The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1928, Page 1

| | | TAE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY THE DAILY WORKER. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879, FINAL CITY EDITION Vol. V. No. 80. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by matl, $6.00 per year. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 1928 Published daily except Sunday by The National Dally Worker Publishing Association, Inc., 33 First Street, New York, N. ¥. Price 3 Cents MINE CONFERENCE ADJOURNS, PLANS ANTHRACITE STRIKE ‘te DRIVE TO oe NON-UNION FIELDS OIL QUIZ SHOWS} STANDARD'S HAND IN BACKGROUND Struggle Involves Both of Old Parties WASHINGTON, April 3—One rea- son why the republican party and several government officials were able to get so much money out of Harry F. Sinclair, Edward L. Doheny and allied oil interests was that the Stan- dard Oil Co. was drawing closer ‘to an open-and-shut monopoly on gov- ernment oil reserve leases. The rising group of oil magnates, represented by Sinclair and Doheny, were within striking distance of a place in the sun. They were ready to pay heavily for Washington influ- ence that would enable them to chal- lenge Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in the world market. Albert B. Fall, for- mer secretary of the interior, other individuals and the republican na- tional committee therefore took all that the traffic would bear. Millions Were Paid. The portion of the republican party slush fund and individual graft which the senate Teapot Dome investigating | committee has uncovered show that | the over-ambitious newer oil inter- ests paid millions for.the wedge they sought to drive between Standard Oil and the cabinet. The republicans in the senate have | been trying to save the face of the republican party before its horrified middle class constitueats by showing that traffic in oil leases began on a large seale with President Wilson’s udministration.. President Coolidge, who rode to the White House on the ail wave with Harding, has been forced, moreover, to order an inves- tigation of the leasing of the govern- ment’s Salt Creek field, containing one of the richest oil deposits ever tapped in the history of oil imperial- ism. 12,000,060 Barrels. The Midwest Refining Co. has been taking oil out of the Salt Creek field at a rate of 12,000,000 barrels a year. The Midwest Oi! is controlled by Standard Oil of Indiana. In this connection it is important to remember that Col. Robert Stewart, chairman of the board of Indiana Standard Oil, was cited for contempt of the senate for refusing to tel! what he knew about the republican party’s cil slush fund. John D. Rockefeller | at that time rebuked him mildly for his silence. But a few days later Stewart was re-elected to the chair- manship of the beard of directors. Rockefeller’s pious remarks about purging polities and the oil industry of corruption were brazenly hypo- critical in view of the recorls in the department of the interior. They were part of the Standard’s present cam- paign to defeat competition from thé younger oil interests which for a time appeared menacing. | Robert C. Bell, special counsel to Attorney Generals Gregory and Palmer, charged in a memorandum as long as seven years ago that the Tea- pot Dome lease by Fall to Sinclair was obtained through “conspiracy, niisrepresentation, fraud and deceit.’ Then after investigating the leasing (Continued ow RE, Oe F806 Five) WORKERS TO SEE LABOR CENTER The Workers’ Center at 26-28 Union Square, new home of the Workers (Communist) Party, District 2; The DAILY WORKER, the Workers School, the Proletcos, and many other institutions identified with the left wing movement of New York City, will be open for inspection on Satur- day and Sunday, April 7 and 8, from 11:00 a. m. to midnight. This will be the first opportunity which the militant workers of New York will have to examine their new headquarters, which, with the Frei- heit building, will front for over a hundred feet on Union Square, where labor is accustomed to demonstrate on important occasions. The decision to open the building comes,in response to the insistent de- mand which has been expressed by workers thruout the city. It is ex- pected that delegations from many KUOMINTANS ALLY Strikes Bargain Over |the opinion generally held among Chi- UNION SQ. TODAY To murdered by the leaders of the Kuomintang within the last few months. executed by the bloody Canton authorities. Yesterday 230 workers, including eight women, were Scenes like the vibe | are common in a China today. Thou bands ofr rev ioludionary Chinese saniiers int Raced have hash: | f i { OF WALL STREET Nanking “Claims” WASHINGTON, April 3. — The} Nanking Government which has been making a bid for the support of the United States has yielded to’ all of the demands made by American Minister John van A. MacMurray and agreed to pay alleged claims made by Ameri- ean citizens for “damages” suffered in the capture of Nanking last year, according to a statement issued *by the State Department. The Nanking government has com- pletely waived the bombardment of the city by American and British