The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 26, 1928, Page 1

18H DAILY WORKER FIGHTS. FCR THE ORGANIZATION OF TER UNORGANIZED FOR THE 40-HOUR WEEK VOR A LABOR PARTY Vol. V. No. 124. img Association, Inc. 33 First COMMUNIST NOMINATING CONV CLOAK SHOPS ARE ALREADY PICKING REPRESENTATIVES Cooper Union Mass Meet Monday Evening Outstanding among the numerous events that can be recorded and that show the rapid mobilization of the masses of workers in the ladies’ gar- ment industry for the re-unionization of the trade by the National Organ- izing Committee are, first, the big conferences of shop representatives scheduled for next Saturday, and second, the mass meeting in Cooper Union which the Tolerance Group is calling for Monday evening, im- mediatly after work. The headquarters of the National Organizing Committee announces that many shops have already sent in notification of the fact that their dele- gates to the conference have already been chosen and many more will pick representatives early next week. The New York drive for the regaining of union conditions in the shops will be officially begun at this conference. Similar gatherings of. shop delegates conferences are being arranged for other cities. Cooper Union Meet. The detailed plans for the inaugura- tion of a campaign to rebuild the union and rid the trade of the Sig- man bureaucracy which have been worked out by the N. 0. C. will at this conference be transformed into action. All preparations for the mass meet- ing in Cooper Union, which the Tol- erance Group called when they severed relations with the Sigman union, of which they were function- aries, are completed, it was learned (Continued on Rage Three) STEEL MEN SLAVE 13 HOURS A DAY Speed-Up Drives Serfs Inhumanly (By a Worker Correspondent) SPARROWS POINT, Md. (By Mail).—-Seventy-five per cent. of the workers at the Bethlehem steel plant here work ten, twelve and in a lot of cases, thirteen hours a day. Elec- tricians, painters, carpenters, ship workers, yard and maintenance men, oilers, shearmen, machine operators. thread cutters, bundlers, cranemen. plumbers, millwrights, inspectors loaders and the hundreds of other jobs that are necessary to keep the mill going as well as take care of the product through its finishing process. ‘The beforementioned trades work ten hours not counting half hour lunch. These men are divided into two shifts changing about, one week day and the following week at night. Laborers. I failed to mention the laborers of Bethlehem who compose a big slice of the workers here. This group com- posed mostly of Negroes, represent about the most exploited unorganized group of workers that I ever came into contact with. While their official name is that of laborer, a great ma- jority of them are engaged in semi- skilled work and in most cases work- ing under a perfected speed-up sys- tem. Here is an instance of common Jabor work under a speed-up system. Laborers engaged in loading box cars ean increase their pay from the hourly rate of thirty-seven cents an hour to|Tiers, printers and other workers Of funds on the streets of New York to- about thirty-eight or thirty-nine cents an hour by increasing the tonnage handled in the day time. This scheme of driving hard all day and loading up to maximum each worker will probably net them after a period of two weeks the princely sum of five dollars. Most people picture a Negro labor gang as a slow moving group who take their sweet old southern style time about doing things will become changed when they see how Bethle- hem trains their workers. Actually on a cold day, a group of Negro laborers were perspiring from working so fast (Continued on Page Three) Out-of-Town “Daily” Agents Meet Monday All out-of-town DAILY WORK- ER agents attending the Nominat- ling Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party are urged to attend a is.eeting to be held at the local office of The DAILY WORK- ER, 26-28 Union Square, Monday | morning at 10 o’clock. ~ Have Narrow Escape The picture shows Helena Smith and her mother who had a narrow escape in the latest subway cave-in in upper New York. One boy is believed to have been buried alive when the badly shored excavation gave way. MORE OFFICIALS IN STREET GRAFT Higher-Ups Pull Wires to Escape Four petty employes yesterday were confronted by the possibility of imprisonment on charges of payroll padding and forgery in the New York department of street cleaning, while executives who profited to excess sit back pulling political wires to keep \themselves out of prison. Evidence presented to a jury by District At- torney McGeehan is expected to show that financial manipulations by de- partment officials netted graft total- ling between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000 annually. It was learned this morning that two more employes of the Bronx street cleaning department have been arrested on forgery charges and two others were indefinitely suspended. The four who are on trial are William J. Lougheed, garage fore- man, whose confession was the basis of the present war on grafting city employes; Benjamin Stoeber, his as- sistant; Charles A. McGee, assistant general superintendent; and William J. Oswald, district superintendent. The latest arrests for forgery were those of Max Schmillowitz, 1466 Grand Concourse, foreman of the branch at 1450 Brook Ava, an em- ploye of the