The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 19, 1929, Page 6

— Page Six Baily 345 Worker Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S. A. D. TLY. WORKER PIGEON-HOLING IT, three months three months six month o the Da York, N. ¥ 28 Union $ are, Launch “Terror” Against Mill Strikers ae SW YORK, FRIDAY, DONCHER KNOW By Fred Ellis | BILL tion forbidden except by permissicn, Copyright, 1929, by Internationas Publishers Co., Inc. HAYWOOD’S. BOOK All rights rese,ved. Republica- The Iudustrial Relations Commission Hears About the Class Struggle; Weinstock Mixes Evidence; the New Society The “Lynch Law” of the worst oppression in the South ; as been turned: loose e101 ue eee Haywood has told of his life as a worker and revolutionist, from courageous struggles of the Southern textile workers. the age of nine, when he first entered the mines, to the year 1916, A masked mob of President Hoover's “respectable when he testified before the Industrial Relations Comavierion as the . yens of Gastonia, North Carolina, several dozen strong, | general organizer of the IL.W.W. His testimony begins below. in regular Ku Klux Klan style, demolished the headquarters | eR Re of the National Textile Workers’ Union; also destroying the | By WILLIAM D HAYWOOD. building of the Workers’ International Relief, from which Fearact food was being distributed among the starving strikers. Not only the building but the food stores were destroyed. At this writing there is no definite information as to the whereabouts of Fred Beal, strike organizer; George Pershing, staff correspondent of the Daily Worker, and other and relief workers. It may be d with definite nty, however, that the National Textile Workers’ Union will stay right on the job, that the Workers’ International Relief and the International Labor Defense will not flinch in their duties, that greater’ solidarity of the whole working class will grow out of this attack against it. Several companies of national guardsmen imported to carry on open war against the strikers, a horde of deputy sheriffs and the local police rested on their arms while the howling mob, faces covered with white masks, did its de- structive work. : This open terror against the strikers was predicted im- mediately the textile workers began their determined strug- gle against the Loray plant of the Manville-Jenckes Company, which also has textile mills in Rhode Island, where intoler- able conditions also prevail. From the beginning the mill owners have carried on with great aggressiveness a prov cative campaign against the strikers, principally on the bas of race and nationality. The solidarity of the workers, how- ever, was so great, not only among the strikers, but includ- ing the sympathizing workers in other industries, that the strike front stood solid against the employers, the police and the state militia, backed by the local and state governments. Even the treachery of the American Federation of Labor was of no avail. Present developments would indicate that the strikers were-so confident of their position that they made no prep- arations to resist the inevitable onslaught that finally came from those “business” elements upon which President Hoover has announced he intends to build his “Lily White” republican party in the South. Here is the Ku Klux Kian, with its sym- bol of the noose and the stake, on the march against workers, black and white, who are seeking to lift themselves out of the slavery conditions imposed on them in the new era of indus- trial development in the South. The Southern textile strikers must quickly close this breach made in their fighting front. This experience must strengthen not only future struggles, but must be utilized immediately for improving the present situation. Against the mobs, against the militia, against the treachery of the American Federation of Labor, the massed solidarity of the working class, fighting under the banners of left wing in- A. F. L. Scabs in Silk Strikes By CLARINA MICHELSON | WILKE ARRE, Pa., (By Mail). —The officials of the American Federation of Labor have openly come out as strikebreakers, and to- gether with the bosses, cops, courts | and press are fighting and trying to| Squire Tells National Textile Union Leader, “Get Out or You Won’t Live Long.” | meeting was held. | The strike of the two Hess Gold- smith Mills, involving 500 workers, completely shutting down the two | mills within three days, would have | forced the boss to accept all the de- | mands of the strikers within a short smash the National Textile Workers |station and also charged with in-| local unions are requested to refuse | period. The two mills on strike, the Union in the anthracite region. | Five hundred stril of 2 mills| in Plymouth and Wilkes Barre, or- ganized under the leadership of the National Textile Workers Union, have forcibly been prevented by police from meeting with their or- ganizer, Clarina Michelson, and other speakers from the N. T. W. U. On April 11th, at a meeting of 500 strikers at Stravinsky Hall, 42 Ferry Street, Plymouth, the entire police force, including Chief of Police} Hosie, of Plymouth, escorted into| the hall and protected Mary Kel-| citing to riot! to read any circular coming from the N. T. W. U., nor is any local union allowed