The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 1, 1932, Page 4

Published by the Comprodally Publishing Ce, ine, Geily except Sunday, at 50 Bast Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORI® to the Daily Worker, 56 Bast 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Page Four 18th St. Adére: New York City, and mail all che x. ¥. Dail By mail everywhe: SUBSCRIPTION RATES: The eteiee of the “Communist ARISE YE PRISONERS OF STARVATION International” Magazine and the Struggle Against Imperialist War I. epee assertion that the contradictions be- tween Japan and the United States, which have obviously sharpened in connection with the Japanese advance upon Shanghai, will to any real extent seriously weaken the danger of Japanese intervention against the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, is . . . . opportunist. ‘There is not the slightest doubt that the con- tradictions between Japan and the United Statcs are very deep, and that they will sooner or Iaier lead to a war between them (if revo- Intion does not forestall it.)” “BUT THESE CONTRADICTIONS DO NOT IN ANY WAY PREVENT THE UNITED STATES FROM TRYING TO URGE JAPAN INTC WAR AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION in the hope that a war of this kind will weaken at the same time both Japan—its own im- peria'is‘ rival, and the Soviet Union—the class enemy in principle both of Japan and the United States.” quotation is from the leading article i the Immediate Tasks of the Com- Parties,” published in Number Six of the International magazine, printed in —which has been seized by the U. S. acting on orders from the State De- munist Commur gland. Oustoms, partmen’. lear that Wall Street government, carry- ing on its “coalition” tactic in order to strengthen the two: ty dictatorship against the working class and the rising tide of mass resentment, while iis support of Japan is masked by a whole series of “peace” maneuvers, wishes to deprive American workers of the opportunity of reading the cle: relations and the war preparations against the Soviet Union from which the above extract is taken, “Force and Violence.” The m e has been seized on the grounds that it “advocates political changes by force and Violence.” But what “force and violence” can compare with, or hold such menace to the mil- lions of workers and colonial peoples as the sup- port of the Japanese imperialist attack on the Chinese people, base of military operations against the Soviet Union, the world-wide preparations for im- perialist war? We believe that every American worker who studies the rapid developments taking place in the United States and througnout the world, in politics, in the shops and factories, in the rapid downward plunge of the crisis and the continual lowering of the conditions of the workers by unemployment and wage-cuts, as contrasted to the upward development in the Soviet Union, will agree with the estimate made in the leading article of the Communist International of the ‘form of the struggle against imperialist war: “Our struggle against war takes the form ‘of the unmasking of all the small facts of the preparations for war; it is the mobilization of the masses against war; it is the strength- ening of the revolutionary struggle against the imperialist bourgeoisie all along the line.” American imperialism is proceeding very skill- fully in its war preparations. Only the more stupid and outspoken of the agents of Wall Street government are openly calling for war as the way out of the crisis. There is even a cam- paign in sections of the capitalist press for rec- ognition of the Soviet Union, designed to put the working class off guard. The “Peace” Tactic. Especially important for American workers is that portion of the leading article which points out the way in which the “peace” tactic is being utilized as a cover for war preparations: “The ruling classes, with the most active as- sistance of the social-fascist leaders, are adopt- ing the tactic of a peculiar ‘peaceful transi- tion’ to war. It is in this way that the ‘tran- sition’ to war of France, Czechoslovakia and other western European countries is taking place at the present time. This transition be- gins with the reconstruction of industry to serve war purposes and the systematic dis- patch of munitions to Japan. It is further @xpressed in the increased dispatch of troops to the Far East.” The entire United States navy is in the Pacific. This is of far greater significance even than the troops sent to the Far East by European powers. ‘The Daily Worker has published list after list of. American munition shipments to Japan. American industry has been for a considerable time organized “to serve war purposes.” Armed terrorism and mass arrests, actual massacres of workers, murderous attacks on Ne- roes on a huge scale—all are part of war prep- arations