The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 16, 1928, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS For a Workers-Farmers Government To Organize the Unorganized For the 40-Hour Week For a Labor Party aily Entered as second-class matter at the Post Offi at New York. N. Vol. V., No. 272 Publt Published datiy except Sunday by The National Dally Worker ishing Associntion, tnc., 26-28 Union Sa. New York, N.Y. TWO P 1 DEAD, ANOTHER © DYING; GUNMAN UNDER. ARREST Mine Town Virtually in State of Siege (Special to the Daily Worker) | PITTSTON, Nov. 15.—Mur-} der, inspired by the coal bar-| ons and carried out by the henchmen of the Lewis ma- chine, broke loose again here, yesterday with the result: that one militant miner is dead and another | is now in a hospital on the point | of death. Jacob Loyack, 21, together with his brother, Mike, 23, were last night shot down in cold blood by their cousin, John Loyack, while the two brothers were running to the assistance of their father, who was being beaten up by a scab in| the employ of the Pennsylvania} Coal Company. The younger broth-| er, fatally wounded by a shot in the | abdomen, died several hours after-| wards. His brother Mike, hit in the| thigh, is in a serious condition. The) killer is in jail. | Murderer, a Lewis Henchman. | The murderer, a follower of the) Lewis-Boylan machine, and a for--Huropean Jingoes Flay mer secretary of No. 14 colliery, carried to ‘a conclusion threats and warnings which the hirelings of the Lewis-Boylan machine in the an- thracite have been making to the | miners who are on strike against | the vicious contractor system and| other evils. Pittston has been turned virtually into an armed camp. Over one hun- dred state troopers parade the streets, preventing all gatherings of miners and forcing them indoors even from their own porches. A number of meetings have been viciously broken up at the orders of Mayor Gillespie and the county sheriff. The Chamber of Commerce has issued a warning to the coal | diggers to go back to their pits. All efforts are being made to cre-| ate an atmosphere of hysteria and | terrorization, in order to break the | resistance of the coal diggers. | Miners Roused to Mass Fury. News of the shooting spread rap- idly among the mine workers, who | have been roused to the strongest | determination ‘to fight the coal op-| ‘erators and Lewis terror. A huge | demonstration is being planned at | the funeral of the murdered mili- | tant, which is to be held either Sat- | urday or Sunday. | The brutal and open shooting of | the two militant strikers occurred | under similar circumstances which | resulted in the murder last spring of Alex Campbell and Peter Reilly. These two leaders in the anthracite were brutally murdered by the paid gunmen of the then Cappellinni ma- chine. Since then Cappellinni has been ousted. In his place Lewis has | set up another henchman, William Poylan, who together with ‘the op- | erators is carrying out the same policies of terror and murder. _ The shooting of the two Loyack hrothers occurred last might about 6 o'clock in the Port Griffith section of Pittston. John Loyack, father of the two men, was suddenly attacked by a Pennsylvania Coal Company scab, who later gave the name of Joe “Greeny.” A younger gon of the old miner ran for his two older brothers, who were at the time in a poolroom conducted by Tom Wach- | novsky. John Loyack, the murderer, | had evidently been observing the beating up of che old miner from the window of a store conducted by Steve Rushin, another Boylan fol- | lower, in which the murderer had been hiding ready apparently to de- fend the ar. gangster. Murderer Opens Fire. When the two brothers rushed from the poolroom to defend their father, the murderer stepped from the store and opened fire. Both men dropped. Rushin, who had. also stepped from the store, ran out to the fallen form of the miners and kicked them viciously. Several days ago this same Rushin, who is one of the Lewis- Boylan gangsters, fired a number of shots at striking miners. This was complained of to the local au- thorities, but no action was taken against him due to the connection between the police and the Boylan machine. A mass funeral is being planned for the dead miner for either Sat- urday or Sunday, at which thou- sands of miners will participate. _ The McGarry