The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 13, 1932, Page 4

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDA Page Four Daily, Worker’ Contre Party REA Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc., dail 18th St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4~ A@dress and mall checks to the Dally Worker, 50 E. 13 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Sunday, at 58 &, Cable “DAIWORK.”” » New Terk, NX. By mail everywhere: One year, $6: six months, 35.50; 3 months, $2; 1 month, Tbe excepting Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign and The Drive Towards Imperialist War MHE sharp exchange of ~<~* > United States: yovernments.on th due. December 15- emphasizes t fliets between’ these two imper' notes the British and war debts payments he increasingly bitter con- list Although cur- these debts will continue to be r position in this utions. Aside from s columns carry reports ruggle between American South America between supported by Lombard powers betwe rivals. ld-wide that < i by nge of notes on the ops were summoned to. “disperse a mob attacking offices o glo-Persian Oil Company at Aladin, Persia”. A London Su jon, Reynold’s Illustrated New puts the declar the cancellation by the Persian government, of the British oil concession may lead to war because “the British. na fuel’ supply is imperiled.” Continuing the paper rharges “Well informed. circles allege that incitement for cancellation, if any, .comes from agents of the Standard Oil Company as part of a concerted attempt to raise the world price of petrol. “An “‘incident’—and they are so easily arranced—like interfer- ence by Persian malcontents with British nationals in Persia, would easily afford the pretext for armed intervention by British ships and troops.” There is no doubt that Standa vantages im Persia; as elsewher Shell, and that Ameri ity to weaken the B: oil supply. It situation without a ‘fight. vention in Persia the Brit t tional policy of waging wars of conqu lonial and’ Sémi-colonial masses under ihterests and’ subiecis. and again by United ‘d Oil is endeavoring to secure ad- against its British rival, the Royal Dutch would engage in any sort of duplic- by cutting off one of the chief sources England will not yield in such a uring a pretext for armed inter- are only applying their tradi- t and mination against co- the pretext of defending British is is the old hypocritical pretext used time tes government in waging wars against whole populations-in. carrying forward its impe policy of slavery, murder and rapines = = : HILE all this sharpens the conflict between the two greatest imperial- ist paw#r8,cthe incitation against Persia kegistér3 Sit intensification of the impetiaitst™ d against the colonial afd “semi-colonial masses, as -the big powers, facing the end of capitalist stabilization, strive to get This special drive nst Persia, ‘the threat of in- iso pushes forw the concentration of forces forming an ring around the Soviet Union. In the midst of the sharpen- conflicts. between the imperialist powers. they desperately strive to 8 their problems at the expense of the Soyict Union. There is no question that American imperialism. backing up .its powerful units, Standard Oil, General Motors and Genera] Electric—all having invest- ments in Persia—will strive to ta’ leading part in new and more vici- ous provocations against the Soviet Union. . * = GAINST ‘the ‘imperialist provocations, against the maneuvers for posi- tion in the imperialist antagonisms that are bursting forth into oven warfare, the toiling masses of the capitalist countries must fight with ail their might. At atime when spokesmen of the ruling classes of Eng- land and “America openly talk of throwing their own armed forces into the balance to settle their world-wide economic conflicts the toiling mas- ses of England and the United States must pledge international solidar- ty actions against imperialist war. must defend the colonial and semi- eblonial masses and organize broad mass support in the struggle of the Oppressed ‘masses to drive from their soil the agents of all the imperial- ist powers, must-demand that all war funds be used at home to help feed the starving unemployed and their deperidents. The fight against imperialist war and in defense of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and of the Soviet Union must be raised to the stage of decisive actions. Every effort must be bent toward penetrating the war industrie: ng the shipment of arms~and munitions and in every way striking heavy blows against the whole program of the war-mongers. Down with these infamous war conspiraciés! Carry on the revolutionary struggle against imperialist war! Defend the ‘colonial and semi-colonial mas Defend the Soviet Union! Stop the manufacture and shipment of war’ materials! Trade Union Democracy and Bosses’ Offensive HE demand raised at their Cincinnati conference by the American Federation of Labor Rank and File Committee for inner trade union democ: , in connection with the struggle for compulsory federal unemployment insurance at the expense. of.the employers and the government, has brought an. immediate response from sections of the membership of A. F. of L. unions and the so-called independent unions which follow the lead of the A. F. of L, bureaucracy. _ The reasons are clear. It is a notorious fact that in the great major- ity of A. F.. ef L: unions the membership is ruled by a dictatorship of high-salaried officials which stifles the voice of the rank and file on any important question...Biections especially are fattical performances so far as allowing, tree-rank and file expression. Vote juggling, ballot stealing, arbitrary disqualification ef members entitled to vote, the use of police and gangsteys, ,are, ordinary -practict Every now and then some grotesque event in union cifcles throws a bright light upon the effects of this policy of corruption and intimidation. Such a case“is the recent election in the Shoe Workers Protective Union. ¢,-In Haverhill, Mass,, one of the big centers of the shoe industry, and whlefe the Shoe Workers Protective Union claims several thousand mem- bers, exactly six votes were cast in the tlection of a national secretary- treasurer of the union, Such a total vote in an election for a national union official indi- caves two things: First, that the rank and file knew that its wishes would be disregarded and thwarted by the national officials and paid no at- tention to the clection. Second, that there was carried out some sort of @ process of djsbarring most of the membership—especially new members the Uhion has obtained in its recent “organization campaign”. ~The officials of the Shoe Workers Protective Union, taking advantage ofthe temporary spurt in shoe production, are signing up wage contracts with certain manufacturers—but without consulting the rank and file. ‘This is the deadly other phase of the destruction of rank and file democracy in these unions: The agreements are in favor of the bosses and workers suddenly find themselves bound by them without their hav- ing anything to say about it. This is shown clearly in the following com- ment on one of these contracty in a Haverhill paper: i!Manager Kelleher (of the Shoe Workers Protective Union) today declared that the agreement had been signed by the firm and that the terms were mutually satisfactory. The type of the agreement negotiated was not revealed beyond the fact that the firm is assured freedom from labor trouble and prices are stabilized against continual fluctuation.” ‘We would say that “the type of agreement” is revealed. It is an agreement to prevent the shoe workers from striking and winning wage in- creases while the present period of shoe factory activity lasts. It also assures the bosses that in case of strikes against such agreement the union Officials will do all in their power to break them. “These instances show that the question of trade union democracy™ ig'by no means an abstract one, ‘The strangling.of the rank and file ig for the purpose of putting over strikebreaking company agreements; it is for keeping the controk of the unions in the hands of the agents of the employers. With+a clear explanation of the direct connection between the de- njal of’4nner union democracy and the crippling of the unions in the struggi® against the wage cut~and speed-up drive of the capitalists, it ig possible to organize powerful united front movements of A. F. of L. members, the members of the #o-cilled. independent: unions. “tinorganized workers and the embers ofthe militant unions ofthe Trade Union Unity League—agagost the bosses and Agajnst theix“agents,.the trade ution bureaucrata = = £ “ew erring . i 'Glassford’s ‘Record Among ithe Veterans By SOL HARPER. ELHAM D. GLASSFORD, former | | army officer from the West, suaye and kid-gloved to hide his iron fist which has been used quite effectively in many ways against the workers, got himself invited to speak to a meeting of veterans in Central High School on Dec. 5. Lest the veterans be duped by Glassford, it is necessary that his record during the past six months be reviewed briefly. Glassford replaced a former chief | of police of Washington, charged with organizing police attacks upon Negro workers. The Washington Tribune and many other Negro | newspapers were forced into action | by the rising mass protest against Glassford’s predecessor. They won their fight only because Hoover wished to get the support of the Negroes during the past clection. The same terror continued under Glassford and after the eviction of the Bonus March, Glassford’s police framed 9 Negroes in Logan circle. Glassford was hailed as a friend of the veterans long before the Bonus March. He joined