The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 17, 1926, Page 3

—[—_—_ ‘* ‘22,000 MINERS MAY WALK QUT IN ANTHRACITE 'Challenge Hudson ‘Coal Co. on Grievances By ART SHIELDS, Federated Press, SCRANTON, Nov. 15 —(FP)—Hud- fet Coal Co., whose breakers spot the northern anthracite fleld for many | miles, Ig threatened with a strike of ban 22,000 employes, The general Peers committee of the 22 local | inions involved, says that unless the management remedies one of the | many grievances that have been hang- \'Ing fire so long it will call a strike ‘In the latter half of November. Hudson Coal — a subsidiary of Loree’s Delaware & Hudson R, R, — ‘has the worst labor record in the hard coal region, The particular grievance that: brings the threat of war is only a last straw on the camel's back, Yet the facts of this local grievance are worth telling because they well illus- trate the company’s methods, In the Grassy Island Colliery the payment of the tonnage miners for rock removal has been slashed more than two thirds, This rock is a strata “{n the middle of the coal vein, Re- | moving this rock took up so much time of the plece workers that they were formerly alloted a substantial time allowance, Every bi-weekly pay they were credited with 40 hours or five shifts at the day-time rate of $6.98 a shift, totalling more than forty dollars for this form of “dead work.” Slashes 3 Years Ago. Three years ago the management )shashed this forty-odd dollars to a flat | five, six and seven dollars, depending ‘om tho man and the work place. The \union protested that the company, un- {der the agreement, had no right to jehange a rate until the agreement ex- p ‘The case went to the concilia- dion board representing operators and jwnion for the "hard coal region.’ It ‘went on to Umpire Neill. The umpire agreed in principle with the union but jtalled to fix a rate. He asked the ‘ anion and the company to get.together pose fo this. Again the weary round, through the conciliation board. and fad apes ea iicey poet |ease three months. The company | argues—falsely the union says—that ppart of the forty-odd dollars formerly went for other kinds of “dead work” mow compensated for under other headings, But no records are shown td prove this assertion. Cut Rock Rates. Encouraged by the delay the com- pany recently cut rock rates again to $3 a bi-weekly pay, allowing $5 to exceptionally hard kickers. And ag- \gravated by the delay the grievance \eommittee threatens strike at a time | when the coal trade is booming. | There are a host of other grievan- joes: numerous arbitrary discharges; painjust dockage of piece workers; gen- | eral speed-up of day men and in s6me | tases laying men off after five and six and seven hours, to make them | speed up in the morming to catch up | with lost time. Overshadowing other grievances— ‘with those who suffer from it— is the contract system that is being extend- ed, making one miner the profiteer \ovyer many others, The union has ‘traditionally been opposed to the con- tract system and from time to time has rebelled against it and. either wiped it out or curtailed it, But in the last three years Hudson- Coal, among other operators in the northern field, has been extending it, Perhaps most serious of all to the union’s present welfare {s Hudson , Coal’s latest move, forbidding organ- izers the right to come on its proper: ties and backing this up with a declar- ation that the union does not have the right to @ closed shop, . * Post Office to Give * * Pree _ Private Corporations WASHINGTON, Nov, 15—The first step of the post office department in turning over to private concerns the transcontinental air \mail service, as well ag the supplomental oyer night service between New York and Chi- cago, was taken today when Second Assistant Postmaster General Glover fesued a call for bids on the two routes to supercede the present government operated alr mail service, The bids will be opened on January 15, 1937, t American Labor! On AFFIDAVIT SHOWS ROLE” PLAYED BY DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN TRIAL From the affidavit of Willlam G. Thompson, defense attorney for Sacco and Vanzett!, the following extract showing the part played by the Department of Justice In the frame-up of Sacco. and Vanzettl Is Hluminating} ~~ “| further state that on July 3, 1926, :1 wrote to the Hon. John @. Sargent, attorney general of the Unlted States, stating that | had ob- tained an affidavit from Fred J. Weyand, a former’ speclal agent of the Department of Justice In Bos> ton, which seemed to Indicate oo- operation