The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1927, Page 1

RANE, [-———scnienat ne -eetmeassnesiemnaenisenaetions, The Daily Worker Fights: For the Organization of the Un- organized. For a Labor Party. For the 40-Hour Week, ' } Vol. IV. No. 39. {CURRENT EVENTS By T, J. O’"FLAHERTY E sound the mournful note so often in this column that it is| with exceeding great pleasure we in- troduce our readers to Benjamin Tit- man, who was born in Russia forty-| one years ago and came to America| when eleven, Unlike the great many | Who start at the bottom and stay with- | in %a few rungs from there, or the| comparatively few that start at the) top and end at the bottom, Benjamin | rese from beneath the surface and a/ few days ago hung a million dollars worth of insurance up in his. bedroom. * * Here is the text for several thou- sand sermons thruout thé United States. The story:should be pasted on the window of every pawnshop in the Bowery and in the hat of evety white- collared slave in America. No doubt Secretary of Labor Davis will notice the tale and will use it to illustrate the opportunities existing in this coun- try for loyal aliens, the next time he has the pleasurg@ of deporting a group of radical alien workers. * Since I am on the subject of aliens, the following is too good to pass over in silence. A member of the Interna- * tional Pocketbook Workers Union in- ‘formed the writer that Mr. Shiplacoff, manager of the union was charged with using Mussolini tactics on the members. Shiplacoff did not bat an eyelid but replied: “We Americans will use the methods of 1776 and send you foreigners back. to where you came from.” . ICH reminds me of another story, An ex-Irish catholic was delivering a speech on socialism in the days when some socialists were so- cialists. The inevitable interrupter popped up with the observation that socialism was against the catholic re- ligion. The speaker asked him for his authority. “David Goldstein,” came the reply. Then the ex-catholic orator dug down deep into his spacious chest ihe SUBSCRIPTION RATBS: In New York, by mat! gear," NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1927 <<a Yorkville Landlords First |to Organize Higher Rents Queens Becoming Slum Middle European Community of Last Century Now Rackrented by Efficient Band of Tenement Profiteers THE Nutside New York, by mall, $6.00 pe City's Workers Cheated of $1,000,000 | Tammany Keeps Promised Pay Rise Safe in Treasury | Where’s that $1,000,000? I E Municipal workers, marshalled into line to vote for Tammany before the | November election, were promised a} nice fat reward in a million dollar pay | beost. But to date there has been no boost. Instead, the million berries have suf- fered lonely confinement in the city’s cash boxes, or banks, or wherever they are kept, while city workers get along as well as they éan on their meager pay. Early in March, city machinery will | begin creaking and groaning when Charles L, Kohler, Tammany budget | director, submits to the board of es- timate a proposal for disposing of ‘he fund. But who will get it? Last year a similar fund, supposed to be used for low wage workers, was parcelled out among magistrates, tunicipal court justices and some of he trusted lieutenants immediately srrounding Jimmie Walker. These ‘ellows, already getting $5,000 a year x more, slopped up the gravy. Real Workers Get Low Pay. In the meantime nurses, stenogra- phers, typists, elevator operators, »ridge tenders, telephone operators | and ungraded workers, the majority | of whom make less than $30 a week, have gone without their promised and sorely needed raises. Under the new scheme, they will get $570,000 of the million, if and when the board of es- imate decides to give it to them. An- ‘ther $250,000 may go to clerical vorkers, also badly in need of more for his strongest vocal blast and with | nay, | NEW YORK’S.LABOR DAILY DAILY Wor Entered as second-class matter Call the Marines Back! Machine Gun Volley in Philadelphia, Pa., Streets PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 27.—One man was killed and two others were wound: * as a machine «gun barked | its m+ sge.of death from an auto- mobile which speeded by the Club Cadir here early today. > Men‘and women participating in | a private party in the night club fled in terror after the shooting, believed to have been the climax of an underworld feud. The dead man is John Bricker» -29, address unknown. Six bullets riddled his neck, forehead and-back. Five bullets penetrated the neck, shoulders and abdomen of Mike Duffy, 43, who according to police is dying in Hahnemann Hospital. The doorman of the club, Earl Brown, 34, is being treated in a lo- eal hospital for two bullet wounds in the thigh. There are no arrests yet. Woman Victi To Greed of Landlords Perishes in Fire Under Wooden | Stairway Landlordism today chalked up an- Other victim. She is Mrs. Carmelo Sgroy, 48, whe was trapped in a tenement fire at 125 Maslison St., yes- terday. Overcome by smoke and flame, she died despite an hour’s ef- fort with a pulmotor to revive her. A wooden stairway, unprotected by