The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 10, 1928, Page 1

- TAE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK For A CARoH Vol. V. No. 36 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, 96.00 per year. ( Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., under the act of March 3, 1879, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1928 THE DAILY WORKER. | Published daily except Sunday by The National Dally Worker + Publishing Association, Inc., 33 First Street, New York, N. ¥. Price 3 Cents | FINAL ITY EDITION STRIKE LOOMS AS 30,000 MILL WORKERS FIGHT CUT MILITANTS APPEAL TO CONVENTION ON SIGMAN VOTE RULE Conference Soon of All Taken Off Ballot An appeal to the coming conven- tion of the International Ladies Gar~ ment Workers Union, drawn up and signed with the names of the parti- cipants in a conference held recently by all progressives ruled off the bal- lot by the right wing in control of Locals 38, 66 and 20 of New York, was made public yesterday by Don Wishnevsky of Local 38, one of the initiators of the onference. The ap- peal condemns the action of the ad- ministrative machine which refused to permit them to run for delegates to the convention when they declined to sign a statement “condemning a working class politial party.” Conference April 17. The letter accompanying the appeal also declares that the New York pro- gressives excludéd from the ballot are calling a conferene of all those not permitted on the slates of other locals throughout the country. This conference is to be held in New York on Tuesday evening, \April 17, at Manhattan Lyceum, 66 E. 4th St. The primary purpose of this new conference will be, according to the statement, to elect a committee of the excluded delegates to go to the convention in Boston on May 7 and present the appeal officially on the convention floor. The signatures on the document adopted at the last conference, which will no doubt be endorsed by new aditions from the out of town loca’ show that the majority of them are members in good standing in the union for many years. Most of them are union members for from 10 to 19. years. Condemn Board. After condemning tke action of the General Executive Board of the International in ruling them off the ballot for their political opinion and for their criticism of the reactionary administration which destroyed a once powerful union by their expul- sion policy, the appeal quotes sec- tions of the constitution adopted at the last convention of the union which expressly permits freedom of poli- tical affiliation in an organization composed of members of all shades of political thought. The undersigned progressives, after pointing to their many years of ac- tivity in the union, end their state- ment with the following appeal: “Delegates! We charge that the action of the General Exeutive Board in violating the laws of our union was taken with the object of perpe- tuating themselves in power against our organization, appeal to you the expressed wishes of the wast majority of our membership. “We, the undersigned, members of many years standing and service in (Continued on Page Two) AT SEATTLE MEET To Conclude Tour in New York, May 18 SEATTLE, April 9.—Fol!owing a series ot successful meetings through- out the states of California, Oreron and Washington, a,number of meet- ings have been arranged in Seattle, Washington, and vicinity for James P. Cannon, national secretary of In- ternational Labor Defense, in his tour against the frame-up system which is covering the entire country. From April 11 to April 14, Cannon will be in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett, where he will speak at mass meet- ings and hold conferences with work- ers of the International Labor De- fense. It is also planned during this, period to arrange a conference with the Centralia I. W. W. who are im-| prisoned for life in Walla Walla peni-! tentiary at which the continuation of a more effective campaign for their release will be considered. Meetings Successful. In Los Angeles a banquet was given to Cannon at which letters from a_ number of San Quentin prisoners, in-| dorsing the Internationa] Labor De- fense, were read. Tom Lewis was in} the chair and”after Cannon’s speech,| «yen though they are now seeking to Frank Spector, local I. L. D. secretary made an appeal which brought in $140. The mass meeting on the fol- lowing night was attended by hun- dreds of workers who cheered the de- nunciation of the anti-labor frame- up system which Cannon described.) Company are making millions of dol- (Continued on Page Two) - # Two men were killed outright wooden cars crashed on a stalled sec on Easter morning. shown above. The subway interests instead of five for the p Seven-Cent Fare for Trip to Grave and fifteen others injured when tion of the Fulton St. B. M. T. “L” The interior of the car in which the dead lay is are fighting to charge seven cents vilege of dying in their wooden cars. plete today. All the jurors are men. WASHINGTON, Apr, 9.—Harry F. financed the republican party’s camp B-M. T. SHIFTS: BLAME FOR WRECK Pass Buck For Accident to Dead Worker Resorting to the usnal procedure of blaming a dead worker, victim of the criminal defiance of safety regu- lations by large corporations, officers of the Tammany Hall city admin- istration were yesterday seeking to fasten the responsibility for Sunday’s B.