davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
Hands OF China
Meeting at Union
Square Saturday
Array of Prominent
Speakers

On Saturday, May z, at II noon,
Union Square, there will be a mass
protest demonstration for Hands Off
China. This meeting, called by the
Hands Off China Committee, will
demand a stop to the war on China
and to the mobilization of imperialist
troops in the Pacific for another war.
Many Labor Speakers.
Leaders Of the labor and liberal
movements will address the meeting.
Approximately forty have already
accepted invitations to address the
meeting, among them being Scott
Nearing, H. NJ. Wicks, Robert w.
Dunn, Ben Gold, Louis Lyman, Will
liam Pickens, Albert Weisbord, Pat
Devine, Richard Moore, James Walsh,
Juliet Stuart Poyntz, P. Pascal Cos
grove, Carlo Tresca and Louis Budenz.
Response to Gable.
This meeting has been called in
response to the special cable from
Hankow, the capitol and center of
the Chinese Nationalist Government,
to the Glands Off China" Committee,
which follows:
1.-THE actions of the American diplo-
matte and armed forces in China, is
making the American people jointly
responsible for one of the great
crimes in the history of the armed
struggle of imperialism against the
Chinese revolution.
"The American people must protest
emphatically against this shameful
assault and must demand the removal
of all armed forces from Chinese
territory and waters. The wal
against China threatens not only the
Chinese revolution but also the peace
of the entire world
The presence of az American bat
tleships in Chinese waters, 10000
marines and sailors, II airplanes anC
a flotilla Of submarines demonstrate
that the American Government is moi
only threatening war but actually
waging war against the Chinese PEG
pie. The only way to call halt K
such procedure on the part of the
American Government is for thu
American people to raise such a pro
test that the American Government
will be compelled to obey.
All workers, therefore, forward t
the Union Square Hands Off China
Demonstration, Saturday, May Z, l.
noon.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
RED FRONT FIGHTERS OF GERMANY PAY HOMAGE TO
RUTHENBERCS ASHES; SHIP BUILDERS GUARD

ing and ready as the train came to a
standstill in Bremen. 1t Immediately
took the Ashes Urn in Charge, the
wreaths were assigned to Red Front
comrades who followed the urn, then
we who had brought the Ashes, and
the remainder of the Red Guard fell
in behind. Down the station platform
and up thru the station and out upon
the open plaza we marched. There an
impressive multitude of the revolu-
tionary workers Of Bremen, men and
women, were drawn up, in two long
lines. We marched between them. We
were greeted by Paul Taube, political
secretary of the Party in Bremen,
speaking on behalf of the Communists
of Bremen. Wilhelm Kaspar also
spoke.
At Bremerhaven, had had trans
lator, a young German scomrade who
had spent three years in the United
States, who had tranalated my re-
marks. In Bremen / had no transla-
tor. l met the situation by making
my first address in German, utilizing
what German l knew. l said in part:
Engdahl Speaks.
"You say that you, the workers of
Bremen and of all Germany are the
slaves of the Dawes Plan, that the
German Republic is a Dawes Repub-
lie. Yet we, the workers in the United
States, we also know that we are the
slaves Of the Dawes Plan, since the
Dawes Plan is only part of the cap
italist system, a part of the Dollar
Imperialism.
"Ruthenberg was our best fighter
against the American capitalists,
against the Daweses, the Morgans,
the Rockefellers, the Fords and the
Garys. He was an agitator, an or
ganizer and educator of the working
class, building the struggle for the
abolition of capitalists. He was our
leader in the struggle for a Soviet
America. Ruthenberg is dead. But
his spirit lives on. 1t lives in the
growing revolutionary movement of
America and of the world"
Then the procession started for the
Particulars (The Party Home). The
Party has a band of 70 pieces in
Bremen. But there is police regula-
ton that no music is permitted on
the streets after ten o'clock at night,
except the beating of drums by the
police themselves as the occasion de-
mands. So our march was silent,
broken only by the regular rhythm
of many proletarian footsteps on
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
(ContinNed from Page One)