leadership of cow- -ardice and bétrayal which has con- “ gn ‘ive |silence, but thru the newspapers|Wildering and driving back into lican armament proposals in the in-| Ut, more than 100 strikers have “NEW YORK, FRIDAY, HEROES OF “VESTRIS” ARE HELD. Paid wages of $45 a month (which were $15 less if their skins happened to be black in stinking holes, the sailors of the liner vestris were forced to risk their lives to pile up with survivors, with the sailors pulling desperately for life. to sea. Photo in the center shows some of Holt give him a job when he gets out? RIVALS AROUSE ATU. S, THREATS ‘Mass Arrests in Latvia When Workers Hail the Russian Revolution (Wireless to the Daily Worker) BERLIN, Nov. 15.—in connection | with the eleventh anniversary of the Russian Revolution the reprisals |against the left labor movement in |Latvia have become acuter. Dur- Armament Program |ing the last two days alone about 30 LONDON, Nov. 15.—“The. great | persons were arrested in Riga for FOLKSTONE, England, Nov. 15 drama of Anglo-American rivalry” | participation in a strike of 1 hour, /UP).—A lifeboat loaded with 17| on Je Deena corer © vex, | Otganized in the factories on Noy. 7.|men set out from the tiny fishing fo yu Re. oe papers | The premises of the workers’ and | village of Rye Harbor earl today, | Tevere, has received a tremendous | eanants!. daner:sDade Wa Maipe,” é : 'y > intensification from the Armistice Po saavetiin be the ROUES tata prone at the height of a fierce gale, to aid the ‘Storm-battered steamer | Day speech of President Coolidge’ ‘eral collaborators were arrested. and the. open arnouncement of the Alice, and was lost with all hands. To the village, the disaster far ‘4 Ye 5 + |The workers and peasants fraction American government’s intention to ° build what battleships it will, when | interpellated on the new mass ar- | overshadowed that of the Vestris. The lifeboat contained at least one it will. Rees |man from every family in the vil- QUT TIRE STRIKE | aking grief of the villagers was the fact that the lifeboat’s errand of mercy Rubber Workers Bitter in Denouncing Faker IN RAGING GALE Lifeboat Crew Lost in Effort to Save Ship Jingoes Aroused. The profoundest resentment is being expressed thruout the British | press and public opinion against the | American naval program, the Brit- | ish armament” agitators naturally being, the most vehement in point- | ing out the peril which the Amer-| ican program constitutes for Brit- ish naval power. The rapidly sharpening differ-| ences between the ae Lalor on} into the stormy channel., the armament issue have been given | | tremendous impetus by the pein MILLTOWN, N. J., Nov. 15.— ican statements of position and the | Harry Hilfers, American Federation | greatest amount of anti-“phobia” | of Labor organizer for the state of | has been unleashed since the period | New Jersey, has completed his serv-/ of the war and pre-war. |ices to the Michelin tire bosses. He The government’s attitude is not has smashed the strike of 1,200 only resentful, even in its official |'ubber workers and succeeded in be- |pled Alice, a Riga steamer, had been removed to safety aboard the Hamburg steamer Smyrna five min- was futile, The crew of the erip- utes before the lifeboat pushed out WORKERS RELIEF TAG DAY COMING Announce Stations for Getting Tags terests of increased British arma.|been discharged by Michelin, many seat ment. jof them from the “secret process! The Workers International Re- "Will Build Cruisers. |room” and Department No. 6. Among lief, which will hold Tag Days on, i j |those discharged are many women) Noy. 17 and 18 to collect funds to Speaking yesterday, Lord Birken- |. orkers. | cnakla’s ie toll carey ofl aaa | head declared that “we cannot go| ;;; . . ‘ {ena 1 : against the advice of our admiralty | Hilfers’ persistent preaching of| throughout the country, is appeal- | icit ies, every |Servitude all those workers whom ergpotner ee Roe ts stir up | Michelin did not desire to fire. As popular feeling against the Amer. |@ Tesult of his betrayal of the walk- and the opinion of our government and surrender the right to build the number of light cruisers which we are advised are necessary to pro- tect the empire.” Birkenhead further declared it is his opinion that the British Labor and Liberal Parties would do the same if they were in the