The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 19, 1929, Page 2

& However, the worsening situation 1 F Needle Trades Workers Industrial | Page Two National SEES NEW UNION CENTER AS BEST WAY TO FIGHT Labor Rising Against Speed-up, Low Wages Full endors: nt of the call of the Trade Union Educational League for the Trade Union Unity Convention to be held in C , Ohio on June 1, is cont: Albert Weisbord, treasurer. The statement calls the increased explo on of the workers, inhuman peed-up and Wage-cuts and the permament un- employment of thousands of textile workers. It points out the cons danger of imperialist war directed against the Soviet Union, and the reactionary and scabbing role of the A. F. of L. officialdom. Immediate Steps. The National Textile Workers Union calls upon the new fighting unions to build a fighting trade union center for the common fight against the American capitalists and the A I’. of L. officialdom. With the aim of cooperating fully in making the Trade Union Unity Convention a success the N. T. W. U. instructs every one of its locals to distribute leaflets in the neighbor- ing mills; at the next meeting of the union to have a full discussion cn the coming convention; to elect a delegate.to the convention; to work | out ways. and means for raising | tunds for the delegates elected; to} see to it that in every mill, organized | and unorganized, there is a mill com- | mittee that will send a delegate to the convention. Statement of N. T. W. U. The statement follows: | etary- attention to The National Executive Commit-| tee of the National Textile Workers Union of America has endorsed the | call of the Trade Union Educational | League for the election of delegates "to constitute the Trade Union Unity Convention to meet in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, 10 a. m., June 1,| 1929, and conclude on June 2nd. j Danger of War. | A tremendous increase in the ex-| ploitation of the workingclass of the United States is taking place. For! us this means inhuman speed-up,| wage cuts, longer hours, permanent mass unemployment of hundreds of | thousands of textile workers. At} the same time the greedy textile barons and other capitalists are en- tering into the sharpest“ struggle for world markets and in order to grab these markets are preparing to| plunge us into a new world war,| first and foremost against our| brothers in Soviet Russia, and the) Soviet Union, and second against the | English and other capitalists who are the rivals of our American bosses. While conditions are steadily} growing worse for the textile work- | ers, making it all the more necessary for us to fight back, we see, in our} own ranks stool-pigeons for the| bosses, the officials of the American Federation of Labor, posing as “la- bor leaders,” but really confusing; the workers with the aim to break| up their ranks and sell them out. We| saw the American Federation of La-| bor and other yellow misleaders do this is Passaic, in New Bedford, in| Pall River, in Paterson, and else- where in other industries. The American Federation of Labor offi-| Gialdom whether openly “reaction- ary” or posing as “progressives” Jiave become thoroughly exposed as) the worst enemies of the working- class. Workers Answer for the workers has brought forth a ' mumber of sharp class struggles of the unorganized masses. In the! course of these struggles already three new unions have been born— the National Miners Union, the Union, and our union, the National Textile Workers’ Union. It is now time for these new fighting unions on the initiative of the Trade Union Educational League to get together with all other fight- \ ing groups to build some sort of fighting trade union center where | we can help each other in our com-| mon fight against the American | capitalists for the organization of the unorganized, for a fight against the stool-pigeon American Federa- tion of Labor officialdom, and for a real class struggle policy. Tt has been decided that the basis of representation shall be as fol- lows: (Follows the plan of repre- _ sentation outlined in the call of the _ Trade Union Educational League). Let us elect our delegates and "agitate for the Unity Convention! _ Fight against wage-cuts, against the speed-up and for shorter hours! | Fight against the social-im- \ perialist A. F. of L. bureaucracy! _ Fight for social insurance, against unemployment, disability, and old age! Organize the unorganized into new unions! Build the New Trade Union Cen- g truggle against imperi: capitalist