The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 22, 1924, Page 5

Thursday, May 22, 1924 SACCO-VANZETTI RE-TRY MOTIONS COME TO JUDGE Five Motions Made In Frame-up Case (By The Federated Press) BOSTON, May 21.—Judge Webster Thayer, whose conduct of the trial which resulted in the conviction of Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Van- zetti has been criticizea all over the world as prejudicial, is about to file a decision on five pending motions for a new trial in the case. Whatever its character, the de- cision will start a new battle for the lives of these Italian workers. If fa- vorable, preparations will begin for a new trial, If adverse, the case will be taken ‘+o the higher courts and further testimony impeaching the prosecution's case will be presented to the court. Rumors in Massachusetts legal cir- cles say that Judge Thayer will deny all five of the motions for retrial. These motions include confessions of perjury. by. state’s witnesses, exposes of so-called identification witnesses as. crooks and prostitutes, and other testimony that in ordinary cases would assure a new trial. How Thay- er will manage to brush aside evi- dence that op the face of it seems in- controvertible is not known. Prejudice Not Proof. “An-adverse decision on the mass of new evidence seems like a mon- strous reversal of common sense,” a member of the defense committee told the Federated Press, “The identifi- cation evidence in the trial has been completely exploded. By their own confession the witnesses lied, usually under duress. The state’s contention that the mortal bullet came from a gun belonging to Sacco, likewise, has been eliminated. The state’s own gun expert has filed an affidavit accus- ing the district attorney of misinter- preting his words and of refusing to ask a question to elicit a direct an- swer. All that remains is the general prejudice. against the two men as “reds” and as “dagos.” One of the five motions was filed soon after the trial, two years ago. It has not yet been ruled upon by the court. It proves by means of jurors’ affidavits that the jury foreman brot into the jury room cartridges which had not been admitted as ex- hibits and that he used them as a basis for comparison with other cart- ridges involved in the case. The federal and Massachusetts con- stitutions provide that a defendant must be ‘confronted with all the evi- ‘dence against him. The violation of this guarantee may be the basis for an appeal to the U. S. supreme court as a last resort if Judge Thayer rules against a new trial. In preparation for the next» and most important phase of the fight, the Sacco-Vanzetti New Trial League has been formed, with Vice-President J. Van Vaerenwyck, Massachusetts Federation of Labor, an active mem- ber of the executive committee. President *Morris Sigman and a committea, sent: by the biennial con- vention, International Ladies’ Gar- ment Workers’ Union, in Boston, vis- ited Sacco and Vanzetti in prison, as- suring them of the garment workers’ financial and moral support in their fight ‘for life. The Amalgamated Clothing Work- ers’ convention also voted financial and moral support to these unjustly imprisoned men. Norwégian Workers Have Sport Sheet. KRISTIANIA, May 21.—The Nor- wegian workers some time ago formed their own sport organization, “The Workers’ Sport Opposition.” This has had a colossal growth and been forced to publish its own paper, “Workers’ Sport,” a six-page paper. Only Pity for OHN H. Walker is one of the most pathetic figures in the labor move- ment; to hear him down at the Peoria convention of the United Mine Work- ers of Illinois, flaccidly complaining about the Communists, to have heard him at the Portland convention of the American) Federation of Labor last October going thru the same motions, arouses a feeling of pity rather than of vigorous hate. For the truth is, that Walker is not one of the strong forces of the reac- tionary camp; his abuse of the radi- cals and his plea for old party poli- ticlans carry little conviction. The feeling comes over the auditor that “Honest” Jack is playing his part with no joy in the performance, At the state convention of the Illi- nois federation at Decatur last sum- mer, Walker's eyes were moist as he made recantation of his professed beliefs in independent political action by the working class. There are those who saw this lacrymose dew as of the crocodile variety, but our opin- ion is that they were tears of shame, Long ago John H. Walker did some rather vigorous organization work in the new miners’ union, “Mother” Jones still tells of tramping ‘the ties of West Virginia with him when John was young, But that was long