The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 18, 1929, Page 1

14 it st h Ss, y ve , i a n ar ig he 6 RUN | 62 Miners Killed a Mile Underground at McAlester Cry Out to All Labor to Win the Illinois Strike and Butfid a Union That Will Stop Such Slaughter of Workers For | Besses’ Profits * He RENAE Sg SS cs es | Watered as second-clas> matter at the Post Uttice at New York, N. ¥., ander the act of March 3, 1879. FINAL CITY “EDITION Publishee Company. ily except Vol. VI, No. 244 y by The Comprodally Publish! Inc. 26-28 Union Square. New York City, N. ¥.<ED>>2; NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1929 SUBSCRIPTION RA’ Outside New York. Price 3 Cents ES: In New York. by mail. $8.00 per vei by mall. $6.00 per year. 62 MINERS KILLED THROUGH: McALESTER BOSSES’ GREED Miners! Now Is the Fight! All Workers! the Strike! Now is the critical moment of the Illinois miners’ strike. Mines in practically every important subdistrict of the state have been shut down, the miners are militantly pick- eting; tear gas and machine gun fire have failed to stop them from picketing and |from marching. Arrests have failed to intimidate them; in fact, at Livingston where Mayor Gorri pulled a gun and tried to personally place under arrest the secretary-treasurer of the National Miners’ Union and the head of the union’s youth department, angry miners simply took the prisoners away from the authorities and set them free. This is a good spirit, but this is not enough. It is not enough to merely keep the scabs away from the mines that have struck. There are not yet enough mines on strike to win a victory of real importance. If 15,000 are now on strike, the turning point, toward victory or toward defeat, lies with the next 15,000. The strike must spread. The news today that the grievance board of the Illinois district of the National Miners’ Union has issued 25,000 more strike call leaflets, and intends to circulate them in the | regions still at work, is good news, but all depends on the effectiveness of the distribution. The best distribution is by caravans of marching miners, crushing through all op- ‘on, and picketing the mines that have not struck yet. ‘The miners’ enemies realize the importance of the next few days as well as we do. Yesterday Harry Fishwick, dis- trict president of the company union, the United Mine Workers of America, District of Illinois, used the Muste organ, the Federated Press, to declare the N. M. U. strike a failure. “That collapse,” said Fishwick, “marks the end of the N. M. U.” Fishwick lies, but this lie is a dangerous lie, a weapon in the class war. The bosses’ press tries to tell the same story. A fake meeting at Langleyville mine of the Peabody Coal Co. where the right wing local president called a few of his henchmen together and got a slim majority (with only a few of the militants present) for returning to work, is being featured in the capitalist press.as though it marked the beginning of the end of the strike. It does not. The miners in Christian County will know that lie for what it is, and they will not be fooled. But the lie is intended to fool the Herrin miners, debating whether they should join the strike; it is meant as a bosses’ weapon in Kentucky, in Indiana, to which the strike must be spread if the Illinois miners are to reap the full fruits of victory, if the exploited miners of Kentucky and Indiana are to gain anything. This barrage of capitalist and labor faker lies must be counteracted. The miners not yet on strike must be-told the facts. They must know that the strike is spreading. They must know that a terrific battle is on for the six-hour day and the five-day week, for $35 minimum wage, for bigger crews on the machines and rest periods every hour, against the check- off, against penalties, against discrimination, for equal treat- ment of the youth and of Negro workers, etc. Any hesitancy, any slackening of the miners’ offensive, any sinking back to rest on well-won laurels would be fatal now. Every miner rhust jump into the fight as never be- fore. Every worker must support with money contributions the Workers International Relief, to feed the strikers, and the International Labor Defense, to protect the arrested miners. Every worker must be ready for sympathetic strikes to stop the use of scab coal, to stop the transportation of scabs and scab coal. Now is the critical moment. Organize Action Against Unemployment! Unity