The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 13, 1927, Page 1

CURL aiernua APRA EN SNERROR ws- Every Worker Get Behind the Coal Miners-H elp Save the Miners’ Union! -es THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. IV. No. 77. Current Events By T, J. O’Franerty, T= Southern Labor Review insists that it is “not an agitator but an educator.” The paper is published in Birmingham, Alabama. At the bot- tom of the first page there is a line which reads: “Read J. A. Bryan’s sermon on page two in this issue.” This is the bunk, particularly for a labor paper. An educator is neces- | sarily an agitator. When one turns a new idea loose among a flock of @ SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. Yo Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N, Y., under the act ef Mareb 3, 1879. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1927 <a> CHINA BOYCOTTS IMPERIALIST INVADERS ACCOUNTS FAKED BY “BIG FOUR” INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE GRAFTERS Coolidge Okays Swindle; Schwab Named in Case; DAILY WORKER. Published Daily except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER PUBISHING CO., 33 Firat Street, New York, N. ¥. SENTENCE BRINGS PROTESTS || Sapiro Says Baruch Was | Involved in Scheme to || Extend Power to South | DETROIT, April 12.—Continuing || his cross-examination of Aaron Sa- | FINAL CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents NATIONALISTS TO ASK REPARATIONS FOR RAIDED CITY antique notions there is bound to be sai ; || piro in the famous milli Jolla ‘ trouble. And if the new idea con: | Exposed Company Officials Silent Ford-Sapiro ‘Tibel iit, Senate age quers the old ones retreat. * * * Tus fake labor sheet is catering to | the prejudices that have been cul- PAST EVENTS OF INSURANCE EXPOSE The ensuing is the third of a@ series of articles which are James A. Reed brought out the fact || that Sapiro had entered into a con- |] ference with the New York capi- || talist, Bernard M. Baruch, for the U.S.S.R. Peking Note tivated in the minds of the masses by| being written for The DAILY WORKER exposi ‘ | f extending the “ a BULI aude ; y | i aposing the swindle of |] Purpose of extending the “cooper: ie , : the capitalist rulers of this country | ° sa ; * tive” movement in which Sapiro WASHINGTO —It was and of all countries where capitalism | weekly payment beacohnedidn Previous articles pointed out that the |] was interested into the tobacco || indicated that the Nationalists, who is the dominant economic system.| Big Four,” i. e., the Metropolitan, Prudential, John Hancock and fields of the south. Reed soft-ped- || apparently had been defeated by the Those who now rule fear the agita- tor who comes’ along with the mess- age of mass emancipation. This is a mighty good system for those who | the Colonial Insurance Companies are hand in glove with corrupt | Tammany officials. That the “Big Four’ make tens of millions | | of dollars on lapsed policies which are never returned to its “mu- | | North China troops, stopped their re- treat as reinforcements came up and | are making a determined stand. Ad- |miral Clarence S. Williams, comman- aled this part of the examination because Baruch is one of the props of the democratic party and he may i live onthe labor of others. Being only a small minority ‘of the popula- tion they know that onee the work- ers realize that they are being fleeced and that they have the power to stop the fleecing, their day will have seen its last sunset. * *. > TREBE are several hundred rags of this sort posing as labor papers in the United States. They bear the same relation to the trade union move- ment that maggots~bear to a sheep. They suck the life blood out of it. Their owners depend for a living on the advertising revenue wheedled out of local business. The American Fed- eration of Labor supplies them with hokum labelled “labor news.” The keynote of this news is that agita- tors and that those who would urge the workers to fight for a betterment of their living conditions must be crushed. SSG Se bch denizons*of the bible belt may be excused for being engaged in the business of publishing antique ideas. There is a possibility that a modicum of honesty may be mixed with their ignorance. But honesty in this case is synonomous with simplic- ity’ and simplicity being ignorance is the explanation for the position of servitude in which the workers are today. There is no such excuse for the acts of labor bureaucrats like Mat- thew Woll or William Green. Those gentlemen are conscious agents of the capitalist class. Whether they get paid directly by the employers or in- directly thru their investments in busi- ness the fact remains that they -are sharers in the loot that capitalism