at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879, PUBLISHING Labor Rallies To Defend — Sormenti Denounces Kellogg’s Effort | To Deport Italian Editor That the United States government has conspired with Mussolini to hound | Italian political refugees and deport [them to “certain death,” was the | settlement centering on 86th St., | Webster Hall, where the International f now as the friends they left b Labor Defense held a protest atte off fi y lef i inst the deportation proceed- | pe Shed. ‘Enes § 4 lof $34, the Queens tenement dr fellow workers in other sections lings aimed at Enea Sormenti, editor |of the anti-Fascist I] Lavoratore. | Joseph Brodsky, labor lawyer, act- | ling as chairman, Arturo Giovanitti, of | Yorkville is one of the city’s gen {the Italian Chamber of Labor, and/ ginning as a village in the early forties, when New York City w |Ben Gitlow of the Workers Party,| tered below 34th St., it grew until it became the melting pot of the city. | Hungary, (Continued on Page Five) | were among the speakers who scored | Secretary Kellogg and Secretary} Immigrants from Germany, KER. Published Daily except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKED: snetninceieiate | CO., 33 First Street, New York, N, FINAL CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents ¥. b Will de Kalb, in his survey of Yorkville, the old Manhattan| tells today how landlords there | formed the first rent-conscious organization in all New York. lcharge made yesterday afternoon at | Yorkvillers, pressing over into Queens, find themselves as badly) has just been received, and is a dig- ehind them in Manhattan. With average monthly rents of $45 balanced against weekly income weller is no better off than his| of the metropolis. uine working’ class communities. Czecho-Slovakia and Austria Davis of the labor department for scrapping the ancient American tra- dition of political asylum. | Sormenti, anti-Fascist leader inj} America, was arrested last October j after a fiery speech against Mus- solini in Tammany Hall. He was taken to Ellis Island for deportation, | but later released under $2,000 bail.| Clarence Darrow, prominent lawyer) of Chicago, will appeal his case to/ Washington on+a plea of haven for political reiugees. Deportation to Italy will mean cer- |tain death to Sormenti, declare of- | ficials of the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America. The American Civil] | Liberties Union is co-operating in the | Sormenti fight, according to a tele- |gram from Forrest Bailey. Former Haven Of Oppressed. When Kossyth, Garibaldi, Carl Schurz and ather ebempions of liberty FROM TAMMANY No Action in Sight A boost in subway fares looms closer than ever and the possibility of transit relief recedes farther and farther as the republican. majority in the legislature primes itself for a war against the $300,000,000 subway bond DIME GARFARE IS | NEAR; NO RELIEF | Politicians Fumble With | Executive Committee of | | Comintern Declares Red | | | Army Hope of Workers MOSCOW, Feb. 27. — All over the Soviet Union celebrations took place. in honor of the ninth anni- versary of the organization of the red army, Feb. 23. The Revolu- | tionary War Council issued an or- | der of the day pointing out that the Red Army is improving daily in | all departments of military art and | science. The.fall manoeuvers show- ed considerable achievements in the training of the Red Army. The Executive Committee of the Comintern addressed greetings to lings protesting against hed to fly from their native coun- tries, they were met in America with amendment: the Red Army. It declares that the Mayor Walker, who has raturned to | indignation chiseled on his, brow he thundered: “Why, my ancestors were Under present Tammany plans. the | fireproofing, was immediately respon- d-| sible for the death of Mrs. Sgroy. It New York after a little vacation in aii . 17 ORE te oo eee cemeaeel. | at wae Cuba, Palm Beach, etc., discovered | st of the money, including an catholics when Goldstein’s were pick- ‘ional this | raging flames in her apartment. ing up bottles and rags in the streets of Jerusalem.” * None can be more bitter against : aa the radical alien’ workers than im-| » migrants -wh'> shape sold. themselves} to the capitalists, Mr. Davis, our sec- retary of labor is a Welshman. “From puddler to cabinet official” could be the title of his scenario. Mr. Davis is worth a million dollars, perhaps more. For every sucker that joins the Moose. Davis gets a dollar in commission. It is a better contract than the one held by the imperial wizard of the K.K.K. The dollars come in steadier. Mr. Shiplacoff receives the not inconsider- able salary of $125.00 a week as man- ager of a small union. He is said to belong to the “left wing” of the so- cialist party. A man could grow a dozen wings for that salary. * * * Ws does a little thing like the senate mean to Samuel Insull, millionaire public utility man, who has been famous for subsidizing opera in Chicago for several years and for purchasing politicians more recently? Sam treats the senate with almost as much contempt as does Calvin Cool- idge. The only difference is