-M.T. wreck on the dead motorman who drove the Liber'y Avenue elevat- | ed train on.its fatal journey. Assistant Distriet Attorney James A. Dayten who is conducting a so- called investiration for the city into the cause of the wreck, which result- led in the death of three and the injury of 15, intimated that the res- ponsibility for the collision was to be fastened on Joseph Curtin, 50, the motorman, who was killed. Three Already Dead. In addition to Curtin, Harry Smith, also a motorman, and Arthur Ken- |Inedy died as a recult of what everv- one is now foreed to admit was the | failure of the B.-M.T. to comply with itransit commission rulings to install | block signal systems.. Of the 15 in- | ivred in the wreck, four are said to bé sin a very serious condition The accident occurred when a six- car train crashed into the rear end of a stalled three-car train at. the Rockawav Bouleverd station at Wood- haven, Queens, at 3:20 a.m. Nearlv two years ago the B.-M.T. was ordered by the New York State Transit Commission to install a-block signal system. The company, merely made a. gesture of complying with the order by installing signals on an ine significant section of its lines. Of even greater is the failure of the B.-M.T. to comply with virtual orders for the abandonment of the wooden cars which have contributed greatly to the death toll in many wrecks. Commission and City Blamed. The transit commission, it is be- lieved, will not be able to escape its share of responsibility for the tra- gedy. It has been well aware of the violations of the law. The city officials will be held equally responsible, it is believed, pass the blame as usual to the dead workers. The B.-M.T., according to its own admissions, is making nearly 8 per cent on watered stock. This company and the Interborough Rapid Transit 40 YEARS IN TRADE, OIL JUROR EXCUSED The selection of the jury which will try Harry F. Sinclair, was com- . Sinclair, oil magnate, and his friends igns which kept the present Coolidge government in power. In return for his huge gifts to the republican party and to individuals uch as Albert B. Fall, former Hard- | ing-Coolidge secretary of the interior. Sinclair was given the Teapot Dome oil lease and other concessions. Because of the disclosures of graft and the oil slush fund, the government was forced to go through the motions of a house-cleaning and a prosecu- tion of political crime. The government which Sinclair and allied oil millionaires were instrumen- tal in putting in office is now in the act of “trying” him for consniracy. Sinclair is specifically charged before District Supreme Court Justice Jen- nings Bailey with conspiracy to de- frand the nation in the Teapot Dome deal. , Fall originally went on trial with him. The first trial was declared a mistrial when Sinclair, William J. Burns, proprietor of an international spy agency, Burns’ son and a second cil man were found guilty of shadow- ing the jury. Since then the case against Fall has been allowed to drop and Sinclair has been slated to “take the ran” alone. When the trial opened here today. following one adjournment. . Sinclair however, sat with nonchalant bravado » he listened to the questioning of prospective jurors. He has no idea at all of going to prison any more than Fall has. As for the high cost of a trial like this, it. is just part of the oil business. Tt is part of whet is known to oil imperialists like Sinclair and John D. Rockefeller as “overhead.” Among the mary talismen excused hecanse thev held an opinicn on the case wes William S. Hafner. He told Atlee Pomerene and Owen J. Roberts, special government prosecutors, that he feared he could not render an im- partial verdict. His reason was that he had “ben 40 years in the oil busi- ness.” David Gordon, young author of the poem “America,” was yesterday taken from the Tombs to the New York County Reformatory at Hampton Farms. Gordon, who is 18 years old, will have to remain in the reforma- tory until he is 21. He was placed in the Tombs last week after being taken without warning from the Uni- versity of Wisconsin, where he was a scholarship student, after the State Court of Appeals upheld a decision convicting the author for writing the jars yearly. poem and imposing a fine of $500 on |/Women Again Lead in % IN BIG REVIVAL OF STRIKE WAVE Union Drive PITTSBURGH, April 9.—Threat- ening to ride over them if they ap- pear on the picket line tomorrow, five mounted state troopers under Private Joe Francis herded more than thirty wives and daughters of striking min- ers into the road leading to Montour Number 10 mine at Library this morning, their horses and clubs forcing women on. together with the women for a dis- tance. One striker who did not move fast enough was helped along with blows by the state troopers. Women gathered along the road at five o’clock this morning carrying boards. About a dozen coal and iron police kept them moving. Shortly after six o'clock, five mounted state troopers swooped down upon the pickets. Women shouted protests as, they were driven from the line but the horses forced them on. “We suffer more than the men, we {and our children,” they cried. “But we'll stay on the line until we win the strike.” One elderly woman who ran to the Hillock side of the road to escape the horses was quickly brought back Wy troopers who rode after her rounding her up like a straggler from a herd of cattle. “My horse knows how to get them,” one trooper later told reporters. “He has been through six strikes, he knows more than I do.” paper photographer, was forbidden to take pictures of troopers