The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1929, Page 2

Page I'wo DAILY WORKER, NEW YO RK, THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1929 Negro Toilers in Industry, on the Fields, in the Tenements, Join Communist Party! POLL IN NEWARK BRINGS NEGROES TO COMMUNISTS NewarkElectorateAdds to Negro Week (Cont height Pag age Negro Week gram of the sponse a lard Negro Wee Comm paign r meet- in the lead- ship of th gles, was i vote, which sponse of the w Negro workers. At the sam actual organ tories, it was pc resentative: Trade Ur which wil June 1. ev Negro f the the Congress With Week the Negro C American was opened ions. To date meny u workers’ organ- izations, work and se tions cf the Cc y have gontributed a al- ready reach towards the At the s Negro Champion scribers and more new has proceeded with vigor ‘or more Locals of th bor Congr try will h ne coun- of the der of Haiti, Tous /Ouverture, with memorial meetings on his birthday, Mey 20th, gr as near that date as possible. In New Y he Harlem lo- will hold a eal of the / 4 méeting Tuesday huge memorial evening, 1 , at St. Luk Hall, 129 W 130th St., with na- tionally known speakers. Many Ne- gro and white labor orvanizations are cooperating and a bie demon- stration is expected. ng the speakers will be Richard B. Moore, president of the Harlem. Tenants League, John Ballam of the Trade Union Educational Committee, Grace Campbell, chairman of the Harlew Educational Forum, M: Adams of the Negro Work Relief Commit- see, Robert Minor, editor of the Daily Worker, J. Mink of the Progressive Seamen’s Union, Harold Williams, District Negro Director, District 2, Communist Party. District 2 is al- ready well over the quota of $1,500 which was allotted it for the Negro Champion Fund. The Brooklyn lo- eal will hold a memorial meeting and dance Saturday, May 18th, at 154 Watkins St. Other Cities. In Boston, the local N.-L. 6, has arranged a memori meeting for Thursday evening, May 28rd, at Masonic Temple, Smith Hall, 1095 Tremont St., with Richard B. Moore and severa! local spe Tre Buffalo local of the A. N. L, C. will hold its memorial meeting on May 26th, hall to be announced later. They are also holding an in- ter-racial dance this Friday evening, May 17th. On West Coast. The Ozkland and San Francisco locals have reported that they are arranging affairs for National Or- ganization Week, and will hold mem- orial meetings as a wind-up. In Pittsburgh, in Philadelphia, Cleve- Jand, in Detroit, and other cities, the lerals are all engaged in activity | during National Organization. It is practically certain, however, that all locals of the organization will try their utmost to hold memorial meet- ings in honor of the great Haitian revolutionary leader. At all meetings a special effort will be made to carry the message of trade unionism to the Negro workers. The American Negro La- bor Congress has already endorsed the cal! cf the Trade Union Educa- tional League for a unity convention in Cleveland, June 1st and 2nd, and at all cf its meetings, the congress ‘wili make every effort to enlist the support of the Negro workers for this convention and get Negro work- ers orgenizations and unions to send delegates to Cleveland. HOUSE TABLE “DEBENTURES” (Continued from Page One) whether or not they are going to vote for the bill.” Representative Huddleston of Ala- tama turned on the leader of his own party, Representative Garner. Chiding Mr. Garner for calling him un “honest protectionist,” Mr. Hud- @eston declared “there ain't no such enimal, no more then there is an Fonest card shark, for you can't be “honest when playing a dishonest j | Negro Homes Negro Women Slaving in Southern Fields | Negro women “chopping” with South Carolina. Southern plantations w long Southern field hoes at Mari- Negro women are employed in large num- here they must submit to virtual | in Allevs in Philadelphia (Continued from Page One) abodes of these exploited workers + are often unfit for human habitation, | and many of these dwellings should have been condemned twenty years he building ‘inspectors are ican politicians and. so far as known, cases are recorded the landlords could not ge matters satisfactorily—for the landlords. Neither the landlords nor the building inspectors are con- cerned with the welfare of the ten- no where a Walls Collapse. It is no infrequent matter for the} walls of houses in Philadelphia to} collapse after severe rain. These walls are of brick and the houses, be- | ng of flimsy construction fall an| easy prey to storms. Construction of houses generally, even in some of the “newer and better” neighbor-| hoo of such poor quality, that I know of two whole rows of dwellings | that collapsed during storms even before completion. In the older neighborhoods of | aoe tho the best in the court, no sani- tary conveniences, the toilet being on the other side of the court and used by both tenants of the house; no fire-escapes, no paper on the walls, in fact nothing