The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 13, 1928, Page 1

REVEAL NEW PROOF OF INNOCENCE OF MOONEY, BILLINGS THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK FOx A LABOR PARTY Vol. V. No. 88. THE DAILY WORKER. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mall, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. Extered as second-cl is matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1579. NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1928 Published daily except Sunday by The National Daily Worker Publishing Association, Inc., 38 First Street, New York, N. ¥, AL CITY EDITION L Price 3 Cents MINE LEADERS PROVE AGATI FIRED FIRST SHOT | MASS AGITATION TO FREE MOONEY, BILLINGS, BEGINS Labor Defense Tells Plan of Campaign | SEATTLE, Wash., April 12.—. part of the campaign to secure the re- lease from prison of Tom Mooney and | Warren K. Billings, who have served | 12 years in jail as a result of a frame- | up in connection with the 1916 Pre: paredness Day’explosion in San Fran- cisco, documents will be made public showing that even those who helped | in the conviction are now in favor of | their release. This was angounced | today by James P. Cannon, national | secretary of the International Labor | Defense, This will be part of the national campaign that Mooney and Billings authorized the International Labor | Defense to conduct in their behalf | when Cannon visited Meoney in San Quentin Prison. Letter From Wilson. The documents that will be made public shortly, Cannon added, will in-| clude a letter from the then President | Woodrow Wilson to Governor | Stephens of California urging the re-! lease of the two workers, as well as letters written by members of the; jury which convicted them. A letter | from Judge Frank Griffin, who asl sided at the trial, will be included. | Other evidence uncovered since the trial of Mooney and Billings will be revealed shortly. | Cannon stated that the Interna- tional Labor Defense would have the} cooperation of its branches through- | out the country in the liberation cam- paign. alae “The International Labor Defense, Continued on Page Two) SPEED DRIVE FOR WORKERS’ CENTER L: I. -Units in Race for District Lead Two Long Island City units of the Workers (Communist) Party have begun a battle for section supremacy in raismg their quota in the cam- paign for $30,000 to purchase and. finance the new Workers Center, 26-| 28 Union Square. | The units are 3A 1F and Interna-| tional I 3A. Unit 3A 1F collected | $40 at a meeting the other night and) $110 was pledged by those present. This is an initial collection and the unit will continue gathering funds until the drive is over. Unit Collects $65. International I 3A made an even better showing in regard to initial collection. At a meeting Tuesday night, at which but ten members were present, $65 in cash was collected and | $25 was pledged. This $25 is to be paid at a meeting of the subsection | (Continued on Page two) | HOLD CONCERT FOR MINERS SUNDAY Late yesterday afternoon, Eugene Helmer, the noted pianist who recent- | ly was affiliated with the Philhar- | monic Orchestra, visited the office of | the Pennsylvania-Ohio Miners’ Re- lief Committee and submitted his full program for Sunday afternoon’s con- | cert at Central Opera House, 2p, m.| The proceeds are to go for the re- lief of the striking miners of .Penn- | sylvania, Ohio and Illinois, Tickets | may be bought at fifty cents at the office of the relief committee, 799 Broadway, Room 236. At the door they will cost seventy-five cents. Hunter Students Dance Tonight to Aid Miners Students of Hunter College will aid the raising of funds for the striking miners at a dance tonight beginning at 8:30 p.m. at 7 E. 15th St. The affair is arranged by the college miners’ relief committee which is af- Lord’s Servant Hires Out to Loan Sharks A “servant of the lord” was the star witness at Wednesday’s federal hearings in the “loan shark” investi- | gation. John K. Bouvier, of 1827 85th St., Brooklyn, who described himself as a student minister, told of his exploits |while working as “strong arm” man for Daniel Carney, head of the Re- liance Detective Agency, which seizes eutomobiles on which loans have been made, “Supposing we had already seized a car,” said Bouvier, telling how he op- erated, “we would then in that car fellow another car we wanted. We | would bump into the car ahead. The driver would jump out to see what damage had been done, and one of my crew would jump in and drive off with it.” When asked who paid for repair of the resulting damages on the cars, he replied, ‘‘The owners. The loan companies would charge it to them.” RUSH GREETINGS TO MAY 1 DAILY Distribution Planned; for Many Shops Greetings are pouring into The DAILY WORKER office for the May Day edition of the-paper- which walt consist of 32 pages and of which 300,000 will be printed for distribution to that many workers. Down Town Section of the Work- ers (Communist) Party, where Leo Kling is the Daily Worker agent, was the first to respond with greet- ings from the Night Workers Branch, from several