The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 29, 1934, Page 5

{ ‘CHANGE [ _—THE-— WORLD! \ be By MICHAEL GOLD EAR COMRADE GOLD: Why in the hell shouldn't we go to Palm Beach? I want to go to Palm Beach as much as my boss’s family goes—and I want more than them: I want the opera; I want the theatre; I want fine clothes and good food (the best); and I'll never get it until everyone else does— and fights for it! Comradely, HH. . . * EAR COMRADE GOLD: Ambridge, Pa. I want to give my greetings to the revolutionary leaders throughout the world who are suffering in prisons and tortured in concentration camps and remind our fellow-workers of the heritage of our dead leaders to us as I remember one—one of the latest victims of the bloody German Fascists: Eugene Schoenhour. I knew him as you did. He stayed in our little shack in this miserable slow patch, this steél town, and he talked about his child and his wife and their comrades in Ger- many and how they spend endless hours on food lirfes wait for a few potatoes. He was learning English then and I said how quick you learn. No he said: We are all workers. We all sit all day at machines or search for a place to do so and we all speak the same language. I wrote to my sister in Canada about him. I wrote what he said when I asked him how he could be so happy in the midst of such a hard and Hfficult life. “Follow the line of the Communist Party,” he said. “When you come to know in full what the line of the Communist International means you can go on your daily tasks getting day to day demands filled up, spreading the desire amongst the workers for and singing to yourself the final goal—Communism through the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is a pleasure to be alive to tell the workers about the Soviet Union. You can laugh in the face of death when you know your steps are forward to Communism.” My sister sent me the “Worker” from Toronto, Canada, with your article in it reprinted from the Daily Worker. Those fascist blood- hounds think it was finished when they tortured and killed Eugene Schoenhour. I am not the only one in our small territory who stands ready to take his place. After I read your article I said to myself: From now on—talking in the kitchen—picking up coal on the railroad tracks, —in the grocery store—when I am working (my husband is the stcel worker; I have had to go to town to work in laundries, factories and restaurants); when I am at meetings, wherever I am, even if there is only one other worker, I will always speak of our immediate de- mands, fight for them, and go forward to Communism. Some of us women will soon get together and we will send a dollar to help the victims of German fascism. Let me add a line to remind every working women how fast we are heading toward this same fascist terror. (We had a taste of it in- Ambridge last fall, I hear the capitalists were so proud of it they even put it in the movies.) Women get together for the aid of victims of German fascism. Every time more than two get together, talk about what we can do. We can send 10 cents. We can send 25 cents. We can send a dollar. I do hope, Mike Gold, you can let us have another line in your column to say: Let this be our greeting to our fellow workers, class war prisoners, and our token of remembrance to our great leaders like Eugene Schoen- hour. PJ. . RITES Dan Davis from Chicago: At the insistence of Mayor Kelly, ye City Council here, Made up of honest Kelly-Horner (Governor)-Moe Rosenberg (Late) gtafters, ap- proprieted $40,000 for newsreel censorship. With the recent Insull, and more recent Moe Rosenberg, revelations here, can it be that Mr. Kelly is really afraid of Parisian-Austrian workers’ activities? Of course not. Aren't the workers the most highly paid? Just look at the lines of full dinner pails walking away from the stockyards, the happy over- paid teachers of Chicago, the beautiful homes of the workers on the South Side where the spring sun comes streaming in through the lovely cracks in the plaster walls. And last week the local Board of Education announced that here- , after the beginning of each school day, in every school class-room would be opened with the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner! Mr. Kelly and the city politicians no doubt know what they want. But maybe the workers change their mind, yes? * * . . i hehe Daily News recently reported that: “Probation Officer Charles A. Woods, attached to the court, in- vestigated conditions and: declared he would communicate with the Department of Health. “The shacks are a menace to the community and must be torn down,’ he asserted. “Woods said the makeshift huts of wood and tin are almost with- out ventilation, He said the locality is over-run with rats and other vermin. The colony is near Grand St. and the creek. “Tt would be a fine thing for the Maspeth section,’ declared Mag- istrate Thomas F. Doyle, ‘if the city demolished the shacks so that the men would seek better living quarters elsewhere.’ ” And Jack Stone comments that: “One of these days, Magistrate Doyle, the men ARE going to seek better living quarters elsewHere! Your present domicile will do very well to house a worker's family in Passos’ new play | crisis, | Mann, Chicago Workers’ Theatre to Show “Fortune Heights” | CHICAGO.—The Chicago Work- | ers’ Theatre will present John Dos “Fortune Heights” at the Women's Club Theatre, 62 E. lith St., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 30, 31 and April 1, with a matinee performance on Saturday, March 31, 2:30 p. m. | “Fortune Heights,” which portrays the life and struggles of a bour- geois American family during the is directed by Harold M. New Soviet Films in Chicago Soon CHICAGO. — The new Soviet | films, “The Island of Doom” and “The Polish Terror,” will be shown at the People’s Auditorium, 2457 West Chicago Ave., Friday and Saturday, March 30 and 31, at 7 and 9 p.m. These performances are sponsored by the I. W. O., Chicago District, and the Ukrain- jan Labor Home. TUNING IN TONIGHT’S PROGRAM WABC—3860 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Mery Small, Songs 7:15—Billy Batchelor—Sketch 7:80—Shirley Howard, Songs; Jesters Trio | nie down on the step to nurse it.| '1:45—The Goldbergs—fketch Orch.; Boloists 9:00—Captain Henry Show Boat Concert 10:00—Whiteman Orch.;' Al Jolson, Songs 11:00—Viola Philo, Soprano 11:15—News Reports 11:20—Cyril Pitts, Tenor 11:30—Meeting of the Washington (D. ©.) | Division of Young Democratic Clubs of America, Willard Hotel; tions to the United States—Assistant Secretary of State Summer Welles 12:00—Lunceford Orch. 12:30 A, M.—Scotti Orch. . eer WOR—710 Ke, 7:00 P. M.—Sports Resume 7:15—Comedy, Music 7:30—Lone Ranger—Sketch 8:00—Little Symphony Orch.; Philip James, Conductor; Dorothy Kendrick, Pi 9:00—Vartety Music: 9:15—Dramatized New: 9:30—Suctess—Harry 9:45—The Witch's Tale 10:15—Current Events—Harlan Eugene Read valkin 10:30—The Jolly Russians 11:00—Moonbeams Trio 11:30—Dance Music Bie WJZ—760 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Amos 'n’ Andy 1:15—Rolfe Orch. 1:30—Sagerquist Orch.; Don Ameche and Sally Ward in Dramatic Sketch 8:00—Cape Diamond Lights—Sketch 8:30—Adventures in Health—Dr. Herman Bundesen 8:45—Robert Simmons, ‘Tenor; Bears Oreh. 9:00—Death Valley Days —Duchin Orch. 10:00—Canadian Program 10:30—America Must Choose—Willard Thorpe, Chief, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce; Lionel Edie, Sec- retary, Committee for America Self- Contained 11:00—Cavaliers Quartet 11:15—News Reports 11:30—Anthony Frome, Tenor 11:45—Madriguera Orch. 12:00—Olsen Orch. 12:80 A, M.—Dance Orch, wae * WEAF—660 Ke. 7:00 P. M.—Myrt_and Marge 7:1$—Just Plain Bill—Sketch 7;:30—Serenaders Orch. ‘1:45—News—Boake Carter 8:00—Raffles—Sketch 8:30—Concert Orch.: Alexander Gray, Baritone; Mery Eastman, Soprano; Josef Lhevinne, Piano ‘00-—-Emery Deutsch, Violin '5—To Be Announced ‘ch.; Stoopnagle and Budd, Comedians; Connie Boswell, 10:30—Evan Evans, Baritone; ‘Concert ch. 11:00—Vera Van Songs 11:15—News Reports 11:20—An Appeal to Employers—Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota 11:30—Ne and Marine Corps Reserve Program; Speakers, Rear Admiral W. T. Oluverius, Prom Chicago and others 12:00—Nelson Orch. 14:30 A, M.—Davis Orch. 1:00—Messner Orch, Cuba’s Rela-| DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1934 Page Five REPORT FROM THE HILLS Oil Workers’ Standards Far Below That of 1929 By JOHN ©. ROGERS | Ww SAT on the porch and looked across the meadows at the bulk of the mountains before us. The mellow green and purple shadows of the masses of oaks, and poplars were broken by patches of pines with their deeper color and shade. There was the old sawmill engine with its stack a dark line against the mountain, and the green of bottomland was broken by long fur- rows turning the red earth to dry and brown in the sun. I let my arm hang over the rail and the sun burning it was like a warm fire that I could not see. Splotches of white- wash came off the rail to lie on my arm like frost on a clod, and | the hairs on my arm were like a small field of broomstraw curling in the sun. There was Old Man Bob, his son Bill; and Bill’s uncle Oscar, and Dan, who cropped on | the Jameson place, and Bill’s wife, and myself. We just sat there listening to Uncle | Oscar tell some big tales about the | old days, and every so often some- one