The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 24, 1929, Page 1

THE DAILY WORKER FIGHTS For a Workers-Farmers Governmes:t To Organize the Unorganized Against Imperialist War For the 40-Hour Week d-cluss matter at the Post Office at New York, N. ¥., Worker ander the act of March 3, 1879. Vol. VI., No. 197 Company. inc., 26-28 Gates ule Published daily except Sundey by ‘The Comprodaily Publishing NEW YORK, THUR New York City, N. ¥. 1 RSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1929 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In New York, by mail, Outside New York, by mail, 6.00 per year. 00 per FINAL CITY EDITION aon "Price 3 Cents year. WORKERS MASS AT UNION SQUARE TODAY FOR GASTONIA The Miners Revolt in Illinois Landslide, ‘for National CHAUFFEURS, GAS The coal miners of Milinbia, of which: of which there remain at least 50,009 in spite of a drastic introduction of capitalist “rationalization” which threw tens of tMbusands out of work and sped up the rest to a back- breaking intensity of labor and in spite of years of systematic betrayal by the officials of the United Mine Workers of An ica, are splitting away from the U.M.W.A. by whole locals and sub-distr and joining the National Miners’ Union, the fighting organization formed last year when it became plain to the rank and file of the U.M.W.A. that the officials of the old organization had sold them out and wreckei the strike. The miners of Illinois are about all that is left of the U.M.W.A. They are fighters, with Virden Day and Herrin and many strikes to their credit. For twenty years they never permitted a scab to work in the coal fields of Illinois, not until District President Farrington sold them out to the Lester Strip Mine and even then they rose in armed might and annihilated the strikebreakers. Farrington was di drawing $25,000 a year from the Peabody Coal .» and wai His vice president, and partner in crime, Harry Fishwick, became dis- trict president, and formed, in 1926, an alliance with John Lewis, In- ternational president, to expel, beat up, and drive out of the state the militant left wing as each was doing separately before. When Lewis and Fishwick had finished the job of treason in the great strike of 1927 and 1928, they remained in control of the frag- ments of the U.M.W.A. Their machine of paid organizers, who never under any circumstances organized anything but fake elections to keep the officials in power, their district and sub-district officialdom, who resorted to any methods however crude to hold office, had in addition to whatever was paid by the operators for the defeat of the miners’ strike, another rich source of income. They could not make the miners, thoroughly disgusted with them, in any way loyal members of their discregjted union, but they could and did go to the operators, and agree on contracts at wage reljuctions ranging from 25 to 50 per cent, on con- dition that none but “U.M.W.A. members” should be hired, and that the dues should be paid through the check-off. In Illinois, the miners voted by a majority of 25,000 not to accept tke Fishwick agreement involving steep wage cuts, and Fishwick simply y the ballots out of the window and declared the agreements in | cy and property, and the right to monopolize the check-off privileges, that Lewis and Fishwick fell out a couple of months ago, began to expel each other, got injunctions and started in to expose each other’s election frauds, graft and swindling of the rank and file miners. But this was too much. The miners of Illinois are in revolt, and are swinging by thousands out of the U.M.W.A., now openly seen as a company union. Now is the critical time.» Eight thousand have just jcined the N.M.U. in Illinois, but there are 50,000 in the district. Every possibility exists of a huge and powerful miners’ union emerging, if the miners of Ilinois realize that it is not sufficient just to stop recog- nition of Lewis and Fishwick, as practically all are decided upon, but realize also that only a strong national union, linked up with the Trade Union Unity League, the new fighting trade union center established at Cleveland Sept. 1, and through it joined with the international working class movement. And also, let us emphasize, provided the new union— the only real union—works with unprecedented energy to gather them into its ranks, and leads their fights with the bold initiative which the union program