The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 7, 1934, Page 5

| CHANGE ——THE— WORLD! By SENDER GARLIN E of the most illuminating chapters in William Z. Foster’s famous book, “Misleaders of Labor,” is the one in which he describes the trade union press of the United States. Foster analyzes the various official organs of the Central Trades and Labor bodies and shows how in most cases these papers are simply rackets for bringing in finances to the ruling cliques. “The Labor World,” the official organ of the Central Labor Council of Spokane, Wash., has just arrived in this office and provides an in- teresting example of the kind of A. F. of L. trade union journalism which Foster exposed in his book. The main feature in “The Labor World,” is headed, “Will Celebrate Labor Day, Good Old Way, in Natatorium.” This is really an interesting tidbit. “The editor of the Labor World,” it begins, “has been wishing for years that there would again come a time when organized labor of Spokane would hold one of its old-time Labor Day celebrations where it would make Labor ITS OWN—and not a mere adjunct to some money- making fair or race, where its members are exploited to the profit of some gang of money-grabbers who had no other use for the hosts of labor except to get money.” . = . An Orchid for Grover IRTUOUS, isn’t it? The article then proceeds to relate some labor “history” and proudly tells how “Labor Day was finally made a na- tional holiday in Grover Cleveland’s first administration, and the pen with which it was signed by Mr. Cleveland was promptly presented by him to Mr. Samuel Gompers, then president of the A. F. of L., and kept by him as a precious historical relic throughout his lifetime.” It was also Grover Cleveland who called out the federal troops to smash the great Pullman strike led by Eugene V. Debs, but the editor of “The Labor World” seems to have skipped over the pages in labor history dealing with the episode. “In their attempt to defeat May Day,” explains Alexander Trach- tenberg in his History of May Day, “and to draw the workers’ organi- zations which are under their influence away from participating in May Day demonstrations, the A. F of L, and other reactionary organi- zations, have fostered the observance of a so-called Labor Day on the first Monday in September of each year.” The editor of “The Labor World” is dead set against prostituting Labor Day for commercial purposes. He therefore announces proudly that the Spokane Central Labor Council duly met and decided to hold Labor Day this year at “the beautiful Natatorium Park where interesting events and high-class entertainment and educational features will be provided.” What do you think the Central Labor Council has arranged for? Speeches dealing with the militant traditions of the American workers; pageants showing the fight against company-unionism and the strug- gle for organization? Nothing as foreign as this! No, here’s the menu, as announced by “The Labor World”: “Natatorium park, Spokane’s beautiful playgrounds and only com-~ plete amusement park in the Northwest, has the follewing rides: Shet- land Ponies, Merry-Go-Round, Dodgem, Dragon Slide, Aeroplanes, Jack Rabbit Coaster,Guster Speedway, Pretzel and Joy Wheel. . . The plunge holds 510 thousand gallons of pure water which comes out of the well at a temperature of 42 degrees and is heated to 80 degrees. The water is then treated according to instructions from the health department and tested every hour and an accurate record is kept, which is turned in to the city health department each month.” This isn’t all. “The dance hall, the largest in the West, is open every night, except Sunday, where Phil Sheridan and his band keep the feet of the dancers moving, as one cannot sit still while Sheridan is playing. The park has a large lily pond where some of the largest lilies in the city are grown. The geyser, which shoots 40 feet in the air, cooling the breezes, is completely surrounded by tropical plants, including rubber trees, southern cane, orange lemon, grapefruit and fig trees, date palms, fan palms and Draceanas.” The appeal by the editor of “The Labor World” ends on a mili- tant, fiery note: “Everybody now, put a shoulder to the wheel—push—boost—make Labor Day, 1934, at Natatorium Park a red-letter day in the history of Spokane organized labor, It will be good for you, good for the labor movement, good for Spokane, good for everybody.” * * * Marked Money LANCE through the issue of “The Labor World” and you will dis- cover who supports the publication: open-shop corporations and local businessmen who know who their friends are in the labor move- ment. In this four-page paper you find a two-column “feature story” describing the merits of Fleischmann’s yeast, manufactured by one of the