would tell a joke, and we would laugh, and Bill would pick at his | teeth with a straw and erin like the | big peasant he was. Just when | Uncle Oscar was all set to tell about | the time he went to the carnival | and the carnival-lady tried to vamp him for his watch-chain, Old Man | Bob's wife, and Dan's wife came up | the path and put a stop to it. Dan’s wife was lugging the kid along and wasn't much better than a nursed the kid there on the step like I was one of the family, and pretty soon we had a lot of talk going on between us. Bill’s wife kept looking at Uncle Oscar’s watch- chain that was almost big enough to snake logs, and she had to say something about it. I saw her grin- | ning to herself and I was certain she was going to kid about it. | IJOW come a little man like you wears such a big chain, Uncle Oscar,” she says. Uncle Oscar just | looks at her and snuffles his mus- tache. “How big do men grow where come from?” he says, “Big as I am,” says Bill's wife. “But that ain't no answer to my question.” Uncle Oscar sits there grinning and playing with the chain, “I'm a pretty old man,” he says. “I gotta wear this chain so’s women will look at me what wouldn’t look if I didn’t have it. I get a heap of women to look at me by wearing this chain. Sometimes TI think maybe I'll get a divorce from the you them women what always pester me about that chain.” T guess that shut Bill’s wife up. She just looked at Bill and he only picked his teeth and grinned. Uncle Oscar snuffled through his mustache and hit at the boards with his cane. “Uncle Oscar is pretty damn good,” says Bill, “But I'll throw him down for that chain of his ’un.” “Alright, if you think you're man enough,” says Uncle Oscar, squar- ing off at Bill. “Not today I won't,” says Bill. He laughs at Uncle Oscar, and you can see he thinks Uncle Oscar a pretty good man yet. “Too damn hot to Toll in the dust with an old man like you.” “I ain’t old as you think,” says Uncle Oscar, “If it wasn't for my old woman I'd be a-calling on the Widow Nelson right now.” “God-dog, god-dog,” says Dan’s kid, looking up from the breast he was nursing. | “You hadn’t ought to let that kid be a-cussing like he is,” says Old Man Bob's wife. “Hit ain’t no trouble to break em when they is stranger to Dan’s wife but she| young. Hit ain't no manner of trouble,” I can't be troubled with what hit picks up,” says Dan’s wife. “I don’t figger hit is no worse ‘un the brat ‘ul pick up when he is growed.” “They’s @ heap worse things he might git a holt of,” says Bill. “T hope to chrise he don’t never sell no shoes like they iS got now in the stores. Be damned if they got a frazzlin’ bit of leather in them I done most wore out a pair a-ready since spring.” “I hear they is a-going to tax thirty-five cents for a bushel of wheat now them new fellers is in government,” “Like living | (Drawn by the Author) | | Bill. “What's a guy to do if he don't get no price for his stuff? | We don’t get nothing now but the dad-blame dirty end of the stick. Time was when you could take a| poke of corn to the mill and get more meal than you could tote back. I ain't no old man to remember a lot, but I know the time when we got a sack full of meal and a bushel | over. What do you get now, by god? You take the same poke of corn and they don’t give you no |sack full. You can get a half- | bushel in the poke now, and living ain't cheaper by a damnsite. I tell you it ain't me what will pay no | such tax iffen I put me by a crop of wheat. T'll take my gun down and fight first. You see, by god iffen they tax me the clothes offen my back.” for one day due me ou S hog-hide “We got to hold out says Uncle Oscar. the wheat and the other foodstuff they have got to come way They can be put on a starving-diet right good. If we don’t give them no wheat they have got to make it our price.” think sweat and I'll of hi what's on them If we hold out our hey'll take it away from you,” I s. “They'll most likely send the army after you and take| the stuff without paying for it.’ “They's every bit mean enough for to do hit,” says Bill's wife. “Look what they is a-doing in them camps over the mountain.| They make the boys git in a uniform | and them as runs away to come | home, they cut they family off from relief, and the Red Cross won't give | them no work nor nothing to eat.