The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 7, 1928, Page 2

BON tpe, wl Page Two THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, MAY 7, 1928 ‘ National Miners’ Relief Committee Aids 250 Local Unions in Coal Fields WILL INTENSIFY EVER UNDERTAKEN ived from organ Formerly Pennsylvania- \ special appeal for an energetic iptions to The s just been re- a e 4 in workers Bedford. thousand textile workers from seores of New Bedford textile URGE ONE DO mills have been on strike for three weeks,” the appeal states. ‘These workers are carrying on a most militant struggle against the ten per cent wage cut which the textile barons have attempted to force them to accept. “Men, women and even the chil-- dren have shown themselves one hundred per cent solid behind the Textile’ “Mill Committees who aré , organizing them for aggressive ac- tion agaist their class enemies in the stfike, in spite of the attempts of the corrupt union officialdom to crush the workers’ spirit by re- fusals to picket and failure to give aid. “The DAILY WORKER has been a constant source of encouragement and militant guidance to these LLAR SUBS TO DAILY WORKER FOR TEXTILE STRIKERS strikers,” the appeal goes on. “The striking textile workers know that The DAILY WORKER is the one English labor daily which defends them and their interests. They are learning that their national labor daily is fighting side by side with them in their struggle against the | bosses. “Special efforts must be made to bring the special one dollar’ sub- scription to the textile strikers of New Bedford. The greatest effort must be made to bring ‘the unusual eut rate offer which the DAILY WORKER is making to bring the workers’ press within the reach of all the workers. The one dollar subscription brings The DAILY WORKER to every striker for two months. Send a subscription to a textile striker.” textile Ohio Organization Oil Bribery ISSUE GALL FOR ILLINOIS SAVE- THE-UNION MEET Local F1 a unts Orders of Machine Oil Magnate “Excused” in Gigantic {Special to The DAILY WORKE | (Continued from Page One) soe Harry F. Sinclair, i ee TTSBUR ‘ |be effected at the proposed conven- Raa tae 3 ein | millionaire oil mag- | | eF eae ee MacVonaid, tormer | le ; urer of the United Mine ; nate, was ‘recently OF LABOR FAKERS | The text of the convention call fol- Mac America in Illinois; James B. Central P seve: other well- the trade union movi executive committee Miners the Penn- ief Commit- m. Relief Commit sylvania-Ohio M tee, The Natio s’ Relief C mittee 1 relief to local unions whose members are strike in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indi West V ia and Kansas, well a is ALBANY, N. Y., May 6—W nesses propped up on pillows while “too ill” to testify in court are be- ing the fashion nowadays in trials of corrupt officials. Yesterday Charles H. Smith, brother of Mrs | Knapp, former republican sec-| y of state on trial here for grand} larceny of census funds testified in his room at the Hotel Hampton. Got Nothing, He Says. decided at a re meeting of tl f . sae executive committee of the Pennsyl - ~ ~ number already out in Pennsylvania and Ohio has made the enlargement workers and their dependents. Powers Hapgood, John Watt of IIli- tee. 3! Wagenknecht declared that the) relief *committees, youth committees The same progedure, apparently children’s committees, Negro commit-j had been followed in the case of sev. field will be increased ten-fold Wag- found its way to Mrs. Knapp. enknecht says and hundreds of addi-| One character witness testified for to striking unorganized miners The change of name and the broad ening out of the ef work was vania-Ohio Miners’ Relief Committee Great Need. Alfred Wagenknecht, relief direc- tor of the committee, in a public in- terview, stated that the addition of NTi E TODAY thousands of striking miners to the of the relief committee necessary More Relatives Testify Wagenknecht was in charge of relief for the great Passaic strike which About Graft lasted over a year and during whict half a million dollars was raised t feed and clothe the striking textile nois, Davey Jones of Bicknell, diana, Ben Davis of Bicknell, Ind and William’ Boyce of Clinton ar among those who have agreed t serve as members of the executive of the National Miners’ Relief Commit present relicf needs activity are the| ; most widespread ever undertaken in| Secording to the census records. But American labor history. { r i All workingclass groups will be| despite the fact that his name was called on to render the utmost assist-| endorsed to the checks, he did not get ance to the striking miners. Women’s!a cent of the proceeds. tees, shop and factory committees and} erg] other relatives who testified collection groups in local unions of| earlier in the week. Thus ar, it has the American Federation of Labor arc| been revealed that out of $24,000 in included in the aan gsi of the Na-' checks made out to relatives, none tional Miners’ Relief Committee. of whom performed any service in the The number of organizers in