The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 19, 1927, Page 1

| STOP THE THREAT OF A NEW WAR! HANDS OFF CHINA! HE DAILY WORKER: 4 = THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THB UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. IV. No. 108. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N, Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. NEW YORK, TITURSDAY, MAY 19, 1927 Published Daily PUBLISHING co., | FINAL CITY | Price 3 Cents spt Sunday by THE DAILY WORKER )., 88 First Street, New York, N. Y. GIGANTIC GRAFT IN MISSISSIPPI FLOOD CONTROL Current Events By T. J. O’FLAHERTY. HE foreign editor. of the Paris Matin has written for the New York Times a special article in which he declares his admiration for the United States tho there are a few trifling deficiencies that detract from the comfort of those accustomed to being waited on by less favored | dividuals engaged in the business of contributing to the physical and men- tal comfort of theit betters. For in- stance, we are informed by the dis- tinguished journalist that he was / quite inconvenienced while staying in a.New York hotel because-instead of | being able to press a button for male) er female servants according to his) particular needs he was obliged to) telephone and go to the trouble of de- | seribing his requirements in detail in-| stead of leaving such trifling matters | to flunkeys trained in the art of read- | ing the minds of guests. | * * . (0 doubt when American capitalism | grows a little older and blooms in-| to a finer flower of civilization those | little inconveniences will disappear. What we are chiefly concerned with is this editor's comment on our pros- | perity. A country that can give a mason $14 a day and a miner only a| appeared likely today with the arrival of Chiang and the depar-|™ little less is a country worth fighting for. And when the American worker dallies thru his day’s pleasurable toil | —if toil it may be called—he dolls up and with his wife and family spins Seek New Trial for Sacco and Vanzetti SHEK FOR ATTACK ON NATIONALISTS Japanese Shell City; Protest Rape of Chinese Girl by British Soldier; Butler Plans War HIGHLIGHTS OF TODAY’S NEWS. 1.—Great Britain plans alliance with Chiang Kai-shek to crush Nationalists; British Minister leaves for Shanghai; Chiang already there. 2.—Japanese destroyer shells Chinkiang, when hit by stray bullets. 3.—British and White Russians mistreat Soviet Union dele- gates to Pan-Pacific Labor Conference. 4.—Protest raping of Chinese girl by British soldier. 5.—Report split in ranks of northern war lords; Chang Sor Sun Chuan-fang. 6.—General Butler plans increase of Peking “defense force- * * * SHANGHAI, May 18.—That Great Britain may support | Chiang Kai-shek in its effort to balk the Nationalist movement | neither a complete pardon of the two / ture of Sir Miles Lampson, British Minister, from Peking for this city. Los The note dispatched yesterday re-| MASTER BARBERS calling Basil Newton, British repre- |Sentative at Hankow, is understood to by a progressive leadership. ‘ ” * . out into the country in a smart auto- | mobile. That is what the Frenchman | saw. He also noticed that “nothing | prevents him (the American) from} aspiring to riches and an important | position.” We agree but— * * * 'HILE it is true that in this rich | country some of the skilled union workers in the building trades earn $14 a day and an automobile is no novelty to them, our visitor did not | tell us how many months out of the | working year those $14-a-day build- ing trades workers are unemployed. But when the Times’ correspondent tells us that the mine worker gets al- most as much, he is talking thru his nose. The Jacksonville agreement called for a union wage scale of $7.50 | a day for the highest cateZory of mine help and it is safe to assume that the mine owners did not pay above the seale, The fact is that many of them threw the agreement in their waste baskets and paid below the scale. . * * * eee a section of the American workingclass shares in the pros- perity of American imperialism is un- deniable. But this section is small compared to the total workingclass population of the country. The work- ers in a few favored trades—(favored for the time being. They will get their medicine later on) are petted be- cause their employers find it pays better to be generous since they can | afford it, than to risk greater losses | thru protracted-strikes. But it is be- coming evident now that there will soon be a tightening up and that the bosses are getting ready to wreck the last bulwarks of A. F. of L. craft unionism in the United States. Then the budding “aristocrats of labor” may haye to draw in the belt, unless the unorganized workers are organized and the present reactionary leader- | ship