The daily worker. [volume], February 28, 1935, National Edition, Page Page 6, Image 6

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

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Page 6
Socialist 'Old Guard ’ Echoes Hearst AntPSoviet Propaganda
‘NEW LEADER' PROMISE OF AID TO U. S. S. R. IS ACCOMPANIED BY CHARGE THAT SOVIET UNION “HAS NOT EARNED WORKERS’ SUPPORT”
WHE rising menace of an anti-Soviet war of interven
* tion. incited by the Hearsts, Hitlers and Hulls, has
roused a great surge of working class solidarity.
Socialist workers came in hundreds to the great
Madison Square Garden meeting in New York on Mon
day night to plpdge their devotion and loyalty to the
Workers’ Fatherland, to the country which is the guide
and bulwark of the masses of the world.
Socialist workers thundered their approvol when
J. B. Matthews, a Socialist speaker, cried, “We will
defend the Soviet Union without any ifs, ands, or huts.”
But the Socialist Party weekly, the New Leader,
PailyS^Worker
CIUTIUL 0»4*» COMMUNIST M»TT U.S * (SICTtOM Ot COMMUNIST INTINNNTtONAi)
"America's Only Working Class Daily Newspaper' 1
FOUNDED 1924
PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE
COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC., 50 E. 13th
Street, New York, N. Y.
Telephone: ALgonquin 4-795 4.
Cable Address: "Daiwork,” New York, N. Y.
Washington Bureau: Room 954. National Press Building,
14th .and F St , Washington. D. C Telephone: National 7910.
Midwest Bureau: 101 South Wells St., Room 705, Chicago, 111.
Telephone: Dearborn 3931.
Subscription Rates:
By Mail: 'except Manhattan and Bronx). 1 year. 16 Ot;
6 months, $3 50; 3 months, $2 00: 1 month. 075 cents.
Manhattan, Bronx, Foreign and Canada: 1 year, $9. Os;
6 months, $5.00; 3 months. $3.00.
By Carrier: Weekly, 18 cents; monthly, 75 e4mU.
Saturday Edition: By mail, 1 year, SLSO. 6 months, 75 cents.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1935
Profits and W anes
A MOST damaging indictment of the
Roosevelt N.R.A. is the latest report
of the N.R.A. itself.
In its survey of the past two years,
the N.R.A, research bureau reports that
“while payrolls in December, 1934, were
only about 60 per cent of the total in 1926,
dividends and interest were 150 per cent
of the totals in 1926."
That is to say: wages have been cut in
half; profits have been more than doubled.
Commenting on Roosevelt’s promise to
raise buying power, the report claims that
“purchasing power remained constant,”
an obvious untruth when one considers
that the cost of living has risen more than
ten per cent since Roosevelt took office!
The 200 biggest, Wall Street corpora
tions reaped a $430,000,000 profit in 1934,
compared with half of that in 1933, and
only $100,000,000 in 1932. Four hundred
per cent profit increase in two years! The
N.R.A. has not been at all bad—for Wall
Street.
N.R.A. has gouged these profits from
the payrolls of American labor! The charge
of the Communist Party has been proven
correct—the purpose of N.R.A. from the
beginning was to reapportion the coun
try’s income so as to increase profits at the
expense of wages.
Mas§ Violations
WHILE the anti-strike injunction of the
open fascist, Justice Cotillo, is being
appealed to a higher court, the injunction
against the Ohrbach strikers, limiting
picketing to two persons, is being smashed
by mass violations.
Mass picket demonstrations, especially
over each week end, are breaking the Ohr
bach injunction, and most of those arrested
were dismissed.
The injunction issued hy Cotillo goes
even farther than the Ohrbach injunction,
prohibiting white collar workers from pick
eting altogether or fighting for union rec
ognition.
The joint Board of the Dress and
Waistmakers’ Union rightly declares that
the injunction re-writes the constitution,
suppresses the right to strike and to picket.
“The decision, in attacking the rights of
any group of workers to peaceably picket,
is attacking the rights of all workers
everywhere,” the union states. “The
learned justice seems to feel that under
paid and overworked salespeople are so
that they must be denied rights
freely granted dressmakers, locomotive en
gineers, elevator operators and other
skilled crafts.”
The injunction of Cotillo strikes at the
right of all white collar workers to or
ganize, strike and picket. It must he
I smashed by mass violations, by mass pick
' eting. and hy the united protest of all New
I York labor.
