The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 11, 1927, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE . UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. TV. No, 75. Current Events By T. J, O’FLauerry, aoe | T= raid of Chang Tso-Lin’s police on the Soviet embassy in Peking shows to what extremes the imperi- alists are ready to go to strike at the Nationalist revolution. It is believed in authoritive quarters that the. raid was carried out under British instruc- tions, The Manchurian bandit would not have dared commit such an un- precedented act without the sanction of the powers, The dean of the dip- lomatic corps gave Chang’s brigands permission to enter the foreign lega- tion quarters of the city. * * * S the fortunes of the imperialists ‘in China are waning the prospects of intervention Joom larger on the political horizon. Those birds of prey hoped that they could split the Kuo- mintang Party and thus block the on- ward march of the emancipation movement. It seems that the expec- tation. that Chang Kai-Shek would be | able to deliver the goods for them is no longer considered a probability. England is evidently ready to make a bargain with Chang Tso-Lin and pay that brigand’s price for again sell- ing his country. * HE raid on the Soviet embassy in Peking and the threatening attitude of imperialist police in the interna- tional settlement in Shanghai towards the Soviet consulate indicates that a supreme effort is about to be made by England to involve the Soviet Jnion militarily in the China civil war. England was never faced with a more serious crisis than confronts her today. Her rule in India is sit- ting on a volcano that seems to be about to resume activity. Her Sikh troops in China are disaffected and several of them have been executed for. anti-British propaganda. The whole of the Orient is liable to go up in a revolutionary blaze at any moment. This would indeed mean the beginning of the end for British imperialism and to a lesser degree for world imperialism. * * *# AMSAY MACDONALD, right wing leader of the British Labor Party, has shown his true imperialist colors in the erisis over the Chinese situa- tion. Like the notorious charlatan, Lloyd George, MacDonald exonerated the tory government. of wrong doing in dispatching thousands of troops to China. The presbyterian socialist, or socialist presbyterian, prates about the necessity for defending Britisl? subjects tho he knows quite well that the question at issue is not the pro- tection of the lives of British subjects in China but the protection of Brit- ish pounds invested there. * * * CCORDING to London dispatches John Wheatley is a candidate for the leadership of the parliamentary labor party, a position which Mac- Donald is liable to lose as a result of his repeated acts of treachery to the workers. Wheatley speaks in the language of a left winger, but his words must be taken with a pinch of salt. He is a catholic. Tho he was one of the first to take up the Com- munist suggestion that British labor should organize workers’ defense corps for the protection of the trade unions against the attacks of the fascisti and other extra-legal arms of the government he was rather si- lent during the general strike, while MacDonald, Thomas and Snowden were busy selling out t ners, Nevertheless his candidacy icates that the opposition to MacDonaldism is assuming concrete form. This is good. * E avalanche of bills pouring into Albany, aimed ostensibly at obscen: ity in the press and in the theatre are certain to be used against the work- ing class. It was to be expected that Governor Smith ‘would sign the bill permitting the padlocking of theatres convicted of having staged plays con- sidered lecherous, obscene and lasci- ious by a New York policeman. This ww can be stretched to padlock any ‘king class club or hall that will meet with the disapproval of the au- thorities, a Sy ALVIN | COOLIDGE hates to see the Filipinos suffer the torture of being forced to submit to a referen- dum on the question of independence from the United States. The Filipino legislature passed a referendum bill and Governor-General Wood promptly toed it. The legislature just as promptly passed it over “Ivory Soap’s” veto. Then the ex-bill collec- tor from Vermont turned down his thumb on it. Yes, the United States is cetermined to save the Filipinos from themselves. Perhaps the Fili- pinos may soon look to Hankow rath- er than to Washington for help. ° * . ‘AD John Thompson of Phoenix, Arizona the good fortune to live a few hundred years ago he would not only become famous suddenly but he would also have an opportunity of becoming fabulously wealthy. The lad actually set a lake on fire. What a splendid opportunity to pose as @ miracle worker, even as a god? This (Continued on Page Two) * * SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. THE DAILY WORKER. Entered an second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879, NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 11 Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. —_——_— SACCO AND VANZETTI, HEADS HIGH, SPIRIT UNBROKEN BY SEVEN YEARS OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TORTURE, MEET THE DEATH SENTENCE WITH WORDS OF FIRE THAT MAKE A GLORIOUS PAGE IN HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S