The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 3, 1928, Page 2

Naar Fail to Act in Brutal Treatment of Poor Patients at Kings County Hospital y Miners Hold Lenin Meetings; Workers Party Units Formed Page Two THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1928 Claude E. Priddy, 50. GOD” IN NEW -year-old farmer minister of the St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, S TODAY: 1 KILLS THREE; a. ’ split the skulls of his wife and two child Stamford, Conne<iicut, in 1914 led a violent campaign against liquor and immorality. He gives as his reason for the murders remorse over a social disease acquired in the wild days of his youth. The photo at the extreme left shows the Rev. Priddy entering state police headquarters at Farmingdale, Long Island. In the second photo Priddy (right), is being arraigned. The next to last photo is one of the pastor-slayer taken twelve years ago with his wife and one of the sons, James, whom he murdered, Priddy was then in the midst of a vice-crusade. At the extreme right the new papal envoy to Canada, Cardinal Rouleau, is shown (centre) on his arrival to guide the Catholic workers of Canada in a course mapped out by the Pope, away from thought of action against their misery. ren with an axe, at Farmingdale, L. I. The Rev. Priddy, as a pastor in 1 FLEES WITH CHOIR SINGER; 1 LOAFS saad POLITICAL PULL ‘Pastor Elopes With Mill | Girl He Taught “Religion” BACKS DOCTORS’ NEGLECT OF ILL Belated Report Ignores Plight of Workers Nine months after charges of brutal mistreatment of patients and worker: at Kings County Hospital amazed th: population of New York, last May report by Commissioner of Account: James A. Higgins to Mayor Walker after an investigation of the hospital shows that no action has been taken by city officials for the improvement} of the inhumane conditions there. Nor does the report indicate that any action is planned. Brutal religious bigtory against Jewish internes and Jewish patients of small means, rotten food for the poverty stricken patients, prepared by diseased cooks, and the appointment thru political influence of many un- fit nurses, unsympathetic and neglect- ful to the working class patients, are but a few of the conditions brought to light in the report. Discrimination Shown. The hazing of three Jewish internes there last May and charges by work-} ing class patients that they had been discriminated against in receiving treatment led to the investigation and the report. Kings County Hospital is the institution furnished by New York | City for the free treatment of the workers of Brooklyn and environs They cannot pay the stiff excessive fees demanded by the non-municipal | hospitals. The institution has many times been condemned as a firetrap and the handling of the patients has bordered on the brutal. Kings County Hospital has been called the “Belle- vue” of Brooklyn. Food Unsanitary. Due to favoritism, evidently of a political nature, the report points out, many unfit nurses, unsympathetic and eallous in their attention to the pen-| niless patients’ needs, have been placed on the staff of the Kings Coun- ty Hospital. And internes, also picked by a process of favoritism, are either incapable or uncesirous of rendering decent medical service to the patients The internes, backed by “pull,” h been allowed extraordinary license ir neglecting their assignments, Com missioner Higgins’ report reveals. The food at the hospital is of the poorest kind. It is prepared by dis- eased and physically unfit workers. Indifference on the part of officials has rendered the dietary department of the hospital, one of its main func- tions, stagnantly ineffective, the re- port further states. Night Service Lax. The management of the steward’s department in the distribution of hos- pital supplies is incompetent and wasteful. Emergency medical service when serious cases are brought in is extremely lax. At night the means for securing immediate attention for patients in a moribund state are in- sufficient. Ambulance chasers, as shyster law- yers are known, are afforded the greatest possible opportunities to reach the patients, it is asserted in the report. These unscrupulous law yers trick the workers injured on the'r . jobs into signing agrevments with them by which most of the money awarded the worker in court falls into the lawyer's hands. Compensation Lost. The report also charges that the preparation of reports of accidents to workers, called for by the compen- #ation court, is handled in a loose and unprofessional manner in Kings County Hospital. Without these re- ports being promptly made out by the doctor attending the worker, the latter is often delayed and sometimes _|to be somewha his profession by | eloping with a} young girl, Kath. erine De Bruyle, | employed by the} Holcomb Silk Mill in Patterson, N. J. He first approach- ed tris young silk sn worker thru hi: Key. so-called religion, | | L. 1. Holmes and after gaining her confidence as a member of his congregation stopped talking “mis- sionary work” and writing poems jabout bible study to meet her at the mills every noon, The outcome of the affe was the elopement in which Katherine Mrs. De Bruyle of the girl, who promises to “have his hide” if he ever sees him again. The “Reverend” Holmes came to