The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 9, 1926, Page 3

PITTSBURGH COAL CO, RESPONSIBLE FOR MINE DEATHS Onetatars Try to Blame| . Union Coaldiggers By GEORGE PAPCUN. (Special to The Dally Worker) PITTSBURGH, Pa., Feb, 7—Horn- ing mine No. 4 is located ten miles south of Pittsburgh. The fire in the mine was supposed to have started from the sparks of a coal cutting ma- chine when the cutters were cutting thru some clay in order to reach the coal. They hit a gas pocket which burned all day. The coal company did not notify the workers that the mine was on fire but tried to check the fire by building up a brattice. The explosion occurred thirty minutes after the miners had quit work and it is claimed by the company that 22 workers were in at that time. The coal miners, however, say that over 40 men were trapped inthe coal mine, The explosion occurred in the sec tion known as right butt of section four, 180 feet down and 4,000 feet southwest. Andy Blic, one of the workers killed, was reported to have been operating the cutter while the other victim, John Petrovich, was an egsistant. Louis Christian, the third wrtim, was one of the men sent into the mines to combat the flames. The bodies of these 3 miners have been recovered, News of the disaster spread rapidly and vast crowds of workers, including the relatives of the man believed to be trapped in the mine, gathered at the mouth of the pit. The mine is owned by the Pitts- burgh Terminal Coal Co. This is the second disaster in less than a week of this same coal company, the other disaster was at the No. 3 mine at Mollenauer, where an explosion occur- red Jan, 23 and six miners were badly burned, This same coal company is trying to run its miné in Library, Pa., on the 1917 scale, Not long ago one woman was killed and one is still in the hos- pttal as the result of the attack of the deputies on the striking misters. The following miners are reported dead: Andy Blic, Andy Petrovich, Lesis Christian, Howard M. Ernst, George Tiavis, Mine Foreman Load- man, Andrew Smith, John Gretch, Jr., Harry Maloney, William Holzhauser, Joseph Tiavis, James Powell, Tony Heirns, John J. Luzer, Reese Brad- burn and two unidentified workers. In the last 6 years in western Penn- sylvania over 174 workers were killed in mine disasters which have always been found out to be the fault of the coal companies. In the last 25 years 858 workers were killed be- cause of the neglect of the coal com- pany. As usual the coal company is try- ing to put the blame for the explosion on the workers but it is clear that it was the fault of the coal company and it was only by stroke of hick that the 600 miners were not killed. ‘The mine is under control of local union No. 827 of the United Mine Workers of America. Six Soldiers Dead After Bay Rum Orgy HONOLULU, Feb. .7—Six soldiers were dead, three were in a critical condition sand thirteen others were recovering following a bay rum orgy at Schofield barracks. Make your slogan—“A sub every week!” THE DAILY WORKER oa! Headline Over Capitalist Press Fak Yous. m ”- _oemiar ween “CLEVELAND, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1928, PRICE TWO OENTS $44 000 HOLDUP IS FOILED A gd above reproduction shows the screaming headline over the fake story of an at- oF seapend robbery that recently appeared in the Cleveland News. this page. It shows how the capitalist press operates. CLEVELAND NEWS’ FALSE TALE OF MINERS’ ARREST Coaldigger Acquitted by Trial Judge CLEVELAND, Feb. 7—How the cap- ftalist press makes a business of falsi- fying news was never better demon- strated than in the accompanying photograph of a headline and story in the Cleveland News of Jan. 26. Here are the facts as brot out in court when Joe Kobylak, the young miner was re- leased by Judge Moylan for lack of evidence: Kobylak, a young miner having re- cently come to Cleveland, letf his home early on the morning of Jan. 26 to search for work. His search for @ job finally brot him down to the intersection of Euclid avenue and East 9th street. The Cleveland Trust com- pany has its main office at this cor- ner and Joe not being too familiar with the city was standing near a doorway of the bank looking across the street for a certain building, there being an advertisement ix the morning paper for a stock clerk with a firm located in this building. Az tse stood there looking across the street one of the Cleveland Trust money cars drove inp to the curb. A number of men got out and took several money bags into the bank, passing Joe as they went in. He was standing two or three feet from the door thru which they en- tered. Joe barely noticed them. After the men had already disappeared into the bank Joe commenced to cross the street. ‘Just as he reached the curb, two men, who later proved to be city detectives, grabbed him by both arms, saying that: they suspected him and that he. was under arrest. He was taken to the central police station, where he was quizzed and searched. A copy of Bishop Brown’s “Communism and Christianism,” three copies of the “Zeigler Frame-up” and membership cards in the Young Workers' (Communist) League, the Workers (Communist) Party and the International Labor Defense, were found on his person. When taken before Judge Moylan, Kobylak was discharged and the de- tective was threatened with suit for il- legal arrest and damages by the at- torney engaged by the International Labor Defense for Kobylak. ° Letter-Carries Use Skiis. MOSCOW, Feb. 7. —(Tass.)