The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 12, 1929, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS For a Workers-Farmers Government To Organize the Unorganized Against Imperialist War For the 40-Hour Week Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥. under the act of March 3. orker 1879. Vol. VI, No. 161 Company. Inc.. 26-28 Union Square. Unblished daily except Sunday by The Comprodally Publishing New York City, N. ¥. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1929 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, $8.00 per year. Outside New York, by mail, $6.00 per year. FINAL CITY EDITION Price 3 Cents TEXTILE ORGANIZER SAVES LIFE The enemies of the workers are trying to make the murder-raid in Gastonia appear as a popular movement against the strike leaders and against Communism. This is clever propaganda for the capitalist cause, but it is a lie. There is NOT a popular movement against the strike leaders. On the contrary, two big facts stand out to show that the mill workers and the working class generally in the mill communities are sympathetic to the labor defendants. This is proven first by the deep and broad movement for organization and scruggle against the mill owners. Secondly it is proven by the re- markable fact—a fact almost unheard of the present times—that the ruling class (dominated in this case by the mill owners) was unable in this case, through the regular machinery of their own hand- made law, to secure a jury ready to commit the cold-blooded crime of putting the workers’ leaders on the electric chair. This does not mean that the capitalist class cannot succeed in deving the workers’ leaders through the courts of North Carolina. ite the contrary. the stress of the moment, showed this. The “fair” judge so often deseribed in the capitalist press said, “It would be preferrable for the defendants to go free than that they should be convicted by an insane man,” showing that the undercurrent of his whole thought on the case is identical with that of the mill owners—that the trial will not ac- complish its purpose if the defendants “go free.” The method of conducting the trial, on the part of judge and prose- , was calculated to put the entire dozen of jurors in a state of re ary frenzy only a degree more under control than that of the cne juror who suddenly ran amuck with the cry: “Give me a gun; they have taken a life and I’ll make them conf and kill them.” But in the first effort to get a jury su ent to the mill bosses, despite the huge apparatus for hand-picking in a population soaked with terrorization and medieval preju a large proportion of the jury stood for a verdict of not guilt: Therefore the turning loose of the wild raids throughout the coun- ere struggle of the mill workers threatens the profits of the The murder raid in Gastonia and Charlotte must not be seen as a routine incident, it is a major political event marking a turning point in the class struggle in this country. In it is all of the beastly quality of the old institution of lynching, by which the ruling class has. so long utilized to help rule, terrorize and doubly exploit the Negro masses. But to this old phenomenon is now added something new— something of a modern fascist character. The old classical form of lynching usually implies an incitement of a backward population to crimes which help the ruling class to maintain power and continue ex- ploitation of the Negro (or white) masses. In this case, however, the ruling class was shown to be unable to debauch any popular masses tor its ends.. Just because it was in such a position, the ruling class of the Gastonia-Charlotte region, led and organized by the mill owners and the public officials and police, organized a special, extra-legal band of armed men—participated in by state officials, the police and even some of the same attorneys who had appeared in court as prosecutors— tc commit extra-legal murder outside of the general methods of pro- ceedure. After the terrorization by the murder-gang, the mill owners and their seryants, the state. otficials, cam secure a convicting jury. They can and will murder Fred Beal and his comrades in the electric chair. Gnly one thing’ can stop the colossal crime—the pressure of mass awakening and activity of the working class in behalf of the sixteen Gastonia organizers, The workers must recognize the latest civil war episode in Gas- tonia as a call to new and bigger actions. A hundred times more sup- port must be given to the Gastonia defendants. A hundred times more