The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 18, 1928, Page 1

is INTEREST IN WORKERS PARTY CONVENTION IS INTENSE | THE DAILY WORKER. | Gam DAWY WORKER FicHTs, | | FCR THE ORGANZATION OF THR UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK | __FoR A canon ranty FOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. V. No. 117. STRIKE IS A MASS PROTEST AGAINST SPEED-UP SYSTEM Movement May Spread to Standard Oil (Special to The Daily Worker) BAYONNE, N. J., May 17.—Over 2,500 unorganized workers in the re- fineries of the Tidewater Oil Co., at Constable Hook, Bayonne, have gone out on a spontaneous s in pro- test against the inhuman speed-up and slave conditions imposed on the oil workers by the Tidewater firm. Prior to the strike, the workers were all members of a company controlled union. The strike is expected to spread to the Standard Oil plants, employing over 5,000 men. The strike was called at 4,30 p. m. on Wednesday, when 55 still men in Crude Still No. 1 walked out. The strike was directly precipitated by the action of the Tidewater firm in discharging John Rooney, a veteran pumpman, without a hearing before the Workers Council, composed of twelve men representing the workers and twelve representing the Tide- water. Over 500 workers joind the strike on the midnight shift. Twelve hundred workers who came to work yesterday morning refused to report when they were met at the gates by a strike committee and informed of the sirike decision. The only mer at work yesterday were 200 salaried employes. Compiaints that the Works Coun- cil was nothing but a blind for the company’s action in repeatedly re- doubling the speed-up have been made by the workers frequently. Among the contributing causes to the strike were the action of the Tidewater in demoting old employes, nearly eligible for a pension, to jobs for which greatly reduced wages were paid, thus enabling the company to cut the pension and also the insti- tution of a terrific speed-up by lay- ing off many thousands of workers, forcing each of the remaining work- ers to do the work of two or more; and the maintenance of a stool-pigeon system. STATES ELECTING THEIR DELEGATES Anthracite to Choose Representatives ATLANTA, Ga., May 17.—For the first time in the history of the Work- ers (Communist) Party a Communist state convention will be held in Georgia. On Monday delegates from all over the state will gather in At- lanta to nominate a state ticket and to elect delegates to the National Nominating Convention of the Party in New York City May 25. The dele- gates will receive the instructions of the state party on nominations for president and vice-president of the United States. This is the first time the Workers Party has gone so far below the Mason and Dixon line in an organized campaign. A feature of the state con- vention will be the presence of a dele mation of Negro miners from Ala bama. The delegation came here to stimulate miners’ relief, in which the Party has been active in Georgia and Alabama. China, Nicaragua. The National Nominating Conven- tion, which will open with a mass meeting at Mecca Temple on May 25 will outline a program of working- class struggle against American im- per:alism in China and against Wall Street’s war in Nicaragua, the na- tional office of the Workers (Com- munist) Party announced yesterday. The big auditorium will be turned into a place of demonstration in support of the toiling masses of China and Nica- ragua in the struggle for freedom. BOE ee Anthracite Elects Delegates. WILKES-BARRE, Pa., May 17.~ Workers (Communist) Party units in he anthracite sub-district will send Jelegates to a nominating conference _ + 206 South Main St., Wilkes-Barre 4 Tuesday, May 27th at 7 p. m. The purpose of the conference will ve to elect delegates to the State Con- ention to be held at Philadelphia on ursday, May 24th and to the Na- ing Ansociation, Inc., 38 First Street, New York, N. Y. pael hed daily except Sunday by The Nationa: Daily Wo-ker Emtered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥. NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1928 under the act of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $4.00 per year. FINAL CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents Centralia Victim Eugene Barnett, shown in the pic- ture, is one of the victims of Ameri- can elgss justice at Centralia. He is FISHT FOR UNION CONDITIONS NOW TAKES NEW FORM Militant Leaders Issue Statement The following statement was issued yesterday by the National Organiza- tion Committee of the Intrnational Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union to rebuild the union: “Brothers and Sisters! “Cloakmakers, Dressmakers and all other members of the I. L. G. W. U.! in Walla Walla, Wash., jail, serving ‘a sentence of from 20 to 40 years. Barnett was not in the Wobbly hall at the time of the attack but was seized in his home. A rifle, planted outside the town, was used as evi- dence to convict him. The story is on page 2. ludge Is Kind to Would beKullers “This*is an-American ‘court! You: fellows who don’t believe in God can’t make speeches in my court!” With this and similar remarks Judge Mul- queen in the Court of General Ses- sions yesterday began his continuous attempt to intimidate the witnesses testifying against the two hired thugs, on trial for murderously as- saulting Aaron Gross, left wing lead- Be of the furriers’ strike of 1927. Judge Aids Right Wing. After repeated interruptions of Gross, and the other three witnesses |while they were giving their testi- mony as eye-witnesses of the’ brutal attack, Mulqueen made it clear to the attorney of the gangsters that he would be receptive to a motion to dis- miss. He granted the motion when Samuel Markewitz, lawyer for the right wing fake fur union, quickly took advantage of the judge’s friend- ly assistance. The continued interjections made by the judge were so full of hatred against labor and especially the left wing, that the district attorney was moved to protest against his dis- criminatory tactics, All of this was in vain, however. After the four witnesses against Meyer Freedman and Abe Cohen, the two thugs, had been rapidly disposed of by the judge who conducted a (Continued on Page Five) CITY OFFICIALS GRAFT $200,000,000 Spandal Spreads to All Boroughs Padded payrolls, showing fictiti- ous names and addresses on a scale hitherto unsuspencted, graft and cor- ruption extending into every borough of the city and reaching totals which ,| will exceed $200,00,000 were yester- day disclosed in connection with the investigations of the Street Cleaning Department. Payroll padding graft rings in the Manhattan division of the Street Cleaning Department on a_ vastly larger scale than those disclosed in the Bronx will shortly be exposed, it was learned yesterday. Full respon- sibility for the huge looting enter- prises by the politicians of Tammany Hall was put up to Commissioner of of Fur Leader the Street Cleaning Department, Al- fred A. Taylor, who is believed to be the man “higher-up,” now re- ferred to as “the directing genius” of the graft ring. Attacks upon Commissioner Tay- lor came from a number of sources but the most direct charge eminated strangely, it might seem, from Con- troller Berry himself, who declared: “The head of the department should y age into the foreground further proof of “The time has come when we must begin to rebuild our shattered union, and with united ranks we must go forth to struggle against the exploi- tation of the bosses. The time has come to reestablish union control in the shops and to improve our living conditions. “The self-crowned leaders of the In- ternational are opposed to a united Union that will serve the interests of the workers. They want a ‘company union’ where the bosses will be the sole dictators of the shops. These bu- reaucrats have called together an as- sembly of their own henchmen in Bos- ton which they term a convention. “We, the representatives of the rank and file have from the very first placed | little hope in Sigman’s convention. Nevertheless, we came*to Boston be- cause we desired to unite the Union, to propose plans for construction work, and raise our organization out of the morass into which it was sunk | by the Sigman regime to the great misfortune of the thousands and thousands of workers. “But the International cliques have remained true to themselves to the very end. The Sigman, Dubinsky, Ninfo and Schlesinger cliques, who constituted the so-called convention, have surrounded themselves with a cordon of several hundred policemen who not only kept vigil over the union) bureaucrats but also: served as their| credential committee. Just as the po-| lice one year ago surrounded the Bos- ton prison when Sacco and Vanzetti; were murdered, so did the police sur-; round the meeting hall where sat the International cliques with their hench- men; and just as one year ago they drove away every worker whose heart bled for the fate of the innocent mar- tyrs, so every representative of the! workers who came to speak in the name of the vast masses was driven| from the hall. “The so-called convention has once more demonstrated that the workers annot expect anything from the clique of union bureaucrats. The so-called convention did not take a single earn- est step to unite the workers and im- prove their lives. All their time was spent in a mad seramble for power and jobs between the various groups. In their attacks on each other they were compelled to admit that the Union was ruined, that the conditions (Continued on Page Two) It Drives Bosses Frantic; Strikers’ Children Singing in Street Children of the New Bedford textile strikers have taken an active part in the struggle of their parents against the bosses. Marching thru the streets in strike demonstrations, the children, under the direction of the Textile Mill Committees and the Workers’ International Relief, have done much to keep up the firm spirit of their parents. This picture which shows a group of them singing, is by courtesy of the New Bedford Evening Standard. ————— WORKERS T0 FILL SQUARE