The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 14, 1929, Page 6

Page Six ™ DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1929 Baily; rher Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U.S, A. Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc,. Daily, except Sunday, at 26-28 Union Square, New Telephone Stuyvesant 1696-7-8. Cable SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in New York only): ork Gity, N.'¥. “DAIWOREK.” : 34.50 six months $2.50 three months Rag By Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 a year $3.50 six months $2.00 three months Address and mail all checks to the Datly Wofker, 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥. <QVE>-, Dubious Naval Negotiations HE NEW YORK TIMES, which for years sang paens to Anglo-American cooperation as the guarantee of peace fn the world, now changes its tune. Not only does it berate Phillip Snowden, the “labor” spokesman of British imperial- ism for his fight against the Young plan at the Hague, but it goes further and speaks openly and belligerently about the dubiousness of naval negotiations. Says this spokesman of Wall Street in commenting upon the possibilities of disaster involved in Snowden’s stand: “The unfortunate manner in which the British have laid down their demands, almost their ultimatum, at the Hague, has made a bad impression throughout the world. It has imperiled other British policies. There can be no doubt, for example, that it will make the naval negotiation with the United States far more difficult and dubious.” Gone from the editorial columns of the old lady of Times Square is the twaddle about the “two great nations with a eommon language” uniting to defend the peace of the world. The honeyed. words that pledged eternal friendship have changed to venemous attacks. s=cc:In spite of all contentions to the contrary, one thing Stands out clearly: the United States, through its manipula- tions in Europe has aligned sufficient forces on its side to place England in an extremely uncomfortable position. Snow- den, Henderson and the other worthies of the MacDonald government are doing everything in their power to defend the interests of British imperialism against its great rival, yankee imperialism. The function of the labor government is to unite the entire ruling class of Britain to meet the ' : ning antagonisms between the two imperialist powers. uk it has met with a considerable measure of success is proved by the statements of Lloyd George for the liberals _and Baldwin for the conservatives that their parties are solid- ty back of the Snowden fight, which is directed against yankee domination in Europe. The Times, as a conscious and leading organ of im- perialism in the United States, is quick to draw the practical political and military implications from the stand of Snow- den. Such language means nothing less than a fierce arma- ments race in preparation for the time when the final word has been spoken by bankers and diplomats and the conflict bursts forth into open warfare. This outburst of recriminations between the two imper- ialist powers emphasizes what we said weeks ago about the conversations between Macdonald and Dawes. At that time we said they could not discuss the questions of Anglo-Amer- ican rivalry, but that their “friendly” discussions revolved around the one thing these rival imperialist powers have in common, the one ground upon which they can unite, hatred of and conspiracy against the workers’ and peasants’ gov- ernment of the Soviet Union. The sharpening antagonisms between the powers and the fierce drive against the Soviet Union are signs of the growing world crisis. In reply to the intensive imperialist drive toward world war the working masses of the world, that hurled defiance on August Ist against the war-mongers, must continue to intensify the struggle against another world imperialist slaughter and in defense of the Soviet Union. Stock Market Recovers—Small Speculators 4 Don’t. HE Wall Street press jubilantly announces that the stock market, which collapsed Friday after the announcement of the action of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that .the rediscount rate had been increased from 5 to 6 per cent, “has recovered. It is true the market itself did recover, with the big fel- lows raking in billions of dollars by purchasing on the de- clining market. The billions of dollars qf stocks that were unloaded by the small fry buying on margins, who were un- able to meet the demands, are now in “stronger hands,” to use the terminology of the bourgeois financial writers. But the small fry, the former