The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 18, 1932, Page 4

© Svviieked tr the Comprodaiiy Pu New THE NEW York 1 all checks to the Daily City. N. ¥. Telephone ALgonguin 4-7956. Worker, 60 Cable hing Ca, Yas, daily except Suvday, at 5) Bast st 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. Dail “DAIWORK® orker’ SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; sia months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4, @. OF THE CRISIS BURDEN ON THE MASSES ss which if con- of business, is five e, to charge such a sure which can’ he erefore, the worker 1s rents on every two dol- ases but forty cents. If, the retailer arranges of which the worker unt of the tax, a very dure, by purchasing a suffi- = amount of commodities and thus a spread of tax over a wide he escapes the exorbitant tax only at the se of buying in amounts which will very erely limit his oth vitally essential pur- es and thus work untold hardships on him, is wages slashed until the worker can the barest essentials necessary to main- bination sales b: pay the e nprobable elf and his famil ‘such large will become increasingly impossible. esult will be t the worker will be i to buy single articles because of lim- ied purchasing power and thus be the victim e of the mest exorbitant tax swindles that endishly r, crisis-crazed capitalist class pable of dévising. rther illustrate the conscious swindling cler of the new tax bill by means of which orking Class will be compelled to pay not a tro da quarter per cent tax, but in many ceses a fifty per cent or even higher, it suffices samine the highly touted “non-pyramiding cter of the bill. iding” sales tax is meant such a { results in each unfinished commodity, ing more than one productive process, be- 3 taxed as it passes out of the hands of its nediate manufacturer. By the time it reaches © worker who buys it, the article has been taxed five or six times, depending upon the number of manufacturing processes it under- ‘The present tax bill is supposed to avoid his feature by levying the tax only on the ar- ticles which leave the final manufacturer and ass straightway into the hands of the con- sumer. What will actually happen is that the bill will esult in a pyramiding of taxes to a monstrous degree but in a different form. Not all manu- factured products are consumed by the workers. ‘Many of them are taxed, but remain in the pro- suctive proc such as machinery, autos, trucks, gas, oil, etc. Those items of fixed and circulating 1 represent a tremendous pro- Portion of the cost of production of most com- modities. The taxes levied on the manufactured products consumed in the process of production or circulation of taxable commodities will in turr be passed along to the retailer, who, in his turn will unload them onto the shoulders of the working class and farming consumer. This beautiful feature of the new revenue act con- The War and Social Democracy | By M. LOUIS (PARIS) AR is here. War has already commenced in the Far East and its extension is only a question of time. What is now taking place in Manchuria is the immediate preparation for armed intervention against the Soviet Union; is already the commencement of intervention. And intervention is being prepared not only in the East but also in the West. And the Il. International is here fulfilling its historical mission as the most important social buttress of the imperialist bourgeoisie in the Preparation, organizing and carrying out of ir tervention and war. The parties of social fas cism are united in their efforts to disorganize the activity of the working class, and the revolu tionary fight of the proletariat against inter- vention and war, and to disarm the working class, Among other means, they wish to achieve this aim by representing the League of Nations 8 an instrument of peace, as a weapon in the fight against war; by creating the illusion among the working class that the League of Nation: can and will prevent. r and intervention. ‘Thi tandpoint is most clearly formulated in the re- cent appeal of the National Joint Council rep. resenting the General Council of the British Trades Union Congress, the National Executive of the ‘Labor Party and the Parliamentary La bor Party. “If the nations of the world take no action to uphold the covenant of the League of Na- tions they will thereby destroy this collective system of world law. . .. The National Joint Council, therefore, urges the government to request the Council of the League of immediately to consider the a ty of calling upon all Members of the League and Signatories of the Peace Pact to withdraw their Ministers or Ambassadors from Tokyo... . If the Japanese government, in defiance of the public opinion of the world, continues the wa our government will be obliged, in conformity with its undertakings as a Signatory of the Covenant (Art. 16), to propose to the Special Assembly of the League whatever co-operative ‘and graduated measures of financial and econ- omic constraint may be necessary—in associa~ tion and agreement with the United States and the Members of the League—to restore