to render assistance to this organization. “If.the Textile Workers of Wyom- All three were kept in jail 24 hours. At a hearing before Squire Evans the following day, they were| found guilty. When the case was}. appealed by their lawyer Gus Klee-| ing Valley need the assistance of man, of Wilkes-Barre, acting for|the labor movement, the United the American Civil Liberties Union, Mine Workers of America stands Squire Evans put bail at $2,500 on Teady to help the boys and girls of each, Chief of Police Hosie stating) Ur mills, but such work must be Squire Evans probably put bail so done by the United Textile Workers high “because he wanted the de-/0t the Central Labor Union of fendants to stay in jail awhile.” Wilkes Barre and vicinity. “John Boylan, President of District No. 1, U. M. W. Ever since the strike in the Hess} leher, organizer of the United Tex-| Goldsmith Mill, at 627 W. Main tile Workers Union, Wm. J. Krem- St., Plymouth, started on April 8th, belbein and Bernard Calhoun, inter-|When the entire night shift, all mem- Refused Floor. national organizers of the A. F. of bers of the National Textile Work- A committee of strikers, repre- L. When the N. T. W. U. organizer, ers’ Union walked out, the officials| senting both mills, with Clarina of A.” |Hess Goldsmith mills of Plymouth and Waller St., Wilkes Barre, are throwing mills and provide all the | silk for the other two Hess Gold- \§ nith mills in the vicinity, one in | Kingston and one on Blackman St., | Wilkes Barre, and would have forced the shutting down of these two | mills, involving 700 more workers, |The strikers, who immediately | elected strike committees of both | mills, picketed all four mills three | times a day, and succeeded in pull- | ing on strike large groups from the eee mills. At an enthusiastic meeting of 400 strikers, the demands for recognition of the union, an 8- hour day; a wage increase of 30 per | cent, and time and a half for over- | time, were voted on and unani- | | WAS called to Washington to give testimony before the Industrial Relations Commission. This commission was formed by an act of Congress under the Roosevelt administration but did not come into existence until Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States, when he appointed the members comprising it with Frank P. Walsh, a lawyer of Kansas City, as chairman. The yeason for this commission was the industrial unrest of the period: the woolen and cotton strike at Law- rence, the silk strike at Paterson, the textile strike at Little Falls, the rubber strike at Akron, the strikes in Colorado, the lumber strikes of the Northwest and the South, the Wheatland hop pickers’ strike and other strikes in California, the strike of the copper miners in Michigan, the widespread free speech fights, as well as the condition of the workers in the South. The commission was exhaustive in its investiga- tion, though little or riothing came from Congress as a result of its re- port in eleven large volumes. The power of this commission insofar as investigation was concerned was extensive. The industrial mag- nates were compelled to testify, and to submit to the severest cross- examination. Among them was John D. Rockefeller, Jr., of whom it was said by one of the commissioners that he was “turned inside out.” I was on the stand for the better part of two days. I was first questioned by Chairman Walsh, and went over briefly many things that I have recounted in this book, adding: “This clearly portrays a condition that this commission should un- derstand, and that is that there is a class struggle in society, with workers on one side of the struggle and the capitalists on the other— that the workers have nothing but their labor power and the capitalists have the control of and the influence of all branches of government— legislative, executive and judicial—that they have on their side of the question all of the forces of law—they can hire detectives, they can have the police force for the asking or the militia, or the regular army. “There are workers who have come to the conclusion that there is only one way to win this battle. We don’t agree at all with the statement that you have heard reiterated here day day after day— that there is an identity of interests between capital and labor. We say to you frankly that there can be no identity of interests between workers, who produce all by their own labor power and their brains, and such men as John D. Rockefeller, Morgan, and their stockholders, who neither by brain nor muscle nor by any other effort contribute to the productivity of the industries that they own. We say that this struggle will go on in spite of anything that this commission can do or anything that you may recommend to Congress, that the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class is an inevitable battle, that it is a fight for what the capitalist class has control of— the means of life, the tools ahd machinery of production. These, we contend, should be in the hands of and controlled by the working class alone, independent of anything that capitalists and their shareholders and stockholders may say to the contrary. . . . “I believe there will come a time when the workers will realize what the few of us are striving for and that is industrial