department for 31 years; and James Gevlin, 467 West 148rd St., a sweeper, BAKERS UNION WINS STRIKE Local 1 Forces Silvers to Settle The six weeks’ strike of the Amal- gamated Food Workers, Bakers’ Lo- eal 1, against the Silvers’ Cafeterias ended yesterday with a victory for the union and the granting by the company of the demands of the bak- ers. In surrendering to the union which has been fighting a militant battle, the company agrees to employ only union help and to meet other union standards. The strike was called six ed daily except Sunday by The Nationa! Dally Worker Batered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N, Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. reet, New kk, N. ¥. EXPOSEDETAILS OF IMPERIALIST Out Indefinitely description of marine terror in Nic- aragua, accusing the American forces of murder, pillage and torture, was/ published today by the London Daily | Herald, organ of the British Labor | Party. The article was written by a {special correspondent who has spent some time in the war area. That most of the Nicaraguans killed by marines were civilians and not combatants is one of the indictments against the marines in the article. | The writer gives specific details of {marine terror: { Torture Old Man. “The house of Colonel Marin, a known Sandino follower,” he says, “was burned by marines and his ‘mother taken away with her hands tied behind her back and a noose around her neck. Santiago Herrero, a wealthy farmer, ‘refused to speak’ when his place was invaded by Amer- ican troops and was shot and later it turned out that he was dumb. “Caldivia, a farmer in Pedernates, outside the cofnbat zone, denied sug- gestions that he was a Sandino sym- pathizer. On December 26, 1927, twelve marines entered his hacienda while he was absent, burned the house, demolished sugar cane and destroyed | 120 loads of corn. His son was taken to a near-by creek and shot and the (Continued on Page Two) 7 MINERS KILLED IN NEW ACCIDENT Contract System Leads To Deaths (Special To The DAILY WORKER.) WILKES-BARRE, May 25.—At least seven miners were instantly killed and a number of others injured are not expected to live as a result of an explosion in the Cunningham contractor-operated mines of the Hudson Coal Company here today. Ambulances were rushed to the mine ayd removed the injured to the Wilkes-Barre general hospital. Union officials of the treacherous Lewis-Cappelini machine in District 1 are held equally responsible with the operators for the deaths inasmuch as these officials have refused to fight against the vicious contractor and speed-up system. This among other practices have been shown to have caused accidents which have taken nearly three hundred miners’ lives in the last month. BANQUET FOR ICOR weeks ago when the restaurants shut out members and attempted to oper- ate open shop. Union officers yesterday attributed considerable credit for the victory be- sides the fighting spirit of the bakers themselves, to the cloakmakers, fur- the sections in which the struck res- taurants are located for their soli- darity in supporting the strike, by withholding patronage from those places. New Jersey Jewish Workers Meet Jewish Workers Clubs of New Jer- sey will hold a conference in Newark tomorrow at 2 p, m, at the new United Workers Progressive Center Hall, 98 Mercer St., Newark. The purpose of the conference is to discuss plans for a state picnic for miners’ relief; to discuss plans for helping the new Workers Center in New York, and to discuss the role to be played by these clubs in the coming national and state elections, FOR THE COOLIDGE PAYROLL SAN FRANCISCO, May 25.—Cus- toms collections for the San Francisco district in 1927 were $2,513,362.2. This is nearly equal to the collections from the rest of California together Miers fou> other states ~ed two terri- jes. Pee HOLD TAG DAYS, Aid Jewish Colonies in U.S Sc R: Hundreds of workers will collect day and tomorrow, when “Icor” Tag Days will be held far the benefit of the Jewish Colonization Society in Soviet Russia. Volunteer stations have been established thruout the city. The “Icor” is aiding in the es- tablishment of an autonomous Jewish Soviet Republic in Biro Bidjan on the Amur River in Siberia. A banquet will be held tonight at Webster Hall, 119 E. 11th St. 1 NEW YORK, SATURDAY ry REIGN OF TERROR Says Sandino Can Hold|: LONDON, May 25. — A detailed| | American Marines To a Y 26, 1928 Where Faulty Subway Cons truction Wreck & MILL PICKETS DEFY POLICEMEN Jeer Order To Stop Strike Song NEW BEDFORD, Mass., May 25.— Despite a menacing squad of over 25 police centered around the gates of the Nonquit, Page and Hathaway Mills, more than 600 striking textile workers conducted one of the most enthusiastic picketing demonstrations yet held since the 30,000 textile work- ers here went out on strike against a wage cut of 10 per cent, which re- sulted in the complete shutdown of 58 factories. Three automobile loads of over- seers, petty foremen, and other straw bosses continuing to work during the strike were jeered and hooted by the assembled workers in spite of con- tinual threats of immediate arrest. This is the spirit manifest after 2 women strikers were sentenced to 6 months each in jail. Defy Police. The police were also openly defied by the strikers when they ordered a halt to the singing of strike songs. After the captain’s orders the sing- (Continued on Page Three) TRY GAS BOMB ON JAILED STRIKERS Workers in Cells Used! for Police Experiment KENOSHA, Wis., May 25.