The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 29, 1934, Page 6

Dh NN FEAL EERILY EY AEE ALAIN RS Be RES ERE ORLA sitet i if dl Daily, QWorker | “America's Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” | FOUNDED 1924 PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC., 50 E. 18th Street, New York, N. ¥. Telephone: ALgonquin 4-79 54. Cable Address: “Daiwork,” New York, N. ¥. Washington Bureau: Room 954, National Press Building, 14th and F St., Washington, D. C. Telephone: National 7010. Midwest Bureau: 101 South Wells St., Room 705, Cheago, Ml. ‘Tetephone: Dearborn 3931 Subscription Rates: hattan ) 36.00; By Mail: (except Manhattan and Bronx), 1 year, 6 months, $3.50; 3 months, $2.00; 1 month, 0.75 cents Manhattan, Bronx, Foreign and Canada: 1 year, $9.00; 6 months, 95.00; 3 months, $3.00. By Carrier: Weekly, 18 cents; monthly, 76 cents. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1934 Fer a United General Textile Strike! (Continued from Page 1) steps to mobilize the A. F. of L. unions and the working class as a whole to support the textile workers. The entire rank and file of the textile workers, especialy the local unions and members of the United Textile Workers, must at once swing into action to organize and prepare the strike. Green and MacMahon have shown time and again that they will not prepare the struggle, but on the con- trary will do all they can to defeat it The rank and file textile workers can- achieve victory for their demands by at omce organizing their forces from below. The solidarity and unity of all textile workers is necessary in order to win the fight. The question of unifying all of the textile work- ers is now of paramount importance. The National ‘Textile Workers Union's call for unity (printed in the Daily Worker of Aug. 23), if carried out, will greatly strengthen the ranks of the textile workers. ‘The N.T.W.U. calls upon all textile uniohs and upon the unorganized workers for one united strike com- mittee in every mill, to be elected by all of the workers in the mill, whether they are in the U.T.W., | the N.T.W.U., independent unions, ro whether un- organized. Such united front mill strike committees, representing every department and every worker in the mills, will strengthen the strike organization and guard against betrayals. The National Textile Workers Union has taken an important further step to achieve this united front of all textile workers. The N.T.W.U, has called a national board meeting te take place on ‘Thursday, Aug. 30, to consider what further steps can be taken to umite the textile workers. The call of the N.T.W.U. for this board meeting declares that the board will consider further steps whereby , the National Textile Union can unite with the United Textile Workers to achieve one united union in the textile industry. The decisions of the N.T.W.U. board should be carried into life by all members of the N.T.W.U. and should be accepted by all members of the U.T.W. in order to attain one solid front of the textile workers. | The immediate action of the rank and file can | prevent the A. F. of L. officials in Washington from selling out the strike, and from splitting up the general strike into scattered and isolated local plitting tactics of the Greens and Gormans Will be impossible if every local union of the U.T.W. takes the initiative to set up at once a broad rank | and fiie mill strike committee, with every depart- ment in the mill and all unions and unorganized workers represented. | These united mill strike committees should take | | into their own hands the conduct of the strike and the negotiations. This will prevent betrayal by the A. F. of L. leaders, who are co-operating with Roosevelt Boards to make a settlement which will | be unsatisfactory to the workers. Textile workers—strike on Sept. 1, in the face of any opposition of your leaders, as the San Fran- cisco marine workers did. Organize now your broad united front strike committees. Organize mass picket lines for Saturday morning, Sept. 1, in front of every mill in the United States. Organize at once local and sectional rank and file textile conferences, with delegates from all U.T.W. local unions, with delegates from all other textile unions and from the unorganized workers. Bind together in these united front rank and file conferences the workers and mill strike committees 4n every mill which comes out on strike. Do not return to work until your demands are granted. Do not accept either national or local | “arbitration” by government boards. If they get | you back to work before you win your demands, they will rob you of every one of your demands, as they did the steel and auto workers. Insist that the united strike comimittees have charge of the negotiations and the settlement. No settlement without a vote of