The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 16, 1926, Page 1

The DAILY WORKER Raises the Standard for a Workers’ and Farmers’ Government ‘ Subscription Rates: Susias Vol. Ill. No. 132. 56 Class War Prisoners ing in the garment strike of 1924. The injunction which prohibited picketing. was denounced. by the entire Chicago labor movement. But the injunction was issued by Judge Sullivan, who was elected on the republican titket—the same capitalist ticket on which | candidates for public office were endorsed by leading officials of the | Chicago Federation of Labor and its affiliated unions. The members of the I. L=G. W. Us were sent to jail by a judge} whose political party was supported by union officials. * The question must be asked now: What do the union officials, who supported the republican party and consequently its injunction policy, propose to do about the jail- union men and women for fighting the open shop? not do in this e. The imprisonment of 56, union members for their loyalty to the trade union movement and its principles is a challenge to every union man and woman in Chicago. These workers have been jailed because they fought against an injunction—a method of outlawing labor unions and their activities which the conventions of the American Federation of Labor ‘have denounced cdnsistently and urged its members to fight uncom- promisingly. Here is a concrete issue for Chicago labor. Is it to be thrown into the cess-pool of capitalist politics, made officialdom of Cook | county, become the subject of whispered conferences with labor-hating a basis of trades and deals with the crooked jobholders. Or will the jailing Of 56 union men and women by an injunction | judge be taken into the Chicago Federation of Labor and all its unions and used to arousé aid organize a mass ‘protest against ‘the courts, judges and officials of the Chicago capitalist class? The 56 worker may be pardoned by wire-pulling, but the injunc- tion still stands and Sullivan still holds office. The official policy of the Chicago Federation of Labor is stil that of support of candidates onthe democratie“and or eT FOLL i fi tickets. z unions be used to show the dangerous futility of the “nonpartisan” 0, by mall, $8.00 per year, hicago, by mail, $6.00 per year. familiar with the usual mode of procedure—that of in- terviewing politicians and pulling wires, asking favors and promising | favors iit return, but this evasion of struggle on the real issue will | | | | | 4 —— T Will the jailing of 56 of the’ best fighters in the Chicago trade| PLATFORM 10 | policy which elects only capitalist partisans to office? The fore can jail without -fear of reprisal the very best fighting troop of the labor movement. The release of 56 members of the International Ladies’ its ownecandidates and its own party. If the Chicago trade unign movement speaks with its own voice and with the determined tone that it can, the 56 will be released. the trade union movement cleared of the stain the support of the bosses’ it, and its prestige and power increased im- parties placed upon mensely. Twenty-Séven Garment Workers March to Jail to Begin Terms followed by other members of the union, all singing and laughing, * wo 56 anion men and women in Cook county jail are the proof | that with its present policy the Chicago labor movement is dependent upon enemies for favors, that the open shop interests believe that | they have nothing to fear from labor in politics and. that they there Gar- | ment. Workers’ Union must be taken out of the back rooms of the! zapitalist party bosses and made a real political case, made the starting point of a movement which will put labor “in polities with Twenty-five women and two men composed a group of members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union who marched from the union's office yesterday to the Cook county jail where they will serve sentences ranging from 10 to 70 days for violating an injunction issued by Judge Dennis Sullivan during a garment workers’ strike in 1924, They marched to the jail KILL LENROOT Makes World Court the Major Issue (Special to The Daily Worker) WASHINGTON, June 14. — The block and the axe on which the politi- cal execution of Irvine L. Lenroot, |senator from Wisconsin, will be carried out in the*statewide primary on September 7, are ready for action. The LaFollette organization is to challenge the present senator on issue of the woarld court and he has not the slightest ground for defense because if was he who led the hosts of the House of Morgan who voted adherence of this country to the world court, the backdoor to the league of nations. The LaFollette candidate for Len- root’s seat in Governor James J. Blaine. Herman Ekern is the candi- date for governor. First Plank on Court. The first plank in the platform, after a pledge to carry out the middle class reform program of the late senior La Follette, states: “We are unalterably opposed to the entrance of the United States into the league of nations, and we denounce the administration and the members of the senate who voted to put this country into the league of nations world court as a betrayal of a sacred public trust. We favor a resolution by congress withdrawing America’s adherence to the world court. Assails Mellon Tax. “The platform also denounces the foreign debt settlements, condemns “dollar diplomacy,” favors outlawry of war, abolition of conscription, oppos universal military training; demands repeal of the Esch-Cummins railroad law; Condemns Mellon's revenue aet, whieh relieved “millionaire’s taxes”; demands reduction in “tariff monopow lies”; demands justice for the farmer, and declares for freedom of the wes| from “domination ‘by eastern indus- tries and financial interests.” STEELSTRUST DESPERATELY TRIES wae WV oo —™ ? Entered at Second-class matter September 21, 1923, at the Frost Office at Chicagy, illinots, under the Act of March 3, 1879. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1926 : From. The Ranks of Chicago Labor! What Can Chicago Unions Do? FIrry.six members of the International Ladies’ Garment Work- ers’ Union, all but two of them women, are in the Cook county jail. They have been sent,there by Judge Dennis E. Sullivan for picket- ished Daily except Sunda; Pubil PUBLISHING CO., 1113 W. (Special to The | threw the whole open-shop infern of the workers flocked to the mil of their loved ones. jheavy armed guard around the The DAILY WORKER reporter to enter the plant but first aid v steel fence surrounds the whole plant. | The extent of the disaster is seen | in the fact that all ambulances in | Gary were rushed to the plant, while fire department apparatus and police patrol cars are used to carry away | the dead and injured. | The explosion was apparently caused by ignition of gases in one or more of the huge coke ovens. Parts of the machinery, steel and burning coal were hurled with terrible force fin all directions, while deadly fumes | spread over the plant. | } Workers Burned Alive. | The blast dashed many workers to death and injury against the brick | {and concrete walls, breaking arms jand legts and skulls, while the fire \that started in the ruins burned many | bodies of the dead and cremated the jinjured that lay dying before aid | reached them, A great cloud fo Bas and smoke | which shot high in the air when the jexplosion occurred, settled again in \the heavy, damp atmosphere, and in |the semi-darkness Gary firemen |worked with difficulty against the tims. TO HIDE TRUTH ABOUT DISASTER v'sios rss, binsing ou ve The fotlowing report was received over the telephone from our representative, H. M. Wicks, at the scene of the Gary, Indiana, steel plant horror, Wicks will have a detailed story in tomorrow’s issue of The DAILY WORKER. , “e+ © @ By H. M. WICKS. (Special to The Daily Worker) GARY; 'Ind., June 14.—The explosion resulted in the death of not less than fifty. The plant is a mass of ruins: The explosion took place in what is called the laboratory and where they make the by-products of coke, bengal, toluene and napthalene. This material is crude stuff for T.N.T. and is a by-product of coal made to treat coke. This is what caused the explosion. Despite ail difficulties, The DAILY WORKER reporter saw in one undertaking establishment twelve colored men. The undertaking estab- lishment of R. E. Guy was roped off over a block and colored women and children are standing in line being admitted ten at a time in order to attempt to identity the bodies. ‘ ROPE OFF UNDERTAKING PLANT. The dead: men have the ‘flesh burned off their faces and chests and are ghastly spectacl The steel trust has established a complete reign of terror theuout Gary. The steel trust police at the gates of the steel corporation’ refuse to permit any reporters to enter. However, The DAILY WORKER reporter secured a car and chauffeur and drove by the gat aticonsiderable speed, refusing to heed the signal to “Stop,” entered the yards and drove by the coke plants, when police stopped and ordered ‘him out of the yard. But | succeeded in getting a view of the wreckage. Firemen and police of thescompany are working amidst the ruins and removing the bodies of the dead and the wounded. It is almost impossible to ascertain who are wounded and who are dead. MANY WAIT TO IDENTIFY DEAD. Those weunded are being taken to the company hospital where there are already*146 and and where the streets are heavily guarded with company polite and no one is permitted to enter. Large groups of col- ored and white people are assembled in the vicinity waiting for the op- portunity tovidentify those of their relatives who were working in the plant. Not even the Gary police department are permitted within the yard. . At the undertaking establishment, the people in charge have been given orders not to give out any names whatever of those dead. The peo- ple at the undertaking establishment waiting in line all declare that it is the practice of the company not to give out information regarding home- less workers who are killed. BRASS CHECK TELLS MUTE STORY, \ . However, The DAILY WORKER reporter succeeded in obtaining one name from a colored relative. One man, Marvin Kimbro, a young colored worker, is scarred almost beyond identification. The reporter saw a check number, the workers are given numbers instead of names. This number was “26023.” That was the mute evidence that he was ever a human being. At some of the undertaking establishments where there are white men, the company has ordered all