ago. His socialist beliefs he wore more and more lightly. But they gave him some comfort—he still stood be- ve AWAIT DECISION ON NEW TRIAL Sk6tched in Mass. state Prison May 1, 1924, by Lydia Gibson. BARTHOLOMEO VANZETTI Irish Labor Magazine Urges Workers To Look To St. Paul The May number of The Irish Peo- ple, in an article entitled “The Com- ing Elections,” by T. J. O'Flaherty, urges its readers to get behind the movement for the organization of a national Farmer-Labor Party at the great convention that will meet in St. Paul on June 17th. The Irish work- ers in the United States are very much under the influence of the Irish labor leaders, the majority of whom are cogs in the wheel of the Democrat Party in the United States. One of the most interesting contri- butions in the May number is a re- print from the New York Commercial of an article by Fred Marvin, inde- pendent stool pigeon exposing The Irish People as a Communist sheet: William F. Dunne, one of the contri- buting editors and T. J. O'Flaherty, the editor, are attacked as: enemies of christianity, etc. Marvin gets tis facts considerably mixed as usual but the Irish People does not deny that it is a Communist publication. It is rather proud of the fact. Donagh O’Dwyer, reviews the year’s work of the magazine which is now about to start its second year, in an article, “The First Year.” There are three pages of snappy review of the situation in Ireland. The magazine is published at 2540 West Adams St., Chicago, Illinois. Subscription price is $1.00 a year. Russian Peasants Buy More Machines For Agriculture (Rosta News Agency.) ‘I MOSCOW, May 21.—The demand for agricultural machinery on-the part of the peasants is very brisk, most of the machines being sold on the local mar- kets. The goods are usually sold on a long-term credit basis at a price but slightly higher than the net cost. A large quantity of plows received from Tchekho-Slovakia and seythes from Austria have been sold by the State Commercial Department at prices loyer than last year’s. John Walker fore the world as a progressive. Came the war—that Pizarro sword line that made public men stand in one camp or the other. The oppor- tunistic habits of the professional la- bor faker carried the day and we. shortly found John rooting behind the lines with might and main for the bloody fray which buried millions of workmen in the mud of Europe for capitalist profits. The profit lords re- warded him and used him by giving him a “mediator’s” job in the north- west woods where the capitalists were trying to trick the lumberwork- ers out of the fruits of their 1917 strike. And John gave his employers full meed of service by denouncing I. W. W. and other politicdl prisoners at labor conventions during the war. * The war over, Jokm stoutly denied that he was a reactionary. The labor | parties that spring up then found him in their fold and he stayed with them until the class conscious workers be- gan to take control of the movement, for independent political action. Again the line was drawn and) “Honest” Jack, cherishing his state federation presidency—a post where he is a mere tool for more rugged la bor Heutenants of’ capitaligm—craw- | fished backward all the way into the| ranks of the pure white reactionaries. ‘The latter end of this dead progres- sive {s a sad one. There fs not even peace to his ashes. y f When Restaurants Sell Booze They Should Dodge Strikes (By The Federated Press) NEW YORK, May 21.—A union and the United States government have succeeded in putting an open shop combination out of business. Of course, the government has nothing against open shop concerns—likes them rather than otherwise, but this was a case of law enforcement. To. be sure, the government is not long on law enforcement. There is oil for instance. Or booze. Governor Pin- chot. of Pennsylvania, who ought to know, says. his fellow Pennsylvanian, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, is still making money in the whisky business while winking at law en- forcement. But when the prohibitionists raise too much of a howl, it is good politics to sacrifice some of the little fellows. Which, perhaps, partly explains the closing of Broadway's nine most na /torious jazz and hootch joints, owned by the Thompson-Salvin gang. For two months these places had been hit by the strike of 500 waiters, cooks, etc., members of the Amalga- mated Food Workers, Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ branch, an in- dependent industrial union. But with the help of injunction judges and strike-breaking sluggers the cafes had managed to run after a fashion. Finally the testimony of the strik- ing waiters’ regarding prohibition evasion forced the federal authorities to close the places for a year on an injunction. Opponents Halt Bill Which Would Abolish Railroad Labor Board WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21.