of Jobless and Employed Workers! Unemployment increased sharply last month. The automobile industry showed a decline of 17.5 per cent in the number of workers employed during the month of November, 1929, as against an average decline in November of other years, of 8 to 9 per cent, Radio manufacturing registered a decrease of 26.6 per cent in workers employed. The automobile tire factories reduced forces by 13.6 per cent. In the metropolitan area of New York building construction has decreased, according to the figures of the F. W. Dodge corporation, by $365,000,000 under last year’s total. Only two industries—paper manufacture and tobacco—have creased forces. All others showed declines. A big inerease in part-time employment is indicated by the fact that the percentage decrease in payroll totals is far greater than the decrease in actual forces. As against a 17.3 per cent decrease in num- ber of workers the automobile industry shows a decrease of 22 per cent in payroll totats. , For the first time since September, 1928, employment has been st a lower level than in the same month of the previous year. -*e trend bere is important. Not only is there an absolute de- crease in the number of workers steadily employed but the tendency is to still further cut down the number of workers. Becausé of the speed-up there will be a wide gap between the decrease in production totals and the decrease in workers employed. It is quite clear, how- ever, that Hoover’s fascist council is placing the burden of the crisis on the working class as rapidly as possible. Our Party program for combatting unemployment states: “The developing economic crisis and the growth of unem- ployment demands from the Communist Party and the Trade Union Unity League the organization of the unorganized work- ers into militant industrial unions together with the already or- ganized workers to struggle against the ruinous effects of capi- talist rationalization, speed-up and unemployment. This is the basis for all our unemployment demands for action.” Emergency relief for the unemployed from government funds, unemployment insurance, administration of unemployment benefits by committees elected by workers, the 7 honr dav end the B-day week, in- 0 Time to!Call Orleans MINE BATTLE Support Marine Worker ay COAL PIT Conference | The Marine Workers League, na- |tional office at 28 South St., New/ | York, has called a Gulf Coast Con- IN AUSTRALIA |ference of all in the marine indus- jtry, to meet in New Orleans, Sat- jurday, Jan. 18, and continue on the |19th. This is the third regional eon- |ference to be held this year, the jother two being in New York, for the ' Atlantic Coast and in San Francisco jfor the Pacific Coast. After the |New Orleans conference, in April, ‘there will be a national convention jfor the organization of a marine | | workers industrial union. | The call for the Gulf Coast confer- lence states, after announcing the |purposes and place of the meeting: “The delegates will be elected |from ship, dock and fleet committees of seamen, longshoremen and barbor \boatmen and from locals of the Marine Workers League. “The present conditions aboard the ships are intolerable, the “Sea- mens Act” is a dead letter; two watches are substituting for the |three watch system; ‘not only is the |wage scale far below that paid in 1920, but wage cuts are the order of the day. Vessels are putting to |sea absolutely under-manned; inade- |quate crews are forced to work over- |time; the mates and engineers usual- ily promise time off, which in most. {cases we never get. The crews’ liv- ing quarters are notoriously insani- |tary. The food is garbage, and the |black list is used right and left, on jail who raise protest. | Speed-Up and Mass Unemployment. | “The introduction of labor saving devices (oil fuel, the Diesel engine, the Metal Mike, the automatic chip- ping hammer, the paint spraying (Continued on Page Three) STRIKE BREAKS -_ ONE SHOE BOSS 4 Workers in Contempt | Trial; No Verdict Yet One shoe boss in New York be- |gins to realise the power of work- ers when they are organized in “Labor” Premier With Union Heads Try to Break the Strike \Strikers Besiege Pits 8,000 Pickets Defying Trainload of Police | Dispatches from Sydney, Austra- |lia, show that the battles continue between striking miners and police at the Rothbury colliery in New South Wales, with State Premier Bavin sending a trainload of armed police from