The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 26, 1929, Page 3

I , | i | | | | \ ip +) jee ! Adirces DAILY WORKER NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1929 Page Three | Workers of tthe U. . ‘Must Defeat the Gastonia Mill Bosses Attem | FREE THE 23! ‘| WORKERS CRY IN VAST PROTEST Fleet Officers for ILD] Taal Work Se ws of conferences represent- ng !uaare’s of thousands of pro- estiag Wwolrcrs are being held thru- vd States to complete for Gastonia Defense W:ek, July 27 to Au- vot she Uni ne snechinel ud Reller 8, when $50,000 must be t Jere ty) save the members of ss Naticnzl Textile © Workers’ ion frst the electric chair. Tre language sections, workers te a their organizations in the North, Sost, South and West all report un- mee activity. Letters were re- eived at the International Labor Defeuse office, at 80 E. 11th St., oday fru every part of the coun- try in which funds were sent from many diverse wprkers’ organizations ‘nd unions, Mother Bioor writes from Bis- magck, North Dakota, that the re- sponse is splendid. Checks have been received from as far west as the Finnish Working Women’s Club of Eureka, Cal., from Mesa, Ariz, from the Sacco-Van- zetti branch of the International Labor Defense, of Los Angeles, and many other western industrial sec- tions. A typical letter was received from Mesa, Ariz., in which $25 was enclored. The letter stated: “Inclosed you will find $25 you can use for the defense of all in- nocent workers that have falsely been accused of crime. With best wishes and hoping you can do every- thing possible for the Gastonia class war prisoners, I am, F. H. Peterson, Mesa, Ariz.” The Philadelphia conference, at which many workers, fraternal ond her organizations sent delegates aj, hell in Grand Fraternity Hel, 1326 Arch Street, last night. Defense Week will be opened in New York by a giant solidarity fes- tival today, at Pleasant Bay Park, at which 50,600 ers will pledge theie solidarity w textile strikers who go on trial Mond Weinstone, Poyntz, Wagenknecht, Foster, Biedenkapp, and Hyman will) be the speakers. Fireworks, spe- cial dancing, a fifty piece ayiephony orchestra will be other features of this mass festival, two days before® the Gastonia=tria!. The workers’ delegates at the var- ious conferences are making definite | “Only the Working Bikes Can ieee Them” pi to Railroad Strikers By Wm. Gropper_ NEW SLOGAN Ig | 7 he Attempt fo Railroad Join In Mass Protest On Gastonia Defense Week. POLICE CLUB AT Stjie Songs 1.0, AND NIM, GASTON MEET ° organizational plans to secure the) million signatures for the mass pro- test petition, for raising the $50,000 by a house to house campaign, by tag days, by street and shop col- lections, by every possible manner. At many of the conferences, of- cers are being elected to serve as Weummittss in order to have a central point from which to carry on the manifold activities to save the Gastonia strikers, and the other class war prisoners of America. These members call meetings from time to time to give directions in this drive for 100,000 members, for $40,000, for 1,000,000 signatures on the petition, Tke campaign is chiefly that of a usiied front from below. The workers, and only the masses of the workers, alone, can save the class war prisoners. Send delegates to the conferences! rs! Elect office: Meet regularly! And i: this manner will the organiza-| tional plens be made to get the 100,000 members, the $50,000 and the 1,090,000 names. ® ;|VOLUTEER WORKERS ARE | WANTED BY THE I. L. D. | ‘ihe National Office of the In- | teenatloaal Labor Defense is car- tyieg on its new drive for the deienee of the Gastonia strikers who go on trial on July 29. Com- redes arc wanted to help. The of- fice ie open from 9 a. m. to 11 p.m. every day, including Sun- ‘deys Comrades should apply to Roum 402, 80 E. 11th St, a T.s Gastonia Textile’ Workers’ tris steris July 29! Twenty-three workers face electrocution or Prison terms! Rally all forces to vave them, Defense and Relicf Weck July 27—August 3! Sign the Protest Noll! Rush finds to International Labor Defense, 80 Esst 11th Street, New York. | . MEMBERSHIP BLANK INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE : National Office: 80 E. 11th St., New York No Death Sentences for the Gastonia Strikers! \ N-. Prison Sentences! Defend the right of workers to defend