worth men- tioning, is a large sum of money even when divided up by the two ten- Waste matter must be carried out and placed on the pavement. The walls of the room have never been papered, and the plaster, which is weak and coming off furnishes homes for mul s of insects, mice and other pes' An old fashioned little coal-burning stove gives heat, a kerosene lamp flickers during the night and dimly 1 the room on the first floor, wh furnished with ancient bare furniture, and not much of that, Very plain chairs of wood, an old wooden table, that is all. And tho bedrooms are furnished long the same line, with the barest necessities, all that can be afforded by a poor worker. Even Worse. And this is the best house in the court, the others being dilapidated as in the court itself, with the area- way of the court paved with the cheapest brick, many years ago and Come Forth, By JOHN (California Neg! Come forth, black bard, and Oh sing a lay That shall pierce the hearts And from your throat let rise a note so clear That all oppressed throughout the world shall hear. Come forth, black bard, and Oh sing a tune _hat like Pied Piper’s lay Throughout the world shall Where vermin breed— Into the nests of sin— A cle Come forth, black bard, and Oh sing a dirge, That shall to labor call with Black Samson—on his brow The blood-sweat of birth: In his mighty travails he sh Come forth, black bard, and Oh sing a paean That shall tell the world how you employ Your stirring gift of song; Oh sing of victory! A song of new creations—a rion note of magic that shall change rats into Black Bard H. OWENS ro Dirt Farmer). > Negro Workers at Lowest Paid Labor wh sing a stirring song! of the black throng; sing a martial note! float ; men, sing a note of pain! might and main, kind of work the Negro worker gets about 50 cents an hour, At that he dovs not work steadily, for on all rainy days work is suspended. By join- the Communist Party, which is located at 1214 Spring Garden et in Philadelphia, Ni ned the leader in organization of the wor New Segregated Section for all create a new earth. sing a note of joy! ng class. chanson of the free. now in such condition as to make it dangerous for workers, { 7 In the houses occupied by worl even worse off than Mr. S., and these houses are in even worse shape, some rooms rent as low as $2.50 per week, $3.00 and $4.00 per Toussaint L’Owverture, N.M.U.MINERS FAKE STRIKE TO | Exploitation In Brownsville By JOE SPEAR. URING the past few years Brownsville has become one of |the most important Negro sections lof Brooklyn. Whole streets such as | Bergen St., Rockaway Ave., Herki- |mer St; Dean St., Thatford Ave., | Atlantic Ave., etc., are concentrated Negro sections. Here we find Negro barbers, Negro butchers, Negro grocers and thousands of Negro workers showing that this section has become in reality a Negro com- iets = | The Negroes of Brownsville must The housing conditions of the|vaiy around the American Negro Negroes in Brownsville are the|Tabor Congress, the organization | worst imaginable. The Negro work- which fights racial discrimination ers live in old dilapidated shacks.sind segregation and for complete | or in the oldest brick houses. Those-cmaneipation of the Negro. race. who can afford to live in better|mney must immediately join the houses must pay 20 per cent more| Brownsville branch of the American for rent than the whites. The rooms | Negro Labor Congress, which méets are small, the walls dirty, the ceil: at the Brownsville Workers Center, |ings usually leaky. Very rarely docs 154 Watkins Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. lone find steam heat or electricity. Those who are fortunate enough to| J fhe struggle against the ex- have hot water must make it them-|! ee ee oes selves. The toilets are off the kit- chen and usually without a bathtub. Yes, in “prosperous. America” you! on May 18 and 19 and in Cleveland on June Ist. These conferences will have for their purpose the establishment of a militant trade union center which will organize the unorganized, in. cluding the Negro workers, which will lead the fight against speed-up, low wages and long hours, and which will fight for political, social and racial equality for Negroes, Join Communist Party. | , Haitian Revolutionary ination and segregation, in the struggle to build the American Ne- gro Labor Congress, in the struggle | which will be held in New York City | |the struggle against racial discrim-| ADMIT POWER CO. BRIBED BRYAN’S CHAIN OF PAPERS Owns Chicago Journal; Buying 20 More WASHINGTO. May 15,—At- tempts of S, E. Thomason, ‘Chicago publisher, to purchase 20 newspapers of national standing with assistance of the In- ternational Paper and Power Co., were disclosed in testimony before )the Federal Trade Commission t day. He admits the I. P. P. Co, part owner of his Chicago Journa] and of the Bryan papers in the south. This investigation, forced by a jconflict among power interests, as- |sumes some of the characteristi of