energy thrown into the organization of the National Textile Workers’ Union. A hundred times more to build the International Labor Defense, . The vicious fascist attack again emphasizes the absolute necescuy for the strengthening of workers’ defense corps in the Gastonia strug- gle, and must impel workers everywhere to create machinery for de- feating attempts to murder strikers and strike leaders and to impede by violence the work of organizing workers for militant struggle. General War Likely At Any Moment The danger of general war against the Soviet Union is growing day after day. The signs of it are to be seen in the unmistakeable attitude of the capitalist pow In the Far East, the Stimson note proposing an “International control” of the Soviet-administered Chinese Eastern Railway is still the policy of American imperialism. The temporary delay in its application was apparently in order to reach full concord with Japan, and the latest telegraphic dispatches from Tokio now indicate that Japanese imperialism is solid with the other powers. The czarists and Chinese hirelings of imperialism have been given the word to attack. In Great Britain, whose labor government was elected on the election cry of “Recognition of the U.S S. R.,” the mealy-mouthed Mr. Henderson, breathing aspirations after peace, prepares for war by his refusal of recognition to the Soviet Government. The French bourgeoisie, by M. Briand’s plan for a United States of Europe, aims exactly at binding the European capitalist powers in — an anti-Soviet bloc (possibly under French hegemony), which, as was clear from Briand’s speech, as was openly stated by bourgeois cor- respondents, was designed to fight Communism and the stronghold of the world revolution. Most significant of all is the callous attitude of Germany to the Soviet citizens now being maltreated in the dungeons of Mukden. This refusal to carry out the consular duties it had assumed is not a small incident. It has to be taken along with the whole movement of the German bourgeoisie and of the German social-democratic government to make war on Communism and to be the willing tool of the greater imperialist powers, and especially of America, as shown by Stresse- man’s speech reported yesterday, in their attempt to crush the Soviet Union. . Meanwhile, parallel with the frenzied pumping out of pacifist speeches, war preparations are being everywhere intensified, and hos- , tilities are coming nearer and nearer. In the United States the war preparations are going feverishly ahead. War preparedness by “peaceful” civil aviation goes on with- out stopping even to count the toll of accidents. The Department of Labor searches out the foreign-born workers, Rationalization goes ever faster. Radicalization of the workers is met by lynching, by every kind of legal and illegal repression, by the organized treachery that is called the A. F. of L. and their allies, the Muste-ites and the so-called socialist party : On the Soviet borders the menace grows. The war-flame is_al- ready alight onthe Manchurian frontier. Polish army officers are caught carrying on military spying. British troops are reported today to have been moved into Tibet,» southwards from the U. 8. S. R. Asiatic frontier. Bagdad, center of the British air force, is only a few hours flying time from the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus; and in a short time the bombers of Arabs, now helping to reinstate the bour- geois Zionist “garrison,” can be released in order to bomb the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union. The general war may come at any moment. Communist Party members must be fully prepared to-carry out the task of mobilizing the masses against the war, Yesterday we stressed the general slogans of the mobilization. ‘Today the situation demands that the whole Party be on the alert, and that our anti-war tasks be taken up and put into force. Defend the Soviet Union, which is building Socialism! Duild anti-war shop committees! Do not wait fZr large-scale hortilities to begi Jamonstrations ana strikes against the coming War! but prepare now Even the remark of the judge in the case, under | What Is Happening in Gastonia. [RED ARMY GIVES Fiyst Session of TUUL RAIDERSINUSSR Board Consolidates Trade Union Center WORKERS’ TRIAL Workers Delegation to U.S.S.R. at Same Time SEVERE DEFEAT| of Soviet Ability | and Determination’ German Attitude Bad Affiliation of Unions, Campaign for Building New Center, Dues System are Highlights “Western Orientation” Means Hostility | MOSCOW, ae 11 (UP).