The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 17, 1929, Page 2

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1929 Imprisoned Gastonia Strikers, Facing Electrocution, Send Message to Workers; “They Shall Not Die” Is the Answer of the Toilers Thruout the United States | OF GASTONIA WORKERS HERE: SCENE OF FRAME-UP ATTEMPT PRISONER TELLS Bee a as a > (HOW OLD MOTHER | | : _ SLAVED IN’ MILL Thugs Beat Up 60 Year Old Worker | “Think of us Gastonia strikers who are in jail on murder charges when you'read this,” writes Bill Me- tinnis, one of the strikers whom } ieee WORKERS WON'T STRUGGLE LET BOSSES BURN US, SAYS BEAL throughou | | know t | t t cut of the way. Workers, will you \let the bosses murder these strik- lined vork. stay. my workers looked | ers? of indiffere Sole ie ee han Gaston County Jal, i or ee | Gastonia, North Carolina. seen us i f I am a Loray striker and I am bosses’ ter — photos. At ths left, the teat of strikers will be held on July 29, when Cae bosses set av the feoingto'atiek £0 the) unton; for: T jail with ERS ¢ ‘ ‘ ‘ Workers International Relief. Had the Gastonia strikers not defended | court will attempt to railroad these 15 workers to the electric chair. have been worked and slaved in the posath af | epider se ee the fifteen workers facing electrocution at | their tenis against the attack of Sheriff Aderholt and the thugs of the | Only the American working class can prevent the mill bosses from | textile mill long enough ior the ing in great nu / the hands of the Gastonia mill bosses and their courts, appear on | Gastonia mill bosses, & massacre of men, women and children by the | putting these 15 brave fighters out of the way. Workers must act now. | amount of pay I have been getting ie ant this page today. Their letters to the American working class are an- | police and thugs would have resulted. ‘The Gaston County jail, where | Funds must be rushed to the International Labor Defense, 799 Broad- | And, another thing, I have got a all the hone: swered by letters from American workers pledging their support in | the prisoners are confined, is shown in the second photo. It looks like | way, New York, which is defending the prisoners; huge mass meetings | mother who works; she is 60 years The bos the fight to free the framed up strikers. | a private residence, but is as uncomfortable as any jail, the prisoners | of workers demanding the release of the framed up victims must be | o1q and I have seén her work hard stop at no Scenes of the great events in the frame-up are shown in the above | say held throughout the United States. all day long in the Loray mill. She |“Bosses Trying mation of the ogg a | to. Ratlroad Us | thugs, strikebr: ryp??|'| pee eit | to Death Chair” tion of the | a | “here is no ¢ | Gaston County Jail, | this “committ I have been working in mills first union e I was 10 years old. I can store under National Guard The gunmen held up the str forced them into t they used crow-t hing in a cotton mill. I running speeder: | uoray when the N. T. W a strike in April. I anion and did everything I could to help win the strike. I want to} the Loray mill to ¢ see a good union in the south so | building. None of the that conditions will get better. I| armed. | ave worked in about 40 mills and The gunmen guards prisone’ of the National ~romptly arrest turned them ov | { know conditions aré bad all over | | the south. | I am in Gaston prison charged | with murder. I am here because | I was loyal to the union, not be- These | cause I committed any crime. The ‘ond for t | bosses are trying to railroad me propert Capi-| | because they want to get rid of tolist | all good union members. —N. F. GIBSON, | WN Oats Sept SEES AS “WORKERS ARE. new headquarters w Gazette, always ho srs’ interest, b ter when thew meant business. to keep all unions out—even the *akers’ outfit, the U. T. W. (Some- ‘imes work: who are led by fak- ers can get the upper 1 and there’s no telling what m ‘i ven.) But bet and a real mil is tne lesser of the tv the Losses. This paper came out for the U. T. W.—having in mind that unions in the strike would hands and protect bosses’ gang of thu ‘ums. A new plot of 5 tained and the union h It. The OUR ONLY HOPE” Jocal bosses’ pa Gastonia t- union Striker workers,” writes Lewis McLaughlif, | “lone of the 15 Gastonia strikers whom rid of. “I know workers all over the coun- try are fighting for me.” Workers, these brave fighters trust you in " their hour of need. Rally to them. | split. But in this they fail to| Iwas working in the twister room | count upon the se|When the N. T. W. U. called: a} i I was mak- end militant sr MeMahon of the UL Gastonia, registere tel, but departed in a nounced that “the LU keep away from Ga: All of us men pr trike in the Loray mill. : I was always | and an- |* . would | to Satisfy the boss man. | 4 The Gastonia Gazette claims that | are to-|1 am an imported ‘gunman. This gather in one room, whi four | proves that