rationalization! d the Union of Socialist So-_ lies! to the Trade Union ned by | Textile Workers Uni | MOBILIZE FOR MAY DA | HE following is a partial list o arranged by the Communist Part various districts are urged to send cities, halls, and speakers of their otherwise noted, meetin CALIF San Francisco, 8 p. m., zardos, others. Eagle H. E. CONNE of International May Day meetings y and sympathetic or; ations. The in immediately for listing the date: May Day meetings. Except whcre are on May 1. ORNIA. all, 273 Golden Gate Ave. Speakers: CTICUT. Hartford, 8 p. m., Labor Lyceum, 2903 Main St. Port Chester, 8 p. m., Finnish Workers Home, 42 N. Water St. DELA Wilmington, 8 p. m. Speakers MARY | Baltimore, 8 p. m. Speakers: Boston, 8 p. m. } New Bedford, 7:30 p. m., Bristol Arena, Purchase St. WARE. : F. Mozer, L. Meldin. LAND. W. Murdoch, YWCL speaker. MASSACHUSETTS, Speakers, A. Weisbord, E. Keller, and Southern textile striker. Gardner, May 5, 1 p. m. MICH | Detro' 7:30 p. m., Danceland Speakers: } entire, others, Pontiac, 7:30 p. m. Flint, 7 m. Saginaw, Grand Rapi Muskegon, p.m, p. m. 30 p.m. Speaker, NEW J Newark, 8 p. m., Progressive La Jersey City, 8 p. m., Ukrainian New Brunswick, 8 p. m., Worke Paterson, 8 p. m., Carpenters Hall, Passaic, 8 p. m., Workers Home, IGAN. Auditorium, Woodward near Forest. Speaker: A. Goetz. Speaker, A. Gerlach. Speaker: A. Ziegler. Speaker: J, Schmies. P, Raymond. ERSEY. bor Center, 83 Mercer St. Workers Home, 116 Mercer St. ts Home, 11 Plum St. -6 Van Houten St. 5 Dayton Ave. Union City, 8:30 p. m., Nepivoda’s Hall, 418 21st St. Perth Amboy, 8 p. m., Workers Elizabeth, May 5, 8 p. m., Liber Trenton, 8 p.m. Speakers: W. NEW New York, 7:30 p. m., N. Y. River Ave. Home, 308 Elm St. ty Hail, E. 2nd St. Lawrence, and YWCL speaker. YORK, Coliseum, E. 177th St. and Bronx Yonkers, May 5, 8 p. m., Workers Cooperative Center. May 4, 8 p. m., street meeting, } Manor House Sq. OHIO. Cleveland, 7:30 p. m., Public Hall (Ball Room). PENNSY Pittsburgh, 7:30 p. m., Labor L; Philadelphia, 8 p. m. Negro speaker. LVANIA. yeeum, Miller St. Speakers: R. Minor, H. Benjamin, and a Chester, 8 p. m. Speakers: Ben Thomas and a YWCL speaker. Allentown, 8 p.m. Speakers, L. Wilkes-Barre, 8 p. m. Scranton, 8 p. m. Minersville, 8 p. m. Easton and Bethlehem, 8 p. m. RHODE P. Lemley and a YWCL speaker. ISLAND, Providence, 8 p. m. Speakers: J. R. Reid, L. Nardella. There will also be May Day meetings in the following cities, the full details of which have not yet been received: New Haven, Waterbury (May 5), Bridgeport, and other cities, LABOR DEFENSE ~ SENATE, HOUSE — DENOUNCES RAID CLASH ON FARMS Defends All in Jail; National Campaign (Continued from Page One) Workers’ Union headquarters and the relief store there. “The action of the militia and state and city officers in not only permitting this outbreak of violence against the workers, but in actually aiding it by coming in, obviously | with pre-knowledge that the attack was being prepared, and making it safe for the gangsters by arresting all possible defenders in the head- quarters, is as wanton and provoca- tive as it is illegal,” said the state- ment. the state and city officials, the militia and police, with the mill own- ers who are trying to starve their workers back to the 12-hour day and $10 weekly wage. It is nothing new to workers to find this com- bination and the I. L, D. will re- double its efforts because of this latest outrage. We will defend the strikers, and we call on all the work- ing class to help us in this work.” Telegram to Governor. Telegrams have been sent by the 1. L. D. national office to the gov- ernor of North Carolina and the mayor of Gastonia, denouncing their complaisance with the use of vio- lence against the strikers. The telegram to each official reads: “The International Labor Defense outrageous attack of hired thugs of the mill owners and military forces of the government on the strike leaders and headquarters of the union and relief in Gastonia. Our national organization stands ready to defend the strikers to the limit against these barbarous attacks and will maintain the right of the tex- tile workers to strike, to picket and to organize. We will defend the slaves of ‘he textile mills to the utmost in their heroic struggle to build their union and struggle against the exploitation by the mill owners. We demand the immediate release of the imprisoned strikers. R. R. WORKERS INJURED. ITHACA, N. Y., April 18.