— Chinese and Russian white guards | in Manchuria have suffered heavy | casualties in fighting along the}! |Manchurian border, reports here! said today. In some instances red troops chased alleged attackers across the border, the reports said, adding also that many white Russians had been caught in Soviet territory. A promise to give “Chinese mili- talists the strongest proofs of the determination and ability of the So- viet government to prevent further provocative raids into Russian terri- tory” was carried in an editorial in the newspaper Izvestia today. e See War Lords Anxious. Press reports from Harbin and ,Mukden, Manchuria, yesterday re- flected a saddened and worried at- mosphere surrounding the Chinese militarist government, as a result of their attempts over the week end and Monday to break through the Soviet Union border at many points. The -news is still given in a garbled fashion, as an unwarranted attack with airplanes, gunboats! and artillery on the Chinese posi- titons at Pogranitchaya and Man-} chuli. | The Mukden government hardly jconceals the fact that its forces |were considerably demoralized in \the attack on the Red Army. Retreat to Mulin. An official account states that | Pogranitchanya is abandoned and a) \prey to bandits, who are probably |deserting and starving mercenary soldiers of Chang Hsueh-liang’s ‘army. The Chang army has taken ‘up a position at Mulin, where “10,- 000 Chinese soldiers who valiantly defended Pogranitchnaya are now j entrenched.” Attack Red Army, In Moscow, a report has been re- ceived through Tass News Agency | that Chang Hsueh-liang’s army in-| vaded Soviet Union territory at Grodekovo, killed a Red Army sen- | tinel“and wounded others, but were promptly repulsed and driven over the border. At another point, the Chinese raiders found Red Army soldiers harvesting hay in a field, but in spite of the surprise, were defeated. Wu Taiks of Parley. y delegate from the hek government to the League of Nations assembly at Geneva, now in session, yesterday announced, according to press re- ports, that negotiations between the U.S. 3. R. and che Nanking govern- ment were opened in Berlin. Earliet reports that negotiations were proceeding smoothly have been ,denied by the Moscow press. | Wu claimed, according to the re- ports, that the only obstacles to im- | mediate settlement of the Manchur- lian crisis was the question of dis- missal of the Chinese president ap- | pointed by the Chinese war lords to jrun the Chinese Eastern after they \violently seized it from the joint Soviet Union and Chinese adminis- tration. The Moscow, U. S. S. R., press views the attitude of the social democratic government of Germany |in the Manchurian crisis as a very | ominous one. Pravda writes: “It is deplorable | that the German papers conceal the |fact that German consuls failed to (Continued on Page Three) SPAIN BUILDS BILBOA, Spain, Sept. 11—Two ther appropriations for submarines. . . PORTUGUESE ORD) LONDON, Sept. 11.—The Port and engines, it was learned today. . 8 Consolidation of the new trade the fi session of the National |Executive Board of the Trade Union | smaller Unity League, which met yester- day. Notification of the Fifth Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions, set for July 15, 1930, was presented at he s The League Bureau was instructed to make preparations for sending the delegation and report to the next session of the Board. Plans to carry out the Conven- tion decision to send a large work- ers’ delegation to the Soviet Union to see first hand the operation of the five-year plan were made. If possible, the delegation will reach Moscow ct the time o” the R.I. L. U. Congress, William Z, Foster, general secretary, announced today. The outlines of a broad campaign to build the League through special meetings of shop committees, min- \orities of the reactionary unions, lo- cals of left-wing unions and League groups to hear the reports of dele- gates who attended the Cleveland Convention. Steps to regulate the affiliation of unions and details for a dues- | paying system were devised, based upon the decisions of the Conven- tion, Thirteen districts, including Charlotte, N. C., and Seattle, Wash., will function temporarily, and im- lunion center was the keynote of|mediately set to work to organize | |League sections and groups in the cities of their territory, pending the district Trade Union | Unity League conventions, the 'Board decided. A program of action in prepara- tion, and at the American Federa- tion of Labor Convention Oct. 7,' was