ail workers on strike. The employers, with the blessings of the, Roose- velt government, are preparthg terror against the textile workers. They are bringing their machine guns, their tear gas and barbed wire, into the mills The textile workers must prepare to answer this attack. Sympathetic strikes, the broadening of the struggles, must be the answer to these terroristic methods. The entire working class must be mobi- lized to fight for the elementary rights of the textile workers to organize, to strike and to picket. United front conferences must organize the entire labor movement to defeat any attempts to terrorize the textile workers. The A. F. of L. unions shouki take up the ques- tion im every local of support to the textile workers. For a general strike on Sept. 1 in every branch of the textile industry. For one united strike front—for the solidarity of every textile worker in the fight for higher wages, against the speed-up and for union recognition. On International Youth Day, September 1 “Winging owt of the murk of the open Atlantic only a few hours after the declaration of war by Black, squadrons of high-powered, long-range bombers, launched from an enemy carrier far at sea, struck at the defenses of New York before sun-up.” (N. ¥. Times.) . . . IHUS opened the “paper-war”’ maneuvers now being conducted im Northern New Jersey by the War Department. Lacking only the physical movement of troops, all actual conditions of an existing attack on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts by an imaginary enemy have been simu- lated in order to test the new Four Army plan of military organization. On the paper of the War Department a holo- caust rages, shells explode, cities are reduced to shambles, masses are slaughtered—and Wall St. is protected! Coming events indeed cast their shadows before them! With, unbelievably cold-blooded precision, the slaughter of the masses in the coming imperialist war is rehearsed to the last detail before the very eyes of the youth, who will be herded into the trenches. It is under these conditions of real preparations, and paper rehearsals, for the coming imperialist war that the working class youth of the United States prepare to demonstrate against imperialist war and fascism om September 1st, International Youth Day. Something more than the irony of history resides in the fact that on its twentieth observance, Inter- national Youth Day occurred amidst the bursting of paper shells and the roar of paper artillery. The dramatic conditions of the first observance of Inter- national Youth Day in 1915 are being re-enacted by courtesy of the War Department itself. Then the youth, in both neutral and belligerent countries demonstrated against the war in actual progress, Today the youth demonstrate against the war that is not only being prepared but is actually being rehearsed! Under these conditions, International Youth Day takes on the greatest significance for the entire working class. Originating at the Berne, Switzerland, Conference of revolutionary socialist youth organizations in April, 1915, International Youth Day has for twenty years justified its bloody baptism in the last war as a day of militant international youth demon- stration against imperialist war. The glorious tra- ditions of the revolutionary socialist youth who re- jected the path of social-patriotism taken by their young and adult leaders in favor of the path of unremitting internationalist struggle against imperi- alist war has, since 1919, been carried forward bril- liantly by the Young Communist International and its various sections, This year, with the provocations of Japanese imperialism against the Soviet Ufiion rising te un- equalled heights of insolence, with Mussolini rattling the sabre openly before the entire world, with Hitler fascism straining “to the East,” with the Wall St. Roosevelt government. actually rehearsing the first moves of the imperialist war which it is Preparing, the youth again prepare to demonstrate on International Youth Day, September Ist. Under conditions where the sputtering fuse of war shortens daily, the most urgent necessity is the achievement of unity in the struggle against im- Perialist war and fascism. All those who, for one reason or another, stand in the way of achieving this unity are guilty of splitting the ranks of the youth, are guilty of supporting the war Plans of the Roosevelt. government, which calculates on such splits in its plans for war. International Youth Day must be a united dem- onstration of all sections of the toiling youth, employed and unemployed, Negro and white, Social- ist and Communist. Forward to a united International Youth Day against imperialist war and fascism! Textile ations : Demand Strike (Continued from Page 1) tration tribunal parties.” phatically at the