PROFITEERING ON PRISONERS' MISERY
O'HARE, KATE R.
PROFITEERING ON PRISONERS' MISERY Spread of the Prison Labor Trust Menaces Efforts of Organized Labor By KATE R. O'HARE THE very fabric of our democratic form of Government is being rotted and...
...0. It is some'consolation to knew thet if the world's oil wells dried up, to would the world's jingoes.— Thomas Jsy...
...The National Society of Brass and Metal Mechanics this year proposes thet tha General Council shall havs power to call on all affiliated societies, in the event of a dispute, either to down tools or render financial aid...
...For example, the present monograph accepts the old view of Mor-gen and Engels regarding the prevalence of a primitive Communism in which private property was unknown...
...House Resolution No...
...No one could claim to have become a better Socialist for reading it, and in many a person it would arouse an antagonism to Socialist papers...
...D. C, told the Public Ownership League at their lunch today at the Y. M. C. A. "The wide uee of tractors end other machinery on the farms has displaced over 1,000,000 men...
...Agriculture is as nearly bankrupt as any Institution can be, so some fanners are calling for a protective tariff as a dose of oxygen...
...Of the American period of 1919-1921, "to talk with an American Bolshevik . . . was much like talking with an asylum Nspoleon...
...Marsh...
...Nine out of ten theoreticians who pey homage to Marx do not follow his example, that is, to venture into new fields and to use his method to interpret history, institutional, party and class development in tht United States...
...lascivious...
...Its secretary, A. J. Angman, 1018 Louise St., Elizabeth, N. J. can furnish all information as well as text-books, etc...
...A considerable section of the article shows how this movement "aped the ideology of the Soviet dictatorship with incredibly naive irrelevance to American life...
...B. I Shaw...
...Judging from the testimony produced at the trisl, Eli Brown, attorney for the Reliance Manufacturing Company, is rightfully in possession Of the title which newspaper reporters heve given him—"King of the Fixers...
...In any State, at any time, no matter what political party is in power, wherever prison labor contracts ere to be let, the contractors expect to pey the price...
...And seemingly they did, for after a. mate of juggling the Gordon Shirt Company finally landed the contract, far which they pay the State about 70 cents ; per day for the labor of the prison-i ers...
...Not because his charges are uncalled for, but because tht same charges could be brought against every profession and trade, even Mr...
...They "aped this very diction" by selecting the "counter-revolutionary yellow So-cielists," which was "nonsensical, for there was no revolution anywhere in sight...
...Louis Gold M. D. Farmers aad Wages Editor, The New Leeder: - There are 1,000,000 too many farmers in the United States todey, Benjamin C. Marsh, secretary of the People's Reconstruction League, Washington...
...British Aid Indian Strikers Upon receipt of an appeal from the All-Indian Railroadmen's Federation for aid In its fight against the Indian Northwest and the Bengsl Northwest Railroads, stmt 40,000 of wfiose employes have been on strike for about three months In dtfense of thtir unions, the London Daily Herald urged all British unions to do everything in their power to help the downtrodden Indian workers win some of their elementary rights...
...Its editor, Louie J, Engdahl, "lives entirely in a' work of fiction...
...Contributor...
...man ear at a traffic olegftr,a men-act to the street car employe* and the public and a device good for nothing but intensified exploitation flPplftn* interest of the companies...
...The congress also discussed the question of competition by private companiee with State and eitv-owneri rar lines end other matters of interest to traction workers...
...I forgot to mention above thet the pacifist organizations of the world are also joining this movement of international understanding, and my correspondence in Ido with persons of different tongues in foreign countries has taught me that this language is readily comprehended everywhere and that through it racial prejudices and hatreds will gradually become vices of the past...
...Farm Wag** Soar Farm wage* have increased over 200 per cent in the last sixty yeers.—Chicago News, Aug...
...The seme idea ie more fully expressed in a resolution by the National Union of Vehicle Builders, which proposes: that the General Council be given powers to call for a stoppage of work by en affiliated organization, or part thereof, in order to assist a union defending a vital trade union principle...
...In |oat Virginia the State otltlse) told aV that the politicians "kicked like hell" ebout Eli Brown coming clown than aad "sopping up all the gravy...
...Frederick Kraft...