the! census, at least $16,000 of this sum ee wines ye pas bs | Bs) inapp after the defense opened in house-to-house collections. poate -peaverday, | Terror Fails to Stop ‘SENATE FAILS TQ Picketing by Miners, ar sie icectg | a number of scabs, The men are be-{ ing forced to clean out their own' dead-work, lay their tracks and. put] up their own props without extra pay. The operators believe that they have found the most effective way to wipe out the union. General attempts to expel all those miners who went as delegates to the Save-the-Union convention in Pitts- burgh have failed, but president and | seeretary of the Orient Local have | been ousted, together with the remain- ing delegates to the April 1 confer- | ence. In spite of the. theft of the lo- eal charter and seal by the sub dis- trict and the forced election of Lewis WASHINGTON, May 6.—When the American Federation of Labor offi- | cials came before the senate judiciary for the use of injunctions in labor disputes to the protection solely of “tangible and transferable property,” the lawyers for the manufacturing, railroad, coal, electric power and other basic industries replied that this plan was unconstitutional. They said it violated the right of private property of all kinds to protection from the courts in case of emergency. ‘They pleaded that the values back of stocks henchmen s rt of the prog Ives '!and bonds must be safeguarded by by the rank and file has zed | preventing “intimidation” of strike- the Fishwick gang so that they have|breakers ‘employed on properties not yet dared to call a meeting. |against which these securities are is- Attempts to expel the whole local at | sued. * ville... ‘with »mbe } 1000, which also sent delegates to}, THe Senate judiciary subcommittee 2000, , cgates t0/has listened to abundant testimony the Save-thi om somtarence, “Haye | | a vings tie reel fon W Aeneree GP’ thie completely failed, aie’ workers against injunction judges. It 1. 4 {has not made progress, to date, in Calif. Youth Organize | - To Fight Militarism drafting any plan. It feigns to be skeptical of its ability to get past the constitutional argument in the federal ‘supreme court, BERKELEY, Calif, May 6—Fol- lowing a conference of about 50 labor and student delegates called to fight against military training, definite Armed Scabs Shoot at steps have been taken to organize th Kenosha Hose Strikers California Council Against Military (Continued from Page One) Training. The organization -has ; Giipied 2 program Ugsi all forme Police /i9 prontey baad ‘gues elle of militarization of the American|*‘tikers, since the mill owners were 2 ei pe sending details of thugs in automo- youth, including the Reserve Officers’; . A ; gS sad aaes bjles to throw bricks thru the win- Train’ng Corps, the Citizens’ Militar; et ’ Meaining Cambs, the National Guar. dows of the striking workers’ homes. eth n Charged With “Contempt.” and state militia. An executive com- ; f ‘ Tie ef 16. was elected, some of Despite the acquittal of 26 strikers f canes and leaders of the American Federa- whom are prominent trade-unionists |. * * ands campaign will be carried on|%°" of Full Fashioned Hosiery Work- chiefly among workingclass organiza. | °"" Ly recent jury. verdict holding tions against militarism. In addition inate et guilty oe Weohrget¥ 0 % aa @ ataté advisory committee is being for violating the anti-strike injune- . : tien. the labor-hating Allen-A Com- oy gelled | candi his pany has already secured’ warrants 4 4 Yor the arrest of many more leading = ae postal Aaa ag D strikers. They are to appear in the ales “| Milwaukee federal court to answer to “contempt” charges. POPULATION OF CANADA. OTTAWA, May 6.—The population of Canada was 9,519,000 on June 1, . 1927, according to an estimate made by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, + The mill owners are resorting to every means placed at their disposal by the city administration, which is controlled by the anti-labor Nash Motor Company. The sum of $4,711 was paid to him | on cross-examination he testified that! committee a few months ago, asking | 3 freed on charges of conspiracy after evi- : dence in connection with the lease of Tea- pot Dome had piled 2 up against him. Photo shows him leaving senate office building, Washington, D. .C., with one of his law- yers, after testifying before the senate public lands commit. tee. What if Knapp Took a Little Honest Graft? | QOLIDARITY of sex was vigor- | ously advocated at a recent | meeting of the Women’s Division of | the First Assembly District of | Brooklyn called for the purpose of ; giving financial aid to Mrs. Flor- | ence E. S. Knapp, former repub- lican seeretary of. state, who fell from the paths of rectitude. She is on trial in Albany now charged with merely using part of the $1,200,000 census fund of 1925 | for her own'uses. Refreshments were served at the {| meeting which was presided over by Mrs. Bessie Crafer, chairman of the | women’s division. Speakers at the meeting, according to fugitive re- ports, quoted the