The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 10, 1932, Page 4

Cage Four Dail Yorker’ Ceontrel Porty US.A Tublished by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily exexept Sunday, at 50 E. isth St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable “DAIWORK.” Address and mail cheeks to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 13th York, N. ¥. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mall everywhere: One year, months, $3; twe months, $1; exe: Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. six_months. $4.50. ting Foreign: ene year, $8; ~ Borah’s Deception of the Farmers | ce Borah, bellows up and down the countryside with magnificent gestures threatening to bolt the repub- the “progressive” senator, party. But Borah will not finally desert his party and journey forth own into a political “no man’s land.” He has a definite part. in s a$ in all campaigns in which he has participated—to use his alleged differences with the official republican machine to line up the Middle and Far West for the November balloting. Borah says he will not support Hoover “on that platform”—meaning the platform adopted at the Chicago convention. He awaits Hoover's ac- ceptance speech of Thursday of this week. Then, after pretending to pon- der the question, he will announce his future course. Meanwhile the Idaho senator is busy in the campaign, using his old progressive lingo to aid imperialist policy, His speech at Minneapolis: last week was a skillfully studied attempt to try to make the farmers believe that the question of the prices of farm products is bound up with the problem of war debts; that a final settlement of the war debts owing the United States will open up a vast market for American agricultural produce. No greate- deception could be practiced upon the impoverished farm- ers..These debts are not now being paid. Payments on even some of the private European debts owing Wall, Street bankers may have to be de- ferred. Yet the farmer in no way gains thereby, These war debts, even though they may never be collected, are use- ful in international political intrigue. The Hoover-Wall Street government strives to utilize them to swing European states toward the orbit of American imperialist policy—toward the same plundering end toward which all its predatory financial policy is directed, Toward its imperialist rivals, England and France, these debts are useful as a means of political pressure. In connection with the question of armaments Hoover repeatedly raises the question of the debtor nations cuttiflg down their military equipment so they can pay debts. Thus they are also useful in the general arms policy of trying to weaken opponents while strengthening the rela- tive.position of United States imperialism. Only a fool or a trickster would try to make anyone believe that Wall Street imperialism, one of the most greedy, and despotic gang of financial pirates will abandon any possibilities of looting Europe and strengthening its world position in order to aid the starving farmers, their wives and children in this country. And Borah is no fool. “The republican “board of strategy” hopes that John Farmer will fall for such twaddle and patiently starve in the expectation that the. foreign rélations committee of which Borah is chairman will rescue him after election when the “final settlement” on war debts is reached. ~ No more contemptible piece of trickery could possibly be invented, Just-as Hoover, Roosevelt, Pinchot and Garner combine trickery with violence against starving masses of unemployed and part-time workers and starving farmers, so Borah, Norris and other “progressives” from the farm_states, play in the most cynical fashion with the misery of the | starving farmers. | «Borah will not bolt his party. His periodical threats are only stage | Play. To immediately identify himself with Hoover would be to lose the éffect of his special role—which is to use radical phrases to carry out the reactionary policies of the Republican Party. ‘As against this vile trickery there is one Party only that comes forth witht a clear cut plank for the poor farmers. That is the Communist | Party, which demands: “Emergency relief for the impoverished farmers | without restrictions by the government atid banks; exemption of impov- erished farmers from taxes and no forced collection of rents or debts.” The Communist election platform is a guide to action to fight for relief! NOW, ‘Not merely do the Communists have the only platform for immediate relief of workers and farmers, but we are the one party that puts forward a solution for all problems of hunger and want, through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Vote Communist! OrganizedCottonStealing and Price Boosting SYNDICATE composed of the principal cotton mill interests has put through a conspiracy with the Federal Farm Board grabbing the 3,000,000: bales of cotton held by the board at five or six cents a pound, | preparatory to a price boost on the home market. The Farm Board has | expended approximately 17 cents a pound, including carrying charges for | this~enormous amount of surplus cotton. Hence the government again comes to the aid of one of the most piratical industries in the country— the exploiters of women and child slaves at actual starvation wages. ‘his steal gives the cotton mill organization monopolistic control of the-cotton surplus, enables it to crush small competitors by boosting the | pricé of raw cotton to them, raises