The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 25, 1932, Page 4

& Pudlished by the Com 13th St, Adéress and mail Page Four (SRE 1 all checks to the Daily Worker, Telephone Algonquin ¢-7956, odaily Publishing Co. Inc, daily except Sunday, at 50 East Cable “DAIWORK.” 50 Hast 13th Street, New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail wrerywhere: One year, $6; six months, $8; two month of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Forsign: one year, $8; centing Boroughs siz months, $4.50. why COLORADO BEET (‘3 THERE, Bie Boy!” WORKERS ARE STRIKING ‘THOUSAND _ beet Colorado, fighting to give an und faced these wo’ , Organizer Sanche: ers’ Industrial League “Labor U: ity Trade Union U League 4 from the article: 1 the beet fields consists of } g and topping. To do tl of backbreaking toil by ee supr posed to carry them ths of Loe During 1930 the beetw which meant the a nere, $600 a (and to fully appreciate the cutewi of the r company's explo! n of ihe t must be remembered that this but for the oO her, mother and all the children o 5 and 6 years of age) In 1931 the worker received a wage-cut of 5 per cent. This year they were cut to as low to $15 or even lower through the intro- cuction of sorts of “sharing” or “co-partni eme, These vary in form. One provides that the farmer pay $6 an acre for the hoeing; $1 for the first weeding, 50 cents for the second (tt rsoney to be held back by the farmer a iwara and for the topping the worker is to receive 50 cents a ton. This means that if ie acre produces 6 tons, the beetworker will make (providing he gets his “holding back”) £10.50 per acre. The average tonnage on fertile soil is from 10 to 12 tons an acre, Had the beet workers accepted this arrangement instead of striking they would have received a wage-cut of mc han 40 per cent. Contract Peonage. system forces a sort of credit “The contract system, which me getting money he gets a note to buy in a cer- tain store. Here the merchant overcharges the beetworker at his pleasure, taking advantage of ’s ignorance of English and his penni- s which prevents his going elsewhere hant gets first mortgage on the work The overcharging is shameless, r t; miercl sometimes ad as much as three or to ticle’s ordinary price. For the S American colony in un ish pe old pound old for $5 e hap- pened: with flour and all other groceries. ‘The farmer cupplics the worker with eggs and milk and in return charges enormous prices even to the extent of a rker who was charged $3 for 32 eggs when eggs were selling for 20 cents a dozen. “But this is not all. After the beetworker has slaved all summer in the field, after he has gone through hunger and misery, after his chil- dren have been taken out of school to help a little bit, after he has been overcharged and robbed in the most brazen way, after his kids of six years old have worked in the beet fields from sunrise to sunset, 14 or 16 hours, after the hands of the poor kid are raw and bleeding from the cold weather of the topping period, he goes to the farmer to get his final pay, the farmer cannot pay him, because his check from the sugar company was taken by the banker for the mortgage on the crop. The beetworker is that instead of the worker | without any protection and without any pay is conditions such as these against which ‘s are struggling for the very lives of and their children. They appeal to the working class of the whole country for help rt. It must not fail them. Rush funds, : The U.S. Steel Wage Cut of May St ates Steel Corporation claims it to put through another wage- n This is claimed despite the in wage payments due to the r stem. Although the last dividend ent on common stock was passed, $5.50 per share was paid during 1931 and dividends on preferred stock are continuing unaltered. In November, 1931, payrolls had fallen. to 36.3 per : the 1926 level. Is the company unable y living wages or unemployment relief? Ac- cording to the company’s balance sheet of 12-31-30 in Poor's Industrials, 1931, p. 2012, there was a total undivided surplus, clear profits not. yet divided up, amounting to $741,000,000. During the period from April 1, 1901, to Dec. 31, 1930, there was a total net income of over four billion dollars. This represented the total profits after deducting “all expenses incident to | operation and allowance for depletion, deprecia- | tion, amortization and obsolescence, but exclusive of such allowances applied to U. S. Steel Cor- poration bond sinking funds.” This huge sum of $4,000,000,000 was distributed as follows: Interest on bonds, mortgages 3 United and securities .. . $871,000,000 Dividends on preferred ‘stock. 774,000,000 Re: r dividends on common . OBI ccs necagscssiccseesas 891,000,600 | Extra 40 per cent common stock dividend, June 1, 1927.:.. 203,000,000 Allowance to cover up, stock watering carried on when the U. S. Steel Corporation was organized .. 