of the trades union is supplanted | QN. recent visit to Boston I saw} enough to convince me that the! prosperity of the wérkingclass at this | time is greatly overestimated. It is true that the labor leaders in Mass: chusetts are almost as prosperous they are in Chicago or New York and if one does not see beyond the labor leaders or even beyond skilled build- trades workers and printers, it is t strange that such a short-sighted son should be awed by the appear- ance of prosperity which our,capital- ist editors insist is universal in the United tes. If our proeatoeslset population—-those actually engaged in the industrial and commercial appar- atus of the country—-was ores industrially and politically, then would be possible for them to secure a greater share of their product while at the same time ‘building up their machinery with a view to taking over industry and operating it for the bene- fit of all the socially useful and our main job is to do that very thing. - ,’ * *. cannot possibly know how the workers live, simply by reading the capitalist press.‘ One cannot know with any degree of accuracy how the workers fee] about things by reading the speeches of the labor bankers and (Continued on Page 6) have stated in no undecided terms that in the future Great Britain will confine its negotiations to Chiang Kai-shek and the Peking “Govern-| POINTS TO UNION ment.” : Newton has left Hankow for Shang- hai where he will confer with the British Minister. Confab with Chiang That Sir Miles Lampson has left for this city for the purpose of con- ferring with Chiang Kai-shek is not unlikely in view of :yesterday’s note. The note to the Hankow Government stated that “it is useless and unde- sirable to deal with a regime so to- tally incapable of the duties of civil- ized government. Great Britain, having been forced to abandon for the time being her plans for open war against Nation- alist China, will support Chiang Kai- shek in an effort to retard the Na- tionalist movement, observers say. . * * Japanese Shell City- SHANGHAI, May 18.—The Japa- nese destroyer, Momo which was con- veying Japanese Consul General Yada to Hankow, vigorously shelled a north- ern Chinese troop position at Chin- kiang last night when hit by stray bullets, according to advices received here today. The warcraft opened fire, throwing eight shells against the Chinese posi- tion, About a thousand rounds were fired from machine guns and small arms. Chinese papers are full of protests against the American bombardment of Kiang-Yon. Many lives and much property were lost as a result of the shelling. * * * British Mistreat Russian Delegates HANKOW, May 18,—After having been submitted to a rude examination at Kiukiang by an English officer accompanied by a Russian White guardist, most of the delegates of the Central Council of Trade Unions of Soviet Union have arrived here to at- tend the Pan-Pacific Labor Confer- ence, Even the notebooks of the delegates were examined. = * * ~ British Soldier Rapes Girl (By Nationalist News Agency) SHANGHAI, May 18.—Quo Taichi, the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in the Nanking Government, sent a (Continued on Page Two) Paper Box Makers: Win Short Strike The workers of the Bronx Paper Box Co,, 24 Morton St., Brooklyn, ‘are today celebrating a successful one- day strike, Tuesday, Frank Risino, a driver, was fired. Immediately the entire shop members of the Paper Box Mak- ers’ Union quit work and went on strike.| Yesterday Risino was rein- stated and the workers are re to work this morning, ! i IN BRONX YIELD Aggressive Picketing is Carried On Boss barbers in the Bronx, amazed by the almost complete stoppage of work following the strike of 2,000 barbers and beauty shop girls, are talking peace. ‘ Conferences are being held with | union officials at headquarters on | are conceded except for the 9 p. m. | closing on Saturday. The union is | demanding that the Saturday workday | extend from 8 a. m. to 9 p. m. with | the Master Barbers holding out for an | extra hour. A few shops were running with proprietors only on the job, while |some East Side barber colleges had been raided for student-“barbers.” The public, wary of these scabs’ lack of dexterity with the razor, carefully avoided the open shops. Cops Help Bosses. Police were stationed in front of an |Italian barber shop at 180th St. and Boston Road yesterday where two bosses were holding forth, one in front and the other in the rear. No pickets were allowed near the building. At 75 Featherbed Lane, the bosses. had induced some workers to stay on the jobs, despite the good example giv- en by the girls, who walked out in a body. At 50 W. Fremont Ave., the contrary was the case, with the bar- | bers out but the girls on the job. Crost Brothers, at 972 E. 174 St. were