grocers, department store owners, petty industrialists (who were being gradually destroyed by the growth of the chain stores which are backed by big bank- ing combines and by the competition of the big industrial- ists) who sought to recuperate their battered fortunes by lating on the market did not recover. Many of them will either join the ranks of the working class, already over- crowded and facing increasing permanent unemployment or sink into what Marx and Engels called “that passively rot- ting mass,” the slum proletariat, which in the United States already harbors hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of the declassed elements from the middle strata of society. Thus proceeds the undermining of what the liberals like to refé?"to as the “substantial elements” of society. Demonstrate August 22—Second Anniversary of Murder of Sacco and Vanzetti FE announcement of another Union Square demonstra- “tion on August 22nd, the second anniversary of the mur- der of Sacco and Vanzetti, should reecho throughout the _ United States and the world. This is of tremendous im- portance not only because it serves notice on the capitalist murderers, the Fullers, Thayers, the Coolidges and their ilk, that the working classes will never forget these martyrs to labor, but also in order to generate such a mass movement against legalized murder of workers that the Gastonia con- spiracy against the strikers and organizers of the National Textile Workers will fail. Only the mass power of the work- ing class can, prevent a repetition in North Carolina, on a reer scale, of the murders of Sacco and Vanzetti. In the Colombia Revolt Troops are Reported to Have Refused to Fire on the Workers, WHEN THE SOLDIERS WON’T SHOOT THE BOSSES RAGE By William Gropper By VERN SMITH While the peace of unionism pre- vailed in the 100 per cent union coal fields of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, ete., and the peace of slavery en-| dured in the 100 per cent non-union coal fields of the South (except during big strikes, of course) there has not been for the last 27 years any peace in the no-man’s land of | West Virginia on the border be- tween unionism and serfdom. There will not be in the future, either, \for the new militant miners’ union lis already disputing with the rob- |ber barons of “Bloody Mingo” and Logan counties thg victories they consolidated after the Lewis be- trayal of the coal stril:e of 1927- | In 1902, the Baldwin-Felts detec- tive company got its first really big job, and for $200,000 guaranteed to break the strike. build its great army of thousands of mercenary killers, which has ruled for the coal barons, Mercer, Me- | Dowell, Wyoming and Mingo coun-| | ties from its general headquarters at Bluefields. ° In Logan county, and usually on the best of terms with the Baldwin- Felts officers, Don Chafin served the coal companies for years as county clerk, and engaged in good natured rivalry with the Baldwin-Felt aces | at the sport of killing miners. Chaf- lin, at the age of 35 could prove he jhad a record of 12 miners. That | was about the time of the Logan march, He had been tried once, for | killing a 17-year-old boy, but was | acquitted because he brought wit- | nesses to testify that he was at the |time trying to kill Bob Slater, a |U. Ss. marshal, and hit the boy by | accident. | Long List of Killed. | The story of the massacre at Holly |Grove, already told, indicates the general method and technique of the Baldwin-Felts troopers during . a strike, but in between strikes they | kept their marksmanship in practice, | as did Don Chafin and his deputies, | by numerous assassination and vari+ | ous outrages, ranging from evicting a miner’s family and burning his goods in the street, on up through assorted varieties of murder, and simple and compound assaults, rape. burning at the stake. During 1920, over 600 miners were wounded in West Virginia and 37 murdered by mine guards. From 1902 to 1922, Kanawha | county and part of Boone were or- | ganized. The first armed march in | West Virginia was in March, 1919, |when 5,000 miners from these counties started for Logan to stop | the reign of terror of Baldwin-Felts. Frank Keeney, president of District 17, of the United Mine Workers, ac- companied by the governor of the | state, stopped, the marchers and sent them back, by promising there would be an “investigation.” Things got worse; the ‘“yellow dog” contract was more, rigirly en- forced, Baldwin-Felts and Don Chaf- in’s men were more ambitious to excell each other. ‘ : Political’ Action. ‘ In Mingo county the miners had elected a few officers who were‘not part of