davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11
"Win r. r. Workers for Party Program"

To take the initiative in organizing the IN
organized Where railroad workers join tbs
A. r. of L., to take the leadership in these
unions and work toward making these lodges
centers of the class struggle and part OF the
militant opposition movements centered around
the Unity Movement.
Where the men form independent unions, ne
take the leadership and try to makc these
unions class struggle organizations.
AS against the splitting tactics of the union
officials and the roads, we unite organized and
unorganized; employed and unemployed; Negro.
foreign and native born to fight for the inn
provement of their conditions at each particu-
lar shop, roundhouse terminal and system.
1t is the duty Of every Communist railroad
worker to join the union of his craft and 70
fight against bureaucracy and the Jim-Crov
theology of the railway labor aristocracy. Where
no organization exists every railroad Party menu
Der must take the initiative to start Organise
ton
All Districts, Sections, Units, and all fractions
in all mass organizations must do everything
possible to popularize the above demands TO
mobilize railroad workers in their territory for
these demands; to help build the Unity Move
ment and introduce and circulate Unity News
among railroad men.
Therefore the struggle Of railway labor FOR
higher wages and better working conditions,
for social insurance and the right to strike are
part of the fight to abolish the capitalist system
itself, and cannot be separated at any time
from the building Of the Communist Party,
which leads the workers in struggle against the
capitalist system and for the establishment Of
a workers government in the United States
In winning railroad labor to the program Of
our Party, all Communist papers, including the
foreign language press, but particularly the
Daily Worker, the central organ of the CornInu-
mist Party, become of decisive importance. The
Friday railroad edition of the Daily Worker
must become mass paper for railroad men
Railroad workers all over the country must take
the responsibility for making this issue reflect
the daily grievances of railroad labor and the
center for exposing the maneuvers of the capt.
talists and the union and social reformist poll
ticians. Through such exposure carried on
Systematically each week, we will win railroad
labor away from the influence Of these forces
and ter thu orogram Of the Communist Party
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

Since the passage of this Act thousands Of
grievances and unsettled claims have accumu-
lated on the railroad systems of the country,
because the men accepted the provisions of the
Act and abstained from taking direct action.
Thus the men were shackled to the stalling
apparatus OF negotiating committees, adjust
ment boards mediation boards, boards of arbi-
tration and emergency boards, while the roads
did as they pleased and continued to disregard
the ever mounting number of claims and griev-
ances
The fruits of class collaboration ripened in
1882, when the roads reached an agreement with
the Brotherhood leaders to enforce 10 per
cent cut for all railroad workers. This cut has
been twice extended against the wishes of the
rank and file by the Grand Lodge Officers
supported by the intervention first of President
Hoover and then of President Roosevelt
Encouraged by their successes, the roads in
tensifed their drive against labor. They laid
of additional tens OF thousands of workers;
rev up plan for consultations to still fur
her abolish hundreds Of thousands of jobs, and
established a dictatorship to enforce the bill,
using the liberal, Eastman, for the purpose.
This measure, called the Emergency Railroad
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11
Organize Railroad Workers To Smash The mberiast War Plans


Under the Roosevelt and Eastman New Deal"
company unions have been given government
sanction, and are now recognized by the various
labor boards functioning under the Railway
Labor Act, despite the fact that during the past
year the men have been making the most heroic
efforts to get rid Of the company unions.
Dsillusionment with the New Deal" disgust
with the servile policies of the union chiefs
grows daily. The roads the government and
the Grand Lodge Officers are afraid they can
no longer keep the men in check and are
rapidly taking the path for suppression Of the
most elementary rights of the workers.
Eastman has now proposed changes in the
Railway Labor Act to enforce compulsory arbi-
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