conveniently fitting into the general Grive’ against the living standards and the or- ganizations of the working class. “AY” Steps to the Front. Tt is not only the drop of production, which in the United States business charts resembles nothing so much as @ plunge over a high cliff from which project a few short upward jutting slivers of rock, that inspires the frantic efforts being made under the direction of the House of Morgan to smooth out differences within Capitalist circles and present an iron front to the working class. It is the part of the war preparations, as well a@s an attempt to patch up the weaker spots in the capitalist leadership under pressure of the erisis, when Alfred E. Smith, who polled 15,000,- 000 votes against Hoover four years ago comes out with a tirade against even the feeble middle 85 Opposition in congress against taxes on t of mass consumption, and calls for “sup- of the president.” Tt is not only the continued decline of pro- duction, the constant drop in sales and the Growing anger of the twelve to fifteen million unemployed which prompts Newton Baker, sec- retary of war under Wilson and a candidate for the democrat presidential nomination, to come out with the «logan of “follow the man in n,” Nor is it simply an economic measure “to plan the seizure of Manchuria as a | Hoover having the actual control of billions of dollars of new financing, -This is now almost a duplicate of the War Finance Corporation of the World War period— it is already assuming powers beyond anything ever delegated to any official or semi-official body except in war time. The domination of finance capital-in its most concrete form is expressed in the composition of this group of dictators. Who They Are. They operate in the innermost circle of Wall Street. Every one of them is an executive in a | corporation of a bank dominated by Morgan or by Rockefeller or representing a common ground in which both Morgan and Rockefeller groups are active. The Morgan men are in the ma- jority. Owen D. Young engineered the last attempt to wring reparations payments out of the German workers. He runs a strictly non-union corpora- tion, the General Electric Co., with a speed-up system that rivals anything of its kind in this country. Floyd L. Carlisle is a young man from up- | state New York who was getting such a good d searching analysis of imperialist | thing out of the public utilities that the Morgan utility crowd annexed him. He is now head of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, which owns all the gas and electric operations in New York, Queens and Westchester, and the electric company in Brooklyn. Walter S. Gifford is the head of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which was discharging some 50,000 workers and cut wages of the others, while Gifford was heading Hoover's fake committee for unemployment relief. William C. Potter, Jackson E. Reynolds and A. A, Tilney are the heads of the three banks most clearly dominated by Morgan & Co. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., is the president of the ruthlessly anti-labor General- Motors Corp: in which Morgan shares control with the duPont family. Clarence M. Wooley, of American Radiator, is generally known as a Morgan lieutenant. Mortimer N. Buckner, of the New York Trust Co,, and Charles E. Mitchell, of the National City Bank, represent banks in which Morgan and Rockefeller are both actively interested. Walter C. Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, is the one big Roeke- feller cil man who has played in with Deterding of Royal Dutch—outstanding enémy of the Soviet Union. Albert H. Wiggin is head of thé Rockefeller- dominated Chase National Bank. He was one of the first bankers to pass out the order for & general wage-cutting drive. Socialist Party Co-operation. ‘The co-operation of the Socialist Party in the “peace offensive” of American imperialism, side by side with which go such powerful dictatorial combinations as the above, is a major menace to working-class solidarity and struggle against im- perialist war. “The ‘struggle for peace’ of social democracy,” says the leading article in the sup- pressed issue of the Communist International, “is a pacifist smoke-screen, which is used to coun- teract the vigilance of the masses, to demoralixe them and thus facilitate the opening of war hostilities.” A shining example of this {s contained fn the speech of Norman Thomas, accepting the Social- ist Party nomination in Milwaukee. Speaking of Hoover, he said: “In an important sort of way he desires peace. ... With a great war all too likely in the Far East he stubbornly refuses to recognize Russia, so that, by our one-sided recognition of only one of the probable belligerents, Japan we shall-be tied to it and to its mad imperialism in a peril- ous and unwanted alliance.” (Our