The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 15, 1927, Page 1

Prudential Life Gives $250, dependent Cuba,-but the Cuban oyer- Attend Union Square Meeting Saturday! Save Sacco and Vanzetti! SPEAKERS: James P. Cannon, Forrest Bailey, William W. Weinstone, Moissaye J. Olgin, Carlo Tresca, Charles Kline, Leonard Abbott, and others. THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED YOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY THE DAILY WORKER Entered as second-class matter at the Post Oifice at New York, N, ¥,, under the act ef March 3, 1879, FINAL CITY EDITION Vol. IV. No. 79. Current Events By T. J. O’FLanerry. RIGADIER GENERAL AMOS A. FRIES, chief of the American Chemical Warfare Service is decidedly of the opinion that the use of poison gas in war is harmless and humane, tho exceedingly efficient. . What the gas does is to put the foe to sleep long enough to enable the gas-using army to break thru. Of course the humane gas-users would not hurt a hair on the heads of the sleeping Beauties! After the latter awake and rub their eyes they will learn that the enemy has passed over them while they were haying their beauty sleep. * E would like to agree with the general Indeed if this were so, war would surpass in the favor of tired business men and habitues of night clubs the Turkish baths and the health resorts where the work- worn bodies of capitalists are fitted for robbing once emore. Various brands of gas end wars of short and long duration would be featured in full-page advertisements. Corres- pondence schools would spring up like mushrooms to teach the people how to make their own gas in their spare time and how to organize a war in the backyard where the cost of rent- ing trenches would be reduced to al- most nothing. * * * ENERAL FRIES said (he was ad- dressing the American Chemical Society) that war gas is not poisonous, does not contain germs and leaves no lingering after-effects. So, unless a soldier is killed by accident in this kind of a war there is no profession where the life hazards are lower. Here is a chance for those afflicted with insomnia. The next war may mark the beginning of the millenium. With the horror taken out of war the most shameless pacifist will not have the impertinence to rob the sleepless. of its benefits. + Meeeraces are supposed to be made in heaven but money is not. Tho I have recently heard a job- |, Jess worker say that god owned the world. Jose Emilio Obregon married the daughter of President Machado of Cuba, the gentleman who was re- cently responsible for the murder of several Cuban trade unionists. Ma- chado is not the president of aw in- seer for American imperialism. So his son-in-law Obregon is now on the payroll of the Chase National Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world. The mur- der business in Cuba pays well pro- vided the radical workers are at the receiving end. * 4 * « ERE is a choice morsel of Amer- icana clipped from the advertising columns of the New York Times: LECTURE BUREAU—WOULD you like to be one to form a com- (Continued on Page Three) Troops Leave For Morocco. MADRID, April 14.—In order to prevent rebellious Moroccans from taking advantage of conditions crea- ted by the heavy storms along the Mediterranean coast, the Spanish government has prepared for the im- mediate dispatch of new expeditionary forces to Morocco. \.. By CHARLES YALE HARRISON | \. Without a shadow of doubt, the lowest paid workers in New York City are the clerical staff of ‘the “Big Four.’ Their numbers run into thou- sands. At Number One Madison Avenue, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Life, fifteen dollars a week is a good wage. Talk of trade union organization is met with in- stant dismissal. The agent who unwittingly sells weekly payment insurance is an ex- tremely. poorly paid worker, His hours are indefinite, his income more or less uncertain, and he is bullied by a small army of bosses in disguise as managers and assistant m rs, several of whom are attached to each office. There are about 100 branch offices of the “Big Four” scattered throughout Greater New York. Start Union. Some time ago an effort was made to organize the agents into a repre- sentative union. It was a complete fizzle. Here also the slightest hint of age en met with the cold 8 ; ai 4 i t of the “Big Four,” that is to say the directors, officials and presidents are themselves not so SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. |Could Save Sacco and! | Vanzetti . | Gov. A. T. Fuller, of Massa- chusetts, in whose hands the fate of Nicola Sacco and Bar- tolomeo Vanzetti, radicals con- demned to die, has been swamp- ed with letters, telegrams and cablegrams from all parts of the world protesting the execution of the two men. JUDGE IN SACCO VANZETTI TRIAL BITTERLY SCORED BOSTON, April 14.