| Charlie and Les got tired of being ordered around like soldiers and they come home, and last week | they cut they families offen relief. | ;1 know it for the god’s truth be-| cause Charlie was up to home last night and told us hisself,” says Dan's wife. | “T see hit’s a-bound to be a wa says Bill “Always when they ts |@ change of government they have got to have a war. Things has got| so bad till they can’t git no better | without they call a war to make| the price of things go up.” | “The price of things you got to eat is already up high as that there poplar,” says Old Man Bob. “Flour has went to six and a half a barrel, and wages has gone down so you don’t git more ‘un seventy-five cents a day, or a skinny slab of meat. I ain’t never seen times like thi “You-all will have to stick to- gether and make things bette says. “We can't fight *em all {ffen they has the guns and jails,” says Bill. “They done got the best of us lessen something we don't know about| happens.” “I ain't a-fighting none of them.” says Old Man Bob. “I done got along so far and I reckon I can make hit without no warrin’ for something I don’t never expect to git.” “They might have a mind to make you fitht, Uncle Bob,” says Bill’s| wife. “Suppose they kill off all the young ‘uns and have to pick you?” “T'm a-gitten too old and slow- like for them to pester me with any fighting,” says Old Man Bob. “My | days have about gone.” | industry His thin face split by a smile, and a sudden flash to his eyes; a flash as suddenly gone. “All Mr. Jameson has got he made offen our sweat. He couldn’t make a damn cent iffen us poor folks didn’t do the work “You ain't to old for to work on the road for they damn charity re- lief, and if them rich folks start a | war you won't be none too old for |a killing,” says Bill. “Rich folks | . “That's a fact,” says Dan. ain't got no feelings to be hurt about old woman and run after some of | for him, I bet you when hit comes | to laying off a piece of land, he ain't got a frazzlin’ bit more sense jin his head than we got. There's | plenty of money in the world. The | money is still there but them rich | You know they’ got the money same as always, lessen they done had a bonfire of hit. Much as they love | money they ain’t done that.” “They oughta take the money from them,” says Bill. I see them go down the road a- | honky-honking for us poor folks to | git in the ditch and eat their dust. I gt a mind to slam a rock through their damn windshield. They don't ‘cept ride in they damn big cars over the road we built. I hope to chrise they git down and out and I git me one of them to work on the road alongside me. I'll make him shovel sand till his eyes pop out. ‘Git along you pot-gut,’ I'll tell him. ‘You done had it soft in | your day, but I be damned if you | don’t hump it from now on.’ Iffen I had the guy what drives that red Buick, with his little chauffuneir, } and his honky-honk, I'd make him sweat blood. Just give him to me | folks won't turn none of hit a=loose, . “Every day! have to pay no taxes nor nothing | using old people for their dirty work, They'd soon as slit your throat as a hog if they thought they would make money out of your hide.” The sun rests on the peak of the | mountain, Slowly it drops behind the line of silhouetted trees. A} whipoorwill starts its cry beside a fence-line, and there is a cool breeze coming through the gap and rustling the small leaves of a locust that stands very tall and alone in front of the cabin. Now, the heat of the day has gone, and a quiet coolness comes with the short summer twi- light.. I stand up, and go towards the steps. A hound reaches out and paws at my shoe, and then curls up to go asleep. | “Ain't no need to hurry,” says |Old Man Bob. “Won't no bears | git you, and hit will be light enough |to find your way over the moun- esr after dark.” “I better go,” I say. “They kinda look for me a-fore dark unless I tell them different.” So, they all tell me to come again, | and maybe we'll have a game of| cards or a ball game if the weather is not too hot. I go down the narrow path between the sumac and the briars, By JOHN L. SPIVAK abut get- We enforced TULSA, Okla. — In most hed be cases these company towns radicals” or “Commu- center around the oil area. just throws that word Living conditions in the around whenever we homes naturally depend upon one red-faced skinned oil ndividuals. Bunk houses are usu- worker said to me ‘What the hell ally in charge of a “crum-boss who tends to the cleaning and sweeping. Occasionally a company sets up a commissary or rant for the single men more common for them out with private families —and so jot of other oil a tion, as a whole, is good and school worke Hell, Wildcat never even facilities as tolerable as can be ex- organized us. We organized our- pected when the oil town is quite| selves and asked them to a distance away and not large All they're doing is collecting enough to support its own school s and telling us to be patient.” for the children If they're not doing anything There is an imprtant difference between the company house in a