peace, and to ensurea just settlement of all Outstanding questions between Japan and Ohina, on the basis of the Covenant of the Teague of Nations, the Nine Power Treaty and the Pact of Paris.” Tt is not without interest to note that pre- the “Left” socialists put forward the no eximinal theele that the imperialist govern- jon | on the final | the reformist trade union bureaucracy seek to- | | capitalists, nobody will deny for a moment, But | Workers. War does not mean work, higher wages, | | announcing that the problem of disdrmament, | | cerning which the eapitalist class maintains a deadly silence will accomplish # tax increase of many times more than the innocently scheduled rticularly vicious aspect of the taxation d and circula capital is the fact that ount of the tax is not added simply to final sale sprice along with the tax on the product, but itself becomes the basis for Thus the 24% per cent tax is not he final sales price, to which the tax inery is added, but the tax is placed sales price in which is already in- cluded the tax on machinery. The effect of this broadening of the tax base is, of course, a huge increase over and above the simple 2% per cent tax called for by the tax bill. %n order to affect a diplomatic “concern for the welfare of the masses,” the capitalist poli- t who drafted this blood-sucking tax bill exempted certain articles of mass consumption, such as bread, farm products, milk, meat, salt, sugar, etc. The list of such products is very insignificant compared to the total list of articles of mass consumption, Such vital necessities as clothing, textile products of al lsorts, hats, shoes, canned goods, soap, furniture, household uten- sils, etc., etc, are subject to the tax bill. Since with the perpetually small wages of the working class, the rapidly narrowing buying power due to ° | the tremendous wage slashing campaign of the bosses, and the staggering totals of unemploy- ment, the cost of these articles of mass con- sumption represent the largest item on the list of commodities bought by workers, the suffering imposed on the masses by the tax bill becomes staggering. On top of the direct tax on these articles of mass consumption, the cost of the largest single item of expenditure of the work- ers—rent—will be immeasurably increased. While there is no direct tax on buildings, there is a tax on all building materials and an increased tax on all real estate. This added tax will, by no means, be borne by the landlord. The im- mediate result of the tax bill will be a huge jump in rent with a consequent further tre- mendous impoverishment of the masses. Side by side with the tax bill, which {s but one aspect of the attack contemplated by the capitalist class all along the line against the living standards of the masses, there is the fact that the taxes are imposed against a back- ground of a tremendous inflationary movement, the net result of which will be to depreciate the value of the little wages received by the worker, to raise prices, thus broadening the tax ‘base and to increase the amount of money literally taken out of the pockets of the workers. From every conceivable angle, the new tax bill is aimed at depressing to the utmost even the present animal level of existence to which the masses’ are gradually being reduced, at tre- mendously accelerating the process of ruination of the petit-bourgeois middle layer, and at des- perately attempting to help the capitalist class walk through the swamp of thé world crisis over the bleached bones of the starved and famished millions. Agains tthis program of unabashed highway robbery, the working and farming messes must set themselves solidly behind the program of struggle of the Communist Party and the Red Trade Unions. The employed and unemployed must turn back this vicious attack on their very right to existence by a determined battle for higher wages, for Unemployment’ Insurance, against the whole hunger and starvation system of the bosses. More clearly than ever before do the words of Marx ring true that: “The only part of the so- called national wealth that actually enters into the collective possessions of modern peoples is— then national debt.” ments themselves can and will prevent war. ‘The Vienna “Arbeiter-Zeitung,” Maxton and Brails- ford in England, have proclaimed the new truth, hat the imperialist governments of the other countries could stop Japanese imperialism in its robber campaign. . This new truth is to serve | to hamper the activity of the working class. Therefore, the “Disarmament” Conference is | represented by all parties of the IJ. Interna- Ravin fa ed on the futility of bi ) From ri Pan a TTEMPTS TO LEAP Man, Cold and Hungry, Days Sentence: P |Jast night by jump: 30 days. ae " can g0 to Ja warm and Ser 7 Out of Work 10 Months Worker Shot Himself} HOUSTON, Tex.—A. N. Mathews, 28 years old. practically a youth yet, shot himself through the head, out ‘of dispondancy of being unemployed A man who wanted to “end it aii (Continued from Page One) wilt have been spent. That make: Bearch for $512,033. And $512,03% subtracted| Jobless Teacher Ends Hopeless Life Battle Body Is Found in Rooming House With Letters Telling Tragic Tale ‘A INTO RIVER, JAILED Given 30 SCOOL PLO CHICAGO (FP).