The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 12, 1932, Page 4

Pudi York 1 sll 13th St. Ni ‘Address and Page Foun — ~ WGuea Dy thé Comproastiy Basienme CG. Ce N. ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cabl checks to the Daily Worker, 50 Hast 13th Street, tie, edly athe sdiaiy, » Be FO Base “STARVATION AND MISERY | IN ILLINOIS By B. K.. GEBERT “10 one starves in Wlinois” declares Governor 1, E. Emmerson of Mlinols in a wire to U. S, Senate: “While there is mach destitution in Mlinois, none of our people are actually starving. One million people in Tlinois are unable to secure employment, although able and willing to work.” “None of our | cts to the Si Bk on, awaiting truck s dumped there dail me with them. The) y ‘come early enuf.” ption of the life of the work in Cicero and vici: who are primarily form he Western Electric, owned by Hoover starvation committee relief worker in Williamson County learned that { one thing to read rvation a another to walk into « home and shake hands wih a man nothing but corn-meal and A miner in Koella writes th mine in that town in Franklin County, was shut down over 14 months ago. The whole town is starving. They receive relief from the Red Cross, averaging 5c per day per family So there is no one starving in Illinois, is there Mr, Governor? The Chicago Daily News reports ‘Chicago and their school board now eir 14,000 public school teachers and civil e employes $35,000,000, and this debt of the unity to the men and women who are ng the young generation in the way it should go is increasing daily. No relief is of- fered by any one.” These teachers, in spite of being misled by a bunch of officials of the Chicago Teachers Federation and others, decided to arrange a demonstration in front of the City Hall, demanding immediate relief, as they can not teach and starve at the same time. Orig- inally the permit was granted, and later revoked by Mayor Cermak and Police Commissioner All- man on the grounds that the Communists will join the demonstration, that there is already Communist ideas spread among the students and teachers, and that the demonstration will be 2 Communist demonstration. This is a clear ex- ample of the conditions of the teachers. And now, what about the farmers? Professors Carl R. Hutchinson and Dr, Arthur Holt, in- vestigated the conditions of the farmers in Newaygo, Kent and Ionia counties of Michigian and after their investigation of the conditions of the farmers, declared that “the farmers be- lieve that they are worse than all classess,” and as a result of these conditions, ‘the bourgeois professors declared. “Then there are the farmers now talking the language of revolt. Their backs are against the wall and it will take only a few dramatic mortgage sales of lands held by families for two generations to start the fireworks. For them the passing of the American farmer to peasantry will not happen without a struggle in the spirit of 1776.” It is that these conditions are described ad been eatin; in Mic but conditions of the Tlinois farmer are by no means better, they are probably wrose, and the spirit of the farmers of Tlinois is equal to that described about the farmers in the three counties in Michigan. Here are some facts told by the bourgeois professors: “Of 131 barns on & twenty-mile { stretch of road 56 per cent were without paint, 34 per cent more needed paint badly and and only 7 per cent were adequately painted. Of 109 farm homes 20 per cent were without paint, 65 per cent needed paint badly and only 14 per cent were adequately painted.” And, if this is not sufficient t@ convince Gov. Emmerson, of the actual conditions of the masses of Illinois, let us quote finally from the cago Tribune, which in @ leading editorial of April 2nd, declares: “The national income which a few years ago was estimated in excess of 90 billion dollars is today scarcely half that amount, and every day sees a further decline. Not one citizen in a thousand is as well off as he was three years ago. Bankruptcies and receiverships involv- ing millions of dollars are too common to be important news. The number of unemployed willing to work but unable to find jobs is estimated at 8,000,000, a figure without pre- cedent in American history. Steel mills are operating at less than a third of their capacity. Farmers cannot meet their bills for interest and taxes even though they bleed the land of its fertility and allow their machinery and equipment to rust and rot.” It would probably be worth while Governodr | Emmerson to look into the official reports of the | {llinois Department of Labor, which is published under his