The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 27, 1932, Page 4

Page Four Ps Daily, Avorker t 50 E. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., daily exexept Sunday, a1 13th St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone ALronquin ¢-7966. Cable DAIWOEE” ‘Address and mall checks to the Daily Worker, 50 E. 18th St, New York, N. Y. BATES: ; two months, Foreign: one yest, 68; SUBSCRIPTION By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months, 33 Borough of Manbatfan and Bronx, New York City. six_months. $4.50. The Heroic Struggle of the Illinois Miners iners of IHinois are writing a new page in the his- tory of the militant struggles of the workers of this country. True to their revolutionary traditions, they are carrying on a bitter and stubborn fight to preserve their living stand- ards. Betrayed again and again by the national and local officials of the United Mine Workers of America, among them Lewis, Walker, Howatt and Edmundson, and faced by the present open treachery of Lewis-Walker and Co. in adopting a wage cutting agreement against the will of the hip, the Illinois miners are today in tens of thous- ands fighting against a wage slash of practically twenty per cent. They are carrying on this fight in the face of the most brutal terror, of the local and state governments which has already resulted in the wounding of more than 100 miners through gun fire at the hands of the deputized thugs. members More and more miners are entering into the struggle. New fighting forms are being created. The strike spreads. Unemployed and employed miners, Negro and white, are fighting side by side against this vicious attack on their living standards. The strike of the Ilinois miners is part of the growing resistance of the masses to the starvation program of the master class. It is an outstanding struggle in the mining ustry and is part of the whole wave of struggles that have taken place and are developing in this branch of American moment the miners of Indiana are carrying on a ar to that of the Illinois miners. The coal diggers he revolutionary National Miners Union. Numerous rikes led by the militant union are taking place in nous fields of Pennsylvania. A storm is brewing The anthracite miners are preparing to esiste ‘the proposed twenty-five per cent wage cut which the e U.M.W.A. are willing to negotiate. The oppressive actions of the government, the treachery he A. ©. of L. leaders, the use of demagogy, side by side terror, are the weapons which the coal barons are em- order to break the resistance of these masses. In tuation the Musteite leaders of the A. F. of L. and their llowers the Trotskyites, are particularly pernicious enemies of the fighting miners who in the guise of friends and supporters of thé miners’ struggle, are carrying through neuvers in order to demoralize and defeat the oment they are aiming to divert the struggle ent into a fight for democracy at the hands 1, ming, that the n main stress in the present is not the development of a mass struggle to defeat the wage but the necessity for new elections in the union. The miners are confronted with the establishment of their ependent leadership capable of winning the battle against the wage cut. They must oust the Lewises and Walkers. But this cannot be separated from the present fight against the coal barons. The way that the miners must take to rid themselves of the Lewises and Walkers is by set- ting up of 1 file committees in every mine, the estab- lishment of a central strike committee of elected representa- tives fr ing in/the widest masses of miners under this militant rank and file leadership. This will en- able the r not only to defeat their treacherous work in the strike, but e1 oe them to throw these reactionaries out of the union cnlae and Trotskyists, however, wish to:turn the miners away from this mass struggle against the coal barons and in this way to serve the causeof Lewis and Walker. Rank and file committees are already springing up and have gained considerable authority among the miners. But in order to make the front of struggle the widest possible, it is necessary to draw the unemployed closer by putting up demands for immediate relief to the unemployed and part- time miners. Without exposing the Musteite and the Trot- skyite elements, it will be impossible to develop the broadest fight against the wage cut. The fight of these miners is not limited to Illinois. They deserve the support of the broadest sections of the American workers. The question of support to the miners, the protest against the terror, the organization of relief and manifesta- tion of supportin other ways, must be taken up by the working class and particularly by the revolutionary section. The National Miners Union which led the big battles of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia miners and opened up the mass struggles of the miners in the recent period must support in action the demands of the Illinois miners and demonstrate in practice the difference between the U. M. W. A. and the National Miners Union. It must be in the forefront in the organization of relief and solidarity actions with the Illinois fields. It must stimulate its membership everywhere to develop