has promised. All over the world labor is becoming more militant, ing the rationalization and wage cutting campaign of the bosses, preparing to fight the coming imperialist war. Local revolts will not be enough. The Belleville convention of the Illinois miners which starts its sessions Sunday should result in the major part of these thousands in the coal fields joining this struggle by coming over in a body into the National Miners Union, fighting the employers for the six-hour day, for care for the men made jobless by rationalization which is eating into the industry at an ever more rapid pace, for wage raises and for decent working conditions underground. Organize the Illinois miners into a real, ffighting union—the Na- tional Miners’ Union! Miners! H@e at last is your opportunity! Down with the traitors, Lewis, Fishwick & Co., agents of the scab bosses! Join the National Miners’ Union! Must Increase Mass Pressure to Save 7 Gastonia Prisoners Workers Fighting for Seven Defendants Fight Also for Right to Strike and Defend Selves “Greater mass pressure will save |by the capitalist courts to aid the | the seven Gastonia strikers sen-| mill owners defeat the growing| tenced to long terms” is the keynote | | drive of the National Textile Work- of the call issued to all workers by | ers’ Union for the organization of | the International Labor Defense. This organization declares “The | textile industry. It is thus an ef- freedom of sixteen of the original | fort to cripple and defeat the or-| twenty-three defendants was won ganization of the unorganized in yall labor, Negro and White, in the | when the I. L. D. ralied world-wide working-class mass pressure.” The statement follows: all industries. It is a well-aimed blow directed Miner Union in Illinois; Scores UMW Locals Join 50,000 Miners From Misleaders’ Control N. M. U. Has 8,000 New Members; Meetings | All Over State; Defense Groups Expect Fight WEST FRANKFORT, IIl., Oct. 23.—Scores more of local unions in the United Mine Workers of America ate repudiating that led by District President Harry Fishwick, are leaving the} U.M.W.A., and joining the National Miners’ Union. Secreetary-Treasurer Pat Toohey of the N.M.U., reported in a speech to 200 miners at Duquin, Sunday, workers who stayed in an outdoor meeting throughout a driving rain, that the National Miners’ Union had gained 8,000 new members in| Illinois within the last weeks, and that the former U. M. W.A. | locals at Coella, Royalton,¢ Staunton, Livingston, and others had just affiliated with the N. M. U. There are dozens of mass meetings being arranged throughout the district in prepara- tion for the convention called by the Illinois District of the N. M. U. to meet Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in Liederkranz Hall, Belleville, Ill. This convention, with representation based on N. M. U. locals, U. M. W. locals that have repydiated Fishwick and Lewis, and militant groups in U.M.W.A. locals that have not takem (Continued on Page Three) LABOR JURY GIVES VERDICT BY RADIO Calls Upon. Workers to Rally to Defense Thousands of workers heard the decision of the Labor Jury in the | Gastonia case over the radio last | night when Henry Buckley, New York shoe worker and a member of | the jury, broadcasted the working- 4 BKLYN, GASTON TODAY, TOMOROW Wea. Engdahl, Wicks to Speak BrookIn workers will rally tonight sections of the boro at four mass meetings called in support of the | Communist election program and to | protest against the railroading of | the seven Gastoniua defendants. Tonight:a meeting for Boro Park workers will be held at 8.30 in the Boro Park Workers’ Center, 1773 E. 43rd St. J. Louis Engdahl, candi- date for president of the Boro of Manhattan, will be the chief speaker. be held tomorrow night (Friday) at 8 o'clock. Williamsburg—Miller’s Grand As- dlnea verdict |Speakers: William V. Weinstone, | “Our verdict is ‘not guilty,’” he {Communist candidate for Mayor; : Lae ‘Fred Biedenknapp, candidate for declared, was the working-class ver- dict. ‘Guilty’ is the capitalist class decision. The strikers were tried on their racial, religious and political | beliefs. Workers the land over must gally to the defense of these labor |leaders, victims of capitaist court justice and the bosses’ Black Hun- dreds. Workers must support the {President of the Boro of Brooklyn; Joseph Magliacano, candidate for Assembly in the Sixth District, and |in the 