— Ken- osha police exhibited a hitherto un- heard of cruelty when union hosiery workers, locked up in cells under charges of shouting at scabs, were made the targets for police tear bombs. Helplessly exposed, without | warning and without a chance to get} ut of range of the poisons, 11 union-| ists were bombarded with tear gas as| part of a so-called police “experi-| ment.” The burning sensations and} acute pain in their eyes, nostrils and throats persisted for many hours causing them to shed involuntary tears even the next day in court. Police smilingly pronounced the ex- coiments as satisfactory. ts by the whole population nering strength, particularly as the victims were held over night on charges that were later thrown out of court, while a strikebreaker arrest- ed by a deputy sheriff for firing at pickets was released by the station police without booking. The Kenosha Trades and Labor As- sembly has vigorously denounced the use of the police as a strikebreaking agency in behalf of the Allen A Hosiery Company. Speakers at Workers Party Convention Jay Lovestone is General Secretary of the Workers (Communist) Party. William Z. Foster is a member of the Secretariat of the Party and Sec- retary of the Trade Union Educa- tional League. .He will probably be selected as the Party’s presidential candidate. Bertram D. Wolfe is national agit- prop director of the Party and a member of the Political Committee. Ben Gitlow, member of the Secre- tariat, will probably be the Party’s vice presidential choice. B. H. Lauerdale is a delegats from Texas active among the workers and farmers, Scott Nearing, well known author and lecturer, will run for governor of New Jersey on the Party ticket. Charles E. Taylor is a state senator in Montana. * Ben Gold is leader of the militant Furriers’ Union. James P, Cannon is a member of the Political Bureau of the Party and national secretary of International Labor Defense. Lovett Fort-Whiteman is one of the organizers of the American Negro Labor Congress. William W. Weinstone is organizer of District 2, New York. Anita C. Whitney, a del California, was one of the California crimj law. Mass pretest, lon for her. Juliet Stuart Poyntz is head of the women’s work in the Workers (Com- munist) Party. BRIDGE WORKERS OUT ON STRIKE Strikebreakers Sent to Smash Walkout One hundred and fifty concrete workers and skilled men are out on strike in the huge bridge construc- tion now almost completed in Staten Island, to connect New Jersey with New York. The workers, who quit work on Thursday, demand an in- crease in wages of 20 cents per hour. Strikebreakers were sent to take their places yesterday by Ike Silver- man, the notorious strikebreaker, who broke the Union Gas Company strike, the Bush Terminal strike and many others, several years ago. from victims of syndicalism sulted in a par- a BROWNSVILLE LEAGUE HIKE The Brownsville section of the Young Workers (Communist) Ledgue will hold a hike to Tibbetts Brook Park, Westchester County, tomorrow. THE FORD BELT KEPT MOVING FASTE Automobile Bosses Invent Sly Ways of Intensifying Speedup By ROBERT W. DUNN, (Federated Press). peeess May 25.—Speed-up of man and machine rules the De- troit automobile industry, piling up workers on the job market in long queues of the unemployed, even in the busiest seasons. Speed-up is manifested in various ways. The conveyor line may be screwed up a little faster. The stop watch men may observe that work- ers, by sweating more, can turn out more per hour. The layoff method, or the mere rumors of layoffs, may be used to put fear in the hearts of hands. The workers’ names and production workers in the section to do the work formerly handled by the fired employes. For instance, here is.a Dodge worker who writes that “in the Duco work we now spray the Vic- tory Six with two coats instead of THE DAILY WORKER. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Im New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, 96.00 per year. ytuve Civilians in Store ed a Grocery at 746 St. Nicholas Ave. crashed into a subway excava- tion near the foun-| dation of the build- ing” The faulty | construction had} been dug too close} to the store. The wreckage after the collapse and part of the store left standing. On many construction jobs, the contractors speed-up the work- ers so that proper buttressing of the excavation is neg- lected. 70,000 OUT OF WORK IN HOUSTON Laurence of Texas Here for Convention Harry J. Laurence, delegate from Houston, Texas, to the Workers (Communist) Party Nominating Con- vention arrived in New York yester- day. In a statement given to The DAILY WORKER, he said that the labor conditions in Houston are of the “very worst.” ““In February,” he said, “the City Council published a report that tiiere were 18,000 unemployed workers in Houston. This, in all probability, means that there were several thou- sand more. The Longshoremen’s Union, which is the biggest labor or- ganization in the city, is controlled by the bosses. In order to enter it, a white man must pay something over $40 and a Negro over $80. This is a rather clear indication of the general situation in Houston.” NEGROES OBSERVE HAYWOOD'S DEATH Memorial Planned Here For June 1 Many Negro workers are planning to attend the huge