gun- boats which resulted in the murder of several hundred peaceful Chinese and in the destruction of a section of the city. * * That the Nanking Government in no way represents the Chinese people and | that its settlement of the so-called} Nanking “incident” does not express the attitude of the Chinese people, is nese here, JOBLESS RALLY IN For m ‘Council In Newark Tonight A giant rally called by the,New York Council of the Unemployed will be held in Union Square at 2 p. m. today. A sub-heading in yesterday’s DAILY WORKER story incorrectly announced the mecting for Tuesday. The meeting will be followed by a series of local meetirigs during the rest of the week. The speakers at this afternoon’s meeting will include Murray Sumner, ANTHRACITE PREPARES TO JOIN MINE STRIKE (Special to The Daily Worker.) PITTSTON, Pa., April 3.—While the Save-the-Union forces meeting at Pittsburgh voted for immediate preparations in the organization of a general anthracite strike at the call of the national executive committee of the progressive movement, miners of District 1 were denouncing Cappelini and demanding the enforce- ment of the special district call for a convention. But while rank and file pressure for the special convention has been grow- ing stronger due..to.the refusal of John L. Lewis to sanction such a call a section of so-called opposition for- ces, headed by Wm. J. Brennan, for- mer president of district 1, is seeking to capitalize the situation for its own ends instead of using the movement directly against the Lewis machine. Brennan In Doubtful Position. In a long statement given out to the press yesterday Brennan sought to give an impression of great enmity to the c@htractors and to the Pennsylvania Coal Company whose colliery 6 was closed down on De- cember 31. The attacks of Brennan, based upon purely “legal” grounds. accuses the company of failing to carry out the existing agreement in having instituted a lockout whereas the agreement provides that no strike nor lockouts shall be called. Brennan, however, fails to give his real position even on the contract system. At one point his statement is interpreted to mean that he may be willing even to accept the system > -@ Workers Party Mem-| bership Meeting To Be Held Friday Night, An important general member- ship meeting af the Workers! (Communist) Party will be held} Friday at 8 p. m. at Irving Plaza, | Irving Place and 5th St. The meeting has been called, acting secretary of the Council; Sylvan A. Pollack of. The DAILY WORKER; M. E. Taft, manager of Local 41, International Ladies Gar- ment Workers Union; Harry Yaris, Young Workers '(Communist) | League; Minnie Lurye, of the Youth Section of the Unemployed Council, and Henry Bloom, Tom Foley, Albert according to William W. Wein- stone, district organizer of the Party, to take up a question of major importance. Admission will be by new membership books only, he added, . All conflicting meetings have Finn and A. Zeigler of the Council. To Organize Newark Council. A Newark Council of Unemployed will be organized at 8 o’clock tonight at 52 West St. Tomorrow at 2 p. m. a mass meet- ing will be held at the Workers Hall, 101 W. 27th St. Saturday, at 2 p.m, a meeting will be held at New Brunswick, N. J., with Pollack as speaker. Two Meets Yesterday. Two mass meetings were held by the Council yesterday afternoon. A large gathering of unemployed sea- men met at the International Sea- men’s Club, 28 South St., while an- other meeting took place at 28 Os- borne St.. Brooklyn. More than 150 unemployed seamen were present “at the meeting at the Seamen’s Club. They were addressed by Arnold Ziegier, Tom Foley and Herbert I. Paley, who urged them to shops will come down en masse to visit the building. | protect their interests by joining the New York,Council of the Unemployed. been called off. —> SPECIAL FEATURES IN MAY DAY ISSUE: Workers to Aid Plans for 32-Page Edition of Daily Worker Plans are already in full swing for ; the special May Day issue of The DAILY WORKER. This edition, which will contain 32 pages and of which 300,000 copies will be printed, is expected to mark a significant milestone in the history of The DAILY WORKER. Articles describ- ing the significance of May Day and touching upon every phase of work- ing class activity will be among the features of the special issue. May Day this year will be the oc- casion for demonstrations throughout in modified form. He emphasizes a decision of the Anthracite Mine Com- mission made in 1920. The ruling of this commission, Brennan points out, “specifically stated that the mine con- tractor system though necessary in isolated instances was potentially productive of many abuses... .” | In failing to support the Save-the- | Union forces, miners believe, Bren- (Continued on Page Two) NEARING T0.SPEAK AT MAY DAY MEET Many Labor Grotips to Back Garden Rally Scott Nearing, who recently re- turned from Soviet Russia and China, will be one of the speakers at the huge May Day demonstration at Madison Square Garden that has been called by the Workers (Communist) Tarty. The demonstration has been endorsed by a large number of labor organizations. Nearing will