that the senate pays Cal back in his own coin while it can hardly touch a hair on Sam’s bald head. Sam was hailed be- fore the Reed slush investigation com- mittee but he refused to say to what set of politicians he gave the sum of $40,000 during his spending orgy in the last congressional elections. He (Continued on Page Two) Roll in the Subs For The DAILY WORKER. $150,000 acentoulated split. Saved for Election Time. Comptroller Perry, head of the 7i+ nee departme: i for keeping the money in the treas- ity, presumably into use before the ext election. “Giving away” money | ™% Wage increases now would be a} vaste’ of money, it is understood in| he best Tammany circles. Distributed veftore the 1928 elections, it will have » refreshing effect in stiffening the} Tammany line for Al Smith, and what | ever local and state dignitaries are | running for office. | Few of the city’s workers who ex-| pect to benefit under the $1,090,000 wage increase are organized. T! i A compelling reason for no di tion, in the eyes of Tammany, whi has a high respect for organization. Strong municipal employes’ unions vould open the Tammany blind pig’s eyes and make him see immediately the advantages of living up to pre- election promises. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSTANDS Students to Defend Selves From Suicide An anti-suicide club has been formed by the students of New York University to counteract the suicide epidemic that recently started. It plant to unite into a national organ- ization all the anti-suicide clubs re- cently formed at various institutions, MISMANAGEMENT OF MODERN INDUSTRY SO GREAT THAT ONLY QUARTER OF MEN EMPLOYED ARE MAKING USEFUL PRODUCT By LELAND OLDS (Federated Press). The growth of America’s nonproductive classes at the expense of the producers is a feature of the last 15 years, according to an occupational survey of the country in 1925, 1920 and 1910 by the national industrial con- ference board. The report indicates that an increasing proportion of the population is either idle or engaged in competitive distribution, with a cor- \Fesponding decrease in the proportion in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and transportation. the entire population of the cou! increased from 91,972,266 in. 1910 to 115,380,000 in 1925, a gain of 25%%, the number in agriculture, mining, manufacture and transporta- tiom increased only a little more than 8%, from 26,890,402 in 1910 to 27,- 760,000 in 1925. In the same period the number in non-industrial oceupa- tions increased from 11,276,934 to 15,- 160,000, more than 34%. Useful Producers Decline. The decline in the number engaged in producing agricultural raw materi- said about the tremendous increase in the number’ engaged in trade and in clerical pursuits. The gain of 57%% in these two groups, raising such non- productive workers from 5,351,723 to 8,420;000, exceeds by more 1,000,000 the decrease in number of farmers and other agriculturists. The number of clerical workers alone rose from 1,787,053 in 1910 to 8,820,000 in 1925, an increase of 120%. Lots of Useless Workers. Less than a quarter of the popula- als, from 12,659,082 in 1910 to 10,-|tion is today engaged directly in the 500,000 in 1925, has been given con- siderable publicity. But less has been Ask Your Newsdealer For (Continued on Page Two) j ‘ j r, will be left for the big boys to| ; | grand danghter. But the real responsibility for her! |} death My upon the landlord’s lobby | jat. Albany, which last year killed a} measure which would have forced} andiords to fireproof all staircases in ~cnemente, aa Stairway Mass of Flames. Wire of undetermined origin burst forth under the stairs of the five- stoty tenement building at 125 Madi- son St., directly under the Brooklyn- bound walk of the Manhattan bridge in a few minutes the entire stairway was wrapped in flame and crumbling gcoy opened her eyes to } ined by a red glow and moke. She heard in an partment the crying of her Rushes to Grand Child. | Mrs. Sgroy might have saved her- self, But she rushed to the aid of the child. The room was filled with smoke. | Mrs. Sgroy gathered the baby to her breast. She ran to the window, but a whirlwind of flame blocked her. She ran the other way, but the hall- way was roaring flame. hemmed in. * | Clutching the child, she lay on the | floor. She placed the child under- | neath her, covering it with her body, |and wrapped her skirt and dress | about her, so that no smoke or flame | might reach the child’s lung. She | didn’t cover her own mouth. Firemen Climb to Rescue. Firemen James J. Sullivan, Capt. David Lynch of Hook and Ladder Co, No. 1, and driver Walter Hilles were told of persons trapped up on the fifth floor. Flames were leaping from windovys and it looked like death to attempt a rescue. They raised a 75-foot aerial ladder , and clambered up. Sullivan scorched by flames and al- | most suffocated crawled in a window. Then Lynch and Hilles also disap- peared through the window and grouped around in the dark. Finally Sullivan’s hand touched the grand- mother and child. Weak himself, he dragged both back a few feet, and then Hilles dragged