between the Boston spe- clal agents’ and the district attor ney In the prosecution of Sacco and Vanzetti for murder, and ask- | Ing him to instruct .Mr. William Js West, now a special agent of the \~ Department in Boston, to .give me whatever Information he possessed about this matter, and to show me whatever documents and corre- spondence were on file In his of- fice dealing with the investigation | made by the Department agents In | Boston before, during and after the | trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. | re- celved no reply to this letter. Quests Marie: Wins What She Came for and Cuts Trip Short (Continued from page 1.) conditioning the petroleum industry destroyed by the war.” This statement, made simultane- ously with the consummation of large foreign loans, signifies that an ar- rangement has been made to virtu- ally mortgage the ofl industry of Roumania for Joreign credit. It means that the advance of $100,000,- 000 made by Wall Street was done to insure an American foothold in the large petrol resources of Roumania. There are also reports of a loan of 30,000,000 pounds ($150,000,000) being granted by an Anglo-American con sortium in London. Advices from Ber- lin state that the German firm of Krupps is. considering a project which would result in the granting of a loan of 500,000,000 marks to Roumania. But it is patent that Wall Street, the center of world bank- ing, has the last word in the mattér and that Queen Marie's journéy here was intimately bound up with these international financial negotiations. Sees Gary Thru Glass. Qn Monday morning the queen and her party went to Gary, Ind. where they “inspected” the mills. Her ma-j esty exypressed a desiré to see part of “America’s workshop.” Of the nature of her visit to the Indiana slave pens of the United States Steel Corporation, it 1s enuf ito say that her majesty and party were conducted thru the mills in specially constructed cars entirely covered by glass. From these protected cages the queen viewed the huge smelters, the great piles of ore and saw th molten steel being poured into the molds. None of the tantalizing ore dust en- tered her royal lungs. The murder- ous heat of the open hearth furnaces before which the workers oil did fot burn her aristocratic cheeks. She got { Wisnmaws For the Abolition of All Oppression EAR Friends of the International Labor Defense: On April 30, 1926 | received $20 from the Defense committee. They are yours. And previous to that date | had received a third $20 from you, through the D. C. I have also regu- larly received your bulletin since its first issue. It Is a long time that | wanted to wri to you to tell you that | appreciate your solidarity. ! am, one of the old guard who appreci- | Your Guard! ate and approve the solidarity and have been solidly with all. If | delayed so much it is because | was embarrassed to write to you on account of our different views on very delicate and important matters, which | would, or rather which I shall not hide to you. But the last stab- bing of the Massachusetts Supreme Court does not give one time enough, nor breath enough to discuss things. They are preparing the fire on which to burn us alive. Only the revolu- RENEW SPIRIT OF FIGHT TO SAVE SACO, VANZETTI only superficial glimpses of the sweating toilers, making profite for Judge Gary and his fellow profiteers From her glass cage she was im- pressed only by the “efficiency” and the “greatness” of these huge mills. Slavery Familiar. Not that slavery 1s an unfamiliar sight to Maria von Hohenzollern. The driven workers of Bucharest and Costanza, the toiling peasants of Bessarabia and the exploited oll field workers in Wallacha{ are not uncom: mon objects of her royal vision al home. : . Six Drown Trying to . * Evade Police in Raid ery ery on Mississippi Boat ST, PAUL, Minn., Nov, 16,—Six per- sons are known to have been drowned, one is missing, and three others were rescued from the icy waters of the Mississippi river here early today, All were in a houseboat anchored in the Missiasipp! and, according to oc; cupants of other houseboats, were staging a wild drinking party, ‘When police attempted -to raid the houseboat ten of the party lo their way out thru a back door, jammed themselves into a small boat tied to the houseboat, Immediately after shoving off in the dark thefr small boat overturned, Police succeeded in rescuing three of. the ten, BALKAN POLICE ARREST WORKERS IN SOFIA RAID ON ORGANIZATION ; (Special to The Dally Worker) SOFIA, Nov, 16-—An alleged secret Communist organization with a