WORKERS They Shall Not Die! | | They Shall Be Freed! | Wall Street government, Lee, Higginson and Company—Massachusetts rul- ers—the textile barons, the shipping interests and the decadent and vicious Back Bay aristocracy, were stripped bare before the whole world Saturday by~ two workingmen whose figures, worn thin by seven years of imprisonment and me- dieval torture, were darkened by the shadow of the electric chair to which Judge Thayer sentenced them in the dingy courtroom which has become a symbol of the brutality and arrogance of American plutocracy. Weak in body but with minds like fire flashing thru crystal, Sacco and Van- zetti, with words that etched themselves as vitriol eats copper, into phalanxes of workers’ battalions forming for struggle, gave blow for blow, tho their hands were manacled, to the Massachusetts murderers, to American capitalism and all its agents. Sacco and Vanzetti spoke quietly and calmly but the whole world heard. Thru the windows of the court room, over the heads of the hangmen assembled there, past the mercenaries who guarded its portals, the words of Sacco and Vanzetti, magnified a billion times by the gigantic microphone of the class struggle, were transmitted to the hundreds of millions of workers and farmers of all lands. The masses heard and understood. The Chinese toilers heard the indictment and appeal above the battle clamor. Ali thru the European continent, echoing and re-echoing from pillared facades of the capitals, the words of Sacco and Vanzetti were heard by the workers and the workers answered. In Latin America also the answer has been given. In the Soviet Union it needed no further appeal to bring the Russian masses to their assistance. From Great Britain where the class struggle is fiercest comes protest solidly backed by the labor -movement. igs eee q hl The Workers of the United States cannot lag behind the workers of other countries in support of the worker victims of American justice. It remains for the labor movement cf the United States to take the burning words of Sacco and Vanzetti as their battle cry in the fight for their freedom. No differences shall stand in the way of unity in this struggle. The labor movement has been challenged. Its enemies intend to make the bodies of Sacco and Vanzetti, blackened and charred by lightning’ harnessed for murder, the sym- bol of American labor turned into a burnt offering on the altar of Wall Street government. There must be no more such sacrifices. Sacco and Vanzetti shall not die. One solid front of American labor to free these workers! Let the world of capitalism know that this time at least American labor fights for its own and is determined to strike the manacles from their hands and return | them to the ranks of the working class.—W. F. D. DEDHAM, Mass., April 10.—Sacco and Vanzetti, who were sentenced to death by Judge Web- ster Thayer yesterday morning, both proclaimed their innocence in impassioned speeches and analyzed the social factors mobilized against them. Vanzetti’s speech follows: Introduce Measure To What I say is that | Compel United States Open the Vanzetti Files BOSTON, Mass. April 10.—The letter written by Congressman Emanuel Celler, of New York, in which he plans to introduce a mea- sure at the next session of con- gress to compel the U. S. attorney- general to open his files on the Sacco-Vanzetti case to the Mass- achusetts courts, was received to- day. Vanzetti—Yes. ir am innocent, not only of the Brain- | Sacco-Vanzetti Protest | tree case, but also of the Bridgewater | . . jcrime. That.I am not only innocent | Demonstration at Union Square, This Saturday of these two crimes, but in all my life | A Sacco-Vanzetti protest demon- I have never stole and I have never killed and I have: never spilled blood. stration will be held Saturday, April 16th, one p. m. at Union That is what I want to say. And it is not all. Not only am I innocent of these two crimes, not only in all my life I have never stole, never killed, never spilled blood, but I have struggled all my life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime from the earth. Everybody that knows these two |arms knows very well that I did not ‘ need to go in between the street and ‘ he a man to take the wash I sci Arrest 1 Pickets |But Marra Aaepipe ng mayhniagnn 5 At Kulock’s Shop; J Two Held for Trial |out work with my arm for other Seven workers were arrested yes- people. I have plenty of chances to live independently and to live what terday morning when picketing Kul- ock’s shop, Eldridge and Canal | the world conceives to be a higher life streets. than not to gain our bread with the sweat of our brow. Could Have Hscaped. My father in Italy is in a good con- dition. I could have come back in italy and he would have welcomed me every time with open arms. Even if When brot to the first district magistrates court, five were released with suspended sentences, the other two being held in $500 bail for trial Friday,’ April 15, being charged with disorderly conduct. They are Rose Nevin and Amilia Stiska. Isaac I come back there with not a cent in my pocket, my father could have give Shorr of the International Labor De- fense appeared as attorne: me a position not to work but to make business, or to oversee upon the land that he owns. He has wrote me many | number of them were shouting fascist letters in that sense, and other well-| slogans in Italian. An Italian work- to-do relatives have wrote me many|in# man on the street replied to a letters in that sense that I can pro- remark made to him by one of the The strike at Kulock’ a protest against Beckermanism in the Amal- Cadre Clothing Workers of Amer- ica. Fa BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS Square. The list of speakers will be announced later. Fascists Conduct a Bloody Riot On Paterson Street PATERSON, N. J., April 10.