own signature in its bulletin for for February, which declares: “Unemployed in 1931, compared with 1929, has declined in the state of Illinois, 30.8 per cent, and wages for the same period, declined 46.6 per cent and in the month of January, 1932, a further decline of 2.8 per cent in unem- ployment and 2.7 per cent in wages.” These are the conditions of the masses in the | tate of Illinois, according to capitalist sources, ch only reveals a fraction of the actual con- ditions that the workers, miners and small farm- ers throughout the State of Illinois live under. | The conditions of the Negro masses in Chi- cago and other cities, are much wors ethan the average conditions of the white workers, em- ployed and unemployed. In Chicago, there is more than 60 per cent of the Negro workers unemployed. They are getting worse relief as 2 rule than the white workers. Relief Commission discriminates and segragates against the Negroes in giving out relief, They are getting so-called “Negro boxes.” Single and young workers are being “cleaned | out” from the flophouses. Against all thes econditions, masses of workers part time workers, and unemployed workers, must | take much more than ever the campaign to | organize themselves into committees of the un- employed, committees in the shops and wage a | struggle against starvation, hunger, wage-cuts, which is part of the bossés’ war against the working-class. : | ‘The workers in Chicago are militantly carrying | on @ struggle against evictions. They go to evictions and stop them, The militant struggle forced the bosses to appropriate $20,000,0000 for | relief, but this is just a drop in the bucket, especially when the workers did not receive this amount. The administration for this money | was placed in the hands of thé bankérs and Hollander, secretary of thé Illinois Federation of Labor. Hnger Marchers te factories, demanding jobs ief, Marches, City Hunger | and Senet, COR Eee oe a. | in Bell and Harlan Counties, are boycotting Marches, Hunger marches of children and women must be organized everywhere, demanding re- lef. The workers refuse to starve. They will fight for the right to jive. The Significance of the Workers Delegation to the Soviet Union By CARL BRODSKY co first task in carrying out the work of the Friends of the Soviet Union in this country is to penetrate the factories. Take any group ©! honest workers, whether they are Democrat Republicans or Socialists, give them the true facts about socialist construction in th Sovic! Union and they will become friends of thi workers’ fatherland and eventally its INTER- PRETERS AND DEFENDERS. As important as the sending of the worker delegations is the PREPARATORY WORK. B) gathering workers from shops or factories wi have an opportunity by simple statements of facts to lay the basis for a keen interest and responsive attitude on their part. For example When the statements were made tha “there are Ro landlords in the Soviet Union” or “there is no such thing as dispossessing a worker from his home in the Soviet Union,” applause and en- e nthusiasm is manifested and I have seen many workers nod their heads in approval. The other day in aymeeting when these statements were made one worker gave # deep loud sigh, this was followed by ® spontaneous burst of applause. The April Issue of “The Communist” Contents: ‘The World Is Drifting Into an Imperialist World War For National Wiberation of the Negroes! War Against White Chauvinism, by Earl Browder ‘The Tasks of the Communist Party, U. 8. A— Resolution for the Central Committee Pie- nom | ‘The Role of American Finance Capital In the Present Crisis, by Harry Gannes | Shop Politics and Organization, by John Steu- ben. Marxism and the National Problem, by J. Stalin. On the Theoretical Foundations of Marxism- Leninism (Continued from last issue), by V. Adoratsky Ovwald Spengier’s “Philosphy of Life”, by @. Vasilkovaky. ; Latin Americs and Our Prese, by A. G. Martin eo ee Don't fail to get your issne at once. Per copy, % cents. Yearly subscription, $2. Order from: ‘The Cothmmict, F. O. Box 148, Station D, New |i! si. °° oe! ‘Too many bourgesis writers have given us | information about the Soviet Union. While some of them are good, we need more workers from the factories to tell of the achievements of the Soveit Union, We must point out that that e, the working-class has hunger and starva- ion; there, shorter hours and wage increases. Here, unemployment and misery; there, not enough workers and increased happiness, Here, 1 workers despondent and unhappy; there usiasm, growing culture, and a fuller life breadlines, flop houses, charity