rumored to be seeking an injunc- tion against picketing. Two bosses working together at this place have made it necessary for the union to take definite steps to maintain their strike, On the other hand the Mandell brothers, operating a shop on 173rd St., went to the union hall and prom- ised to discontinue operating their shop. Criticize Policy. Dissatisfaction is manifesting itself among some of the striking barbers of the Bronx against the policy of the union that compels the bosses to join the Master Barbers’ Association before the union will deal with them. According to several strikers who spoke to a rep tative of the DATLY WORKER yesterday, the union is encouraging the bosses to form an organization that will be used to fight against the workers. “Why should we, the workers,” said one striker, “help the bosses strength- en their own position, to fight us when we go on strike. The present struggle is a good example, yet we are continuing that policy which is nothing less than acting as an organ- izer for the bosses interests.” Continue Picketing. Spirited picketing continued yester- day, all shops that have not yet joined the strike being visited by committees of workers, | Boston Road in which all demands | BRITISH TO ALLY WITH CHIANG KAI DEVISE METHOD Politicians at Washington Gamble (TO PLAGE CASE With Human Life in Levee Frauds IN COURTS AGAIN Exonerate Sacco | “BOSTON, Mass., May 18.—An un- \ precedented legal move is being dis- | cussed as a possible method of gain- |ing the new trial which Massachv- | {setts justice has so far fefused to| Sacco and Vanzetti, and which by/ many observers is considered neces- | sary if the men are to be freed. | While it is known that Governor | Tsung-chang, Shantung war lord, captures ammunition destined | Fuller is carefully studying the evi-. | dence produced at the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the evidence which ‘has been discovered since then by at- | |torneys for the doomed men, it is} | felt by many Boston people that en, or commutation of their sen-| |tence to life imprisonment, will be | considered by the Governor a satis-| | factory solution of the question of | | their guilt or innocence, | From various indications, it is be-| | lieved that both the defense and the | prosecution are considering the pos- | sibility of a new trial; but this could | be effected in only one way. Accord- ing to the law, the men could not _ be tried twice for the same offense; | therefore they would have to waive their constitutional immynity from | double...jeopardy..... They vould. then | be re-indicted and tried again on the original charge. The original death | sentence would still be hanging over them, but if they were acquitted, the governor would then pardon them on the first conviction. : Raise Objections. Such a procedure is almost un-/ known, yet according to legal author- | ities it is the only way in which a) new trial could be had. Many ob- jections to a new trial are seen in | the fact that witnesses in the case | have died, many of the exhibits are | gone, and during the seven years the | whole situation has greatly changed. While rumors as to Governor Ful-| ler’s plans form a constant topic of conversation at the State House, one very prominent official is quoted, by a reliable witness, as estating that if he were governor he would execute | these men whether they are innocent or not. This pillar of democracy be- lieves that a pardoning of these men would be a slur upon the honorable courts of Massachusetts, and it is im- perative to maintain “faith in our institutions.” Probably this official agrees with a Mr. Charles Albert of Somerville, Mass., who writes to the Boston Herald that even if Sacco and Vam zetti are not guilty, the men who committed the crimie. were of the same type—enemies of private prop- erty and of society. Therefore Sacco and Vanzetti should die. Probe Red Raids. It is in the face of such advisors, (Continued on Page Five) RAISE THE FARES| AND PLUNDER THE WORKERS This is the plot being hatched by New York’s most powerful finan- ‘cial interests today in a traction deal rivaling Insull’s grab of Chi- cago’s railway system. In a series beginning next Mon- day, the DAILY WORKER will bare the alliance between the high- est state and local officials, work- ing hand in glove with the owners of the B. M. T. and I. R. T. to fix fancy valuations on the city’s dilap- idated traction system, boost the fare and continue the oppression of workers through the world’s worst city railway “service.” Monday the politicians and trac- tion interests stage the first of the hearings by which a burden of hun- dreds of millions will be added to New York’s workers. The DAILY WORKER will play the spotlight of truth on those hearings while exposing the dirty mess at