thcir lives and their ure: against the attacks of t yovernment! Encloscd please find either $1 09 for initiation fee and five months dues. Name ..., Ory and State......., The International Labor Defense must reach a membership 1€0,960 by the end of the Gastonia trial. ‘Workers i Continue Demonstrations Police broke up a Gastonia an cemonstration at Tenth Street and Second Avenue, attended | by 500 workers. Carl Reeve, Harriet Silverman and Raymond Clark, a Gastonia striker had addressed the meeting, and Pol- lack, editor of Solidarity, the W. I. R. organ, was telling of the Gas- tonia police, when the New York police, evidently resenting what was |. being said, informed the speaker that St. Marks Hospital, which is two blocks away, had complained that the speaking was too loud, and sailed into the crowd, manhandling many of the men and women work- ers. Cpen air meetings are being held all week by the International La- bor Defense and the Workers Inter- national Relief to prepare for Defense | opens Saturday with the Solidarity demonstration at Pleasant Park. Beautiful Program. A musical program will be pre- jsented by an orchestra of 50 men lead by Yascha Fishberg, at the Sol- \idarity demonstration. | William Z. Foster, William W. } Weinstone, Alfred Wagenknecht and | Juliet Stuart Poyntz will speak at the demonstration. Entertaining fea- ; tures include a sports program pre- | sented by the Labor Sports Union. | \GAINST BOOZE FOR WORKERS Henry Ford yesterday assured the religious that none of his workmen }are permitted to drink “on or oft | | duty.” Ford controls the lives of | his workers even “off duty.” he armed forces of the bosses’ 25 cents for initiation fee cr. | the | and Relief week which | | fat, | ow Spirit ha Hands The bitter ‘tinereal displayed by the capitalists and their spokes- men, the press, government and pulpit, against the Gastonia strik- ers, has imprinted itself so indel- ibyl in the hearts of the south- ern working class, that their chil- dren are singing folk songs that have arisen spontaneously from their struggles. A collection of them has been composed by an 11-year-old child of a striker, tiny, half-starved Odell Corley, since the strike be- gan. The children of the Gastonia strikers have put her words to | tunes, and any evening in the tent colony you can hear them sing- ing in the typical “blues” mel- ody of the South. Here are two of the songs: Beal? | For it’s cold lying out on the ground Bay And the cold Northy wind whistlin’ ago that they thought that upon us, And we have no place to lie down. Manville-Jenckes has done us dirty, And he set us out on the ground; We are sorry we didn’t j>in you When the rest went out and joined. O, Beal, O please forgive us, And take us into ycur tents; We will always stick to the Union And not scab on you no mo’, * * «© Union, Union, you ol’ top, Keep it up, keep it up, don’t you stop, | Don’t you worry, don’t you fret, The Union, the Union, gonna win it yet. | Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, Stole our grub, bu‘ still got plen- ty; If you got a swee heart, pin her to your side, Don't let a deputy take her to ride. Stand him on the head, stand him | on the feet, | Striker, striker, can’t be beat, Mm a little Union girl, not so very If you dirty policemen come around headquarters |We're goin’ to give you some of that. I bought a scab for fifty cents, Parlie yoo, I bought a scab for fifty cents, par- lie yoo, I bought a scab for fifty cents, | Tho son of a gun jumped over the | fence, Kinky Dinky, pariie voo, May I sleep in your tent tonight, | IN RAPID GROWTH [Increase “Surprised Even Organizers The past week, and particularly the last several days, have seen a! tremendous growth of the National | Textile Workers Union and of the | International Labor Defense. This! expansion in these organizations ex- | ceeded even the expectations of the | local organizers ar* th: representa- tives of the national offices them- selves. It indicates a great swing of popular sentiment in favor of the union and in defense of the strikers and union .organizers jailed and awaiting trial next Monday for the murder of Gastonia’s chief of po- lice. Various liberals as well as newspaper reporters have come to the local offices of I. L. D., express- ing their amazement at the rapid change that has taken place. “In 25 