the broadcast united front in all loc- alities, in support of the Illinois strike, and attempt to unify the developing struggles in the coal fields. The Communist Party fully supports this fight of the Tilinois miners as an outstanding struggle of the workers at the present time. It calls upon the membership and upon all sympathetic workers to do evrything possible to speed the victories of the Illinois miners. Miners of Illinois can now see more clearly the role of the government as an instrument of oppression. Only the Communist Party fights against the attacks on the living standards and against the government terror. Tlinois miners The miners have occupied the very forefront of { | | GRINDING OUT PROFITS FOR WALL ST. 4 Protest against the Machado ‘bloody regime! Education--Soviet Style _ By MOISSAYE J. OLGIN OME fifty years ago a czarist minister of education sent a circular letter to the heads of | Russian secondary schools instruct- support the election struggle of the Communist Party! a * « ing them to bar “the sons of cooks and jainitors” from the sacred precinct of the Gymnasia (higher schools), This was in accordance with the policy of the Tsarist gov- | ernment to keep the masses in | ignorance and subjection, which | more or less the policy of reac- | tionary governments everywhere | | throughout history. As a student I had to take every possible precaution to change cars and to hide behind street corners, dodging spies, before I reached a circle of young workers gathered in a private house in great secrecy, with the purpose of learning to read and write. But together with this knowledge came a little book which explained the economic and social system. And that was dyna- mite to the old regime as such knowledge is always dynamite to exploiters. THE TSARIST METHOD Higher education was a privilege of the nobi flooded with the sons of the petty bourgeoisie, it was not due to a lack of prohibitive measures. The prevailing elementary school was the parochial school under the guidance of a local -priest who was only semi-literate and there was more hymn-singing than really studying. The majority of the children of workers and peasants remained entirely without educa- tion. In certain districts it reached 90 per cent. A SWEEPING CHANGE! What a sweeping change has taken place! The working-class, which came into power 15 years ago, has under- taken nothing less than the re- construction of Russia and of the world. The consciousness of the immensity of this job spurs the Russian masses on their road of education. Their indomintable energy and enthusiasm, their in- exhaustible resources of will, make achievements possible which those who -knew the old Russia describe as ‘incredible’ and “amazing”— both in industry and in the building of a new educational system. There is a seat for every child of school age, 20,000,000 of them, in the elementary scholos of the Soviet, Union. The elementary seven-year | school for children between the ages of 7 and 14, gives them the regular elementary knowledge of the usual subjects as taught in the American Grammar school, and also asquaintances with simple machines. THE “TECHNICIANS” The next step is the factory school, or the Technicum, compar- ing roughly to the American High School—but with what a differnce! In the factory schools students de- vote one-half their time to gen- eral subjects and one-half to the study of different trades. A grad- uate of a factory school is a skilled worker with a secondary education. The Technicum is a technical or trade school and where specialists are trained; not only in the metal- lurgical, chemical, textile and other trades but also in music, drawing, architecture and the other arts. A graduate of a Technicum is usually capable of being a shop superWsor. soe graduates of these schools can proceed to the higher in- stitutions of learning; but first they must put in two years practical work in an industry or on a collec~ tive farm. They also have to be delegated to the higher institutions by their fellow-workers. A Russian youth entering a university or @ ity and bourgeoisie and | if the universities were nevertheless | “No Schools for Sons of Cooks, Janitors,” Said Tsar; A Sweeping Change his objective and usually he knows the place where his knowledge will be applied. In Tsarist Russia there weré only about 100,000 university students. In 1931 there were 364,000. The number of higher techhical insti- tutes under the Czar was but 12 with less than 20,000 students; in 1931 there were 243 such institu- tions with 140,000 students. “KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL” There is still another way in which a worker can enter the higher institutions. He may join @ preparatory school connected with the university, known as a workers’ faculty (Rabfac). Hun~ dreds and thousands avail them- selves at. this opportunity each year while remaining at the bench. It is the policy of the Soviet government to give adult workers, as well as children, every possible opportunity to acquire knowledge. Thus a syserg. of various courses has been intreduced in the factories beginning with the liquidation of illiteracy and reaching up to tech- nical courses of a very high caliber. The number of workers