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

] ) i hy j } jaitee SUS eat i Ve Sass f | MINER 1? { S’ FIGHT IS FIG HT OF THE WHOLE WORKING CLASS THE DAILY WORKER FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WY cK HIGHTS: FOR A LABOR B* «¥ Vol. V. No. 78. THE DAILY WORKER. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mati, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879. NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1928 1,200 MINE DELEGATES VOTE TO OUST LEWIS AND Pu Published daily except Sunday by The National Dally Worker Ing Association, Inc., 33 First Street, New York, N. Y. | HINAL City | EDITION Price 3 Cents XTEND STRIKE; 100,000 CALLED OUT IN ILLINOIS MINERS REJECT LEWIS ORDER T0 RETURN 10 WORK I Anthracite Repudiates) New Betrayal (Special to The Daily Worker.) PITTSTON, April 1——Previous to their departure for the Pittsburgh Conference, delegates under the lead- ership of the Tri-Distriet Save-the- Union Committee issued a statement vondemnire the recent decision of John L. Lewis ordering the miners back to the contract mines. Fifty | thousands copies of a circular point- ing out the treachery of Lewis, Cap- pelini and, Boylan and warning against the maneuvers of the Brennan forees have been distributed. The circular reads-as follows: MINERS OF DISTRICT ONE | The Washington Conference of Dis- | trict 1 officials and John L. Lewis | tas been held, and the result which | we foresaw was the endorsement by Lewis of Cappelini and his gang and their terroristic, union-wrecking poli- | ties. In President Lewis’ statement, the membership is instructed to surrender | to Cappelini. This was to be expected because Cappelini is Lewis’ man. Boylan for personal advantages, best known to himself, has sold out the opposition. He bas surrendered the whole fight. He has compromised the entire struggle of Local Union 1703. The fight for the abolition of the contract system has been put on ice. Boylan has given up the demand for | 2 special convention at which the tool | of the operators, Cappelini. could be ousted. What does Brennan say of this treachery? He must speak out against this or be held equally re- sponsible. It was a great mistake when the conference on March 24th | of local unions in Wilkes-Barre, led by Brennan and Harris, appealed for assistance to the arch enemy of the miners, John L. Lewis. Every: local union in District One (Continued on Page Two) CHICAGO WORKERS: SUPPORT SANDING Committee Is Elected at Stockyards CHICAGO, April 1—Eighty Mex- lean stockyards workers at a meet- ing of the All-America Anti-Imperial- ist League of Chicago enthusiastically suapeeeel the Tight against American intervention in Nicaragua. A com- mittee of five volunteered to carry the fight to all the Mexican workers in the Chicago stockyards and to form a united front with the American workers to defeat imperialism, The speakers were Leon S. Ruiz, secretary of the Spanish section of the league; H. Gannes, Manuel Lopez and, L. Rios. The Spanish section of the Chicago Anti-Imperialist . League, . together with the left wing in the Filipi 8- sociation, is arranging “. ight in the Philippines and in Mexico,” for Saturday night, April 21, Temple Hall. The money raised wili be used | te win support for Sandino among Chicago workers. uggest Death Chair on BOSTON, (FP) April 1.—-What is Massachusetts’ most typical.emblem? The legislative rules commit'ee, un- able to agree on rival bills to put the cod, the shoe and, the beanpot on auto license plates, has reported ad- versely on all of them. A radical has m*ie a grim sug- gestion, He recalled the picture of Massachusetts which Governor Ful- | |420, 799 Broadway, yesterday A | | | The striking miners of Pennsylvania and Ohio have received fresh hope from the fact that nearly every coal field in the United States and Canada has sent delegates to the Save-the-Union meet now going on in Pittsburgh. The reign of terror carried on by the Lewis machine and the other tools of the coal bosses—the police, militia, and the courts—have failed to break the spirit of the miners and their families. At extreme left above is shown John Brophy, one of the militant mine leaders, who delivered the opening speech at the Save-the-Union Conference yesterday in Pittsburgh. Next are shown two of the hundreds of thousands of militant miners. At right is shown Mrs. Matilda Zrelak, a miner's wife, and her baby who was recently born in a barracks which the miners were forced to build with their own hands after the coal bosses had evicted them from tkeir homes. START FIGHT ON POLISH TERROR Drive to Free Hromada ' Victims Begun The Committee Against Polish Fascisit and for “Ameritan “Aid to | Persécuted. Racial Minorities at Room ued its*eall’ to 1ah0F, fraternal, liberal and political organizations to organize and conduct*a campaign against the | jpersecution by the fascist Polish gov- jernment under Premier Pilsudski of \the White Russian workers and pea- | }sants, members of the Hromada. A