the price of all cotton goods at a time when workers’ incomes are falling with tremendous speed. It is another smashing assault on the standard of living of the toiling masses, The political swindlers of the Republican and Democratic parties are already lying to the cotton growers of the South. that this trick will en- able them to obtain better prices, Nothing is further from the fact. The release of these 3,000,000 bales to the mill organization places such a supply in their control that they can force the prices for the current crop down to unheard of low levels. This again proves the deceptive prac- tices of all so-called government “relief” agencies, inasmuch as the very purpose for which the Board was lyingly declared to have been created was to hold off the market the surplus to enable the cotton growers to get higher returns. The refutation of that lie is seen in the rapid fall of prices, the awful misery, disease and death that blights the Negro and white share croppers and tenant farmers. Hence this cotton deal that is hailed by the reptile press as the ‘most constructive measure undertaken to strengthen the position of agricul- tural staples” is a vicious swindle that means monopolistic prices to con- sumers, lower prices for the toilers of the plantations, and concentration, with government aid, of the cotton manufacturing industry in the hands of the biggest mill owners. By boosting prices in the home market the monopolists also hope to be able to dump in the world market the surplus held over and also the current crop in competition with the cotton produced by the slaves of Egypt, thus sharpening the economic conflict between American and British imperialism. Not from such sources as the mill owners and the Federa] Farm Board, will relief be obtained by the toiling masses in industry and on the land, but only through closing ranks in a militant struggle for im- mediate relief and jobless insurance, only by the following the standard of the Communist Party against the capitalist thieves and their partiés—~ republican, democrat and socialist—can the capitalist thieves be com- pelled to disgorge some of their loot. AUGUST ISSUE OF “THE COMMUNIST” CONTENTS The Election Struggie Is the Fight for Bread, (Editorial.) Unemployed Work—Our Weak Point. By A. Allen. Should Communists Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments? By V, I. Lenin The Fight Against Sectarianism in the National Miners Union. By Tom Johnson. non esd of the Revolutionary People's War in Manchuria. By ‘The American Social Fascists. By H. M. Childs. The Growth of the Revolutionary Upsurge in the Caribbean. By O. Rodriguez. Some Problems of Agit-Prop Work and Our Election Campaign. By Sam Don. : The ‘Training of New Cadres and Our School System. By A. Markoff. American Imperialism’s Growing Parasitic Bureaucracy. By Max Weiss. The Work of Trade Union Fractions—Resolution of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. The American Economic Crisis, By Labor Research Association. Si on ae 2. ee .t i. ‘4 The third party movement, headed, in democracy (which is the Lgpepenea pene) and in this connection they, Norman Thomas. by John Dewey, aims to restore faith|form of the dictatorship of the big prefer the candidacy and platform ot| Miners of Illinois on the War Path By B. K. GEBERT ‘HE miners of Illinois, in the re- ferendum, by a overwhelming majority defeated the agreement signed by the coal operators and officialdom of the U.M.W.A., which provides for penalty for “impurity” in the coal, which is to be forced upon the miners by the sole wish of the mine bosses in the form of fines to the point of firing from the | | job. | be a basic wage, $5.00 a day, the While there is supposed to miners very correctly interpreted that because the tonnage will be 68 cents, hardly any miner will make $5.00 a day. The wages of the many miners have been cut to $4.75 and for the boys up till $3.00, cut- ting down 25 per cent on dead work, etc. The miners voted against the agreement despite the mobilization of all the forces at the disposal of the coal operators and bureaucrats of the U.M.W.A. radio speeches, the use of churches, especially Rev. J. W. R. Maguire, capitalist press, Republican party machinery, did not help. And the miners voted against the wage cuts in spite of the fact that during the whole pe- riod of the lock-out, no relief was given to the miners and their fam- ilies as far as the district and in- ternational UMWA jis concerned. John Walker put in charge of the relief committee, the counter-revo- lutionary Trotzkyite, Jerry Allard, whose policy was very simple—to starve the miners so that they would accept wage cuts. The Jerry | Allard Relief Committee is a com- mittee of starvation. The Emmerson Relief Commission cut off the re- | lief of the miners. In face of starv- | ation the miners voted against the | starvation wages. Tools of the Operators. The line and policy of the offi- cialdom of the U. M. W. A., Lewis, | Walker, Nesbitt, etc., is clear. They are open tools of the coal operators and the Republican administration of the state to cut the wages of the | miners. But there are others who appear on the scene, who are more | treacherous than Walker and Co. Riding on the wave of the growing revolutionization of the miners, Jack Allen, Pat Ansbury and others give lip service to the general de- mands of the miners and against wage suts. They jump on a band wagon against the wage-cuts in or- der to keep the miners from