herding women. Later in the morning Mrs. Christine Dolane, Jennie Rupnick, Margaret Woods, Anna Intehar, wom- en pickets, called upon Sheriff Rob- and demanded the right to picket. At first the sheriff seemed too busy to listen but when the women sat down to wait and newspaper reporters ar- rived he agreed to see them. But reporters were not admitted. Two in civilian dress, recognized as state troopers by women, were in session with Braun. “We don’t want stories about Allegheny County in the pa- pers,” the women said the sheriff told them. “People believe terrible things about troopers. They are afraid even to drive through the county.” As Mrs, Dolance left the office she told reporters the sheriff said that troopers had acted in accordance with his instructions. The women com- plained to the sheriff that cops threw tear bombs and rode horses over them. The sheriff announced that all ;women pickets would~ be~ arrested. | “We don’t mind going to jail,” Mr: Rupnick declared, “but cops say they’ll send us to the hospital in- stead. But they can’t stop us.” Gov. Fisher Again Asked 'To Testify in Coal Quiz HARRISBURG, Pa., April 9. — | The senate coal investiration commit- | tee may again request Gov. Fisher of | this state to testify regarding the ter- | rorist tactics of the coal and iron po- jlice, it was learned today. On a previous occasion, Fisher, who is counsel for one of the biggest coal companies in the state, refused to tes- tify except on his own conditions, GORDON IS TAKEN TO REFORMATORY ne DAILY WORKER for printing lit. | The entire case against Gordon and ithe DAILY WORKER was trumped jup by patriotic societies such as the |Key Men of America and the Military |Order of the World War, who used ithe poem, which referred in uncom- plimentary terms to capitalist Amer- ica, as a pretext for an attempt to jerush the newspaper that has for | ‘more than four years been a thorn jin the side of the capitalist class. Describes Last Day in Tombs. DEFY TROOPERS | Although police declared the men | might picket they were shoved along signs, “Join the United Mine Work- | ers of America,” crudely traced on} Martin McEverly, New York news- | ert Braun to protest the brutality | i Workers Barely Es CHICAGO ON CHICAGO, April 9.—With the ec with charges and cross-charges of b gan, the faction-torn is prima perate “mud-slinging”’ battle. | The principal fight rages around | the nomination fcr governor and for | state’s attorney of Cook county (Chi- | cago). Senator Deneen and Mayor | Thompson, field marshals for their | respective forces, are not up for any | effice at this time, but their political fortunes depend on the success of} | their respective candidates. Len Small, incumbent, is seeking the mominatior. to succeed himself as governor. He is opposed by Louis L. | Emmerson of the. Deneen camp. Rob- ert E. Crowe, who seeks to succeed himself as state’s attorney of Cook county, is opposed by Judge Swanson. More than 8,000 special watche have been assigned to polling plac to prevent disorder and bomb squads have been ordered to tour streets in districts noted for election disorder. More than 1,609,000 persons are ex- | pected to cast their vote in one of | capitalist democracy’s characteristic | orgies. TAMMANY HALL ~_ EYE ON QUEENS |Boro Jobs Have Created Millionaires Former United States Attorney Emory R, Buckner, who was named special attorney general to present| evidence to the grand jury in the} $29,500,000 Queens sewer scandal, has| announced he will attempt to have! | criminal indictments returned, | Maurice E. Connolly, who is al- \leged to have conspired with con- }tractors so that the cost’ of the | Jamaica trunk sewer was 50 per cent jgraft while he was president of the; jboro of Queens, said yesterday he had no fear that he would be indicted. |Connolly built up a powerful demo- cratic machine in his boro that was virtually independent of Tammany. When he resigned recently at the; height of a state investigation into graft charges looking toward his re- moyal, the Smith-Walker democratic machine began plans at once to re- jeapture control of the Queens govern- ment whieh has made several men wealthy. Funds Needed to Defend Daily Worker trom Further Attacks | In a letter to The DAILY WORK- | ER, Gordon describes the experiences | of his last day in the Tombs. “I was interviewed by somcone to- day,” he writes. “He was a man of truly charming suavity. He listened very politely to my story and ques- tioned me in so gentle a tone that I began to like him very much, “His last question was, ‘You’re pretty much filled with Communism, aren’t you?’ “Of course, but this doesn’t pertain (Continued on Page Three} Miners’ Families Continue Mass Picketing cape Gas Explosion 4 Scores of ex- cavation work- barely caped when ers es- injuries gas ex- ploded from un- a determined i causes in a sec- tion of the new tunnel at 13th » St. and Green- : wich Ave. Fire- men prodding ; among the de- bris are shown in the above pic- j ture. Tunnel EDGE AS” 8,000 GUARD POLLS ho of two new bombings in its ears, nallot stealing, assassinations, liquor publican adherents today on the eve of the y entered the final des- @—-——— a USSR PURCHASES HERE INCREASE $2,284,000 Is Spent for Machinery Purchases of industrial equipment by the Amtorg Trading Corporation jin March amounted to $2,284,000, the jlargest figure for this class of pur- s|chases for any one month since the Ss |opening of Soviet-American trade re- lations, it was announced