The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 30, 1928, Page 2

Page Two THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1928 s Illinois, Missourt, Arkansas and Oklahome Operators Join Drive on Miners LOCKOUT 100,009 |OHIO BRINGS FREE DAILY WORKER SUBS TC HUNDREDS OF MINERS IN DISTRICT 12; 20,000 IN SOUTH __Call General Strike (Continued from Page One) trict 12 on April 1. The national miners’ Save-the-Union Committee has called upon the Illinois miners to join their brothers of Pennsylvania | and Ohio and April 1. Gerald Allison, speaking for the District 12 Save-the-Union Commit- tee, has sent out the following re- port of the situation: Smashing Reduction. “The coal operators have offered the Illinois miners a 24 per cent wage reduction as the only remedy they could find to alleviate the present economic conditions in the mining industry. The Illinois officers of the U. M. W. of A. were forced to reject this proposition due to the pressure of the rank and file. “The last temporary agreement left one half of the miners in this state. without work and forced them into an absolute desertion from the mili- tant struggle now being waged by the Perina.-Ohio miners. Protest against any submission to the coal operators by the union officials has been initiated by numbers of local unions and mass determination to fight to the last ditch before submit- ting to the operators is the prevail- ing svirit of the rank and file. What the Reduction Means. “The operators’ plan would estab- lish a reduction of 17¢ on the ton for all hand loaders. They propose 80c with a 12¢ differential for the machine men, leaving 68¢c for the coal diggers per ton. The Jacksonville agreement calls for 97c a ton with a differential of 1%c leaving the coal digger 84c per ton General Reduction. “The rates for the shift men alse are reduced considerably. Approxim- ately the same rate as the coal dig- gers. Shiftmen wage ra‘ is $6, the present agreement calls for $7.50, a reduction of $1.50. Motormen $6.50, the present scale is $8.60, a reduction cf $1.90; the same rates of reduction svnlies to all other mine workers, yympmen, trip-riders, brattice men, clectricians, hoisting engineers and every miner of any description, it ef- fects every worker who is engaged around a coal mine. Hypocritical Position. “The operators take the position that this is the only way that they will ever be able to meet the compe- tition of the non-union fields and they brazenly attempt to break down the wage standard of the miners. At the rate of 150 days a year which has been the average of the Illinois miners for the last few years, at come out on strike their present scale of $7.50 they would |Speaking for the Provisional Com- | earn $1,125 annually. With the $6.00 £ day rate the miners would have to labor 200 days a year. It is very |when one was not forthcoming took | easy to understard that there is small Ekelihcod that the miners of Illinois would get 200 days’ work. “The proposition of the bosses is a very bold attempt. The rank and file will not be deceived. The opin- ion of the rank and file is that only the program of the Save-the-Union Committee with its fight for a shorter week, the Jacksonville scale and the eusting of the Lewis-Fishwick ma- chine can solve the miners’ problems. More important still the Illinois min- ers must come out on April 1 to join their striking brothers in Pennsyl- vania and Ohio. Prepare Daily Worker Defense in New Action| Week after week envelopes fil | have been sent to the office of The DAILY WORKER | as the result of the part which C: | to the paper. | Thruout Ohio the most ener; sections to the south, tion for its students. in full swing to introduce aviat the United States. A campaign, backed by militarists, is now in the big national drive to add 10,000 new readers taken to make The DAILY WORKER familiar to the as a Uni ~ | middle western workers both in the rubber section of Save-The-Union Forces | the state around Canton and Akron and in the mining College Trains Students led with subscriptions anton, Ohio, is taking getic action is being 8 Stamford University, California, has adopted a course in avia* ion courses in all the schools in Rutgers Square at 2 p. m. tomorrow. The speakers will include Henry Bloom, of the council, Sylvan A. Pol- lack, of The DAILY WORKER; Louis \A. Baum, secretary, Photographic | Workers’ Union, and M. E. Taft, | manager of Local 41, International | Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. A mass meeting of unemployed; young workers will be held Sunday | at 1 p. m. at Columbia Hall, 236 Third | Ave., corner 24th St., Brooklyn, under |the auspices of the Young Workers | (Communist) League. * * | Newark Speakers Arrested. | NEWARK, March 29.