The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 6, 1928, Page 6

Page Six bape EE a THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1928 ED SS eenernrenn weer — —— ea Published by the NATIONAL DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING ASS'N, Inc. Daily, Except Sunday 83 First Street, New York, N. Y. Cable Address Phone, Orchard 1680 “Dalwork” . SUBSCRIPTION RATES By Mail (in New York only): 3y Mail (outside of New York): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months. $2.00 three months. Address and mail out cheeks to THE DAILY WORKER, 33 First Street, New York, N. ¥. PGP ie cay a tcesach 55% ..ROBERT MINOR Mantatant LQ OR 6050 5s a a on vee WM. F. DUNNE j intered as second-class mall at the post-office at New York, N. Y., under | the act of March 3, 1879. A Challenge Let the enemies of the working class exult in the strangle-} hold whiah the so-called patriotic societies and military organiza- | tions are seeking to secure on The DAILY WORKER. Let un-| qualified joy express itself from their financial capital in Wall! Street, from their political capital in Washington, from their naval and military centers in Annapolis and West Point. No doubt there are other less evident but no less dangerous enemies of the working class who are exulting either openly or in secret at the multiplication of our paper’s difficulties. It is not | necessary here to attempt any examination of these forces. Their} character and true purposes are best indicated by their activities | in the trade unions, in the political campaigns, in the recent de- fense activities of the masses of workers of America. It is more important here to indicate those movements which can take no joy in the obstacles which have been set in our path, those forces which can view only as an incalculable calamity the | possibility that The DAILY WORKER may be forced to suspend | life. | The great forces in the miners’ union which have been set in motion with such enormous promise to the future of the Amer- ican labor movement and in whose development The DAILY WORKER takes no small pride will find no joy in the prospect. Those who have'lived in the spirit of the past few weeks’ develop- ment in the miners’ struggle will understand the truth of this claim. The great army of unemployed whose numbers, it has been shown, have reached record proportions will not exult should our paper go under. What greater instrument for the advancement of the cause of the jobless millions is to be found today? Through what other channels will the unemployed find expression for their struggle against their masters who have turned them out with- out even the responsibility once accepted by masters—that of feeding their slaves. The unorganized masses in the country, who to a degree have already learned of the activities of The DAILY WORKER and the Party which it represents in furthering the most important | task before the working class—the unorganized who are rapidly learning that our paper and our Party will in the future be the cniy one to whom te entrust the leadership of this struggle, will 1 kc wise find little satisfaction in the danger which faces the cen- tral organ of our Party. Those who understand what The DAILY WORKER means in the fight against American imperialism, against the war dan- | ger, for the protection of the Soviet Union will likewise find no} joy in the attack on the paper which more than any other agency | is today the embodiment of the emancipation of the American | working class. There has been insufficient realization of what the attack on | The DAILY WORKER really means. Not even those of the ad-| vance guard in the workers’ struggles against whom the attack | is immediately directed have sufficiently indicated their respon- sibility or their response. A call to batile has gone out’to the working class of which' the attack on The DAILY WORKER is but the first faint echo. The workers of America, the members of our Party particularly, | must ask themselves: What shall we say of our capacity to meet | vastly more trying situations, infinitely greater tasks, incompar- | ably greater sacrifices in the future if we fail in the present to! meet the relatively simple issue before us? | The American working class is at the opening of its period of great struggle. The challenge has been thrown to its advanced | section. That challenge cannot be rejected even if the workers so desired. The working class has no other road but that of | struggle, sacrifice, fight. The DAILY WORKER must live! What shall be the response of the American working class to its enemies who say that The DAILY WORKER shall die! 4was held up | voted How strong and how immediate shall that response be! SACCO-VANZETTI CASE — GUN EXPERT EXPOSED By HARVEY O'CONNOR (Federated Press). Sacco and Vanzetti, burned to death by Massachusetts justice more than six months ago, are neverthe principal figures in the New York county supreme court through the answer of The Nation, liberal weekly, to Calvin H. Goddard’s libel suit for $100,00).