the coal operators’ machine: Sheriff Blankenship, Mayor Teste- man of Matewan, and Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. These men were in no sense class conscious, they just didn’t represent the coal companies, and stood for “the con- stitution.” Union organizers appear- It began then to} Guns, Courts in West Virginia ed, a strike started, and Albert and | Lee Felts, partners in the Baldwin- Felts detective company, Came down | to Matewan, May 19, 1920 to evict | them. Sid Hatfield and Testeman | demanded writs, and some color of | legality for the process, which the Felts brothers had failed to provide. They went away, and Hatfield, knowing what was coming, tried to | raise a posse, but didn’t have time. | Albert and Lee Felts were back at | 5.30 in the afternoon with their best assassin, C. B, Cunningham, and ten or their ordinary gunmen. Their job was to kill Hatfield and Testeman, and end this rebellion against the coal barons. They surrounded Hat- field, pretended te arrest him, and took him to the railway station. “edged” over to the doorway of a |Fardware store, where his single | supporter, Isaac Brewer, town po- \liceman, stood. Testeman, rushed up, demanded | the warrant on which the arrest was being made, 2nd had just exclaimed, | “Why this is a bogus warrant!” when Albert Felts drew swiftly, kill- ed Testeman, whirled and shot at ‘atfield, but missed him and severe- |ly wounded Brewer. | field, and any troublesome witness- | board it and clear out. Everybody started shooting at once as soon as Brewer fell. Hat- field had a gun in each hand. He shot Albert Felts and Cunningham dead. Lee Felts killed Tot Tinsley, # non-combatant. A miner rushed up with a rifle and shot Lee Felts just as he took a dead aim at Hat- field. Another miner rushed up, snatched Lee’s gun from his dead hand, and joined in the fight. The Baldwin-Felts men scattered and took cover. One ran into a miner, Bob Mullins, as he turned the corner at the bank, and killed him. This gunman was killed by Hatfield, who had just shot another gunman across the street. One Baldwin-Felts thug dived into a doctor’s office, still shooting, and a miner there hit him over the head with a gallon bottle of medicine. Somebody shot him as he fell out. A detective lay on the street with his legs broken by a Lullet and shot at Hatfield. Hatfield killed him. One Baldkin-Felts man reached the outskirts of town, shot through the body, and offered an old woman living alone $2,000 to hide him; she shut the door in his face, and he died. 5 Minutes; 13 Dead. The battle of Matewan took about 5 minutes; the Baldwin Felts gang lost nine killed including the two Felts partners; the miners lost two killed and four wounded; with another, the boy, Tinsley, also killed.* “ (Note—For a’ fight story as’ stirring nything written since the Sagas, read Robert Minor’s ac- counts of this battle, Liberator, . August, 1920.) The Baldwin-Felts company then resorted to the frame-up, but in a} new way, in keeping with their pecu- | liar traditions. They had no inten- tion of allowing the case to come to court, but they had Hatfield in- dicted fer murder, specifying a kill- Article 14--The Marching Miners The plan had | been, it later developed, to kill Hat- | €s, just as the train came in, then | is to attack swiftly, displayed enor- | mous superiority in tactics. By the | end of the week they had broken | |the coal operators’ line, captured |most of the machine gun nests, had driven the conscripts into disorderly | retreat, and had killed between 100 | one in which he could easily prove and 300 Baldwin-Felts gunmen and | an alibi. Hatfield’s young wife | deputies, all with a loss of only eight | urged kim not to go to trial, but he | Miners killed, and an unknown num- | relied on th epromise of sofe conduct | ber wounded. given him by a cousin of his, Bill| On the second day of the fight- | Hatfield, high sheriff of McDowell, ing, Don Chafin, commander in the and on July 31, 1921, walked up the field for the operators, sent his two court house steps at Welch, county | aeroplanes to bomb the miners’ seat of McDowell, with his wife, a|towns; the first bomb fell between friend, Ed Chambers, and Chambers’ | two women washing clothes, but did wife. | not explode, After that the women The Baldwin-Felts men were in,and children took cover when the ambush in the courthouse itself. | Blanes were seen, | They stepped te the door and start-| The federal troops arrived in time ed shooting before Hatfield or |to rob the miners of their victory, | Chambers below them on the steps, |and over 300 miners were arrested, | |had a chance to