voint out that capi- talist development. and the growth and spread of imperialism not only | cause a steady worsening of the con- ditions of labor, but create a situation where no hope of the improvement of | the conditions of the working class is| possible as long as the present system | exists. The condition of the mining in- dustry, causing incredible suffering } to hundreds of thousands of miners and their families, American inter- ference in China and intervention in Nicaragua, and the gradual domina- tion by Wall Street of the whole of | Latin America will be analyzed by Nearing. The need for international | idarity of labor, of which the May First demonstration is a symbol,-will| be shown to be the only way out-of this hopeless position of the working class. The response from labor organiza- tions, who have endorsed this united working class demonstration, is an indication that thousands of workers are already planning to attend the meeting at Madison Square Garden. The readiness of the response shows that the May First demonstration comes as the expression of a definite need on the part of militant New URGE ATTENDANCE |May Day will be the order of busi- | AT PARTY MEETING New Labor Center Will Be Discussed All members of the Workers (Communist) Party in New York City and New Jersey are urged to attend the general membership meet- ing called by District 2 at Irving Plaza, 15th St. and Irving Place, Fri- day, April 6, at 7 p. m., in a state- ment issued last night by the district executive committee of the district. The statement follows: “A general membership meeting of District 2, which all members in New York City and New Jersey must at- tend, will be held Friday at Irving Plaza, 15th St. and Irving Place. “This meeting is of the greatest importance to the Party because there will be discussed the next step in the development of the Party organized in New York. The enterprise of a new home for the Workers Party and the campaign in preparation for the Madison Square Garden meeting on ness. Comrade Weinstone will report for the District. “This meeting will record the progress of the Party in the course of the past few years and will be a milestone in the development of the Party organization. All members must attend this meeting to partici- jpate in the plans for the establis ment of a home which will house the Workers party, The DAILY WORK- ER, Workers School, Young Workers League and Pioneers. No comrade who is loyal to his Party will fail to attend. “Because of ‘the carnival of the Jewish Workers University at Cerf tral Opera House, which has the sup- port of the Party, the meeting is called earlier in order to adjourn at 30 so that this important affair will not be injured by our membership meeting. District Executive Committee, Dis- trict 2, Workers (Communist) Party. | HA! HA! MONEY WINS AGAIN BALTIMORE, April 3—Harry F Sinclair’s horses may yet be permit- ted to run on Maryland tracks. Of- ficials of the State Racing Commis- sion said today, James Irvin, Phila- delphia contractor, could race the horses if he could prove that he had purchased them from the oil mag- fs ae a labor. nate. the country that are expected to sur- pass all previous celebijtions of this sort. In New York City Madison Square Garden will be the scene of a huge gathering of militant work- ers. At all these demonstrations thousands of copies of The DAILY WORKER will be distributed. In order that the preparations for thte May Day edition of the paper may be successfully carried out, the cooperation of every member of the Workers (Communist) Party and of every sympathizer is necessary. Units are asked to send in greetings at once and Party members and sym- pathisers should see to it that their names appear on the May Day Honor Roll, for which 50 cents a name will be charged. Special efforts must also be made to secure advertisements for this special issue. The May Day edition of The DAILY WORKER rst be a demonstration of the strength of the American working class. In or- der to do this, every Party member, every worker must mobilize himself and his comrades in securing greet- WEST PENN., ILLINOIS AND SOUTHWEST WALKOUT CALLS Colorado Delegation Arrives With News, Miners There Will Join National Movement Committees Still Meeting to Work Out Campaign to Win Strike in All Fields (Special To Th PITTSBURGH, April 3.—Adj |national miners’ conference too The greatest event in the recen e DAILY WORKER.) journment of the Save-the-Union < place at 10 o’clock last night. t history of the American labor movement closed with a series of activities almost as most. as significant as the fact of the conference it-? self. Immediate preparations for a general anthracite strike, to be called by the executive commit- tee of the progressive forces, the sending of organizers to the non- union territories of the west Pennsyl- vania coke regions in preparation for the April 16 strike call, the adoption of plans for the mobilization of the forces in the southwest struck areas, and a detailed discussion of the meth- ods of ousting the Lewis leadership in local union fights were all cram- med into the discussion of last night’s