The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 24, 1928, Page 1

LABOR MUST SAVE STARVING MINERS! THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS: FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNORGANIZED FOR THY 40-HOUR WEEK FOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. V. No. 97. LOVESTONE AND FOSTER ENDORSE WORKERS CENTER “Red Banquet” to Mark Formal Opening Pointing out the importance to al militant workers of the new Worker Center at 26-28 Union Square, Ja; Lovestone, executive secretary of th Workers (Communist) Party, and | William . Foster, member of the sec retariat of the Workers Party, i statements issued yesterday, endors: the drive for $30,000 to purchase an finance the Workers Center and ca! upon all workers to lend it their u most support. Lovestone’s statement declares: “The establishment of the revo! tionary movement of New York ir a home of its own means much mer than merely the acquisition of a cen tral building. The Workers Party i the New York district and the move ment that has sprung up around ii have grown to such an extent that, ¥ it has become impossible to carry on| properly the increased activities with our forces scattered in inadequate quarters. It has become a necessity for us to centralize our forces in the ever-sharpening class struggle. And Union Square, the heart of the rev- olutionary movement, is the logical place for such centralization. “With the establishment of the Workers Center on Union Square, the revolutionary movement of New York takes possession of this scene of so many working class demonstrations, which in the future will be even more definitely a battleground for its struggles against capitalism. Every class-conscious worker must contri- bute his share in the campaign for $30,000 to buy this home of working- class activity and thus strike a migh- ty blow for his class and against ti | capitalist class in iis greatest strong- | hold. i Needed More Than Ever. . | “Now more than ever is a center for all the activities of the militant workers of New York needed. The united front of the capitalists and | the betrayers of labor, who are try- | ing to crush all militancy in the work- ers and to convert the trade unions into docile tools of the bosses, makes the establishment of the Workers Center in Union Square of moment- ous importance as a factor for con- eentrating the forces of the workers of New York in their bitter struggle against their enemies. | “Around this revolutionary center | will rally thousands of militant, class- conscious workers. Many thousands more of the progressive trade union- ists will feel the strength of the rev- | olutionary movement and will be drawn to our party as the only or- (Continued on Page Two) CAST HUGE VOTE — FORCOMMUNISTS | Beat Socialist Party in Paris Districts PARIS, April 23.—Altho the elec- | toral laws prevented the return of any Communist candidates to the chamber | of deputies in the first ballot in the | French national elections, the Com- | munist Party polled a huge popular vote that vindicated the expectations of the Party. In the suburbs of Paris alone, Communist-.Party candidates polled a total of 233,000 votes to the socialists’ 157,000. Even in agricultural districts the Communist Party gained numerous votes which had hitherto gone to the socialist party. In the department of Loire, which is a predominantly agri- cultural district, the Communist can- sate didates polled 19,000 to 14,000 votes for the socialists. Communists led socialist candidates in the Nord and Calais departments which had hither- to been socialist. Doriot In Lead. At least twenty Communist candi- dates are expected to be returned to the chamber when the second ballot is cast next Sunday. Doriot, Duclos and Cachin, Communist Party lead- ers who have all been sentenced to jail for opposing the French war in the Riff, are all leading the polls in their districts and are almost certain to be returned to the chamber on the second ballot. Duclos is leading the socialist lead- er, Blum, who is placed in the position of soliciting bourgeois votes or re- tiring from the elections. Blum is expected to enter into a coalition with the radicals in his effort to defeat the Communist candidate. Blum’s po- {Contiaved 08 Habs Eikee { SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New ek, by mail, $8.00 per year. il, $6.00 per year. Outside New York, by Framed By 2 r Eleven jurors knew that Sam Bonita, progressive mine leader, was innocent. One man, a “plant,” held out for a verdict of guilty. The jury finally compromised on “invol- untary manslaughter.” This the judge refused and forced the jury to return a verdict of manslaughter. They pleaded, however, for extreme leniency. The judge disregarded their plea, sentencing Bonita for the maximum term of from 6 to 12 years at hard labor. His defense committee will fight the verdict un- til he is released. BONITA DEFENSE PLANS BIG MEET Labor Conference” “Conference For May 13. (Special to The Daily Worker, WILKES-BARRE, April 23.