throughout the world, which would eventually free all oppressed peoples from their oppressors. The Communards| recognized the fundamental antagonisms existing be- between the exploited class and the class which did the exploiting. They envisaged a brotherhood of all men within a world-wide workers repub- they were not wishy-washy volutionists, and they knew that their object could not be realized until the |working class would overthrow the yoke of oppression and make them- selves their own masters. ‘The Commune went down to de- feat aftre 72 days of heroic struggle, but its cause still lives on. While the Commune was striving courageously to carry out its pioneer projects, the Negro masses in America were undergoing a terrible ordeal, af- fording a sharp contrast to the crisis of the Commune. The civil war which had promised them “freedom and equality” was seven years behind them, and instead of this promise be- ing fulfilled, the Negro now found himself on the threshold of bitter dis- illusionment, Instead of being liber- ated from slavery, as they had so fondly hoped, the Negro masses were finding themselves reduced to forms of peonage which were in many res- pects worse than the yoke of slavery. They are finding that without eco- nomic freedom, “liberty,” was a mean- ingless term, that without complete social equality, such as the Paris Com- mune offered, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments which sup- Posedly granted them full political rights (they have never reecived even these) were but hollow mockeries thrown in their faces by a cynical master class. ‘When they came to ask for justice they found “Judge Lynch” dealing it out; between 1866 and 1879 more than 3,000 Negroes were murdered for the crime of having darker skins than their fellows. ‘They found that instead of the promises which had been made to them by Northern demagogues, their | Rosteion: had Ls the same as it was in 1857, when Chief Justice Taney, of the United States Supreme Court, in handling down this notorious Dred Scott decision had declared that Neg- roes were regarded “as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the White man was bound to respect.” The place of the Negro in American economic and social life today is not materially changed from that in 1871, except that a greater proportion of the race have turned from agricult- ural slavery to industrial slavery. The American Negro worker, beside suf- fering under the oppression that is the comon burden of the entire work- ing-class, is subjected to numerous kinds of special persecution and ter- ror. In sharp contrast to the unbear- able position of the Negro in America stands the Soviet Union, where the workers rule, which offers refuge to all oppressed peoples. ‘There the Negro, along with all national and facial minorities finds real equality, in the fullest sense of the term. There we find the great ideal of the Paris Commune actually put into practice. There the spirit of the Com- mune blossoms and grows ever stronger. The Soviet Union—father- ae of a) worlds’ working-class— stands as an inspiration to the work- ers, Negro and white, of all other lands. The imperialist nations, with the United States, Japan and France in the vanguard, are now frantically preparing to crush the Chinese So- viets and the U.S.S.R. out of exist- ence, as the Commune was crushed. But, today, the awakened masses of the world stand as an impregnable bulwark defending their fatherland. Negro workers will remember how they took up arms in the cause of the Northern industrialists in the Civil War when they promised free- dom, only to be betrayed, They will remember how they were again ca- joled to bear arms during the World War, with all sorts of promises, only. to be shamelessly jim-crowed at the front, and finding their condition actually worsened upon returning home. And when the time comes when the American imperialists ask them to take up arms to destroy the Soviet Union—the only land where the Negro is given full economic, so- cial and political freedom—the Negro workers will know whom to support. Negro workers! Defend your fath- erland! Defend the Soviet Union! Out on the streets March 18th to pro- test against the boss-class terror whi h is raging against both Negro and white workers! The Navy, Defense or Portent—Charies A. Beard. Harper and Bros.—$2.00 Reviewed by JAMES LERNER. 1 a professor who with his wife traced the rise of American civilization now attempts without his wife to trace the causes of heavy naval arm- aments and war. Part of the physical make-up of professors is supposed to be their absent mind- edness. And this professor certainly writes as if his mind were absent. It appears that Mr. Beard does not object to armaments to “defend he Nation,” but he ob- jects to not very capable professional naval men forcing (!) the capitalists to arm. Do you know the causes of the World War? Beard states that these professional naval men actually forced the German capitalists to build a navy (which an- gers Beard very much since navies according to him are not of much use) and make war, and the same thing is being done in America. And the thing in back of this terrible plot was a book, yes a sinister volume written in the United States which attempted to prove that navies are glori- ous things. Admiral von Tirpitz