textile area or a mining town ar an oil company house. In the form: the companies charge for rent, light gas and whatever else the traffic will bear. In the oil area most com- panies do not charge for rent, light- ing, water, etc., and with the wage schedule what it is today, this is of some help to the workers. During the past few years, in- cluding the last one when the oil operated under a code, general living conditions of the workers are far below what they were in 1929, both as to the earning and purchasing power of the dol- jar. I mention 1929 because the code provides that the wage scale for almost all operations shall be as of July, 1929, This is not en- forced; instead, wages average less jthan half of what they were, while living costs have scarcely changed here from the 1929 level, especially since the N.R.A. boosted retail prices around here. The oil code specifically names only three wage scales out of some 500 different operations in the in- dustry: stillmen, rotary drillers and the minimum wage. For “all others” it provides a wage scale as of July, 1929, Instead of paying this wage Seale, the companies, large and small, pay the minimum wage scale on almost all operations. The oil worker usually gets paid semi-monthly or monthly. In the refineries the minimum wage is 48 cents an hour and that is what is usually paid. Field work, due to its very nature, frequently necessi- | tates men going far from their| homes, often as many as 100 miles | one way and another 100 back. The| time thus lost is the workers’. After | getting on the job they have to| work eight hours, and that at usually the minimum wage scale. I met one oil worker who rises at 5 in the morning and does not get home until 7 or 8 in the evening. By that time he is so exhausted that he has just about enough en- ergy to eat and throw himself in bed to rest for the next day’s grind. The major oil companies, with the exception of ignoring provisions in the code regarding wage scales, simply confine themselves to pay- ing the minimum scale. In some instances, even with the major com- panies, some operations which were bringing the workers more than the minimum wage even before the code, had the wages reduced to the | minimum, This paying of the minimum wage plus a recently instituted rule by most companies that all em- Ployees buy a gas book—even if they do not own or drive a car— is causing a great deal of unrest among the workers. I have heard worker after worker speak with Slight indignation at wage cuts, minimum wage scales, efforts to foist a company union on them and get furiously indignant over being forced to buy a gas book, This petty act by the companies seems to be playing the part of the straw that weighed too heavily isn't there some other oil workers’ union that wants to do something?” “Yes, there's a fighting bunch of Communists in Seminole, but I don’t want to hook up with them. I hear they want to overthrow the government.” “You were ready thing yourself before federal aid came, weren't you? You were among those who did a lot of talk- ing about seizing food warehouses.” “Yeah, but that wasn't over- throwing the government. That was just getting something to eat when the government wouldn't do nothing for us.” None of the workers with whom I talked knew that Wildcat’s un- employed council had been engi- neered by “leading citizens.” Those to whom I mentioned it turned apoplectic, swearing not luridly, but certainly effectively. “If the boys in the field knew that, all his pistol practice wouldn't help him a damn bit,” one said furiously. E American Federation of Labor tells the workers in the fields, in the refineries and in those indus- |tries under codes that their com- | plaints will be taken up by the N.R.A. Compliance Boards, In the sparsely settled areas the boards are either not functioning or are too far removed from the scene of com- |plaint and workers cannot reach them; added to this is the fear by many that their signed complaints (and they must be signed) means loss of jobs, and this they dare not risk. In Tulsa proper the compliance board is “acceptable to labor” in the opinion of A. F. of L. officials, but far from being acceptable to those workers with whom I talked, The compliance board, despite two “labor representatives” is a pup- pet in the hands of the oil com- panies. It has accomplished prac- tically nothing for the workers except to “lose” their complaints, (To be continned.) Film & Phsio Leneun | in Experimental Film Program on Saturday NEW YORK. — The Film aifd Photo Leaue will present the first of a new series of film productions by independent amateurs and ex- perimenters at the New School for Social Research, Saturday, Mar. 31 There will be two showings, one jat 7 p.m. and another at 9:30 | p.m. | ‘The films include J. B. Watson's “The Fall of the House of Usher”; |Man Ray's “L’Etoile De Mer”; | Ralph Steiner’s “H20”; Ivor Mon- | tague’s ‘Day Dreams”; newsreels | of street battles in Vienna and Paris, and the Film and Photo | League’s production, “America To- day.” Tickets are available at the Film and Photo League, 12 East 17th St.; New Masses, 31 E. 27th 8t; Workers Bookshop, 50 E. 13th 8t., to start some- on the camel's back, NG : se and at New Theatre, § E. 19th the co-operative state. iia . 