posi- tion of the Baldwin government. “I am satisfied that, if Premier Bald- win’s place were taken tomorrow by Ramsay MacDonald or Mr. Lloyd George, neither of these two states- men would act againsttthe advice of he British admiralty as to the num- ber of light eruisers necessary to maintain the commerce of the em- pire,” he said. Most of the denunciations point out that the United States has been as active in building up an empire in the shorter time at its disposal as have the British. Continent Denounces U. S. Indignation against the American armament policies is by no means limited to the British press as ad- vices from all, over the continent of Europe show. equally aroused at the American decisions and the Italian press has launched into a campaign of fury against the “American Empire.” Commenting on the Coolidge speech the Popolo d’Italia of Milan states in part: “Tt may be true that the Amer- ican government spent .$100,000,- o Continued cn Page Five WASHINGTON, (By Mail).— Only 7.6 per cent of children 15 to 18 years old in rural areas of this country get a chance to continu their education beyond high schcol, due to poverty, the U. S. Bureau of Education admits. i The French are, |non-resistance to the bosses, his) ing to |fake negotiation proposals and fake | activity, | | promises of what the strikers, under! The following list of stations | [his guidance, could obtain from the| where workers ean receive tags for | | Michelin bosses Tuesday caused the distribution has been drawn up by, |first break in the line of men and in. w.] R: | women strikers, who had doggedly | ewan: |surrounded the factory every morn-! progressive Labor Center, 60 St. | ies es Boned and. hie Ste seabs.| Marks Place; Workers Center, 26) e persuasive agents whom they, : ; ‘i | Pas Bs Federation of Labor fale] on Raat Pact Wetec |ers planted thruout the crowds of workers and who constantly. spread |demoralization, urging return to| ‘the shop, did the rest. When th BL OE: |Workers returned to the factory; |nenth St.; Millinery Workers Local, leven the superintendent . greeted| 1enth St Milinery Workers Local them swith «shot or Surpri#e St) pekers’ Local, 1, $60, Beissth Sts the cleverness o: ilfers’ job. aplenty cheers Renee 5 “¢ Not:even: the: retraction? of one-| United Council of Working Women, |half of the wage cut, which Hilfers | “29. ‘Broadway: Knitgoods Work. i Social Club, 28 Union Square; ee wears ae rhe loak.and Dressmakers Union, Na- | South River, was secured for the| tional Organizing Committee, 16 W. | \strikers by the Federation. faker. | 2Ist St.; Window eanere Exover- | | Hilfers has done his job so well! Comtenaed. eh Cane aie |that the, Michelin Co. refuses to} take back workers on any basis but) ‘the original» wage cut. “Those who Continued on Page Four | all workers to aid it in this” lent ‘Shoe Workers Union, |CLAIM STARTLING INVENTION. LONDON, Nov. 15.—According to| |a great London daily, an English in- |ventor has turned out a simple ma- ‘chine by which a small amount of electric power can be converted at | legislation, were yesterday sent to. small cost into relatively unlimited|the Mexican congress by President- current at high voltage. If it is|elect Emilio Portes ‘Gil. | proved by the present government) The reform legislation, designed | | tests, it will make all existing meth-| primarily to still the growing mili- | ods cf manufagture and distribution|tancy of Mexican labor, contains | of power obsolete. clauses which control the workers thru strike rulings, arbitration MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Nov. 15. —Proposed labor laws, masking! un- der an appearance of progressive ers “in the adoption of new meth- | | SAN ANTONIO, Tex., Nov. 15 (UP),—Six soldiers at Brooks Field were reported killed late today when an army transport plane crashed} near the airdrome. { scheme, : and employers is the keynote of the elaborate plan, which calls for co ne | ‘ TRAPS FOR WORKERS LURK IN MEXICO LABOR SCHEME ie iat ial OVEMBER 16, 1928 ee Crew Forced to Slave Under Horrible Conditions on Rotten Liner “Vestris” instead of white) for long.hours of slavery, fed rotten food and huddled together bigger profits for the vessel’s owners. Photo on the left shows lifeboat, crowded This was one of thé lifeboats that didn’t happen to be so leaky and rotten that they sank as soon as they put the rescued members of the crew as they appeared when they arrived in dock on the S. S. American Shipper. Keiger, one of the Negro seamen, whois now in Long Island College Hospital. Keiger was so badly injured that he had to have his hand amputated. Will Lamport and ’ {1 SEAMEN DIE. FIGHT BETRAYERS OF — SILK STRIKE -| was JERSEY PATERSON, N. J., Nov. 15.