— The People’s Commissariat for post and telegraph has provided 5,000 letter- carriers with skiis. The delivery of mail on skiis takes place in the village districts far away fro: the large roads—in Siberia and in the northern provinces of the Union in Europe. He will like it! Give your union brother a sub to The DAILY WORKER, REVOLUTION More than fifty years This booklet, written by figures in the revolutionary movement in Ger- the letters in which the two great minds pointed out the road for American labor. many, gives MARX AND ENGELS on No. 6 IN THE LITTLE RED LIBRARY eae iin ad clearly formulated Communist principles, fore- saw also the development of American labor. The lessons of Marx and Engels written many years ago still hold good today and should be carefully read by American workers for their im- meat as well as hearin value. N\ IN AMERICA ago the men who first one of the outstanding Read the story on HAS WARDEN RELEASED STEPHENSON, KLAN HEAD? ASK IND, NEWSPAPER MAN MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., Feb. 7.— Walter Daly, warden of the state prison here, refused to permit re- porters to see D, C, Stepenson, serv- Ing a life sentence for the murder of Miss Madge Oberholtzer, in per- son, to determine the truth or falsi- ty of persistent rumors that the famous prisoner has been released. When questioned about the ru- mors at first, Warden Daly declared Stephenson was at work in the prison chair factory and invited a newspaper man to come out and see the prisoner for himself. Informed that a newspaper repres- entative was coming out to see Stephenson in person, Daly reversed his decision and declared that he would not permit anyone to see the prisoner, “They'll have to take my word for it that he’s safely within the walls of the prison,” Daly said. se * Governor Fears Investigation INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 7.—Gov. Ed, Jackson refused point blank to Issue an order to Warden Daly of the state prison at Michigan City to permit a newspaperman to see D, C. Stephenson, to verify or discredit widespread rumors that the prison- er had escaped, “1 won't issue such an order,” the governor emphatically said. “I don’t see why you don’t let Stephenson alone, why you don’t let the warden alone, why you don’t let the whole matter alone.” FORWARD’ AGENT DISRUPTS LABOR LYCEUM MEETING Fear He May Lose Board of Director’s Control MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 7—Continuing his tactics of the previous meeting of the shareholders of the Labor Lyceum, D. Shier, Minneapolis agent of the Jewish Forward, again adjourned the meeting without permitting the elec- tion of a board of directors as he feared he would not be re-elected to the board of directors. From the be- ginning of the meeting he attempted to stifle any discussion of how he used the Labor Lyceum for his political and financial ends. When it came to the vote itself, Shier as chairman, appoint- ed his own tellers who announced the vote a tie: 89 to 89. Instead of im- mediately talling for another vote, which is the procedure according to the by-laws, he permitted a 4-hour filibuster, Filibuster in Meeting. At the end of the filibuster he called for the election of a “nominations com- mittee” to present the shareholders with a slate next meeting. This nom- inations committee is an obvious evasion of the legal procedure which calls for re-elections. Realizing they are defeated they are using these methods of keeping themselves in power, The left wing shareholders insist on the election of each official as pro- vided in the by-laws—and are opposed to political bargaining. The left wing asks that the shareholders themselves and not the small gang in control de- cide who shall be their officers for the coming year. Fight Yellow Forward Gang. For fout years the Shier group dom- inated the affairs of the Labor Ly- ceum, The time to rid the Labor Ly- ceum of this group has come. The coming meeting Sunday will decide this question unless the chairman again attempts to adjourn the meet- ing against the will of the sharehold- ers. Openshop Bosses F; ight 5-Day Week HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 7—~Hart- ford building trades. employers are massing support of their stand against the five-day work week for building trades workers. The painters’ union leads in demanding the