¢— an Goddard climbed to notoriety|lets and shells crusted wit! through tests on the South Braintree; cumulations of seven years holdup bullets, which he claimed were| then wxo.e Fuller that ° gun fired from Sacco’s gun. fired the fatal shot which killed the Bureau Unregistered. paymaster, at the same time releas- Godda:+: a vnysician and former|ing statements to the press which army officer, was merely an amateur} prejudiced public opinion against the | in firearms testing when he set up| two labor men while the case was in| shop in 1925 as the “Bureau of|its crucial stage. | ovensie Ballistics.” The bureau i On the strength of the Sacco testi- u was in violation of statutes be ony, Goddard was called by Cleve- ause it was not registered and be-| land police to investigate the case of | use the impression was allowed to| Frank Milazzo, held for murder. God- ovevail that it was connected with) dard posiiively identified Milazzo’s. some federal department. | gun as the one from which the mortal] Before he leaped into notoriety| bullet was fired. through his “analysis” of the mortal BE | bullets in the South Braintree case, mesure. Complete. | Goddard had handled only one court Later the gun’s manufacturers said ease. But he had flooded the press} that the weapon had not even been with publicity concerning his} made at the time of the crime and methods, which he claimed were! had not been sold until a month after. scientific and infallible, when Gover-|Goddark stuck by his “scientific” nor Fuller of Massachusetts promised| tests for ‘weeks, finally conceding a review of the Sacco-Vanzetti case.| error as the result of supposed mix- He Was Paid For It. ing of bullets. Milazzo freed, never- Sensing a rare chance to grab the} theless might today have been a dead national limelight, Goddard went to} man if Goddard’s expert testimony Boston and experimented vgh bul-| had been heeded. |ruthless expulsions of delegates by | approval. The resolution had already {gations the night before, and con- THE MASS PICKET © LINE WILL WIN! By Fred Ellis Organize Club for Spanish Workers inN. Y. The recently organized Spanish Workers Club has opened head- quarters at 111 W. 118th St , “According to reports,” Libertad Narvarez, one of the club officials said yesterday, “there are over 200,- 000 Porto Rican, Spanish, Central arfd South American workers in New York and the neighboring cities of Passaic and Bayonne. Half of them are in Harlem between 110th and 119th St. Wages Are $12 a Week. “While our men labor in non-union rope factories, bakeries, packing houses, copper works, restaurants and hotels for starvation wages of $15 to $25 a week and our women and girls slave for an average of $12 weekly in hospitals, laundries, lamp, lipstick and candy factories, the gentlemen of the bourgeois fraternal societies of their clubs. Library is Planned. “Unlike those who merely pretend to represent the interest of the Spanish workers, the Spanish Work- ers Club presents a workers’ pro- gram. He said the program includes the building of a working class library and teaching the workers the im- portance of joining the trade unions and the organization of the Spanish speaking workers into a powerful political bloc to cooperate with the American workers in the labor strug- gle.” | Mine Delegates Carry Fight to Locals PITTSBURGH, (By Mail). — The National Save the Miners’ Union Conference adjourned at ten thirty Monday night, its enthusiasm grow- ing till the last moment, in actual fact, as just before the chairman’s concluding summary all delegates rose and cheered the delegation from Colorado at that time marching into the hall after battling snowstorms for days in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Miners In Fighting Spirit. The conference adjourned after eleven hours of hearing and discuss- ing resolutions in order to give stand- jng committees and district delega- tion meetings a chance to meet and| make detailed plans for carrying out| the main strategy decided upon in the general sessions. Committee meet- ings were in some cases called to order at twelve midnight. As word was brought in of the the Lewis machine, or further threats of evictions, of cutting off of relief already by various district machines from the families of militants, and sometimes from whole locals, the fighting spirit grew. The program of the National Save- the-Union Committee calling for dis- trict conventions with or without the consent of the Lewis and district ma- chines, to throw out all tainted by Lewisism, and elect honest and mili- tant officials for the districts, was adopted with a shout of unanimous been adopted by the committee of representatives of the various dele- curred in by the district delegations. Negro Miners Represented. After it was introduced, some question arose as to whether repre- sentatives of the Negro mine work- ers had been placed on the standing committees, and the consideration of the resolution to adopt the program while the conference that the Negro delegates should take their places on the plat- form as representatives of their | whole oppressed race The Negro brothers marched to the platform while the delegates rose and cheered. Before the program was finally and solemnly voted. upon, three amendments were offered by the} resolutions committee and adopted The first was on Negro workers and declared ‘that smuch as the number of Negro mine workers is continually increasing, although they } ww. a as continually discriminated against by both the bosses and th organized bureaucracy which re- gards Negro workers as duos-p: members only, the conference de- mands equal pay for equal work and full rights in the union for Negro workers.” | Resolution on Young Miners. tion to the fact that miners’ wives and daughters