and the Kaiser happened to read this book and they got all ex- cited. Their acquisitive ambitions were roysed. But the capftdlists were not in favor of a big navy; they couldn’t see through this ruse of the monarchists and militarists. Undaunted von Tirpitz mapped a publicity campaign to convince the capitalists. Money was granted for a navy. Naturally the “war baby” stocks started to rise. The manufacturers now “say that it was good and they wanted more.” “After the navy was built, von Tirpitz needed an enemy to show off his fleet to, so they tossed up a coin (or some like process which Beard doesn’t explain) and it came down on head, that meant England was to be the trial horse. ‘The purpose of this “scientific” analysis of the professional naval men must be curbed, for the same thing is happening here and is the cause of war. President Hoover is for a mere defensive policy. He stands in opposition to the Navy League an‘ other professionals who are imperialists. And {f the United States is to take the side of the imperialists, the Kellogg Pact must be cancelled. Beard should call his wife in. Maybe she'd know that there’ is » war being fought at present and the Kellogg Pact hagn’t been cancelled. Campaign popular among the American young | She might also be able to tell him that a workers, Ye ee few years back peaceful Hoover sald that ® the origin of the German fleet is to prove that | Beard Acquits Capitalism of All War Guilt would be “the ambition of his life to crush-out, the Soviet Union.” And it might interest Beard to know that over 700,000,000 was spent for arms last year in the “peaceful” reign of Her- bert. Beard also says that in the 1890's Morgan was against the Cuban conflict but the naval men forced the country into war. In 1915 Wilson, “for reasons of his own” decided to build a navy second to none. Maybe, reasons our learned professor, he “had already come to the personal (!) decision that he might in due time take the country into the World War.” At the present it is the Navy League that is trying to force the United States to adopt an imperialistic creed. In spite of the hard words the professor has for this league which carries on powerful obbies for huge armaments, he has an excuse for their action. They are only human and seek to protect our country from disaster brought about by unpreparedness. Beard quotes some useful material gotten in a congressional investigation of the Navy League. Its members are some of the largest steel and other manufacturers who are personally in- terested in boosting ship building. He men- tions the fact that there are American admirals who have never commanded a fleet, or who think that the American navy took part in the battle of Jutland (which took place before the U, 8. entered the war) and of ordinance ex- perts who have never seen target practice. But what about it? Does it make any differ- ence whether you or T will be killed in front of a general who has seen target practice or one who has not? Does it interest the worker whe her the United States builds a navy or an army? No. we take it back! Beard is not so dumb. He and his book serve a very useful purpose. At the very moment when war is raging, a war which threatens to engulf the entire world once again, and which is being prepared by the Hoo- vers, Lavals, MacDonalds and Tanakas and other “civilians,” Beard attempts apd whitewash them. Beard says the Marxists are crazy; that not the existing system creates war. ‘Tanaka document which cold-bloodedly planned the war on the’ Sovict Union is enough of an enewer tone issue of the Maily Worker com@ains enough of an exposure of, imperialist ‘wa Plots to show who's med and the existence of @ definite method in our liberal professors’ 55, The infamous - MARCH ISSUE OF “THE COMMUNIST” Dont’ fail to get your copy of the theoretical organ of the Communist Party. Singe coptes 20 cents. Subscription price $2 per year. Special rates on bundle corders, Send your orders to The Communist. P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. “ CONTENTS: Japanese Imperialism in All Its Insolent Nakedness, ‘The Fourth Year of the Five Year By N. Ossinsky. The Directives on the Second Five Year Plan of Soviet Union—Resolutions of the XVII Party Conference of the ©, P. 5. U. Organizational Problems in (Jur Unemployment Work. By S. Willner. How the Crisis Hit the Auto Workers. By Robert L. Cruden and Robert W. Dunn. The Growing Poliitcal Significance of Organiza- tional Work in the Present Situation. By C. Smith. ‘The Uprising in Salvador. By O. Rodrigues On ‘the Theoretical Foundations of Marxism- Leninism (Continued from last issue). By V. Adoratsky. Armament and Profits, By Labor Research Assoclation “Disarmament.” By V. L Lenin. The Tasks of the Communist Sections Regarding Municipal Policy.—Resolution of the Enlarged Presidium of the E. C. C. I, February, 1930. Workers! Join the Party of. Your Class! P © Box 8? Station D. New York City Please send me more information on the Cum- munist Party. NAME ..ccsesceecveccreseveccceesecscccessosces Address ., CNY ..cccccccrcccesccccces, OCCUPALION ..sssetescsecccsceseees: ABC socees -Mall this to the Central Office, Communist Communist Party 0. 