shorter work- week, Hartford chapter Associated General Contractors of America is sending letters to local employers ad vising them that it condemns the fiv: day week as conomically fatal, ASSAIC PICKET LINES PULL SUT MORE WORKERS Strikers Rinthused Over Solidarity By LOUIS KOVESS. PASSAIC, 'N, J., Feb. 7 — It is six o’clock in the. morning. The streets are empty and dark. Only here and there a striking worker rushing to the Neubauer Hall is visible. Another half hour passes as the strikers assemble. The committee members take their position and the strikers fall in double line. Then the march to the plant of the Passaic Spinning mills on 8th St. begins, The weather is cold. For a while they walk in silence. The young strikers shiver in the cold. The cloth- ing‘of some is oply fit for August weather, é But as the march goes on with faster steps, their shivering bodies warm-up. The strong wind blowing in their faces does not matter any more. The silence breaks. Cries are heard from the lines to the by-passers: “Get in line, do not scab.” The streets are getting busy. We have been marching about 20 minutes. The strikers, sing with great enthus- jasm: “Oh we ain't gonna slave no more no more! “Oh we alnf'gonna slave no more; “Until we get our ten per cent, “We ain't gonna work no more.” We arrived ‘at the Passaic Spinning Mill. A wholé army of traffic and mo- toreycle polidemen are stationed in front of the mill. In this mill. the workers aré mostly young girls. boys. Their wages were ras cut 10 per cent and their overtime by 25 per cent. The long picket line forms a ring around the bt ie “Join the life” “Don’t scab!” shout the strikers. p§ome of the girls who are trying to enter the mill, hesitate to join the 1 But soon they join the pickets and by the time the picket- ing is over thé pickets are increased in number, ‘I! With a Hungarian worker at one side, I march along. In front of us a short young’ fellow is walking. He turns around“and we see that he is only a young boy and one of the most militant strikefs. Upon our inviattion he joins us atid now three in a row we continue the march, In conversation he tells us his story. He has been working seven months in the mill. He worked himself up to $10.65 a week, He reached the highest wages he can’ get in that mill. He came out yesterday with two hundred other workers. “Why did you come out?” we ask him. “You don’t think I am going to scab” he answers. His father 4nd mother are textile workers. His relatives also. What else could he Wécome if not a textile worker, In fact that he has started to work in the mills at an early age, he sees nothing peculiar. All his friends of the same age are working in the mill, for father and mother earn so little that it is not enough to support the fafnily, “Even when the strike will be over and we go back'to work, I wouldn't go back to the sdme foreman. The hell with him,” he says. He shouts to his older fellow workers, who are hesita- ting to join the line on the corner: “Stand in the line. Don’t be afraid.” We return t6 the Neubauer Hall. Picketing has also been carried on at the Botany and Phoenix mills by their respective groups. The first hireling of the bosses has already appeared at a meeting, When the Botany workers held their strike meeting at Neubauers’ Hall, the hall was jammed with the enthusiastic workers. The speaker Weisbord, or- ganizer of the United Front Commit- tee of Textile Workers was interrupt: ed with the hoarse cry of the Bowery, “No more strike.” This was the first trial of the textile barons to see what effect this slogan would have upon the workers. The effect that the strikebreaker left the room without making any use of\ his feet, The number of the strikers exceeds seven thousand, The bosses will not be able to break the ranks of the strikers, even when they mobilize the | FEDERAL “LABOR” STATISTICIAN FALSIFIES FIGURES TO ASSIST STEEL TRUST TO SLASH WAGES By LELAND OLDS, Federated Press. Gross exaggeration of the improvement in living standards in the fron and steel industry appears in an extended article in The Iron Age based on figures furnished by United States commissioner of labor statistics Ethelbert Stewart. Here as in his article on union wages Stewart hag played directly into the hands of the steel barons by basing his calculations on hourly rather than full-time weekly earnings. Stewart's figures show that in 1924 blast furnace employes enjoyed a standard of living 48.8% above 1913 and nearly 39% above 1907. As a matter of fact the weekly wages of. these workers will purchase only 11.3% more than in 1913 while their purchasing power shows no improvement over 1907 KELLOGG PERFORMS FLAG-WAVING STUNT IN SUPREME COURT WASHINGTON, Feb. 7—Entry in- to the United States of the liberal Countess Catherine Karolyi, wife of the first president of the Hungarian republic, would be “prejudicial to the interests of the country,” Sec- retary of State