...Stolberg makes a big error in leaving the Socialist Part) with only 5,000 members when tht Communists were thrown out, ir 1919, and in prtaenting the contra dictory affiliations of William Z Foster hs does not mention th* gentleman's relation with the Syn dlcalist League and presenting iti progrem with that air of finalitj with which he now presents Com muhism...
...What happened in Oklahoma is commonplace and typical of what is happening all over the country...
...De Witt would help his cause by sticking to Chatterboxing...
...It is not deliberate imposition, of course...
...Bund Ssoras Palish Deal That the deal recently completed between tht Polish Government and tha Jewish Deputies ill WUAattat purporting to guarantee political, religious and economic rights to the Jews at Vmtk Iff tht support ef the Jewish politicians is unsatisfactory to organized Jewish Labor is er»s*eRUL* Telegraph Agency: "Due to egotistic class policy Poland ik living through a severe economic critis and needs an international loan...
...it is due to intellectusl letiness and a tendency to reduce Marxiem to a dogma and to teach with the cocksure assumption th#t Marx said the last word on history and the evolution of capitalism, Marx would be the fiist to resent this unscientific attitude...
...My reasons for bringing this matter to the attention of the A merican Socialists are that, besides the radio-world, two international groups, the Catholics and the Communists, have not only become deeply interested In this international instrument of Communication but are publishing, respectively, organs in that language, LTdlsto Katolika (The Catholic Idiot) and Nia S tender do (Our Flag).' The International Language (Ido) Society of America is a branch of the European Uniono por la Lin-guo Internaciona...
...Under the necsstity of indulging in "revolutionary orthodoxy" and accepting reconciliation with cepitelism in Russia, what were our revolutionaries to do...
...And the King rules over a worthy court...
...what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.—0...
...Oni week "before Senator La Folletts repudiated them in May, 1924, they extolled him as a deml-Lenin, while the very next day they wrote lengthy and detailed 'analyse*' why he is an incurable 'petty bourgeois and 'progressive fraud.'" Theii "revolution ie a grown-up Children'i Crussde...
...Such a student will grow Into the twentieth century, not remain in the nineteenth...
...The New Leader Mail Bag More on Ido Editor, The New Leader: Having received verious inquiries regerdlng ths international language Ido (ee-doh) in reeponse to my letter published by you several weeks ago, permit me to answer them end perhaps others through the medium of The New Leader...
...Peter Pans of Communism THE July number of The "Century contains e delightful satire and criticel entlysis of American Communism by Benjamin Stolberg...
...However, we may egret that the Communists are...
...All the Indian unions are supporting the railroad men in their fight against the companies' attempt to destroy their organisation end public sympathy it also with the strikers, despite the disorganization of traffic ana Sa th...
...Finally, we are suspicious of all the Marxian generals who assume to explain Marx...
...And anrkeg the prooent iM ¦iQjsiialhiii he swanks ebout official fjaemt*em« with a gold sword deagtlaf between his lege, a "colonel" on \2 Governor'sjU9...
...Edo Fimmen, Genersl Secretary of, the International Transport Workers' Federation, presided over the congress, which was closed by a big parade through the streets of the Belgian capital...
...He ventured into new fields...
...Ridgsfleld, N. J._ Stick to Ckatterboalng Editor, The New Leader: Mr...
...Russia must ' sve a further, "Bolehevizatien" of the party, so the American Communists raise ths stsndsrd of "Bolshevization...
...PROFITEERING ON PRISONERS' MISERY Spread of the Prison Labor Trust Menaces Efforts of Organized Labor By KATE R. O'HARE THE very fabric of our democratic form of Government is being rotted and destroyed by the profits on prison labor...
...Not so this monograph...
...It will be necessery to shut off all immigration f°r five years if we are to heve a peaceful adjustment of man'power from farms to other in- i dustries," said Mr...
...About the best characteriaatior of the Daily Worker is made wher Stolberg writes that it "is an incredibly inaccurate, misinterprets tive, and scurrilous sheet...
...Pete: Pans, having a good time in a fig mentary predicament" and the1 i American Labor "is watching tftii ,i burlesqus with unholy joy...
...10 declared that Eli Brown cams to Oklahoma' end scattered 11,000 bills about with a lavish hand...
...sfcrue...
...If the lid were lifted in almost any State where prison labor is used to make private profits the stench would be equally bad...