memorial meeting | in the Central Opera House, 67th St. and Third Ave., Friday night, June 1, in honor of @William D. Haywood, Communist and pioneer enemy of Jim Crow tactics in the labor movement. When Haywood first started to or- ganize American workers, even many} I. W. W. representatives segregated Negro workers from the whites in the South, comrades who were closely as- sociated with Haywood recall. One such case was the huge lumber strike in St. Charles, La. “Big Bill” came to address the workers and found they had assembled in two halls, one right above the other, the blacks in one and the whites in the other. “What's this for? Put ’em together,” thundered “Big Bill.” “But it’s never been done in the South,” gasped the local organizers. “Then it’s time it was,” said Hay- wood, and he did not speak until all the workers, whom he called “com- rades,” were seated together before him. From that time on Negro work- ers by the thousands rallied to Hay- wood’s call. Haywood’s friendship with Negro workers dated back to his youth when he slaved in the mines of Nevada, Utah and Idaho, swinging his pick side by side with Negro miners. One of his regrets about being exiled from the United States was that he could not help organize the Negro workers along with the whites, The memorial meeting is being held under the auspices of the New York | district of the Workers (Communist) Party. Haywood, who died recently in Moscow, will be buried at the wall of the Kremlin. The district committee of the Young one, and at the same price.” A |Workers (Communist) League has) Packard man writes, “In the body |decided to call off the League anni- division we used to do six jobs a |versary mass meeting, June 1, in or- day. Now we do eight, and 20 per |der to make it possible for all work- (aero, on Page Two) } : ers to attend the Haywood ® A grocery store | picture shows the| laden taiaiaindinteinmnmtmopvmnesinissunaisg \ FINAL CITY EDITION =| ENTION OPENS HERE Nicaragua (CLASS STRUGGLE EMPHASIZED AT BIG PARTY MEET Great Enthusiasm At Demonstration | Militant class struggle was the key~ note struck at the opening of the Na- | tional Nominating Convention of the | Workers (Communist) Party last {night when almost four thousand \workers crowded into Mecca Temple, | 133 West 55th St., to greet more than 250 delegates from all sections of the |country and representing virtually | every industry. | The convention marked the opening of the election struggle which the | Workers (Communist) Party will | carry on against the capitalist parties | and the socialist party reformists, | Fight Bureaucracy. | The necessity of the struggle against capitalism and labor bureau- cracy and reformism was sounded by ay Lovestone, general secretary of the Party, who acted as chairman and William Z. Foster, member of the secretariat and secretary of the Trade Union Educational League. Delegates from the mine field, the textile mills and other basic indus- tries, farmers from the west and south—all emphasized the tremendous The central committee of the Workers (Communist) Party has adopted a draft platform which ise proposed to the convention. The text of this platform appears on pages four, five, six and seven of this edition of the Daily Worker. oy tasks now facing the workers and farmers thruout the United States. ‘he struggle against the bureau- cracy of the American Federation of Labor and the class collaboration schemes of the bosses, the socialist party which has openly allied itself with the enemies of the workers, the struggle against American imperial- ism in Nicaragua and China, the de- fense of the Soviet Union — these were among the major forces with which the American workers and farmers must contend, the speakers pointed out. Activity Urged Against the setting of red banting and revolutionary banners and em- |blems, the delegates stressed the | necessity of increasing political ac- tivity in the coming election cam- | paign. Long before the convention was of- ficially opened the large auditorium of Mecca Temple was crowded to overflowing. Thousands of* workers from this city as well (Continued on, GREET WORKERS PARTY CAMPAIGN Communists in France, Germany, Hail Meet Greeting the National Nominating Convention of the Workers (Commun- ist) Party which opened here with a mass demonstration at Mecca Temple last night, the German Communist Party, which made big gains in the German elections, has sent the follow- ing endorsement to the convention: “Following its victory, the German Communist Party sends its fraternal greetings to the Workers (Commun- ist) Party and expects that the Amer- fean Communists will put up as gal- lant a fight against our common class enemy in the coming election cam- paign, as have the Communist Parties of Poland, France and Germany in their recent elections. “Bear in mind that we are a single united front of the workingclass and that no ocean or frontiers can separ- ate us. Your success will fill the world proletariat with joy and hopes for greater action on your part. Your victory is our victory and every suc- cess won brings us nearer our goal. “Your slogan must be, ‘Class (Continued on Page Two) ‘10 Volunteer Painters Needed, at Red Center At least ten volunteer painters are wanted to paint the new busi- ness office of The DAILY WORK- ER at the Workers Center, 26-28 Union Square, tomorrow and Sun- day. Ask for Ameron,