participat- Jim-Crowism home to the chickens. Then they went over and grabbed.a piece of the watermelon that.was dirty and that we had stepped on, and ran away eating it. Every morning the unemployed workers run-out to the alleys and wait for the garbege wagon. When it comes along, they’all hop on and get the things off and take them home and eat them. Some people eat the food right there. During the day workers and their children go through the alleys hunting for things they might be able to eat ot Wage Cuts. ‘The workers who are working have almost as hard times getting a living as the unemployed workers. They get speed-ups and wage-cuts in the factories and hundreds are laid off every day. The railroad workers are working only part-time, sometimes only two or three doys a month. ‘The packing house workers recently received a 10 percent wage cut. Workers’ families are broken up by capitalism. In one case the work- ers’ family was evicted because they were unemployed and could not pay rent. The children were sent to an orphans’ home. The mother was sent to a hotel where women live, and the father has to work for the mayor's relief committee and eat at the city mission. . Jim-Crowism. same rights in Denver that the white children have. They can go to the children not to play with technical institute realizes perfectly children. ‘There are several new ing in these courses while con- tinuing their work, was in 1931, 1,600,000. The number of teachers | in the elementary schools rose from 1930 to 1931 from 320,000 to 408,000. One of the outstanding achieve- ments of the first Five Year Plan in which education has its special place, is the raising of the cultural Jevel of the national minorities. Outlying regions of the U. S. S. R. ‘where before the Revolution schools were few and far betwen and the majority were illiterate and filled with mediavial superstitions, are now centers of education with schools, theatres, clubs, being built everywhere. RAISE CULTURAL LEVEL OF MINORITIES ‘The autonomous Republic of Ka- | zakstan published 2,270,000 books in 1930, compared with 406,000 in 1925. The number of children in the elementary schools of Kazak- stan was 13,000 in 1913 and 528,000 in 1931. In the Republic of Uzbekistan the number of students in 1926 was 127,000; in 1930 there were 366,000 students. In the Merian autonomous region, near the Volga, | Denver Pioneer Tells of | By EUGENE LANG (Aged 11) “Always Ready” News Reporter DENVER, Col.—Conditions for workers and their children are not any better in Denver than any place else. One time when I went downtown with my Dad, I wes sitting in the car, when two boys came along and said, “Give us some.” what?” I asked. They pointed to some stale watermelon that my Dad had found in an alley and was taking® Negro children don't have the | in Hunger City “Give you swimming pools in Denver, but the Negro children either cannot swim| sg, at all in them or only on certain | days. The two biggest beaches, Berkeley Park and Washington Park, are closed to Negroes at all times. ‘Two Mexican boys went out to a lake swimming and forgot their bathing suits.. They went over to a stand where they were loaning bath- | ing suits to:the children, but they | would not loan the two boys any | because they were Mexicans Child Labor. When workers are thrown out of work, their children have to go out | and hunt jobs. ‘Some children go out and sell papers and magazines, and) others work in factories and on farms. The children are smaller than the other workers, so the bes- ses do not pay them as much as they do the parents There are 40,000 unemployed in Denver. I am a Pioneer to fight these rot- ten conditions that the workers and their children have to.live under. am going to try hard to win over | other children to join the Pioneers, so we can go out and fight for the things the children have in the Sov- jet Union. I am “always ready.” “Always Ready” News Service is the national préss organization of workers’ kids to furnish news par- ticularly on children to, the working class press. Address ARN—35 East 12th Street, New York. N. Y. Oa Ed. Note.—Since the writing of this article the Young. Pioncers + ie: the percentage of illiteracy has been reduced from almost 100 per eont to 15 per cent. These statistics of educational growth are typical of other regions of the U. S. S. R. that were most backward under the oppressive rule of the Czar. FLOCD OF LITERATURE This vast system of education re- quires a enormous output of litera- ture. the world in publishing books and magazines. In 1927, 32,600 titles were published; in 1931 there were 56,520. The number cf newspapers has grown from 605 in 1928 to 1,409 in 1981. The daily circulation of these papers grew from 1,200,000 in 1922, to 31,000,000 in 1931. This is. not counting the innumerable fac- tory papers and collective farm papers which had a circulation of about 3,000,000 in 1930. 