leading union-hating corporations in the United States. This is not indicated as an advertisement, but just get a load of this: “Why Bakers Use Fleischmann’s Yeast—We have oftentimes won- dered just why the majority of bakers always use Fleischmann’s yeast and will use no other. So, letting curiosity get the best of us, we decided to interview a few bakers on the matter of yeast. So we looked up one of the oldest, and best bakers in Spokane and asked him our questions ... He stated that in all his years of experience he has never seen Fleischmann’s’ yeast vary, that it was always fresh and delivered daily with the same high-grade quality of service night or day ... He even has got so much faith in Fleischmann’s yeast that he is using their dated coffee, which is sold under the name of Chase and Sanborn. He is now another satisfied baker both in the shop and at home.” Elsewhere in this “labor” paper, the reader will find a bit of paid- for publicity for the Nash Motor Company concealed behind a yarn that the workers in the Nash plant in Racine, Wisconsin, are “100 per cent organized.” The rest of the sheet is taken up with advertisements from local merchants, accompanied by “feature stories” extolling the merits of their products. “Let's Be Cheerful” E ‘THIS paper, published in a state where workers have written a glorious chapter in labor history, you find no word of struggle against the N.R.A., against wage cuts and speed-up or against capitalist ter- ror. Throughout the paper you find a promiscuous atmosphere of cheerfulness, typified by the gurglings about the great time to be had in Natatorium Park on Labor Day. If you think the contents of the Spokane “Labor World” is ex- plained by. the fact that the local labor leaders do not have a “na- tional outlook,” just consult the publications that are edited by the men with this “national outlook”—William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, for example. Pick up any issue of the “American Federationist,” official organ of the A. F. of L., edited by Bill Green, and you find a full-page advertisement of Essolube, the product of that great friend of labor, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey; an ad from the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, the Phil- adelphia Electric Company, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and similar militant corporations. In other words, these ads represent nothing more nor less than hush money paid by open-shop corporations as a bribe to guarantee that no efforts will be made to unionize the workers. Real Labor Papers '\OMPARE these scurvy sheets like the Spokane “Labor World” with the fighting papers of the Trade Union Unity League and you see the difference. Here is the “Coal Digger,” read and loved by thousands of miners who have seen the value of the “Coal Digger” in the fight against the operators and their agents in the United Mine Workers of America; or the “Marine Workers Voice”; or “Labor Unity,” the monthly organ of the Trade Union Unity League, which does not even get the support which it deserves from the 100,000 workers affi- liated to the T-U.U.L. There are other papers too, of varying degrees of excellence, like the “Food Worker,” the “Furniture Worker,” and the “Needle Worker,” which offer striking contrasts to the miserable products put out by the racketeers of the Central Trades Councils, Seottsboro Exhibition of Documents, Phoios | at the John Reed Club By JACK KAINEN NEW YORK.—The International Scottsboro Exhibition opens this Wednesday evening, at John Reed Club headquarters, 430 Sixth Ave., under the auspices of the Inter- national Labor Defense and the club. It is an extremely significant exhibition, featuring the epic of the international struggle for the lib- eration of the Scottsboro boys. The vast amount of work done by the International Labor Defense and the International Red Aid, testified to by documents from al- most every country in the world, has been collected and mounted. As one goes from exhibit to ex- hibit, from South African leafiet to Swedish radiogram, the thought arises of the millions of workers throughout the world who have been involved in the struggle to free the Scottsboro boys; who have learned of American ruling-class lyneh law through the I. L. D. and the I. R. A. The Labor Defender is prominent in this exhibition, particularly through its photographs. Scenes of actual lynchings, torture and terror—scenes no bourgeois publi- cation would care to publish, are gathered from its pages. Running like a thread through the exhibition and contributing most to its international character, are the testimonials of the world tour of Mother Ada Wright and J. Louis Engdahl. Everywhere they stopped they mobilized masses to hear the story of the