8 f pani restlessness—and it is wide-| f Sp: S COMRADE GOLD. SSS eter D ‘What can be done to overcome the cultural lag of all too many comrades? This, it seems to me, is something your column, and the Daily Worker in general, should discuss. Recently I spoke on plays and movies to a branch of the LL.D. Of some 60 odd members, all of them quite class-conscious, only 12 looked up the Soviet movies and attended them. Only two had gone to the trouble of seeing “Peace on Earth,” the anti-war play, although tickets at the Civic Repertory Theatre for this landmark in the his- tory of working class culture in America can be bought for less than many movies cost! Now listen to this: Nearly all of the 60 admitted that they went to bourgeois movies fairly Tegularly, and spent money on other forms of bourgeois entertainment. Why? They could give no logical answer. Just a plain case of cultural lag. I understand, too, that the Scottsboro play is dying because the workers are not supporting it and the habitual Guild audiences find it “harrowing” and “disgraceful.” Comrades complain that the Guild prices are too high; and others are averse to the Guild because of its customary upper-class attitude. This, however, does not excuse them from failing to support “Peace on Earth,” a working class play, if there ever was one, put on by a working class group with tremendous promise for the entire revolutionary movement. It ought to run at least an- other three months. Instead, it is going off March 17; and many of the comrades who should be giving it support, are spending their money on Greta Garbo, stupid Katherine Hepburn, and Sally Rand, the fan dancer. EARNEST COPELAND. WHAT’S: ON U,, 1401 Jerome Ave. at 170th St., 8:30 Pp. m. Adm, 10¢. h Thursday [OOL Sp: ‘Term. Third WORKERS SOH( week of registration. Cissite are filling up. Register now, 38 E. 12th 8t., New York, REGISTRATION now open, Brownsville Workers School, 1855 Pitkin Ave. Classes filling rapidly. Register now. WORKERS BOOK SHOP, 50 E. 18th St., 20 to 50 per cent sale ends this Saturday. Take advantage now! inst Film Olub, 114 Ben Mad- MASS MEETING of house workers called by Domestic Workers Union at 415 Lenox Ave. corner 131st St., 8:30 p.m. Speakers: Anna Damon, Frances Ellis, Esther Lacey. EDITH BERKMAN Br. LL.D. holds meeting at Boro Park Workers Club, 18th Ave., » 8:30 p.m, Friday MURRAY BLYNN lectures on “Religion and the Working Class’ at Tremont Prog. Club, 866 E. Tremont Ave., 8:45 p.m. on “Social| SENDER the JUSTINE WISE speaks Daily Worker {surance in the Soviet Union,” at West| Staff, speaks v. Bide Branch F. S. U., 2642 Broadway at|8.A. and U.8.8.R.” at the Prospect Park 100th St,, 8:30 P. M. Admission 15c, Branch of the Friends of the Soviet 704 PROTEST Symposium gai Censorship MO Sane p.m. Speakers, Brandon, (ON LIBER speaks on “Soviet| Union, 1071 Bergen St., near Nostrand io ‘American Health Wor at 1380| Ave. Brooklyn, Priday, at 8:30. ‘s Wilkins Ave. near Fr ANTI-RELIGIOUS ranged by (-1 Meeting Ella May Br. 1.L.D., Women's Council 18 eeman Stal SUSDEOE: FN west Drone Dean. | Soa. gummuployed’ Ooucell «nt 4108. LN STUDENT MOVEMENT IN CHINA. Dis- tussion led by J. W. Snyder at the Friends of the Ohinese People, 168 W. 23rd St. Room 12, at 8:30 p.m, Admission free, SYMPOSIUM on War under the auspices of the East Flatbush Youth Section Amer- ‘wo! Fy Thnatee Sigh st Hinsdale Workers Youth Club, 572 Sutter Ave., Brooklyn, 9 p.m. Showing such plays as “La Guardia's Got the Baloney,” “The Miser," ete. GENERAL Against War and FRACTION Meeting of the ive, Brooklyn, 6:15 p.m. Adm. Office Workers Union at the Workers GRACE UTCHINSON lectures on “How| Center, 35 E. 12th St. Room 204, 7 p.m. Does Life in the U.S&.R. Differ from) All Party and League comrades must at- that in the U.S.A.” at Mt. Eden Br. F.S.