The daily worker. [volume], May 30, 1925, New York Edition, Page Page Six, Image 6

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

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Page Six
THE DAILY WORKER
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Murdering Miners
Another coal mining disaster in Coal Glen, North Carolina.
With monotonous regularity the press has been chronicling these
holocausts for the last six months and each new accident adds further
horrors to the history of coal mining ip the United States.
The mine in which the explosion occurred is non-union and the
unconcerned attitude of the company for the lives of the-miners is
well shown by the fact that they do not know exactly how many
workers were in the mine at the time of the explosion or how many
are entombed.
We quote from a dispatch to the capitalist press:
Records showed that 59 men, 39 white and 20 Negroes, had com
prised the mine orew, but mine officials reported that 71 miners’
lamps were missing, and It was believed that the figure might rep- #
resent the number entombed on a final check.
This is an unheard of thing even in American mining annals
filled as they are with incidents of criminal carelessness and disre
gard for the lives of the workers. If can only be a result of the
great supply of workers and the absolute power of the coal capital
ists over them. The employes of this concern have evidently been
herded into the mine like sheep and but little attempt was made to
comply with the first rule of mining—to know the number of men in
the mine and their location in the various workings at any hour of
the day.
Only in the United States could such criminal neglect be ac
cepted as a matter of course. It shows that enjoying immunity from
any union regulation the coal capitalists are literally sprinkling the
coal with the blood of workers.
With such damning evidence of the utter brutality of unchecked
exploitation on their hands the United Mine Workers of America
have an opportunity to invade the non-union fields and bring these
workers into the union. Only aii officialdom concerned more with
war on the left wing militants in the union than with the welfare of
the coal miners in the United States will neglect such an opportunity.
More Suppression
The registration and finger-printing of foreign-born workers is
being urged by the steel trust Secretary of Labor Davis, a conven
tion of police chiefs in New York is urged to centralize the machinery
used to hound revolutionary workers and now the suggestion is made
to the convention of the California division of an international iden
tification by the chief of detectives of Los Angeles that all the unem
ployed be finger-printed.
These occurrences show a very definite trend in a certain direc
tion—that of hampering the freedom of movement of the workers
and bringing them under the strictest possible supervision of the
capitalist state. The basis for legalized blacklisting and restriction
is already laid by the various employment and “personal record"
schemes of the big industries. It only remains to give these a legal
veil and the thing is done.
Unemployment for about two million workers, and the nnmber
is increasing constantly even in the most prosperous times, is a
chronic condition in the United States. Specialization, standardiza
tion and piece work are turning out more and more commodities with
less and less workers. The international markets are becoming more
and more narrow. Further expansion, without the impetus given
by war, is impossible.
Unemployed workers are a menace to capitalism. They are liv
ing proof of its failure to function. The natural thing for capitalism
is to suppress them. Finger-printing is one of the methods by which
suppression is made easier. If revolutionary workers, foreign-born
workers and unemployed workers can be cowed into submission, cap
italist government haH greatly weakened the whole labor movement.
To be without a job always has been a crime since chattel
slavery, followed by feudalism and capitalism, replaced the com
munal tribal society. Landless men have been synonomous with
lawless men and with the coming of the machine age the jobless man
has had to suffer the persecution meted out formerly to the landless
and therefore masterless man.
It was not many years ago that landless, jobless and masterless
men in England were whipped at the cart tail for the first offense,
had their ears cut off for the second and were hanged for the third.
In the American colonies they were whipped and branded.
The system of persecution today is somewhat more refined, but
the bullpens, stockades and jails of capitalism, reinforced with the
proposed finger print system, are intended to show the workers their
place just as were the bloodier punishments of the earlier period.
The Workers (Communist) Party alone points out to the work
ers the trend of events. It alone urges them to organize, solidify
their ranks on the bapis of the class struggle and oppose American
capitlaism at every point. It alone points out the need for a labor
party based on the trade unions which will bring all working class
problems on to the political field and thus unite the scattered units
of the working class movement in the struggle which is becoming
ever sharper as the incidents we cite show with irresistible force.