with the other generals in arranging a series of so-called Veteran Benefits He headed the local Legion Welfare Committee, and with this back- ground as a “friend” of the veter- ans he met the Bonus Marchers last May and June with the gloved hand of “friendship.” SENT INSTRUCTIONS TO | OTHER POLICE | Glassford, as the leading chief of police working together with the Department of Justice, the governors and many others throughout the United States, at- tempted first to halt the bonus march with talk. When Glassford saw that this plan would not work he planted a number of spies in the ranks of the veterans. He was not able with these agents to dis- rupt the march, but when the veterans arrived by the thousands in Washington he held a series of | conferences with the army heads, District Commissioners, with Vice- President Curtis, etc., and began laying the basis for the armed at- tack upon the veterans.of July 28. Among some of his, most vicious acts are the following: 1. Organized an Executive Com- mittee for the B,. E. F. with Walter W. Waters as under-cover agent. at its head. 2. Secured control of the regis- tration of all veterans in the Wat- ers-controlled section of the B.EF. This was done through’ the system of so-called B.E.F. Tag», whereby the veterans were issued B. E. F. Tags to wear. 3. Organized a system of mili- tary police, whom he had planted within the ranks* of the veterans, and placed army officers who served in the last war at its head, together with specially appointed Department of Justice agents, who | | were also veterans, to work in the ranks of the veterans, to talk mili- taricy and thus attempt to gair the fidence of the veterans. 4, Secured by a faked election himself as the quartermaster of the B. E. F, and holder of the funds collected by the Waters’ Con- trolled fraction. 5. Issued sham friendly state- ments to the press in behalf of the veterans and at the same time sabotaged the collection of food by the veterans, also funds. 6. Organized anti-red campaigns and at the same time attempted to appear as an impartial protector of the’ veterans. | 7. Glassford was responsible for | the acts of his agents who mur- dered Hushka, Carlson, the two | kabies, the Negro veteran, Mont- gomery, the white Texas veteran | who was murdered at Marion, N. C., and others who died as a result | of the murderous army attack upon defenseless men, women and chil- dren. 8. Started fake demonstrations, | led by his agent, Waters, and then | pretended to arrest Waters to boost the sinking prestige of Waters and others of his agents. | 9. Actually under instruction of the bosses’ government and the War Department wrote a letter calling for the use of the troops against the B. E. F. This “secret” letter called for the use of the “White | Plan,” meaning that troops must be used. 10, Then even according to Wat- ers, Glassford actually planned the | police attack upon the veterans on July 28 and then his proposed “White Plan” was put into action. These are only # few of the yicious acts of Glassford before | Bloody Thursday, which was turned | into a drive net only against the veterans, but also against the un- | employed masses as a whole. I will not attempt to go into qll of the acts of the Glassford agents since he resigned as police chiet in Washington, but it would be crim- inal not to expose his present pose as a friend of the 2,000,000 drift- ing young fellows and men, which | include tens of thousands of vet- erans. From the World-Telegram of Dec. 9 we quote the following bearing out our description of Glassford’s present fake benevolent activities: | “Brigadier General Pelham D. Glassford, Police Superintendent of | Washington during the bonus army | siege, has assumed leadership of a group seeking $15,000,000 appropria- tion from Congress to provide relief | for young men who are tramping | the country in quest of work.” Glassford must be exposed concretely in future editions of the working-class press, and veterans | ho know of his acts should write | (hem up and send them dy DEMOBILIZATION—1932 STYLE! —By Burek CEcONOMY NOrICe CUT IN: VETERANS DISABILITY 2 sieenaicat enn oar Is Fascist Italy the “Land of Romantic Dreams?” _ Situation of Working Masses Described in Vivid Article By P. J. ITALY . the land of romantic dreams and longings sung by | poets? No, the land in which the output of pig iron has sunk in the last three years from 60,000 tons to nearly 30,000 tons a month, where the output of crude steel has re- ceded from 180,000 tons a month to 120,000 tons, where since 1928 for- eign trade has declined 50 per cent, where bankruptcies have doubled and now amount to over 2,000 a month! The most terrible crisis rages in fascist Italy. And nevertheless, the Midland Electricity Company in Naples made a net profit of 59,089,- 530 Lira ( a lire is 5 cents), and paid a dividend of 7 per cent; the