—“Up- The engineer and conductor of a fast Lehigh Valley passenger train were injured seriously and many passengers were thrown from their seats today when the engine and ‘seven cars plunged into a creek bed near here. ‘he track had been ntion! weakened by washouts, “The I, L. D. takes notice of this, | one more act showing the’ unity of | protests most strongly against the) ‘Debenture Scheme for | Fake Relief Offered WASHINGTON, April 18. — The old debenture or tariff bounty plan of faker farm “relief,” which has | been bandied about in congress for five years, was made the basis to. day for about the only fight over| farm legislation in President Hoo- ver’s special session of congress. Chairman McNary of the senate ag- ricultural committee today drew up |the debentur~ plan, which will be included in the senate bill. The tariff bounty or debenture plan is not intended to assist the farmer at all, and will not do so, | but has a real bearing on the tariff situation. The scheme is for issu- ance to every exporter of wheat a certificate for half the amount of the tariff on an equivalent value of imports. For 1,000 bushels of wheat at present prices, the debenture would amount to $420, and this cer- tifieate would be sold to importers, {who would use it at face value to pay tariff duties. Swindle Farmer as Usual The farmer would have to sel! his wheat at the same price as at present to middlemen, who would |get the additional profit from the debenture even as they now take all the profit between the excessive sell- ing price of wheat products in the cities and the very low prices paid farmers. In actual practice, the farmer | probably never would see a deben- ture certificate as these would be handled exclusively among export- rs, importers and brokers. The debenture plan would be op- erative only at the discretion of the proposed federal farm board. House Opposes Debenture. Debate on the farm bill was open- ed in the house today, with Repre- sentative Williams, rep., Illinois, as- serting in a speech that the $500,- 000,000 agriculture bill just placed before it will give the farmer bar- | gaining power and control over mar- keting as well as production of his commodities. President Hoover’s support of the measure was claimed by Williams who said his views were incorporated in the measure. The house bill does not include the debenture export bonus plan incorporated in the sen- ate measure, b Karl Marx (Commu- nist Manifesto). ‘on Fully >/TUEL Calls Delegates DAILY WORKER, N En 7 YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929 dorses Trade Union Unity Convention "WRECK TEXTILE. STRIKE OFFICE | |Destroy Relief Store; | Militia Assists | (Continued from Page One) denosited with the bonding com-| panies. | | Previous Attacks. The s' are much aroused} over this gross attempt at intimi dation and starvation, but are ma more determined than ever to w | They have been striking for weeks | {and their strike has spread through | Pineville, Lexington and other North | ina towns, and into Anderson, | South Carolina. The hired thugs carrying deputy | sheriff's badges here, and the North |Carolina militia, are posted at the mills, arrest workers without war- rant, and recently have bayonetted a striker. Paul Crouch, speaking for the International Labor Defense, will jaddress the strikers in Lexington tomorrow, and will speak in Gas- jtonia Saturday. To Hold Parade. | Before the raid took place, the| National Textile Union had called} through the medium of leaflets dis- | tributed in surrounding towns for a mobilization of mill workers in| Gastonia, and a parade through the| streets and around the mills to pro- test the brutalities of the deputies and defend the right to strike. Herbert Hutchens, 18, a cotton mill scab, was shot by a deputy sheriff at Bessemer City, N. C., last night. Hutchens was one of a few who had remained in the struck mill. Carroll Holland, the deputy sheriff, said the shooting was accidental. Hutchens’ wound was only slight. TWEL PLEDGES — STRIKE SUPPORT Mass Meets, Protests, and Organization (Continued from Page One) their paid agents in the South to! drown the workers protest in blood. Starts Organization. “Workers! The winning of the | textile strike in Gastonia, N. C., means the beginning of the organ- ization of labor in the South and the solidarity of the working class of America and the unity of the Negro ond white workers. “Dowr. with the bloody drivers of the South! “Let labor arise and teach these murderous, lynch-law Southern bosses a lesson in working class | solidarity that they will never for- get. Forward to the Trade Union Unity Convention at Cleveland, 0., June 1-2; there to establish a new | trade union center which will organ- e the unorganized workers North | nd South, black and white, men and women, and mobilize the workers under the banners of the T. U. E. L., to make forever impossible the re- currence of such outrages as those now perpetrated against the Gas- tonia textile strikers.