Continued from Page One)
impressive effect, long to be remem-
bered by those coming from foreign
lands where no Red Army in the MAX
ing has as yet manifested itself.
Power Of c. P. of Germany.
The "Free City of Bremen" thru
it's workers, did itself proud in greet
ing the ashes of our comrade, Ruthen-
berg. Bremen was one of the cities
that belonged to the Hanseatic League
in the centuries gone when commerce
and trade were in battle with the
feudal barons. Today it has a popula-
ton of about 100000, is one of the
principal seaports of Germany, as
well as one of the centers Of its metal
industry and shipbuilding.
Nine Communists sit in its munic-
ipal council. They were elected with
the ballots of $1,000 workers. 1t com
pares in size with such American
cities as Columbus, Ohio; Jersey City,
New Jersey; Los Angeles, Calf;
Providence, r. l.; st. Paul, Mimi; or
Toledo, Ohio, cities in which our
American Communist movement is as
yet weak. A comparison with Bremen
gives an idea of the power of the
German Communist Party. Bremen
is the home of one of the 81 Com
munist dailies in Germany, the Ar
beiter-Zeitung, that serves northwest
Germany.
Paper Self Sustaining.
The Bremen Arbeiter-Zeitung is
self-sustaining. In fact, practically
all the Communist dailies in Germany
are self-sustaining.
1t was into Bremen that we came
frora Bremerhaven, after ten o'clock
on the night of Saturday (the Eve of
Easter Sunday, April 10th.
Wilhelm Kaspar and Herman Oster-
lohr, representing the German Com
munist Party, Otto Lindau, one of the
editors of the Arbeiter-Z eitung, and
had made the trip together. We had
brought along the huge wreaths of
laurel and evergreen, with their. wide
and long crimson ribbons, all carry
ing some defiant slogan of the revo-
luton. One of these was, "Ich war,
Ich Bin, Ich Verde Sein-R Revolution, .
meaning, Il Was, l am, 1 viii Be
Revolution" The wreath of the Com
munist Party in Northwest Germany
carried the wording, Last Greeting
to the Revolutionists-Ru thenberg.
Red Front Guard.
The Guard of Honor of the Red
Front Fighters of Hamburg was wait
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
By RONALD ROSS


HANKOW, April Is. BY MaiD--
Where christianity and curiosity have
brought a hundred foreigners into
China, the cheapness of labor has
brought thousands.
The men who came because labor
was cheap have brought a new era
into China, the industrial era. China
has changed in many ways since the
first foreigner, seeking cheap labor,
arrived in the country, but through
all the changes wages have remained
low. A man could be hired to do for
ten cents day in China what a man
would not do for dollar a day in
the West. And it was easy labor to
handle, ignorant, docile, subservient.
Now Want Something.
Today, decades later, wages are
still low, but labor is not so decile as
it has been. There is a tendency to
ask for very few of the amenities
of existence, a holiday a week, secur-
ity of job, wages and hours that
make possible life little nearer the
human, little less the dog.
We hear a great deal these days
from employers of labor, both for
eigners and Chinese, of the unreason-
ableness of labor demands. Glaring
examples are cited. Wage increases
which amount to hundred per cent.
Reduction in hours that, it is claimed,
would materially handicap business.
A voice in the control of industry, a
check on dismissal, holidays, bonuses,
sick leave, union leave, and others.
Employers have been appalled,.
Managers Feel Loss.
Two views can be taken of the la
Dor situation that is developing in
China. The first is to look at it from
the standpoint of the manager, the
man who sees labor as one factor on
a ledger which must show a substan-
tial balance on the credit side at the
end of the year.
This manager shows how the new
demands of labor affect his industry,
how they cripple him, how they make
it impossible for him to declare the
enormous dividends which apparently
are necessary to keep his stockhold-
ers satisfied, how, unless these labor
demands are moderated, he must
close his plant. What, he asks, would
happen to labor then?
To Make Ends Meet.
his is one way of LOOKING at the
situation. The other is the way OF
me laborer The laborer ia not look
ms at a ledger that shows profits
~ the end of the year. He is looking
at ledger, which never shows g
copper on the credit side, which, al
best, can be made to balance, ant
whose items are, on the side, the har.
realities Of enough rice to keep alive
enough cotton TO cover his back
enough silver pieces to pay land.
lord so he can keep the roof of 3
howell over his head. On the other
side of his sheet, he puts his wage
ten cents, twenty cents, thirty, forty
fifty cents a day. Scarcely ever il
is as much as dollar.
He is in the position Of man who
is trapped, who has been caught in
the rollers of machine and who il
asked to bear the pain because if the
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
Chinese Labor Not So Docile Anymore