Banca Commerciala Italiana con- cluded its last business year with a net profit of 61,559,000 Lira and paid a dividend of 8 per cent; the Montecatini, Milan, the largest mining undertaking in Italy, closed its books with a net profit of 64,- 296,576 Lira and paid a dividend of 12 per cent. The effects of the crisis are not to be sought among the big em- ployers, the captains of industry, the big bankers and landowners— their standard of living has not changed; the crisis does not. bring | want and misery to them, for they still draw huge profits and their in- comes still run to thousands of mil- lions. CRISIS BOR: BY WORKERS, PEASANTS The whole brunt of the crisis is borne by the working population, the peasants and workers, the small holders, the clerks and employees, the lower officials. According to official figures the number of un- employed amounts to a million. As a matter of fact their number is much higher and amounts to near- ly 2 million. And how many are re- ceiving unemployment — benefit? Only about a quarter of a million unemployed receive meagre unem- | ployment benefit, and this only for a short time. And the factory workers, the ag- gricultural workers who are still in employment, the.small employees and the middle strata? What did Mussolini say: “It is a fortunate thing that the Italian people are not in the habit of eating more than one meal a day.” Sera ab FS ‘HE employed workers, just like the unemployed, are compelled to starve. Wages and salaries in Italy are lower than in. England, in France, in Belgium and in the Scandinavian countries. The aver- age weekly earnings of the prole- tariat do not amount to 50 Lira (about $1.50); that is what an Ital- ian worker, a father of a family brings home at the end of the week. Many earn even less, and the families are large; the number of children per family in aly is far | higher than in Germany, England | or France, Whilst rates of wages per hour | have fallen 25 per cent since 1929, and whilst, as a result of unem- | ployment, and short time, the ay- erage weekly income has fallen about 50 per cent, the cost of liv- ing, even according to the official statistics, has declined by about only 15 per cent. The terrible results of the im- poverishment of the working mags~ es of Italy are becoming more and more evident; the health of the population is deteriorating, the number of deaths is increasing, the number of births is declining. WRECKED TRADE UNIONS And the trade unions? What are they doing for the Italian workers? Fascism has robbed the working class, the clerks, employees and the peasantry of all their fighting or- ganizations; it has corrupted the Jeaders and overpowered the mass-~ es of toilers by means of treachery. And after this treachery there commenced a period of ‘errible ex- ploitation of all toilers. To fight for higher wages, for increased salaries is designated as “treason” and cru- elly punished with imprisonment or even death. Strikes are forbidden. Fascism has not kept any of the promises it made. In 1919, it dem- agogically called for the rule of the people, just like the national so- a cialists are doing in Germany at the present time. And what has ac- tually ensued? A dictatorship of the big banks, the big industrialists, the big agrarians, more brutal than ever witnessed before in Italy. To expose this dictatorship in the press in pamphlets or in leaflets is high treason and means banishment, prison or immediate death for those who venture to do so. 'HIRTEEN years ago the fascists declared that the big concerns and trusts would be dissolved and industry be placed on a co-opera- tive basis, But what do we sec to- day? Today Mussolini himself pro- motes capitalist. trustification, and the workers and employees working in the trusts are continually spied upon. In 1919 the fascists promised a just system of taxation, and above all the taxation of big capital—to- day ever heavier taxes are imposed upon the working population. According to the promises made by the fascists 13 years ago, the working day was to be 8 hours. At the present time the working day is ruthlessly pro- longed. If any worker dares to protest against this, he is imme- diately dismissed and thus hand- ed over to starvation, as he is placed on a black list. It is intended by this means to suppress any resistance on,the part of the workers. Rendered: weary and docile by fearful~ exploitation and severe punishinent, they are to | | be kept from any class-conscious jal action. The women and children are treated just as ruthlessly as the men. Children commence work on the land at 8 years, and children of the same age are found in facto- ries and in the mines. POISONOUS | PROPAGANDA Those who go to school their minds systematically poisoned | have by religion and fascist teachings | regarding the State. In the prisons we find young girls and lads who are there for