14th District. Bath Beach—Bath ers’ Club, 48 Bay 28th St. Speakers: H. M. Wicks, candidate for Presi- International Labor Defense, the dent of the Board of Aldermen; Ben Wor International Relief and Gold, candidate for Alderman in the } the Trade Union Unity League, Bronx, and Morris Kushinsky, can- | which sent the Labor Jury to the |‘idate for Assembly in the 16th As- trial.” ict, Brooklyn. Island — Coney Island ‘Center, 2901 Mermaid Ave. M. J, Olgin, candidate for Assembly in the Bronx; Hyman Le- vine, candidate for Sheriff, Brook- TAG DAYS WILL HIT U.S, DRIVE ASK AFL WORKERS TO TUUL MEETING Mass Collection Sat., _ Sun. Fight Attack Mass collection days, October 26 FILUERS, GARAGE MEN MEET TONITE Great Convention Sunday to Organize Split of | Irving Plaza Scene of Drive for Industrial Union" "Meeting | Want No AFL Fakers LABOR JURORS TO RENDER VERDICT AT BIG DEMONSTRATION; CANDIDATES OF COMMUNIST PARTY WILL BE SPEAKERS ae iki air cae a Judge Barnhill Caught in Secret Conspiracy With Prosecution Heads; Advised Strategic Retreat te Pack Jury; Todd Has Mill Boss Son lee ipaenca Lesson | 'Philadelphia International Labor Defense Scores Bosses’ Verdict; Workers Rally Everywhere to Communist Call For Mass Protest ELECTIONRALLIES. an dtomorrow night in four different | The following three meetings will | jsembly, Grand St. and Havemeyer. | Sam Nesin, candidate for Assembly | Beach Work- | Irving Plaza Hall will be the importance to chauffeurs, oil truck in the industry, determined upon breaking with the misleadership of |the Teamsters’ Union which has ithe oil truck drivers, and crippled every effort these workers |made recently for real gains. The bulk of the industry is un- |organized, and will welcome a real jmain topic of the meeting. | Have Learned Lesson. The workers have been called out ‘and betrayed, left unorganized and “rationalized” so much recently that ‘they are taking matters into their own hands now and are rallying to, | build a real industrial union. All are | invited to the meeting tonight at! 8 p. m. With most of those who will be | of Betrayed Oil Strike both the faction headed by International President Lewis, and | scene tonight for a meeting of vital | jdeliberately smashed the strike of | have | lindustrial union that is to be the Third District, Bronx; M. J. Olgin, editor of the Freiheit, for |there, the recent lessons in the oil | strike are very plain. An official-! {dom such as that of the teamsters’ jalan which never notifies the men \of the progress of the strike, gives |them no say in managing it, refuses | |to sprea dit, and spreads defeatism ‘at every opportunity, is no use to these men. They don’t want a weak strong ees) union, N.Y. Conference Votes Airmen 50 Tractors SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 23. |—Soviet Russia’s four good will fliers left the Salt Lake airnort in their monaplane Land of the Soviets | shortly before 10 o’clock this morn-| North and South Carolina, all the way up thru the South to the port \ing. continuing their flight to New} | York via Cheyenne, Chicago and De-| cal industries, the name and meaning of the Daily Worker has spread. i troit. The craft landed here yester- day for an overnight stop after a hop from Oakland, Cal. Possibility that the air ward from New York in an attempt to span the Atlantic and make a complete round-the-worid flight was takov, chief pilot. The fliers stopped here to refuel their ship instead of heading straight | for Cheyenne because head winds FLIERS TAK TAKE OFF Appeal for 100 Daily Workers| FROM SALT LAKE Each Day in Norf in Norfolk, Virginia | | | from Moscow may be carried east-! | again indicated by Semyon A. Shes-| The militant workers of New York, aroused by the capitalist class verdict of guilty im- posed upon the Gastonia boys, are prepared to mass in Union Square today at 5 o'clock to drivers, garage and gas filling sta-| hear nationally known speakers tell of the railroading in Charlotte, and. to vote resolutions of jtion attendants, and other workers’ protest against the mill bosses’ terror, carried out by courts and plain murderers. Prominent among the speakers at this meeting will be candidates of the Communist Party in the city elections. Among the speakers are: William W. Weinstone, candidate for mayor; Otto Hall, candi- date for comptroller, J. Louis Engdahl, for Manhattan borough president; Juliet Stuart Poyntz, for Bronx borough president; Fred