the Teapot Deme affa it is now hardly denied w: tempt by the Rockefeller interests to smash some of their rivals, by exposing graft. The newspapers oi |the coyntry, bound for circulation purposes to pose as disinterested, lave nearly unanimously united in condemning the power trust pur- |chases. Even some of the papers which the latest evidence discloses as under power company influence have within the last few weeks at- tacked the power baron’s grip on Boston papers, the original dis- closure which theoretically provoked the whole investigation by the gov- ernment, Big Papers on List. Papers which Thomason, as agent for the I. P. P. Co., endeavored te |buy, correspondence and testimony showed, included the Detroit Free Press, the Kansas City Star, the St. Lo Globe-Democrat, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland News, Min- neapolis Star, Minneapolis Journal, Buffalo Times, South Bend., Ind, News-Times, Dayton, 0., Herald, the | Star group in Indiana and the Booth group in Michigan. Previously, Thomason had told | the commission about the power company’s investment in the Chi- jeago Journal, which it aided him to |purchase in 1928. His testimony dis- losed the power company had a» jone-third interest in the Journal and has advanced a total of $1,630,000 \to the Bryan-Thomason Newspapers, Inc., which owns the Journal, the a Philadelphia, in which live over a| week, Any of these prices are highly million workers, many of the “dwel-| exorbitant in view of the surround- lings” are really worthless, the only | ings, and the fact that stucco holds genuine value in these properties be-| the tottering walls in place. ing the ground on which these hovels | Lodgers. are located. Landlords hold these} Note the sign “Furnished Rooms properties for speculation, and no|7T¢ Let.” Negro families are forced matter what the rent charged, the! to take in lodgers to help pay the ofit is of course, a very large one. | rental; a house of this sort costing Segregated Groups. | about six dollars a room per week. Negro workers are forced to live | Altho there is no regular price, four in such shacks because of the very | and five being taken if more is not low wages received, and if a Negro) forthcoming. The furnishings con- worker should secure a better pay-|Sist of bed (a cot) old bedding, a ing job, he finds it impossible to rent | chair, and a kerosene lamp. a home in a better neighborhood. The paving is ancient, and the Not only Negroes, but certain| cobblestones of the alley are far foreign born workers are kept out of most of the newer neighborhoods, | where the workers houses, even tho of flimsy and doubtful construction, are at least more modern. The land- lords do this, because it is claimed} by them, that even if one Negro or! Italian family moves into “the row,” | the rental values will depreciate in| the whole block. In these neighbor- hoods, the Ku Klux Klan is strongly organized and keeps the flame of race and national prejudice burning | steadily. Live in Alleys The Alleys. South Street is the most important street in the largest Negro neigh- borhood of Philadelphia. This is a narrow street itself, but the so-called “streets,” both north and south of |South St. are nothing more than {vile, foul smelling alleys, where | scores of thousands of Negro work- \ers are forced to live and pay high ‘vents for this dubious “privilege.” In addition to these streets, such as Kater, Rodman, Panama and many | others, there exist hundreds of al- leys, even worse. These alleys are) known as “courts” or “places.” will even find toilets in the cellar} to unite white and black workers CONVENE SUNDAY Western Pennsylvania Locals in Big Drive (Continued from Page One) delegates from their local unions. Start Big Campaign. The official call states: “We must launch a big campaign jagainst wage cuts and for the or- ganization of the unorganized min- ers of our district. We must inten- \sify the organization work and ex- pand and extend the influence of four union. We must establish the National Miners’ Union as the real leader of the miners’ struggles in this district. We must wage a struggle against unemployment; | | against the infamous Coal and Iron! Police; against the Watson Coal | Bill for trustification of the coal in- dustry; against company unionism; against the speed-up and rational- lization program of the employers. | We must consolidate our forces and gain thousands of new recruits, for la fight to obtain union conditions, {union control, higher wages, check. weighman, pit committees and social legislation, Every single one of our members must work hard and prose- cute this campaign to a successful conclusion.” A tentative order of business cov- ers all these points, and such mat- ters as better circulation of the Coal Digger, and financial matters. PICKET OFFICE OF and rooms illuminated by kerosene lamps into strong militant unions, the Com- AID MILL BOSS ‘Paterson Dye Workers Move to Organize | (Continued from