recent U. T. W. convention in. New York City. That the Gorman: leadership is now more openly opposing the national strike sentiment was made clear by Gorman’s thinly veiled warning that strikers could expect | no Federal relief. Both President William Green of the A. F. of L., who is really direct- ing the Gorman campaign to roll! back the mass strike sentiment, and | the strike committee working here, fell in line behind the National Labor Relations Board. Green, at Chicago, said: “We are concen- | trating on the Relations Board, hopeful that they will inte;vene before the strike is called Sep- tember 4. If the Board will inter- vene we will have cause to hope for @ settlement of the difficulties be- fore the strike.” Gorman, at this afternoon press conference, emphasized: “We are not striking against the code or the Government, We're _ striking against the conditions in the mills, ‘The strike won't be called before ‘Thursday.” This is a violation of the convention instructions which ordered the calling of the strike Sept. 1. Gorman Embraces Arbitration The demands of the textile work- | put forward by | strikes. When. asked by these provisions, hedged. ing negotiations?” asked Gorman. | the conference. vious maneuvers |visions of the textile industry”; and “the establishment of an arbi- jable to both parties to settle all | disputes that the parties are un- |able to adjust: themselves. The de- | cision of said arbitration board to | be final and binding upon both All except the last demand were the national conv mand for compulsory arbitration was not one of the demands put forward by the convention, but was put in by the leadership to prevent whether he would to give a direct reply. “You'll insist upon all these pro- visions?” he was queried. “Those are our demands,” “Is there a possibility of calling the strike off on the basis of pend- The executve Council-of the U. T. W. announced it will meet Thursday morning. In the afternoon it is ex- pected to confer with the N. L. R. B. and the textile barons. “The strike won't be called before Thursday,” Gorman declared, ending However, notwithstanding the ob-| A. F. of L. strike leadership, there is absolutely no doubt that the pile of strike telegrams to Gorman from! * ri 4 mills throughout the country are Russian. We, however, ‘are eee mutually agree- Join C. P. in Action (Continued from Page 1) ship of the working class! “Comrades! We have formed the fighting alliance against fascism. With this we set an example to the workers of the whole world for the joint action of the class-conscious workers. Only insignificant splinter groups stand outside of our fighting alliance, and we shall presently in- clude the majority of these. But | those who desert to the class enemy, or fail to understand the signs of the times and combat our fighting alliance with hackneyed phrases, must reckon with being dealt with | and fought as enemies of the work- ing class. “We are well aware that this joint action on August 1 is only a begin- ning. But it is the beginning of a | united revolutionary class party of the Austrian proletariat. If this is to be realized you must all help— workers, Schutzbunder, young work- ers, “The joint action on August 1 will form a decisive step in this direction. Hence our appeal, | “Forward to joint action! No matter if our-enemies calumniate |and rail against us. It is only be- | cause they are afraid of us, afraid that the Austrian workers will speak the delegates to) ention. The de- @ correspondent. “insist” on ali Gorman refused he another reporter of the Gorman ers, which Gorman put forward in| more insistent than ever for the | to follow the examples of the Paris order to “adjust” present condi- tions, include the six-hour day and 30-hour week, with “the same earn- | | strike, ing power that the workers re- ceived under the 40-hour week"; Tecognition of the U. T. W.; “estab- lishment of a maximum work load for operations in various di- Importance! Our Readers Must Spread the Daily Worker Among the Members of Ali Mass and Fraternal Organ- izations As a Political Task of First calling of a real national textile | Commune and the Russian revolu- | tion. | “C.C. of the Revolutionary Socialists of Austria, “C.C, of the Communist Party of Austria, “The Joint Committee of Action of the Schutzbund.” Austrian Socialists. [Soviet Crop 'Two-Thirds Harvested | Colleetives Beat Last | Year’s Reeord by One Month | (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Aug. 28 (by wireless). ~The gathering of the harvest con- | tinues successfully ire U, S, S. R. According to fig- up to August 15, more than ; 135,000,000 acres of grain crops have | been harvested in the Soviet Union, comprising 66 per cent of the entire grain area. In the Northern and Eastern re- |gions, the harvest is still im full |swing. The Southern regions, which jare the chief grain districts, have almost completed harvesting. The first place is occupied by the Ukraine, Crimea and the North Caucasus, On August 15, the Ukraine had harvested about 38,750,000 acres. During the course of the harvest- jing the high level of organization |of the colective farms was dem- ‘onstrated once more. Having gath- |ered the harvest almost a month |earlier than last year, the farms |in the Ukraine have already threshed |75 per cent of the harvested grain and have successfully completed | grain deliveries to the state, | The Ukraine exceeded the July |plan, and on August 15 had already fulfilled 62 per cent of the August | plan of grain deliveries, Simultaneously with the harvest- ing in the fields of the Soviet Union, the sowing of winter crops has been | widely developed. The collective and state farms, as well as the indi- vidual farmers of the Soviet Union, this autumn will sow more than 93,000,000 acres, including more than 43,200,000 acres of winter wheat. According to information received, the harvesting in the Ukraine and}{ the autumn sowing is being accom- | | panied by a mass influx of remaining | individual farmers into coHective |farms. In Begach village, in the) |Berezan district, whore hitherto| | there was no collective farm organ- lized, a new collective was organized land has started sowing on the new basis, | In another village, Burino, 120 in- | dividual farmers applied to be ad- mitted into the collective farm, | | { $2,000 Is Pledged By Workers’ Clubs (Continued from Page 1) | District to make each point a can- |non shot. Like other Districts, Detroit |plans to raise a large portipn of its quota by means of affairs— affairs of mass organizations, sec- tions, and units. Tt is seeking di-| rect contributions through collf- tions and by use of certificates, On the basis of its work in the | financial campaign it intends to go over its quota in the circu- | lation campaign. It lists seven | points in connecting its drive for | its financial quota with its oir- | culation share of 1,000 new j | readers, Milwaukee’s plan begins by em- | phasizing that $1,000 is the! “MINIMUM” required of it for the| | Daily Worker. No Party member, No member of any mass organiza- tion, it asserts, can be excused from participation in this drive. Art Exhibits, Symposia, Etc. Milwaukee also calls for large affairs. It proposes art exhibits, concerts, theatre nights and sym- | posia. Mt asks that collections be made in factories, shops and at | aH meetings. It plans that com- rades visit organizations to so- | Heit funds, | It proposes talks on the Daily | Worker, It requires that every |street corner speaker raise the question of the Daily Worker fi- nancial campaign. Unity Urged in YCL Letter to Yipsels (Continued from Poge 1) celebrate International Youth Week, in October. “Your appeal takes therefore not the character of a united front ac- tion but of a dual demonstration. Had you really wanted unity, you would have approached us with a proposal to demonstrate on a date not inextricably associated with either of our organizations.” Y. C, L. Replies The Young Communist League, declaring that it is ready to join with the Y. P. S. L. in celebrating International Socialist Youth Week in October, replied with the follow- ing letter: “We regret that the Young Peo- ple’s Socialist League of Greater New York has been unable to ac- cept our proposals for united front action on International Youth Day. ; One of the reasons that you offer | for not carrying through this united front, and which you term as an indication of insincerity on our part, is the fact that some of the Y. P. S. L. circles of Greater New York have been approached by our or- ganization with invitations to par- ticipate in the Sept. 1st demonstra- tion. We would like to state here that we have instructed our organ- ization to approach all working- class organizations desirous of car- tying on a struggle against war | Without any distinction. In this re- | Spect, we are convinced we were | doing the correct thing by doing everything within our power to or- ganize and mobilize the broadest masses of working youth, whether they agzee with our full program or not, in the struggle against im- Socialist throughout the | | Reports Lay Uprisings to Bandits—C. P. Is Outlawed By SAMUEL WEINMAN Sandwiched between obituaries and advertisements in the capitalist press, occasional dispatches from Manila report that the Moros or the Mindanoa peasants have taken arms to battle the constabulary. cupation of the islands there has ably attribute the uprising to “bandits.” Former Governor-General Theo- dore Roosevelt let the cat out of the bag in his report for 1982 when he admitted that “a question of far-reaching importance, one that has troubled the