The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 13, 1930, Page 1

| | 4 | Jol. VL, No. 266 Governor Roosevelt Promises to Spend $475,000,000 on Public Works! Tam- many Contractors May Smell Some of if, but not the Unemployed Building Workers! Organize the Unemployed! st Office at New York. Y., under the act ef March 3. 1879. FINAL CITY EDITION ished daily exeept e Company, Ine, . New York City, Comprodaily Publishing —@>>, Noa. NEW YORK, MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1930 SUBSCRIPTION R Outside N In New York by matt, $8.00 per ¥ ew York, by mall $6.00 per year. ear. Price 3 Cents Hoover’s “Building”’ Program Fades in Economic Crisis In 1928 Hoover announced that he had things all fixed event of the “impossible,” a crisis of capitalism. He sponsored at that time a proposal for a $3,000,000,000 fund which was to be available to ‘dispel even the smallest clouds in the form.of unemployment and production decline on the capitalist horizon. Wm. Green, always quick to swallow the Hoover slop, at that time announced his complete agreement with the Hoover plan. At his conferences with the leading business executives in the latter part of 1929, Hoover again repeated that a quick program of building of public and industrial works would soon put an end to the threat of crisis. For days the capitalist press was filled with endless figures of proposed building projects. Months have passed now and what are the facts? Not only did building decline per cent during 1929 (the year which the imperialists claim was, with the exception of a few months, one of’ the best years of the era of post-war prosperity), but the drop intbuilding has increased in an especially severe form since the an- nouncement of Hoover and the echo of approval by Green and the “Socialist” party. Bradstreet’s says on the December building contrac “December permit values in 215 cities were the lightest in years and 43 per cent below the like month a year ago. For the calendar year the, total permitted for value in 215 cities was the smallest since 1922, the decrease from 1928 was 11.8 per cent, and decline from the peak year, 1925, was 24.9 per cent.” in the s awarded: December is the month when there usually is a rush of building | contracts for spring building. All the big projects are planned in the winter for next year’s building. On this basis there is certain to be a further decline in building activity during the next few months. It is very interesting to note that building construction ‘dropped in precisely those lines that Hoover and Green pompously declared would soon be buzzing with activity. The big capitalist financial paper, the Annalist, on Jan. 10, in an article entitled “Building Activity Lowest Since July, 1924,” says: “There was also a sharp decline . in the average daily value of contracts awarded for public work and utility construc- tion.” 3 In the same article, the Annalist adds: “The December decline . . ~ was probably an unprece- dented ‘drop in contracts awarded for commercial buildings.” In spite of all the fancy figures published by Hoover, Barnes and Green on proposed building schemes, the sober facts of the real estate mortgage brokers show that this phase of capitalist activity is suf- fering from even a severer slump than its basic industry, steel. At the same time, the sharp drop in building activity, as well as | in automobile production, will have its reflection in keeping steel production down to its lowest point in 50 years. Speaking of the drop in financing of new building projects, the Journal of Commerce (Jan. 11) declares: “The volume of new real estate financing in 1929 declined to the lowest level in five years, according to statistics compiled “by the Young Baker: Co, of Chicago, specialists in real estate and corporaté financing. » “First. mortgage real estate bond and stock offerings during the year, it, was stated, aggregated but $521,136,000, a decline of approximately 43 per cent from the 1928 total of $921,777,000. This drastic decrease was due to a loss of more than $400,- 000,000 in the volume of realty bond issues.” “Even now nearly half of the workers involved in the building trades industry. are unemployed. There are over 2,000,000 workers in this industry and unemployment in the building and related industries is at least 800,000. “Weeping” Walker, president of the Illinois Fed- eration of Labor, admits the majority of the building trades workers in that state are unemployed. Harry McLaughlin, business agent of the Cleveland building trades council, admits the same fact for Cleveland. Writing in the Cleveland Citizen, a so-called “Labor” paper, Me- Laughlin tries to string the union members along in this fashion: “We naturally