Patterson as a director of religious education for young people. Force Pan-Ame HAVANA, Cuba, Feb, 2-—-The Pan; American Congress goes solemnly and sadly about its work of hams.ringing | the defiant motion of Mexico, that “No | state in the Pan American Union has! a right to intervene in the internal affairs of another.” | When this motion was first made, ;the United States delegate, Chas. E. | Hughes, practically ordered the South land Central American delegations to kill it.. The killing, a slow and pain- ful process, is going on. The Mexi- |can resolution was referred to com- | mittee for revision. Peruvian Is Used. | Today a subs:itute was reported in| by V. Maurtua, of Peru, which says: | “All states possess the independent | | right to work out their own welfare | without intervention or control by other states, but in the exercise of this right they must not violate the rights of other "and that “the die- tates of international law afford pro- tection for in jals of one state residing in another state which may be subject to intervention for their protection.” At .he meeting today the Nicaragu- an 1ation was prominently to the front, being discussed by the Hughes steam roller as an example of a state where intervention had taken place. Peru Is Betrayed. The delegate from Peru appeared } taken back, when, | ing this service for the} | United S interventionists, his | |own country, with the apparent con-/} |sent of Hughes, was struck a heavy | blow by no.ification that Chile sought the Congress’ approval for the aban- | donment of the Tacna-Arica plebiscite, SEES prevented from securing rightful com- pensation for the injuries he has re- ceived. Needy workers, who have re- ceived no wages while laid up, are thus forced to undergo great priva- after perfor a yican Union To Recognize Intervention promised in the Treaty of Ancon, which yielded the Peruvian province to Chile for occupation pending the | taking of a vote of its population. Chile still has Taena and Arica, and asks for a ruling by. which “unen- forceable” trea:ies may be nullified. GITLOW REPORTS MANY JOIN PARTY (Continued from Page One) pany didn’t want it. In spite of this, however, a hall was obtained and a successful meeting held. “In Cleveland the comrades found that the American Legion and the Chamber of Commerce al in a move to prevent all work- Party mectings. The police osed the usual meeting place the day before the Lenin meeting was to be held and attempted to close an- other hall as well, but again the meeting was held. Party More Active. “On the whole the Party shows signs of increased activity,” Gitlow concluded, “the League, as well, par- ieularly in Districts 10 and 12 (in the West and Northwest), is growing rapidly. Even the Pioneers are do- ing their share toward building a greater Party. They have organized with their parents in the mining dis- tricts and are fighting side by side with them in the interests of the working class.” HAND IS MANGLED. JERSEY CITY, N. J., Feb. 2, Mario Gaiti, 35, had his hand severely mangled when it was caught in a machine at the National Grocery Company baking plant here. tions due to the doctors’ neglect. The report shows favoritism by the social investigators of the Kings County Hospital. Employes Ignored. Commissioner Higgins’ report to Mayor Walker reveals abuses which are prevalent in public hospitals and to a great extent in pay hospitals all over the city, completely ignores the conditions of the hospital help. The quarters supplied “for the porters elevator operators, orderlies, dish washers and other workers are dilapi- dated firetraps, in which all facili- ties are of the poorest and most an- tiquated sort. The help sleep many to a room, and toilets and sinks aré filthy. The help, as is customary ir all institutions, receive food of the cheapest and most ill-cooked sort. All work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week at salaries not exceeding $50 a month, and often as low as $30 a month, The facilities in the wards are also lightly skimmed over in the report, despite the fact that plumbing and toilets sre insanitary in all public hospitals. Oil Witness Won't Tell B, G. Clark, president of the Mid- Western Oil Co., controlled by Standard Oil, had a sudden attack of failing memory when the Senate Committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil steal questioned him con- cerning his firm’s deals with Fall and Sinclair. was instru- | SAVE THE UNION " ACTION SCARES | The Rev. L. I. Holmes, a repre- (affair h., thy t y | | |sentative minister with missionary |the “sky-pilot” leaves behind him not } PEAGTIONAR! § |leanings, has added more laurels to |only a wife, but the enraged father | Qh! 3 | Calls Cops to Break Up | Relief Meetings | (Continued from Page One) | vania-Ohio Relief Committee, brand- | ing it as a camouflaged organization to “sow the seeds of Communist doc- trine” among the striking miners. He states that the strike in Pennsylvania has been “free from large-scale vio- | lence” and that “no lives have been |lost and few have been seriously in- | jured.” By insinuation, Manly would | give the impression that the Commun- lists are urging violence and endanger- ing the lives of the miners for the mere sake of raising hell. If Basi] Manly were not a lackey