csc factory, one a Chinese factory.
The Japanese factory was model
factory for Hankow. That means
that the rooms were light and the
ceilings high. Wages are a little
better here also,-forty cents a day
or $12 a month. But here, too, most
Of the workers are women and chill
dren and the day is twelve hours.
Here we find also the deadly strain
in the faces of women and children
who all day long tend a whirring
machine in a room with hundreds of
other machines so that the noise is
deafening.
The coming of the Nationalists has
meant an increase of wages to these
workers-an increase to forty cents
day. But forty cents day means
only $12 a month. And the day is
still twelve long hours. Here, as in
all the other factories, one hears
about the union that is fighting for
better wages, better conditions. The
union in this particular factory has
succeeded in securing medical care
for the workers, and tiny hospital
room.
The Japanese weaving mill is far
better than the Chinese mill visited.
The reason given is that the Chinese
mill is poorly financed. Rooms here
are dark, poorly ventilated. Hours
are long, work hard and nerve-wreck-
ing, pay only thirty-five cents a day.
Work at Home Also.
Four factories in an afternoon
means only the most hasty inspection.
There is no time to stop and talk
with workmen to find out what is
back of these tired faces, no chance to
chat a little and find more about the
lives that these people return to after
twelve hours of labor.
But these are married women who
have homes, no matter how poor, that
must be cared for at night. These
women do not have nurses to take
care Of their children while they go
out to their jobs--and they do have
children They go home to cook rice
and a few vegetables for their fam
lilies and go to bed in the midst of
squalor, to get up at five o'clock the
next morning, to hurry through early
morning duties and to be on hand
when the whistle blows and the sun
rises at 6.
This is factory life in Hanl1ow,
Talking to union leaders later, was
told, yes, these factories were or
ganized; they were doing their best to
get all the increases possible, to
get shorter hours, regular holidays
decent working conditions. / men,
toned to these leaders that to the
managers of the factories, this union
movement was viewed as a menace
dangerous, threatening, unreasonable
At the mention Of the word I'M
reasonable, the union leaders smiled
They were mill workers themselves
All their lives they have been wonder
ing about "reasonableness." They
asked me about it. All their lives,
they said they had been looking for
some treason" for their existence. So
far, unless TO starve that others might
be clothed and fed, they had found
none. Where, they asked, was the
reason in this
It was hard question to answer.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

defense OF our paper
against attack.
Forward all! To
work! Every comrade!
Every party unit! Ev-
cry red-blOOded, fight
ing worker! Stand by
our paper now. Speed
your contributions to
the defense fund. Let
your dollars be your an
swer to the attack upon
The DAILY WORKER.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