having attempted to found real fighting organizations against fascist finance capital. In the prisons are proletarian and Peasant women who have refused blindly to follow the dictates of fascist finance capitalism. But the workers and peasants are slowly, with great pains and in heroic ‘struggle, building up their illegal fighting organizations against fascist finance capital. The _ Communist Party of Italy gives them aid, guidance and leadership in this work. trikes are becoming more and more frequent. But the toilers of ‘taly are still among the most en- slaved, the most badly paid and ruthlessly exploited of the whole of POSITION OF INDUSTRIAL PROLETARIAT In Italy there ‘are about three | million industrial workers, whilst the number of persons engaged in agriculture amounts to about nine millions. ‘The intensive industrialization of | Italy is of recent date. Nevertheless, Italian industries play a relatively great role on the world market. Italy, it is true, has no raw mate- rial industry, no coal or iron mines, but the automobile, the building and shipping industry exploit hun- dreds of thousands of proletarians. Fiat motor cars produced by the great Fiat motor works in Turin are to be seen in all the capitals of Europe. In normal times the Fiat works employ about 20,000 workers. Today not more than half that number are employed. Wages have declined year after year, In the present year the Fiat works ef- fected a wage cut of 10 per cent, at the present time the Fiat workers earn scarcely more than 16 cents an hour, and yery few of them _ work full time ‘round. In the other metal works aad the remaining industries of Turin two situation jis still worse. The result is a complete undermining of the yealth of the working pop- ulation; there is a decline in the birth rate amd an increase in the death rate. A comparison of the ‘Torin figares for 1931 with thore the whole year for 1932 shows this clearly. There were born in Turin: | 1931 1932 March 1629 1478 April. 1585 1391 May . 1652 1523 June 1477 1429 July 1503 1321 There yi | 1982 | 1620 \ | ae | stl 154 | iy 1121 The number of deaths in 1932 has | increased extraordinarily compared with 1931. eh woe 'URIN, however, is only a single example. Everywhere the indus- trial proletarians are dying more quickly and in greater numbers than formerly, as a result of un- dernourishment and sickness, and the number of births is declining. It should he remembered that the position of the metal workers is relatively the best. In the textile industry wages, according to offi- cial statistics, amount on an ayer- age to 7 cents an hour. In the chemical industry the workers, who are continually exposed to the risk of frightful accidents and whose bodies are eaten into by the most terrible poisons, are paid only 15 cents an hour. ‘The average weekly wage of the building workers is about $6.25, that .of the chemical workers amounts to about the same, whilst that of the textile workers amounts to $4.50. How many workers are employed the whole year round? According to official figures the unemployed army numbers 750,000. In the metal industry alone there are over 100,- 000 unemployed. In the meantime the employers are demanding fresh wage cuts and | carrying them out with the aid of the fascist trade unions. In addi- tion to wage cuts, however, the em- ployers exploit the industrial prole- tarlat by employing women and children in place of men. In many cases the wages of the women amount to only half of those of the men, and the children receive still less. UT it is not only in the textile industry, where women have al- ways played a considerable role, but. also in the metal industry and of late also in the chemical indus- try, that women are being engaged in order to perform men’s work of lower, wages. And the children? They are employed everywhere. The most frightful exploitation of child la- bor takes place in the sulphur m'nes, where hundreds of chil- dren less than 10 years old and thousands between 10 14 have to haul the trucks with sulphur. These sulphur mines are simply hells for the children. Never was the misery of the in- ductrial workers of Italy so great as il is at the present time under the double weight of the economic eri- sis and fascism, Starving ang sick, unemployed or absolutely exhaust- ed by toil, men, women and chil- dren lead an existence the misery of which it is hard to imagine. POSITION OF WORKING MASSES IN THE VILLAGES Mr. Knickerbocker, the well- known American journalist, has written a book on Italy. He is full of enthusiasm. In his opinion the Ital- iens are better off than ever. He has found industrial workers who earn more than enough; in fact even the home workers, although it is true they had tired faces, “smil- ed” when they saw Knickerbocker and told him of the huge sums they earn. But even Mr. Knickerbocker does not venture to write anything