—Despite a/ |verbal permit granted by the police jauthorities here to the Provisional | Committee of the Unemployed to hold | }an open air meeting in Military Park l'on Broad St. yesterday afternoon, an |attempt was made by the police to |break up the meeting by a ruse. | After the meeting of several hun- dred jobless workers was opened the |police stopped the meeting by remov- * | mittee, from the platform. The po- lice demanded a written permit and |the two speakers to the First Pre- cinct police station. The captain in charge called police headquarters by | phone only to receive affirmation of jthe granting of a permit. Meeting Goes On. The several hundred assembled workers, however, followed the ar- rested speakers to the police station. Following the release of Macklin and Gaal the meeting was reassembled and conducted to a successful conclu- sion. Other speakers at the meeting were George Saul, Tom Foley and Arnold Zeigler. i for $50,000; Reveal Basis for Suit (Continued from Page One) He has opened a newspaper and jnagazine store, and is said definitely to be ‘out of the silk.’ “Silk workers here declare that the spy corporation dropped Lessig from the payroll when it saw he was no longer valuable, as he had lost all in- fluence in the Associated Silk Work- ers. “Lessig was exposed in 1925 by Col. Casimir Pilenus Palmer, Scotland Yard man, and formerly on | the general staff of the U. S. naval) intelligence. Palmer came across Lessig’s name while making an \in- vestigation of the books of the Inter- national Auxiliary Co., which oper- ates also under the name of the East- ern Engineering Co., at 17 West 60th . New York. It is one of America’s “biggest labor spy concerns and has ‘operated actively in the textile in- jes. Formal charges were brought against Lessig by officers of his union and Palmer appeared to testify as to what he had seen in the spy bureau. Lessig failed to carry out the instructions of the union which offered to assist him in a libel suit against Palmer in order to bring the _ ©matter into the courts. Instead he _ broke from the unior and brought a suit for slander against the union of- elared him ‘guilty of conduct unbe- coming a Suiatiar of our union in that | has been in the employ of a pri- detective agency and furnish- tion oyr union, re i ‘ i a former | tended to be transmitted to our j aployers, and that he sent com- jmunications to the detective agency jduring the progress of the recent jstrike (1924) in the broad silk in- dustry Paterson,’ | “Lessig’s suit against the union of- |ficial, Frank Fried, is still pending in the Passaic County circuit court. The |union officials hope it will be pressed in order that the whole matter may be cleared up. Palmer declares him- self ready to testify at any time as to what he saw on the books of the |Spy agency. He charges Lessig and the International Auxiliary Co. with having shadowed him and with hay- ing attempted to persecute and dis- credit him since he first brought the charges against Lessig two years ago. Lessig hired both Paterson and New York detectives in an effort to ‘get’ Palmer.” The filing of the libel suit came just 24 hours after news arrived of the confirmation of the fine and prison sentence imposed upon The DAILY WORKER and its editor sev- eral months ago. Funds are urgently needed by the | paper in order to meet the double at- |tack against it. The precarious con- |aition of The DAILY WORKER is | well knéwn to its enemies, and the | ficial who had read the charges | Succession of legal moves against it against him at the trial. is no accident. But the militant and “The charge againsi Lessig de-| progressive workers of the United | States must give their answer if they | want the paper to continue to function |and serve them in their day to day battles with the employers. ~* ‘The next few days will tell whether et UNEMPLOYED TO MEET; N. J. SPEAKERS JAILED Two meetings of unemployed workers will be held over the week end. The New York Council of the Unemployed will hold an open air rally at N. Y. TENANTS as Landlords’ Friend (Continued from Page One) the law off the books, if not this year, then next, The indications are that Smith will probably continue the pres- ent law with some modifications, such as limiting it only to New York City jand extending it until Dec. 1 on all apartments renting for $15 a room June 1, 1929, only to apartments renting for $10 a room or less. This means be prepared to pay higher rents after December Ist or get ready to move. The State Housing Com- per cent of which are in sub-standard dwellings. These are buildings not fit to house cattle, filthy unsanitary, firetraps condemned over thirty years ago by a special investigating commission. Exploiting landlords are still able to use these to pile up profits. In his annual message to the legis- lature, Smith declared in 1924 that “even the large amount of construc- tion which has taken place during the last ten years has affected only the well-to-do and will not for a long time help that three-quarters of the |state with family incomes of less than $2,500 a year.” Tenants Represented. The representatives of the various | | | | |phatically demanded an extension of | was an organized move to boost the rents from $30 to $60 on apartments that are not worth $25 a month, The Harlem Tenants’ League, represented by Richard Moore, told the governor the housing shortage is just as acute now as it ever was for working peo- ple and that the overcrowding, and “doubling up” of families in Harlem, who were unable to pay the extor- tionate rents, is greater on account of the unemployment. The United Council of Working- class Housewives sent