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Sener eerste ean eee Tuesday, July 15, 1924 THE DAILY WORKER Page Five | | HALF A DOZEN AUSTRIAN BANKS COLLAPSE DAILY Financial Scandal Stirs League Ruled Nation By LOUIS P. LOCHNER, Federated Press Staff Correspondent. VIENNA, July 14.— Every day in Vienna half a dozen or more banks go on the rocks. The bank scandal in Austria is as real as the oil scandal in the United States. Before the war there were seven major banks in the whole Austrian empire. Now little German-Austria has 64 major banks, with 1,500 branch banks. These branches seem to ex- ist solely to interest every class in Austria in speculation. One specialty was to offer stock in concerns in oth. er countries, the prospective purchas- ers being assured that with the gen- eral return of Europe to normalcy these securities would rise tremen- dously in value. Many concerns were even then on the rocks, so that the sale of their paper was a pure swindle. The government encouraged the banks by loaning them money which they used for speculation. The gov- ernment loaned postal savings bank deposits to the banks at 12 per cent interst. The banks often loaned this same money to speculators at 150 per cent. Now that the crash has come the government finds that billions of crowns are due the postal savings ac- counts by banking firms that have gone bankrupt. The government will have to make good these losses, which means the taxpayers will foot " the bill, Oust Unionist from Post as Porto Rican Labor Bureau Chief WASHINGTON, July 14.—Antonio Arroyo, vice-president Free Federa- tion of Workingmen of Porto Rico, has been dismissed as chief of the bureau of labor for that territory, as a result of the anti-Socialist alliance betw “the island's Unionist and Republican parties. In a letter to Gov. Towner, Arroyo. quotes correspondence with Carlos E. Chardon, commissioner of agriculture and labor, who asked for his resignation tho Arroyo held office under civil service protection. The, upper-class party chiefs have proceed- ed to drive from public service every member of the labor movement and of the Socialist party whom they can reach. Send in that Subscription Today. STRUCTURAL IRON WORKERS UNION IS IN LIFE AND DEATH RAIL BOSSES LAY STRUGGLE WITH STEEL TRuST| OFF MANY TRAIN By LUDWELL DENNY (Federated Press Staff Correspondent) NEW YORK, July 14.—Conspiracy of the steel trust to ex- tend its anti-union dictatorship to include not only the manufact- uring but the steel erection industry is charged by the Inter- national Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers union in its life-and-death struggle in the New York courts with the Iron league. The Iron league’s anti-picketing injunction suit against the union is by its own confession an attempt to have the state supreme court declare strikes for the union shop illegal. The union has replied with an in- junction and damage suit against the openshop outfit, charging it with conspiracy to destroy the union. While the league asks $5,000,000 damages, the union demands $10,000,000 from the league. The strike began May 1. Employ- ers outside the league soon settled on the union’s terms, but the steel trust, by its control of materials, has prevented the 14 firms constituting the league from making a union agreement. “Gigantic Conspiracy.” The union charges that the league members are “participators in a gi- gantic conspiracy which, commenc- ing about the year 1906, and continu- ing down to the present date, has had for its sole object and purpose the prevention of the unionization of the manufacture, fabrication and erection of iron and steel thruout the United States.” The United States Steel Corp., Bethlehem Steel Corp., Na tional Steel Fabricators’ Assn., Bridge Builders’ and Structural Society, the Structural Steel Society and Ameri- can Erectors’ Assn., are named as backers of the nation-wide conspiracy thru inter-locking control. This com- bination constitutes a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Federal Trade commission Act and New York state laws, says the union. - Trust Boycotts Union Firms. Samuel Untermyer, attorney for the union and formerly attorney for the Lockwood committee which investi- gated the building monopoly in 1920, | cites testimony before that commit- tee showing that various construc- tion companies friendly to labor were forced to abandon buildings because the steel trust would not sell them materials unless they joined its open shop Iron league. The league is fur- ther accused of participating in il- legal activities with Robert P. Brin- dell, former czar of the building trades council and now in Sing Sing prison. The notorious army of frameup finks, agents provocateur, and gun- men employed by this giant combine OUR DAILY PATTERNS A PRETTY APRON FROCK. i 4744, Here is a style that will ap- to women of mature figure. It itself attractively to percale, sateen and gingham. The pattern is cut in eight sizes: 16, BS, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48 and 50 inches measure. To make the frock for 40-inch size will require 44% yards 86-inch material. The width at the is 2% yards. Pattern mailed to any address on evipt of 12 cents in silver or stamps. Send 12 cents in silver or stamps ‘or our UP-TO-DATP SPRING AND ER 1924 BOOK OF FASHIONS. PITTSBURGH, PA. INICK A POPULAR STYLE. 