NOTE: Resolution below was adopted at
the national fraction meeting of Communist
Party railroad workers.
Railroad transport is most vital factor in
he economic and commercial life of the nation
md constitutes the most immediate and i'm
oortant apparatus for the mobilization Of troops
and the transportation Of munitions in prepsra-
ion for and in times of war.
For this reason the 18th Plenum Resolution
f the Communist International, adopted by
Communist Party leaders from every corner of
he globe says: I'm fighting against war the
Communists must prepare even now for the
transformation of the imperialist war into civil
war; and concentrate their forces in each coun-
try at the vital parts of the war machine Of
imperialism
I'm addition to increased agitation, the Com
munist Parties must by all means in their power
ensure the practical organization of mass action
preventing the shipping OF arms and troops,
lindering the execution of orders Of belligerent
Countries, organizing demonstrations against
military maneuvers, etc. -"
The program of the Communist Party of the
J.S.A., embodied in the Draft Resolution to the
18th Party Convention, finds it necessary once
more to sharply emphasize that the railroad
industry is major concentration for the entire
Party. 1t calls upon the Party Districts, SEQ
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

tration, to destroy the independent power of
the rank and file trade unionists, to put into
effect direct dictatorship of the capitalist state
in the settlement of wages and working condi-
lions for railroad labor.
All these drives have been supported by the
liberal and so-csled radical politicians, the
Wagners the Eastmans, the Dills, Hatfelds and
Kellers, the Farmer Laborites, the Socialist
Party leaders. They have all joined hands in
helping Roosevelt patch up and try to save the
decaying capitalist system. They are trying to
keep the workers from going over to the pro-
gram of the Communist Party, and to chain
labor to the band wagon of big business, to
the program of war and fascism
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

monthly publication, Railroad Unity News has
a circulation of 5000, In the last six months
the number of groups were doubled, the num-
Der of supporters quadrupled and the circulation
of the paper doubled. This shows that the
rank and file are ready for independent action.
However, it is important to note that only
small part of these workers are directly con-
nected with the Communist Party and that our
main Party recruitment has not come from the
ranks of these workers.
The main weakness of the Unity Movement,
which prevents it from becoming the recognized
leader of broad sections of railroad men, is
the widespread legalistic illusions and the hang
overs of the one big union idea While it is
true that these misconceptions have their main
roots within the unity groups, they are also
found to lesser extent within the leadership
Of the Unity Movement
The legalistic illusions express themselves with
being content to protest against the attacks of
the Grand Lodge Officers and the railroads by
passing resolutions in the lodges without at the
same time taking practical steps to utilize the
sentiment created in order to mobilize the men
in the lodges and on the Job to defeat these
attacks as they arise.
The one big union hangover expresses itself
where the loosely organized groups have as their
perspective the development of larger loosely
organized groups to include all men, regardless
of craft or union divisions, instead of irving
to work in the direction of building militant
groups in the lodges and on the Job, which
VIII unite in common struggle, for the imme-
date improvement of conditions.
Both of these ideas substitute general agita-
ton and schematic plans for patient daily work
to improve the conditions of the men. Both
must be combatted and overcome if the Unity
Movement is to become the leader of the grow
ing discomfort in the railroad industry break
the influence of the reformist leaders and lead
the men into major class battles
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

is trying 10 obtain every penny it
can lay its hand on to increase
its war budget, to supply greater
subsidies to the big bankers and
corporations who have already re-
ceived billions.
Every worker, every workers or
ganization sympathetic to the So
Wet Union, should Immediately pro-
test this criminal deed Of the Roose-
welt government.
Wire your protests to Roosevelt
and Secretary of State Hull. de-
manding an end 10 all impediments
to trade with the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union, the only gov
eminent in the world which has
never defaulted on any of its loans,
which alone has a stable financial
system, which alone is increasing
its productive machinery for the
good of the toiling masses, must not
be permitted to be branded in the
manner the enemies Of the So
Wet Union are seeking to do.
Demand the immediate opening
of trade with the Soviet Union and
the granting Of full and free credit
facilities.
Defend the Soviet Union!
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