Scottsboro frame-up. Leaflets, posters and pamphlets were distributed, radio- grams of protest were sent, mass meetings were held. These docu- ments are all on hand, from France, England, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, South Africe, Canada, Australia, Panama, Cuba, Czecho- Slovakia, U.S. 8. R. everywhere. (po of the most interesting phases of the exhibition is the vital creative impulse generated by the Scottsboro case. It has been the source of poems, drawings, stories, plays and songs in many languages. Quite a number of the drawings and poems are from the New Masses and the New Pioneer. Many are from foreign publications. An- nouncements of the play by John Wexley, “They Shall Not Die,” shows how the Scottsboro play was popularized through the theatre. Documents of vital importance are featured. The letter of Ruby Bates to her friend Earl, so im- portant a confession that the Ala- bama authorities relinquished it only after great pressure, is here in photostatic reproduction. This intimate letter states that the police forced her to testify against the innocent boys. Letters from the prisoners to their parents and friends tell of the brutality of their wardens and the miserable condi- tions under which they are impri- soned. The minutes of the trial are here. This ponderous tome was used by the U. S, Supreme Court prepara- tory to arriving at its last decision on the Scottsboro case. Articles from newspapers of every political shading and almost every country have been collected, from Nazi or- gans, through Social-Democratic and Communist organs. An inspiring note is struck in the radiogram of the English seamen of the S. §. Hartbridge, protesting the Scottsboro frame-up. Many other testimonials of, historical im- portance are on the walls. Speakers will officially open the exhibition Wednesday evening, Thereafter, the exhibition will be open daily, in the afternoons. A small admission fee will be charged, the proceeds to go to the I. L. D. The Meaning of Workers’ Democracy By LOUIS ARAGON __ (Transiated by Paul Green) The following article was writ- ten for L’Humanite, central or- gan of the Communist Party of France, by Louis Aragon, noted revolutionary poet. The reader has only to substitute American fqr French names, and the picture described will be the same —Editor’s Note. Oe Soviets are councils of work- ers, peasants and soldiers. From the bottom up, in the proletarian State, at every step of the ladder, replacing the elected assemblies and functionaries of the capitalist sys- tem, a Soviet, all-powerful in the territory to which it corresponds, decides everything, and itself puts its decisions into practice. This is the case from the local Soviet to the Congress of the Soviets of the U. 8. 8, R., the supreme atfthority of the workers’ republic. ‘ What then is this local Soviet of the city or village, the basic nucleus of the Soviet State? What goes on in our system, that is to say in the bourgeois system? Let us take a village: the adminis- tration of affairs is assured, ap- parently, by a municipal council, which, like the general councils, the district councils, has in reality no power whatsoever For years, “wishes” will be expressed for the construction of a bridge, saving miles of detours in order to enable people to reach a market place, and the bridge, always promised during an election campaign, is never started. Should a mayor defend the interest of the workers, the government blocks him, refuses the necessary credits, or recalls him altogether. Alongside this democratic show, known as the municipal council, which, is very often elected under essure of the bosses, big capital — e true power is the brutal power of capital, with its gendarmes, police, mobile guards, in the hands of the prefects of the government. In the U.S. 8. R., the local Soviet, elected by the workers, has all the powers. Is a bridge necessary? It decides on it, and immediately the local Soviet passes upon the exe- cution of its own decisions. The projected works are then registered with the Gosplan (State Plan) but the latter is only the planning the instrument for executing the will of Soviets, 4 DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 193% GAS-BOMB By ORRICK JOHNS Gatling guns mowed down the Communards, Rope sent the Haymarket four to their eternal fame, Lightning seized the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti and channeled it into the veins of the working class, Machine-gun streams skewered the Dearborn martyrs, Automatics crack in the company enclosures, The butcher of the Middle Ages stands in Germany in a dress-suit with a bloody shirt-front. But now the bourgeoisie has found the weapon worthy of its death-threes. The gas-bomb! The gas-bomb that stops up the organs, the