freedom.” * * * IOMMISSIONER WEINSTOCK, a merchant of Sacramento, Cali- (4 dustrial unionism. The attack of the citizens’ mob in Gas- Clarina Michelson arrived at the hali | Of the U.T.W.U., the A. F. of L. and| Michelson, on the secon! day of the|™ously accepted. A committee of fornia, was one of the commissioners who questioned me. 5 tonia must be converted into an instrument for raising even | at 5:30, after picketing the Ply-|the U.M.W.U. have done, everything] strike, were refused the floor at Lo-| Sttikers from both mills presented | He asked me about the I.W.W. literature, saying: “Now I am higher and with increased challenge the banners of the Na- | mouth mill, she was told by the | possible to break the strike. On the | cal No. 311, of the U. M. W. of ‘A, | the demands to Mr. Frey, general | going to read here some quotations from I.W.W. authenticated litera- tional Textile Workers’ Union. chief of police, that he had orders |%rd day of the sttike, John Boylan, | meeting at Campbell Hall, Plymouth, | Superintendent of the mills. ure: not to let her in the hall; one of | President of District 1, U.M.W.U.,| when they went to ask support from Send Greetings to Carolina. I wanted to know who was the author. the cops present stating: “You know |Sent letters to all locals telling) the rank and file. The N. T. W. U.} The following telegram was sent Commissioner Weinstock: The I.W.W. literature placed in the hands the United Mine Workers officials een not Me wt cuamlass ay ae i aad a by the officials of the) after a unanimous vote to the strik-| of the commission teaches militant action whenever such action may ERE Soe © ae ’ run this city and we have had our assistance o the N. T. W. U. is | local as “Communists,” “reds,” “dual | ing textile workers of North Caro-| be deemed necessary. In a pamphlet published by the I.W.W., entitled Snowden—Imperialism’s Debt Collector. orders.” |letter, printed in all the lecal papers, | unionists,” etc. The United Mine|lina. “Five hundred strikers of| The I.W.W.—Its History Structure, and Methods, written by Vincent Philip Snowden, chancellor of the exchequer in the: la- “You Won't Live Long.” jis as follows: ee Journal in Res dee ey Wilkes Barre and Plymouth send | St. John, the following statement appears: i pee 2 aS ae When organizer Michelson tried| ‘Scranton, Pa., April 10, 1929. To| 8% 2'so carries an editorial entitled: | greetings to our fellow workers | “As a revolutionary organization the Industrial Workers of the bor gov ernment, the best budget maker” that British im- | push her way by the police offi-|local unions of the Mine Workers)“: F. of L. brands National Textile| striking in the South under the] World aims to use any and all tactics that will get the results sought perialism ever had, now appears in the role of uncompromis- cers into'the hall to attend ber own}of America, Wilkes Barre ana| Workers Union” and a communica- | leadership of the National Textile| with the least expenditure of time and energy. The tactics used are ing debt collector for His Majesty’s government. Snowden meeting, she was arrested, charged| Vicinity. During the past several |tion sent by President William Green | Workers Union. We are with you} determined solely by the power of the organization to make good their would out-Shylock Uncle Sam. with “unlawfully attempting to en days, circulars have been mailed fo eo ee ke py he | and me see complete vietory in| use. ‘The question of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ does not concern us.” Snowden announces his rejecti E , |ter a peaceful meeting, disorderly|our local unions by the National | ~~ TREE CEMTRAC GRP eee nee In ‘a leaflet issued by the TLW.W., entitled An’ Appeal ‘to Wake robably ¢ Ste Oe ceca sae es conduct, and refi to disperse | Textile Workers Union of America,|'® °f the opinion that the officers | conditions.’ Above motion unani-/ Workers, Men and Women, by E. S. Nelson, the following appears: note, probably the best war debt settlement that British im- han’ toby aa OF At the|with headquarters at 10 S. Wash.| 224 members of organizations af-|mously passed at strikers’ mass “In case of a capitalist injunction against strikers, violate it— perialism could get, calling it a “scandalous transaction,” and | {ime of her arrest, Ant Ricci, | ington St. Wilkes Barre, Pa. filiated with the A. F. of L. should] meeting April 10th.” disobey it—let the strikers and others go to jail, if necessary. That arguing that France was paying to the United States a higher | member of the N. T. W. U. who had| “The circular states that a strike a Ben En nae making | ‘the Hess Goldsmith workers, who| Would cost so much that the injunction would be dispensed with. Final, proportion than she proposed to pay the British. He declared | done picket duty during the strike, | exists at some mills in Wilkes Barre Batic financial contributions to ap-| .. on the night shift, are in the| Universal strike, that is, to remain within the industrial institutions, that Britain had done more for France than the United States 20d spoken at several of the previ-|and Plymouth, involving sons and genie mill from p. m, till 6:30 a, m., work-| lock the employers out for good as owners and parasites, and give them had ever done. Snowden. here proclaims again his collab- | °US meetings, was also arrested and penaliters of our members. It Strikers Militant. ing 12 hours a night, get only $21.20, @ chance to become toilers.” H a, Ms LES ie > i: az “ | charged with disorderly conduct and | further appeals for moral and finan- Shere F * a week, The highest wage paid the! That is fairly representative, Mr. Haywood, of the attitude and sy oration with British imperialist rule. refusal to disperse. Michael Zaldo-|cial support. aan atl cati ete eters girls in the throwing mills is $12) Propaganda of the I.W.W.