The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 22, 1932, Page 4

i DAILY WORKER. NEW YORK. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1932 "Feblshed by the Comprodaily Fublishing Co., Inc IHD St., New York City, N. ¥. Telephone Algonquin 4-7956. Address avd mail checks to the D: daily except Sunday, at 58 ¥ Cable DAWORE. ily Worker, 50 E. 18th St., New York, SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, 36; six months, 33.50; 3 months, $2; 1 month, Yes exeepting Borough of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign and Canada: _One_year. 39; 6 months, 35;_3_months, 33 Fight for Right to Live } in Black Belt N the heat of the conflict that res in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt there must be welded that unity of Negro and white that strikes dread and fear into the hearts of the ruling class. With armed posses representing the interests of landlords and mortgage-holdars, deputized by their owr eling sheriffs, roa ry-side in search of Negroes who. resisted Mond: murde hunted Negro Share-croppers are being defended in white share croppers and tenant farmers. Tt anticipated by the landlords when the re is evidenced by the fact that st of other counties were enlisted to carry it ow LREADY, in the Camp Hill uly and in the events following the out to be seen a growing unity of Negro and croppers in the common strug- gle for economic demands and for the right to organize and to exercise free speech and free assembly. The heroic resistance of the Negro the many small towns t a beacon light for the hundreds ahare-cropper t Camp Hill, the cotton belt of the Sout one of became of thousands of Negro and white semi-slaves of the land. With the grow the economic crisis, interwoven with the agrarian crisis, and the mpt of the bosses to f the toiling masses to bear the entire burden of “these hard times” changes have rapidly taken place that seemed unbe! those who only knew the South of yesterday. The class conflict, un tant leadership has already to some extent weakened, the carefully-fostered racial hatreds among the “poor whites” against the Negro slaves of the land, who suffer under ‘common. des- potism The terror reign that began when the sheriff's forces “attacked a meeting of share croppers at Camp Hill last year failed to stop the movement. In defiance of the terror, meetings were held regularly, the Share Croppers Union increased its membership, won a number of par- tial victories, and to a certain extent prepared the way to unite Negro @zid white for a common struggle against the big landlords. This de- velopment was the signal for the most atrocious campaign of lies and pro- vocation against the Communist Party, the International Labor Defense and every working class organization active in the South. The police, the courts, the sheriffs, the lynch gangs, all the forces of tyranny were mobilized in the drive to crush the organizations of workers and farm- ers. Every effort was made to prevent free speech, to break up any attempts to meet, news was censored, mails were rifled so that nothing ofa working class nature could get in through regular channels from the outside. While every attempt was made to silence the voice of the toiling masses, the agents of the bosses carried on campaigns of lies and intimidation. The monstrous frame-up against the Scottsboro boys and the death sentences immediately imposed were clearly a part of the lynch campaign of the ruling class; a campaign carried on as part of the drive against the living standards of the Negro and white workers in the industries and on the land. Contrary to their expectations the Scotts- boro frame-up was met with such mass protests and such outbursts of indignation throughout the whole country that the Southern ruling class became aware of the growing determination of the Negro and white workers and farmers to challenge their rule, and was forced to try to stem the great mass movement in behalf of the Scot oro boys by cal- ling to theff said corrupt leading elements of the National Association “he Advancement of Colored People. It was the particular dirty job of the treacherous misleaders of that organization to try to hold back the growing mass movement so that the lynch gang could, without ser- ious danger, carry out its murderous plans. In pursuit of that aim a servile section of the Negro preachers were mobilized, under the auspices of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Alliance. Walter White, secretary of the N.A-A.C.P. referred to the c as “just another case”. William Pickens, organizer for he N.A.A.C.P., was called to help the white lynch- ers and in the course of an infamous speech at Chattanooga, Tenn., in June, 1931, tried to frighten the Negro mass: y from defense of the Seottsboro boys by raising a red scare and by trying to paralyze the mass struggle by the statement: “If the defendants in the Scottsboro trials need justice