Kellogg declarde to the District of Columbia supreme court when asking for dismissal of the petition compelling him to grant a passport to the countess. Current Events (Continaed from page 1) viet Russia are not afraid to air their differences in public. The organiza tion which is branded by the capital- ists and the reactionary socialists as a conspiracy is the most open political institution in the world. Not only are the Communists not opposed to pub- licity but they spend large sums of money in order to get their views be- fore the masses, see Now it came to pass that prominent leaders of the All-Union Commun- ist Party were on opposite sides of the discussion. Zinoviev, the president of the Communist International did not agree with Stalin, secretary of the Russian party. The differences were thrashed out before the congress and a majority favored Stalin’s position. Those are the facts. What did some capitalist reporters do? They immedi- ately repaired to the nearest joss house and dragged a Czarist opium eater from his couch. After the czar- ist got another shot in the arm or a new pipeful of his favorite luxury he spun a fantastic yarn about “Stalin’s Troops” fighting with “Zinoviev’s troops” and Zinoviev's “section of the Checka” threatening to hoist Stalin’s head on the point of a spear if he ever got to Leningrad.” see HIS is funny, and frankly, but for the fact that some workers are silly enuf to believe this stuff, we would be in favor of asking the Soviet government to keep the capital- ist correspondents in opium, provided the Soviet government can buy enuf of it from the christian British gov- ernment to supply the needs of the fiction masters. We remember very vividly, the yarns that were spun about Lenin and Trotsky, when those two leaders differed over certain poli- cies. Lenin would be fleeing to Spain one day with Trotsky on his trail, while a few days later Trotsky would be safely locked up in the vilest dun- geons in Moscow with Lenin jeering at him thru the keyhole. see 1 spite of all those fairy tales and the wishes of the capitalists and their hirelings the Soviet Union is still there and is there to stay. While the other countries of Europe, outside of England are “on the bum”. and even England on the way, the Soviet Union is forging ahead. It would be ridiculous to pretend that Russia is yet a Utopia, a land of milk and honey. Not by a long way. But that day is coming. The land of the Soviet Union and all that it produces belong to the workers and peasants, They are gradually developing their social- ized industry and training themselves in the art of managing their own in- stitutions, This takes time. It would take less time if the workers of high- ly developed industrial countries dumped their ruling class and were in a position to lend the maximum aid to building up the world republic of labor, the goal 6f the proletariat, | Our Readers’ Views Justice Under Capitalism, To The DAILY WORKER:— I am not a Communist, but occasionally I buy The DAILY WORKER at a South- side newsstand, The other day I no- ticed a news item about a lawyer be- ing shot by a client in a loop build- ing. The client, according to yellow newspapers, lost a civil case thru a trick, and pressed to pay the lawyer a fee of $500.00, he decided to take the ‘aw into his own hands. The last week before the shooting occurred he slept in bathhouses, Anybody t! had some experience with lawyers and “ is surprised that such things don’t happen often in our “civilized” country. +The significant fact which Stewart omits is that average full-time hours ver week have fallen from 81.4 in 1907 and 78 in 1913 to 60.6 hours in 924, Blast-furnace workers are even vorse off today than figures for 1924 ndicate, for the cost of living has been steadily rising without corre- sponding increase in steel wages, By December 1925 the purchasing power of their wages was only about 7 per cen above 1913 and was 344 per cent below 1907, quite a different showing from Stewart’s figures boastfully featured in the Iron Age. Table Nails Stewart's Lie. Changes in blast-furnace weekly wages, in the cost of living and inthe purchasing power of these wages from 1907 to December 1925 are shown in the following figures issued by Stewart’s own bureau of labor sta- tistics, The year 1913 is taken as 100 per cent. i 2 eo 2 2:5 33 «5 §¢ % 5s. en. oe =o £223 es §3 $ fz 3¢ se 2 & & 36 €€--8 1907 91 82 111.0 1908 86 84.3 102.0 1909 85 88,7 95.8 1910 90 93.0 96.8 1911 90 92.0 97.8 1912 90 97.6 92.2 1913 100 =: 100.0 100.0 1914 97 103.0 94.2 1915 97 105.1 92.2 1917 152. 