gas-bomb that kills speech, the gas-bomb that strangles assembly, that gags, blinds, rips at the entrails, the gas-bomb that creeps like a coward and stinks like an old corpse... We who have survived the fumes of your priests, of your patriotism, of your parliaments, will rise above the fumes of your gas-bombs and fling the sun at your faces. What’s Doing in the Workers Schools of the U. S. Harlem Workers School The Harlem Workers School is getting ready to move into larger headquarters for the Fall term. The school will have several class rooms, and a number of new courses with new instructors added. The Sec- tions near Harlem, such as York- ville, Sections 14, 15 and 5 of the Party, should lend their support to the Harlem School, utilize the Har- lem School for the political educa- tion of the members and workers in their Sections. 9 er we Additions to the Curriculum of N. ¥. Workers School nI addition to the new courses mentioned in the column last week, the Workers School, 35 E. 12th St., New York City, is in a position to announce the following new courses: (1) a course in The His- tory of Science and Technology, to be given by David Ramsey, who taught the course in Science and Dialectic Materialism last year; -(2) @ course in The History of Eco- nomic Theories, by Paul Keller, the instructor in The History of the Class Struggle. Classes for Members of the I.W.0, Arrangements have been prac- tically completed with the I. W. O. in New York to establish two types of courses for the members of their branches. One will be for less po- litically developed workers and will consist of 8 to 9 sessions in general Political education and 3 to 4 ses- sions on the specific problems of the I. W. O. The other course will be for more advanced members of the organization, which will take up @ general review of political sub- jects and concentrate its main at- tention on the history, organization and function of the I. W. O. as well as other fraternal organiza- tions. Recruiting of students for these courses will begin very shortly in the branches. ger a Short Term Courses At N. ¥. School Each course will consist of @ se- ries of four to five sessions deal- ing with a special subject. Among those who will conduct’ these Moreover, the agents who execute these decisions are named by the Soviet. These are functionaries elected like teachers, not by the Soviet proper, but by the entire electoral body. Following the method of the Paris Commune, those elected are all responsible to the masses and can at all times be recalled by them. Thus the gendarme, the bailiff, the rural guards have all disappeared. Each locality, each village or collective farm (kolkhoz), each shop, each factory. each city elects its own local Soviet. In cities the Soviet has never less than fifty members nor more than 1,000 (with the ex- ception of Moscow and Leningrad). In the country, there is one deputy for every 100 inhabitants, with a minimum of three and a maximum of fifty deputies for each locality. Does one realize the enormous mass which that represents for a country of 160 million inhabitants? That would constitute 160,000 deputies, the city being taken as unit-esti- mate, and 1,600,000 if we consider the village as unity-estimate. And thig applies only to the local Soviets. That is the workers’ democracy. It is not a reduction in the representation of the masses as is the “reform” demanded by the fas- cists. It is the permanent parti- cipation of the masses in the politi- cal life of the country. The power of the Soviets is that of the workers, peasants and sol- diers. The dictatorship of the proletariat excludes from the Soviets the useless hangers-on of the old ruling classes. This will probably upset the good apostles of universal suffrage. But what does one mean in France by universal suffrage? Excluded from universal suffrage are women, sailors, soldiers, young workers, non-citizens and lastly workers who lack the legal residence status, due to the anarchic system of capitalist production which forces them to shift so rapidly from one locality to another. Thus, the ex-boss, the ex-priest, the ex-policeman, the ex-general, the ex-commissioner of markets can neither elect nor be elected to the Soviets; no parasite or former exploiter Let him who disapproves of this reveal his class leanings, asthe ge IN the U.S. 5. R. the right to elect and to be elected is conceded courses will be Comrades Browder, Hathaway, Bedacht, Stachel, Jerome and others. The topics to be dealt with will be of a political as well as @ cultural character. The first course, which will consist of four consecutive lectures and dis- cussions, will be conducted by Com- rade Clarence Hathaway, editor of the Daily Worker. Hathaway will present a thorough analysis of Fas- cism and