appeals; there, social maternal insurance, rest homes, etc. H When workers are TOLD of these accomplish- ments and explained WHY it is so then it is easy to tell them HOW this can be achieved here. The pivotal point of the war preparations against the Soviet Union is the contrast between the bankruptcy of capitalism and the growing, flourishing world of socialism, and in this sense it is important to get the factory workers into groups. We must ask them to check up on us to see if we are telling the truth. We must say “send one of your own fellow workers to find out if what we say is true” and bring beck a report.” Preparations for sending workers’ qel- egations from factories or shope oan be started in @ simple manner. If © sympathizer will in- vite a group to his home by & personal epproach or & leaflet can be distributed secretly or openly, this is the basis of acquainting such groups with the tasks of the Soviet Union. This simple pre~ paratory work gives us the opportunity to pene- trate factories and shops end explain the signi-~ ficance of sending delegates to ths Soviet Union. Particular importanes should be laid te ammu- nition factories and ships carrying war supplies, Uncover Starvation and Misery The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, has been publishing less and less news about unemployment, It hides the starvation of the unemployed workers’ familie We must constantly expose the miserable treatment must uncover all cases of starvation, whe dernonrishment, sickness, We must pud- lish these cases in our press, in the Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, tel them at all workers’ meetings. Un- employed Councils should publish bulletins to inform «ll workers of the starvation and miaeey of Ge Tm. Winns { "am am ‘The Emmerson | e GUBECRIPTION RATEO: Sy mail everywhere: One year, $6; siz months, $3; two months, § of Manhsttaz and Bronz, New York City. Foreign: one year, xcepting Boroughs siz monthe 84. By BURCK Lining Up the Knoxville Bosses ' tor the Terror Drive on the N.M.U. and the W.LR. mm. WOW the Kentucky and Tennessee coal oper- | ators are going about organizing the new tettor drive against the National Miners Union, | Workers Interhatiotial Relief and the Commu- nist Party in Knoxville to try to crush the directive and relief centre of the present strike | By FRED VIGMAN | articles in the Knoxville Journal. The bosses | expect this to be the cumulative blow against | the miners following the humerous killings, | kidnappings and fldggings ‘afd the arrest of scores of miners and organizers on charges of | criminal syndicalism, “Citizens of southeastern Kentucky, especially Knoxville and Knoxville merchants.” Whether operative or not, this method of lining up the small business elements in Knox- ville in the coal operators terror drive is supple- mentary to the campaign of incitement against the miners and iheir organizations in the most lurid style of the capitalist presa The Journal goes into elaborate detail on the toycott scheme of the coal operators. The Knoxville News- Sentinel, @ Scripps-Howard paper, is held! to have carried stories “favorable” to the miners and their organizers and as such’ “not giving the operators side of the story.” The Journal then relates the supposedly idyllic | cond itions that prevailed in Kentucky before the advent of the Communists. According to the Journal, all was peaceful and quiet in the hills of Kentucky and the coal operators “were going about their business as American citizens.” ‘The growing hunger of little children, the spread of flux—a starvation disease—the lack of decent foodfi clothing and shelter, the prospect of actual physical extermination that faced the miners and their families, all this does not fit in the Journal's picture. Neither does this coal operator’s rag state that wages were reduced to those of 1896 and often below that, with un- employment and part time work a regular fea- ture of the bosses program. ‘The Journal continues: “Then suddenly, a year ago, a group of for- eigners swooped down upon us and began attacking our courts, our officers of the law, our churches, our homes, our government our flag. They made the situation among the miners as bad as they could.” Organizers of the National Miners Union, rep- resentatives of the Workers International Relief, of the Communist Party springing the ranks of the miners themselves are ‘foreigners” to the “native coal barons. But thousands of gun-thugs imported frfom the underworld of Chicago, Cleveland and southern cities are “citizens” of the blue grass state. The 7 Boss Forces Organize ‘The concluding article of