—Sev- eral busloads of fascist male and fe- male hooligans, armed with loaded canes, whips and clubs arrived here this afternoon and started a melee |outside the Alexander Hamilton Ho- | tel. One man was stabbed during the | disorder and a number beaten. The local police made six arrests. The fascists, dressed in black shirts and the other grotesque regalia of their kind, drove up in busses and a duce. occupants of a bus, whereupon a num- Well, it may be a boast. My father| ber of other hoodlums piled out and and my uncle can boast themselves | began beating him with their weapons. and say things that people may not be Workers Storm Fascists. compelled to believe. People may say| A group of workers who were on they may be poor when they are to/| the street to watch the detested black- consider to give me a position every | guards who were scheduled to hold time that I want to settle down and|some sort of meeting in the pluto- (Continued on Page Three) } (Continued on Page Two) , Published Dai! , 1927 =a PUBISHING CO,, 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. VANZETTI PROVES CLASS BIAS OF JUDGE FINAL CITY EDITION ly except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER Price 3 Cents AMBASSADOR AT PEKING; NO WAR Ic hinese Nationalists Rush Troops North BULLETIN. | SHINGTON, April 10.—Offi- s in the war department said here | “Big Four” Swindle U.S. 8.R.RECALLS THE TWO BILLION DOLLAR INSURANCE |by Charles Evans Hughes. 40 Million FRAUD EXPOSE STARTS TODAY Daily Worker Bares Cold Facts of “Big Four” Fraud Hidden Twenty Years Twenty years ago the country was startled by the now famous Armstrong Insurance Investigation. The in- | vestigation committee consisted of eleven members headed The life insurance business ltoday that if the northern Chinese| W@S rotten with graft and corruption. But the most cor- troops fail to hold their own, U. S. |regular army divisions will be moved ;to China on privately owned mer- chant ships now standing by for that service. There are no more marines | not occupied elsewhere. There are two divisions of the regular army in| the P| pines, Tay Sy | MQSCOW, April 10.—The Union of | Socialist Soviet Republics virtually | broke off diplomatic relations with the Peking government last night and re- called its entire embas: taff at Pek-/ ing. Despite the unparalleled provo- | cation of the raid on the Soviet com-| companies are still running rampant. pound, the Soviet government will | take no military action. “Any imperialist government,” says | the note of protest delivered to Chang | Yen-si, Peking charge d’affaires, here, | | “would resort to cruel reprisals, but | | the Soviet government, while ‘possess- | | ing the technical means for repressive | measures, nevertheless declares it de- | | finitely rejects such a step.” Asks Release of Officials. The note, signed by Max Litvinoff, assistant commissar for foreign af-| fairs, makes the following demands | without fixing any time limit or mak- | ling any threats against the Peking | government: t “{.—mmediate withdrawal of Pek-+ ing troops who are occupying the} buildings in the Soviet Embassy com- | pound. | “2.—-Release of all Soviet officials | ed in the raid. | —Immediate return of all docu- | (Continued on Page Three) PLAN VANZETTI, “SACCO PROTEST. - NATIONAL SCALE |New York Workers to| Strike for One Hour The first mass demonstration in| the renewed campaign to free Nicola | | Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti from | death in the electric chair will be held | this Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock | in Union Square. | Plans are now also under way for | {one-hour work stoppages in all the | trades of the city, | The Saturday open-air demonstra- | j tion is planned as a preliminary to| | hundreds of similar meetings in every | | large city of the United States. | * * . | | Defense Plans. | | DEDHAM, Mass., April 10.—Fol-| jlowing Judge Webster Thayer’s death | |sentence yesterday of Nicola Sacco! ‘and Bartolomeo Vanzetti defense | |forces were today considering all pos- | sible resources to save them, | | Thus far these two Italian work- | ‘ers, framed on a charge of a payroll | robbery and murder as a sure method | of disposing of them as radicals, have | ‘been kept from death by the uriceas- | ‘ing agitation on their behalf by mil. | lions of workers throughout the | world for over six years. | Never did a mode=a Pontius Pilate | listen to such a contemptuous, sear- | ing, and loftily ironie speech as that j Which Bartholomeo Vanzetti, “unlet- |tered” Italian immigrant laborer, ad- | dressed to the marble-faced, fright-_ ened little judge who sentenced him| and Sacco to die, | Vanzetti did not dwell long on his} innocence. That