—A bitter de- nunciation of Judge Webster Thayer, who presided at the trial of Bartho- | | | | NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1927 «ge PUBISHING | Keep U. S. From Warring on China, Asks Nationalist Foreign Office in Cable to the American Workers HANKOW, April 14.2The American people are not aware of the crimes their government is committing, so the Chinese people appeal to all citizens of America, Is it true that America’s economic and political interests catastrophic change in America towards China? Imperialists Plan World War To Crush Chinese. “We are sure and feel others know also that not one American citizen nor one Ameri- can cent would be endangered by the success of the Wationalist revolution in China, We know further that this same assurance would have been given by the leaders of American foreign policy—if during the past few weeks in the White House new decisions had not been adopted which have radically changed the old poli¢y in China, if it had not been de- cided that time was at hand to plunge into a new world war to “solve all the Japanese, Bri- tish, and American difficulties in the Pacific” and so make the world free for trade and pros- perity. Only by such a change in policy could the aggressive actions, the threats, sug- We ask you: in China necessitates the gestions, the rash steps taken recently by American diplomats and militarists in China must be explained. Ask American Workers To Protest War On China. But do the American people know and concur in this policy? Are the American people willing that their policy of friendship towards China should be abandoned, that their coun- try should combine with Western powers in a war-in the Far East? If the American peo- ple approve such a war, then the Nanking bombardment, the concentration of naval forces at Shanghai, the evacuation of all American citizens at Hankow, the tenor of seven articles in American newspapers in China, are seasonable and well timed. = But if the American people do not know what is portending, if they do not desire to have their sons and brothers the victims of another great world catastrophe and one in which the friendship built up for a half century would be irremedially lost, then the Ameri- can people should be on their guard. We Chinese people wish therefore, to tell the people of America that their government is leading them to a new bloody massacre in our land, a massacre in comparison with which the world war would be a mere ripple on the sea. In this massacre, countless people, young and old, would be murdered, killed, drowned, blown up, poisoned by gas. Untold treasures and cultural achievement of priceless value would perish—Eugene Chen, Foreign Minister. | Workers Organized In Shanghai Has 600,000] Warehouse Men his “relentless prejudice” was made the state this afternoon by Roland D. Temeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, for Seventeen Big Unions SHANGHAT, Kort 1 over six hundred thousand workers in Shanghai are organized, according to a statement issued by the chair- man of the Shanghai Council of Trade Unions. The largest of the seventeen unions affiliated with the council is the textile and garment workers’ | union, which has a membership of |] more than 200,000. The executive committee of the council consists of 41 members, which elects a presi- dium of seven. Trial: Witness To Speak at Sacco, ¢.the.bouse of representatives. of. Sawyer, democrat, a clergyman of Ware. He was asking consideration of his proposal calling for the appointment of an impartial committee to inquire into the case of the two framed-up Italian radicals, sentenced to die in| the electric chair. | Thayer Boasted Of Prejudice. “Judge Thayer boasted of ‘the kind | of a job he would do on Sacco and | Vanzetti’ in the lobby at the trial, in} clubs and trains,” declared Sawyer. | When the jury was viewing a scene in the woods and the tryst of a man and girl was interrupted, the judge waved his handkerchief to the fleeing | girl, said the legislator. Took Case Lightly. Judge Thayer’s conduct during the trial showed, Sawyer said, that “the whole affair of sending these men to the electric chair was with him a gay affair.” Dr. Sawyer also scored former Dis- trict Attorney Katzman of Norfolk county as a man “anxious for his vic- tim.” Frank J. Burke, a worker, who was one of the witnesses for Sacco and Vanzetti at their first trial, will be one of the 25 speakers at the mon- ster protest demonstration in their behalf to be held this Saturday at 1 o’clock in Union Square. Over 25 Speakers. Woman Killed In Airplane Crash. MINEOLA, N. Y., April 14.