—The tragedy o ayless pay days for school employes Chicago and vicinity has claimed nother suicide victim, Hilda Duff Failure Related at iF 5000 f ere tls | five-sto! West Bi Miss Grace Mollett. smu READING LABOR ADI INEINTHREE. Veuien savy sae SSH IN WEALTHY U5) ordid Results of Capitalism’ Of Senate Committee Will Last For Generatio: Lawmakers Are Told other, New Baby sneactenca becaitse of finan : « ) Governess Dies In 5-Story Fall— : Had Tried Polson. HEASE fi; Miss May Dennis, 37 years old, an [unemployed governess, was killed f yesterday morning when she plunged fto a rear court from the roo! apartment building at 152 ighty-fourth Street. Mi Dennis lived at that address with She took poison . Miss Mollett told the as attended by a private id seemed in good spirits CRAZED FATE | Fear of’ Being Unabie 10, Support Family Drives | Man to Murder Hearingt CHARLESTON, W. Va. (P) «il Bolton E, White, 46, who left now i ying he did not -want his, ax culldren to live longer “in this SUICIDE LAID 10 1 UNER:PLOYMENT: [Joseph Miko, 50, Shoots Himself in Head With Pistol. B reverses during # recent un- jf oyment period. Joseph Miko, 4 fear-old Hungarian and an em- of the Studebaker corpora~ J 7 If in Continued on Starving Derelict Dies in Flame as Fate’s Last Joke ‘Human Torch’ Dashes || + ‘to River Only to Fall |/3 in Mud Hole. : of the Miss Gordon’ Craig “had known better TAXATION-—MORE {TOS SEE MIRETS (NO Eciheat aid : Are Workers Livestock? Well, we see that Congress has, in a sudden enlargement of the heart, given 40,000,000 bush: els of Farm Board wheat “to the unemployed”=- after it wa scarefully explained by the leading “progressives” in Congress that it “wouldn’t cost the government a cent”—and in fact was saving it money paid out for storage. A fine lot, those “progressives!” Then the Red Cross was prevailed upon to ate cept the wheat and the job of distributing it Bnt Chairman Payne (that guy gives us a Payne in the neck!) declared that the Red Cross would “accept commodities, but not cash” from the government. Yet in the drought of 1930, ree member, Payne refused to acecpt commodities and demanded cash, when farmers in other regions offered to give their produce to the drought sufferers. But the first wheat actually asked for by the Red Cross was 5,000,000 bushels stored at Omaha, and this was not for the unemployed, but as dispatches of March 8 said: “For destinations in South Dakota, where food for livestock is far from sufficient.” Human beings eat at the sec- ond table, after the mules. And even when the starving workers get this wheat (which will be made into white bread, which is far less healthful than whole wheat, because the flour milling trust has @ pull with the government), just picture to yourself what @ magnificent meal for a family of starving adults and children it will be—bread without butter, bread without milk, bread without a single other darned thing! Oh, yes, maybe bread with water! The customary “punishment diet” given to prisoners put into solitary confinement in penitentiaries! How'd you like to lock up all the members of Congress who have been so “generous to the unemployed” and make ‘em eat nothing but bread and water? Or just tie ‘em with a halter to a stall, and say, “Here’s wheat, damn you! Now eat!” Thai's exactly what they’re doing to you and your kids! ‘Scientific Eco: mists” A gink by the name of Me-ryle Stanley Rukey= ser, whom the Hearst press features as one of its leading “scientific economisis” (and he mod- estly calls himself that), recently wrote a long bunch of tripe about how lovely everything is going to be with the inflation program of the joint Republican-Democratic Congress. But it would be still more lovely, he contends, if that $2,000,000,000 piece of inflation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, were only extended by adoption of Hearst’s favorite rem- edy, @ $5,000,000,000 bond issue to build roads or do something ‘like that. It could be admin- istered, this remedy, in small doses, he says, and then explains by saying: “Under the revised prosperity loan plan, business would be assured of not merely one shot of stimulus, but a series of injections over a period of five years, if necessary.” This, workers, is a “scientific economist,” al- though to hear him talk you might think he was a dope peddler and “business” was the dope fiend howling for cocaine. Well, after all, that’s pretty nearly correct! Mier 6 eal Now They'll Know Better: ‘I'he customary idea, of capitalists in working domestic servants from 12 to 20 hours was followed by imperialism’s adopted hero, Lindbergh, and so they had only one nurse for the kid. Now, we notice, that they plan, if they get him back—which is doubtful considering all the police have done to get him killed—they're going to have him watched “all the time”. If they do that, there'll have to be two Betty Gows at least; but that’s a 12-hour shift anyhow. Wea eee Stark, Raving Lunacy: A sort of