— Opponents of the Barkley-Howell Bill, which would abolish the Railroad Labor Board, managed to stop its progress toward enactment last night by carrying on a well organized fili- buster against it in the House. The House was considering the bill as a committee of the whole, and the opponents of the bill by a series of parliamentary moves managed to hold things up. After hours devoted to parliamentary moves and counter moves the House adjourned. Representative Nelson continued to deliver speeches agairist the railroad bosses for propaganda against the bill. Representative Barkley declared that the opposition to the bill was powerful and had decreed that the bill-should not pass or even receive decent consideration. THE DAILY WORKER TEACHERS SHOULD KNOW HOW TO USE KNIFE AND FORK Must Acquire Social Polish, Says Speaker By SHERMAN BOWMAN. DETROIT.—The lack of social polish in public sthool teachers was said by Pres. Charles F. McKenny, Michigan State Normal College, at Ypsilanti, to be “the biggest social, educational and moral problem facing normal schools today,” in an address that astonished the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations in De- troit. “It is not fair to the children of Michigan to have to sit under the guidance of teachers being turned out by normal schools here and else- where,” he said. “The girls who go to Ypsilanti normal and other normal schools in the state do not come from the best families. They come from the families of workingmen and others in which it is necessary for the children to earn their own way. Therefore, al- tho they are nice and intelligent girls they lack a certain social culture, a certain presence which is necessary if they are to stand before their classes and represent themselves as proper men and women in the cultural sense of the term.” Spy Leader. McKenny is one of the leaders in the development of modern campus espionage systems, in which deans are hired as specialists in organized spy- ing. Under this system the dismissal of men and women students resembles the deportation of aliens by an unscru- pulous and autocratic bureau of im- migration, fostered by the department of labor. In making this speech, brist- ling with phrases and pronounce- ments characteristic of a rotting class- civilization, McKenny stood before an audience of 2,000 educators and pa- rents as the state-appointed head of one of the two largest normal schools in the United States. “This condition will continue. to ob- tain as long as students are forced to room as they are in Ypsilanti in 400 different rooming houses and eat around in boarding houses. They can never acquire social polish in this way,” he continued. “I think the sol- ution fes in building dormitories at the schools by the state. Splendid women could be placed in charge of these dormitories and inspire the girls placed in thei rcare. Then, teachers would learn-to use their knife, fork and spoon properly and would. learn not to Iéave the dining room with a toothpick in their mouth.” Toothpick Professor. The function of the proposed dormi- tories in “this man’s school” could readily be guessed by the wives of McKenny’s workingmen who were in his audience. Dormitories, these wives and mothers later said, would make spying easier, would standardize be- havior, foster snobbery and give a dessert spoon and salad fork the prestige of a philosophy. These women did not believe that McKenny had succeeded in stating the “biggest social; educational and moral problem facing normal schools today.” They believed, however, that his speech made plain what the problem really is,—for the workers. I. A. M., 337,-On Record To Help Boost June 17; Protest Expulsions Local N6, 387 of the International Association of Machinists, at their last meeting went on tecord as favoring the June 17th St. Paul convention of Farmer-Labor Party groups and elect- ed Ben Schlessinger, president of the local as delegate to the converition The same meeting also passed a res lution protesting against the suspen- sion of certain members from the Ma- chinists’ union in Toledo, because they were members of the T. U. E. L. Business agents Buck and Olande: reported to the meeting on the steps which are being taken to get a new wage scale for Chicago machinists. Every new subscriber increases the influence of the DAILY WORKER. ‘DETROIT Workmen’s Co-operative Full Line of Meats, Groceries, Fruits and Vegetables ' Prices Lowest in City ‘ Our Aim To furnish