The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 19, 1932, Page 4

AREER Hartmann « i rage Four DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19,-1932 Published by the Cer 18th St., New York Address and malt ¢! ker, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: months, $3: twe menths, $1; smespting Bronx, New York City. Pereira: veer, 58; six months, $4.50. Canada, $3 per year; 75 cents ner month. | By malt everywhere: Commmunity Chest Charity-A Weapon Against Workers EWTON D. BAKER, one of the leaders of the Democratic Party, has replaced Gifford, republican, as head of the. | Hoover unemployment “relief” machinery. Democrats and republicans unite to make the Community Chests, dominated | by the chambers of commerce in each city, effective weapons | against the workers in the fourth winter of the crisis. | Hoover's appeal to “give” to the Community Chest: to whose tender mercies the unemployed are now handed over, is another blow against the living standards of the American working class—and another deliberate move in carrying through the fight of the capitalists and their gov- ernment against the Unemployed Councils’ demand for $50 cash winter relief and unemployment insurance for every worker at the expense of the government and employers. The interpetation of Hoover’s appeal, made for the benefit of the wealthy, by Harvey Gibson, and favorably commented on by such capital- ist sheets as the New York Times, shows that more than in previous crisis years the charity racket is being used to check the growing mass demand for unemployment insurance. * > * ITBSON believes, says the New York Times, quoting from his statement, that response to Hoover's appeal for the Community Chests will “obviate the necessity for some sort of permanent extraordinary tax- measures which might in the long run be far more costly to the individual than a generous contribution this year at least.” All over the country mass meetings and huge unemployment dem- onstrations endorse the demand for cash winter relief and federal un- employment insurance. The Unemployed Councils are preparing another Hunger March to Washington of far greater size than that of last year. ‘The delegates will hold a conference in Washington and take up in its sessions in Wall Street's capital the central question before the Ameri- can working class—the fight against unemployment, hunger and starva- tion The veterans will march to Washington to demand their bonus. Poor farmers are preparing to hold a national conference there when Congress meets. Hundreds of local unions of the American Federation of Labor organizations have endorsed the demand for unemployment in- surance The demand that the capitalist class and its government responsible for the c! and the creation of an army of 15-16,000,000. unemployed bear the expense of maintaining them and their dependents at a decent standard of living, is securing ever increasing mass support in all sec- tions of the country. Gibson iswarning his fellow-capitalists of the danger to their profits. He states frankly that charity in a weapon which they must use skil- fully in order to forestall appropriations for cash relief and unemployment tnsurance which will bring additional taxation of their swollen fortunes wrung from the working class. . . E SAID some time ago that the American workers and poor farmers are not going to lie down quietly and starve to death. The capitalists know this and they are making desperate efforts to create the illusion that this is the last winter of the crisis, to make unemployment relief purely a local issue through the Community Chests, and to convince the hungry masses that donations to the Community Chests will take care of the hungry and homeless millions. Hoover’s appeal was not for the unemployed, It was an appeal for the capitalist class and its hangers-on to solidify their ranks against the needs and demands of the. unemployed for the protection of their profits. The workers must rally to the call for relief and insurance, and sup- port the National Hunger March. Tammany’s Masters Speak Out Force $75,000,000 Budget Cut; 50-Year Subway Financing Is Cent Fare Sacrificed, M’Kee Asserts. —Main headline in the New York Times, Oct, 8. Bank: Adopted; MONG the other characteristics of imperialism noted by Lenin are “the domination of finance-capital in ad- vanced capitalist countr and “the omnipotence of a financial oligarchy, a consequence of the domination of fi- nance capital.” New York City is in the hands of the banks. To be exact it is in the hands of J. Pierpont Morgan and his Na- tional City Bank. Tammany Hall is the agent of the House of Morgan. By refusing credit, by coldly informing the Tammany puppets in City Hall that this city of 6,000,000 people has ‘ its credit, the House of Morgan is forcing cuts in the ‘wages aid city employees, increase in taxation which raises the cost of living for the working class, a rise in subway fares to take care of the enormous interest payments on