Further evidence of the counter-revolutionary activities of the
American government, which we mentioned in connection with the
deportation case framed up against Mrs. Kannasto, is contained In
thg suppression of the Esthonian Workers Party paper Vm Vim by
the department of justice of Esthonia with the aid of the United
(Slates postal department.
It is a poor counter revolutionary government indeed that can
not gel aid and comfort from the state power of the American cap
italist class. The only requirement for assistance is relentless war
fare on the workers.
Japan is sending a warship to intimidate the Chinese strikers
in the districts where Japanese capitalists own the mills. This will
arouse much indignation in American anti-Japanese circles, but it is
well to remember that American warships take a trip to Tnmpico
and other La tin-American ports when the workers strike against
American oil capitalists.
The methods of imperialism are the same the world over
The Split in the SociaFDemocratic Party of Hungary ■ ■ By QU. (Budapest)
TIHE split In the social-democratic
party of Hungary occurred sooner
than had been anticipated. Never
theless no one was taken by surprise.
A serious organized opposition arose
in the socialist party of Hungary a
year ago at the party conference. This
opposition took its stand against the
party leadership on principle. Their
slogans, passed by a unanimous reso
lution of the opposition as much as a
year ago, were: “Down with the bour
geois coalition! Long Live the alliance
with the landless peasantry! Down
with the sham parliamentary light!
Parliamentary action must be rein
forced by the action of the masses!”
The opposition further demanded that
j the Bethlen agreement be published
and that measures be taken against
j the persons responsible for this
shameful document.
rpHE party leaders of the Second
Socialist International, being utter
ly corrupt, have for the past year
made every efTort to muzzle the oppo
sition. For this purpose they have
made use of every means at their dis
posal. They tried to corrupt the lead
ers of the opposition and offered them
desirable posts, As this was to no
purpose, they disciplined those lead
ers of the opposition who held office
in the party. Later they expelled lead
ers of the opposition by the dozen
from the party and from the trade
unions. Neither did they hesitate pub
licly to denounce the expelled leaders
as Bolsheviki by raising a campaign
against them and declaring that the
funds of the opposition had been ob
tained from Moscow thru the Red Aid.
All this however, was in vain. In
spite of changes in the leadership, the
opposition gained ground day by day.
The discontent with the party leaders
and with trade union bureucracy as
well as with the treacherous policy
which they continued to pursue, in
creased in the most important prole
tarian party organizations, in the vari
ous great factories and in the trade
unions. Sanitation was accompanied
by a fearful crisis. Unemployment, J
New Interest in the Philippines
The increase of tension between the United States and Japan
can be guaged with some accuracy by the amount of attention that
the capitalist press is devoting to the Filipino independence move
ment. The Philippines are needed in the campaign for supremacy
in the Pacific by the American imperialists. They are of comparative
ly little value as fields of exploitation, altho this enters into the
question. It is their strategic value that is causing all the furore
over composition of the population of the islands and the same thing
can be remarked in the deluge of articles dealing with Hawaii.
The strategy of the American ruling class in the Philippines
is exposed, unconsciously, of course, by the capitalist press. It consists
in driving a wedge between the Filipino proper and the islander with
Spanish or Chinese blood in his veins. It is remarked by one cor
respondent that Quezon, the leader of the nationalist movement,
is a Spanish half-caste and aspersions are made on the islanders of
this blood mixture. The Filipinos, it is said, are very friendly to
America, but no explanation is made as to the reason for the recent
slaughter of so many of them by the armed forces of the American
government.
The social divisions among the island population as a result of
the mixture Os races are carefully analized and the conclusion arrived
at that it is the islanders of mixed parentage who are the backbone
of the independence movement.