Sydney to defend the coal operators and attack the strik- ers, one of whom was killed and 40 wounded by armed mine guards Monday. But on the sidg of the |police there were also many wound- jed. The “labor” prime minister, just elected in October, Mr. Scullin, was gathering the cowardly and treach- jerous class collaborationist mine lunion leaders into a campaign to |persuade the thousands of miners on \the picket line to stop picketing and let the “volunteer” seabs work, So far the strikers have refused to heed these cowardly “leaders.” The pickets, said to be 8,000 strong, with miners and their wives |participating, made three charges lon the police guard, and were driven back only by volleys which further jangered them. They cut all com- munications, camped out around the mines all night and have prepared to lay seige to starve out the scabs. |. The capitalist press which howls ‘for blood of the strikers had its re- (porters marched away by the collar lat the head of jeering masses of |miners, and their camera men \chased away and their cameras |smashed. A section of the railroad |track was torn up to stop the ship- ments of food and supplies to the | beseiged scabs. Many of the mines in the northern |section of New South Wales have been on strike for months. While the militants had urged the spread- jing of the strike to the other fields Die for Boss’ | Miners Profits: | | | | | | | | | | | Above in a scene at the Kinlocvi:| {mine disaster, where many miners | died this year because of being} forced into a gas filled mine. Today « similar picture could be taken at McAlester, Okla., where a mile down in the carth, 60 miners are dead or dying from a gas explosion. Only a strong National Miners Union can force the operators to stop this| slaughter for profit. IMPERIALISM IN. FORCED RETREAT Soviet Firmness Wins Against Meddlers Tokio reports concerning the} Manchurian situation are being dis- torted by the capitalist press to aid in the provocation against the Soviet Union being carried on by the imperialist powers whose repre- sentatives are nosing into western | Manchuria on a so-called “interna- tional train” to find new excuses for threatening war on the Soviet! Union. The N. Y. Post, for example, runs a headline on alleged “New Red, Warfare” over Tokio news which | mentions the unconfirmed rumor} (Continued on Page Two) il International ilt Wireless | | News | } AUSTRIAN WORKERS ATTACK FASCISTS. (Wireless By Inprecorr) ‘BIG WAGE CUTS ADMITTED BY BUS. LABOR DEPT. Unemployment Grows;) Wages Are Cut in All Plants A. F. of L. Communists Fight Attack on Workers ids Bosses | WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.—Unem- | ployment “growing and the wage-| cutting campaign is in full swing. | These facts by the bos United States Department of Labor. | Employment in the basic indus- | tries, according to the Department | of Labor, decreased 3.1 per cent in November, compared with October. | Payrolls dropped nearly 7 per cent. | This means a big wage cut for the | workers left on the job. This cov- | ers 84,996 factories, employing 5,045,493 work are brought out even | Especially sevéte unemployment was reported ia the automobile Eel dustries. Here the drop was nearly | 18 per cent. Radio plants fired 27 per cent of their workers during | November. | The fact that payrolls were even lower than the amount of unem-} ployment shows conclusively that | wage cuts ar> proceeding rapidly. Further wage cuts will proceed as soon as Hoover’s “grand fascist }council” works out its detailed plans. The nation-wide wage cutting, which is revealed by the Department of Labor, reports are going on with the help of the leaders of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor. When the big wage-slicing cam- | paign is finally perfected by the | 20 leading capitalists, headed by | Young, Lamont, Rosenwald, Barnes and Hoover, the A. I’, of L. will in- tensify its seabbing campaign. Al- ready the leadership of the A. F. of | L. is fighting strikes and is keeping | its promise not even to attempt to) grganize. the workers and to sabot- | age every attempt to organize the | workers. avoring statistics of the | * GENERAL STRIKE © their own union, and have no “pie | in the south, the treacherous union ‘card artist” officials to sell them |leaders have refused this obviously ‘out. Arthur Bender, Ine., one time Correct policy. The great bulk of manufacturer of high grade wom-|the Australian unions are led by re- len’s shoes, defied the demands of |formists, and in the attack on the ‘his workers last April for union | Working class which has been going leconditions, and the Independent |" over a year now, have proven to Shoe Workers’ Union called a strike. |be the worst foes of the workers, | Bender was given financial help by | Resting in office and weakening and the Board of Trade. | betraying the workers in struggle. Yesterday trade papers published| __ ase sarge o SN the announcement that this com-| TO DOPE THE WORKERS. pany had applied for a voluntary; CHICAGO (By Mail).