4 woe # reading. But the number of Lenin volumes published has in- creased from 53,000,000 in 1929 to 174,000,000 in 1931. If it were not for the shortage of paper the volu~ ume of books and magazines printed would be doubled; so avid are the Russian workers and pea- sants for the knowledge| which gives them power and clarity in the building of socialism. Education is @ powerful tool and a sharp weap- on in the class struggle against the enemies of socialism and the heri~ tage of Czarism, NO OVERPRODUCTION OF INTELLECT, TECHNIQUE There is no overproduction of teachers and intellectuals, or of technologists in the Soviet Union. Every class conscious worker strives to become an intellectual and it is the ambition of most foung workers to becomé engineers. In old Czarist Russia most of the skilled workers and engineers were foreigners. Soo the Soviet Union will not need to import engineers from the United tes and Germany, just as they will not need to import tractors and turbines—they will create their own. What a contrast to the decay of education in the rest of the world where the universities are advised, as in Czarist. Russia, to curtail the | Production of college graduates and where education is restricted for the most part as a privilege of the ruling classes and where ‘ college graduates search in vain for a place to apply their knowledge. Praises Foster’s Arficle in the Daily Worker Detroit, Mich, Dear Comrades: I have just finished rsading the rticle in the Daily Worker by William Z. Foster and want to say thes i2 is just the thing that I have been looking for in the elec- tion platform of the Communist Party. That was the reason I have criticized the election platform. it was tco cbscure for the man that would vote “RED” if he knew what. the Communist Party is after. And now, while you have struck sugest that oe very same part 's bock, which in Tuesday's Daily Worker be also added to every pamphlet containing the Communist Party election plat- and other working-class organi- tations have led a militant strug- gle against the Jim-Crow prac- tices mentioned. form. But please do not hesitate in doing it. Comradely yours, —Frederick Strobel. { The Soviet Union now leads | ENIN is certainly not light, easy | the nail on the head, I want to | HEAR (COURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL PAMPHLETS) By WHITTAKER CHAMBERS (Conclusion) “Into the stores, men!” cried Davis and Wardell at opposite ends of the street. Some of the store- Keepers tried locking up. “If you don’t open that door, we'll come in through ¢he window,” shouted Drdla- The doors opened, cee i es It was dark before dll the milk had been taken from Purcell’s cows, and the food apportioned and piled in the cars. They started on a signal from Wardell, moving more consciously together as a mass than ever be- fore. As they left the village, they were grim, still. Once outside it they began to laugh. They felt Strong. They also felt afraid. By then it had begun to snow again, fat, heavy flakes. “How long do you think this lot will last?” asked Davis in the head car with Wardell. “The food about two weeks, the milk, of course, only a few days.” “Then?” asked Davis. “Weill, they'll never let us do this again.” “You mean—shooting?” “I suppose so. Everything de- pends on quick organization now, Mort. Shays and Doscher and Drdla and Mrs Wiggens, and Fran- ces, and any others we're sure about. You can be sure Purcell sent the SOS over the wires by now. To- morrow or the day after, they'll have the troops. here.” “T’'ve been wondering about Pur- cell’s old mine shafts in: the hill.” “Oh, you have?” Later Davis said, “I think you're wrong about Frances, Jim. I don’t trust him.” “Of course, you may be right. It’s true he’s weak. It takes a lot to bring him over, and a lot to keep him going. But he’s been through a lot by now. We've got to make the most of what we’ve got.” The cars moved slowly, so close together that the lights, many of them dim or missing, cast a blurred glare from the rear-ends on the snow. A car appeared moving in the other direction. It stopped. They [ei abreast and stopped also. 3 ter Ooardel?” “It’s your Mex,” said Davis. War- oe got out ar in the town ten miles ae here is fighting in Paris. Everybody is much excited.” He was much excited himself. “Every- body says he will take food, too. So I came back, Companero, I thought you need men.” “Them greasers have a long nose CAN YOU VOICES ?. THEIR for food,” said Shays. “Théy can smell a jumping bean Mo matter where it hops.” “Go get your own, Mex,” said Drdla, “there ain't any here for you.” “He ain't asking you for food!” Drdla’s eyes blinked before’ Davis turned away. “He’s asking you if you'll allow him to shoot @ gun shoulder to shoulder with you.-% suppose you know you may -be needing him. You come up to my place, Carrillo. You and your reti- noo,” He looked at the battered Ford. a) ee It stopped the laughter. The cars dropped away one by one. “Tm sending my boys away to- morrow, Mort,” said Wardell. “Wher2 t0?” “East, to the comrades. I want them to be gone before the troops come. I’m driving them to the main road, at Tyrone, in the morning.” “Yes, I suppose you're right. Though I guess I couldn’t do it.”