The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 2, 1928, Page 1

Workers Honor C. E. Ruthenberg Who Died Year Ago THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 10-HOUK WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY | HE DAILY Wo Kemtered as secund-Ccites matter ut tue coms Gillee at New York, N. Yo w mder the act of March 3, 1579. FINAL CITY EDITION Vol. V. No. 52. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $5.00 per year. Outside New York, oy wally 96.00 per year, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1928 - Published daily except Sunday by The National Dally Worker Publishing Association, Inc., 33 First Street, New York, N. ¥, Price 3 Cents TRACTION MEN DEMAND STRIKE TO DEFEND UNION DOLLAR-DONATION | SENT TO “DAILY” FOR NEW DEFENSE, Philadelphia Builders to Hear Ravitch Tonight PHILA., Mar. 1 es — To eiimalata the national campaign to obtain 10,- 000 new subscribers for The DAILY WORKER in District 3, A. Ravitch, circulation manager of the paper, will address a meeting of “Daily Build- ers” at 531 N. 7th St., tonight. Sub- scribers, readers and sympathizers are invited. The importance of a strong “Build- ers Club” in the campaign to defend The DAILY WORKER against the attacks which the United States gov- ernment is directing against the pa- per, will be stressed by Ravitch in his talk. Steps will be taken at the meet- ing to remedy the lack of such an organization in Philadelphia. Second Meeting. A second meeting of DAILY WORKER agents on Saturday will hear Ravitch discuss plans for speed- ing up the national subscription of- } fensive in the Philadelphia district. All DAILY WORKER agents should be, present at this important meet- ing. Scores of workers are sending in their dollar donations to deferd the paper from the attacks of the Amer- ican capitalists. CCNY. STUDENTS ssc: ASSAIL FACULTY Still Recognize Gerson as President The action of the faculty in arbit- rarily ordering the resignation of Simon W. Gerson, a leader in the campaign against militarism, was severely @otidemned “yest@faay at a so-called “illegal” meeting of the Special Problems Club of the College of the City of New York of which he is president. The faculty has without explana- tion ordered him to give up all extra- curricular activities and since his po- sition as president of the Social Problems Club is his only such ac- tivity, it is obvious that the order is an underband attack on his activities in thé organization. Gerson Speaks First The meeting, held at the college, had been announced by handbills. Gerson who is a member of the Young ~ Workers’ (Communist) eague of America, made a state- ment which follows in part: Fight Imperialists “Tt is no accident, I feel, that this arbitrary action comes only two weeks after the school authorities in- serted evidence into a case against me in a Brooklyn court, a case in which I was arrested for marching in front of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in a demonstration of the Young Workers’ League, protesting against the invasion of Nicaragua, and had me convicted. “This comes at a time when Amer- iean troops are engaged in the rape of Nicaragua for the interests of predatory capital. This comes at a time when a greater and deadlier (Continued on Page Seven) Workers School Concert Next Sunday Evening at Davenport Theatre Teachers, students and friends of the Workers’ School, 108 E. 14th St., ized |into the “Workers’ Social Club” will celebrate the most success- ful term in the history of the school by a ‘concert on Sunday evening, March 4, at the Davenport Theatre, 27th St, and Lexington Ave. The program includes dance num- bers by Blanche. Evan and group; vocal selections by M. Sasanoff, for- merly of the Odessa and Metropolitan Opera House; and piano solos by Re- becca Davidson, who has appeared many times with the New York and Philadelphia Symphony Orchestras. Bertram D. Wolfe, director of the Workers’ School, will make a brief address, Women’s Week Celebrations Are Planned Women’s Week will be marked by intensive work by women workers in the miners relief drive. Collections of clothing and money will be made all over the country during this week for the starving women and children of the mine districts. Tag Days, |clothing drives and other activities will be carried on throughout the country. In New York the girls working in | candy factories, box factories, depart- ment stores and other centers of ex- ploitation will hear the world wide call to international solidarity through tens of thousands of leaflets that are being distributed before shops in the factory district. New York will celebrate Women’s Day on March 4 with a mass meeting jin Central Opera House. This meet- ing is held under the auspices of a committee of working women’s organ- izations and a large attendance is ex- | pected. BOSSES TO KELP UNION WRECKERS Try to Mulct Money from Cloakmakers The flagrant