of the $12,000 per year “labor lead- ers” who are running the United Mine Workers’ Union, he could easily find out that the Pennsylvania-Ohio Min- ers’ Relief Committeeris not a “camot- flaged” Communist organization, but \a committee of militant striking coal miners of many shades of political opinion, organized to help feed and | clothe the strikers and their families. {a task which has been grossly neg- | lected by the high-salaried lieutenants of John L. Lewis. Allowed Two Cents a Week. Mr. Manly admits in one of his j articles that the relief allowance per head to families of strikers in the | Pittsburgh district is only nine cents | per head and in outlying districts less |than two cents. Surely nobody, not jeven a $12,000 a year labor skate | will contend that this pittance is suf- | ficient to provide adequate nourish- {ment for a human being for a week! The Pennsy Ohio Relief Com- mittee was organized to give as much relief as possible to the strikers and to encovrare them to carry on a militant fight to win the strike. Al- ready it is giving relief to more than one hundred mining camns and the rank ,and file aro grateful. But it the committee supplied the miners ané their dependents with poison instead of wholesome food ‘and warm clothinr | the highly-paid organizers cou'd no* feel ‘more outraged. Orders are now beingissued. by the Le-'s-Murrey. | Fagan machine that any local accept ing relief—if nine cents per head per week. or as low as two ents, can be legitimately the |Pennsylvania-Ohio Miners’ Relief Com- mittee will be ent, off the relief list of the district office of the United Mine Workers. Camouflaged Strikebreaking. There is a well-founded suspicion among the rank and file of the min- ers that the officialdom is trying to celled relinf-—from ers and their families. The labor of- ficials at U. M. W. of A. headquarters are on much better terms with the | coal operators than they are with the | militants in the union, When Frank Hefferly, international representative in charge of the Allegheny Valley lo- semer local that a relief committee meeting would be held at New Ken sington, he eslled up the seab coa! -]eompany’s office, ta notify the Torn? to send a representative to the meet- ing. And when the meeting was held the main business was a denunciation of the progressives and the Pennsy! vania-Ohi» Relief Committee which was stoutly defended by the\ repre- sentatives of the relief committees present, All over Western Penncytvania the reactionary machine is lining up its forces for a fight on the progressives Twelve-dollar-a-day (dis) organizers are busy spreading false reports about the progressive leaders. The Lewis machine in Pittsburgh is now resorting to the extreme of pre- | break the strike by starving the strik-|. cals, wanted to notify the North Bos-: PITT, workers a branch of the Workers Party was organized at Yukon, West- moreland County, in the soft coal re- joined. Yukon is an organized town with wages as low as $2 and $3 a day and with an acute unemployment situation. Shop Papers Grow. Grecht also helped to organize a branch of the Workers Party at Har- marsville, composed of nine workers. The tour also resulted In plans being formed for the inception of shop pa- pers in New Kensington and Mones- sen. A shop paper conference will be held soon in Pittsburgh due to the keen interest in the subject shown thruout the Pittsburgh district by the miners. Classes in “Fundamentals of Communism” and in English were started in New Kensington, Ambridge and other towns in the district, Successful Lenin memorial meetings thruout the Pittsburgh district were features of the month of January. In Pittsburgh itself 600 workers were present at one of the most enthusias- tie demonstrations on the part of the workers ever held in that city. Miners Join Party. Organizer Grecht appealed to the audience for new members for the Workers Party. Fourteen applica- tions were made. Jenkins, member ferring charges against local relief committees, bringing pressure to bear on the police to stop affairs organized to raise funds for the striking min- ers, calling the state constabulary to break up meetings and inciting the government to proceed even more vig- orously than in the past against the progressive elements in the union. The bureaucracy of the United Mine Workers is ready to make big concessions to the operators in the wage scale, provided they secure re- cognition for themselves. They want to play their role as trained rams of capitalism, so that they may be in a position to secure a better price for their services from the capitalist par- ties in election campaigns. Trying to Shift Issue. The present attack on the militants in the miners’ union—thru the mouth of the journalistic tout Manly—is an attempt to shift the issue in the union from the winning of the strike and the saving of the union to Com- munism, The coal operators and the. reac- tionary union officials speak with one voice against the progressives, This is Vice President Philip Murray, of the U. M. W. of A. talking: “The union has been fighting the growth of revolutionary radicalism for twenty years and we shall continue to do so, . .I do not believe they are making any substantial head- vay among the union. miners.. What may happen, however, if