may feel discouraged at the lack of employ- ment at the present time, but the workers of Cleveland certainly have more to look forward to than the same class of toilers in other large cities.” This is balderdash. The situation in Cleveland is precisely the same as in other large industrial centers. The 43 per cent cut in building activities will keep from 43 to 50 per cent of the Cleveland 9,000 MORE GET READY 10 JOIN CAL, FARM STRIKE Mexican Governor to | Aid Bosses Against | Field Strikers TUUL Organizers Held 'Reeruit Thugs From American Legion “Victory is yours if you jin solid and organized ranks, move ” says a cablegram of greetings to 8,000 | |Imperial Valley, Cal., agricultural | workers, .from .the .International Propaganda Committee of Land and Forest Workers, office in Moscow, |U.S.S.R., affiliated to the Red Inter- national of Labor Unions. The |telegram, received at the national office of the Trade Union Educa- tional League says: “Pleave wire the striking agricul- tural workers in California as fol- lows: ‘The Revolutionary Agricul- |tural and Forest Workers’ Propa- |ganda Committee, in the name of the agricultural workers of all countries, sends fraternal greetings |to the strikers. Your struggle is |Helped ‘Helped Save Totherow BEAT TOTHEROW Haitian Masses Fight Marine |BATTLE EXPECTED saw the attempt of mill-boss thugs to kill the 17-year-old N. T. W. organizer in the Lumber- ton court house. She is on speak- ing tour through the South. lobless and Steel Workers Join the Party Recruiting of members in the Communist Party, especially in the Ella Reeves (“Mother”) Bloor | IN COURT HOUSE led Mumic -ATCAUDLE TRIAL | Rescued From Death) ‘At Hands of Boss Gang) By Defense Guard Judge Orders Sentence) porr av prince, Haiti, Jan. b ave |12.—The Garde Nationale, which is ays, $75 F For | under the supervision of the marine 90 Days, $7 ise Ml aictutorahins saw to it that Wall Refusing to be Lynched | strect’s candidates. favored by _ |president Luis Borno, won the LUMBERTON, N. | posts in all municipal elections held |Tlbert Totherow, 17-year-old - recently. organizer of the National Textile} The Haitian peasants and work- |Workers’ Union, was beaten up|ers, enraged at the tactics of the ; administration candidates, stormed |the polls but were repulsed by the marine controlled Garde Nationale |-who saw to it that the votes were |east for the proper candidates. The masses attacked the poll offi- | cials at Gonaives and Acul du Nord | when . opposjtion candidates were |ruthlessly diqualified on the slimest pretexts. At Cape Haitian a majority of the inspectors resigned. In Port au | Prince two opposition groups were tor Britt, in Caudle’s trial had pa-|ruled off the ballot on framed up triotically screeched: “We here in| charges of non-conformance with lumberton live sweetly together,|the election law, an old stunt in about ‘the head and barely rescued by a defense corps of Smith and Hayden workers guarding him, right in the court house where a |packed jury and strictly capitalist court was convicting T. M. Caudle, |N.T.W. secretary and sentencing him to a total of 90 days in jail afd a $75 fine. | This assault on Totherow and the |viciously boss-class verdict against the worker, Caudle, took place Fri- jday evening shortly after Prosecu- |the beginning of the fight of the ceeding at a more rapid r |basic industries and among: the {mass of unemployed workers is pro- e, One | agricultural workers’ army, 3,000,000 | Steelworker from Pennsylvania | strong, in North America. Victory | WTites in: jis yours if you move in the solid] “I am very glad to forward my | and organized ranks of a new revo-|inquiry for further information Hlutionary agricultural workers |about the Communist Party. I am |union in United States of America.’ |employed by the Bethlehem Steel “Signed on behalf of the secre-|Co. Have never worked more than mill owners hand in hand with mill workers. We have old Anglo-Saxon blood in our veins, etc.” Was Kidnapped. Elbert Totherow was kidnapped Jan. 2, the morning after he had} jarrived in Lumberton, and only a/ week after his brother, also an or- marine supervised elections in order to leave only the “regular” candi- dates to be voted for. In this way do the candidates of Wall Street “always win,” as pointed out by Major General Smedley But- ler. ipal Elections; Shows Revolt Still Seethes Opposition Candidates Thrown Off Ballot; Armed Guards of Borno Watch Election Wall Street Candidates Winning With Marine | Help; Borah Asks Similar National Election t Jacmel and Arcahaie the reg- istration lists were stolen by the official candidates in order to fore- stall the election entirely. The spirit of the masses in these ‘SOON; THUGS TO RAID WIR