about the situation of the land workers and share-croppers. Here the fraud would be too obvious, for the mis- ery is so great that it cries to heaven, Nearly ten million people are en- gaged in agriculture. Not many of them are farmers; the great ma- jority are share-croppers and day laborers. The big agrarians own vast estates. Scattered over these huge ostates one sees miserable (| Eighteen Years of Work With J. Louis Engdahl By H.M. WICKS Y¥ association with Comrade J. Louis Engdahl dates from the year of the beginning of the World Wer. It was in the aimosphere of 1914 that I first met him on my first vigit to the national head- quarters of the Socialist Pariy. He Was even thet ene of its leaders. I was a new member. To this day I remember vividly & remark of Comrade Engdahl. to Walter Lanferseik, then national secretary of the Socialist Party. Comrade Engdahl said he believed the whole leagership of the Socia)- ist Party was wrong on war. He was talking in opposition to a se- ries of articles being run in the Milwaukee Leader by Ernst Unter- mann, trying to justify the course of the German Social Democracy in supporting the kaiser. Karl Leibknecht had just broken with the majority leadership in Ger- many and was being slandered as stark mad by the depraved trai- tors and renegades, Scheidemann and Sudekum. Hillguit was de- fending the vote of the Kaiser so- cialists for war credits. Berger was violently pro-German. They were members of the National Executive Committee. Against them stood A. M. Simons, John M. Work, John Spargo, and J. Stitt Wilson—to a man pro-British. None of them was internationalist. That was why Comrade, Engdahl said all of them were wrong. KOLLONTArS VISIT ‘The next year Comrade Alexan- dria Kollontai visited the United States. The official Socialist Party refused to arrange a lecture tour for her. But the tour was arranged. She spoke in Chicago: She said “the first duty of any Socialist is to fight his own (bourgeois) gov- ernment.” She praised Liebknecht, denounced the leadership of the Social-Demoeracy. The “official” bureaucracy called her an anar- chist. Comrade Engdahl, as editor of the official weekly, was “called on the carpet” for praising Kollon- tai and publishing some of the things she said. So her ne In 1918 Comrade Engdahl was sentenced to 20 years in prison for opposition to this country’s partici- pation in the war. He told the no- torious labor-hating Judge Landis that he stood on the same interna- tional platform as Leibknecht in Germany and that he did not fear anything the court might do. to him. After the war in 1919 we,. who were active in organizing the Com- munist. Party, were disappointed that Comrade Engdahl did not at first go with us, He remained in the Socialist Party, striving’ te swing them toward the Third (Commu- nist) International. In 1921 he recognized that it was not possible. even to expect. any further fesults from such a course and came to the: Communist ranks where he remained. steadfastly the Test of his life. + QUALITIES OF REVOLUTIONIST From 1922 onwards I. worked closely with Comrade Engdahl, first on the Weekly Worker, : then on the Daily Worker and on lead- ing, committees with him. There are impressed upon my mind three qualities that stamp him as an ad- mirable comrade, traits to be emu- jated by all revolutionists. He was first of all thoroughly loyal, never hesitating for a moment to do his level best to carry out any task to which he was assigned by “the judgment of his comrades. He was always calm, even in.the most try- ing situations. And he was fearless in face of the enemy. These char- acteristics, and his ability as a speaker ‘and writer made him be- loved by masses of workers who now mourn his untimely death while still in the prime of life: © Oh Ord, B hse ‘OMRADE ENGDAHL died at his post, fighting in behalf of the Scottsboro boys. His last task, which he had so effectively carried out in his European tour with the Scottsboro mother, Mrs. “Ada Wright, was to expose to'the mass- es of Europe the monstrous tyr- anny of American imperialism against a subject nation—the Ne- gro masses in the Black Belt of the South, All his energy was thrown | into this fight, so that it was not pescible. for him to fight off the | ravages of epidemic influenza. His | death while fighting for twelve | million oppressed Negroes of this country and in the interest of ‘the whole working class testifies to the self-sacrificing devotion ‘of the Communist Party in the struggle against capitalist despotism. It is a refutation of all the barrage of lies that emanated from the jour- nalistic brothels to the effect that Communists use such casts for per- sonal advancement. It testifies to the growing unbreakable unity of the Negro and white-masses in the fight against capitalist terror. Letters from Criticizes Review of. . Film, “I Am Fugitive from the