— While the officialdom of the Asso- ciated Silk Workers’ Union brazenly continue the terror against the left wing, the constitutional strike com- mittee, which the officials are vain- ly trying to dissolve, is going ahead with its functions and has issued a statement defying the strikebreak- ers and calling the workers to con- tinue the struggle. Threats of worker who, by automobile, | es- corted home the left wing girl lead- Sophie and Lena Chernenko, found the tires on his’ car slashed The no op- ie drove ers, Gertrude Strechmen Mueller, while it stood at their home. car that followed them h portunity.to catch up since home over a circuitous route. The statement was issued when reactionary -controlled Joint Board, which became badly fright- ened at the mass manifestations of membership, called the left wing leaders to “ne- gotiations” and made fake proposals These fake pro-! the indignation by the for “harmony.” posals were made last night when large numbers of workers accom- panied the real strike committee to the union office and demonstrated their demand before the officialdom | that no fake strike committee be organized since the workers endorse the committee where the left wing has a majority. A committee of left wingers was called before the Joint Board and were asked to agree to three main proposals made by the officials, They are: that a new strike com- mittee of 25 members be consti- tuted, that the left wing be repre- sented by five members there; and that no more membership meetings be called, the final decision remain- | ing with the right wing Joint Board. Continued m Page Two Army of Unemployed Grows in England LONDON, (By The’national total of registered un- employed workers is 260,525 greater | detective than a year ago. SENTENCE FARM GRAFTERS NEW HAVEN, OConn., Nov. 15 (UP).—Charged with conspiracy to defraud, three officers of the Farm- ers’ Mortgage Bond Corporation were sentenced in Superior Court today. cils of workers and employers in every industry to assist the employ- ods,” plint,” “safeguard contracts,” The councils are also charged with see- ing that decisions of the arbitration courts are carried out. Publ serv- ice employes may not strike except upon ten days notice. At the same time, the fundamen- physical _ violence axyainst left wing leaders are al- ready materializing. The volunteer Mail). — There to produce some results | Club, 35 E. Second St.; 101 W. 27th’| Was an increase in the number of, four days” in the murder case of |St.; Workmen Circle Branch, -187, | registered unemployed in England to| Arnold Rothstein, millionaire gamble 57 St. Marks Place; Joint Board of | 1,336,000 in the* week of Oct. 1, a} and underworld character who was ‘urriers, 22 E. 22nd St.; Indepen-| gain of 41,166 alone in that week. | shot two weeks ago. ‘to maintain order and. disci-| | On the right is Lloyd | DRESS WORKERS - PLAN BIG STRIKE Thousands at Big Meet | Vote for Walkout of the knowledge that they have nothing to lose anyhow, as the lead- er, Louis Hyman said, that wages/ can hardly be slashed any further,| that union conditions in general can) scarcely be depressed any lower, several thousands of workers in the dress manufacturing industry last) night- voted unanimously that pre- parations be begun for a general strike for better conditions and for a union to safeguard them, after they are won. Old Cooper Union, at 8th St. and| 4th Ave., yesterday again resounded to the enthusiastic cheers and ap- plause of workers who came to the realization that the only way to get endurable working standards is to wring them out of their class ene- mies thru struggle. And that the! struggle must be directed against all their enemies, both bosses and | Continued on Page Two TAMMANY HIDES BIG DOPE RING Fears to “Run Down) Rothstein Killer | Fearing revelations which every device at the command of the Tam-| |many Hall regime has not been able| | altogether to conceal, Mayor Jimmie| | Walker yesterday announced that) |the