units in sub section 1AC and 1D. Units in sectiéns 2 and 5 have also sent greetings ranging from five to twenty-five dollars. Workmens Circle branches, unions, I, L. D. branches, T. U. E. L.’s are all sending in their pledges of inter- national solidarity and many more Party units, as well as workers or- ganizations, have decided ‘to greet International May Day thru the col- umns of The DAILY WORKER. They are urged not to delay in send- ing those greetings into the office of The DAILY WORKER as the sec- tion of the paper containing greet- ings and pledges of solidarity from sympathetic organizations and indi- viduals is already being set up. Sections 1, 2 and 3 are already working out plans for the widest distribution of the Mey Day issue. Big shops in those sections have al- ready been picked and will be as- figned to definite units to cover. Every member of those units is to mobilize for this work. Other units should follow the lead of the above sections. Throw Worker on Street, The meager belongings of B. Wat- anabe, a Japanese printer, were de- stroyed yesterday, after City Marshal Larkin had entered | Watanabe’s home and workshop at 414 E. 58th St., on being asked by Samuel Gelb, of 300 E, 58th St., the landlord, 'to evict Watanabe. Watanabe was not at home at the time. Police made no efforts to protect the workers’ be- longings, which were soon ransacked. > UNORGANIZED TO JOIN STRUGGLE. AGAINST 10%, CUT Rhode Island Mills Also| Cutting Wages NEW BEDFORD, Mass., April 12. —Returns from last night’s balloting will show an overwhelming vote for a general strike in the New Bedford textile unions according to the de- termination expressed by the organ-} ized as well as unorganized workers) here to fight the 10 per cent wage cut scheduled for 35,000 operatives in the cotton mills here Monday.| Strike vote returns are not yet avail- able. Even the capitalist press and em- ployers’ trade journals are admitting that the strike vote will be heavy. The belief prevalent that a strike in this center will spread rapidly to {other centers of New England, is | gaining ground as information comes {in that mill committees are being |formed among wunorgan‘zed textile workers in the New England states. | Further Cuts. | Further confirmation of this belief is contained in 2 dispatch received ;that the Rhode Island textile mills are beginning to post notices of wage: jeuts, effective immediately. The | Rhode Island plants have not partici- pated in the wave of wage reductions thaf’ has swept New England in the last few months, That a repetition of the betrayal engineered by the Fall River textile council officials, when they announced the result of a similar strike vote on a wage cut several months ago as 11 votes short of a two-thirds majority, is highly improbable, is the belief of | observers here. This is in spite of the} fact that the conservative union lead- ership here is also demanding a two- thirds vote and a majority of locals} in the New Bedford Council before| a strike vote will be put into effect. The militancy of the workers, how- ever is compelling the officials of the American Federation of Textile Op- eratives to take steps toward the or- ganization of strike machinery. Support Pledged. The United Textile Mill Commit- tees, an organization of progressive textile workers thruout New England, speaking in the name of its New (Continued on Page Two) ! Prominent Actors at Fur T. U. E. L. Affair The entertainment and dance ar-| ranged by the furriers’ section of the | Trade Union Educational League for Friday night, April 20, in Manhattan Lyceum, 66 E, 4th St., promises to be as popular an affair as all the annual | affairs arranged by the left wing | furriers’ organization, according to! the rapidity with which the tickets are selling. M. Pinchefski, secretary of the league, triumphantly declares that he has succeeded in obtaining one of the best groups of Jewish actors on the “Avenue” to perform several short plays by Scholem Aleichem and other well known Jewish playwrights. A good dance orchestra has been en- gaged. Tickets are obtainable at the Joint Board office, 22 E. 22nd St. PAY MEAGER AT BELLAS Most Workers in Shop Get $14 Weekly The workers of the National Bellas Hess Company, Seventh Ave. between 24th and 25th St. start to work for low wages and with great difficulty are able to secure a small increase in pay, employes of that concern yes- terday pointed out, “The only way you can obtain an increase in wages,” one worker said, “is by being servile and taking all orders given to you without ever complaining. And even then the raise is very small.” A youth employed as a checker said filiated with the Youth Conference for Miners’ Relief. Young workers and students are invited to att he was started at $14 a week and that while he had been working there several months he had not Toopivens at the minimum wage scale. any ‘wage inerease, altho when he was engaged he was promised a raise as soon as he “showed his ability.” The hours of the checkers, he added, are from 8:30 a. m. to 5:30 p. m., with three quarters of an hour for lunch, “While