ex- racts from the working class. eile te RY we have the spectacle of Mat- thew Woll, a vice president of the Amerfcan Federation of Labor organ- izing a committee to investigate Com- munist activity in the United States. This committee will not be exclusively composed of trade union officials. It! will be a conglomeration of “represen- tatives of the church, the legal pro- fession, of business organizations, St educational institutions, of associated employers and organized labor.” And it will assist the civil authorities in suppressing “Communist” strikes. Which means that it will play the role of a glorified stool-pigeon agency. It is safe to say offhand that no labor official in the history of the trade union movement, not actually on the payroll of a detective agency took the step that Mr. Woll proudly announces he is taking. * * * wey are the capitalists and the trade union bureaucrats so frightened of the Communist movement in the United States since it is admitted by both friend and foe that the move- ment is very weak numerically here? The capitalists and their spokesmen ‘tell us that the American worker will never swap his “glorious institutions” for the Communist system. Yet they are worried. The capitalists, because they fear for the stability of their system, and the, trade union grafters and bureaucrats because they know that an intelligent and militant rank and file would speedily replace them with leaders who would fight the ene- mies of the workers. . * * ar is true that the capitalist system in the United States is compara- tively healthy. It is still on the up- grade. But the system is on the de- cline internationally. And the Soviet Union is a perpetual nightmare to the capitalists of the world. It is a night- mare to the labor fakers’ When the latter are warring on the Commun- ists in the American trade union movement, they are striking a blow for capitalism and particularly for American capitalism all over the world. Note that the A. I’. of L. has not raised a voice in behalf of the Chinese people who are being cruci- fied by foreign imperialism. The rea- son is that Wall Street wants the A. (Continued on Page Two) tual” policy-holders. surance. * * * By CHARLES YALE HARRISON Life insurance, as we know it in this country today, originated about 80 years ago with the incorporation of the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany. Since that time it has in- creased in popularity, until today, 245 companies insure .60 million lives for 77 billion dollars. In 1876 “industrial” (weekly pay- ment, life insurance was imported in- to this country from England by the famous Prudential Life Insurance of New Jersey. “Strong as the Rock of Gibraltar’—and as hard—in dealing with its worker-insurers. Ever since this red-letter insurance year “industrial” insurance compan- ies have multiplied like rabbits. To- day there are scores of them, big ones, little ones and a spattering of tinpot outfits. The “racket” was a good one and the odor of the flesh- | pots smelled good from afar. s ‘Foday, in this year of grace 1927, | however, the “Big Four” control 90 per cent of the business in this coun- try. This is, one must remember, an age of centralization. During the past ten years or so, the “Big Four” and notably the Metropolitan have been swallowing up little insurance | companies, either by consolidation, “ye-insurance” or outright purchase. A few of these little Jonahs were The Liberty Life, the Washington Life, Niagara Life and the Vermont Life Insurance Company. The founders of the institution of life insurance Were honest men. That That 40 million weekly payment insurers are swindled by this giant insurance trust which operates with the connivance of Tammany-creatured State Department of In- was in the day before “high finance” | and Wall Street control of the neces- | sities of life. Those were the good! old days before there were 11,000! millionaires in this land of the free | and the brave. These men sought a/ practical method whereby in the event | of death, the dollars and cents value | |of a human life, might fo some de-| | gree be restored. Usually the bread- | | winners were the lives protected, These men acted upon the most | human motives, instituting a mutual system by means of which poor 4 | | | | ple could, by the quickest and surest means of cooperation make after- |death provision for those dependent jon them for support. | Finance Committee Dishonest | Honest life insurance is a simple }idea; a schoolboy can grasp it. | Modern “high pressure” industrial life insurance is so befuddled with | financial hokus-pocus that only an| | expert can make out what it’s all | about. What it's ebout.is this: “Re- serves” and “assets” have been | pyramiding more than twice as fast! las decently necessary, finance com- {The Public, in this case 40 million workers, are left holding the bag. $50,000,000 Lost “Industrial” (weekly payment) life insurance was originally intended to| be an institution of social and econ- omic convenience, such as savings banks for instance; but whereas one (Continued on Page Three) Hungarian White Terror May Kill BUDAPEST, April 12.