manner in which the cloak ne are inet § Union, ~ rarer joint to fight against the fit Hn, efforts to rebuild their union and destroy the dual “Joint Board” established by the right wing is illustrated by the latest united tactic of the Sigmanites and the employers. The latest. “cooperative” stunt is 2 money-raising scheme to provide funds for the bolstering up of the rapidly disintegrating Sigman ma- chine. How badly this money was needed was not only known by the employers and Sigman, but by every- one else. The DAILY WORKER re- cently published a facsimile of a let- ter sent out by a colleague of the right wing which admitted Sigman’s inability to pay wages to his book- keepers for six weeks at a time. Sound and Fury. Several days prior to last Saturday, the Jewish Forward, the right wing organ began noisy announcements of the fact that the Sigman “Joint Board” was to hold a meeting of all shop chairmen. Letters were sent out. Business agents of the right (Continued on Page Seven) UNEMPLOYED WILL NOT SCAB ON LRT. An appeal to all unemployed work- ers in New York City not to act as strike-breakers in the coming LR.T. strike has been issued by the New York Council of the Unemployed, with headquarters at 60 St. Marks place, through its secretary John Di Santo. “From reliable sources we have re- ceived reports,” the appeal states, “that the officials of the Interbor- ough Rapid Transit Co. are attempt- ing to capitalize the present unem- ployment crisis in the city by seeking to enlist unemployed workers as strikebreakers in the strike which now looms on all LR.T. lines. “The New York Council of the Un- employed condemns such unprin- cipled tactics and appeals to the un- employed workers of New York City not to be cejoled or browbeaten into such treacherous action. The fight of the I.R.T. traction workers is the fight of all workers, whether em- ployed or unemployed. The Joss of the strike by the traction workers would mean a loss to all workers and an increase, not a decrease of unem- ployment.” Youth Meet The appeal was also made by Di Santo in person at a meeting of un- employed young workers at the Church of All Nations, First st. and 2nd avenue, yesterday. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Youth Committee of the New York Council of the Unemployed. The (Continued on Page Seven) cooperating LEWIS - CAPPELINI Grow Desperate Before Rise of Progressives | PITTSTON, Pa., March 1.—New shootings by the Lewis-Cappelini machine gun crew of killers are being predicted here on all sides by mine workers who have witnessed that gang’s activities in the past few months. Big Meeting Sunday. A huge mass meeting planned for Sunday by the Save-the-Union Com- mittee will be held despite the efforts to prevent it by Mayor William H. Gillespie, who has been working to- gether with mine owners in seeking to thwart the rising power of the pro- gressive miners. Thousands of min- ers are expected to attend. The mayor, it is believed, will be forced te accede to the workers’ demand. Fear of the rising resentment of the workers caused Mayor Gillespie Wednesday to send a wire to John Lewis virtually demanding that Lewis | call off his gang of gunmen who have created the “reign of terror” in the mine districts. So far Lewis has failed to respond. * * * Progressive Power Grows. WILKES-BARRE, Pa., Mareh 1.— Resentment of the miners and the people generally in Pittston, Wilkes- j ve miner officials, Alex- ander Capel and Pete Reilly. Cap- | pelini and his machine are being di- rectly held responsible everywhere and denounced as the instigators of the murderous regime against oppo- sition forces in the miners’ union which are fighting against the con- tract system and wage cuts. Beginning of New Rally. The funeral of Campbell and Reilly is scheduled to take place on Satur- day morning, March 3rd. All indica- tions are that the funeral of the brave progressive fighters will resolve it- self into a huge demonstration against the Cappelini machine, the like of which has not been witnessed before in the anthracite. The rank and file miners instead of being ter- rorized and intimidated by the rule of blood and iron of Cappelini and his gunmen, are showing a steeled de- lini and the Lewis gang, Wilkes-Barre U. M. W. A., at its meeting last Tuesday night, passed a rousing resolution against the cor- rupt and murderous Cappelini rule. The miners declared their intentions to support the defense of Sam Bonita, who is in jail on a charge of murder (Continued on Page Two) Benjamin to Talk at Co-op School Concert D. Benjamin, assistant director of the Workers School, will speak on “Workers Education Today” at the conclusion of the concert being ar- ranged by the Cooperative Branch of the school, 2700 Bronx Park, E., tomorrow night, to celebrate the opening of the spring term. The 25 members of the National Training School will be among the guests, it is announced. Over 150 students