—John J. Bal- lam, Acting Secretary National Ex- ecutive Committee, Trade Union Educational League. NEW YORK WOMEN MEET ON APRIL 27 slave from the Shops A shop delegate conference to mobilize the working women of New York and Brooklyn for the New York conference and Cleveland Trade Union Unity Convention has been called by the Women’s Depart- ment of the Trade Union Educa- tional League, New York district, to meet April 27, at the Labor Temple. Representatives from the organ- ized shops “) the needle trades, shoe factories, restaurants and others will be present but a large part of the representation at this prelimin- ary conference is intended to come from the unorganized light indus- tries in New York. Build Shop Committees. Shop committees are being organ- ized as rapidly as possible to send representatives to this April 27 con- ference, but all class conscious wo- men workers, whether from formally organized shop committees or not, are invited to come, as one of the main tasks of the April 27 confer- ence is to speed up the organization of shop committees, and all workers in unorganized industries can assist. The April 27 conferences will lay the basis for a much larger and more representative conference to meet May 18-19 in Irving Plaza Hall, to take up problems of organ- izing the workers of New York. This conference, too, is preliminary to the National Trade Union Unity Con- ference meeting in Cleveland, June 1-2, to organize a new militant labor center and to form plans for organ- izing the unorganized on a wide scale, Q . ss riders missed being killed when a street in Detroit, Mick. Photo shows wreckage. “Rent Parties” and “Numbers’ For the Profit o (Continued from Page One) That is certainly a situation to alarm the patriots of that govern- ment of theirs. Just take a walk thru the Lower East Side or eed the tenements in Harlem and then} take a walk along Riverside Drive | and if you are at all class conscious you cannot help but ask yourself this question: “How long will it be before we workers of the tenements will march and take possession of Riverside Drive?” Police and Landlords That is a fear that always lurks in the minds of the masters. That is why Rockefeller builds a “model | apartment” to at least win over a very small section of Negroes living | in Harlem. These investigators for the capi- talist state urge more stringent methods in the fighting of crime in| the workingelass districts. The capi- talist state has its police and its courts to “root out” immoral prac-| tices in tencment districts. But the | task of rooting out these practices | will never be accomplished by these police and courts, They are an inte- gral part of the landlord system. The landlord system means that/| many workers living in a segregated district such as Harlem, where the | mountain of rents knows no summit, | will have to play “numbers,” must | have “rent parties,” “must practise prostitution in order to gratify the profit-stomachs of the landlords. The Real Criminals. As long as workers are the sub-/ ject of exploitation by boss and landlord, there will be “crime” in workingclass districts. The state will use its courts and police against this result of capitalist exploitation. This very same state will help the landlords in the exploitation of the | tenants. } It is this state and the class of landlords who are the real criminals. | They perpetuate one of the greatest crimes in all of history. Are not Riverside Drive and Fifth | Avenue among the greatest criminal galleries in the world? Sots ee | A “Forced Issue.” 