them further and then Lynch. They were getting weaker every moment. Lynch carried the two unconscious forms down the ladder. t Firemen Unconscious. The firemen returned and grouped than}some more. They found Angela Leo, the 70-year-old women, who had been ill, unconseious under a couch, They dragged her out and carried her down, Then out in the air, all three firemen became unconscious, The pulmotor worked for an hour on Mrs. Sgroy. It was futile. But the child was revived after a half- hour’s work. Read The Daily Worker Every Day | considered an honor for Garibaldi-to be in América,” he declared. “Now the Italian people are again fighting for freedom. But now, when champions of liberty are denouncing the most fowl and abject tyranny the United tes is trying to hurl these refugees "vack’ iatothe bloody jaws of Mussolini, The excuse is that they are here illegally. _ “Why is Sormenti going to be de- ported? Only because he entered il- legally? If he were a_ bootlegger, if he had accumulated fat American dollars and grown f him self, he would be allowed to stay.| There are thousands and thousands o: illegally entered immigrants who ave sllowed fo remain. The on why they are going to deport Sormenti is because Mussolini wa his head, be. cause he is a rebel and a Communist. ,. Boo Mussolint. At each mention of Mussolini “the audience broke into prolonged boos. The name of Sormenti was greeted with cries and cheers. Giovanitti declared that Sormenti rea that opposition had _ crystallized | workers of all the world are quite | certain that the Red Army together with the workers of the U. S. S. R. | | siastically i e franchises to the Third Avenue and | cad Wil-bu aide: tb tealet ‘the in: Equitable Coach Companies as Well trigues, the threats, and the attacks as against the $300,000,000 subway) o¢ the imperialist powers and their bond amendment. | agents. Determined to fight the republican } opposition to his plan, Mayor Walker | will visit Albany some time this week. The republicans favor the present sub- way system while Mayor Walker wishes to amalgamate the B.-M T.| and the I. R. T. | Diamonds To Astrid. The defeat of the subway bond is- BRUSSELS, Feb. 27.—The Crown | Princess Astrid of Belgium was pre- | sented today with a diadem set with diamonds, purchased by national sub- :: xe will leave New York workers at he mercy of the subway barons who have long been contemplating a raise} fares, and the defeat of the bus/sctiption. Much unemployment in roject will postpone indefinitely what | Belgium did not -prevent the ex- s in the first place an ineffectual | travagance. ttempt at transit rélief. | Charges that various bus bids had surreptitiously changed Shoots Son By Accident. victim of circumsts A been were made several days ago by John H.| crazed bi se of the w Delaney, chairman of the board of | acciden inflicted on his transportation. This and the request | Son, Joseph, with a weapon that action on the proposed franchises to him by a nephew—Cataldo V NEWS IN BRIEF: She was | The DAILY WORKER be postponed for a week, which was | felonious assau hed committed a two-fold crime i made by Comptroller Berry, furnished | against “the tyrant of Italy”; first in opposing the fascist regime and sec- (Continued on Page Three) timate with plenty of excitement. timate are wrangling with each other over fat bus contracts which they wish to hand out to their friends, New | York workers are anxiously waiting for long-promised transit relief and hoping that action will be taken which | TALKS AND GAGS will prevent a boost in subway fares. | Disgusted with the failure of city | jand state authorities to take action, | residents of Jamaica have protested | | to the Port Authority, pointing out | that many Jamaica and Queens resi- dents have to walk more than a mile} to a bus line, to find that they have | to stand on a running board for three or four miles. The Jamaica Board of | Trade declared in a letter, that “ade-| it. Any minority can stop action on) quate transit facilities should be pro- any important bill by filibuster in the| vided for the greater Jamaica district | senate, unless cloture is invoked, and| as yell as for the entire borough of though some senators show an almost | Queens.” fascist eagerness to “gag” their as-| The inadequate transit facilities in sociates, the necessary two-thirds ma-| Jamaica and Queens has its parallel jorities are probably lacking. The} in all of the outlying districts of New Boulder Dam cloture was defeated| York, where many workers are com- yesterday by 59 against to 32 votes] pelled to live because of high rents for it. in Manhattan, Formal protests by The presidential bee is buzzfng] various civic bodies have already been quite audibly. News reached congress|made to the Board of Trade and within two hours after the veto of| Transportation. the McNary-Haugen bill that the Towa legislature had started a peti-|Read The Daily Worker Every Day tion in favor of Senator Frank Low- den’s nomination for president by the Taxi Passenger Killed. republican party. Alfred Watjen, 27, of Brooklyn, was There is no question of a “split”| killed yesterday when the taxicab in between Mr. Coolidge and Mr. Dawes.