STORES | Horrible Conditions in Illinois Pits Rally Many to Real Union Young Workers Meet Arrange Lenin Meet: in Mine Towns municipal elections shows the revo- | corel lutionary fervor which anjmates BULLETIN. them, All the polls were filled with} CHICAGO, IIL, Jan. 12—The armed members of the Nationale Garde and marine to see to it that the votes were cast properly. * * * While dispatches from Haiti do| not state what officials were voted | for it is very clear that the elec- tions were for minor village offi- cials. made to keep the masses from ex- pressing their utter discontent with the Borno-Wall Street rule. No national elections have been held in Haiti since U. S. marines in 1915 murdered 2,000 Haitian workers and | peasants, Borah js calling for a marine controlled national election in order to give the Wall Street | candidate who undoubtedly will win | Evidently every attempt was | district conference here today of the Trade Union Unity League gave a great ovation to Freeman | Thompson, leader in the Taylor- yille section, the strike registers greatest success, of the Illinois mine strike. The striking miners sent 12 delegates; 21 came | from the steel and metal indus- tries. There were nine Negro dele- gates, and 78 delegates altogeth- er, representing 45 organizations. The feature of the conference was its fighting spirit, especially that of the miners. There was drastic self criticism of mistakes and weaknesses. The where unless the masses by the revolution- | ary action are able to prevent it, | in order to give the reports of National Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Schmies, and of Nels Kjar of the building trades section, were unanimously adopted. The convention sent imperialist | bloody rule in Haiti some shreds of | “legality.” fraternal greetings to Henry Cor- | |tary, Vinnichenko. * * * (Special to the Daily Worker.) BRAWLEY, -Cal., Jan. 12.—The | puppet government of Wall Street \imperialism, with the American |capitalists has been shown here in the strike of the 8,000 Imperial Valley “agricultural laborers, when the new Mexican governor of Baja California (Lower California in (Continued on Page Three) ASK STILL MORE WAR CRUISERS For Armaments | LONDON, Jan, 12—Lord of the | admirality, A. V. Alexander, in a speech here Friday, declared that British imperialjsm would insist on a nayy-building program bringing |the cuisers up to 50. | While this is a tremendous in- |crease over the temporary “agree~ | Powers Raise Demands) two days here in the company’s | ganizer for the National Textile |mjnes, but nevértheless, I owe it to) Workers’, Union, had lined up 60 everyone who labors to seek mem-|new members in the Lumberton lo- | bership in an organization of, for|cal. He was taken around to var- and by labor. From what I can | jous superintendents, mill who jclose co-operation of the Mexican | understand the Communist Party | threatened him with death if he| stands back of every man who|came back, then thrown out on. a works... . You can count upon mejroad in a swamp, some miles from as a strong supporter.” |a small town called Nichols, South * * * ~ | Carolina. He walked into town, made his Mass Unemployment in Many eC way to Marion, S. C., and eventually States. + | At every unemployed meeting |held by the Communist Party ap- |plications for membership in the (Continued on Page Three). | Party have been received. Unem- ployment is growing, and with it} 'the drive for membership among | the unemployed, with special stress ; laid on recruiting Negro workers. | ie ee | | Severe Unemployment in New York. | ALBANY, N. Y., Jan. 12—The “Accept and Shut Up” | severest unemployment since 1920 is | q “ ” nay |shown for the slate of New Yorr| SAY. “Labor” Imperials | by the figures of the state labor de-| Ary ah jpartment. The drop for November | Philip Snowden, |was 4 per cent, This follows a de-|cellor of the Exchequer cline in October of 2 per cent. These |“Uabor” Government, issued a cate- figures are from 1,500 factories | S0Fi€ challenge to the German dele- representing all important indus- (Continued on Page Three) British -Chan- | Conference Saturday, insisting that the Germans accept the Young Plan ] without further delay or continue paying under the old Dawes plan. buliding trades workers out of work for 1930 just as well as “the same |ment” between Hoover and Mac- | “We had thought you were pleni- | ' potentiaries empowered to make| class of toilefs in other large cities.” The specially “privileged” building trades workers are suffering severe unemployment. They have been led to believe by the fakers in the A. F. of L. that class collaboration and reliance on the bosses would make everything rosy. Even during the crisis they were