they should get it from law-abiding Negroes and the influential and just-minded whites.” By “law-abiding Negroes” Pickens meant lynch-law-abiding; he meant those bribed sections that never challenge, but on the contrary help carry out, the lynch policies of the white ruling class; by “influen- tial whites” he certainly did not mean the poor workers and share- eroppers, but the big landlords and mortgage-holders who live by op- pressing and robbing the laboring farmers, black and white. It was the intervention of these renegade misleaders of the N.A.A.C that paved. the way for the attack at Camp Hill a few weeks following Pieken’s tour of the South. Instead of striking terror into the Negro share-croppers that raid and the murder of the share-cropper, Ralph Gray, only spurred them on to more determined organization in the struggle for the right to live, which has continued to this day and will go on in spite of the latest murderous attack that was made Monday night. The entire working class, and the impoverished farmers must aid in this struggle by mighty protests against this latest outburst of terror now going on. An avalanche of protesis, resolutions and telegrams must sweep into the offices of the governor of Alabama, the sheriff of Talla- noosa county, the White House at Washington and President-elect Roose- velt, head of the Democratic Party of lynch-rule in the South. White and Negro workers and farmers! Unite for mass struggle to stop the organized murder campaign against the share-croopers! This is the fight of all the oppressed masses against U. S. Imperialism. White workers and farmers! Do not let the bosses incite you against the Negro masses! Defend your own interests by defending them! Unite against the common enemy, the bosses. the landlords and their lynch government ! Mrs. Roosevelt Traduces American Girls IHE capitalist press is trying hard to play up the whole Roosevelt famliy as individuals of superior wisdom. No utterance of any member of that family is too empty, banal or downright ignorant for repetition in the columns of the pres A few days ago Mrs. Franklin D- Roosevelt dealt with the problems of girls today. In the course of her remarks, as reported in the pr she observed, “The average girl of today faces the problem of learning very young how much she can drink of such things as whiskey and gin and sticking to the proper quantity.” If Mrs. Roosevelt, ever came in contact with girls who belong to the class of useful members of society, her remarks do not indicate it. ‘She! was for years one of the bright and shining lights of the Women’s ‘Trade Union League—in fact its chief contributor, who, along with the ‘Tammany lady, Miss Nancy Cook, maintained that alleged organiza- tion for working girls as an adjunct of Tammany Hall. It has been a long time since there were any working girls in the Women’s Trade Union League, so it would be impossible for Mrs, Roosevelt to come in contact with them there at this time. HE only girls Mrs. Roosevelt real) the millionaire families with lows are those in her own set; ‘asitic debutante daughters their who participate in orgies that not even Hollywood could duplicate. These worthless individuals whose pictures adorn the society columns of the capitalist press are the ones Mrs. Roosevelt knows. But it is an insult to the average girl to ascribe to her the degenerate habits of the dizzy daughters of millionaire families. Millions of young self-supporting girls work long hours, under the most trying conditions for small wages that barely keep them in miser- able rooms, girl's boarding houses, or help supplement the income and even in many cases support the family. There are legions of girls who ‘work in factories, mills, in stores and offices, who drudge in the homes of the rich, other tens of thousands who work on the land. ye, many of the daughters of workers and farmers are debauched to make playthings for the degenerate youth of rich families and driven into. prostitution by capitalism. Their number increases today in the of the end of capitalist stabilization. But the overwhelming jiv of them continue to carry on and an Increasing number throw mscives into the working class struggle against the hunger and war regram cf Wall Street that is now being carried out by the Hoovers snd’ the Roosevelts. As the class struggle reaches ever higher stages 4rger numbers of the young girl toilers take their place with the class- @nscious fighters, along with the, boys and the adult men and women the working class—against the social scum at the top whose habits . Roosevelt, in her ignorance and insolence attributes to the average ly, Worker | Relation of [LD| "°°" to Other Mass ‘| Organizations By WILLIAM 1. PATTERSON (General Secretary LL.D.) T= demands upon the resources of the International Labor De- fense organizationally, financially and politically this year will exceed those of all other periods in the history of