people xcluded and it is impossible to ascertain the number of dead in the establishments. a \ i \ | Meanwhile, at the mill) gates and held back by lines of armed steel trust |guards, the wives and families of the | steel workers waited, weeping and | wringing their hands before the mons- jter of steel that had swallowed their loved ones only a few hours \before, | | now to disgorge them, unrecognizable, {charred pieces of flesh and bone, or torn bodies covered with grim blood. } A Veritable Hell. Many of the injured were horribly mangled and several of the dead were thrown hundreds of feet by the force of the explosion. The roof of the two story by-products plant was blown off, the debries crushing the workers in its fall, while tons of acids and chemicals were scattered among the workers lying among the flaming ruins, mak ing a veritable-hell of burning acid, steel fragments, and flaming building wreckage while over all hung ‘the deadly fumes of poison gases and thick smeke. As usual, the company paid more at- (Continued on uage 2) ANOTHER FARM RELIEF BILL UP IN SENATE Proposes Billion Loan for Farmers | WASHINGTON, June 14.—A new farm relief proposal, providing gov- ernment subscription of a $200,000,000 | fund to be loaned to farmers, either | separately or co-operatively, for ex- porting their surpluses, was intro-| duced in the senate today by Senator Robinson, democrat of Arkansas. | Debate Stops at Noon, | With debate Imitation effective at hoon tomorrow the new amendment | {may delay a vote on relief legislation | juntil late this week. Farm bloc lead- ers were hoping to vote on the $175,- 000,000 McNary-Haugen bill by Wea: | nesday or Thursday, | The Robinson amendment would al- | low aggregate loans up to $1,000,000, 000 on commercial securities approved by a board of five in control of an ex- port corporation the act would estab- lish. and by THE DAILY WORKER ‘ashington Bivd., Chicago, [lL authentic and detailed information. NEW YORK EDITION Price 3 Cents L PLANT BLAST 100 Injured at Gary Inferno of Illinois Steel Co. Dally Worker) GARY, Ind., June 14,—A terrific explosion which killed 14 or more steel workers and injured over 100, wrecked the coke/{ |plant of the Illinois Steel Company at 8:30 Monday morning and} 0 of Gary, iron and steel center | of the Great Lakes region, into confusion as families and friends‘ | gates trying to learn the fate { Immediately after the explosion, company officials threw a plant and refused to give out any information as to the number of dead and injured. ‘ Workers from within the plant report that many more were killed than is officially admitted thru the Gary police department. is on the scene gathering No one is being permitted workers and police, and a high FTE AE SA ESE EEE SRO BEE 2 BRITISH MINE STRIKE FUNDS BADLY NEEDED | Green Is Silent on Aid from A. F. of L. (Special to The Daily Worker) NEW YORK, June 14.—“Five years of under-employment and unemploy: ment have made conditions among the British miners so bad that the Miners’ Federation can only pay quite inadequate; strike benefits, and then only in the most desperate districts. The striking miners and their famil- ies are almost entirely dependent up- on outside assistance to avoid starva- tion.” This is the report of Evelyn Preston of the Women’s Committee of England, accepted by the Miners’ Federation as their relief agency. When Miss Preston saw William Green, president of the American Fed- e jon of Labor, he seemed concern- ed as to what the A. F. of L. coul@ do, and whether they could act quickly enough. Why Is Green Silent? A direct appeal to Green was cabled from the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain. The British miners feel that the struggle will be long and hard, says Miss Preston, and assure the American workers of the urgeray of their aid Dispatches of the Federated Press from Washington state that members of Green’s staff at the Washington headquarters say they have no knowl- edge of thé receipt of any appeal from the British 3’ Federation for help. Green himself has gone west on a speaking tour that will keep him away from Washington until July. He has never explained the reasons which led him to abandon his original Project of giving, financial aid to the, British miners which he discussed on May 7. Unions Must Act. Until Green appeals to all untons affiliated with the A. F. of L. to do- mate to the starving families of the British strikers, his staff assumes that (Continued from page 1) SATURDAY LOOK FOR THESE FEATURES LENIN—A story of his life during the period of the world war, and the beginning of +the Russian revolution in Feb- ruary on his return, OLGIN—This brilliant writer con- tributes “NASHURA. ture of a young Rus: @ delightful story that you will enjoy and one that will enable you to get more light on the new Russia. ELLIS—Our splendid proletarian artist again will be seen in some of his unusual work. PARKER—Florence Parker writes her stories from England specially for The DAILY WORKER—and of great in- terest to women, You will find these features in the new MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT SATURDAY nn Tee TODAY'S MSE OF fly, AN NOVEL BY UPTON SINCLAIR APPEARING EXCLUSIVELY IN’ THE DAILY WORKER, ON PAGE,