thou- gand mombere has been “discovered” following py 2th r Yi by tho Sofia police, it was announced of many workers presumed to be leaders of the ization in a raid en their headquarters, — ‘ Big New York Meeting Leads National Protest (Continued from page 1) to the electrocution chair. The work- ers of the entire world who have on more than one occasion shown their fraternal spirit are becoming con- vinced that in the united power of the workers themselves lies the hope of Sacco and Vanzett!. On November 17, The New York mass meeting, which will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 1926, will take place in the Madi- son Square Garden, Highth avenue and 60th street, at 8 p.m, Among the sepakers wil Ibe Ben Gold, of the Fur- riers’ Joint Board, Enea Sormenti, of the Anti-Fascist! Alliance, Richard Brazier of the I, W, W., Norman Thomas of the socialist party, and William W, Weinstono of the Workers (Communist) . Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, natfonal “chairman of Interna- tional Labor Defense, will act as chatr- man of the meeting, In Chicago, also, a huge mass pro- test meeting 1s being arranged, At the Ashland Boulevard Auditorlum, Ashland Boulevard and Van Buren, on Friday, Noy, 26, the Chicago Sacco- Vanzettt conference wil lhold a meet ing with John Fitzpatrick, president ‘ot the Chicago Federation of Labor, Vincezo Vactrca, well known Italian labor editor of New York who was re cently saved from deportation to Italy, the Reverend Charles Clayton Mor- rigon, editor of the Christian Century, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, national chair man of I, L, D., and Anton Johannsen, of the Chicago Federation of Labor, who will act as chgirman, to both meetings is free and workers are urged to attend in masses to their solidarity with the two victims of the frameup ‘in Massachusetts. tionary workers, the people, can give us life and freedom. | said the above because | felt morally duty-bound. So that It only remains to me to say and repeat that | appreciate your solldar- ity'to me and to the other P. P. and that | am and will remain till to the death, for the emancipation of the workers, for the elimination of every oppression, exploitation and injus- tice. Fraternally yours, Bartolemo Vanzetti. MORE THAN SIX YEARS OF GROWING STRUGGLE TO HALT JUDICIAL MURDER OF TWO WORKERS IN MASSACHUSETTS N May 5, 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian radical workers, were arrested at Brockton, sachusetts, and char- ged with the murder of the pay- master and his guard of the Slater & Merrill Shoe company of South Braintree. The arrests took place amid the anti-Red hysteria that followed the “red raids” of former Attorney-General A. Mitchel! Paimer. Sacco and Vanzetti had been ac- tive In arousing sentiment against the Imprisonment and torture of two of their friends and comrades, Robert Ella and Andrea Salsedo. Salsedo was found dead on a pave- ment of New York City below the offices of the department of justice in Park Row, where he had been held and alleged to have been tor- tured by “D. of J.” agents In an attempt to force a confession, from them, Elia was. deported. » After a trial In which the court room was charged with an atmos- phere of anti-radical and antl-allen prejudice, and In which the Judge, Webster Thayer, was so obviously partial as to call forth protests from even capitalist newspapers, both Sacco and Vanzett| were convicted and sentenced to death July 14, 1921. Stay of execution was granted _While five motions for a new trial were argued on October 1923, In this period, and In the months that followed, the entire labor movement of America and of the world was aroused by what assumed even greater International proportions than the Mooney-Billings case, One after another, thewitnesses pro- tuced by the prosecution were un- covered as perjurers and otherwise dublous characters, Experts h: I. ready testified that the charge of murder and robbery against the two Itallan workers were manifestly ab- surd, Th usive alibls which were the did not, _ however, any yht with the \ A hearing before the supreme court of Massachusetts was finally set for January 11, 1926. On May 12, 1926, the supreme court rendered its decision denying the radicals a new trial. It was left to the superior court to sentence them, The imminent threat of execution to the two workers, for whom the workers thruout the world had al- ready demonstrated their solidarity and conviction of innocence, renew- ed the spirit of protest in the labor movement generally. International Labor Defense organized a huge campaign of protest thruout the land and took initial measures to systematize and centralize the pro- test movement in calling for Sacco- Vanzetti conferences, which were organized in all the cente?s of Amer- ica with hundreds of labor unions, fraternal organizations and repres- entatives of labor political organiza- tions, On July 16, 1926, a date was set for a hearing on a new motion for a retrial, based upon additional in- formation secured by the defense, The Judge before whom the argu- ments were heard was Judge Web- ster Thayer, the trial Judge who had convicted and sentenced Sacco and Vanzettl! 