Bible and other | historical documents to prove that | Mrs. Knapp was a victim of cir- cumstances. In fact, one of them declared, it was because of her unfamiliarity | with public affairs and not because | of dishonesty that she got into a jam, “Some of the members seemed to think that there was no more graft in the work of the census than in | many other political positions,” said | Miss Charlotte E. Leavett of 50 | Pineapple St., a tolerant lady who | spoke. “Some of the members even TO CLOSE DOORS Mill Committees Extend Aid to More Strikers (Continued from Page One) clared that all it had in the treasury was $65.25. The Relief Station of the Textile Mill Committees, are daily increasing the amount of relief given out, to a continually larger number of strikers. } Picketing of the mill gates by hun- dreds of strikers still continues under} the leadership of .the Textile Mill Committees. The Textile Council heads are still refusing to permit pieketing of the mills despite the fact that the mill committee pickets prevented a small force of strike- breakers from entering the Whitman Mill to complete a special order for the mill owners, as they stated later to local papers. 5 Children Participate. The strikers’ children organized in- to the Childrens’ Strike Clubs are participating daily in the picket’ demonstrations, The Childrens’ Clubs, organized by the Mill Committees and the Workers’ International Re- lief, are receiving the whole-hearted endorsement of the adult strikers. They realize that children not under- standing the meaning of the strike, and suffering from hunger, can be one of the greatest forces for shatter- ing the morale of a strike. Or- ganized into .clubs where- they ‘are taught class consciousness thev can be just as great a power to maintain solidarity. “Especially asthe schools the children attend continually tell them to tell their parents to. stop striking, as some of the children re- ported at their club meetings,” the childrens’ parents point out: | YOUNG MINERS 70 ATTEND CLASSES Some of the most militant young | asserted that if Mrs. Knapp got a little honest graft. it was nothing ; More than most politicians of the | male gender get,” Miss Leavett said, citing mitigating cireum- stances. At the conclusion of the meeting it was voted to send $50 to Mrs. | Knapp for the purpose of cheering | up her lawyer. A seyies of card | parties are being: planned by the | pokes ladies to help the defense ‘und. \N. Y. Factory Payrolls Hit Record Low Mark ALBANY, N. Y., May 6.—Weekly | payrolls in the factories of New York | state were-lower during the first three | months of this year than for a similar | period of any year since the industrial si according to sta- tistics made public reeently by State Industrial Commissioner James A. Hamilton. BIGGEST MI | By HARVEY O'CONNOR.’ EW BEDFORD, Mass., May 6 (FP)—Rarely have textile barons . presented a poorer case for wage reduction than in New Bedford, where the manufacturers’ associa- tion is trying to force a 10 per cent cut on 380,000 fine goods cotton workers. Whatever may be the fi- nancial position of the coarse goods mills throughout New England, suf- fering from southern competition, authorities are well agreed "that there is no economic justification for the New Bedford mill owners’ savage slash at workers’ living standards. Labor Bureau, Inc., has made a study of the local industry. This investigation shows that 1927 was the banner year for the city’s fine cotton cloth output—shirtings, nov- elty weaves, cotton-silk and cotton- rayon mixtures—and that a 10 per cent increase in output had been registered over 1918, the previous record year, State labor department statistics told the story of low earnings, miners from the anthracite region of Pennsylvania -will be chosen to at- tend the Young Workers Summer School to be held this summer in the city of New York for the purpose of training a large group of young workers in the theory and practise of the class struggle. This school, under the direction of the Young Workers (Communist) League is only one of a whole series of full-time, four-week summer schools’ planned by the Communist youth for this summer. It will in- clude young people from New York, and from a number of cities in New Jersey, from Philadelphia and the surrounding region, and from the an- thracite coal region. A conference of all labor and fraternal organizations interested in the education of the working class youth is called for Sunday afternoon, May 20, at the Workers Center, 26-28 Union Suare. It is expected that a large number of labor organizations will respond to demonstrate their in- terest in and support of the New York Young Workers’ Training School. averaging $19.95 in 1927 but drop- pimg to $19 for the first three months of this year. With the 10 per cent wage slash directed by employers, the wage offered for 48 hours hard monotonous toil would have been $17.10. Labor de- partment figures show this to be less than half of the budget needed to keep a worker’s family at mini- mum-health and decency standards. 