emphasis.) Socialist Party Effrontery. Would anyone but a socialist say that Hoover “desires peace?” Did not Hoover say, and does not Norman Thomas know that Hoover sald to Benjamin Marsh of the Peoples Legislative Coun- | cil, and has never denied it, that “the ambition of his life was to crush Soviet Russia?” Would the recognition of Russia, now a “respectable” demand even in certain American capitalist circles (the Scripps-Mcrae newspaper chain, etc.), solve the fundamental antagonism be- tween the country of the proletarian revolution and the foremost imperialist country in the world? ‘The suppression of the iss\s of the “Com- munist International” magazine brings out dra- matically the fear of the imperialists before anti-war literature. The circulation of anti-war propaganda and agitation literature must be doubled. Greater clarity on the war situation is indispensable in the mobilization of the masses for revolutionary struggles against: imperialist wars. In preparation for August 1, the July issue of the Communist will be a special anti-war issue. (Second Article Coming.) WAR SIGNS IN TEXTILES ‘OME indications of the growing danger of war have been cited recently by the International Committee of Textile Workers: increase in ac- tivity of rayon factories in France, the rayon industry being, of all the textile industries, most easily convertible to the manufacture of ex- plosives; placing of war orders for textiles by Japan in Holland (military blankets) and in Germany (inform cloth and jute products: Polish army places large orders for woolen cloth; Jugo-Slav army. has also ordered heavy. ship- ments of wool textiles from plants in Leds, Poland; artificial silk factories in Czecho- Slovakia were recently inspected by a govern- ment military commission. In the United States war contracts to textile mills seem to be increasing recently. The Pa- cific Mills at Lawrence haye been working on a 7-7 shift on a government order for bunting. Cramerton Mills, Cramerton, N. C., has just landed a contract to furnish 1,223,125 yards of khaki cloth to the U. 8. Army. Other reeent J. BRUNO Te English édition of the latest number of the Anti-Imperialist Review has just arrived. It is a special anti-war number, and, with the exception of the latest’ number of the Com- munist International Magazine which was con- fisatéd and destroyed by the U. S. Custom officials and which is reprinted now, it is the only current peroidical containing within its covers & series of articles by some of the fore- most leaders of the revolutionary anti-imperial- ist movement, dealing exclusively with the pre- sent war situation in China and the immediate danger of a world war and an attack on the Soviet Union. “The Second World War Is Here,” by Com- rade L. Magyar, is a most clear and thorough analysis. In analyzing the position of imperial- ist Japan, Comrade Magyar shows all causes bringing about Japan’s imperialist attack on China, Japan has five big trusts and forty-thousand landowners controlling most of its wealth. It is faced today with two and a half million un- employed, with a fall in production of from thirty to fifty per cent, a devaluation of the currency, a budget deficit, increased prices and cost of living, contraction of the internal market and a drop of foreign trade of fifty to sixty per cent, wage reductions and increased strike strug- gles, with the peasants living under the ruth- less pressure of feudal and semi-feudal condi- tions. All these causes amidst the general world capitalist crisis have shattered the foundations of imperialist Japan, and after desperate efforts to gain new markets and sources of raw mate- rials in East Africa, Indonesia, Fzypt and other places, there followed the robber war in China, Comrade Magyar points out that because the basic contradiction of the present epoch is be- tween the Soviet Union, and decaying capital- ism, we find the imperialist’ powers allying themselves to strike a common blow at the Soviet Union. Comrade Magyar goes at length into the significance of the Franco-Japanese bloc, the support given to Poland and Rumania and the other border states by the French Government, the plan for the creation of the Danubian Federation, the attempts to draw in Italy and the pressure brought on Germany to enter into the alliance as an active participant in the anti-Soviet front. Comrade Magyar point out clearly the role played by the Second International in preparing this second world war. Comrade Clemens Dutt in his article, “War in the Far East” shows how Japan has pre- pared for years this attack on China and the Soviet Union. He analyzes the relationship be- tween Japanese and British imperialism and shows the role of the League of Nations as the organizer for war. Comrade Yobe in his article “Fourteen Years of Colonial Wars” presents a picture of the “peace” that