this class struggle de- fense organization. Mass struggles are in various stages of development, from the nation-wide hunger march, bonus march, the march of the impover- ished farmers to Washington, D. C which have already attracted na- tional attention and against which the bosses are carrying out ruthless attacks; to the mass struggles which are in earlier forms of preparation but which must and will be de- veloped by the revolutionary lead- ership in basic industries wher mass unemployment and reduction of wages have reached unprece- dented levels. Particularly must these struggles be developed in such industries as the railroads which while continuing the payment of huge dividends on watered stock to parasitic stockholders are at the same time preparing for new and greater attacks upon the living standards of the workers. The con- scious efforts of the united Negro and white workers to raise the liberation struggles of the Negro masses to higher levels and to merge these with the general strug- * gles of the working class will in- | crease in intensity. TREMENDOUS TASKS This will place tremendous tasks upon the I. L. D. These must and will be fulfilled. Words will not do } it. Heroic deeds are necessary. The International Labor Defen: has the greatest interest in the or- ganized developing struggles. This is naturally correct. Organization lends to‘ these struggles greater vitality, surer and more definite direction. They must and will be- fore long assume the character of @ counter offensive and of the working class. If the International Labor Defense is adequately pre- pared to perform its task as a de- | fense organization of the working class, its plan of action must be based upon those of the mass or- ganizations. It must organize within these mass organizations. The work of the International La- bor Defense must be co-ordinated in the closest possible manner with struggles of these other mass or- ganizations. At the same time, the I. L. D. must also carry out its defense activities in behalf of those who in spontaneous and individual activities fall victims of ruling class justice and police terror. These cannot be neglected. Here also our activities must be increased if the IL. D. is not to fall behind, ieee Satie ‘HE lagging of the International Labor Defense at the tail end of these mass organizations will cause it to become a brake on the strug- gles of the working class. To the workers of America, the Interna- tional Labor Defense must system- atically and consistently appear as @ Weapon of class struggle of in- dispensable importance. The morale of the struggling masses will be strengthened by the knowledge that behind them stands their or- ganization of mass defense; by the | knowledge that this organization of defense has developed to so high a political level that even as a de- fense weapon it becomes a weapon of attack. CHIEF TASKS There is only one way that this can be realized. The International Labor Defense must be rooted in the shops, mills and mines. It must be carried deeper into the South, there to give revolutionary mass support in defense of the libera- tion struggles of the Negro masses. | It can and must play a decisive role in making one defense stream | out of the growing liberation strug- gles of the Negro masses and the | defense struggles of the workers as a whole, This task of the I. L. D. can be performed on only one basis, that the working class and the toiling masses are made defense conscious. The I. L. D. must be known to every member of the Hunger Marchers. It must be regarded by every enslaved Negro share-crop- per as his organization. This can only be done when the leadership of our mass organizations them- selves begin to appreciate the role of the International Labor Defense. Y Kis I. L. D. cannot be relegated to a position of minor impor- tance at meetings where questions of major militant struggles are dis- cussed. The attitude towards the I. L, D. of those who arranged the tremendous mass demonstration at the Coliseum to hail the Hunger Marcheds was impermissible. Such an attitude cannot be tolerated by the revolutionary movement. Early in the arrangements preparations the I. L. D. requested to be con- spicuously placed on the program stressing its tremendous importance in the struggles of the Hunger Marchers, and to briefly present resolutions for the defense of the Scottsboro boys and the Meerut prisoners. Yet its representative was at first flatly refused, then given three minutes at the end of the meeting with constant interrup- tions from the chairman in which to greet the Hunger Marchers and acquaint them with the plans of the I. L. D. in their behalf, This inexcusable lack of co-or- dination between our mass organ- ization is one of the factors which acts as a tremendous hinderance to their development. It is this form of bureaucracy against which re- lentless struggle must be waged. The International Labor