—Thirty-one Communists and left wing leaders face death today when they come up before a special court just creat- ed by the Horthy white terror. The court has absolute power to pass a death sentence which means that the condemned person is hanged within two hours. Former Commissar Zoltan Szanto and the thirty others on trial are charged with merely distributing Communist pamphlets. Labor throughout Europe is watch- ing Hungary for the decision of the court, Hungary’s alliance with fascist Italy and the brutal treatment ac- corded to other critics of the Horthy terror leave little hope for Szanto and other leaders, eee The urging of immediate protests against the imminent execution of Szanto and 80 other Hungarians, ac- tive radicals, whose trial on a charge of “attempting to overthrow the state,” began before a court-martial of white-terror Horthyites at Buda- pest yesterday, was contained in a cablegram received by the New York district of the Workers (Communist) Party last night from the Interna- tional Press Correspondence at Vien- na, Telegrams by James P. Cannon, na- tional secretary of the International Labor Defense were sent today to Senator William E. Borah, chairman of the committee on foreign relations, F. H. LaGuardia, republican con- gressman from this state, and Victor L. Berger, socialist of Wisconsin, pointing out the necessity for im- mediate intercession in behalf of the victims of the white terror in Hun- gary. i Communications were also wired to U, S. government officials at Wash- ington by the Hungarian-Jewish Fed- eration, and the Anti-Horthy League, ~ Szanto and Others 5 ' ‘Strike Meeting of ~ Plumbers Helpers Votes to Continue At a packed meeting of plumbers’ helpers held last night at Ace Hall, 182 Claremont Ave., Brooklyn, a res- olution was adopted to continue their strike even after the plumbers’ union terminate their struggle, provided that by that time the helpers have not won their demands. The resolu- tion also appeals to the plumbers not to work with scab helpers, Helpers’ Resolution. The resolution reads as follows: “Whereas almost all of*the jour- neymen plumbers’ helpers working in the jurisdiction of the U. A. Plumb- ers, Local 1, are organized in ‘the American Association of Plumbers’ Helpers, and “Whereas, we have decided. unani- mously to strike in sympathy and support of the mentioned U. A, Plumbers, Local 1, and “Whereas, we have succeeded in taking down every plumbers’ helper with us, and “Whereas, we have also decided to present our own demands to the Mas- ter Plumbers with .a request that they meet a committee of our organ- ization which they have not yet done. Remain On Strike. “Therefore, be it resolved, that we remain on strike, fighting for our just’ demands and that we call upon the U. A. Plumbers, Local 1, not to permit their men who are in settled shops to work with scab helpers in accordance with the principles and tactics of the trade union movement.” Prince of Wales to Visit Spain. LONDON, April 12.—The Prince of Wales will leave London tomorrow to visit the Queen of Spain. He expects |: to arrive in Madrid on Easter Tues- ‘day, remaining two weeks in the Span- ish capital. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS Latest photos of Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco, whose sentence of death, pronounced by Judge Thayer of Dedham, Mass., has renewed virtual world-wide protests against their convic- tion on July 14, 1921, of murdering a paymaster. The state supreme court has just upheld this conviction and the date of execution has been named as the week of July 10. The protests assert the two men were convicted during anti-radical hysteria and on prejudiced and flimsy evidence, the convicted men having taken part in radical move ments SACCO-VANZETTI WORLD PROTEST Demands Include Impartial Commission For Inquiry Into Vital Facts BOSTON, April 12.