Social-Fascism. Comrade Bedacht will conduct a short term course of four or five sessions on “The Growth of the International Proletarian Class Struggles as ex- pressed in the First, Second and Third Internationals.” This series of lectures will take place in No- vember, immediately after the elec- tions. In a subsequent issue of the Daily Worker we will give further information regarding the other courses and lectures. a we Classes for Section Members Those Sections which are plan- ning to establish special courses for their members at the Workers School must proceed rapidly with their plans. M2 ew Teachers’ Training Course A number of applications have been received by the Workers School from individual comrades, as well as from Sections, for the Teachers’ Training Course. It is imperative that the names desig- nated by the various Sections for this training course be sent in im- mediately. The School Committee will begin the selection and accept- ance of candidates very shortly. The classes will be liimted to 30 students. All applicants are re- questted to send in a brief bi- ography to the School Committee. = 8 Registration for the Fall term of the Workers School starts Sept. 4. or ian) Lancaster, Pa. From Lancaster, Pa., we received word recently that a school is to be organized, to begin early in the coming Fall, Good work, comrades, let us know more about your plans. without restriction to all workers, men and women, from the age of eighteen, without distinction of nationality (immigrant workers in- cluded), without distinction of profession (soldiers and sailors in- eluded). The suffrage is not universal. ‘Those who profit by another’s labor cannot vote or be elected, nor those who live on income or revenue; nor those who live on speculation, traders, brokers, any more than priests, monks, rabbis, popes, etc., who live on public credulity and not from productive labor; nor the old police spies, gendarmes, secret agents, officers and members of the old dynasty of the Czars; nor the mentally defective, nor those over- taken by proletarian justice, which consists in the taking away of their political rights for an infamous act or act committed for profit. No Ballyhoo How are Soviet elections effected? That which takes place in the U. S. S. R. in an electoral campaign does not resemble the campaign of bailyhoo with which we are ac- quainted For a period of three months in a kolkhoz (collective farm) or in a shop, all assemble in order to decide who are to be the candidates. Witnessing such electo- ral campaigns, one is astonished at the depth and fullness of the discussion They discuss in order to determine which of the candi- dates are most worthy, most capable of these workers whose confidence is shared They are not can- didates of a particular group of in- terests, of a particular bank, of a particular group of bosses, such as are presented at elections in France. These are the elite of the working class, the best comrades, the can- didates of shops, those who have been proved to have the best Peleg of the questions of the ys * * the bourgeois republic, so evi- dent, so avowed is the pressure of bosses in the government, the pressure of capital upon the ballot, that the latter, in order to maintain any semblance of democracy, takes the form of a secret vote written in a booth! Vain precaution, for everyone knows that the ballot is not free. At Ciotat, for example, didn’t the workers in the dock-yards know that to vote openly against Bouisson was to lose one’s job? Are not the workers who draw up Seamen Held In Fils Island, Urge Workers To Halt Deportation} NEW YORK.—The following ur- gent appeal has come to the Daily Worker from a group of revolu- | tionary sailors in Ellis Island who are waiting deportation to Turkey, Esthonia, Scotland, Cuba and other countries: “Dear comrades: “We are a group of revolutionary | ,, workers facing deportation by American imperialism on aceount of our revolutionary activities in the United States. We appeal to the American working class to or- ganzie against the bloody terror of American imperialism and to fight for the entire working class of the country. We pledge that if we lose the fight against our depor- tation we will be active in the rev- olutionary movement in the coun- tries to which we are sent, and carry on the work of revolution- ary organization and education among the workers. “We have here in Ellis Island a number of marine workers who have been here for a long period. Sev- eral of the sailors may remain here indefinitely because no country will accept them on account of their revolutionary activities. All the deportees are confined in a large dormitory 50x100 feet from 8 am. until 8 p.m., getting out for fresh air only two hours a week. “We ask the International Labor Defense