Defense must be built and will be built, into a mass organization of defense struggle. In this development, the leadership of our mass organiza~ ues must give revolutionary sup- EUDALISM”! ~By Burck The Prophets of “Prosperity” ‘Triple Bottom Theory’ Latest Contribution of L.P. Ayres, | Are on the Job Again | Who Says He’s an Economist By H. M. WICKS ‘Ac the close of the year the pro- phets of prosperity are on the job. While their song is not so strident and certain as in other years, nevertheless we are told that, if we only take care and do nothing to rock the boat we will all land in a safe harbor. One of | the most noted of these is Mr. Leonard P. Ayres, vice-president of | the Cleveland Trust Company. He attained great eminence during the | days of relative capitalist stabili- | zation; he was one of the prophets | of the “invincible power of Amer- ican capitalism,” one of the the- orists of “permanent prosperity,” a writer of eulogies to “organized capitalism,” a worshiper at the shrine of the “great technical de- yelopment” of American imperial- ism. He was one of the “author- ities” to which the Lovestoneites referred while developing their theories that America was an ex- ception to all the rest’ of the cap- italist. world. When, in August, 1929, American imperialism was plunging toward its greatest economic crisis, Mr. Ayres continued singing his fam- iliar song. He wrote on the. eve of the crash: “This is truly a new era in which formerly ‘well-estab- lished standards of value no longer retain their old significance.” Then ensued another paen of praise to the unbreakable prosperity of the United States of America. That was August 15, 1929—two months before the economic thunderbolt staggered Wall Street. BUILDING FOUNDATIONS | FOR RECOVERY Events have somewhat subdued Mr. Ayres. Wave after wave of calamity has rolled over his the- ories, but still they stand, some- what battered to be sure, but quite recognizable. In his latest prediction he tells us that 1933 will | be a year of “depression,” but he | paints the clouds with sunshine. by | informing us also that it will be | one in which “halting and irre- gular progress will be achieved in | building the foundations for re- | covery,” according to the New York | Times report of Sunday, Dec. 18. Although purposely vague and indefinite it is part of the deliber- ate deception practiced upon the masses who, in increasing numbers are fighting against the hunger and war program of United States imperialism. Instead of admitting that the trend is definitely down- ward, according to every measure by which economic trends are gauged, Ayres would have us be- lieve that the worst is passed and that gradual improvement will set in, ee EFORE we deal with some of the present tricks of Mr. Ayres it 1s well to recall some of his past. predictions during the course of the crisis which he, like all the other economic hacks of capital- ism, calls “the depression.” Even the events of October, 1929, did | BOTTOMLESS THEORY | TRIPLE BOTTOMS not dampen the optimism of the colonel from Cleveland.’ Just three years ago—to be exact on Decem- ber 15, 1929—he said: “Business conditions in the United States will be poor during the first few months of 1930, but strong during the close of the year.” Following up that prophesy he said on Feb- ruary 15, 1930: “We appear to have reached the bottom of the busi- ness valley, but we do not know how wide the valley mcy be.” Op- timistic prophesy is here diluted with a drop of caution. Four months later, 6n dune 15, 1930, Mr. Ayres observed: “The up- turn should not be far away.” Then on September 15 of the same year the Cleveland ecenomic wizard began to see things that ordinary mortals could not see. His hallucinations produced this ob- servation: “Business appears to be turning the corner, and indus- trial activity seems to be increas- ing.” One month later, still un- der the same spell, he said: “It is encouraging to note that busi- ness activity is no longer slowing down.” oF After a year of disappointments and unfulfilled prophesies, Mr. Ayres was on’the job bright and early in the year 1931, and on January 15 said: “The weight of probability is distinctly in favor of durable improvement beginning in 1931.” “A month later he declared: “The present indications are that we are at or near the bottom of this depression.” Just one year before Mr. Ayres had said we had reached the bottcm and were in a long valley. The precipitous line of ‘descent of the crisis was such that. the: colonel. had to develop a most original economic theory, a theory that would explain how many bottoms the “depression” really has and so, after long pondering of the problem the Cleveland Trust Company econo- mist released this unique pro- nouncement on. June 15, 1931: “Business sentiment has made a triple bottom to this depression. Three times ought to. be enough.” “This triple-bottom theory could only sprout out of