the bot- tom of the traction scandal. Order in Advance Your DAILY WORKER. On Sale at All News- J. P. Morgan Reported 'Governor Hears Expert) “Angel” for Episcopal || Bishop of Long Island J. P. Morgan, commonly regard- ed as the most powerful figure in the investment world, is digging up $15,000 to keep the Episcopal bish- op on Long Island. This was the report current yesterday when the right rev. Ernest M. Stires an- nounced jubilantly that his salary had been paid by a “friend of the diocese.” USSR PROTESTS ARCOS RAIDS IN rf 3 oe | : . er . . ‘Millions of Dollars Spent While Inhabitants Perish in Raging Torrents Coolidge, Fearing Exposure, Refuses to Call Special Session of Congress (By a Staff Cictseponians | WASHINGTON, May 18.—Two hundred million dollars have | been squandered in earthén breastworks built for flood control in |the Mississippi River Valley, and although these levees have been | built and rebuilt time and again for 47 years, yet never once have | NOTE TO BRITAIN inspired same |thorities in the grossest and most in- they withstood the onslaughts of the mighty stream, when it | prevent widespread inundation every time the M sippi flooded, that | nevertheless, the federal government |}and local organizations have contin- PS tg . the Mississippi River Commission, a Britain Violated Trade |tederal agency that has been pro- Arcos Outrage A homer moting this “contractors* paradise” eta greement—Litvinofe | system, has a federal grant of $10,-| _ a pe Evidently by the MOSCOW, May 18.—Branding the | operations beginning the new fiscal | bright idea which led Scotland Yard of protest last night. On the heels of the note came the announcement from the Council of | People’s Commissaries that foreign | lations. Exceptions to this rule will! only be made when necessitated by the | peculiar nature of some special trans-| actions, the Commissariat of Trade raged in flood. bie i ‘ ‘ | It may seem unbelievable when the HATCH RAID ON | ued to dump tens of millions of dol- |lars annually in such earthen walls, | 000,000 with which to carry on its raids on the Arcos offices as “aj year, July 1, 1927. | to make its recent raid on-“Areos” most serious and hostile act” and as} trade will be conducted by Soviet | Union representatives and organiza- | said. 4S Violated Immunity | jassertion is made, that the records show that despite the fact that the | Yet that is the absolute truth, | written in black and white on the | ak a a violation of the Anglo-Soviet trad agreement, the Soviet Union sent the | tions only in those countries with! which the Union of Soviet Socialist | The immunity of the Soviet Union| Trade Delegation, embodied in the “levees only” system has failed to | statute books of the land. Even now,| Plan Small Imitation of British die-hard Government a note| Republics has formal diplomatic re-| trade agreement with Great Britain, | “has been violated by the British au-| 84"& was under aerate -ernenure in | its effort to obtain the annual $10,-| sulting manner,” said Maxim Litvi- note. | The action of the British Govern- | ment, the note says, contradicts the | much-advertised pleas of the British | Government for peace and economic | stability, the note declares, and shows the world “where are to be found the really destructive forces working for | economic chaos and anarchy in Eu- rope.” | British Balk Trade “The Soviet Government,” contin-| ues the note, “has observed with sat- | isfaction the interest in the Soviet | market evidenced by London, and the) Soviet economic organization has been more and more trusted by the London | banks, in proof of which an agree-| ment was signed a few days ago be-| tween the Soviets and one of these) banks for £10,000,000. “But a campaign of unheard-of hos-| tility, which reached its culmination in the raid on the Soviet Trade Dele- gation, induces the Soviet Govern- ment, with all the seriousness and} frankness which the grave situation) demands, to lay down before the Brit- ish Government the question: Is it willing further to maintain and de- velop Anglo-Soviet relations or is it) its intention to oppose this in the fu- ture?” Pointing ont the violation of the Anglo-Soviet ‘trade agreement, the note says: “The raid could only have been ac- tuated by a motive causing detriment (Continued on Page Two) Goldberg Freed. Walter Goldberg, seventeen year old high school boy charged with the shooting of his sixteen year old school sweetheart, Anna Harris, in the din- ing room of her home in Brooklyn on March 15, was freed yesterday by order of Supremer Court Justice Townsend )Scudder before the case went to the jury. Millions For Graft. Politics, crooked, nefarious, honey- combed with patronage and graft, is responsible. The millions that have been shoveled into these clay walls that never