—A call to a Defense Conference was yes- terday issued by the Bonita-Moleski- Mendola Defense Committee to take place Sunday, May 18 at 2:30 p. m. in the Italian Hall, 206 Oliver Street, Luzerne, Pa. The purpose of the conference is to mugter the forces of labor and es- pecially the mine workers in an effort to free Sam Bonita, convicted mine leader, from the sentence to from six to 12 years prison term to which he has been consigned by Judge William McLean. Local unions are requested to send representatives to the conference. All mine unions are called upon to pass resolutions of protest and of endorse- ment of the Bonita-Moleski-Mendola Defense Committee and to send funds to this committee so that the inno- cent mine workers may be freed. Those desiring copies of the resolu- tion form may obtain them from the Defense Committee, Room 518 Coal Exchange Bldg., Wilkes-Barre. Garlin to Broadcast Gordon Case Tonight The activities of the Military Or- der of the World War, Key Men of America, and other professional patriotic organizations will be dis- cussed by Sender Garlin, of The DAJLY WORKER staff, from Sta- tion WEVD tonight at 10:40, He will talk on “David Gordon and the Dollar Patriots.” For having written a satirical poem, “America,” Gordon, 18-year- old-member of the Young Workers (Communist) League is now serving a three-year sentence in the New York County Reformatory. At the time his conviction was sustained by the Court of Appeals, Gordon was a student at the University of Wis- consin, to which he had won a Zona Gale scholarship for literary promise. Coal Barons of Eatered as second-class matter PICKETING GROWS 1S HUGE STRIKE SECOMES BITTER Vill Committees Help Hungry Family | NEW BEDFORD, Mass., April 23. -As the 30,000 striking textile work- here, whose miserable wages ever finds them more than two weeks thead of actual starvation, used up the last week’s wages that they had | received from their work in the mills, the numbers turning out to patrol the mill gates were heavier than at any time since last Monday morning, when the strike began. A great difference was also ap- parent in the temper displayed by the strikers. While picketing last Mon- day was more in the spirit of a demonstration of power and strength, the sentiment expressed by yester- day’s turnous of pickets was of a far more serious kind. Bitter determina- tion to win the fight against the mill owners replaced the more carefree en- thusiasm of last week. Pickting More Organized. | The picketing also took on a more | conscious, organized form as the call }of the Textile Mill Committee for picket demonstrations at all plants ‘threatening to resume operations, was obeyed by the strikers. In this the plans of the leaders of the American Federation of Textile Operatives are a letely disregarded by the workers. 1e strikers, massed around the open gates of several mills, soon compelled them to shut again. While the Workers’ International Relief, 1 Union Square, New York City, an organization that raised hun- dreds of thousands of dollars for aid to the Passaic textile strikers, is pre- paring to establish its relief machinery in New Bedford, the Tex- tile Mill Committees have already be- gun to give assistance to cases of im- mediate want. John Gula, striking weaver, a widower with his three (Continued on Page T'wo) CLOAK CHAIRMEN RAP SCHLESINGER Vote to Continue Fight Against Right Wing Representatives at a shop chair- men’s conference, delegated by the workers in over 400 shops in the cloak and dress industry, have decided by an overwhelming majority to re- new the struggle against the right wing administration of the Interna- jtional Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, whose war against the pro- gressive elements in the organization has been going on for more than 18 months. The result has been the wrecking of many organizations thru- out the country. The conference, held under the aus- | pices of the Committee of Fifty Cloak and Dressmakers at Webster Hall, 11th St. and Third Ave., Saturday night. In voting almost unanimously for a renewal of the fight against the union-smashing clique supported by ithe “Forward,” the delegates ex-| pressed their conviction that the con-; vention of the International, which is| to open soon in Boston, will not de-| cide to end the war in the union, will! not unite the organization, nor will the convention begin a fight for the! MINERS ISSUE NEW CALL Save-Union Forces to Spread the Strike Special to The DAILY WORKER) “ J ril 23.