the. bottomless economic ignorance of Mr. Ayres. ‘The fact that such a person can attain eminence testifies to the propaganda power of the capital- ist press in popularizing such frauds as Ayres and Babson, and is a measure of the prostitution of pseudo-science to imperialism. ° . JOWEVER, we do not repeat the absurd prophesies of such people as Ayres merely for the pleasure involved in exposing them. It is an: easy task and only demands patience enough to read through the bulletins of the banks and other institutions with which such people are connected. Our pur- pose is to prove to ‘workers that such people are not economist, but paid liars of capitalism who try “on hand, Special Articles in Lenin Memorial and “Daily” Anniversary Edition a, A tentative list of articles in the Special Daily Worker Anni- versary and Lenin Memorial Edition to be published on January 14, indicates that it will be one of the most interesting and significant is- sues ever published. The articles will melude: “Leninism and War’, by Earl Browder; “Eight Years of the Daily Worker in American ” by Bill Dunne; “Lenin and the Daily Worker,” by Robert Minors “Lenin- ism and Our Fight for the Majority of the Wortding Clasc,” by Jack Stach Wicks: “The Socialist Press in the Service of Capitalism”, by H. M. ‘The Study of Leninsm in Amorica”, by Sam Don; “Lenin- ism ard the Growth of Socialism in the Soviet Union,” by Moissaye J. Olgin, There will also be Hograniioat sketches of Lenin, and the edition | will be illustrated with photographs and cartoons. Working-class organizations and individual workers are already sending their greetings for this anniversary issue. If your organization has not already done so, see that it is done at once. All greetings must badamsicabren hata cpaa ik una i cisco Sage oe 4 to disguise their poison propa- ganda under scientific terminology. We refer to the prophesies of the past only in order that workers may come to hold in contempt the prophets of capitalist recovery. We publish such facts so that the readers of the Daily Worker may use them as weapons against those who try to disintegrate and defeat the mass struggle against hunger by sowing illusions that prosperity is around the corner. | HOW TO TURN | THE TIDE The mechanics. of overcoming the “depression,” according to the current “Business Bulletin” of the @5veland Trust Company, pre- Yared by Mr, Ayres is to “attempt to facilitate and expedite the ad- justimen?’ necessary zor a resuinp- tion of normal business at. lower ‘This, says the Cleveland could be done in two (1) international exchange ways: of raw materials designed to work down excess stocks, and by barter “as we have already exchanged American ‘wheat for Brazilian cof- fee,” and (2) by the federal gov- ernment saving concerns from bankruptey by permitting “orderly reorganization of the capital strue- tures, of corporations unable to meet their obligations when due.” white, a (R. AYRES is silent on how such enormous stocks can. be dis- pesed of in capitalist markets whose, buying power is steadily falling because of the terrible pov- erty due to wnemployment and wage cuts and the constantly de- creased buying power of the masses of the capitalist and colonial and semi-colonial countries. The December bulletin does, however, state certain facts about the enormous surplus of “nine staple commodities that constitute @ large part of the bulk and value of international trade, and largely control international commodity price levels.” These. commodities are coffee, cotton, rubber, silk, sugar, tea, tin and wheat. Con- tinuing Ayres says: “The warehouse stocks of these staples in the world are now twice as great as they were just before the depression began, and their average prices are one- third of what they were then. Conditions with respect to our own stocks of raw materials are similar.” ‘The end of all other crises came ahout largely as a result of the gradual absorbtion of the surplus stocks. In this crisis the stocks instead of diminishing, have increased tremendously. Un- der capitalism they cannot be ab- sorbed. Warehouses are full to bursting, while the masses are starving. ‘These supplies could be reduced immediately by opening up these warehouses and feeding the starv- ing men, women and children of this country. But capitalism will never take that road. It will never give up even the smallest part of its wealth unless it is forced to do so by the mass action of the work- ers, fermers, ex-soldiers and other oppressed elements of the popula- tion. In the fight against hunger, in the increasing struggle to com- Capitaliss supremacy. The moment the workers and farmers smash the state power of capitalism and sect up their own government there will be issued decrees ordering the opening of these warehouses and the feeding of the hungry people. It is through that kind of ee id Gov. Pinchot’s Unites With U.M.W.A. By F. BORICH (Secretary National Miners’ Union) IFFORD PINCHOT, “liberal” Governor of Pennsylvania, is making another demagogic at- tempt to appear in the role of a “friend” of the exploited, hungry miners, and an “arch enemy” of the greedy coal operators. The United Mine officials, Murray, Fa- gan and company, lost no time in endorsing and associating them- selves with Pinchot in “defending” the interests of the same miners whom they have betrayed so many times. The capitalist press through- out the state of Pennsylvania are making strenuous efforts to utilize the Pinchot-U. M. W. A. officials’ demagogy in an attempt to pacify the revolting miners by creating the impression that Pinchot and his Legislature will “solve” their problem of starvation by calling the coal operators to an account. According to press stories, Pin- chot investigated wages and con- ditions of the miners in Pennsyl- vania. He found them to be “abominable and growing worse.” After citing some examples of ac- tual slavery in the mines, Pinchot, says: “Many coal companies are deliberately making matters worse by cutting wages and practising abuses which grind the miner to a level of poverty and despair never before known to the industry.” His statement concludes with the warn~ ing: “It is my intention, if these abuses continue, to make public the rames of companies which are maltreating their men, and to ask the Legislature for a thorough in- vestigation.” MISERABLE CONDITIONS The conditions of the miners in Pennsylvania, employed by the coal operators, are much more “abominable” than Mr. Pinchot is willing to admit. The wages have been cut below starvation level. The coke ovens are overcrowded with the unemployed. Tent colo- nies and jungles are growing in every mining town. The under- takers are busy burying men, wo- men and children who are dying of: hunger and cold. There is one section of the miners whose con- ditions are even worse than those employed by the coal operators, but whom Mr. Pinchot and the U. M. W. A. officials “forget” to mention. These are the tens of thousands of miners employed by the Pinchot government on the so- called public works. All of them are employed at forced labor. Their labor power is being paid for by the few pounds of the govern- ment flour and a few other crumbs of relief. This relief comes through the company stores, owned by the same coal operators whom Mr.Pin- chot “attacks,” at exorvitantly high prices. The government is paying miners’ wages to the company stores, giving the coal operators thousands of dollars of profits and depriving the miners of many necessities of life. In addition to this the local governments of Pennsylvana, werking under the leadership of Pinchot, are taking house deeds, farm deeds, lot deeds, automobile titles and other property papers of the miners in return for star- yation relief, making the unem- ployed miners actual debtors and slaves to the state. Mr. Pinchot is more than any other individual responsible for the starvation of the employed miners and the imemnse suffering of those whom he helped to blacklist. We wish to remind the miners of Pin- chot’s role in 1931, Ae . K 1931 the Western Pennsylva- nia miners, under the leadership of the National Miners’ Union, struck against the attack of the coal operators on their standard of living. Even at th&t time the main slogan of the strike was: “Strike against starvation.” There was every indication that the miners, with their solid front, militant leadership and mass activity, would | force the coal operators into sub- j= jor the Starving ‘Friendship’, Miners Officials in Maneuver to Stem Revolt of Coal Diggers mission and establish a powerful, militant organization to protect their daily interests. Seeing this possibility, Pinchot, as governor of Pennsylvania, sent the entire state police force, of several thousand brutal cossacks, into the striking area, with instructions to break the strike at all costs. Pinchot’s state police clubbed, tear-gassed, shot and jailed the strikers. They sup- ported the company guards in smashing the picket lines. The courts of Pennsylvania threw the best leaders of the ~ strike into prison. ‘The state police assisted and are still assisting the immi- gration department in arresting and deporting all militant miners who dare protest against starva- tion. Being unable to break the strike by brutal force, Pinchot personally initiated a strikebreaking and wage-cutting agreement between the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Co. and the U. M. W. A. officials. The agreement was concluded despite the mass protest of the Terminal miners, who went to the extent of sending a delegation to Pinchot declaring that they will not accept the agreement. Pinchot’s answer to the striking miners was over 100 state police te enforce the starvation agreement. During tho life of this agreement, which car-~ ries the seal of Pinchot, the wages of the Terminal miners were cut from 52 cents to 