draw. One, named | and charged with treason. | Lively, fired only at Chambers, the | ing at Mohawk, in McDowell county, In a test case, William Blizzard, | field. | trict 17, U. M. W. A., was placed on | Hatfield’s wife rushed through the | trial in Charlestown, West Virginia. line of fire into the courthouse to| County Attorney Potterfield refused jget Sid’s relative, the high sheriff|to prosecute, on the grounds the of McDowell who had promised| man was innocent. The coal opera- |them safe conduct. The high sheriff | tors’ association paid all the ex- was away; he was more class con- | penses of the trial, as does the cot- scious than Sid, and he knew that|ton mill combine in the Gastonia these romantic notions of family | case, and provided the chief prose- |loyalty didn’t count in the class war,|cutor, Belcher, as the Manville- jin which he fought for the coal|Jenckes mill in Gastonia provides | operators. |the prosecution with its attorney, All the murderers were arrested, | Major Bulwinkle. and immediately released on low| The jury, of farmers, acouitted |bail, never to come to trial. | Blizzard. The facts of class war ‘CEMEN He| other seven concentrated on Hat- | president of Sub-district 2 of Dis-| ragged clouds floated as though projected from unseen craters, By FEODOR GLADKOVY. Translated by A. S. Arthur and C. Ashleigh All Rights Reserved—International Publishers, N. ¥. HE blood rushed to Gleb’s face and his eyes moistened. He stepped back away from Badin, stamping his foot. “Comrade Chairman, I ask you not to advise me. I wish to state once more very strongly that this love of titles and grades has got to be abolished. If we’re going to build everything on wooden scaffolding and empty words we shan’t do much, God damn it! I have objected and shall object again to the proposals of Comrades Badin and Luk. hava. If it’s so precious to Comrade Badin, write ‘hero of labor’ his Party card: and then when he’s got this new stripe he can go about giving orders.” Shidky was tapping the table with his pencil; his nostrils were expanded as though he were trying to tame great laughter which | stirred within him. “Enough, genough, Comrades! Order!” Lukhava looked sharply at Gleb and Badin, and laughed gaily and shrilly like an urchin, Now Gleb saw for the first time in Badin’s darkened eyes an iron hatred. Last spring his eyes had also been clouded, but then it was only vigilance and hostility towards a newcomer’s strength. Then it had been curiosity and something else which he could not understand: something heavy and inhuman, which lived in Badin’s blood. And as at their first meeting last spring Gleb felt as though he had received a terrific blow. “Gleb, come to your senses! Are you crazy? pass was looking at him sternly, her eyelids trembling, an appeal in her eyes. When Gleb met her gaze he turned pale: his heart was seared with anguish and fury. Dasha—Badin. Dasha, his wife, tae She had been with Badin that time in the Cossack village. Bandits in the ravine. . . . The night in one room in one bed. .. . Then Dasha had not been joking. Dasha and Badin. And he, helpless with all his strength. Sais clawed hie teeth and rapped loudly on the table. “Let’s have order, damn it! K i t i has been decided and is uished.” ey ice eee ae Shibis was screwing up his eyes and looking at him silently with a faint smile. “Sit down, Chumalov! i y y Peon de ae dear ade An experienced member of the Party mustn’t Badin was sittin, oti r 1 ARE jai tionless as before, as though cast from metal, “What’s the matter then, Comrade Chumalov?” (ee was panting; he thrust his hands deep in his pockets; he could not master his heart; it filled his breast, swelling, bursting, sinking, scorched with blood. He was shivering from head to foot, and his extremities were numbered. Through the window, the sea burned like a fiery ‘soapy bubble; the air was burning; a whirlpool of sparks filled the air; and the sky burned; the whirling clouds burned too. Every- thing in his soul must smash with a great thunder and a scattering of all things into dust! And Gleb, no longer master of himself, raised his fist and shouted with all his strength: “Libertine! Son of a bitch!” Dasha seized him by the shoulder and her eyes grew green like an owl's. é “Gleb, have you gone mad? Have you lost your sense, Gleb? Shame yourself, Gleb!” Suddenly they all seemed to become small, perplexed and deafened. Only Shibis sat as before, with half-closed eyes and a hidden smile, drowsy and bored. Badin, with heavy indolence, again leaned forward on the table, and said calmly and coldly, as though discussing business in his office: “Ah, is that all? It’s a pity that you didn’t set a watch on me like the deceased Tskheladze. You'd have learned more then. Even Serge Ivagin knows more than you. Serge Ivagin is here, you know, and he can relate interesting things. But he can’t make up his mind to do so because of his shyness about making a scandal. As you see, jealousy is always short-sighted.” Dasha angrily stood between Gleb and Badin. alarm nor horror in her eyes. “Gleb has no right to speak this way. Comrade Badin is an excep- tionally good and capable worker; there are very few like him. Gleb is a bit overstrained with work. A devil of a job getting a factory working—it’s quite worth two-pennyworth of fuss now. These damned men—they’re always ready to fight over a trifle, but when they’re at work they’re like iron.” There was neither QHIDKY rose from his chair and his preoccupied look surveyed them all. Serge went towards him, without taking his eyes off him, shaking and broken, wanting to say something but unable to express it. And instead of crying out to Shidky that which was weighing on his soul, he just stooped a little more, waved his hand evasively and walked from the room. ‘ It was cold. The north-east wind was blowing from the mountains, and the air between them and the sea was extremely clear, saturated with the blue of the sky and with the sun. Over the bay enormous Over the town they seemed to break up and sweep away in fragments towards the brown far ridges of the mountains. Beyond the town, on the slopes, the autumn mist was condensing in the cold, and the cold, and the crests of the ridge were veiled with mists that rose from the wooded gorges and rocky gullies. Fiery patches blazed on the mountain, float- ing over the slopes and aretes, vanishing as they reached the gullies and -lighting up again on the chalk cliffs. Here, between the mountains and the town, above the bay, was a clear burning blue, and the moun- tains looked like crystal and the factory seemed blue, with its great square buildings, the smokeless chimneys shooting up like arrows, and its aerial network of towers and cables. Dazzling thick, white snow- drifts of cloud rolled over the defiles surging round the peaks and melt- ing under the sun in the gullies and quarries. The story sea was smoking white, like a whirling snow-storm, a mass of dense foam. Between the breakwater and the quays, near the docks, rainbow colors The Logan March. Thousands of miners were at Hat- organize the Logan county march. ~Six thousand armed mjners as- Mingo county during August, and started on August 24 Mingo. On August 26, at Madison, |Boone County, they were met by District President Frank Keeney, back. But just then, 400 Baldwin- Felts men raided Sharples, 17 miles away, killed two miners, wounded two, and-captured 4 prisoners. The miners then, reinforeed by about 4,000 more who had followed the first 6,000, continued their march over Keeney’s protest. They had wasted two days on account of Keeney, and‘these ‘two days in the end, were fatal to the U. M. W. A. for it lost West Virginia to the or- ganization. If they had moved faster, they would undoubtedly have crashed into and ‘ganized all southern West Virginia, and the 1922 strike would have been im- measurably harded for Lewis to be- tray. . The Baldwin-Felts grmy was, dur- ing that two days, increased by 1,000 gunmen deputised by Sheriff Bill Hatfield,, about a thousand Legionaires and business men, and 2,000 conscripts gathered in Logan county. ‘It,was as large as the miners’ and had an abundance of machine gun”, which were placed on a fortified line across the passes in Logan country. Two airplanes flew over the miners to scout out their movements for the coal companies. Federal, troops: were sent for. The battle lasted about a week, on a fifteen mile front with a total of 20,000 men involved, the largest bat- tle in America since the civil war days. Breaking the Line. The miners, if they failed in the field’s funeral; they went home to} semble at Marmet, 100 miles from} towards | |who ordered them back. They started | | were too well known in West Vir- | ginia te enable a conviction before any but a well packed jury, and at that time the victory of the miners in the open field had so demoralized the Baldwin-Felts and the operators that they slipped up on this im- portant characteristic of a frame- up, All the others under indictment at | the time were released, but the case was not finished. In the Beech creek sector of the battle line, the miners were led by one “Preacher” Wilburn. I that sector the chief officer of the Baldwin-Felts, John Gore, a man who had conducted the