they are not telling the eellg. Each cell has four bunks, truth. I have been working in mills All cells let out into a small hall,|ever sincé’I was twelve years old.) 12 feet by 6 inches. One end has!I had worked in the Loray once be- a toilet and wash-stand, the other fore and 1 know what I am talking | a barred door leading into a run-|about when I say that conditions | around. We read, write, have dis-| Were getting worse all the time. | cussions, sing, play cards, eat the) I came out on strike on April 1 eood things sent in by the Interna- |and have done everything I could to| tional Labor Defense and workers help win our strike. I have always throughout the country. been loyal to the union. The bosses We are very anxious to receive |here in Gastonia want to smash the letters from workers everywhere |union. They want to get rid of all and promise to answer every let-| union members. I am one of those ter. We can do this because we they want to put out of their way, have lots of time on our hands and |I am in Gaston County Jail charged can send out as many letters as we| with murder. It is a framed up want. We can receive most any-|charge. Fellow workers I am not thing. able to help myself. The time is drawing near—July| I am here because I was fighting 29—when the bosses will try to|for my class. I know workers all legally murder us all wholesale. The |over the country are fighting for workers of the world will not stand|me. This is the only hope I have for by and watch them burn us all like freedom. i they did Sacco and Vanzetti! —LEWIS McLAUGHLIN. A STRIKER’S AMBITION Would Devote His Entire Life to Unio The ambition wf K. Y. Hendryx,|on it and then when you do they one of the Gastonia strikers whom) want you to step a little faster. the courts owned by the mill bosses| I was one of the first to come are trying to railroad to electrocu- | out when the N, T. W. U. called a tion, is to spend his life in helping strike in Loray on April 2, Because to, build up a militant union for the I worked hard to win. our strike and jouther., textile workers. Long | to build a union that would better lays in Gaston County prison have | conditions in Loray the bosses want- unable to dim this ambition.|/ed to get rid of me, One night they what Hendryx writes to the came and dragged me out of bed yorkers of the U.S. and carried me to the city hall and see Nh locked me up. Now I am in the Gaston County Jail. |Gaston County Jail charged with { have been working in textile/murder. I hate never committed ills ever since I was nine years|any crime, I am here because I Id, I can do anything in a spin-| was a loyal union worker. The mur- ing room and have been on der charge is a frame-up. When I and in several mills. I was never! get out of this I am going to spend because I could not do my all “my life helping to build a union When I worked in Loray it that will better conditions for south- | “The only hope for freedom is the | , WE'LL STICK TO END, FRAME-UP VICTIM SAYS Byers Tells How He Was Blacklisted Here is a letter from K. O. Byers, another one of the strik to the velectri¢ chair: Gaston County Jail, Gastonia, North Carolina. I have been in Gastonia for three years, was born and raised in North Carolina. I was working in Loray | when the strike was called and I | was making $14.20 a week before the strike. Ieran 38 cards. Each night 9,120 pounds were run through these 38 cards. At the end of each week 45,000 pounds of cotton were 1un through these cards. Now, think of this: I made $14.20 and ran 88 cards 60 hours a week. Then the mill bosses think I ought to work for that all my life; they don’t want me to strike. Why? Because they know that if the strike is won théy can’t have their way; y would ike|S0 Writes Framed Up) they can't make me run 38 cards| for $14.20 a week, and they know they can’t have all the say-so. I was black-balled from the mill just before Christmas because they wented us to run these many cards s’ union | the bosses would like to see gotten | 7d oil them’ and clean them up 3) times a night, and a whole lot more they wanted done, but 28 of us re- fused todo this, so we got black- balled. But we were hired back, for they saw they could not get no- body else to do this work. I came out on strike the first day of April. There were about 1,700 of us who ¢ame out. They even went down in Georgia wages. It seemed impossible | 2nd told some people there was a} new mill put up and they needed hands to run it. They had some of them sell their furniture and told | them’ they would buy them more and give them $18 and $20 a week. but when the hands got here they found that it was all a lie. They did not get their furniture back that they had slaved hard so many years ‘or. The bosses tried every way they could to break the strike; they hired men and swore them in as deputy sheriffs. Some of the men were bootleggers and men that never worked in their lives, men that didn’t realize that mill