National Executive Committee has been organized. The Executive 'Committee of this National Commit- tee consists of the following people: Chairman, Professor Robert Morss Lovett of the University of Chicago; | | vice chairmen, Roger Baldwin, Inter- \national Committee for _ Political | Prisoners, and Professor Scott Near- ing; secretary-treasurer, Robert W. | Dunn.of the American Civil Liberties | Union; assistant secretary-treasurer, /Martin Abern of the International Labor Defense; M. Tkach,” United Ukfainian Toilers Organizations; G. Krupitza, White Russian Organiza- tion; H, I. Costrell, left wing, Work- men’s Circle; M. Radvanski, Trybuna Robotnitza; L. Pruseika, Lithuanian Literary Society; M. Olgin, The Ham- \mer. eres | ‘The call follows: To all’ Labor, Fraternal, Liberal and Political Organizations: Dear Sirs and Brothers: Fifty-six of the 490 members of. Hromada—the White Russian work- ers’ and peasants’ party of Poland— under arrest, are now being tried in Vilna, To Conduet Campaign Here. Rilsudski’s fascist Polish govern- ment is attempting to destroy Hro- mada, the legal political party of the workers and peasants of White Rus- sia, by imprisoning its leading mem, bers and terrorizing its rank and file. The Hromada fights for ~self-deter- mination for White Russians and against the Polish government’s op- pression of the White Russian people; 1 ‘a workers’ and peasants’ * govern- ment; for a free and independent, White Russian national culture. Therefore Pilsudski is attempting the destruction of the Hromada. (Special to The the conference of miners’ wives of Di miners’ struggle were adopted. All subdistricts of district 5 (Pitts- burgh) United Mine Workers of America were represented. The delegates voted unanimously to .or- ganize a Mine Women’s Progressive Committee for this district, and elected representatives to the Na- tional Miners’ Save-the-Union Con- ference to be held in Pittsburgh, to- day. All Sections Represented. Representatives came from Bent- leyville, Coverdale, Mollenauer, Ren- ton, Russelton, Curtisville, Kinlock, Meadowlands, -Harmarville, Sturgeon and other sections. ‘The mecting had been called by the District 5 Save-the- women in the mining camps into a great. progressive force to hetp win the strike and preserve the union, which means a chance for decent home conditions and a decent wage for their nusbands and sons. It was ad- dressed by Tony Minerich, represent- ing the Save-the-Union Committee. Reports were given of the activ- ities of the women in many regions. of the Lewis henchmen against the women who support the progressive movement were related. Lewis Seeks to Intimidate. For instance, the Ladies Auxiliaries (Continued on Page Two) In The Bronx Tonight An anti-militarist open air meeting will be held at 8:20 o’clock tonight at 188th St. and St. Ann’s Ave. under the auspices of the Young. Workers (Communist) League, The speakers will include Hank Rosner, member of the. Social Problems Club of the Col- lege of the City of New York; Phil Bart and Sam Garrison, of the Young Workers League, and representatives Plumbers” Helpers and the Young Pioneers. MINERS WIVES PLEDGE SUPPORT TO STRUGGLE Union Committee to organize the| Countless incidents of the terrorism: Bay State Car Licenses. The Committee against Polish Fas- ‘ cism proposes to conduct a campaign of agitation, propaganda, and fund- raising, through mass meetings, dem- onstrations and printed publicity, to effect. a demand from America for the immediate release of all members of the Hromada Party on trial or under arrest, and for the release of all political prisoners in Poland, and. for recognition by the fascist Polish jer and President Lowell of hang-| government of the legal right of ex- man’s house have given to the world| istence of the Hromada Party, and of by their execution of Sacco and Van-|all political parties of the working (Special Cable to The Daily Worker) MOSCOW, April 1=The failure of the American Federation of Labor lureaucracy to organize the Negro ‘workers of the United States was at- Daily Worker.) PITTSBURGH, April. L—Considerable interest has. been aroused over istrict 5 held here Friday. Resolutions to support the Save-the-Union program and urging/all women to support the 22,000 CELEBRATE FREIHEIT JUBILEE Mass Pageant The sixth anniversary of the Jewish celebrated at Madison Square Garden | Saturday night by 22,000 workers. Speeches by leaders of the Workers |(Communist) Party and members of the Freiheit staff as well as a pageant of the building of the Frei- heit were applauded by the large assemblage. The pageant, called “Red, Yellow and Black,” participated in by 1,000 workers, described the struggle of the workers from the time of Rus- sian Revolution to /the present. Sergey Radamsky, Moted Russian tenor, sang several gongs of the Sov- iet Union. \ Worker “G Rubin Saltzman, business man- ager of the Freiheit, presided. Speak- ers were: Melich Epstein, editor of |the Freiheit; Robert Minor, editor jof The Daily Worker; William W. | Weinstone, district organizer, Work- ;ers Party; Shachno Epstein, as- sociate editor of the Freiheit; Ben i Gold, manager, Joint Board, Furriers 4 Union; Louis Hyman, manager, Joint Board, Cloak and Dressmakers Union; M. J. Olgin, editor, The Hammer, Jewish ‘Communist monthly maga-| zine, and Ben. Lifshitz, secretary,) | Jewish Buro, Workers Party. Six Years of Struggle. | | | “The DAILY WORKER, central) organ of the Workers Party,” said} Minor, “greets that fighting organ of | cur Party in the Jewish, language— ‘the Jewish Daily Feiheit.