This is the old game of divide and conquer combined with the
policy of blaming outlanders for anti-ruling class agitation. It h.is
been used very successfully by the British imperialists and our
rulers seem to have taken a leaf out of their book.
The way to meet this attempt to divide the Filipino population
against themselves is to give greater force to the agitation for in
dependence while at the same time stressing the common needs of
the Filipino workers and peasants for abolition of robbery by cap
italists, native and foreign.
The working class and peasantry in all colonial countries are
the only solid foundation on which to build liberation movements.
Any attempts to make their problems a side issue results in defeat
and betrayal of the whole movement. The middle class can always
be bought off by the imperialists and when continued activity re
sults in puppet governments, as in the case of the Irish Free State
and the equally servile Egyptian national government, the workers
and peasants find they have received nothing but necessity for con
tinning the struggle.
If the Philippine nationalists will raise such slogans as the divi
sion of the big estates, abolition of peonage, the right of peasants and
plantation workers to combine and administer the land, etc., they
will find that the attempts of the American exploiters to divide the
islanders on the basis of nationality and race will fail.
The Furriers * Election
The election of the slate of the Furriers’ Union composed of can
didates of the left wing and the progressive bloc is not only a defeat
for the Kaufman machine, one of the worst in the needle trades, but
marks the advance of the fighting elements in the union to a position
of leadership. •
On the New York joint board the left wing will undoubtedly
have important places and in this key body will be able to initiate
organizing and wage campaigns that the Kaufman machine has either
neglected or sabotaged.
The defeat of the leadership follows a long period in which the
left wing has lw*en met with opposition of the most unscrupulous
kind. Expulsions, blacklisting and the use of gunmen have featured
the offensives against the left wing, but thru it all its forces have
stood solid. It has been the machine forces that have suffered
demoralization, not the left wing.
The progressive bloc, with which the left wing made an elec
tion alliance has all the usual characteristics of the pure and simple
opposition to a union machine. It is timid and hesitating and can he
expected to do little in the struggle to stamp out the remnants of
Kaufmanism in the union. For this reuson the future tasks of the
left wing, if they are to be successful, and by successful we mean
the permeation of the whole union with the spirit of class conscious
ness and militancy, are of a very difficult nature and will, require
much skill, understanding and courage.
I he left wing, we feel sure, will approach thelsr new responsibil
ities in the true revolutionary spirit and maintain and extend the
left base in the iieedle trades that has been streiifthened by the re
suits of the recant election. j
THE DAILY WORKER
■ the systematically Hniroduced working
■ on short time, the cost of sanitation
- and the constant rise of prices which
. continued in spite Qf the "stabiliza
. tion” of the crown. Caused such dis
l tress that it became impossible fur
i ther to support the Bethlen govern
■ ment in its original treacherous form,
• since it did not even guarantee a spe
■ cial unemployment allowance.
1 TN order to lead the discontented
-*■ and indignant working people
’ astray, the swindling social democrat
-1 io leaders acted the comedy of parlia
mentary passivity and, after the rus
’ cally Bethlen agreement, they con
cluded an equally treacherous pact
' with the reactionary bourgeois parties.
They formed a "democratic block"
' with the legitimists, war agitators and
' Panamlsts, for better or worse, and
resolved to carry thru the municipal
• elections which were to take place
' in Budapest on May 1 15. in common
' with these reactionary bourgeois par
' ties in such away that, according to
1 agreament, the great majority should
' be left to the bourgeois parties regard
• less of the fact that in 1922 at the
1 elections in Budapest, the social de
' mocratlc party had gained 40 per cent
’ qf all the votes.
The social-democratic traitors wish
, ed to make the workers believe that
, they were not strong enough to fight
. alone, but that the counter-revolutlon
; ary supremacy could be defeated with
the help of the bourgeoisie.