The Weirton Decision
THE ruling of Federal Judge John Nield
that Section 7-A of the N.R.A. is un
constitutional, openly upholds the Weirton
company union and attacks the Amalga
mated Association of Iron. Steel and Tin
Workers. The Weirton case is accepted
as a test case, which will have a bearing
on all industries.
Nields, denying the government’s ap
plication for an injunction, puts the ap
proval of the federal circuit court on the
firing and blacklist, strikebreaking ter
ror, pnt through by the company union in
the Weirton plant. “The plans of employe
•©presentation at the defendant’s plants
iroved effective and satisfactory” said the
c ederal judge. . . “In all respects it com
<lies with the provisions of section 7-A of
ie N.R.A.”
The decision of Judge Nield, which will
t )
8
controlled by the S. P. “Old Guard,” has a different
stand on defending the Soviet Union.
It promises to defend the Soviet Union against an
imperialist raid—but, it declares, in substance, that the
Soviet Union in not worth defending!
“The Socialists of the world,” it declares, “will of
course, be ranged against the aggressions of Japan,
Germany, and Poland, but it is also our duty to point
out that the Bolsheviks, have not, hy their conduct,
earned this support of the workers of the world ”
The New Leader goes further and vents its hatred
against what it terms the “disruptive work of 80l-
be taken before the U. S. Supreme Court,
is issued at the moment when the Amal
gamated Association lodges are preparing
strike and are carrying through an or
ganization drive. The decision is timed to
enforce the company union in the entire
steel industry and to hamper the building
of the A. F. of L. union and its strike prep
arations. The decision is designed also, to
influence the new' legislation regarding
N.R.A. and to legalize, even more than at
present, the activities of the company
unions.
The sections of the decision which back
the company union have as a precedent
the decisions of President Roosevelt wffiich
legalized the company unions in the aut»
industry by means of the “merit” clause.
Under section 7-A itself, as in auto and
rubber, “elections” have been framed to
favor company unions.
The current decision of the federal
court still more openly and brazenly sup
ports the fascist, company - controlled
unions.
The 'Daily' in Strikes
THE recent elevator men’s strike in New
York was a tremendous opportunity
for the Daily Worker to prove to the work
ers that it is the only reliable and trust
worthy guide in their struggles for better
wages and conditions.
Certainly, the Daily Worker was the
only paper that unqualifiedly supported the
strike.
More, the Daily Worker gave excellent
and concrete advice to the men on how' to
guarantee their victory. If properly dis
tributed the special 100,000 copy strike
edition might have played a decisive role
in warning the men against the maneuvers
of Bambrick.
And yet the New York Communist
Party district in its report on the Daily
Worker circulation drive must state that
while 75,000 copies were distributed, “no
arrangements were made to follow up the
meetings held by the elevator strikers.”
The New' York district emphasizes the
lesson that “when workers are on strike
or preparing strike that this is precisely
the time to reach them with our paper.”
More energy, more skill, and more
steady work in bringing the Daily Worker
to the masses!
A Victory
THE State Senate of New Mexico has
•I just defeated a criminal syndicalism
bill aimed against the Communist Party
and all labor organizations.
The defeat was due directly to the
vigorous protest aroused by the Commu
nist Party. Many labor unions, and other
workers’ and liberal organizations sent
delegates to protest the measure.
Similar mass protest can defeat the “se
dition” and criminal syndicalist law's now
being smuggled through in at least seven
legislatures.
Vigilance and action in every state is
necessary to block these reactionary meas
ures!
154 Homes
IT IS now a full year and a half since
I Roosevelt launched his housing program.
Yesterday’s N.R.A. report reveals that
with the $150,000,000 at its disposal, the
housing program has thus far provided
only 154 homes for workers!
During this period, the war-building
program was far more efficient. Roosevelt
has built morp than 2.000 bombing planes
since he took office.
Has ever a bubble of capitalist promises
collapsed so shamefully as this vaunted
“housing program” of Roosevelt?
xllore Evidence
THE links that bind Wall Street’s fascist
I plotters with the White House are
once again exposed in the latest state
ment of General Smedley Butler.
Butler, who gave testimony before the
Dickstein Committee on Wall Street’s fas
cist conspiracies, declared two days ago
that Gerald P. MacGuire, agent of the
Wall Street banks in the plot, “w'as able
to foretell administration actions weeks
before they occurred.”
Butler also revealed that the Dickstein
Committee still keeps from the public vital
information involving the guilt of promi
nent higher-ups. close to Roosevelt.