years’ experience as a news- paper man,” one stated, “I have never seen a greater and more pro- nounced Even men who told me a few weeks the strikers and union organizers should be convicted simply because they are Communists and atheists, are trial, that there should be a change of venue, and many express doubt |as to the guilt of the defendants, and even approval oof the union.” There come into the new Gastonia office of the N. T. W., just establish- ed, many mill workers daily who have hung back hitherto, waiting to se what would happen, — some of them imported by the Manville- Jen- ckes Company as strike breakers, applying for membership and ex- |press themselves as satistied that the union is a good thing, that it is |necessary and that it is here to stay. Since the arrival of Hugo Ochler to replace Fred Beal until he and the other prisoners are freed, to- presidert of the union, Ben Wells, Clarina Michelson, and others to in- crease the forces of the N. T. W. U. can now claim confidently and truth- fully that they have the active sup- port of a great majority of the workers in Gastonia and vicinity, and are constantly reaching out and Carolinas and Tennessee — even as far as Rome, Ga. This constitutes the strongest possible defense of (the mill owners are trying to get \rid of by railroading them to the electric chair and the penitentiary. After arking 2 eh out in Xe | the swing of public opinion. | now saying that there must be a fair | without their realizing it — who are | gether with William Murdoch, vice- | and the I. L. D., both organizations | expanding in row territory in both | the strikers and organizers whom | Ines wtrug- | 100.000 TOILERS INTO THE §.L.0.! Ga astonia and Other Cases To Be Fought The Inte-national Labor De fighting the mighty battle against powerful, brutal textile lords in Gastonia, N. C., who seek the blood of 15 militant strikers, is also vitally concerned with t cases of harshest oppression a workers in Western Penns} the heart of the Mellon-Grundy coal and stecl realm. These Pennsylvania cases are of national importance also and de- serve the utmost consideration of the working class everywhere. They deal with fundamental rights of the working class — the right to hold opinions, the right to a \the primitive right to live lized humans. fonse. Important Cases. | The first is that of John Tapol- jchani, of Herminie, Pa., who will jlose his citizenship papers because of membership in the Communist Party — unless the working class poe as one against this attempt 2 set_a vicious precedent. The second is that of the W al lawn case, in which the defendants | have been sentenced to five years! imprisonment and the brutal Flynn | anti-sedition law, a war time meas- | ure held over since 1918, | The third is the Cheswick case, in which 21 miners were arrested | at a Sacco-Vanzetti demonstration | two years ago, in which men, wo-| }men and children were beaten by the Pennsylvania state troopers, the “Cossacks,” who belabored everyone with clubs, riding down on the mass that had gathered in peaceful as- semblage. | Out of this latter case grew the | | rame-up against Salvatore Acco- i, of Staten Island, N. Y., who is \charged with the murder of Troop- | ler J. J, Downey killed during the | attack on the workers. Accorisi will be extradited to Pennsylvania to) undergo the torture of the third de-| gree, and probably, the electric chair | junless the courts are forced by the! fight 07 the I. L. D. to let him go} —— |free. Arrest 3 Young Communists. The latest case is that of three | members of the Communist Youth | League arrested for daring to hold | a Gastonia open air meeting. The | | charge was that they held the mect- ing without a permit, for which ae | had applied and were refused. | The International Labor Defense lis fighting all these cases, which are of the utmost importance to{ ‘the entire American working class. | Behind these cases is seen the} etallic fist of the steel companies | - the henchmen of Andy Mellon, | the Secretary of the United States | | treasury. The Tapolchani case is especially | important in that it can establish | a precedent against workers who lieve in the class s gle. What | happened in this case illuminat- | ing in exposing the manner in which | fascist governments work hand in| hand with so-called “democratic” United States. Fascists