the long term transportation bonds which the banks hold. * . . ISTEN to Charles E. Mitchell, chairman of the National City Bank, speaking to the Board of Estimate on October 17 when he told Tam- many “to get in line” and bring us a cut that will definitely re-establish this credit. I don’t hesitate to say that the cut today will have to be greater than it would have been in the middle of last week, or the week before, or two weeks ago. During this period of two weeks the credit of the city has just been in the crumbling stage, and to do any rehabilitat- ing we must have a greater cut and more drastic action than we would otherwise.” The Tammany demagogues will once more, as they have in the past, attempt to pose as champions of “the people” as against the banks. But this is only a sham battle. Tammany knows its master’s voice and the mandate of Morgan’s National City Bank will be carried out— at the expense of the working class. Only mass organization and struggle will defeat this new assault on the millions of part time workers and unemployed in New York City. IX the face of the domination by finance capital which now appears openly in this role, the Socialist Party program of government and municipal ownership is seen to be a mere playing with words which tends to obscure the fact that finance capital dominates, not only industry and agriculture, but also municipal, state and government enterprises and Policies. The reactionary power of finance capital can no longer be concealed from the masses of the United States although it seldom appears so openly to give its orders to government as it has in New York City. There “Communist” Is Manual of United Front By MICHAEL SALERNO INE question is of utmost im- portance at present. At a time when we are entering upon “a new and much higher” stage of the revolutionary class struggle, the question of the united front comes | to the fore as an extremely vital one. This new and much higher stage of the revolutionary struggle places before the Communist Party in a much more imperative manner than ever the necessity of winning the masses through the realization of the United front. IS BASIC QUESTION The importance of the October issue of “The Communist,” just off | the press, is that it gives every Party member a valuable compass for a correct, revolutionary orienta- tion on the question of the united front. This basic question dominates al- most every article and document contained in the current issue. It opens with an editorial, “Bolshevik Fire Against Opportunism,” which is in itself fundamental in under- standing of the question of the united front. It delivers a tre- mendous blow to opportunism which has once again unsuccess- fully raiseq its ugly head in the Comintern, the world Communist Party. FIGHT AGAINST OPPORTUNISM The editorial calls for a relent- less struggle against right oppor- tunism, as well as against “left” sectarianism ‘The issue also contains “Tactics of the United Front,” reprinted from the “Bolshevik.” Tt analyzes \ in the light of the new and much higher stage of the revolutionary class struggle the question of the united front and offers.a much needed clarification. ‘HE united front question is also dealt with in the Resolution of the 15th Plenum of the Communist Party of the United States of America. This document deserves much more than a passing glance. The study of this document em- bodying the results of the 15th Plenum must be made critically, above all self-critically, for the sake of detecting the shortcomings in every Party member's activity and correcting them. THE ELECTION DRIVE Equally important, at the present | time especially, is Comrade Hatha- way's article on “The Increasing Radicalization of the Masses and the Blection Drive,” which also deals with the necessity of the united front as one of the means— undoubtedly thé most important one, for counteracting the attempts on the part of the Socialists to divert the masses from the revolu- tionary struggle and lead them into the blind alley of bourgeois parlia- mentarism. The article points out that one of the major weaknesses in our election drive is due to the anti- electionist tradition of the syn- dicalists which weighs upon many of our Party members. Party members would do well to read carefully this article with a view to intensify our activities, eliminate all our weaknesses and win the working m4sses on our side by the intelligent and correct, ap- plication of the united front tactic on the election field. eee 'HE October issue of “The Com- munist,” which contains many other important articles, of no less importance, places before all mem- bers of the Party a varied and in- teresting analysis of the united front question from several basic viewpoints. All Party members should get and read this important issue. They should also see to it that workers active in the revolu- tionary trade unions or the left wing trade union oppositions, as well as in other mass organizations, are urged to read and study