D 4ILY WORKER. NEW YORK. THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 28. 1935
Party Life
Navy Yard Nucleus
Tells How Shop Paper
Was Distributed
WHEN our unit was formed.
in October, 1933, condi- j
j tions in the yard w'ere pretty j
| good, and the grievances of
the workers were not so great, i
Especially at the time the unit i
issued its first shop paper, |
just six months ago, the yard had
just hired over a thousand men or (
more and the work in the yard was
so plentiful that the workers prac
tically had things their own way,
as far as conditions were con
cerned. The only lively grievance
that we had to fight was the ar
senic poison generated by welding
on galvanized on the five new
destroyers they are building here.
During this time we were point
ing out to the workers that they
must organize to maintain these
good conditions, and telling them
that these conditions could not last j
at a time when the standard of
! living of the entire working class ts \
being steadily dragged down to a
; lower level.
Our shop paper has always been
welcomed by the yard workers and
was passed around the yard and
read by them. For a long time our (
paper was issued outside the gate at
noon time and quitting time, and,
although the workers accepted j
them, the fact that they were dis- j
tributed outside the gate, kept them
from being accepted as a real yard
workers’ paper. At a District Bu
j reau meeting a few months ago. our
| unit was discussed, and the District !
Bureau pointed out the mistake of
issuing the paper outside the yard,
pointing out to us that ten shop
papers inside the yard had more
effect than a hundred distributed |
outside. The unit immediately re- j
acted to this correct advice, and the
! last two editions of our shop paper j
have been planted in strategic places
| within the yard.
] During this period the effects of
the crisis were felt in the yard
There were mass lay-offs, the help
; ers were more and more forced to
] do the work of mechanics, and more ;
work was being forced upon the
low-paid enlisted men of the navy. ;
l These issues were stressed in our j
shop paper, which has become tre
mendously liked by the workers,
who eagerly look forward to its
publication.
• • «
LAST week the battleship Califor
nia was literally plastered with
“Yard Workers,” the Daily Worker, !
the Moscow News and small pam
phlets of vital interest to both yard j
workers and sailors alike. That Is- I
sue of our shop paper contained an I
article on sailors doing the work ;
of civilians, and was therefore put
aboard the ship in great lots. It
immediately caused a great stir on
the ship and also through the yard.
The yard officers, along with the
ship officers, made futile attempts
to stop its distribution.
The men working on the night
shift were immediately watched by
armed patrols of sailors And the
men on day shift were forced to
show their badge on leaving the
ship and coming aboard. In spite
of all these maneuvers to hamper
the workers, going to the extent of
spreading rumors that the ship was
being guarded because the Com
munists were going to blow it up,
the workers realize what is the real
truth and don’t fall for the “bomb
ing” stories. And although the
close watch kept on the workers
leaving the ship at night made it
difficult for some of them to catch
their boat home, they appeared to
be pleased that the “Reds" were
able to get their literature aboard
ship and really feel now that the
"Yard Worker” is their paper.
The next issue of our paper,
which will be out in a few' days,
will answer these bombing stories.
NAVY YARD UNIT,
Bremerton, Washington.
* # *
Editoria.l Note:
Good luck to you, comrades. You
are doing difficult and important
Communist work. We will expect
more good reports from you. What,
are you doing about recruiting into
your shop unit? Although recruit
ing must be carried on carefully, so
that your members are not exposed,
it must not be neglected. We
would like to have a letter from
you telling us your methods of re
cruiting, how you safeguard your
members, and concretely how you
carry on struggle against war and
fascism.
Join the
Communist Party
35 East 12th Street, New York;
Please send me more informa
tion on the Communist Party.
NAME
j ADDRESS
shevism,” slanderously charging Communism with being
an ‘ ally of the exploiting class.”
Is this not ominous and sinister? Does not this
besmirch the glory of Socialist construction in the U.S.
S.R.? Is this not an insult to every Socialist worker
who really defends the Soviet Union, to those who met
in Solidarity at Madison Square?
A Socialist worker may welt ask the New Leader—
if this country of the U.S.S.R. is so hateful, so "disrup
tive” if it is even an "ally of the exploiters,” why then
defend it?
Is it not clear that this pledge of support to the
Letters From Our Readers
N. B. C. Strikers Ask
Boycott of Automat
New York, N. Y.
Comrade Editor:
The National Biscuit strikers I j
know thank you for writing about
the strike every day. There are
many workers who can read only
Italian and Polish, so their friends 1
translate for them.
Please tell the readers of your
paper not to eat in the Automat
restaurants because they are selling
N.B.C. products to break our strike.
C. S.
“Liberal” Press Masks Its
Anti-Working Class Stand
East Carnegie, Pa.