Are Instigators, Tapolchani} a barber, had written | a letter to his brother in Hungary, | chiding the latter for being a po- liceman, “one who attacks workers for the bosses,” Tapolchani wrote. | The Horthy government opened the mail, and sent the information | back to the United States Federal | government. The American govern- | ment eagerly responded and charg- ed Tapolchani with false oath,; claiming membership in the Com- munist Party “was incompatible | with citizenship,” and for that rea- | son, the Federal Court decided te revoke the papers. The I. L. D. taking the case to the Supreme | Court of the U.S. A. The three defendants in the Wood- | lawn case, members of the Com-| |munist Party, Pete Muselin, Milan | Resetar and Tom Zima, are out un- | der bail of $7,000 each. Their case is also being appealed | to the Supreme Court of the United States. Cheswick Case, In the Cheswick case, ten miners have been indicted and are held for trial on the following charges, which | may mean eight years in jail: in- | citing to dioting, resisting an officer,'| (and unlawful assemblage. | One miner is still in the hospital with a broken neck as a’ result of the beating inflicted on the work- ers by the police, The International Labor Defense, | fighting all these cases, simulta- | ineously with the tremendously im- portant Gastonia e::e, must gain a membership of 102,000 by the end of the Gastonia trial to aid not only | the class war prisoners in one sec- tion of the land, but all the work- ers oppressed by capitalist exploi- | tation, | The Gastonia Textile Workers’ trial starts July 29! Twenty-three workers face electrocution | | or | prison terms! Rally all forces to H | save them. Defensc and Relie? Week July 27—August 3! Sign | the Prote-t “oll! Rush funds to | International Labor Defense, 80 East 11th Street, New York, 15 Strikers to Electrocution W. Murder Fifteen (Continued from Page One) crease of 50 per cent in this plague in North Carolina, the state con- taining the heart of Southern industry today. Some eight months ago, organizers of the National Textile Workers Union went South and began their work in the mills. No attempt previously had -been made to unionize the Southerners except once, in i922, when a representative of the reactionary American Federation of Labo: union, the United Textile Workers, called a strike in this section and then disappeared with the funds four weeks afterward. 12-Hour Day. Today the Southern textile workers are subjected to the 12-hour day, enduring a torturing speed-up system, living in shacks, and getting paid $8 and $10 a week, whereas in the North, the average is approximately twice that wage. The storm center of the struggle is in Gaston County, where Gas- tonia is situated, and there 129 textile mills hum day and night. On April 1, 2,200 teatile workers responded to the ery “Strike” and left their looms untended in the Loray mill, owned by the Manville- s Compan. trike was bitterly contested through April and May, with police brutality rampant, with fascist methods prevailing, but the strikers refused to go back to 12 hours a day in the hot, lint-filled halls of their factories, Police Raid Tents. The climax of the strike occurred the eventful night of June 7, when the Chief of Police, O. F. Aderholt, led a raid on the tent colony where the strikers lived, after having been dispossessed from the com- pany-owned hoyels, It was on this day that the National Textile Workers Union had sched- uled a second walk-out in the Manyille-Jenckes mill. Many of the workers remaining in the mills were sympathetic to the strikers and fully 50 per cent of them had agreed to come out when the picket line of the strikers moved past their windows that night. The picketing demonstration was arranged. Word of the attempted strike was gotten by the mill owners and they mobilized their city en, special deputies and determined to actually physically ex- - Guns were to be their arguments against the Stone Strike Leader. h that day occurred at the evening meeting, when one s, Vera Lush, arose to speak and stoolpigeons of the The strikers quashed this disturbance, and began cket line toward the mille vay from the mill, the police and deputies swooped down ly attacked the parade. Women were choked into tinconsciousness by the forces led by Chief Aderholt. The