4815. This sleeveless dress is sim- ple and easy to devlop. It may be of wash silk, printed voile, crepe or ging- ham. The guimpe may be of contrast- ing material, or may be overlaid with material to form a vest as illustrated. The pattern is cut in four sizes: 8, 10, 12 and 14 years. A 12-year size requires 3% yards of 32-inch material. The guimpe.or contrasting material requires 1% yards 40 inches wide. Pattern mailed to any address on receipt of 12 cents in silver or stamps. Send 12 cents.in silver or stamps for our UP-TO-DATE SPRING AND SUM MER, 1924, BOOK OF FASHIONS. Address: The Dally Worker, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, III. ene ae eee om Baa na.” Delt » ved, BRITISH MACHINE GUNS BARK AS THE HINDOO FACTIONS WAR FOR GOD LONDON, July 14.—Armored cars are patrolling the streets of Delhi, India, where fighting has broken out between Hindoos and Mussulmen. The British government has taken a hand in the imbroglio, with. ma- chine guns on armored cars. The MacDonald government represent- ing the British imperialists has cleverly cre: dissension between the Hindoos and Musselmen who were gradually drawing togther and putting up a united front against the British government. When the two elements quarrel, the British government appears upon the scene and restores peace with bullets, be RIERA ER See RISE ROLES" to break unions is disclosed by the union’s brief. Both sides are working the fight on the straight issue of whether unions have a legal right to strike. The Clayton act and decisions by chief justice Taft are quoted in support of the union position. “Sham and Humbug.” State supreme court justice Rich- ard P. Lydon, who is hearing the case, showed his bias against labor by an- nouncing in court that he did not un- derstand the necessity, for pickets. Untermyer replied that the purpose of picketing was to get men into that union by lawful means. After declaring that the trust’s talk about the open shop was “sham and hum- bug,” Untermyer stated the union’s case in one sentence: “There is no such thing as the open shop; there is either a closed union shop, or a closed non-union shop.” Hush Parole and Pardon News to Facilitate Graft SACRAMENTO, Cal., July 14.—Hot on the footsteps of their declaration that newspaper reporters and other writers may no longer interview pri- soners at San Quentin and Folsom, the California prison board announces that no further news of paroles ap- plied for, granted or denied will be made puolic. This means that when rich John Smith kills somebody in his auto and is sentenced to the penitentiary he can be paroled in a few months and no one will be the wiser; and when poor William Jones is refused pa- role because he once made a face at a guard nobody will know about that either. These two rulings of the prison board make California's penitentiaries secret and silent insti- tutions, in which anything can—and probably will— happen, without any opportunity for the public to protest. Short Items From Soviet Russia British Demands Condemned. MOSCOW, July 14.—Referring, in a press interview, to the so-called de- mands of the English bankers, Mr. Lomoff, Chairman of the Board of the All-Russian Oil Trust pointed out that such demands were liable to wreck Russo-British oil trade. If the English capitalists will look upon the restoration of our public econ- omy as on a practical fact, he says, our orders for equipment of the oil drilling works, the power stations, etc., will be placed in England. But if the latter country will, contrary to reasonable expectations, insist on the extravagant claims of the London bankers, the Soviet enterprises will be compelled to transfer such orders to other countries, whose attitude to- wards the Soviet is more loyal. Fairs Get Privileges. MOSCOW, July 14.