test as to whether” you're sensible these days, is to see whether you can read the press yarns on the Lindy kidnaping without wanting to puke. If you want to throw up, you're sensible. By the by, we notice that two men, that sailor Johnson, and a Hartford contractor, have been kidnapped by the police. Without even a pretense of obey- ing the law requiring extradition pro¢eedings, both have been kidnaped and removed from Connecticut and into New Jersey. And two Coast Guards lost their lives looking for the baby in the Atlantic ocean! tional as @ real pacifist action, and Vandervelde, as representative of the II. International, Citrine and Jouhaux, as representatives of the Amster- dam International, therefore go to Geneva in order to dish up the old phrases of the Basle Manifesto. The slogan of the German and Aus- in social fascists “No more War!” serves the same purpose. Disarmament-Conference- Pacif- ism is to serve to disarm and disorganize the working class. A common feature of the strategy and tactics | of the social democratic parties of all countries is that the war in the Far East is represented | as being an isolated colonial war which could | only take place in the colonial country, in China, | which could only be waged by Japan, where there is ‘no democracy and no proper public | opinion. 'This point of view is represented most | openly and cynically by the secretary of the Amsterdam International Schevenals. He has proclaimed the new truth of social fascism by of peace, should be confined to Europe. ‘Tho social fascists hide from the masses the fundamental fact that the war in the Far Bast threatens not only China, not only the Japa- nese workers, and not only the land of Social- isni, the Soviet Union, but also the working class of every country. At the same time, the social fascist parties and foster the idea among the masses, that war in some countries means good business for other countries; that war means new orders, more Jobs, higher wages. They promote the idea among the masses that war can bring the end of the crisis, can do away with unemployment. ‘That war is a good business for the armament concerns, for the financial oligarchy, for the the world war showed what war means to the but hunger, the misery of the trenches, killed, | cripples, widows and orphans, But Jouhaux de- clared at the Vienna Congress of the IL, Inter- national in July last: “As regards disarmament, the trade wnlons have become more moderate. We must 21. 0t | burg, the military hero. must especially remember that the workers will have to make big sacrifices in the event of a limitation or abolition of the manufac- ture of armaments, It might mean an in- crease of unemployment, deprivations and sacrifices.” These truths from the lips of Jouhaux have become the common property of the Il. and Am- sterdam Internationals. And when the social democratic factory councils in the Leuna works promote war production, when the social dem- ocratic members of the Hamburg town council | support the transport of munitions, they are only carrying out the instructions of the II. Interna- tional. Hundreds of ships with cargoes of war material, arms and munitions are leaving Dan- | zig, Hamburg, London, Marseilles, Bourdeaux, Cherbourg, Dunkirk, Bremen, Rotterdam, Am- sterdam and the Scandinavian ports. And the Central Committee of the Transport Workers’ International records with “concern” the fact | of war, and decides, in the event of the war de- veloping further—to convene a fresh meeting. Another common feature of the strategy and tactics of the I. International is that they “criticize” the rival imperialists but support their own imperialist bourgeoiiie. Lansbury uses sharp words against Japanese imperialism, because the latter jeopardizes the English interests in China. But he supports MacDonald's government on all questions of foreign policy. And Paul Boncour is the attorney of French imperialism in the League of Nations. And the French sovialists support the foreign policy of Tardieu ana do not breathe a word of criticism of the Franco- Japanese war alliance, of Tardieu’s offer of an alliance to England, well knowing that these alliances mean war. The policy of defense of native country, the war preparations are often carried out in complicated forms. The German social democrats boast of the valuable services they rendered in the, war, and support Hinden- The Austro-Marxists take the Japanese socialists under their protec- tion, well knowing that they support the im- Perialist robber war. Tt 1s clear ag daylight that the first stp to intervention against the land in which Soaigitsm is being successfully built, has already Been curelvea to ctroumetance, Tm addition, sue made And what is the IL, International deing? | any single measure now adopted, without fur- ~The Six Governors’ Fake Unemployment Insurance Plan By L AMTER PART 2. Facing this situation, with the growing men- ace of food riots and violence on the part of the unemployed who are driven to desperation, the governors of six states—New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio—appointed