Biedenkapp, secretary of the Independent Shoe Workers’ Union, for Brooklyn borough president; Richard Moore, for congressman from the 21st Dis- e Wortis of the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union, for assemblyman from the assemblyman from the Fourth | District; Rebecca Grecht, for assemblyman from the Fifth District; Joseph Magliacano, for }assemblyman from the Sixth District; Sam Darcy, for alderman from the Eighth District; Ben Gold, secretary of the N.T.W.L.U., for alderman from the 29th District; Henry Buckley and Alexander, members of the Labor Jury; Robert Minor, editor of the Daily Worker; Edith Saunders Miller, witness for the defense at the Gastonia case trial; M. Obermeier, organizer for the Food Workers; Irving Potash, of the N.T.W.I.U.; Phil Frankfeld, Young Communist | League; Max Bedacht, of the Secretariat of the Communist Party; Gil Green, Ida Rothstein, M. Pasternak, and John Williamson. trict; Ros * CHARLOTTE, N. C., Oct. 28.—The fact was accidentally exposed here today that at the beginning of the second Gastonia case trial Judge Barnhill secretly conferred with Solici- | tor Carpenter of Gastonia, officially in charge of the prosecution of the strikers and organizers, ee numbering thirteen, charged with first degree murder. The mill owners’ judge came to an agreement with the mill owners’ ‘prosecutor, Solicitor Carpenter, behind the backs of the defense, that “interests of justice’ would be best served by reducing the number of peremp- tory challenges allowed the defense, and that this could be done only by reducing the charge | to second degree murder. This conference between a judge loudly pretending to be “impar- eraft union anyway, they want a/ tial” and the prosecution was a dead secret from the defense, according to J. Louis Engdahl, It was by means of reducing the num- ®ber of cases from 16 to seven, and by reducing the charge from first degree to second de- gree murder, that the packing of the jury was accomplished by the prosecution—and as ;now seen—by Judge Barnhill him- ry Sealey “Must Be Adopted | self. Under North Carolina law the first degree charges against 13 de- Workers’ Groups |fendants and second degree against three more enabled the défense to use 168 peremnto; challenges of veniremen. Th first trial in Char- lotte demonstratca that by so doing, the defense was able to get a jury that had a few workers on it, and }not many others in the jury box who went there deliberately intend- ing to convict regardless of the evidence. In the second trial, with only 28 challenges, the number al- |national secretary of the International Labor Defense. Textile, War Indu By W In the important war industry centers of Portsmouth, Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, distributions of the Daily Worker have been frequent of late. From the cotton mill sections of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, cities of Virginia, centers of shipbuilding, munitions, rayon and chemi- Whenever a few copies of the Daily Worker are distributed to the unorganized workers of these sections of the newly industrialized South, “For instance to the workers of the Southern Spring Mfg. Co. I gave out 40 or 50 copies of the Daily Worker, to the Negro workers that attended a T.U.U.L. shop meeting there last Tuesday. “The workers in the important war industries here are looking more and more to the Communist Party and the Daily Worker for against the Communist Party, pro-!and 27, in which New York work-| | guidance in the fast-growing mass struggle. (Continued on Page Two) ESSERE HS “Comrades, by all means send me at least 100 copies of the Daily meeting next Wednesday evening. Worker for distribution among the workers that will attend a shop | Workers! The guilty verdict | viding the basis for outlawing inde- | and the long prison sentences im- pendent class political action of the josed on the Gastonia strikers and |workers in the newly industrialized | rganizers by the North Carolina|South. The next move is the | ourt sitting at Charlotte is a chal-jenactment of a vicious criminal lenge to the whole working class. | syrdicalist law, similar to those! It is vicious class justice decreed (Continued on Page Two) onto HEAR WORKERS’ VERDICT ON GASTONIA CONVIC- TIONS AND REAL ISSUES OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN MANHATTAN. Sunday afternoon, October 27th, 2 p. m., Laurel Garden, 79 East 