police department would have, “within “I have ordered that either the bureau produge some | further facts by Monday,” the Tam- | many mayor said, “or—admit they | cannot.” | Fools No One. | Thts was the piece of second rate| camouflage with which the Tam- many jazz mayor sought to still ris- ing suspicion that everyone at the city hall is working frantically to | hide the real facts in’a case which it is now known involves not only the murder of a gambler, but the ex- posure of the biggest drug and dope |ring in the country, | | The staged fight which the Tam- |many mayor has for a week - been putting up with his police commi: sioner, the theatrical communica- Continued on Page Two pa Sia i |Force Movie Bosses to! Scrap Company Unions! LOS ANGELES, (By Mail).—| |The motion picture magnates in | courts and a national insurance tally pernicious character of much Hollywood have at last been forced | ‘of the legislation is goncealed under | to scrap their company unions. The | Collaboration between workers reforms which grant an eight hour recent refusal of actors to accept aster were slowly unravelled and ITTSTON MINE STRIKERS SHOT DOWN BY LEWIS .GU $5.00 per year FINAL CITY EDITION : Price 3 Cents NMAN STOKERS IN VESTRIS HOLD Left Port |Heroie Negro Worker Saves 20 Lives Bitter against the criminal negligence and incompetence with which the death-voyage of the Vestris had been man- aged, fifty-seven of the crew and passengers of the lost vessel arrived in New York on the French tanker “Miriam” yesterday. Charges further incriminating the Lamport and~ Holt Company tame quickly as the crippled crew arrived. “The whole trouble was that the coal port on the starboard side,” said Evans Hampden, Negro fire- man aboard the Vestris, “which was four feet above the water line, not entirely closed when we left port, and couldn’t be closed and locked, and the water poured thru it in the first hea’ With the ocean coming in they sent down bedroom stewards to bail out with buckets.” Stokers Tied in Hold. Continuing his story, Hampden said that the stokers had been tied together in the hold, working fren- it |ziedly to keep the ship afloat. With i |each wave the danger of their. go- With a= determination born out! ing down increased. But when the life-boats were lowered from the deck, no word was passed to the workers in the hold. “They com- pletely ignored us,” the workers charged, “leaving us to drown in the flooded stockhold like rats.” For hours the stokers, all Ne- groes, had worked in the hold in water that splashed around their naked chests, going over their, heads at times when sea-swells rolled the Vestris. But when the orders to lower the lifeboats and leave the sinking -vessel were given up on deck, they were left to die in the hold. Bravery of Negro Worker. Stories of the bravery of the crew in the face of danger were told by the passengers,*giving the lie completely to previous rumors against the workers. One of the rescued women, Mrs. Cline Slaugh- ter, told how Lester Watson, of the crew of the Vestris, had kept her head above water for hours while she was afloat, unconscious in a life-jacket. And all the while six of his. ribs had been crushed in, Many of the slanderous under- hand accusations levelled against the Negro workers on the Vestris when the first reports of the dis- aster simmered in through the capi- talist press were shown to be bare- faced lies. One Negro worker, LionehLicorish, quartermaster aboard the ill-fated vessel, a dimin- utive man, had saved from certain death twenty of his fellow work- ers and passengers, swimming thru shark-invested waters to the rescue| ot white and black alike. | Twenty times this Negro work-| er placed his own life in jeopardy| to come to the assistance of drown-| ing people. Several of those whom he rescued had been in the water for more than fifteen hours, and were slowly succumbing to the e: posure and the effects of the icy sea. When Licorish had _ first boarded the lifeboat, there had been ;no oars there. Bravely he had slipped back into the water to ye- gain the oars that were floating near a capsized lifeboat, and re- turning to his own lifeboat, kept the twenty lives safe until aid ar- rived. Race Discrimination. Othgr examples of bravery among the workers were revealed, notably that of the stewar’~s, Mrs. Clara Ball. On th and, cases