we are supposed to finish work at 5:30,” he continued, “if our work is not finished, we must work on without receiving any overtime.” Almost all the employes of the company are women, who receive an average of $14 weekly. While in- creases are given occasionally the company prefers to engage new girls | ‘ Philadelphia Youth Send Food Ca FOOD! PRLADELIHA WORKERS ORGANIZE: § ; cg ary AMES, RIBS TO MINERS The Philadelphia Youth Conferenceg cémposed of militant young workers of that city, have organ miners’ relief caravans, and are no coal regions. Photo above shows on itewtiepartire for the strike zone, OMBS WORST JAIL, PRISONERS DECLARE h has been burning with the air here; |} y without food if it could be changed,” |} Scab Companies Violate | “For the last three days my mout! I don’t know the cause, but I’d do a da: writes David Gordon, 18-year-old victim of class “ The DAILY WORKER from Tombs¢——“—— Prison, mail. | Gordon is now in the New York | County Reformatory at Hempstead Farms, where he was taken from the Tombs last Mond: He will be com- | pelled to remain in the reformatory for three years for writing the poem, | “America,” which was printed in The} DAILY WORKER in March, 1927. | Offends Patriots. | The poem aroused the disfavor of certain patriotic societies, who started court proceedings in an effort to crush the only newspaper in the Eng: lish language that fights unremit. tingly in the interest of the workers. The professional patriots led by the which was delayed in the Key Men of America and the Military | Order of the World War, succeeded in obtaining the conviction of Gordon and in imposing a $500 fine on The | DAILY WORKER. “Right boys left for Elmira this morning,” Gordon’s letter continues. the doomed departed ones. I notice there is quite a large turnover in the membership of the Tombs Prison or- ganization. Some boys are quite un- disciplined members but ‘alma mater’ Page wo (Continued on Y MEET TO PROTEST U.S. RULE IN HAITI The farce of the elections in Haiti under the rule of Wall Street im- perialism will be exposed at a mass meeting to protest U. S. rule in the Haitian Republic this Sunday, April 15, at the Embassy Mansions, 20 W. 115th St. under the auspices of the All-America Anti-Imperialist League. More than .2,500 Haitian workers |, were slain by direction of the Wall Street puppet president Louis Borno, aided by American marines, accord- ing to L. J. DeBekker, secretary of the Committee on Haiti. Among the speakers at the protest meeting will be Henry Rosemond of the Haitian Patriotic Union; L. T. DeBekker, secretary of the Commit- tee on Haiti; Robert Minor, edito: of The DAILY WORKER; and Rich ard Moore of the American Negr Labor Congress. on - Important Notice “All Comrades are instructed to report for important Party work tomorrow morning at 10:30 on the lower floor of the Workers Cen- ter, 26 Union Square. “William W. Weinstone, Organ- izer. District 2, Workers (Com- munist Party.” | é in COMMITTEES operating a regular relief service e Pennsylvania. from Philadelphia to the str therucks in the caravan being loaded with food and clothing, before } e,” in a letter to! CLOAK ELECTION AMASS PROTEST Convention Delegates To Be Chosen The coming elections for national convention delegates to be held on pril 17 by the left wing, Joint Board } will assume the character of a mass | protest demonstration against the ap- jparant intentions of the right wing |officialdom of the International to jcontinue their union-wrecking activi- ities even after \the convention on May 7. Despite the fact the leadership of \the Joint Board Cloakmakers’ Union is convinced that the delegates from |“But some new faces made up for|the left wing locals will not be rec- jognized by the reactionary machine | which will control the convention, it |intends to send a full delegation to Boston. Membership Not Fooled. | The struggle between the two je of right wingers for the pre- jsidency of the union, which will be |fought out on the convention floor, jis being used by the right wing press | as propaganda to create the belief in the minds of the workers that real | problems will be settled there. The membership, however, are con- vineed that the most important de- jmand of the workers, is a united union and an end to the struggle| against the left wing Joint Board, | will be completely disregarded there. | The Joint Board, in leaflets issued calling upon the members to a mass participation in the elections for dele- gates, declares that the Schlesinger ~TBAS EXPLOS! al (Continued on Page Two) The convention of the Young Pioneers of America of District 2 York, will open tonight with a gala “Welcome Convention” & p. m. at Manhattan Lyceum, 66 E. 4 Jay Lovestone, executive secretary + — of the Workers (Communist) Party, will address the hundreds of Pioneers, their friends and parents who are ex- pected. Another feature of the pro- ram will be a living newspaper, a mass pageant in which hundreds of children will participate. The convention proper starts to- morrow morning and will continue thru the week-end. Sessions Satur- day will