the opera- tors continue indefinitely to refuse to enter into negotiations for the set- tlement of this sirike, no one can say.” Here is not a word of criticism of the action of the operators in starv ing hundreds of thousands of men. women and children, driving them out into the cold winter and turning the murderous coal and iron police and the state constabulary loose on them Murray drops the operators a strony hint that they should sit around th: table with the reactionary labor lead- ers and plan a joint battle on the progressives, And a coal operator made the fol- lowing statement to Basil Manly, but did not wish his name to be published in connection with it: Coal Baron With Labor Fakers. “If I had my way, the operators would assist the union tn checking the dangerous activities of the Com- munists. (He means every member gion of Pennsylvania. Seven members) “URGH, Feb, 2.—As a result of the tour of the Pittsburgh dis- trict just completed by Rebecca Grecht, field organizer of the Workers (Com- munist) Party, several new branches of the Workers Party were organized. At a mass meeting of unorganized? of the Pittsburgh district committee of the Party, and Dave Mates, of the Young Workers (Communist) League, also addressed the assembled workers. Music was furnished by the Freiheit Singing Society and the South Slavic String Ensemble. At New Kensington over 200 miners and glassworkers attended their first Lenin memorial. In response to Re- becca Grecht’s appeal for new mem- bers of the Workers Party, 22 work- ers joined. Megliacano addressed the meeting in Italian. Unemployment Acute. At Republic, a small unorganized towh, over 100 workers, harried by the hardships imposed on them by the ever-increasing greed of the coal op- erators, and by a bitter unemployment situation, turned to the Lenin mem- orial meeting held by the Workers Party of Republic. A. Jakira, Pitts- burgh district organizer of the Work- ers Party, addressed the meeting. Two steel towns, Monessen and Ambridge, held Lenin’ memorial meetings. Ja- kira addressed the Monessen meeting, which 75 workers attended. Pat Too- hey spoke to the 100 steel workers assembled at Ambridge. Grecht and Toohey addressed over 100 steel work- ers also at a Lenin memorial held under the auspices of the Workers Party branch at Rankin. PR LECT RB eR Es Re Ac SARE PSA SET ESE EA SOE SunRRA BRO OH PL, of the United Mine Workers who is fighting the coal operators and the Lewis machine, J..R.) There are only a handful of them today, but with a hundred thousand miners on strike and almost as many more idle as a result of the depression in other industries, they will grow like weeds. The crisis in the coal industry will be solved at the expense of the coal diggers unless the rank and file move —quickly, energetically and skilfully, under the leadership of the “Save the Union Committee.” The reactionary officialdom is only interested in salvaging as much for itself as it can out of the wreckage. SENATORS WOULD USE MINE MISERY TO FORM A TRUST Resolution to Probe Is Buried in Committee WASHINGTON, Feb. 2.—The Sen- ate may investigate, in its own good time, the misery and starvation, the brutalities of injunction and a lawless coal and iron police, visited upon the tens of thousands of striking miners in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. A letter was read today from Gif- ford Pinchot, former governor of Pennsylvania, stating that when he entered office he found that 2,000 of the 6,000 coal and iron police in the state were thugs and gunmen. Pin- chot claimed that he put “reasonably decent men in office.” But the bru- tality of the present police force is well known. - Women Starve. Senator Johnson, moving the reso- lution, repeated the incontestable fact that women and children are starving throughout the mining towns, that miners’ families have been evicted from their homes by thousands, and forced to camp in rude barracks in the bleak snow-covered hills, without proper food or fuel, and that coal companies deliberately do this to starve and freeze the men into sub- mission. He referred to the Clear- field Bituminous Coal Co. injunction of November, 1927, Ulterior Motives, Senator Reed admitted that in his state, “people are living under con- ditions in which no. American ought to live,” and tried to turn the inquiry into a debate as to the means of rais- ing the price of coal. Senator Copeland said 250,000 miners are unemployed, and tried to use their misery as an argument for a single, gigantic coal trust, limiting production and setting prices, The resolution was referred to the Interstate Commerce Committee. Its chairman, Senator Watson, refused to say when it might be reported, if ever. Cloth Bound. Paper Bound. “. . . Side by Side We'll Battle Onward . . .” Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht died “Side by Side.” Learn the Woman’s Part in the Battle from “The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg’ Edited by LUISE KAUTSKY “Lenin, Liebknecht and Luxemburg” By MAX SHACHTMAN Short Biographical Sketches will help you refresh your memory while you are reading The Letters, WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS 89 EAST 125th STREET, NEW YORK CITY. ee ee ear ae Reduced from 2,50 to 1.00, Price 15c, or