Comrade Editor:
Although W R. Hearst is un
doubtedly the spokesman for Hitler
and his type of fascism in the U.
S A . we must not neglect to expose
the so-calle'd "liberal'’ newspapers,
which in their insidious way are
just as reactionary and anti-labor
as Dirty Willie and his fascist
thugs.
Hearst is definitely out and out
fascist, and is easily recognizable as
such by all haters of fascism and
its terrorism of the workers. How
ever, such “liberal” papers as the
Scripps-Howard chain, which claim
to present “both sides,” are often
bought by workers on the theory
that it is “fairer,” or "not so bad
as Hearst.”
The freedom of the press is guar
! anteed just as long as one writes
on abstract subjects, such as the
"Mellon Interest s,” the “Steel
Trust,” etc. But the moment any
; criticism is specifically directed
j against the big advertisers of the
papers, then the sham of free
speech is exposed.
No worker should support any
capitalist paper. There are no half
way, liberal newspapers. They are
all anti-working class because they
are capitalist papers. C. N.
On Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Hence there are three fundamental aspects of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
(1) The utilization of the power of the proletariat for the suppression of the
exploiters, for the defense of the country, for the consolidation of the ties with
the proletarians of other lands, and for the development and the victory of the revo
lution in all countries.
12) The utilization of the power of the proletariat in order to detach the toiling
and exploited masses once and for all from the bourgeoisie, to consolidate the al
liance of the proletariat with these masses, to enlist these masses in the work of
socialist construction, and to assure the state leadership of these masses by the
proletariat.
(■V The utilization of the power of the proletariat for the organization of
socialism, for the abolition of classes, and for the transition to a society without
classes, to a society without a state, —STALIN (“Problems of Leninism”)
Because of the volume of letters re
ceived by the Department, we can
print only those that are of general
interest to Daily Worker readers. How
ever, all letters received are carefully
read by the editors. Suggestions and
criticisms are welcome and whenever
possible are used for the improvement
of the Daily Worker.
“The Yanks Are Coming—
To Their Senses”
New York, N. Y.
Comrade Editor:
In reference to Julian Hoffman’s
able review of the “The Man Who
reclaimed His Head,” and the
army posters in Union Square:
"The posters proclaim that the
Army, or is it the Navy, makes men.
I always want to put stickers over
them, correcting them to read, “War
makes widows and orphans, crip
ples and paupers.”
Hoffman stirs me to an idea. The
anniversary of the United States’
entrance to the war is approaching,
April 19. Suppose on that date the
country were to blossom with stick
ers on army posters, pasted on
buildings, in buildings, everywhere,
stating the facts about war, and
why we shouldn’t fight one another.
Here are some slogans:
Who wins in a war? Not the
gobs’ and doughboys’ families.
We want work for the next gen
eration. not crutches.
Let the bankers enlist, we have
our work to do.
Munition makers! Join the Navy
—see stars!
Politicians platoon! Backward
march! Hep. hep. hep!
Why fight to keep social slavery?
Pack up the bosses in their old
kit bag and smile, smile, smile!
The Yanks are coming—to their
senses.
Are we downtrodden? Not from
| now on! E. s.
U.S.S.R. is only a temporary cloak that will be dropped
as soon as the imperialists begin their war against tha
Workers’ Fatherland?
If the Socialist leaders violated their international
ism. how much more readily will they forget their
"loyally” to the Soviet Union, which they have been be
smirching for 17 years?
Socialist workers! We call upon you to awake to
this insidious anti-Soviet propaganda with which the
“Old Guard” is flooding your papers! Drive such
Hearst-like propaganda out of the working class move
ment!
Solidarity for the defense of the Soviet Union!
Not Foreign-Born, But
Hearsts Are “Aliens”
New York, N. Y.
Comrade Editor:
In an article which appeared in
the Daily Worker on February 2*,
David Levinson, attorney in recent
deportation cases, misquoted my re
marks to the Commissioner of Im
migration.
In particular, I did not use the
term “alien,” in speaking of foreign
born workers who are the allies of
the American workers in the
struggle against the exploiters.
Where it is necessary to desig
nate the foreign-bom workers who
are not recognized as citizens by the
capitalist government, the term
“ncn-citizens” is to be preferred.
So far as the welfare of the Amer
ican people is concerned, not the
Ujichs, Carlsons and Richters, but
the Hearsts, J. P. Morgans and
Commissioners of Immigration are
the “aliens.”