—Calling for the spreading of the strike in the organized fields from which 15,000 miners have already poured out to join the ranks of the progressives, the Save-the-Union Committee has circulated ¢ PITTSBURGH, Ap: 100,000 printed leaflets in every dis-' trict. John Brophy, chairman, John J. Watt, vice chairman, and Pat Tédohey, secretary of the committee sign the call. Widespread Response, “On April 16,” the message reads, sition is typical of a great many so-|“at the call of the Save-the-Union ‘ | Committee, 15,000 miners Inid down (Continued on Page Five) i | their tools in West Virginia, and in Somerset, Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene Counties in Pennsylvania, “Many mines are already shut down NEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1928 NEW TERROR SWEEPS MINE FIELDS Textile Walkout Starts in Earnest at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., ander the act of March 3, 1879. ed daily exeept 5 ing Association, Inc., 38 First Street, New York, N. Y, RUSH AID NOW! THE DAILY WORKER. FINAL CITY EDITION iny by The National Daily Worker Price 3 Cents as Last Pay Goes “Food Will W veneer eoeerecitens se ena, ke” uabor bs The above picture shows that Cleveland has begun to respond to the urgent need of the miners. But only the smallest fraction of the relief which must be secured in far come in. John L. Lewis has shut off assistance to thousands now striking under the leadership of the Save-the-Union forces. Nearly ten thausand tents are now a already evicted. Women and children literally face starvation. Labo Penn-Ohio Relief Committee, 611 Penn Ave., Pitts burgh. A RRR OT eR Must Act! wm (CLUBS, GUNS AND BOMBS ARE USED IN TROOPER FURY Lewis Machine Aids in, Attack on Miners (Special to The Daily Worker) PITTSBURGH, April 23—A reign of terror such as has probably never | before taken place in industrial wam | fare in America is now in progress | in west Pennsylvania, Illinois and | West Virginia, in those sections | especially in which the Save-the- | Union forces are in charge of the strike activities among the miners. | Here the forces of the “law” are receving the assistance of the Lewis | officials in their campaign of terror.. Civil liberties have broken down so; completely that even the mention ef the words is a mockery. Meetings are broken up with no more explana- tion or regard than similar acts are committed during a siege of war. Wo- men, children, the sick and the infirm fare equally at the hands of the “legal bandits” who now roam over the mine districts ruling with clubs, guns and tear bombs. Hospitals Crowded, Hospitals in Washington county, Pennsylvania are crowded with strikers, their wives and children who were seriously injured when constab- ound and es and iron police on sey- eral occasions charged upon groups Of pickets, rearing Shcir hatete and) clubbing indiscriminately, smashing skulls and breaking bones. Many. other injured miners are in the jails on various charges where they are not even receiving any medical atten- tion whatsoever, The following inci- order to win the strike has thus dire necessity to shelter those r must act. Wire funds to the MINE STRIKE, NEEDLE | Three hundren men, women and? children are needed at once to co- operate in the Miners’ Tableau to; be presented at the May Day dem-| jonstration at Madison Square Gar-| | jden. The next rehearsal will be held tomorrow night at 8 o'clock} | {at Irving Plaza, 15th St. and Ir- ving Place. | Workers (Communist) Party or-| ganizers are urged to emphasize | the vital necessity of mobilizing) comrades for this extremely im- portant part of the May Day pro- gram. TRADES, MAY 1 FEATURE of many labor organizations together with the Workers (Communist) Party. the opening of the International La- JOIN BIG STRIKE. Gold and Hyman To Speak. ren Union, Louis Hyman, manager, Joint PITTSBURGH, Pa., April 23.—Ten moreland county by the end of this The needle trades and the miners’ struggles will be featured at the | May Day meeting to be held in Madison Square Garden under the auspices ! —————-® The struggle of the needle trades 10 000 MINERS T0 {workers is reaching a high point with | 5 |dies’ Garment Workers’ convention in {Boston May 7. At the May Day meeting Ben Gold, manager, Joint Board of the Furriers’ 4 Board of the Cloak and Dressmakers’ Progressives Report on Union and J. Borochowitz will sound Great Movement : thousand unorganized miners will swell the total already out in West- week, according to John Watt of Springfield, Il now organizing for the “Save-the-Union” Committee in the non-union fields of western Pennsylvania with Anthony P. Miner- ich, Powers Hapgood, Ella “Reeve Bloor and scores of other organi“ers. It is estimated that there are 20,000 miners now-on strike in the four unorganized counties, Watt declared that he has never| ¢——— experienced so much enthusiasm for|the note of militant struggle ag organization as he finds among the!class collaboration and company | exploited slaves of the coal barons|unionism. They will point out the | of Westmoreland county.” The rank|way for the workers to follow in the | and file miners are showing a re-|present situation and will tell how to markable facility on learning the|rebuild a powerful union controlled BERT MILLER, Organization Secretary, Dist. 2. 