The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-05
BY Thurber Lewis.

born worker. The italian, Slav, Hun
garian, Pole-these nationalities. with
q lesser number of other countries
all workers born In alien lands, make
up majority Of those who run the
steel mills, the mines, the heavy In
dustries Of the country.
America as a capitalist nation has
become rich and world powerful be-
cause Of her enormous resources, yes,
but chiefly because there were work
ers to build these resources into in
dustries-and profits. In this epic Of
pyramided wealth the foreign-born
worker has had heavy role.
The millions of foreign-born work
ers who are in this country now and
the millions more who came here and
died In the harness have not had an
easy time of it. Along with the Negro,
these immigrants are the most ex-
plotted workers in the country. They
are the poorest paid, they work the
longest hours, they do the hardest
work.
Foreign Workers Are Handicapped.
THE foreign-born worker has been
4 handicapped in the matter of his
own protection. He has no political
rights; outside the coal fields unions
are weak or do not exist at all in the
industries in which he predominates;
there are discriminatory laws in many
states against him; racial and Ian
guage divisions make unity of action
difficult Indeed, it has been one of
the weapons of his exploiters to fos-
ter these differences.
Yet the rank and file of some of
the largest and bravest struggles re-
corded in the history of the American
labor movement were foreign-born
workers. Homestead, Lawrence, Lud-
low, the steel strike Of 1919-and
don't forget the battfe Of Passaic rag
ing now-these names stand as a
tribute to the fighting spirit of the
foreign-born worker in America.
Brave Struggles Drowned in Blood.
VXTHAT happened to these achieve
w ments? without exception they
have been drowned in brutality and
blood. Cossacks, militia, stool-pig-
cons, industrial spies, the blacklist,
are some of the things the foreign
born worker is up against.
The industrial serfs of America, the
foreign born workers, number the bet
ter part of the foreign-born popula-
ton of the country-fourteen million.
This polyglot mass of wage slaves
has never achieved the unity of de-
Tense that the attacks of their ex-
ploiters upon them both justify and
make necessary. 1t is only in time
of strike, when small sections of them
are objects of economic offensive, that
they manage to unite-as workers
for their common defense.
Mass Attack on Workers.
DUT NOW THE WHOLE FOREIGN
ID BORN WORKING POPULATION
OF THE COUNTRY IS FACED WITH
AN UNPRECEDENTED POLITICAL
ONSLAUGHT. It is not enough for
them to be helots. 1t is not enough
for their strikes to be broken by sheer
military assault. It is not enough for
them to be preyed upon in every way
by the Industrial overlords. They
must now be registered, catalogued,
held under constant surveillance and,
If need be, deported or jailed.
Proposed legislation now pending
in the United States Congress makes
provision for this. Tremendous forces
are at work to make these bills into
laws.
Thus comes unity. For the first
time in the history Of the country,
foreign-born workers are organizing
NATIONALLY, ignoring racial diff
ferences before an attack directed not
against this race or that but against
class.
The Washington Conference.
ON the 18th and 18th of May $50 del
~ egates representing more than a
A~fe x.,sIIar,. xrorlrawo xnocf1y for.nfnrp