this is- sue of “The Communist.” The Election Campaign | To Date—An Analysis | In Oct. “Communist” THE present election campaign, the Communist Party has already succeeded in getting on the ballot in 38 states, five more than in 1928. With only three weeks left in the election campaign, C. A. Hath- away’s article, “The IncreaSing Ra- dicalization of the Masses and Elec. tion Issues” in the October number of “The Communist” is a summing. up of tng Party's election work thus far, pointing out the shortcomings in the election work and the meth- ods for overcoming these shortcom- ings. “Since the Chicago convention,” writes Comrade Hathaway, “there has been no sustained attention given to the election campaign. In the most districts, the policy of the District Secretariat was to turn the election campaign over te a cam- | paign manager, and to make a sort. of departmental activity. The cam- is good reason for the fact that “Wall Street” is cordially hated by mil- lions of workers and poor farmers. Finance capital is compelled by the acute problems the crisis presents it with to come forward more and more openly, Its pressure on the masses increases and government is seen more and more by the masses to be nothing but its instrument. Such developments while apparently indicating only the great power of finance capital actually undermine its seemingly impregnable position. They “reveal”, says Comrade Stalin, “the parasitic and brutal character of monopolist capitalism, make the yoke of the capitalist syndicates and trusts much more intolerable, increase the indignation of the working class against the foundations of capitalism and drive the masses to the proletarian revolution in which they see their only means of escape.” (Foundations of Leninism, International Publishers.) |. cages Hillquit, Socialist Party candidate for mayor of New York City, confines his campaign to criticism of.Tammany, its corruption and extravagance, but carefully sidesteps the question of the domination of the House of Morgan. Only the Communist Party and its national candidates—Comrades Foster and Ford—and its mayoralty candidate in New York City, Com- rade Patterson, tell the workers plainly that only mass organization and united front struggle against the “daily encroachments” of capital and revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of capitalism will end the domi- cation of finance capital, growing mass misery and imperialist war, ‘ 4 ; f paign was not made a,part of the general work of the Party. All other activities were not used to add strength to the election campaign.” “One thing must be pointed out. ‘What we may say now about the election campaign is not a post mortem examination. In connec- tion with many of the activities, we have the examination only after the funeral.” In this article in the October “Communist” we have an analysis of our election work. Now, at the height of the campaign, we have here the means whereby we can correct our mistakes and improve our work, VOTE COMMUNIST “Against capitalist terror; against | | | | | all forms of suppression of tne political rights of workers BR Fe BUTCHERS REVIEW THE WAR FRONT! PoLISH TERROR —By Burck What An American Worker Saw in Soviet Rest Home Graphic Description of Intimate Life of Workers During Vacation; Communist Election Campaign Brings Forward Contrast of Conditions in U.S. and U.S.S.R. By L. MARTIN, rE a walk through’ the best residential sectons of any, Amer- ican city and you will see beautiful mansions by the score. They stand amid lawns and woods, they over- look streams and lakes, and they seem like glimpses of paradise to the worker from the slums or the homeless unemployed: | ‘But “-how many people. enjoy these ~ lovely places? Many of them are unoc- cupied, while the rest are the ex- clusive preserve of one or two:bored parasites and their flunkies, ‘Take a walk through the best res- idential sections of any city in the Soviet Union, and there too you will find some beautiful homes. But every one of them is brimming with life, with every one of its advan- tages enjoyed to the full by as many workers’ children gs it can accomodate. THEN—AND NOW! Manufacturers, financiers and big landowners once lorded it in Russia, just as the same class of peonle— those who grow rich from the la- bor of others—now lord it in the United States. But the Russian Revolution end- ed all that. All the fine city resi- dences, country homes and pleas- ure resorts of the former ruling class were turned over to the work- ers. Most of them now are used aS workers’ rest homes or childrens’ summer resorts, i: | Keele visit one of these placc: on the outskirts of Leningrad, typi- cal of the hundreds of others, to get, an idea of what changes the reyo- lution has made in the lives of So- viet workers—and incidentally, to get an idea of what changes it. could just as readily make in Am- erica, Mr. Rubber Manufacturer prob- ably never thought of his workers stewing—in the city slums as his chauffeur drove