8. A _ P.O, Box 81 Station D, Now York tty, , Who Bears the Burdeh? Remembering that there are 1,000,000 unem- ployed workers in New York, let us also remem- | ber that when Florenz Ziegfeld opened up & new leg-show called “Hot-cha” for New York’s cayntalists on March 8, not only was the house sold out for the opening night, with seats at $16.50, but there were 18,000 more trying to buy them. Just keep this in mind, workers, when some Community Chest guy tries to force you to con- tribute, or your boss wants to cut your wages on the excuse that “everybody must share in the burden”! And you who are unemployed, can you understand that to make that 18,000 really share, | you must organize in the Unemployed Councils- ' And that to wipe out a system that permits the growth of such a parasite and wastrel minority at the expense of your sweat and misery, you must organize for revolution in the Communist Party! “Financial Technique” Alfred Sloah of the General Motors says that what's the matter is that there has been @ “failure of financial technique to keep pace with machine technique.” ‘The same day we read that, we noticed that the British pound we mm) t~enty cents, be- cause, so ’tis sald, Wall Street was “gombling in sterling”. The “financial technique” of that was that the American dollar went down just as the British pound rose. So there’s nothing to crow over as a “sign of returning prosperity”. Indeed, those very “patriotic” financial “technicians” of Wall Street were “selling short” in the American dollar. The American dollar has a great future—be- hind it. Did you notice? And do you remember back a few months ago, when all the press played up Hoover's plan to “restore prosperity” by asking the bankers to form a “pool” with $500,000,000? The bankers agreed and amid a grand beating of tom-toms formed the “pool” ~ that was going to do wonders. What's become of it? Oh, it just quietly went out of existence when the newer Hoover plan to “restore prosperity” was adopted by Congress, the plan to give Dawes something over $2,000,000- 000 to play with in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, ‘to relieve the “suffering bankers”. The wonderful co-operation of the Democrats with the Republicans on that measure is some- thing for workers to remember. And along with that, their “anti-hoarding” drive. True, there has been so much slosh about “baby Lindy” that it has interefered with selling the “baby bonds”, but we have new proof that Hoover is a liar, on this as well as other things. The “anti-hoarding” drive was begun by Hoo- ver on February 4. On February 16, Hoover saii: “There has been an entire turn in the tide.” Yet the cold facts are, according to his own Trea- sury Department report, that there was a de- creasé of $37,189,973 in circulation during this same month of February when Hoover was see- ing “an entire turn in the tide”. By the way, on February 29, there was sup- posed to be enough money in circulation to al- Yow for every man, woman and child to have $44.93, Did you, and your wife and your kids each have that much? No? We thought so. Well, that’s your lack of “financial technique”. And the remedy for it is to not accept wage cuts, but strike for higher wages under lead of the Trade Union Unity ae Subabior tug? ‘unions. Another “Civilized” Power 4 “Civilize "Em with a Krag” (meaning a Krag~ Jorgeson rifle), used to be the song of Amert- can imperialist troops when they “liberated” the Filipinos. And we hope you noted the photo- graphs recently in the Daily showing U. S. ma- rine officers “civilizing” Nicaraguan indepen- dence fighters by chopping their heads off, just. like the Chinese -militarists. ‘We remark on the above as a necessary pre- lude to explain that Japan is not the only im- perialist power to invade a neighboring nation and bomb the civilian population, slaughtering right and left. But while we were writing this, our eyes lit on an Associated Press dispatch from Peshawar, India (March 7) which shows that Great Britain is in no oe to make faces at Japan. It says: “The government (British) sent atrplanes across the border today to drop leaflets among the restive Agghan tribesmen warning them that if their forces had not been dispersed by tomorrow, and leading agitators removed, bombs would be dropped on their villages,” Now that exactly parallels Japan's actions at Shanghai. Afghanistan is supposedly an “inde- pendent” nation, and so is China. The British say the Afghans are “restive” (a terrible of- fense, eh?) and that’s the same word used by Admiral Shiowaza about the Chinese at Shang- hai. Both in Afghanistan and in China there are “agitators” to be “removed” and “forces” to be withdrawn ,only the British want them “dis- persed” as well. And the rain of murderous bombs on men, women and children is the next thing. ‘Yet there are so-called “pacifists” who expect. these imperialist cut-throats, either severally or collectively, to “make peace”! The only way peace will be won is by the masses of workers and farmers overthrowing these war makers, and to do that requires civil war—and that’s that, whether you like it or not. any VOR i That Anti-Injunction Law ‘Well, we see as how the House, following the Senate, has “passed a law” supposedly “forbid- ding” injunctions in labor disputes. The Senate voted 75 to five for it, and the House 363 to 13. That’s just what makes us profonndly suspi< cious of the thing. We haven’t had the chance z Strassbourg