workers were hu- mans. Just think of such men taking rifles with bayonets on them and going out and stabbing old women | who were attending to their own business; and they think I will work for stch men as that. Not at.all, unless they will come to our union and give us a decent wage and 8 hours a day. Readers, I would write more, but I will give the rest of the boys with me room in the Daily Worker. Just look for my next ar- ticle some other time. K. 0. BYERS. Marine Workers Stand Back of Defense and Relief Picnic, July 27 The Marine Workers, League, which has already held two big demonstrations on the waterfront for the Gastonia strikers’ defense, in a letter issued yesterday from its nationul headquarters, 28 South St., calls on all workers in the marine industry to attend the defense and relief pienic for Gastonia strikers, July 27, at Pleasant Bay Park. “The Marine Workers ‘Teague pledges itself to carry on a cam- paign on all ships leaving the United States for the release of the 23 framed textile strikers,” says the letter. The M. T. ‘W. has called an At- med that I could not satisfy/ern textile workers—K. Y, HEN- m. All they know there is ~~ { * | lantic Coast conference of marine workers té meet in New York, Au- gust 17-18, The Workers’ Answer Is— "s whom | | the mill bosses are trying to send | At the right, the court house where the trial of the 15 framed up “We Won't Let Them Die’ “We won't let the textile bosses murder them.” That’s the answer of many workers who have written to the Daily Worker in response to the call sent to the worker correspondents of the Daily Worker to | rally to the aid of the 15 framed up mill workers of Gastonia, whom | the Carolina mill bosses and their courts are attempting to railroad | to the electric chair. Letters from workers pour in daily to the Daily Worker from workers in the factories, many of them textile mill workers them- | selves, from every part of the United States, expressing their soli- darity with the Gastonia strikers. Workers, if you have not already written on behalf of the Gastonia prisoners, do so now. Don’t stand by while the mill bosses Have their way with the lives of Fred Beal | and the 14 other strikers facing electrocution. Today we print some of | the letters written by mill workers from all over the,U. S. in support | of the Gastonia strikers, | From Easthampton Mill Slave. | EASTHAMPTON, Mass., (By Mail).—We workers of the West | Boylston Cotton Mills know what slavery in the mills are. We also » suffer from slave wages and speed-up, just like our brother workers in Gastonia. Well, we're not going to keep still while the Gastonia court tries to railroad the Gastonia strikers to death. Let’s go, mill workers of | New England, let’s hold mass meetings for our brothers in danger down in Gastonia. | I am a night worker in the West Boylston Mill. There’s no worse | slavery. The windows are shut tight against fresh air. Here are some examples of speed-up here: Doffing. At first had 8 machines to doff, then we got 12 and now we have 20-22 machines each two workers for the same pay. Twisting. A while ago had 5 twisters, then got 10 a year ago, 4 now we are running 12 for the same pay of $17.10. Beam men. There are two beam men to a room. They have to put beams on 92 machines for $15.50. Some of the beams weigh as much as 700 lbs.—PETE. * * * . . From a Texas Mill Slave. HOUSTON, Texas, (By Mail)—We are waiting for the time when the National Textile Workers’ Union reaches Texas. Meanwhile we Mexican cotton mill workers are slaving 72 hours a week, for $8 to $14.50 a week. We ourselves are getting treated like the Gastonia workers were before they went on strike; so we know what they were up against. Some day we'll do what they did. I want to send a mes- sage of greeting to Fred Beal and the other framed up Gastonia strikers. There is great interest in the frame-up case among hun- dreds of Mexican workers in the Texas mills——XIMINEZ. 6 PRE ome The Hooper Mills Slaves Are With You! BALTIMORE, Md., (By Mail).—I saw some of the Gastonia | strikers when they came to Baltimore, and many of the workers in | the Hooper Textile Mills here assured them of our support and helped with the little money we could spare. The workers in Baltimore will hold demonstrations against the frame-up. In the Hooper Mill"here we are made to work 10 hours a day at wages 60 low that it’s almost impossible to live on them. We've started a shop paper, the Hooper Mill Worker, and we've got the same Na- tional Téxtile Workers Union that you Gastonia workers have fighting for us. Keep up the fight, is my message to the Gastonia strikers. The Hooper slaves are with you!