prom- ised specially picked plums in the form of increased public works build- ing projects and the.cream of the Hoover $3,000,000,000 building pro- gtam dream. bs Now they are tramping the streets together with the large army of unskilled workers in the basic industries. betrayal from the misleaders in the building trades unions whose first interest is the preservation of capitalism and the good will of the bosses. In this situation the Building Trades section of the Trade Union Unity League, which is the only dependence for a militant fight on behalf of the building trades workers, must sharply quicken its pace and begin to lead the struggles of the building trades workers who ‘are faced with’ drastic cuts. 5 Green announced, after his conference with Hoover, that he would call no strikes sad that he and the other labor fakers present “ex- pressed their individual and collective opinion that it would be unwise to aggravate the situation by demanding increases in wages.” The building trades workers will not recognize this treacherous contract of slavery. { The same bosses that agreed with Green that strikes and wage demands were “unwise” at this time were the first to institute 20 per cent’ wage cuts in the steel industry in Youngstown and elsewhere. They are preparing a more drastic cut for the building trades work- ers. The A.'F. of L. is attempting by all its power to defeat the re- sistance of the workers. But the growing militancy and fighting spirit in the face of the sharpening crisis is being organized for resis- tance against capitalist attacks under the leadership of the Commu- nist Party and the Trade Union Unity League. The greatest possible enlistment of class-conscious _Workers as members in’ the Communist Party, to help put into action its pro- gram for the economic crisis, unemployment and wage cuts—is the necessity of the hour. Soka nts Ae abcsaee i ET was arrested and flung into jail at the instance of Mussolini’s agents. So flimsy is the evidence against Berneri that the Belgium police are dropping the charges against him ard are attempting to hush up the BELGIAN “PLOT” Sj ze zation declares it has documentary Dispatches f:om Brussels reveal Ghoeh ge tis’ fearie-un perpeteatel that fascist provacateurs were re- by the fascists on the occasion of sponsible for the wholesale arrests |the visit of the Italian Crown on framed-up charges of anti- Prince Humbert previous to his tie- fascist workers living in this city up with her royal nibs, Princess on the flimsy charge of a “plot | Marie Jose. against the lives of the Belgium The Independence Belge, a petty royal family.” Houreeois vewspaper, publishes the Berneri, a prominent anti-fuscist, |details of the fascist frame-up, tort | They can expect only | | Donald, various British imperialists are demanding even still greater war preparations. Vice admiral J. |E. T. Harper declared: “Is it right |for an empire, such as ours, to rely |on any paper agreement without | maintaining a sufficient force to | maintain the agreement? Our i strength in cruisers should be gov- |erned by our needs, not our de- sires.” | aes | WASHINGTON, Jan. 12—The sudden demand for further naval in- decisions,” Snowden said. “I have} no desire to spend the rest of my | life in the Hague.” | | The “labor” representative of | British capitalism then called upon | LEVINE IN JAIL ‘gation at the Hague Reparations} /Want Revenge For Self Defense of Strikers | Continued attempts of the shoe ;shop employers and their Tammany | allies, the courts and police of New York to take revenge on the Inde- creases on.behalf of the British is} pendent Shoe Workers Union re- embarrassing the Hoover adminis-| suited in the arrest of Hyman Le- tration, which is trying frantically to cover the war maneuvers under pacifist phrases. U. S. imperialism is demanding an increase of 21 10,- 000-ton cruisers. It is already ac- tually building 15. The British who already have a larger number than the United States were going to disarm by building 18 more. The whole matter of increased na- val armaments is now thrown open with no limits set. A ferocious struggle will go on for a rapid in- crease of cruisers to war strength. JOBLESS FLOOD TEXAS DALLAS, Tex. (By Mail).