the series in the Knoxville Journal again paints in lurid colors the mythical general strike that is to break in Knoxville in April. But, besides their general incitement, the coal operators have taken organizational steps to ine up their forces for the new terror drive. Knoxville Baptist Pastors’ ers’ resolution follows e e | struggle, fs revealed in the fifth of a series of | | that make the handling of these avowed alien enemies commensurate with their crime,” the resolution says, in part. . The American Legion officials anticipated their | brothers-in-terror, the ministers,.and passed a similar resolution commending the Journal for its campaign of instigation of terror against the miners and their organizations, and pledgéd to take part in the bosses’ campaign. , Poisonous Attacks on Workers Another step, reminiscent of strike struggles in the past, was a provocative letter that the Knox- ville papers played up as coming from thé reds.” The letter is half-literate and in efudée janguage threatens “Uncle Sam and God,” and is signed by the “Disciples of Lenin.” The letter has all the earmarks of one written by a novice stool-pigeon of the bosses. A returned missionary who claimed that he spent some time in the Soviet Union was enlisted | for yeoman service in the coal operators’ drive. Speaking before the Civitans Club, the mis- sionary repeated the old threadbare lies about the workers’ republic: Thus the Journal was able to write: “The Communists of Russia were pictured before the Civitans Club yesterday as a ruthless, deadly menace to all liberty, political and reli- gious, as @ cruél, rapacious lot who are grinding the people of Russia under an intolerable mill- stone of despotism.” By use of such poisonous attacks against the Soviet toilers, who are advancing to higher stan- dards of living and building a |free workers’ society—the coal operators use this miserable missionary to cover up “liberty, political and religious,” in the coal fields, where the gun- thugs are the makers and executors of the coal operators’ law and where the most elementary rights of workers to organize and struggle for the right to live is denied. Other Enemies of Miners The miners, advancing from organization to struggle and further experience in the flerce class battles in their efforts to fight back the hunger-death sentences the operators would pass on them, have ot her enemies, Among such the socialist party must first be mentioned. Conducting what they claim is a campaign for the Kentucky-Tennessee miners, the “socialists” have not turned in a cent of the money, food or clothing they collected, | through the channels of the duly électéd ofgani- zations of the miners. Instead the “socialists” are following the same line they pursued in the Pennsylvania-Ohio ‘miners strikes—collect funds on the basis of the strike, hold it up until the strike is over, and then attempt to undermine, in an underhand manner, the National Miners Union, the Workers International Relief and #68 Communist Party. Money collected for striking miners is used to attack the miners’ union organization. ¢- 0@ @ The significance of the Kentucky-Tennessee miners’ strike must be found in the fact that it represents one of the important centers of struggle of the American working class against the starvation program of the national and local boss governments and the big capitalists. Re- sistance to and successful struggle against the hunger-terror program of the coal operators and their government means a rise in the power and ability of the workers nationally to fight back the program of hunger, unemployment, part time work, wage cuts, speed up and layoffs. Tt is precisely at this time, when consolidation of the strike struggle at individual mines to win immediate demands and build the union is the central work, that the miners need the most consistent support. The mass relief support basis must not be narrowed and relief activities slack- ened, but on the contrary kept up and broadened. The answer to the coal operators new drive must be answered by the workers in the form of mass relief. By MYRA PAGE Foreign Correspondent of the Daily Worker. UR International Wagon winds its way through the Caucasian mountains ,from Baku to Tiflis. At one of the local stations two peasants, swinging their sacks over their shoul- ders, board our car. They are typical Georgians with proud dark features and high top boots. Both are members, we learn, of a collective farm nearby and are on their way to the city to transact some business in its behalf. While eating the tangerines that they give us,—grown on their farm—they tell us