'AKE the case of the building at Seventh Avenue. Eleven years ago this building was inhabited by white tenants. During and after the} war period when Negro workers} flocked into the cities to furnish| cheap labor power for the exploiters, they were all, in the words of a mem- ber of the State Housing Com-| mission, “dumped into Harlem.” The result was that the landlords be- gan posting notices like these: “We have endeavored for some- time to avoid turning over this house to colored tenants, but as a result of the rapid changes in con- ditions during the past month, the issue has been forced upon us”. K. K. K. and Profits. The landlords were not as dis- pleased with the prospects as it might seem. They saw an oppor- tunity for more profits. How strong their profit urge is can be seen from the fact that they ignored letters such as these: - “Dear Sir: “We have been informed of your intention to rent your house at No....... to Negro tenants. This is wholly un-American, and is totally against our principles. “We ask in a gentlemanly way to rescind your order, or un- pleasant things may happen. “May your decision be the right one. “(Signed) K K K.” se 8 The Brass Band. 1 Livas white tenants living in this building on Seventh Avenue paid $37 for six rooms. The first Negro tenant to move in paid $41 for the same apartment. Negro workers were welcomed to the brass-band tune of a rent-raise. Today, the rent for the same six rooms is $95. The tenant we spoke to living at this address was a longshoreman and received an average of $25 a week in wages. He has to pay $95 for his apartment, How does he do it? He rents out most of his rooms to lodgers. He 4 Escape Death in Plane-Auto Crash Two flyers had a narrow escape from death and two auto plane crashed into an auto on a ? f the Landlords Not So “Lucky.” His fellow tenants have not been as lucky. The landlord raised the rent of one of them to $110. By taking the case to court the tenant succeeded in bringing it down to $100. The clever landlord—since it is “unfair” to have unequal rents paid for the same apartments—de- cided to equalize the rents and make it $95 thruout the building. This meant that some of the tenants who were paying $70 and 75 were sud- denly forced upward on the “social! scale.” How kind-hearted, this landlord. Constant robbery, forcing the work- ers not only to work for the land- lord but also to get by any means possible more money with which to keep the landlord satisfied. <0) th oe Rent Parties. By, bans mornings when I get up at 5 in the morning to start my husband off to work,” said Mrs, X. “I hear a bunch of noise and holler- ing next door. That’s the rent party which continues on thru the night.” The rent party is a common insti- tution. It is a way of satisfying the landlord. Everyone is invited. You pay 25 cents at the door and inside you can buy drink, dance and love. Everyone comes. One or two rent parties a month can sometimes satisfy the landlord’s stomach. “A raise, you say? That means another rent party.” These same landlords will ap- peared shocked in public at what they call the “moral crimes” They will call upon the “respectable citi- zens” to save the honor of the com- munity. eee | “Numbers.” ‘OR the same reasons quite a num- ber of workers in Harlem play “numbers.” Police will occasionally make raids on “number parties” and “house rent parties,” but no one has ever known them to have raided the homes of landlords and real estate offices for “profiteering parties.” The landlord’s net is 1..: complete, of course, without the wage-cuts and unemployment brought about by his brother capitalists. So what is a longshoreman going to do, when after leavirz his house at 5 a. m. every day, he can only find three or four days work a week? | Or his daughter? For Landlord’s Benefit. Workers living in Harlem are forced to grasp at any passing sup- port in order to keep their heads above water, If the rent is not pro- daced out goes the tenant. No mat- ter where he goes he will face the same situation. So for the benefit of the landlord he holds his “rent parties.” In no other part of this city does this system work as viciously as in Harlem. It is an outgrowth of segregation which reserves a whole section of the workingclass for special exploitation. Not only is the landlord fed his luxury and ease by the sweat of workers, by their diseases in the tenements, but also by the selling of their bodies. All to the glory of the landlords! ; The real criminals in Harlem do not live in Harlem, They live on some such place as Riverside Drive and have their offices in Wall Street. * * * * Tomorrow the Daily Worker in- vestigator will take you along toa court in Harlem to hear a few dis- Possess cases. concluding article on conditions in Negro Harlem. Monday we will introduce you to Latin-American Harlem. Workingclass tenants, of all sec- tions of the city and from other cities, send in your letters to tne Daily Worker. FORCE PROBE OF DRY KILLING SPRINGFIELD, Ill, April 18.