116th St. Speakers: J. Louis Engdahl, Richard B. Moore, Albert Moreau, Rebecca Grecht, Abraham Markoff. Tuesday, October 29th, 6 p. m., right after work. Bryant Hall, Sixth Ave. and 42nd St. Speakers: William W. Weinstone, Ben Gold, Rose Wortis, J. Louis Engdahl, Otto Hall, and others. BROOKLYN. Boro Park, Thursday, October 24th, 8 p. m., Boro Park Workers Center, 1373 48rd St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Center, 1373 43rd St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Speakers: J. Louis Engdahl and others. Brownsville: Friday, October 25th, 8 p. m., Hopkinson Mansion, 428 Hopkinson Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. Speakers: William W. Wein- stone, Fred Biedenkapp, Harry M. Wicks, Rachel Ragozin, Alfred Wagenknecht. Williamsburg: Friday, Oct. 25th, 8 p. m., Millers Grand Assembly, | | Grand St. and Havemeyer. Speakers: William W. Weinstone, Fred | | Biedenkapp, Joseph Magliacano, Samuel Nesin, Otto Hall, and others. Bath Beach: Friday, Oct. 25th, 8 p. m., Bath Beach Workers Club, 48 Bay 28th St. Speakers: Harry M. Wicks, Ben Gold, Morris Kushinsky. Coney Island: Friday, Oct. 25th, 8 p. m., Coney Island Workers Center, 2901 Mermaid Ave. Speakers: Moissaye J. Olgin, Hyman Levine, Morris Kushinsky. Brooklyn Heights: Friday, November Ist, 8 p. m., Tivoli Hall, 20 Myrtle Ave. Speakers: Harry M. Wicks, Otto Hall, Fred Biedenkapp. a ers will collect funds to fight the _growing governmental drive against | _workers’ organizations, has been jealled by the Communist Party of |the New York district. “It will be seen from the report Today, ten years after the Palmer of the Trade Union Educational Red Raids, finds a similar condition | League General Secretary, William developing in New York and |Z, Foster, main speaker at the mass throughout the country. Eighteen | meeting for all New York workers, |workers already face long prison | Friday, October 25, at 8 P.M., in |terms charged with sedition for be-| Jrving Plaza Hall, “it was stated longing to the Communist Party of today at the New York headquar- | Chicago. , |ters of the TUUL, “that while the Not only in Illinois, in Pennsyl-| main work of the league is the vania, in California, in North Caro- building of new and militant unions, | (Continued on Page Two) (Continued on Page Twe) Will Expose Socialists Role at | 12th Anniversary Rally, Nov. 3 Workers Will Pay Tribute to to 5 Year Plan At Celebration Which Is.Also Election Rally The betrayal activities of the so-|the revolution that overthrew Rus- \cialist party and particularly its ef- sian capitalism and established a forts to lure the workers of New | workers’ and peasants’ government, | York into the camp of the bosses in the coming gity elections will be ex-| Five-Year Plan of Socialist Con- posed in unmistakeable fashion at| struction and will demonstrate for the big celebration of the 12th an-| the defense of the Soviet Union and |niversary of the Russian Revolution | against the menace ‘of imperialist and Communist Election Rally, to be} war. It will also be the occasion} \held Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3, in| when the workers of New York will, | Madison Square Garden. (demonstrate for the election pro-| This is the occasion when New|gram of the party that fights for \Foster’s Toronto Story Interests Them Most | | | | | | | he also pay tribute to the great | FOSTER SPEAKS IN NEW ENGLAND \Greeted at tt Worcester; in Boston Today WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 23.—! Wiliam Z. Foster, general secretary of the Trade Union Unity League, | here last night. “I think workers should support the Daily and make it possible to (Continued on Page Two) “Our Only Hope in Working Class,” Says Gaston Prisoner CHARLOTTE, N. C., Oct. 22.—the terror ag: “Our only hope of freedom lies in | the working class,” a Gastonia case spoke to a hall packed with workers | defendant declared today from be- Great enthusiasm | |hind the bars where they will stay |was displayed by the workers for the for the next twenty years unless the pean of the T. U. U. L. * * * BOSTON, Mass., Oct. 23.