—A_ local | bankruptey, giving its liabilities at |corporation, Industrial Service, has | $225,000 and its assets at $70,000. |issued an open-shop magazine called This concern had secured some!“Magazette,” to be widely circu- (Continued on Page Two) lated by open shoppers throughout the country in order to dope the HUNGARIAN JOBLESS DEMON- workers. The “Magazette” is handed STRATE. jout to the workers with their pay. (Wireless By Inprecorr) Workers are warned against it. VIENNA, Dec. 17.—Budapest re- ports state that street demonstra- tions of the unemployed were held ,there, under Communist leadership. |The police attacked the demonstra- |tors and arrested many. Illinois Mine Strike Gives Real Lesson in New Tactics “From this strike not only the R. I. MILL STRIKE. ANTHONY, R. I. (By Mail).— Spinners went on strike at the | Berkshire Spinning Co. here for better working conditions. an attempt to crush the heroic iminers but the working class as a|struggle of the miners. The sher- | whole can learn a big lesson of the jiffs, and Sheriff Pritchard class struggle,” stated Bill Gebert.|Franklin county particularly, are National Miners Union organizer in jusing machine guns and tear gas southern Illinois, yesterday. \bombs against the miners on the “New methods and new tacties|picket lines, clubbing men, women ‘have been applied,” he continued. j|and children, and jailing\ the mili- | “Miners going out on strike have }tant: miners. The I.W.W.s in Col- against them not only the coal oper- linsville were the only strike break- jators, but the sheriffs with their ers in that mine. They, like rats, jarmy of deputies, picked out from |sneaked into the mines, through the the Lewis and Fishwick gangsters,|mass pickets of the miners. The the local business men, the American | local capitalist press utilized the un- | Legion, the I.W.W., the Trotzkyites, |scrupulous attacks of the Trotzkyite and the Lovestoneites. organ, the ‘Militant,’ against the “All these forces are united in (Continued on Page Two) abolition of all evictions for non-payment of rent by unemployed workers—these and other demands in our program have become living issues through the rapid increase of unemployment in the principal industrial centers. The organization of the unemployed and the launching of militant struggle for their demands jointly with the employed workers is an | immediate task. It is not too soon to begin the preparations for a National Con: ference of Unemployed Workers at which plans for action could be adopted by rank and file representatives of the unemployed workers, and an authoritative council to céntralize the struggle could be elected. This is a life-ani-death question for millions of unemployed workers today, el x és The statistics of the Department VIENNA, Dee. 17.—Workers yes- | of Labor, though they vastly under- CAUGHT MILE UNDERGROUND: 400 MINERS AT STAUNTON JOIN ILLINOIS STRIKE '25,000 New Strike Call, Leaflets Issued; Board Meets Today to Spread Struggle Further Deputies Raid NMU Illinois District Office; Benld Operators’ Thugs Fire on Pickets BULLETI McALESTER, Okla., Dec. 17.—Five bodies out of 62 entombed miners at Old Town Mine near here were brought to the surface today. There may be more still below. The identified dead include two Negro miners: Pete Tilford and George Walker. Others identified are: Leonard Darvis, Ray Welch, Manuel Huerta and Rafael Sallazer. Those rescued ares Arnold Kissinger, Joe Poncella and Frank Gonzales. Smoke ané gas have stopped the rescue crews again. First word of the explo- sion came from two miners who escaped from 3,500 feet down the slope in the mine and said the blast was still farther down. Forty- six of the men were married. The number of dependents left will be about 230. 4) aie WEST FRANKFORT, IIL, Dee. 17.