get out or go to work in the An
chorage. was sick, so I got out.
lived from hand to mouth until ]
got ship. In the fall of 1888 was
back on the beach and went back
to the Anchorage for relief. They
opened up their books and said,
You owe s3.75 from 1928 I didn't
have 1t. I didn't get into the Anchor
age"
But you couldn't get in whether
or not you owed them" Seaman
James pointed out, If you hap
pened to be the least bit militant.
L tried it myself and they threw
me out.
Holy "Relief"-At a Profit
They have cops stationed there
continually. Jensen, their secretary
was known to seamen for years as
q shipping erimp and pawnbroker.
He would lend money to the fellows
inside, for their keep and take
their watches for it. He shipped
more than TOO seamen out on Jobs
paying less than the regular wages.
We can prove that 30 per cent of
the arrests on the waterfront took
place right inside the Anchorage.
But why shouldn't they pull this
stuff? They get contributions from
shipowners; they got contributions
last year from Nelson and others.
What they never answered us is
where the money goes if not into
their pockets. They conducted pub
lie campaigns in the name of Civ
ing relief to Seamen-thousands of
dollars. Their own published state
ment of their budget only processes
to show they spent a little over a
thousand dollars more than they
took in on seamen."
That 'relief" the seaman did re-
ceive from the Anchorage con-
sisted Of the bunk and one break
fast, Of thin oatmeal, coffee and dry
bread, on the forced-labor basis of
his agreement in advance to do
hours work. In order to get a sec
ond meal, a bowl of stew, he must
work another hour and walk miles
uptown to the Salvation Army
headquarters. His work, in addition
to cleaning cuspidors, ranged from
repairing or improving the property
TO performing mental service for
Director Hardin, such as washing
his automobile.
Yet the costs OF the Seamen's
Project, with all the services and
goods 1t supplies, is less than the
average spent on transient projects!
The difference spells the grating
and corruption eliminated by
worker control.
The average spent on transients
throughout the country, federal
sources told me in Washington, Is
rs cents per man. For those living
outside the Seamen's Project, the
government allowed IS cents, three
meals at 20 cents and 20-cent bed.
But the average cost per man per
day in the Seamen's Project, on
collective, non-profit basis, was just
So and AS cents, including meals,
laundry, wages, office supplies, bar
Der, shoemaker, tailor-everything
They never would tell us how
much it cost when the government
had the Anchorage running federal
relief" House Superintendent Har-
ris said, but we know that while
it cost them 1923 per man per week
in our project, they are paying as
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11
Leather Union
Officials Drop
Fight for Raise
Sold Out in Strike, Men
Oppose New Check
OFF"

PEABODY, Mass, May 10 Hail
ing the recent betrayal Of $500
leather workers as victory" the
leaders of the National Leather
Workers Union are trying to en-
force a check-off system for the
compulsory payment of dues. The
agreement signed by these officials
does not grant the demands OF the
strikers for protection on the job,
increased wages and better shop
conditions.
The demand of the workers for
a IS per cent increase in wages has
been submitted to arbitration and
is being shelYed by these officials.
The officials are pressing the
check-off system to insure their
position. The bosses are opposing
this in the hope that the resent
ment of the membership will lead
to the breakup Of the union and
open the way for bringing in the
company union.
Three firms, employing $50 work
ers, have not signed the agreement.
The workers in these firms are
carrying on a struggle over the
heads Of the officials.
The membership is demanding
that a referendum of the member
ship be held, and that independent
struggles be carried on in the shops
for higher wages and against dis
elimination for union activity.
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11
l28 Ships Tied Up
lnLOngshOremen's
Strike In the West