session, Committees of the variok wistricts and others in charge of specific move- ments are still meeting. Full reports will be given out in the near future. The largest and most spirited ses- sion ofthe Whole conference wound up with speeches of all the leading members of the progressive move- ment: Brophy, Toohey, Watt, Voisey, Hapgood, Minerich, Dziengielewski, Papeun and many others who spoke especially in connection with the ques- tion of the immediate calling of the anthracite strike. Enthusiasm for a prompt general call ran high, but the final course for a preliminary period of preparation finally carried with a practically BE vote. A.C. W. EXPELS PROGRESSIVE Organization Reveals Self Reactionary The supposedly progressive exec- utive board of the Operators’ Local 5 of the Amalgamated Clothing Work- ers Union revealed its true reaction- ary color when it expelled A. Ostrin- sky from membership in the board because he refused to deny his ad- herance to the program of the Trade Union Educational League. A resolu- tion was also passed condemning the left wing organization for issueing | Amal- ng to a bulletin that denounced the gamated leadership force the piece work s shops over the protes' | bership. The official reason for Ostrinsky’s expulsion from the executive board, which has hitherto posed before the } membership as strongly opposed to the piece work system, was that he had helped to distribute the pamphlet among the membership. Concurring in the decision of the right wing executive board were sev- eral individuals who have demonstrat- ed left wing sympathies to the mem- bership in order to secure their elec- tion on the board, The executive board as a whole |has definitely known, it was learned, that A. Herschkowitz, the official at the head of the local, who has many times declared to the membership his opposition to the piece work sys- tem, had reached an agreement with A. Beckerman, manager of the Joint Board, in which he is to help Becker- man carry thru the installation of |piece work. Since Ostrinsky was con- jsidered as the greatest stumbling block in Herschkowitz’ program, he finally decided to remove him. CONSOLIDATE COAL COMPANIES Plans went forward yesierday to consolidate the Westchester County Coal and Ice Companies into the Westchester Service Corporation. The ings and advertisements, arranging for the distribution of the special edition, etc. 4 | new company, it is reported, will have a combined capitalization of $4,- 600,000. m into the} of the mem-| MINE CONFERENCE SPEEDS PROGRAM Delegates Meet Late Into Night (Special to The Daily Worker.) PITTSBURGH, April 3. — Meeting all through last night, nearly twelve hundred of the delegates to the na- tional miners Save-the-Union Confers ence continued the discussion of plans to win the strike, to place the union into the hangls of the rank and file and to eff 100 per cent organiza- tiop. of thg industry. Anthracite To Be Called. A motion for an anthracite strike to take place immediately after or- ganizational preparations had, been made was carried almost unan®aous- ly. The arrangements and final call were left in the hands of the national executive committee of the miners, a body formed of representatives of every organized and unorganized secs tion in the country. The call for the anthracite strike followed closely upon a_ resolution adopted earlier in the session calling out the Kansas, Indiana and south= west territories. Of no less importance was the plan to organize the strike preparations of the west Pennsylvania coke miners who are called out for April 16. The meeting adopted plans to establish headquarters at Johnstown, Somerset, Brownsville, and other centers. These jsections will be flooded with circulars and propaganda of the progressive movement. Following this, local subs istrict and district committees will ore ganize subdistrict and subdistrict cone ventions. A Greater Union. The new organization thus formed will be brought into the United Mine Workers of America but not before the Lewis bureaucracy has been elime inated from the tv Six del olorado arrived ’s meeting an | was ad rned. The six in and snow storms and had |been held up all along the way. Ig |reporting to the conference they res counted the. acts of misleadership of the Lewis machine henchmen during the past few years. The treacherous Two) MINERS GET FIRST FREE ‘DAILY’ SUBS The first batch of free subscripe tions to The DAILY WORKER hag already been sent to striking miners in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The sub- scriptions, paid for by workers thru- out the country in answer to The DAILY WORKER’s appeal, reached the miners in time for them to get all the news of the great Save-the- !Union Conference now being held in j Pittsburgh. Drive in Full Swing. With the sending of the first sub- scriptions, the campaign to provide every striking miner with regular copies of The DAILY WORKER is now in full swing. The miners are facing most serious crisis in the his- tory of their union. They need every possible support and their greatest moral support throughout the strike (Continued on Page Five) | wind (Continued on Page