—The Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee| !ow for transfer from the prejudiced | today formally placed a request for an impartial investigation | into every aspect of the case into the hands of Gov. Alvan T.! Fuller. At the same time, another branch of the state government, the legis- lature, was considering a similar proposal, in the form of a resolution introduced yesterday by Representa- tive Roland D. Sawyer, a congrega- tional minister of Ware. Ask For Thorough Investigation. The committee, which has waged| an unceasing campaign for the free-| dom of the two Italian radical workers since they were first framed on a murder charge in 1920, based its appeal to the governor on his con- stitutional power to intervene in cases denied by the supreme court. Asking that five impartial citizens be named to conduct a thorough in- quiry, the Defense Committee de- clared it concluded its clients “ean derive no benefit from any further} proceedings in the courts of Massa- chusetts, | World Protest Continues. | Meanwhile the flood of letters, telegrams, and cablegrams which be- gan to arrive immediately following the decision of the Massachusetts superior court, denying an appeal for | a new trial, was made last week is continuing to pour in from all parts! of the world. { An appeal will be laid before Goy- ernor Fuller tomorrow by members of the Massachusetts bar association asking that a new trial be granted Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Van- zetti, condemned to die, Asserting that gross miscarriage of justice has been made, the appeal will be carried to the leader of the state by a committee from the bar associa- tion, headed by Attorney. Joseph J. Walsh. In the resolution the lawyers de- clared the world was becoming cog- nizant of the fact that a new trial should be granted. . | . Paris Expects Protest. PARIS, April 12.—An extra force of policemen and a squad of plain clothes detectives were stationed at the United States embassy today to prevent -possible demonstrations in behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti. BUY THE DAILY WORKER AT THE NEWSSTANDS Union Square Mass Protest to Speak For City’s Workers Four platforms, over a dozen speakers—in English, Jewish, Hun- garian, Italian and Spanish—these are the preliminary preparations al- ready made for the monster protest demonstration for Sacco and Vanzetti this Saturady at 1 o'clock in Union Square. Arranged by the Sacco-Vanzetti Emergency Committee, representing more than a half million organized workers in this city, the speakers will denounce the d@ath sentence of the two framed-up men, and call for a new trial. Varied Representation. Speakers already announced in- clude Bishop Paul Jones, James P. Cannon, national secretary of the In- | ternational Labor Defense; Forres‘ Bailey, of the American Civil Liber- | a, Charles Kline, William W. Jeinstone, New York secretary of the Workers (Communist) |Party; Robert W. Dunn, Louis Budenz, editor of “Labor Age;” A. Ramuglia, Louis Hyman, general manager of the Joint Board of the Cloak and Dressmakers’ Union; Charles Kiss, editor of Elore, Communist Daily; Leonard Abbot. . . . 1,500 Denounce Verdict. A resolution denouncing the sen- tence of death upon Sacco and Van- zetti, and demanding a trial before a fair and impartial judge, was adopted unanimously last night at a meeting of 1,500 shop chairmen of the cloak and dressmakers’ Joint Board of New York, at Manhattan Lyceum, 66 E. 4th S| Urged To Attend Protest. The thousands of workers in the cloak industry were also called upon to attend the Sacco-Vanzetti mass protest demonstration to be held in (Continued on Page Five) Union; Moissaye J. Olgin, Carlo | || need his support in the 1928 con- |] vention where he hopes to secure |] the nomination for president of the || United States. FUR UNION HEADS IN COURT TODAY; ARGUE FOR BAIL McGrady Report Shows | | Controls Few Members | | The militant fur workers, who were | | framed-up by the reactionaries of the | American Federation of Labor and} | were denied bail when they appeared for trial at Mineola, L. I., on Monday, | | are still in the Nassau County Jail. | Arguments to Start. Attorneys will argue today, before the special term of the Supreme Court |in Brooklyn, whether Jude Smith of | Mineola shall be allowed to keep Bén Gold, I. Shapiro, 8. Mencher, Otto Len- | hart, Joseph Weiss, Joseph Katz, Mar- | tin Rosenberg, J. Schneider, Leo Franklin and Maurice Malkin behind | prison bars before they have even been tried. Stay of Case. | The points to be arued by the fur workers’ lawyers are not only the | granting of bail, but also the granting | of a stay of this case which would al- | Mineola court to the in Brooklyn for trial. If the stay is granted, the trial will not take place for a week or more; if it is not granted, as the Nassau | County distrirt attorney is urging, the case may go to trial at Mineola im- | mediately, beginning perhaps this af- ternoon. Reactionaries Lie. By their own statement issued to} the press yesterday; Edward F. Mc- Grady and other reactionary right wing leaders of the A. F. of L. who} are trying to disrupt the New York} Joint Board of the Furriers’ Union, convicted