expense sheet; it is not viewed in
terms of human lives.
Children Swarm.
There were children in this factory,
swarms of them, sitting on the floor,
sorting out the cotton. Several of
them let me take their picture. The
picture is reproduced here. These
small children are the workers in a
British press packing company here.
They spend twelve hours a day In
rooms filled with cotton dust. They
do not have time out for their meals.
And they get twenty coppers a day,
or less.
When the Nationalist forces came
to HanBow last fall, there was a
strike at this factory. The workers
asked for better conditions and better
pay. Very little was gained and the
workers had to go back to their jobs.
The union says that the strike was
poorly organized.
Very Low Pay.
1t is to this factory that the men
carrying enormous bales of cotton
from the river docks. These bales
weight 200 catties. They are dumped
in rooms on the ground floor of the
building. They must be carried up
three flights of stairs. A man gets
10 coppers for carrying this huge
bale to the top of the building. The
worllmen say that it wouldn't be
such wretched pay but for the fact
that there are more men than bales
and they have to wait their turn.
Chinese Mill Worse.
saw three other mills this after
noon. The worst of the four was a
Chinese silk mill. The best was a
Japanese weaving mill. In all the
mills, the day was twelve hours long
and women and children did most OF
the work.
The silk factory was a horror
Babies huddled in baskets under the
machines. Women and girls in long
lines in a badly lighted, badly ventila-
ted room, with their hands in steam
ing water in which the cocoons are
soaking. The air thick with moisture
and the smell is bad. Everywhere
babies, and tiny children, too young
to work.
Better Under Nationalist.
For the workers in this wretchec
factory, the coming of the Nationalist
Government has meant little relief
They received a twenty per cent in
crease in wage, and days holiday in
each week. The wages now are sixty
coppers day for children and thirty
five cents a day for women. Sc
these women now get about $40 q
month for feeding spindles twelve
hours from the water-soaked cocoons
Anyone who lives in Hankov
knows what $40 month means the
poorest food, clothes little better thar
rags, howell to live in--and for these
women the deadly wearing, with
babies under the machines all day
lying in nests of rags, and families tc
take care of and feed in the evening
after the days work is done. The
women are thin and pale in this silk
factory. They never see the sun.
Same Long Hours.
The two other factories we visited
were weaving factories, one Japan.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

tension on the machine is relaxed, the
machine will stop, and if the machine
stops, he will starve. The man in
such position, aware only of enor-
nous suffering, cannot look calmly
at the consequences of the stopping
of the machine. He cries out against
his pain, fights madly to be free.
Master or Servant.
In these two ways, the situation of
the laboring man in China can be
viewed. We can look at it from the
point Of view of the man in the
ricksha, neatly dressed, comfortable,
well-fed, just up from a good nights
sleep in a good bed and just having
finished satisfying breakfast, or we
can look at it from the point of view
of the shabby, dirty wretch in the
shafts, half-fed, shivering in his rags
in the winter time, with no warm
shelter at night, and painting in the
summer under the hot blasts of the
sun, always miserable, always just
half-alive.
In viewing this situation from
either angle in the past, there has
been a tendency to speak in general
terms, on the one hand of per cent
profits, dividends, wage scales and
cost of labor, and on the other Of
union rights, union rules, strong or
; ganization.
Causes of Unrest.
There may, however, be given pic
lures instead of terms. The lives OF
the workingmen of China will be ex.
planned. Those lives are the best ex-
PLANTATION of the so-called tabor un.
rest" 1t is true, industries must
not be strangled, but it is true also
that without strangulation most Of
the industries of China could be re.
organized in such way that children
of seven and eight would not worl
for twelve hours a day in dan. fac
tories for few paltry cents, anC
that tired, worn women would not sit
all day over steaming tables in sill
factories, while their babies cry from
discomfort and hunger, or mercifully
sleep, in baskets of rags, under the
machines.
If to ask for a reorganization which
would eliminate these evils is to b,
dangerous, subversive to the interests
of investors in China, then the Ma
tionalist movement as a whole, is +;
dangerous agent.
But by the foreigners, if not BY
the Chinese employers Of labor, sucl
a condemnation cannot be made with
out some sense of guilt, for every for
eigner in China knows that such con
ditions as exist in the mills of Chin;
are unthinkable in his homeland. II,
knows that, at home, the existenc,
Of similar conditions, little owe
a century ago, is blot upon the mem
1ories Of his grandfathers. His home
land may still be far from HEAVIER
for the workingmen, but it is no long
er quite such a hell, as he and hi
Chinese imitators, have made O
China.
This afternoon, in four hours, tn,
writer was guided rapidly through
four mills. My impression at the ent
Of it is that the industry Of Chin;
is built up Of the energy Of pale
faced women and wistful-faced child
rem.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
We Will
NOT Be
SilenCed