picket line was broken up, the strikers held their bleeding heads and ran back to their tents. The police were temporarily triumphant. In their tents, the strikers. bound their wounds and made further their plans. The excitement had begun to die down, the strikers were ready to go to sleep. The enraged mill barons, seeing their ideal kingdom threatened by a stubborn, fighting N. T. W. U., decided to end the matter that night. About nine o'clock, Chief of Police Aderholt and his police, inflamed by whiskey, drove up to the camp. The workers had formed an armed guard to patrol the camp at night. The camp had once before been raided, and the supplies of the The first el strikers, sent by the Workers International Relief, scattered to the | winds, “Need No God-Damned Search Warrant.” The police rushed up on the premises of the camp. The guard de- marded a search warrant, “We don’t need no god-damned search war- rant,” the police said, and attacked the guard. A shot was fired, Joseph Harrison, organizer for the National Tex- tile Workers Union, fell to the ground, the rattle of. gunplay followed and Chief Aderholt was fatally wounded, and three of his force fell with bullet wounds. Then came a night of terror. The fascist Committee of One Hundred, ed by the mill owners, bearing white handkerchiefs about their arms to identify one another, arrested every striker that could be found, beat somé of them into unconsciousness and threw them into jail. The Scuth, the stronghold of lynching, rang with rumors of proposed death parties against the unionists. 71 Arrested. Seventy-one strikers were arrested that night. Of these seventy- one, the most active were held for murder, and others for assault with intent to kill. Those charged with murder and held withoout bond are: Fred E. Beal, K. O. Byers, W. M. Me eines fous McLaughlin, George W. Carter, Vera sh, Joseph Harris, Heffner, Robert Allan, Rus- -ell Knight, F. Gibson, K, Y. eae: Amy Schechter, Sophie Melvin and Delmar Hampton. The capitalist press of the South has called repeatedly for the blood of the strikers, I. L. D. Rallying Workers, The International Labor Defense, of 80 East Eleventh Street, New York City, has brought into swing a nation-wide campaign for defense and publicity. The I. L. D. attorneys are fighting to have the trial removed from Gaston county, where the jurors must be drawn from a panel of less than 2,000 petty-bourgeoisie, most of whom own stock in the textile mills. There is a law in the state that’ jurors must be “property-holding zens. All of these property-holding citizens are inflamed against the organizers of the National Textile Workers Union. The lawyers for the defense are frankly skeptical about the fate of the workers if the case is tried in Gastonia. “Under present con- ditions a Gaston county jury that turned in an acquittal would be lynched,” one of the attorneys for the defense has stated. Only Mass Pressure Can Save Them. The mass protest of the workers alone can save these workers from the electric chair or long terms in prison, The capitalist press has refused to recognize the case as “legitimate” news. Only the eyer- increasing watchfulness and protest of the masses can prevent this mass murder, Two Main Issues. In the publicity being sent from the of of the International Labor Defense, the issues for which the National Textile Workers Union fought, are being stressed. These issues are: The right of workers to organize into militant unions and fight for better conditions. The right of workers to defend themselves from the murderous on- slaughts of the boss-controlled police, gunmen and strike breakers. These two issues are of the utmost importance to the entire Amer- ican working class, and the I. L. D, is pointing the searchlight of publicity on the fact that the strikers are being tried for murder be- cause they fostered these principles in the black, reaction-bound South, CONTRIBUTION BLANK INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE National Office: 80 E. 11th St., New York No Death Sentences for the Gastonia Strikers! No Prison Sentences! Defend the right of workers to defend their lives and their union against the attacks of the armed forces of the bosses’ covernment! $50,000 is needed at once to defend these militant strikers! I hereby enclose $............for the Gastonia Defense. NRE