—Attaching much - {importance to the raw materials fairs, y {the government has decided to grant spectal privileges and facilities for a number of Siberian fairs, such as the one at Kuendin ‘(at Mongolian | frontier) Temirsk, Tiumen, etc., which collect the Siberian raw materials for oo AND ENGINE MEN 12,000 More Get Axe in April, Report Shows By LELAND OLDS (Federated Press Industrial Editor) Train and engine service employes appear in the April wage statistics of Class 1 railroads as the chief vic- tim of the railroad policy of sacrific- ing workers to profits. According to the interstate commerce commission report over 12,000 of them got the ax between March 15 and April 15. This brings the total of engineers, firemen, conductors and trainmen down 25,725 below the peak of 1923 and 22,038 be- low April 1923. The railroads also continued to lay off shopmen with a total of 9,249 dis- charged during the month. The num- ber of locomotive and car repairmen on the payrolls in April was 43,408 below April a year ago and 64,253 below the peak of employment in August, 1923. The layoffs in these two depart- ments during the month, however, were. more than offset by the addi- tion of nearly 50,000 workers in the maintenance of way department. This marks the usual seasonal resumption of outdoor work and brings the total of railroad employes to 26,949 above March. But the total was still 56,- 435 short of the number employed a year ago. Freight And Yard Layoffs. Freight and yard service employes bore the brunt of the layoffs in the train and engine service group. Be- tween March and April the report shows the folowing reductions: 1,217 freight conductors, 2,545 freight brakemen and flagmen, 1,572 freight engineers, 1,599 freight firemen, 1,019 yard conductors, 2,638 yard brakemen, 1,020 yard engineers and 971 yard firemen. Altogether over four per cent of the workers in these occupa- tions were turned out. Car repairmen, mechanics helpers and ordinary shop labor suffered the heaviest casualties in the mainten- ance of equipment group. Of the number employed a year ago, they have laid off: carmen, 15,733, helpers, 15,888, shop labor, 6,061. $8,964,888 Less A Month. In April railroad employes received $8,964,888 less in wages than in April a year ago. Slight gains in certain groups were more than offset by losses of train and engine service em- ployes and the shop crafts. The form- er received $4,056,671 less than in 1928, a'reduction of more than six per cent. Total pay in the shops was reduced by $6,172,919, nearly nine per cent. Changing in wage rates of train and engine service employes are still in negotiation. The apparent increase of about five per cent in the average hourly rate shown does not mean that the railroads are paying more for each unit of service rendered. Ac- cording to the report the railroads are paying these employes as a group one and one-half per cent less per trip and four per cent less per mile run than they paid in April 1923. Terre Haute Striker Sends Daily Worker Sub from Savings (Special to the DAILY WORKER) TERRE HAUTE, ind., July 14.—The carpenters’ strike which was called on May first is still continuing. The hardship of the men out is bad enough but they get strike benefits. The hun- dreds of unemployed workers are in @ much worse state, Most workers are not working a full week if they are employed. One of the striking carpenters, I. EB. Hall, saved out of his meagre strike benefits enough to start a sub- scription to the DAILY WORKER, saying “I consider I am spending it in a good cause.” Money is too searce, according to Hall, for other workers to be easily persuaded to subscribe to even the DAILY WORK- ER when they know it is to their class interest. Send In that Subscription Today! DAUGHERTY OUT BUT FEDERAL STOOLPIGEON SERVICE AGAINST RADICALS IS STILL WORKING (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, July 14.—Despite the resignation of Harry M. Daugherty and William J. Burns from the Department of Justice, the network of espionage on labor and radical organizations built up during their regime will take a long time to break up, ac- cording to a special study of the “nation-wide spy system” just made public by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Union points out that the evils of the system are not confined to the department of justice, but ramify into “so-called patriotic organizations, employers associations, and private detective agencies.” Many old employes of what is characterized as a “secret police like those of Czarist Russia” are still in their jobs, and the appropriations, still on a war budget, have not been reduced. A Political Spy Agency, The facts, according to the report, show that the Bureau of Investiga- tion has become “an agency for poli- tical propaganda, lawless in its me- thods,” and resorting to “intimidation, espionage, and provocative acts.” Without showing any results to