In vain was it pointed out that the
very bourgeois politicians who now
figure on the common list have al
ready betrayed the workers innumer
able times on similar occasions. In
vain was it pointed out that large cap
italist and directors of the large banks
cannot be expected to fight in the in
terest of the proletariat, that manu
facturers who exploit their workers so
cruelly that they have for several,
years been boycotted by .the trade
unions, will certainly not fight in the
town council for labor interests and
j against reaction, which is their sup-
port. It was In vain that the leaders
of all the large local groups In Buda
pest issued a warning, that in no
circumstances could they support the
central committee unless the latter
broke off its connections with the ene
mies of the workers. The leaders of
the socialist party of Hungary did
not put an end to their alliance with
the bourgeoisie, they preferred to risk
losing their proletarian adherents!
This decision of the central commit
tee of the socialist party, of Hungary
roused a very natural indignation in
labor circles. From all sides it was
demanded that the matter should be
cleared up, from all sides the demand
was made that the newest treachery
should be prevented even though it
could only be done by a formal breach
of discipline, and demands were made
that the party leaders should be made
to pay for theid old crimes.
rnHE leaders of the opposition had
no reason for avoiding the fight
which was so passionately demanded.
They made a final attempt and, as
this failed, they decided to strike out.
In accordance with their slogan
“Down with the bourgeois coalition!”
the organized opposition resolved to
enter the election campaign independ
ently and to form an independent la
bor party.
The “Hungarian Socialist Labor
Party” was actually founded on April
114th.
The traitors to the working class
! used every means in their power to
prevent this or, if this should not be
possible, to discredit the new labor
party from the beginning.
On April 8, when the opposition held
its inaugural meeting, the heroic so
cial-democratic leaders succeeded in
smuggling into the gallery of the old
house of parliament, which was filled
with workers, 200 —300 of their follow
ers; these, under the leadership of
social-democratic deputies, caused
such confusion with trumpets, drums
and shouting that the police dissolved
the assembly.
CANADIAN PAPER 1
NAILS LIE OF
RELIEF REFUSAL
$5,000 Sent by R. I. L. U.
Wa* Accepted
(Special to the DAILY WORKER.)
TORONTO, Ont., Can., May 28.—As
many workers both in Canada and the'
United States have been deceived by
widespread capitalist piopaganda in
to belief that the executive board of
District 26, Nova Scotia United Mine
Workers, refused the $6,000 sent to
the relief of the strikers and their
families by the Red International of
Labor Unions, “The Worker,” organ
of the Communist Party of Canada,
publishes the following in an editorial
of the current issue:
“It is manifest that there is con
siderable misunderstanding as to
what happened to the five thousand
dollars donated by the Russian work
ers to their comrades in Nova Scotia.
There is an Impression that the mon
ey was refused by the officers of the
district.
“That is not the case. ‘The Work
er’ hoped that had been made quite
clear when the letter accepting the
money from Jim McLachlan was pub
lished in our columns uffder the sig
nature of the secretary of the district,
Alex. McKay.
“What happened was that Comrade
McLachlan at first offered the money
for distribution to the Citizens’ Re
lief Committee where it was refused.
The middle class gang of sob sisters
sabotaged on the money because that
gift stood for workers’ international
solidarity. The kept press at once
seized on this action to represent it
as coming from the miners them
selves. The organs of the yellow Am
sterdam International were delirious
in their Joy at what they conceived
to be a slap in the face to Russian
labor.
"Where the officers of the district
played the interests of the miners
false was in not immediately protest
ing against this action of the Citi
zen's Committee when they must have
known that their silence would be
open to misinterpretation.
‘‘But the rank andfflle were not si
lent. Protest after protest poured
In from the locals demanding that the
money be gratefully received. By this
time Comrade McLachlan offered the
money direct to the executive and
they immediately acknowledged its
receipt.”
Republican Negro Demands Office.
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., May 28.
Isaac Nutter, a Negro attorney who
worked for the republicans in the
last election, has taken the politicians
promises literally and now demands,
his pay. He has filed a petition sign
ed by 1,800 men and women in the
Atlantic county clerk's office as can
didate for senator on the republican
ticket in opposition to Senator Emer
son L. Richards, who seeks re-election.