Philippines in the past and is troubling it today, is the relationship of tenant farmer and owner in the rice-growing provinces. Practically all the dis- turbances of recent years have been caused thereby, and such commun- | ism as exists in the Philippine Is- lands is due to this problem.” The population of the Philippines is largely composed of peasants. The overwhelming majority of Filipino peasants are either landless or own about three acres. The virtual monopoly of lands in the hands of @ comparatively small number of large landlords, both native and American, forces the land-hungry natives to become tenant farmers or sharecroppers or agricultural la- borers, Ever since the Ameican oc- cupation of the islands thee has been a twofold increase; first, in the steady concentration of the owner- ship of land; and second, in the number of share-croppers and ten- ant farmers. Millions of Filipino peasants” live in peonage. Indebted to the land- Jord through mortgages or to the usurer through loans, the peasant is forbidden to leave his employer. In- terest rates of 100 per cent are com- mon in the provinces. The Philippine National Bank, owned and operated by the gov- ernment, made a sham gesture at abolishing usury and relieving the Stringent credit conditions among the peasants. It offered to make Joans to the peasants at twelve per cent interest exactly twice the legal New York rate. The maneuver never reached beyond the publicity stage. | Who got the money? The bank | commissioner reported that only 33 | imperialist corporations were ad- vanced over 25,000,000 pesos, or 83 per cent of the total loans. What is more, the imperialist’ borrowers received such fancy terms that two- thirds of the loans are not liquid and over 1,000,000 pesos are hope- lessly uncollectable, according to the commissioner, The peasants suffer from an un- bearable system of taxation. The tax on land accounts for the bulk of the government income. In the face of a sharp decline in the price of farm productions, including rice, copra, tobacco, hemp and sugar, “it Was physically impossible for land- owners, especialy small farmers, to pay their taxes,’ Theodore Roose- velt admitted. Nevertheless, the government tax collection on land was just as high in 1982 as in 1931. In addition, tax arrears grow as a result of the exorbitant interest rate slapped on delinquents, Peasants’ Land Taken Away The total area under cultivation is less than 25 per cent of the area suitable for agricultural purposes. Where is the remainder? A large section belongs to the public do- main, amuonting to millions of acres. The Philippine law “pro- vides” for the distribution of the public domain. The land office is clogged with tens of thousands of applications tangled in red tape. Only wealthy speculators, politicians and grafters have their applications approved while those of the land- less peasantry are rejected for the most part. Illiterate peasants are defrauded of their holdings through “faulty titles” after four or five years of hard work. The Secretary of Agriculture estimated that at the present rate it would take 350 years to distribute the public domain. Almost half the land under cul- tivation is in rice. At the same time 63 per cent of the export de- pends upon sugar. The imperialist economy of concentrating on one or two crops destroys the natives’ former self-sufficiency and makes it necessary to import food. Meat, dairy products, flour and other foods are imported, raising the cost of living beyond the reach of the work- ers and peasants. Rice is the chief food and often the only food-on the Filipino’s table. Brutal Suppressive Measures Under such conditions it is small Philippine Peasants Revolt To Regain Confiscated Land Constabulary Force of 5,000 Kept Ready To Fight Peons wonder that sporadic and spontane- ous as well as Communists-led peas- ant revolts frequently break out on the islands, The Quezon govern- ment taking orders from Wall St. employs three major methods of quelling the peasant insurrections. First, the legislature has created a board of mediation, conciliation and arbitration which tries to smash tenant-landlord and striker- boss struggles in true N. R. A. board style. Second, the board’s oily demagogy having failed, the constabulary drenches the countryside in blood. The Governor-General reported that the force of over 5,000 constables maintained at an annual expense of more than 5,000,000 pesos (ground out of peasant taxation) “was in- strumental in the maintenance of peace and order in places where disputes between landlords arid ten- ants and where laborers had de- clared strikes, and in frustrating the subversive activities of secret soci- eties with communistic leanings.” Third, the Wall Street agents in the Philippine government have outlawed the Communist