Chain Gang” Editor, The Daily Worker, Dear Comrade: In a review in the Daily Worker by a member of the Workers’ Film and Photo League of the picture, “I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” I believe, from what I have seen of it, that the writer failed to do full justice to this powerful drama, I agree entirely that as a gen- eral rule pictures emanating from Hollywood are filled ‘with |ruling class propaganda, but in this case an exception should be made. True onough, it does not expose the in- deseribable tortures inflicted upon the Negro prisoners as “Georgia Nigger” has done so energetically, but the film does present the hor- rors of the chain gang as it affects | the white workers caught in the net of capitalist law. Perhaps it is not eltegether up to our own expectation of what a picture should portray but, under the cir- cumstances itis the best I have so far ever seem upon the screen. Paul Muni gives an excellent per- formance of a soldier who returns from the front only to discover that the glowing promises of a ‘better world following the war, were just so much bunk. . Tramp- ing‘ about the country! he becomes involved in a robbery finally lands in the dreaded chain gang. The brutality and tortures (which put the inquisition of the middle ges in the shade) heaped upon men who are exploited until they collapse from physical exhaustion exposes the sham and hypocrisy of so-called “character building” of capitalist prison institutions. Men perish through lack of proper med- ical attention and the dream of freedom burns in the breasts of those who cannot stand it another Our Readers day. Some manage to escape — either to freedom or brutal death when caught. To the worker viewing this pic- talist-class justice is exposed in all ture. the sham and fraud of capi- its nakedness. It brings home to us in characteristic fashion the lessons we haye learned from the Mooney, Sacco-Vanzetti “and Scottsboro cases, and that the one- man battle against the frame-up is utterly futile and if this picture has not taught anything else, it has definitely proved to us that only through mass organization of both black and white workers can the evils imposed upon the ex- ploited be effectively destroyed. —J. P. V. Smith Writes on the Boss Press in Saturday Issue PAPITALIST Journalism is Capitalist Propaganda,” is the name of the article by Vern Smith which will appear,on this page in Wednesday’s issue of the Da‘ly Worker. Quoting from official documents just released by the U. S. Govern ment, Smith shows how the cap- italist press was mobilized “to keep’ millions of Russian workers and farmers bleeding and dying on the Eastern front for the profit of the Russian and American im~- perial'sts and their allies.” Great crisises, war on revolu- tion, or even large scale demon- strations like the National Hunger March, the writer points out, cause “capitalist. government to drop the mask and show their naked force.” as Don’t miss this important ar- ticle in Wednesday's issue! S huts and Here the share-croppers live. The big agrarian allows them the use of the land. ‘They provide the agri- cultural instruments and above all the labor power. With the help of their wives, numerous children und their a he they aera ae Ignd. When es kaif ot it belongs to. the big agrarian. en Stee, share-croppers are obliged to work day and night. Their sleeping quarters are damp, mil- dewy ard full of vermin. If the har- vest is good, then the family will have enough to carry on until the next harvest. If the harvest is bad, their share will not suffice them till the next year, The family must give up the holding. Perhaps they may be lucky enough to find work as day laborers. At first, however, they must leave the country and go to the town, where they wander about begging until harvest time comes round again, Then the manager of the estate gos to the town. The unemployed gather together in the market. Duy laborers for harvest work are sought—men, women and children. Wages vary. Some times they amount to over a shilling for 10, tumble-down houses. , 12 and more hours work. Often the day laborers are engaged only for exe day, sometimes for one to two weeks, but seldom longer. haptt: ‘The number of permanently. em- ployed landworkers is very small,” Formerly there were a but day laborers are cheaper and as fascism exists before all in order to guarantee increasing profits to the big agrariuns, ¢ has done ev- the land workers and share-crop= pers are kept in slavery are delib- erately maintained and extended. | But the Italian share-croppers, | day laborers and agricultural work- | ers, in a unjted front with the Ttal- jan indusirial proletariat, will one day follow the examp!e of the peas- ants in the Soviet Union, who in alliance with the industrial prole- tariat have driven ar the exploit. ers and today are leading a otw ‘tree lite y lf