stand the brunt of low wages, danger to the bread winner, | and evictions. It endorsed the organ- izing into ladies’ auxiliaries of all women in miners’ families and called on women to help win the strike and save the union. An enormous amount of work was accomplished by the conference and| not without thorough discussion. | Three hours in the afternoon were devoted to the vital problem of} whether to call the anthracite on| strike on April 16 along with the} four Pennsylvania counties of unor- | ganized, and after dozens of dele- gates had spoken a_ practically unanimous vote was cast for the mo-} tion to” order the executive commit-| tee of the Save the Miners’ Union Committee to immediately prepare the ground for a strike in the anthra- cite, and call the strike as soon as} the necessary preparations and or-' ganization can be effected, but not before. It was felt that the bitumin- ous miners’ example would have a powerful effect on the anthracite miners, The early editions of certain of the morning papers today have attempted to magnify this debate on the an- thracite into a split in the conven- tion, but the unanimity of the final decision, after exhaustive discussion, ended only when a large majority voted to bring it to an end, and the fact that not a single delegate left the hall during the discussion or im- mediately afterward completely re- futes a story which is based on wishes rather than facts. Arrange Mass Meets in Indiana, Illinois. The report of the committee on the; Illinois-Indiana and southwest area (signed up by Lewis in separate truce with the operators) resulted in a de- cision to picket all mines signing to work whether under the Jacksonville scale or not, to meet expulsions by the Lewis machine for this militant stand, or for attending the confer- ence, with the aid of the local unions! in which a fight against expulsions can be made, and to ignore the or-| ders of the district officials. “Make|{ them expel their whole union, if they want to get one man” was the key- note of this resolution. It was also decided to hold two big mass meetings in Indiana and two in Illinois as soon as thé dele- j date gations return to their states, and to send out a crew of organizers throughout these two districts to | build the Save-the-Union movement. Right Wing Expels Minerich. The report on organization of the unorganized was brought in by Tony Minerich, chairman of the commit- tee, who prefaced his remarks by an announcement that though he had fought through strikes and served his union militantly, he was now one of the unorganized himself, as just the night before the machine had ex- pelled him. ‘ Drive to Organize Unorganized. The plan for the organization of the unorganized is to establish in im- portant centers like Johnstown, Som- |erset, Brownsville headquarters, open and public, and to use these as cen- ters for the widest possible distribu- tion of literature by organizers going into the mining towns around these cities. A network of committees in mines and sub-districts will then call a con- vention of the district and effect a temporary organization, to brought into the United Mine Work- ers of America as soon as honest of- ficials are elected at its head, and not to be turned over to Lewis under any circumstances. Minerich in a vigorous speech re- minded the delegates that Lewis had threatened to smash their union two years ago, when he declared in an election statement, “I will serve you in the future as I have served you in the past.” In the past Lewis had served the union which he found 600,000 members strong ky losing 200,000 members. “Now we are going to have some- thing to say,” said Minerich. “Lewis! policies are to take down charters. Ours must be to, go into the interna- tional office and get a hundred char- ters and take them into West Vir- ginia and such districts and hang them up again.” The convention adopted the report of the committee to organize the un- organized and accepted the strike for Fayette, Westmoreland. Somerset and Greene counties, April) 16. The committee on organization. press and finance reported that the district conventions to take over the} union by electing militant officials representing the rank and file and by throwing out the Lewis bureau- be} eracy was the major task. It also declared for an organiza- tion of the rank and file for the fight to save the union based on a network of. local Save-the-Union Committees a National Save-the-Union Commit- tee made up of five representatives of each district, nominated by the dis- trict delegations to the conference and elected by the conference. Make Coal Digger Official Organ. A resolution on the Coal Digger declared it the official organ of the movement, condemned the United Mine Workers’ Journal, and provided for bundles of the Coal Digger to be taken by groups in the unorganized fields to circulate it among neighboring miners, and for each local in organized territory to take a copy per member. Delegate after delegate expressed his appre- ciation of the need of such a paper, | and told how well the miners received it. Speaking on the. Coal Digger, “Mother” Bloor, one of the only two honorary women members of the United Mine Workers of America, (Zeigler local, Illinois) was given a rising vote of thanks when she told of the mass meetings being made suc- cessful partly through the appearance first on the scene of newsboys selling the Coal