follow- ing revolutionary leadership. There- fore, they want to take over the leadership of the miners and lead them into a blind alley. Strike Committees. The task confronting the rank and file membership of the UMWA is the unity of ALL miners, em- ployed and unemployed, against wage cuts and for the relief of the starving families. To carry this out it is necessary that in every mine a broad united front strike commit- tee is to be elected. That strike to be declared under the leadership of these strike committees. The strike committees must embrace un- employed miners and joint strug- Bles to be carried on against wage cuts and for relief by means of mas picketing of the mines as there is no doubt that John Walker and the officialdom, together with the state, will attempt to open the. mines. To organize a hunger march. to the country governments, de- manding relief and leading towards a state hunger march. NN NNNN In this situation the miners must, Bet he eae HF viet Defeat Agreement Signed by U. M. W. A. | Officials with Coal Bosses \MINERS MUST BE ON GUARD AGAINST PHRASEMONG- ERING MISLEADERS To carry on the struggle it is necessary to set up local strike committees and unite them in sub- district and district scale. To put into motion over 50,000 miners. This is the only guarantee to defeat the wage cuts.. Will Ansbury and Al- len ‘accept this policy? If so they must be put to the test. The min- ers shall not accept words from | fore Ansbury, Allen and others, j will you support this policy and car- ry on the struggle in this light or will you continue to play politics, giving lip service and not doing anything for the purpose of demo- ralizing the miners and discourag- ing them and beat them back to work as dictated by Walker and the coal operators. Facts Expose the Myth of the Farmer’s “Prosperity” Evictions Widespread; Debts Staggering; Farm Workers Reduced to Convict Labor Standards j COMMUNIST PARTY ONLY PARTY FIGHTING FOR FARMERS ~ (The amazing figures In this ar- 60 per cent jess for the products he icle, of the status of the American must sell. In the face of these farmer and farm laborers, who have | facts, the railroads, in 1932, added been reduced to the level of Euro- another 15 per cent to freight pean peasants, shatter to pieces the | charges on farm products, parle net ; eee | Drop in prices of farm products ous our farmers are. The Commu- | 24S been greater than for any other nist Party is the only party de- | group of commodities. In March, ee its marian platform, 1932, farmers were receiving only immediate “relief for the poor ; | farmers: without featriction by. the rab ity a Cara cotton, while government and banks; exemption ie Department of Agriculture set of poor farmers from taxes, and no | 16 cents as the average cost of forced collection of rents or debts.”) pant ats & Pound ‘of “cropper” cotton, a2 Fah | By Labor Research Association Farm prices dropped 32 per cent | “MERICA is now entering upon ‘the era of the peasant ... the farmers are becoming European- | ized,” writes a recent author. The farmer in the United States is gra~ | level and 70 per cent below the 1919 level. The Drop In Land Vaiues, Farm and land values have drop- in 1931, 51 per cent below the 1929 | dually becoming pauperized, reduc- ed to the level of a serf. Even experts are now beginning to admit this fact. Here are some facts on the con- ditions of agriculture. Others may be found in the new pamphlet, The | American Farmer, by George An- | strom of Labor Research Associ- ation, just issued by International Pamphlets. First, it should be noted that many of the figurés below relate to an “average farmer.” Of course, no such person exists. These offi- cial figures serve to conceal the status of the poor farmers by lump- ing them with the incomes and conditions of the rich farmers and Jand owners. Fake Farm Relief. ‘ ‘There is much talk about “farm relief,” but this relief is negligible compared with nearly four billion dollars being paid to the big banks and railroads by the Reconstruc- tion Finance Corporation. Even the negligible amount nominally alloted to farmers actually goes to banks, morgage holders, farm financiers, and produce exchange speculators, The farmer today pays 153 per cent more to ship his products on the railroads than he did before the war, And he pays at least 25 per cent more for the goods he conservative economists and farm: ped nearly 50 per cent since 1920. The gross income of the 6,000,000 or more American farms dropped -from $11,851,000,000 in 1929 to $6,- 920,000 in 1931, or nearly 42 per cent. And the average income per farm household has dropped from $887 in 1929—also a crisis year in agriculture—to $367 in 1931. It will go still lower in 1932. Although they received only 9.3 per cent of the national income, farmers pay about one-fifth of all taxes. According to the most conservative authorities, farmers’ taxes are at 266 per cent of the pre-war level. The American farm debt burden is about $700,000,000 a year placed upon from three to four millions actual debtors. A. C, Williams of the Federal Farm Board estimated the total of indebness of farmers to be 13 billion dollars. Of this, about 9 and a half billion is in farm mortgages outstanding. 1930 alone, farmers paid 671 million dollars in interest. 