him far from the stench of his factory to his sum- mer mansion. Or if he did, he never associated them, with the green grass, wooded walks and wind- ing streams surrounding his do- main. He probably thought it quite appropriate that they should keep their places and he his, But the Russian workers thought otherwise, and since the revolution it is their ideas that have prevailed. So Mr. Rubber Manufacturer's summer home is today a rest home for Leningrad factory workers, many of them from the very plant he used to own. Scores of workers, taking advantage of two or. four week vacations with pay, now enjoy the huge, airy rooms, the sun, por- ches, the lawns running down to a river where there is boating and swimming, and the other pleasures which he once reserved for himself and a few of his rich friends, INSIDE THE REST HOME As we enter the main reception room, we see a dozen or so men and women sitting around on ex- pensively upholstered chairs which date from pre-revolutionary days,. PF In them they present a strange contrast to the elaborate trappings on the wall and all the other evi- dences of a rich man’s home. For they are obviously: workers. They have never learned the “refined art of lounging.” Ree 'E greet a group of middle-aged » Women, who sit chatting in one ‘corner. They.are all factory work- ers, they tell us, enjoying a four- weeks’ vacation with all expenses paid. And our thoughts run back to the working mothers of America, to the women who must leave their children unprotected (no factory nurseries as in the Soviet Union) while they toil in the factory to support their families, topping off the day’s work wtih hours of house- hold drudgery. How many of them can ever dream of a real vacation rest in a summer resort, free from money worries and knowing that husband and kids are well provided for while they're away? QUESTIONS ABOUT AMERICA They shoot questions at us one on top of the other, these Soviet working women: “How many unemployed are there now in the United States?” “Why is there no unemploy- ment insurance there?” ‘ “Vo American workers really get thrown out of their houses when they have no jobs and so can’t pay any rent?” “Do we think Hoover’s armed attack on the veterans indicates an increasing shakiness on the Part of the American ruling class?” “Are there any signs of the American workers becoming more politically consious? Why are so many fooled by capitalist politici- ans like Hoover, Roosevelt and Thomas?” Wide-awake, quick in argument, their minds range freely—not, cramped by toil and family cares, nor deadened by the superstitious twaddle of the pulpit, as is the case with so many American woman of their years. Meanwhile other workers have strolled up and joined in the dis- cussion, until now there are about 30 or 40 men and women around us Our questions about their living and working conditions lead to some arguments, AN ARGUMENT “You're bragging about our sev- en-hour day, short working week and new cooperative apartments,” says one. “But you don’t tell our American visitors how short we are going on some of the things we need, how high some prices are and how we can't get some things for any money.” And she goes into de- tail about some shortage in her fac- tory commissary and stores. “That's true enough,” answers another worker. “But you know as well as I do that in the first Five- Year Plan we can't give all our at-- tention to light industries and. con. rd duce these, on the scale we need, we've got to produce the machines to make them, haven't we? You know about all the heavy industries we have developed already, and what we're planning to do in the second Five-Year Plan to mest the shortages you're “complaining of. Didn't we discuss that all at the last factory meeting? If you know of any better way of meeting these problems than the plans we've worked out, we're all eager to get your suggestions.” “Maybe you're right,” the first re> plies. “But_I don’t want these peo- ple to get back and tell the Amer- ican workers that everything is per- fect in the Soviet Union. You know the class struggle isn’t over for us yet by any means, that we've got kulaks and speculators to contend with, that we're hemmed in and boycotted by capitalist powers who are threatening us with war at any minute and that we're still in the midst of a pretty tough struggle. And anyhow I believe in kicking. about things that aren't as they should be until we set them right. That's not to say that I don’t rec- ognize all we've gained since the revolution.” And she goes on to tell a story of how she was looked after for months free of charge when she fell sick a year ago, CRITICIZE OPENLY That is the spirit of dozens of talks we had with Soviet workers in different places. Those who have complaints to make, complain free- ly, without any of the fear you would find among American work- ers that some boss or stoolpigeon will overhear and have them fired from their jobs, If they are too extreme in their criticisms they are answered