FOR KUN Workers Party «Urges Mass Attendance Tomorrow at 1 p. m. in Union Square thousands of New York work- | ers will join with their fellow workers | throughout the world in demanding the immediate and unconditional re- lease of Bela Kun, Hungarian Com- munist leader, who is now held pris oner by the Austrian government. The arrest of Bela Kun and his threatened extradition into the bloody | hands of the Horthy-Bethlen regime of Hungary, where certain death awaits him, has aroused tremendous resentment among workers in every part of the globe. Protest meetings in various countries have thus far suc- ceeded in preventing the Austrian government from turning over the leader of the Hungarian workers to the Hungarian fascists. The meeting will be the largest of its kind since the Sacco-Vanzetti de- monstrations in Union Square last year. The New York section of the International Labor Defense, under whose auspices it is being held, has distributed thousands of leaflets and appealed thru numerous other chan- nels to the workers of New York to join in the movement to prevent the murder of Bela Kun by attending the | mass demonstration in Union Square, The release of Bela Kun will be de-| manded by many prominent leaders of the working class, who will speak in rotation from three platforms. The speakers will include Jay Lovestone James P, Cannon, William W. Wein- (Continued on Page Two) Amalgamated Officials Issue Tin Whistles (Special To The Dally Worker) CINCINNATI, O., May 17. — A more complete picture of the trans- formation of a former militant trade union into a close resemblance to an ficult to obtain than the convention ers Union, now in session here. A resolution calling for the aboli- tion of the vicious piece work system | from all the markets, another calling for the abolition of the speed up sys- tem by the establishment of a maxi- | mum standard of production, and a/¢ third asking that steps be taken to| obtain guarantees of 36 weeks’ work a | year went down to defeat without the voice of a single delegate raised in| defense of them. The first was de-| feated outright. The others wer killed by reference to the local Joint Boards. Manager Chatman of the Rochester Joint Board, chairman of the resolu- tions committee, reported that the committee recommended these progres- sive measures be defeated by the con- vention. + 8 8 After Sidney Hillman, president of the A. C. W., had declared that the workers cannot demand something the | eniployers cannot give, he asked: “Can you demand checks of one who has no money in the bank?” The convention | then voted down the resolutions. The | only remedy for all our ills, Hillman | said, is the various insurance schemes proposed. The action taken on these vital (Continued on Page Two) WORKING WOMEN TO MEET TOMORROW Weisbord to to Urge Union of ‘of Forces Jor Industrial St Struggle periences in the Passaic strike are once more being repeated in the struggle of 23,000 striking textile workers in New Bedford, will be the main speaker at the conference Sat- urday at 2p. m. at Irving Plaza, 15th St. and Irving Place. The meeting, called to organize the New York Working Women’s Federa- tion, will give special emphasis to is- sues in the textile center and to the intense struggle in the mine fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio, where thous- ands of workingclass women have been a backbone of support to the miners, braving police brutalities, tear gas bombs, jail terms, hunger and cold, to save the miners union from destruction by the coal operators and union reactionaries. * * * The Textile Committee of New Bedford, fighting for the demands of 27,000 unorganized workers, 40% of whom are women and girls, throws LBERT WEISBORD, whose ie] % ALBERT WEISBORD. the basic need for women to organ- ize their forces in every industry now controlled by the open-shop, union smashing, policies of big business, which has well learned how to cement ordinary company union would be dif- | EIGHT DENTAL Union Expectation tal Laboratory Workers’ Union were | arrested in Brooklyn yesterday, the | second day of the general strike of of the Amalgamated Clothing Work-|more than 1,000 dental mechanics These workers were arrested while picketing the dental laboratories of | | Place, |1111 St. John’s Place, both in Brook- | its power into gigantic trusts and corporations. Women in the candy factories, in biscuit plants, glove factories, dress shops, shirt and collar factories, laun- dries, stores, offices, and in all trades where women are now unorganized, and powerless to defend their inter- ests are sending in credentials for delegates to Saturday’s conference. The united forces of worsing wom- en in the New York Working Women’s Federation means another blow struck against the steady drive of employers to pit women against men workers in: beating down union standards. The new organization enters the field to fight in the interests of all working women on the industrial and political. field. } Bernard Krasnoff, 1045 St. John’s| and the Berger