pure, clean and wholesome food to the working class at cost. We pay no dividends or interest on stock or investment. ‘All surplus goes toward working class educational institutions. Visit our market. eran prices and then decide where you should give your patronage. General Market, 5767 Chene & For clean, wholesome, Gelmer Ave. Danforth St. 5738 Ga at the following places:: Phone—Melrose 6353 well-cooked food, try our 4617 Michigan Ave. 2991 Yemans St. Page Five “Work and Pray”: Live on--$17 HERE is a type of employer who is doing more real harm to the working class than any of the oil, steel and coal barons with their rough-neck: methods, who help, rather than hinder the progress of the work- ers. We néed to be more alertly con- cerned about this type of employer, who lulls us into a lotus-like sleep and whose methods when fully real- ized, are disgusting, to say the least. One of the classic examples of this kind, is George F. Johnson of the En- dicott-Johnson shoe works in the towns of Endicott and Johnson City, near Binghampton, New York. In the last published report of the company, theré were 16,131 in his em- ploy and his company is said to be the largest shoe works in the world. Boss Won’t Have Union. Johnson City and Endicott have a false appearance of smug prosperity, when one realizes how dependent the population is upon their employers, the E. J. Corporation. Johnson has been heard to say “that if the work- ers form a union, he will lock the doors of the factories and throw the keys in the river.” He is an excellent advertiser and allows no one to for- get that the company runs a mater- nity hospital and clinic, a swimming pool, dance hall, race track and recre- ation park for its worke: He issues booklets about it and publishes the “KE. J. Workers Magazine,” of which I will say more later. No “Square. Deal” to Workers. At the entrance to Johnson City is a large unattractive stone arch reach- ing across the road. On it is in- scribed, “Gateway to the Square Deal Towns.” “Erected by the E. J. Work- ers.” On the right of this arch is a bronze tablet with a relief of John- son’s smug bourgeoise face, and on |the left a bronze tablet with this Bible verse. “As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also to them likewise.” The money to erect this monument to hypocrisy was raised by the fore- men collecting it from the workers, taking their names down in a book. The foremen threatened loss of job to any refusing to pay the two to three dollars required, as more than one worker can testify. He is sentimental, is Johnson. He calls the situation of the towns the Valley of Fair Play, and there is your Home Library and Ideal Park, and one of the factories is called “The Fair Play Factory.” Can you beat it? Sounds kind ‘and homey hey? This Fair Play Factory, like the others, is on the piece work basis and you can begin at 5 o’clock in the morning and work until 6, He loves his dear work- ers if they are good, and says that he works 18 hours a day planning good things for them. f Workers Won't» Own Factory Soon. Let us leave this twaddle and get sensible. Johnson boasts that 25 per cent of the stockholders are E. J. workers, but the outstanding stock is 454,000, and only $1,400,000 of this stock is owned by the E. J. workers, or 4 per cent of the stock is owned by the workers. In reckoning the average wage, they lump all the workers together, high salaried clerks and all, and from this deduct the average wage as $1,600 per year. This brings me around to the main part of my story, which is all in an E. J. Workers’ Magazine, whose motto on the back page is, good work is spoiled by the lack of a little more.” I could tell you a lot more, but I think the following letters printed in the B. J. magazine for February, 1924, tell their own story. Johnson is so proud of his methods of dealing with the workers that he also had the woman’s letter and his reply printed in the Binghamton Morning Sun, a) daily paper. How Support Seven on $17. Binghamton, N. Y., Jan. 25, 1924. To the Editor of E. J. Workers Maga- zine: Would like to ask you to have Mr, Johnson in the next issue of this mag- azine publish a formula for sup- porting a family of five on an average wage of $17 a week and not go in} debt. I am sure it would be appreciated not only by myself but hundreds of others. Am not writing this letter for pub- lication but would like to ask Mr. Johnson how he would live on $17 a week and not be in debt when you have rent, coal, light, groceries and other incidental expenses. I don’t think you will find any French pastry on the bill of fare. AN E-J WORKER’S WIFE. Johnson Likes Child Labor. Answering the poor worker’s