Dead Beate Meet.
WASHINGTON, May 28.—A meet
ing of the American debt funding com
mission will be held before congress
meets In December to draft a report
on progress made in foreign debt
funding with debtor nations, it was
’TN order to prevent the possibility
-l of another meeting, the official so
cial-democrat press introduced a po
grom spirit against the former opposi
tion. Day after day, in leading articles
and in other articles several columns
in length, they wrote that the new
party had been founded by the Beth
leu government and was in the pay of
the “awakened Hungary” movement.
When, in spite of this persecution, the
Inaugural meeting of the labor party
was a brilliant success and the mem
bers of the new party even succeeded
in causing a thoro disturbance in a
meeting of the block, other underhand
means were brought into action.
The leaders of the Socialist-Labor
party who a week previously had been
branded as “awakened Hungarians,”
were suddenly denounced as “Bolshe
viki” who "had received an advance
of 50 millions for the creation of the
party." Not only the Nepszava, but
also the bourgeois papers connected
with it, dally make denunciations of
this sort and demand severe meas
ures.
TT'ARL PAYER, the Hungarian
Noske, even went as far as to
state at a public meeting in the pres
ence of the police, and to publish in
the papers, that Vagi, the leader of
the labor party, would not long be
able to Interfere with the party, as he,
Payer, was in possession of a photo
graph which proves that Vagi was a
“terror-rough" during the dictatorship.
At the same time the partisans of
the Socialist-Labor party are constant
ly being expelled from the tTade un
ions, and the party leaders of social
democracy are working provocatively
to bring about a split in the trade
unions, so as to be able then to de
nounce the Socialist-Labor party as
the originators of this crime.
In such circumstances, the newly
founded labor party has no easy work
In the land of the white terror. Al
though at Its fundation It already has
workers in the provinces immediately
followed the example of the workers
N. Y. PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS
STARTS NOW TO TRAIN COMRADES
FOR NEXT ELECTION CAMPAIGN
NEW YORK, May 28.—The Workers’ School, recognizing the necessity
of training a corps of speakers for participation in the summer and fall cam
paigns, will give a course In public speaking at the headquarters, 108 East
14th street, on Saturday afternoons, 3 p. m., beginning June 27. This is not
.to be merely a general course with no concrete aim, but Is designed definitely
to prepare comrades to speak at street meetings. All comrades are eligible
to taka this course who speak English without difficulty and whose voices
have some carrying power.
This course is of special importance at thle time because our party
in this district will soon participate in a local and state electon campaign
which will require the service of the entire membership. Our election cam
paign last year put the party on the map In this city and made our name
known to thousands of workers. This year we must Increase our efforts.
We do not have enough speakers and must develop more of them. Under
the slogan, “Prepare for the Election Campaign” we must mobilize the mem
bership for this work, and see that all qualified comrades take the course
in public speaking.
Registration it now on any day or evening at the office of the Workers’
Bcbool, 108 East 14th street. Do not delay.
MILITANT MEMBER OF PROLETARIAN
PARTY LINES UP WITH COMINTERN
That the Proletarian Party is paying the penalty for its sectarianism
in the loss of its militant elements, and is fast becoming a home for tired
and cantankerous radicals, is shown by th efollowing letter which is typical
of many received by the DAILY WORKER from former members of the P- P.
The DAILY WORKER:
As an ex-member of the proletarian
party and now a member of the Work
ers (Communist) Party, I wish to
state some of the fundamental rea
sons" for my leaving the P. P.
For the last several years of its
existence the P. P. directed its prin
cipal efforts to criticising the Work-,
ers Party for carrying out the deci
sions of the Communist International
in the changing situation confronting
the American working class.
A Bunch of Camels.
No Communist Party on the globe Is
free from mistakes, but the P. P. not
having done anything stands a good
chance of retaining its virginity,
which means stefillty.