outlined. The program adopted at the Clrveland Convention will form the base about which the ‘ight will rally. The headquarters of the \Trades Section of the League will be established in Pittsburgh, heart |! of the steel district. Andrew Ov gaard, national sec |tary of this section, will establis the office in the very near he announced, hi} | Bill Dunne, one of the most prom- | linent journalists and outstanding | organizer of the American labor | |movement, was elected editor of! ‘Labor Unity, the official organ 0 the League. The International Labor Defense Conference, which will be held | within the:next month was endorsed | by the Board, and affil‘ation , with | the defense organization was pro- (Bas to all allied organizations. A | | special resolution on tho Gastonia | \attack, which appears in another | | section of this edition, was adopted. | METAL STRIKERS FOLLOW 1. U. UL. Urge Industrial Union at Carteret Plant By N. B. HARDY. CATARET, N. J., Sept. 2h (The keynote struck at last night’s meeting of the 2,500 strikers of the United States Smelting and Re- fining Co. ..as the need for perfect- ing the shop committees, definitely organizing a Metal Workers Indus- | trial Union, and fighting until every demand is won. Secretary Over- gaarde of the Metal Industrial |Bureau of the Trade Union Unity League, and Nat Kaplan, League member, both spoke after members of the strike committee invited them to tell the strikers what the Trade Union Unity League pro- poses. “The verbal statements of the company,” said Overgaards, “in which they say that they are will- ing to reinstate the men fired, grant payment every week <nd the aboli- tionof the bonus will remain empty talk unless the men organize into a union of all workers in the plant ‘and force the bosses to sign an} agrecnent conceding the demands.” Overgaarce pointed out that shop committees m: + be set up in each department to give a solid basis to the union when formed. “The need for the organization of the :’ “:ers into a union,” said Overgaarde, “is clearly ---» by the stubborn refusal of the company to grant the ten cents increase in wages, which abolishes the wage cut, the need for fighting for time- and-a-half. for overtime and for the with no decrease in pay.” A brief description of the TUUL and its national convention in Cleveland y>s given by Overgaarde. (Continued on Page Two) WAR PREPARATIONS DESTROYERS. new destroyers costing 105,000,000 pesetas are to be built here. The minister of the navy is seeking fur- . ER WAR’ PLANES, uguese naval air service has con- tracted with a large British manufacturer for a supply of seaplanes GENERAL ELY REVIEWS TROOPS. \4-¥. ©. L. Girls Fined For Giving Leaflets| to Negro Guardsmen The four girl members of the Young Communist League who were | arrested Sunday afternoon while distributing leaflets to members of the 369th infantry who were on their way to Camp Smith, Peekskill N. Y., were fined $15 each with an alternative of 15 days in jail by Magistrate McQuade in the 166th) St. court yesterday morning. The} International Labor Defense paid) their fines. They had already served four days. Those fined were Ray | Leventhal, Georgia Kaper, Lilian Roth and Ray Levine. Before pronouncing sentence the magistrate asked the girls if they would distribute leaflets aga When they answered that t would, he gave them the heavy s tence. Previously he had told parole officer that the threg Communists had been punished cnough. ‘Hold Trial of Chicago Youth Demonstrators | CHICAGO, IIL, Sept. 11—Two members of the Young Communist | League will be tried today on charges | arising out of their activities at/ International Youth Day demonstra- | |tion at Ashland and 47th St. | The two are Sam Reed, district | organizer and Della Fogel. Both} have been kept in jail since last | Friday, when they were arrested | immediately after the demonstration began. Defeat Police Brutality. Police had tried to seize John} |Rijak, organizational secretary of the League, when several of the hundreds of workers present raised (Continued on Page Three) Force Speed-Up Upon Witty Bros. Workers | Again the Sidney Hillman Ae pany union group in control of the | malgamated Clothing Union has joined with employers to force speed-up conditions on the tailors. | This time it is the workers of Witty Bros., 52 Eldridge St., who are the victims, Ten of the 125 workers there have been discharged, the 115 left being | (Continued on Page Two) Important Work for Party Members Today | Metal |! future | © | selling, or distributing a book, paper | (a tentati FIRI LAW AT CHICAGO Illegalize Communist | Party Immediately | 27 Face Jail Terms Demonstrated Against | Gaston Railroading CHICAGO, TIl., Sept. 11.