Page One) L. and N. T. W. U. speakers, the meeting voted to elect delegates to Rent Only. Heading role. Every class conscious The moment you enter the home Negro should become a member of of one of the Negro families you this Party; the Party which fights feel and see unspeakable poverty. In| for the abolition of the present capi- a few minutes of conversation eX-| talist system, the source of poverty, ploitation and discrimination of the unemployment, wars and oppression worst sort is revealed to you./of the Negro race. to| Whether the rent be $16 or $40 the| the Metropolitan Area Conference in ae eae ee landlord willl New York, which meets Saturday |jo¢ paint, the landlord will not fix| BOSS PAPERS SCRAP {and Sunday in New York, and willl the plumbing, the landlord will not] WASHINGTON, May 15.--E. B. [prepare for the big Cleveland Na-| +, the flooring, the landlord will do|McLean, publisher of the Weshing- tional Trade Union Unity Conven-) , thing but see that the rent is paid ton Post, today filed in the District tion, of June 1-2, on time.” {of Columbia Supreme Court a $1,- __ This is the first big mass mect-| 4 few examples will give*you a|000,000 libel suit against the Phila- ing of dye workers ever held, as the! .onerete picture of housing condi-|delphia Record for publication, May dyers have had no_ organization, tions in Brownsyille, On Atlantic|13, of a purported explanation of . came along. ave cne Negro family pays $15 for|an article in the Post predicting re- until the N. T. W. U They were criminally neglected by|4 yooms. There are no improye-|call of the Belgian ambassador at ments: The toilet is in the cellar;| Washington. the Associated, and have no use for the only water they have is cold it. Unemployment Mass Meeting. | water, For lighting —_ purposes| The unemployment problem is get-| kerosene lamps must be used. Again| ting worse here, with silk mills and)on Atlantic Ave. another Negro , dye houses closing down, and there | family pays $30 for 4 rooms. Herg is in preparation mass meeting of |they have viectric lights but noth-| unemployed, to organize an unem-jjng else. The toilet is off the ployed council and frame demands. |kitchen and contains no bathtub. The district convention of District; They must make their own hot \5 of the National Textile Workers | water. On Dean St. the average Union is postponed until May 26./ rent’ is $30 for 4 rooms, The only| On that date an all day convention | improvemens is that of electric) will be held in Ukrainian Hall, 200/lights. These few examples are! President St., Passaic. \typical of the whole | Brownsville There will be 35 delegates from section. The formation of a Ten-| faterson shops. in a restaurant | iP. A district execu-|ants’ Ieague is an immediate nec- |tive committee and district organ-/essity in Brownsville. | | izer of the union will be elected, and In Laundries. | in the evening a great mass meeting | vs in ral i ¥ 3 tT yah general in Browns-) ates directly to the Trade Union enc Rowe yer te mere, roiled Suen Unity Convention in Cleveland. | the oe ee in Rees ull Delegates to the Metropolitan Area! Zrowzcville work in the laundrics.| |munist Party of the U. S. plays a) |Greensboro, N. C., Record, and the Tampa, Fla., Tribune. IMPORT SLAVES IN BRAZIL SAO PAULO, Brazil (By Mail).— In the past year over 100,000 im- migrants entered this port. Of these nearly 14,000 were subsidized. Sub- \sidized immigrants are imported under contract for slavery in the interior rubber plantations and rice fields. ‘The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready made State nachinery. and wield it for its own pose. This new Commune (Paris Commune), reaks the modern State power.—Marx, We have seen above that the first step in the revolution by the work- atronize Our § Advertisers @ Don’t forget to mention the “Daily Worker” to the proprietor whenever you purchase clothes, furniture, etc., or eat | Conférence are being chosen from|Thoy work 12 to 14 hours a day, NOW PLAYING! Leading off from Kater Street, near 17th Street is Kater Place. Kater Place. The “dwellings” on Kater Place are occupied by hard working Negro laborers, who usually average $18 per week for a full 10-hour day, 54 ‘day week in outdoor construction work. But too often they dg not work, | The “houses” on the west side of Kater Place are two stories each, and |each story contains one room. On the east side of Kater Place the “houses” look pretentious, three | stories each, in other words each “dwelling” contains three rooms, and this pretentiousness is even yet more deceiving when one enters and looks about the shack. High Rents. In the first of these three room houses lives Mr. §, his wife and an- other family of two, Mr. S works for the Union Paving Company at torty cents per hour, work only dur- ing clear weather. Carfare must be spent to work, even if it rains, and the job is temporarily suspended. Ten hours constitutes a workday. If |the tare phenomenon of six clear days