be held at 101 W. 27th St., and Sunday at 108 E. 14th St. Pioneer delegates, from all over New York ON KILLS 4 MINERS 7 i Safety Laws CONNELLSVILLE, Pa., Apr. 12. —Four non-union miners were killed in a gas explosion at the Hutchinson Mine of the Westmore- land Coal Company, near West Newton, Pa., late yesterday after- noon. The number of the injured is unknown. Three hundred miners were em- ployed in the mine, it is stated. The others according to the company, escaped from the scene after the explosion. Explosions leading to the deaths of miners working non-union mines, have increased in frequency of late owing to the growing indif- ference of the companies to condi- tions in their pits. Previously the union forced the companies to ob- serve the safety requirements of the law. Shachtman Gives First Talk on Bleeding China A large gathering a lecture on “Bleedin by Max Shac “Labor Defende was C St. The lecture, which was given under the auspices of the Harlem and Cze- choslovakian Branches of the Inter- national Labor Defense, was the first in a series on China to be given by Shachtman. It was illustrated with pictures of the Chinese Revolution never before shown in this country. Shachtman will lecture on the same subject this Sunday evening at 8 o’dock at the Brownsville Youth Cen- t » 122 Osborn St., under the aus- /of the Brownsville Branch of Tt. D. TONIGHT lay Lovestone Will Welcome Convention th St. d Ne ersey will be present, There will be in all about 75 dele- gates representing 500 children, Among the problems to be considered are achievements and activities since the last convention, the present unem- ployment situation’s effects on the children of the working class and con- ditions in the schools. The convention will take up plans for a campaign among working class children for new members of the Young Pioneers of America. an Textile Workers Are Voting for New Bedford Strike BONITA, MOLESKI MENDOLA CONFIRM THEIR INNOCENCE Case Stirs Workers of WILK BARRE, April 12. — The case of Sam Bonita, young Pittston mine leader was given to the jury this afternoon at 4:30. Attorney John A. Dano, for Bonita, in a two-hour speech to the jury a bitter attack i s of the Lewis ma as events at the trial pro given their aid in the attempt to railroad the three miners to the electric chair. “These officers, supposedly the | servants of the miners,” Dano said, |“‘have acted the part of their be- | trayers.” Referring to the manner of International Organizer Figlock who was exposed under cross exam- ination, Dano said: “He slouched away like the whelp that he is.” * * WILKES BARRE, Pa., April 12.— “Agati fired the fi ” These words in tones whic ied convic- poor to all present in the crowded court room were yesterday uttered by Sam Bonita, young Pittston mine leader on trial here for the killing of |Frank Agati, contractcr and Cappel- ini machine gunman. Self Defense. “T killed him, but A fired the rst shot,” was the t ony of the uthful president of local 1703, in sponse to the question of bis attor- jney. Not a sound was heard in the | tense court room the dramatic re- cital of the events leading to the kill- ing of the Cappelini henchman and body guard was delivered by Bonita | testify in his own defense. | Earlier in the imony, Captain | William A. Jone a gun expert had | Sworn that the bullet found imbedded jin the wall of the office was fired from a weapon other than that in the possession of the defendants. The gun from which the shot came, now known to have been fired by Agati, has mysteriously disappeared. | | fi Adam Moleski and Steve Mendola, jointly indicted with Bonita, also tes- tified at yesterday’s session. Both verified the testimony of Bonita. In addition they denied the impression | which the prosecution had sought to give out that they had come to the |office to “get Agati.” The defense of the three miners om trial for their lives is being handled by the Boni fense Con Building. BARBUSSE TELLS OF SOZZI MURDER stone was murdered g held pr two months. he murdered but he a finesse and cruelt bel He in oner for Not only was tortured with that surpasses n and deprived of food, he was chained to the floor in a subterranean cell, and he was given injections that caused his body to bre out in horrible sores. The {man persisted in his refusal to de- nounce his fellow anti-fascists. Fin- a the torturers lost patience and he was shot.” This is a description of the mur- der of the 23-year-old anti-fascist by Henri Barbu: noted Communist yauthor who charges that Sozzi’s + New]death order was personally issued by meeting atMussolini. The murder of Sozzi will be pro- |tested at a meeting to be held next Sunday, April 15, at 2:30 at Tam- |many Hall, 145 E. 14th St. | Among the speakers who are sche- duled to speak at the Sunday meet- ling are Dr. Nitti, son of the former Italian premier, Dr. Charles Fama, Carlo Tresea, Arturo Giovanitti, Rob- ert Minor, editor, the DAILY WORK- ER, Hugo Gellert, Norman Thomas, Max Shachtman, Moissaye Olgin and others. This case has aroused wide- spread comment and protest in all European countries, \ Se rer ae