—Vincent Kamenovich, Na- tional Miners’ Union organizer for southern Illinois, was arrested at 2 a. m. today for mobilizing pickets, and held until 6:30. Depu- tized United Mine Worker thugs patrol all roads around Coella and Buckner. The armed terror is severe, but mass picketing continues energetically, in spite of a heavy rain storm. There are 16 war- rants out for Toohey and four for:Thompson, but both are speaking to great crowds daily. ae ee WEST FRANKFORT, Ill., Dec. 17.—The 400 miners at Mine No. 7 at Staunton, Ill, struck in a body yesterday and joined the strike that is leaping like a flame from mine to mine throughout the Illinois coal fields. This is one answer of the miners to the terrific flood of lies about the “collapse of the strike” cut loose, evidently by prearrangement, yesterday and today by the bossés and the United Mine Workers of America officials. It is the answer of the min- ers to a néw wave of repres- sion. Today deputies sent by IN SILK, $ 0 0 |Sheriff Pritchard of Franklin | County raided the Illinois district |office of the National Miners’ +11| Union, 1111-2 West Main St., West Many Delegates Will) Franktort. The deputies seized the Attend Textile Confab printing press, the filing system, and carried away stenographers’ A general strike, nationally, in /Otes, and all leaflets and records. the silk industry employing more . Fire On Pickets. than 120,000 workers, cruelly ex- | ploited by the latest speed-up meth- ods, looms as one of the principal Yesterday at Benld the deputies fired on the mass picket line, but of | terday attacked fascists at Ebensee and St. Poelten. Large forces of |police saved the fascists, though many were injured. Fae Poe R.LL.U. PLENUM OPE: (Wireless by Inprecorr) MOSCOW, Dec, 17.—The Sixth Plenary Session of the Red Interna- |tional of Labor Unions opened yes- terday. The Plenum will review, among other things, the results of the policy of independent leadership of-mass struggle by revolutionary trade unionists despite the repressive Ss. efforts of the reformist trade union bureaucrats. py. ae |BELGIAN WORKERS MILITANT. (Wireless by Inprecorr) BRUSSELS, Dec. 17.—The taxi- cab drivers’ strike is still strong. The owners tried to run cabs by scabs from a young fascist organ- ization which opened a recruiting bureau. Seven hundred strikers vis- itad the bureau and “persuaded” the fascists to close down. Last Sunday’s 24-hour strike of the Antwerp street car men was splendidly carried out. Wage nego- tiations are preceding. The union has told the company that any at- tempt to victimize any strikers will be immediately answered by a solid strike, “Labor” Rule in a New Trick to Block Soviet Relations Masses Want London reports state that King George the Fifth declines,-as he did in 1924 when the Soviet representa- tive was not of the diplomatic rank to require it, to receive the new Soviet Ambassador, Sokolnikoff, on the grounds he then gave, i. e., that the Soviet had “murdered his cousin” the bloody Tsar Nicholas II. This reason, it is stated unoffi- cially, is given as the cause for the delay in presenting credentials by the Soviet Ambassador. n the “labor” government of MacDon- ald, who, compelled by the demand of the British masses to recognize the Soviet Union, has continually connived with the other capitalist parties to bring up every conceiv- able objection to carrying out the recognition and to lay a propaganda basis for breaking it off as soon as possible, This is, evidently a put-up job of | estimate the present acute isi |situation, give the lie to Hoove “no-wage-cut” talk. The Commu- nist Party, with its drive for 5,000 new members, is leading the strug- gle against the “fascist” attack on the American workers, Walker and Tammany Hall Politicians Give |Themselves Fat Raise | Mayor Walker and the Board of Estimates boosted their pay 60 to 70 per cent. No increases were |given*the poorly paid city workers. While fighting against every strike for higher wages with the jaid of the police, Mayor Walker gives himself a fat raise in sala ‘to $40,000 a year. Several other Tammany Hall politicians stuck their hands into the treasury for their personal bene- \fit. Believing in Hoover's “prosper- |ity” propaganda the New York city |politicians help themselves to heavy raises, Mayor Walker’s pay is to be boosted: from $25,000 to $40,000 a |year, a 60 per cent increase; Comp- |troller Berry’s from $25,000 to $35 /000, or 40 per cent; Aldermanic | President