...We suggest that any person desiring to know Merx should get a copy of th* "Communist Manifesto," his "Value Price end Profit," and the first volume of "Capital," and then resign himself to a careful and patient study...
...There arej many other "Fixers," less efficient i perhaps and not quite so famous, but cepeble of oiling the wheels for prison labor contractors...
...But the euthor of this monograph expounds and explains primitive society in terms of the anthropology of the late seventies rather than of the second decade of the twentieth century...
...Every man ls> a missionary—a missionsry for good or evil.—Lord Polwarth...
...Not one of them has followed the rich discoveries mode in many fields which heve modified some of the conclusions of Marx and Engels and strengthened others...
...Russlen Bolshevik?, heve a struggle against "Trotskyism," so the American Bolsheviks must have a similsr "struggle...
...The impeachment trial of Governor John Walton of Oklahoma, held November, 1923, uncovered just one little nicer of graft and corruption, and it is typical of the whole country...
...The delegates represented about 150,-000 street cer employes, of whom 66,-000 lived in Germany...
...If Lenin used his handkerchief American Communists must sneeze...
...It is a monograph intended to expound Msrxism in class work and it affords On opportunity to make some observations regarding the theoretician...
...Where men Ire for sale tot blood-money the millions of the prisoa labor contractors are all powerful, but they can be made as worthless as dirt when the formers and the wage workers heve leerned to stand i together, and then protect eech othee with the union lebel...
...All the others denounced, tat eng...
...When Lain "hurled Jovian invectives against the counter-revolutionaries** American Communists were also under the necessity of finding "counter-revolutionerle*" to smite hip and thigh...
...The English lenguege cennot be more explicit then Section 7,898 of the Statutes of Wyoming, it says: "The person or persons ia charge of any penitentiary, or reformatory, or jail, or ether prison ia the State of Wyoming wherein State convicts are confined, shall not, nor shall any other authority whatever, make any contracts for the employment of any State convicts at a fixed price per diem, or by what is known as the 'piece price' plan, or in eny other manner whereby the labor of the convicts is let or controlled by eny outside person...
...De Witt's, that of working for Socialism...
...The Indians ask their fellow-unionists jto put pressure upon the BritiiFGovernment so thet the latter will force the Indian Government to intervene in the strikers' behalf and alts to send material aid, as tht misery of tht strikers, many of whose families have been evicted by the companies, is greet...
...The - concluded agreement does not take into eonsidsrttion tht vital interests Of the Jewish workers and does not secure the rights of Labor...
...in n i i To War I'pon One-Man Cars When the subject of one-man street cars came up at s congress of street car workers' unions affiliated with tht International Transport Workers' Federal ion, held in Brussels the last days of July, tht only delegates who said a good word for them were those from England...
...Marx was a pioneer...
...Reder, Sfcretery-Treesurer of the Reliance Manufacturing Company, admitted on the witneas stand that he did not know how much was spent to secure the contract, but that Eli Brown might have epent $200,000 without his knowledge...
...And the "Fixers" are required to ect as go-betweens and serve the politicians aad the contractors in making contracts which will be satisfactory to all concerned except the prisoners who produce the profits, the taxpayers who foot the bills, and the dectujt minded citizens who still cling to ideals of clean politics...
...Despite the few errors in the ar tide it is a valuable review el American Communism end its pey chology...
...eaenee...
...One defect of the Socialist movement in the United States is that it has been rest that any of our writers ventured to do much more than to explain Mara...
...In their confusion they "aped both...
...The Jewish working masses du hot accept such bartering end declare that they will continue | their fight for the fraternising of I the Polish, Ukrainian, White Russian, German and Lithuanian work...
...Brooklyn...
...Most of the best things we now possess began by being dreams.—J, Russell Lowell...
...Whet is the matter with the poor j i» Poverty...
...Misunderstanding: Karl Marx The Mistake of Teaching Marx as "The Last Word" In Social Science WE heve received "The Marxist," by Herry Weton, published by the Workers' Educational Institute, and are requested to mention it on this pege...
...A whole crop of Marxian generals appeared in the United States following the Russisn devolution, each general et war with the others...
...The Polish reactionsry forces were comJoiled to forget their contempt for ews and start negotiations with the leaders of the Polish Jewish Deputies...