Party, abolished all civil rights for Com- munists and instituted a reign of terror against Communists. The Philippines are headed swiftly to- wards fascism. Communist leaders, convicted of “sedition,” are serv- ing long prison terms. Meetings, parades, distribution of literature, etc, are banned. The municipal Police, the constabulary the secret service are on the warpath, hunt- ing for Communist scalps. Former Governor Murphy of, Detroit, who gained his experience Clubbing Ford workers, breaking auto strikes and terrorizing militant leaders, has been detailed by the Wall Street government .to operate in the Philippines, Yet the Communist Party of the Philippines lives. It is the only Party which leads the Filipino workers and peasants in the strug- gle for the overthrow of Wall Street imperialism. The workers and peas- ants in the Wall Street colonies will east off their yoke, but they must have the support of the American workers. reason, our letter to you is not in any way an indication of our fail- ure, and not in any way an attempt to break the discipline of your or- ganization as you maintain. Greatest Problem Is Unity “The greatest problem before the American youth today is that of united front. We are quite confi- dent, despite all obstacles, that the American youth -will form this uni- ted front in a common struggle against the enemy, and in the proc- ess of the formation of this united front will brush aside all obstacles that tend to stand in its way. “It is undoubtedly known by your organization that already on num- erous occasions your circles have gone on record endorsing the united front, as for example in Jamaica, Bronx, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and known to you that the Y. C. L. and the Y. P. S. L. were able to establish a united front at the re- cent American Youth Congress, which prevented the formation of a fascist youth center in America. All this indicates that it is possible for us to really unite and make our struggle against the common enemy far more effective than if we con- tinue to carry on in a separated perialist war and fascism, For this manner, It is also undoubtedly _just recently in Hillsboro. it is also| known by you that it has been pos- sible for the French Socialists and Communists to unite on a common program, and only recently, it has been possible for the Socialists and Communists of Italy to unite. These indications are sufficient for us to understand that this is the burning problem of the day.” Notified Y. P. S. L. July 18 Calling the attention of the Y. P. S. L. officers to their proposals for united action made on July 18, thus giving them five weeks, and not ten days, in which to prepare, the Y. C. L. letter points out that even ten days is sufficient time in which to plan action in so important a mat- ter as the struggle against war and | fascism. The letter continues: | “You maintain that we approach- led you for a joint “demonstration on a Communist holiday.” Might we remind you that International Youth Day is a day in which.we | revolutionary youth throughout the |world have for the past twenty years utilized this day as a day of struygle against war. May we also }remind you that International Youth Day originated in Berne, Switzerland, in September of 1915, under the leadership of Karl Leib- knecht and Rosa Luxemburg in the heat of the last world war, and has since then become a day of battle of the International toiling youth. It is for this reason that our ap- peal does not in any way take on a character as you state, of a dual demonstration. You also state that ‘had you really wanted unity, you would have approached us with a proposal to demonstrate on a day not inextricably associated with either of our organizations’ We .| wish to repeat what we have al- ready stated before, that we are desirous of real proletarian unity of all organizations, based on a com- mon program of struggle, and it is on this basis that we offer the fol- lowing proposals: “1. That if you are not in agree- ment with the carrying through of united front on International Youth Day, as we had originally proposed, that we are ready to accompany you in a joint demonstration in the celebration of International Social- ist Youth Week, in October. “2, In the event that this shouid not be suitable to you, we are ready | to meet with any committee, repre- | senting your organization, to work | out plans as well as a minimum program for a demonstration and action on any day not inextricably associated with either of our organ- izations.” | On the World Front ——By HARRY GAN: | Glorifying Hunger | A Faseist Winter “Worse Than Hell” AKING a leaf from Muss solini’s primer, Hitler has ordered a campaign “to glor- ify hunger as a virtue.” Mus- lini months ago declared that the human race had no conception of how