4 . | | must eat. Starvation is literally be-| ‘men and children are now dependent dents which all took place within one week are typical occurrences in the | war now being waged on the Pennsyl- vania miners, Last Monday police suddenly at- tacked a peaceful group of 150 pick- ets who were on their way home from the picket line. Six men were report- ed injured and fourteen were subse- IS MINERS’ PLEA —— quently arrested on charges of um Body Urges Labor to |lewtul assemblage, conspiracy anda i a riot. Save Brothers 2 (Special to The Daily Worker) PITTSBURGH, April 23. — “Save the Miners so that they may save their union,” is the new call of the Penn- Ohio Miners Relief committee in an urgent appeal to the labor movement to come to the assistance of the hun- dreds of thousands of strikers now out for nearly thirteen months. “Thousands of men, women and children have been forced out into the| fields. Send money for tents. Ten} thousand are needed. They must not | be left to live without shelter. They} “FOOD WILL WIN” Injure Others. Four more strikers were badly tm jured Tuesday when 400 strikers and their wives who were on their way to picket the non-union mine at Fred- (Continued on Page Two) AWAIT VERDICT IN MINEOLA CASE Plan Fight to Save Nine Militant Furriers The nine furrier victims fn the Mineola frame-up case whose sen- tences of from two and a half to five ‘i & oy vas tained by a recent ded- upon this committee alone for their |Ye8"S Was sus mits very lives. The labor movement must aves: ieee Appellate Division of the not let them die. Wire funds to 611/5,Preme Court, together with scores Pein aves Piaeburoh: Pa: jof members of the Joint Board Fur- , anaes |riers’ Union, waited in vain at the R union office yesterday for the out- Negro EscapesLynching come of their attorneys’ attempt to {secure permission to appeal the case HAZELHURST, Miss., April 23.—|to the Court of Appeals. In spite of Green Kirk, convicted Negro slayer,|®" official announcement made by the p|Judge before whom the hearing is fore them. There never was such a need before this. “Relief has been completely shut off from thousands under the leadership | of progressive forces. These men, wo- | technique of organization. The'r! fighting spirit is excellent and the women are participating in the task of organization with as much en- thusiasm as the men. Several mass} meetings are held daily in halls and in the open air. | Eviction notices are being pre- pared by the coal operators, and by} the end of the month hundreds of} striking mmers will be threatened| with eviction from their homes. A} new wave of evictions is sweeping! thruout the old strike regions of Pennsylvania. In Avella, an insur-| gent stronghold, eight families were} given a final five-day notice last) Saturday to leave their homes. A} committee from the local union in-| yolved visited Pat Fagan, president of District Five, and requested assist- altogether. Others are following rap- idly. The strike is spreading rapidly. The strike is spreading everywhere, “Miners, now is the time to act. Strike to establish a union, to raise _ (Continued on ae Five) ance. e asked the committee on what side of the inter-union struggle they stood and when informed that they supported the progressive side he shook his head and said he could (Continund on Page Five) by the workers. Among the other speakers will be Scott Nearing, William Z. Foster, Y. PAYROLLS PADDED (Continued on Page Five) N. Tammany Bosses Cheat Jobless Workers The circumstances surrounding the suspension of 19 foremen in the New York Street Cleaning Department for payroll padding not only shows how Mayor Walker’s administration Pied public funds, but shows also the extent to which Tammany Hail mis-@———~-——-—— represented the number of relief jobs |"®"Y thousands of mneploy ed work- given to unemployed workers during /or* ate Pera rhe Me pgcl ie her ecetee ds att wine, ‘the so-called relief payroll of the city Four other Tammany, Hall foremen |wore fictitious and that foremen and in the Bronx have been held for trial |eynerintendents appointed by Mayor on charges of forgery and grand lar-| Walker's machine or at the mayor's ceny for similar payroll padding on | personal request were pocketing thou- city snow shoveling. sands of dollars that were supposedly Tammany Hall announced repeat-|being paid out as niggardly wages edly last, winter that it was hiring (Continued on Page Two) n escaped death when a lynching mo! seeking him in the county jail found ‘that he had been taken elsewhere. It is believed that an appeal granted to Kirk incited the mob. taking place that he would make a decision yesterday, none was forth- jeoming. It is believed that the de- cision will be made public today, A new element entered into the |fight of the Joint Board of the Fux riers’ Union to rescue the nine works ers from long prison terms. The two employers who had begun the pro- ceedings in Long Island by claiming that the nine furriers had attacked a scab shop they were operating, also filed a damage suit several days ago demanding $100,000 damages from the Joint Board. The suit was brot in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. Organizing Defense, The Furriers’ Committee for the Defense of the Mineola Prisoners, who together with the Joint Defense and Relief Committee is developing @ mass movement of protest for the re lease of the victims announced that the conference they called recently will be held Thursday evening, at the headquarters of the Joint Cloakmakers’ Union, 16 W. 2ist