Fraternally,
DWIGHT C. MORGAN,
Secretary Committee for Pro
tection of Foreign Bom.
Boston Reader Shocked
By Hearst Slanders
Boston, Mass.
Comrade Editor:
The Hearst anti-Soviet campaign
has reached the mark of unbeliev
able slander and distortion in
today's Boston American, (Fe’o. 22).
Pictures appear in this issue of
dirty-yellow press which are an ab
solute falsification and must be
counteracted in the Daily Worker
by explaining their source and
origin.
In my trip to the U. S. S. R. last
year, I saw no such scenes.
NEWSPAPER REPORTER
World Front
By HARRY GANNES
Symptoms of World Revolt
From London to Algiers
Communists in Bulgaria
AN THE widest world front,
U and in the most diverse
lands, there are signs of a
growing mass upsurge which
in many countries will soon
break out into serious battles.
Most recent reports tell of
the ever-mounting struggles of the
British toilers to such an extent
that the ruling class of this im
perialist colossus is considering war
time measures. J. H. Thomas
dropped the hint that instead of
holding general elections in the fall,
the British ruling class would con
rider extending its present National
Government power for another
three years under the pretext of a
“n Monal emergency.”
1 s “mother of [capitalist] democ
racies” turns to ever more fascist
measures to maintain the rule of
the colonial slaveholders.
Going on down the line, in every
type of capitalist land, and in every
degree of colonial country, the
symptoms of Incipient revolt are
cropping to the surface.
In Spain, the revolutionary forces
are already beginning again openly
to test their forces with the Fascist
Lerroux-Robles regime. The same
is true in Austria, Rumania and
Bulgaria.
“IN Bulgaria.” reports the Christian
1 Science Monitor, “Communism
has assumed the most formidable
dimensions. And the more ruthless
the repression the more determined
the opposition.”
The same paper reports the fact
that in Philippopolis, second largest
Bulgarian city, though the most
ferocious terror has been unloosed
against the Communists and their
press, “yet 15,000 copies of the sec
retly printed workers paper are cir
culated."
Communism has penetrated into
the Bulgarian army and. schools,
adds the Monitor correspondent. In
many cities of Bulgaria. ODen fight
ing has taken place between the
workers and peasants against the
state police and soldiers.
* * •
TURNING to the colonial and semi
* colonial countries, we can see
what powerful blows are being
struck against imperialism in the
African continent as well as in I
Latin America. The Algerian riots,
which began last summer in the
form of anti-semitic actions, are
now more clearly becoming eco
nomic and political struggles against
French imperialism. The most
alarming feature for the French
slaveholders is the fact that the
native troops are showing signs of
mutiny, and with more serious out
breaks they will turn against their
masters. Nor has the French idea
of bringing in Negro Senegalese
troops been greeted with any great
enthusiasm.
The revolutionary unrest in Al
giers and Morocco at a time when
British, French and Italian impe
rialism are striving to enslave Abys
sinia. the last independent Negro
country in Africa, may set oft a
liberation movement on the African
continent that the capitalist powers
never dreamed of.
The Algerian battles are becom
ing the most serious because the
proletariat, the dockworkers and
sailors are joining with the peasants
in the fight against French impe
rialist rule. Jews first bore the
brunt of attack because the wily
French masters, many decades ago.
when they first established their
rule, gave the Jews a special posi
\ tion as agents for the imperialist
j overlords. In other words, though
j the majority of the Jews are among
| the poorest peasants and urban
workers, the most strategic positions
!in trade and industry and impe
rialist dealings are held by Algerian
Jews.
In the recent riots of the unem
ployed in Mosteganem. as predicted
by L'Humanite. French Communist
organ, the battles did not assume
an anti-semitic aspect but were di
rected against the chief enemy—the
: Mayor, staff army officers, and sub
prefects. the direct representatives
of French imperialism.
* * *
THE other great, outstanding up-
I surge in a semi-colonial coun
try. direct!" affects American im
perialism. Never in the historv of
Cuba has there been such a unified,
and so powerful a movement,
against the Wall Street puppet gov
ernment, as is now sweeping that
Island. That it will have its re
percussions throughout all Latin
America is also certain, especially
as the class .battles in Mexico. Chile,
Peru. Brazil. Paraguay. Bolivia and
other countries are rising- hivh and
j rapidly maturing to revolutionary
I proportions.
China, which has long been in
sh" van of anti-imperialist revolu
tion. now with t,h° frightful eco
nomic and financial crisis hitting
that country, will soon see a hun
dredfold Intensification of the aa* (
tlonal liberation struggle. I