and the American Civil Liberties Union to send a resolu- tion protesting against this con- finement. Many of the deportees in Ellis Island were rushed into trains from different parts of the country without an opportunity for gathering together their per- sonal wearing apparel and are now without sufficient clothing. “This letter is adopted by the majority of the workers in Room 222, Ellis Island, New York Harbor. “With Revolutionary greetings,” (Signed by 7 Marine Workers). WHAT? 3:0 N Tuesday TALK on the “Situation in Germany and how it effects the Soviet Onion,” 1401 Jerome Ave. cor. 170th St., Bronx, 8:30 p.m. Dancing to follow. Adm. free. Auspices: Mt. Eden Youth Br. F.8.U. Wednesday HERBERT KLINE, young revolutionary playwright, will give @ reading of his play “John Henry—Bad Negro” at Harlem Workers School, 200 W. 135th St., Room 214, 7:30 p.m. Adm. 26¢. MUSICALE and Party at Workers’ Music League Auditorium, 6 B. 19th St., 8:45 p.m. Auspices: Pen’ & Hammer. Subserip- tion 35¢. Ea ee! JACK STACHEL will review Lenin's “Left-Wing Communism, an _ Infantile Disorder” on Priday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m. at 50 E. 18th Bt., 2nd floor. ‘Auspices of Workers Book Shop. Adm. 250, or by pur- chase of $1 worth of literature from Workers Book Shops. LEGIURE and Discussion on “The Church Crusade Against Hollywood” Wed- 8, 9:30 p.m, at Film and 12 E. 17th St. No admission charge. ing at 8:30 p.m. All members must be All invited. Membership meet- present. Philadelphia, Pa. DAILY WORKER Activists Meeting Thursday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. at 913 Arch St. Activists of mass organizations are urged to attend. Member of Daily Worker Edi- torial Staff will be present. PHILADELPHIA WORKERS’ Bookshop, 46 N. 8th St., 2nd floor, announces the opening of a Circulating Library. Books on the American Labor movement, Soviet Union, Marxism, Leninism, etc., can be gotten. Membership, $1.50; rental on books 2c @ da: RED PRESS Picnic of Daily Worker and Labor Defender, Sunday, Aug. 19 at Old Berkie’s arm, OFlarence Hathaway, editor of Daily Worker, will speak. Freiheit Gesangs Farein, Labor Sports Union, play and entertainment. You may be the one to get a week's vacation! an electoral list disbanded? Are there not a hundred ways of fixing the votes? How pitiful are the means at the disposal of the workers’ candidates for their electoral campaign, while the bosses’ candidates have every thing, money, corruption, the press, advertising, meeting halls, jobs to distribute to “influential” voters, ete. Here is the picture of the bourgeois democracy at the ballot boxes, Just as the functionaries are elected by the Soviets, the Soviet deputies are responsible to their electors There is nothing in com- mon between their situation and |” that of the representatives in the bourgeois democratic assemblies. They are not elected for a long pe- riod of time with a mandate for whose expiration the workers must wait before they can call them to account for their doings. They are recallable_at any time by their electors. Those elected to the Sov- iets are not detached from their trades. It is the worker in the fac- tory, the kolkhoz (collective farm) peasant, who will sit in the Soviet on such and such a day of the month, but who thereafter returns to his shop, to his kolkhoz, The mandate of the deputy is a social duty which one fulfills in addition to his productive labor, and not as @ profitable job, as in the different assemblies in the bourgeois dem- ocratic republics, That is the workers’ democracy! Here are two opposing systems and you need only judge them by their results On the one hand, France, during the depression, with her in- creasing army of police against the workers, France with her fascist murderers, her politicians, her de- cree laws (equivalent of N. R. A.); on the other hand, the country of the workers, the Soviet Union with its Fiye Year Plans, building So- cialism, the vanguard of culture, where all the resources of the country are in the hands of the workers, where they contribute to Re. improvement of the workers’ lot. There at last is the new form of democracy so long sought for. Here at last a young system. Between the regime of Doumergue, Wendel, Chiappe, Stavisky and the regime of the Soviets, the choice is made. You raise your voice—for @ world Sovieth Page Five ~ Sidelights on Fight Against Coal Barons In Southern’ Illinois- By JOHN ADAMS ‘Fhe following was written by John Adams before he was jailed in Hillsboro, Ml—Editor’s Note, x ee ‘AYLORSVILLE,” the bus stopped for five minutes. I turned to the little grey haired old woman sitting next to me. “This is the town where they had soldiers for fifteen months,” I said. This was our first conversation in two hours of riding to