high ss SO week for room and
board Of transients uptown, and
they sleep two men in q bunk"
To keep down the costs for the
capitalist government that financed
this Seamen's Project is not a pri-
mary consideration with the revo-
lutionary workers who lead the sea
men-they are concerned first with
the standard of living it maintains.
But the elimination of graft and
corruption automatically reduce the
expense and increase efficiency.
Innumerable difficult problems
came with their victory. Most of
them they met correctly. Some, par
ticularly those never encountered
before in the labor movement, they
could not solve.
Some Mistakes Made
Incomplete analysis of the victory
itself led to a basic weakness-isola-
ton from the broad mass Of the
other unemployed and the en-
ployed in other basic industries.
Failing to appreciate that this vic
tory resulted not only from their
heroic militant battle and their
complete exposure of the corruption
of the Y. M G. A. regime, but also
from the circumstances that Balti-
more relief officials underestimated
the seamen's ability to run the
project successfully and that neither
the shipoWners nor the federal Off
Gals suspected the import Of recog-
nizing the seamen's committee, they
allowed the totally unfounded sug-
gestion to creep in that here was
an incipient Soviet on the Water
front" It further separated them
from the rest of the working class,
hastened the assault upon them,
and handicapped them in meeting
it. The opposite tendency also APP
peared-the miseonception that the
responsibilities of those leaders who
became government employees might
hold back in their leadership Of the
struggle. 1t tended to weaken the
unity of their leading forces.
In the beginning Of the struggle
they we're insufficiently aggressive
in dealing with the Negro question.
Later they instituted campaign
of education and developed strug-
gle on this issue, and an application
Of the policy of protection Of ma
tional minorities, such as has rarely
been seen. But before they obtained
control, they failed to raise special
demands for Negroes, and this play
ed into the backwardness of many
in their ranks. They were unable
to avoid segregation until they had
carried through their education
campaign-they were unable, there
fore, for a time, to utilize their
struggle to gain active support
among the Negroes.
Yet despite the shortcomings,
which arose not only in the sea-
mems movement but in the Com
munist Party forces outside, the
marine workers developed a leader
ship and raised their struggle to
political levels that make history
in the militant labor movement.
Tomorrow: Who's Who in the
Seamen's Movement)
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11
Labor Rouses the Waterfront
m-BEFORE AND AFTER WORKER CONTROL.
By MARGUERITE YOUNG

By MARGUERITE YOUNG
IT'S Lenin's name you hear
1 along the waterfront where
last Spring it was Gods. The
collective voice Of working
men prevails where once the
honeyed soprano of gospel
mission singer mingled with
the failing of the policemans night
stick and the epithet Of the Shan
ghsi artist. Revolutionary struggle
has driven religious raeketeering
on the streets-the seamen have
won their fight to administer relief.
They are to face an assault by
enemies allied with and more power
full than the same Holy Racketeer"
but in order to draw a fair con-
trast, we visit the Seamen's Project
while the workers hold control.
Eighteen seamen, paid by the
federal government but elected by
their fellows, staff the SeamenS
Relief Project. It is a three-story
building that houses 125 men. On
the first floor, two seamen clerks
are in charge of q glsss-windowed
office. The dining floor is FURNISHED
white. A bulletin blackboard carries
notices, but instead of the evangel-
lists meetings heralded in mission
houses, here are announcements of
Young Communist League dance,
Negroes and white, all workers in
vited," and Of ships on strike in
port.
Worker Control
There is no dormitory here; the
second and third floors are parti-
toned into individual rooms, one
man in each. No double decker beds.
Clean linen. On every bed, a copy
Of '"The Daily Worker" on virtually
every chair q revolutionary PAM
phlet on forced labor or on Negro
and white unity. There is shoe
repair shop tailor shop, open to
all without charge. There is 20
bed hospital here; Sick Bay" to
supply medicine for minor ills. The
Clothing Room" provides tooth
paste, razors and blades, tobacco,
stamps, as we'll as all articles of
clothing on a show Of need; there
is a shower-room with plentiful hot
water.
The house rules are posted by
order of the Seamen's Sub-eommit-
tee: IF you don't work, you don't
eat or sleep. Drunken and dis
orderly conduct will not be toler-
ated. Schedule of meal hours,
details of work periods. :" The
latter applies solely to the collec-
tive work necessary to keep the pro-
ject, and as more seamen enter, the
apportionment per seaman is cut
down to two hours every third day.
There are no straw bosses here, no
officials. Cooks, galleyman, orderlies,
ticket collector, clothing department
men and stewards do their work
and draw their wages-and parti-
cipate in the collective life Of the
men.
The Recreation Hall
Around the corner, block and
half down Broadway, is the Sea-
mems Recreation Hall, provided by
the government upon militant de-
mands by the seamen. Checker and
card tables are here, and several
attendants, paid by the gov
eminent. Behind the big room
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