36 cents a ton, This same agreement blacklisted hundreds of militant miners, who are freezing in tents and who went through untold sufferings during the last 18 months. EXPLAINS “FRIENDSHIP” This in itself explains the “friendship” of Mr. Pinchot and the U. M. W. A. officials for the min- ers. Why then, does Mr. Pinchot and the U. M. W. A. officials come out now in “defense” of the miners’ interests? The miners throughout Pennsylvania are revolting against the intolerable conditions. Pinchot, is receiving thousands of letters which bitterly score the starvation and threaten strike. In fact, scores of local strikes are taking place now against these conditions. The miners employed by the state gov- ernment on several occasions went on strike against their slave-like treatment. As the National Hun- ger Marchers were passing through the mining towns, tens of thou- sands of miners gathered along the highways in the mining towns, greeting the Hunger March and pledging their intensified struggle against starvation. In __ several countizs the miners organized county Hunger Marches at the time of the arrival of the National Hunger March into the county seats. The miners throughout Pennsylvania are talking of a mass Strike early in the spring, bel imeiys # prcnoy knows all these things; he knows that the storm is in- evitable, in fact he feels it al- ready. This storm is preceding the state elections in Pennsylya- nia. Pinchot is hoping to be re. elected as a governor in the com; ing elections. Demagogue that he is, Pinchot is utilizing the mass misery of the miners for two pur- Poses. 1. To pacify the revolting min- ers by promising to investigate their conditions and thus prevent, if possible, the coming mass strike. 2. To lay the basis for his re- election for governor. This is the Policy of the coal operators. The U. M, W. A. officials and the capi- talist press are supporting Pinchot and the coal operators to the ut- most in this campaign. This demagogic campaign con- tains many dangerous elements, if it is not. combated and properly explained to the miners. One of the most important tasks of the National Miners’ Union is to expose this demagogy at its beginning and to mobilize the masses of starving miners into a powerful united movement for immediate struggle against starvation, Letters from Praise Book on the USSR, “One-Sixth of =ammond, Ind. Editor, the Daily Worker: Dear Comrade:—I am writing to you with reference to a book called “One Sixth of the World’s Surface,” by a fellow from Hammond, Rus- sell Wright, who wrote some time ago and asked me if I could help him get this book reviewed in some of the labor press. I wrote back and told him if he would send me a copy I would then be able to say better whether the Daily Worker and other revolutionary papers would be likely to be interested. However, I never heard from him and never received a copy of the book, so I rather gave up any ideas about it. Then I heard that Mr. Wright had been in New York and made some kind of arrangements, but he did not say what kind. But yesterday my. brother-in-law brought me a copy of this book to read—which is one of the first cop- ies out—and is published by the author himself. To show pa what a favorable impression the book made with me—I did not lay it down until I had finished read- ing it, Since reading it, I am convinced it fills a real need. It is not a long book—only 145 pages. It is very easily read—even children could understand it. And it dif- fers entirely from anything I have ever read regarding the Soviet Union. It tells in plain American the World Surface”, Our Readers would carry weight with the aver- age American because it is by a mon-Communist, therefore “un- 4 prejudiced.” The fact that it is by such a young man would also be in its favor. I was particularly struck by the fact that no effort was made to attempt any brilliant literary mesterpiece—but that the book seems to be just avelating of actual facts seen and experienced, It carries with it an air of extreme simplicity and truthfulness. I believe this book could be used to excellent. advantages for propa- ganda purposes. Comrade Dave Mates, our Section Organizer, said he believed so, too. It_ costs $! now. Too high, Maybe it could be serialized in the Daily Worker, or at least reviewed by some prominent author or critic. I think the book would be im by a good preface, also a sh and that he financed his own trip, and for purely so that any idea that the book has been promoted ee te “Moscow” would be spiked immediately, I hope this letter does not im- pose upon your time too much, bus I would really like to know what you think may be done about this book. I have no interest in this book or its author, as I know him only casually, but T be- lieve it fills a real need in this country for propaganda purposes and would like to see it used to best advantages in this way, Comradely yours, LEONA JOHNSON, <A OE a } | |