— Public opinion is so inflamed over the slaughter of Mrs. De King in her own home at Aurora recently by a dry officer who forced his way in on a liquor search ‘warrant ob- tained by perjury that the state leg- islature felt forced to take some ac- tion, and today by a vote of 81 to cannot be choicy about these lodgers. They are hard to find and one must accept what one gets. This tenant is fortunate for he has been able to avoid an atmosphere of gambling, drinking and prostitution for his children, 60 ordered a special investigation. ROYAL DIPLOMATIC VISIT. BRUSSELS, April 18. (U.P.)— King Boris of Bulgaria, arrived to- That will be the | ey Daily Worker. a worker in St. Louis. “Enclosed find $6 for one Haywood’s book. main work of our comrades. factories and shops. join the movement. not use fancy phrases, but tell mines and farms you and peasants.” of a fellow worker is here given). 2s soon as possible with Bill Haywood’s book. “This is my start for the Daily Worker drive. paper goes to a family of nine: Father, mother, and seven sons, who are very eager to read the Daily Worker and Bill (Militant Workers Respond to ‘Cail to Spread Daily in Shops, 'Factories and Double Readers ~g ILITANT WORKERS from every part of the United States, and even from Alaska, have responded to the subscription drive to double the number of readers of the A letter typical of the many received from the class- conscious workers of the United States, is the following from year’s subscription for (name Send the Daily Worker This “I think the best work for the movement can be done py getting subscribers to our paper—it ought to be among the “The next thing ought to be to get the Daily into the “In fact from now on I will spend most of my time get- ting subscribers and then follow them up and get them to “Let us get out and do something to build up our press, then secure these subscribers for the Communist Party. Do them, to get better conditions, organize. So that you may be able to run the mills, shops, Self and for the benefit of all the work- ers—in other words, a government of and for the workers Workers, do your part, as this worker has done his, to spread the Daily among your shopmates. Protest Killing of Negro Schoolboy at ANLCMeetMonday The killing of the Nesro school- boy Henry Clarke by his white schoolmate will be protested at a mass meeting to be held under the auspices of the American Negro La- bor Congress and the Young Work- ers Communist League at St. Lukes Hall, 125 W. 130th St, at 8 p. m, Monday, April 22. Speakers will be Harold Williams, of the Negro Department of the Communist Party, chairman; Wil- liam Burroughes, of th> Anjierican Negro Labor Congress; Leo Gran, of the Harlem Inter-racial Club; Charles Alexander of the Young Workers Communist League; John Owens, recently returned from the Southern textile strike; Richard B. Moore, of the Harlem Tenants’ League; R. Steele, secretary of the Eastern District of the Labor Sports Union, and Harry Eisenman, of the Young Pioneers of America. The first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy,—Marx. Wo WORLD FIGHT for the Work- ers Fight for the Building of New Revolutionary Unions For the Defense of the Soviet Union For a Workers and Farmers Government May Day Proletarian your organization has “American Valuation” to Raise Tariff Read Into Hoover Message WASHINGTON, April 18 (UP). —President Hoover’s recommenda- tion in his message to congress for a revision of the administrative fea- tures of the tariff law does not open the way for consideration of the American valuation plan, in the view of White House officials to- day. Under the American valuation plan, duties of imports would be figured upon the value of a similar article of domestic manufacture and not upon the value in the country of origin. In some cases the value in the country of origin would be only a fraction of the value in the United States. Opponents of the plan therefore argue it is a device to boost duties far higher than at present without actually changing the rates in the law. FRENCH IMPERIALIST PROTEST PARIS, April 18—The govern- ment today protested to the Nank- ing government the firing on a French gunboat by an unidentified band in the Ichang vicinity. RKERS OF THE UNITE! AGAINST the Bosses Against Social Reform- ism Against Company Union- ism Against Race Discrimi- nation Against Capitalism Is A Day of Struggle! Have your name and the names of your shop- mates printed in the Red Honor Roll. See that a grecting printed in the Special Edition. COLLECTED BY Address City .. day for a two-day visit with King Albert, who met him at the station. coeeesees State... 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