about their life. Their collective, “Canteadi”, was organized two years ago, when 68 peasant households decided te @eol their tools and work their 300 acres of fend in common. ‘The peasants smile. “Of course. When each man worked by himself, or slaved for the kulaks (tich farmers), we toiled from sun to sun. Our earnings were next to nothing. We were ig- norant lot, too. But when the Communi: our neighborhood began to agitate for collecti- vizing the land, a few of us took hold and set about persuading the other blind peasants who couldn't see beyond their own nose. We had a fierce fight with the kulaks and their boot- lickers, but bit by bit, we've won ground” “Did the women want to come in?” “Why shouldn’t they be against it? Doesn’t our collective nursery free them all day? Besides, they like our new community house as much as anybody, our new school and courses for young and old alike. The women get their wages now, the same as the men; so altogether it’s they who often make their families join up.” “What about the kulaks?” ‘ The. Georgian peasants laugh softly. “Oh, them! Some ran away. Took to the hills. Others, we had to chase. They gave us a lot of trouble. But around our parts we've seen the last of them.” They offer us more tangerines. “You about i “Ts it better now than before?” someone asks. - : The New Soviet Peasant in the income from it is divided up between us, according to the number of days each has la- bored. See, here is my labor-hours book, and here is my wife’s.” As he separates them from other papers we glimpse a fat roll of roubles. This man’s father, a peasant under the czar, would hardly have as much after a life-time of hard labor as his son has saved, from one sea- son's work! *. “What about the months when there's no work? Does the collective farm pay you then?” weask, ¢ “With us that is not a question. Under the old days we were cursed by seasons of too much work followed by seasons of idleness. Now we have organized things so there is exactly eight hours’ work the year ‘round. That is, the eight ‘nour limit is @ law of our collective. Besides growing tangerines and tea, we also raise trees from which perfume is made. So that’s how it is. Of course, on collective farms where work is not always so steady, the farm makes provisions for its members.” ‘The other peasant rubs his knees. “Next year we plan to extend our collective, to take in more households and more land. As for tractors, we can’t use them on account of the hilly and rocky nature of the ground. But other machinery, yes, we're getting everything.” . ' Now it was their tun to question us. “How has the economic crisis affected the farmers in America? What do they think of our Soviet Union? Is it true that your government offi- cials proposed that the farmers plow under every third row of cotton?” They put their queries with the same promptness that they answered our earlier queries, % ‘This is the new socialized peasant, In the Soviet| Union more than 14,000,000 peasant households have joined collective farms. These collectivized workers of the land, now the central figures in Soviet agriculture, are fast approach- ing the level of their city industrial brothers in class consciousness and enthusiasm for building Corruption in the Bosses’ Sport Movement By SI GERSON The boss-controlled sports movement is nos exempt from the effects of the crisis. Pressure brought upon these organizations by the worker sportsmen and by the weight of the conflict within them have recently again brought out, some of the inner decay of these organizations, The workingclass sports movement, under thé leadership of the Red Sports International, the American section of which is the Labor Sporte Union, has continually pointed out that the bosses’ sport movement is corrupt, that thei so-called “amateur” athletes are actually profess ' sionals, even from their own point of view. q Paavo Nurmi . ‘We gave the example some time ago of Paav@ ' Nurmi. This sterling example of “amateurism” ° never put a cent in his pocket for his services, © He preferred to take it home in a wheel-barrow. Paavo used this little racket: He got carfare He received his expenses from Finland to New York, which was all as it should be. . . Maybe, But then he was billed to run in a number off other cities—Newark, Chicago, etc. So frien® Paavo and his manager (imagine an amateur} who needs a manager!) decided to collect “ex« penses” for their work. And |they got it® | Nurmi received expenses from Finland to New-«) ark, from P-7- Chicago, from Finland té | every city in which ae co ‘od. Needless ta © say, when he went home he wok quite