—Three or four men are waiting for every job here, the local “Craftsman” reports. All along the line capitalism is showing its inability even to put a weak brake on the continuing severe decline in production in every in- dustry in the United States. Latest information from capital- ist sources show that in spite of Hoover's counejl of leading imperial- ists, the promised program of in- tensified building, especially of pub- lie works, and the various sickening slop about immediate prosperity vine, busines3 agent of the union when he appeared Saturday to look over the situation at the Elmore Shoe factory, 1958 Pitkin Avenue. It was here that the militant strikers took away policemen’s |clubs* when the Tammany thugs began a brutal slugging and gave |the cops a taste of their own night- istiecks, Friday morning. The police} opened fire on the strikers: with \their revolvers, but did not hit any- |body. Four were jailed during and | after the Elmore demonstration. |One is held on $5,000 bail, the others on lower bail. Levine is out on $1,000 bail, posted by the union. General Manager Fred Biedenkanp at the (Continued on Page Two) |the Germans to change their bar- |gaining tactics and approach a} settlement by Monday (today). The Germany policy of trying to secure as many concessions as possi- ‘ble by taking advantage of the; jantagonisms and rivalries among |the various “creditors” was the im- | mediate cause of the “labor” gentle- man’s irritation. The separate) treaty between Germany and the) United States for reparations pay- ments - undoubtedly contributed to his displeasure. While Snowden and the British “Labor” G ment, acting for the British imzperialists, are attempting to regain political domination on }the Eniropean continent by making concessions to Germany against | France, the English capitalists have (no desire to stimulate German the “Labor” Government aims to show the British bourgeoisie that it is a faithful representative of its interests. And Snowden’s sharp challenge is uttered with the knowl- edge that British capitalism is solid- ly behind him. ALL BASIC INDUSTRIES SINK DEEPER IN CRISIS Steel Production and Building Down; Expose Lies About Employment in N. Y. after the first of the year, the basic industries of U. S, imperialjsm sink deeper into the mud of critics. | The steel industry, where the pol-! has already been inaugurated, flounders in a high sea of capital- ist depression. In the Annalist (Jan. 10, 1930,) |a good picture is given of the ex- | tremely diseased state of this most \ basic industry; E of wage slashes and speed-ups | “Most striking among these records (of the crisis), undoubt- edly, was the marked decline in the December rate of steel ingot Production. As reported in the Iron Age this week the daily rate was 115,851 tons This is a de- crease from the November rate of nearly 20$00 tons and was the lowest singe October, 1924, The estimated fate of operations for December is reported as,59 per | ‘ Bloody Machado Deborts 3 | Chinese Workers to Death at Hands ot Chiang Kai Shek U. S. Federation Authorities Cooperate with Butcher Machado in Deportation Scheme ‘Labor Defense Fights Death Sentence on | Chinese Revolutionists; Hold Mella Meeting HAVANA, Cuba, Jan. 12.—Three | there to await deportation to death Chinese workers who have been held eae the hands of Chiang-Kai-Shek. |for months in the infamous prison| The three Chinese workers are Kee boat “Maxim Gomez,” at the order | Chang, Fang Tsu and Kuan Kuan. lof Wall Street controlled President | They were held in the infamous na- Machado, have been deported to|val prison, “Maxim Gomez,” for | China. months and were tortured by the Immediately upon their arrival at | Machado agents. Only the sharpest |New Orleans on the ship Heredia, | Protest of the American masses will in the|-United States federal authorities,| Prevent the murder by Chang Kai} co-operating with the bloody Ma-|Shek of these men. An attempt to chado regime, put the three Chinese | have them sent to Colombia from workers on board a Southern Pa- | Cuba failed. | cifje train bound for San Francisco,; The International Labor Defense NEEDLE TRADES He demation in San Fae | cisco. workers is in line with the reign of Wall Street in Mexico todzy, where scores of workers have been tor- jtured, many murdered, others de- ported and some sent to out-of-the- way prisons to mould the rest of | their lives away. | Efforts are being made by the ‘Industrial Union Builds | mternational organization of the | Labor Defense to have the deported Chinese revolutionists sent to the Young Worker Section A call for a mass meeting of all) pe young workers in the ladies’ and Hold Mella Mass Meeting. children’s dress trade has been is-/ Friday night ‘i 6 ight a mass meeting at- sued by the Youth Section of the!tended by over 200 Sopher wie Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial | held to commemorate the first anni- * bishley in prison and to the Im- perial Valley agricultural strikers. oe SPRINGFIELD, Ill, Jan. 12— |The coal mine territory to the soutl {of here is alive with a leftwarc swing of the miners, brutally ex- | ploited by employers and the United Mine Workers of America. The fight in the courts at