as a legisla- tive representative, Harriet Silver- man, to demand the extension of the law and in the argument pointed out that the report of Industrial Com- missioner of New York State on un- employment, prepared for Gov. Smith in February, calls attention to the in- crease in applications for relief from jcharitable organizations from 9.1 to as much as 181.3 per cent in some agencies on account of unemploy- ment. Rent is the highest item next to food, often higher than food, it is pointed out, | Eee such a response will come from the workers of the country who under- stand the meaning of these facts. The DAILY WORKER makes this earnest appeal to the working class: Save our reper! Rush funds by return mail by special delivery, by wire. Next week may be too late. Save The DAILY WORKER! Rush funds to The DAILY WORKER, 33 First St., New York City, for Imperialist War? FIGHT RENT HOGS; Expose Governor Smith} or less, and from Dec. 1, 1928, to} mission reports 83,000 vacancies, 52)| tenants’ leagues of New York em-| the present law and cited evidence to} j}show the opposition of the landlords | SHIPSTEAD IS PUT OVER AS FARMER- LABOR CANDIDATE Over Third of Delegates Vote Against Him ~ (Continued from Page One) on-the floor, was taken by surprise and temporarily swept off its feet as delegate after delegate rose to ex- press the resentment of the workers and farmers at the continued treach- ery of Shipstead. Vincent R. Dunne, of Hennepin county, speaking for the minority re- port said, “Shipstead had consistent- ly and persistently ignored the party and has refused to speak on its plat- form, support its candidates, or even mention its name. When heckled by the machine sup- porters asking where he stood Dunne answered, “I stand on grounds of loyalty to the Farmer-Labor Party. grounds on which Shipstead, in all his career, has never stood.” The machine attempted to check the attack at this point by tabling the minority report, but indignant delegates continued the attack by speaking for the rejection of the ma- jority report. William F. Watkins, the minority candidate for the senate, took the floor for the strongest speech of the| convention, after the tabling of his nomination. Watkins then told how Shipstead had failed to support the labor move- ment at any time, refusing to speak [at strike meetings, at Farmer-Labor |Party conventions and at A. F. of jL. conventions. When Watkins told how Shipstead had refused to ad- dress the Minnesota Federation of Labor convention last July because he was “too busy” and it was later found out that Shipstead was only fifty miles away on a fishing trip Cramer interrupted with, “Don’t you know Shipstead was sick then?” Watkins shot back “Sick nothing! He’s always sick when asked to do something for the workers.” Pro- longed. laughter and applause fol- lowed by the chairman’s gavel for time-up ended Watkin’s speech. Except for the Shipstead issue the left wing did not show great fight capacity. The right increased its strangle-hold. on the Farmer-Labor Party machinery through the re- election of Starkey, secretary, and Welch, chairman, although the lefts and progressives gained much’ ground on the state committee and left wing sentiment and instinctive clads-con- sciousness are much stronger as a result of the fight. SMALL WAGES IN CLOTHING SHOP (Continued from Page One) ployed here as finishers examiners and on other jobs. There are a good jmany men he: |me their conditions are much worse than ours but ¥ haven’t been long jcnough with this concern to see for | myself, Our own conditions, as far as ventil- jation and daylight go, are not so bad. ; And they ought not to be with the money they take off our wages and bees profit they make off the work we 0. Of course there isn’t any union in this shop. The girls here need to jwake up and organize if they want to win some decent pay and hours out of the bosses, Moisha Katz Talks a ‘cor’ Concert Tonight Moisha Katz, Yiddish journalist and member of the “Freiheit” staff, who just returned from the Soviet Union. will report at the “Icor” concert at Tammany Hall, 145 E. 14th St. to- night at 8:30. Theodora Cella, harp- ist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Scipione Guidi, violinist of the New York Symphony Orchestra, the program. Other speakers will be Gina Medem, Prof. Charles Kuntz and Dr, E, Wattenberg. Dr. J. Glass- man will be chairman, SAN FRANCISCO, March 29, — Two Chinese, Chun Shin and Chun Fu, are under arrest here for dis- tributing leaflets protesting against the threatened deportation of an Ital- ian anti-fascist from New York to dtabr. , too, and they tell! and Sergei Radomsky, tenor, are on! Nine hundred and sixty free subscriptions to The DAILY WORKER have been sent to the striking miners in the Ohio coal fields. agents have been making every effort to bring the “WORKER” to the striking miners in southern Ohio. Under the able leadership of I. Amter and Joseph Judson, the paper is being procured for hundreds of miners thruout the southwestern section of Ohio. This distribution must not be dropped for any reason. The DAILY WORKER many centers. erywhere. The District DAILY WORKER agent, L. Bohr, is pushing the campaign in all parts of the