- Six years) ts” Freiheit. for land for the poor peasantry; f Tak, _the American Association of |ago the workers of New York became: jconseious of the fact that in “their (Continued on Page Two) RED LABOR MEET SCORES U.S Fourth World Congress éf the Red} International of Labor Unions, | “Out of over 11,500,000 Negroes, living in the United States, 4,000,000, are workers, ‘a small part of whom) ure organized in the trade unions,”! he said. “The trade union bureau- 1,000 Workers Act In| Daily Freiheit, Communist daily, was} STRIKING MINERS NEED MORE SUBS ‘Workers Urged to Send Them “Daily” The opening of the Save-the-Union Conference in Pittsburgh yesterday was_greeted by The DAILY WORK- ER with the distribution of about 1,500 copies of the paper to the visit- ing delegates. The special edition, which had heen prepared for the open- jing of one of the most significant gatherings in the history of American jlabor, was devoted chiefly to the ‘heroic struggle of the striking min-| ers against the coal barons and the | corrupt Lewis-Cappelini machine. With the distribution of The | DAILY WORKER, the campaign to give to every striking miner a free subscription of the paper is being intensified. The DAILY WORKER has hitherto been carrying the bur- den alone of keeping:intact the morale and fighting spirit of the miners by providing them. with thousands of free copies of the paper that they have come to look upon as their mighty personal organ in their historic fight. Striking miners who have no food for themselves and their starving families cannot pay the small sum necessary to provide them with subscriptions. But The DAILY WORKER has be- come to them in many respects more important than food and the neces- sities of life. It is helping to provide them with that heroic spark that has. enabled them to continue fighting for a year in the face of every conceiv- able form of suffering and oppres- sion. Necessary for Fight. The striking miners must have The DAILY WORKER in order that their fight may be won. But The DAILY WORKER is compelled not only to fight for the miners and the rest of Miners Spirits Unbroken by Lewis’ Reign of Terror HISTORIC CONFERENCE LAYS PLANS FOR RANK AND FILE CONTROL OF ORGANIZATION Pledges to Organize the Unorganized; to Fight for National Agreement and Union Scale | Brophy Flays Machine; Records Lewis’ Betrayals; Appeals for Support of Progressives (Special to The Daily Worker) PITTSBURGH, April 1.—Over one thousand delegates rep- resenting every organized and unorganized mining section of the | United States and Canada opened the great Pittsburgh Save-the- Union Conference this morning amid scenes of enthusiasm and hope such as can mark only the beginning of a néw era in the ~~ labor movement and a new epoch for the American working class. Overflow Hall. Hundreds of delegates came in during the day. Finally the meeting hall at the Labor Lyceum, 35 Miller St., could no longer hold them all and preparations were made to transfer the conference to a larger hall. Women delegates from a re cently formed national progressive miners’ wives committee joined with the men delegates in working out the ori 4 plans which are to usher in the great- sands of miners in Illinois laid down | est period'in the history of the United their toals. yesterday” dec! they; Mine ‘Workets YotAmerita” af the will not work until a national agree-| working class generally. ment is signed, according to a tele-| Last night section conferences were gram read at the opening veitgeosaried held at which representatives were the National Save the Miners’ Union| elected to a central body entrusted Conference today from Gerry Allard,| with the-task of formulating a pro- secretary of the Save-the-Union Com-| pram of action for the conference. mittee “48 paanere STO, aerut Committees of five from each organ- vos badly ur . pales: cpa ®/ized and unorganized section met as ‘ew days ago, and was unable to at-| an executive body and in a long dis- 100% STRIKE OF ILLINOIS MINERS, 100,000 Join Penn-Ohio Brothers (Special To The DAILY WORKER.) PITTSBURGH, April 1—Thou- tend the conference. The telegram follows: “Chairman National Conference Save the Union Committee, 526 Federal St., Room burgh, Pa... 201, Pitts- “Very sorry that mine injury pre- | vents my presence at historical con- | America. | |The national conference of progres- ference of coal miners of sive miners means a turning point in the American