war- rant the increase, the Bureau “spends four times as much as ten years ago and employs five times as many per- sons,” the report declares. The chief activities of the Bureau have been avowedly directed against radicalism, but “there has been no activity of radicals since the war which has re- sulted in federal persecutions, and there has, therefore, been no legitim- ate occasion for the large expendi- tures of the Bureau of Investigation along these lines.” The Union has attacked the spy system of the De- partment of Justice by advocating a reduction in its appropriation. How the System Works. The chief characteristics of the “governmental spy system” as listed in the Union’s report are: “Ist. The collection and classifica- tlon of data which has been used chiefly for propaganda, both by the Bureau and by so-called patriotic societies and publications engaged in combating radicalism. This ma- terial has been made available to them while withheld from other inquirers. To those who have any first hand knowledge of the radical movement in the United States, most of the information given out is obviously distorted, usually inac- curate and deliberately misleading. “2nd. Incitement of the stat id local officials to bring cases against radicals under state criminal syndi- calism and sedition acts solely on the ground of the expression of their opinions, the federal author- ities offering to get the evidence and perfect the cases. This has been done in the absence of any federal law penalizing expressions of opinion despite the fact that these new state laws have not yet been held constitutional by the Supreme Court. The states have rarely, if ever, called upon the fed- eral department for aid in such cases, although the records may have been doctored to look as if they had. The inspiration for these local prosecutions came from agents of the Bureau! and is so admitted In their reports. “8rd. An elaborate system of espionage on radicals thru placing ‘stool pigeons’ in the radical politi- cal and industrial organizations. Some of them have acted as pro- vocative agents in stirring up trouble in order to make cases for the Bureau. This activity is not confined to radical movements, but has reached out extensively into organized labor.” Under the heading “How the Black- mailing Spy System Works,” the re- port contains extracts from testimony before the Senate Investigating Com- mittee. (Copies may be obtained by addressing the American Civil Liber- ties Union, 100 Fifth Ave., New York City.) Mexico May Not Pay. MEXICO CITY, July 14.—That fail- ure to secure a loan’in the United States will compel the Mexican gov- ernment to stop payment on the Unit. ed States debt is the rumor in Mexico City. Negotiations are proceeding in the United States. Mexican damage claims for Vera Cruz occupation by the United States may figure. Send in that Subscription Today. UNCLE WIGGILY'’S TRICKS |" Looe, Uncle ice Misi BOUGK SPEAKS AT GRAND PICNIC NEXT SATURDAY Washington Farmers Meet Near Seattle (Special to the Daily Worker.) SEATTLE, Wash., July 14—William Bouck, head of the Western Progres- sive Farmers and withdrawn Farmer- Labor candidate for vice president, will speak at a picnic to be given in the City park, Renton, on Saturday, July 26. Many other speakers listed as among the possible features of the picnic include John C. Kennedy, state secretary of thé Farmer-Labor party; Joel Shomaker, Farmer-Labor candi- date for governor; E. E. Coulter and Elmer 8. Smith. The picnic is to be given under the auspices of the King County Farmer- Labor party, the Western Progressive Farmers and the Farmers’ Chautau- qua. The King County Farmer-Labor Party has a membership of several thousand voters and active workers in the city of Seattle and the towns and villages of the county, as well as on the farms. The city fathers of Renton have extended the hospitali- ties of the municipality and will de- liver the keys of the city hall and jail to the managers of the Western Farm- ers’ Chautauqua. Rockford A. F. of L. Urges United Front For Free Speech ROCKFORD, Ill, July 14.— Denial of the public parks for radical and labor meetings in Rockford by the park board brings about a call for a united front of labor by the Rockford Labor News, the organ of the city central body. back on a local ordinance and the Illinois criminal syndicalism act. Since the war the labor forces who elected Herman Hallstrom, a brick- layer, as mayor have been forced to hold their picnics outside the city limits to permit political speeches as a feature instead of enjoying free use of the city parks which they “own” but do not control. “This knocks into a cocked hat,” says the Labor News, “the park board argument that it is the I. W. W. they are striking at, and shows how eager they are to snatch at any excuse and any means to injure labor’s efforts to advance, “All labor organizations are in the same boat, the most radical and the most conservative, in the eyes of such men, and surely need to hang together to fight this battle for free- dom, whether they can agree on any other point or not.” Government Printers Ask More Pay. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 14.— More than 3,000 mebers of the govern- ment printing staff have asked for an increase in wages. Application has been made to Public Printer George H. Carter, under the recent bill which authorizes this official to make such pay adjustments as he deems neces- sary. Conferences to settle the de- mands have been in sessions several da; Workers Won't Make Stogles. MADRID, July 14e— The strike of jpanish cigar workers continued to- jay despite the efforts of the govern- ment to settle it. The park board falls| EDITOR SEARLES — HAILS PROBE OF OUTLAW STRIKES International Chiefs Play Bosses’ Game An investigation, purporting to as- certain the causes of unauthorized strikes in the mining industry, has been started by the United Mine Workers of America, according to a recent announcement by Editor Searles of the Miners’ Journal. Judging by figures given after a similar investiga- \tion in Kansas in 1921, we can expect some very startling surprises in the jnear future. How the investigation | will be conducted has, of course, not been announced, but we are of the opnion that state and operators’ re- cords will be used to make it appear that the miners are the most terrible people on earth In the case of these local or wildcat strikes as a means of securing their just rewards from the coal operators, one will always give such strikers the benefit of all doubts. Knowing the psychology of the average miner, also the tactics of the coal operator, puts mé in a position to state, that, without exception, there is some justification for every strike in such character. However, the thing that we desire to point out at this time, is not the question of justification for outlaw strikes, but that many cessations of work in the mines are not strikes, even tho they are labelled as such. Not Strikes While we can point to hundreds of such strikes, which proved to be the only means by which the operator could be forced to recognize his con- tractural obligations, we want to emphasize the fact that only a very |small percentage of those recorded such, really are strikes. Besides the many refusals of the operators |to meet the terms of contract, there have been occasions when the rail- roads have failed to deliver cars at the mines in time for work even with a liberal waiting period after the re- gular starting time. There have also been occasions, when a mine has. been declared gaseous and “dangered off” by the examiners, that the men have been credited with participating in an unauthorized strike. When it is considered that lockouts are always blamed on the workers, one can readily see that startling figures will be given out as the findings of the U. M. W. of A. officials’ investigation: Silence Or Unemployment Whether or not the committee mak- ing the investigation will look into the | causes of the unemployment situation now existing was not made known, but the silence in respect to this, is evidence sufficient to convince the initiated, that nothing will be done in this direction. Indeed, the offi- cials of the miners union have con- clusively proven by their many ac- tions that they do not intend to ex- pose the industrial system that has been kind to make them. The outlaw strikes disturb the coal operators, while the unemployment situation only disturbs the working class, hence the effort to stamp out the one so that the other can and will become more intense. Australian Labor Favors Increasing Amalgamation Drive (By The d Press) MELBOURNE, July 14.— The Aus- tralian Railways union at a conference favored one union for all workers in the railway services of Australia. The postal sorters’ union, letter car- riers’ union and telegraph linemen’s union are discussing amalgamating into one organization. Steps are be- ing taken ‘to get other unions in the postal and telegraph departments into the amalgamated organization. The clothing and allied trades union, cutters and trimmers’ union and the women workers’ union—covering all workers in the clothing trades—are also discussing amalgamation. It is expected that the new union will be known as the Amalgamated Clothing and Allied Trades federation. A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN SEG ze,