—these extracts from these I.W.W. pamphlets 4 Snowden clearly considers himself a loyal supporter of | kas, reporter for the Lithuanian| “The National Textile Workers of|N. T. W. U. that the U. T. W. U.|2 Week, many of whom slave 9 hours| nd articles I have read? 5 a] the British empire, as he showed himself at all times while | Papers, “Laisve” and ‘Vilnis,” and | America is a dual movement, simi-| and AF. of L. officials have tried | # day for $7, $8 and $9 a week. The| To which I replied: “Yes, in so far as you have quoted from the ; | organizer for the American Lith-/Jar to the Save-the-Union and Com-|¢o preak. In the Wilkes Barre| 298s, greedy for more profits, re-| 1.W.W. pamphlets. You have a number of pamphlets that were not : PSUR a. the Labor Party was in power, only he appears now as a more extreme diehard than Baldwin or Churchill. Snowden’s policy for British imperialism is to get as much as possible from continental debtors and pay as little as possible to Amer- ican creditors. The logical working out of the Snowden pro- posal is to demand of the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union that they also pay the debts that British imperialism claims to be due it, but which the First Workers’ Republic has completely repudiated. Workers in all countries can only stand on the position of the triumphant workers and peasants of the Soviet Union, —for the complete repudiation of all debts. Labor in the United States and Great Britain must especially make this fight, since these are the two most powerful imperialist countries now operating through the Experts’ Committee sitting at Paris, to bleed white the German working class through an arrangement by which the former allies are to collect from Germany what they must pay to the United States. This experts’ committee is dominated by Wall Street through J. Pierpont Morgan and his partner, Thomas Lamont. J. Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons, re- fused to go to the extremes that Snowden demanded, but he uanian Workers Society, was also | | arrested on the same charges. At a} hearing before Squire Evans of Ply- mouth, Ricci and Zaldokas were | found guilty and are on bail. The |case against Clarina Michelson was dismissed by Squire Evans who said: | “I order you out of Plymouth. Dont | you ever dare come into this city again. If you do, you won't live | long.” | Next day, at a secret Strike Com- | mittee meeting the entire Strike | Committee voted to demand Clarina Michelson’s admission to a meeting called by the U. T. W. U. that after- |noon at the Polish Alliance Hall, | West Main St., Plymouth, and to de- | mand that A. F. of L. and U. T. W. U. Textile Workers Unicn organizers. At this Polish Alliance Hall meet- ing, Strike Committee members were | refused the floor and several were threatened with arrest by the large police force in attendance. When munist organizations who profess to represent the labor movement, they are not connected with the A. F. of L. or any of its affiliated | Weaving Co., strike, the U. T. W. U. called a meeting of strikers affili- ated with the N. T. W. U., also on \the 3rd day of the strike, in an at- officials debate with National | branches. tempt to break the strike, but as ‘Therefore all secretaries of our|only five strikers showed up, no The Militant Striker By HENRY REICH, Jr. { am the Militant Striker! I embody the protest of the working mass. I am the voice of the crying toilers. I fight lost causes. I am vigilant and tireless. I take blows and return them. I am beaten and jailed without provocation. every two weeks, from $1 to $2, and the night shift workers from $4 to $3. Another act of the boss last | week was to threaten with discharge | any worker who did not give a day’s pay to a Welfare Federation Drive which is now being held in Wilkes Barre. The N. T. W. U, local in the Plymouth Hess Goldsmith mill | boss was forced to back down, Reactionaries Unite. The United Textile Workers | Union officials together with the ‘officials of the A. F. of L, and the | United Mine Workers Union, who for 20 years have done nothing in | the anthracite region to try to or- ganize the textile workers, are | shaken from their inertia by seeing some real organization work being | done, locals formed in the mills and | strikes being led by the National cently cut the bonus which they get | ut its last meeting before the strike | decided to refuse to pay this, and the | written by members of the I.W.W. The first that you quoted is the National Song of France, the ‘Marseillaise. What you read advocating the taking of food was said in this city by Abraham Lincoln during war time, when speculators and gamblers in foodstuffs ran the prices of