Digger. Demand Release of Framed-up Miners A ygsolution authorized at the ses- |sion of the day before demanded fur- ther activity for the freeing of the Zeigler victims, Henry Corbishley Eddie Moleski, Steve Mianovich and Ignatz Sinich, also of Dominic Ven- turato, serving a term in the peni- tentiary at London, Ohio, framed up because of his labor activities, Bo- |nita, Moleski and Mendola, Mooney and Billings and all others unjustly sent to prison for labor. Freeman Thompson of Springfield told the dramatic story of Zeigler. how the Len Cobb sub-district admin- istration and Frank Farrington dis- trict administration used gunmen in | Zeigler to start the fight in the union meeting, provided money to prosecute the progressives who were in control] \of the local, and provided false wit- nesses to get a conviction. The resolution was adopted; the conference was already on record as thoroughly back of the defense of the Pittston boys, and had heard speeches from friends and a_ blood brother of Bonita. ~ During the afternoon the children The second amendment related to x another great section of particularly exploited workers, the youth. Young miners, the amendment states, are not only given, with the consent of § the Lewis machine, lower pay for the same sort of work, but according to § the Jacksonville agreement, made by Lewis, certain sorts of work are re- legated to the youth and placed on a lower paid basis. The amendment de- mands that young miners also have equal pay for equal work, that no’ one under eighteen years of age shall work underground, and that: for the young miners there shall be a six- hour day. The third amendment callgd atten- ' Militant Tllinois Miner, Chairman at Save-the-Union Meet First and second photos above show snapshots of John W. Watt, of Springfield, Illinois, who acted as chairman at the Save-the-Union meet which concluded its program Monday night. ‘ The Save-the-Union committee is in the midst of a campaign to mobilize a countrywide miners organiza- tion and strike. Photo at right shows Mrs. Anna Mondell, woman delegate to the Pittsburgh conference Renton, Pa. appeared on the scene, in full force, a delegation representing the Striking Miners’ Clubs singing songs and giv- ing yells in the gallery in response to the speech made from the plat- form by John Foley, twelve years old, and in the eighth grade in Mol- lenauer. He reported the tactics of the com- pany teachers who try to tell the children that their fathers are lazy for striking and not taking proper care of them. He told of 1,500 chil- dren organized in twelve clubs at Mollenauer, of children who do not believe this propaganda of the teach- ers. He read a resolution endorsing the work of the children’s clubs, and it went over with a roar. of Lewis was roundly condemned for drawing over $11,000 during the first seven months of the strike in wages and personal expenses, other officials also looting the treasury. Lewis’ ef- frontery in raising his salary $3,000 a year on the eve of the strike was denounced as an example of the way in which high salaried corrupt offi- cials were bleeding the union while miners starve. Resolutions for salary based on the wages of a miner, and only necessary expenses, and during strike for no salary at all but only expenses were passed. Endorse Labor Party. John Brophy, speaking in favor of a resolution for a labor party pointed out that this is an old desire, backed by many convention resolutions, on the part of the miners, but that Lewis and his group prefer to truckle with the republican and democratic parties, neither of which can do the workers any good. The convention voted unanimously for a labor party. A resolution after some discussion was passed to have the executive committee make a thorough investi- gation of the problem of loading and cutting machinery, and issue a state- ment. Delegates from Colorado were tumultuously greeted, and told of Lewis’ misleadership in the 1928 strike, when Colorado struck with the rest of the miners; told also of Lewis’ failure to organize since then, resulting in the miners going into an independent organization. The miners in Colorado realize, however, that it is yery difficult to win a strike with only one state fight- ing and those around working. They want to be in the main national or- ganization and many will respond to the Save-the-Union movement if the Lewis group can be thrust out. A delegate from West Virginia told of the breaking down of the union there, and denied that the min- ers really got the enormous sums of “relief” for the 1924 strike, which show in the reports of the Lewis of- | ficials. 1,125 Attended. Other resolutions and greetings were accepted and Chairman John Watts summed up the results in a short speech on the single topic, “Go home for the real battle—go to these district conventions, and throw the traitors out!” The final report of the eredentials committee showed 1,125 delegates, but there is some doubt whether the lat- est arrivals registered with the cre- dentials committee. The distribution was as follows: 362 from District 5 (Pittsburgh); 254 from unorganized territory; 152 from District 6 (Ohio); 98 from District 12 (Illinois); 88 from District 1 (Wilkes-Barre, an- thracite); 81 from District 2 (Clear- field); 83 from District 31 and others. from all the other districts and in fact from all the coal fields, — Harlem waste their time in decorating | *