.. “Anyway, out there they'll be learning something. What is there for them here—shooting, lynching? That's our business yet. Theirs is to learn more about Communism first.” “TELL THEM 08) ae WE'RE ORGANIZING.” >a “Tell the comrades what we are doing,” wardell said as he stopped the car at the cross-roads the next morning. “Tell them we're organ- izing. Tell them that already there are many of us. Tell them we've got the dirt farmers here in motion. And make them understand that, what we need above everything else, what we must have, is a hec- tograph. “Try to get jobs and stick to- gether. “Now go along: I think yéu can hitch; if you can't, be careful on the freights. We've not no use for dead men or cripples. Come back alive in the spring, there’s nothing here for you now but hunger.” The snow was fine and dry, and blew in little lifting spirals on the asphalt of the highway, which Pana comparatively open. ‘The boys got out and fwatked off together toward the east. Thé road followed the roll of the prairie. Coming to the top of the fitst rise, they turned and, standing together, waved, They shouted. The cold wind pre- served the ring of their voices that the snow might have muffled, blowing their words to the silent man and woman beside the Ford. “We'll be back in the spring!” “Could you make out both their’ voices?” she asked. “Strike of Dredging Fleet” _- Begins in Monday’s ‘Daily’ Bee in Monday’s issue the Daily Worker will begin the public- ation, serially, ef “The Strike of the Dredging Fleet.” Written by Peter in the armed uprising in fe in December, 1905, and having already been suppressed in the two capitals, was spreading in a broad to the towns and vil- lages far from the center, in most cases in the form of strikes. The author is ‘a Boishevik, a a leader in the uprising on ror’s yacht, “Polar Star”, in Oct ober, 1905; after the upris g had«been put ase he was compelled to go into hiding and the Crimea on illegal party work, s ee IN 1906 the Bolsheviks had to fight a bitter struggle not only against tsarist countet*revolution which was now raising its head again, but also within their own party against the Mensheviks, for the Russian Social-Democratic Party at that time still combined both Bolshe- viks and Mensheviks—in form it wes a single party. The united front created from below during the upward wave of revolution had forced the Menshe- viks to try to kesp up with the masses, eng they found themseives, against their revisionist nature, in- voluntarily participating in the militant activities of the masses. But they began to feel themselves complete masters of the situation only when the revolutionary wave was on the ebb. After the defzat of the Mozcow uprising the le: and thecrist cf the Menshoviks—George jade his famous state- culdn’t have taken up ment arms!” and th> Menshevik politi- “We cians in the loza!s sat tight in their committees and by their opportu- nist policy tricd in every way to dampen the still flaming revolu- tionery edor of the masses. The author of “The Strike’, who had up to then received a sound Bolshevik training in the Peters- burg (Leningrad) military perty or- ganization, led by the Bolsheviks, met with just this picture of Men- shevik preponderance when he ate rived in the Crimea. The task that fell to the author of defending the Bolshevik line within a party committze made up of Mensheviks, was a very difficult one; the more so since, though a fine agitator and organizer, he did not yet pocsess the theoretical knowledge with which to impr2ss the Menshevik committesmen, However, we sze from the story that the author correctly put for- ward the Bolshevik line, organizing the masses for the struggle, work- ing in true Bolshevik manner side by side with the masses, leading them onward. In this respect “The Strike” is very instructive, and its lessons up-to-date even now, al- Nikiferot, “The Strike” paints a stirring picture of the struggle of the etariat of tsarist Russia at the moment whgn the first Russian Re- n, having reached its high- though it deals with what happene ed 25 years ago. abe oe Wie the developing struggles in the U. S., workers will learm~ from this fascinating narrative how the party of Lenin organized | and developed the movement of the | workers, fought the brutal attacks | against their standards achieved united ranks in the face of great obstacles—and stood forward bee fore the workers as their real lead~ er and organizer to victory. Letters from Our Readers A GOOD SUGGESTION Editor, Daily Worker, Dear Comrade: I heard the I. L. D. speaker at Union Square say that “of course, all you workers know that you must pass on your revolutionary literature when you finish reading it.” But I know that not all the comrades do that, 1 think you ought to print a small notice in the Daily, appealing to the workers to pass on the paper, and when they do, to talk to the ii they're giving it to—W. T. THAT HERE IS SOMETHING cA" SHOULD BE DONE.—Ed. Note. |. pA ica Snel . LIKED MIKE GOLD'S STORY: Editor, Daily Worker, Dear Comrades: Mike Gold’s short. story in ths “Daily” shows me to what extent our paper can se out the Mapes of average worl I also’ take this opportunity té congratulate you for the pris ole improvement in our Daily Worker for the past few months—L. Mo ~ P. S. A slight error slij ‘into - Burck’s cartoon in the Aug. 22 issue. Fur nailers do not use hammers but a special kind of pliers to hammer the nails with, ee LETTERS MUST BE SIGNED ‘ Ve will not publish’ unsigned | tevtors, neither can they be an- swored individually. We urgently request all workers writing to the