is i Rs ok id PRAOONS iil Sia cbs NA dea ss City and BRAS hs das Pasay navies s (Salada Mibetncn Aaa Foliow Every Detail of Attempt to ‘STEADY GROWTH IN ALL CLASS WAR CASES KEEPS UP es Aids “Many Beside Gastonia Strikers , leads the long ti Gastonia, N. C. t | of a number of tremendously im- | portant class war cases that the Ine ternational Labor Defense is defend- ing today. jof the United States are dependent jentirely on the help of the working classes rallied by the I. L. D. Prisoners in all sections The Mineola frame-up victims, Rade Radikovitch, of Arizone, ill of |tuberculosis at Ellis Island, who may be sent te face certain death t Jugo-Slavia, the Wood- the Centralia prisoners, Mooney and Billings, the Tapelchani case, the Cheswick case, all of ut- most importance to the masses of workers, are a few of the present class war instances. The International Labor Defense, working at all hours of the day and night to defend these class war pris- oners, calls on the great masses of the American workers to get in touch with their district secretarics of the I. L. D. or the national office jat 80 E. 11th St., New York City. Send immediate funds and be- come members at once. Remember the Gastonia case is one of vital im- vortance to the entire working class. Today, that is the foremost case be- fore the American workers. The district secretaries of™ the various I. L. D. sections are: New York, Rose Baron Broadway, Room 422, N. Y. C New England, Robert Zclms, 113 Dudley St., Boston, Mass. Philadelphia, Jennie Cooper, 1214 Spring Garden St. Ohio, George Lloyd, 266 West Superior Ave, Room 306, Cleve- | land, Ohio. Detroit, Arnold Ziegler, 3782 | Woodward, Ave., Detroit, Mich. | Chicago, Isadore Feingold, S. Lincoln St., Chicago, Il. California, F. Firestein, 113 Stimsen St. Los Angeles, Calif. Buffalo, Charles Berger, 200 El- licott St., Buffalo, N. Y. ar The National Office is at 80 F. | 1th St. Room 402, N. Y. C. The I. L. D. must grow to 106,000 members by the end of the Gastonia ial. They must receive $50,900 for greater aid- of ‘the Gastonia and, other class-war prisoners. All worles’ ing class fraternal organizations ahd |unions must build up a mass shiel@” from below for the class war pris- | cners, 799 23 Get one million names on the mass protest petition and fill out the coupons on this page and send | them at once to the designated ad- |dresses. These are the duties of every worker during Gastonia De- fense and Relief Week, July 27-Au- | gust 3. LAMES MAYOR FOR JUNE 7 RAID Says Mayor, Mill Boss, Feared Strike | The mayor of Gastonia is directly | blamed for the shooting the night |of June 7 by a local deputy sheriff, |a United Press dispatch states that has been received at the office of the International Labor Defense, at £0 E. 11th St., New York. The United Press report reveals |an inside story of the bourgeois in- | trigue, personal enmities and true | conditions of the Manville-Jenckes lackies, the police and city authori- ties. The reporter, who was given these facts by a disgruntled deputy sher- iff, writes as follows: “There is no one in God’s world to blame for the death of Chief Ad- erholt but the mayor,’ said the irate \cfficer as he beat his fist on the | table in emphasis. It’s like this, in the first place there was no reason jto call out the national guard. The trouble here didn’t warrant military protection, but Mayor Rankin, who is president of other Gastonia mills, was afraid that the strike would spread to his organizations and for that reason and one other he asked for protection from the governor. The other reason was political. As | Soon as the troops arrived the mayor | told people that the sheriff had | called them and that he had nothing to do with the matter.’” Turning to the newspaper man: “Don’t think for one minute. that |I am in sympathy with the strike | leaders who are the cause of this strike. I would like to see them all in the pen, but I am disgusted with | the way this thing has been handled. | You know, for you live here, that the power of Governor Morris was |shot by sending troops to Concord while he was in office. The same thing was in the mind of the mayor | when he called for troops here, only he was not man enough to carry the He put it on the fool 'blame himself. \sheriff and the sheriff wi enough to not see what was in ” i Ce ee ee ee er