2 8 # ALtHoucn miserly wages force workers to send their wives and children into the mills to scrape together enough for a living, the mill owners, thank you; have done quite nicely. Twenty-two mill com- | panies carry a surplus of $19,000,- 000; 18 companies paid dividends of $2,100,000 last year; in the past 10 years, companies have handad |. out $32,000,000 in cash dividends, in addition to $17,330,000 in stock dividends, upon which profits must be paid forever mare, ‘ * * CONOMISTS from the trade journsls agree with labor’s econ- a pid Lejeune Talks = general Bring Actors Under eae’ Photo shows firemen fighting a stroyed many homes in workingclass blaze in Catskill, N. Y., which de- neighborhoods. on God, Guns and Nicaragua ILWAUKEE, Wis., May 6— “God’s ways in Nicaragua were explained to the American Legion by. Major General Lejeune of the United States marine corps last night. “The Nicaraguan people need help,” said the distinguished major- general. The audience, which had finished a large supper in Mil- waukee, did’ not smile any more than did the general. “The marines are not,” the major- went on, that lump of pathos beginning to rise in his throat, “the marines are not in Nic- aragua to take the widow’s mite.” And, as the expectant audience awaited his alternative report on | the canal railroad—and mining concessions they would take, the pious devil-dog, having in mind the story of the man who fell. among thieves, suddenly lept to this para- ble. “The Nicaraguan people need help, and the marines,” he voci- ferated, raising one hand’ to heaven, “are doing ‘god’s’ work in playing the good Samaritan in Nicaragua, The American Legion continued to applaud him ‘after he had sat down. Compensation Law ALBANY, May 6.—The New York State Supreme Court Has ruled that a performer in a theatre is a worker and entitled to compensation under the state law. This decision was made| by the appellate ‘division in the case of a professional ice-skater, who, in- jured during his act, was refused compensation by the Travellers’ In- surance Company. The state industrial board held that since the theatre management could! direct the skater as to the time of! his performance and could lengthen} or shorten his act, the relation of. employer and employe existed’ and that he was entitled to compensation LL PROFITS IN YEAR 1927) ‘Wage Cut Follows Huge Mellon Cut, Textile Probe Shows omists. M. D. C. Crawford, style editor of Fairchild Publications, publishers of the standard textile and clothing dailies of the trade, is bitter in his’ condemnation of New Bedford’s manufacturers. High lights in Crawford’s findings ~re: 1, The wage cut can have no possible effect on the market in eutting New Badford costs. Over- head, raw material, cost of, selling and style. mistakes are dominant cost considzrations, not wages. 2. Not one New Bedford manu- facturer has a modern point of view, either on styling fine cotton goods or selling them. New Bed- ford’s methods are archaic; her manufacturers incompetent. In- telligent, management would mean: that New Beford would be above domestic co: etition. Trade autuorities agree that fine goods competition to New Bedford will be strengthened in Fall River and other New England’ points. They also report New York dealers inquiring in the south _ whether mills can supply the fancy cloths. Py 4 ‘Street cleaning department. BROUN GETS THE BATE ONCE MORE World Says $500-a-Week Writer Is “Disloyal” Heywood Broun, columnist for the! New York World has again lost his job. Ralph Pulitzer, his boss, wrote go him a special de- livery letter Satur- day telling him so after he read Broun’s weekly article in The Na- tion in which he urged the estab- lishment of “a libe- ral paper’and criti- cized the World for its vacillating editorial policy. In discharging Broun, Pulitzer said that this “dis- loyalty makes further association with the World impossible.” This is the second time that Broun has fallen out with his boss. The first! time occurred during the height of the Sacco-Vanzetti agitation when the World refused to print one of his articles. On January 1, however, Broun, unable to resist the $500 week- ly which the new contract provided | returned to his desk. He received the| promise that his stuff would not be censored “except where general poli-| cies of the paper were concerned.” Yesterday Broun in a statement! ruefully complained that when he} tried to resign last August following his Sacco-Vanzetti articles “they spoke to me of the sacredness of con- tracts. Now the World, without no- tice, has gruffly torn up the scrap ot paper on the charge of ‘disloyaity’.” REVEALS GRAFT IN STREET CLEANING McGeehan Suppressed Facts, Is Charge That a gigantic system of fraud in the New York street cleaning depart- ment has existed for years is charged by William J. Lougheed, who was re- cently suspended, as foreman of the street cleaning garage in the Bronx. Over $10,000,000 of the city’s money has found its way into the pockets of grafting