| tend, Trade Union Work Among the Negro ‘Masse By HENRY SHEPARD Im our appeal to the Negro masses we must show that the ruling class is responsible for the division ex- ing between the white and the Negro masses, and not the white workers, We must show how the division has tended to lower the living standards of both Negro and white toilers, and that only through unity will the Negro or the white worker be able to raise his living standards, And above all we must teach the white members of the revolutionary unions and other mass organizations under our in- fluence to champion the cause of the Negro, to fight against all forms of discrimination used against them in the shop. Also to fight un- hesitatingly and boldly against all social forms of discrimination. This will be the surest way of breaking down white chauvinism and weld- ing together the ranks of the Negro and white masses. The Negro reformist leaders con- stantly point out to the Negro workers that there cannot be any unity between the “white and the black,” that this “is a white man’s country,” that “the hope of the Ne- gro is race loyalty.” Because of past experience these bourgeois done? Yes! Thou- white workers have taken have fought side by side on the Picket line, But we have not done very much toward educating the white non- party masses to react quickly on the question af discrimination which is rampant in every shop, factory, mill or mine. In all our propaganda and agita- tion we must arouse the hatred and indignation of the white masses against the ruling class, that has divided the ranks of the working class into a white camp and a black camp. Our educational work must be carried on in such a way that the white worker will realize that a blow struck against the living standard of the Negro worker is a blow at the living standard of the white workers. Our main approach to the Negro masses must be made in the shop, mine, ete., in struggle against all forms of discrimination. The Com- munists must organize and lead these struggles, making sure to in- volve the non-Communist white workers, To approach the task of winning the Negro workers to the class struggle by such concrete methods of work will quickly break down the suspicion and distrust that has been systematically built up by the bour- geoisie, This approach to the ques- tion of work among the Negro toilers will quickly build the fighting unity of Negro and white workers. I have raised the general ques- tions facing us in our trade union work on the Negro field. Now I shall raise some concrete questions. 65,000 workers in New York City were on strike under our leadership in the recent period: needle work- ers, metal workers, food workers, shoe workers, furniture workers, tobacco workers, laundry workers, alteration painters. In none of these strikes did we make any sub- stantial gains among the Negro masses, In July, 60,000 needle workers went on strike, 40,000 under the leadership of the I. L. G. W. U. and 20,000 under the leadership of the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, The left wing played an im- portant role in this strike, keeping the workers informed as to secret Pre-Convention Discussion negotiations between the leaders of the I. L. G. W. U. and the bosses’ association, and their plans for sell- ing out the strike, stiffening the re- sistance of the strikers. The Needle Trades Industrial Union forced the bosses to give substantial wage in- creases to the workers. Thousands of Negro workers actively partici- pated in this strike. fighting in the front ranks on the picket line. How- ever, the Needle Trades Union car- ried on very little work among these workers, with the result that thou- sands of them were recruited into the A. F. of L., where they are sub- jected to the same discrimination as before the strike. Until very recently the Left Wing group had paid no attention to the grievances of the Negro workers; only lately have they started some work. Negro workers are being drawn into the Left Wing groups. The Left Wing workers are beginning to take up the struggle against discrimina- tion of Negro workers in the shop and by the A. F. of L. officials. The Furniture Workers Industrial Union has led several successful strikes in New York City and re- cruited many new members into the Union, but has failed to make any real effort to reach the Negroes working in the trade. In July 120 Negro furniture work- ers staged a walkout in Brooklyn in a shop employing about 150 workers. ‘These workers sent a delegation of 25 to New York to get an organizer, Some comrades happened to meet the delegation and sent them to the Furniture Workers Industrial Union, and an organizer of the union met with them and promised to see them the next morning in front of the struck plant at 7:30 a.m. to arrange a picket line, etc. (these workers had never been members of any union before). The organizer did not show up until 10 a.m. A meeting was held at which all present signed applica- tions to join the union. The next