—HOOPER SLAVE. mee te ae New Bedford Slaves Greet Gastonia Strikers. NEW BEDFORD, (By Mail)—The textile workers in New Bed- ford have fought under the leadership of the National Textile Work- ers’ Union, then the mill comntittees. This was in 1928, when we had real honest leaders for the first time. Fred Beal was one of the men who led us. We learned to love Fred. Now down in Gastonia, the mill bosses are trying to frame up Fred Beal and 14 mill strikers for “murder” because he helped the Gastonia workers like he helped us. Fellow workers, don’t let the mill bosses do this. Let’s hold big mass meetings in the streets of New Bedford and let. them hear our voices in Gastonia. As a textile worker for over 40 years I have been in many strikes and lockouts, but everything we won was lost because of the fakers of the American Federation of Textile Operatives and the United Tex- tile Workers, who sold us out. I work in the pemaquid Mill, They have given the workers 24 frames where we used to have 12 frames and a cut in wages of $4 a week. We too are going to fight under the leadership of the N. T. W.—PEMAQUID SLAVE. ‘ “Docile Slaves’ Handed Bosses A Big Surprise Gaston County Jail, Gaston, N. C. t On April 1, the National Textile Workers Union called a strike among the oppressed workers of the Loray grasp the significance of unioni: tion have put up a determined fight for better conditions in the mills and in their homes. They are still fighting for their class. They have been brutally mis- treated by the bosses and their for- ces. Women and children have been slugged on the picket lines, and thrown in jail. Fifteen men and women, of whom I.am one, ate now confined to jail awaiting trial on a framed up murder eharge, all be- cause they had the backbone to stand up and defy the bosses and their FOR OUR RIGHTS,” SAYS PRISONER Robert Allen Writes to “Daily” Readers Editor’s Note:—Robert Allen, one of the Gastonia mill strikers, who is local secretary of the Workers International Relief in Gastonia. He is one of the 15 striking workers framed up and held on a charge of murder in Gas-’ tonia prison. Here is a letter from him: * I want to state to the readers of the Daily Worker that when the strike started in Gastonia on April 2, that was the day “that the busi- ness men of the city turned against the workers. Why did thé business men kick against the workers strik- ing for more pay? - I will tell you the reason why ‘| they kicked. They well know that once the strikers get organized they will will have a say-so and have a right to run the business their way. They ere strictly against that part of it. For these many long years they have had the workers in slavery and could hog the workers out of their money, and they see that for these many long years that they have gained enough money off the poor laboring class of people to keem them going for the rest of their lives. They say: “We have got plenty from the workers and here we have got children coming up in the world and we want them to be ers get organized into a union then our children won’t have a chance to gain anything off the workers like we did. So we are going to fight the union; we are going to have to keep the workers down somehow.” Can yeu realize such a thing, men like that fighting against the work- ers after they have got all the poor workers have got, after they beat them out of their money and gave them nothing for it? Many workers had to go home and face their loving wives and maybe two or three children and see them ragged and crying for something to eat. And his wife, whom he dearly loves, with just one or two old dresses and not one fit to wear. And the rich business men sit ‘back and laugh at him. We used to go to the mill, work hard all day for 11 or 12 hours a day, the boss right in behind us all day, and they wouldn’t even give us a chance to stop and hardly to get a drink of water. Comrades, do you know that why most of the people today are on the chain® gang? They can’t make enough to kéep a wife and children in clothes and bread and the world knows that a man that loves his wife will not her or his children starve? Rather than see his fam- ily starve he is going to run chances. So what happens here? It hap- pens he is cathe and sent up the road. So there is his wife, who is .probably weak and sickly, and can’t work, left on the mercy of the peo- ple. Readers, peruse this closely’ and think of the Gastonia strikers who are fighting for their rights. 1,000 WORKERS PERISH. LONDON (By Mail),—The Daily Express correspondent at Constan- hired tools. Picture for yourself the circum- stances, The city ruled by the demo- erats, the county ruled by the re- publicans, both parties ruled by the financial power of the Manville- Jenckes Co, Mill here in Gastonia, also in Besse- mer City, nearby. The docile slaves of southern in- dustry, as they are fondly called by the Chamber of Commerce, im- mediately and with a spirit that was surprising due to years of oppression rallitd to the call of their brothers} Now is the time, workers every- everywhere, the proletarian masses,|where should rally to the aid of and came out on strike. :|these militant fighters who are try- Since then, these people whom the|ing to help free the working