—One woman was killed, and an airplane pilot and another man were severely . P injured when an airplane crashed to| Scott Nearing, Capt. Paxten Hib- the ground from a height of 175 feet | ben, Ludwig Lore, editor of the on the motor parkway near Curtiss |“Volkszeitung,” H. A. Wagner, pres- Field today. (Continued on Page Five) PREVIOUS EVENTS OF INSURANCE EXPOSE The DAILY WORKER today continues its exposé of the “Big Four” insurance trust. The “Big Four” are the Metropoli- tan, Prudential, John Hancock and Colonial Life Insurance Com- panies. This powerful combine which is supposed to be “mu- tual,” is in reality controlled by an unscrupulous gang of Wall Street financiers. They insure 40 million American workers. Specific charges of fraud, misrepresentation, subornation and the misuse of company funds have been met with silence on the part of the crooked officials who fatten upon the unfortunate workers who are taken in by these leeches. Names prominent in the-exposé are Charles Evans Hughes, Charles M. Schwab, Supt. Vanzetti Protest 000 Bribe and financial circles, “het up” against organization. Wit- ness, for instance, the Association of Life Insurance Presidents, As clan- nish and class conscious a union as ever graced an industry or business. Its reason for existence is very easy to determine, Surely a life insurance president’s pay is great enough. True, these companies with one in- significant exception are “mutual.” The meaning of the word “mutual” is best indicated by the Standard Dic-. of Insurance James A. Beha and others prominent in legislative tionary definition which gives it as, “shared or experienced alike,” How great these president’s laries are can be seen below: Haley Fiske, Metropolitan $150,000 Ed. D. Duffield, Prudential 75,000 Walton L. Crocker, Hancock 50,000 E. Heppenheimer; Colonial 30,000 These four underpaid little officials only receive a quarter of a million dollars between them every year. Surely they don’t need a union for } “Control of Sapiro DETROIT, April 14.—Fifteen of the 22 directors of the Sapiro-organ- lized burley tobacco cooperative in Ken- \tucky were financially interested in} | warehouses while operating the asso- | | ciation for farmers, Senator James A. | Reed, chief of Henry Ford’s counsel, | |charged today at the million-dollar} | Ford-Sapiro libel suit. | | Many of the warehouses, purchased | | for the cooperative, Reed added, were those in which'the directors were fi- | nancially interested. | Ralph M.° Baker, the director of warehouses, Reed further charged, bought two warehouses from himself, all of this was carried out, Reed said, }under contracts prepared by Sapiro. | Three Out of Five. Aaron Sapiro, the cooperative king, | testified that three of the five men jon the executive committee which di- rected the organization committee, were warehouse owners. Ralph M. Barker and James C. Stone owned warehouses while John T. Collins, a banker, owned stock in warehouses, said Sapiro. Robert W. Binkham, Louisville publisher, and W. E. Sims, a Versailles, Ky., grower. WORKERS! PROTEST AGAINST ‘DEATH OF SACCO and VANZETTI! better wages. Goodness knows their hours are short enough. Then why the union? What is the reason for the existence of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents? For Political Purposes. Avowedly, this association of muck- amucks is that statistical machine of the insurance trust. It is supposed to compile all the highly mysterious data which accumulates every year in the insurance world. It sorts the wheat from the chaff and gives the great believing Ameri- can public weighty pamphlets on thrift, how to save, what we die from, and a general line of sweetness and “truth” with regard to the benefits to be derived from life insurance, In- eluding “industrial” weekly payment life insurance, Actually, it is the lobbying machine for the “Big Four.” Does a nice little insurance company want a bill passed which will make it lawful for it to refuse to pay, let us say, its Russian death claims? The Association of Life Insurance Presidents will see to it. Does the “Big Four” want an in- crease of permitted expenses (as in 1925)? The Presidents Union will (Continued on Page Three) fl || Naval Affairs Head Says No Disarmament Confab Will Be Held WASHINGTON, April 14. — American efforts to accomplish further naval disarmament, through the three-power conference to start at Geneva in June, will likely prove unsuccessful, Rep. Thomas S. Butler of Pennsylvania, chairman of the house naval af- fairs committee, predicted today after a visit to the White House. “The