followed the last war, a “peace” of fourteen years of colonial wars. This article contains a list and a review. of most of the colonial wars for the past fourteen years. The comrades should secure this number of the Anti- Imperialist Review if only for the reference and valuable information contained in Comrade Yobe's article, Comrade B. Ferdi deals in his article with national in the Service of Imperialist War,” with the treacherous role played by the Second In- ternational, its sections like the Social Demo- cratic Party of Japan and its leaders, with Hen- dergon, MacDonald, Mueller, Paul Boncour and other leaders of the “socialist” and “labor” par- ties of the imperialist countries. Comrades Sen Katayama and Ko-lin in their articles “Japanese Masses Fight Against Impe- rialist War” and “Soviet China” tell about the mighty forces of the proletariat’ and colonial masses that are fighting under the leadership of the Communist Parties in Japan and China against imperialist war. The same number con- tains also appeals against war and for the de- fense of Riedie China and Soviet Union by “The League of Nations and the Second Inter-. | facts The War Number ot the “Anti- Imperialist Review” ber is the one by Comrade Chattopadhaya,” “Buddhism in the Service of Japanese dnd Brit- ish Imperialism.” It ‘discloses extraordinary as to how the Indian Nationalists work fer British and Japanese imperialism and the service that the Buddhist monks are rendering for imperialism. Comrade V. Chattopadhyaya quotes the fol- lowing statement by J. H. Thomas, “labor” servant of British imperialism; “In these days By M. STERN [ACK Greenberg, 19-year old Jersey City worker has been sentenced to 90 days and fined $25 for attempting to distribute leaflets to. workers at a factory gate. Olson and Caveloff, two marine workers, are now in the Jersey City County jail charged with inciting to riot because they distributed leaflets on the waterfront in Hoboken, Kasper and Brown have been arrested in. the Office of Chief of Police, O'Neal of Bayonne, taken to jail and so brutally attacked that they will remain with marks and injuries for the rest of their lives, In Newark, police break up outdoor and in- door meetings as soon as the Scottsboro case is merely mentioned. In Paterson, the streets are absolutely forbid- den to the workers. Three workers are now un- der charges of inciting to riot for trying to hold a Sacco-Vanzetti open-air meeting last August. The Five Paterson silk workers are being call- ed to trial, first on felonious assault charges, hoping to get a conviction, and then bringing them to court as criminals on the murder charges. New Jersey and War New Jersey is a very important war state. Newark, Jersey City, Kearney, Harrison, Eliza- beth, Arlington, Bloomfield, are highly indus- trial centers, manufacturing electrical applian- ces, instruments, meters, relays, radio tubes, radio equipments, pumps, and a thousand other articles necessary in war. Paterson, Garfield, Passaic, Clifton, are cen- ters for the rayon and silk industry, which can be turned into a war industry overnight. Bayonne, Hoboken, Jersey City, are centers for oil, shipping and transportation. War and Profits \ The bosses are preparing for war by increas- ing their fight against the workers. Wages were recently cut 40 per cent in the Bloomfield works of the General Electric Co. Singers Sewing Machine of Elizabeth has just announced a 10 per cent wage cut. Westinghouse has cut wages three times. Every industry without exception has given the workers huge wage cuts and at. the same time reduced their forces tromendous- ly, and at the same time compelled the others to speedup at an unheard of speed. Struggles Developing The workers of New Jersey are not quietly accepting wage cuts, unemployment, speed-up, and war. Struggles are developing everywhere. Tr workers are preparing to fight for the right z Fight Hunger and Starvation The capitalist press, the agents of the ruling class, kas been publishing less and less news about unemployment, It hides the starvation of the unemployed workers’ familles. We must constantly expose the miserable treatment of families of the unemployed by the city governments and charity institutions. We imust uncover all cases ef starvation, u»- acrnourishment, sickness. We must pub~ lish these cases in our press, in the Daily Worker, in Labor Unity, to them at all workers’ meetings, Un- employed Councils should publish bulletins to inform all workers of the starvation and misery of the ——— mn. BRermplOTeG, — t¢remesinitin, Ibe teresa of Frence's forign polly awiw..,! Sying shuttles and unguarded : One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; of Manbattaz and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $! By BURCK when the disruptive forces are at work, there is no greater force for good than