an Interstate Commission on Unemployment Insurance, which submitted its findings and recommendations on ebruary 14, after nearly a year of study. To begin with, the report declares: “It seems to us unlikely that } ther experimentation and experience, can cope successfi with all forms of unemployment, or with the total period of unemployment, or even with all of the memployed.” Its main thesis is that no war threatens the Soviet Union. All organs of the IT, Interna- tional, from the Berlin “Vorwarts” to the Vienna “Arbeiter-Zeitung,” seek to lull the vigilance of the working class by means of this criminal thesis. At Geneva Litvinov is fighting for peace. ‘The IL. International simply sneers at his efforts. The Soviet government is. endeavoring to turn aside the Japanese provocations. The II. International maintains silence regarding these provocations, and the oVrwarts” declares that the Soviet Union is just as imperialistic towards China as is Japan. In 1914, the social democracy did not prepare, did not organize the war. At that time it sup- ported the war which the bourgeoisie had or- ganized and prepared. Now, however, the social fascists organize and prepare the war. The fight against intervention and war is also a fight against social fascism, a fight to win the work~ ers who are still under the influence of the bour- geois socialist parties of imperialist war and in- tervention, } The proposals do not make any provision whatever for the 12 million unemployed at pres- ent out on.the street—or for the approximately six million unemployed in the six states above enumerated. These 12 million are a non-existent mass and therefore will be allowed to continue to starve as far as the provisions of t he so- called Interstate Unemployment Insurance re- port are concerned. It is necessary, however, in view of the fact that in the State of Wisconsin with the aid of the “Socialists”, Unemployment! Insurance has been introduced, that the bill of the six gover- nors be analyzed and exposed to the workers. According to t he Wisconsin Bill, each insured worker at present working in industry, shall re- ceive a maximum benefit of $100 a year. “Work- ers eligible for benefits are those who lose jobs involuntarily or those who have been resident employees in the State. This bill, however, does not go into effect until June 1, 1933.” The six Governors’ Commission makes the fol- lowing proposals: 1) The compulsory establishment of state-wide systems of unemployed reserves, The report de- clares that only a small fraction of the work force of the nation is covered at the present time by voluntary unemployment insurance. 2) The payment of each employer of a con- tribution of 2 per cent of his payroll. The report states quite cynically that “We have canvassed carewully the arguments for and against the payment of contributions or premiums by em- ployees’ and therefore the commission is against it, stating that “the employees should not be re-_ quired to reduce their earnings further by the payment of contributions into unemployment re- serves.” It is perfectly obvious, however, that the 2 per cent that would be paid by the employers into the insurance fund will be deducted from workers, so that this is the workers still working fs Commission to cover this up is sheer humbug and throwing sand into the eyes of the workers and blinding them to the real facts, even of this pretense of providing “Unemployment Insur- ance,” 3) “Payments made by each employer shall constitute the unemployment reserve of his firm and shall be so treated in the accounts.” The purpose of this proposal is to make each estab- lishment responsible for unemployment insur- ance to cover its working force. It leaves it within the province of the particular concern to fire any workers they please, especially as the unemployment insurance fund has to’be built up over a certain period. ‘Lhe proposal declares that “each company assume responsibility, lim- ited by the amount of its contribution for the unemployment of its own work force.” 4) The maximum’ rate of benefit shall be 50 per cent of an employee's wage or $10, which- ever is lower, and the maximum period of bene- fit shall be 10 weeks within any 12 months.” Provision is made for part-time employees but “in no case, however, shall the benefit of a part- time employee exceed $10 a week for 10 weeks within any 12 months.” It is obvious from the above that the govern ment has the shameless effrontery to propos® starvation even for those workers who still have jobs, namely, that they shall not receive more than $100 a year or $8.33 a month. This is called “Unemployment Insurance.” 5) “The financial responsibility of an em- ployer shall be strictly limited by the amount of his unemployment reserve.” To safeguard this so-called “principle”, it is proposed that when the employer's reserve at the beginning of any month is Ics then $c0 for an employee, the maximum rate of benefit be proportionately re- duced. This means that even the maximum $10 per week for 10 weeks can be arbitrarily seduced , by the employer. 5 4 ll sto bl mee | | / a