themselves of lying persist- ently and generously. | The reactionary forces gave out a llist of 49 fur shops whose workers, \they say, have registered with the “ten cent” union, opened by the Interna- |tional Fur Workers’ Union in this city. According to the records which are | on file in the office of the Joint Board, the total number of fur workers em- | ployed in the shops named is exactly 738. Supreme Court } None With Right Wingers. The fact is that there are not even | 738 workers registered with the In- | ternational. Of the shops listed by the right wing, one of the shops—with 75 workers—has absolutely refused to | register; one other shop not only has | not registered but has signed a resolu- tion pledging its loyalty to the Joint Board; and three other shops named |are on strike 100 per cent because their bosses have tried to force reg- istration. | Commenting upon the riht wing's announcement, the New York Joint Board of the furriers said last night: Announce Shops. “For almost six weeks, ever since they have begun to re-organize the union, the federation has failed to| make public any sort of a list of shops that have registered with them. They were evidently afraid lest they make a very poor showing by making public such a list. Now, however, they have been obliged to issue a list in order to dispel the very strong belief that the number of registered workers is woefully negligible. Foolish Move. “By making public a list of shops, the federation has obviously let the | cat out of the bag. Their own state- ment gives the lie to their claim that they have registered 4,000 fur work- ers. A thorough investigation shows that the 49 shops listed by the fed- (Continued on Page Five) | der-in-chief of the American forces in | China, reported by radio that the re- | treat has ended. * * * SHANGHAI, April 12. — By in- structions of the general labor unién, a general strike was ordered tonight, which will become effective tomor- row, and will call out all commeréial, industrjal and public utilities~ work- ers, and seamen. This action was taken, it is report- ed, because of the suppression of the {general labor union, and also on ac- | count of the execution, this morning, | of the chairman of the general labor union. * * * 1 Boycott of imperialist powers * starts as retaliation for Nanking bombardment and blackmailing notes. 2 Nationalist government indicates * demands for reparations for dam- ages done by shelling and raiding will be made on imperialist powers. 3. Eugene Chen wires approval of * action taken by U. S. S. R. fol- lowing Chang Tso-lin’s invasion of embassy at Peking. 4, Nationalists deny reported de- “# feats in the North. U. S. cabinet sits to consider * measures to take if China does not comply with orders in note sent. * 8 SHANGHAI, April 12.—China called her most effective weapon against the foreign imperialists—the boycott—into play today, This move was voted by the nation- wide Anti-British League which was organized at a meeting attended by representatives of the Kuomintang, the Women’s Association, the Tram- workers’ Union of the International Settlement, the Telegraph Operators’ Union, students of the Shanghai Uni- (Continued on Page Two) MORE MINERS IN. NON-UNION FIELD VOTE TO STRIKE PITTSBURGH, April 12.— The great coal lockout continues unabated. The number of mines signing up to work thru the period of the lock-out is negligible. All proposed confer- ences between miners’ union officials and. operators’ associations are at present either postponed, or admit- tedly hopeless as means of settling the struggle. “Win the Strike” The miners are beginning to rally around the fighting slogans of the “Save the Union” bloc in the last ted Mine Workers’ election which has now become a “Win the Strike” bloc, and concentrates on the task of getting the non-union fields out on strike. The rank and file of -the union realizes that only the extend- ing of the lock-out into a general nation-wide coal strike will beat the mine owners and prevent the weale ening of the union, but that strike would assure a victory for the mety isytown local of the Workers of America at ing adopted a resolution calling upon the district and international officesp of the UMWA to proceed with ‘the organization campaign in the coke region of Fayette and Green Coum ties. * * * Miners Vote To Strike WINDBER, Pa.—About 600 Ber- wind-White miners voted unanimous- ly at the Sunday mass meeting to go on strike Monday for Jacksonville tonnage and day rates, with payment Yor dead work, recognition of the union, checkweighmen and mine com. mittees. All voted to picket other mines of company tomorrow and shut down all the mines, Speakers at mass meeting Tony Minerich, George (Continued on Page Two)