state and is being given enthusiastic help by the other agents in The work which is being accomplished by S. Rosen- thal in Canton should be followed by the agents ev- With the same energy and enthusiasm the Ohio district should take a leading part in the national subscription campaign in the near future, ‘Flood Victims Dead; Now the Investigation Farce The above picture shows William Mulholland, chief of the Los Angeles bureau of water and power, going thru the motions of an offi- cial. investigation of the San Francisquito dam burst. Mulholland, at left above, is the builder of the dam whose collapse caused the death of hundreds of workers and poor ranchers in the Los Angeles district. Charges of graft in the construction of the dam above have been freely made. The Los Angeles water bureau, however, prefers to consider the dam burst “an act of ‘god’.” SAVE-UNION CALL BRINGS RESPONSE Many Delegates Will Go to Pittsburgh (Continued from Page One) numerical standpoint. The unorgan- ized miners are a‘close second. Reports have been received from some parts of the country, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Washington, etc., stating that due to severe unemploy- ment, bad conditions, ete., the send- ing of delegates would be very diffi- cult, but that they were with the Save-the-Union Committee heart and soul. The administration unsuccess- fully sought to block elections in all districts by resorting to the most vicious tactics, terrorizing, and gang- ster methods. _ Membership Aroused. “The issuance of official declara- tions, statements, circulars, etc.,. by | the administration on a national scale in an effort to intimidate the mem- bership from attending the conference has proven a mammoth fizzle, for the membership is determined that their union must be saved, that the strike must be won and this can only be done on the basis of ‘Lewis and all the rest must go.’ The membership have accepted the challenge of the machine and the machine has been de- feated. “Side by side with the election of their delegates the membership has been organizing local committees of the Save-the-Union Committee in all unions. The slogan, ‘Miners, Take Control Of Your Union’ is being placed into effect nationally. To Win the Strike. “While Lewis sits in Washington, pleading for mercy at the hands of the powerful coal barons, the Schwabs, Rockefellers and Mellons, and receiving no mercy, meanwhile permitting the union to be weakened by the intensified attacks of the open. shoppers, the rank and file convene in one of the most historic gatherings ever yet held. “The ‘national conference wil! definitely outline policies to win the strike now in process; to concretely tackle the question of organization of the non-union fields, and will take steps to further the program of the Save-the-Union Committee, which is, for a six hour day and five day week; nationalization of mines; for a labor party; a national strike and national agreement; abolition of company in- fluence from the union; aggressive and fighting leadership, no wage cuts, for the Jacksonville agreement. All eyes on Pittsburgh April 1.” £ Baldwin to Lecture at Workers School Sunday Roger Baldwin, director of the Civil Liberties Union, who has recent- ly returned from a visit to the Soviet Union and Europe where he made a special study of the status of civil liberties in the various countries, will speak this Sunday evening at the Workers School Forum, 108 E, 14th St. on the question “Liberty in the Soviet Union.” The following weel: Harold Ware, head of tho Russia Reconstruction Farms, Inc., wil: speak or. “Impres- sions of an American Farmer ir the Soviet Union.” MEMBERS OPPOSE BECKERMAN MOVE Coerce Members to Buy Flowers for “Leaders” Membership meetings of Locals 3 and 5 of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, held late Thursday night in the Forward building, re- fused to accept the report of the Joint Board decision not to seat the full newly-electe! Joint Board dele- gation recently elected by Local 5. The right wing Beckerman machine, in control of the Joint Board, demand- ed that the local elect new delegates to replace the two they refused to seat because they were known as open opponents of the piece work system. The membership voted not to elect new delegates and were joined by local 3 in a demand on their exec- utive boards to map out a plan to force the Beckerman machine to seat the delegates of their choice. A mo- tion was also passed instructing the executive board of Local & to prepare for the calling of a mass meeting of the members of the union to pro- test against Beckerman’s dictatorial procedure. Strong Opposition. Even the Joint Board meeting which decided not to seat the dele- gates, Beckerman had met with a strong opposition. It was only after he started a fight there, using chairs to punctuate his arguments, that he sueceeded in railroading thru his mo- tion, Elections for delegates to the con- vention were also held at the local meeting of Local 5. The five dele- gates elected, in the order of the number of votes received are: J. Pol- lack, H. Borenstein, A. Herschkowitz, Philip Weiner and Philip Brand. . * * “Say It With Flowers.” The workers