1t has required the most heroic self sac
rifice to establish our paper. Thousands of
workers in the mines, mills, factories, and
farms have given their utmost to found The
DAILY WORKER, labOr's militant fighting
organ. For three years it has been MAIN
tanned by the dollars and dimes which the
workers have painstakingly eked out of their
meager pittance.
Shall we now allow our paper to be ST.
fenced by organized reaction? Shall the dol
lar patriots triumph? Shall the voice of la
Dor be crushed?
No! A thousand times no! We have
shown marvels of prOletarian initiative and
courage in the creation of The DAILY
WORKER. We will show still more in the
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

Twelve hours a day is long way.
1t means rising at dawn, and laboring
till twilight. There is no sun. Or
else it means entering an electric
lighted factory at twilight and work
ing till dawn.
In other countries, labor has fought
for years against the twelve hour
day, and in most of the world it is
now legally conceded that twelve
hours day is crime.
Women and Children Toll.
1t is children and women, as well
as men, who labor in China. Laws
that have long since been considered
necessary for humanity's sake in the
West have not yet been passed in
China. In other countries, labor has
fought for special laws for women,
and it is now legally conceded in
and it is now legally conceded in
men twelve hours a day is even
more of a crime than to work the
men.
Other countries have fought
against child labor, and it is now
legally conceded that to make tiny
children labor at machines, to keep
them out of the sunlight and out of
schools, to stunt their bodies and
warp their souls in dark, unventilated
factories or in mines is the worst
crime of humanity.
In China the time has not yet come
when it is legally conceded that these
things are crimes, and factories, be.
longing both to foreigners and Chi
nese, work their laborers, men, wo-
men and children, twelve long hours
day, and often more.
How Much For It?
What in wages does this long day
of labor mean to the laborers? II
varies. In a British-owned press
packing plant l visited today, where
hundreds of women and children worl
twelve hours a day sitting on stone
floors loosening cotton from cottor
bales, breathing air that is so thick
with cotton dust that the room seems
in perpetual fog, the average wage
per day is twenty coppers.
There is one room where there is
more skilled labor, men laborers, who
work around the packing machine
One man in this room crouches down
at regular intervals before one of the
great metal arms of a huge wheel
and, straining every muscle, jars tn,
great wheel from a dead stop, anC
pushes it into place under The
machine. Other men take care Of
other phases of the actual binding Of
the packages. The men in this room
are the plutocrats Of the factory
They get 1870 coppers a day.
Disease Prevails.
The atmosphere in the rooms o.
the factory is deadly. There is mucl
coughing, many wan faces with higf
spots of color in the checks. It is {
place where death turks in the air
But the factory never pays a CEN
when a workmen is sick. There Il
no provision for care of the laborer,
on the premises. There are no holi
days with pay. If they take Sunday
off, they lose days pay. If they
take two hours off, they lose a frac
ton Of the day. Labor in this mil
: is figure, factor, an item on al
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

and new courage to our American
Communist movement, to help us
build stronger the Red Fighting Front
of our American Communist Party
against the enemies of the working
class"
Then the Red Guard of Honor
watched thru the night. Early in the
morning we went on to Hamburg.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05
Army-Navy Scrap On
Colorado Grounding

The army and the navy were en-
gagged in free-for-all yesterday over
the grounding of the hell-belcher
Colorado on Diamond Reef in the
harbor recently. The navy gold
braids say army engineers failed to
show the rock and it's depth correctly
while the army retorts that the navy
needs few capable navigators for
its S27,0OO,OOO ships.
A court martial against Captain
Harms and the pilot may result.
SaccO and Vanzetti Shall Not Die!
OF SACCO AND VANZETTI
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

DAILY WORKER
33 First Street,
New York, N. Y.
IncIosed is my contribution Of
.... dollars .... cents TO the
Ruthenberg Sustaining Fund
for stronger and better
DAILY WORKER and for the
defense of our paper. | will pay
the same amount regularly
every ..........,....
Name ...'.....'......
Address ................
Ity ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
state .......................
Attach check or money order.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-05

spSTSFsFssSEs y j. j. y =
WORKERS! STOP THE MURDER
OF SACCO AND VANZETTI