508,000,000 Miscellaneous 14,800,000 Undivided surplus .. ‘742,000,000 fe) $742,000,000 left as undivided surplus, so of course the corporation is too poor to pay a living wage or unemployment relief. Did the workers benefit from the tremendous prosperity of this gigantic industry which they had created? In 1927, when the 40 per cent extra‘common stock dividend was passed out in addition to the regular 88 common stock dividend, totaling $226 millions received. by the common stock holders, the total wage and sal- ary payments were only $431 million. This was 7.5 per cent less than the wage and salary pay- ments in the preceding year. This also included the huge salaries of the boss executives. In 1929, with a common stock dividend of 21.2 per cent, amounting to $172 million, the total wage and salary payments were reduced 2.5 per cent further. The answer is obvious. The corporation will not pay wages unless forced to pay wages by organized struggle on the part of the steel workers. There is but one hope as far as the workers are concerned—organization in militant unions under the leadership of the Metal Work- ers’ Industrial League. Pope Pius Calls for an “Interna- tional Imperialist” Block Against the Soviet Union By M. SALERNO ea Pious’ encyclical letter is greatly signific- ant as a manouver intended to crystallize the imperialist united front against the first proletarian state, the colonial anti-imperialist Movement and Communism in general. Even a superficial analysis of this letter dis- tloses that, behind the hipocrisy which is the age-old characteristic of the Vatican diplom- acy, is hi for an attack against the “enemy of order.” The letter calls upon all “men of good will” to “unite in a holy crusade...in order to alle~ viate in some measure the terrible consequences of the economic crisis.” But how does the letter propose to alleviate these consequences? By urging that the “holy crusade” be directed against Communism, which “makes use of the crisis for its propaganda.” Bven when the letter refers to atheism, it is clear as day light that Communism is the real target. The letter states: “This organized and mil‘tent atheism works untiringly...” and adds that as a result of this work which inquires with “diabolic reasoning into the cause of this uni- versal misery,” the “holy cross...is joined toge- ther with the simbols of modern imperialism.” Evidently it is not abstract atheism, divorced from the class struggle, that the Pope’s letter \denounces. Such atheism is considered unharm- ful. One could argue however that if communism is eruched, this does not eliminate the criiss; but. the letter points out. indirectly that the con- quences of the crisis would be alleviated by that fact, since the workers, deprived of their revolu- tionaty leader—the world Communist Party, could be persuaded to find some ‘relief’ in “penance . . . the foundation of true peace, detaching them from earthly and perishable ,goods, Ufting them up to goods that are eternal, ‘giving them, even in the midst of privation and ‘adversity, a peace that the world with all its \weath and pleasures cannot give.” Naturally enough, the encyclical letter of Pope Picus could not refrain in this connection from condemning the “evil spirit of exaggerated na- tionelism.” If the communist movement is to be destroyed, if the colonia] anti-imperialist move- Ment is to be suppressed, if the first proletarian tate is to be crushed, it is obvious that a united must be formed. But en Te len the Pope’s unpious mobilization | It must be condemned. . The letter, as a matter of fact, condemns only “nationalistic imperialism.” “The right order of Christian charity” the letter states—“does not disapprove of lawful love of country and a sen- ment of justifiable nationalism; on the contrary, it controls, sanctifies and enlivens them.” What the letter points out as an evil is the egoism which, “abusing this love of country and exag- gerating this sentiment of nationalism, in- sinuates itself into the relations between people and people,” thus preventing or at least delaying the crystallization of an international imperialis- tic biock against the common enemy, commu- nism, qualified in the letter as “the most dread- ful evil of our times.” The letter of Pope Pious appears therefore as a direct contribution to the preparation for an armed and concerted attack against the workers and peasants’ government. Furthermore it appears as the offer of a com- mon basis for understanding to the various cap- italist government, "What value can any treaty have in which every guarantee of conscience is lacking?”, the letter declares to the imperialists evidently suggesting that this “guarantee of con- science” can be found in the sanction of the robbers attack upon communism by god’s rep- resentative—the pope. “Take away this basis”— the letter continues—“and with it all moral Ia falls....Certainly one of the most dangerous errors of our age is the claim to morality from religion, thus removing all solid basis for any legislation.” It is evident, however, that the offer implies a request. In order that the mobilization of work- ers against communism, through a week of prayer and penance, should be really effective, the letter calls upon the capitalist states, which (when capitalism had to fight against the feudal ob- stacles retarding its development) manifested certain anti-catholic moods, to help restore the authority of religion among the workers. To the prayer and penance campaign launched by the Pope through its encyclical letter, the workers must oppose an intensified campaign against imperialist slaughter and for the defense of the Soviet Union. The workers must