belonging to Local 2, which is completely controlled by the Beckerman machine, tell a few inter- esting facts in regard to the recent elections of convention delegates, in which the right wing clique safely counted themselves to victory. The business agents of the local have been routed thru the shops con- trolled by the local to coerce their members into contributing money for the purchase of flowers for the dele- gates elected. The amounts collected to date, however, have not been suf- ficient for the Beckerman agents to be able to boast of the membership’s devoti6n to them, OIL GRAFT BEGAN WITH DEMOCRATS; FALL PROTECTED Wilson’ Cabinet Heads Took Oil Money (Continued from Page One) ws Sinclair, is already as good as dropped. The fact that the election of Hard- ing and Coolidge was financed by Sinclair and allied oil magnates in return for the Teapot Dome lease and similar considerations is established and no longer denied. But the polit- icians together with influential fi- nanciers and industrialists, including individuals like P-esident Coolidge and Samuel Insull, Illinois power and trac- tion magnate, are still anxious to conceal details of the national clush fund. Democrats Exposed. Sen. Robinson, Indiana republican, pointed out that former Secretary of the Navy Daniels, a democrat, had authorized the drilling of 55 wells by private companies on the government reserves prior to 1928, and that form- er Secretary of the Interior John Barton Payne had granted 150 leases to private companies for a total of 14,000 acres of land immediately ad- jacent to Teapot Dome. He said Payne had leased 3,000 acres besides Teapot Dome to John T. Barnett, democratic national committeeman from Denver. ‘ McAdoo Got $250,000. “Thus the record shows that the conspiracy of private oil interests to grab the oil within the naval reserves of the nation was entered into and consummated long before the repub- lican national convention of 1920 — entered into and consummated with the active aid and assistance of dem- ocratic cabinet officers and democratic leaders in both branches of congress,” Robinson continued. The records of the Wilson admin- istration show, said Robinson, that Doheny and other oil interests em- ployed Franklin: K. Lane, once sec- retary of the interior, Joseph J. Cot- ter, Lane’s private secretary, Herbert A. Meyer, assistant to Lane and Clay Tallman, commissioner of the land office under Lane. He also repeated his former charges that Doheny em- ployed William Gibbs McAdoo at a salary of $250,000, Former Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison and Former Attorney General Gregory, all Wilson cabinet members, and George Creel, “The Wilson publicity agent.” NATIONAL BISCUIT MAKES MILLIONS Workers in Plant Get $12 a Week (Continued from Page One) profit of the company has not result- ;ed in any improvements in the condi- tions of the workers. One of the workers said, “While the stockholders keep on getting their millions we workers who give of our sweat and blood to make these huge profits pos- sible are always kept on the verge of starvation. If we men workers, some of us with families to support, get $25 a week, we are lucky.” Some of the women workers told of the terrible conditions at the plant. “We are expected to get joy out of life with the $12 or $13 a week they dole out to us,” one of them said. find it hard to feed ourselves, Miners Need Daily; Send Them Free Sub (Continued from Page One) class {s solidly behind us in our strug- le.” " Send a free eubscription to The DAILY WORKER to a striking min- er, Striking Miner’s Free Subscription. Daily Worker 33 First’ St., New York City. I am enclosing herewith $. for ¢ frem subscription to a striking miner. Nam: Address. City vecessscsscccssorecvegerseeees “Unless we live with our parents we let alone buy clothes. What we must do is organize into a real union,” she added, “and we are with the men workers when they start to organize shop committees and lay the base for a union to fight for better conditions.” Many Laid Off. One of the workers in the icing de- partment st ited that there are fewer workers now than six months ago yet they are producing more than ever before. What they have done, he said, is to increase the number of foremen, who drive the workers to speed up their production. ‘Two men do the work that three used to do, Eight hours is considered a day’s work at the National Biscuit com- pany, yet the superintendent, Quinn, will not permit the workers at the dough machines to stop if their ma- chines are empty five minutes before closing time. He ruts on another bar rel of dough and the workers have to stay until it is finished and then have to stay about 15 minutes longer to clean up the machines. Many of the workers get copies of The DAILY WORKER when it is distributed free at the plants, but they are not waiting any more for free copies. They are buying The DAILY WORKER at the newsstand near the plant on 14th St. ENTIRE FAMILY STARVES. Vincent Claragello, his wife and nine children, 488 Lorimer St. are starving, it was learned yesterday. Until recently, Rose, the oldest child, has been supporting the family, but a short time ago she was placed on part tima work. vy