assassina- tions of dozens of miners during the years preceding the battle, was kill- ed. Murder indictments had been is- sued against 813 miners for his death. Only Edgar Combs and Frank Keeney (Gary’s precedent again) were placed on trial. Combs was not arrested until 1923. By that | time another march had taken place, the frame-up system was working | better, Lewis had betrayed the West Virginia and Connellsville miners, the 1922 strike had been lost, the union was on the retreat. A Preacher’s Treachery Combs had no hope of the sort of trial that Blizzard got. Wilburn, the Baptist preacher, to save his own neck, for he was indicted too, and perhaps bribed in addition, swung over to the side of the prosecution, and swore to any lie the prosecution demanded. Combs, was’ placed un- der torture in prison in addition to the usual threats and assaults made by Don Chafin, was deprived of all water but boiling water. Finally to escape his torments, he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 99 years. It was later changed to 11 years. When Keeney was placed on trial, Combs testified for him, and Keeney was acquitted. That was in 1924, Other charges for murder were dismissed. flashed in the air. Against the concrete walls of the docks the waves were flinging up masses of spray, whipping with grey spume the buildings which lay drowned in the russet haze of autumn. (To Be Continued) handled by the U.M.W.A., the “rad- icals” were barred from participa- tion, there was no adequate attempt made to rouse the workers. It is not to the credit of the U.M.W.A. that the only way they could save Keeney was by throwing the opera- tors the ordinary miner, Combs, as a human sacrifice, even though a voluntary sacrifice. There have been very few such disgraceful episodes in the history of labor cases, and in the cnly other outstanding ones, those concerned were deluded by the prosecution. We can be absolutely sure that there will be nothing like this in the Gastonia case. Cliftonville March. The 1922 strike was featured by another march of the miners in West Virginia. The Richland (scab) Coal Co. took over the formerly unionized Cliftonville mine, evicted all union- ists, and imported strikebreakers. The imported gunmen, deputised by Sheriff H. H. Duvall, fired on the evicted miners. On the night of July 16, 1922, about 300 strikers from Avella, Pa., end vicinity, marched over the bor- der to mass picket at Cliftonville, Braok County, West Virginia. The towns are not far apart, but the state border runs between. The Sheriff and his gunmen were ambushed in the mine shacks and houses around the tipple. The miners stood'a little way off, not wishing to enter a fight. Seven scabs were driven forward by the mine guards, to march past the miners toward the tipple, An old, gray haired, coal miner, followed by a few younger men, approached, unarmed, to argue with the scabs. As soon as they came into the level, away from the protecting rocks on the hillside, the major principle of strategy, which| ‘The dofense in all these cases was deputies opened fire, killed the old sentences as follows: ne EEEEEEEIEEe man and wounded some of the others, The fight was on, and the miners drove the deputies from house to house, through Cliftonville. More gunmen came from Wellsburg, the county seat, and attacked the miners from the rear; they were checked with rifle fire, the miners continued to fight, on two fronts. Sheriff H. H. Duvall led a counter charge with all the gunmen he could reach with his voice. Witnesses tes- tified he was swearing and frothing at the mouth as he came up the hill. His sortie kas beaten back; Duvall was killed. The mine tipple was burned down; and the pickets retreated to Pennsylvania. Seven union miners were killed and many wounded; 5 of the enemy were dead. The troops came in, and there were mass trials and convictions, for the forces of the defense were dis- organized still; the International Labor Defense was not yet started on its career; and would have been barred from the case anyway by the U.M.W.A. reactionaries, At about the time the 100 per cent union or- ganization in Southern Illinois was freeing the Herrin defendants, the weak, retreating and betrayed union forces in West Virginia watched 243 men held for trial; of which 30 were convicted of “conspiracy” and given three-year sentences, seven were convicted and got four to seven years, six were convicted and got John Kamin- sky, 10 years; Teddy Arunsky, 10 years; Pete Radocowich, 10 years; Charles Ciala, 10 years; Frank Bodo, 10 years, and Joseph Tracz, 8 years, All but Joseph Tracz were released in October, 1926, aes