United States has nothing to sacrifice in this conference, and I do not believe the other powers, Great Britain and Japan, will be in a sacrificing mood,” said Butler. Workers on Trial In Little Suburb Of Mineola, L. I. By MICHAEL GOLD. MINEOLA, April 14. — Michael Barnett who claims that ‘his scab shop was attacked during the fur strike last year, proved a bad wit- ness for the district attorney at the opening of the trial of Ben Gold and 10 members of the Furrier’s Union here today. “Star Witness.” Barnett was the ‘prosecutor’s star witness, as it was he who is alleged to have been slashed and beaten by union invaders. Around him the whole scheme to railroad Ben Gold and the others to jail had been built by the officials. Barnett admitted on the stand that he was an old and intimate friend of Bosoff, ex-fur worker who led the alleged raid, and who is now chief stool pigeon for the prosecution. He had luncheon with Basoff the afternoon before the raid, he admitted, and yet this friend of many years never hinted to him that his shop was to be attacked. Neither had he at any time during his various chats and visits with his friend Basoff ever told the other that he was running a so-called “open shop” behind locked doors in a loft over a chop suey house in Rockville Centre, L, I. ‘ Tells of Scab Shop. Barnett admitted that he started this shop less than three months be- fore the raid, about the beginning of the strike, and was furnishing New York firms with work, (It was very evident the shop was one of those sordid little cockroach affairs, in which petty bosses hoped with a few dupes to get away from New York and the picketing in order to get ch quick). Cannot Identify Defendants. Barnett failed to identify anyone among the eleven furriers other than Maurice Malkan and Leo Franklin. His brother Jack Barnett, who helped (Continued on Page Five) Published Daily except Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER Price 3 Cents CO,, 33 First Street, New York, N, ¥. CHIANG KALSHEK BETRAYS CHINESE | LIBERATION MOVEMENT AND GOES T0 IMPERIALISTS; NEW WAR THREATENS SHANGHAI, April 14.—General Chiang Kai-shek has gone over to the side of the imperialist powers conspiring to crush |the revolutionary Nationalist liberation movement. This rene- |gade and traitor has ordered his generals to proceed to disarm | the workers and already his forces have launched white terror ‘attacks upon demonstrations, killing hundreds of unarmed work- | ers. The international work delega- tion visiting in China has sent out the following cablegram to workers | abroad: gan to disarm the agents of the im- ist powers and arm the prole- Danger of New War. 5: This betrayal of the liberation “The undersigned confirm the | ovement by Chiang Kai-shek and | truthfulness of reports stating that his going over into the camp of the | Chiang Kai-shek has passed to the | imperialists carries with it the threat jside of the imperialists. His gen-| of the extension of the war against Jerals have disarmed Shanghai work-|\China so that it takes on legalistic jers and shot into workers’ demon-i forms with declarations of war by |sttations, this act making Chiang the powers. It also means an at Kai-shek a traitor towards the Chin- tempt of the imperialist butchers to ese people and the Chinese revolu-| establish a base of operations against tion. (Signed) Humbert Droz, | the Soviet Union. Szmeral, Kussinen, Murphy, Dun- Appeals are being prepared to for- can,” : ward to the workers of the world to Against this. monstrous act of rally to the support of the liberation treachery the proletariat of the in-| movement by fighting against their dustrial centers are hurling their! governments uniting in a drive power. The great strike wave | acainst China and the Soviet Union. is rising ever higher and the revolu- | Nationalists Take Pukow. tionary workers are raising the slo- The Nationalists have retaken Pu- kow, according to a report received here by Shun Pao, a leading Chinese newspaper. The Nationalists exe- cuted a surprise attack, surrounding and disarming 4,400 White Russian |mercenaries belonging to Chang !Tsung-chang, Shantungese war lord. | * * ¥ Deny Concentration. officials have denied the JURY OF BUSINESS | | | | Soviet \No Labor Represented AND 10 FURRIERS | statements that have appeared in for- eign press that U. S. S. R. troops are concentrating on the Manchurian bor- der. Officials point to the pacific note that has been sent to the defunct | At Mineola Trial Peking Government and contrast it \ oN with the threatening message that has MINEOLA, L. I., April 14.