hold, mean millions in fat contracts. Fat, luscious contracts, mean graft, mean political manipula- tions and deals. For every dollar the federal government puts into the kitty, local levee politicians raise one or two moré by localgtaxation, so that a vast system ha¥been evolved which up until the present has pre- vented every effort made not only to put an end to the stupendous waste | of the projects, but even to have an “planted” independent investigation made of the problem. Death Aided Gang. When in 1917 the “levees only” 000,000 federal handout, it gave (Continued on Page Two) China Minus Gunboats Comes to Manhattan at Webster Hall, Friday “A Shanghai Incident”, a play of the Chinese revolution will be pro- duced Friday evening in Webster Hall at a concert and ball given by the Chinese Workers Alliance for the benefit of the Workers School which they will open in Chinatown. Hundreds of Chinese lanterns. will light the hall, while Chinese music, fan dances and folk songs, will add to the illusion that the night is being spent in China. Souvenir fans with the name of each purchaser written in Chinese by members of the Chi- nese Workers Alliance will be one of the unique features. A Japanese girl singer in costume will add an inter- national flavor to the affair. Dancing to the tune of a seven piece jazz orchestra will continue until early morning, while specially prepared Chinese refreshments will be served by Chinese girls in their native costumes. Tickets on sale at Jimmie Higgins, Workers School and the Civic Club. Scott Nearing and Joe Freeman will speak, Panic gripped thousands of work- ers yesterday morning as a result of a tie up due to a short circuit on a southbound local near Grand Central station. In order to correct the trouble it was necessary to shut off the power on the southbound track in the Grand Central block.’ Smoke from the short circuit filled the first three cars of the train. Women began to scream and men to curse. Several windows were broken in the excitement. Many Goldberg had been on trial for mur- der for the last three days, t passengers left the train and walked {on the tracks back to the station. jin London, the reactionary officials jof the International Furriers’ Union jand the A, F, of L. reorganization | committee have been hatching a raid jon the furriers’ Joint Board so The | DAILY WORKER has learned from ee different sources. | The scheme is that someone from the traitors’ band—or some clever forger’ hired for the purpose—shall manufacture a paper bearing “instruc- tions from Moscow” as to the conduct | of the present struggle against the reactionary forces of the Internation- al, This document is to be carefully somewhere in the Joint Board building, and then a raid is to be staged by the police—of whose co- operation Edward F. McGrady, A. F. of L. organizer, has frequently boast- d—and the-Moscow document will be discovered.” No doubt it would be “found” just ‘noff, Acting Foreign Minister, in his | Sround to the extent of accepting as| on the eve of the convention; or pos- | sibly when the $100,000 Union De- |fense Fund had been completed and | the workers were fully organized to resist every phase of the attack by employers and right wing. But now that the scheme has become known, the traitors will have to think up a new one. Nothing like this one will fool the workers, or stop the steady mobilization activities which are go- ing on at the Joint Board headquar- ters. Expect Furrier Decision While the Joint Board has been ex- pecting each day this week to have some word regarding the release of the nine fur workers in Mineola, on certificates of reasonable doubt, it is confidently believed that the decision of Judge Mitchell May will be made known today. If the certificates are granted, the men can be released on | bail pending an appeal of their case |to a higher court, Officials of the International were given an unexpected reception on Tuesday night when they went to Newark to address a meeting to which they had invited only a very few of the members of Local 25. They had j}carefully selected those members whom they thot were right * wing sympathizers, and they had summoned them by letter to come to Kruger’s Hall and begin the job of breaking up Local 25, Expected Small Meeting To their surprise, several hundred fur workers came to hear what the reactionary leaders had to say, and they were so upset they could not give the speeches of denunciation which they had intended. Pietro Lucci, whose ambition is to be the manager of Local 25, and A. Sorkin, one of those who wants to force Lucci on the unwilling membership, came to the meeting hall with a half dozen scabs from various Jersey cities. Four & them had formerly belonged to the | Newark local but were put out for scabbing. \ ‘