A party that is In constant touch
with the working class in every phase
of its struggle is bound to come to
wrong conclusions in analyzing cer
tain situations. These mistakes are
inevitable and a sure sign of activity.
But those who remain within the
circle of narrow minded squabbling
and hair splitting; experts in memo
rizing chapters of capital, like the
good Christians who know the “holy
bible” by heart.
While the proletarian party pre
tends to be a supporter of the Com
munist International, it has refused
to support the slogans of the C. I„ but
attempts to ridicule the Workers
(Communist) Party for attempting to
FACTS FOR WORKERS
By JAY LOVEBTONE, Director, Research Department, Workers Party
—
Growing ooat of maintaining capitalist government bureaucracy shown
by Inoreaae In total debt of government divlelone:
Government Division 1912 „ 1922 p e ». increase
Counties $371,528,000 $1,272,790,000 242.$
Incorporated places 2,884,883,000 4,703,322,000 83.0
States 345,942,000 935,544,000 170.4
National (June 30, 1913
to June 30, 1923) 1,028,564,000 22,155,886,000 2,084.1
Other civil divisions 219,643,000 1,778,084,000 709.9
fIUAMO TQTAU PHftPjg VH*
In the capital, although the new party
is entering the municipal elections
with good prospects in spite of the
fact that in every electorial district
1,000 signatures are necessary to
several thousand members and the
make a candidature valid, it is impos
sible to foretell what success will be
obtained against the utterly corrupt
-nnd unscrupulous social democracy.
TT is hopeless at present to speak
-*• of an ideological solution in a coun
try in which the Hungarian transla
tion of Marx’ "Capital’! has been
placed on the index. In which even the
Vienna Arbelter-Zeitung has been in
terdicted, in which Argus eyes watch
lest the most innocent literature
should enter the country, where any
one in whoso possession such liter
ature Is found, Is threatened with 6
and 10 years hard labor and In which
the Communist leaders
mlssioned officers who were not able
to escape, have been exterminated. It
Is also questionable whether a solu
tion or clear-sighted leadership In the
fight will be found. It Is also certain
that the Communist If ever they are
free once again to appear on the
field of battle In Hungary, will have
to fight out a severe fight with the
newly formed socialist labor party.
In a country In which the leaders and
non-commissioned officers of social de
mocracy have, with few exceptions,
sold the dictatorship in agreeing to a
“Socialist-Communist party,” the Com
munists must, from the beginning,
meet the newly formed Socialist-La
bor party with reservation and dis
trust. m
This however by no means signifies
that the Importance of this turn of
events is to be undervalued. If we
must admit that the split In the
treacherous social democractlc party
of Hungary has been called Into be
ing by the elementary discontent and
indignation of the working masses,
and partly thru a class antagonism on
principle, we must, in spite of all
reservations, regard this foundation as
a step forward.
-► ■ ..
carry them out.
Disgusted With P. P.
What disgusted the trade union ele
ments in the proletarian party with
the policy of that organization most,
was the resolution passed at its last
convention, instructing its members
who are active in the trade unions
(which is very rare) to work in op
, pdsition to the Trade Union Educa
tional League. Being an active mem
ber in my union I refused to obey
these orders and worked in co-opera
tion with my comrades of the Work
! ers Party in the union.
In closing I will say that here In
Philadelphia we had a good militant
local of the P. P. It Is now reduced
to three members, as the former
members of that local are now in the
Workers (Communist) Party. I am
writing this so that the militants who '
are still in the P. P. will Join the
party in America that is fighting capi
talism; the Workers (Communist)
Party.—Lewis J. Brsvermen.
Coal Camp Women and
Children to Be Made
Into Textile Slaves
morgantown' w‘. v*., May 28.
The Morgantown chamber of com
merce Is raising $40,000 subscriptions
for the Tyron Silk Fabrics Co. It is
considered good for business to put
miners' wives and children to work
in the towns —it means cheap labor
all around.