wife, George F. Johnson (or his press agent) says in part: “The first thot crosses my mind: What good is it to go in debt, if you can’t live on $17 a week; because how do you expect to pay it? “The second thought crosses my mind: Why doesn’t this family earn more than $17 a week? Our average ‘wage, man, woman and child, thruout the whole industry, must amount to “Much | nearly $30 a week, even this past year.” Smphasis ours: he doesn’t declare what the wages is). | “Some people at the same wage or |piece price, earn double what others earn... | “I want to be courteous and consid- erate, and I also wish to be very pa- tient, because I quite realize the des- |perate frame of mind of a woman who jhas to support a family of five on 7 a week, with living costs the way are now. But it is perfectly fair there is no wage basis that jth |to say: jcan be worked out, that will guaran- | tee a living to every worker. So much jdepends on the worker himself. “I should say right off, that $17 a week to support a family, would be |very close work; and still, if the wo- man was a good thrifty manager, and if the husband was careful and pru- dent, and possibfy one or two of the children might be able to work and help—such a family might indeed get along, particularly where there are no doctor bills to pay—where there are benefits provided in sickness—where any accident that may happen to a worker is carefully cared tor—where the stores furnish groceries and meats for about two-thirds market value. ,. . “... men do not get bigger wages because they have large families... . . j While I am sure you must sacrifice and live very prudently, while the children are young, there is great compensation coming to you—first, in the joy of the children—then in the helpfulness of the children a little later, when they, too, are able to work jand bring something into the family. The Boss Teaches Birth Control. “We have in our employ, families where the father—sometimes the mother—but very frequently the fath- jer and four, five or six children, are able to earn good big wages—all drawing a bonus—all enjoying the |priviliges which the company provide for their workers. .... “Our piece prices are liberal..... “There are so many questions would like to ask, but not having the |man’s name, I have no way to do so. “Don’t you see how foolish it is to figure that because you have a large family—perchance because you are a poor manager—that you should ex- pect to be paid more money than those who have smaller families, and perhaps are better managers?” | George F. Johnson’s formula for the poor slaves’ families that have to live on $17 a week is: “Just be yourself. Live your own life. Make it whole- some, and make it successful and happy.” A lot of blathering meaning- less rot! IS YOUR NAME ON drawn then. leo | at MILITANT | TRIAL Subscription Coupon Enclosed please find $1.00 for two months subscription to THE DAILY | | | WORKER to be sent to: a eames Street No.: ..... City: ... (ah enane | Put my name on the Honor Roll: Name FEARLESS ‘10,000 | New b June THE HONOR ROLL? Of militants who have given their support to “their paper” by securing a new sub for THE DAILY WORKER If we were to reprint all the names of those who have brought honor to themselv to the labor movement thru support of their daily, “THE HONOR ROLL” would require an entire issue. Many have sold doens of new subs. Hundreds have sold several. Have You Sold One? We are asking every reader of THE DAILY WORKER to give evidence of his su port by sellii at least one new sub before June 15th. The special rates of $1.00 for two months will nd stren, with- Has Your Name Been on the Honor Roll IF SO, PUTITON AGAIN! _. GET A NEW SUBSCRIBER TODAY! The Daily Worker POWERFUL The Organ of the Advancing Working-Class. IF NOT, ACT NOW! BRILLIANT. ———_—_—— i PREMIUM | Subscription Coupon I Fill in your premium selection here. I have sold one year’s sub to THE | DAILY WORKER for which T enclose 5 Please send me ABOR HERALD ii {] THE LIBERATOR {] SOVIET RUSSIA PICTORIAL | Subscribers |... ster. ance with your special offer, Name: | Street No.: .. sth | Name of the new DAILY WORKER |, subscriber is: Street NO: soorsseerveeerren —— sive a Street No.: | Send All Subscriptions Yes as State: DAILY WORKER | r to , SUBSCRIPTION RATES Please send me ............ more trial y poet sub. coupons. I'll try to secure more . ‘ oo trial subs, 1 1 13 W.Washington In Chicago: 1 year a THIS OFFER GOOD ONLY UNTIL JUNE 15, 1924 No agents commissions given on trial subscriptions. silts Se, Sm all Boulevard | CHICAGO, ILL.. L THIS OFFER GOOD ONLY UNTIL JUNE 15, 1924 No agents commissions given when premiums are requested. 1 ee |