The daily worker., 1931-02-13
Yankee COIOuv
Uses Forced
Slave Labor
BY HARRISON GEORGE.

M1Dl% l1l" H4o4l pICdoC SOlloluGL OH
w embargo, such as the U. S. has
established against Soviet lumber,
against Cuban sugar and Guate-
malan coffee, the forced labor in the
production OF which has previously
been exposed with documentary proof
In the Daily Worker?
We venture to state that not a
word will be uttered on the subject,
even by those great ''humanitarians,"
Matthew Woll, Andy Mellon and Nor
man Thomas. But today, we wish to
ask If imports into the United States
from Santo Domingo should not also
be barred, if Mr.. Fish is to be taken
seriously about forced labor?"
Santo Domingo is supposed to be
an independent" republic, yet it was
occupied by u. S. marines from Nov.
90, 1916 until July, 1924 and is virtual
ly protectorate or vassal state of
the q. S. A., as shown by the "ad-
visory commission" to organize its
finances, headed by Dawes in 1929.
The government is mere pawn in
the hands of Yankee imperialist in
vestors. And when the past pres
ident, Vasquez, was no longer to an
swer their purposes, revolt was ar
ranged and a military dictatorship
under General Trujillo set up year
ago, with which Washington is in
perfect relations.
To show how much an appendix
is Santo Domingo to the U, S. A., We
may merely state the fact that it
has no national money of its own,
and uses United States money. Amer
lean investments year ago totalled
$2s,548,0oo.
Yet what do we hear about forced
labor-not in the Soviet Union-hut
right here at Americas doorstep and
under its control?
The workers defense organization
known as the Caribbean Red Aid, III
recent statement on conditions in
Sa11to Domingo, protests at the ter
ror against the Dominican working
class, and says:
"The troops stop and question
workers in the streets of all the cities
Of the country and after brief ques-
tions and replies declare the passers-
by 'vagrants' and take them off I'M
der arrest. Each one of those ar
rested awaits the most terrible prison
regime and FORCED LABOR"
Perhaps Secretary Mellon of the
u S. Treasury will now put an en-
barge on all sugar, cocoa and tobacco
coming into American ports from
Santo Domingo? Perhaps he will de-
cree that "the burden of proof" rests
ON the various Yankee imperialist
corporations and the National City
Bank which finances them, to prove
that Dominican sugar, cocoa and ta-
bacco are not produced "in whole or
In part by forced labor?"
This is the bar put against Soviet
lumber this last Monday All, how
v!gilant the Washington officials are!
They can see forced labor" in the
distant camps Of the Murmansk pen
insula in far-off Soviet Russia. And
their hearts throb with humane pity
at the tale of elsingfors refugees"
But they have not CULVER of sor-
row for the tens of thousands of
lumberjacks of the Pacific Northwest
who are submitted to the blacklist of
the lumber trust and are forced (by
hunger) to labor under the vilest and
most abject conditions, long hours at
starvation wages, under the Weyer-
hauser foremen!
And, of course, the poor starving
agricultural worker of Santo Do
mingo. jobless and searching for
bread or work in the cities of this
country, under the iron heel of mill
tary dictator, is less than nothing to
the imperialist powers at Washington.
He may be forced to labor for Amer
lean plantation owners as convict
ed vagrant" or be shot for refusal
it is q matter of indifference to
Washington.
But the soft spot in the heart OF
American imperialists is touched by
the fact that in far-off Murmansk
there might be forced labor out OF
which Wall Street finds it impossible
In extract a. cent of nrofitf