—A mass lobdee under the auspices of the | 4, Trade Union Unity League is sched- uled for Franklin Union Hall to- \night at which Willim Z. Foster will report on the continued organization | plans of the new trade union center | established at the Cleveland conven- | tion, the drive to organize the south, |and the wave of workers’ resistance |to rationalization and terror spread- | img over the country. WE aa eae Friday there will be a mass meet- ing, with Foster as principal speaker in New York City, After that Fos- | ter’ | Virginia, Pennsylvania and into the | Great Lakes region. York workerg in paying tribute to (Continued on Page Two) (Continued on Page Thyee) i labor movement forces the capitalist class to release him and his six fel- low workers. “We do not ask the workers of merica to fight for our freedom j alone,” jof labor. All the forces of the {Southern Capitalist class were be- | hinl this plot to lock up, not only | seven union organizers, but with us in prison militant unionism itself, and the right to organize, strike, | picket, and defend ourselves. “The mass pressure of the work- ‘ing class saved us from the electric chair, forcing the prosecution to re- duce the charges against us. We are confident that the workers, un- der the leadership of the Interna- tour will extend through West tional Labor Defense and the Com- munist Party, will go on fighting | |for our unconditional release and “The T. U. U. L. is no longer a/for the defense of workers’ rights. | McLaughlin, propaganda iainority league, it is | Otherwise, said one, “but for the rights | ainst the struggle of southern workers for better condi- | tions. We appeal to the workers | of America, in the name of the ex-| ploited Southern workers’ struggle against the stretch-out, starvation wages, and child labor, to intensify their fight against this offensive of |the bosses against workers’ organi- |zations. This is a fight, not so much for the freedom of seven men guilty only of organizing, struggle, and defending themselves against | the attacks of bosses’ thugs, but} every right to existence as a mili- tant union. Fight Just Started. “We have only just begun to fight for our leaders in the capitalist | jails,” Dewey Martin said today. “The mill workers of the South will | stand by their fellow workers until they are free to lead us again in our fight against the bosses. We know that the workers in other in- |dustries all over the country will rally to the support of the I. L. in the demand that Beal, arisen’ McGinnis, Hendry, x Union: Square in uniform. : among workers newly awakened to the class struggle, demands for lowed by the maneuver of prosecu- journey, more distributions of the Daily Worker are made. tion—and judge—a jury of funda- Thus, a worker of Portsmouth, Virginia, writes: “Comrades, our mentalist, white chauvinist, reac- Daily has done more than opened the eyes of many Norfolk and Ports- tionary farmers and one millionaire mouth workers. was obtained. With this packed ju the evidence did not count. | They heard the prosecution tell them | that it was their patriotic duty to stamp ou tCommunism, race equal- ity, unionism and atheism, and they tried to do it with their verdict cf guilty. It is also reported today that the foreman of the jury, J. L. Tord, who |appeared as an “innocent” mail- carrier, is the father of a super- lintendent of a cotton miil in Gas- jtonia. Todd, as an employe of the governments being a mail carrier, | was also subject to the discipiine of the ruling class. meal ae At the same time that the Inter- national Labor Defense is appeling | the case to the higher courts, it will | appeal to the workers and poor far- |mers of United States and the world |to demonstrate in great masses for the freedom of the Gastonia strikers, the I. L. D, secretary stated. “We are getting those protests from all workers’ organizations re- |gardless of their affiliation. Ameri- jean Federation of Labor locals have _been very active in sending their | protests, ”’ Engdahl, national secre- |tary of the I, L. D. said yesterday. |He pointed a number of resolutions from the following locals: Dayton Electrotypers’ Union, particularly Dayton, O.; Mould ers’ Union, Madi- json, Wis.; Journeymen Tailors’ |Union, of Johnson City, Ill; Lima |Lodge, No. 200, Brotherhood of Rail- road Trainmen, Lima, O., and from workers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, The A, F, L, membership is for the Gastonia boys, even Continued on Page Three) YOUTH IN UNIFORMS. Notice to YCL members: All | League members are to Participate this victory of the mill/and Carter shall not rot in prison|in the demonstration tonight in owners will mean another step in| for the best part of their lives.” pn A