religion.” A serious shertcoming of this number is that there is nothing in it on Latin-America. With all this wealth of important material contained in one single number, this magazine becomes indispensable to our comrades for a correct understanding of the struggle against war, Workers should get a copy of this number im- mediately. We received only two thousand copies for the whole United States and Oanada. Workers and workers’ organizations, study groups and classes should send in their order to the Anti-Imperialist League, 799 Broadway, Room. 536, New York City. The magazine sells for fifteen cents. New Jersey Bosses Prepare for War to live, against imperialist war and for the de- fense of the Soviet Union. Police are instructed to club and beat the workers. Courts are in- structed to give out vicious sentences. Workers gatherings are broken up. Streets are forbid- den to the workers. Stool pigeons are told to frame workers. Olson and Caveloff are in danger of being sent to long jail terms and deportation for pass- ing out leafiets in Hoboken. The 5 Paterson silk workers are in the shadow of the electric chair, framed up for the death of the bootleggers, racketeer silk boss Urban. These cases are of great importance to the working class, Japan in Difficulties But Driving to War ‘HE economic and financial crisis is sharpening in Japan. The war adventures in Shanghai and Manchuria have cost and are still costing large sums of money. The Ministry of War has demanded a sum of 285,000,00 yen for war pur- poses, but the Finance Ministry, which is unable to provide this sum, has proposed that the War Ministry should be satisfied with 150,000,000 yen for the period from July to December, 1932. The Ministry of War rejects this proposal and it is expected that a special military fund will be formed. Growing Crisis The sale of large quantities of raw silk which had been stored up for some time has consider- ably worsened the situation on the silk market. About 100,000 bales of raw silk were thrown on the market and the price is dropping rapidly. Unemployment is rapidly increasing and ‘the newspaper “Dzidzi” points out that at a conser- vative estimate there are a million and a half workers unemployed in the Japanese towns. In this difficult situation the Japanese hope for a recovery by means of a war of conquest in Manchuria and against the Soviet Union. More and more troops are being concentrated in Northern Manchuria on various pretexts, none of which are of the least importance. The Japanese troops in Shanghai are preparing themselves in all haste to evacuate the district in order to be shipped to Manchuria where Japan intends to concentrate all its available military forces. Franco-Japan War Bloc The Japanese press express some of little anxiety concerning the results of the French elections and many newspapers write rather more frankly than is customary concerning the real nature of the relations existing between im- perialist France and imperialist Japan. The Tokio newspaper “Azahi’ writes: “Since the beginning of the Sino-Japanese conflict France has shown a very satisfactory understanding for Japanese policy in Manchuria and in return France enjoyed Japanese support in its international policy.” ae This is a very.ciear admission of the existence of a working agreement for mutal support be- tween the two imperialist countries, The news- papers then expresses the hope that the change of government in France which is inevitable as the result of the recent élections will not ad- versely affect the cooperation betwen the two imperialisms, It banks on “the statesmanlike common sense of Herriot” whoit hopes, will be prepared to sacrifice “theoretcial sympathies” in \ A Scottsboro F ather : Gee PATTERSON, th the father of Haywood, Paterson, one of the Scottsboro prisoners, isa typical working-class Negro of the South! All his life he has known nothing but work, privation, hunger and the contempt of his white bosses. He was born on a cotton plantation in Geore gia. “I never saw much money,” he says. “The plantation boss don’t give black men money much. We got along, Jannie and me. In July and August, though, it got very bad. That is just before cotton picking time. Then rations would get short. The plantation boss wouldn't give us much to eat. We lived on cornmeal and molasses, with maybe a little bit of fatback.