...Our readers, when recalling the numerous Merxian generals thet eppeartd in this country et that time, will appreciate the force of this satire...
...LABOR JOTTINGS FROM ABROAD British Congress Agenda — Bund Scorns Deal-War on One> Man Cars — Aid for Indian Strikers...
...But researches in recent yeers have considerably modified the views of Morgan and it is certain that both Marx and Engels would heve herelded the new researches and would have also modified their own ideas of primitive Communism...
...Above all, the student should not forget in reading Marx thst, remarkable as was his contribution to history and social science, men have not ceased to think or to write since he died in 1883...
...It also states that he fraudulently donated 110,000 to the primary campaign expenses of Governor Walton with a wilful and corrupt purpose of unjustly influencing the officers of the State of Oklahoma in favor of the Reliance Manufacturing Company ia the management of its business in the State Penitentiary...
...The worst of it is thet young students are imposed upon...
...De Witt hae used a number Of columns in your paper in an assault on physicians that could have been devoted to a better ceuse...
...It is hardly of general educetional value, and certainly it is not propaganda for Socialism...
...With literally millions of dollars filched from the taxpayers ground out of the life-blood of the helpless convicts and their poverty stricken femihes, the Prison Labor Trust debates and debsuches everything it touches, and dominates executive end legislative branches of Government...
...Chicago...
...The resolution also provides that tht General Council should have power "to arrange with the Cooperative Whoiessie Society to makt provision for the distribution of food, etc., in the event Of strike or other action selling for same...
...Being all in the same host, those of us who have a sense of proportion and humor (sadly lacking/ among Socialists) are tolerant 6x?each other, and those who feel that way do what they can to remove the underlying causes...
...This is based upon Morgan's work, "Ancient Society," which wee certainly a great advance in our knowledge of primitive society snd which Engels was quick to popularize...
...And the testimony of the witnesses in the Welton trial showed much ' more bribery end greft The newspapers charged that this graft possibly reached $100,000, and Mr...
...They thought they could do the "fixing" themselves end hoop the money in the family...
...It would seem that I no law could be more clear cut end I definite then this, yet the "Fixers" j found some way to evade it, end the Reliance Manufacturing Company runs a prises sveafefeop int-the State Penitentiary, and the law as well ae the wishes of the majority of the eitUMMS of the Stat* it violated...
...J...
...8. The form hends haven't made such rspid strides—the wsges of the five and ten cent store clerks have "soared" 200 per cent in the last twenty yeers...
...All that they could do "was to talk in opposite directions...
...It is openly charged that a ! prominent banker and certain poli-| ticians shared in looting the State of almost $1,000,000 per year, representing the amount of the reduction David as* eaJy tea* hfcown "a»**1 hat ho is said to run both the Demo, eratk and Boowotiren party...
...for this easieet and most logical of* all languages, a supply of which ought to bo on sale at the Rand School Book Store, ae thtir price is within reach of anyone...
...rade Union Congress Agenda he preliminary agenda for the enaual assembly of the British Trades Union Congress, to be held at Scarborough from September 7 to 12, hss now been circulsted to jffilisttd unions...
...When the Soviets begen to make their peace with cepitelism our Americsn Communists were perplexed...
...A resolution to this effect was adopted...
...twenty yeers ego they received around $2.00 a week and now they receive around $$.00 a week...
...Its ref erences to American Labor lead' ers, to the Socialists, and to everj one else who is not in complete accord with it, are not merely malignant, but sometimes elaborate...
...That private property and inequalities of private property exist m primitive societies of every cultural grade and In every pert of the world have disposed of a long controversy, to the lasting discomfiture of propagandist vendors of primitive communism," writes Professor Giddings with reference to the work of Robert Lowie on primitive society...
...Chicago American, August 5. It possibly will not be more than twenty-five or fifty years now until the human parrots stop ssying: "There's a big demand for farm hands and there wouldn't be so much unemployment in the cities if w6rk-ing people were not too lazy to work on the forms—but the lazy bums, they object to working more than 8 to 10 hours a day, and farm hsnds must work long hours...
...As be pioneered, eo he would expect others who came after him to pioneer...
...I The question of increased power for the General Council will again I be brought up for discussion...
Vol. 2 • August 1925 • No. 33