has too long been taken for granted by millions of workers throughout the world; by humanitarians who have been re- iota by the flagrant injustice and \elass persecution which the trial dis- } ar \the past twenty years. rupt and odorous branch of the business was what is known as “industrial” or weekly payment life insurance. There are 40 million workers in the United States who are covered by this form of petty larceny insurance. The day before the “industrial” companies were to come up for investigation it was moved that the committee adjourn to draft its report. “Industrial’-weekly payment insurance was never investigated. “The Big Four” industrial life insurance companies were and are the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Prudential Life Insurance Company, the John Hancock Mutual Life Insur- * ance Company and the Colonial Life Insurance Company. These We know that capitalistic looters do not reform of their own free will. After the hullaballoo died down and the smoke cleared this is what happened. Charles Evans Hughes, the counsel for the committee, was made counsel for the Equitable Life Insurance Company. James McKeen, the assistant counsel, was afterwards made general counsel for the Mutual Life Insurance Company with a salary of $20,000 per year for life. Senator William J. Tully of the committee was made solicitor (whatever that may be) for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company at a salary of $20,000 for life. It is now twenty years since the notorious investigation. Since then Tully has had his “pay” raised to $30,000 per year. This good and faithful servant of the “Big Four” has novj drawn upwards of a half a million dollars for his® loyal work on. the mmittee, The Metropolitan, is a pmyatugl” company, ,that, is to say thats’ policyholders are supposed to pattidipate in the earhings of the company. We wonder how this $500,000 should be debited to the “mutual” policyholders, Assemblyman Robert Lynn Cox, also a member of the committee, was made counsel and general manager of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents, a novel lobbying device, Mr. Cox’s salary was set at $20,000 per year. Apparently $20,000 was the union scale. Twenty years is a long time, much water has flown under the Brook- lyn Bridge, much working class money has flown into the coffers of the “Big Four’—the time is ripe for an investigation into the activities o/ these companies. Demand it! Heads | Wir : Tail BIG FOUR “INDUSTRIAL” INCOME-N-Y: STATE SF oe 5 You Lose = ome 2 > DI ReID For every dollar spent on industrial insurance the insuring public only receives 22 cents in benefits, claims, lossés, ete. What happens to the other 78 cents? These figures are abstracted from the officiel N. Y, Insurance Report, pp xli. * * . By CHARLES YALE HARRISON. Every week six million workers in the Sovereign state of New York pay two millions of dollars in premiums on what is called “industrial” life insurance, more commonly known as “weekly .payment” life insurance. When the year has rolled around, they have paid One Hundred Million Dollars 4 into the coffers of the four gigantic insurance companies which specialize in the salé of this form of life insurance. At the end of the same year this vast army of workers have received in return for this enormous premium payment only twenty-two million dollars in death claims, losses, ete., ete. Or in simpler terms the industrial life insurer only re- ceives in value about 22 cents for every hard-earned dollar he spends on his family’s life insurance. Above are the official figures for 1925 recently published by the N York State Department of Insurance. They are true to a varying extent for|monthly. So There are no| panies argue. | cannot make their therefore premium payments quarterly or even and the insurance com- This type of petty larceny insurance is sold to that un- fortunate portion of the public which buys many of its necessities on what is sometimes humorously called the “easy”-payment plan, Rigor The four companies referred ‘to — above are namely, the Metropolitan’ bad years in the life insurance busi- ness. The even death rate takes care of that. Life insurance may be divided into two groups. These groups are tech- nically known as “industrial” and “ordinary” life insurance. “Ordin- ” my (Continued on Page Pwo) played; and by numerous distin- guished and disinterested lawyers, Fought Officiat Crime, He said, simply, that he never com- mitted a crime in his life, He has struggled ever to eliminate crime from the earth--not merely the crimes “that the offictal law and the official moral condemns, but also ad | ry” insurance premium payments are paid weekly at the home of the insured to the company’s collecting agent. Company and the Colonial Life ath. “Industrial” life insurance is so )Surance Company, For purposes: called because it was designed for the | easy identification we propose to industrial classes—people who lack | fer to this valiant little band as the nice conveniences of the capital- |“Big Four,” ist and middle class, banking facili-| The rich have their tradespeople ties for instance, and money to liank, | (Continued on Page Two) L Fe eT ee, Seer | Life Insurance Company, the tial Life Insurance Company, © John Hancock Mutual Life Insuranee Ee