McKee’s from $15,000 to results of the second national con- vention of the National Textile Workers Union in Paterson, N. J., December 21 and 22, in the N. T. W. U. Hall, at 205 Paterson St. The N.T.W.U. with but a year be- hind it, stands in the van of the militant unions of the land. than 300 delegates from every tex- tile center of the land—from New Bedford to Gastonia will attend it. Principal points on the agenda, in addition to the general silk strike, are mobilization of further organ- ization in the South; Mobilization for organization in New England land other sections of the country; | Intensified activity to save the seven |Gastonia stri from going ‘to prison for the hest part of their | lives. Many Delegates. | One hundred delegates will leave | their looms and spindles in New (Continued on Page Three) | Build The Daily Worker—Send in Your Share. of the 15,000 New | Subs. |$25,000, about 70 per cent, and the |five Borough Presidents, Miller of | Manhattan, Byrne of Brooklyn, Har- |vey of Queens, Bruckner of the |Bronx and Lynch of Richmond, from $15,009 to $20,000, approxi- mately 35 per cent. More no casualties are reported as yet. The Staunton strike is the first step in an intensified effort of the N. M..U. to extend the struggle in Illinois and to carry it into Ken- tucky and Indiana. As part of this attempt, the district grievance board of the N. M. U. meets tomorrow to make further plans, and 25,000 new leaflets, carrying the call for gen- eral strike of the miners have been issued. Federal Strike-Breaker. The corrupt offi United Mine Work is continuing ialdom of the s of America its feverish strike- i They are work- \ing closely with Mike P. Costello, of “scatur, a government. strike- | breaker called officially a “federal conciliator.” At-the same time the | “Illinois Miner,” organ of the Fish- wick branch of the U. M. W. A. | machine, devc!2s several columns of | its current issue to attacks on the |N. M. U. and open incitements to | Scabbing. | Old Fake Meeting Stunt. Another crude attempt was made | Xesterday at Peabody Coal Co. Mine | No. 9, Langlyville, Ill, (near Tay- lorville) to rush the men back to the slavery of a week ago. Joseph | Fontana, the president of Local | 3,473, U. M. W. A, at Langlyville, | called a meeting of those he thought he could rely on, and proposed the Tapanese and U.S. Imperialism _ st tees te Fight for More Naval Arms By HARRY GANwis. Washington is in a fever of war |preparation. The leading question ;betore Hoover, Stimson, Morrow ‘and Adams is the coming London |naval race. | Behind the barrage of capitalist | jnewspaper lies about this drastic | war step we see the big imperialist |powers maneuvering for alliances for the next war. The question of “parity” with its | intonation of “agreement” is the veriest smoke screen thrown out to cover the sharp competition between | the imperialist powers for big naval |increases to back their fights for jworld markets and a re-division of | colonies. A picture of these hasty war prepa- vations under the leadership of ‘Henry L, Stimson, secretary of state, is given by Anne O’Hare Mc- Cormick, a bourgebis writer in the “New York Times” (Dee, 15, 1929): | You feel in the siate depart- | ment that the whole personnel is | working under this pressure. There is a kind of hurry of prepa- ration in the air, such as not long ago might have agitated a war office during the tension of a war | seare.” After talking with Stimson, she gives us a clue to’ the deep-going conflicts between Japan and the | United States over naval armay jments and struggle for control of ithe Chinese markets. She says | further: | “The Japanese wit meet strong opposition to an increase in their ratio from the 5-5-3 of the Wash- | (Continued on Page Three) Form Big Steel Trust; Crisis Speeds Up | Capitalist Monopoly CLEVELAND, Dee. 17.—A $350,- 006,000" steel merger, comprising four companies, shows the growing trustification of capitalism in the present crisis. The name of the new company will be the Republic Steel Co. It is the third largest steel trust in the United States. Hoover is speeding up capitalist monopoly, especially in railroads and steel, as well as other basic in- \dustries. The Interstate Commerce | Commission is pressing trustifica- tion of railroads. “ Owen D. Young is getting Hoov- er’s help in a gigantic trust which will control the country’s system of jtelegraphic and cable communica- Itions,