—The| been sent to the Nationalists by the |tendency to be followed by the pro-| imperialists. | secution in the trial of Ben Gold and! A statement declaring that though \the 10 other leaders of the New York/ Soviet Russia sympathizes with the | fur workers whose trial on a charge | struggle of the Chinese workers and lof “assault” which began here this| Peasants she refuses to adopt any | morning was indicated when Elvin form of militarist intervention that | Edwards, district attorney of Nassau | has been issued by the unions. | county, began the examination of 4 * * | prospective jurors by asking them if Japan Sends Destroyers. \they belonged “to any Communistic| TOKIO, April 14—Japan has in- order, or any other order favoring creased her forces at Tientsin from la change in the government of the eight to three companies of infantry. eae Presi. Four Japanese destroyers, origin- icaiten geen Objects. ally under orders to shir to Shang- | Frank P. Walsh and Henry A. (Combenged om Foe oe) | Uterhart, lawyers for the defendants, z oe vigorously objected to the line of | cuestiodtig of the district attorney, |but County Judge Lewis J. Smith, | presiding in the case, promptly over- 5 |ruled their objection. The same tn- MINERS STRIKE sidious type of interrogations con- | tinued throughout the two and half |hours consumed in selecting the jury. | Of the 12 men who will “determine | ENDS WITH GAIN |the guilt or innocence” of militants | in the fur union, not a single one} iat < is a worker. The first juror called |p; x and chosen was a dealer in real Pittsburg Coal Company jestate. The second is a contractor Tries to Raid Meeting and builder; the third deals in mari- | |time insurance, the others are as| JOHNSTOWN, Pa., April 14 (FP). follows: (No. 4.) Head of electrical|—The first skirmish of the year in department of. New York Telephone|the Pennsylvania non-union dal Company in Mineola; (No. 5.) Up-|fields ends without a gain in wages holsterer jobber; (No. 6.) Dealer in| but with the workers in a strong stocks and bonds; (No. 7.) Civil En-| position otherwise. The strike ended gineer; (No. 8.) Plumbing and heat-| when Superintendent Newbaker. ‘of ing contractor; (No. 9.) Head of de-| the Berwind-White Coal Co. prom- partment in New York exporting ised to reinstate all the pickets he house; «No. 10) Grocer in Lynnbrook, | had discharged. L. L; (No. 11.) Retired hotel man;| The strike lasted three days. and (No. 12.) Plumbing and heating con-|hit two of the companies’ largest tractor. |mines, It was declared at a Sunday Gold and Comrades in Jail Since Monday. Ben Gold and the other fur workers have been in jail since last Monday, when their bail, $10,000 each was re- voked by County Judge Smith. Tues- day in the Brooklyn supreme court application of their attorneys for a change of venue was denied by Jus- tice Callahan, who declared that Jadge Smith, who has already shown extreme prejudice in the case, “is the best judge of his own fitness to sit in the case.” Jury Middle Class. | All of the members of the jury live l either in Mineola or in the neighbor- ing little town of Rockville Center. | mass meeting after the company re- |fused demands for union wages, |check-weighmen and recognition. Sheriff There, | Mass picketing began, with a hug jdred miners on the line. Sheriff |Markel appeared with a force of ‘deputies and six state police. The latter were decked out with rifles and cartridge belts. The sheriff at once jissued orders against picketing with }more than two men every 15 feet. |The strikers yielded to this order but they ignored a demand to stay away ‘from the mine mouth where they met |men going to and from work. | But many workers were intimi- dated by the deputies and police. The {coal market was still bad. A com- Mineola is a typical: middle-class | mittee of ten strikers had a confer- suburb. Of the 6,000 people who live/ence with Newbaker and offered there most of them commute from | terms. They said they would call the New York where they have white-| strike off on condition that he would collar jobs. | reinstate every striker, particularly Judge Bored. | the 15 picket leaders whom he dis- Judge Smith, who is presiding at|charged when the walkout began. the trial is already thoroly bored by | Otherwise they said they would do the proceedings. All of the eleven |all in their power to spread the strike workers are being tried, together, but |through the county. Newbaker ac- five attorneys are representing dif-|cepted and the walkout ended. ferent groups of individuals. Conse-| Strike promoters are encouraged. quently much of the proceedings will| They have made new contacts in the be duplicated by the individual law-|uon-union fields. They have demone yers. i (Gontinued on Page Two) "