answer this ideological mob- ilization for the armed aggression of the Soviet ah Union with the iron determination corroborated by their daily activities, to wage a relentless, untiring and devoted + By BUECE The Jobless Army Grows in Illinois By BILL GEBERT the last two or three months, nationally and in the state of Illinois, the American Legion and A. F. of L. carried on a campaign to “get jobs for the unemployed.” ‘They published statistics in the capitalist press that many hun- dreds of thousands got jobs. Recently they published figures that nearly one-million men ‘were ré-employed in the U. S. ‘The fakery of this campaign was recently ex- posed by the statistics issued by the Illinois Department of Labor, showing that in the pe- tiod between March 15 and April 15, 1932, 1,342 industrial establishments reduced employ- ment 6% and the pay-roll 7.7%. Furthermore, it points out that the pay-roll for April, “1932, was 32.6% below the pay-roll for April, 1931, in Illinois. The average wages in manufacturing establishments of highest paid industries, have been dropped during April compared with March, from $20.08 a week to $19.38 a week. The largest percentage of lay-offs and drop in pay-roll is reported in the industries in Chicago. In the period of March 15 to April 15 the number of workers in Chicago factories have been decreas- ed 5.1% and the pay-roll decreased 8.6%. And compare this with September, 1929, we have the following situation—that by January, 1932, em- ployment in Chicago factories declined 41% and the pay-roll 62.3%. The total army of unem- ployed in Illinois reached 1,500,000, The figures of the Illinois Department of La- bor are very clearly pointing out the fact that the jobless army is systematically growing in number. With this grows the misery and starvation of the working class of Chicago in the state of Illinois. With these wage cuts are increased, also murderous speed-up, the whole working class is put on a starvation basis. ‘The financial writer of the Chicago Daily An Appeal of Romain Rolland Against Im- perialist War MOSCOW, April 30th, 1932. Romain Rolland has issued the following ap- peal in the“Pravda”: “The fatherland is in danger! Our interna~ tional fatherland, the Soviet Union, is threat~ ened. This means a threat to the whole world. Never before was this danger so tangibly evident, Europe is handed over to the arbitrary will of fascism. A monstrous blow is being prepared, the instruments of which are: on the right wing —Japan, and on the Left wing—Poland and Ru- mania. The instigators of this blow are in the West. It is heavy industry, industrial and bank capital at whose disposal are the lackey govern- ment and the League of Nations. ‘The tremend- ous conflict can break out any day. It is clear that not a single country, not a single person in the world will be given the right or the possibil- ity to stand on one side. Some free-minded per- sofis are determined to exert all their forces in order to rouse from its deadly torpor the public opinion of Europe and America which has been drugged by the capitalist press, Henry Barbusse has taken the initiative, with the support of a committee to which Maxim Gorki and Roman Rolland belong, to convene an international anti-war congress on June 28th, the bloody anniversary of Sarajevo. The committee have requested Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Heinrich Mann, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinc- lair, John dos Passos, H. G. Wells, Paul Langu- ine and Sun Tsin Lin to take part in the con- gtese. On the other hand, an appeal is addressed to the organizations of the metal workers, chem- ical workers and transport workers of the whole world, calling upon them to send warkers’ dele- gations to the congress. It is necessary to set up the united front of the hand and brain werk- ers and to call a halt to and break the outrage- its last resources to overcome the crisis. Point- ing this out, we must carry on a campaign among the workers, showing them the revolu- tionary way out of the crisis, pointing out that the factories will not be opened under capital- ism. The working class, carrying on daily strug- gles for the immediate needs, must see that there is no way for the working class than the News, speaking about a recent decline in pay- way of overthrow of the capitalist, system and roll and increase of lay-offs, has the following to say: “Personally, we hate to say anything about it for fear someone will suggest that we are quoting ourselves from a year ago,” The struggle against lay-offs, wage cuts, for immediate relief and social and unemployment insurance, must be linked up with the election campaign and this growing economic crisis of capitalism is also another additional factor of the danger of war, as the capitalists are at- tempting to solve the crisis by war as one of establishment of @ workers’ and farmers’ gov- ernment. That is why, in this period, the question of organization is of such tremendous importance. ‘The building of unions in the Stockyards, steel industries, development of opposition move- ments inside of the existing A. F. of L. unions, development of a movement among the unem- ployed, building a mass Young Communist League and Communist Party is the immediate task confronting