Chicago from the southern Illinois coalfields. “I know. I read about it. You know, I hate a scab, die.” rT he “Don't vote for Andy. He’s a Red.” Thus the opposition went from door to door in Benld, Ilinois, fighting the possibility of a Com- munist Alderman being elected last April. Andy Gricevich, three months a member of the Communist Party, town football player, poet in the Russian language, miner for fifteen years, became the first Communist to be elected to the town board of Benld, southern Mllinois mining town. It is to be admitted that the Andy and his comrades underestimated the workers’ reaction in his favor. But they are correcting that. Andy will set up an advisory council. There he will accept the issues for which he must fight in the parlia- ment, of the coal barons. He is sure of one supporting vote. Possibly two. The crisis has cut deep into the homes and lives of these miners. Not every person in their domain will forget the falling “top,” the unbratticed cross sections of the mines, for their pelf. Days at home with empty plates, slate eyed children of their loins; have forged fighters out of these men. As they spoke to their neighbors of these things, even without organization, their fellows heeded and elected them. ne ae ‘AYLOR SPRINGS, Illinois. A small community, mainly mil.crs, 650 population. Six Communists and three militant workers rule. The council leaders are also the men who lead the fight in the Unem- ployment Council. I saw 200 men and women, with poor farmers and visitors from other mining towns, at an ordinary business meeting of the Taylor Springs council. There had been a demonstration for relief increase that day in Hills- boro, two miles away. The officials had fled the town. The sheriff re- turned and regretted it! A com- mittee of twenty women found the mayor and kept him prisoner in his own home, after marching him back from his hideaway! They wanted supper for the thousand demon- strators! Adjourned until the next day, the Unemployment Councils forced concession of their demands. I arrived in Hillsboro, at the time of the demonstration. I saw thé men, whom I was later to meet as Communist city councilmen of Taylor Springs. I saw and heard native American working women tell the sheriff, “You can’t get us supper but if you needed tear gas, if you dared to use it, you'd know where to get it.” The crowd took this point up. Ninety-nine percent of those in the demonstration raised their hands when the speaker asked. how many were voters. They cheered the exposures of the offi- clals and roared at the call to put a Workers’ Ticket into the field. Frank Priskett We went to the home of Frank Prickett, mass leader of the un- employed and Taylor Springs coun- cilman. Prickett is a: smelter worker unemployed for years. He and his wife are Communists. Like the other Party members there they did not yet know the International! The kids hadn't heard of the Young Pioneers. A Communist ball player (and the team is good! Two men tried out by the Cardinals. Red Birds, they are called, who issue the weekly mimeographed paper of the town), thought the Labor Sports Union was a good idea. But these men and women read the Daily Worker and translate the “line” into practical, serious daily, collective work. They know the meaning of class struggle and that is their plat- form. Bred in the traditions of Virden, knowing the feel of troopers’ bayonets, seeing men disappear in the night who were good union leaders and fighters; they today y are I'd sooner | attaining mass leadership; forging what one can only describe, but with understanding, as iron battallions of revolution. ae |] MET with five men of the coune cil. The town’s income they told me is $1,000 a year. Aside from the school budget, this amount must Tun the town. They have cut off |the town’s seventeen street lights, |The company demanded higher |rates for renewed contract. Only | pays $22.50 taxes and has 350 meters |in town homes. Council members e seeking to increase tax rate. Some years ago the smelter and |mine, both shut down, “moved out of town.” Shaeffer speaks, “I know they moved the mine for $25.00 and a keg of beer. The poor. fools that moved the smelter got a pat on the back.” He is a fine old fighter, respected by the Communist coun- cilmen. He proposes that they see if they can revert the steal effected by @ corrupt council years ago. The money is needed. The C. W. A. appropriated eleven thousand dollars for a swimming pool. Three thousand was spent and work stopped. The councilmen \want that pool for their children. If that eight thousand strayed, they and the town will make it run home ajrain. It wos the men on tHe council that caught Joe Ozera, only hostile storekeeper of the three stores, getting “tombstone relief.” His political friends