job-holders in the depart- ment, ho says, : In a statement made at the office of his attorney, I. M. Sackin, Lougheed charges that District Attor- ney McGeehan of the Bronx refused to listen to ils about the whole net- work of graft and corruption prevail- ing in the street cleaning department and lost interest as soon as he sue- ceedd in getting Lougheed indicted. Soon “he will publish , affidavits Lougheed says, that will reveal graft- ing “in the removal of refuse by the street cleaning department trucks— refuse which should be removed by private trucks; thefts of money from the city through fraud in the delivery rof gasoline to the garages, shake- downs of persons who would save money by having their ashes and other waste removed by street cleaning employes.” ‘ Lougheed says there is a “dummy list” of oover 100 names which are used for padding the payrolls in the ee Heywood Broun ee lows: < “Belleville, Ill., April 30, 1928. “To All Local Unions and Members of District No. 12, United Mine Workers of America, “GREETINGS: “The district Save-the-Union Com- mittee is hereby calling a special con- vention of District No. 12, U. M. W. of A., to convene at Belleville, Ill., May 19, 1928,,10 a. m. “The purpose of this convention will be to work out a program to meet the deep crisis which has been brought upon the union by the incom- petence and corruption of the Fish- wick administration, to place the union in control of the rank and file membership and remove the bankrupt officialdom. “The miners’ union faces destruc- tion at the hands of the coal opera- tors. “The Pennsylvania and Ohio min- ers have been on strike for thirteen months, fighting off the attempts of the operators to crush the union. They have been left to fight this battle alone. “In Illinois separate temporary agreements of various kinds have been signed by the Fishwick machine. The members were not permitted to vote upon these temporary agree- ments which have given away all con- ditions. won thru the hard struggles of the past. “This separate agreement policy was begun by Frank Farrington while he was on the payroll of the Peabody Coal Company in 1922. This present policy was not authorized by the In- ternational or district conventions, nor was it put up to a referendum vote of the membership. 4 “The Illinois coal operators have signed these separate temporary agreements with the hope of first de- stroying the union in Pennsylvania and Ohio and as soon as this is done to begin wage cuts here and break the union in Illinois. | “The whole policy of the bankrupt Lewis-Fishwick machine is one of de- struction of the union. In 1922 the union fields produced 70 per cent of all coal mined. Today the union fields produce less than 30 per cent while almost 300,000 union members have been lost. “To maintain itself in control of the union Lewis-Fishwick machine have resorted to expulsions of the militant rank and file members, ex- pelling local unions and whole dis- tricts, suppressed progressives voices stealing of votes, packing of conven- tions, and on top of it all, piled up tremendous salary and padded ex- pense accounts for themselves and their appointed henchmen while the miners are starving. “The Lewis-Fishwick machine will not call special conventions to con- sider this emergency, in the miners’ ‘anion and take steps to remedy it, They have crushed all democracy and they are now resorting to mass ex- pulsions, hence we miners must act. Must Work Out New Policies. “The District No. 12 special con- vention called by the Save-the-Union Committee, will elect temporary offi- cials from the rank and file who are for the rank and file and will take care of the interests of the ‘union! The special district convention must work-out new policies in line with the interest of the membership. It must work towards helping win the Pennsylvania and Ohio strike, to fight for a nationa] agreement, to fight against wage cuts, to fight for the or- ganization of the unorganized, to fight for the six-hour day, five-day weck, to fight for control of loading machine operation, to fight for aboli- tion of penalty clauses and the dock- ing system and to fight for the build- ing of a real miners’ union which wid establish real conditions for the me@ine bers. “Tn the unorganized fields the men who were betrayed by the’ Lewis ma- chine in 1922 are coming out on strike and are organizing under the leadew ship of the Save-the-Union Commit- tee, They are cail’ng their own cop- ventions under the banner of the Save-the-Union Committee and will not accept the leadership of the Lewis machine. : “Thruout the ovganized districts the rank and file members are hold- ing special conventians to take con- trol of the union. This is a great na- tional movemerit. “The rank and file membership have demanded this special convention. The delegates to, this convention. Send the credentials to the sevretary of Dis- trict No. 12, Save-the-Union Commit- tee, 128A W. Main St, Belleville, Il. , “Fraternally yours, “For rank and file will rule it. Elect your. }