—The Il- line sedition w, passed during the post-war “Ked-baiting” hyster , under which 39 members of the Communist Labor Party were in- dicted in March, 1920, has now been | avoked against 2 a demonstration for the strikers in Grant Park ial and then post-! me before the notori- | ous Judge Lyle here. The charge | of sedition was added to original charges of “holding the meeting | rmit, resisting an of- | to riot and distribut- | ature without a perniit. | Sedition Laws. aw is directed ‘anyone advocating re- overthrow of govern- ce or any other un-! or anyone publishing, | aga lawful m or document advocating violence as a means of accomplishing the over- throw of constitutional, representa- tive from of government, and any- one organizing or becoming a mem- ber of any socicty or association the Continued on Page Three) SELLOUT DEFEAT Tremendous Majority | Against Green Plan | NEW ORLEAD . Sept. 11 (UP).—New Orleans 69-day street | car strike was prolonged tonight | - when a check of the votes of the 1,200 striking carmen revealed that reement submitted by Inc.. and Wil- eration of Labor, had been over- Pur ou Wingers in the scab In tie s Union were yesterday morning by al Fur beaten the De- Committee of the Needle Trades Workers Industri: Union when the gangsters attempted to terrorize the workers of the Heary Zucker fur shop, 235 W. 26th St., which has an agzeement with the Industrial Union. When the thugs attacked the fur workers, they immediately defended themselves an dreceived aid from members of the union Defense Com- | mitiee, who were on the block. The union has recently organized the De- | fenes Committee to drive the right wing thugs out of the needle trades market | Shoot At Workers. | When tke police saw that the scab union thugs were getting the worst of the fight they joined in, shooting | point blank at the workers. Six | workers, two of them from the Zucker shop were arrested. Four of the gangsters were also arve ested (Continued on Pag. T 0) i NG AT THUGS - APPLY SEDITION WILL HOLD UNION AND LL.D. RALLY IN SPITE OF THREATS OF MILL MURDER GANGSTERS First Session of TUUL Board Condemns Attack on Organizers; First Hand Story in Affidavits Grant of Mistrial is Blow to Defense, Says Defense Attorneys;, Fight Must Redouble BULLETIN. “We condemn the vicious attack upon our organizers in Gastonia and Charlotte,” the statement issued by the National Executive Board of the Trade Union Unity Li now in session, declares. “The mill owners’ hirelings who by such bloody methods hope to stem the rapidly rising tide of organization of textile workers, and the determined strug- gle to erystalize at the Charlotte Southern Textile Workers’ Confer ence, October 12, 13, to defeat the stretch-out, the low wages, long hours and child labor. “By their terrorist methods they hope to make it easier te send the Gastonia de! dants to death. “We call upon all workers to rally to the support of the textile workers of the South who face the combined fire of mill men, courts, police and American Federation of Labor misleaders, and redouble their efforts to free the 23 imprisoned textile workers, and to give full sup- port financially and otherwise to the defense campaign of the Interna- tional Labor Defense.” * * (Special to the Daily Worker.) CHARLOTTE, Sept. 11—Frank:Fortner, National Textile Workers’ Union organizer of Dallas, drove a lynching party of mill owners’ thugs into flight by opening fire on them = ® with a gun when they came to ‘his house, surrounded it, and after yelling, “Come out, you FRED BEAL bastard, and we'll lynch you,” sought to enter the house. | When the mill hirelings yelled ‘their curses, Fortner shouted back: “Come and get me, you yellow ‘4 thugs,” and met them with bullets. yey The gang broke and fled precipi- tately. It is believed that some of them were wounded. Open threats that, “We are going to lynch every damn one of the junion organizers and smash the |union,” are frequently heard as the | Manville-Jenckes Committee of 100, | which has now been extended to in- clude the other mills around, con- tinue their reign of terror. Six murderous agents of the mill owners have been hanging around -ganizer whom the |the home of Dewey Martin, N.T.W. thientenet organizer, since Monday night, wait- They are still trying to|*& for him to come home. electrocute kim. n spite of the continued threats Seren of the mill owner