yesterday by Saul G. Bron, chairman of the board of directors of the Amtorg. Only 23 per cent of the value of purchases was paid for in cash, on the remainder credit terms up to two years being granted, This also con- stituted a record in Soviet-American trade. Total Amtorg purchases for larch amounted to $4,400,000 as |against the monthly average for last | year of $2,700,000. | “The industrial |purchases made here for the Soviet |Union is becoming more pronounced, las the figures for March s' ow,” stat- led Bron. “After raw materials, which lare by far the largest item of Soviet purchases in the United States, in- jdustrial equipment is the most im- |portant group of commodities in Sov- iet-American trade. The Soviet Union needs more and more machinery to effect its extensive program of new factory construction. “In 1927 our purchases of industri- al equipment averaged $1,000,000 per month, as compared with half figure in 1926. This year we to keep up the new re character of the are ord of }mi mery pu ig $2,- 000,000 per m lly in view of improved cre ‘acilities.” % ‘Appeal to Labor to ‘Defend Three Miners WILKES-BARRE, April 9. |On trial today for their lives on a| trumped up charge and indictment | |for murder, Sam Bonita, Adam Moleski and Sieve Mendola, three |innocent, progressive mine of | | Locai 1703 of Pittston, through their defense committee sent out a new appeal to the labor movement} for solidarity and support. “The workers of the country} must protect those who are at the/ ” the com-| )ziengi- | Room § | ing, Wilk 170,000 Are Jobless in California, Says Report SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 9. — About 170,000 men are un a in this state, it is estimated by the state labor commissioner’s This is the largest number since 19 Long breadlines exist here, in Los An- geles and other California cities. moloy office, UNIONS TAKING VOTE; MAY BEGIN: FIGHT OF 100000 a | Balloting Is On in New | Bedford Unions NEW BEDFORD, Mass., April 9. | A possible general strike of 30,000 | New Bedford textile workers, the oc- | ew of which would rapidly | sp: strike movement to other | cent I materialize as a result of the newly announced wage slash of | 10 per cent made yesterday by the mill owners. This | oy of the American Federation of Tex- | | tile Operatives, who have arranged | stings for the workers to take aj vote on the wage cut. The meetings were to be held late | tonight, and as yet no information is | obtainable on results of balloting. The New Bedford textile operators | did not join in the huge wave of wage | reductions that recently swept thru- out the New England Textile in- dustry, resulting in an average wage reduction of 10 per cent for more than 100,000 workers. At that time they benevolently declared that they would refrain from cutting wages, obtaining the same results however, |by demanding that each worker joperate an increased number of machines. That resentment of the workers has reached the breaking point at this latest attack on their working stan- dards, is apparent at the growing de- mand for an immediate strike. The increase in the quantity of production of each worker is equivalent to the wage reduction now ordered by the bosses. The hypocrisy of the employ- ers’ announcements when the other mills were cutting wages, which they had printed in trade journals, and in | posted notices, did much to crystal- lize the determination of the workers to fight. \ | Ballot Simple. The American Federation of Tex- tile Operatives, has prepared ballots for the strike vote which was to be taken tonight. According to the union officials the ballot is to be very simple in form, having but three words on it. Strike, Yes, No. The progressives in the various unions controlled by the bureaucratic officialdom, have done much to de- velop into strike sentiment the deep resentment of the textile workers in New England. This was done by forming progressive councils in mills organized and unorganized. Progres- sive workers declare that if the union leadership permits an honest ballot, the overwhelming majority will de- cide for a strike. Recently a strike vote conducted by an A. F. of L. tex- tile council fell thru because the of- ficials declared the vote to be 11 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. The exi nce of the progressive mill councils is the basis for the belief that a successful strike vote in New Bedford would quickly till encompassed most of gland textile manu- area, facto) pread acturing JOBLESS, SENDS SUB FOR MINERS Brooklyn Worker Tells of Need for “Daily” “Though I have been out of a job for nearly two months, I am sending [S€ for a year’s free subscription for iking miner. The DAILY WORK- ER has meant a great deal to me dure ing the past few years and I know how necessary it is for the striking miners to be able to read our Daily every day in their great fight against the bosses and the Lewis machine, The workers must learn to help each other or they won’t be able to win their common battles. I hope my little contribution will put fighting spirit into some striking miner, and only wish I could give more.” This letter from an unemployed worker living in Brooklyn is typical of many that have been pouring inte The DAILY WORKER office since the campaign to provide free subscriptions for striking aniners began. Though he is without a job, this worker has sac- ast -|rificed $6 in order that the miners may be strengthened in the fight (Continued on Page Two) }