labor movement. It means the ditching of the class_col- laboration policies of Lewisism and thé treation of new policies on the basis of the class struggle. Thousands of miners in Milinois have laid down their tools. We are conveying our greetings of solidarity to our striking Pennsylvania and Ohio brothers and their families. You can assure our brothers who have fought for twelve long months that Illinois will never desert them again. We are in for a ing the return of all delegates for the renewal of the struggle with greater clarity and determination. With best fraternal greetings for the preserva- tion of our union.” (Signed) Gerry Allard. Greetings from Duncan McDonald, prominent progressive mine leader of Springfield, Ill., and former president of District 12 of the United Mine Workers of America, were read at the opening session of the National Save the Miners’ Union Conference today. McDonald was crushed out of the union by Frank Farrington. the American working class, but for its own day, to day existence. The | great drive against the American | working class by the capitalists in} cooperation with the labor bureau-| eracy has singled out The: DAILY | WORKER as one of its chief victims. | the paper in a vicious state decision (Continued on Page Five) - EMPIRE Stress Need of Organizing Negro Workers; Attack ‘Misleaders’ separate Negro unions would lead to still more dissociation of the white und Negro workers. The best means of organizing the Negro workers: ix to unite the working class. “The Red International must lead the liberative movement of the work- A $500 fine was recently. imposed on | c Duncan’s telegram follows: “Hearty congratulations on effort to start a real rank and file moye- |ment to save the union. Regret ser-| ious illness of an associate that pre- vents my coming. The once strong, vigorous miners’ union now is in a deplorable condition. Has now de- generated into nearly merely a dues collecting agency for an array of so- called officials who have prostituted their offices, ruined the miners’ fight to the finish. Weare anticipat- | cussion agreed upon the principal | tasks to be presented to the meeting | today. Denounce Lewis. | Denunciation of the policies of the |corrupt Lewis administration, a call to the union members to oust the ma- chine which has done its best to de- stroy the union and the extension and the winning of the strike were among the chief recommendations. | John W. Watts, one of the leading | (Continued on Page Two) MINERS’ RELIEF - MEET TOMORROW Williamsburgh Youth Clubs to Confef"™ | The second conference of Williams- burgh youth clubs to aid the striking | miners will be held tomorrow at 7.80 |p. m. at 29 Graham Ave., Brooklyn. | At the first conference, held last | Tuesday, representatives were present | from the Young Workers(Communist) } League; Friends of Solidarity; Lithu- anian Young Workers Club, Pals So- jcial Club, Philipino Club, Red Star | Sports Club, Self-Educational Club jand the True Friends Circle, Inc. | The conference will hold a dance May 5 at Royal Place, 16 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn. Church Organizations Investigat® | Conditions in the mining districts jare described by a joint committee of | the Metropolitan Federation of Unit- | erian Young Peoples Societies and the | Metropolitan District Universalist | Young People’s Christian Union, after ja three day visit to the coal region. j The committee report points out | that at each mining camp it found 60 | to 800 families living in barracks, union and merely served as agents of | ‘There was practically no sanitation the coal operators zad petty politi-| sng only two or three faucets of run- cians. Millions of dollars have been squandered by this group of reac- tionary leaders. Aggressive mem- bers have been kicked out. The time is ripe for a change. “Make it a rank and file movement, orgariize the unor- ganized, permit no high salaried boss- es, declare for a labor party, affiliate with movements in all countries in the world including the workers’ govern- ment in Russia, no partial settlements, a general strike or none. You have ning water, | Live In Mud. “The barracks are made of half- inch beards, with no sheathing inside or out,” says the report. “In front of the doorsteps run narrow board- walks, the only secure footing in a sea of mud. Tragic conditions, the report con- tinues, were found at Russelton, where, the mine strikers and their families are living in rude barracks, while the etti. Then he named the electric] Class tacked hy J. W. Ford, representative of the American ‘Negro workers, in U ‘Heller's report on cctontal teeda union movements at the eracy puts every sort of obstacle in! ers in the colonial and semi-colonial the way of admitting Negroes to the! countries who will also carry on the trade unions. The organization of | (Compinued on Page Three} nothing to lose but a world to gain.” ng to t houses they formerly occupied are (Signed) Duncan McDonald. boarded i : 4 a