gave him relief orders on headstones in the ceme- tery. His business days are nums bered. The day of the demonstra- tion the other storekeepers closed up and joined the workers. Since the election, they tell me, many who voted under the influence of the class enemy have joined the Unemployment Council. “What about other things than your legal fight? How are you going to work outside of your legal powers? What benefits can you give right now?,” I asked. Schaeffer answered first. “Well, we got police powers. The sheriff must wait for our call to come in, We aim to make Taylor Springs a regular meeting place for working folks with plenty of free speech and assembly.” This is no minor point in the domain of the coal barons. It is one close to the miners. - Prickett: spoke on the form of . struggle. “What we can’t get just, though our position, we aim to acquaint the folks with and get. them backing us just the same as if 1t were unemployed organization, . or union activity. We'll rely on that mass pressure just as we do now. We'll flood Springfield, Hills- boro and Washington with council resolutions backing every action of the workers. We will protest every attack anywhere in the world.” So badly are the improvements on the school needed that C. W. A. workers contributed $130 and others $70 to get them started. This is one reason they want to increase the taxes on the mine, smelter and light company. They also are investi- gating property ownership. It is suspected that a few large holdings are “getting away with it.” It was late and the councilmen had to be in Hillsboro the next morning to lead the second day of the demonstration. Miners’ trucks bearing entire families would be rolling in early. We finished our discussion. The next day they won 35 per cent increase in relief and abolition of a dietary list. eet e r IS almost impossible to write... adequately on the actions of these men and the workers that follow them. But they are the basic workers, combining American efficiency with revolutionary en- thusiasm and winning over not tens and groups but thousands. They are typical of the first few American communities to elect Communist officials. With Soviet directness they conduct the struggle on all fronts. The quality of the work is what frightens the local bourgeoise. They see the spectre of Red governments breaching their walls and assaulting their profits. But these men can finish what they have started. To observe their actions in the com- ing year will be to see what Com- munism means to the mass of workers. The “Black Diamond” is cutting a Red gash in the coal barony, 1:00 P. M.-WEAF—Bascball Resume WOR—Sports Resume—Ford Prick ‘WiZ-Stamp Club—Capt. Tim Healy WABC—Beale Street Boys, Songs 1:18-WEAF—Gene and Glenn—Sketch WOR—Comedy; Music WJZ—Jack Parker, Tenor WABO—Wayside Gottage—Sketch 1:30-WEAF—Pickens Sisters, Songs WOR—Talk—Harry Hershfield WJZ—New Aspects of the Public Ser- vice—Prof. Leonard D. White, U. 8 Civil Service Commissioner WABC—Biljo Orchestra 1:48-WEAPString Ensemble WOR—The O'Neills—Sketch WJZ—Frank Buck's Adventures WABC—Boake Carter, Commentator 8:00-WEAF—Reisman Orchestra; Phil Duey, Baritone WOR—Variety Musicale W%—King Orchestra WABC—Concert Orch.; Prank Munn, Tenor; Muriel Wilson, Soprano 8:30-WEAF—Wayne King Orchestra WOR—Van Duzer Orchestra WJZ—Goldman Band Concert, Pros- Pect Park, Brooklyn WABC—Lyman Orchestra; Vivienne Segal, Soprano; oiet sulk ‘Tenor 9:00-WEAF—Interview With Hampson Gary, Member, Federal Commiint= cations Commission WOR—Variety Musicale WJZ—Edgar Guest, Poet; Concert Orchestra WABC—George Givot, Comedian; Rich Orch.; Edith Murray, Songs 9:15-WEAF—Siberian Singers 9:30-WEAF—The Golden Wedding—Sketch < WOR—Michael Bartlett, Tenor WJZ—Drake's Well—Musical Drama = Depicting the Development of fos ; Petroleum Industry WABC—Himber Orchestra 9:45-WOR—Eddy Brown, Violin 10:00-WEAF_-Operetta, The Red Mill, with > & Gladys Swarthout, Soprano, bar” Barclay, and Others WABC—Troopers Band 3 10:15-WOR—Current Events—H. E. ante WABC—Mountaineers’ Music 10:30-WOR—Brogale Orchestra W3Z—Tim Ryan's Rendezvous WABO—Melodic Strings bac aab ons AMUSEMENTS ; The DAILY WORKER Says: “Well worth Soviet Close-Ups SEE WHAT ONE-SIXTH OF THE WORLD 18 DOING! ———-AOME Thea., 14th St. and Union Sq. — Always Cool———. PEON ERS. a visit to Acme... thoroughly enjoyable.™ MOSCOW greets PROF. SCHMIDT—Cele- bration in honor of CHELYUSKIN HEROES—KIEV new Capitol of Ukraine —MONGOLIAN natives, at work and play —VLADIVOSTOK— life on COLLEC- of samovar eprrever ir rarmmee merger re tr ees —ete., ete. (Englis! Titles). UNITED FRONT SUPPORTERS Weekly International Lecture H. S. CHAN on “CHINA TODAY” Thursday, Aug. 9; 8:45 P. M. lL W, 18th St, Adm, 15c. STADIUM CONCERTS: — Stadium, Amst.Ave.&138 St. rate ewe Ee