by other workers, and to- gether they argue out their diffi- culties and ways of overcoming them. And even the hardest kickers seem to share the general pride in all the great achievements of the revolution, e 8 “han dinner bell breaks in on our discussion. Laughing and chat- ting, the vacationing workers go off to their tables. Their meal con- sists of soup—and a Russian soup is a whole meal in itself, almost everything they have seems to go into it—meat and two vegetables and a sweet fruit desert. They have a kind of fruit punch to drink. The meals in these rest homes, we find, are carefully planned to provide a healthy diet, properly balanced and containing all the necessary food values, We go upstairs to look around the huge bedrooms, whose many win- dows overlook the river. They make us think of Bernard Shaw's reply to a critic of the Soviets who ask- ed him if he didn’t think it ter- rible for six persons to sleep in one room. “It depends on the size of the room,” he said, ian ee PEAKING to a young Russian the Revolution, I once “Spthusjasm 9} so many homep.end | sight it be é New York). * “ft AM more of a doer than T am a talker, 1 will fight with the workers as long as there is a drop of blood in my veins.” These are the words of H. C. Coney, share- cropper, accepting the nomination for governor in the first Commun- ist election ever held in Arkansas. We visit Coney, Coney who led the famous march of starving farm- ers down to the town of England January 1931, He demanded food. He got it. IN ENGLAND, ARK. Harry Minium of Little Rock shows the way to England. This is the typical southern town full of stores with striped awnings. Lit- tle crooked streets crawling out to the fields like spiders’ legs. Full of merchants, Joafers, a few ill-at- ease shabby farmers. At the post- office (we learn later Coney's mail is opened) they glare at us and misdirect us. We buck broken bridges and roads with holes big enough for sows to nest with lit- ters. A middleaged cropper out of a house covered with honeysuckles says he’s sorry he hasn't heard of Coney, hasn’t been off the farm but once in long months and that for beehunting. A boy, driving mules, says we're headed wrong. Coney lives on Plum Bayou. We switch roads, get the Ford ditched, and finally hit the Coney farm. eS ieee (HE candidate for governor sits on the porch barefooted, in shirt sleeves. Thick shoulders, square-jawed and square-handed. His brown hair is parted in the middle and licked down. He greets the comrades cordially, Asks whether we've had supper. He limps placing chairs, the left leg twisted from an attack of rheumatism dur- ing his childhood. His wife and boys are also on the porch. Mrs. Coney, a slim pretty little woman, dips snuff too. We sit and talk. Our hosts spit into the dooryard weeds, yellowish in the dusk. “ALWAYS FOR THE LABORING CLASS”— Coney Jeans forward. He an- swers all questions with a deep sense of responsibility to his new duties. Born in Mississippi. Fa- ther, a bookeeper, one of the smartest men in the state, died when he was eleven. He had to shift for himself then. And has managed to take care of himself since. He must have been a Com. munist all his life and didn’t know it. until they told him so, At the convention he was the most sur- prised man in his ilfe when they called on him to run for governor. He could could have fallen thru the floor. He didn’t expect it any more than a jacknife. But he's always been for the laboring class until his last drop of blood. He says this simply and quletly.. We can’t see his eyes. But his powerful arms, bare to the elbows, seem to glow for a moment in the darkness. Harry Minium, former former switchman,’ says © slowly, “We're glad we're on your side Coney.* THE ONLY HARDSHIP Coney grins. “I don’t mind work- ing for governor. We got a little baling hay to do for a neighbor. Then I kin go stumping from one end of this world to the other. People round about says it’s going to be a hardship on me joining this Communist Party. The only hardship is I’ll have to wear shoes stumping.” n Y w ALL laugh. “They warn it’s going to be a hardship on the woman and the boys. It's worse letting things slide as they come. The trouble with this part of the world, I been thru four of these states, is that it’s the tailend of nowhere. You show some of these people pictures of the Ne- gro Ford and they back out from hitching up with . Are they going to let the merchants and the middlemen in town, our poisonest enemies, keep hackling us till we're nothing left?” THE SHARECROPPERS Coney goes on to tell us that most -of the sharecroppers and renters are even worse off than him. “The thirty, forty acres they work doesn’t yield to pay half the sweat they water it with after the merchants in town are thru with them. The resorts of the rich now being en- joyed to the full by the workers and their children. She looked sur- prised and said: “Well, why not? Isn’t that just as it should be?” He a seemed so simple and obvious A WORKER LOOKS