2 The new evidence consisted large- ly of sensational confessions of Cele- stino Madelroa, himself under con victlon of murder, In which “he com- pletely exonerated Sacco and Van- zettl of the charges originally placed against, them, Madelros |ndtcated that the notorious Morelli gang of Providence, R, |., were the real In- stigatora of the South Braintree holdup and were actually guilty of having committed the robbery and subsequent murder, Despite this evidence, which also included numerous affidavits from Police officials, Judge Thayer, on October 24, 1926, announced his deci- sion ‘ing to grant Sacoe and Vangzetti a new trial, Page Three Sacco and Vanzetti Must Not Die! They Are I N October 23rd Judge Webster Thayer handed down his deol- slon on the motions for a new trial heard the week of September 18th. Here are his own words! “In conclusion, as far as the Made- iros affidavit Is concerned It would have been an easy task for this court to transfer the responsibility upon another Jury, but If this were done it would be the shirking of a solemn duty that the law places upon the trial court. Guided by this solemn duty | have examined and studied for several weeks without Interruption the record of the teetl- mony upon this motion and the Ma- deiros deposition; and, being con- trojled only by Judgment, reason and conscience, and after giving as favorable consideration to these de- fendants as may be consistent with a due regard for the rights of the public and sound principles of laws, 1 am forced to the conclusion that the affidavit of Madeiros Is unre- Hable, untrustworthy and untrue. To set aside the verdict of a jury affirm- ed by the Supreme Judicial Court of this Commonwealth on such an af- fidavit would be a mockery upon truth and Justice. Therefore, exer clsing every right vested In this court In the granting of motions for new trials by the law of his com- monwealth, the motion for a new trial is hereby denied.” * That means that in spite of the confession of Madeiros, in spite of the affidavits of the department of Justice agents, Letherman and Wey- and and Wei letter and the great mass of testimony that has been piled up refuting the evidence on which they were convicted, Sacco and Vanzetti must die. By FRED J. WEYAND,, Former Agent of the Department of Justice. | am thoroly convinced, and always have been, and believe that is and always has. been the opinion of such Boston agents of the Department of Justice as had any knowledge on the subject, that these men (Sacco and Vanzetti) had nothing whatever to do with the South Braintree murders, and that their conviction was a result of co-operation between the Boston agents of the Depart- ment of Justice and the District Attorney. general opinion of the Boston agents of the Department of Justice having knowledge of the affair that the South Braintree crime was committed by a gang of professional highwaymen.—(Signed) FRED J. WEYAND. The Chances Are Desperate for Sacco and Vanzetti, Review of the Case Show nnocent! It was the The chances of # reversal of Judge Thayer's decision by the Su preme Court of Massachusetts are desperately small, An appeal to the United States supreme court en “due process of law” Is a forlorn hope altho It Is one of the guaran tees set down in the constitution. The opinion of one man, backed up by the huge cumbersome power of the Judicial system, Is going te Prevent the reversal of a verdict gotten from a Jury In a time of hatred and hysteria, Is going to burn forever on our minds the fact that a foreigner and a holder of en um popular creed cannot expect justice In this country, and Is going to murder two Innocent men, already tortured beyond human endurance by the suspense of six/years In Jail, Yet this long decision of thirty thousand words, that denies the poe sibility of a gunman and murderer telling the truth, that attacks per. sonally the counsel for the defense and makes light of the now general- ly