two BARRIERS chairs in which the
seamen are served free. The walls
are filled with posters, notices:
Read the Daily Worker" next to
Don't Spit on the Deck" And the
bulletin board here, in addition to
notices Of meetings, holds a card
board permanently exhibited. 1t
reads:
1.-THE revolution has been recog-
nized by those who are constantly
being held out as glowing figures in
American history.
Thomas jefferson: 7 hold a lit
tie rebellion now and then is a
good thing and as necessary in the
political world as storms in the
physical. What signify a few
lives lost in century or SOP The
tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood
Of patriots and tyrants.'
Abraham Lincoln: This country
with its institutions belongs to the
people. Whenever they grow weary
of the existing government, they
can exercise their constitutional
right of amending it, or their revo-
lutionary right to dismember or
overthrow it,
Woodrow Wilson, We have for
gotten the very principles of our
origin if we have forgotten how to
object, how to resist, how to agitate,
how to pull down and build up, even
to the extent of revolutionary prac-
tice.
80 exercise your right! Fellow
worker and seamen: Organize and
fight for your rights"
Pictures Of the Scottsboro boys
and of Ernst Thaelmann are here
also, and more notices of strikes,
meetings, protest demonstrations, :.
The unemployed seamen spend a
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-11

rust, 1918, received in Salaries"
422, s22.Ss. In the "secretariaI de-
lartment," headed by C. ]. Mad
ikhovslSy and Ananieff, S144.s75
vas expended for Salaries Mr..
Serge Ughet, during these SIX
months did not overlook himself.
He received $4,000. Payments
Turing these six months for SAL
aries and expenses" amounted to
the tidy sum Of Si,16s,S20.2S.
The Roosevelt government wants
he workers in the Soviet Union to
70 considered in default" for such
iJuns and pay them to the Amer
lean government 50 that Roosevelt
can increase his war budget and
be able to shoot down Japanese
workers, or workers and peasants
in the Soviet Union.
The United States government
itself helped to supply the Bakhme-
tieff gang with money that it could
very we'll have kept and applied
AGAINST the Kerensky loans.
For Example: After the downfall
of the Kerensky regime, the United
States government purchased from
the provisional Russian government
representatives in Washington mu-
nitions that had been contracted
for. It paid $11,000000 for these
goods. The money could very well
have been kept in the q. s. Treas
ury for future accounting against
the loans. But, no, that was not
the object of the United States gov
ernment in buying the supplies. In
stead, the money was placed in the
National City Bank to the credit Of
the counter-revolutionaries.
The United states Shipping
Board chartered some vessels be-
longing to the Provisional Russian
government. 1t paid Bakhmetieff
81 100000 through the National City
Bank in the same way.
"a Industrializatsiu" is so I'M
kind to point out some historical
presidents on the question Of loans
and debts that are incorporated in
the 14th amendment to the United
States Constitution. That amend
ment applied to the Civil War in
he United States. British bankers
helped the South through funds in
lighting against the North for the
dissolution Of the union, and for
the retention Of the slaves. The
14th amendment repudiates all Of
these debts. Yet the Roosevelt gov
arnment wants the Soviet Union to
pay money spent in graft to Amer
lean bankers, to Czarist agents, and
used to murder Russian workers
md peasants in the interest Of over
throwing the Soviet government.
Workers! Protest!
Meanwhile, U. S.-Soviet trade is
being blocked. This is not to the
interest OF the American workers
md farmers, and to the Soviet
Union. The Roosevelt government