in succession should oceur, Mr. S. would make $24 per week. Many weeks he makes but $12, so the $6 per room per week leaves a fearful | \dent in Mr. S’s earnings. Fifteen | | per week for a habitation which con-| 4 Kater Place, where Negro workers live, described in the housing conditions in Philadelphia appearing in this issue. apart, between them eke out mud during rain or damp weather, and swirling dust during dry, hot weather. This street is a breeding place of disease of every kind. Rodman Street is almost identical, as are many other streets in this section, apart unless looking upon the stree! signs. Lights are gas, the old archaic gas illumination still used on scores of thorofares in Philadelphia, and far between. In the middle of Kater Street is a cesspool, a breeding place for mos- quitoes in the summer. The muni- cipality of Philadelphia is not in- terested in keeping the paving of Kater Street in good condition, as it must, like all capitalist governments, see first to the paving on Ritten- house Square and Chestnut Hill, the residential sections of the rich. The sidewalk here is hardly a sidewalk. People are living in stables, that is the situation in Philadelphia, And there are thousands, yes, tens of thousands of homes in newer neigh- borhood not available to Negro work- ers, firstly because they cannot af- ford it, and secondly, if they could, _jtains no lighting, little ventilation, | the landlords would not rent them. article on| One can’t really tell them | MILL BOSS INN. Y ‘Police Fail to Break Up Demonstration (Continued from Page One) knocked down and pushed in the mud by Inspector Quinn. The picket line, under the dircc- tion of Harriet Silverman, secretary of Local New York, Workers ‘Inter- | | lemonstration, reassembled at the corner cf Worth and Church Sts., where a mass meeting was held that lasted for more than an hour, The speakers, in addition to Harriet Sil- verman, who presided, were the strikers, also Carl Hacker, ascistant national secretary of the Interna- tional Labor Defense; Harold Wil- liams, ef the American Negro La- bor Congress, and Grace Hutchins, author of “Labor and Silk.” | The organizations co-operating with the W. I. R. in arranging the demonstration were the National Textile Workers Union, Interna- tional Labor Defense and the United Council of Working Women. All workers are urged to show their solidarity with the striking workers by sending a contribution to the Workers International Relief, Room 604, 1 Union Square, New York City. Ay national Relief, which arranged the | |) mass meetings. | Larger Headquarters. The first Workers Circus was held Saturday and was a great organiza- tional success. One Italian dye worker who led 35 of his fellow workers into the new union appeared on the stage between the perform- ances and made a speech for mili- tant organization which was greeted by great applause. Due to the growth of the National Textile Workers Union in this city, it has been necessary to take larger headquarters for the union. The new offices are at 205 Paterson St., Pat- erson, and haye attached a large room for mass meetings, The grand opening, with a program, speaking and dancing will be June 2, FLED JAIL BRUTALITY NEW ORLEANS, La. (By Mail). —Saying he could stand the brutal- ity no longer, Martin Jack, a pris- oner at the Plaquemine, Louisiana, prison fled. He later walked into the office of the assistant U. S. at- torney, General Norman, and gave himself up. He told of mistreat- ment in the prison, Repel the Socialists, the Right- Wing Disrupters Who Are Under- mining an Independent Revolu- tionary Leadership of the Class Struggles! 6 days a weck for 2b cents an hour. |They are carefully watched by the |boss or foreman who sees that not a minute of their time is wasted. The workers must not talk to each other. Their whole attention must be given to their work. They are being constantly speeded up under the threat of being fired. Any signs of militancy are immediately rooted out. Equally exploited are the Negro workers in the textile mills, the needle shops, and in the coal yards of Brownsville, Organization is therefore imperative. The Negro workers together with the white workers must form shop committees in the different shops and factories, Must Organize, Negro workers of Brownsville ust join strong militant unions of their trades where they exist or to- gether with the white workers form such unions where they do not exist. Negro workers in textile mills and in the needle trade shops should join the new militant industrial unions, the National Textile Workers’ Union and the Needle Trades Workers’ In- dustrial Union, respectively. The |reactionary trade union bureaucrats, ithe A. F. of L., full of racial preju- dice and discrimination, must be fought and all assistance must be given to the Trade Union Educa- tional League in its conference | | | | | —“A picture one | should not fail to Dynamic! 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