every worker, By JORGE “Defenders of America” A Chicago comrade sends us a clipping from | some local paper telling of the inaugural meete | ing of the “Defenders of America” which is “ine | corporated as not for profit,” as the item states, and “looks to schools and colleges as the first Place to fight subversive tendencies toward Come munism and the lowering of the American stand- ard of living.” Fifty “business leaders” atended the meeting, and a list of directors is given which sheds some light on what the “Defenders of America” are defending. As the organization is going inte | the schools to “enlist the aid of American youth,” | it was necessary that the capitalists have with them as a “front,” some prostitute pedagog. And this was found in the name of Dr. David Kinley, president emeritus of the University of Mlinols, But when we come to the rest of these di rectors of the “Defenders of America,” we see! at once just which “America” they are defend- ing. Clement Studebaker, Jr., for example, is an official of the powerful utility corporations of Illinois, and while all utility corporations are highway robbers, those of Illinois have acquired | a reputation for bribery, crime and scoundrel- | ism unequalled by the others of this land. Stu- dents should take note, however, that Mr. Stude=| baker is going to “defend America.” Then the “Defenders of America” have none other than Thomas E. Donnelley, as another director. Donnelley is chief of the Lakeside Press, which is the most infamous scab printing house) in this fair land called “America.~ ff you don’t think so, ask any printer. He prints all such stuff as catalogues of mail order houses, tele- phone books, and so on, and has a spy system/| in his shops to terrorize the boys and girls he| pays outrageously low wages. | But Mr. Donnelley, students should know who have not yet had a chance to work in his shop, is pretending to “fight the lowering of the Amre- ican standard of living.” In reality, to fight Communism in order that the American stand- ard can be lowered. Of course, the “not for profit” clause in the “Defenders’” charter, is all in your eye. This bunch of fascists intend to defend their profits! made by sweating the workers in industry. If © they had the least atom of intention to main- tain the standard of living, they would not have to “look to schools and colleges’—but at each other. The reason they are “looking at schools and colleges”. right now is because they wish to re- cruit an organization of student youth to serve as fascist gangsters against the revolutionary; student movement now showing such promise of | growth, also against the workers, and of course} against the interests of the same students they corrupt. The revolutionary students have a duty to expose these “Defenders of America” in every! Toward Revolutionary Mass Work ( school and college. DISCUSSION O THE 14TH PLENUM. Functionaries Who Are in Contact With Masses In this pre-convention discussion we must take seriously into con- sideration some of the factors that are a hindrance to our work in the shops, and the mobilization of our comrades for such work. I want to cite one such factor. We must frankly state that the composition of our functionaries does not correspond to the present situation that the American work- ers find themselves in. We still have as our Unit functionaries, comrades who come from better paid industries, and more or less skilled workers, or comrades who are in no way connected with shops and mass work. Though this cate- gory of workers has been seriously affected by the crisis, nevertheless, their standard of living still re- mains above the average of the workers in the United States. In order to concretize what I want to say, let us take as an ex- ample the last functionaries meet- ing that was held in the New York District. Out of 120 Unit, organ- izers that were present at that meeting, there were 15 office work- ers, 16 housewives, and 6 artists and musicians, making a total of 37, or almost one-third who have no con- tacts with any factory or mass work, while the overwhelming maj- ority of the rest came basically from the building trades. There were hardly any comrades from the, heavy industries that we are sup- posed to be concentrating upon, and only one Negro in this group of 120. These figures should be a warning to us of the serious situ- ation in which our District finds itself, We cannot expect to make the necessary turn towards mass work, if in the preparations for the Con- vention and the re-election of the Unit Buros, Section Committees and District we will not make a change in the lower units of the Party as well as in the higher functioning bodies, In these elections for the Con- vention preparations the comrades must be elected who are active in shops, trade unions and mass or- ga. ions for the Unit Buros and other commitices, This will help to get our units out of the ianer life, into mass work. We must, at the samo time, fight against the fear that exists, both.in the Dis- | By L. DAVIS fear, in reality, is opportunism of the rankest sort. It is the under- estimation of the ability of the Party membership, especially rank and filers, to help in carrying on the basic work of the Party, that is, shop work. Only if we-do this, will we be