| Fatback is porkfat without any meat in it. i “It’s hard on a man to do a big day's work, hoeing cotton, ‘skinning’ a mule, hiking over the furrows behind a cultivator with nothing in\ him but cornmeal and molasses. We never seen fruit, And sugar—sugar was always mighty precious “Eight years ago things got so bad I couldn't stand it no longer. So we slipped away. That’s the only way a black plantation farmer can get away, is slipping away at night. Then my wife and the kids came after me to Chattanooga when I got a job.” But Chattanooga, though it offered somewhat more food than the starvation rations of the plantation, still ground the Negro worker under an iron heel. Claude Patterson went to work in the shoe brake foundry of the nearby metal plant. He found for his family a rickety, un- painted frame house in the Negro section of the town. During the boom they got along. The streets were muddy; there wefe no sidewalks; the roof of the house leaked; next door was a dump; at nights the streets were dark and dan- gerous to travel; the whole Negro district was constantly patroled and terrorized by cops—but Claude and his family got along. Then came the depression. Wages fell. Claude is still working at the foundry—two days a week at $2.35 a day! Out of this he is supposed to pay $3 a week for his shack. What is left goes for clothes, food, fuel, heat. Heywood, his boy, worked on the dump pile, ran errands, did what he could to increase the family income. When Chattanooga became hopeless, he boarded a freight to look for work in Memphis. It was because on this fatal freight train two white girls were hoboing in overalls that young Heywood was framed for rape, Out of this tragedy, however, has come a new hope in the Patterson family. They got to know the “Reds.” Where always before they had met with contempt from the ruling class whites, now suddenly they met groups of Negro and white workers, working hand in hand, calling each other “Comrade!” fighting side by ‘side against the common enemy—the boss. Claude and Jannie Patterson have learned about the class struggle! Condition of Skilled Workers in New Bedford EPRESENTATIVES of the Labor Research Assn, have completed a study of conditions among a group of skilled workers in New Bed- ford, Mass., home of the fine cotton goods in- dustry of New England. The workers were in- terviewed last fall, since when conditions in the mills have become much worse than those des- cribed in the survey. ‘The workers were eme ployed in such mills as Booth, Beacon, Neild, Gosnold, Nashawena and Pierce, Hours and Unemployment The working year for those workers who are most fully employed extends over only six to nine months out of the twelve. The remaining months of the year these workers are unem- ployed. Many of them report being employed only three months during a year and a con- siderable number of those interviewed were un= able to find any employment at all during the past year. (It is estimated that at least 15,000 former textile workers in New Bedford are with- out work in the mills.) Of those who have jobs a considerable number are employed only two to four days a week. A working day of 834 hours prevails in most of the plants, but some of the workers reported working 9% to 10 hours a day. Wages Dropping t ‘When. employed full time these skilled New Bedford workers average about $22 a week, but the slack weeks bring the average down to about $11 to $12. More recently doffers if one mill have been averaging $12 to $13 a week, while weavers have been making $14 to $15. Many of the workers during the last year, due to parte time work, have been unabje to make more than $25 to $100 for the entire period. Others, who have worked with comparative steadiness, have averas about $900 a year. But even these are heard to complain that “you can’t make a liv- ing wage in the mill” or “my children are in an orphan’s home for I can’t support them.” Still later reports from L. R. A. correspone and of another who drew only $3.07 for five days. During the last year, cuts as high as 45% have been put over in this mill, In April, 1931, a weaver received $2.70 for 100,000 picks. Now he receives only $1.30 for the same All the workers interviewed reported an in: crease in the speed-up in the New Bedford mills, Weavers on fancy looms tell of running from 10 to 16 looms instead of 2 to 8 as formerly. And loomfixers are required to care for 60 looms instead of 40. ‘The speed-up requires the work- em to go much faster and more “bad work” is thus produced. If the boss marks the work as “bad” the worker is fired from the fob. Practically all the workers interviewed report much greater fatigue as a result of the speed- up system. Most workers suffer from nervous. sickness and rheumatism. “My health is on the point of breaking,” one said, while severed i ss reported that they could not afford a doctor, After their energies have been sepped by long years of work in the mills the older ones re- port: “They say you're too old at 45,” or “They want only young men.” Sanitation and Accidents Almost half the workers reported no available washing facilities whatsoever in their mills; hot water is on tap in only a few plants. Some workers also report dampness while others re- port excessive heat. Regular temperature up to 95 degrees was found, while in the winter the a ee een?