AHEAD and | free to enjoy all that their i Vote “VOTE FOR CONEY OF ARKANSAS” A SKETCH OF STRUGGLES OF POOR FARMERS By MOE BRAGIN. (The following is the story of H. C. Coney, leader of the fight for food in England, Ark. in January, 1931, and now candidate for goy- ernor of Arkansas on the Communist ticket. The story, “Can You Hear Their Voices?” by Whittaker Chambers, published recently in the Daily Worker, was based upon this episode of the class struggle. The follow- ing sketch is a result of a visit to Arkansas and other farm sections by Moe Bragin, left wing writer, and member of the John Reed Club of contracts you sign, boss you where to have cotton ginned, when to plant, how to plant, what to plant, got you snapped in a real bear trap. The illpainted shacks they live in maybe had a slapping on of that old buttermilk called white- wash in Adam’s day. The lady in Memphis who owns the plantation a section of which Coney works is tight as a pig’s end. Windows been broken two years, she won't mend them. Nothing’s your own. You think yourself lucky if your head ain’t bloweq off you on the road. Why, four men run away from Tucker's farm penitentiary. They | had bloodhounds after them right / down here to the bayou. Some boys passed in a car. They started shooting at them. One of the lads is still sick abed from fright. They caught the prisoners. They pumped them dead full of holes while they was on their knees begging life .. .” “THEY DON’T LOVE YOU DOWN THERE” For a while no one says anything. In this sweet humid air, among the singing night bugs, and the moon coming up like a young ear of corn over the shadowy bayou it’s hard to think of the butchery of a short time ago. At last Harry Minium: “They don’t love you down in England.” “No,” says Coney. “They don't loye any of us. We give the town a black eye, they y, One of them merchants couldn’t borry half a million dollars from the big banks after we went down for relief. You know old man Davis who come with us. After the march, he tried organizing the hired hands for a dollar a day. He was telling his plan friendly like to the ‘justice of 4 peace The jaypee called up the shetiff. They kangarooed him. Locked him in jail. Stuck a food- ticket into his coat to make peo- ple believe Davis was lying about his not gotting any relief. When- ever I ceme down to town and some of the farmers get. tound to talk, that chief of police, a big pussy fellow, waddling around like a hipshot duck, always comes up from behind and shoves his snout in. ‘Yes, and they open the mail. They got their eyes jDalled on us.” * NEY describes more of the ter- ror, hypocrisy, roguery rampant in this part of Arkansas all because of the brave march to England. Because of the part he played in it, he failed to get his federal re- lief, his seed loan. He went down to the office. He spoke to the stenographer. He had made out an application. She said his check had come in but had been returned because it was reported he didn’t need it. He came again to the office. Frazier the man in charge was in this time. He said that the office in Memphis had recalled the check. Coney didn’t believe a word of it. He said, “Now, Mr. Frazier, I may be a hillbilly without any education, but Till trace this down even if it takes me to the end of the world and the last penny.” Frazier laughed. @oney wrote to Memphis. They wrote back they had sent the check but the local committee has not approved it; He went. to Frazier with the letter. Frazier’s hands trembled so much that the letter qropped to the floor. He had to admit there and then in the presence of three other crop- pers that the local board had re- turned the check. The England merchants. behind it all. FACED THEM ALL Coney went to town and faced the whole pack of them, He would swap jacknives with any of them. Had he ever gone behind their backs? Why were they under- handed? Next year he got all his seed money. They didn’t dare monkey around with him then. Well, the whole world seemed to have heard of the England. came to town. For a week they had some relief. Carloads of flour, potatoes, come in. Also truck, But little did the poor people get of it. ‘The merchants in town took the most of the stuff. They held it over and sold it. The boys, sprawling on the porch, hhad been listening silently. Now one of them: “There was one hun- dred sixty bushels of potatoes in the cellar hid under one of them stores. (To Be Concluded oTmorrow) - hard work in a country and pro- duce all its wealth should enjoy crime ardl na ad country has to offer, One day the American working class is going to seize power and set things right here too. But don’t Jet any Socialist Party politician rich being turned over to the worke ers in any of these countries? FOR A SOVIET AMERICA Under every so-called socialist government there has been, the rich have remained in the saddle, ridihg the poor, , Only where the works ing class has seized power under Communist leadership are the. talists unseated the can provide.