in a position to put the Central Committee resolution into life, and only then will we be able to say that the work of the Party is fundamentally changing, and that we are moving towards mass work, Against Circular The bureaucratic methods of work, which are expressed in the ; “circular letter” method of leader- ship and in an excessive number of paid functionaries at the head of the Party and the auxiliary organ- izations, paralyzes the work of the lower Party organizations, and side- tracks; them from genuine mass work on to “inner” Party and routine work, and hinders the de- Letter Leadership velopment of cadres and the init- jative of the lower organizations, © The Party has not yet established ~ collective leadership or genuinely functioning apparatus in the lower organizations, and has the tendency | to conduct the work only through individual organizers. (From the main resolution of the 14th Plenum, printed in full in the Plenum Pamphlet “Towards Revolutionary Mass Work”.) Resolution of District Plenum, District 9, (We are re-printing with some ab- breviations the resolution of the Minnesota District Plenum. We urge the districts and sections to send in the resolutions to the Central Office, so that they may be reprinted in the Daily Worker. There will also be a statement analyzing the various resolutions) . ‘The District Committee endorses the report of the C.C. represent- ative, Comrade Newton, and of the District Organizer on the situation and tasks of the Party as outlined in the 14th Plenum of the C. ¢. We pledge ourselves to carry out in letter and spirit the resolutions of the 14th Plenum, especially by mob- ilizing the masses of workers and exploited farmers for struggle a- gainst imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union, and by mobilizing them in the struggle for their daily needs and» against the bosses offensive, particularly in the main points of concentration as proposed by the District Buro, We especially greet the decisions of the C. C. for a determined struggle a- gainst sectarianism, formalism, and burocracy as the chief, obstacles in our way to making the turn to mass work. In order to guarantee that the 14th Plenum resolution shall be actually applied in prac- tice in District.9, the following min-" imum tasks must bo accomplished before the Disirict Convention: 1, A broad discussion shall be opened in the units in prépara- tion for the District sate ¢saence in ics xv ‘acy, seca, bn mg few Dee hon eee me, Minnesota special tasks outlined for the shop and mine units, street units, and farm units, to be incorporated in the Plan of Work of each Section. 2. The Buro shall immediately re-organize its work so that the main emphasis and attention is placed on giving concrete guidance to the existing shop and mine units, to the concentration of selected street units on big shops, and to the development of forces for lead- ership in the trade union work and unemployed movement, 3. The Buro shall send repre- sentatives into. the Sections to hold active meetings, fraction meetings, shop and mine unit meetings, and meetings with Section Committees. 4. The Buro shall immediately examine the work of the mass or- ganizations, take steps to cut down the apparatus where necessary, es- tablish the regular function of the leading fractions, assign rank and file comrades to work in leading committees and fractions, and re- plate those comrades whose work has peen an obstacle in the build- ing .of the mass organizations. 5. map out plans for the ing of activity among the Negro. work- ers in the Twin Cities on the basis of ‘conerete issues, and check-up on the * tion © Committees . carrying them “out. : Two Negr comradss | mittee, and the District Buro must draw them into other leading Par-| ty Committees. | Salvitiew Scns 6. The District Committee, con- siders it an urgent necessity that in every section classes for new members shall start immediately, and be conducted continuously. 7. The Buro shall regularly call in key comrades from the shops, and active comrades in the trade unions, unemployed movement, and other mass organizations, to the Buro meetings to discuss their rese pective problems. 8, Buro members shall be as- signed and attacked to specific shop and mine units, or to units that are concentrating on a shop or mine, and must keep in close touch -with the problems of the workers, their sentiments, and the issues around which struggles can be developed. 9. The development of’ the elec- tion campaign must go hand in hand with our work in the shops, trade unions, and unemployment movement, and special | attention fust be given to making our agit- ational activities more simple and concrete, linked up with the worke ers most immediate problems. VOTE COMMUNIST FOR: The Buro shall immediately | shall-be added to the District Com- | 5. ‘Agalant eo pits 1, Unemployment and $)cial In- surance at the expense of the state and employers. 2. Against “Hoover's wage-cutting policy. 3. Emergency relief for the poor farmers without restrictions by the government and banks; ex- emption of poor farmers from taxes, and from forced collec- tion of rents or debts, ist terror; against al} forms of cupnrossion of the Political rights ef workers, 6. Against imperialist war; for the art of the —— | | ee