were enrolled in cooperative branch during the past term. By JAY LOVESTONE Lenin once wrote for DAILY! WORKER, “The Communists tence them for communist agitation and propaganda, what capitalist dem- ocracy really means. They are tear- ing the masks from it and are expos- masses.” GANGSTERS PLAN FURTHER KILLINGS termination to clean out the Cappe-! Local Union 1407, District 1, South i “of | America prove by their long prison terms to which the bourgeoisie sen- | ing it as a reign of trust kings and clarity characterizing his activities. speculators amid the subjection of the| Ruthenberg always emphasized the Truly, no one symbolized | role of the Party as the only revolu- MEMORIAL MASS | MEETINGS HONOR C. E, RUTHENBERG Find New Means to Aid| Daily Worker On the eve of the anniversary of the death of C. E. Ruthenberg yes- terday. members of the Central Com- mittee of the Workers (Communist) Party, nreparing for the big Ruthen- berg Memorial meetings’ which are| Ruthenberg Fund for Daily ily Worker Grows nS Charles Emil Ruthenberg joe 4 to be held in all important cities of the United States, expressed their eratification with the prospects of} success. These memorial meetings will be the high point in the Lenin-Ruthen- | berg drive of the Party for 5,000 members and 10.000 new readers of) the Daily Worker, the central organ | of the Party. “Not only is this drive, with the| | consequent strengthening of the | Workers Party and of its organ, the Daily Worker, supremely important ; to the Party,” said Jack Stachel, or- ganization secretary, yesterday, “but the most gratifying thing about it is that it awakens a lively interest among the workers who are fighting the fight of their lives against re- aetion in the coal fields and for the saving of the United Mine Workers from betrayal and destruction “From November 1927 to February 1928, the proceeds of the Ruthenberg sustaining fund of Section I, New York City, leaped from $78.50 to $206.12 a month and are just begin- ning to rise,” declared Leo Kling, DAILY WORKER defense organizer of the section yesterday. “What has been done by this small section can be repeated, and bettered, in every section of the Workers (Communist) Party in the United States,” Kling added. Abolishes Old System. Abolishing the old system by which members were given sustaining fund eards that they forgot to bring to meetings with the result that their indebtedness accumulated past the point where they were able to pay in full, The DAILY WORKER defense lorganizer of Section 1 carried all the cards of the members in his own pockets. “The system,is important bec “Tell the Comrades to close their ranks, to build the Party. The American working class, under the leadership of our Party and the Comintern, will win. Let’s fight on.” —Last words of Ruthenberg. RUTHENBERG’S MESSAGE His Struggles and His Achievements Statement of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers | (Communist) Party. Fellow workers! Comrades! One year ago, March 2, 1927, death took Charles E. Ruthen- berg from our midst. He passed away with his dearest wish on his lips: carry on until the final victory of the working class. Death robbed the American workers and the working class the world over of a militant and courageous fighter, a loyal com- CAMION SPEAKS ‘AGAINST FRAMEUP. By T. J. O’7FLAHERTY. PITTSBURGH, March 1.—The first speech in the nation-wide speak- | ing campaign against the frame-up| system was delivered here tonight by | James P. Cannon, national secretary the Labor Lyceum The speaker traced the development of the technique of persecuting mili- tant labor leaders from the trial and execution of the Haymarket Martyrs in the Cook County jail, forty-one years ago, to the attempt to railroad the two anti-fascist workers, Greco and Carillo to the electric chair. Cannon brought out the (Continied on Page Three) fact Appreciation of the Founder of Workers (Communist) Party , Spoken of as the most arrested man in } America. What makes Ruthenberg a revolu- tionary figure of paramount impor- tance is not merely his tremendous ‘abilities as shown in his service in ‘the class war against the American capitalist class, but the devotion, self-sacrifice, courage and Leninist this truth uttered by Lenin more than| tionary leader of the working class. |Buthenberg did. He was thus often It was Ruthenberg who was prim- i organization-conscious. ‘many who were active propagandists for then then left wing Socialism, but rade and a great revolutionary leader. Ruthenberg the man is dead. On the Red Square in Moscow, in the heart of the Union gf Socialist Scviet Republics, the pride, hope and inspiratign of the oppressed masseg“the world over, his ashes rest. But the workin: lass movement, | Ruthenberg lived and died, is alive. land its American section, the Workers (Communist) Party, which | Ruthenberg helped to build and guide, are becoming ever stronger {and more