| which he was a passenger, collided’ That already exists. There is an of-|with another taxicab, rebound and ficial coolness between the president] struck a trolley wire ‘pole. the vice-president of long stand- ing, and which has been particularly marked during the present session. CAPETOWN, South Africa, Feb. Branch Banks Multiply. 27.—Influenza among the passengers The McFadden branch banking bill,| on board the liner Benalla caused this WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.—Sunday the dying Sixty-ninth Congress drew a breath and looked itself over. Ap- parently its work is done. The worst legislative jam in history confronts Influenza On Ship. the last meeting of the board of es-! While memhers of the board of es-/ |85, was held today on a charge of! ma '7.—Hun- the theatre here today to attend an ad. vertised performance were stopped at the entrance and turned back by twelve policemen. enter Carlton moving picture |Roll in the Subs For The DAILY | WORKER. tempted to! Soviet Workers Protest British War Threat Gather in Thenials at Shops Thruout Union LONDON, Feb. 27.—The answer to the provocatory note sent: last week by the British cabinet to the Union of Socialist Soviet Republies nized, but complete answer to all charges. It declares that threats cannot intimidate the Soviet Union, expresses a desire to continue friendly relations, and points out that there is no agreement between | the two governments to prevent anybody within the horders of the U. S. R. from saying what he pleases about England. It refers to Churchill's personal abuse of the heads of government in the U. 8. S. R., and to the conspiracies be- tween members of the English cabi- net and Russian white guards in England. 2 MOSCOW, Feb. 27.—Mass meet- the British note to the Soviet government were held outside factory works in Mos- cow, Leningrad, Kharkov and other towns thruout the Soviet Union when the news was made public. Resolutions were passed demand- ing that the Soviet Government send spirited reply to the haughty pro- vocative note and stressing the im- portance of firmly rallying the ranks of the proletariat around the Comin- tern in reply to the British govern- ment. Declaration of War. Many persons interpreted the Brit- ish communication threatening a break of British iet welations as a th sponded with | the time..to.» four government to r mn th the haughty English* e been and will be on the side of the work China, | Lord Curzon did not scare us. Neither | shall Austen Chamberlain.” Can Defend Itself. Five ¢ and workers in the fac- tory of “The Hammer and the Sickle” passed resolutions that “the Soviet Union de t want war but if attacked it will move the entire nation.” The official organ, Pravda, appre- that the vote at any ae aes oad of oviet relations worse. Pravda declares that the document does not produce zle piece of evi- j dence to support its charges of viola- ition of its agreement by the Soviet government. It just as ridiculous, the paper declares, to say that the \Soviet Government is identical with | the All-Union Communist Party as jto say that the British government jis identical with the Conservative Party and say that the actions of the latter were the actions of the British government. RUSH TWO MORE BRITISH UNITS TO ” SHANGHAI IN W Mutinies and Desertions Among Northern Troops London, Feb. 27—The British Shanghai defense force yesterday be- came an actuality with the arrival of the troopship Negantic with General Duncan, who has been given supreme command of the British forces in China. General Duncan's ship also brought the first battalion of the Dedfordshire regiment and the second battalion of the border regiment. The rival armies of the defeated Sun Chang Fang and those of Chang- Tso-Lin’s ally Chang Tsung-Chang had several clashes. Sun’s forces are going over to the Cantonese in large ‘numbers, Militarists Lying. Considerable propaganda against the Cantonese is sent from here to which the farm bloc was neatly! ship to be quarantined on its arrival (Continued on Page Two) here today. i } ! Get Your Fellow foreign countries. Individual acts of violence are attributed to the Can- AR ON THE CHINESE tonese tho the’ Nationalist govern- ment is decidedly opposed to giving the imperialists any excuse to arouse unthinking indignation against them. They wish to disarm the imperialists of a “moral” cause for a declaration of war. fmperialists Fall Out. It is believed that Japan's decision to send Chang Tso-Lin and his army south the Nationalist govern- ment troops was prompted by a desire to bloc Great Britain, which is reported to have the intention of in- augurating an aggressive policy in Southern and Central China, There is much talk of a regroup- ing of the powers in the Pacific, Indications are that Britain 1s seek- ing to patch up the old Anglo- Japanese alliance and trying to or- ganize a bloc that would weaken American influence in China, An- other reason for Britain’s flirtation with Japan is an attempt to stem the growing influence of the Soviet Union in the Orient. 4 It! ¢ ns? r ee { / a ¢