142,4 106.7 1919 248 «188.3 131.7 1920 258 208.5 123.8 1922 176 -167.3 105.2 1924 190 + 190.7 111.8 1925 Dec.190 178.0 106.8 Figures for other important depart- ments of the iron and steel industry show similar resiiits. The workers in two branches of the industry are working for wages which actually pur- chase less than’ ‘their 1913 wages. Those employed in blooming mills with a 77 per cent gain in weekly money wages have a loss of one-half of one percent in’ purchasing power Page Three SOVIET PRESSURE FELT AS GENEVA PROPOSALS FAL Failure of Arms Confer- ence Heavy Blow (Special to The Daily Worker) GENEVA, . Switzerland, Feb, T— This town, the seat of the council of the league of nations, is beginning to feel the effects of the determined stand of the Soviet Union, that insists upon boycotting the country on ac- count of the scandalous manner in which Switzerland defended the murd- erers of Vorovsky, the Soviet diplo- mat, at the Lausanne conference in 1923. The league is inclined to attach some of the blame for the failure of the armament conference scheduled for the 15th of this month on Switser- and and there is much talk at Euro pean capitals of moving the head- quarters of the league to some other capital of a small European nation, [t is also known that Emile Vander- velde wants the headquarters moved to the Belgian capitol, Brussels, Failure Heavy Blow. The failure of the preliminary con- ference is the heaviest blow ever delivered the league, as it is the first conference on a world scale it has even attempted. It is pointed out that the Washington conference, calied by the United States, a non-member of the league, met with much more fay- orable response than anything yet achieved by the league. Another such failure will shatter what prestige the league possesses among European powers, Western Railroad Heads Prepare to Fight Union Demands Executives of western railroads, meeting here to discuss the wage de- mands of the Order of Railway Con- ductors and the Brotherhood of Rall- way Trainmen for pay increases aver aging about $1 per day, unanimously decided not to grant the increase. It has not been decided as to what terms the employers will offer the union committee and as March 2 has been set as the time limit the rail- road officials declare they will devote the remainder of their conference to organizing themselves to resist the union demands when the limit ex pires. Radiofication In Russia, MOSCOW, Feb. 7 —(Tass.)— The and those in plate mills with a gain! Moscow Soviet of trade uni¢ns has of 72 per cent in weekly money wages| completed the initial plan of the have a loss of 3:3 per cent in purchas-|radiofication of the villages of the ing power. The gains to December 1925 other branches of the industry are: chasing power; open hearth, 99 per cent and 11.8 per cent; tinplate mills 111 per. cent and 1§.6 per cent; pud- dling mills 136 per cent in wages and 32.6 per cent in. purchasing power. Union Betterg Conditions, The purchasing power of wages in the iron and steel industry has fallen materially since 1919-1920. In the same period the purchasing power of union wages increased nearly 40 per cent. Compared with 1913 the great majority of unorganized steel workers fall considerably short of the improve- ment in living standards secured by union workers, Physical Culture Conferences, MOSCOW, (Tass) Feb, 7—A confer- ence of physical culture societies was held in Minsk. According to reports submitted to the conference, there are now over 400 physical culture socie- ties, and upwards of 70,000 members in White Russia. Bessemer converters 82 per cent in| Moscow province. money wages and /2.2 per cent in pur-| formed in each reading room, Moscow district. Radios are establish- in}ed now in all the 209 volost (paro- chial) village reading rooms of the Radio circles are A Joint Celebration for THE DAILY WORKER and THE FREIHEIT with a GRAND DANCE ST. LOUIS, MO. Westminster Hall, 3806 Olive St. Saturday, Feb. 27 Tickets in Advance 60 Gents, at the Door 75 Cents, cece INITIAL ALL ALLL al The Latest Publication! A book that should be in the hands of every worker and one no Communist can be without, OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR: can White Terrorists Ask for Mercy. 5 Cents. Translation of Principles of Communism by Frederick Engels. 10 Cents. The ‘revolutionary movement has its dangers from within. principles and policies that lead to power, its progress is retarded—and the movement endangered, Clarity of principle is essential to correct policies, splendid contribution to Communist clarity, The Menace of OPPORTUNISM By Max Bedacht. Unless it guard the crystal clearness of the the American movement, these dan. Love become apparen' This timely t completely gerd he the a revolutl rincipl he correct road This booklet is a whole underworld of New York. They will not be able to provoke any fights among the workers, The strikers are well disciplined, * q People have been fooled by “law, “democracy,” “justice” and “liberty by a bunch of yellow capitalist news- papers and their tools—politicians— long enough. oi time for people to Twelve Copies for One Dollar Hartford open shop building trades ex- change endorses eon Mig and en- apd Ns DAILY WORKER ms y aman eTn eae COMPANY