of discrimination «..._uelty on the part of white passengers toward Negroes were many. In one case, white passerlgers in a_ lifeboat, sighting two people drifting in the! | sea, one of them a Negro steward- ess, had volunteered to take the, white man, a passenger, aboard, but had refused to consider aiding the Negro woman worker, It was only after repeated entreaties that they were finally prevailed upon to take her aboard, aa As the facts of the Vestris dis- day and give special safeguards to a 10 per cent réduction decided the verified from the long list of con- women workers, \ ' unions. ’ \fate of company Continued on Page Five “sere cen RES ASE a ED s a n TIED TOGETHER WITH ROPE; LEFT TO “DROWN LIKE RATS” peeriaers Vessel Leaking as She Terrorize Negro Crew at Scab Institute Seamen Enraged at Boss Press Lies The members of the ship- wrecked crew of the Vestris, who are for the most {part Negroes, are now corralled in a hall of the Seamen’s Church Institute, 25 South St., an institution supported by subsidies from big companies as a strike- breaking agency. These men, who, the latest reports show, played the real pi r @ terrible tragedy ners, not allowed to leave the building. They are closely guarded by agents at the door who will allow no one in unless he carries a special card of admis- sion issued by the business office of the Institute. A Daily Worker reporter who went to the docks to speak to mem- bers of the crew, could do no more than look at them over the shoulder of the guard. Later, however, the reporter succeeded in speaking to three Negro members of the crew. Battered and Bewildered. In the concert hati tney sat about on the chairs, in odd pieces of cloth- ing picked up from their fellow. Workers, on the reseue..ghip. - They: ' “ave @ baitered, Maorh aro men, as yet unable to get over the night- mare of the sinking ship and the fury of the waves. “Looking for anyone?” asked the guard at the door. “You can’t get in here unless you are a member of the crew or get a special card.” And when the reporter insisted om speaking with the men, the guardian of the ship company’s imterests~ ex- plained to him that they could allow no one in because, “the men are all excited, and argue with the white men, and maybe they'll begin to fight.” Downstairs in the main lobby, sea- men stood about in groups, discugs- ing the wreck. Conversation was heated and excited and the condem- nation of the captain was general. “Spotters.” “They won't talk to anyone now,” said one sailor. “They’re afraid, Dicks everywhere. They haven't been paid off yet, you know, and they got to look out for their next ship.” Two of the shipwrecked Negro workers had just come down to the bar in the lobby. One was dressed in blue dungarees and a white jersey and the other wore a pair of cor- duroy pants and a blue shirt. They spoke to no one and glanced furtively about the room, AS PRISONERS - \ Continued “There, try and speak to them, buddy, but I guess they won’t talk,” said a»seaman who had just got through calling the captain all the salty names of the briney ocean. “Can't Talk.” I stopped them as they were leay- ing the bar. They wouldn’t talk. In spite of all the efforts of the re- porter to convince the men that he was not a company agent, that he was not a “dick” or a “spotter,” but that he represented a real workers’ paper, which is anxious to print the etory of the crew and the actual situation, the Negro workers only re- peated, “We can’t tell you anything, boy. Can’t talk.” They stood there stolidly, glancing from side to side, and then with a parting, “Can’t talk,” they made for the stairway and back to their pris- on in the concert hall. The crew has been terrorized com- pletely. They are slaves of the sea’ and of the ship company, and, as some seamen in the lobby remarked, the company wanted to collect its 8 insurance and the men were not yet ¥ paid. aR a bs he Negroes Indignant. The reporter had bette side. He got into conv a group of Negroes, with their fello; sunken Vestris. \ excited and eytaged at the m: ; in whhue,.the/ bourgeois newsp aie had treated” the wreck. They were indignant at the race prejudice, at the capitalist press treatment of the Negro seamen, which speaks es if the Negro workers were rats wi are supposed 9 \drown while © white passenge®® a off safe the boats. They pil hey were all