777 million in taxes, while the renters paid 701 million in rents for farms. Between 1925 and 1930, forced sales and voluntary bankruptcy proceed- ings involved 24 per cent of all farms, Department of Agriculture figures for the period from March 1926 to March 1931 reveal the dis- astrous record of foreclosures in the number of the farms per thousand foreclosed: South Dakota, 238; Montana, 235; North Dakota, 225, jarast buy,~-Yel'*be recetyes-about | ~ Number-of farms per. thousand In) anybody. They should remember Edmundson, Howatt, etc., and re- member that they too played with the miners as Ansbury does today. There is no other way to defeat the wage cuts and win relief. In the course of this the miners must remember that the wage cutting policy and stoppage of relief or no relief at all is the policy carried in the coal fields by Governor Emmerson, John Walker, John L.Lewis, Edmundson who are mem- bers of the Republican Party. And Senator Otis F. Glenn, who is can- didate for re-election was prosec- utor of the Herrin miners in 1932. Nesbitt, is a Democrat and Senator H, Lewis, who told the unemployed ex-servicemen of Illinois that they could go hell, he goes to Senate, is also a Democrat, that in this election struggle the miners shall rally around their own Party, the Communist Party, whose standard bearers are well known to the min- ers, Wm. Z. Foster, leader of the working class and James W. Ford, Negro leader leader of the working class, The candidate for Lieutenant gov- ernor, is Arthur Herchy, a fighting unemployed miner of Springfield, together with Leondis McDonald, a Negro Stockyards worker for Gov- ernor and Wim. Browder for State Senator who is known as | one of the leaders in the Struggle against the Criminal Syndicalist Law. And the rest of the candidates of the Communist Party in the state of Illinois are composed of active, leading workers in the struggle for unemployment and social relief and insurance, against wage cuts, The miners of Illinois and In- ciana shall unite their struggle against wage cuts with the elec- tion campaign of the Communist Party and Vote the straight Com- munist ticket, under the hammer and sickle on November 8th, sold for “tax delinquencies” during the same five-year periog@ Were: Montana, 108; North Dakota, 86; Virginia, 70; West Virginia, 67; Idaho, 68, Thousands of Farms Auctioned Daily In Mississippi alone, some 40,000 farms were auctioned off in one day, in 1932, either because of mortgage foreclosures or for-non- payment of taxes. At the same time, the farmers are being forced into tenantry. Al- ready, in 1930, over 42 per cent of all farms in the country were ten- ant operated. And in the south, even in 1925, over 76 per cent of all Negro farmers were on a tenant basis. The conditions of farm laborers likwise indicate the bankrupt state of the farmers and the shifting of at least a part of the burden of the crisis to the backs of thes® workers. In April, 1932, the average daily wage for farm laborers with board was 97 cents; without board, $1.35. In the South Atlantic states, the average was 68 cents with board, 91 cents »without. In many places, farm labor can be obtained “with little or no payment according to the U. S. Department of Agricul- ture other than subsistence.” The great extent of unemploy- ment among farm laborers is re- flected at least partially in the fact that the percentage of labor supply to demand was 193 per cent of “normal? in the ‘entire United States for April, 1932. { trade union, poisoned the old man’s ! father went secretly to Jack’s em- RED PODOLSK The Former Singer Sewing Machine Plant Near Moscow By MYRA PAGE Our Correspondent in the Soviet | Union. PART VY. IN THE UNITED STATES Jack found Chicago, where his | father worked as a watchman, far different from what he had ex- pected. “After nine years of new life under Soviet power,” he tells us, “capitalism was more terrible than I had remembered. When I'd ride to work in the morning, I'd look about at the downcast, thin faces, and such a pain’d go through me! They were slaves, though at that time, many didn’t know it.” He worked fifty hours a week for the Lawrence M. Stein Sewing Machine Company, situated near VanBruen and Halstead, receiving the small sum of $12. From this he must help support his father. After six months, he drew fifteen. Yet he saw older men, less skilled than he, drawing much more for the same work. His father ,a very religious and ignorant man, began to torment him for his Bolsheyisk ideas. “Why, I promised the American Govern- ment that you'd uphold the con- stitution and not take part in any revolutionary movement," his fath- er mourned, “But look at you! Reading those Red papers, and always going to demonstrations. You'll bring disaster on us all!” Becky and her husband, Solomon Nebroff, who belonged to the right-wing faction in the clothing mind against his son. During the world-wide protests against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, Jack was very active, affiliating himself with the Young Commu- munist League of America. After this, the old man gaye him no peace, threatening pleading, Jack stood by his principles. Finally, his ployers and reported that Jack was a Communist. At once Jack was fired. On investigation, Jack found that his sister and brother-in-law had put the old man up to it. “That's how the right-wing stop at nothing, even spying to the | bosses in their fight against our | growing revolutionary movement,” Jack explains. After four months of unem- ployment, Jack found another job, at the “Well-Made Company,” | where again he turned out more work than older workers but re- ceived less pay. He did general repairs on sewing