Laboratory, llyn. They were charged with disor-| derly conduct and attempted breaking in, and were paroled to appear in the Gates Ave. Court at 9 o’clock Monday morning. The strikers arrested are: R. Steranggseld, M. Poag, A. Schnei- jder, W. Boeppicher, H. Flynn, H. | Brodie: H. Wagner, and K. Daub. The workers demand a 44-hour week, time and a half for overtime, and the setting of a definite minimum wage scale. Picketing of the labora- tories still open is being extended by the strikers. According to a statement issued at the headquarters of the Dental Lab-| oratory Workers’ Union yesterday, | more laboratories have closed and| joined the strike, By tomorrow it is | expected that a 100 per cent clean sweep of all the shops in the city will have been achieved. CANNON TALKS ON FRAME-UP TONIGHT : Expect Big A Attendance at Irving Plaza The intense days of the Sacco-| Vanzetti demonstration will be de- seribed by James P. Cannon, secre- tary of the International Labor De- fense, at a lecture on this case and other frame-ups at Irving Plaza, Irv- ing Place and 15th St. at 8 p. m. tonight. The lecture, arranged by the New York Section of the I. L, D., 799 Broadway, will review the entire history of the American frame-up system, beginning with the Haymar- ket martyrs and including the Moyer- Haywood-Pettibone, Mooney-Billings and Sacco-Van} **’s.ses- and the trial of Greco @ ‘Mo. In each instance he wi it the back- ground of the class sucusgle that gave rise to the frame-ups and point out their significance to the American workers, Juliet Stuart Poyntz will preside. In addition to the lecture, a three months’ subscription to the Labor De- fender, organ of the International Labor Defense, will be given free with each ticket of admission, STRIKERS HELD 100% Out Tomorrow, Is Eight pickets of the striking Den- Kuomintang War Lords Push Their ir Way to "Peking Call to / Action Ts Issued By National Cloak Committee WORKER-PEASANT ARMY TAKES CITY IN CANTON DRIVE Japanese Imperialists Rush Troops SHANGHAI, May 17.—The van- | guard of the Shansi troops, coopera- | ting with General Chiang Kai-shek, is | reported to have reached the town of -Cbkng Sin-tin, seven miles southwest lof Peking. According to the official | news agency of the Nanking regime, |the Shansi troops took the city of Paotingfu, eighty miles south of Peking, Monday and Chochow, fifty miles further north, several days later. ee ce TOKYO May 17.—Preparations to “protect its interests” in Manchuria as well as to increase the Japanese military forces at Peking and Tient- sin were made by the Japanese Gov- ernment today. A squadron of airplanes has been ordered to proceed from Japan to Tientsin, while a brigade of infantry which had been sent from Dairen to Shantung on May 4th was ordered to return to Manchuria.: The Japanese Government has made it clear that it will not permit the Kuomintang armies, under generals Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yu-hsiang to enter Manchuria. Saas LONDON, May 17.—The advance guard of the Kuomintang army was reported only seven miles southwest lof Peking and ready to enter the | suburbs, according to a despatch re- jceived here from Peking tonight. (Continued on Page Three) EVIDENCE PILES UP ON AL SMITH Contributors Connected | With Traction While backers of the Al Smith boom yesterday congratulating them- selves on the favorable impression which they believe was created by |the testimony of contributors to his |campaign slush fund before the sen- ate committee at Washington, Wed- \nesday, evidence continued to pile up ci the responsibility by the Tammany Tall candidate for the fare steal now (pene worked out by the traction in- res' Another contender for favor a the “public” has in the mean- time stepped forward. | Seeking to capitalize for his own political purposes some of the cam- gn propaganda broadcasted for Smith by the senate committee which | has so well prepared the ground for | the purchase of the presidency by either Smith or Hoover, Representa- tive LaGuardia, yesterday sent a let- |ter to Al Smith offering to “cooper- late” with the Morgan candidate in fighting the federal courts which have granted the increase, La Guardia a “Socialist.” now a republican who without a change of aim or method, may again, it is believed, join with his “com- rades” in the socialist party. reports state he is seeking the nomi- |nation for mayor on the republics ticket. On his part, Mayor Walker indi. |ca‘ed his determination to go through with his purpose of blocking any and all methods by which the fare steal may yet be prevented. To any offer by the National Surety Company jfurnish a $5,000,000 bond which city may post as security against an immediate fare increase, the may= or replied that the offer was unac- ceptable inasmuch as he has b advised that it is “illegal.” No has yet definitely explained why ' in face of the fact that the city now permitting the tracti n to borrow millions of dollars conditions which virtually 0 borrowing on city credit, a ‘ontinued " La Guardia is a former socialist,