admitted accusations against At- torney General Palmer's anti-Red crusade, seems to anyone not up In the technicalities of the law, rather @ personal defense of himself and of his conduct of the trial, than the im- partial statement of a judge. It is Judge Thayer and the courts of Mas- sachusetts that are on trial, $ Will the working people of Amer- ica allow these two fellow workers to burn in the chair in Chalestown jail? There's not much time. By January the state supreme court will have given ‘its decision. Join in the growing nation-wide Protest for the liberation of Sacco and Vanzetti. These workers must not die! They must be freed! Even Kept Press Seeks New Trial (Continued from page 1) the country in 1919 and 1920 when Mr, Palmer went on his hunt for “reds” and the democratic nomina- tion. The’ fact that agents of the department of justice who did not believe that Sacco or Vanzetti were guilty of the crime, had seized a means of disposing of them, sug- gests thots about the methods em- ployed by the agents provocateurs at that time which are at the least disquieting. So far as the present hearing is concerned, it is sufficient to say that if the Massachusetts courts wish avoid lasting stigma, they will héar this evidence de novo ... Their counsel has presented a con-, tession of the crime by another man and various affidavits which cast a sickening reflection upon the mo- tives of some of those who were ac- tive in bringing about their convic- tion, In rebuttal the state is ex- pected to introduce testimony for the state. * What any friend of justice asks is that these affidavits be weighed upon their merits and without ref- erence to attitudes already formed upon the case, It is , difficult for most people to approach a problem they regard as settled without re- gard to the previous answer, But a judge ought to be able to accom- plish this, eee Baltimore Sun HAT the last word is by no means said in the Sacco-Vanzet- ti case ig indicated by the startling nature of testimony given at the first hearing on motion for a new trial, Two former agents of the de- partment of justice, one of them @ man who spent thirty-eight years in government service before resigning to go into commercial work, made affidavit that the federal govern- ment was out “to get” these two Italian radicals at all costs, Fatl- ing evidence for deportation, tt was asserted, they were convicted of murder “ag one way of disposing of them,” ‘Phere are other affidavite to be i placed in opposition to these, and doubtless they will be just as cir cumstantial in supporting evidence of guilt, Nevertheless, the eager ad interest of the department of justice in securing a conviction of Saceo and Vanzetti is now established as one of the many curious features of this important case. The more the business is hashed over more it appears that other cons! ations played an important part the original trial. ee Providence (R. |.) Tribune i Sacco-Vanzettt case has t& ceived world-wide attention, and demonstrations protesting hgalnst the. execution of the two Italians have been held in the far-flung quar ters of the globe. . . The con- duct of the trial was such that there is ground for the belief that Saceo and Vanzetti were “rallroaded” be- cause of their radical affiliations rather than found guflty thru a pre- ponderance of evidence. Their trial was held in the period when the United States was going thru the “Red” hysteria, and the two Ital- fans, it is claimed, were the victims of a sadistic popular desire to vent its feelings upon radicalisni, Since the restoration ef normalf- ty, however, new anglers appeared in the case. Witnesses have ad- mitted perjury, affidavits upholding the innocence of, the men have ap- peared, and a man convicted of mur- der in another case has testified that he was a member of the!gang which put the Braintree paymaster to death, A mass of evidence has been produced to show that state officials’ and department of justice , agents conspired to send the two men to the chatr upon ‘ doubtful stories which they had dug up. Dean Pound of the Harvard Law School has interested himself in the case and has given his opinion that, from the nature of the courts’ records, a@ new trial is only fair, ENA AE ioe § Revolutionary Dies, “MOSCOW, Noy, 15.—Michael Ashen- brenner, one of the most active revo- lutionary leaders of the early 80s, Is dead, He was 84 years old. Ashen- ‘renner was sentenced to death by the czarist. government in 1884 for his activities, but the sentence was later commuted to life tmprisonment He was released in 1917,