machines, turn- ing out two or three a day. BACK TO THE SOVIETS In June, 1929, he was arrested with thirty other comrades, in a | this. the galleries are several hundred workers who've come to listen in on the proceedings, Bukloy Reports Our old friend, Andree Budnikov! is one of the delegates from the’ foundry. There aré many familiar faces among the mass listening with close attention to the report of the factory committee chairman, Comrade Buklov. No one inters rupts him, yet it is clear that his; listeners are not satisfied with his report. x True, there have been several successes during the last twelve | months, like the opening of the new foundry, with its model conditions and technical equipment, the build- ing of apartments and barracks in the new workers’ town, and the completion of the factory's large dining hall which will serve, when running at full capacity, some twenty-five thousand hot meals a day. But what does Buklov dwell on What about the other side, the tasks that still lie ahead? Sure- ly Buklov knows that things are not going as they should with the production of “Number 31,” the new fndustrial type of sewing ma- chine: That while 98 per cent carry union cards, not all know yet what it is to be. good union members: ‘The women are hollering for more nurseries. That the union com- | mittees in some departments have gone to sleep on their job. Why doesn’t he practice more self-crit- icism, bring forth his proposals how to meet the problems uppermost now in every worker’s mind? Well, Buklov is a good fellow, and has done his best. His job has proven too big for him, it is clear that he must go back to his ma- chine and another: worker more fitted for the post be chosen in his place, Why Communists Lead There are other reports and greetings. From the chairman of the regional metal union to its Podolsk local and from the fac- tory committee’s control commis- sion on the auditing of the union books. Now Comrade Kelminson takes the platform, As the dele- gates see his solid frame, clothed its familiar khaki outfit with belted jacket and high boots, his black eyes alert, gleaming at them, they lean forward. This is going to be more like it. For Kelmin- son, hard-working, capable secre- tary of the factory’s unit of the Communist Party, has the confid- ence of every worker, both Party and non-Party. * He speaks quietly, yet his voice carries easily to the farthest cor- ner. “Comrades, we have come heré to practice real Bolshevik self-crit- icism of ourselves and our union One of the first aid stations in Podolsk Sewing Machine Factory, In Podolsk, as everywhere in the Soviet Union, workers and their families receive all medical attention free of charge and draw wages while sicl, Do Singer workers in Elizabeth, N. J., receive such treatment? demonstration of solidarity with th striking New Bedford textile workers, and listed for deportation. When out on bail, he reported for work, but found he had no job. work this last year, and to find the means of doing better work in the next.” One after another, he takes up the problems, making his + points in a straight-forward mane ner, Soon he comes to production, “In our struggle to master tech= nique, to put our plant on a hun- dred per cent efficiency basis, put- ting into effect the six conditions as summed up by Comrade Stalin, we've made much progress. But is it enough? Only about sixty per cent of the plant has gone over as yet to the new wage system. And what about the quality of our products? Yet we know eyery sew= ing machine we turn out is a prop- aganda weapon for us, for social- ism, in the village; good or bad. “When a machine works well, the village woman using it will say, “Aye, there’s good workers for you. We'll have to match them.” But. when a machine doesn’t work well, breaks, down ‘soon through some fault in its make, what then? The peasants will say, “Yes, you tell us to do our work on the collective farm as well as the factory work- ers. But what sort of example have you set us? ‘This strikes home. Every delegate in his report to his cepartment will repeat this to his fellows. We want better and more products from the farms, It’s up to us to furnish them more and better machines, In that way, everybrody’s living goes up. Is’s up to us, the workers, to take the lead everywhere, show- ing the peasants how to build soe cialism. Well, the Comrades arranged that I return to the Soviet Union. And was I glad! To tell the truth, I'd been homesick to get back the whole jime I'd been away, but had no means. On arriving I came to Podolsk Machine Factory, working as a mechanic, studying in the evenings and taking my place among the Soviet youth who are giving themselves whole-heartedly to the building of a Socialist so- ciety. e oe {emmy is a big day in the Podolsk machine plant. For several weeks flaming banners, stretching along factory club walls, hanging from rafters above the machines, have called, “All Out to the Trade Union Elections!” Eleven thousand work- ers, in their section and department_ meetings have thrashed over their union’s work and leadership, this past year, written up their sugges- tions for their wall newspapers, drawn up their plans, and finally, elected and instructed their dele- gates to today's conference, where the annual elections of the factcry committee will take place. The factory club's band plays revolutionary airs as the delegates, six hundred and forty-two in all, gradually fill the ground floor of their club auditorium. Walls and r