powerful. Commemorate the life of Ruthenberg by carrying forward America. . *. . Struggle against capitalism until its complete destruction ; this is the lesson of Ruthenberg’s life. This is the message of the Party which he formed and led. Make no peace with imperialism and imperialist war. Fight to the finish the domination and robbery of Wall Street in Latin America, China and other countries. (Continued on Page Two) RUTHENBERG, REVOLUTIONARY CHIEF P's Wanted For Annual LL.D. Bazaar The Downtown branch of the In-| ternational Labor Defense will con- duct a book booth at the bazaar. Contributions of books are desired by the branch—fiction, sociology and history. Books are to be mailed or delivered to the New York International Labor Defense, 799 Broadway. jarily responsible for making the left \wing in the Socialist Party nationally There were a few, if any in 1919, realized suffi- ciently the need of crystallizing a def- inite left wing organization on a na-\4 Workers Near Death tional scale. Not only in his opposition to the! Four workers may die as the result imperialist war did Ruthenberg de-|of the explosion of a gasoline torch jvelop the full Leninist line but also jin the plant of the Woodheal Manu- in his attitude and practice in the |facturing Co., 10 Lexington Ave., (Continued on Page Two) yesterday, the service of which| The Communist International | Defend the Union of So-) ATTACK LEADERS’ MANEUVERS WITH TAMMANY MAYOR Form Shop C Committees For Defense A city wide traction strike which | will tie up the whole of Greater New | York’s transit facilities now appears to be certain. Twelve hundred strike-breakers, | finks, professional gunmen and thugs of varying prowess were yesterday {herded by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company into their shops at 147th St. and 7th Ave. in anticipation | of a strike call which now appears to | be inevitable unless the company re- instates the twenty Amalgamated union members who have been fired for their union activities. Throughout the entire day and last night truckloads of supplies and equipment for the strikebreakers were sent into the shops heavily guarded against possible attack, Over three thousand city police have been assigned “to protect the company” should a strike occur. A constant stream of newly em- ployed men is flowing into the head- quarters of the railroad. Over two hundred company “beakies,” spies, and regular “spotters” besides the delegates of the company union ere now riding the railroad to prevent any pee sade wore work and to pick off a ee eee & pear men. Ultimatum Expires Today, The 24-hour ultimatum which the Amalgamated officials have given to the I. R. T. in which to reinstate the discharged men expires this morning. These officials have announced that a meeting will be called of the entire membership to take a strike vote al- though it is evident that instead of taking every precaution to protect its members and to prepare them for @ strike, these officials are seeking in every direction for a way out. Although these officials have re~ jfused to accept the condition handed down Wednesday by “mediator” Jim- mie Walker, that the case of the dis- charged workers be referred to the legal department of the Interborough, they have at the same time indicated that they would be willing to “arbi- trate” the issue. This is being taken as an indication that they are still continuing to play the game of post- |ponement which has given the Intexs (Continued on Page Seven) SHOE WORKERS JOINING UNION Hundreds of shoe workers are join- ing the Associated Shoe and — Workers’ Union, 51 E. 110th St. cording to H. Levine of the pape {his struggles against capitalism under the banner of the Com- Press committee in a statement issued of International Labor Defense, a‘/munist International and the Workers (Communist) Party of st night. | The organization drive was started )} Tuesday night when a meeting called ‘by the “Committee of 40” was held at Lorraine Hall, Broadway, Brook- lyn. More than 100 workers joined at the meeting. Others, fearing for their jobs, are applying direct to the union headquarters, Levine added, Vote to Organize. The shoe workers attending |meeting Tuesday unanimously on record to join the shoe union hold election of officers after months’ time, that all shoe who join within that period be |to run for officials. It was also |cided that the Committee of 40 |as provisional officers until the tion takes place, Max Hein is |tary of the committee, % Conducting Two Strikes. The union is now conducting two shop strikes, Levine further The demands of the workers recognition of the union. The strikes are at the Riverside Slipper Co., 48 Walker St. where the workers went on strike on Thursday when a 10 per cent wage cut went into effect. The other strike is at the Franklin Shoe Co., 11 Hope St., Brooklyn, is bing called Wednesday. Picketing is conducted at both shops,