much suf- fering it was capable. Fascism in Germany does not deny starvation faces the toiling masses this win- ter. It calls on them to consider it noble to see men, women and children die of hunger so that Mes# sers Thyssen, Krupp & Co. ca mass huge profits, and so that Hi ler’s war machine can be speed to add prolifically to the deaths hunger. Pree oe INISTER of Lies, Herr Goebbei is now undertaking the cam paign to glorify hunger. “The greater the distress,” he declared, “the greater will be our defiance and our determination.” The American capitalist news- paper correspondents believe that Goebbels radio speeches will be able to fill the void in the workers’ stomach. The British bankers, a little closer to the inner forces of |German fascism, believe the Com- }munist Party will have something ‘to say about hunger this winter and how the masses shall act in | resisting starvation, We quote the following from Baron’s Weekly, a financial and Wall Street speculator’s sheet, on the class forces in Germany: “But, as all the world knows, behind Hitler are the industrial- ists, such as Thyssen, [that is, the gentiemen who think it is noble for the masses to starve—H. G.] and all around him are the Reichswehr. Hitier, who never has been wholly his own man since the day he stepped to power, will necessarily shape his course by the wishes of those who alone enable him to survive. But be- neath Hitler Thyssen, and the Reichswebr are the Communists, whose seoret growth during recent events in Germany has been much larger than the world suspects. “The indications are then for an old-fashioned grouping of Na- tionalists (very mixed) at the top and Communists (also very mixed) at the bottom. It is for this reason that London privately fears the collapse of the capitalist system in Germany.” fie eae HAT Hitler does for the finance- capitalists in Germany, the Kuomintang, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek, does for the imperialists in China. The Communist Party of China calls the Kuomintang the scavenger of the imperialists. Recent reports on starvation in China show how true this description is. While on the Shanghai market there is an oversupply of rice, 8,000 peasants in Nanchuan, Szechuan Province, live on muddy soil. The Shun Pao, one of the leading Shang- hai Chinese newspapers, prints a picture showing a monster crowd of hungry peasants digging the soil and eating it. Men, women and children, fight with one another for pieces of dirt to ease their hunger pangs, * Pe er ISING the soil of salt marshes as a condiment is an old custom in China where so heavy a tax is placed on salt that some peasants are forced to flavor their meagre food with salt-bearing earth. In Yangshin, Hupeh Province, hundreds of thousands of peasants live on grass and the bark of trees. The same newspaper, Shun Pao, 8 paper censored by the Kuomintang, prints a letter from Shi Yin, the present mayor of Nanking municip- ality, to his friend in the capital of China, The letter says in part: “After my tour of Hangshin I cannot but come to the conclusion. that the district inspected by me is worse than a hell. The total population of the whole hsien has fallen off from 600,000 to barely 400,000. The surviving are usually old people or children. [Accounted for by the fact that the children are fed first and the older people next because of filial piety—H.G.] There are only a few able-bodied men, and they, too, are in a dy- ing state. Houses are burned to the ground and oxen butchered. The peasants sleep in the open air and eat grass and trees as meals,” ry eres ‘ROM all ends of the earth, the imperialists and their lackeys are beginning to admit war rushes nearer. In the Transvaal, South Africa, General J. C. Smuts, Min- ister of Justice, greeting the Royal Navy, declared: “The world is becoming more dangerous. The old dream is gone. We dreamt of peace ang a peaceful world.” 3 The colonial lackey of British im- perialism called for a bigger navy “to keep peace.” Sl ese nw AFTER viewing the proposals of Otto Bauer for conferences be- tween Socialist leaders and the Schussnig government, the mem- bers of the Revolutionary Socialists of Floridsdorf held a conference. The main question before the con- ference was affiliation and adher- ence to the Communist Party of Austria. It was decided that if the Party membership, in secret ballot, vote by 70 per cent in favor, then all would join the Communist Party. The secret ballot resulted in_a vote of 87 per cent in favor of affiliation to the Communist Party. RED ARMY SWIM RECORDED (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Aug. 28 (By Wireless). —Four Red Army men swam the Volga from Volsk to Saratov, a dis- tance of 80 miles. One swimmer covered the distance in 24 hours, another in 25 hours; the other two in 30 hours,