a bit' more than medals back with him. After hig’ tour in the United States, pecullarly enough, ' there was a loan made to Finland by a large” New York banking house. Not a little of that” money is now the financial bulwark of the! actually fascist Svinhud government . . . i Jean Ladonmegue 1 Jean Ladonmegue is a French gentlemaz]! whose legs are long and whose inclination td) run (for a consideration) is great. He also ran, ' and was showered with substances much more ! material than mere praise. But, alas and alack{' He was exposed. And (the French Amateut ! Athletic Federation, with a great show of in«* dignation and national self-sacrifice, struck hif ' name off the rolls~ Placing Satan (in the forni' of this sure-fire Olympic point winner) behind ! them, they boldly cleansed the French A. A. FP, ! of . . . Ladonmegue. ] And now Nurmi has had the axe descend, upon his head. The International Amateur Ath=! letic Federation has barred Nurmi from aij! international athletic competition. ' Coming at this time, three months befor@' the Los Angeles Olympic games, these distiare« ' ments are no accident. ‘They come at @ timel' when the bosses sport movement, like the capi~ ' talist systent generally, is under the raking firel’ of the working class. In Europe, particularly, ' is there a tremendous movement for the boyx ' eotting of the Olympic Games because of thd’ fact that thé major portion of the games ard being held in California, the state in which Tom Mooney is being held a prisoner on a universally! acknowledged frame-up. As a result of this boycott movement, the entire Swedish team) refused to come to the United States to compete, re a The workers’ sport movement had exposed tha class character-and the corruption that is rottem nifé in the bosses’ sport organizations, (And in Europe, we may add in passing, the columng of “L’Humanite” and the “Rote Fahne” sre aj little more accessible to the worker sportsmen than are some of our working class papers here.) Something had to be done. The workers were seeing through the flimsy “sport for sport's sake” lies of the bosses’ sport organizations, ‘They were beginning to see them as foul webs, made only to enmesh them in pre-military and fascist service. They were beginning to see the corruption an d becoming cynical of the health hooey handed out by the chiefs of these organic, zations. They were beginning to see their antic’ labor character. The army officers, barons and millionaires who control these organizations got together. They had it! They would expel one or two @ lready exposed sinners—and thus ree store confidence in their “classless,” “demos cratic,” “amateur” organizations, Worker sportsmen—and workers generally should understand the purpose of these tricks, They should understand that these tricks are meant to fool the sport-loving workers and keep them in the bosses sport organizations. Thess bosses’ sport organizations (in the U. S. the Amateur Athletic Union, the Y. M. C. A., ¥. M, H. A., Community Centers, Matty Woll’s Sports# manship Brotherhood, etc.), are doing every« thing in their power to whip up nationlist fecle ing among worker sportsmen in connection with: the Olympic Games. This noisy jingoism in the sports “world” has a definite connection with the Istirring up of war hatred, particularly against the Soviet Union. For the Counter-Olympic Campaign! Worker sportsmen—and, we must emphasize, militant workers generally—have the task of combatting these tricks of the bosses’ sport organizations. Workers must combat the Olyme pic Games and help develop a powerful Counters Olympic campaign in this country. The fullest support should be given the various Scottsboro< ‘Tom Mooney Street Runs being held in a num- ber of cities. The Counter-Olympic meets that will be held in many cities and towns all over the country should get the unqualified endorsee ment of all workers. The entire militant labor movement must help in the Counter-Olympid campaign and in the holding of the Internae tional Workers Athletic Meet in Chicago ow July 29th, 30th, 31st and August Ist. This cam= paign will help us build 2 powerful Labor Sports ‘Union in this country, a strong mass organiza~ tion of labor on the sports front, .Workers! Join the Party of. Your Class! . Communist Party 0. 8. A. ‘ j Please send me more information on tha Come munist Party. 4 NAME ..screccevescerececcvoracoeceseocccovossed] AAACN ccoccrvcccerescsocscrevsscsccccccsccecog] ony Rs Raa eMeran 3.50 Bate «se rccceeeall OCCUPANOD ..ecccossoeccece -Mail this to the Central Office, Communis® ©. O. Box 87 Station D, New York City, 1! P. O, Boz 87 Station B, ‘ y