class, bosses called ignorant and unable to , RUSSELL KNIGHT, tinople reported tonight that the death toll in Trebizond floods might reach 1,000. Ten villages were en- guifed, the dispatch said. WORKER KILLED IN FALL, A homéless worker, identified by the police as Andrew Reardon, rolled off the roof of a four-story building in West End Ave. early this morning and died two hours later in Flower Hospital. es “WE'RE FIGHTING | rich and wéalthy, and if the work-| ,|to hear them tell it. Gastonia Mill Workers Meet with Support Editor's Note—The following is a letter written by a Gastonia worker in——until his trial comes up in Gastonia. He is a striker and he is under charge of “as- sault with intent to kill.” The city where these strikers \are staying at present cannot be stated. (By @ Worker Correspondent) About ten more days for our trial. We are two of the eight workers who have been charged with “assault with intent to kill” | by the Gastonia frame-up and were bailed out by the Interna- tional Labor Defense which paid $750. We have been in many places and have found very goed people, especially in the Communist Par- ty. I want to say that they are doing all they can to help smash the Gastonia frame-up against the fifteen workers who have been charged with murder, who are now in the Gastonia jails awaiting for trial. We have not made any public speeches but have told to many) workers of the rotten conditions prevailing for the Gastonia tex- tile workers, and about the frame- up of the coremittee of one hun- dred, and about the way the tent colony of the strikers was raided. The workers we have met are in great sympathy with the Gas- tonia strikes and will do all in their power to help the Gastonia workers win. Sincerely yours, D. E. McDonald and C. M. Lell. ISTH FRAMEUP VICTIM WRITES ‘Guilty of Trying to Better Conditions’ Dall Hampton is the latest Gas- tonia striker to be framed up on a murder charge, because he was a good and militant union man. His letter to the American workers fol- lows: Gaston County Jail, Gastonia, North Carolina “I want all the workers all over) the world to know how the workers | in Gastonia are treated By the| bosses that run the Loray mill. Just think of the workers who have slaved for the Loray many years and the bosses say to so many of them, ‘Oh | how good you work.’ Why is this said by them? * | “Listen, I will tell you. They are, working them for nothing and they | are getting all the moncy and they stand back and laugh among them- selves at you working so hard. They are getting all the money and you get nothing. i “But when the strike was called you should have heard them, They ealled us everything but humans, and said we were nothing but a bunch of loafers, never did any work, Just think of the workers slaving for them for many long years and they had the heart to throw them out of their homes. “You can see what the police stand for; they stand for throwing the poor worker out in the cold rain with his little children. Readers, you can see what the Gastonia strikers are going through. } “Look how they have got 15 of us in jail charged with murder, but we are not guilty of any crime; just for trying to better the working condi- tions of the laboring class of people.” M ‘ —DALL HAMPTON, was a spooler and the bosses were very mean in the spooler’ depart- ment. When the strike was called she came out on strike and has worked faithfully in the strike. These hired thugs of the Loray knocked her down one night and kicked her glasses off her face and swore they would kill her. I want you readers to just think and say whether you would work for such people as this. Just think of your mother, the best friend you have, being knocked down and the glasses hieked off her face by such men as this. Would you work for these people? No, you wouldn’t. My mother is not the only woman the thugs hit. I have seen them hit others, too; for all they have done to the Gas- tonia strikers is enough to turn any- body against them, and I will never work for them any more till they cothe to our union. Readers when you read this, think of the Gas- tonia strikers who are in jail and accused of murder. I want you ali to know we are a happy bunch of boys, for we know we are’ not guilty of the crime we are charged with. BILL McGINNIS. Build shop committees and draw the more militant members into the Communist Party. Spend Your VACATION Unity Camp The Cooperative Summer Home for Workers WINGDALE, N. Y. Phone Wingdale 51 Bungalows and Tents Ready for a Thousand Boating, Bathing, Fishing Comradely Atmosphere Fresh Food d Mountain Trails Hiking—Sports Mass-Singing Comic Paper “THE RED COCK” All for $17.00 a Week HOW TO GET THERE Our Busses Lea es. Sunday 9° o’clock a..m, from Unity House By train from 125th Street or from Grand Central Station to WINGDALE, NEW YORK New York Office: 1800 7th AVENUE (CORNER 110TH STREET) TEL. MONUMENT 0111-0112 the mill bosses would like to put | p F t l © f q ¢ } Se