Springfiele between the factions led by Inter- | national President Lewis and Harry | Fishwick, president of the U.M.W. | Illinois administration, has exposed further the graft, corruption of the ballot, and sell-out by both these agents of the coal operators. Threats of the U.M.W. and com- pany gangsters to raid and burr the two International Workers Re- |lief stations distributing food that jcomes under Workers Guard by truck from Chicago, have not yet materialized in action, but such ac- |tion can be expected any time, At- | tacks on the stations will meet with |resistance from the Defense Corps An enthusiastic meeting of strik- jing miners greeted the opening of |the Taylorville relief station of the | Workers International Relief. Min- jers throughout this section brought their children through the snow on |sleds to the meeting. Many of the |children had no shoes. Despite the threats of the sheriff to padlock the store, food and clothing will be distributed every day. Funds for | relief should be sent to the W.LR. national office, 999 Broadway, New York. Lenin memorial meetings are being arranged throughout the min- ing area, including a meeting of the farmers in Saline County. Five Communist Party mine nuclei have been organized. , These meetings, held under the auspices of the Communist Party, mark a high point in the present (Continued from Page Three) Union. The industrial union has been carrying on for weeks a strug- versary of the death of Julio Mella, | | murdered in Mexico at the behest economic competition. Furthermore, | gle to organize and secure union! of Machado, president of Cuba conditions in the dress shops. | Resolutions were passed to organize Strikes are conducted without re-/ resistance to the present fascist gard to the fake stoppage which the|terror of the Rubio-Calles-Hoover International Ladies’ Garment) Mexican government. Workers and the employers are ar-| The speakers were Engdahl, Alex- ranging for this month sometime, ander, Li, Sanchez, Ruiz and Pas. to try and company unionize the | trade. iB More Young Workers. DOSS, U. S., League, to at 131 West 28th St., right after work, tomorrow. The call says: | “Thousands of young workers are! employed in the Ladies’ and Chil- dren’s Dress Trade at the present time. “The rationalization program of (Continued on Page Two) A survey of what the Ford workers could buy in the way of |heat, clothing, shelter, light, etc., if they really worked through the year for $7 a day, is about to be started by The Twentieth Century !Fund. Ex-Secretary of War, New- jton D. Baker, Roscoe Pound of the | Harvard Law School, and President ; Dennison of the Dennison Mfg. Co., control the fund. The investigation | will be supervised by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics and the International Labor Office of the League of Nations. cent of capacity and the Iron Age records the expectation, on pres- lating into terms of European cur- |vency, how well off and contented ent indicatjons, that January pro- ‘ duction may approach 65 per cent the American automobile workers of capacity, from the present start |CUsht to be. It will disregard the of 60 per cent. The rate of opera- | man-killing effects of Ford's belt | tions in January, 1928, was slight- |°Ystem, and the. ravages of unem- ly more than 86 per cent. This | ?!0yment, short-time, etc. sharp fall in the rate of ingot production will have considerable Workers! This Is Your Paper. The mass meeting is to take place \Prove Ford Labor Rich) The object’ is to show, by trans-| ABRAMOVICH IS HERE WITH LIES ‘Socialists’ Tour Russ | White Guardist | Supporting the Stimson war threat against the Soviet Union, as |well as carrying on a barrage of propaganda against the workers republic as a help to the capitalist war preparations, Raphael Abromo- | vitch, social fascist agent of the im- |perialist enemies of the Soviet Union, is touring the United States under the auspices of the American third capitalist party, the “socialist party.” On his arrival, Abramovitch spilled his venom against the work- er. and peasants of the Soviet Union into the notebooks of capital- ist newspaper reporters. He pre- dicted, as he has done about 389 times on previous occasions, the {early overthrow of the Soviet gov- ernment, The five-year plan was especially a target of Abromovitch who can- no’ bear to see the successful build- ing of socialism in* the Soviet Union as this will make it more difficult for his friends, the im- perialist powers, to attack the work- effect in the direction of carrying | Write for It. Distribute It, |ers and a i “ J t (Continued on Page Three) Among Your Fellow Workers! i eee at open a ey a UL ‘3 ‘ tebe nadine onl \ seettiiideeiadas occa eee e \ eC