crowd that if the T.W.U. holds any more meetings in Gastonia, they will be lynched, the meeting scheduled for next Sat- ern organizer for the N.T.W.U. an- cAS Ne TW. Os. Manville-Jenckes gang to lynch. nounced today. Workers are com- jing in from all around to protect the | meeting, and the organization work and preparation for the Charlotte |Conference goes on rapidly. Organizer Wells, who was badly beaten after being kidnapped along with Organizers Lell and Saylor Saturday, is anxious to get back into active union w and if pos- sible speak at the Gastonia mass meetii However, he+suffered ter- yy vible pain all last night, and is much worse today.. He is under the constant care of Doctor Myers. A ific beating over the lower ab- domen has caused him to votnit con- stantly. “4 Thousands in the Siga Gaston Pledges rs throughout re s gz pledges to tonia re- efforts to save the 2 , now in danger of lyne ing in t North Caroli The new campaign for f the Gastonia Joint D: lief Committee, 80 St., room cludes the t 5 1 and throughout the la is urred on tremendously by the reign of fascist that began in Gastonia, Charlotte and Besse- Thousands of count the ¢ double t defend. wo strikers, to nds of and Re- Eleventh ich in- * * * CHARLOTT . C., Sept. 1L— The sworn affidavit of C. D. Saylor and statements of C. M Lell and terror mer City with the kidnapping of a page" ‘ Tee sees ceanizens. APPI"E °F \Ben Wells, National Textile Work- Tithe mead: for building a mast ers’ Union organizers who were kid- protest. movement throughout the |P&aPped and beaten nation is primary” the defense com- | headed by the chic y mittee pointed out. “Bhe need for |CUting the Gastonia case, mill bosses defense funds to free the Gsstonir, |0¢ Police, today issued by the In- prisoners and save them from lynch- | tational Labor Defense, follow in, ing is paramount. To work, every- |*¥ll. : ((Gorlttwitedson sPage fanak W ells gave this account of the at- : * tack from his bed where he is un- CALIF, UPHOLSTRY<sTRIKE, (det ® doctor’s care, With grat pain, he turned over in bed so that LOS ANGELES (By Mail).— hotog: aS . berti Furniture Co. plant here are 4) was at Mrs. Lodge’s house in on strike against a wage cut. Gastonia at 9 o'clock, when about by a posse c attggneys prose- ‘Right to the Will Defy Attempts “Red Nights” for open mass dem- onstrations at the end of this week, one on Friday, in Negro Harlem and the other downtown, on Saturday, jopening the Communist Party elec- PEEKSKILL, N. Y., Sept. 11.—Major-Gen. H, E. Ely, commander of the second corps area, will visit Camp Smith on Friday for a gen- eral inspection and review of the 369th infantry, * ear) tion campaign in earnest, will serve All members of the Communist | to mobilize the working masses of Party and Young Communist League | the city in protest against the police should report at 7:30 o'clock tonight | terrorism and socialist-fascist gang- | at 154 Watkins St., Brooklyn, for | sterism, and to assert the right of important Party and League work | the workers and of their revolution- | by orders of the District Executive | ary Party to the streets, is the an- | Committee, nouncement of the Election Cam-| PUSH NEW YORK SEAPLANE PORT. The corner stone for the main building of the New York seaplane airport at Port Washington, which will be an important aii base in 4 the impending imperialist war, will be laid Saturday, « ‘ 3 a hundred cars drove up. The lead- Red Nights Assert Workers’ i" V1 ves neng Praise god from whom all bless- ings flow.’ I stood up and started City’s Streets to protest. They seized me and dragged me outside where there of Workers’ Enemies to were about two hundred more. Keep Communist Program from Masses “They said ‘kiss this flag and dee nounce the union.’ I made a speech stating that I came here to organize the work for a fight against the They pulled me down and paign Committee of the District in a statement issued last | bos: night, threw me into an auto, The leaders, The united front of the enemies of Thompson and Morehead, superin- the working class, the statement de- | tendents of the Loray Mill, had a clares, extending from trustified consultation and decided they would capital of the A. F. of L. official-|go to Charlotte and raid the LL.D. dom and the socialist party, is be- Continued on Page Three) coming more consolidated, as shown by the endorsement o man Thomas, by the big committee, known as the Citizen's (Continued on Page Two) y York Build Up the United Front of the Working Class From the Bot- | tom Up—at the Enterprise ! fig