day, on the basis of the discussion, the union organizer was supposed to draw up a union con- | tract to present to the employer. The organizer failed to show up! ‘When the question was raised as to why this organizer failed to show | up, he stated that he “had to at- | tend another shop meeting in a | different part of the city.” The | shop he referred to employed three workers, After months of agitation and propaganda among the Negro long- jShoremen in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, we succeeded in get- ting some response. A meeting was | arranged to take place for the pur- | pose of working out a program of | action between these Negro long- | Shoremen (members of the A. F, of | L.) and our comrades doing long- | shore work, The date was set for the meeting but our comrades did’ | not show up for the meeting. | Eighty per cent of the workers in | the laundry industry in New York | are Negroes. Just before the Extra- |ordinary Party Conference the | Laundry Workers Industrial Union had a membership of about 1,000 | members, about 40 per cent Negro. | A mass strike was being planned by |the union. With the usual under- lestimation of the special problems | of the Negro workers, no special de- mands were raised for the Negroes in the industry. This was called sharply to the attention of the lead- ership, The comrades insisted that there coyld be no “question of spe- cial demands as the majority of the workers were Negro,” and that the “demands drawn up would be the demands of the Negro as well as the rest of the workers.” Upon investigation, we found that the Ne- gro workers were very badly dis- criminated against, Negroes were not employed as drivers, the higher paid inside jobs were not given to Negro workers. The Negro women were addressed by the employers and foremen in the most insulting terms. After these things were pointed out to the comrades, they | Taised the negative demand of “no | discrimination” in a leaflet, but failed to raise the demand of “the right of the Negro to any job in the industry.” Some comrades went so far as to say, “We could not raise such a demand,” that to raise such a demand “would not be un- derstood by the white workers.” ? mostly by Wildcat William and his appeals to ‘patriotism,” and most oil workers, strangely enough, are fearful of being called “unpatriotic.” T haven't heard so much talk about Patriotism in years. The A. F. of L. organizer, instead of permitting wages to become an issue deflects it into @ ‘patriotic’ channel, Those workers who rise at unemployed meetings or protest too vehemently against oi] company abuses and in~ sist that their local and interna- read—is being held in check! Collect $32 for German (G.P. at Birthday Party | NEW YORK.—A group of mili- | nery workers were present at the birthday party of the one-year-old son of Morris Eitzer. A suggestion |was made that the party be cele- brated with a contribution to the |German Communist Party. A col- lection was immediately started, and $32 was raised. AMUSE MENTS ;—-2 Soviet Productions! ANNA STEN» “The Girl With the Band Box” aise: “TGDENBU” Story of Mongolian Tribes in Siberia *** Daily News (English Titles) Last 2 Days 1 ACME THEATRE 1ith STREET and UNION SQUARE. ——RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL— 50 St & 6 Ave—Show Place of the Nation Opens 11:30 A. M. FRANK BUCK’S “Wild Cargo” with FRANK BUCK in Person And a great Music Hall Stage Show BKO Jefferson Mh 8. & | Now Charlie Ruggles & Verroe Teasdale in “GOODBYE LOVE” also:—“FRONTIER MARSHAL” with GEORGE O'BRIEN & IRENE BENTLEY WALTER HUSTON in Sinclair Lewis’ DODSWORTH Dramatized by SIDNEY HOWARD SHUBERT, W. 44th St, Eve, Matiness Wednesday and 6a! TEGFELD FOLLIES with FANNIE BRICE Willie & Eugene MOWARD, Bartlett stM- MONS, Jane FROMAN, Patricis BOWMAN, WINTER GARDEN, Bway & 50th, Evs. 8.20 Matinees Thursday and Saturday 2:30 & ‘THE THEATRE GUILD presents— JOHN WEXLEY’S New Play THEY SHALL NOT DIE ROYALE, Teta, 45th st, W. of Broadway. Eves, 8:20. Mats, Thurs: and Saturday, 2:20 EUGENE O’NEILL's Comedy AH, WILDERNESS! with GEORGE M. COHAN Thea., 524 St. W. of Bway GUILDevs 20 Mats. Thur. &8at,2.20 MAXWELL ANDERSON'S New Plas “MARY OF SCOTLAND” with HELEN PHILIP HELEN HAYES MERIVALE MENKEN ALVIN; MADISON SQ. GARDEN Twice Daily 2 & 8 P.M; including SUNDAYS riarMar.3O Night INGLING BA CiRCU ALL NEW THIS { BIGGER THAN EVER! 1000 NEW FOREIGN FEATURES Tickets Admitting to E (including Senin SLO 83.80 Inchudlng Tas Children under 12 Half (ers NOW ‘Except Saturdays —THEK! nOOt t Garden, Gimbels and Agencies GLADYS ADRIENNE RAYMOND Coores ALLEN MASSEY THE SHINING HOUR BOOTH THEATRE, W. 45th St. Bygs. 8:46 Matinees Thursday and Saturday 2: p