provisions up to 600 or 700 or 800 per cent, and the people came to Abraham Lincoln and asked him what to do, and he said, ‘Take your pickaxes and crowbars and go to the granaries and warehouses and help yourselves,’ and I think that is good I.W.W. doctrine. I do not see much there I would take issue with.” af Commissioner Weinstock: Well, then, summing up we find that I.W.W.ism teaches the following: (a) That the workers are to use any and all tactics that will get the results sought with the least possible expenditure of time and energy. (b) The question of right or wrong is not to be considered. (c) The avenging sword is to be unsheathed, with all hearts re- solved on victory or death, « (d) The workman is to help himself when the proper time comes, *(e) No agreement with an employer is to be considered by the worker as sacred or inviolable. (£) The worker is to produce inferior goods and kill time in get- ting tools repaired and in attending to repair work—all by a silent understanding. (g) The worker is to look forward to the day when he will con- fiscate the factories and drive out the owners. (h) The worker is to get ready to cause industrial paralysis if " 8 i ildi i | Textile Workers Union, The-local) yj ‘i Nacati i i F ; 4 declared for labor party support of the Balfour note, pledgin| | Michelson arrived at the building I hurl defiance at the master class. | 3 with a view of confiscating all industries, meanwhile taking forcible the labor party “to carry out Britain’s pledges if it got ee Pecirbecinnt: Ae Mase tema I arouse the babblers of free speech and | Featauientat Poking Sey Sarg hers cl aerarteag all things that he may need, to office,” adding that, “when in office the labor party had by the cops at the top of the first free assemblage. Hot tab any more Mes BE Ut] intuitions ee ee al Jalal carried out the Balfour principle.” : As the parliamentary elections approach it must become inereasingly difficult for the British working class to see any flight of steps and again ordered to leave town by Chief of Police Hosie. ‘ Wants Them in Jail. I am a challenge to the reformer. I bear the red banner of the workers and |by the N. T. W. U. The forcible slipping out. of town of Helen Colodny, by Chief of Police Taylor If that is the creed of the I1.W.W. do you think the American people will ever stand for it? . Answer: There are many things I would like to explain to you, n 2 of Wilkes Barre, after her arrest difference between the Tories and the labor party traitors, | ci svinsky Hall, at 42 Ferry S 3 Meena ; for giving out leaflets for the N. T. Seine oa adh ie eae Torney ave ress, we except that often the laborites, (McDonald, Snowden, Hender.._| p,>'™8¥insk¥, Hall, al erry St., a join hands with the proletariat everywhere. W. U. in front of one of the mills,! hope to see the day when all ‘abs miei ‘vill eae pian asitcincin oe 4 son & Co.) often outdo the conservatives. The only alter- native is full support of the Communist Party and its candi- dates, struggle under the standards of the Communist Inter- national against the imperialisms of all countries, complete repudiation of all debts. Revolutionary labor in all countries must build the united front against finance capital. For the enormous sums at stake, especially the war debts, will be squeezed out of the working masses, if it is within the power of finance capital |Plymouth, where the N.T.W.U, was |to hold its usual meeting at 5:30,| was patrolled by 8 cops. No strikers [were permitted to enter. Again) ‘Clarina Michelson and Anthony, Ricci were arrested but were not able to learn until the next day that |the charge against them was incit- ing to riot. Zaldokas, in charge of local International Labor Defense} work, who tried to get information| isbout the arrests at the police sta- I am thrust down by “society”. I am outcast. I am ejected from my home. I am slugged and shot by company thug:. My blood stains the earth. ‘ T am dead and arise again. I take an oath of vengeance. T shall never relent until the finai was another attempt to try to break the National Textile Workers Union. It is clear that from now on, the National Textile Workers Union will be fought and be fought bitterly in the anthracite, by the bosses and the agents of the bosses, the offi- cials of the American Federation of Labor, the officials of the United | Textile Workers Union, the officials of the United Mine Workers Union, with muscle—we want to see the day when women will take their place as industrial units—we want to see the day when every old man and every old woman will have the assurance of at least dying in peace. Now you have not got anything like that today. You have not the as- surance, rich man as you are, of not dying a pauper. I have an idea that we can have a better society than we have got—and I have another idea that we cannot have a much worse one than it is at present. * * r In the next issue Haywood outlines to the Industrial Commis. sion his idea of the. commonwealth of labor. Get a copy of Bill Haywood's Book free by sending in a yearly subscription to the _ todoit. That power must be destroyed. ve ie: politer aie Atel rg tree Liode Was arzested inside the police I am the Militant Striker! _ Spress, : oe | Worker, either new or renewal. Oe Ser ed Ko.