The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-19
Ruthenberg the Leader
of Negro Workers as
Well as W hite | abOr
BY J. LOUIS ENGDAHL.

4 u. a
~ working class, stood out also as uncompromis
ing champion of the rights of Negroes of whom the
overwhelming majority workers. Ruthenberg
not race leader He class leader, struggling
for the emancipation of the workers Of all
Ruthenberg's teachings and his leadership in the
American working class struggle will be appre-
ciated by Negroes and workers Of other races in the
days ahead, they become more conscious of their
own class interests and unite for the class fight.
A leader is not necessarily class leader. In
fact exactly the opposite is too often the case This
especially true Of the Negro race where the leaders
usually those who have achieved so-called success
under the present social system This success" usually
means getting control of property rising in some
profession The Negro business man finds cleavage
developing between himself and the Negro worker. The
is also true of other middle class Negroes who
develop the attitude of middle class whites toward the
workers of both races.
Thus leadership often clashes with class leader
ship, which has interests separate and apart from
those of the workers Only leadership that grows
out of the working class does not into col
lsion with class leadership.
The writer of the column entitled The Week" in The
Defender, the Negro weekly published in Chicago, pays
quite tribute to Negro workers in reviewing the in
cdent of the successful fight made by John F. Raison
Negro, in forcing the board of education at Toms
River, Berkeley township, New Jersey to admit his
ten-year-old son to the local public school,
The fsther pointed out that his son. Frank had been
attending the Toms River school for the last two years.
On February l. last Frank and 81 other Negro children
taken out of the Toms River school and moved to
school established in a Negro church at Bushwck
This church building has walls without plaster, as
pointed out in The DAILY WORKER yesterday, it re-
tans moisture is cold and damp poorly heated and
sanitary and drinking water there kept an unsani
tary galvanized pail
The writer in The Defender in speaking of the fight
that made, declared:
"You should have been glad that there were men and
women of your race in that community with backbone
enough to refuse to send their children to the Jim Crow
school house. They said they'd keep them at home first
And they did They defied the truant officers to act
Humble, Woodworking wage-earners, the par
ents who made this bold stand Not leading Negro
among them. But they had too much respect for them
selves and too much love for their children to let them
be Inundated and shunted off into tumble-down, RAM
shacke school house. while the white children enjoyed the
fat of the land.
whenever you see firm stand like that taken look
for just such Woodworking, planliving folks behind it.
Don't start looking for any Of your big leaders, You'll
waste too much time in the search"
But the issue of The Defender that contains this
euogy of Negro workers. also contains extraordinary
display given to the campaign meeting held by
Big Bill" Thompson recently at the Eighth Regiment
Armory in Chicago. Thompson is the republican can
ddate for mayor He has long line of Negro leaders"
as we'll white leaders," old party politicians ALL in
his retinue.
The "leaders" who are denounced by The Defender
in New Jersey, appauded and all have their names
published in Chicago. Yet they no different
thompson is CRAFTY white politician, whose slogan
the primaries was America First" the pet cry of all
the open shoppers Thompson has supporting him such
Negro politicians Oscar DePrest, Louis B. Ander-
son and other lawyers who have been elected to the
city council where they have usually voted ant-labor
for the simple that they allied with anti
labor interests, that plumber the workers of all races
Let the Negro workers of the nation and white
workers well, take a lesson from the Negro wage
earners of Toms River New Jersey, who waged their
own fight. Probably without knowing it, but just as
effectively nevertheless, they wagng the struggle
of their class.
When the writer in The Defender says that, "The
white children enjoy the fat of the land" he is not
entirely correct
Go into any working class district in any large city,
and the public school conditions approximate those to
be found in the Negro neghborhoods The school
buildings usually DID, with plenty of porables scat
tered about the facilities of the worst the san-
tary conditions bad 1t is generally accepted for the
children of the working class we'll as Negro chill
dren, that anything is good enough for them"
Go into the middle class districts, the neghbor-
hoods of the ch and the school conditions Immediately
change. There the best conditions to be found.
The struggle for better public schools has always fall
len the shoulders of labor, just the original es
tablishnent the public school system was effected
was not achieved by looking for leaders" among the
capitalists, either big business their political
agents
Negro workers in other sections of the land learn
the lesson of the Negro wage-eaners Of Toms River
New Jersey, they will turn instnctively against the
so-caed LEADERS" Of their race, unless they are
working class leaders Those leaders who try to lure
them into the ranks Of the capitalist political parties
are their worst enemies DePriest and Anderson are
their enemies well big Bill" Thompson who has
never tried to lift the condition of the great masses
of Negro workers any than white workers. be-
cause to do would seriously affect the capitalist
social system that he supports.
Rutb Al